History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 74

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 74

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The names of the gentlemen that have been cited are not to be considered as embracing all of Hahne- mann's followers who have flourished in Chicago, but

only as those who have become fused into the history of homeopathy in this city. They formed the medical Macedonian phalanx that penetrated opposition, that received the brunt of the affray ; and the survivors of which little coterie now enjoy the merited fruits of their perseverance and earnestness of purpose. They are a hardy, working assemblage of pugnacious patholog- ical pioneers, and, like the pilgrim fathers of Mrs. He- mans, "have left unstained what there they " formed : freedom to practice medicine according to the convic- tions of the individual.

One obstacle encountered by the new school can be discerned by reading the following open letters that ap- peared in the Northwestern Journal of Homeopathy for October, 1850 :

DR. SHIPMAN : During the session of 1849 and 1850 I at- tended a course of lectures al the Rush Medical College in Chi- cago, and was desirous of attending the ensuing course, and receiv- ing the honors of the College, as I should have been entitled to do had none but the ordinary tests of qualification been applied to me. But wishing to have the matter fully undestood previous to securing tickets for another course. I addressed the following to the Secre- tary of the faculty, and received the accompanying reply :

ST. CHARLES, III., September 12, 1850.

DR. N.S. Davis-Sir : I am a homeopathist from a conviction of the truth of the principles and the efficacy of the practice of homeopathia. With these views, will you graduate me if I com- ply with the ordinary requisitions of the faculy?

Yours, cle.,

M. DANIEL COE.

CHICAGO, September 16, 1850.

MR. DANIEL COF .- Dear Sir: I am directed to inform you that the faculty of Rush Medical College will not recommend you to the trustees for a degree so long as they have any reason to suppose that you entertain the doctrines, and intend 10 trifle with human life on the principles you avow in your letter. To do other- wise would involve both parties in the grossest inconsistency.

Very respectfully yours, N. S. DAVIS, Secretary of the Faculty of Rush Medical College.

There is no need of recounting the various arguments used pro and con relative to this correspondence : it demonstrated, however, that homeopathists could not graduate from Rush Medical College ; and the fact must have been apparent to them of the necessity for a college of their own, where the adherents of the homeopathic school could pursue the requisite course of study and graduate as doctors of medicine. To dis- cuss the necessities of the new school of medicine, a `homeopathic convention was convened, and the Gem of the Prairie thus comniented upon the science whose ad- herents were about to assemble : " That although old- school practitioners at first regarded the 'infinitesimal philosophy ' as a delusion, and that it was still regarded by the great body of them as a system of quackery. it had gained a strong position, and was growing daily, both in this country and in England. In fact, it recog- nized homeopathy as something which could not be ignored or sneered out of existence."

A preliminary meeting was held at the office of Messrs Skinner and Hoyne," at the corner of Lake and Dearborn streets, on June 3d, 1851. Prof. L. Dodge, of Cleveland, was called to the chair, and Dr. T. G. Com- stock, of St. Louis, appointed secretary. The special de- sign of the meeting was announced to be the formation of a Western homeopathic association. A committee on credentials was appointed, consisting of D. S. Smith, M. D., Chicago; L. M. Tracy, M. D., Milwaukee, and George E. Shipman, M. D., Chicago, who presented the following resolution as a basis of the action of the con- vention:

.Hon. Jonathan Young Scammon, Hon, William B. Ogden and Hon. Thomas Hoyue were among the earliest of the homeopathic laymea.

Dig zed by Google

298

HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

Resolved, That those present shall be considered members of this convention who have conformed to the existing medical insti- tutions of the country, or who have been engaged in the practice of medicine five years, (being avowed believers in, and practitioners of, homeopathy,) or who shall have passed an examination before the committee.

This resolution was passed, and, under its provisions, the following gentlemen were reported by the commit- tee as qualified to seats in the convention: Lewis Dodge, M. D., Cleveland; T. G. Comstock, M. D., St. Louis; H1. C. Foote, M. D., Galesburg; A. Giles, M. D., Southport, Wis .; Dr. M. D. Coe, St. Charles; Dr. A. P. Holt, Lyndon; Dr. William Vallette, Elgin; Dr. W. C. Barker, Waukegan; D. S. Smith, M. D., Chicago; L. M. Tracy, M. D., Milwaukee; George E. Shipman, M. D., Chicago.

