USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume I > Part 56
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Dr. Joseph F. Evans was born of Irish parents and received his early training, both academic and medical in the east. He came to Marine, Illinois, in the early 'forties and was a man who for many years wielded a large influence in the eastern half of our county. He was identified with all the civic movements and developments of that early settlement, and enjoyed the respect and es- teem of all who knew him. On May 30, 1853, he was married to Miss Anna Maria
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Ground, by the Rev. Joseph L. Darrow, an Episcopalian clergyman, who was also a prac- ticing physician, living in Collinsville. After a long and successful practice which won for him the esteem of every one, Dr. Evans died in Marine, July 18, 1858, and was buried by the Masonic order of which he had been a consistent member. His widow subsequently married Mr. Emsley Keown of Marine, and died, very aged, in 19II.
M. D. AND D. D.
Dr. Gideon B. Perry came to Alton in 1840 and was an active, energetic practitioner for some years. He belonged to the celebrated Commodore Perry family, and was very en- thusiastic about the traditions of his distin- guished ancestors. Besides being a graduate in medicine, he had also received his degree of doctor of divinity in the Baptist denomina- tion, of which he was a devout and faithful member. During his residence in Alton, he served the local church as pastor from 184I to 1843, and also spent a great deal of time and energy in trying to establish a medical department of Shurtleff College, but in this latter effort he was not successful. After leaving Alton he went to Mississippi, and followed his profession in that state, where he also joined the Episcopalian church. At the dedication of the statue of Commodore Perry in Cleveland, Dr. Perry was present and made the invocation. The press notices of the day said that this invocation and the procession was each a mile long.
Dr. Charles Marion Lusk was born in Ed- wardsville, March 18, 1821; he was the son of John T. Lusk, a native of South Carolina, whose ancestors had fought in the Revolu- tion, and who was himself a soldier in the war of 1812 and in the Black Hawk war. Dr. Lusk was educated at McKendree Col- lege, Lebanon, Illinois, and graduated in med- icine at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1841 he began the practice in Marine, where he also
owned a small farm but soon came to Ed- wardsville, where he followed his profession until 1849, when he crossed the plains to California. While there, he was engaged by a Mexican planter to go to Mexico, to fight some epidemic fever, for which he was paid $100 a day. Returning to California he lo- cated in San Francisco for a few years and returned to Edwardsville, via Panama in 1855, where he conducted a successful prac- tice and was considered a physician of su- perior attainments. He was a handsome, cul- tured gentleman, a great reader of English literature and the classics, especially Latin, and spoke both French and Spanish fluently. He died in Edwardsville in June, 1863, at the home of his eldest sister, Mrs. Sarah J. Torrence, and was buried in the old Lusk cemetery.
Dr. Henry Kent Lathy, born in 1802, one of the representatives of the medical pro- fession in this county, was of the true type of "old family doctor." He came to Upper Alton some time in the 'forties, and for many years conducted a large practice in his terri- tory. He was honored and respected by the whole community and even to this day his name calls up pleasant and grateful mem- ories. It is unfortunate indeed that no rec- ord of his life and activities can be found but his life, as recorded in the hearts of those who knew him best, is ample testimony of his true worth, and is epitaph enough to the memory of any man. He had during his life-time a special aversion and dread of small-pox and it was the irony of fate that this disease should be the cause of his death. After a long and useful life thoroughly de- voted to his profession, he died in Upper Al- ton on April 7, 1864.
Dr. Benjamin Irish, whose father was a Baptist minister, was born in Auburn, New York, in 1798, graduated in medicine in New York and settled in Equality, Illinois, in 1840. In 1842 he located near Nameoki, in this
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county, and practiced with great success over a wide area in the American Bottom, and at- tained high rank in his profession through- out the state. In 1848, Pope Medical Col- lege conferred upon him the ad eundum de- gree. He died, near Nameoki, of cholera in July, 1851.
