History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 52

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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Indianapolis his permanent residence, his practice having already become extended and lucrative. Dur- ing the year 1869 the Indiana Medical College was organized and Dr. Harvey appointed to the chair of professor of medical and surgical diseases of women, which he still fills. Quick and clear in apprehension, concise and vigorous in language, and a thorough master of the special branch of medical science he elucidates, his clinics are sought alike by students and active practitioners.

Dr. Harvey has been for twenty years consulting physician in the same special department at the City Hospital, as also in St. Vincent's Hospital since its organization, and has for ten years been consulting physician to the City Dispensary. He aided in the organization of the Hendricks County Medical So- ciety, read the first paper before that body, and was subsequently its president. He also aided materially in the organization of the Indianapolis Academy of Medicine, and was honored as the first member to fill the office of president. He became a member of the State Medical Society during the third year of its existence ; was made its vice-president in 1865, and its president in 1880. He is also a member of the American Medical Association, and of the Mississippi Valley Medical Society, before which bodies he has read many able papers which showed him to be a faithful observer of the nature and forms of disease, an original thinker, and logical in his reasoning. His reputation as a physician has extended far beyond the limits of the city of his residence and caused his services to be largely sought in consultation. In his politieal predilections the doctor may be spoken of as descended from abolitionist stock and educated in the doctrines of that party. His grandmother Burgess (who was a Hendricks, of Virginia) accepted her patrimony in slaves that she might bring them to Ohio and liberate them. His ancestors were Quakers of the strictest sort both in their religious life and faith.

Dr. Harvey was married in 1853 to Miss Delitha, daughter of Stephen Butler, of Union County, Ind., whose ancestors were of Virginia stock. Their children are Emma, deceased, Lawson M., an attorney in Indianapolis, Frank Hamilton, deceased, Jesse B.,

and Lizzie, the two latter being students at Earlham College, in Richmond.

ROBERT N. TODD, M.D .- Robert Nathaniel, son of Levi L. Todd, was born Jan. 4, 1827, near Lex- ington, Ky., which place had been the home of his father's family for two generations. His mother was the daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Ashby, of Virginia, and who served as an officer of the line throughout the war of the Revolution. Robert was the seventh born in a family of nine children, two of whom died in infancy ; the remainder having reached maturity, though only two survive. him. His family removed to Indiana in 1834, since which time his home was in Indianapolis and vicinity until the time of his death, which occurred on the 13th day of June, 1883.

His early advantages wore indifferent. He re- ceived a common-school education such as the country at that day afforded, with such a knowledge of Latin as he could pick up (unaided by a teacher) from an old grammar and reader and a copy of " Æsop's Fables," with the reading of a few volumes of history and travel. !

Physically he was delicate, and rather a sickly boy, being frequently troubled with sore throat and gland- ular swellings about the neck, while he was always dyspeptic from a child. Gaining in strength and health, however, as he grew older, he performed a good deal of hard labor upon the farm, until, at the age of nineteen, he began the study of law at South Bend with Judge Liston, his brother-in-law ; but at . the expiration of a year and a half returned to the farm, where he remained until, broken down by hard labor and ill health, he was compelled, at the end of two years, to abandon farm work entirely. After having remained at home for some months an in- valid he visited Dr. David Todd, of Danville, by whom he was induced to commence the study of medicine, which he did as a diversion from low spirits, not expecting ever to be well enough to turn it to practical account. His health, however, soon began to improve, and the next year he attended lectures at the old " Indiana Central Medical Col- lege," and the following year (1851) graduated, and settled the succeeding spring at Southport, where he

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remained until the breaking out of the war, having in the spring of 1854 been married to Miss Margaret White, of that neighborhood.

In the year 1861 he was appointed surgeon of the Twenty-sixth Indiana Volunteers, and went soon after with his regiment to Missouri, where he remained on duty in camp and hospital for about twenty months. Having resigned his position upon his return home, he soon after removed to Indianapolis, and again entered the government service as surgeon at Camp Morton, where, associated with Dr. Kipp, of the regular army, and under the medical directorship of Dr. Bobbs, he continued until the close of the war.

In the year following his removal to Indianapolis he was married the second time, to Mrs. Martha J. Edgar, who, with three children of his first and four of his second marriage, still survive him.

