Colonel Francis L. Town (1836 - 1922)
Born at Jefferson (NH); died at San Antonio (TX); buried at Lancaster (NH).
Career U.S. Army surgeon.
Portrait by E. Wyatt Kimball, 1896. At State Library.

Francis L. Town was educated at Lancaster Academy. He began his medical education in 1856 and finished at the Dartmouth College Medical Department in 1860. While studying medicine, he served as School Commissioner of Coos County (1858). He was appointed County Commissioner of Schools, and was a member of the State Board of Education (1859).

Town's first work as a surgeon was at Charity Hospital, on Blackwell's Island in the East River. He was serving at New York Hospital when war began in 1861. From then on Town's career reads like a guide to the United States. He served with the Army of the Cumberland (1861/3), then organized the 'Harvey' General Hospital for the State of Wisconsin at Madison (WI) 1863/5. Town then served as a Post Surgeon at U.S. Army barracks (Louisville, KY, 1865); in 1866 he was Chief Surgeon for the Military District of Kentucky.

From Kentucky Town headed west. He served as Post Surgeon at Old Fort Shaw, Montana, during the Indian Wars of 1867/71. Then he served three years (1871/4) as Post Surgeon at Fort Preble, in the Portland (ME) harbor. But the West was still a fascination, and Town was at Fort Sill (before what became Oklahoma Territory had been created) during Indian wars in that part of the West.

During 1878 Town took a leave in Europe. He returned to serve in what became Washington State (1879/84), then served in Texas (1884/88). He moved on to serve as Post Surgeon at the Presidio (San Francisco, CA. 1889/92).

Town spent 1893 at Fort Porter (Buffalo, NY), and 1894 at military headquarters in Chicago (IL); his final position was as medical director of the Military Department of Texas, at San Antonio (1894/6). He retired as a colonel in the U.S. Army in 1896.

Reference: Granville P. Conn, History of New Hampshire Surgeons in the War of the Rebellion (1906).
Location: Second Floor, State Library