[From J. Marvin Hunter's Frontier Times Magazine, November, 1935]

EARLY DAY CITIZENS of Bandera county, Texas remember the good physician, Dr. Leonidas Hudspeth, who cared for the health of the community in those old days when Bandera was just a struggling frontier village. Dr. Hudspeth located in this town in 1876, and remained here until his death in 1884, answering calls over a vast scope of rugged country, often going on horseback through an Indian-infested region to give relief to the sick. Two of his children are living in this vicinity today: Hal Street Hudspeth of Bandera, and Mrs. Maggie Davenport of near Center Point. The following tribute was paid to Dr. Hudspeth when he passed away. It was printed in the old Bandera Enterprise, in 1884:

"Time, the great leveler of all things, the almighty builder and irresistible destroyer, whose brow has been fanned by every breeze since the creation of the world and whose locks have been bleached by the frosts of over six thousand winters, whose course has never been obstructed, and whose onward march no earthly power can check, has at last rolled upon us the period when the grim monster, Death, is again allowed to appear among us, thrust in his sickle and garner from Bandera society another sheaf from the ever ripening harvest of the human family; and now a wail of lamentation goes up from the bleeding hearts of a bereaved wife, five orphan children, and a large number of doting relatives, while a throb of regret, mingled with genuine grief, moves the bosoms of an almost innumerable host of admiring friends and acquaintances, because Dr. Leonidas Hudspeth is to be seen no more among the walks of men.

"Leonidas Hudspeth was born in Pickens county, Alabama, April 28th, A. D. 1833: At the age of about five years it was his misfortune to lose that best of all friends—a true, noble and loving mother. At the death of his mother he went to live with his grandfather, Capt. Aires Hudspeth, who removed to Lafayette county, Miss., where he died in January, A. D., 1842. At the death of his grandfather, Leonidas was taken by his uncle, Dr. Thomas G. Hudspeth of Panola county, Miss., where he remained until some time in 1854 when his father, Dr. Henry S. Hudspeth, who in the meantime had married again and moved to Drew county Ark., took him home, where he grew to manhood. At about the age of 20 he attended Bethel College at McLamoresville, Tenn., and finished up a liberal English education; after which he read medicine under his father, and in the winter of 1854 attended lectures at the New Orleans School of Medicine. In 1856 he came to Texas and settled at Hallettsville, Lavaca county, where he soon built up a lucrative practice. On the 18th day of November, 1858, he was married to Miss Kate M. Chambliss, daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Chambliss, of Lavaca county Texas.

"At the breaking out of the war between the states he joined General Whitfield's command as a private and went to Missouri. In 1862 he was made surgeon of General McCullough's Brigade and was in the Elk Horn battle. At what other places and times he figured in the war we are not able to state. In the year 1872 he moved to Houston, Texas, and became one of the founders of The Collegii Texani et Nosocomii at Galveston, and for several years occupied a professor's chair in that institution. He afterwards owned the city hospital in Houston. In 1875 he moved to San Antonio, and from thence he went to Chihuahua, Mexico, where he spent some six or eight months in the practice of his profession.

"Returning from Mexico in 1876, h e moved to Bandera, at which place he built up an extensive and lucrative practice. He was for a number of years a member of the State Medical Association. He held diplomas from three medical schools, one from the Galveston Medical College, one from the Collegii Medici et Nosocomii, and one granted in 1876 by the Bellevue Medical College of New York.

"Some three years since his health failed, and growing worse for several months, he went to San Antonio to consult with Drs. Herff and Cupples about his case. After examination the decision was reached that his heart was seriously affected and that he was liable to die at any moment with heart disease. From that time he was never well, though he lingered on and continued to practice medicine until the 15th day of November last, when he took his bed. His sufferings from that time on were indescribable, but he bore them bravely. During his last illness he was at one time under treatment of Dr. Woolan of Austin. He was visited by several distinguished physicians, and at last went to San Antonio and put himself under Drs. Hadra and Herff: but the skill of man could not reach his case, and on the 4th of June, 1884, at 2 o'clock in the morning, he died in San Antonio, Texas, aged 51 years, 1 month and 6 days, and was brought home and buried in the Bandera cemetery on the 5th day of June, A. D. 1884. The doctor was a man of great force of character; his likes and dislikes were very strong, and never concealed by hypocrisy or through motives of policy. Brave and generous he was found ready to defend the oppressed. Liberal to a fault, his purse-strings were never drawn against the needy. Being naturally of a lively and fun loving temperament, and possessing a remarkably brilliant mind, well stored with general information, he was a boon companion in any society.

"Having been about thirty years engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery, and being always a close student and intelligent observer, he had arrived at a proficiency in his profession excelled by very few of his day. During the last few months of his life he professed faith in Christ, and died rejoicing in a lively hope of a blessed immortality beyond the grave."