USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Volume II > Part 41
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John M. Josse, a German physician, who left his native land after the troubles of 1848, practiced here from 1860 to 1880. He was born in 1818, and died in April, 1880.
The names of the doctors who have practiced here are legion, and some of them were quite clever, but most have not left an enduring name. Of the living, among whom are some of the veterans in the profession, it is not within the province of this sketch to speak. One other may be mentioned as a type of a class. From about 1844 to 1855, Alexander Tollerton, who died here a few years ago, did a large busi- ness and accumulated much money. He called himself an uroscopic doctor. The wealth that he amassed was spent in various ways before his death.
The practice of medicine in the pioneer times, and indeed for many years subsequent to that period, was beset with many difficulties. Physicians in the town were called out to a great distance in the country, and these trips which they were compelled to make to minister to the necessities of the sick had generally to be made on horseback, as the roads would not permit of the safe use of carriages. Not infrequently physicians yet living in the city lost their way in the pathless forests. The remun- eration was of course often insufficient, and the practice was in a large degree a generous sacrifice to suffering humanity.
Medical Societies. - The Allen county medical society was organized in 1860. The early records are not available, but it is believed that the charter members of this society were Henry P. Ayres, William H. Brooks, Thomas P. Mccullough, Charles F. Mayer, W. H. Myers, Isaac M. Rosenthal, B. S. Woodworth, C. A. Smith, Charles Schmitz, John M. Josse, and George T. Bruebach. The first president was Dr. Schmitz. The society was conducted in a somewhat irregular manner, though profitable meetings were held, attended by physicians from neighboring counties, until June 6, 1866, when it was reorganized, with
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a large membership, including several physicians of prominence in neighboring counties. The officers then elected were R. V. Murray, president; G. T. Bruebach, vice president; A. J. Erwin, secretary; Wil- liam H. Brooks, treasurer. The society held regular meetings, and yearly sessions which were largely attended, until May 5, 1874, when the society was reorganized under the auspices and control of the state medical society, and only practitioners in the county were eligible to membership. The society has always held a high rank, and some of its members have occupied positions of honor in the state organization. H. P. Ayres was president of the state society in 1871, James S. Gregg, president of the society in 1885, Isaac M. Rosenthal, vice president of the state society in 1870, B. S. Woodsworth, president of the state society in 1860. The society is still in existence, although its meetings are somewhat irregular. The present officers are A. P. Buchman, pres- ident; Howard Mccullough, secretary; T. J. Dills, treasurer; board of censors, M. F. Porter, G. L. Greenawalt, W. H. Myers.
The Fort Wayne Academy of Medicine, a society independent of all other organizations, was organized June 7, 1886. Its objects as set forth in the articles of association, are more efficient means for the cul- tivation and advancing of medical knowledge, and other desirable pro- fessional ends. All regular physicians in good standing are admitted, and no code is imposed. Meetings are held semi-monthly, at which papers are presented and clinical cases reported. The officers are elected yearly. The first were: President, B. S. Woodworth; vice president, M. F. Porter; secretary and treasurer, H. Mccullough ; librarian, J. D. Chambers. The other charter members were Drs. McCaskey, Dills and Stemen. There are now fifteen members.
Medical Education .- On the 10th day of March, 1876, the medical college of Fort Wayne was organized by the election of a board of trustees and a faculty, and the regular incorporation of the institution under the laws of this state and obtaining what is known as a charter. Prof. B. S. Woodworth, M. D., was elected dean, and Prof. H. A. Clark, M. D., secretary of the faculty, and Rev. R. D. Robinson, D. D., presi- dent of the board of trustees. The first regular session opened on the Ist of October of the same year, and continued until the Ist of March, 1877. During the summer at the meeting of the American medical college association at Chicago, the college was elected to membership in this association. In October of that year the second session began with a good class of students, much larger than the previous session. But during this term there was a good deal of internal dissension.
After the commencement exercises of this session, a meeting was called of those interested in the enterprise. After some deliberations the college was disbanded. Fort Wayne medical college was then organized, many of the leading citizens signing the articles of association. A board of trustees was elected, composed of the best and most influential men in this city, who at once proceeded to organize a faculty. Prof. W. H. Gobrecht, M. D., was elected to the chair of anatomy, and came from
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Philadelphia early in the session and gave an interesting course of lec- tures on anatomy.
