USA > Michigan > Cass County > History of Cass county, Michigan > Part 22
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Frank Sweetland has practiced in the village about four years, and James H. Williams for a short time.
Marion Holland, born in Oakland County, Mich., graduated from the Medical Department of the State University in 1875, and from the Dental Department in 1877. After his graduation, he located in Cassopo- lis and practiced a short time; then went to Grand Rapids, and in 1880 came to Edwardsburg, where he has since practiced and carried on a drug store.
William I. Lusk was born in New York. He is a graduate of the Cincinnati Homopathic College, and the only homopathic physician in Edwardsburg.
VANDALIA.
Dr. A. L. Thorp was the first physician who set- tled in this village. He came in 1849, remained for two years, and then, after an absence of two years, returned, and has since practiced continuously.
Dr. E. J. Bonine practiced here for several years subsequent to 1851. (See Cassopolis).
Dr. Leander Osborn was born December 27, 1825, in Wayne County, Ind., and in 1835, removed with the family of his father, Josiah Osborn, to Cass County, settling in Calvin Township, then an almost
unbroken wilderness. There were no schools in the neighborhood, and he received the rudiments of an education at home, his mother being his teacher. The first occupation to which he devoted himself after arriving at his majority was teaching a district school. He was examined by and received a certificate from Dr. Taylor and the Rev. George Miner, who compli- mented him highly upon his acquirements. His school was in what was known as the "Shavehead District," in Porter Township. Shortly after this he made the acquaintance of Dr. E. J. Bonine, then a young practitioner in Cassopolis, and determined to study and follow the medical profession. He com- menced reading with Dr. Bonine in 1847; attended the usual course of lectures at the Rush Medical Col- lege, of Chicago, in 1851 and 1852, and commenced the practice of his profession in Vandalia in 1853. For two years he was in partnership with Dr. Bonine. In 1856, he was elected Justice of the Peace, and has since occupied that office continuously, with the ex- ception of an interval of two years. He had pre- viously held the office of Supervisor of Calvin Township. In 1866, he was elected to the State Legislature, served two years and had the pleasure of voting to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Dr. Osborn was married November 12, 1854, to Miss Helen M. Beall, ot Centerville, Wayne County, Ind.
H. H. Phillips was born in Scott, Cortland County, N. Y., July 2, 1843, and removed with the other members of the family to Minnesota in 1859. He enlisted when eighteen years old in the Fourth Regi- ment Minnesota Infantry, and served three years and two months, the last two years in the medical depart- ment. He commenced studying medicine while in the army in 1863. He came to Cassopolis in the spring of 1866, continued the study under the direction of Drs. Tomkins, Kelsey and Treadwell ; subsequently at- tended the State University and graduated from the medical department in 1868. He commenced the prac- tice of medicine and surgery at Vandalia in the sum- mer of the same year, and has since carried it on.
D. L. Flanders, of St. Joseph County, practiced in the village from 1871 to 1873, and Dr. D. Teague, of Wabash, Ind., from 1865 to 1868.
DOWAGIAC.
There have been fifty phsicians in Dowagiac from the time of its establishment as a village to the present writing. The greater number of these have been transient residents concerning whom no extended men- tion could be made even if it was desirable. A few have been men of high standing in their profession, and have practiced long in the community. Of all
Fx Goodwin M. D ..
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
such, biographies are given where it has been pos- sible to secure the data.
Thomas Brayton was the first physician in the place and began practice in 1848 or 1849. He was a native of Steuben County, N. Y., and both as man and physician, of good repute. His practice in Dowa- giac extended from the time of his arrival until his death, which was caused by a railroad accident some time in the sixties. Dr. Brayton had some original methods of treatment. As an example, when Nicho- las Bock's daughter (now Mrs. William Larzelere) was very sick with a fever and not expected to live, the physician brought Fred Werz, the village fiddler, to the bedside and commanded him to remain there day and night and fiddle his most inspiriting tunes when the patient had sinking spells. The Doctor's orders were followed to the letter, and the patient recovered.
Dr. Barnum came soon after Dr. Brayton, but left in 1852.
A Dr. Jarvis came to the village about the time Dr. Brayton left, and remained for a number of years. He was more noted as a drayman than a follower of the healing art, and for some time attracted attention by driving a bull or steer instead of a horse.
