P. Drayer, M. D.

    P. Drayer, M. D., was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, 05 December 1840, a son of Lewis and Susannah (Sorber) Drayer. Lewis Drayer was born in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, and in the early part of this century, when but seven years old, accompanied his parents to Montgomery County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood, and married Susannah Sorber, who was a native of Preble County, Ohio. He died in 1884, aged seventy-six years. His mother is now a resident of West Alexandria, Preble County. Ohio.

    P. Drayer was reared in Montgomery County, Ohio, attending the common schools until fifteen years of age, when he went to Oxford, Ohio, to take a collegiate course at the Miami University. He left that institution in his senior year on account of the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. He began the study of medicine with Dr. John Davis, of Dayton, Ohio, and then attended one course of lectures at the Ohio Medical College, and subsequently at the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1865. He was assistant physician one year at the Southern Ohio Hospital for the Insane, and then went into the general practice at Lewisburg, Ohio, where he remained six months, when he removed to Harrisville, Randolph County, Indiana, and a short time later to Hartford City, where he has practiced since 1866.

    Since locating in Hartford City, in addition to having a large medical practice, he has gained an enviable reputation as a surgeon, and is recognized as one of the most skillful practitioners in that line in Eastern Indiana. He has a fine library, and also takes all the leading medical journals, thus keeping well informed on all the new developments and treatment of diseases. He was one of the organizers of the Blackford County Medical Society, and was its first secretary, and on of its earliest presidents.

    He was married 01 October 1867, to Matilda Ann Oldfather, of Lewisburgh, Preble County. Ohio. They have five children -Mary O., Lewis parker, Edith D., Julia Ann and George P.   

He is a member of the District Medical Association, of which he has been president, and also of the Indiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and attends all the annual meetings. In politics Dr. Drayer is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders. He is a trustee of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a prominent member.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887.