In August, 1878, the trustees, failing to raise the amount of money which was thought necessary to successfully carry forward the enter- prise, abandoned this, the second medical college organization in this city. Almost immediately there was organized under a new charter, a new medical college of Fort Wayne, which at once elected a faculty and issued their first annual announcement, and in October opened the first session. For four years the announcement was made and the lectures were given regularly, until the session of 1882-3. During the summer following the illustrations and fixtures were sold to satisfy a judgment against the college, the entire institution selling for $50. It should be remarked, however, that there was but one college here to bid on the property, and many things did not sell for the same as they cost, as the ordinary citizen has but little use for skeletons, bones, monstrosities, dis- secting tables, etc. About the same time that the above-named college was organized, a number of citizens with Prof. W. H. Gobrecht and other physicians organized the Fort Wayne college of medicine. Hon. A. H. Hamilton, then member of congress from this district, gave to the enterprise some money and the building which was occupied, free of rent for one year, other citizens also contributing money and aiding the enterprise. A board of trustees was elected by the corporation, con- sisting of the Hon. Charles McCulloch, Hon. R. C. Bell, Hon. Henry Monning, Hon. Montgomery Hamilton and A. C. Trentman. This board organized by the election of Hon. Charles McCulloch as presi- dent, and A. C. Trentman, secretary. The Fort Wayne college of medicine is still in existence and is prospering.
The following is the present faculty: C. B. Stemen, A. M., M. D., LL. D., dean, professor of surgery and clinical surgery; William P. Whery, M. D., secretary, professor of diseases of women and obstet- rics; George W. McCaskey, A. M., M. D., professor of theory and practice of medicine; Joseph L. Gilbert, M. D., professor of theory and practice of medicine; Charles R. Dryer, A. B., M. D., professor of chemistry and toxicology; I. Ellis Lyons, A. M., M. D., professor of obstetrics; Kent K. Wheelock, M. D., professor of diseases of the eye and ear; George B. Stemen, M. D., professor of materia medica and therapeutics; Walter W. Barnett, M. D., professor of anatomy; Alpheus P. Buchman, M. D., professor of diseases of children; Neal Hardy, M. D., professor of physiology; H. D. Wood, A. M., M. D., professor of abdominal surgery; Vesta M. W. Swarts, M. D., lecturer on derma- tology; R. W. Thrift, M. D., emeritus professor of gynecology; James S. Gregg, M. D., emeritus professor of surgery.
County Licenses .- In 1885 the law requiring the licensing of physi- cians went into force, and in that year the following persons received this local authority to practice the healing art in Allen county: James M. Dinnen, John W. Younge, Isaac M. Myers, Franklin Greenwell, George W. Bowen, Joseph D. Searles, William Whery, Charles C. F.
Thrift. Brooks M. H.
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Nierchang, George L. Greenawalt, J. W. Causland, George A. Ross, William T. Ferguson, Hiram C. McDowell, Marion F. Williamson, Samuel C. Metcalf, Amandus J. Laubach, Thomas .H. McCormick, Thomas S. Virgil, Thomas J. Dills, Joseph H. Jones, Joseph L. Smith, J. D. McHenry, Horace E. Adams, G. T. Bruebach, Hiram Van Swerin- gen, Joseph H. Omo, Charles W. Gordon, George E. Chandler, Lewis Payton, Christian Martz, M. Frances Green, William de la Ruhl, Thomas P. McCullagh, Hershel S. Myers, William H. Myers, Kent Kave Wheelock, Clarence F. Swift, Robert F. Lipes, Robert S. Knode, Joseph D. Morgan, Lycurgus S. Null, John W. Bilderbach, John L. Kryder, Christian B. Stemen, Lyman P. Harris, John M. Shutt, How- ard Mccullough, Charles M. Fiser, Carl Pragler, Brookfield Gard, Fred Glock, Charles A. Leiter, Cornelius S. Smith, James S. Gregg, Charles E. Heaton, Benjamin S. Woodworth, Jonas Emanuel, Henry G. Wagner, Mrs. Amelie Wagner, John Seaton, Harry G. Gould, Lewis C. Shutt, George N. Worley, Ammill Engel, John D. Chambers, Franklin H. Cosgrove, Isaac M. Rosenthal, George W. McCaskey, Emmet L. Siver, Samuel D. Sledd, William A. Connolly, Siemon E. Mentzer, John W. Gunther, Jacob Hull, George Murphy, E. L. Reed, A. E. Vanbuskirk, Philip Blade, Louis T. Sturgis, Abraham J. Rauch. Since 1885 the following have registered: A. P. Buchman, Jacob Hetrick, Abraham J. Kesler, George C. Stemen, Joseph E. Stultz, Gustavus G. Brudi, Miles F. Porter, Charles Stultz, George F. Hesler, Daniel M. Allen, Elmer E. Polk, John A. Stutz, Benjamin F. Lamb, Thomas R. Morrison, Isaac W. Martin, George Wirt Hathaway, Mary Tufts Hathaway, Walter Wynn Burnett, Edward J. McOscar, Lloyd Houghton, James Ellsworth Miller, Ella F. Harris, Creed T. Banks, George W. Cutshaw, Andrew J. Boswell, John M. Coombs, William Bevier, Lafayette Balcom, Ulysses G. Lipes, James H. Manville, Augus- tus Soper, Louis A. Prezinger, Jacob W. Coblentz, Herman A. Borger, David B. Cary, Mary A. Whery, Oliver Theodore May, Carl J. Gil- bert, S. Justin Derbyshire, Emma S. Atwood, Henry W. Niswonger, Noah R. Wenger, Walter L. Mckinley, A. G. Holloway, Maria L. Holloway, Luella Derbyshire, Marshall Beaty, Rudolph Deppeloa, Columbus M. Pickett, John K. Geary, Carl Shilling, James W. Worden, Charles M. Goheen, P. W. Jackson, John L. Shirey, Asa C. Boswell, George B. McBower, Joshua Simon, J. Ellis Lyons.
