A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931 CHARLES S. SEELY, physician and surgeon, practicing medicine at What Cheer in Keokuk County, graduated M. D. from the University of Iowa in 1897, when he was only nineteen years of age. He was the youngest man upon whom the University of Iowa has ever conferred the Doctor of Medicine degree. His subsequent career has been in keeping with the brilliant scholarship of his undergraduate days. Doctor Seely was born at Muscatine, Iowa, September 25, 1877. His father spelled the name Cilley and the remote origin of the family is said to have been in the Scilly Highlands of Great Britain. His father, Charles W. Cilley, was born at Jericho, Vermont, was reared and educated in that state, and came out to Iowa in 1860. He tried to enlist in the Union army but was rejected. For many years he was in the grain commission business and he owned docks and other facilities known as Port Louisa, Iowa. Charles W. Cilley died April 21, 1908. He married Rebecca McGrew, who was of Scotch Irish ancestry and s he now resides at Des Moines. Of their two children Doctor Seely is the only survivor. Doctor Seely was educated in common schools at What Cheer, graduating from high school in 1894 and immediately entered the University of Iowa, where he graduated with high honors. He was the first medical student from the university to serve an interneship. He was awarded a certificater after twelve months in the Mercy Hospital at Davenport and then returned to What Cheer and practiced one year with Dr. John R. Williams. He spent a short time in Seattle, Washington, and in 1899 returned to What Cheer and resumed his general practice of medicine and surgery. From 1905 to 1908 he practiced in Davenport and from 1908 to 1911 was in Chicago, dividing his time between the practice of medicine and post-graduate study. Doctor Seely in 1911 returned to his old home of What Cheer and has been an outstanding representative of his profession there except for a time during the World war, when he enlisted and was sent to Camp Greenleaf in Chattanooga, and subsequently was on duty at the base hospital at Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, Texas, until honorably discharged June 2, 1919. Doctor Seely is a member of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Surgeons Association and for fifteen years was a member of the Masonic fraternity, Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Davenport, and the Knights of Pythias. He married, August 15, 1911, Miss Ethel Lines, of Chicago. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa History Project _http://iagenweb.org/history/_ (http://iagenweb.org/history/) Scott County, Iowa _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm) **************New Deals on Dell Netbooks – Now starting at $299 (A HREF=http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1219939010x1201342897/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fa d.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213771626%3B35379597%3Bw)