USA > Indiana > A Medical History of the State of Indiana > Part 8
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trate of the county and ex officio member of the "board of control." He held this office "with- out fear or reproach" until the day of his death, Oct. 9, 1828. A contemporary notice appeared in the Indianapolis Journal, written by some one who knew him well, extolling his virtues and commending his useful life, both as a physi- cian and citizen. Dr. Washburn was a success- ful practitioner; his treatment of dysentery con- sisted in cathartics and opium, a practice not much improved upon at the present day. His honored remains were interred in what is known as "The Thompson Graveyard," one mile south of the city, where I saw and copied the inscrip- tion on the moldering marble that marks his resting-place.
Dr. William V. Snyder came here from Vir- ginia in 1822, and practiced in Columbus and the surrounding country for several years. He was very popular with all classes, but became dissatisfied with his location and returned to Virginia, where he died many years ago.
Dr. Joseph Rose and his junior brother, Dr. E. Rose, located here about 1822. They were both good physicians, but I have been unable to learn where they came from, or where they went, as they remained here only a few years.
Dr. John Ritchie located in Columbus about 1827, and at once secured a fair share of patron- age. He was sociable and affable, a fair public speaker and a safe practitioner of medicine. His wife was an educated woman, and was the first of her sex to teach the higher branches in the public schools of this city. Dr. Ritchie was
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born in Adams County, Pennsylvania, Jan. 5, 1782. He had a common school education, which he added to by study after his marriage. He studied medicine with Dr. Warwick, near Brycelands Cross Roads, twenty miles west of Pittsburg. He practiced a few years in Ohio before coming to Columbus. In 1832 Dr. Rit- chie moved to Franklin, Ind., where he enjoyed a lucrative practice, and was held in high esteem for many years. His death occurred in that city, Oct. 10, 1857. He was once a candidate for the office of probate judge, but was defeated by only a few votes.
Dr. James Ritchie, son of the physician named above, was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, June 6, 1804. He studied medicine with his father, and attended one course of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio in the winter of 1828-9. After leaving school he came to Colum- bus and engaged in practice with his father. Afterward he moved to Edinburg, and later to Rensselaer, where he died some years ago. Dr. James Ritchie was a member of the constitu- tional convention of 1850 that gave to Indiana her present constitution.
Dr. William P. Kiser came to Columbus about 1828. He studied medicine in the office of Dr. Cravens, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, hav- ing as fellow office student Dr. Joseph A. Bax- ter, who also located in Columbus in 1829, form- ing a partnership with Dr. Kiser, which lasted several years, terminating in mutual disagree- ment. Dr. Kiser was a good dresser and a good talker, but he was a man of quick, irritable tem-
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per, which interfered greatly with his popular- ity. In his practice he was noted for "snap diagnosis"; he did not study his cases very well. He was elected treasurer of the county, which office he held several years; he also served one term in the legislature as representative from this county. He died many years ago at Rock- port, Ind.
Dr. Joseph A. Baxter, as stated above, studied medicine in the office of Dr. Cravens in Shenan- doah County, Virginia, and located in Colum- bus a year later than Dr. Kiser, with whom he was associated in practice. Dr. Baxter was a man of talents and a physician in the best sense of the term. As a diagnostician he had few equals. Almost every autopsy held in the county for eight or ten years was conducted by him. Some of these were noted criminal cases. One noted post mortem was made at night, with only the light of one tallow candle, held by the late Judge Tunis Quick. Dr. Baxter established the first drug store operated in Columbus. In relig- ion Dr. Baxter was a strict Presbyterian, and be- came a ruling elder in the church in Columbus. He was one of the leading physicians of the state at the time of his death, which occurred in 1839, before he had reached the meridian of life. His death was universally regretted.
Dr. Tiffin Davis came to Columbus from Ohio in 1830. He was a classmate of Dr. James Ritchie, mentioned above, having attended lec- tures at the Medical College of Ohio in 1828-29. He was one of the best physicians of his day; in fact, Dr. Joseph A. Baxter and Dr. Tiffin Davis
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stand out as bright lights in the medical pro- fession of this part of Indiana. Dr. Davis was the possessor of a good English education and was intended for the profession of teaching. His mother was an estimable woman, Miss Tif- fin, a sister of Edward Tiffin, the first governor of Ohio. Dr. Davis acquired some fame as a surgeon, being considered the best surgeon in this part of the state. He attended the late Dr. Hiram Smith, mentioned above, in his last ill- ness, and soon followed him to his long home. He died in Edinburg, also, about 1871.
