ALEXANDER W. ACHESON, M. D., who since 1872 has engaged in the practice of medicine in Denison and is now mayor of the city, occupying an honored position not only in public office but also in public regard, was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1842, a son of Alexander W. and Jane (Wishart) Acheson. The father, a native of Philadelphia, died at the venerable age of eighty-six years, while his wife, was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, passed away at the age of eighty years. Mr. Acheson was a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, became a prominent attorney of Pennsylvania and served as district judge.
Dr. Acheson, spending his boyhood and youth under the parental roof, was afforded good educational privileges and remained at home until 1861, when at the age of nineteen years he enlisted for service in the Federal army, acting as a private. He was promoted to the rank of captain after the battle of Gettysburg and served as aid-de-camp on the staff of General Nelson A. Miles during the Mine Run campaign. He was wounded in the face of the Battle of the Wilderness, and by reason of his injuries and on account of his general health he left the army. Follow his military service he entered upon the study of medicine in Philadelphia and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the class of 1867. He then located for practice in Washington, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1870, when he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, coming thence to Denison, Texas, in 1872. Here he has practiced continuously since, with a constantly growing patronage, and has also served as local surgeon for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad for over thirty years. He has kept in touch with modern scientific methods and advanced thought, and has thus continually promoted his efficiency, rendering his labors of signal value and service to his fellowmen. He is interested in all that tends to solve the complex problems of disease or physical injury and in his practice has ever maintained a high standard of professional ethics.
Dr. Acheson was married in 1864 to Miss Sarah Cooke, a daughter of John L. Cooke, who died in 1899, leaving two children: Jane, who was born in Pennsylvania; and Alice, who was born in Denison, Texas, and is the wife of I. F. Sprouel, by whom he has a daughter, Jane. Dr. Acheson since 1869 has been a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the National Encampment in Washington, D. C., in 1902, was elected surgeon general. Prominent in public affairs in Denison since becoming a resident of this city, his public spirited devotion to the general good and his practical ideas of citizenship well entitling him to a position as leader, he has been selected for public honors and office, having been chosen councilman of the second ward in 1873. He has ever advocated the principles of the Republican party but votes independently at national elections, and in 1904 was elected on the citizens’ ticket to the office of mayor, so that he is the present chief executive of Denison. He is giving to the city a public- spirited and progressive administration, watchful of need reforms and improvements and exercising his prerogatives in support of all plans and movements for the general good. Personally prominent and popular, the consensus of public opinion regarding his official and professional service is equally valuable and Dr. Acheson is widely recognized as one of the foremost residents of Denison.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. I, p. 609.