L. R. Raymond came to Dowagiac about 1851 and left five or six years later. He was from Evans, Erie County, N. Y., and returned to that place. He was, during his stay, regarded as one of the leading physi- cians of the county.
Dr. Keables, now of Decatur, practiced here a short time in the fifties.
C. W. Morse came to Dowagiac in 1851, and with some intervals has since lived here and enjoyed a large practice. He was born in Orange County, Vt., June 26, 1827, but left there when twenty years of age. He read medicine with a brother, A. H. Morse, in Erie County, N. Y. After coming to Dowagiac, he went East, received a diploma from the University of Buffalo, in 1864, and also took a course of lectures at Cincinnati. Soon after coming to Dowagiac, he bought the place where he now resides. For about four years he was in the drug business with N. B. Hollister.
Hiram Crapper and a Dr. Richards practiced for brief periods from 1853 to 1856.
Dr. C. P. Prindle had an extensive practice in Cass County, and followed it for a long term of years, residing at Dowagiac, of which community he was a highly valued citizen. He was born in Spafford, Onondaga County, N. Y., May 25, 1825. His boyhood days were passed in the usual manner of well-conditioned children. Under the supervision of loving parents, in moderate though comfortable cir- cumstances, he had little to mar his pleasures. He was light-hearted and merry, and made the most of
life. When he was eleven years of age, however, his father died, leaving him, with other children, to the guidance of his mother. Time passed on and at the age of sixteen he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Morrel, of Borodino, Onondaga County. Passing through the required course of reading and obtaining much practical knowledge in the office from other sources than books, he went to Geneva College, from which institution he graduated in 1846. He desired to gain further knowledge in the line of his chosen calling, and with that end in view decided to go to New York and enter the great Bellevue Hospital, which has been a valuable school for hundreds of physicians. In order to pay his ex- penses, he was first obliged to work for six months. This he did and then carried out his plan. He re- mained for about a year at Bellevue, and also attended lectures during that period. Returning from the city, he spent a year in the central part of New York State. He had some thoughts of removing to the West, but it was with difficulty he made up his mind to do so. At last he came, and for a short time was located in Sumnerville, Pokagon Township, Cass County. Feeling that he could not have sufficient latitude at that place, he went to Lawrence, Van Buren County. There his ride soon became very ex- tensive and he felt that his labors as a physician had commenced in earnest. This was in 1850 and 1851. It was during his residence at the last-named place that he married Miss Adaline S. Case, of Onondaga County, N. Y. The winter of 1854, he spent in New York City, attending lectures and ministering to the needs of a friend who was seriously ill. In the city, he was brought into close intercourse with his old preceptor, Dr. Alonzo Clark, which he felt was a great advantage to him, as a young physician. In March, 1855, he came West again and located at Dowagiac, where he spent the remainder of his life. He practiced thirty years, and those the best years of his life. His death occurred August 2, 1876. He built several houses in Dowagiac, and was closely identified with its best interests; but it was as a physician that he was best known and appreciated there and in the county. He was very much devoted to his profession and nothing daunted him in his zeal and determination to honor it. A writer in one of the local newspapers said of him at the time of his death : " For twenty-one years, although often racked with pain and fatigue, such as few imagined, never in a single instance when able to ride did he refuse to attend the call of suffering-whether coming from friend or foe, rich or poor, it was all the same to him." Hc detested " the professional quack in medicine," and few things hurt his feelings as much as did the often
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY. MICHIGAN.
sad results of their insincerity and ignorance. He disliked, too, anything like pretentiousness, or the use of high-flown language. On one occasion when returning from a long country ride, he observed as he drove into town quite a large gathering of men around one of his cotemporaries, a young doctor who was giving his ideas of a case of illness, and ostenta- tiously displaying his knowledge of the technicalities of medicine, using all the terms in the category of the " Materia Medica," and, for that matter, in the whole range of the literature of the healing art, which he could possibly find excuse for. After listening for a few moments, he stepped up to the young M. D., say- ing, in his outspoken manner, "Young man, you are disgracing your Alma Mater. How do you expect these men to understand what you are trying to ex- plain in your high-flown language ? Always use plain and simple language ; then there will be no mistakes." He often spoke against professional bombast, and said that there should be no secrets in the true practice. The doctor was known as a strong, earnest, manly character, and was almost universally esteemed for his worth as a man and his qualities professionally.
