USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 36
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Dr. D. C. Wallace, son of Pastor Matthew Wallace, was born in Hamilton, Ohio, Novem- ber 19, 1819, and obtained his medical educa- tion at Philadelphia, Pa. He had been prac- ticing his profession at Freeburg several years, when, in 1854, he married. He removed to St. Joseph, Mo., about 1857, and returned to Free- burg four or five years later. In 1868, he went to Litchfield, Ill., where he practiced medicine and surgery until his death, which occurred December 21, 1904. Dr. Wallace was of the eclectic school. Dr. Perryman testified that no patient afflicted with pneumonia ever died in Dr. Wallace's hands. Besides being a good family physician, Dr. Wallace was a noble
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Christian gentleman of lofty ideals and of a pure and useful life. His daughter, Mary D. Wallace, is Public Librarian at Litchfield, Ill.
Dr. Wolfegang Welsch was the earliest per- manent resident physician at Mascoutah. He came from Bavaria, Germany, in 1840. At that time Mascoutah was a small village, having been laid out as a town as recently as 1837 by Theodore Krafft and John Flanagan, Belleville merchants. It was called Mechanicsburg until 1839, when its limits were enlarged and it was rechristened. Dr. Welsch brought with him, besides his German wife and his diploma, a strong constitution and a mighty resolve to achieve distinction and a competence in this new world. Right well he succeeded. In his time he was the irrepressible, radiant genius and soul of the profession at Mascoutah. A splendid surgeon and a rare physician, he was the center of a circle of scientists that gave the place a high standing. He took a deep interest in local papers and educational in- terests. During the four years (1846-50) he lived in St. Louis, Mo., and in the early fifties on a farm west of Mascoutah. He died Au- gust 25, 1871. Two daughters live at Mas- coutah. One of them is Mrs. Rudolph Rutz.
Dr. Adolph George Berchelmann, of Belleville, was one of nature's noblemen. He had the instinct and the genius of a gentleman. He was a cultured, refined scholar. His benevo- lent face would have been a prize study for an old master. Mercy and truth met and merged together in the formation of his char- acter. He was the soul of honor. Children loved and followed him. In his chosen pro- fession he dwelt for forty years among the sorely distressed and suffering, and never lost his benevolence or his smile. When duty called him, through storm or flood or pestilence, to the bed of pain, he feared nothing. Such was his generosity that, but for the watchful care of others, he must have suffered in his old age from self-imposed poverty. He never stooped to any questionable method to get or retain practice. To the modern deadly crime of infanticide he was a total stranger. Human life had, in his estimation, an infinite value. All his being was enlisted in the welfare against death. Though he was of foreign birth, his loyalty to this free nation that opened her arms to receive him, a young fugitive from
death in Europe, knew no bounds. He was born at Frankfort, Germany, August 6, 1809, and died at San Antonio, Texas, January 8, 1873. His father, Dr. Jur. August Berchelmann, was a Judge in the Grand Duchy of Darmstadt. His mother was Dorothea Huth. He was active in the Frankfurter Revolution of 1833,1 and came to America with the Bunsens. In 1823 or 1834, the Bunsens, Dr. Berchelmann and others located in the Latenier Settlement in Shiloh Valley. There the Doctor practiced his profession till 1840, when he removed to Belle- ville. His first wife, Louise Bunsen, died, leaving a daughter. His second wife, Mollie Bunsen, sister to Louise, is living at San An- tonio, Texas, with other members of his family.
In passing through Belleville, in 1842, Charles Dickens was wined and dined there, and among those presented to him at the Man- sion House was a Belleville physician named Melrose. Dickens, in his "American Notes," calls him "Doctor Crocus," and here follows, in his own words, his account of the incident that made Dr. Melrose famous under that name:
"'Mr. Dickens,' says the Colonel, 'Doctor Crocus.'