One of the early physicians at Fort Wayne was the late Dr. Charles A. Schmitz. He was born in Borgloh, Hanover, Germany, November 24, 1809. In his native land he prepared himself for the practice, graduating from a medical college at Bonn. He came to America in 1837, and after spending a year and a half in Philadelphia he came to Fort Wayne. He continued in the active practice of his profession many years, but for some time prior to his death had retired. He was married August 27, 1840, to Henrika C. Lans, who was born at Deventer, Holland, January 13, 1810. She came to America in 1838, and until her marriage lived with relatives at Elkhart, Ind. Doctor and XXII
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Mrs. Schmitz had six children. Of these Lisette H., wife of Rev. Adolph Biewend, of Boston, Mass., and Carrie S., wife of William V. Douglass, of Fort Wayne, are living. The four deceased were Amanda P., Florenz C. A., who graduated at the United States naval academy, spent twenty-one years as a lieutenant commander in the naval service, and died at Mare's Island, off the coast of California, May 20, 1883; Godfrey and Alloysius. Florenz left one child, Charles Albert Schmitz, who is now a student in the Fort Wayne schools. Dr. Schmitz died March 10, 1887. He was well-known in Fort Wayne and vicinity, and highly respected.
Dr. Charles E. Sturgis, formerly a prominent citizen of Fort Wayne, and a pioneer in the medical profession, was born in Queen Anne county, Md., January 1, 1815. He came to Indiana before reaching his major- ity, and settled at Richmond. Afterward removing to Logansport, he married Louisa Ewing, daughter of Col. Alexander Ewing. Not long afterward he came to Fort Wayne and was engaged in the practice of medicine for thirty years. He was a graduate of the Ohio medical col- lege, and was peculiarly adapted by nature for a successful physician. His warm-hearted, gentle and attentive presence alone was beneficial in the sick room. He was kind to the poor and by all loved and respected. He was at one time a partner of Dr. S. B. Woodworth. He was iden- tified with the development of the city and contributed toward its ad- vancement. In both houses of the state assembly he represented the county, was for a long time a member of the school board, and in 1868 represented this congressional district in the national democratic conven- tion at New York. He died November 24, 1869. His son, Louis T. Sturgis, was born in this city, July 23, 1848, and was educated in the city schools, also attending the state university one year and studying in Phil- adelphia one year. He clerked in a drug store in early life, and in 1872 engaged in the drug business at Huntertown, remaining there until 1879, also studying medicine. He attended the medical department of Mich- igan university during 1879-So, then practiced medicine at Huntertown and subsequently graduated from Rush medical college, Chicago, in 1882. In December, 1885, he came to Fort Wayne, and has since prac- ticed here. He is also the proprietor of a drug store at No. 275 Hanna street. He was married October 26, 1879, to Miss Caroline M. Work, born in DeKalb county, November 21, 1848, to Robert and Sarah (Emery) Work, and they have two children: Sarah L. and Alida K. The doctor and family are members of the First Presbyterian church, and he is a member of the K. of P., and the Allen county and Indiana medical societies.
