USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 26
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
N
242
HISTORY OF WABASII COUNTY
sufficient to reach across one square or more, and in conjunction with IIon. Elijah Hackleman, himself strongly addicted to the practice of investigating questions of science, stretched the line from Mr. ITackle- man's residence across to Still Street on the north, using old tin cans for receivers, Mr. IIackleman holding the first end and Mr. Myers the other, who moved with it toward the opposite terminus. Just as Mr. Myers was on the point of getting over the fence with his charge at the north line of Mr. Hackleman's premises, the sound of fife and drum was heard down town. Myers was observed to look down toward the can and bring it nearer his ear as if listening, which prompted Mr. Hackleman to say : 'Isn't that the band playing for the Democratic meeting ?'
"Myers then put the can in close contact with his ear and answered, 'I guess so.'
"Knowing that Myers desired to attend that meeting, Hackleman replied, 'Maybe we had better defer this test until another time.'
"Myers responded, 'Yes, I want to attend that meeting; but I think this is a full test itself and that this thing will work.'
"This conversation was carried on through the improvised tele- phone line, and constituted the first which ever went over a telephone in Wabash.
"What has just been narrated took place in the forenoon of that day; so, after fastening the ends of the line temporarily, further pro- ceedings were deferred until afternoon. At the appointed time, the experimenters again met and proceeded to fasten the line, with the neces- sary conveniences at either end to carry on conversation, one extremity being in Mr. Hackleman's library and the other at his barn, 100 feet distant. During the next two or three weeks this primary telephone line was extensively used, neighbors, citizens of Wabash and visitors from abroad coming frequently to witness and test its wonderful power to communicate, as with the living voice, the verbal articulations of those who might consult it." There are few men of middle age, who were live-wire boys in those days, that have not talked across a street or vacant lot into old tin cans connected by strings. In fact, about the most wonderful thing about the Bell invention is its simplicity.
FIRST TELEPHONE COMPANIES
Within a few years after the Myers-Hackleman demonstration in Wabash, the Central Union Telephone Company was organized and the towns of the county, as well as many farming communities, were able to
7
243
HISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
form a speaking acquaintance with each other. In 1894 the Home Tele- phone Company, of Wabash, entered the field and the Central Union abandoned it. Since then other telephone companies have been organ- ized in different parts of the county, as will be evident by consulting the local and sectional histories published hereafter in this volume.
CHAPTER XV
PHYSICIANS OF THE COUNTY
HARD ROADS FOR THE COUNTRY DOCTOR-DR. ISAAC FINLEY-DR. THOMAS HAMILTON-DR. JAMES HACKLEMAN-DR. JAMES FORD- DR. JOHN H. DE PUY-DR. JAMES L. DICKEN-DR. WILLIAM G. ARMSTRONG-DR. LAUGHILIN O'NEAL-DR. WILLIAM R. WINTON -- UPPER WABASH MEDICAL SOCIETY-WABASH COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY-TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT OFFICERS-PAUPER PRACTICE TURNED OVER-ANNUAL MEDICATION OF FAMILIES DISAPPROVED -- RULES AND CODE OF ETHICS-SOCIETY PRESIDENTS-DR. HENRY H. GILLEN-DR. ANDREW J. SMITH-THE SOCIETY IN THE EARLY '80S- THE SOCIETY NOW-OLDEST MEMBERS-DR. T. R. BRADY-DR. PERRY G. MOORE.
The country physician of the pioneer times was on a par with the circuit rider, both as to hardships and honors. They were hard-working members of the community-if they could be said to be confined to any special community-and were seldom allowed to follow the strict lines of their professions. If they did not seek means of livelihood outside the professional fields. both they and their families would be hungry as often as satisfied. Farming for the struggling clergyman, and politics for the country doctor, were generally the means adopted to make both entls meet. As matter of course, the lawyer adopted politics as his professional birthright, while with the doctor the latter was considered as a legitimate help to him in times of trouble or financial necessity.
