Garland County ArArchives Biographies.....Garnett, Algernon Sidney 1834 - 1919
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Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

ALGERNON SIDNEY GARNETT, M. D.
    For forty-five years Dr. Algernon Sidney Garnett was one of the most noted
representatives of the medical profession in Hot Springs, where he continued in
active practice almost to the time of his death, which occurred October 30,
1919, when he was in his eighty-fifth year. He was born on Wakefield plantation,
in Westmoreland county, Virginia, April 11, 1834, and was the son of Colonel
Henry Garnett. at one time a member of the Virginia state legislature and one of
the most prominent and influential residents of the Old Dominion. The mother,
who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Bankhead, was a daughter of Mrs. Eveline
(Fermicelli) Bankhead, who was a ward of Lord Dunmore, the colonial governor of
Virginia.

    Dr. Garnett was educated in the University of Virginia and subsequently
attended the Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he
received his M. D. degree. He then went to New Orleans to take the examination
for admission to the United States navy and passed the examination by the
highest average ever made by any applicant up to that time. He was assigned to
duty on the U. S. Man of War Saranac and was on a three years' cruise. During
that time he secured a leave of absence and it was while he was making a trip
ashore on the coast of Mexico that President Diaz was shot by an assassin. Dr.
Garnett being the only surgeon near, he was called upon and operated on the
president, cutting out the bullet. Being an American, he was placed in a
delicate position, for had the patient died under the operation, it was doubtful
what the outcome might have been. Likely it would have resulted in his own death
at the hands of some of the Mexicans, because of the feeling existing against
the Americans.

    Following the expiration of this three years' cruise Dr. Garnett was
stationed at the Washington city navy yards for six months and was then assigned
to duty on the Man of War Wyandotte for service in the Gulf waters off the coast
of Mexico. There he was stationed at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war.
When Virginia seceded from the Union he resigned his postiion and returned home
to offer his services to the Confederacy. He enlisted in the Confederate navy
and was later assigned to duty in the army, where his services as a surgeon were
more urgently needed. He acted as surgeon on board the Merrimac when that vessel
had its memorable fight with the Monitor and he was stationed in the bay of
Mobile when the war closed.

    Following the cessation of hostilities Dr. Garnett engaged in cotton growing
in Alabama and while there he was offered the chair of physiology and hygiene in
the University of Alabama and continued to fill that professorship for three
years. He then came to Hot Springs, Arkansas, about 1873 or 1874 and continued
to practice in this city to the time of his death, becoming one of its most
noted physicians and surgeons. Here he remained in active and successful
practice for forty-five years, enjoying the honor and respect of colleagues and
contemporaries in the profession and of the general public as well. On the day
that he was stricken with illness, only two days prior to his death, he was at
his office in seemingly good health and attended an unusual number of patients,
notwithstanding he had passed the eighty-fourth milestone on life's journey.

    On the 30th of October, 1861, Dr. Garnett was married to Miss Alice Evelyn
Scott of Washington, D. C, the marriage being celebrated in Richmond, where the
mother of Miss Scott was a refugee, having run the blockade to return to the
south. Dr. and Mrs. Garnett became the parents of five children three of whom
are living: William Henry, a resident of Little Rock; Evelyn Sidney, attorney at
law, for many years located in New York city but now in the south; and Rita, the
widow of Thomas Scott Boykin of Hot Springs. She has a son, Aubrey Boykin. Dr.
Garnett was a member of the Hot Springs Medical Society, the Garland County
Medical Society, the Arkansas State Medical Society and the American Medical
Association. He was long regarded as a man of pronounced ability in his
profession in this city and his services were in constant demand not only hy the
permanent residents of Hot Springs but by many of the hundreds of visitors who
annually come to the city in search of health. He was most careful in the
diagnosis of his cases and most conscientious in the performance of his
professional duties, and his sterling personal worth combined with his
professional skill to bring him to his place of high standing in the regard of
his fellowmen.


Additional Comments:

Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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