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Identified Closely With the Settlement of the Slope and the City of Bismarck
A Kentuckian by Birth, He Was a Well Known Army Surgeon In Early Days
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Death of Dr. Slaughter He was an accomplished practioner and writer on medical subjects, and received the ad e undem degree from the University of Kentucky in 1869. Dr Slaughter was the only member of the family who entered the union service, and after the close of the war, the family estates being confiscated and all the slaves liberated, he re-entered the army as acting assistant surgeon, and served in the south until the reconstruction, when he was ordered to Fort Rice, D.T. There he endured much arduous service, frequently accompanying the surveying parties of the Northern Pacific to the westward. He was one of the board of officers to locate the post at Fort Lincoln, and accompanied Gen. Hazan's 6th infantry to Fort Buford. He was stationed at Fort Greene as post surgeon, and accompanied the detachment from Fort Rice that built the mounds marking the military mail-trail between Forts Rice and Stevenson. In August 1872, he was ordered to the new post of Camp Hancock - now Bismarck - where he served as post surgeon until November 1873, when he resigned to become a citizen of Bismarck. Dr Slaughter was the first postmaster of Burleigh county, and in all things looking to the improvement of the new took a lively part. He was president of the Burleigh County Pioneer association, organized in 1873. He was kindly in disposition, gentle in manner and generous to a fault. While surgeon at Camp Hancock he treated the citizens of the town gratuitously, and his hand and purse were ever ready to relieve the wants of the poor and distressed. For many years his life has been one of suffering and invalidism. At Mount Sterling, Ky., while accompanying his regiment on a forced march, his horse fell upon him and crushed his ankle. While the hardships and exposure of his frontier service led to a breaking down of his nervous system, creeping paralysis extending gradually from the wound in his ankle to the left side of his leg caused him untold suffering during the last few years. Last fall he went from his house at Slaughter to Conkling, McLean county, where he purchased a hunting lodge several miles distant from the home of his son-in-law, J. Arthur Burgum, in anticipation of a visit from his old comrade, Mr A. W. Dearborn, who was engaged to be married to his daughter, Rosalind, on Oct. 21 Mr Dearborn arrived on the 16th and a few days later had the misfortune to shoot off his right hand while hunting. Miss Slaughter declined his generous offer to cancel the engagement on that account, and the wedding took place on the 21st. On the morning of that day Mr and Mrs Slaughter drove over to the lodge for some needed articles, and while there the doctor was seized with a severe chill, and on the way home fell into insensibility, and was unable to witness his daughter's wedding. Since then he has lingered, now better and now worse, until Saturday night, when at 9 o'clock, reclining in the arms of his wife, with his daughter, Jessamine, by his side, he fell asleep with a peaceful smile: indeed so gently did he pass away that none of those around his bedside knew the spirit passed away. His family consisted of a wife, Mrs Linda W. Slaughter, to whom he was married in 1868, and three daughters all married to worthy men, namely Mrs A. W. Dearborn of Eagle Lake, Minn.; Mrs J. A. Burgum of Conkling and Mrs Albin Headstrom of Slaughter. One son, Frank, who died in infancy is buried at Fort Rice. Return to "Miscellaneous Documents - Index"
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