"Upon which, Doctor Crocus, who is still a tall, fine-looking Scotchman, but rather fierce and warlike in appearance for a professor of the peaceful art of healing, bursts out of the concourse, with his right arm extended and his chest thrown out as far as it will possibly come, and says:
" 'Your countryman, sir!'
"Whereupon, Doctor Crocus and I shake hands; and Doctor Crocus looks as if I didn't by any means realize his expectations, which, in linen blouse and great straw hat with a green ribbon, and no gloves, and my face and nose profusely ornamented with the stings of mosquitoes and the bites of bugs, it is very likely I did not.
" 'Long in these parts, sir?' says I.
" 'Three or four months, sir,' says the Doctor.
"'Do you think of soon returning to the old country, sir?' says I.
"Doctor Crocus makes no verbal answer, but gives me an imploring look, which says so plainly, 'Will you ask me that question again
1 See Koerner, "Die Deutschen in Amerika;" also Bunsen in the same work. See also the Chicago pamphlet, "Die Deutschen in Illinois."
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
a little louder, if you please?' that I repeat the question.
""Think of returning to the old country, sir?' repeats the doctor.
"'To the old country, sir,' I rejoin.
"Doctor Crocus looks around upon the crowd to observe the effect he produces, rubs his hands, and says in a very loud voice:
"'Not yet awhile, sir-not yet. You won't catch me at that just yet, sir. I am a little too fond of freedom for that, sir! Ha! Ha! It's not so easy for a man to tear himself from a free country such as this is, sir. Ha! Ha! No! No! Ha! Ha: None of that till one's obliged to do it, sir. No! No!'
"As Dr. Crocus says these latter words, he shakes his head knowingly and laughs again. Many of the bystanders shake their heads in concert with the Doctor and laugh, too, and look at each other as much as to say, 'A pretty bright and first-rate sort of a chap is Crocus, and, unless I am very much mistaken, a good many people went to the lecture that night who never thought about phrenology1 or about Doc- tor Crocus in all their lives before."
Dr. Melrose and Belleville both survived Dickens' visit and sarcasm, and, aside from some righteous indignation, nothing ever came of the event. Dr. Melrose was truly a fine- looking man, a well educated gentleman, a local celebrity; a Swedenborgian by faith; in prac- tice, traditionally, a homeopath. He has left behind him here no trace of family, fortune or friends. His wife was a Miss Robinson, a cousin of Mrs. Benjamin West. She was a Vir- ginian by birth and had one son, James Melrose.
Dr. A. X. Illinski .- This famous physician was born in Wollhynia, in Russian Poland, Feb- ruary 3, 1817, and was carefully educated in the Gymnasium at Krzensieniec. His obliga- tory studies embraced the Greek, Latin, Rus- sian, French, German and Polish languages and mathematics and the natural sciences. He re- mained five years in that school and stood high in his classes. At the age of fourteen years, he entered the patriot army as a lancer. After the capture of Warsaw, the body of troops to which he was attached retreated for refuge to Galicia, a part of Austria, where it remained about a year. Early in 1834, a peremptory order was issued, exiling all insurgents to Rus-
sia or France. Later, America was substituted for France, and that decree, probably in the hope of forcing the insurgents further from their native land, and in the course of events young Illinski landed at Castle Garden, New York, March 28,
1834. After year's wandering in America, he went to Havana, Cuba, and obtained employment in a govern- ment hospital. There was awakened his in- terest in medicine and surgery, and most eager- ly did he pursue their study. From Havana he came to St. Louis, Mo., and entered the then newly opened McDowell Medical College. He graduated in the first class from that institu- tion, and in 1841 began the work of his pro- fession at Cahokia, where he remained, with the exception of a sojourn in California, in 1849-53, practicing medicine, merchandising and keeping a public house.
