John Paine Torrey, M. D. One of the most recent additions to the medical profession of Oklahoma, Doctor Torrey has brought with him to the state the culture and standing of a New England gentleman and is a product of the best schools and advantages of the East, both in a liberal and in a technical direction. Doctor Torrey had nearly twenty years of active experience as a physician and surgeon in the New England states before coming to Norman, where he has rapidly acquired an influential station and practice.

Born in Georgia, Vermont, May 13, 1870, he is a son of the late Rev. Charles Cutler Torrey and is descended from Capt. William Torrey, descendant of William Torrey of Combe Saint Nicholas, County of Somerset, England, who died June, 1557. Of his descendants in the fourth generation four sons, Captain William, James, Philip, and Joseph, emigrated to America in 1640 settling near Boston, from whom all the Torreys of America seem to be descended. Captain William settled in Weymouth and from this branch of the family Ex-President Taft is also descended, through his mother who was a Torrey. Along the line were several descendants who fought as soldiers in the Revolutionary war.

Charles Cutler Torrey was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1827, was graduated from the University of Vermont at Burlington where he lived in the family of his uncle, President Joseph Torrey of the university, and later graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary becoming a Congregational minister. At a meeting of the American Board in Rutland, Vermont, he was ordained to go as a missionary under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the Indians of the Indian Territory, and he fulfilled the duties of that mission from 1855 until 1861. He was at first stationed at Yazoo Creek among the Choctaws, but was soon transferred to the Cherokee Nation at Park Hill and Fairfield where he assisted Dr. Samuel Worcester in the translation of the New Testament into Cherokee and after Doctor Worcester’s death completed the translation and was recalled in 1861 to New York to attend the publication of his copy by the American Bible Society. As the mission was closed because of the war Mr. Torrey did not return but from this time he held various parishes in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire. He afterwards lived retired at Andover, Massachusetts, until his death in August, 1913, at the age of eighty-six years. Rev. Mr. Torrey married in 1855 Adelaide Lucy Damon, who was born at Reading, Massachusetts, in 1831, also of Puritan stock, and died at Charlotte, Vermont, in 1878. Their children were: Mary Charline, who died in 1871; Rev. Daniel Temple, who is a graduate from the University of Vermont and the Andover Theological Seminary, being ordained to the Congregational ministry, but is now in the insurance business, living in Providence, Rhode Island; Sarah Serena, a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music and a teacher of music at Andover, Massachusetts; Emily Reddington, who graduated from the University of Vermont, and is now a teacher in Andover; and Doctor Torrey.

John Paine Torrey attended the public schools of Massachusetts and New York, and the high school at Chateaugay, New York, for one year, and in 1892 he graduated from the Phillips-Andover Academy, preparatory to entering Harvard University School of Medicine, from which he took his degree of M. D. in 1896. He was interne at McLean Hospital for the Insane, 1895 to 1896. Before beginning active practice he spent two years as an interne in the Rhode Island Hospital at Providence, and had a thorough experience in every ward of the hospital before beginning independent practice at Andover, Massachusetts, where he remained until January, 1915. At that date he removed to Oklahoma and has since become well established in practice at Norman. Doctor Torrey is now instructor in physical diagnosis and is an assistant in the Department of Anatomy of Oklahoma State University. His offices arc at 104 East Main Street, Norman.

He is a member of the Rhode Island State Medical Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society, recently resigned from the Massachusetts Medical Society, and also belongs to the Cleveland County Society, and the American Medical Association. He is examining physician for several insurance companies. In politics he maintains an independent attitude, and is a member of the Congregational Church at Andover, Massachusetts, where for three years he served on the school committee.

In 1900 at Clinton, Ontario, Canada, Doctor Torrey married Miss Bertha Armelia Scott, daughter of S. Lester Scott, who is now a retired property owner at Toronto. To their marriage have been born three children: Lester Lochead, who died in infancy; John Paul; and Mary Clara.