The convention met at Warner's Hall on the follow- ing day, and Dr. I. S. P. Lord, Batavia; John Granger, M. D., St. Louis; Thomas J. Vastine, M. D)., St. Louis; Prof. Charles {). Williams, M. D), Cleveland: John Wheeler, M. 1)., Cleveland; M. S. Carr, M. D., Peoria; Dr. N. Clark Burnham, l'eoria; E. H. Kennedy, M. D., Galena; D). T. Brown, M. D)., Waukesha; G. W. Critten- den, M. D., Janesville; E. H. Clapp, M. D., Farmington, were reported to the convention and elected members thereof. By-laws and constitution were drafted and adopted and the "Western Institute of Homeopathy " thereby created. The following officers of the Institute were then unanimously elected: I. M. Tracy, M. D., Milwaukee, president; D), S. Smith, M. D., Chicago; T. G. Comstock, M. D., St. Louis; Lewis Dodge, M. D., Cleveland, and A. Giles, M. D., Southport, vice-presi- dents; George E. Shipman, M. D. Chicago, secretary. On the evening of June 5, Prof. Lewis Dodge delivered an address before the Institute and a public audience.

The antagonism between the two medical schools remained quiescent, until the friends of homeopathy considered that official recognition was due the practi- tioners thereof, and on March 14, 1857, a petition nnmer- ously signed by prominent citizens of Chicago, was presented to the Common Council, requesting that some portion of the new City Hospital might be allotted to the homeopathic physicians, for the treatment of patients according to their school of practice. The pe- tition was referred to the Board of Health, and this body, upon July 9, 1857, appointed two medical and surgical boards for the City Hospital, constituted as follows:

Allopathic Board :- Consulting physicians: Drs. N. S. Davis and G. K. Amerman; physicians and surgeons, Drs. R. N. Isham, John Craig, DeLaskie Miller, W. Wagner, J. P. Ross, George D. Schloetzer.

Homeopathic Board :- Consulting physicians: Drs. A. E. Small and A. Pitney; physicians and surgeons, Drs. H. K. W. Boardman, Reuben Ludlam, D. Alphonso Colton, S. Seymour, N. F. Cooke, George £. Shipman.

To the first board, three-fourths of the hospital were allotted ; to the latter board, one-fourth. But the des- ignation " Allopathic Board " caused a perfect Pan- dora's box of discussion and objection. The regular physicians objected to being called a board of " other diseases" (allos, other ; pathos, disease) ; and also to practice with those whom they classified as irregular practitioners. Correspondence abounded ; pamphlets were prolific ; the Cook County Medical Society de- nounced the homeopathists, perhaps a little "ex cath- edra ; " and the homeopathists erected bulwarks of sta- tistical facts against which the darts of the regulars hurtled harmlessly ; one pamphletcer getting rather worsted because of a Hellenic typographical error. In fact, the Montagues and Capulets of the medical pro-

fession had a deci led tourney, and the Board of Health, unable to discern any way of bridging the pathological abyss and of acceding to the petition referred to them, took refuge in inaction; and the hospital remained, not alone unprovided with physicians, but without furniture. The Common Council also evaded the issue by deelar- ing the city too poor to make the expenditures requisite for the establishment of the hospital, and then, in :858, leased the building to some " regular " physicians, who established therein a public hospital, cared for the county poor and gave clinical demonstrations, princi- pally to the students of Rush Medical College. In 1863 the General Government confiscated the building and transformed it into a general hospital, with Surgeon Brockholst MeVickar in charge, and with George K. Amerman and J. P. Ross, as acting assistant surgeons. The hospital was shortly afterward changed in its scope of treatment, and soldiers afflicted with ophthalmie or auricular diseases were alone received there; Dr. Joseph S. Hildreth being in charge; the hospital remaining under his administration until the close of the civil war, when it became the DeMarr Eye and Ear Hospital; subsequent to which it became the County Hospital.

HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY .- The first homeopathic pharmacy was established by Dr. David Sheppard Smith, at his office, in 1844. The rapid growth of homeopathic practice necessitated the establishment of a depot in Chicago, and Dr. Smith procured a supply of the medicines of this school, which he furnished to his brother physicians as required. The pharmacy was an unpretentious affair, but was fully adequate to the purpose for which it was designed; enabling the homeop. athic practitioners to prescribe "secundum artem," for their patients. About 1854, Dr. Reuben I.udlam be- came associated with Dr. Smith, and the business amounted to several thousands of dollars annually. In 1856, Dr. George E. Shipman started a pharmacy at 94 La Salle Street, but the management was, shortly after its inception, transferred to C. S. Halsey, who removed the pharmacy to 108 Wells Street, and associated with him Benjamin Cowell, Jr. No homeopathic dispensary appears to have been regularly established before the year 1858.

The first Homeopathic Hospital was established in 1854, by Dr. George E. Shipman, at 20 Kinzie Street, a little east of State; the funds being supplied by private subscription. The impetus to the founding of the hos- pital was given by Madame Wright, who promised Dr. Shipman $1,000 a year toward the maintenance of the hospital, if it was established. Dr. S. W. Graves, a homeopathic physician, was among the first of those who died in the hospital; he being seized with the cholera while in attendance upon his patients and, har- ing neither intimate friends nor relatives in the city, went to the hospital. Of this physician it is authori- tatively stated, that, in the unremitting exercise of his duties among those afflicted with the cholera, he went almost without sleep for fourteen nights and partook of the merest snatches of food, taken irregularly; and thus from the enfeebled condition of his constitution, fell an easy prey to the disease; a martyr to his profession. In January, 1855, Mrs. Peter Nelson, assumed the position of matron of the institution, which she retained until its close. In the commencement of May, 1855, a species of "ex post facto" organization of the hospital was made by a meeting of homeopathic physicians, held at the office of Dr. D. S. Smith, on LaSalle Street, near Madison; the site of which office is now occupied by the Mercantile Building. At this meeting J. H. Dun- ham was president, Dr. D. S. Smith, vice-president, and

Digreed by Google

299

HOMEOPATHY.

Dr. George E. Shipman, secretary. The following gen- tlemen were elected to attend the patients at Dr. Ship- man's hospital: Physicians: George E. Shipman, D. S. Smith and Reuben Ludlam.

Surgeons: H. K. W. Boardman and L. A. Douglass. The following gentlemen were also appointed a Board of Directors; J. H. Dunham, Hon, J. M. Wilson, Hon. Norman B. Judd, Orrington Lunt, J. S. Doggett, Dr. D. S. Smith, Dr. George E. Shipman, George A. Gibbs, William H. Brown and Thomas Hoyne.

In addition to the physicians thus appointed, and who took monthly tours of service in the performance of their duties, a large proportion of the other homeop- athic physicians, then in the city, attended the patients, and so successful was this exercise of their skill, that of three hundred and twenty-one patients treated in the twenty-eight months prior to the closing of the hospital, but nine died; and of twenty-seven small-pox cases, clinically treated, but one terminated fatally, and this case was the first admitted to the hospital.

Upon the death of Mrs. Wright, her trustees could not recognize the verbal arrangement made with Dr. Shipman, and the homeopathists of those days being but a small fraction of the population of the city, the treasury became depleted. A vain effort was made by the attending physicians to tide over the financial dearth by contributing $500 of their own sparse funds, the rent of the hospital also having augmented from nothing to 81,000 per annum. Dr. Shipman therefore

determined upon its suspension, and on May 1, 1857, the hospital was permanently closed.

HAHNEMANN COLLEGE .- As recounted in the history of homeopathy, the urgent need for a homeopathic college was early experienced by the practitioners of that science, and David Sheppard Smith determined on supplying the want. Accordingly, in 1853, a draft for a charter was sent to a member of the Legisla- ture of this State, in whose hands it failed of fruition. Dr. Smith then went to Springfield and endeavored to find the missing charter, contemplating making a per- sonal effort to secure its legalization, but the charter was nowhere to be found. Meeting Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Dr. Smith explained the predicament, and Mr. Hoyne took the Doctor to the law-office of Abraham Lincoln, where Dr. Smith drafted a new charter, and exerted himself to achieve its passage; which was ac- complished in January, 1855. The trustces under the act of incorporation were: D. S. Smith, M. D., Hon. Thomas Hoyne,* Orrinton Lunt, George A. Gibbs, Joseph B. Doggett. George E. Shipman, M. D., Hon. John M. Wilson, William H. Brown, Hon. Norman B. Judd, and J. H. Dunham. The trustees upon organi- zation installed j. H. Dunham, as president; D. S. Smith, M. D., as vice-president, and George E. Ship- man, M. D., as secretary and treasurer.

