American Medical Biographies/Phares, David Lewis
Phares, David Lewis (1817–1892)
William and Elizabeth Starnes Phares came to West Feliciana, Louisiana, from Virginia, and their son was born there, January 14, 1817. In 1832 he entered the Louisiana State College at Jackson, Louisiana, now Centenary College, and graduated from the Louisiana State College in 1837, and in April, 1839, from the medical department of Louisiana University. "The day he graduated he was elected a member of the faculty without his knowledge or consent and Dr. Barton introduced him to the other members of the faculty as one of their number." This position he declined and returned home to West Feliciana, and from there moved to Whitestown, now Newtonia, Wilkinson County, Mississippi, where he practised until 1880. In 1840 the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by the University of Kentucky.
In 1836, during college vacation, he married Mary Armstrong Nesmith, of Amite County, and had three sons and five daughters.
In 1842 he erected buildings for and opened Newton Female Institute and in 1852 was largely instrumental in building Newton College.
During the Civil War, Dr. Phares continued in private work; in 1863 he was thrown from his buggy and received injuries from which he suffered for the remainder of his life.
In 1878, by request of the State Association, he prepared a report on the medical plants of the state, some seven hundred in number. He was one of the leading spirits in the founding and building of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College and at its opening in 1880 he was assigned the chair of biology, which he filled until 1889.
In 1881, after the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. Laura Blanche Duquercron, of Starkville, Mississippi, and by her had two sons who died in infancy.
In 1889 he moved to Madison Station, Mississippi, but on May 3, 1891, was stricken with paralysis and had a second attack October 13, 1891, dying on September 18, 1892. "A constant student, an accurate observer, a painstaking physician, temperate in all things save work, a conscientious Christian. He was also recognized as an authority on the medical virtues of indigenous plants of the South. When he discovered and promulgated the value of viburnum prunifolium and gelsemium his name became imperishable and he proved himself greater than the chieftain of many battles by placing in the hands of his comrades two weapons to wage war against the foes of flesh."