History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John D. Elbert
JOHN DOWNS ELBERT was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, May 16, 1806, and was a son of Dr. John Downs and Elizabeth Ficklin Elbert. In 1812 his father removed with his family to Logan County, Ohio. There young Elbert spent his childhood and youth. His educational advantages were very limited, but he mastered the few books at his command and acquired a good general education. He studied medicine, and in 1829 received a license to practice from Dr. Drake of Cincinnati. In 1840, Dr. Elbert removed to Van Buren County, Iowa, where he lived until his death in 1866, at the age of sixty years. As a surgeon he acquired an extensive practice in Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri, and his reputation was such that he was given honorary degrees by the Universities of Pennsylvania and Missouri. Being a man of unusual energy and force he took prominent part in the development of the country and was a leader in promoting and forwarding public enterprises. He took great interest in politics and was a member and president of the Territorial Council of Iowa in 1842-4. Few men during his residence in Van Buren County were better or more favorably known. He married Achsa Hitt, a daughter of Rev. Samuel Hitt, a Methodist minister, in 1829. Several of their sons became prominent men, one of them, Samuel Hitt Elbert, being at one time Governor of Colorado, and for many years a judge of the Colorado Supreme Court.