DR. ALONZO B. HUGHES, who has been engaged in the general practice of medicine at Keokuk since 1897, was a prominent factor in educational circles of Nebraska for a number of years prior to 1894, when he came to Keokuk as professor of the chair of chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. After the consolidation of the Keokuk and the Physicians and Surgeons Colleges he became professor of materia medica and therapeutics. Dr. Hughes was born in Scotland county, Missouri, on the 9th of August, 1856, his parents being W.P. and Elizabeth Ann (Holland) Hughes, who took up their abode in Ottumwa, Wapello county, Iowa, when our subject was a small boy and subsequently removed to Des Moines, Polk county. In those two cities Alonzo B. Hughes acquired his literary training, and subsequently he followed the proffession of teaching for a period of twenty years. He also served as city superintendent of schools at Villisca, Montgomery county, this state, and at Schuyler, Nebraska. Prior to this time he acted as ward superintendent for the schools at Atlantic, Cass county, Iowa. During a period of four years he was the editor of the Nebraska School Journal. When thirty-six years of age he read medicine and after coming to Keokuk as professor of chemistry also attended lectures. At the age of forty he was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons and had the unusual distinction of signing his own diploma. In 1897 he embarked in the general practice of medicine at Keokuk and has since been accorded an extensive and gratifying patronage. Dr. Hughes was president of the State Association of Superintendents and Principals of the State of Nebraska in 1888; president of the North Nebraska Teachers' Association in 1889; president of the State Teachers' Association of Nebraska in 1890; delegate to the National Teachers' Association from Nebraska in 1890; and a member of the educational council of Nebraska in 1893 and 1894. In 1899 he was elected a member of the board of education of the city of Keokuk and has continued to serve in that capacity to the present time with the exception of one year, acting for six years as president of the body. In 1913 he was sent as a delegate from the city of Keokuk to the International Congress of School Hygiene at Buffalo, which was the first convention of its kind in the United States and the fourth to be held in any country. In 1881 Dr. Hughes was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Anderson, of Atlantic, Iowa, by whom he has two children: Gertrude, who is now Mrs. George S. Yant; and Horace C. he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and other social and Benevolent organizations. In his life are the elements of greatness because of the use he has made of his talents and his opportunities, because his thoughts are not self-centered but are given to the mastery of life problems and the fulfillment of his duty as a man in his relations to his fellowmen and as a citizen in his relations to his city, state and country. Story of Lee County, Iowa Volume II, Chicago The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company 1914 Pages 389, 390 Linda