EDWARD C. BAIN, M.D. - Dr. Edward C. Bain, of Pleasant Plains, is the oldest medical practitioner in years of continuous connection with the profession in the northern part of Sangamon county and is now associated in his professional duties with his son, Dr. Paul E. Bain. The elder Doctor is a native of Tennessee, his birth having occurred in the city of Nashville, June 20, 1842. His father, the Rev. John R. Bain, was a native of Scotland and an early settler of North Carolina. He pursued his education in Washington College of Tennessee and became a minister of the old John Knox Presbyterian church. He spent his active life in the service of one church in Nashville, being the loved pastor for many years and the spiritual adviser of more than one generation there. He married Miss Sarah E. Crockett, a native of Virginia and a relative of David Crockett, the noted scout and pioneer. Rev. Bain continued to reside in Nashville until his death which occurred in 1868 and his wife survived him for about ten years. In their family were three sons and three daughters, of whom two sons and a daughter are yet living. One son was Dr. Samuel C. D. Bain, a physician, who practiced for a number of years in Brownsville, Haywood county, Tennessee, where his death occurred. Another son, John S. C. Bain, is living in Eagleville, Tennessee. The sisters are Mrs. Mary Wiliamson of Nashville; Sarah J., of Clarksville, Tennessee; and Mrs. Martha Macon of Clarksville.

Dr. Edward C. Bain spent his boyhood days in the city of his nativity and acquired his education in what was known as Washington College, in which his father had also been educated. He afterward pursued a medical course in the University of Nashville and was graduated with the class of 1865. In April, 1861, he joined the Twentyfourth Tennessee Infantry and during the last two years of the war was with General Forrest's command. He entered the service as a lieutenant, but was promoted and became colonel of the Thirty-first Alabama Regiment. Subsequently he was upon the staff of General N. B. Forrest until the cessation of hostilities. When the war was ended Dr. Bain removed to Gallatin, Tennessee, where he opened an office and began the practice of his chosen profession there remaining for two years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Prairie county, Arkansas, where he continued in practice for three years and in 1870 he arrived in Illinois. Two years later in 1872 he came to Pleasant Plains and has since been active in the practice of his chosen calling in this part of the state. He is now one of the oldest practitioners of the county and is a well known physician and surgeon whose labors have been such as to gain the public confidence and awaken the regard of those with whom he has been associated.

Dr. Bain was married in Mississippi during the period of the Civil war, the wedding taking place near Coffeeville, on the 1st of September, 1864. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah Hardin and was a native of Mississippi, in which state she was reared and educated. Her father, Redrick Hardin, was a prominent planter of Mississippi. Unto the Doctor and his wife were born two children. The older, William H. Bain, became a physician of Springfield and died in the capital city November 5, 1896 The daughter is Mrs. Samuel Thomas of Rochester, Illinois. In November 1869, the Doctor was called upon to mourn the loss of his first wife and in December, 1874, he was again married, his second union being with Matilda Johnston, a native of Virginia and a daughter of Thomas Johnston, who came to Sangamon county from the Old Dominion. Mrs. Bain, however, was reared and educated in Virginia and by her marriage has become the mother of one son, Dr. Paul Bain, who was born August 2, 1878, in Pleasant Plains. He acquired his early education here and continued his studies in the Springfield high school. He then pursued a course of lectures in Barnes Medical College of St. Louis, Missouri, and was graduated in the class of 1899. He then joined his father in the practice of his profession and together they have been associated in the prosecution of a profitable business.

Politically Dr. Edward C. Bain is a Jacksonian and Jeffersonian Democrat and his son is also affiliated with the same party. He has been a resident of Illinois for a third of a century and his skill in the line of his chosen calling is demonstrated in his fitness for a share of the public patronage. He has always read and studied extensivelys o that the profession has not advanced beyond him and mature methods of practice have promoted his efficiency and rendered his labor of more value to the world