Dr. Henry L. Strong, one of the men who devoted nearly half a century of his life to the service of his fellow-man, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1818. He grad- uated in medicine at the Transylvania Med- ical College, Louisville, Kentucky, March IO, 1843, and almost immediately located in Col- linsville. He soon after married his cousin in Rochester, New York, who shared his arduous life for many years. He was twenty- five years old when he came to Collinsville and at once became the partner of Dr. Sam- uel Hall, who died in 1846, and Dr. Strong then succeeded to his practice. His wife died, and in 1863 he married Mrs. Annie Flander, who still survives him. The doctor practiced at a time when country practice (and he had a large share of it), meant a very laborious life and his strong constitu- tion enabled him to accomplish what few men could endure. After 47 years of de- votion to the profession of his choice he died in Collinsville in 1890, much respected by the entire community.
Dr. James Fisher Spilman was born of Vir- ginian parents, August 3, 1793, near what is now known as Carmi, White county, Illinois. At that time Illinois was known as the North- western Territory, and extended from the Mississippi to the western line of Pennsyl- vania, and from the Ohio to the lakes. When nineteen years of age, he joined a company under the command of General Hopkins, or- ganized to protect the frontier during the war of 1812, and served until the close of the campaign. After the war he began the study of medicine with Dr. Throckmorton at Princeton, Kentucky, and devoted seven
years to acquiring this science during which time he assisted his teacher in his practice. This was before the day of medical colleges in the west, and his first diploma was awarded him by a body known as the Med- ical Society of the Third Medical District of Illinois. He afterward received a diploma from the O'Fallon Medical Society of St. Louis, conferring the degree of doctor of medicine, and electing him to honorary mem- bership. After some years in Kentucky he moved to his plantation near Yazoo City, Mississippi, and practiced his profession in that place and the surrounding country. Here his work became so heavy that he associated with him a younger brother, Dr. C. H. Spil- man. After the death of his wife in 1840 he returned to Illinois, coming to Edwardsville, after re-marriage, June, 1844, where he at once came into extensive practice, residing here until he retired from business in 1868 and removing to Bunker Hill, Illinois, where he died as the result of an accident, May I, 1874, in his eighty-first year. In early life he became a member of the Presbyterian church and lived a devoted and conscientious Christian all his days. To him is due much of the credit of the organization of that church in Edwardsville. "His life was a long chapter of good deeds. A devoted Christian, an affectionate parent, a faithful neighbor and friend. He left behind him an example, objectionable in nothing and worthy of emulation in everything."
Dr. Garritson R. Austin, one of the leading pioneers of the American Bottom, was born January 26, 1814. He came to this county from Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1843, locating in Marysville, a small town one half mile west of Mitchell, and for twenty years min- istered to the wants of his neighborhood by an old style country practice. By the acci- dental discharge of a shot-gun he lost a leg, but this did not prove a handicap, and he continued his profession, riding on horseback
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to visit his patients, as before. On May 25, 1848, he married Miss Mary C. Segar, daugh- ter of Balster and Mary Emmert Segar, and sister of John W. Segar, an aged and highly respected land owner in the American Bot- tom, who still survives, living at Mitchell.
Dr. Austin died in Marysville, December 26, 1863, and was buried by Six Mile Lodge, I. O. O. F., No. 87, of which he had been a faithful and consistent member for many years. His early demise, in the prime of his life, was greatly regretted by the community in which he lived, and whose respect and confidence he ever enjoyed.
Dr. J. M. S. Smith was born in Northum- berland county, Virginia, on August 20, 1797, and was a direct descendant from Col. Mer- riweather Smith who sat in the colonial House of Burgesses, from 1778 to 1783. His mother, Sallie Monroe, was a member of the Monroe family who trace their descent from Sir Robert Monroe who settled in Virginia in 1642.
Dr. Smith received his medical education in the Medical College of Louisiana, and after his marriage began the practice of his profession in Kentucky. Later on he moved to Illinois, practicing in Springfield and Carl- inville and coming to Edwardsville, in 1844. He practiced his profession here and also conducted a pharmacy in the old Hainlin building, recently razed, which stood on the site of the modern business building erected by A. Klingel.
Dr. Smith was a very successful physician of fine personality and much loved by his in- timate friends. He died in Edwardsville of cholera, in 1849, and was buried in the old cemetery. His daughter, Mary E. Peebles, still survives and is living in Carthage, Mis- souri.