" His death," continues the obituary notice, from which we have already made one brief quotation, " caused widespread sorrow in many homes, where for years he had been the trusted physician, the tried, true friend. His funeral was very largely attended, the stores and business places in Dowagiac being closed by common consent."
Dr. Prindle left at his death a wife and two chil- dren. Flora H. Prindle. the elder, and Edward C. Prindle, the younger, who is now a practicing physi- cian, having graduated from Ann Arbor University with the class of 1876, and also from the Columbia College of New York City in 1877. .
A. B. Hall followed the profession here from 1854 to 1858 or '59.
William E. Clarke, M. D., was formerly in practice here as physician and surgeon for some ten or twelve years prior to the breaking-out of the war. He is a native of Lebanon, Conn., was educated at the Roches- ter (N. Y.) Institute, and in his profession chiefly under the tuition of Prof. Edward M. Moore and Frank Hamilton, then of that city, with several courses of lectures at the Williamstown (Mass.) and Vermont Medical Colleges. of which they were professors. In the summer of 1861, and while in practice at Dowa- giac, he was commissioned Surgeon of the Fourth Regiment of Michigan Infantry ; served with it in the Army of the Potomac, until after Mcclellan's cam- paigns of 1862; was transferred to the Nineteenth Infantry. organized at Dowagiac, in the fall of 1862, and thence, in 1863, to Carver General Hospital at
Washington, and thence, at the close of the war, to a regiment still on duty in North Carolina. After his discharge, he commenced and has since continued the practice of his profession at Chicago, where he has been President of the Medical Society of the city.
Moses Porter came in 1854, and after practicing eight years, removed to Kalamazoo.
A. J. Leonard followed the profession for a short time, and then removed to Whitewater, Wis.
Theodore P. Seeley was, for a year or so, in part- nership with William E. Clarke. He went into the army, and on his return settled in Chicago.
J. H. Beals was for a short time associated with Dr. Brayton, afterward went into the army, and was a Lieutenant of cavalry.
James Bloodgood came here in 1864 and died in 1865 (see Cassopolis).
Dr. Odell and Dr. Salter each practiced for a short time, as did also Dr. Martin, now of Berrien Springs.
Cyrus J. Curtis was the pioneer Eclectic physician of Dowagiac and of Cass County. He was born in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., January 31, 1819 ; re- moved with his father's family to Erie County, Penn., in early boyhood, and there received his education at the Waterford Academy. He studied medicine with a Dr. Smith, in Erie, and graduated at the Worthing- ton Medical College of Ohio. In 1844, he was mar- ried to Lucinda Brace, of Erie, Penn., and removed to Adrian, Mich. Four years later, he returned to Erie County, Penn., where he practiced until 1860. His health failing that year, he removed to Berkeley Springs, Va. At the outset of the war, he was obliged to leave at a great personal sacrifice, and located in Portage County, Ohio. His wife died there May 2, 1864, and in December of that year he removed to Michigan and located at Dowagiac, bringing with him his children and Dr. S. T. McCandless, who was as- sociated with him in practice. He married his second wife, Lillie A. Mills, of New Milford, Ohio, in May, 1865. The labor of an extensive practice in Penn- sylvania and Ohio had so impaired his health that he was unable to follow a general practice after coming to Dowagiac, and devoted himself to the treatment of chronic diseases, and soon established an enviable reputation through his marked success. During most of the time of his residence in Dowagiac. he had part- ners who gave their attention to the general practice. Dr. S. T. McCandless was with him from December, 1865, until January, 1867 ; D. B. Sturgis and Will- iam Flory from September 1, 1868, to March 10, 1869; Linus Daniels from May, 1869, to May, 1870 ; Dr. H. S. McMaster from September, 1871, to Septem- ber, 1873, and his son, E. A. Curtis, from December, 1873, until his death, which occurred April 21, 1875.
Levi aldrich M. D.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY. MICHIGAN.
During his early professional life, Dr. Curtis took an | came to the town in 1862, or about that time, and for active part in public affairs, especially educational a short time occupied an office near where Mosher & Palmer's store now is, and exercised the " herb art " upon a few credulous people. matters. He was a charter member of the Eclectic Medical Society of Michigan, and its President ; a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of the Masonic Order. The last year of his life was spent in traveling in Colorado, in the vain hope of re- storing his health.
S. T. McCandless, a graduate of the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, came to Dowagiac in 1864, associated as has been said, with C. J. Curtis. He removed to Alliance, Ohio, in January, 1867.
