Biography - OLIVER O. HOCKETT
Oliver
O. Hockett, one of the younger members of the medical fraternity of Douglas
county, and one of the leading men in the social, professional and
educational life of Newman, was born in Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, March
2, 1866. He was graduated from the high school of Paris in 1882 and
subsequently entered the state university at Champaign, where he remained
for three years. He then took up the study of medicine with Dr. M. P. Smith,
with whom he remained until he entered Chicago Hahnemann College, from which
well-known institution he was graduated in the class of 1889, and the
following year he spent in the Hahnemann hospital. In March, 1890, he came
to Newman and opened out in the general practice of medicine, and has
succeeded far beyond his expectations. He is skilled and successful, and
although having been in Newman but a few years, he enjoys one of the most
extensive and lucrative practices in the county. He is a member of the
Hahnemann Medical Society, contributes to the medical journals and keeps
himself thoroughly in touch with the advancements being made in his
profession. As a diagnostician in his profession, as well as in his judgment
of human nature, he would pass muster in any community.
Dr. Hockett is a son of Mahlon and Mary (Kimble) Hockett, natives of
Vermilion and Edgar counties respectively. His father was a well-to-do
carriage manufacturer, who has recently retired. During the war of the
Rebellion he was first lieutenant of the First Missouri Volunteers. His
grandfather Kimble walked from Ohio to Edgar county, and died in 1877 worth
ninety thousand dollars. In 1895 our subject married Miss Luella Gillespie,
and has by this marriage one child, named J. Maxwell.
Dr. Hockett has a suite of rooms in the Swaggert building, which is his
office, elegantly fitted up, and where he takes care of a large and growing
practice, built up by close application to his work. While in medical
college special honors were conferred upon him, and on his entering the
great school of active life his thorough education and medical training did
him great service in beginning his practice. He is thoroughly equipped with
the finest outfits for use in his specialties that can be had. Socially he
belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and in 1881 was a member of Company H,
Eighth Regiment, Illinois State Militia, retiring in 1887.
Extracted 22 Jul 2019 by Norma Hass from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, published in 1900, pages 224-225.
