Clagett Family

The Clagett Family. Four Medical Doctors. Rifle's O. F. Clagett, his father D. M., his son O. T., and his wife's brother Jay Stevens.
Dr. Oscar Frederic Clagett
8 Aug 1881 - 27 Feb 1954
Effie Orilla Stevens Clagett
16 Mar 1982 - 28 Jan 1972
Dr. Clagett, who will be called Oscar in this post, died February 27, 1954, at the home of his son Dr. O. T. Clagett in Olmsted, Minnesota, after a critical illness of two months. He was 72.
He was born August 8, 1881, in Winston, Missouri, to Dr. Dudley Malcom and Mary Addie Wood Clagett. Winston was tiny, less than 100 residents. He was an only child.
(Mary Addie, his mother, also eventually moved to Western Colorado, and died in Grand Junction in 1951 at age 94)
Oscar graduated from the local public schools probably Trenton, Missouri. Then he graduated from the University Medical College, of Kansas City in 1903.
Oscar married Effie Orilla Stevens on August 14, 1904, at her parents home in Trenton, Missouri.
The wedding had been postponed from time to time because of the severe wasting Illness of Effie's mother. However, on her mother's request, the wedding was performed.
From the Winston newspaper, "They botb entered the Winston public school the same day and were class mates for years, and many were the smiles and sly glances exchanged. By means of notes, valentines, Easter cards, Christmas gifts, and such other methods as lovers will easily find, the flame of love was kept burning. As soon as they were old enough "to keep company," they huve been in cach other's company as often as circumstances would permit. Not withatanding they are young, they bave been betrothed for years."
Effie Orilla Stevens was born to John S. and Bettie E. Burtch Stevens March 16, 1882. She had three siblings:
Bessie Stevens Witten 1873-1920
Walter Theron Stevens 1875-1942
Jay Burtch Stevens 1892-1952
(Effie's brother Jay was also a medical doctor, but about 11 years following Oscar).
Oscar and Effie had five children.
Mary "Eleanor" Clagett Reed 1905-2007
b. Jamesport Missouri
d. Grand Junction Colorado
John Malcolm Clagett 1907-1931
b. Jamesport Missouri
d. Boulder Colorado, in an accident
Dr. Oscar Theron Clagett 1908-1990
b. Jamesport, Missouri
d. Rochester Minnesota
Helen Louise Clagett 1914 -1918
b. Jamesport, Missouri
d. Carbondale Colorado from spanish flu
Betty Burtch Clagett DeBeque 1921-2003
b. Carbondale Colorado also reported as Glenwood
d. Queen Valley Arizona
Eleanor graduated from Carbondale High School in 1923 Malcom and O.T. both graduated from Rifle Union High School in 1926. Betty followed graduating from Rifle High in 1939.
On December 2, 1911, Oscar had a close call with early death. While on a professional visit to a country residence in Missouri, his buggy was struck by a train. Both horses were killed and the buggy was demolished. Oscar either jumped or was thrown out, he did not know which. He fortunately fell outside the track and was not injured.
Oscar resigned from active medical practice about 1913, and bought an 80 acre farm on Missouri Heights at Carbondale. News clips say the family moved to Colorado March 1, 1914.
After the death of his 4 year old daughter Helen December 23, 1918, Oscar returned to active medical practice at Carbondale. Records show Dr. Clagett was a physician in Rifle from 1923 until retiring in 1951. He had been in practice in Rifle for 7 years when his son John Malcolm died.
Dr. Clagett ran his own clinic in downtown Rifle. He even did his own lab work.
He was a driving force in the creation of the Rifle Community Hospital and was honored posthumously in 1962 with the naming of Rifle's Clagett Memorial Hospital. He was remembered again in 2003 when his daughter Eleanor was asked to dedicate the next hospital, the Grand River Medical Center.
Oscar died Feb 27, 1954, in Olmsted, Minnesota at his son's home at the age of 72. Effie died January 28, 1972, in Carbondale, Colorado, at the age of 89 I think at her daughter's home.. She was survived by her daughters Eleanor and Betty, and son O. T.
At the time of his death, Oscar was survived by his wife Effie; two daughters, Mrs. Betty (Wallace) De Beque of Carbondale and Mrs. Eleanor (Larry) Reed of Overland, Kansas; and his son Oscar Theron Clagett at Rochester, Minnesota, who was a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.
He was preceded in death by two children, daughter Helen Louise December 23, 1918, and son John Malcolm May 16, 1931.
Helen had the spanish flu. Malcolm died falling off Flatiron 3 two miles west of Boulder. He would have graduated with an engineering degree from CU a few weeks later He left a wife of two months who he had married in March on spring break.
Funeral services for Oscar were held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday March 3, 1954, in the Rifle First Christian Church with Otto Duckworth officiating.
Dr. Clagett left instructions that no flowers be sent; instead, he asked that a fund be created to buy an incubator for
the new Rifle Community Hospital.

       

      

  

     

                                              

 

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