DR. R. C. BLACK. From the point of view of continuous practice Dr. R. C. Black is one of the oldest physicians and surgeons of the state of Texas. At Gainesville he has been known as a skillful and successful practitioner for over twenty years, and is held in high esteem alike for his professional prominence and his worth as a man and citizen.
Born in Barry county, Missouri, Dr. Black was reared and attended school in that county. He is among the oldest living graduates of the well known Rush Medical College, of Chicago, having entered that school to prepare for his profession nearly fifty years ago, and receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1858. He first practiced at Granby, Missouri. He was living there at the time of the Civil war and enlisted in the Confederate service as assistant surgeon. Attached at first to the Eighth Missouri Regiment, he was later employed in his professional capacity with different regiments as his services were needed, in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and other parts of the middle west. At the conclusion of his army career he returned to Granby and practiced there and in Washington county, Arkansas, until he came to Texas in 1869. He was located in Collin county a number of years, and in 1883 moved to Gainesville, which has been his home since then, and where he conducts a large general practice in medicine and surgery. Progressive in all departments of his profession, he has taken several polyclinic courses since he was graduated from school and has kept abreast of the phenomenal advances made to medical theory and practice during the last half century. Dr. Black is an ex-president of the Cooke County Medical Society. In 1905 he married Miss Della Thompson.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 347.