Yeiser, Dr. P. [Phillip Louisiana]

Submitted by Mike Miller

Among the many prominent practitioners of the "healing art" deserving of especial mention is Dr. P. Yeiser, physician, New Orleans, La., who, until recently, ministered to the physical wants of his fellow-man with gratifying success. He is now retired from the active duties of his profession and will pass the remainder of his days in peace and comfort. He was born in Rapides parish, La., in 1818, to the union of Daniel and Azelee De Espalier) Yeiser, the father a native of Baltimore, Md. Grandfather Phillip Yeiser was originally from Lancaster, Penn., and was twenty-five years of age at the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. He moved to Kentucky the latter part of the last century and located in Danville, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying of cholera in 1833. The ancestors of this family were among the first German immigrants to America. Daniel Yeiser was reared and educated in Kentucky, but subsequently attended medical school in Philadelphia, Penn. He and family came down the Mississippi river before the days of steamboats, on a flatboat as far as Natchez, Miss., and then wandered through the forests to Alexandria, La. They were two weeks going sixty miles. Mr. Yeiser located in Alexandria and practiced medicine ten years, after which he returned to Danville, Ky., and bought a farm, which he managed until the time of his death, in the seventies, when eighty years of age. His wife was born in Rapides parish, La., of an old French family. The maternal grandfather, -- De Espalier, was a native of France, but moved to Hayti, where he remained until the massacre. He then located in Louisiana, and was in the battle of New Orleans. His death occurred in Rapides parish. Dr. P. Yeiser received his literary training in Kenyon college, Ohio, Knox county, and Chief Justice Chase was one of the tutors of the same. Dr. Yeiser afterward entered Center college, at Danville, Ky., and subsequently studied medicine in that city with Dr. Ayers. He then entered the medical college in Lexington, Ky., and graduated from that institution. He then returned to Rapides parish, remained there one summer, and then went to Vadalia, across from Natchez, where he practiced one year. From there he went to St. Mary's parish, La., practiced in Pattersonville until 1844, and then came to New Orleans, where he practiced until recently. He was married in this city in 1842 to Miss Sarah Campbell Smith, a native of Vermont, who bore him one child, who is now Mrs. Lucy Azelee Hogsett. Dr. Yeiser was appointed coroner of Orleans parish in 1863, served two years, and was then appointed to the same position by Governor -- and served one year. Previous to this he was elected coroner of Jefferson parish, served until 1853, and during the Civil war he served two years as contract surgeon. He was a Union man.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 467. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.