Theodore E. Collier, M.D. 

In point of years of continuous service, Doctor Collier is one of the oldest members of the 
medical profession in Jasper or Newton counties. For over twenty years he has had his home 
at Brook, and has looked after the needs of his patients in and around that village with a 
skill and fidelity which have brought him a fine reputation as a physician and a high 
standing as a citizen. Doctor Collier began practice in this section of Indiana before many 
of the improvements had been introduced which now make the practice of medicine comparatively 
easy.
It is noteworthy that he was one of the men, including Doctor Crook, Doctor Lovett and the 
Hartleys of the Hartley Grain Company, who installed the first telephone line in Newton 
County, running from Goodland to Wadena. That was in the spring of 1894, and that little 
telephone line was the nucleus of the present telephone system covering practically all 
of Newton County.
Theodore Collier was born in Greene County, Ohio, December 11, 1862, a son of Albert and 
Susan (DeHaven) Collier, both of whom were natives of Ohio. In the paternal line Doctor 
Collier is of Scotch-Irish and French, but both the DeHavens and the Colliers have been 
Americans since colonial times. In 1870 Albert Collier moved his family to Howard County, 
Indiana, locating east of Kokomo, near Greentown, and then in 1875 they all moved to Starke 
County, Indiana, locating three miles south of Knox, where the father followed farming.
Doctor Collier grew up on farms in Western Ohio, in Howard County, and Starke County, 
Indiana, and largely made his own opportunities for entering the medical profession. He 
attended country schools, and spent five winters in teaching in Starke County. He took one 
year of preparatory work at Valparaiso University, then another year in the Kentucky School 
of Medicine at Louisville, and in 1893 graduated with the degree of M. D. from the Medical 
College of Indiana, at Indianapolis, now the regular, medical department of the Indiana 
State University. Doctor Collier has always been a leader in his profession, and has taken 
some post-graduate work in the Chicago Eye and Ear Hospital at Chicago.
Immediately after getting his degree he began practice in Goodland in partnership with 
Dr. J. A. Lovett, but in May 1894 established his office and home at Brook, where he has 
since ministered to the needs of his clients. Doctor Collier was for one year secretary of 
the old Newton County Medical Society, is a member of the Jasper and Newton County Medical 
Society, and belongs to the Indiana State Medical Association. Fraternally he is 
affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Brook and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and politically is a republican and progressive. On October 4, 1894, he married Miss Minnie 
Shilling, a daughter of William F, and Lavina (Gesaman) Shilling, who were of Pennsylvania 
German descent, lived for a time in Stark County, Ohio, and in 1852 established a home in 
Starke County, Indiana. Doctor and Mrs. Collier have three children: Orpha, Mary A. and 
Albert W., all of whom are still at home. 

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