This is a long one, folks. Settle in when you can.
He was my 3rd cousin, 5x removed.
Addison Lysander Lincecum was born 8 April 1874 in Long Point, Washington County, Texas to Dr. Lucullus Garland Lincecum (d. 1900) and Louisa Frances "Fannie" Rainwater (1843-1878). While only two children were born to Lucullus and Fannie, Addison's father was married at least three times and fathered at least ten children.
Biographical / Genealogical Notes
When Addison was but four years old, his mother Fannie "died of heart disease while sitting at the supper table."
For the taking of the 1880 US Federal census, Addison was listed with his father and third wife, Marie/Mary Oliphant.
Addison was educated at the University of Texas, Dallas Medical School, and Baylor University Medical School. His father died in 1900, a few years before Addison graduated with the first class of medical students from Baylor. The younger Dr. Lincecum would practice medicine for the next fifty years, much of that time being in El Campo, Wharton County, Texas. Addison was actually a third-generation medical practitioner. His grandfather was
Dr. Gideon Lincecum, the famed naturalist*, who died the year Addison was born.
According to Lois Burkhalter's
biography of Gideon Lincecum*, Addison worked his way through medical school as an engineer on trains transporting granite blocks for Galveston jetties.
On 24 October 1897, Addison Lincecum married Letha Elizabeth Gandy in Lavaca County, Texas. Letha, a fellow Texan born 25 September 1873 at Gandy Bend, was a daughter of Barnabas Pipkin Gandy (d. 1914) and Mary Elizabeth Allen.
Addison and Letha would be the parents of at least three children: Barnabas Pipkin Gandy (1900-1999), Ruth Elizabeth (1903-1982), and
Addison Turney (1913-1989).
Clarence Wharton, author of Texas Under Many Flags, published the following in 1930: "Dr. Addison L. Lincecum, who has done a great deal of public health work, is practicing medicine and conducting a high class private hospital at El Campo...He is a Republican, member of the Christian Church, and is a Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter Mason."
Following from the "Addison L. Lincecum Papers, 1908-1965" housed at the Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin (information extracted by Kathy Herzik, Jean Difloe, and Julia Payne about 1981):
During the Spanish-American War, [Addison] served with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and he fought Pancho Villa’s encroachments on the Texas border as a Texas Ranger in the 1910s. In World War I, Lincecum served as a combat surgeon in France, participating in the Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel campaigns. Upon returning to the states, he founded and served as first commander for an American Legion Post at El Campo. In 1920, at the outbreak of bubonic plague, Governor James E. Ferguson sent Lincecum to Galveston, later appointing him to the State Board of Health. Lincecum also served one term as mayor of El Campo (1932), acted as the town’s postmaster (1935-1949), and established (1939) and superintended the Nightingale Hospital for 10 years.
Per Texas Ranger Biographies*, Addison was a Special Ranger from 1 August 1917 to 17 June 1918 "(attached to Co. C)."
Dr. Lincecum Day
24 March 1960 Edna Herald (Texas)
El Campo Pays Tribute to Dr. A. L. Lincecum
...EL CAMPO -- Riding with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and hunting Pancho Villa are minor events in the life of a local doctor compared with the celebration staged in his honor here Friday.
El Campo citizens honored Dr. A. L. Lincecum, 86, with "Dr. Lincecum Day."
It was right after he had married a young teacher named Letha Gandy in 1897 that "Doc" Lincecum interrupted his medical studies to join the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War.
...He became enraged in 1917 when Pancho Villa killed a doctor friend of his, and he came out fighting. He asked for and received a commission in the Texas Rangers and joined the hunt for the famed Mexican bad man.
...World War I found him fighting in the trenches of France as a captain with Texas' rugged 36th Infantry Division.
...His friends drafted him as mayor and elected him on a write-in ticket...
Death and Obituaries
Dr. Addison Lysander Lincecum died of "generalized arteriosclerosis" on 6 December 1965 in Lavaca County, Texas. He was buried two days later in Gandy Cemetery at Gandy Bend (Lavaca County).
- 7 December 1965 Dallas Morning News (Texas)
Widely Known Physician, Dr. A. L. Lincecum, Dies
EL CAMPO, Texas (AP) - Dr. A. L. Lincecum, last surviving member of the Baylor Medical School's first graduating class and widely known country doctor for 5o years, died Monday. He was 91.
Moments after his daughter, Mrs. Ruth Crosby, a want ads employee for the Houston Post, learned of his death at his isolated ranch near El Campo, her husband, certified public accountant T. A. Crosby, 64, suffered a fatal heart attack.
...He retired in 1953 and devoted himself to his role of "roving reporter" for KULP radio station in El Campo until he was paralyzed by a stroke in 1958.
...He is credited with making the first report that the malaria-bearing anopheles mosquito from Mexico was in this country in 1905. He later won recognition for research on bubonic plague.
Funeral services for Dr. Lincecum will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Wheeler Funeral Chapel in El Campo.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by two sons, Bill Lincecum and Barney Lincecum. Dr. Lincecum's wife, Letha, died in 1959.
- 7 December 1965 Amarillo Globe-Times (Texas)
Baylor Medical Original Grad Dies at Age 91
EL CAMPO (AP) -- The last surviving member of Baylor Medical School's first graduating class, Dr. A. L. Lincecum, 91, is dead.
Lincecum was at his ranch home near El Campo when death came Monday. He had been paralyzed since a stroke in 1958...
- 9 December 1965 The Cuero Record (Texas)
Dr. Addison L. Lincecum, Pioneer Texan, is Dead
Dr. Addison L. Lincecum, 91-year-old retired physician, died early Monday at his son's home in Gandy's Bend above Morales in Jackson Co, according to the Yoakum Herald-Times.
Dr. Lincecum, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and the St. Michiel and Argonne-Meuse offensives of World War I, was a former administrator of the Nightingale Hospital at El Campo. He moved to Louise in 1910 and established his practice in El Campo in 1911.
Dr. Lincecum was a member of a pioneer Texas family and the son and grandson of physicians.
Four hours after his daughter, Mrs. T. A. Crosby, of Houston learned of her father's death, her husband died of a heart attack at his home.
In addition to being a physician, Dr. Lincecum was a railroad engineer, Texas Ranger and postmaster and mayor in El Campo...
Dr. Lincecum was paralyzed by a stroke in 1958.
...He was in Brownsville when raiders of the Mexican bandit, Pancho Villa, killed a fellow doctor who was a good friend of Dr. Lincecum. He asked for a special Ranger commission and accompanied U. S. forces into Mexico to track down the raiders.
...Military burial was at 3 p.m. in the family plot at Gandy's Bend.
In addition to his daughter, Dr. Lincecum is survived by two sons, Bill of Gretna, La., and Barney with whom he had lived since 1960. His wife, Mrs. Letha Gandy Lincecum died in 1959.
Funeral services for his son-in-law, T. A. Crosby, were held Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Houston.
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