Source: Biographical Memoirs of Wabash County, Indiana (1901), 203-204.

MELVIN O. LOWER, M.D.

Prominent among the professional men of Wabash county who have gained distinction as healers of the sick is Dr. Melvin O. Lower, who for twenty-one years has been a practicing physician and surgeon of North Manchester. Dr. Lower is an Ohio man, born in Columbiana county, that state, on the 22nd day of January 1852. His father, David F. Lower, also a native of the above county and state, is living at the present time in Chester township, Wabash county, where for a number of years he has been engaged in farming and stock-raising. The Doctor's mother died in the town of Larwill, Whitley county, in the year 1891.

When quite young the Doctor was brought by his parents to DeKalb county, Ind., and after a residence there of about four years the family returned to Columbiana county, Ohio, where young Lower lived until his twelfth year. He again accompanied his father to Indiana about the year 1864, locating in the county of Whitley, where he grew to maturity on a farm, meantime obtaining his elementary education in the district schools and the schools of Larwill, which he attended during the years of his minority. While living in Whitley county Mr. Lower resolved to devote his life to the medical profession, and as soon as a favorable opportunity presented itself he began preparing for the same by a course of private reading under the direction of Dr. J.B. Firestone, of Larwill, in whose office he remained until entering the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery.

He was graduated from that institution with the class of 1874, after which he began the practice of his profession at Liberty Mills, Wabash county, where he continued until 1880, when he changed his location to North Manchester. In 1896 Dr. Lower took a private course on the eye and ear under Dr. Maire, of Detroit, Mich., and in 1897 he took a post-graduate course in New York City in the same branches.

Dr. Lower's professional career presents a series of continued advancements, and he now occupies a conspicuous place among the successful men of his calling in Wabash county. His practice embraces a very wide range, including all lines of the profession, and he stands equally high as a surgeon as he does as a dispenser of remedies to those suffering from disease. His wide reading has kept him abreast the times in all matters pertaining to his calling and few physicians are as well grounded in the fundamental principles of medical science. The Doctor is a splendid type of intellectual manhood and at the bedside of the poor as well as the wealthy his presence is productive of hopefulness and encouragement. He is still a close student and a man of honor and as a consequence is highly esteemed by his fellow practitioners. By his kindness and courtesy he has won an abiding place in the hearts of his patients and combines within himself the elements not only of the trusted family physician, but of the intelligent, broad-minded man of affairs as well.

The Doctor was united in marriage December 7, 1876, to Miss Laura McFann, of Liberty Mills, daughter of A.B. McFann, Esq., of that town. Two children have resulted from this union. Ada M. and Ethel L., both bright young ladies, and popular with a large circle of friends and acquaintances. The Doctor has been fortunate in the accumulation of this world's goods, the result of close and diligent attention to his practice, which covers a wide area of territory in the counties of Wabash, Whitley, Huntington and Kosciusko. Additional to a beautiful home in North Manchester, he owns a large farm of two hundred and forty acres near the town, nearly all of which is highly improved and successfully cultivated. Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic order, the Pythian Brotherhood and the Knights of Honor. In religion he subscribes to the faith of the Evangelical Lutheran church, to which denomination his wife also belongs.

Thus briefly have been set forth the salient facts in the life of one of Wabash county's most successful professional men and representative citizens. With an enthusiastic devotion to his noble calling rarely equaled, he has won much more than local repute, and with an earnestness of purpose promising much for the future., it is safe to predict for him a career of still greater usefulness and prosperity. Honored and respected by all with whom he comes in contact and a benefactor to suffering humanity, his life has been fruitful of much good, and the consciousness of duty ably and faithfully performed is among the greatest of his rewards.