That veteran physician of Fort Wayne, William H. Brooks, M. D., whose forty-six years of practice here is, without doubt, a longer period than that of the professional career in this city of any other of the med- ical fraternity, was born in Worcester county, Mass., February 18, 1813, son of Reuben and Anna Brooks. The family removed to Windsor county, Vt., seven or eight years after his birth, and he worked there
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upon the farm, studying in the common schools, and at an academy at Randolph, Orange county. He taught school two terms in Vermont and two in Ohio. At the age of twenty he began the study of medi- cine, and in 1834 attended a medical college at Worthington, Ohio. After four courses of lectures there he began practice at Norwalk, Ohio, and in the spring of 1841 established himself at Fort Wayne. During the last two years he has virtually retired from practice, closing a long and honorable professional career, though he still attends occasionally to the calls of friends. He has been married four times, and has four children living, two having deceased. One of the latter, a son, died in the. service of his country, from the effect of a wound received in battle. Mrs. Henry G. Olds and Mrs. James M. Kane are daughters of Dr. Brooks. The elder son, William H. Brooks, jr., is now in California, and his other son, Oscar H., is in the employ of Henry G. Olds. Dr. Brooks is a member of the Allen county and state medical societies; is a Mason and Odd Fellow, and in politics is a republican.
Henry P. Ayres, M. D., late a prominent physician of Fort Wayne, was born in Morristown, N. J., September 1, 1813. When he was four years old his parents emigrated to Ohio, and made their home at Day- ton, where three years later the father died, leaving seven children to the care of his widow. She, a woman of strong character and religious devotion, proved worthy of the trust, and though the surroundings were not favorable to such a result, brought her children up to habits of industry and reverence of the nobler ideals of life. The son, Henry, was ambitious in the way of study, and while engaged in daily work prepared himself to enter Hanover college at the age of nineteen years. After three years of study his means were exhausted and he taught school at Dayton, Ohio, and for several years at Piqua. During a por- tion of this period he taught night school also, and among his pupils in this school at one time was he who afterward was Bishop Luers, of this diocese of the Episcopal church. In obedience to a request in his father's will, he also spent some months in learning a trade, taking up cabinet making. . But his ambition was to enter the profession of medi- cine, and to this he devoted much time. Within this period he was mar- ried, September 2, 1839, to Kate E. Rowen, of Piqua. During the winter of 1841-2, he attended a medical college at Louisville, and in June, 1842, came to Fort Wayne, and began the practice, in which he had immediate success. In 1846 he entered the medical department of the university of New York, and graduated. He prospered in his prac- tice, but eighteen years before his death, symptoms of paralysis began to appear, which gradually compelled him to relinquish his work. Dur- ing his busiest years he was a frequent contributor to the leading medi- cal journals, and to secular and religious papers, and was an active member of the American medical association, and the professional socie- ties of the state and county. In no wise did he neglect the duties of religious devotion, but having united with the Presbyterian church at at Dayton, at the age of fourteen, a membership which he transferred to
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Fort Wayne on coming here, he continued through life to be a zealous and useful worker in that denomination. In 1857 he was elected a ruling elder of the church, and held that position until death. The Sun- day school also attracted his energies, and he was superintendent nine pears between 1847 and 1866. In all relations to society he was kind, generous and helpful, manifesting to the poor and needy the widest Christian sympathy. He died December 25, 1887, leaving besides his wife three children: Dr. S. C. Ayres, the noted oculist of Cincinnati, Mrs. A. M. Babcock, and H. B. Ayres, the well known druggist of Fort Wayne.
Benjamin Studley Woodworth, M. D., the Nestor of the medical profession in the Maumee valley, has encountered in his career all those experiences that make up the history of the medical profession in that region. Born at Liecester, Mass., in 1816, he went when a boy to Rome, N. Y., to reside with his sister. He was fitted for college in a private school, at which among his fellow students were boys afterward known as Daniel Huntington, a famous artist; Judges Caton and Miller, of Illinois; Dr. D. D. Whedon, of Michigan university; Hon. N. B. Judd, of Chicago; John B. Jervis, engineer of Croton aqueduct. He entered Hamilton college at the age of fifteen, but before graduating, was com- pelled to begin to prepare himself for a profession. He began reading medicine at the age of eighteen, with Dr. A. Blair, of Rome, N. Y. He attended lectures at the college of physicians and surgeons at Fairfield, N. Y., whose only rival in that state was the college of the same name in New York. Its faculty was then as eminent as any this side of the Atlantic. He afterward attended Berkshire medical college, and re- ceived his degree at the age of twenty-one. He remained in Massa- chusetts until the spring of 183S, when he removed to Ashtabula county, Ohio. One beautiful morning, in the last of December, he rode into Perrysburg at the foot of the Maumee rapids, and his admiration