About the same time that Dr. Tiffin Davis came to Columbus, Dr. Henry B. Roland came from Virginia, and located in the county be- tween Columbus and Newbern. Dr. Roland was always considered one of the best general prac- titioners in the county, and, in fact, he was a good student all the time, reading everything he could get hold of, which, however, was not a great deal. He studied his profession whilst he was paying a debt in the true old Virginia style -in jail. At that time all bankrupts were fur- nished boarding and lodging. and sometimes medical attendance, whilst paying their debts as bankrupts in prison. While he lay in jail, a kind medical friend was good enough to loan him the necessary books and give him instruc- tion in the divine art of healing the sick, and he came out of jail a fair medical practitioner for that date. Dr. Roland was a man of fine tal- ents, kind and obliging to all, particularly so to young men. In 1840, while practicing medicine in this county, he was made probate judge,
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which office he filled creditably. The last heard of Dr. Roland he was practicing medicine in Bloomfield, Iowa, where he located in 1848, and possibly died there years ago.
Among the physicians who located in this county at later periods, 1839-1850, I may men- tion the following :
Dr. Samuel M. Linton first located in Azalia, in 1839, coming to Columbus in 1842. He en- joyed a large practice and was an enthusiastic member of the Indiana State Medical Society .* He died in Columbus Dec. 28, 1889; his obitu- ary is found in the Transactions of 1890.
Dr. Samuel Barbour settled here in 1843, coming from Rush County. After several years' practice in Columbus, he returned to Rushville, and later moved to Indianapolis, where he gave up the practice of medicine and became pro- prietor of the "Palmer House."
Dr. George C. Comstock, a graduate of the Louisville Medical College, established himself in Columbus in 1841. He was a young man of fine professional promise and an amateur artist of no mean pretensions. Some of his portraits in oil are still preserved. After a few years of very successful practice in Columbus, he moved to Illinois, where he died of apoplexy, Jan. 28, 1845. He had begun the practice of medicine when less than 20 years old, and, had he been spared, would have made a name for himself of which his friends might well be proud.
Dr. Robert M. McClure came from Madison, Ind., where he was born; he was a graduate of
* Elected president of the State Society in 1864.
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one of the medical colleges of Philadelphia. He located in Columbus in 1843, and enjoyed a fair practice while living in this city. He was a courteous, dignified gentleman, and bore the reputation of a careful and intelligent physician. He returned to Madison about 1853 and was highly respected in his new home, where he died several years ago.
Dr. Isaac Fenley, who removed here from Jackson County about the year 1844, is one of the early physicians whose name is entitled to a place among the heroes in medicine. When the second call for volunteers was made for the Mex- ican War, in 1847, Dr. Fenley assisted in rais- ing a company in the Fourth Indiana Regiment, and was commissioned lieutenant. Upon arriv- ing in Mexico, he was detached from his com- pany and assigned to duty as regimental sur- geon, in which capacity he served until the close of the war .* Returning to Columbus, in 1848, he at once resumed practice. In 1849 the cholera was brought to Columbus by German immigrants from New Orleans via the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Many immigrants died and not a few citizens, Dr. Fenley among the list. He found in cholera a greater foe than Mexican bullets, but, like a true soldier, he died fighting-at his post. He was a brave man, honorable and hon- est, a fine surgeon and skilful physician. His loss was felt by the entire community; he is still spoken of with reverence by some of the old-
* See reference to Dr. Isaac Fenley, in chapter, "Indiana Physicians in the Mexican War," p. 186 .- G. W. H. K.
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est inhabitants. "Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than war."
Dr. Homer T. Hinman, who first located in Hope, this county, came to this city in 1848. He practiced physic very successfully and satis- factorily for several years. He traveled for one year as grand masonic lecturer, visiting all the lodges in the state, after which he resumed prac- tice until his death in 1859, from "congestion of the stomach." He was an influential citizen, universally respected, and his untimely demise in the full prime of manhood caused general sorrow and regret.
The gentlemen whose names appear in this list were all members of the "regular" school of medicine. In addition to these, there were other early doctors who located at Columbus and in the different settlements and villages of the county from time to time, but I am not in pos- session of sufficient knowledge concerning these to enable me to give them proper notice.
