Although yet a young man of thirty, Dr. Ursa S. Abbott, of Grand Junction, has had as much variety of incident and opportunity as often falls to a man within the limits of an ordinary human life. He was born at Clearport, Ohio, on June 3, 1873, and is the son of Lafayette and Mary E. (Lysinger) Abbott. His father, a native of Vermont, and his mother a native of Pennsylvania, came to Ohio when young and there reached maturity, became acquainted and were married.
The father was a successful merchant for many years at Clearport, and died there in 1895, and the mother also ended her days there, passing away in 1897. Their offspring numbered ten, seven of whom are living. The Doctor was the seventh in the order of birth, and was reared in his native county, receiving his education in the public schools and under the instruction of private tutors at home. He attended Heidelberg University at Tiffin, Ohio, two years, then entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, but was obliged to leave in his senior year on account of his health. In 1898 he began the study of medicine at the Ohio Medical University at Columbus, where he passed one year. The next was passed at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago; but he was unable to remain at either because of the state of his health, and being obliged to seek a milder climate, came to Denver, where he spent a year at the Gross Medical College. He then went to California, and in 1902 was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at San Francisco. He located and began practicing at Point Richmond on the San Francisco bay, and was successful from the start. In December of that year he received an appointment as physician on a German steamship and sailed for Hamburg, Germany, on the 31st day of the month. His trip covered seventeen thousand miles and involved stops in Central and South America, at the Cape Verde and Canary Islands, and in France, Germany and England. He returned to New York on May 24, 1903, and there took a course of instruction at the Post-Graduate School and Hospital. While doing this he received and resigned a position as physician on the New York board of health. In October, 1903, he came to this state and located at Grand Junction permanently, entering at once on the active practice of his profession there. He is a member of the Mesa County and the Colorado State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. In politics he is an ardent Republican, and in fraternal relations belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He is also local medical examiner for the Woodmen of the World, Fraternal Union of America, National Life Insurance Company and the United States Life Insurance Company. On September 7, 1904, Dr. Abbott married Miss Rose Carolyn Keller, of Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, who was born there June 18, 1876, the daughter of John B. and Elizabeth (Hartman) Keller, both natives of Germany.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.