HARD ROADS FOR THE COUNTRY DOCTOR
The country doctor had no prospect of settling in some pretty town or thriving city and, with his medical books around him, waiting patiently for cases and treating them calmly, carefully and methodically, as is often the lot of the modern physician. At the impatient thump upon his cabin door, he had to saddle his horse, follow the messenger for miles through the forest, or flounder over muddy marshes and
244
245
HISTORY OF WABASII COUNTY
sloughs, trusting to the knowledge within his head, or his common sense, to do the proper thing for the expectant mother, or the sinking husband, son or daughter.
But like the preacher, he got very near to the hearts of the people of his little settlement and those sprinkled in the raw country round- about. Among the earliest representatives of the healing fraternity to locate in Wabash County were Dr. Isaac Finley at Wabash Town and Dr. Thomas Hamilton at La Gro.
DR. ISAAC FINLEY
Dr. Finley was one of the first to erect a brick residence on the site of the new town laid out by Colonel Hanna, and was prominent in the movement which secured the county seat at Wabash. He appears to have been a generally-useful all-around citizen, and was not so well known as Dr. Hamilton, who was in position to secure a large practice among the canal laborers and officials and continued in professional work at La Gro for many years after the canal was completed to Lafayette.
DR. THOMAS HAMILTON
For a period of more than twenty years Dr. Thomas Hamilton was one of the leading physicians of the Wabash Valley. He was an Irishman educated in Scotland, and commenced practice before coming to the United States. After living for a short time in Pennsylvania, in 1834 he moved to La Gro in the midst of the waterway construction. There he resided until his death in the spring of 1856. Doctor Hamilton was a successful practitioner and a respected citizen, although somewhat eecen- trje. With his wife, he was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church at La Gro in 1849. His son, Col. John Hamilton, commanded Sherman's batteries at Beaufort Court IIonse in the Civil war, and was afterward an officer in the regular army.
DR. JAMES HACKLEMAN
Dr. James Hackleman was an elder brother of Hon. Elijah Hackle- man, the widely known historian and public man, and in the fall of 1835, then in his thirty-seventh year, settled in the Town of Wabash. His American ancestors were natives of Maryland and the Carolinas, but the family in which James was one of ten children, early settled in Franklin County, Indiana. He studied medicine in Fayette County, and
246
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
was one of the first practitioners in Wabash Town, residing there in active professional work from 1835 to 1854. Doctor Haekleman spent the last decade of his life at Knightstown, and while making preparations to resume his residence and practice at Wabash was called away by death, April 27, 1864. The doctor held a number of public offices, such as justice of the peace and judge of the Probate Court (1838-45), and he was very popular and universally respected. Another brother, Dr. Jacob T. Hackleman, was a well known Iowa practioner, having early located on the Indian ageney near the present site of Ottumwa.
DR. JAMES FORD
Dr. James Ford, of Wabash Town, was one of the ablest surgeons and physicians who ever practiced in the county. Ile was of an old Southern family, and was a son of James Ford. Although an owner of slaves, the father was an abolitionist and left Virginia in 1797, moving to Harrison County, Ohio, and becoming a farmer on a large scale. There the James Ford, who became a physician, was born. The doctor received his first schooling at Mansfield, whither the family had moved, and in 1828 entered Kenyon College. He was then sixteen years of age. Hle studied Latin under Salmon P. Chase, and in 1831, by the advice of Dr. Bushnell, turned his attention to medicine. In the winter of 1833-34 he was teaching school near Connersville, Fayette County, when Dr. Mason, a prominent physician and ambitious politician, took a great interest in him, and the two worked together to such mutual advantage that Dr. Mason got into the State Legislature and Dr. Ford assumed a large practice when, in 1835, he seeured a license as a regular member of the profession. At that time there was no graduate in medicine at Con- nersville.
