Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/126

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

ical profession. Dr. Charles Edward Conrad has shared the time that he has devoted to the practice of his profession between the places of his birth and New York, proceed- ing to the latter place almost immediately after taking his degree and there remaining until 1910, since which year he has been a practitioner of Harrisonburg, Virginia. Dur- ing the short time that he has engaged in medical work in Harrisonburg he has at- tained a wide practice and professional prominence, having been elected to the presidency of the Rockingham County Med- ical Society.

Dr. Conrad's family is far from being un- known to the professions in Virginia, his father, Ed. Smith Conrad, a graduate of the University of Virginia, a well known attor- ney of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He married Virginia Smith, daughter of Andrew Trick, among their children being Charles Edward, of whom further.

Dr. Charles Edward Conrad was born in Harrisonburg, Rockingham county, Vir- ginia, July 20, 1879. Following a course in the public schools of the place of his birth, he became a student in the Randolph-Macon Academy, of Front Royal, Virginia, there receiving a diploma of graduation. He was for four years employed in druggists' estab- lishments in Lynchburg and Charlottesville, Virginia, becoming a druggist, duly regis- tered by the Virginia state board of exam- iners, and in igoi entered the University of Virginia, graduating from the medical department of that institution Doctor of Medicine in 1905. He became an interne in the Alanhattan and Kings County hospitals. New York City. He then formed an asso- ciation with the Eastern State Hospital, Williamsburg, Virginia, as first assistant physician, which continued for about two and a half years, and from November, 1909, until May, 1910, he was connected with the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital.

During his residence in Harrisonburg, Dr. Conrad has conducted a general prac- tice, in which he has been very successful, most conspicuously so in diseases peculiar to children. He is a member of the board of health of Harrisonburg, city physician of that place, local physician for the South- ern Railway Company, president of the Rockingham County Medical Society, mem- ber of the Shenandoah Valley Medical Soci- ety, and of the Pi Kappa Alpha and Nu

Sigma Nu medical fraternity. On numer- ous occasions he has reported cases of espe- cial interest from a professional point of view to the medical societies of which he is a member. He attends the Methodist Epis- copal church, and is a supporter of Demo- cratic principles. Dr. Conrad is held in uni- versal high esteem in the place of his birth, and has created a most favorable impression among his professional brethren. His career as a physician has become worthy of the designation without which no other words of approbation possess value and without which there is no true success, useful.

Dr. Conrad married, September 29, 1914, Annie Gilliam, of Lynchburg, Virginia, dj.ughter of James R. and Jessie (Johnston) Gilliam.

Conrad Kownslar. Descended maternally from the old colonial and revolutionary families, P.lackburn, St. Clair, and through intermarriage with the Washington family, Mr. Kownslar, as an attorney-at-the-bar of two states, Virginia and Texas, and by active public service, has lived up to the best traditions of his forbears, and gained distinction in his own right. Through his maternal line descent is traced to Elder Wil- liam Brewster and John Allerton, the Pil- grim Fathers of Plymouth colony. Thomas Blackburn, his great-grandfather was a colo- nel in the Continental army, and Elizabeth St. Clair ( Blackburn) Kownslar, his mother, was a niece of Judge Washington by mar- riage, and a frequent visitor at Mount \'er- non.

Conrad Kownslar is a son of Dr. Ran- dolph Kownslar, and a grandson of Conrad I\ownslar and his wife, Elizabeth (Bayard) Kownslar, the latter the parents of sons, Randolph, of further mention; Remington, a farmer of Texas ; and Franklin, an Ohio judge who died in Cincinnati. Dr. Randolph Kownslar was born in Berkeley county, \'irginia, in 1812, and died in 1865. He was a graduate of Princeton, and also of the University of Virginia, a man of highest literarv and professional attainment, rank- ing among the most advanced students and thinkers of his day. He was the master of several languages, and in mature years made it a daily practice to read something in the three languages. Greek. Latin and French. Bishop Whittle pronounced him "the best educated lavman"' he had ever met. He