HAIRGROVE, (Dr.) JOHN WHITLOCK, was born in Jacksonville, Ill., August 21, 1856. On both sides he comes from American stock, his ancestors having settled in this country before the Revolution. His father, Columbus Hairgrove, was born in Troup County, Ga., April 29, 1828, and in 1850 came to Morgan County. Here he met Rose Ann Whitlock, daughter of John Whitlock an old settler and prominent farmer of Morgan County, whom he soon after married. During the Civil War he served three years in the One Hundred and First Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

A great portion of Dr. Hairgrove's boyhood was spent on his father's farm six miles from Jacksonville. He attended the country schools and later Illinois College. After teaching a country school for one term Dr. Hairgrove began the study of medicine and surgery at the Prince Sanitarium, under the celebrated Dr. David Prince, who instilled in him a profound appreciation of the possibilities of surgery, bending his inclination to that as the supreme outlet of his life ambition. For four years he remained with Dr. Prince as student and assistant, and then attended the Missouri Medical College, where he was graduated. The first four years of his medical practice were spent in Waverly, Ill. He then went to Germany and spent over a year in study in Vienna, Berlin and Dresden. On his return he came to Jacksonville, where he began the practice of surgery, having since spent six months in study in Paris.

In June, 1903, Dr. Hairgrove was married to Mabel Marvin, of Madison, Wis., who, on the paternal side, traces her descent to forefathers who settled in New England early in the eighteenth century, several having served in the War of Independence. In politics Dr. Hairgrove is a Republican. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and many medical and surgical societies.