D. B. Sturgis came to Dowagiac in September, 1868; was associated with C. J. Curtis, under the firm name of Curtis & Sturgis until March 10, 1869, when he removed to South Bend, Ind.
William Flora was a partner of C. J. Curtis, and a son-in-law of D. B. Sturgis. He came to Dowagiac in 1868, having graduated from the Bennett Medical College of Chicago.
Linus A. Daniels, also an Eclectic physician, came to Dowagiac in May, 1869, and was in partnership with C. J. Curtis until May, 1870, when he removed to Plainwell, Mich. He attended the Medical Depart- ment of the State University, but graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.
Henry Lockwood practiced here a very short time. (See Edwardsburg.)
A Dr. Barnes was here several years.
James D. Taylor came to Dowagiac in 1858, and prac- ticed his profession until his death, February 11, 1871 His wife (who was Miss Elizabeth A. McMain) and two children still reside in Dowagiac. Dr. Taylor was born near Elyria, Ohio, December 2, 1828, and obtained his medical education in Cleveland and Chi- cago, receiving his diploma from the Hahnemann College of the latter city in 1868.
P. I. Mulvane was born in Newcomerstown, Tus- carawas Co., Ohio, December 13, 1836. He was ed- ucated at the University of Michigan, and received his medical diploma from the Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1870. He commenced practice in Illi- nois in 1862, and in the same year entered the army. In 1865, he came to Dowagiac, and remained in prac- tice there until 1873, when he removed to Topeka, Kan. At one time Dr. Mulvane was associated with Dr. C. P. Prindle, and again for two years or more was in partnership with Dr. C. W. Morsc. He was quite prominent as a physician, and had a large prac- tice. Since residing in Kansas, he has been Presi- dent of the State Eclectic Board of Medical Examiners, ever since the new medical act has been in force.
" Dr." Whitehead, an Indian "medicine man,"
J. H. Wheeler came to Dowagiac in 1867, and soon became one of the leading and influential physi- cians of the town. He was born in Cheshire County, N. H., October 17, 1812; removed with his father and other members of the family to Western New York in 1821, and emigrated to Cass County in 1835. He was a practical surveyor, and in his leisure mo- ments studied medicine. He took his degree in Phil - adelphia in 1844, and in the same year began practice in Edwardsburg; removed to Berrien County in 1847, and from there, twenty years later, to Dowagiac. He died here, January 5, 1877, in his sixty-fifth year, leaving a wife and three children.
Dr. Sherwood was in partnership with Dr. Wheeler from 1872 to 1874.
G. W. Fosdick practiced (homœopathy) for a short time, and removed to a farm in Volinia in 1876.
L. V. Rouse came in the sixties, and still practices in the city.
Edward Sawyer Stebbins settled here in 1868. He was born in the town of Norwich, Vt., January 17, 1820, and resided there until 1839, when he went to Worcester, Mass. He began the study of medicine in part for the purpose of curing himself of consump- tion, with which he was then afflicted in its incipient but well marked stages. Succeeding in this, he at- tended the prescribed courses of lectures in the New England Botanical College, at Worcester, Mass., in 1845 and 1846. In 1844, he was united in marriage with Harriet Goddard, of that city. He continued to reside in Worcester until his removal to the West, and in 1867 was elected Representative to the Mas- sachusetts Legislature, on the Republican ticket. In 1869, the year after the Doctor removed to Dowagiac, he lost his wife, a very estimable lady, who left four children to mourn her loss. With the exception of a short interval when he was in business with his son- in-law, L. E. Wing, he continued to follow his pro- fession, until 1879, when he abandoned a lucrative practice for a larger field, and removed to East Liver- pool, Ohio, where he now resides. Dr. Stebbins is a scholarly man, a great reader and an untiring student of specialties. In electrical therapeutics, he probably had no equal in Western Michigan.
