Dr. Bertrum Lazarus Ware

Text from Centennial History of Arkansas Vol 2&3 1922 Numbered among the alumni of the University of Arkansas, in which be completed his medical course, Dr. Bertrum Lazarus Ware is engaged in practice as a physician and surgeon at Greenwood. He was born in 1883, in the vicinity of the city in which he makes his home, and is a representative of one of the old pioneer families of the state. His parents are George L. and Piety (Woodham) Ware. The paternal grandfather, Lazarus Ware, married a Miss Dickson and removed from North Carolina to Georgia. It was in the latter state that George L. Ware was born and reared. In early life he learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed in his native state before coming to Arkansas. While there residing he was united in marriage to Miss Piety Woodham, who was a daughter of Aaron Woodham. The maternal grandfather of Dr. Ware, Aaron Woodham, removed from Tennessee to Alabama and married a Miss Wilson. He fought with the Confederate forces in the Civil war. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. George L. Ware began their domestic life in Georgia, and on coming to Arkansas settled three miles east of Greenwood, where Mr. Ware opened a blacksmith shop and also followed shoemaking. He later established a general store at Fidelity and subsequently opened a general store in Greenwood, which he still conducts in partnership with his son, M. N. Ware, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. From early pioneer times, therefore, the family has taken active and helpful part in the material development and substantial upbuilding of their section of the state. Dr. Ware was educated in the schools of Greenwood, passing through consecutive grades to his graduation from the high school, and in the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, while later he became a student in the medical department of that institution, and when he had completed his course there he put his theoretical knowledge to the practical test by doing hospital work for two years in Little Rock at Logan H. Roots Memorial Hospital. In 1912 he opened an office in Greenwood, where he has remained through the intervening period of a decade, and as the years have passed his practice has steadily expanded and has likewise grown in importance. During the late war he was the medical member of the local board of Sebastian county and, moreover, was the first member of the board, on which David Davis served as the original chairman, being later succeeded by John W. Bell. Olin Brewer was the secretary and Madge McNally the chief clerk. This board did important work during the progress of the war. Before and since that time Dr. Ware has enjoyed a successful practice and he is also connected with the business interests of Greenwood as a director of the Farmers State Bank. Pleasantly situated in his home life, Dr. Ware was married in 1910 to Miss Bessie Chandler, a daughter of Frank Chandler, and they have become the parents of two sons and a daughter: Earl E., Prentiss E. and Ester Marie. Fraternally Dr. Ware is well known, belonging to the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Woodmen of the World. He is also a Free and Accepted Mason. He is a charter member of the Chi Zeta Chi, a medical college fraternity, and he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of that society in 1909. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he is serving as a. steward, and at all times he manifests keen and helpful interest in the work of the church, doing all in his power to promote its growth and extend its influence.