It can not be said that our early doctors were all men of eminent scientific skill or training. Few of them held diplomas from medical col- leges, for seventy or eighty years ago medical colleges were not as thick in the land as now. The pioneer doctors learned all they knew by reading, observation and instruction under es- tablished practitioners and by their own after- experience. Men of fair education and good common sense in a few years gained good repu- tations as successful and safe physicians. They learned and were guided by actual practice more than by theory or the formulas laid down in the
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few books they were able to procure. Each doc- tor carried his own remedial agents-a small drug store in a pair of saddle-bags of huge dimensions, and dosed out with liberal hand. They rode on horseback to visit their patients, day or night, far or near, through the dense woods and over slashy paths and rough corduroy roads, fording or swimming streams and endur- ing innumerable hardships, which the physicians of the present day would not dare to encounter.
During the years of the early settlement of the county, the numerous rivers and creeks were fouled and obstructed by fallen timber, drifts and other accumulations of vegetable débris. The waters from freshets and overflows stood reeking and stagnant on the lowlands and in the sloughs and bayous, and gave out their noxious exhalations for miles and miles around, while thick forests and tangled undergrowth, in rich and rank profusion, almost equalled the famed valley of the Amazon. The atmosphere was laden with pestilential miasma, particularly in the autumnal season, when biliary and malarial diseases were rife. Whole settlements were at times stricken down and rendered almost help- less. It is reliably stated that, in the fall of 1821, there was only one well man in the city of Columbus, a stalwart six-footer, who had evidently been brought up in a swamp. He was cook and nurse to the entire community, and his memory deserves to be perpetuated.
The doctors found the ague, in many in- stances, more than a match for their skill. It was of the real shaking, quaking variety, the
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chill lasting not infrequently three or four hours, to be followed by raging fever and intense insa- tiable thirst. So malignant was this type of fever that as many as three or four deaths of adults have occurred in one family in less than forty-eight hours. Peruvian bark and calomel would temporarily check the fever, but cold weather seemed to be the only thing that would stop this dreadful scourge, and even this failed in some cases, and the poor invalid either wore himself out or else wore out the disease. (The relation of the mosquito to the prevalence of malaria was not then dreamed of.) In the early settlement, the "regulars" in the treatment of fever relied mainly upon one remedy-calomel. It was, indeed, extraordinary upon the part of the physician to treat any form of disease without the generous use of large doses of calomel. Not to salivate a patient seemed to be regarded as al- most allowing him or her to go to the grave without a saving effort.
A patient "sick of a fever" must also be freely bled before an internal remedy was administered. The lancet held sway alongside of calomel. If, in raising a log cabin, a man was thrown from his "corner" and badly bruised, the practice was to bleed him copiously on the spot as the first step toward his recovery.
While we of to-day may see many things to criticise in the methods of these pioneer physi- cians, we must all acknowledge that they stood out as shining lights in their day and genera- tion, the equals, if not the superiors, of their contemporaries in all the other walks of life.
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They did their duty as citizens, and as physi- cians they were always found doing their best "according to their lights." The physicians of Bartholomew County have succeeded to a noble heritage; may they prove worthy of their great responsibility.
NOTE .- In the preparation of this article, I have been greatly indebted to the Hon. George Pence, ex-auditor of this county. for valuable information and for the privilege of perusing the notes and manuscripts left by the late Dr. J. C. Beck, of Cincinnati, and some early publications by the Hon. W. H. Terrell, of Indianapolis, both natives of this county .- G. T. M.
NOTE .- Drs. Isaac Fenley and Homer T. Hinman were present at the formation of the Indiana State Medical Society, June, 1849 .- G. W. H. K.
CHAPTER XIII.
EARLY MEDICAL MEN OF FAYETTE COUNTY .- EARLY MEDICAL HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY .- PIONEER PHYSICIANS OF CLAY COUNTY.
For the following very interesting report of the physicians of Fayette County I am indebted to Dr. H. M. Lamberson, of Connersville.
Among the earliest physicians of whom we have any knowledge who settled within the pres- ent limits of Fayette County were Drs. John Bradburn, James Thomas, Joseph Moffett, Tem- ple E. Gayle and Joseph S. Burr.