At Cahokia, Dr. Illinski's professional field was extensive, embracing that considerable area known as the American Bottom, extending in his day about thirty miles up and down the river and proportionately wide. Often his rides were thirty-five or forty miles. His en- durance passes comprehension. Sometimes, with fresh relays of horses, he traveled night and day. On dark nights, he rode his trusty saddle-horse, which never failed to carry him safely, and its skill in finding its way through those heavily timbered bottoms, in flood and storm and inky darkness, has furnished a theme for the comment of two generations of the Doctor's admirers. In various parts of the dense woods Dr. Illinski made guide-posts of immense trees, and it has been said that he could follow an obscure trail with the cun- ning of an Indian. His buggy was his bank. Through a hole cut in its seat, he dropped the collections of days, amounting in some in- stances to hundreds of dollars. He was, in money matters, liberal to a fault. He was wil- ling to invest in almost any scheme that was proposed to him, and, in consequence, died poor. He married Mrs. Jane Butler in August, 1843. She was the widow of Dr. Armstead O. Butler. She died in 1852, having borne Dr. Illinski two daughters. His second wife, Virginia Black, he married August 19, 1870, and she bore him three children. He commanded uni- versal respect and confidence. His professional associates esteemed him highly and his wise counsel made him invaluable in consultation.
1According to Dickens, Doctor "Crocus" was ad- vertised to lecture on that subject.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
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Dr. Daniel La Field Oatman was born on the German border of Alsace, of French and German parentage, and was a graduate of a famous institution in Europe and prominent as a physician in his native country. He came with his father to America and located in Lancaster County, Pa. In 1844, he took a post- graduate course in the University of Pennsyl- vania, at Philadelphia. Before the close of that year he came to Belleville, where he practiced his profession with considerable success until 1852. He was instrumental in the organization of the first medical society in Illinois. He mar- ried Mary Davis, of Lancaster County, Pa., and she died in 1852, about three months after the Doctor passed away. They are buried in the Shiloh Valley Cemetery. They had three chil- dren-Julia, Edward and Charles Russell Oat- man. The latter became well known at Collins- ville as a physician. Dr. Daniel La Field Oat- man was small in stature but a moral giant. He possessed a noble intellect, a well stored mind, a scientific education. He endeared him- self to his large circle of patrons by his sympa- thetic, rock-rooted Christian character. In the kingdom which he created in the few years of his life in Belleville, he ruled as a king of love and mercy.
Dr. Alexander Ross .- There came from Penn- sylvania, about 1847, a florid, red-headed giant, his face toward Mascoutah, and this mighty man was the genial Dr. Ross. He brought with him credentials, natural and acquired, that gave him entree to the highest circles of so- ciety in Mascoutah and a large adjacent terri- tory. This man of brains and Christian prin- ciples grew up and developed with the coun- try, and though he found it a wilderness and it found in him an uncut diamond, yet when, after many years, he pushed on to Sumner County, Kan., his name had become a synonym for dignified manhood and Mascoutah was an inland mart of varied industries. He was elected to the State Legislature (1868) by the suffrages of his fellow citizens, and demeaned himself as became a conscientious and patriotic member of that august body, ably and grace- fully meeting all obligations.
Dr. Goheen came to Belleville from Lebanon, where his brother was for a time pastor of a Methodist congregation. He was a graduate, traveled and skilled physician, and had served some years as a surgeon in the United States
Navy. He brought home with him from that service many interesting objects gathered in many cruises. From time to time he gave illus- trated scientific lectures on temperance, anat- omy and physiology. During the memorable cholera epidemic of 1849, he remained at his post of duty, while many brother physicians de- serted, and having experience abroad in han- dling that frightful scourge, he treated many cases with marked success. Dr. Goheen was a magnificent man, stately in bearing, and was devoted to his profession. His wife was Miss Annie Harrison, a daughter of Belleville's "grand old man," Thomas Harrison. Their one child died in infancy. Dr. Goheen went to California in 1850 and died there in 1853.
