Dr. John E. Wilkinson, the well-known physician and druggist of Prattville and an elder brother of Judge William P. Wilkinson, was born near Autaugaville, Ala., in 1847, and was reared on the home farm and attended school at Autaugaville until sixteen years of age, when he joined company A, Eighth Alabama cavalry, of Gen. Clanton’s brigade and was engaged mostly in scouting throughout Alabama and on the coast, and surrendered about six months after the surrender of his general at Meridian, Miss. After the war had closed, he resumed his studies, and after being duly prepared, read medicine with Drs. Davis & McNeel, at Autaugaville and then took a course of lectures at the university of Maryland, at Baltimore, and finally graduated from the university of Louisiana, now known as the Tulane university, at New Orleans, 1869. He then practiced twelve years at Gastonburg, Wilcox County, Ala., and since then at Prattville, Autauga County, where he has also conducted a first-class drug store. He is one of the counselors of the State Medical association and was last year president of the county Medical Society. He is a member of Prattville lodge, No. 87, P. & A. M., of K. of H. lodge, No. 2,828, and of Merrill Pratt lodge, K. of P. The marriage of the doctor took place January 10, 1872, to Miss Eugenia, daughter of Hon. David P. and Mary Gaston, both natives of Wilcox County, Mrs. Gaston being now deceased. Mrs. Wilkinson is also a native of Wilcox County, which county her father represented in the state legislature for several years. They have four children, David L., Lena A., John E., and Genia. David L. has just finished a four years’ course in the Southern university of Alabama at Greensboro. He is now at Tulane university (medical department) of Louisiana and expects to make a physician. Lena A. has recently graduated at the Alabama Female college. She has just returned from the Conservatory of Music and Art at Boston. John E., Jr., is now in the academy at Prattville. Genia, age eight. Dr. Wilkinson is not only a skillful and popular physician, but a practical businessman, and stands very high in the esteem of his fellow-citizens. His genealogy, which is of the brightest respectability, will be found in the sketch of his brother, Judge William F. Wilkinson, and it is, therefore, not necessary to repeat it here.