Dr. John Bradburn was a native of Lancaster County, Pa., and as early as 1814 settled here in the vicinity of what is known as Harrisburg, in Fayette County. Hon. Oliver H. Smith, in his "Early Indiana Trials and Sketches," refers to him as an eminent surgeon, a man of great muscular power and of the most indomitable personal courage. The doctor's experience as a practitioner in this county was marred by a fear- ful tragedy, in which he became instrumental in the death of two young men in the spring of 1825, he having killed them with a surgeon's knife, as they, with others, were going to carry him to a creek one evening in order to "duck"
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him .* Shortly after the tragedy he removed to the southern part of the state, and subsequently to the vicinity of Brookville, Ind., where he died in 1835. He is said to have been a regular grad- uate and highly respected and possessed of an inflexible will and great executive ability.
Dr. James Thomas was a native of New York state and was one of a colony of emigrants that settled in the vicinity of Harrisburg in 1819.
* "About twelve o'clock at night the party silently ap- proached the dwelling of the doctor and tried to open the door, but found it fast. The doctor was in bed in an ad- joining room, wide awake, with his large knife under his pillow, cool and prepared. The outside party placed an fron crow-bar, which they had brought with them, under the door, threw it off its hinges and entered the room, carrying with them the ropes prepared to tie the doctor before they took him from the house. In the meantime the doctor remained silently sitting upon his bed, with his knife in his hands. The room was dark. The party ad- vanced, feeling their way, until the foremost, young Alex- ander, about eighteen years of age, reached the bed, when he received a fatal stab with the knife, turned, rushed to the door, stepped out, and fell dead in the yard. Not a word was spoken. The next, young Caldwell, about twenty years of age, advanced, evidently not knowing the fate of Alexander until he came within the grasp of the doctor, when the fatal knife was thrust through his side. pene- trating his heart. He uttered a loud groan, turned, fled to the door, passed a short distance into the yard, fell and died near the body of Alexander. The groan of Caldwell alarmed the others, who immediately retreated for the door, pursued by the doctor, and one other of the party received a severe but not a mortal wound. Capt. Broaddus told me that at one time the doctor was between him and the door. and as he passed to go out the doctor struck at him with his knife, and just grazed his side. It was very evident that but for the groan of Caldwell not one of the assail- ants would have left the house alive. Such was the awful tragedy at the house. The young men killed were of the very first families of the county, indeed of the state. The excitement was intense; the doctor gave himself up and was put into jail. After the trial the jury retired but a few minutes and returned a verdict of not guilty, on the ground of self-defense. So ended this long-to-be-remembered case in old Fayette." "Indiana Trials and Sketches," page 15 .- G. W. H. K.
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He was a regular graduate and for years en- joyed a successful and lucrative practice.
Dr. Joseph Moffett settled here about 1820. He was a native of New Haven, Conn., and a well-trained student fresh from Yale College. He died in 1833.
About this time Drs. Temple E. Gayle and Joseph S. Burr came to Connersville and began the practice of medicine. Dr. Burr was a small, black-eyed man, wearing plain clothing, and speaking the plain language of "thee and thou." He came here from New Philadelphia, Ohio. Shortly after arriving here he had, for a sign, an enormous swamp lily root, almost as large as a man and cut to resemble one, nailed to the weather boarding of the hotel where he was stay- ing, with a chalk sign above, "Joseph S. Burr, root doctor, no calomel." He later engaged in the drug business. One acquainted with him said "he was a man of some medical knowledge, which he used with moderate success, while to his patrons he utterly denounced all doctor larnin' and made his claims on the 'root' sys- tem." His chief ability consisted of cunning and a knowledge of human nature.
Dr. Temple E. Gayle was a talented man, but died young, October, 1827, at the age of thirty- two years. The "Press" said of him, "'As a man of talent the doctor was excelled by few, if any, in the state; as a practicing physician he was eminently successful and popular."
Dr. Philip Mason was a native of Massachu- setts, born Dec. 10, 1793, and settled in Fayette County in 1816. He finished his course of read-
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ing and clinical studies under Dr. Joseph Moffett of Connersville about 1824. He practiced in the vicinity of Connersville until 1830, part of the time on his farm in Columbia township, the bal- ance of the time at Orange, where he was in partnership with Dr. Jefferson Helm, who later moved to Rushville. In 1829 Dr. Mason was elected Probate Judge of Fayette County and served until 1834. The year following he was elected to the Legislature and twice re-elected to that body. He also served as Master of War- ren Lodge, F. and A. M., for thirteen years, and as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the state for eight years.