In the winter of 1836-37 Dr. Ford attended a full course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and although he continued in regular and successful practice, under authority of his license, until the winter of 1853-54, he was not a regular M. D. until that time, when he completed his course at Rush Medical College, Chicago. He had been a resident of Wabash since 1841.
Dr. Ford followed Capt. C. S. Parrish as the second man in the county to present himself for enlistment in 1861. He was sworn into the Union service and appointed regimental surgeon in the Eighth Indiana Regiment. As a participant of the three-months' service, he was at the battle of Rich Mountain, and after the engagement was placed in charge of the hospital as the ranking officer of the other regimental surgeons. Dr. Ford joined the three years' service, and was present at
-
247
HISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
the battle of Pea Ridge in the campaign of the Army of the Southwest. Subsequently he was appointed brigade surgeon and medical director in the field, but in June, 1863, was obliged to resign on account of ill health. He returned to his private practice at Wabash, and in 1871 was appointed examining surgeon for pensions. During the ear- lier period of the profession in Wabash County no member stood higher in operative surgery and general scientifie attaiments than Dr. James Ford. While in the army General Curtis recognized the value of his dis- coveries pertaining to the sanitary influence of local air currents, and to his judgment was entrusted the important duty of selecting the loca- tion of the camps.
DR. JOHN H. DE PUY
Dr. John II. De Puy, who located at La Gro in 1846, was a Penn- sylvanian by birth and the son of a farmer. He was of French ancestry, being of the same stock as Chauncey Depew, the noted New York lawyer and politician. When the future physician was a young child the family moved from Pennsylvania to Stark County, Ohio, and at the age of twenty-one he commenced his medieal studies under Dr. Henry Everts, of Cleveland. He was graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, in 1845, and in August of the following year located in the growing canal town of La Gro. At the time of his coming, fevers, ague and bilious diseases were very prevalent in Central and Northern Indiana, and continued to flourish for many years thereafter. So Doctor De Puy's practice took a wide latitude ; and the same may be said of all good physicians of that period and locality. It was not unusual for a popular country doctor to travel through a territory covering twenty miles from his residence, and remain in the saddle for days and nights at a stretch.
Doctor De Puy early saw that the Town of Wabash was destined to embrace a better class of citizens than the distinctive canal settlement at La Gro, and in 1864 changed his residence to the former place. He purchased a farm near the city, invested extensively in real estate, bred fine live stock and became widely known in several fields beyond his professional activities.
DR. JAMES L. DICKEN
Another widely known practitioner was Dr. James L. Dicken, of Somerset, Wabash and La Fontaine. IIe was born in Fayette County, and, after becoming fairly well educated and teaching school, commenced
1
248
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
to study medicine under Dr. William Lomax, of Marion. Afterward he attended a course of lectures in the Indiana State Medical College, commenced practice at Somerset, Wabash County, in 1849, and finally graduated from the Ohio Medical College in March, 1851. Doctor Dicken moved from Somerset in 1859, took a post-graduate course at the Ohio Medical College, located in Wabash City in 1860 and in the following year joined the Union service as surgeon of the Forty-seventh Indiana Regiment. He served continuously from October, 1861, to November, 1865, without leave of absence. He was with his regiment in every engagement in which it participated, and for two years acted as ranking regimental surgeon in the Department of the Gulf. Doctor Dicken is claimed to have served a longer continuous term during the Civil war than any other surgeon in the State of Indiana, his nearest competitor being Doctor Lomax, of Marion, his preceptor, whose period of service was just four days shorter than that of Doctor Dicken. Certainly, a remarkable and fine record.
At the close of the war Doctor Dicken resumed private practice at Wabash, and there continued until February, 1881, at which time he moved to La Fontaine.
DR. WILLIAM G. ARMSTRONG
Soon after his graduation from the Ohio Medical College, Dr. Wil- liam G. Armstrong also located in La Fontaine. There he engaged in an active and successful practice for more than thirty years-from November, 1850, until his death, January 20, 1881. He was a native Hoosier, born in Rush County, in 1822.
