History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 51

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942

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no Indian ever heard of unless the doctor told him. These were the earliest instances of heterodox prac- tice of which any account or memory is preserved.

In the spring of 1823 the Indiana Central Medical Society was formed to license physicians to practice, the law at that time requiring such evidences of competency. It continued in existence a good many years, but nobody knows how long. The first presi- dent was Dr. Mitchell, and the first secretary Dr. Dunlap. Since then there has been no considerable lapse of time without a medical association of some kind, aud in later years several. The " Indianapolis Medical Association," a sort of social and professional society or club, was maintained for diversion as much as instruction for several years prior to 1863, and probably formed the connecting link between the pioneer society of 1823 and the associations of larger scope and power of to-day. In 1864 it was super- seded by, or combined with, a more compact aud effective body, the "Marion County Association," and the two were formed a little later into the " In- dianapolis Academy of Medicine," incorporated in October, 1865. This body has proved to be what its predecessors were meant to be, an auxiliary influ- ence in promoting the study of medicine and its related sciences, and in supporting the character of the profession. Weekly meetings are held, essays on professional subjects prepared, and discussions of points thus or otherwise suggested carried on, with obvious good results to all concerned. Among the immediate successors of the pioneer doctors, if not of them, were a number better known than any of the earlier arrivals except Dr. Dunlap. Among these were Dr. John E. McClure, Dr. Wm. Tichnor, Dr. John H. Sanders, Dr. John L. Mothershead, Dr. G. W. Mears, Dr. John S. Bobbs, Dr. Charles Parry, all of whom came in the decade between 1828 and 1838.

CHARLES PARRY, M.D., was born in February, 1814, a few miles from Philadelphia. His parents were Friends. His literary education was received mainly at Wilmington, Del., in a school under the charge of Samuch Smith. This gentleman was fa- mous for his devotion to tobacco and mathematics. Hc was an inveterate and constant smoker, and one

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of the most successful mathematical instructors. The smoking example was lost on Charles Parry. He never became a slave to tobacco in any form; but the mathematical instruction found a mind that was well developed and strengthened under its rigid discipline, and this part of his education-cultivat- ing his perceptive and reasoning powers, teaching him accuracy and clearness of thought-had much to do with making him in after-years a clear-headed, sagacious practitioner above the majority of physi- cians. No network of fallacies and sophistrics could entangle him, but through them all he marched de- liberately and steadily right onward to rest upon solid truth and fixed facts.

His classical education was defective, and knowl- edge of Greek and Latin he had none. This he greatly regretted, and had therc not been this defect he would not only have enjoyed a wider range of medical literature than he did, but he himself would have been a frequent contributor to medical journals, and the treasures of his experience, the fruit of his ripened judgment and large understanding, would have been valuable indeed. Twice only, each time in Hays' Journal, did he break his life-long silence by speaking to the profession through the press ; but those two articles,-one an account of an operation on a limb crooked and useless from a badly-treated fracture, the operation similar to that performed by Barton for anchylosed knee, and the other on conges- tive fever,-though published many years ago, gave him a name ever known by all intelligent members of the profession throughout the country.

He began the study of medicine with Dr. Stokes, of New Jersey. Afterward he went to Philadelphia, entered the office of the late Dr. J. K. Mitchell, sub- scquently the eminent professor of theory and prac- tice in Jefferson College, and commenced attending lectures at the University. He graduated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylva- nia in the spring of 1835, the subject of his thesis being " Hæmoptysis." Immediately upon graduat- ing he went to Camden, N. J., and there had his first experience of the trials of a young physician. In a year or two he removed to the West by the advice of his uncle, the late Hon. O. H. Smith, then

a member of the United States Senate from Indiana, settling in Connersville. Thence he removed in about two years to the capital, and here he resided until his death, a period of nearly twenty-three years.