There having been no medical college since the disbanding of the old one, which occurred in 1852, in the year 1869 the organization of the Indiana Medical College was effected, in which he was chosen as teacher of theory and practice, and continued thus engaged until the spring of 1874. Shortly after, upon the organization of the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons (he himself having been the originator), he was assigned the same department, and held it until the union of the two medical schools in 1878 under the style of "The Medical College of Indiana." He was elected to the same chair occupied in the two other organizations, viz., principles and practice of medicine, which was filled until his death.

He was the first representative from his State upon the Judicial Council of the American Medical Asso- ciation, which he held for several successive terms, and to which he was again elected, in his absence, at the last meeting.

Dr. Todd was president of the State Society in 1871, was an active worker for seven years upou the provisional board, created by the Legislature, and whose work was the erection and fitting up of the large building occupied as the female department of the Hospital for the Insane, and was one of the phy- sicians to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum for nearly eight years. He served a single term in the Legis-

lature as representative in 1856-57, besides which he held no position disconnected with his profession.

As a lecturer his manner was easy, dignified, and not ungraceful ; his words were well chosen, his lan- guage plain but forcible, sometimes eloquent, and always commanded the attention of his auditors.

As a teacher he was clear and explicit, easily understood, and well remembered; talked much of the specific nature of diseases and their laws of reproduction, and dwelt largely upon the general principles of pathology and their application in special forms of diseases, frequently referring to them in the solution of minor questions.

As a practitioner of medicine he was eminently successful. His notably quick perceptive faculties, his careful and systematic methods of examination, with a comprehensive knowledge of pathology, gen- eral and special, combined to make him skillful in the diagnosis of disease ; while his ready resources and originality of thought in the application of means left him entirely independent of routine thera- peutics.

His health was always inconstant, having been subject to acute attacks throughout his adult life, and these increased upou him very notably in force and frequency of late years. His robust appearance and vigorous manner and movement were deceptive as to his real condition, and from the indisposition that began in August, 1882, which was unusually pro- longed and severe, he never recovered his aceustomed tone, though filling most of his lecture course. With the loss of vital resistance incident to his age and condition, he sank at last under the effects of a cas- ualty from which he could easily have recovered a few years earlier in life. Not old, it is true, in years, but relatively as life is really to be reckoned by its vicissitudes and hardships, he was much farther advanced.

JOHN A. COMINGOR, M.D., is of German ex- traction, his grandfather, who was the first member of the family to emigrate, having settled in New York State and later removed to Kentucky. He married and had children,-Abram, Henry, David, Samuel, and four daughters. Samuel, of these sons, was born in 1797 in Kentucky, and remained in that

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State until 1826, when he removed to Johnson County, Ind. He married Miss Mary Gibbs, of Georgia, and had children,-Henry, George, David, John A., Cynthia, Rachel, Sarah, and Jane. John A. was born on the 17th of March, 1828, in John- son County, Ind. His youth was uneventful, the common school of the vicinity having afforded him early instruction, after which he became a pupil of the Greenwood Academy. He early decided upon a medical carecr, and on completing his English course began the study of medicine with Drs. Noble and Wishard, of Greenwood. Here he continued for three years, meanwhile attending lectures at the Central Medical College of Indianapolis during the sessions of 1849-50, and graduating from the medi- cal department of. the University of New York in 1860. Dr. Comingor practiced until 1861 at Dan- ville, Hendricks Co., when he was appointed surgeon of the Eleventh Indiana Infantry and served until May, 1865, having participated in the engagements at Shiloh, Champion Hills, the siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Miss., and others of minor importance. During this period of activity his duties were chiefly in the field. On returning from the service he located in Indianapolis and at once engaged in gen- eral practice, which increased as his ability and skill became more widely known. He has been physician and surgeon to the City Hospital, to St. Vincent's Hospital, and to the City Dispensary. He assisted in founding and is one of the charter members of the Medical College of Indiana, in which he has filled the chair of professor of surgery from 1869 ·until the present timc. The doctor is a member of the State Medical Society, of the County Medical Society, of the National Association, and National Surgical Association, and has at various times read many papers of interest before these societies, and been a frequent contributor to the medical periodicals of the day. Dr. Comingor was, in 1855, married to Miss Lucy Williamson, of Greencastle, Ind., and has three children, Ada, Harry, and Carrie, all of whom reside with their parents. Dr. Comingor is at present a member of the staff of Governor Porter, with the appointment of surgeon-general of the State.

