Frederick Samuel Cooper Grayston was set up for a successful career in his native England when he and his new bride decided they would make a new life for themselves in America. They settled in Huntington, where Dr. FSC Grayston became one of the state’s top physicians and left a legacy in his adopted hometown that has lasted to the current day.

Born in 1823, in Suffolk, he initially followed the path of his father, who was a prominent attorney. But the law really didn’t appeal to him, so he studied pharmacy and chemistry with an eye toward a career in medicine.

Following his marriage to Isabella Custance in 1849, the newlyweds were off to the United States in 1850. Dr. Grayston set up his medical practice in Huntington.

He continued his studies and graduated from Chicago’s Rush Medical College in 1861. He followed that with a special course of study at the Chicago Medical College, where he focused on diseases of women.

In 1862 he was graduated in the polyclinic department of Bellevue Medical College, in New York City. He then was elected professor of the diseases of children in the Fort Wayne Medical College, where he filled the chairs of pathology and theory and practice. In 1864 he was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as examining surgeon for invalid pensioners, an office he filled for twenty years.

Dr. Grayston was committed to lifelong learning — earning a master of arts degree from Butler in 1880 at the age of 57.  He contributed numerous articles to the medical community that were widely published, and held memberships in several medical associations.

Dr. Grayston was involved in civic endeavors in Huntington. He was one of the charter members of the Cosmopolitan Club, which continues today. He and his wife were active in the Episcopal Church and they contributed to numerous charities. He gave educational talks until late in his life.

The United States may not have been the country of his birth, but he became an American citizen in 1852 and enjoyed patriotic events.  A voracious reader, Dr. Grayston built what was considered one of the most extensive and finest libraries in northern Indiana.

Regarded as one of the leading medical men in the state during his life, Dr. Grayston was a mentor to a generation of physicians, including all three of his sons and a grandson who followed him into medical practice and continued his family’s legacy of healing people in Huntington County.

On October 28, 1898, Dr. Grayston was struck down with paralysis. He never returned to full health, but lived for another 10 years. He died November 5, 1908, at the age of 85.