Biographical Sketches
ALFRED BAXTGER SLOAN, M.D.
Has not only been prominently connected with professional interests in Kansas City, but is also numbered among the honored pioneers of Jackson county. He has seen much of the wild land transformed into beautiful homes and farms, has watched the growth and development of this place, and has ever given a hearty support to those interests calculated to promote the county's welfare. Here he attained an enviable reputation as a medical practitioner, and now, after a useful business career is living retired, enjoying a rest which he richly merits.
Dr. Sloan is numbered among the native sons of Missouri, his birth having occurred at Cole Neck, Cooper county, September 24, 1827. The family comes from the Emerald Isle, his grandfather, Alexander Sloan, having been a native of Belfast, Ireland, whence he came to America at the age of 15 and settled in the colony of Pennsylvania, for it was before the days of American independence. When the colonies, no longer able to withstand the oppressive measures heaped upon them, sought to obtain independence in the long and bloody war of the Revolution, he loyally joined the army of his adopted country. When success had crowned the American arms and the British troops had returned to their native land, he located in Virginia, where he was married. Near the close of the century he became one of the pioneers of Tennessee, sharing the hardships of frontier life, and later removed to Christian county, Kentucky. In 1819 he brought his family to Missouri, and after residing in Howard county for a time, went to Cooper county. His last days were spent in LaFayette county, where he died, at the age of 84.
Rev. Robert Sloan, father of our subject, was born in Tennessee in 1801, and accompanied his parents on their various removals. He entered the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian church when a young man, and for 40 years he devoted his life to that calling. His death occurred in Cass County, Missouri in 1869. In 1826 he had married Margaret Davidson Ewing, a native of Todd county, Kentucky, born in 1807. They became the parents of 12 children, 9 of whom reached adult age, namely: Alfred B.; Mrs. Fannie K. Jones, of Kansas City, wife of Greenup J. Jones; E. MacGready, of St. Louis, grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Missouri; Alexander Thompson, a farmer of Cass county, Missouri; and Hon. Charles William, of Harrisonville, who has served as judge of the circuit court of Cass and Johnson counties; the others have passed away.
On the maternal side also has the Doctor descended from honored ancestry. His grandfather, Rev. Finis Ewing, was a Virginian and a distinguished minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, which he helped to found. For many years he resided in Missouri, and was noted for his conspicuous talents and abilities, and became active and influential in the public affairs of his adopted state. Several of his children became prominent in political and professional circles, and the name is one that is honored throughout the South.
When the Doctor was a child of 6 years his parents removed to LaFayette county, and in 1845 located near Lee's Summit, Jackson county. In these counties his childhood days were passed, the family living on a farm. He began his education in the district schools, and when 20 years of age continued his studies under the direction of Dr. Boggs, of Independence. He afterward pursued a course in the medical department of the Transylvania University, of Lexington, Kentucky, at which institution he was graduated in 1849. He began practice in Bates county in 1848. It was then a frontier region; but slightly improved, and there were but 3 physicians in the entire county. A year later he came to Jackson county, and in 1850 started overland to California, attracted by the discovery of gold on the Pacific slope. He remained there for 2 years engaged in farming and mining, and in 1852 he located in Harrisonville, Cass county, where his father had settled in 1851, and he practiced there until the outbreak of the war.
In 1862, Dr. Sloan joined the army of General Price at Osceola as a surgeon, and served with the 16th Missouri infantry in Missouri and Arkansas. Later he became quartermaster for that section of the army stationed along the Arkansas river. He thus served until the close of the war, when, at Shreveport, Louisiana, he surrendered.
Immediately afterward the doctor returned to Missouri, and in 1865 came to Kansas City, where he was actively engaged in the prosecution of his chosen profession until failing health caused him to abandon this work. Dr. I. M. Ridge is the only physician now in Kansas City who was practicing here at the time of Dr. Sloan's arrival. He has not only been a pioneer in the work here, but while in active practice occupied a foremost position in the ranks of the medical fraternity. He has been an honored member of the local, state and national medical associations, was one of the founders of the Kansas City Medical Society, and for 12 years its president. He was treasurer and vice-president of the State Medical Society, for 6 years one of the judicial council of the American Medical Association, and was a member of the International Medical Congress of 1887 held in Washington. To the medical literature of the country he has made many valuable contributions, and his articles have appeared in many of the standard magazines of the country.
On the 20th of December, 1855, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Sloan and Miss Mary A. Raly, of Harrisonville, Missouri. She was born in Kentucky, and died in Cass county, Missouri, April 9, 1887, at the age of 49 years. Her life was a noble one, characterized by deeds of kindness and mercy, by devotion to her family, and to the cause of right. To the Doctor and his wife were born 6 children, namely: Charles, a farmer of Knox county, Tennessee; Sallie, wife of William Hoggsitt, of Kansas City, Robert T., who is engaged in the practice of medicine in Kansas City; Roland, a fruit farmer of Howell county, Missouri; Alfred, also a fruit grower of Howell county; and Alice, at home.
In his social relations the Doctor is a Mason. He joined that order in Harrisonville in 1855, and has since been active in the work of the lodge and chapter of Kansas City. His life has been marked by conscientious fidelity to duty, by devotion to what he believed to be right, and both in social and professional circles he occupies a most enviable position.
This page was last updated August 2, 2006.