Reputed one of the most skilful physicians of Jefferson county, Hugh Penvler, M. D., of Ina, pays close attention to his professional duties, and by means of his acknowledged skill and high personal character has built up a fine practice.

A son of the late Dr. H. J. Penvler, he was born July 10, 1864, in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Dr. H. J. Penvler was born in East Tennessee, in 1837, and died at Mount Vernon, Illinois, April 23, 1899, aged sixty-two years.

An ambitious student and a lover of books he was given excellent educational advantages when young, and after his graduation from the old Emory & Henry College, where he completed the classical course, he entered the Missouri Medical College, in Saint Louis, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. He subsequently held the chair of physiology in the Missouri Medical College for a number of years, during which time he was honored with a degree from the University of Nashville, in Nashville, Tennessee.

At the outbreak of the Civil war, he offered his services to his country, enlisting in the Federal army, and for a time was army surgeon at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1862, he located at Mount Vernon, Illinois, and was there actively engaged in the practice of medicine until his death. He married Ellen Hawkins, a daughter of Samuel Hawkins, who migrated from Indiana to Jefferson county, Illinois, in pioneer days, and they reared two children, namely: Hugh, the subject of this sketch; and Mrs. Nora Hartzell, of Mount Vernon, The mother still occupies the old homestead in Mount Vernon. Receiving his preliminary training in the public schools of Mount Vernon, Hugh Penvler subsequently attended the Southern Illinois Normal University in Carbondale, and in 1883 began the study of medicine in Saint Louis, at the Missouri Medical College. Going to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1884, he was graduated from the medical department of the University of Nashville in the spring of 1885, and during the following nine years he was associated with his father in the practice of medicine at Mount Vernon. Removing to Spring Garden in 1894, Dr. Penvler was there prosperously engaged in the practice of his profession for ten years. Coming to Ina in 1904, he has here built up a lucrative patronage, being numbered among the leading physicians of the county. He is well known in professional circles, and is a member of the Southern Illinois Medical Society.

Dr. Penvler married, in July, 1894, Maggie McCullough, a daughter of James and Susan A. McCullough, and their attractive home is always open to their many friends and acquaintances. Fraternally the Doctor has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since attaining his majority, and he is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Court of Honor. He formerly had title to ninety-two acres of good farming land, but he sold it recently and is not now a landholder to any extent, his town property being his only real estate holdings.

Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith, M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK - 1912
Page 1495

Submitted by Robert W. Loman