Dr. Edward Parks Bland was a maker of medical history in Summerfield. He was born in Amelia County, Va., December 13, 1813. His family was of English origin and occupied a good position in that part of the Old Domin- ion. There Dr. Bland was reared. Soon after leaving William and Mary College, he came West and took charge of a school at Bridgeton, St. Louis County, Mo. Having decided to be- come a physician, he attended lectures at the old McDowell Medical College at St. Louis, in the winter of 1846-47. He began his practice in St. Louis County, but in 1848 became a resi- dent of St. Clair County. After seven years' practice at Fayetteville, he located in Mascou- tah, where he had a successful career from 1855 to 1861. He married, at Mascoutah, April 9, 1856, Julia Ann Padfield, daughter of Thomas Padfield. The Padfield family was one of the earliest to settle in the northeastern part of St. Clair County. In 1861, Dr. Bland moved in Summerfield. In 1870, he made his home on a farm in Section 35, Town 2, Range 6 West. Later he retired from his profession. He took an active interest in politics and was warmly attached to the Democratic party. A man of much mental power, he formed his views re- gardless of the opinions of others. In the ex- pression of his sentiments, he was candid, out- spoken and fearless. For popular favor he cared little. As a physician he had a good reputation. He had sons named Edward Parks and Richard Lee Bland.
The Perryman family is of English ancestry on the paternal side and German on the ma- ternal side. Three brothers named John, James and David Perryman came to America in
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
1632 with Leonard Calvert, brother of Lord Baltimore, and established the colony of Maryland. One of the brothers Perryman was secretary to Calvert, another became a mem- ber of the Colonial Parliament, the third was engaged in Indian wars on the frontier. From those three brothers came the Perryman fam- ily of America. The great-grandfather of Dr. James Lafayette Perryman held an appoint- ment under the authority of the English king that required his presence in colonies lying along the Atlantic coast. While he was a resi- dent of the Carolinas, his son, James E. Per- ryman, was born. He was bred to a martial life under the instruction of his father. In the Revolutionary War he espoused the patriot cause, entered the military service and rose to the rank of Colonel. Under General Wayne, he fought at Saratoga, Germantown and Bran- dywine. After the war he settled in Clai- borne County, Tenn., and married Nancy Con- dray, by whom he had a number of children.
Charles Mattison Perryman, son of Colonel James E. Perryman, and father of Dr. James Lafayette Perryman, was born in Claiborne County, Tenn., in 1809, and grew to manhood and married there September 1, 1829, Louisa J. Collingsworth, daughter of a soldier of the Revolution and a native of that county, born January 9, 1814. Of their sons, Dr. Perryman was the eldest. Frederick A., their second son, died in his fifteenth year. Bluford Hamilton Perryman, their third son, was born in St. Clair County, November 1, 1835, and was a graduate of the medical school of St. Louis. He married Sarah Holmes, of Galena, Ill., by whom he had two daughters: Ida, who died in her nineteenth year, and Hamma, who was reared by Dr. Perryman, her father having died March 6, 1860. Horace M. Perryman, the Doctor's youngest brother, was born in Jeffer- son City, Mo., February 6, 1838, and died Sep- tember 20, 1870. He was educated by his eldest brother for the profession of medicine and gave promise of a brilliant career. He married Mary Belcher, a native of St. Clair County, who died January 1, 1863, having borne him a son and a daughter, Edgar and Stella Perryman. Mary Tertlinger, his second wife, bore him a son whom he named Jerome. Charles Mat- tison Perryman settled near Lebanon, St. Clair County, in 1832. Later, he returned to Ten- nessee, but again came to St. Clair County. Eventually he went to Jefferson County, Mo.,
where he died in 1854. Dr. Perryman, born in Claiborne County, Tenn., April 11, 1831, was an infant when his father came first to Illi- nois. He soon passed the limitations of a com- mon school education, and, in his sixteenth year, entered McKendree College, where he was graduated four years later. Having determined to adopt the profession of medicine, he was an ardent and enthusiastic student of such lit- erature as led in the direction of that science. In 1849 he became a student in the offices of Drs. W. W. and J. A. Roman, of Belleville, where he prepared for the medical department of the University of Missouri. There, after two full courses of study, he was duly gradu- ated with the M. D. degree. He began the prac- tice of, his profession at Freeburg, but after several years entered the St. Louis Medical College, from which institution he was grad- uated. Later he attended lectures on medicine and surgery at Jefferson Medical College, Phil- adelphia, and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. His intention was to qualify himself to take a professorship in the University of Missouri, but the premature death of his father prevented the fruition of that and other long-cherished hopes. In his prime, his rides extended over a large territory throughout all the countryside between Leb- anon and New Athens. He excelled in med- icine, surgery and obstetrics. His services were constantly sought by his professional brethren in consultations. No man excelled him on the stand as a medical witness, for he gloried in gladiatorial bouts with legal ex- perts. He died, full of honor. His wife, whom he married in September, 1858, was Virginia Bradsby, daughter of Richard A. Bradsby.