Dr. Richard Lee Metcalfe was born in Madisonville, Hopkins county, Kentucky, May 2, 1827. He graduated from the Uni- versity of Louisville and took a post-gradu-
ate course at Jefferson Medical College, Phil- adelphia, under Professor Agnew, whom he greatly loved and revered. About the year 1845 he came to Alton and entered upon his medical work which continued without in- terruption until the advent of the Civil war. When he began his practice in Alton he was not 21 years old and on account of his youth and fair complexion he was often called "the whiteheaded boy physician." In 1853 he was married to Miss Ellen Tazwell Edwards, a daughter of Hon. Cyrus Edwards, a prom- inent citizen of Alton. She died in 1866. In 1868 he married Miss Rachel Gray Fagin, a daughter of A. W. Fagin, an old citizen of St. Louis, who still survives, living in Maple- wood, Missouri.
In April, 1861, Governor Richard Yates appointed Dr. Metcalfe surgeon, being one of the first volunteer surgeons appointed from this state. He was retained as examining surgeon at Springfield until all three-months men were mustered into service and was then assigned, by the Governor, as surgeon to the Seventh Regiment Infantry, with the rank of major. He remained in the service until the close of the war, and was greatly beloved by the soldiers, for his tender heart and generous hands. Even now he is not forgotten by the few veterans who are left of his regiment. After the war he removed to St. Louis, where he continued his practice as long as he lived. He died in St. Louis, Feb- ruary 8, 1898, aged seventy-one years.
Dr. Bluford Johnson was born near Frank- fort, Kentucky, September 18, 18II. He came to Alton, Illinois, about 1832, engaged in the mercantile business for a while when he decided to study medicine. He attended the St. Louis Medical College from which he graduated in 1837. On October 23, of the same year he married Miss Lucinda Reid and began the practice of medicine at Brighton, Illinois, remaining there until 1845 when he removed to Edwardsville, Illinois,
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where he practiced until the year 1846, when he was appointed receiver of the land office under President Fillmore. In the year 1856, he with his family returned to Brighton, Illi- nois, which was his home the remainder of his life. In 1862 he served for two years or more as a surgeon in the Federal Army and was stationed at Overton Hospital at Mem- phis, Tennessee. Broken in health he was brought back to his home in Brighton, where he passed away March 9, 1865, a noble, grand man, loved by all who knew him, called the "Soldiers' father" by them, and the beloved physician by all.
Dr. Henry L. Wing was one of those men whose personality impressed itself upon the minds and hearts of the old pioneers. He was born in Troy, Missouri, April 6, 1822, and received his collegiate education in Illi- nois College, Jacksonville, which he entered in 1839, and from which he graduated in 1844. He also graduated from the same in- stitution, in medicine, in 1846, and imme- diately located in Collinsville, in this county, where he resided and practiced his profes- sion, except for a short residence in Chicago, during his life. Dr. Wing was one of the founders of the Chicago Medical College and occupied the chair of General Pathology in that institution, and was also a member of the State Board of Education. During the war Governor Yates appointed him on the state board that examined all applicants for medical and surgical positions in the army. He was thoroughly devoted to his work, a true Christian patriot, who enjoyed the re- spect and esteem of all intelligent people who knew him; a man endowed with rare natural gifts and one who made a scientific success of his chosen profession. In 1849 he married Miss Catherine Collins, a member of the noted Collins family, that founded the city of Col- linsville. After her death in 1864, Dr. Wing's health began to fail and he joined Major Powell's Exploring Expedition to Colorado
and was among the first to explore the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. On his return, he married Mrs. Clark, about 1867 and continued in his practice. He was al- ways deeply interested in the development of the city and always stood for the best ideals. He died at his residence at Collinsville, on February 18, 1871, mourned by the entire community, and as a mark of respect to his memory, all business was suspended on the day of his funeral.
Dr. John S. Dewey, a native of Massachu- setts, became a citizen of Troy in 1846, and for 33 years exerted an influence in this county that makes his name a household word to this day. He stood high in the pro- fession and his practice was very extensive through all the southern section of this county. He was married to Miss Angeline McCray, daughter of Calvin McCray, one of the early settlers of Jarvis township. When the Civil war began he was appointed surgeon in the One Hundred and Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, and served throughout the conflict. He was a charter member of Neilson Lodge, No. 25, I. O. O. F., organized in 1847 and also a charter member of Troy Lodge, A. F. & A. M., organized in 1868. After the war he also served two terms in the Illinois legislature, as representative from this district. Angeline McCray Dewey, widow of Dr. Dewey left her estate, thirty thousand dollars, to endow a high school at Troy, the benefits of which are extended gratuitously to any person under the age of twenty-six. This school is still in existence under the name of McCray-Dewey Academy. Dr. Dewey, greatly missed and greatly mourned, died at Troy, July 17, 1879.