WILLIAM BALDWIN FLETCHER, M.D., was born Aug. 18, 1837, at Indianapolis. His early years were spent upon the farm of his father (now the corner of South Street and Virginia Avenue), his first school being that held in a new log school-house which had been erected in the woods, between New Jersey and East Streets, on South Street.

He was a dreamer in school, and made more pro- gress by observation than from books. An intense love of nature made him incline to solitude, and a peculiar antagonism to customs and. social forms caused him even in childhood to be cynical and bitter. During 1853 and 1854 he attended the preparatory school of Asbury University, and went to Lancaster, Mass., in 1855 to prepare for Harvard, but his in- tense love of natural history caused him to abandon the idea of a regular course, and under the lectures of Louis Agassiz, and directed by Prof. Sanborn Turney, he pursued geology, botany, and zoology, and finally medicine. From 1856 to 1859 his studies were carried on in New York City at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he graduated in October of that year. On completing his course he settled in Indianapolis, and remained until the calling out of troops for the war of the Rebellion.

Dr. Fletcher was the first surgeon to open a mili- tary hospital in what was known as Camp Morton. He went into the field with the Sixth Indiana In- fantry, and was detailed on Gen. T. A. Morris' staff. After the three months' troops returned home he was transferred to Gen. J. J. Reynolds' staff, where, until captured, he had charge of the secret service. He was captured while on detached duty at Big Spring, taken to Huntersville, Poco- hontas Co., Va., in irons, brought before Gen. Robert E. Lee, and kept in solitary confinement for six weeks. He made two attempts to escape, and in the last was wounded and sent to the jail, where he remained until October, when he was tried by court-martial and ordered to execution by Gen. Don- aldson. He was reprieved by Gen. Lee until further investigation could be had, and sent on to Richmond, where, through the fortunate ignorance of Sergt. (afterwards Capt.) Wirtz, his identity was lost as

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a special prisoner, and he was put into the officers' prison, from which he was paroled to take charge of the Gangrene Hospital at Rocketts, a suburb of Richmond. In March, 1862, he was paroled and sent home, when he again entered upon the practice of his profession, but during the whole war performed medical and surgical duty either for the Christian Commission or for the State and general government, visiting Stone River, Perryville, Vicksburg, etc., to bring home wounded or promote the comfort of those sick in the field. He was one of the medical ex- aminers during the " draft," and had charge of one section of the prison hospital at Camp Morton until the war was ended.

During the years 1866 and 1867 he visited Lon- don and Paris, Glasgow and Dublin, to study in the hospitals. For thirteen years he held the various chairs of physiology, materia medica, anatomy, and theory and practice of medicine in the Indiana Medi- cal College. He was for five years superintendent of the City Dispensary, and for fifteen years visiting surgeon or consulting physician to the City Hos- pital or St. Vincent's Hospital. He was first presi- deot of the Indiana State Microscopical Society.

Dr. Fletcher, besides general contributions to cur- rent literature, has written several monographs which have been largely copied in American and foreign journals, among them "The History of Asiatic Cholera," " Various Entozoa Found in Pork," "Five Cases of Trichiniasis," " Human Entozoa," " Organic Origin of Diamonds," " Natural History of Women." The doctor during the fall of 1882 became a candi- date for State Senator from Marion County on the Democratic ticket, and was elected. He was, June 7, 1883, made superintendent of the Indiana Hos- pital for the Insane, in which capacity he is now serving. Dr. Fletcher was, in 1862, married to Miss Agnes O'Brien. Their children are Agnes W., Robert O'B., Lucy Hines, Albert Carolan, Aileen and Una (twins), and William Baldwin.

In 1874 a division occurred in the faculty of the " Indiana Medical College," and a part organized the " Indiana College of Physicians and Surgeons" in the Talbott Block, northwest corner of Market and Peun- sylvania Streets, while a part continued the old school

in the block ou Delaware Street opposite the court- house. In 1878 the two institutions were brought together again, and called the " Medical College of Indiana." It now has ample and admirably-arranged rooms in the building on the northeast corner of Pennsylvania and Maryland Streets. The graduates of the session of 1882-83 numbered fifty-threc.