Dr. Jefferson Helm, a native of Mason Coun- ty, Kentucky, was born in 1803. He studied medicine with Drs. Moffett and Mason and was licensed to practice in 1827, locating at first at what is now Orange, later moving to Glenwood, where he remained until 1845, when he removed to Rushville.
Dr. Hayman W. Clark was licensed to practice medicine at the same time with Dr. Helm in 1827. Of his later history I have no record.
In 1828 Dr. Samuel Miller located in Con- nersville, having come from Dayton, Ohio.
Another practitioner who advertised in the Press of 1830 was Dr. Charles Barnes.
Dr. Ryland T. Brown, a native of Lewis Coun- ty, Kentucky, came to Rush County in 1821, where he acted as a guide for land seekers until he attended a course at the Ohio Medical Col- lege at Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1829. In August, 1832, he located in Connersville and
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for several years was a partner of Dr. Mason. He remained in Connersville until 1842. In 1854 he was appointed State Geologist by Gov- ernor Wright. In 1858 he was elected to the chair of Natural Science in the N. W. C. Uni- versity, at Indianapolis. He is author of a common school text-book of recognized merit, "Brown's Physiology."
Dr. D. D. Hall, a Virginian, located in Con- nersville, where he continued to practice, except for a few months while in the service as Surgeon of the Thirty-Sixth Regiment, Indiana Volun- teers, until his death, June 20, 1871.
A published statement in 1846, giving the names of physicians practicing here, was Drs. Philip Mason, Samuel Miller, D. D. Hall, John Arnold, E. A. Bacon and S. W. Hughes, of Con- nersville; Greenbury Steele, Columbia township; Alfred Ruby, Alquina; George Winchel, Colum- bia; U. B. Tingley, Harrisburg; Amos Chap- man, Waterloo; Presley Libray, Everton, and Edward Daniels, Orange.
Dr. George R. Chitwood was born in Gallia County, Ohio, May 10, 1805. He was licensed to practice medicine and surgery in 1830, lo- cated in Franklin County, Indiana, in 1831. He attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College 1835-36. He removed to Liberty, Union County, in 1837. In 1846 he received the degree of M.D. from Western Reserve Medical College at Cleveland and removed to Connersville in 1849. He was elected to the chair of General Pathol- ogy and Physical Diagnosis in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in 1859, which
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he filled for the sessions 1859-60. He was then transferred to the chair of Obstetrics and Dis- eases of Women and Children, which he filled for six consecutive sessions, after which time he re- signed on account of domestic afflictions.
On May 24, 1856, the physicians met and organized their first society, called the White Water Valley Medical Society, with the follow- ing as charter members: Drs. Samuel Miller, D. D. Hall, A. H. Chapman, W. J. Pepper, D. Trembly, W. W. Taylor, S. W. Vance, G. R. Chitwood, C. D. B. O'Ryan and V. H. Gregg, of Connersville; B. S. Silory, A. H. Thompson and M. F. Miller, Everton ; H. W. Hazard, Ben- tonville; R. T. Gillum, Waterloo; U. B. Ting- ley, Harrisburg. Dr. W. J. Pepper finished his reading under G. R. Chitwood and began prac- ticing in Connersville at this time.
On April- 22, 1858, they changed the name of the White Water Valley Medical Society to the Fayette County Medical Society and continued its organization until 1861. In the meantime Dr. W. W. Taylor, who located in Connersville some years before, died in 1859.
Dr. Vincent H. Gregg entered the army as Surgeon in the 124th Regiment Indiana Volun- teers, in the First Brigade, First Division, Twen- ty-Third Army Corps, and served in the Depart- ment of the Cumberland under General Sher- man until the close of the war.
Dr. Joshua Chitwood, a son of Dr. George R. Chitwood, graduated in medicine in 1858 and entered the army as Surgeon in the Seventh Regiment, Indiana Cavalry.
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Dr. George W. Garver located in Connersville in 1865, having served in the United States. Navy as Assistant Surgeon on the Western Flo- tilla, Department of the Mississippi.
Dr. S. W. Hughes died in 1865.
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