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Joseph R. Numbers, MD

Weiser and Boise Physician Joseph R. Numbers, MD

Weiser mayor and southwest Idaho physician Joseph Reno Numbers was born May 30, 1864 on a farm near Lexington, Ohio, about 50 miles northeast of Columbus. Besides the common schools, Numbers attended prep school at the Ohio Central College (he would have been a classmate of future President Warren G. Harding). He then attended the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, and graduated with his M.D. in 1885.

Numbers practiced for a short time in Kansas and then in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1888, he moved to Weiser, Idaho, along with his wife (he had married the year before). Joseph prospered in Weiser and, in the summer of 1892, the governor appointed him to a two-year term as Assistant Surgeon for the Idaho National Guard.

Three years later, Numbers became a member of the recently formed Idaho Medical Society. In September 1896, he presented a paper to the society that was later published in the Medical Sentinel journal (Portland, Oregon). The following year, he was appointed to the Idaho State Medical Examining Board. He remained very active in the Medical Society, leading an extensive discussion of important and interesting cases at the 1899 meeting.

The following year, Numbers helped organize the Southern Idaho State Medical Society, an auxiliary of the state society. The annual meeting of the state society met alternately in the north and then south part of the state. Thus, most members (north or south) met with their regional colleagues only once every other year. The Southern auxiliary planned to meet at least twice annually. Coincidentally, that same year Dr. Numbers was elected President of the Idaho State Medical Society.

In 1901, at the end of his term, Numbers sold his Weiser practice and moved to Chicago to do graduate work at the Rush Medical College. Unlike the Eclectic Medical Institute, Rush taught a curriculum of standard medical practice, so Numbers evidently planned to meld both approaches in his practice. Afterwards, he returned to Weiser and partnered with the doctor he had sold his practice to.

In 1907, Numbers was elected to a two-year term as mayor of Weiser. Two years later, he helped organize the Washington County Board of Health, and became secretary of the Board.

In 1910, Dr. Numbers moved his family to Boise, and then went to New York City for further medical education. For a couple years after his return, he apparently split time between his Weiser office and at least some cases in Boise. In the spring of 1911, he was a featured speaker in Boise at a conference on tuberculosis. Then, in August 1913, he moved the family into a home on Franklin Street in Boise and focused on his practice in that city.

During World War I, Numbers was one of several physicians selected to provide medical examinations for draftees. In May 1920, Saint Alphonsus hospital implemented a major reorganization to better align its operations with recommended national standards and best practices. Dr. Numbers was listed as one of their “visiting staff.”

In 1922, Numbers sold the family home on Franklin Street and moved into a suite next to his offices in the Idaho Building. Three years later, his son, Joseph Reno, Jr., joined him in practice as “Number & Numbers,” physicians. They continued in practice together until late 1939, when the elder Joseph’s wife died. Joseph, Sr. then returned to Weiser to live. He died in early 1942 (in Boise) and is buried in Weiser.

From Southfork Companion

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A member of the medical fraternity of Weiser, Washington County, Dr. Numbers was born in Lexington, Ohio, May 30, 1864, and traces his ancestry back to some of the early colonists of Pennsylvania, who were of German lineage. His father, Esau Numbers, was born in the Keystone state, November 1, 1816, and became one of the pioneer farmers of Ohio, whither he removed in 1840. He married Miss Anna Smith, of western Ohio, and to them were born eight children, but only three are now living. Their eldest son, William Numbers, died in the service of his country in the great civil war, losing his life at Cumberland Gap. The mother departed this life in 1877, at the age of fifty-six years, and in 1888 the father accompanied Dr. Numbers to Idaho, spending his last days in Weiser, where his death occurred when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-two years.

Dr. Numbers acquired his literary education in the Ohio Central College and prepared for his profession in the Eclectic Medical Institute, of Cincinnati, where he was graduated in the class of 1885. He entered upon the practice of his chosen calling in Kansas, where he remained one year, and then went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, being a representative of the medical fraternity of that city for two years. Since 1888 he has been a resident of Weiser, where he has built up a large and lucrative practice that many an older physician might well envy. He has a broad, comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the principles of the science of medicine and by the faithful performance of each day’s duty he finds strength and inspiration for the labors of the next. His efforts have been attended with excellent success, and the public and the profession accord him a foremost place among the able practitioners of this section of the state. He is a valued member of the Idaho Medical Society, the National Medical Society, and of the board of medical examiners of the state. Through these connections, as well as through the perusal of some of the leading medical journals of the country, he keeps abreast with all the advancement that is continually being made in methods of medical practice.

In 1887 the Doctor was united in marriage to Miss Mary B. Swartz, of Topeka, Kansas, and by their union have been born three children; Donald S., Joseph Reno and Josephine. The Doctor and his family occupy a high place in the esteem of their fellow-citizens. In 1886 he was made a Mason in Carbondale Lodge, No. 72, A. F. & A. M., of Kansas, and is a past master. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity and to the Modern Woodmen of the World. He devotes his time and energies almost exclusively to his profession and his ability has gained him a gratifying degree of success.

From Access Genealogy

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Also See Dr. J.R. Numbers
Also See Weiser Area Pioneers
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