Dr. Willis E. Lingle, for several years past identified with the medical
profession in Union county, is the representative of a family which has been
closely allied with the history of that county since its organization. Born
April 23, 1872, he is the son of George W. Lingle, who was born in 1850, on
the old farmstead in Cobden, Union county, and he still lives in Union
county. The father of George W. Lingle and the grandfather of Willis E.
Lingle was Henry Lingle, a native of North Carolina and a man of German
extraction. He came to Union county about 1820, in company with a number of
other home-seekers from the Carolinas. At one time in the early history of
that county Henry Lingle owned a tract of one hundred and twenty acres of
farm land, which constitutes the present site of Cobden. When the Illinois
Central Railroad passed through that region in 1855, Mr. Lingle sold his
entire holdings to that company, realizing a handsome profit on the
transaction, after which he moved out seven miles northeast of the present
town site of Cobden and bought a farm of five hundred acres. Henry Lingle
was always a man of action. He was a veteran of the Mexican war, winning for
himself a splendid record during his service. He passed away in recent
years, but his wife, Elizabeth (Vansel) Lingle, still lives. George Lingle,
their son, is the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and forty acres,
ninety acres of which .are a portion of the old Lingle estate. He was a
prosperous man, ambitious and energetic. He married Amelia C. Brooks, a
daughter of Larkin Brooks, a native of North Carolina, and who operated a
planing mill, the only mill of its nature in Union county for many years. Of
the union of Mr. and Mrs. George Lingle four children were born. They are:
Willis E., of this review, a practicing physician of Cobden; Fred Lee, of
Alto Pass, also a practicing physician; George Melvin, who is on the home
farm, married Miss Laura Crawshaw, daughter of Abe Crawshaw, a well-known
stock farmer of Jackson county; the daughter is Naomi.
Dr. Lingle attended school in his home county and at the Normal at
Carbondale; in 1890 he matriculated in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, at St. Louis, Missouri, graduating in March, 1894. He began
practice in Makanda, where he was interested in a drug store, remaining
there one year. The following two years he practiced at Degonia, Jackson
county, and in 1897, came to Cobden.
On January 29, 1896, Dr. Lingle married Miss Mary Estella Patterson,
daughter of Gabriel W. Patterson of Makanda, a prominent merchant and grain
dealer of that place. Two children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Lingle,
Leland Patterson and Kathryn.
Extracted 13 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 3, page 1134.
| Jackson | Williamson | |
| MO |
 |
Johnson |
| Alexander | Pulaski |
