PRESLEY MARION RIXEY
RIXEY, PRESLEY MARION, surgeon-general of the United States navy, and chief of the bureau of medicine and surgery, was born near Culpeper, Virginia, July 14, 1852, son of Presley Morehead and Mary F. (Jones) Rixey. His early education was obtained in the schools at Culpeper and Warrenton, Virginia, but the male members of his father's family having espoused the Confederate cause, his father's estate was ruined by the war, and in order to finish his education young Rixey was compelled to borrow money. He accordingly entered the medical department of the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1843, and then decided to enter the navy as surgeon. He went to Philadelphia, took a post-graduate course in medicine at Jefferson Medical college, passed the prescribed examinations and entered the United States navy as assistant surgeon January 28, 1874.
Of Doctor Rixey's thirty years' service in the navy, eleven years were spent at sea. He served on the old screw sloop, Congress, in the Mediterranean; on board the unlucky Tallapoosa, with the North Atlantic squadron; with the Lancaster, which cruised in European, African and South American waters; and on the dispatch boat Dolphin. On shore he was attached successively to the naval hospital at Philadelphia and Norfolk, and the naval dispensary at Washington, District of Columbia.
During the war with Spain, in 1898, he applied for duty on a battleship, but there was no vacancy. He, however, went to Cuba near the close of the brief naval campaign, on the hospital ship, Solace; and for services rendered the crew of the Spanish warship, Santa Maria, after an explosion on that vessel, he was decorated by the King of Spain. On his return he was again assigned to the naval dispensary, at Washington, becoming, in 1898, the official physician to President McKinley. He remained in attendance upon the president's family, until the death of President McKinley, and he has since served as the official physician to President Roosevelt in conjunction with his official duties in connection with the navy. When
