East Baton Rouge Parish
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Edwin Vignes Whitaker, M. D. As a specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of
the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, Dr. Whitaker has built up a
substantial and representative practice in the capital city of Baton Rouge, his
office being in the Reymond Building.
Dr. Whitaker was born at Baton
Rouge, September 29, 1889. and his personal popularity and professional success
indicate that in his case there can be no application of the scriptural aphorism
that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." The Whitaker
family has been established in the United States since the early Colonial era,
the original representatives having settled in South Carolina upon coming from
England. Dr. John Whitaker, grand father of him whose name introduces this
review became one of the leading physicians and surgeons of East Baton Rouge
Parish, and in ministering with earnest stewardship to the afflicted in the
yellow fever epidemic in 1878 he virtually sacrificed his life, for he
contracted the dread disease, from the ravages of which he died in 1878 at The
Plains, this parish. His son, Mills Whitaker, was born at The Plains, as the
name has been best known, in East Baton Rouge Parish, and the date of his
nativity was February 2, 1855. There he was reared to young manhood, and he then
came to the City of Baton Rouge and identified himself with mercantile
enterprise, in which he rose to be one of the leading merchants of his native
parish. After 1919 he here lived virtually retired, as one of the loyal and
honored citizens of Louisiana's fair old capital city, and here his death
occurred on the 9th of March, 1922. He was a stalwart advocate of the principles
of the democratic party, and he and his wife were zealous members of the First
Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge. Mrs. Whitaker was born at Waterloo Pointe
Coupee Parish, in 1871, her maiden name having been Marie Vignes, and her death
having occurred July 19, 1891. Mrs. Whitaker was a descendant of representatives
of the old French nobility that colonized Louisiana, the lineage tracing back to
the Duc de Taillepied, of Rouen, who opposed William the Conqueror at the
historic battle of Hastings, for which he was thereafter exiled to the island
Guernsey, in the English Channel.
Dr. Edwin V. Whitaker, the only child
of his parents, profited by time advantages of the Baton Rouge public schools,
in which he continued his studies, until he had completed the work of his junior
year in the high school. Thereafter he continued, the studies of his sophomore
year in the Louisiana State University, and he next gave two years study in the
medical department of the University of Louisville, in the Kentucky metropolis.
He then transferred to the medical department of the University of Maryland, in
the city of Baltimore, in this institution he was graduated in 1912, with degree
of Doctor of Medicine. Thereafter he did effective post-graduate work under the
private preceptorship of professors in the medical school of great Johns Hopkins
University, in the same city where he specialized in study of the diseases of
the eye, ear, nose and throat. In the same specialty he completed also a six
months' post-graduate in the medical department of the University of
Pennsylvania, and since establishing himself in practice in Baton Rouge, in the
year 1916, he has more than mere local reputation of authoritative order in this
special field of professional work is an active member of the East Baton Rouge
Medical Society and the Louisiana State Society, is a popular member of the
Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. is a democrat in political
allegiance, and is a communicant of St. James Episcopal Church. He is the owner
of the attractive old homestead of his parents at 515 St. Hypolite Street, but
has gained no chatelaine for the same, as he still permits his name to remain
enrolled on the roster of eligible bachelors in his native parish.
For
all time shall honor attach to the name of Dr. Whitaker for the fine service of
patriotism which he rendered in the World war. He was one of the very first to
volunteer, and was almost immediately assigned to service in France, he having
been a member of the second contingent of the American Expeditionary Forces in
overseas service and having remained in France two years. He received commission
as captain in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, participated in the
battle of Messine Ridges, the first battles of Paschendale and Cambrai, and also
in the second battle of the Somme, in which last named engagement he was
severely wounded by a German shell. Thereafter he was confined to the hospital
five months, and after his return to his native land he received his honorable
discharge at Camp Dix, New Jersey, in September, 1919. The Doctor has four
chevrons to indicate the distinction of his service in the greatest conflict
ever known in the annals of history. He is a member of Nicholson Post No. 38,
American Legion.
Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 84-85.
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