Biography of Dr. W.W. Tichenor

Born amid quiet rural scenes in the interior of Wisconsin in 1854, Dr. W.W. Tichenor, of Rifle, one of the leading physicians of Garfield county, this state, and also a prominent fruit-grower, saw little in the circumstances of his early life to suggest the stirring scenes of turbulence and danger through which he was destined to pass. He is a son of Alphonso F. and Elizabeth (Utt) Tichenor, natives of New York, and was the second born of their six children. His father was a prominent physician in his native state, Wisconsin, and also in Iowa. He now resides at Portland, Oregon. During the Civil war he enlisted in defense of the Union in the Thirty-first Wisconsin Infantry but did not get into active field service, being assigned to the hospital at Madison as surgeon in charge throughout the term of his enlistment. He had a brother, however, who laid his life on the altar of his country, dying in Libby prison. The mother died in 1864. Dr. Tichenor was reared and educated in Wisconsin and Iowa, and received his professional instruction at the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, where he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1873. He went at once to Dodge City, Kansas, and began practicing his profession. Seven months later he moved to Bazine, Ness county, in that state, and there took up a homestead which he developed and reduced to cultivation in connection with his practice. During the time of his residence in that county he was appointed deputy sheriff, and served through the times that were so full of trouble with horse and cattle thieves. His life was frequently threatened, and he had numerous warnings tacked on his door that unless he left the country he would be killed. He had no idea, however, of running away from duty and dared his threateners to do their worst. Persevering in the performance of his official duties, he aided materially in reducing the lawless element to subjection and restoring peace and order in the county. In 1887 he came to Colorado and settled at Rifle, where he has since lived and practiced medicine, except during four years when he gave up professional work on account of the state of his health. He is still in active general practice and has a high rank in professional circles, and is well esteemed by his large body of patrons. In addition to his regular business he has a fine orchard of choice fruit trees about one mile and three-quarters from the town, which yields abundantly and is a source of profit and great pleasure and pride to him. In 1876 he married Miss Clara Brown, and the union resulted in two children, Maud and Alphonso, the latter named for the Doctor’s father. In 1894 he married a second wife, Miss Marion Arnold, and they have three children, Wilfred, Marion and Mabel. The Doctor is a prominent member of the Woodmen of the World, belonging to Rifle Lodge, No. 303. He has been actively connected with all undertakings for the improvement of his community and throughout its extent and a much wider area is highly esteemed as a leading and representative citizen, a civic force of potency and usefulness, a man of broad professional attainments and a gentleman of elevated social culture.


Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.


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