Dr. Samuel Hiatt Burnside, Mary Margaret Grice Burnside

Burnside practiced in Lancaster, Kentucky, from 1882 until the fall of 1884, when he moved to Wichita Falls. A biographical sketch published in 1906 says he became known in gynecology and the surgery of diseases of women, practiced with a partner, Dr. Walker, served as local surgeon for the Fort Worth and Denver Railway for seventeen years and was chief surgeon of the Wichita Falls and Oklahoma Railroad. He married Mary M. Grice in Fort Worth in 1887. Three of their daughters died young: Ellen at twenty-two months, Nellie at five years and Laura at three.

What the plaque says

Dr. Samuel Hiatt Burnside, Mary Margaret Grice Burnside Kentucky native Samuel H. Burnside, an 1882 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, opened a medical practice in Wichita Falls in 1883. Mary Margaret Grice, a native of Philadelphia, moved to Wichita Falls in 1885 at the invitation of her uncle, George Fox, and was treated for tuberculosis by Dr. Burnside. A romance ensued, and the two were married in 1887. Mary purchased land on Seventh Street where the couple built a large home, which also housed the doctor's office. Dr. Burnside built a hospital, the Wichita Falls Sanitarium, next door to the house in 1907. Well respected in medical circles, Dr. Burnside was a renowned physician who also served as chief surgeon for two railroad companies and medical examiner for twenty-four insurance companies. He performed innovative surgeries and often treated Comanche Indians from the nearby reservations in Oklahoma. Mary Burnside was a leader in local and state civic organizations, including the daughters of the American Revolution and the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. Both Dr. and Mrs. Burnside were active in the First Presbyterian Church. They were the parents of five children, two of whom lived to adulthood. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kell House Museum — 0.7 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 1.0 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 12 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 19 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• Kemp, Joseph Alexander — steps away
• Kell, Frank — steps away
• Felix L. Lindsey — steps away
• Wichita General Hospital — 0.5 mi