PHILIP L. DIEFFENBACHER, physician and surgaon, Havana; born in Northumberland Co., Penn., Feb. 6, 1830. He is the eldest son of Daniel and Catharine (Long) Dieffenbacher; his parents removed to Illinois in 1837, and settled in what was then a part of Tazewell (now Mason) Co. He remained at home and helped improve a new farm until 1849, when he returned to Pennsylvania for the purpose of attending school. He entered the Newville Academy, a preparatory school to th« Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, where he finished his preparatory education. He then came to Mason Co. and taught in the schoolhouse he helped to build, known as the Dieffenbacher Schoolhouse, situated about six milts east of Havana. In the summer of 1851, he returned to Pennsylvania and commenced the study of medicine in the office of Drs. P. H. & S. H. Long, of Mechanicsburg, that State. He entered the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, in 1853, and graduated at that institution in the spring of 1855; during the winter of 1854-55, he attended clinical lectures and practice of Blockley Hospital, West Philadelphia. After graduating, he established his office at Mount Joy, Lancaster Co., Penn., and there began the practice of his profession. In the spring of1856, he returned to Illinois, locating at Havana, and the following year was married to Miss Frances A. Parmelee, of Lockport, N. Y. In August, I862, he enlisted in the United States Service as First Assistant Surgeon of the 85th Illinois Infantry, and was promoted to Surgeon with rank of Major, in June, 1863. He served with this body until the close of the war , was with Gen. Sherman in his march to the sea, and at Washington, D. C., where he was mustered out of the service, June 5, 1865, and received final pay and discharge at Camp Butler, Ill., on the 11th of the same month. He then returned to Havana, where he has since resided, constantly occupied in the duties connected with his profession, in which he makes surgery a specialty. He performed the operation of resection of the shoulder joint, for a gunshot wound, successfully in 1860, just before the war. In 1874, he was married to Martha M. Mitchell, who was born in Cass Co., Ill.; they have two children:  Mattie M. and Edith L. Mrs. Dieffenbacher's parents were natives of Virginia, and came from Kentucky to Cass Co., Ill., at an early day, and to Mason Co. in 1846. The Doctor is a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, President of Mason County Medical Society, and U. S. Pension Examiner. He is also a member of the following Orders : Prosperity Lodge, No. 114, A. O. U. W.; I. O. M. A. and Pioneer Relief Association. He became a member of Humane Lodge, I. O. O. F., at York, Penn., in 1854. He has filled all the chairs in both the subordinate Lodge and Encampment.



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