Dr. Freund, who has been described as "an aristocratic medical Bismarck," was born in Baden, Germany, and came from the German universities, laden with diplomas and honors, about 1855. Mascoutah opened her sleepy eyes in astonishment when he "stepped into her in- ner and most reserved sanctum." It is said "he commanded and obtained an instant suc- cess." Dr. Freund was of medium size, though of heavy build, "red-headed, hot tempered and quick-spoken." He died in 1870 and was buried at Mascoutah. His wife died in St. Louis, leaving three children.
Dr. Giles Norman Jeffries, from Kentucky, made his home for a time at Prairie du Rocher. From there he moved to St. Louis,
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
where he lived only a short time and then, at the earnest solicitation of Duteil Cabanne and Colonel Don Morrison, came to Belleville. As Dr. W. W. Roman had only recently died and his friends were casting about for a suc- cessor to his practice, Dr. Jeffries appeared most fortunately on the scene. Here was his opportunity, and he made good use of it. His welcome and his success were commensurate. By his urbanity and his gentlemanly conduct, no less than by his professional skill, he won and held the hearts of the community. One thing more than all else that came into Dr. Jeffries's life for his good was his marriage to Mrs. Mary West Estes, "one who moved in an atmosphere of refined spirituality." Dr. Jeffries was truly indebted in many ways to his good wife, who brought him some of his best patrons. She bore him three children- one daughter, Mrs. Louisa Osgood, now a widow, and two sons, Giles Norman Jeffries, Jr., and Edmund Jeffries-all of whom live in Minneapolis, Minn. Dr. Jeffries died at Belle- ville, after a brief illness, in 1876. Born and educated in the sunny Southland, he carried with him all through his life the genial, fra- grant comradeship of the born cavalier. Chil- dren ran to meet him; they never saw him frown. The widow's heart sent up a prayer, as incense at the mention of his name. The old couple on the farm, in their rustic sim- plicity and in their hard-handed honesty, al- most welcomed a spell of bilious fever if it brought him under their rooftree. He brought them all that they needed, interpreted the things in the hurly-burly of the changing world that they did not understand, and, set- ting the seal of his approval on all that they had done for his patient and giving them an honest opinion and an efficient remedy, he de- parted with their benedictions.
Dr. J. C. Bock was born in the Province of the Rhine, Prussia, February 20, 1816. His fa- ther, Charles August Bock, an eminent physi- cian, was a Medical Doctor in the government service. The younger Bock studied under his father's preceptorship, attended medical schools at Berlin and Leipsic and, in 1844, was gradu- aied at Geisen. He was a military surgeon in the Schleswig-Holstein War of 1848-49. In 1852, he was sent by the German Government to the German hospital in London, England, as assistant surgeon. Two years later, he came to America, locating at Chillicothe, Ohio, where
he practiced his profession till 1858. He then came to Illinois, and settled in Smithton, St. Clair County, where he entered upon a suc- cessful practice.
