David Mulholland (1830-1882) was a pioneer doctor in Maryville. He married to one of the daughters of Nodaway County founder Israel Newton Prather.
Nodaway Democrat, September 28, 1882
The death of Dr. David Mulholland, again, has the angel of death been in our midst and claimed for his own one who was in life. Dr. David Mulholland is dead.” About two months ago, while walking the streets of Maryville, the deceased fell over in an apoplectic fit. He recovered from the effect of this stroke sufficiently to walk out, but never seemed to fully recover the use of his faculties again.
With a view to placing him under the best medical care, he was taken to St. Louis, under the charge of his old friend A. T. Ellis, and placed in the Sisters’ Hospital, where he received every care and attention. Here for a few days, he seemed to get better and accompanied one of the hospital’s doctors on his visits to his patients, and would frequently comment on the condition of the sick and suggest remedies for their benefit.
He again got worse, however, and about ten days before his death, lost his mind and had to be guarded to prevent his tearing his clothes from his body. During these ten days, he never had any lucid intervals. Death came to his relief, Thursday evening, September 21st, his disease being softening of the brain. His remains were brought to Maryville in charge of A. T.
Ellis on the following Saturday morning, where they were viewed by hundreds of his old friends. Sunday, September 24th, his funeral services were conducted by Father Pembroke at St. Patrick’s Church of this city, where a large concourse of people, including St. Patrick’s I. A.C. B. society in regalia, of which he was a member, assembled to pay the last tribute of love and respect to the departed. His remains were followed to their last resting place in the Catholic burying ground of this city by what was probably the largest funeral cortege ever seen in Nodaway County, thus showing the hold the deceased had in the affections of the people. David Mulholland was born December r 23, 1830, at Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, and would have been fifty-two years of age on the 23d of next December.
He came to this country in 1857 and made his home in Missouri, where he worked as a schoolteacher. He taught school successfully in both Andrew and this county that year. In 1858 and 1859, he attended the St. Louis Medical College, and in the winter of 1859 and 1860, he attended Jefferson College of Philadelphia, where he graduated with an M.D.
He at once entered upon a lucrative practice in this county and ranked as one of the best physicians in the state. In 1859, he was united in marriage to Seynthia Ann Prather, daughter of Col. I. N. Prather, from which union there were born eight children, five boys and three girls, four of whom, James, Charley, Harry, and George Mulholland, are now living.
The hundreds of homes in Nodaway County where Dr. Mulholland has treated the sick for more than twenty years will hear of his death with sorrow, and it is safe to say no man in the county had more friends than 1 he. He had a warm, generous heart and never failed to respond to the call of the rich and the poor alike, and though we will never see his familiar face again, his memory will always be green in our hearts.
