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ABRAHAM V. PONDER, M. D.
Vol. 3, p. 1198-1199

A former president of the Murray County Medical Society, Doctor
Ponder has been in the practice of medicine in old Indian Territory
and the new State of Oklahoma for the past twenty years, and since
1904 has been a prominent member of the medical fraternity at
Sulphur. He is one of the oldest physicians in practice in that city.

He was born in Mount Hone, Lawrence County, Alabama, November 10,
1849. Both his paternal grandfathers were natives of England. The
former came to America when a young man settling in North Carolina,
and soon afterwards joined the Patriots in the struggle for American
independence. He later moved across the mountains into Tennessee, and
he died at the age of eighty-five before Doctor Ponder was born.
Doctor Ponder's father was Pleasant Ponder, who was born in South
Carolina in 1816 and died at Moulton, Alabama, in 1902. He grew up in
East Tennessee, where he married, and in 1848 moved to Mount Hope,
Alabama. He was a farmer and stock raiser until he retired in 1890
and thereafter lived at Moulton until his death. He was a man of more
than ordinary character and influence in his community, and the
troubles which arose among his neighbors were very frequently brought
to him as arbiter. In the Cumberland Presbyterian Church he served as
an elder for fifty years, and during the war between the states was a
colonel of militia. He married Sarah L. BOGART, who was born in
Tennessee in 1821 and died at Moulton, Alabama, in 1895. Her early
life was spent in the State of Tennessee. Their children were: George
W., who was a merchant and died at Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1910; J. F.,
a farmer at West Paris, Tennessee; W. J., who has been in the cotton
business all his life, both as a cotton ginner and cotton buyer and
now lives at Fort Smith, Arkansas; S. H., a carpenter and builder
living at Decatur, Alabama; Dr. Abraham V.; and following these sons
came six daughters, all of them now deceased, whose names were in
order of birth Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Sallie, Kate and Ophelia.

Doctor Ponder grew up on an Alabama farm and his early opportunities
were somewhat restricted since his youth from the age of twelve was
passed during the Civil war period. He attended public school at
Mount Hope and at the age of twenty left his father's farm and
started the study of medicine. He was given a license as a medical
practitioner, and has always been a student of his profession, and in
1904 took post graduate work in the Missouri Medical College of St.
Louis.

He began practice at Mount Hope, his native village, in 1874, and
remained there with a growing reputation for twelve years. In 1886 he
moved to Fayette, Alabama, where he spent five years, and from 1891
was engaged in practice at Moulton in Lawrence County, Alabama, for
another five years.

Coming to Indian Territory in 1896, Doctor Ponder located at
Mansville on the Washita River, and had a large country practice
covering a great radius of the territory until 1904. In that year he
identified himself with the growing Town of Sulphur and has enjoyed
much success both in general medicine and surgery and is somewhat of
a specialist in diseases of women. For several terms he filled the
position of health officer of Sulphur and besides his connections
with the Murray County Medical Society already mentioned he is a
member of the Oklahoma State Medical Society, and the American
Medical Association.

Other public service has been rendered as a member of the school
board, and the city council. He is a member of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, is affiliated with Sulphur Lodge No. 144,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with Sulphur Camp of the Woodmen of
the World, and is past noble grand of Sulphur Lodge 353, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and also belongs to the encampment of that
order.

In 1874 at Mount Hope, Alabama, Doctor Ponder married Miss Bettie R.
WILLIAMSON, who was an Alabama farmer. To their marriage have been
born two daughters: Julia, wife of W. Y. WYLEY, who is a hardware
merchant at Woodville, Oklahoma; and Luna, wife of B. W. MACKEY, a
hardware merchant at Allen, Oklahoma.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Earline Sparks Barger, October 29, 1998.