DR. LAUGHLIN O'NEAL
One of the early and able practitioners was also Dr. Laughlin O'Neal, of La Fontaine and Somerset. In the winter of 1849-50 he attended medical lectures at the Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio, and soon afterward commeneed practice at La Fontaine. In 1865 he was commissioned surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and thus served until the elose of the war. He then resumed practice at Somerset, and in 1876 graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery.
DR. WILLIAM R. WINTON
Dr. William R. Winton entered the list of Wabash County pio- neers of the medical profession when, in 1850, he located in the town
249
HISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
of Wabash, coming from Crawfordsville, Indiana. Ile was one of the first trustees of Wabash College, and was a graduate of the Ohio Medical College, class of 1837.
UPPER WABASH MEDICAL SOCIETY
The foregoing are perhaps the most prominent of Wabash County physicians whose practice dates from as early as 1850. An attempt had already been made to organize the fraternity into a society; but its scope was broader than Wabash County. A number of the physicians of Wabash and adjoining counties issued a call for a meeting at the America House, Wabash, for the purpose of mutual organization. At that date there were resident in this county the following active practi- tioners: James Ford, James Hackleman, Jonathan R. Cox, E. P. Peters and Adam D. Sweet, Wabash ; Thomas Hamilton and James F. Beekner, La Gro; C. V. N. Lent, Liberty Mills; William E. Willis, North Man- chester; Doctor Eicholtz, Laketon.
The result of the meeting was the organization of the Upper Wabash Medical Society, of which Dr. G. N. Fitch, of Logansport, was presi- dent, with a full corps of officers and Board of Censors. The following year a session of the society was held at Logansport, followed by one at Lafayette, but soon afterward the organization flickered out.
WABASH COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
The movement revived at a meeting held in the office of Calvin Cowgill, Mercantile Building, Town of Wabash, at 11 o'clock A. M., July 5. 1854. As stated by Dr. E. B. Thomas, the secretary : "The phy- sicians of Wabash County and adjoining counties met for the purpose of more fully advancing medical knowledge, the elevation of the profes- sional character, the protection of members, the extension of the bounds of medical seience, and the promotion of all measures adapted to the relief of the suffering, and to improve the health and protect the lives of the community, do now associate themselves together under the name of the Wabash County Medical Society.
"Whereupon the following physicians appeared: From Marion, Grant County, William Lomax; from Jonesboro, Grant County, Samuel S. Horne; from Somerset, Wabash County, James L. Dieken; from La Gro, Wabash County, James A. S. Carpenter; from Wabash, Wabash County, James F. Beckner, James Ford and Elias B. Thomas."
.
250
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT OFFICERS
Dr. William Lomax was called to the chair and Dr. James Ford appointed secretary, after which Dr. J. L. Dieken, James F. Beekner and E. B. Thomas were appointed censors, and admitted to the membership of the society, besides the foregoing, Drs. James Hackleman, J. D. St. John, Amos II. Wolverton, James Armstrong and Samuel St. John.
Doctor Ford was then elected president, Doctor Thomas secretary, Doctor Beekner treasurer and Doctors Dicken, Lomax and Ilorn, een- sors.
PAUPER PRACTICE TURNED OVER
Doctors Beekner and J. D. St. John, physicians to the Wabash County Asylum, proposed to give their contract to the society for the purpose of procuring a medical library. A committee from the society was there- fore appointed for the said pauper practice.
As this feature of the meeting is interesting, the text of the resolu- tions is reprodneed: "Resolved, That the members of this society appoint the president, secretary and treasurer, a committee to contract with the county commissioners for the pauper practice of the Poor Farm, and the pauper practice in the various townships of the county by the year, and that this society divide the labor among its members that it shall not be burdensome to anyone. Adopted.
