History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 88

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1020

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giving a favorable report of the richness of the deposits, although finding gold in small quantities. The civil war breaking out soon afterwards, the project was abandoned. The doctor thinks the Indians demurred at being vaccinated, althoughi ordered by the Great Father at Washington, and refused to afford opportunities to the white medicine man to prospect for gold; at least, this was his first and last speculation in gold digging. We note this as part of the history of Nebraska.

At the outbreak of the civil war we find the doctor holding a clerkship in the United States pension office and practicing his pro- fession before 9 a. m. and after 3 p. m., only six hours' work then being required of the clerks in government office. In the early days of Lincoln's administration the clerks in the various departments drilled in the corridors; the young Esculapins shouldered his musket with the rest of them.

In 1862, becoming tired of civil serviee, the constant cannonading around Washing- ton seemed to call him to take a more active part in the nation's struggle, he offered his services to the government and was appointed acting assistant surgeon I'nited States Army, and continued to serve in the hospitals in and around Washington, Distriet of Colum- bia. He was with the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Antietam and remained in Frederick, Maryland, in charge of the wounded after that battle, until January, 1863, when he was ordered to report to General Schofield, then in command of the department of Missouri, at St. Louis.

In March, 1863, we find him at Franklin, Tennessee, the aeting medical inspector of the Army of Kentucky, under General Gor- don Granger, United States Army. Here the doctor lost his younger brother, William Francis Peabody, who was killed in an engagement with Van Dorn's troops. This was a sad blow, for he loved him as a son as well as a brother, and had raised and educated this boy, who was just twenty-one when killed.

On the 20th day of April, 1863, he re- turned to St. Louis and was placed in charge of the United States Marine Hospital, one of the finest hospitals in that city. On August 15, 1863, President Lincoln promoted him to full surgeon United States volunteers with rank of major, and on May 24, 1864, the sec- retary of war ordered him to report to Major

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General Curtis, in command of the Depart- ment of Missouri, at Kansas City. General Curtis ordered him to take charge of the medi- cal department of the district of Nebraska. We find on file the following order:

HIEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA, OMAHA CITY, N. T., July 17, 1864. [Special Order No. 69.]

Surgeon Philip Harvey, United States vol- teers, having been relieved, and Surgeon J. H. Peabody having reported, in accordance with special order 145, dated Headquarters, Department of Kansas, July 9, 1864, Sur- geon J. II. Peabody is announced as medical director for the district of Nebraska, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

By command of Brigadier General Robert B. Mitchell. JOIN A. WILCOX,

Lieut. 4th Cavalry, A. A. A., General. From this date the doctor claims citizen- ship in Nebraska, having invested in lands and lots in Omaha in the year 1864.

While stationed in Omaha he occupied the old state-house building (situated on the west side of Ninth Street, between Farnam and Douglas, opposite the present Union Pacific headquarters) as a hospital and medi- cal director's office for the district of the Platte. The doctor tells some amusing stories about so re Pawnee Indian scouts he had as patients during his term here and the mode of treatment which pleased them best. Whilst medical director he did quite a little practice as consulting phyiscian with the local physicians in Omaha, and made many friendships that continue to this day. At this period he was made a Master Mason in Capitol Lodge A. F. & A. M.

He was kept very busy whilst here in sup- plying our troops on the plains with sanitary and medical stores, the troops at that time suffering much from the want of vegetable food. April, 14, 1865, he was relieved from duty in Omaha and ordered to Denver, but did not go on account of the extreme illness of his wife. May 15, 1865, we find him with General Clinton B. Fisk at Macon, Missouri, as medical director of the district of North Missouri. He was mustered out at Washing- ton in August, 1865, and was breveted lieu- tenant-colonel by President Johnson.

Before leaving Washington he called on the president, whom he had known for years. Mr. Johnson said if he could assist him in any way he would be pleased to do it, not

only for his own sake, but for the sake of the doctor's uncle, Charles Cathcart, of Indiana, who had been his colleague in congress for several years. The doctor thanked him very warmly and said as he had served his country in peace and in war for eighteen years, he be- lieved he would take Horace Greeley's advice, "Go west and grow up with the country." The president smiled pleasantly and replied that he wished the host of office-seekers and and certain gentlemen lately in rebellion, who had been besieging him for favors since the death of the lamented Lincoln, would also take Horace Greeley's advice.