The present faculty is Graham N. Fitch, M.D., Emeritus Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery ; John A. Comingor, M.D., Professor of the Bobbs Chair of Surgery and the Principles and Prac- tice of Surgery ; Thomas B. Harvey, M.D., Professor of Surgical and Clinical Diseases of Women ; Isaac C. Walker, M.D., Professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System ; Henry Jameson, M.D., Pro- fessor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Children ; John Chambers, M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Medicine ; C. E. Wright, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; J. L. Thompson, M.D., Professor of Diseases of the Eye and Ear ; J. W. Marsce, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Mechanical and Clinical Surgery ; Alembert W. Brayton, M.D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology ; George L. Curtiss, M.D., Professor of Physiology ; James H. Taylor, M.D., Demonstrator of Anatomy ; William F. Hays, M.D., Librarian and Assistant to the Chair of Chemistry ; J. A. Haugh, M.D., Curator of the Museum ; F. A. Morrison, M.D., Asssistant Demonstrator of Anatomy and Prosector; W. N. Wishard, M.D., Assistant to the Chair of Principles and Practice of Medicine; L. S. Henthorn, M.D., Assistant to the Chair of Ob- stetrics ; F. M. Wiles, M.D., Assistant to the Chair. of Materia Medica and Therapeutics ; J. E. Hoover, M.D., Prosector to the Chair of Anatomy ; Oliver Wright, Janitor.

The officers of the college are John A. Comingor, Dean ; John Chambers, Treasurer ; Henry Jameson, Secretary.

ISAAC C. WALKER, M.D .- The family of Dr. Walker are of English descent, the earliest repre- sentative in America having settled in Virginia. William Walker, his grandfather, a native of the latter State, resided in Wilmington, Ohio, where he engaged in farming employments. Among his chil.

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CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS.

dren was Azel, born in Waynesville, Ohio, in 1802, who became a manufacturer in Wilmington, and later an extensive land-owner. He married Miss Elizabeth P., daughter of Joshua Robinson, of Logan County, Ohio, and had children,-Edward B., deceased, a promising lawyer ; Isaac C .; Cyrus M., a pork mer- chant in Wilmington, Ohio; John R., deceased, a practicing physician in Wilmington ; Louis C., one of the judges of the Superior Court of Indianapolis ; Calvin B., deputy commissioner of pensions at Wash- ington, and author of a work on pension law ; Amos J., a wholesale druggist and member of the firm of Walling & Co., of Indianapolis ; Eliza Ann and Martha J., of Richmond, Ind. Mr. Walker's death occurred in Wilmington at the age of sixty- eight years, and that of Mrs. Walker, in Richmond, at the age of seventy-two years. Their son Isaac C. was born July 30, 1827, in Wilmington, where his early youth was devoted to study. His education having been completed at the Wilmington Seminary in 1846, he immediately began the study of medicine with Dr. Amos T. Davis, of Wilmington, with whom he continued three years, after which he attended a course of lectures at the old Cleveland Medical Col- lege, and graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery and the University of Louis- ville, Ky. After a brief period of practice with his preceptor, he removed to Peru, Ind., and there con- tinued until his advent in Indianapolis in 1870, where his abilities soon gave him a leading rank in the profession, and brought an extended and lucra- tive practice. He is frequently called in consultation in remote parts of the State as an acknowledged authority on diseases of the mind and nervous sys- tem. He was one of the founders of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Indiana, and was at its organization elected to the chair of diseases of the mind and nervous system. This college was, after an existence of five years, consolidated with the Indiana Medical College, the institution becoming the Medical College of Indiana, in which the doctor fills the same professorship.

He is in his political affiliations a Republican, and was in 1878-79 elected to the City Council, of which he was president during the latter year. He is a

Presbyterian in his religious associations, and wor- ships with the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, of which Mrs. Walker is a member. Dr. Walker was, in May, 1852, married to Miss Margaret A., daughter of John Constant, of Wilmington, Ohio. Their children are two sons,- John C., a practicing physician in Indianapolis, and Frank B., who is engaged in the commission business.

