Dr. Feild Dead

[Source: Sunday Gazetteer, Denison TX, February 4, 1906]

Dr. Julian C. Feild, who had been in declining health for the past two years, died Wednesday of Bright's disease at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. J. Mathis, No. 826 West Sears Street.

With the death of Dr. Feild, one of the best known factors in our pioneer life passes away. He cast his lot with Denison in the fall of 1872. At that period, this was an ideal frontier town, composed of wooden shanties and a great many living in tents. It was a wild and woolly town, its populations embracing every conceivable rank of life. It was every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Dr. Feild was a good man for a new town and able to hold his own with the best of them. He had seen all of the ups and downs of army life, which was a good school to fit one for the rough and tumble life of the frontier. The personality of Dr. Feild attracted immediate attention, and almost from the first he was recognized as a man of affairs. He has held almost every office within the gift of our people. He was our first city physician. A number of times a member of the council. He was also closely identified with the early educational interests of our city. He has for a period of at least twenty-five years been prominently before the public eye. The history of Denison is the history of the public life of Dr. Feild. As a citizen of Denison, he was ever an earnest and entrepreneurial helper in every movement for the advancement of the city. Every worthy enterprise found in him an able and tireless champion, and what he accomplished without ostentation and without the incentive of selfish interest was of far greater moment to the city than the achievements of many more pretentious men. Whatever in public life Dr. Feild attempted was done well, and it is to his lasting credit that not one act of his public career was ever questioned that he did not have the best interest of the city at heart. He never abused any public trust reposed in him. The Herald furnishes the following sketch of his birth and early career:

"Dr. Julian C. Feild was a native of Tennessee, having been born in Pulaski in 1841. When a child he removed with his parents to Little Rock, Ark., where his father was elected shortly afterward to the office of circuit judge with a district that comprised about one-half of the State of Arkansas, which office he held for more than twenty years. The boy was educated in the common schools of Little Rock and later in Tulane University at New Orleans, where he was graduated in the medical department.

"In a short time after he left college the Civil War broke out and Dr. Feild enlisted on the Confederate side as an army surgeon, in which capacity he served during the entire war under Gen. S. B. Maxey, and during the greater part of the trouble was located in the Indian Territory. At the close of civil strife he located in Fort Smith, Ark., and took up again the practice of medicine, in which he was always actively engaged till a short time before his demise.

"In 1872, thirty-four years ago, he came to Denison and has lived here continuously since that time. In 1874, he was united in marriage to Miss Susan E. McClain of Whitesboro, and of this union five children were born, two of whom, Julian C. Field or Springfield, Mo., and Mrs. William J. Mathis, with their mother, survive him."

One of the first votes that the writer ever cast was for Dr. Feild when he made his first race for city honors. He was an eminent and successful physician and surgeon, his patrons embracing a large majority of our well-to-do class of citizens. A number of years he was local surgeon for the H. & T. C. railway. He was also president of the Denison Medical Society at various times. At the time of death, he was a member of the Masonic order or Knights Templar and was also the first council commander of the local camp of the Woodmen of the World, as well as a member of the B. P. O. Elks. He was a member of the Episcopal church and for many years served as a vestryman in St. Luke's Episcopal church in Denison. He was a member of the legislature but was defeated in a second race, the honor going to a Sherman man.

Dr. Feild was buried from the residence of his son-in-law, W. J. Mathis. The services were conducted by the Rev. G. R. D. Crittenton. The pallbearers embraced several of our most prominent citizens, among others Judge Head of Sherman. The funeral was a very large and imposing affair. The interment was at the Fairview cemetery.