Not at once, however, did he meet his professional success, not at once find a place in the golden field for his sickle; other rcapers monopolized the labor and the reward. He was poor, often having to borrow money to pay the postage on letters from his friends in the East; but he patiently waited until time and opportunity should vindicate his right to occupy a foremost place among practitioners of medicine and surgery. These came, and a few years found him doing as large a business as any physician in the city, possibly larger. During some seasons, when severe epidemics of malarial fever occurred, it was not unusual for him to ride sixty or seventy-five miles a day, and the night brought him no rest. Sometimes even a week would elapse without his divesting himself of his clothes, but he would sleep in a chair, in his buggy, sometimes even on horseback. No man, unless possessed of an iron constitution such as he had, could endure so great fatigue and exposure. Physically he was a remarkable man. His bodily presence was impressive. A manly, crect figure, about six feet in height, his weight over two hundred, he would have been taken in any assembly as a man of mark.

It is rare to find such a combination of professional abilities as existed in Dr. Parry's case. He was a superior physician and an excellent surgeon and ob- stetrician. His obstetrical business for some time averaged over eighty cases a year, and every year he had a greater or less number of capital operations. As a surgeon he was not a brilliant, dashing ope- rator, but cool, collected, his eye intent upon his work, his hand steady and firm. He always knew where his knife was, and never attempted what he could not readily perform, and never operated merely for the sake of operating. His abilities as an opera- tive surgeon were indeed excellent.

But his greatest merit was as a practitioner of medicine. It may be inferred that he was highly esteemed in this regard from a remark made by one of the most intelligent and successful practitioners at

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a meeting of physicians held to take action in refer- ence to his death : " Had we been taken dangerously sick, and were we thinking whom we would prefer to attend us, the great majority would decide for Dr. Parry." This commendation was most worthily bestowed.

Dr. Parry was not rash in forming his opinion nor in jumping at conclusions. He studied disease not so much in books as at the bedside, and he thoroughly investigated a case, even if that investigation required an hour or more. He was cautious, seeking all the light he could, carefully reasoning, and his natural sagacity, logical understanding, and strong practical sense directed him almost invariably to a correct diag- nosis. Seldom, indeed, could a man be found making fewer mistakes.

Dr. Parry did not hesitate to use freely, in what he believed proper cases, the lancet, mercury, and blister, and his patients got well oftener, sooner, bet- ter than they would have done under the treatment of those who in effect renounce art and rely only on nature.

In three important respects Dr. Parry's life must be pronounced a decided success. First, in the at- tainment of wealth; second, in the attainment of reputation ; and third and highest, in the relief of much sufferiog.

While it is pleasant to speak of his abilities and the success which crowned their exercise, yet the moral aspects of his character must not be entirely neglected, and on those especially it is grateful to dwell. He was honest; honest not merely in busi- ness transactions, but honest in all his intercourse with his professional brethren, and honest, too, in the sick-room and at the bedside, honest in matters of life and death. A deceiver in any respect he never could be.

could prevent future mistakes. He was kind to his patients and profoundly sympathetic, though usually repressing decided manifestation, and yet he often wept with all a woman's tenderness with the father and mother over their dying child.

His was too noble a spirit to be consumed by the fires of jealousy. If families left him-a rare event in the case of any worthy ones; his friends adhered to him with great tenacity-he cherished no unkind feeling towards their new medical adviser, attributed to him no dishonesty of conduct, cultivated no spirit of retaliation, but, without a whisper of complaint, graciously and gracefully yielded. He would listen patiently to the opinions of the youngest physician, and if they could be well established, no false pride, no prejudice kept him from at once abandoning his own and accepting them. He was not blind either to the truth of the judgments or to the abilities of others. Indeed, he was one of the most catholic of men.

His character was fixcd, not fickle. Few men pre- sented more manly front or stood more firmly on their feet than he did. He changed not from year to year. He was no April day, alternate sunshine and clouds, the light of love and the darkness of hate; but his friendship was abiding, weakened by no lapse of time, varying not from month to month or year to year, no mean jealousy or plotting liate disturbing the equa- nimity of his temper or the kindness of his conduct. He was ever the same speaking of you or to 'you. Resentful he might have been at times when greatly wronged, but it was rarely manifested, and there were wrongs that he did not resent. He meekly for- bore when others might have been provoked, lest he might say or do anything which would cause unkind feelings or pain.