The fall and winter of 1865 and the spring of 1866 were spent by the doctor in New York at the Bellevue Medical College, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and in the hospitals of New York city, preparing himself for a general practice in civil life. In April, 1866, he returned to Omaha and has had a very large practice ever since. He can give some interesting anecdotes of the vicissitudes of an early practitioner in and around the city, his practice in the early days extending for fifty miles around Omaha; and the bridges over the streams not being the best construction, he came near being drowned in March, 1866, by being washed off, horse, buggy and all, into the Papillion, just above Gilmore; and the messenger re- turning with medicine the next day to Forest City, Sarpy County, was drowned, together with his horse, by being carried under the ice in the same stream.

In 1866 he was appointed acting asssistant surgeon United States army, and placed on duty as attending physician to the officers of the United States army and their families stationed in Omaha. He continued in this office until October, 1874, when, owing to Mrs. Peabody's rapidly failing health, he gave up this position, together with a very large practice, and went to Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, remaining there until November, 1875, when he returned to Omaha.

Ile took an active part in the organization of the San Joaquin Medical Society whilst in California, and was elected vice president of it. In 1867 he became one of the charter members of the Omaha Medical Society, the pioneer society of the State; was elected president of the same at its second session in 1868. The State society was organized in his office, No. 325 South Twelfth Street,

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and he was elected president of this society at its second session in 1869. He took a very active interest in it in its early days, writing a number of articles to give interest in its proceedings. Ile was at various times physician and surgeon to St. Joseph's Hospital, surgeon and physi- cian in charge of the Good Samaritan Hospital, which was burned, and consulting physician to the Child's IJospital. IIe has ever taken an earnest and active interest in every move that would promote the good and growth of regular medicine.

Since 1870 the doctor has been a member of the American Medical Association, the largest body of surgeons and physicians in the United States, and has contributed to its records. Ile also contributed a number of articles to the " Medical and Surgical llis- tory of the War of the Rebellion," and lias quite a number of pathological specimens in the Army Medical Museum, at Washington, District of Columbia. He contributed an article on surgery, to the great international congress of surgeons and physicians from all nations, which met in Washington, District of Columbia, September. 1887. This con- gress was opened by the president of the United States and secretary of state. In September, 1876, he gave to the profession, through an article in the Philadelphia Medi- cal and Surgical Reporter, his experience for sixteen years in the treatment of diphtheria and tonsilitis with oil of turpentine.

This article was copied by a number of other journals and has brought this remedy into use in this and other countries. The doctor feels justly pleased to have originated a treatment which after twelve years' trial is acknowledged to be one of the best, if not the best, mode of treating diphtheria, the deaths under this treatment being only from eight to ten per cent., whilst under all others they run from twenty to fifty. The doctor's services in consultation are often sought. Many of the younger members of the pro- fession praise him for his uniform kindness and ethical courtesy. He is zealous for the honor of the regular profession and dislikes the name of pathist, often asserting that it should be unlawful for a physician to call himself anything but a physician, that the practice of medicine should take the whole broad field of therapeutics and not be con- fined to the dogma of any one. Ile is gen- eral surgeon of the Chicago, St. Paul, Min-

neapolis & Omaha Railway, Nebraska divis- ion, and consulting surgeon, Union Pacific Railway.

Doctor Peabody is a charter member of the Military Order Loyal Legion of the United States, of Nebraska, member of Cus- ter Post, Grand Army of the Republic, ves- tryman Trinity Cathedral, and has taken an active interest in the promotion of the growth of Omaha, and has contributed largely for a man of his means to churches, hotels, railroads and other public enter- prises in which all good citizens are inter- ested.

