DR. C. A. DIEMER -

After a Long and Eventful Life, He Reached the End of His Pilgrimage -

THE END CAME AT 1:30 P.M. SUNDAY --

Dr. Clement Alexander Diemer died at his residence in Fayetteville at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 13, 1907, and his death was as quiet and tranquil as one falling asleep. He was born in Jasper County, Georgia, on the 13th of November, 1821, and when he was fifteen years of age, the family removed to Hernando, Mississippi, where he remained about five years and was the boyhood associate of Gen. Bedford Forrest.

Dr. Diemer was of ancestry who wrought and fought for American independence. His father, who was a Swiss, fought on the lakes under Commodore Perry and was twice severely wounded. On his mothers' side he was descended from the Alexanders, prime movers and signers of the Mecklenburg declaration which blazed the way for what now as the American "Declaration of Independence." An uncle, Marshall Alexander, who was in the Navy under Commodore Stephen Decatur, was killed in the war with Tripoli and buried in the Mediterranean Sea.

Dr. William Bonner, who was a reader of men, met the young man Diemer in Mississippi and realizing that he was possessed of very superior qualities induced him to come to Fayetteville and study medicine under his tutelage, and no one every had a more competent instructor. He reached here in December, 1845, attended Transylvania Medical College at Lexington, Kentucky, and entered his practice in 1848.

He was married to Miss Rebecca Greer, and they had five children, Mrs. William B. Lamb, Clem A. Diemer, Jr., John C. Diemer, George L. Diemer, and David W. Diemer, who lives at Cookeville. Their oldest son died about two years ago. Mrs. Diemer is yet living, though in feeble health.

Dr. Diemer met with an accident eleven years ago which left him a cripple. He fell on the pavement and his being a very large man added to the force of the fall which crushed the bones of his hip; for about nine months, he was able to get around by the aid of crutches. A second fall compounded the fracture, and he was thenceforth a hopeless invalid whose world was the four walls of a room. Reading was his only diversion and having a remarkably retentive memory with the ability to sort and marshal facts, he had information upon the different lines of human endeavor which is possessed by but a few men.

For over half a century he was actively engaged in the practice of medicine and his skill and success as a practitioner is shown by the fact that no doctor ever had so large a practice in Fayetteville as he built up. The volume of business was so large and the demand upon his services so great that only by his rugged constitution was he able to attend to it. No one ever did more charity practice that did Dr. Diemer. The night was never too cold, the way too long, nor the patient too poor for him to respond. After the accident which confined him to his room, he was consulted by those people who were needing medical advice. For a number of years, he was engaged in the drug business and his medications were always pure and the very best obtainable. In his pharmacy, prescriptions were always accurately compounded; he would have regarded substitution an act of dishonor.

For several months he had been in failing health and no one more fully than he realized the nearness of the end which he contemplated with calmness and resignation. Even death could not daunt his tearless spirit. As he approached the Gate in the keeping of St. Peter, countless people to whom he had ministered in the time of affliction appeared in his interest with the statement that "I was friendless, poor, and sick and he visited me." Like Abou Ben Adhem, Dr. Diemer, as his works testify, loved his fellow men and "his name leads all the rest."

After funeral service at 3:30 o'clock on Monday afternoon by Revs. A. C. Killeffer and J. B. Green, the remains were buried at Rose Hill Cemetery.

Source:

The Fayetteville Observer

Fayetteville, Tennessee

Thursday, October 17, 1907

FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 14. -- (Special) -- Dr. C. A. Diemer, one of the best-known citizens of Lincoln County, died last night at his home in Fayetteville. Dr. Diemer was 86 years old and had been an invalid for eleven years. For many years he was engaged in the drug business in Fayetteville and was one of the most prominent and popular physicians of the county. His wife, one daughter, Mrs. W. B. Lamb, and three sons, John, David, and George Diemer, survive him.

Source:

The Nashville Tennessean

Nashville, Tennessee

Tuesday, October 15, 1907