IIamilton Sheldon McMaster was born December 30, 1842, in West Sparta, Livingston Co., N. Y., in a log house, on the banks of the Genesee Valley Canal, and was reared on a farm one mile from his birthplace until he was ninctcen years of age, attend- ing district school in the winter. August 6, 1862,
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and 'Thirti- , ical fact, and one which has been attested by various examinations by medical gentlemen.
eth Regiment New York Infantry, afterward changed to the First New York Dragoons. He was Ward- master eight months in Douglass Hospital, Washing- ton, D. C. (after getting up from a siege of typhoid fever), in 1863-64, and his experience there has been of value to him in subsequent practice. He served in the army two years and ten months, being discharged June 6, 1865. In October, 1867, he came to Michi- gan. He received a good academic education at Dansville Seminary, in New York, Lima Seminary of the same State, and Albion College, Michigan. He taught school a couple of terms before coming to Michigan, and four in this State, the last three (one year) being in a graded school at Blissfield. His sum- mer vacations were spent upon a farm, and his even- ings occupied with study. He attended lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, and at Bennett Medical College, Chicago, graduating from the latter in the class of 1871. He commenced prac- tice in Onondaga, Mich., in 1870, and was there six months before going to Chicago; went to Battle Creek in June, 1871, and came to Dowagiac in Sep- tember of the same year, and has resided here ever since, with the exception of a little more than a year spent in Grand Rapids. In 1872, he was married to Miss Mary F. Stebbins, daughter of Dr. E. S. Steb- bins. Dr. McMaster is well known in his profession as a frequent contributor to the medical journals, such as the Medical Times, of Chicago, the Eclectic Medi- cal Journal, of Cincinnati, the Medical Tribune, of New York, and the Therapeutical Gazette, of De- troit ; also as a defender of the liberal, non-sectarian principles and ethics of the Eclectic school of practice, and advocate for a high standard of qualifications for graduation in the colleges that are recognized by the National Society. He has prepared several papers for the State and National Medical Societies. He was the first City Physician of Dowagiac; is now a Trustee and Director of the schools : President of the Ladies' Library Association ; President of the Dowagiac Union Medical Society ; Secretary of the State Eclectic Medical and Surgical Society ; the editor of the report of its annual transactions, and the Vice President of the National Eclectic Medical Association. He is best known outside of his pro- fessional practice as a persistent advocate of equal rights for the Eclectic school of medicine, before the law, in the University, in the State Board of Health, and in other institutions of Michigan. Dr. McMaster has taken an active part in public affairs, and been a leading spirit in temperance reform. His heart is always on the right side. This is not merely a rhetorical figure-true metaphorically-but a phys-
E. B. Weed, a homœopathic physician, came to Dowagiac in 1871, and remained until 1877, when he went to Grand Rapids. He now resides in Detroit.
Eugene A. Curtis, an eclectic physician of Dowa- giac, was born in Waterford, Erie County, Penn., December 17, 1852, and came here in 1864 with his father. He studied medicine with his father, Dr. C. J. Curtis, and graduated from the Bennett Medical College of Chicago in 1873. He began practice with his father and Dr. H. S. McMaster. He was asso- ciated with Dr. W. F. Ball during 1877, but termi- nated the partnership to reside in Chicago. After spending nearly two years there in attendance at the colleges and hospitals be returned to Dowagiac in the summer of 1879, and has since been in practice here.
W. L. Marr came to Dowagiac in 1874, having just graduated from the State University, and remained until 1879, when he went to Chicago.
E. C. Prindle, son of Dr. C. P. Prindle, graduated from the State University in 1876, and has since practiced here.
Theodore Rudolphi has been in practice in the city since 1877.
John Robertson, now of Pokagon, was in practice here from 1877 to 1880.
W. F. Ball, an eclectic physician and a graduate of the Philadelphia Medical Institute, came here in 1877 and left in 1878, going to East Liverpool, Ohio. He was in partnership with Dr. E. A. Curtis.
E. W. Eldridge, a graduate of the Cincinnati Col- lege of Medicine and Surgery was in the city in 1879-80.
J. H. Ludwig, a homœopathic physician, came here in 1879, and still remains.
W. W. Easton, eclectic, graduate of the Bennett Medical College of Chicago, has been here since 1880. He is a son of Thomas Easton of Silver Creek.
D. W. Forsythe has been in practice in Dowagiac since 1880, coming directly from the Bennett Medical College of Chicago. He was born in Canada in 1853.
W. J. Ketcham, for about six years a practitioner in Volinia, has lately formed a partnership with Dr. C. W. Morse. He studied with Dr. C. P. Prindle, and is a graduate of the State University.
LA GRANGE.
Dr. Jacob Allen located in La Grange (then called Whitmanville) in 1837, and practiced there with mod- erate success until 1852, when, on account of failing health, he went to California. He was afflicted with asthma, but became entirely relieved of the disease
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