American Medical Biographies/Wooten, Thomas Dudley
Wooten, Thomas Dudley (1829–1906)
Thomas Dudley Wooten was born in Barren County, Kentucky, March 6, 1829. His parents were Virginians. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Louisville in 1853, and settled in Springfield, Missouri, in 1856. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as a private, but later was made surgeon of Foster's regiment, Second Missouri Infantry. In August, 1861, he was appointed chief surgeon of McBride's Division, and a little later surgeon-general of all the Missouri forces. Afterwards he was made medical director of the First Army Corps of the West, commanded by Gen. Sterling Price. In 1865 he practised in Paris, Texas, and in 1876 moved to Austin, in both places achieving considerable reputation as a surgeon. Upon the inauguration of the University of Texas, in 1881, Dr. Wooten was appointed one of the regents; in 1886, on the death of Ashbel Smith (q.v.), he became president of the board.
He was a prominent member of the county and state medical societies.
He married, in 1853, Henrietta, daughter of Dr. Turner Goodall, of Tompkinsville, Kentucky, and had four children. Two of his sons, Goodall and Joseph S., became physicians.
Dr. Wooten died at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, August 1, 1906, of acute gastro-enterocolitis, after an illness of four days.