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W. A. MIRICK, homoeopathic physician and surgeon, Monticello; is a native of Otsego Co., N.Y., and was born January 8, 1853; his parents came to Iowa when he was only 5 years of age, in 1857, and located in Jones Co.; he grew up and attended school here, and entered Cornell College at Mount Vernon, where he completed his literary education. He studied medicine, and graduated at Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, in the winter of 1876 and 1877, and since then he has successfully practiced his profession here.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879, page 675.
For more than thirty-two years W. A. Mirick has followed the profession of medicine in the city of Monticello, where he enjoys the honor not only of being the oldest resident physician here but also of having one of the largest and most lucrative practices. And yet, however gratifying these things may be, the knowledge that he retains the respect of the many persons who have come into contact with him and the satisfaction that comes to even the most humble and modest of men, from a daily recognition of the fact that their lives have been led to good purpose and to the benefit of others, affords him the greatest reason to feel a justifiable pride in the work of the past years.
 Dr. Mirick was born in Chenango county, New York, January 8, 1854, and is a son of Augustus and Jane (Hakes) Mirick. In 1857 they came to Iowa for the sake of the health of Mrs. Mirick, locating in Anamosa, but she died shortly afterward, and the father married Mrs. Fannie Boon, of Anamosa, whose was the only maternal care of which Dr. Mirick has any distinct remembrance. Upon his advent to this county, Augustus Mirick acquired a tract of land in Fairview township, on which he pursued his calling as a farmer. A pronounced success attended his efforts and although about sixteen or seventeen years ago he retired from active life he still owns about two hundred acres of land. At present he is living in the village of Anamosa, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. In politics his sympathies were with the republican party, and during the greater part of his active years be was a dominant factor in its cause in his township besides taking a vital interest in the public affairs of his locality and serving in the various township offices. He was also prominent in the work of the Baptist church and in the ranks of the Masons and of the Odd Fellows, to local lodges of which he belonged. In short, he was a man possessed of a strong personality, of great energy, and of a capacity for execution that won the attention of all with whom he associated, accordingly his influence was felt far and wide and men placed reliance in his judgment.
Dr. Mirick has lived in Jones county since he was four years old and when of suitable age was enrolled as a pupil in the public schools. Later he took a special course in Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and in 1874 began the study of medicine. At first he read under the preceptorship of Dr. L J. Adair, of Anamosa, and then under that of Dr. G. W. White, of the same place, so that he was fairly well prepared in 1875 for entrance to the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, Illinois. He was graduated from that institution in the spring of 1878, and on the 1st of March of that year, located in Monticello. Here he has built steadily up a large and remunerative practice and for years past has been one of the best known physicians in his section of the county. A skilled diagnostician, an experienced practitioner, and endowed by nature with those personal qualities that perhaps have greater weight in attaining a success in this than in any other vocation of life, his record is one of continued advance, of increased confidence in his abilities on the part of others, and of enlarged realization by them of strength of his character and the integrity of his purposes. He is a surgeon as well as a physician and for the past twenty years has been employed in the former capacity by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad in this city.
On the 12th of September, 1882, Dr. Mirick wedded Miss Catherine S. Curtis, of Independence, Iowa, who for the four or five years previous had been teaching in the Monticello schools. She had attended the Iowa State College, from which she was graduated in the same class with J. W. Doxsee. To this union three children have been born, namely: Irving A., Maud A. and Galen C. The oldest was graduated from the Monticello high school and then spent three years at the Iowa State College. He is now associated with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, with headquarters at Huron, South Dakota. The daughter is in her senior year at the Iowa State College at Ames, while the youngest of the family is a pupil in the Monticello high school. Dr. Mirick belongs to several organizations which have as their aim the advancement of the interests of those engaged in his profession, for he is a member of the American Medical Association, of the Iowa State Medical Society and of the Jones County Medical Society. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, being a member of Burns Lodge, No. 173, A.F.&A.M. He did belong to the chapter and commandery of the local lodge here, but they have now disintegrated.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 304.
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