Had Dr. Charles Parry enjoyed a more liberal lit- erary education, had he been more ambitious of fame and been given a larger sphere, an arena suitable for such strength and culture, he might have placed him- self among the foremost men not only of the country but of the age. His death occurred at his home in Indianapolis on the 11th of August, 1861.

To his friends he was generous and kind-hearted. Many a young physician knows that his start in pro- fessional life was in great measure due to the kind words and deeds of Dr. Parry. His time and inval- uable counsel were ever at the service of the young practitioner in difficult cases without hope of pecuni- ary reward. He kindly concealed errors from the JOHN L. MOTHERSHEAD, M.D .- Nathaniel Moth- erring party, unless by plain statement of them he ershead, the father of the doctor, was of English

JOHN L. MOTHERSHEAD.

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with Dr. P. H. Jameson in practice, and for three years with Dr. Henry Jameson. Dr. Funkhouser has confined himself to practice of a general char- acter, though his skill as a surgeon has been largely called into requisition, much of the general surgical work of the city having for a period of years come under his supervision. He was also, during the late war, connected with the military hospitals located in Indianapolis. He has been a member of the Indian- apolis Medical Society, as also of the State Medical Society. In 1849, during the early years of his pro- fessional career, he was demonstrator of anatomy in the Indianapolis Medical College. In politics he has always been a pronounced Democrat, but not an active worker nor an aspirant for official position. He is a supporter of the First Baptist Church of the city of Indianapolis, of which Mrs. Funkhouser is a member. Dr. Funkhouser was married, in 1865, to Miss Amanda, daughter of Daniel Lynn, of Dearborn County, Ind. Their children are two daughters, Lizzie M. and Jessie L. J., both residing with their parents.

Dr. PATRICK HENRY JAMESON was born in Jeffer- son County April 18, 1824, received a good English education in the country schools, and came to Indian- apolis in the fall of 1842, where he taught school for a short time, then studied medicine with the late Dr. John H. Sanders, attended the Medical College of Louisville in 1847-48, and subsequently the Jefferson College of Philadelphia. He graduated in 1849, and began practice the same year in Indianapolis. In a short time he and Dr. Funkhouser were asso- ciated, and remained so longer than any other partners in a professional business in the city. Dr. Jameson has been president of both the Indiana Medical Society and the Indianapolis Academy of Medicine. For about eightcen years he was on the Board of Commissioners of the State Benevolent Institutions (the asylums), and wrote in that time cighteen annual reports of them ; also a report to the Indiana Society on the use of " veratrum viride" in typhoid and puerperal fevers, and an address on the " Relation of Scientific Medicine to Quackery." For five years during and after the war he was the State surgeon in charge of State and national troops in the camps and i is under the same direction.

hospitals of the city. He was also assistant surgeon of the United States army for three years, and for eight years physician to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. From 1869-79 he was president of the joint Board of Commissioners of the State Asylums, and for many years was. president of the board of directors of Butler University. The Insane Asylum owes more to his vigilance and sagacity than any other man in the State, and the city of Indianapolis is not less deeply indebted to his sound and honorable financial manage- ment. He entered the Council in 1863 and remained until 1869, and all the time was intrusted with the almost absolute direction of the city finances. During this period heavy sums had to be raised for bounties for volunteers, and it required masterly ability to keep affairs in good order in such an urgent and constant strait. He found the city in debt, yet, in spite of the heavy outlays, he left it with one hun- dred thousand dollars of current debt only, and with two hundred and sixty thousand dollars in the treasury to pay it. For the last ten years he has had associated with him his nephew, Dr. Henry Jameson, a professor in the Medical College of Indiana, and one of the most distinguished young scientists in the West. The elder doctor, June 20, 1850, married Maria, daughter of the late Ovid Butler, founder of Butler University ; the younger was married to Gertrude, daughter of H. G. Carey, the banker, in the winter of 1875.

