David Franklin Powell

He was born May 25, 1847, in Kentucky, son of Dr. C. H. Powell, a Kentuckian physician of Highland Scotch descent, and a mother whose first name is unknown.

Powell's father died in 1855, and his mother returned with her three children to New York, settling about thirty miles from Ithaca, where attempts at farming were not successful.

Meanwhile, his mother and two brothers had acquired a large tract on the Platte River, near Lone Tree, Nebraska, where they built a ranch.

[3] In late 1869, Powell (who had never received classroom education at any level) took a competitive examination for a scholarship for Nebraskans to attend the University of Louisville, and defeated thirteen other candidates.

He spent two years in the University of Louisville Medical Department, working as a janitor to pay his expenses, and received his M.D.