Joseph J. HARDY, M. D.
"The high awards attainable in position and character through a life of industry and faithful adherence to an honorable ambition are most forcibly illustrated in the life of Dr. Joseph J. HARDY, of Poteau. Whether one considers the obstacles which poverty and obscurity placed in his path to oppose his entrance upon a learned profession, his patience and persistence in overcoming them, the worthy motives which impelled him, or the skill which he has brought to a difficult calling, he will be impressed that Doctor Hardy's career is one which reflects much credit upon him and which should encourage other young men starting life under difficulties.
Doctor Hardy was born February 26, 1861, in Jefferson County, Arkansas and is a son of George W. and Mary E. (WAKEFIELD) HARDY. His father was born in Giles County, Tennessee, and came of the numerous southern Hardy family that from Virginia scattered to several states of the South. He was married in Tennessee to Mary E. WAKEFIELD, who was born in Illinois, and soon after his union removed to Jefferson County, Arkansas, where he was residing, engaged in farming, when the war between the states came on. Casting his sympathies with the South, George W. HARDY enlisted in an Arkansas regiment and served with gallantry until he met a soldier's death on the battlefield of Cane Hill, Arkansas, in 1863. His widow, with her daughter and son, left Arkansas in 1866 and returned to Giles County, Tennessee, and there Joseph J. HARDY grew to manhood and gained a fair common school education.
With the sterling qualities of the Scotch-Irish on his father's side, and Scotch on his mother's, Doctor Hardy determined to make a place for himself in life, and at the age of twenty-one years left Tennessee for California, confident of making his fortune in the West. He remained in the Golden State and in Arizona from that year until 1893, being engaged principally as a prospector and miner in the gold fields, but all the time nursed a well-defined ambition to one day return from the West and apply himself to the profession of medicine, when he had accumulated sufficient means to pay the expenses of a medical education. This ambition was eventually realized, for in 1896 he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Louisville Medical College, Louisville, Kentucky, and immediately thereafter he located at Wister, Oklahoma. He has since practiced within the border of what is now LeFlore County, Oklahoma, residing at several places, but since 1909 has been permanently located at Poteau. He has won an excellent reputation as a skilled, careful and sympathetic practitioner, and enjoys the emoluments which attend such a position. Doctor Hardy has been an assiduous student, having taken postgraduate courses at Chicago, New York, and St Louis, and his attainments have been recognized by his professional brethren in bestowing upon him the presidency of the Central District Medical Society. He holds membership also in the LeFlore County Medical Society, the Oklahoma Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Doctor Hardy has rendered acceptable service to his community as county superintendent of health of LeFlore County. He is a democrat in politics, and is fraternally affiliated with the Royal Arch Masons and the Knights of Pythias. In church faith he is a Methodist. Aside from his profession, Doctor Hardy is interested in farming, being the owner of 500 acres of well cultivated and valuable land in LeFlore County. His success in his profession has been entirely self gained, and his standing as a citizen rests upon the support he has given to civic affairs and on his adherence to high principles.
Doctor Hardy was married in 1908 to Miss Grace E. HODGENS, who was born near Greenwood, Arkansas, and to this union there have been born two children: Lucile E. and Willa Gace."