Carson City
Simeon Lemuel Lee
Biography
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Nevada Genealogy Trails Carson City Simeon Lemuel Lee Biography |
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S. L. LEE, M. D. One of the distinguished members of the medical profession in Nevada is Dr. S. L. Lee. of Carson City, whose pronounced ability and broad experience have gained him prominence scarcely second to any in the state. Fortunate is the man who has back of him an ancestry honorable and distinguished, and happy is he if his lines of life are cast in harmony therewith. In person, talents and character Dr. Lee is a worthy scion of his race. He comes from a family that has not only figured prominently in public affairs in this country, but can also trace his ancestry to the Lees who went with William the Conqueror to England at the time of the invasion in 1066.
John Lee emigrated from "the merrie isle" to New England in the year 1641, and afterward became a resident of Farmington, Connecticut, while his cousin, Richard Lee, settled in Virginia and became the founder of the branch of the family that has furnished so many eminent men to the Old Dominion. William Lee, a direct ancestor of Dr. Lee, was a participant in the Revolutionary war, and the love of liberty and the hatred of oppression has ever been a dominant trait in the family. William Lee, Dr. Lee's great-grandfather, and his sons, were all participants in the war of 1812, and one of these sons was Lemuel Lee, the grandfather of the Doctor. Benjamin F. Lee. Dr. Lee's father, was born in Onondaga county, New York. on the 15th of September, 1817, and was but three months old when his parents removed with their family to Illinois, where he has since lived, having now attained the eighty-sixth year of his age. He married Miss Charlotte Loraine Bishop, a descendant of the noted De Aubrey family, her grandfather being Dr. De Aubrey, who was a surgeon in the continental army during the war of the Revolution. Mrs. Lee died December 19, 1894, at the age of seventy-two years. By her marriage she had become the mother of seven sons. The eldest, James Monroe, was killed in the battle of Shiloh, while fighting in defense of the starry banner, the symbol of the Union cause. His regiment was the Thirty-second Illinois Infantry. When this brother enlisted, Simeon Lemuel Lee, the subject of this biography, was but a youth of sixteen years, having been born in Vandalia, Fayette county, Illinois, on the 4th of September, 1844. He became fired with patriotic zeal, inspired by his brother's example and his own knowledge of the condition of affairs in the south, and in 1863, he prevailed upon his father to allow him to take the place of his deceased brother as a defender of the Union. Enlisting as a member of Company H, Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, he went to the south to aid in filling the ranks of that regiment, which had been very much depleted. The command proceeded immediately to the scene of hostilities, and he served with General Sherman in General John A. Logan's division of McPherson's corps, from February, 1864, until November of that year, when the members of the command reenlisted and were given a thirty days' furlough. After the return to the front, this regiment led the assault on Fort Blakely, being connected with the Nineteenth corps of Granger's army. There were but thirty-five members of the company when they started on that movement, and fifteen of these were either killed or wounded in the charge, but they carried the fort, which was the defense of the city of Mobile, and which then surrendered. By gallant service and unmistakable loyalty Dr. Lee had risen to the rank of second lieutenant and was discharged as such in Springfield, Illinois, on the 16th of May, 1866.
Previous to the war Dr. Lee had been a student in the high school of Vandalia, and after his discharge he began preparation for his life work by becoming a student in the Cincinnati Medical College of Ohio, in which he completed the prescribed course and was graduated with the degree of M. D., in the class of 1870. Immediately after leaving college he came to Carson City and entered upon the practice of his profession, which he has since continued here with marked ability for thirty-three years, during which time he has been recognized as one of the most learned and capable members of the medical fraternity in the state. He became a member of the first board of health of the state, and for several years has been a member of the state board of medical examiners and is now surgeon general on the governor's staff, with the rank of colonel. He educated his youngest brother, Ortey Frederick Lee. for the medical profession, of which he became a most prominent and progressive member. He was engaged in the practice of medicine in Marysville, California, when overwork brought his brilliant career to an untimely close and caused a severe loss to the ranks of the fraternity in that state.
Dr. Lee is a prominent Mason, belonging to the blue lodge, chapter and commandery, and also to Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine in San Francisco. He is thoroughly informed concerning the tenets of the craft, is in sympathy with its purpose, and in his life exemplifies its beneficent and helpful spirit.
On the 26th of November, 1868. Dr. Lee was happily married to Miss Lola Montez Watts, a member of the noted Watts family of Ohio, while her mother was an own cousin of Hamilton Fisk, United States secretary of state. They have three sons: Bishop Frank Lee is in southern California. William L., an electrical engineer, was graduated in a school fitting him for his chosen profession. Adelbert Watts is a graduate of the medical department of the University of California and is now assistant in the chair of anatomy there. He expects soon to go to Leipsic, Germany, to perfect himself in his profession. He stood at the head of his class in college, and is a young man of strong mentality and laudable ambition, and undoubtedly a bright future awaits him. Both the Doctor and Mrs. Lee are well known in Carson City and other parts of the state, and occupy an enviable position in social circles, while their own home is the center of culture, hospitality and good cheer. Mrs. Lee is a member of the Episcopal church.
The Doctor has always been a student, reading broadly and thinking deeply, not only in the line of his profession but over a wide range of subjects. He has a library of more than two thousand volumes, and is also the possessor of a choice and valuable collection of minerals, of chinaware brought from foreign cities and of Indian baskets, some of which are of very early manufacture and are very costly. He takes just pride in these, and they prove an interesting feature of his delightful home.
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