My Genealogy Hound

JOHN F. CROSBY, physician and surgeon at Seneca Falls, is a native of the village, and was born November 4, 1858. His father, Thomas J. Crosby, who was born in Phelps, Ontario County, N. Y., in 1824, was a brass-molder by trade, and he also learned cabinet-making. His death occurred in 1880. His wife was a native of Seneca Falls.

The subject of this sketch is the fourth in a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, born to Thomas J. and Mary J. Crosby. His boyhood days were spent in his native village, where he received his primary education in the public schools. Afterward he entered the University of Vermont, from which he was graduated in 1880, and upon his return home he read medicine with the late Dr. H. J. Purdy, of Seneca Falls, a noted physician in the central part of New York State. After completing his studies with Dr. Purdy, he went back to Vermont and entered the medical department of the University of Vermont, graduating with honors in the Class of ‘83.

On receiving his degree, Dr. Crosby returned to Seneca Falls and began practice. Although it is said that “a prophet is not without honor save in his own country,” yet in the village where he was born, and where his entire life has been spent, with the exception of the years while at college, Dr. Crosby has built up an extensive practice, and is honored and respected by the entire community. His medical skill is unquestioned, and in the treatment of disease he has been very successful.

In 1887 Dr. Crosby was united in marriage with Miss Mary Williams, daughter of Hiram L. Williams, of Seneca Falls. They have one son, Paul Tracy. In politics the Doctor is a Republican, and in 1882 and 1893 was elected Village President. He was also President of the Board of Aldermen two years, under President Harrison was President of the Pension Board, and in the spring of 1895 was elected a member of the Board of Education. He is an enterprising and progressive man. At all times he stands ready to do his part in the development of the manufacturing and other material interests of his native city and county. While not a politician in the generally accepted sense of the term, he takes an active interest in political affairs, and believes it the duty of every one to discharge faithfully his obligations as a citizen. Socially he is greatly esteemed, and few men have more warm personal friends than the subject of this sketch.