The doctor has been twice married-first to Miss Mary Virginia Dent, at Louisville, Kentucky, May 26, 1859. Many of the older citizens remember her as a very lovely lady, who spent the winter of 1864 and 1865 in Omaha. She died in St. Louis, Missouri. in August 1865, leaving one son now living in Omaha, Dr. John Dent Peabody, who grad- uated in medicine, at Brooklyn, New York. in 1881, and in 1882 took an ad eundem de- gree from the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. The doctor was again mar- ried November 21, 1867, at Trinity Cathe- dral, Omaha, to Miss Jennie D. Yates, a native of Maryland. She was well-known as one of the most active workers in all good work for the city in the early days of its struggle. She was an occasional contribu- tor, both in verse and prose, to the news- papers in the early days of Omaha.

By his latter marriage the doctor had but one child, a little girl, who died when scarcel v eleven months old. His acquaintance has been prized as that of a Christian gentle- man, ready to give reasons concerning his faith, and also because of his cheerful dis- position and good fellowship. He is a hard worker in his profession, but sometimes feels the need of change of scene and outdoor re- creation, with no anxious care to oppress him. So with dog and gun or fishing- tackle he hies him to the mountain stream or lake, and in congenial companionship spends a few days and returns with renewed vigor to what will always be his arduous pleasure -the practice of his profession.

ANDREW J. POPPLETON .- The sub- ject of this sketch comes of a family which may be traced to an early day. An English officer of the name was in Cromwell's army which overran Ireland in 1649-50. When

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the subjugation of the Island was complete Washington's artillery officer and secretary he remained there. It is said that Samuel of war. She was born on the 30th of May, 1772, and died in Genesee County, Mielii- gan, in 1863, at the great age of ninety-one. In 1825 William Poppleton and his family removed to Troy Township, in Oakland County, Michigan. Ile had seven children, of whom Andrew J. Poppleton, the sixth, was born in Troy Township, Oakland County, Michigan, on the 24th day of July, 1830. It is worthy of note that each gener- ation of Mr. Poppleton's family, including himself, have been pioneers in a new country. Poppleton was his grandson. Samnel Pop- pleton was born in Ireland in 1710, and was married to Rosanna Whaley, by whom he had four sons, Ebenezer, Benjamin, William and Samuel, the youngest of whom, Samuel, was born on Christmas day, 1750. Soon after the birth of this child the family emi- grated to this country, and settled at Pow- nall, in the territory which now forms a part of the State of Vermont. At the out- break of the Revolution the elder Samuel adhered to the British crown, and returned From Samuel Poppleton and his four sons who came to this country from Ireland and made new homes in what is now Vermont, to the subject of this sketch, all were farm- ers, tilling the soil with their own hands. The education of the father of Andrew J. Poppleton was limited. By his own reading and study and thought, he became a man of large intelligence, and as such and for ster- ling virtues was held in highest esteem in the County of Oakland. Ile was several times elected to local offices and once to the Michigan State Legislature. to Ireland where he died; but his four sons enlisted in the Continental Army, and were all actively engaged in the war. Samuel, the youngest, was with Ethan Allen at the taking of Ticonderoga, served under Benc- dict Arnold in the expedition against Quebec and at the battle of Saratoga, and subsequently came under the immediate command of Washington, and participated in a number of engagements until the close of the war. He was accustomed to say that he had been in seven pitched battles.

In 1783 Samuel Poppleton was married in Pownall, Vermont, to Caroline Osborne, by whom he had eight children, of whom Will- iam Poppleton, the father of Andrew J. Poppleton, was born in Poultney, Vermont, in 1795.