* Dr. Smith and Mr. Hoyne were de facto the Hahnemann College for many years, but the infusion of new material into the board, gave it an acces. sion of modern vitality, and imparted the vigorous growth it now enjoys.

Dig zed by Google

BANKS AND BANKING.

THE CURRENCY of the early days prior to 1830 was subject to wide suspicion, limited only by the extreme necessities which make money necessary at any cost. In fact, the volume of money (coin in all the regions west of Detroit was too meager to be computed. Money was little needed, as nearly the entire business consisted of barter of blankets, beads, traps, guns and ammunition with the Indians for the products of the hunt. The very early exchanges which involved the payment of money were made through the Indian traders. Perhaps Gurdon S. Hubbard was the first white man who ever did anything resembling a banking business in Chicago. Although not then known as a banker, he kept a good credit account at several points east of Chicago and could draw a bill of exchange on Buffalo which was sure to be honored on presentation. The currency in use at that time was mostly silver coin. No paper money was known except sttch rude scrip as might be issued by the Indian traders, which, to their credit, was always redeemed according to promise.

FIRST BANKING LAW .- No State legislation on banking which had any direct bearing on the banking business of Chicago was had prior to 1835. As early as 1816 an act was passed incorporating the " President, Directors and Company of the Bank of Illinois," at Shawneetown. It was the earliest effort at legal bank- ing in Illinois and the provisions of the charter were not unlike those of the other "wild-cat " banks that fur- nished the worthless and irredeemable paper money scattered through the West in early times, and which was the only paper money issued by banks then known in Chicago. The act is given entire as furnishing the moilern reader a definite idea of the legal basis on which " wild-cat" banking formerly flourished. It was as follows :

An Act to incorporate the President, Directors and Company of the Bank of illinois at Shawneetown.

SECTION 1. Ble it enacted by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Illinois Territory, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that a bank shall be established at Shawneetown, the capital stock whereof shall not exceed three hundred thousand dollars each, one-third thereof to remain open to be subscribed by the Legislature of this Territory and State. when a State Government shall be formed, which Territory or State shall be entitled tosuch part of the dividend of the said cor- poration in proportion to the amount actually subscribed by such Territory or State, which one-third shall be divided into shares of one hundred dollars cach, in the same manner as the individual stock is divided, and that subscriptions for constituting the said stock shall, on the first Monday in January next, be opened at Shawneetown, and at such other places as may be thought proper, under the superintendence of such persons as shall hereafter be appointed, which subscriptions shall continue open until the whole capital stock shall have been subscribed for: Provided, however, That so soon as there shall be fifty thousand dollars subscribed for in the whole and ten thousand dollars actually paid in, the said cor- poration may commence business and issue their notes accordingly.

Skc. 2. Be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for any persons, or partnership, or body politie to subscribe for such or so many shares as he, she, or they may think fit, nor shall there be more than ten shares subscribed in one day by any person, copart- nership or body politic, for the first ten days after opening subscrip- tious. The payments of said subscriptions shall be made by the subscribers respectively, at the time and manner following-that is to say, at the time of subscribing there shall be paid into the hands of the person appointed to receive the same, the sum of ten dollars in gold or silver ou each share subscribed for, and the residue of

