From: Taylor, William A. Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co, 1909.
C. O. Probst, M. D.
No physician of Columbus is more widely known throughout Ohio than Dr. C. O. Probst of the state board of
health, in which connection he has done splendid work for the profession and for the commonwealth at large.
He was born in Middleport, Ohio, December 4, 1857, and is a son of William B. Probst, a native of Somerset,
Pennsylvania, who, when a boy, became a resident of Pomeroy, Ohio, to which place his father, George
Probst, removed and there established a furniture factory. He became moreover an influential man in public
affairs of the community. The family is of French lineage, the great-grandfather of Dr. Probst having come to
the new world from Nantes, France, in the latter part of the eighteenth century and taken up his abode at
Somerset, Pennsylvania, where he erected a factory. In the maternal line Dr. Probst is descended from an old
New England family. His mother, who bore the maiden name of Martha Grant, was born in Meigs county, Ohio,
and was a daughter of Oliver Grant. The Grants removed from Maine to Ohio, representatives of the name
having in the meantime served with distinction in the Revolutionary war. Philip Jones, the grandfather of
Martha (Grant) Probst, was also one of the pioneer residents of Meigs county and famous as a hunter there in
early days. His father, who had served actively in the battle of Lexington, married a member of the Pitts family
from England.
While spending his youthful days in his parents' home Dr. Probst acquired his preliminary education and then
took up the study of medicine in the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati from which he was graduated in
1882. He practiced for a year or two at West Columbia, West Virginia, and afterwards opened up an office in
Athens, Ohio. The ability which he displayed in coping with the intricate problems that continuously confront
the physician brought him constantly increasing renown and led to his selection in 1886 for the position of
secretary of the Ohio State Board of Health, in which capacity he is still serving. The work that he has done
in this connection is of a most important character and has done much to further health conditions in this
state through the dissemination of knowledge concerning sanitation and general health laws. He is still to
some extent in the practice of medicine but the important nature of his official duties requires the major
portion of his time. However he keeps in touch with the advance along medical and surgical lines and is a
member of the Columbus Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical
Association. For a period of fifteen years he was professor of hygiene at Starling Medical College and for ten
years has been secretary of the American Public Health Association, which embraces the United States,
Canada, Mexico and Cuba.
In 1881 Dr. Probst was married to Miss Eva Lee Knight, a daughter of Dr. A. L. Knight, a distinguished
physician of West Virginia who was a surgeon in the Confederate army during the Civil war. They have two
sons, Karl and Leighton. Dr. Probst is one of the prominent members of the Ohio Society of the Sons of the
American Revolution and is interested in the various sociological, economical and political questions bearing
upon the welfare of the country. In many lines of progress he keeps in touch with the best thinking men of
the age, while his work in an official capacity has brought him into prominence before the public and won him
high esteem.