CO-ROOTS-L Archives

From: "Maggie Stewart" <>
Subject: JOHN D. CRISP, M. D.
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 21:22:32 -0500

"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918) Vol. II


p. 490-491



JOHN D. CRISP, M. D.

Dr. John D. Crisp is known to the general public of Denver and of
Colorado as a most able physician and surgeon, but added to his
professional skill is marked literary ability. Literature is to him a
means of rest and recreation, from arduous professional duties and in
both lines of his activities he has shown decided talent. Dr. Crisp is
a native of Illinois. He was born at Apple Pie ridge, in Scott county,
and he is descended from English ancestry, the family many generations
ago being represented in Northumberlandshire. The progenitor of the
American branch of the family was Benjamin Crisp, who came to America
in 1689 and settled in North Carolina. The grandfather of Dr. Crisp was
Charles Crisp, who participated in the battle of New Orleans in the War
of 1812. His son, John A. Crisp, was born in Nashville, Tennessee. in
1817 and became a planter. He was but ten years of age when his parents
removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, and such was the unsettled condition
of the Mississippi valley at that time that between Nashville,
Tennessee, and Jacksonville, Illinois, there was to be found but one
bridge and that was over the Okaw river in Illinois. The family
traveled overland in a two-wheeled ox cart which conveyed their entire
worldly possessions. There were eight children and the parents. On
reaching the Ohio river they crossed the stream on a ferry. This trip
was made in the winter and spring of 1828 and was attended with many
hardships and privations. In the previous tall Charles Crisp had made
the trip on horseback from Nashville to Illinois and had purchased
three hundred and twenty acres of land, trading in his horse and saddle
and bridle as a part of the purchase price. He then returned on foot to
Tennessee, reaching his old home, after a nine days' journey, footsore
and weary. He was at that time in his late '40s. He died in the year
1865 at the very advanced age of eighty-four years. John A. Crisp, the
father of Dr. Crisp, was reared and educated in Illinois and there
engaged principally in the purchase and sale of farm lands and also
cultivated his fields to some extent. In 1896 he removed to Denver and
for a number of years lived retired, passing away in 1900 at the age of
eighty-two. In early manhood he had wedded Mary Ellen Comstock, a
native of Brown county, Illinois, born in 1838 and a representative of
one of the old pioneer families of that state who had removed to the
middle west from New York. She was a representative of a family of
English lineage. Her great-grandfather was Samuel Comstock, who came
from England. Mrs. Crisp is still living in Denver and her son. Dr.
Crisp, is her only surviving child, her two daughters having passed
away.

Dr. Crisp was educated in the public schools of Scott county,
Illinois, and in the University of Missouri, from which he was
graduated in 1882 with the LL. B. degree, for he then thought to make
the practice of law Ins life work. For five years he engaged in active
practice in Holden, Missouri, and then turned his attention to
newspaper publication, becoming editor and publisher of the Holden
Enterprise, a weekly journal. He continued in that business for six
years and afterward removed to Galveston, Texas, where he was managing
editor of the Daily Tribune. He continued with the latter paper for two
years and then removed to Denver, where he took up the study of
medicine. He successfully passed the state board examination in 1902
and in 1905 he was graduated from the University of Denver with the M.
D. degree. He has since been engaged in active practice in Denver and
his developing powers along this line have given him a prominent place
in the ranks of the medical profession. He is keenly interested in
everything that tends to bring to man the key to the complex mystery
which we call life and he keeps in touch with the advanced thought and
researches of the profession through wise reading and study and through
his connection with the Denver City and County Medical Society, the
Colorado State Medical Society and the American. Medical Association.
His taste for literature and his ability as a writer have been manifest
in his authorship, which includes many interesting short stories
published in magazines throughout the country and he is also the author
of a novel entitled "Orpah," which was published by the Scroll
Publishing Company of Chicago.

On the 4th of September, 1878, Dr. Crisp was married in Exeter,
Illinois, to Miss Ada Morris, a native of that state and a
representative of one of the old families of Baltimore, Maryland. Her
parents were John W. and Mary J. (Crafton) Morris, both of whom are now
deceased. To Dr. and Mrs. Crisp has been born a son, John Manford,
whose birth occurred in Exeter in 1879 and who is now a resident of
Cheyenne, Wyoming, being employed as a civil engineer and draftsman
with the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

Dr. Crisp votes with the democratic party and he is a member of
all the Masonic bodies except the Scottish Rite and he is likewise a
member of the Mystic Shrine. The life record of Dr. Crisp shows what
may be accomplished through individual effort intelligently directed.
He worked his way through school and previous to his first winter in
college he fed ninety-one head of cattle in order to earn the money for
his tuition. His success is entirely attributable to his own efforts,
his ambition and his innate talent and ability. Today he occupies a
very pretty home, which he owns, and enjoys a large practice, which has
come to him in recognition of his highly developed powers in the
practice of medicine and surgery. His wife is a very active worker in
the Woman's Relief Corps, in the Red Cross and in various charitable
movements. In a word, their aid and influence are always given on the
side of progress and improvement and their efforts have been a
contributing factor to the general welfare in many ways.

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