Dr. B. Krause was born in Wurtenberg, Ger- many, August 29, 1834, son of Joseph and Mary (Maurer) Krause. After attending the public schools, he was, in 1847-51, a student at the Gymnasium at Gmuend. In 1851-54 he was an apprentice in the pharmacy at Lorch. Sub- sequently, having passed an examination as a druggist, he was assistant in drug stores at Reuthingen, Geislingen, Threngen and Frei- burg. He studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Teubingen and was graduated in August, 1859. In October of that year he came to the United States, and in 1860 located at Lebanon. He moved to Centerville in 1862 and from there to O'Fallon in 1863. When he settled in O'Fallon, he had to keep a supply of medicines on hand with which to compound his prescriptions. The town was growing fast, soon a drug store was a necessity, and he opened one in a small way, increasing his stock and his space as circumstances demanded. Till 1873, he practiced medicine in town and coun- try. That year he visited Europe, and after his return he relinquished country practice and devoted himself to his trade in drugs. He be- came a member of the St. Clair County Med- ical Society in 1867, and of the Pharmaceutical Association of Illinois in 1880.
Frederick Koeberlin, M. D., was born at Graenbach, Bavaria, Germany, June 21, 1831. His father was a Lutheran minister. He ac- quired the rudiments of an education in com- mon schools in Germany, then entered the Gym- nasium. At the age of twenty-one years he be- came a student at the University of Munich, where he obtained a classical education. He came to America in 1854, landing at New York. After visiting his brother, a Lutheran minis- ter, in Pennsylvania, he came to St. Louis, Mo., where he attended lectures at Pope's Med- ical College and was graduated in 1858. Soon afterward, he located at Freeburg and there quickly won success in his chosen profession. He married Rosa Ochs, a daughter of one of the early German settlers of St. Clair County, October 15, 1860. In politics he became an ardent Republican. He served his fellow-citi- zens several years as President of the Board of Trustees of the village of Freeburg, and was a moving spirit in public enterprises. His
Chris Heiligenstein
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
library was his idol; to it he gave time, talent and treasure. To his funeral, which occurred in Freeburg, "the entire community came in." it has been said, "to do him nonor."
Dr. Ferdinand Rubach was born at Nassau, Germany, November 29, 1837. His father, Au- gustus W. Rubach, was educated in military schools and was an officer in the German army. The elder Rubach came to America in 1841 and lived in Philadelphia, Pa., till 1843, when he located in St. Clair County as a farmer. Later he was a merchant in Belleville, where he died in 1871. His wife was Wilhelmina Schenck. William R. Rubach, the younger of their two sons, enlisted in the Twelfth Regi- ment, Missouri Volunteers, under the first call for troops for service in our Civil War. After the expiration of his term of enlistment he veteranized and served until the end of the war, winning promotion as Adjutant of his regiment. Dr. Ferdinand Rubach received his education in the public schools of Belleville and under private instruction. At the age of eighteen, he began reading medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. A. Hammer, of St. Louis, Mo., and was graduated from the St. Louis Medical College in March, 1858. In May following, he went to Germany and en- tered the medical department of the University of Wurzburg, where he pursued his studies eighteen months. From Wurzburg he went to Prague and from there to Vienna, where he received special instruction from Professor Arlt. Thence he went to Berlin, where he studied diseases of the eye and their remedies under the celebrated specialist, Dr. Von Graefe. Returning, he practiced his profession in Belle- ville until his death. He was a member of the St. Clair Medical Society; was appointed Examining Surgeon for the Pension Depart- ment of the United States in 1862, and in 1866 became county physician. February 4, 1864, he married Sophia Maus, daughter of John Maus. She bore him two sons and two daugh- ters. Dr. Rubach possessed exceedingly agree- able social qualities and was highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens.
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