DR. JOHN ALBERT HEDRICK, physician and surgeon at Dalhart, has been identified professionally and as a public-spirited citizen with this northwest corner of the Panhandle ever since the town of Dalhart sprang into existence. He is highly regarded with business affairs in this section of Texas about as along as any other man. As a physician and surgeon he has attained high rank, deservedly on account of his skill and thorough professional knowledge, and in whatever relation he has become known to his fellow citizens he has shown ability and high worth.
Born in Homer, Louisiana, in 1864, Dr. Hedrick is the son of a physician, his father, Dr. W. C. Hedrick, a native of Mississippi, having been a practicing physician for over forty years. He came to Texas from Louisiana in 1868, locating at Bryan, and later moved to Calvert, where he lived until 1880, and then went to Ennis. He is now retired from practicing and lives at Wilderville, this state. Dr. Hedrick’s mother, Emily (Perkins) Hedrick, now deceased, was born at Brookhaven, Mississippi.
A resident of Texas since he was four years old, Dr. Hedrick, after obtaining a good primary education, finished at Ennis College. He then took up the study of pharmacy and became a druggist, and in 1897 he came out to the Panhandle and established a drug store at Clarendon, being one of the pioneer merchants of that city, where he continued in the drug business for ten years. In the meantime, as occasion offered, he had taken up the study of medicine privately, and whenever it was possible he attended medical lectures in the medical department of Fort Worth University. Before his graduation, however, he passed the necessary examination before the state board entitling him to practice, and in 1897 he entered upon actual practice at Bridgeport, this state. Later he returned to the Panhandle and established his office at Canyon City, in Randall county. Having graduated in 1901 from the medical department of Fort Worth University, on April 4 of the same year he came to Dalhart, which town and its vicinage have since been the field of his professional endeavors.
The El Paso line of the Rock Island Railroad was being graded through Dalhart when he located there, and where it junctioned with the Fort Worth and Denver line there was established a new town, which, after being named variously during its incipient stages, became finally plotted as Dalhart in July, 1901, at which time the first sale of town lots was held. Dr. Hedrick makes a specialty of surgery, although his practice is of a general nature, and he now has all the professional business that he can consistently attend to. He is local surgeon for both the Rock Island and the Fort Worth and Denver Railways, and is a member of the Rock Island System Surgical Association, and of the Panhandle and the Texas State Medical societies. At the present writing he is serving as secretary of the Dalhart school board. He belongs to the Amarillo lodge of Elks, to the Woodmen and other orders, and is specially prominent in Knights of Pythias circles, being grand representative from this district to the grand lodge of the state and is deputy grand chancellor for the state.
Dr. Hedrick and wife are members of the Methodist church. He was married at Clarendon to Miss Dot Ward, of Henrietta, and they have three sons.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 163-164.