Son of Simon Calkins & Joanne Wright

Civil War Veteran
Abram Calkins

Surgeon 17 Michigan Infantry Staff
Enlisted: June 28, 1862
Discharged: October 14, 1862
Burial Plot: Section-29

ABRAM R. CALKINS.
Abram R. Calkins was born in Malta, Saratoga Co., N.
Y., May 19, 1822, and died in Allegan, Mich., March 17,
1873. In 1833 he removed with his father to Richland,
Kalamazoo Co., Mich. At this place his father died in
1837. He then entered the family of his older brother,
Chauncey W. Calkins, and continued his literary studies.
At the age of nineteen he began the study of medicine in
the office of Drs. Coats & Biglow, of Otsego, Mich., and
graduated from the Geneva Medical College, N. Y., in 1845.
Soon after, he opened an office in Allegan, where he was
married, in November of that year, to Miss Lucy Maria
Winslow, who was the mother of his two sons, the younger
of whom, Dr. Fred M. Calkins, follows his father's profes-
sion in the same place. For nearly thirty years Dr. Calkins
practiced medicine in Allegan, often fording streams and
following an Indian trail through the forest to the rude
home of the pioneer. Ambitious to succeed in his pro-
fession, full of energy and vigor, daunted by no difficulty,
deterred by no obstacle, he became skillful both as a phy-
sician and surgeon.

Sympathetic and kindly in his nature, he was ever a
welcome visitor at the bedside of suffering humanity. He
displayed an active interest in every work that promised.


in his opinion, the elevation and welfare of mankind, and
was helpful in every society of which he became a member.
To the church he gave his presence, his counsel, and his
means. In the school board he labored for the physical
and moral as well as the intellectual advancement of the
young. To the society of Freemasons he was a valued
acquisition. In politics he was a Republican, positive and
firm in his opinions.

He entered the army in 1862, and was appointed surgeon
of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry ; participated in the
battles of South Mountain and Antictam. He served in
the army for a year, when the severe sickness of his wife'
induced him to resign his position. She died before his
return. At the time of his death he was a member of the
County and State Medical Societies, and also of the Amer-
ican Medical Society, having been sent by the State Society
as a delegate to that body at its meeting in Philadelphia in
1872. Dr. Calkins was thrice married, the second time in
June, 1855, to Miss Helen G. Bingham, and again in
April, 1863, to Mrs. Lottie S. Smith, who survives him.

Although Dr. Calkins died at the age of fifty-one, he
lived to see the comparative wilderness amid which he
began his life-work bud and blcssom as the rose, the
streams substantially bridged, the Indian trails succeeded
by good roads, and the log dwellings replaced by attractive
farm-houses.

Full of generous impulses, courteous, genial, and social,
he was prized while here and mourned when gone. Active
and busy to the last, his life was another sacrifice to the
profession which, when once adopted, leaves a man no
longer his own master. An affectionate husband, a watch-
ful, indulgent, and loving parent, an obliging friend, and
an upright citizen, it is well to cherish his memory.

VirginiaFreePress date: 1891.04.01 : P2C3. OBIT. FROM HF SENTINEL. DR F.M.CAULKINS IN ALLEGAN MICHIGAN. HUSBAND OF JENNIE [CAULKINS] WHO IS DAUGHTER OF LATE Philetus.O.LITTLEJOHN FORMERLY OF HarpersFerry.


Dr. Fred M. Calkins, son of Dr. A. R. Calkins, was born
at Allegan, Mich., on the 19th of September, 1852. He
began the study of medicine with Drs. Calkins and Ams-
den in 1871, and graduated from the Long Island Col-
lege Hospital, at Brooklyn, N. Y., on the 25th of June,
1874. In 1878 he entered into partnership with Dr. W.
H. Bills, which business connection still exists.