VERTREES, CHARLES M., M.D., practicing physician and surgeon, Murrayville, Morgan County, was born in Pike County, Ill., March 1, 1838, the son of John and Nancy (Bradbury) Vertrees, the father a native of Hardin County, Ky., and son of John Vertrees, and the mother born in Withamsville, Ohio. They had a family of five children, viz.: Charles M., Mehitabel, Jennie, Nathan B. and Mary Eliza. Dr. Vertrees' grandfather, John Vertrees, farmed in Morgan County, and his son John, father of the subject of this sketch, who was born in 1812 and was a carpenter and farmer by occupation, was a soldier in the Black Hawk War and later a great friend of the Abolition champion, Lovejoy. The Doctor's maternal grandfather, Nathan Bradbury, during the War of 1812, was for a time a prisoner on a British war vessel.
Charles M. Vertrees was reared on the farm, principally in Fulton and Knox Counties, and secured his preliminary educational training in the district schools. On May 25, 1861, he enlisted at Knoxville, Ill., in Company E, Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, being at that time a resident of St. Augustine, Knox County and was mustered out at Springfield, June 4, 1864, with the rank of First Sergeant. He was wounded at Fredericktown, Mo., October 1, 1861, and again at Vicksburg, May 22, 1862; took part in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and was for several weeks an invalid in the hospital. After his discharge, in 1864, he rested a short time and then, on April 4, 1865, enlisted at Philadelphia, Pa., as Sergeant Major of the Seventh Regiment, United States, Veteran Volunteers, receiving his final discharge at Philadelphia, Pa., being in Washington City at the time of President Lincoln's assassination.
Soon after the war he attended one term at Abingdon College and began studying medicine under Dr. S. D. Pollock, continuing his professional course, in 1868 and 1869, at the Rush Medical College, Chicago. He then passed an examination before the State Board of Health and commenced the practice of his profession at Bath, Mason County, Ill., where he remained two years, and then, in 1876, moved to Murrayville, where, for nearly thirty years, he has practiced continuously. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the State Society and the Morgan County Medical Association, and was a member of the World's Congress of Physicians abroad. He has also been Examining Surgeon of the Bureau of Pensions in Jacksonville for nearly sixteen years.
Dr. Vertrees was married July 20, 1871, to Amelia D. Field, daughter of Drury F. Field, a physician and extensive land_owner of Mason County, Ill., and they have had three children, two of whom died in infancy. The surviving daughter, Sadie A., born in Murrayville, Ill., is the wife of Dr. W. U. Kennedy, of St. Louis, a prominent and rising physician of that city. Dr. Vertrees has served as President of the Village Board, on the School Board and as Township Trustee. He is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities, and carefully conducts a large and lucrative practice.