Dr. Walker is a member of the Marion County Medical Society, of which he was president in 1880. He is a member of the State Medical Society, of the American Medical Association, and of the Tri-State Medical Society. He was, in 1882, elected dean of the faculty of the Medical College of Indiana. The doctor is an occasional and valued contributor to the medical journals of the day. His article on the sub- ject and treatment of cerebral hemorrhage, inspired by the circumstances connected with the death of Dr. James S. Anthon, is regarded as an important con- tribution to medical literature, and pronounced by the most eminent authority in the West "a philosophic and most excellently written paper, and one of the ablest he had read." Another on " Leucocythæmia," a condition in which there is an increase of the white corpuscles, the result of which is a general enlarge- ment of the lymphatic glands, attracted marked attention.

CHARLES E. WRIGHT, M.D., was born in Indian- apolis, Ind., on the 1st of November, 1843. His collegiate education was obtained at the Indiana Asbury University, at Greencastle, in that State, after which he became a student of medicine at the Medical College of Ohio, in Cincinnati, where he graduated in March, 1868. Immediately after he settled in his native city in the practice of his pro- profession, making a specialty of diseases of the eye, ear, and nose, in which branches he is universally regarded as an expert, and in which his practice has become extended. His success in these specialties is exceptional as the result of profound knowledge of the science of medicine and marked ability. Dr. Wright is a member of the Indiana Academy of Sciences, and in 1868 was its secretary. He is also a member of the Marion County Medical Society, and of the Indiana State Medical Society. In

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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

1869 he was demonstrator of anatomy in the In- diana Medical College, and subsequently professor of materia medica, therapeutics, and diseases of the eye and ear in the same institution, of which he was at various times both secretary and president. He is also a member of the staff at the City Hospital, phy- sician to St. John's Home for Invalids, and was for four years physician to the Blind Asylum. In 1875 and 1876 he was president of the Indianapolis Board of Health ; filled the same office, in connection with the Indiana Medico-Legal Fraternity, in 1877 and 1878, and at present occupies the chair of materia medica and therapeutics in the Medical College of In- diana and the medieal department of Butler University. During the war of the Rebellion he held the position of quartermaster-sergeant of the camp of instruction, and was later superintendent of commissary stores at Nashville, Tenn., and chief clerk of the commissary of the subsistenee department of Kentucky in the Union army. He was appointed surgeon-general on the staff of Governor Williams in July, 1878, with the rank of colonel, and is now chief of staff of St. Vincent's Hospital. Dr. Wright's contributions to the medical literature of the day have been numer- ous and important, eoveriog the whole period of his professional life, his thesis on " Spontaneous Evo- lution" having been published in the Western Journal of Medicine in March, 1868, and his reports of " Diseases of the Eye and Ear" in the " Transactions of the Indiana State Medical Society" for 1870 and 1871. He was for some time editor of the Indiana Medical Journal, to which he contributed many edi- torials, reports of cases, etc., that attracted .attention. In literary circles outside the profession Dr. Wright has always been a leading spirit, and active in the organization of some of the most important associa- tions in the city of Indianapolis, having been presi- dent of the Scottish Rite Dramatic Association since its organization. He is an active member of the Masonic order, in which he has attained the thirty- third degree, is a member of Raper Commandery, No. 1, of Knights Templar of Indianapolis, and also medical examiner of the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is an ardent Democrat. In religion he is liberal toward all sects and ereeds, and not sectarian

in his faith. Dr. Wright was married in November, 1870, to Miss Anna Haugh, of Indianapolis. Their children are Charlotta and Charles E., Jr.

. As previously related, the homœopathie practice was introduced here by Dr. Coe after his conversion, about 1838, but it was some years before anybody else came to give his system support and countenance. The first was Dr. Van Buren, who came about 1843, and established a fair practice, which he maintained till near 1850. In 1844 the late Dr. Konradin Homburg came, and for a time practiced homœopa- thy, but in time he approached the regular school pretty closely, and practiced chiefly on the allopathic system, though to the last he is said to have had pa- tients who demanded homœopathic treatment. In 1852, Dr. Wright, of the Hahnemann school, came ; in 1855, Dr. Shaw, and in 1856, Dr. Corliss, who re- mains. In 1868 a State organization of this school was made, and in 1873 a county society was formed, both still in vigorous existence. No school or college of this medieal persuasion has ever been opened here, but some two years ago a dispensary was established on West Ohio Street, near Meridian, and maintained for about a year. Among the most prominent and successful of this school is Dr. J. A. Compton, from whom the information in this brief statement is ob- tained.

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History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 52

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