Among the professors of the first medical college, as above stated, was Dr. John S. Bobbs, as well known almost as a skillful and adroit party manager of the Whigs as he was an accomplished and thoroughi physician. He was a forcible writer on any subject to which he turned his hand, and he wrote a great deal on professional and public subjects both in news- papers and special publications. In all public move- ments affecting the welfare of the city, whether concerning him professionally or not, he was always active and effective. A bequest of two thousand dollars he made at his death is the foundation of the " Bobbs' Dispensary," for the benefit of the suffering poor of Indianapolis, managed by the faculty of the " Medical College of Indiana." The " Bobbs' Library"

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J.S. Bock.

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JOHN S. BOBBS, M.D., the subject of this biog- raphy, was born at Green Village, Cumberland Co., Pa., on the 28th of December, 1809. His boyhood was spent-his parents being poor-in the acquisition of such knowledge as could be obtained at the then very common schools of a country village. At the age of eighteen he wended his way on foot to Harrisburg, then, as now, the seat of government of Pennsylvania, in quest of employment. Being a lad of much more than ordinary intelligence, he attracted the attention of Dr. Martin Luther, then a practitioner of some eminence in that city. Upon a more thorough ac- quaintance the doctor's interest increased, and, feeling that the delicate and slender physique of his young friend unfitted him for the more rugged encounter with the world, proposed, upon the most liberal terms, his entrance to his office as a student of medicine. Unhappily, this noble patron did not long survive to see with what fidelity to his own interests and with what devotion to study his protégé had rewarded his generosity. Such indeed was the diligence with which he applied himself to books that, notwithstand- ing the obstacles of a deficient preliminary education, he fitted himself, with the aid of a single course of lectures, for the successful practice of his profession in less than three years. His first essay in this direc- tion was made at Middletown, Pa., where he remained four years. Having early determined to make surgery a specialty, he found the locality he had chosen un- suited for the work, and soon decided upon selecting some point in the great West as the field of his future labors.

In 1835 he came to Indianapolis with the view of making it his permanent residence. True to his great purpose of securing for himself distinction in his chosen profession, he now gave himself up to study, -severe, unremitting study,-both classical and pro- fessional. Soon sufficiently familiar with the lan- guages, he bent his entire energies to investigations in his favorite department. As a means of further- ing the objects of his very earnest pursuit after sur- gical knowledge, he concluded to avail himself of the advantages of a winter's dissections and clinical obser- vations at Jefferson Medical College, where the degree of doctor of medicine was conferred upon him. Rap-

idly attaining a reputation throughout the length and breadth of the State which might satisfy the most vaulting ambition, he was tendered by the trustees of Asbury University the chair of surgery in the " Cen- tral Medical College," then about being established in Indianapolis, and made dean of the faculty. His lec- tures and operations before the class were fully up to the highest standards of the profession. His descrip- tions of healthy and diseased action, and the changes from the one to the other, have never been surpassed in point of clearness and accuracy and graphic force and eloquence.

" He always held his profession sacred, high above all trickery and quackery, and labored with incessant diligence to place it in public estimation upon the same footing it held in his own regard. The most earnest and eloquent words came from his heart and lips when urging upon the minds of his classes the duty of fidelity to the cause of scientific medicine. In that duty he was ever faithful, even to the moment of his death."

To the poor and needy he was always wisely kind and beneficent. When called upon professionally to attend the sick poor, he was known in innumerable instances to furnishı, beside gratuitous service and necessary medicines, the means of life during their illness. The great beauty of his character, in this respect, was that his charities were always rendered without display or ostentation. He was a man of indefatigable industry, and until his death a devoted student, laboring at his books as few men work. With a slender constitution at best, and a system worn down by disease contracted in the army, he labored incessantly. His days were given to the duties of an arduous surgical practice, and his nights spent almost wholly in his library.

