Frank Rufus Searles, M. D., physician and surgeon, Catskill, N. Y., was born in Newton, N. J., April 29, 1868, son of Arthur and Alice (Martin) Searles. On the paternal side he comes of English ancestry, and through his maternal grandfather he is a descendant of French Protestants, or Huguenots. The first of the Searles family who came to America settled in Massachusetts, and was a farmer. Representatives of the family participated in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the French and Indian War. Dr. Searles's great-great-grandfather, John Finlay, was an aide on the staff of General Green and also on that of General Mifflin.
Arthur Searles, the Doctor's father, was reared in Massachusetts. He followed agriculture until of age, when he went to New Jersey. Later he entered commercial life in New York, and resided there until his death, which occurred at the age of thirty. Mr. Searles is survived by his wife, Alice, and their only child, Frank Rufus, the special subject of this sketch. The Doctor's mother, now Mrs. Lester Leggett, resides in Plainfield, N. J. She has one brother, Frederick Martin. Her parents were Lebbeus L. and Frances (Beach) Martin. Her father was a wholesale clothing merchant of Plainfield, N. J., moved from that town to Newton, N. J., and at one time resided in New York for a short period. His death occurred in Plainfield, N. J., in 1898, at the age of seventy-eight.
Frank Rufus Searles was educated in the common and high schools and at Leal's Academy, Plainfield, N. J. His medical studies were completed at the Long Island College Hospital, from which he was graduated March 22, 1892. He began the practice of his profession at Plainfield, N. J., where he remained one year, removing from there to Hunter, Greene County, and two years later settling in Catskill, N. Y. He has made rapid progress in his profession, and is highly esteemed both as a physician and citizen.
On November 8, 1893, Dr. Searles was joined in marriage with Miss Myra Rose Lowrie, daughter of Dr. H. H. and Myra G. (Burr) Lowrie, of Plainfield. Dr. and Mrs. Searles have one child, Frank Rufus Searles, second. There are twenty-two physicians in the Lowrie family, and Mrs. Searles's father has practised in Plainfield many years. Her mother, who is a native of Brooklyn, N. Y., and a descendant of a branch of the family to which Aaron Burr belonged, has reared four children, namely: Caroline, who is the wife of the Rev. C. G. Bristol, rector of Colts Memorial Church, Hartford, Conn.; Myra Rose, now Mrs. Searles; Maud Myra, now Mrs. Julian Deane, who is residing at Springfield, Mass.; and H. H. Lowrie, Jr., who is manager of an insurance company in Philadelphia, Pa.
Dr. Searles has served as president of the Greene County Medical Society, and has frequently read papers before that body upon timely topics. He is now delegate to the Medical Society, State of New York. He is Assistant Surgeon of the Sixteenth Company, N. G. S., N. Y., now acting captain; is medical examiner for a number of life insurance companies; and is local health officer and secretary of the Board of U. S. Pension Examiners of Greene County. In politics he is a Republican. Dr. and Mrs. Searles are members of Christ's Presbyterian Church.