People, Locations, Episodes

Thomas Burton, Doctor, Administrator, and Poet born

Thomas W. Burton and family

Thomas William Burton was born on this date in 1860. He was a Black doctor, poet, and medical association administrator.

He was born near Tates Creek, Madison County, KY. Thomas was the youngest of 15 children of Edward and Eliza Burton, who were slaves. His father died when he was five, and his mother died when he was nine.

In 1881, Burton attended Berea College in Kentucky.  In 1889, he moved to Indianapolis, working with Dr. William Chavis, waiting tables, working in a lumberyard, and working with private families to pay for school. From 1890 to 1891, he attended the Medical College of Indiana and, a year later, the Eclectic College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he graduated on March 24, 1892.

After becoming a Medical Doctor, Thomas moved to Springfield, Ohio, on April 5, 1892, and started his practice of medicine and surgery. On August 3, 1893, he married Hattie B. Taylor of Cynthiana, KY.  In 1897, after serving as a doctor in the Army, he wrote a few articles for the "Eclectic Medical Journal," printed monthly in Cincinnati.

Burton also saw the need for a state medical society composed of Negro physicians. He and a colleague, Dr. H. R. Hawkins of Xenia, Ohio, organized the Ohio Mutual Medical Association. In 1910, he published his first book, “What Experience Has Taught Me: An Autobiography of Thomas William Burton.” Dr. Burton died on March 23, 1939; the following day, his picture announcing his death was on the front page of the Springfield Daily News (March 24, 1939).

To become a Doctor