In 18II Samuel Poppleton with his fam- ily removed to Richmond, Ontario County, New York, and in 1822 again emigrated and settled at Belleville, in Richland County, Ohio, where he died in 1833. His wife died at the same place on the 7th of November, 1842. In 1814 William Poppleton was mar- ried at Richmond, in New York, to Zada Crooks, the granddaughter of David Crooks, a Scoteliman, who came to Blanford, in Massachusetts, prior to 1769, and afterwards removed to Richmond, in New York, where he died in 1820. His son David, the father of Zada Crooks Poppleton, was born in Blanford, Massachusetts, on the 2d day of December, 1769, and afterwards removed to Richmond, in New York, where he was en- gaged as a saw and grist miller until his death in 1812. The mother of Mrs. Pop- pleton was Eunice Knox Crooks, a grand- daughter of William Knox, who was born in Ireland, of Scotch descent, in 1690, and came to America in 1735. She was a first consin to Major-General Henry Knox,

The life of a new-comer to a Western home in the early days of the settlement of Michigan was very severe. Clearing the forests, planting a farm and building a home was a work of great privation and unremit- ting toil. William Poppleton passed through these days and their labors; and in his later manhood saw the State of his adoption a prosperous commonwealth, and accumulated an ample competency, living and dying on a farm which his own hands had redeemed from a state of nature.

IIe greatly valued the education which had been denied him, and gave to his children all the advantages in that way which the circumstances permitted. He died in May, 1869.

The boyhood of Andrew J. Poppleton was passed upon his father's farm. He in- herited a love of the pursuits and associa- tion of rural life. The hay and harvest field, the ride to the mill, the orchard, the care and love of animals, the common sports of such a home came to him as natural and enjoyable exercises, and from their pleasures he has never been alienated. One of his favorite recreations in later life has been agricultural pursuits, and the breeding, raising and training of standard bred trot- ting horses at his Oakland Farm of some

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1200 aeres near Elkhorn, Neb. He has con- tributed a strong impulse toward the ad- vancement of the trotting stock interests of this state.

Until 1844 he went to the country distriet schools; and at that time entered an acad- emy at Romeo, a little town near by his home, where he prepared for college. In 1847 he entered Michigan University; but in the fall of 1850 he withdrew, and entered Union College at Schenectady. While he was at the latter institution the venerable Doctor Nott was its president, and Doctor Tayler Lewis its professor of Greek. Other members of the faculty left an influence upon his mind, but these two men deeply impressed themselves upon his character. As an instructor of young men, instilling into them the highest principles, and at the same time teaching them the precepts which conduct to practical success in life, Doctor Nott has been unsurpassed in this country. The nature of the country boy was open to such influences and he has carried through life what he received from the lips and from the personality of that great man. Doctor Lewis influenced the young student in an- other direction. A Grecian of learning and culture unsurpassed perhaps by any other in this country. he not only taught his pupils the language, but inspired in them a love of the literature of the Attic race. Mr. Popple- ton graduated in July, 1851. He returned to the school at Romeo where he taught Latin and Greek until April of the next year. During the last years of his college life and while engaged in teaching, it was his ambition to be a professor of Greek in a college, which seemed to him the very high- est position to which he could attain. Upon leaving Romeo, he entered the law office of Messrs. C. I. and E. C. Walker at Detroit, Michigan, then leaders of the bar of the State. Hle continued his studies with them until October 22, 1852, when, after a public examination by the judges of the supreme court of Michigan, he was admitted to the bar. Directly afterwards he became a student in the law school of John W. Fowler, at that time located at Baleston in New York, and afterwards removed to Poughkeepsie in that state. He enjoyed at this school the special advantages of the in- struction which Mr. Fowler gave to elocu- tion and in the related exercises. With very great gifts in publie speech and trained

in all of the ways of a popular orator, this gentleman was one of the most useful and successful teachers. lle not only gave in- struction in the exercises of declamation, but taught his pupils to think upon their feet; to prepare themselves by abundant study, and then express themselves at a moment's notice, in the presence of others and under the direction of his critical skill. Timid, hesitating, ineffective and diseon- nected speech was under his training de- veloped into direct, strong, vigorous and impressive delivery, not after the pattern of his own style, but according to the natural modes of the pupil when trained and culti- vated. He never had a more apt and en- thusiastie scholar than Mr. Poppleton.