"Resolved, That any member of the society shall have the privilege of bringing any ease before the society at any of its meetings for exam- ination and treatment from time to time as such case may demand, and in all such cases such examinations and preseriptions shall be free of charge to the patient. It shall be the duty of such members to carry out said prescriptions as agreed upon, and report the same to the next meeting thereafter. Adopted.
ANNUAL MEDICATION OF FAMILIES DISAPPROVED
"Whereas, The practice of medicating families by the year had its origin and is adapted to the profession only in cities; Therefore,
"Resolved, That this society request its members to abandon said practice. Adopted."
In 1849, three years after the organization of the Upper Wabash Medical Society, the Indiana State Medical Society was founded. From the time of the organization of the State Society, the county society was an auxiliary body subject to its rules and regulations.
251
HISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
RULES AND CODE OF ETHICS
The Wabash County Medical Society was afterward incorporated, its membership being confined to physicians and surgeons of that county subject to the following constitutional provisions: "Any graduate in medicine of any respectable school or licentiate of any regularly organ- ized medical board, who is in good moral and professional standing, shall, upon signing the constitution and paying $1 to the treasurer, be entitled to full membership in the society.
"In the absence of credentials mentioned in the first section of this article, the candidate for membership, by presenting a certificate that he has read medicine three years under the instruction of some regular physician of good standing, and also a certificate of qualification to practice medicine from the Board of Censors of this society-shall, upon signing the constitution and paying $3 to the treasurer, be admitted to full membership in the society."
As a means of preserving its professional integrity and maintaining the high moral standing to which the profession aspires, the following regulation is prescribed : "It shall have power to censure or expel any member convicted of violating its provisions, or who may be guilty of any act which may be considered derogatory to the honor of the medi- cal profession, and enforce the observance, by its members, of the code of ethics adopted by the society." The code of ethics to which reference is made is that preseribed by the American Medical Association.
The members of the society subscribe the following pledge of fidelity for the good of the profession: "In order to more effectually secure the objects of this society, we who hereunto subscribe our names do agree with and to each other that we will faithfully observe all the requirements of the constitution, code of ethics, fee bill and all other regulations adopted for the government of the society; and that we will in no case whatever knowingly consult with anyone who is not a graduate of some respectable medical college, licentiate of some reg- nlarly organized medical board, or member of this society, or in any other way countenance or encourage quaekery in any of its forms or pretensions, for the faithful performance of which we do hereby individ- ually pledge our truth, honor and professional standing."
SOCIETY PRESIDENTS
Doctor Ford served the society as president during the first two years of its existence, and among his well known successors have been Samuel St. John and S. G. Thompson.
٠
252
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
DR. HENRY II. GILLEN
Among those who located in Wabash County at an early period in the history of the Wabash County Medical Society were Dr. Henry H. Gillen and Dr. Andrew J. Smith. Doctor Gillen was a Kentuckian of Scotch-Irish parentage. While a young man he pursued his medical studies both privately and at the Ohio Eclectic Medical College at Cin- cinnati. He commenced practice in Franklin County, Indiana, and con- tinued to devote the utmost of his time and strength to it for more than twenty years. His long, irregular hours and the wearing hard- ships of travel and fatigue in the new, raw country of his choice so undermined his health that he was obliged to temporarily abandon prac- tice. His experiments in orange culture in Florida, which covered some of the later years of his life, were not successful, and the worry ineident to failure of crops and insecure investments is thought to have further weakened his constitution and hastened his death, which occurred in January, 1899. ITis second born and oldest son, Richard II., is the well- known physician of Wabash.