was divided between the landscape and an immense hotel building five or six stories high, erected by Chicago people, which a few years later was torn to fragments by a tornado. This place was then the county seat and was larger than Toledo, which the Doctor visited after enjoying the hospitality of a Doctor Dwight. Returning to Ashtabula county, he resolved to soon emigrate to where "Potatoes did grow small, and they ate them tops and all, on Maumee." In March he rode on horseback to Cleveland, and went by a small steamboat to Perrysburg at the foot of the rapids. He carried a letter of introduction to Dr. H. Burnett, of Gilead, at the head of the rapids, with whom he became a partner. He made his home at Providence, opposite the village of Grand Rapids. Here he had the honor of delivering the fourth of July address in 1839, under the shadow of a big elm. The proceedings were under the au- spices of the late Gen. James B. Steadman, then building a dam across the Maumee, for a feeder to the canal. After he had been at Provi- dence a few months he began to shake with the ague, and not knowing of the value of quinine in sufficient doses, he suffered unutterably until
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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
the following May, with jaundice, dropsy and enlargement of the spleen. His practice was full of hardships, for a delicate and feeble man, trying indeed for the most robust. He rode over Lucas, Henry, Fulton and Defiance counties, as they are now called, to the Indiana line, on horse- back. Tired of a practice so wearisome and without much financial profit, he went to Fort Wayne in the spring of 1846, and here has ever since resided. There were then about 4,000 inhabitants, such roads as there opened were almost impassable and the canal was the commercial outlet. Malarial fever predominated, and it was treated with infinitesi- mal does of quinine and immense portions of calomel, with antimony, drastics, cathartics, and frequently bleeding. This terrible practice was reformed, and old settlers give the credit for the great advance in treat- ment to Dr. Woodworth. The venerable doctor has devoted his life to the practice of his profession. The honors conferred upon him in this department have been frequent. He has been president of various local organizations, of the state medical society, and of the American medical association. The only civil offices he has held have been the postmas- tership under Polk's administration, and a clerkship in the New Orleans custom house under Senator W. P. Kellogg. Still active and energetic he continues to devote the results of a half century of successful practice to beneficent work among the sick and suffering
Dr. Elbridge Gerry Wheelock, one of the pioneers of Allen county, both in its settlement and in the upbuilding of the medical profession, was born in Burlington, Vt., November 25, 1814. Of notable ancestry, his own career reflected great credit upon those from whom he inherited many good qualities of mind and heart. The Wheelocks are of Welsh descent, and came to Massachusetts during the wars of Cromwell or about the time of the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth. The Ameri- can ancestors were three brothers of considerable estates. Dr. Wheel- ock's grandfather, Thomas, was first cousin of Eleazer Wheelock, first president of Dartmouth college, and his wife, whose maiden name was Dodge, was first cousin of the mother of Daniel Webster. Phineas, son of Thomas, was born at Winchester, or Surry, N. H., February 21, 178I. He became a silversmith at Boston, and was there twice married, first to Margaret Hennessy, by whom he had three children: John, Margaret and William. His second marriage was to Elizabeth Hen- nessy, by whom he had the following children: Louisa (Mrs. Murphy), Elbridge Gerry, Sarah (Mrs. Bacon), Catherine (Mrs. Dr. Long), and Elizabeth, who died at five years of age. Mrs. Elizabeth Wheelock died at Plattsburgh, N. Y., October, 1823, at the age of thirty-eight years. She was born at Boston; her father was a native of London- derry, Ireland, and her mother was of Puritan extraction. Phineas
Wheelock died in Perry township, August 1, 1848. Dr. E G. Wheelock obtained his early education at the Plattsburgh academy, being a schoolfellow with A. P. and J. K. Edgerton. Coming to Cleveland he taught school and read medicine, but never gradu- ated, the urgent demand for doctors in the new settlements
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not permitting the time. He began practice on the Wabash & Erie canal while it was in construction, and settled at Woodburn, in Maumee township. Afterward he removed to Huntertown, and in 1849 he bought a farm in that vicinity of 160 acres. In 1861 he removed to Leo, now his residence. At Huntertown he married Esther Hatch, by whom he had several children, the only one of whom that grew to man- hood was Elbridge Gerry. Gerry, as he was called, was a man of brilliant talent and unusual culture. He studied medicine at the univer- sity of Michigan and graduated at Cleveland medical college. As an extemporaneous orator on any subject called for, he was without a peer in the county, and his retentive memory was stored with the classics of literature. He practiced at Huntertown until April, 1877, and then took his father's practice at Leo, at which place he practiced, except a brief period at Fort Wayne, until his death, November, 1883. Dr. E. G. Wheelock was married, subsequent to the death of his first wife, to Hannah, daughter of Daniel Moody, of DeKalb county, and they have had these children: Thomas Phineas (deceased), John Davis, Elisha Kent Kane.
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