Dr. Tyler J. Irish, son of Dr. Benjamin Irish, was born on the 28th of July, 1823, in Livingston county, N. Y., and received his education in the schools of his native state. He came to Illinois and Madison county in 1842 when he began the study of medicine
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with his father. In 1848 he graduated in the Missouri State University in the same class with the late Dr. John T. Hodgen, St. Louis' celebrated surgeon, and entered the practice of medicine in the same year at Nameoki. By the death of his father, in 1851, he came into possession of a large and lucrative busi- ness which, with judicious financial manage- ment, soon created a handsome competence. Dr. Irish conducted the first drug store in Nameoki and was also the first postmaster of the village. He was a charter member of Six Mile Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F., which was instituted in 1851. He also represented his township as supervisor in 1877-8. While on his professional rounds he was accident- ally thrown from his buggy, and received in- juries from the effects of which he died on August 21, 1893.
Dr. Theophilus Bruckner came from Swit- zerland to Highland, Illinois, in 1848, thor- oughly equipped with a classical and medical education obtained in his native land. He at once established a good practice and heroic- ally fought the plague of cholera when it appeared in 1849. On June II, 1852, the cit- izens of Highland, fearing another outbreak of cholera, petitioned the county court to ap- point Dr. Bruckner overseer of the poor with unlimited power to act in cases of cholera. This was done and the fears of the citizens were well founded as the plague again made its appearance with frightful mortality, and gave the overseer ample opportunity to test his skill and endurance. Dr. Bruckner mar- ried Miss Lizzie Durer, who with their only child died of cholera in 1857, after which the doctor left Highland and returned to Swit- zerland.
Dr. George Bernays, one of the most highly educated physicians of his day, came from Germany to Highland, Illinois, in 1849. He was not only a physician but also a scientist and one who had made his mark in Germany before he came to this country. He con-
ducted a most successful practice in Highland for many years, highly esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. He re- tired from practice in 1866 and moved to Lebanon where he died. He was the father of the renowned surgeon, Augustus C. Ber- nays, of St. Louis, who died only a few years ago.
Dr. F. Jacob Bernays came to Highland with his brother, Dr. George Bernays, in 1849 and immediately began the active practice of medicine for which he obtained the qualifica- tions in his native land. In conjunction with his practice he started and operated the first drug store in Highland. When the Civil war began he enlisted in the Federal army and was appointed surgeon. He also occupied a chair in the Humboldt Medical College in St. Louis for a short time but in March, 1864, he resumed the practice of his profession in Highland. In April, 1865, he sold his drug store, his household goods, horses, etc., and removed to St. Genevieve, Missouri.
Dr. George Whitfield Fitch, one of the many doctors whose life was sacrificed on the altar of his country, was born in Staunton, Virginia, in 1822. He was educated by a private tutor until, at the age of thirteen, he ยท came to St. Louis where he obtained his com- mon school and academic education. After his graduation he took a trip around the world, a very serious undertaking in that early day. On his return, he attended Mc- Dowell's Medical College, graduating in 1848 and began practice in Mobile, Alabama, where he also met and married Miss Pales- tine Cleveland, and in a short time moved to St. Louis. About the year 1849 he came to this county and at once started in to practice his profession on the Fitch farm, three miles east of Marine in this county, on the High- land-Marine road. He had an extensive practice within a radius of 15 to 20 miles all of which he covered on horse-back. He was a jovial doctor and his cheery, optimistic
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manner helped his patients quite as much as his drugs. He was also a charter member of Marine Lodge, No. 355, A. F. & A. M., instituted in 1859. After several years, wish- ing to educate his children, he moved his family to Greencastle (now Alhambra) where he continued his work until he entered the Army in 1862 being appointed surgeon with the rank of captain. He died in the service, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, of diph- theria, in 1863. Dr. Fitch is survived by one son, Dr. Chas. C. Fitch, who at one time practiced in this county, but who now lives in Visalia, California.