the stock shall be paid at such times and in such installments as the directors may order: Provided, That no installment shall exceed twenty-five per cent on the stock subscribed for, and that at least sixty days' notice be given in one or more public newspapers in the Territory : And provided also, that if any subscriber shall fail to make the second payment at the time appointed by the directors for such payment to be made, shall forfeit the sum so by him, her, or them first paid, to and for the use of the corporation.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That all those who shall become subscribers to the said bank, their successors and assigns, shall be and they are hereby enacted and made a corporation and body politic, by the name and style of " The President, Director and Company of the Ilank of Illinois," and shall so continue until the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty- seven, and by that name shall be and is hereby made able and capable in law, to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy, and retain to them and their successors, lands, rents, tenements, liered. itaments, goods, chattels and effects of what kind, nature or quality snever, to an amount not exceeding in the whole five hun- dred thousand dollars, including the capital stock aforesaid, and the same to grant, demise, allen, or dispose of, to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and answered, defend and be defended, in courts of record or any other place whatever; and also to make, have and use a seal, and the same to break, alter and renew at pleasure, and also to ordain, establish and put into execu- tion such by-laws, ordinances and regulations as they shall deem necessary and convenient for the government of the said corpora- tion, not inconsistent with the laws of the Territory or constitution, and generally to do, perform and execute all and singular acts, matters and things which to them it may appertain to do, subject however to the rules, regulations, limitations, and provisions here- Inafter prescribed and declared.

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That for the well ordering of the affairs of the said corporation, there shall be twelve directors, the first election of whom shall be by the stockholders by plurality of votes actually given, on.such day as the person appointed to superintend the subscriptions for stock shall appoint, by giving at least thirty days' notice in all the public newspapers of the Territory, and those who shall be duly chosen at any election shall be capable of serving as directors by virtue of such choice, until the full end or expiration of the first Monday of January next ensuing the time of such election, and no longer ; and on the first Monday of January in each and every year thereafter, the election for directors shall be holden, and the said directors at their first meet- ing after each election, shall choose one of their number as presi- dent.

SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That in case it should happen at any time that an clection for directors should not be had upon any day, when, pursuant to this act, it ought to have been holden, the corporation shall not for that cause be considered as dissolved : but it shall be lawful to hold an election for directors on any other day, agreeable to such by-laws and regulations as may be made for the government of said corporation, and In such case the directors for the time being shall continue to execute and discharge the several duties of the directors until such election is duly had and made : anything in the fourth section of this act to the contrary notwithstanding : And it is further provided. That in case of death, resignation or removal of director or directors, the vacancy shall be lilled by election for the balance of the year.

SEc. 6. Be it further enacted, That a majority nt the directors, for the time being, shall have power to appoint such officers, clerks and servants under them, as shall be necessary for executing the business of the said corporation, and to allow them such compensation for their services respectively as shall be reason- able, and shall be capable of exercising such other powers and authorities for the well governing and ordering of the affairs of the said corporation as shall be prescribed, fixed and determined by the laws, regulations and ordinances of the same : Provided always, That a majority of the whole number of directors shall be requi- site in the choice of a president and cashier.

SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That the following rules, restrictions, limitations and provisions, shall form and be the fundamental articles of the constitution of the said corporation. to wit:

(1). The number of votes to which the stockholders shall be

300

Dig zedby Google

301

BANKS AND BANKING.

entitled In voting for directors, shall be according to the number of snares he, she or they may respectively hold, in the proportions following-that is to say, for one share and not more than two shares, one vote : for every two shares above two and not exceed- ing ten, one vote : for every four shares above ten and not exceed- ng thirty, one vote ; for every six shares above thirty and not exceeding sixty, one vote ; for every eight shares above sixty and not exceeding one hundred, one vote : for every ten shares exceed- ing one hundred shares, one vote ; and after the election, no share or shares shall confer a right of voting. which shall not have been holders three calendar months previous to the day of election.

(2). The Governor of the State or Territory Is hereby appointed agent for the Legislature to vote for president, directors and cashier of said bank, and is hereby entitled to exercise the right . of voting for the same in proportion to the number of shares actually subscribed for by the Legislature, in the same ratio that individuals, or other bodies politie or corporate, are entitled to vote for ; and the said agents hereby appointed shall exercise the power hereby vestel in him until the Legislature shall make other regula- tions respecting the same, and no longer.

(31. None but a bona fide stockholder, being a resident citizen of the Territory, shall be a director; nor shall a director be entitled to any other emolument than such as shall be allowed by the stock- holders at a general meeting, but the directors may make such compensation to the president for his extraordinary attendance at the bank as shall appear to them reasonable and just,

(4). Not less than four directors shall constitute a board for the transaction of business, of whom the president shall always be one, except in case of sickness, or necessary absence, in which case his place may be supplied by any other director, whom he, by writing under his own hand, may depute for that purpose.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 74

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875