DR. ANDREW J. SMITH
Dr. Andrew J. Smith, who, for more than forty years, brought physical and spiritual comfort to so many people in Wabash, was an Ohio man. Ile pursued collegiate courses at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, and Miami University, Oxford, having as a classmate for a time Benjamin Harrison, afterward President of the United States. In 1852 he moved to Somerset, Wabash County, and began the study of medicine with Dr. James L. Dicken. He also took a medical course at Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1856-57, but did not graduate. In the latter year he was licensed to practice and located at Wabash for the purpose. In 1863 Governor Morton appointed him senior assistant sur- geon of the Second Indiana Cavalry. His service in that capacity extended to the close of the war, and he was much of the time in charge of the hospital at Cleveland, Tennessee. Upon his return to general practice he became associated with Doctors Gillen and Bennett until 1870.
Not being satisfied with his acquirements and being in accord with the efforts of the profession to place the practice upon a scientifie and systematic basis, Doctor Smith determined to finish a regular course at some standard institution of medical learning. In June, 1871, he graduated from the medical department of the Northwestern University, Chicago, and in 1874 formed a professional partnership with Dr. R. F.
253
HISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
Blount which continued uninterruptedly for sixteen years. During that period both were lecturers on the staff of the Fort Wayne Medieal College. Doctor Smith was a strong man and a physician of good cheer ; therefore the best kind of an inspiration to the community. He was also a publie man, both in spirit and action. His death on December 22, 1900, was the withdrawal of a fine, constant and uplifting force.
Doctor Smith's wife, whom he married in 1889, was formerly Miss Louise Jessup, M. D., a graduate of the Woman's College of the North- western University, at Chicago. She is still engaged in a substantial practice, confined to her sex and the ailments of children, and is one of the best known women of Wabash.
THE SOCIETY IN THE EARLY '80S
Probably the society was never stronger than during the early '80s, when it numbered nearly fifty members, including the following (names alphabetically arranged) : Henry Adair, Somerset, admitted in 1871; T. R. Brady, Lincolnville, 1871 : Frank II. Bloomer, Pleasant View, 1873; R. F. Blount, Wabash, 1865; A. M. Burns, La Fontaine, 1880; C. C. Brady, Roann, 1881; G. W. Brown, Somerset, 1880; G. P. Chinne- worth, Mount Aetna, 1877; JJames L. Dieken, La Fontaine, 1854; C. L. Dicken, La Fontaine, 1879; E. F. Donaldson, Wabash, 1865; W. R. Edgar, Wabash, 1881; James Ford, Wabash, 1854; J. Henry Ford, Wabash, 1872; Richard II. Gillen, Wabash, 1881; F. S. C. Grayston, Huntington, 1856; B. H. B. Grayston, Huntington, 1879; Marens MI. IIale, La Gro, 1871; Charles II. Holmes, Wabash, 1879; J. H. Jones, Roann, 1878; G. P. Kidd, Roann, 1874; John Kautz, Dora, 1873; M. O. Lower, North Manchester, 1876; H. R. Minnick, Treaty, 1879; J. P. Mitchell, Mount Aetna, 1877; II. C. Mooney, Laketon, 1876; P. G. Moore, Rick Valley, 1871; R. Murphy, Roann, 1871; L. Oneal, Somerset, 1859; O. O'Neal, Somerset, 1879; Samuel Pickering, La Fontaine, 1880; E. P. Peters, Wabash, 1855; G. P. Peters, Wabash, 1878; J. II. Renner, La Gro, 1872; A. J. Smith, Wabash, 1871; J. W. Studley, La Fontaine, 1878; Philip Shaffer, North Manchester, 1878; E. B. Thomas, La Gro, 1854; A. MeD. Thomas, La Fontaine, 1855; S. G. Thomas, Wabash, 1858; G. B. Trembly, Bracken, 1878; T. C. Teagne, Rich Valley, 1880; C. Waddle, North Manchester, 1875; Horace Winton, North Manchester, 1873; O. B. Williams, Antioch, 1878; W. J. Brown, Wabash, 1883; Andrew J. Boswell, Andrews, 1883; M. E. Renner, Wabash, 1883.
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.