youths and accepted the professorship of schools at Vincennes,
Washington and other Indiana Villages. "I was interested in the young
people and anxious for their advancement but the suffering endured by my
invalid mother, who had passed into the great beyond, and the memory of
little Master Dickie's lingering illness and untimely death would not
desert my consciousness. I determined to take up the study of medical
practice and surgery which I did."

Dr. Buckner graduated from the Indiana Electic Medical College in 1890.
His services were needed at Indianapolis so he practiced medicine in
that city for a year, then located at Evansville where he has enjoyed an
ever increasing popularity on account of his sympathetic attitude among
his people.

"When I came to Evansville," says Dr. Buckner, "there were seventy white
physicians practicing in the area, they are now among the departed.
Their task was streneous, roads were almost impossible to travel and
those brave men soon sacrificed their lives for the good of suffering
humanity." Dr. Buckner described several of the old doctors as "Striding
[TR: illegible handwritten word above 'striding'] a horse and setting
out through all kinds of weather."

Dr. Buckner is a veritable encyclopedia of negro lore. He stops at many
points during an interview to relate stories he has gleaned here and
there. He has forgotten where he first heard this one or that one but it
helps to illustrate a point. One he heard near the end of the war
follows, and although it has recently been retold it holds the interest
of the listener. "Andrew Jackson owned an old negro slave, who stayed
on at the old home when his beloved master went into politics, became an
American soldier and statesman and finally the 7th president of the