He was a model friend. He saw the real character of all whom he admitted to his intimacy and friend- ship ; and while to all the outside world he faithfully hid their faults, he candidly and fully presented them to him whose character they marred. This duty -- the highest and most delicate and difficult of all the duties of friendship and of life owed by man to man -he had the good sense, discrimination, and tact to perform always without insulting or wounding his friends. He was superior to all dissimulation, and

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spoke the truth with such frankness and earnestness that it was impossible to take offense at it. His friendships all stood upon a higher plane than any mere selfish interest. He accepted or rejected men as friends for their manhood or their want of it. The personal or social trappings and circumstances of men neither attracted nor repelled him. He felt and knew that

" The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that,"

and elected his friends, not for the image and super- scription which family or position had impressed upon them, but for the original metal. So selected, he grappled them with books of steel, and never gave them up until they had shown by some violation of principle that they were unworthy of his regard. He discriminated wisely the faults that proceed from im- pulse and enthusiasm from those that grow out of calculation and self-interest. To the former he was as kind and forgiving as a mother to the faults of her child ; the latter he never forgave.

For a short time he engaged in politics,-not, how- ever, as a matter of choice, but from a sense of duty. He carried with him into the public arena the same thorough and exhaustive preparation, the same scru- pulous regard for truth and fair dealing, the same severe devotion to reason, and the same lofty and fiery eloquence that lent such a charm to his profes- sional addresses. In this singular episode of his life he met the obligations of his position, and performed them so as to win the confidence and approbation of his constituents.

Dr. Bobbs was married, in 1840, to Miss Catherine Cameron, the youngest of eight children, and the sister of Hon. Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania. He has left the record of a life fragrant with kindly deeds and memorable for its usefulness.

In May, 1869, the " Indiana Medical College" was organized mainly or wholly by the efforts of the In- dianapolis Academy. It was intended in the first scheme of organization to make it a department of the State University, and obtain the aid of the State for it in that way, but a committee consisting of Dr. Bobbs, Dr. Mears, and Dr. Woodburn reported against it, and the academy concurred. A second

committee of five-Drs. Waterman, Harvey, Todd, Gaston, and Kitchen-reported in favor of a home medical college, sustained by its own brains and means, and the academy concurred, adopted the pro- posed plan, and selected the first faculty : Dr. John S. Bobbs, President, and Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery ; George W. Mears, Obstetrics ; Ryland T. Brown, Chemistry and Toxicology ; Rob- ert N. Todd, Vice-President, Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine ; L. D. Waterman, Descrip- tive and Surgical Anatomy ; T. B. Harvey, Treasurer, Professor of Diseases of Women and Children ; William B. Fletcher, Physiology ; F. S. Newcomer, Materia Medica and Therapeutics; J. A. Comingor, Surgical Pathology, Orthopedic and Clinical Surgery ; C. E. Wright, Demonstrator of Anatomy. On May 4th articles of association were reported by Dr. Bobbs, approved and signed by the other members of the faculty, and Judge Samuel E. Perkins and John D. Howland made trustees with the faculty. The academy subscribed freely to support the institution, and it began its first session in October, 1869.

THOMAS B. HARVEY, M.D., who is descended from English stock, is the son of the late Dr. Jesse Harvey, of Harveysburg, Warren Co., Ohio, a physician of scientific attainments and eminence in his profession, and Elizabeth Burgess, daughter of Thomas and Betty Burgess, of Virginia. Their son, the subject of this biographical sketch, was born Nov. 29, 1827, in Clinton County, Ohio, and removed on attaining his second year to Harveysburg. His advantages of education were derived from the Harveysburg High School, an institution founded by his father, with whom, on completing his classical course, he began the study of medicine in 1846 aud graduated from the Medical College of Ohio, at Cin- cinnati. His first field of labor was at Plainfield, Ind., to which place he removed in 1851, and con- tinued in active practice until 1862, when he was tendered and accepted the appointment of Examining Surgeon for the Sixth Congressional District, with headquarters at Indianapolis. The doctor held this position until the close of the war. Meanwhile asso- ciations both of a professional and social character had been formed which influenced him to make

١٨٠٠٠ ٨٫٥٠

. R. Ford.

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History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 51

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 942

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942