Source: The Biographical Record of Whiteside County, Illinois
Chicago: The S.. J. Clark Publishing Company - 1900

Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Area Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Pages 196-200

George W. Clendenen, M. D., supreme medical examiner for the Mystic Workers of the World, an insurance order which he has the honor of organizing, is the seventh son of Robert A. and Amanda (Hinchman) Clendenen, and was born in Boone county, Virginia, now West Virginia, December 4, 1844, He is distantly related to ex-Postmaster-General Wilson, General Lew Wallace and ex-Comptroller of the Treaasury Eckles. The family moved from Virginia to Cass county, Michigan, in March 1847, at which time the country was comparatively new and covered withheavy forests which required a great deal of labor in removing before the soil was ready for tilling. Purchasing a farm, the father commenced the work of clearing and improving it, but sickness overtook him in about two years after making the purchase, and he died of flux, leaving a large family of children with a widowed mother. During his sickness, three of his daughters also died of the same disease, the older one, Mary Ann, being about nineteen years old, while the other two were two and four years old, respectively. The death of the four all occurred within four weeks' time. George was now but six years old.

Through the energy, perseverance and determination of the mother, the family were all kept together, and by the assistance of the older boys, the younger ones were cared fror until they were able to care for themselves. During this period the facilities for an education were very meager in that wild and new country, but the subject of this narrative attended the common district school summer and winter until he was large enough to work on the farm in the summer months, after which time he attended school  in the winter. With a steadfast determination to succeed he pursued his studies until he secured such an education as enabled him to teach in the common schools of the county. By teaching winters, he procured money enough to attend the graded schools at Niles, Michigan, during the summer. After leving the graded schools, in the winter of 1861 he taught a district school in Berrien county, Michigan, at the low rate of twnety dollars per month. The following winter he was urged to teach a larger and more advanced school in an adjoining district at a salary of fity-five dollars per month, and accepted the situation. After this he taught in various schools in Berrien and Cass counties for several years, giving good satisfaction to his patrons.

In the fall of 1868 our suject went to Tuscumbia, Alabama, where he engaged in the mercantile business for one year, after which he accepted a position as principal of Decatur, Alabama, schools for one year. He followed the profession of teaching in winters, and working on farms in summers, for some years, and then secured a position as traveling salesmen  for a firm in Niles, Michigan. While traveling, his spare moments were spent in reading medicine, having decided to take up the medical profession as his life work. He traveled for five years, at the expiration of which time he attended lectures in the Bennett Medical college, Chicago, from which institution, after taking a thorough course, he graduated in 1884, having an average of one hundred in all branches of study.

Soon after his arrival in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Dr. Clendenen was united in marriage with Miss Ellen A. Ferris, who had settled in that city with her parents some two months previous to his arrival. They were married January 15, 1869, by Rev. Joseph H. Shackelford, pastor of the Baptist church, Tuscumbia. They remained in that city until in September, 1869, when they moved to Decatur Alabama, that he might take charge of the school there, as already mentioned. After leaving Decatur, they moved to Dowagiac, Michigan.

Ellen A. (Ferris) Clendenen was the daughter of Edwin W., and Jane D. (Lee) Ferris, whose family history traces back to the Lawsons and Fitzgeralds. After more than twenty-five years of wedded life, she was stricken with an internal cancer, and on May 18. 1895, died from the effects of that terrible disease, and her remains were intered in the cemetery at Fulton. She was the mother of four children, two of whom died in infancy. Eddy, the only son, died of typhoid fever in Fulton, Illinois, in 1885. Katherine G., the only child living, resides with her father.

For his second wife Dr. Clendenen married Miss Mae Eno Hoover, who was born in Ustick township, Whiteside county, Illinois, and the youngest daughter of H. H. and Mary A. Hoover, who were natives of Pennsylvania.

In 1873 Dr. Clendenen located in Fulton and in 1877 began the practice of his profession, and it was but a short time before his skill as a physician was well attested and his practice began to grow. He has now been a resident of the city for twenty-six years, and his practice  is a large and satisfactory one. Since coming to the place he has held the position of head physician of the Modern Woodmen of America, and during Cleveland's administration he was examining surgeon for solders' pensions, serving in both positions with distinction and honor until his term expired.

Soon after graduating in medicine, Dr. Clendenen became convinced that the treatment of cancer was not whit it ought to be in this day and age, and being convince that cancer was a local disease he sought to find a remedy that would virtually do away with the use of the knife on all such cases. Knowing the  plaster to be far superior to the knife, he sought to improve upong the plaster by procuring a medicine that he could use with a hypodermic needle. After thorough investigation and trial of his new preparation, it proved to be far better than he at first anticipated, as the new remedy proved successful in sesveral cases where the knife and the plaster had both failed. It can be truthfully said that Dr. Clendenen was the first person to successfully use the hypodermic needle in the cure of this loathsome disease. Other physicians that have used his treatment utterly refuse touse any other method, as it is by far the best remedy and treatment that has been brought before the medical fraternity.

Dr. Clendenen is now the supreme medical examiner of the Mystic Workers of the World, of which organization he is the founder. At the present time the headquarters of the order are at Fulton, Illinois, and the order is one of the best of its kind in existence. It was founded in 1891, the Doctor writing the ritual and laws suitable for lodge work. At present the membership of the order is about twelve thousand, and it is growing rapidly.

The Doctor has always been somewhat active in politics, and a firm believer in the Jeffersonian doctrine, he is a stanch Democrat. He is bitterly opposed to tariffs and trusts, believing all such to be inimical to the best interests of the people. In religion he is liberal.

On his mother's side the Doctor is related to Commodore Perry of Lake Eerie fame, his gradmother being a Petry. His brothers and sisters were Oscar F., Mary Ann, William I., Martin Van Buren, John F., David K., Andrew Irving, Martha Ann and Sarah Jane. Of those now living William I. resides on a farm near Dowagiac, Michigan; John Floyd is in the practice of medicine at LaSalle, Illinois; while Andrew Irving is also in the practice of medicine, his home being in Maywood, Illinois.

Fraternally, Dr. Clendenen a Master Mason for  many years, and has filled nearly all the chairs in the blue lodge. He is a charter member of Sunlight Lodge, No. 137, K. P.; a charter member of Forest camp, No.2. M. W. A.; a member of the Knights of the Maccabees; the American Benefit Society; the Woodmen of the World; ad Fraternal Brotherhood. These are in addition to the Mystic Workers of the World, of which mention has been made. He is editor of the "Mystic Worker," the official organ of the order. The Doctor is now medical health officer of Fulton. As a physician the Doctor has been quite successful, and his ability is recognized by all. As a citizen he is ever ready to do his part in everything that will tend to the advancement of his city and couty, and therefore he has many freinds who esteem him for his worth as a man and physician.