OF INTERNATIONAL FAME
Dr. Heinrich Boernstein was a man of in- ternational fame. He was born at Hamburg, Germany, Nov. 4, 1805, acquired a thorough medical education in Germany and France, but (as he states in his book "75 years in the Old and New World") disliked the practice as it was usually followed, because he did not believe in its infallibility, the spirit of doubt taking away his faith in verba magistri. He therefore followed a journalistic and thea- trical career in Germany and France until the political waves of 1848 and '49 compelled him, like many others, to immigrate to Amer- ica, arriving in St. Louis in April, 1849. The cholera raging there then, he decided to settle away from the city upon a farm. Highland being suggested to him, he went there in May. Here he contemplated and had already made contracts for the establishment of a watercure sanitarium, when unexpectedly cholera also broke out at Highland, causing him to abandon the watercure sanitarium idea, and take up regular medical practice, in which he had such good success that out of 119 cholera cases he lost only 22, nearly all of the last named being in a state of col- lapse when he began treatment. In 1850 after a year's exceptional success, he re- turned to St. Louis, to accept the position of
chief editor of the "Anzeiger des Westens," the leading German newspaper of the west, of which he soon became proprietor. When the Civil war broke out, he organized a regi- ment of volunteers and advanced to military governor of Missouri, a position which he held until the rebel government of that state was dispersed, and loyal state officers elected and installed. Soon after the war he re- turned to Vienna, Austria, engaging in lit- erary work, where he died about 25 years ago. While in Highland he was the leading intellectual spirit in social life.
Dr. I. E. Hardy was born in Barren county, Kentucky, March 8, 1825, and came with his parents to Alton, Illinois, in 1837. He pur- sued his studies in the public schools of that place and later on in Shurtleff College. He began the study of medicine under Dr. B. K. Hart, of Alton and graduated from the med- ical department of Louisville University, March 5, 1849. Prior to that he served in the Mexican war. During the prevalence of cholera, he practiced in Madison Landing and in 1852 located in Alton, where he spent his professional life, with the exception of four years service as assistant surgeon during the Civil war. In 1887 he bought a ranch in Texas and assisted in laying out the town of Hartly, Texas, on a part of his property. He continued the practice of medicine, while superintending the ranch, up to his last ill- ness. He died of abscess of the kidney, in Hartly, Texas, September 21, 1902, after an active professional life extending over 53 years, aged seventy-seven years.
Samuel Willard, M. D., LL. D., physician and educator, began his great educational ca- reer, which extended over a half century, as a physician in this county. He was born in Lunenberg, Vermont, Dec. 30, 1821, and came with his father, a druggist, to Carrollton, Illi- nois, in 1831. His preparatory education was obtained in Shurtleff College, Upper Al- ton, and in 1840 he entered Illinois College
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at Jacksonville, from which he graduated in 1843, as a classmate of Dr. Newton Bateman, another of the great educators of the state. Shortly after he began the study of medicine with a preceptor in Quincy, Illinois, and graduated from the Medical Department of Illinois College in 1848. In 1850 he began the practice of medicine in Collinsville, Illi- nois, and was considered one of the best edu- cated physicians of the city. He became the partner of Dr. Henry L. Wing, but did not remain in practice very long as his particular bent was toward educational lines. He was selected as superintendent of the public schools of Collinsville, which position he re- tained until 1857, when he removed to Nor- mal, Illinois, to become a professor in the Department of Languages. He is an enthu- siastic Odd Fellow and served as Grand Sec- retary of that order in this state from 1856 to 1862 and again from 1865 to 1869. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in the Ninety- Seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was soon promoted to the rank of surgeon with the title of Major. On account of an attack of paralysis, he was compelled to retire from the army and came to Springfield, Illinois, where for a time he served as superinten- dent of public schools. He also organized the first library in the city of Springfield and was enthusiastic in its support. In 1870 he was elected professor of history in the West Side High School of Chicago, which position he held, with the exception of two years, for twenty-five years. In 1898 he re- tired from active work and is now living, at the age of ninety years, with his daughter in Chicago. Dr. Bateman says of him, "Dr. Willard is a sound thinker; a clear, forcible writer; broad and accurate scholarship, con- scientious, genial and kindly and a most es- timable gentleman."
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