In April, 1853, the young man returned to Detroit and became a partner in a law firm, which was mostly engaged in a collec- tion business, and remained there until the first of October, 1854. At this time Cali- fornia held out many promises to young men, and Mr. Poppleton listened to them, Ile turned his face to the West, and on his way reached Omaha, October 13, 1854, just about the time government was being set up in Nebraska. Omaha was just being settled; its resident population was very small; most of those who claimed citizenship really lived at Council Bluffs and in other towns in Iowa along the Missouri River. There was something interesting to the young man in the work of planting homes and the institutions of social and politi- cal order in a new country, which disposed him to remain for the winter, thinking at first that when he had seen the work com- pleted he would continue his way to the Pacific or turn his steps in some other direction. One thing and another after- wards fell out which determined him to remain and make his home for life in the new Territory. In 1855 he married Caroline L. Sears, by whom he has three children.

The different acts of the executive in organizing the government followed one another in rapid succession. On the 21st of October, 1854, preliminary to the election of a delegate in congress and a territorial legislature, the acting governor, T. B. Cuming, issued his proclamation for an enumeration of the inhabitants. On the 26th of the same month he issued instruc- tions to deputy marshals directing them in their duties of taking a census. On the 21st

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of November he sent out a set of rules for conducting the election, and, on the 23d issued a further proclamation dividing the territory into counties, apportioning the councilmen and representatives among them and ordering the election. On the 20th of December he constituted the three judicial districts, assigned the judges of the supreme court thereto, and appointed terms for the courts; and on the same day issned another proclamation convening the legislature at Omaha, on the 16th of January, 1855.

Mr. Poppleton had known and been a friend of the governor, in Michigan, and naturally was called to take part in advising the executive in these several political acts. Ile was elected a member of the house of representatives of the legislature. The training which he had enjoyed fitted him for these new duties. He had acquaintance with the methods and rules governing delib- erative bodies; he was able to deliver him- self of his views of every question no matter how unexpectedly it was presented, and he had a keen enjoyment of the exeite- ments and contentions of the unorganized conditions of the new society. There was a good deal for the legislature to do. The whole system of laws common in an Ameri- can state were to be enacted, save such as had been in outline provided by the act of congress organizing the territory. In all this work he had a large part. Besides this another matter deeply concerned every one; that was the permanent location of the capi- tol, which by the organic aet was committed to the first legislature. Whether such a matter be considered trivial or not in a mature and settled state, it was thought to be of the first consequence at this time, because it was supposed that to the seat of government would be drawn the attention and interest of persons seeking homes in the region now first open for settlement. We cannot enter minntely into the plans, methods and influences which finally secured the location of the capitol at Omaha, but in them all Mr. Poppleton engaged with all the power of his nature; and it is not too much to say that as much as any man he contributed to the result.

From this time almost until he was stricken down by a severe siekness, judicial business in the courts was limited. There were not many controversies carried into them, and the judges were not very dili-

gent in holding their terms. But there sprang up at Omaha as elsewhere in the ter- ritory, a popular tribunal in which there were many contentions of great interest. The public lands had not been surveyed, and no land office of the government had been opened at which titles could be secured. This state of things continued until the spring of 1857, except that government sur- veys of the land along the Missouri River were prosecuted to some extent. Almost everybody made a settlement upon a parcel of the public lands, and alleged a claim to it. For a variety of reasons it was impracticable for many of the settlers to remain continu- ously upon their claims, so that they were exposed to the settlement of a second or third eomer. To protect themselves against this, they organized what were called Claim Clubs. These popular tribunals have always been found in new settlements. It natur- ally resulted that the owners of adjoining claims sometimes disagreed as to their divid- ing lines, and disputes arose between the first and subsequent claimants. Such contro- versies were deaft with before a meeting of all the members of the club, who were supposed to listen to the evidence and the arguments of the parties and decide accord- * ing to the justice of the case. A good many controversies of this sort came before the Omaha Claim Club and were tried in this way; they gave opportunity for the gifts of the young citizen, his powers of persuasion and reasoning, and all that goes to make up a popular orator. Mr. Poppleton threw himself into the controversies in which he was engaged with all the zeal, energy and power of which he was capable. There was mueh that was amusing and much that was serious. The whole thing was a school in which the skill and power of the orator and lawyer were trained.

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History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 88

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1020