Dr. Josiah Preston Markley, actively engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Laramie, entered upon his professional career well equipped by thorough preliminary training and throughout the intervening period he has kept in close touch with the trend of modern progress and scientific thought and investigation through wide reading and study. He is thus well qualified to perform the onerous and responsible duties which devolve upon him in his efforts to check the ravages of disease and restore health.
    A native son of Pennsylvania, he was born in Schwenksville, Montgomery county, January 13, 1879. His father. Josiah S. Markley, is also a native of the Keystone state and a representative of one of its old families of Dutch descent. The family was founded in America by three brothers, and the progenitor of the Pennsylvania branch was William Markley. who on removing to that state settled at Skippack, where he followed the occupation of farming, there taking up his abode about 1665. The family name was originally spelled Maerkel. Among his descendants were those who participated in the Revolutionary war, and others have been very prominent and active in connection with state and national politics and as workers in the church. From the earliest period the representatives of the name have been communicants of the Lutheran church. Josiah S. Markley devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and was very successful in the conduct of his farming interests, he is now living retired, enjoying the fruits of a well spent life, his home being in Schwenksville. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and he has taken quite an active interest in local politics and civic affairs. He married Hannah Ann Keeley, a native of Pennsylvania and of German descent. She died March 13, 1910, at the age of sixty-seven years. In the family were nine children, six of whom are living.
    Dr. Josiah P. Markley, of this review, was the eighth in order of birth. Spending his youthful days in his native state, he pursued his education in the public and high schools of Schwenksville and was graduated from the Keystone State Normal School of Pennsylvania at Kutztown in the year 1902. His youthful days were spent upon the home farm, where he early became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops, but he did not desire to make agriculture his life work, and following his graduation turned his attention to the educational field and began teaching in the rural schools of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He completed his educational work as principal of the Carbon Hill school of Carbon, Illinois, where he devoted five and a half years to teaching. He regarded this, however, merely as an initial step to other professional labor and after leaving Carbon he entered the Universitv of Pennsylvania, where he pursued his medical course, being graduated with the M. D. degree in 1908. Following his graduation he served as interne in the Howard Hospital and then entered upon the active practice of medicine at Blandburg, Pennsylvania, where he continued for three and a half years. He then returned to the University of Pennsylvania and devoted a year to post-graduate study, making a specialty of the diseases of women and of abdominal work. He then removed to the west, settling in Laramie, where he arrived on the 1st of February, 1912, and since that time he has been continuously and successfully engaged in practice in this state. For the first two years he was associated with Dr. H. L. Stevens, but since that time has practiced independently, specializing largely in surgery and in diseases of women, along which lines he displays notable skill and ability. He belongs to the Albany County Medical Society, the Wyoming State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and of the first named he is now secretary.
    On the 3^d of September, 1908, Dr. Markley was united in marriage at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to .Miss Ethel Louise Grimes, a native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of William Alfred and Bertha (Schmidt) Grimes, both of whom have passed away. Her paternal grandfather was of German birth and was a clergyman of the Lutheran church. Dr. and Mrs. Markley have one child, John Marlin, who was born in Philadelphia, November 11, 1911.
    Dr. Markley is prominently known in fraternal circles. He has taken the degrees in the lodge, chapter, commandery and consistory in Masonry and is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He was formerly scribe of the chapter and junior warden of the Knight Templar Commandery. He is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and his religious faith is indicated in his membership in the St. Matthews Episcopal church.
    He is interested in all those forces which work for the uplift of the individual and the betterment of the community, but necessarily has to give the major part of his attention to his profession, and in a calling where advancement depends entirely upon individual merit and ability he has worked his way steadily upward. He is the author of two publications on physiology and it was the proceeds from the sale of these that provided him the means for his education. He has become thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the west, with no desire to return to the east, and Laramie finds in him a most loyal and progressive citizen, while in professional circles his high standing is indicated by the regard of his colleagues and contemporaries.