USA > New Jersey > Salem County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 45
USA > New Jersey > Gloucester County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 45
USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 45
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Wa Co Potter
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GENERAL HISTORY.
ha- left void a sphere which he filled and adorned with Christian virtues." Mr. Reeves' death occurred in Bri Igeton, July 19, 1860, in his sixty-second year, and that of Mrs. Reeves. June 21, 1845, in her forty- sixth year.
Their son, James John-ou, was born Sept. 9, 1539, in Bridgeton, at the homestead in which he still re- sides. ITis boyhood was spent at his father's home, during which time he became a pupil of the public and private schools of this city, and subsequently at- tended the Harmony Academy and the West Jersey Academy. Having determined upon the law as a profession, he, in 1857, entered the office of HIon. John T. Nixon, of Bridgeton, and continued his studies with him and his associates, Charles E. Eliner and Judge L. Q. C. Elmer, until admitted to the bar iu 1861. During this period he entered the law school of Harvard University, at Cambridge, Mass., and grad- uated in the summer of 1861, receiving the degree of LL.B. He was licensed as an attorney in February, 1861; as a counselor, in June, 1/64; and in May, 1871, admitted to practice in the l'united States Cir- cuit and District Courts, about the same time also receiving the appointment of United States Com- inissioner.
Mr. Reeves relinquished his profession in 1862 and entered the army, having been instrumental with others in raising a company in the brief period of one and a half day :. This company became part of the Twenty-fourth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, and was known as Company HE, of which he was second lieutenant. Hle participated in the battles of Fred- ericksburg, on the 13th of December, 1962, and of Chancellorsville, on the 3d of May, 1863, in both of which engagements he was wounded. Mr. Reeves on his return from service resumed his professional labors, in which he has since been actively engaged.
He was married, June 7, 1865, to Mary Caldwell Butler, of Germantown, Pa .. daughter of Edward and Caroline Hyde Butler, of Northampton, Mass., a woman of remarkable literary attainments, and grand- daughter of Thomas Butler, Esq., an eminent lawyer of New York City. Their children are Hugh Laing, Sarah Caldwell, Harrict Dennison, Read, and Bertha Butler.
Mr. Reeves is in his political predifections a Repub- lican, and for three successive years filled the office of city solicitor. He is not, however, identified actively with the political issues of the day, giving, aside from the demands of his profession, his ability and energies largely to Christian work in the city of his birth and residence. The family are distinctively Presbyterian through several generations, and have ever been active and zealous in the work of the church. John- -on Reeves was for many years a truster of the First Presbyterian Church of Bridgeton, and indefatigable in its labors for its prosperity. James J. has been en- sayed in Sunday-school work from his earliest boy- Food. He was a teacher when sixteen years of age,
and has ever since filled either that position or acted as superintendent of the Sunday-school of the First Presbyterian Church. In 1801 he was elected to the superintendency of this school, and is still the incum- bent. He was ordained a ruling elder of this church in April, Isus. Mr. Reeves has been for many years a director of the Cumberland County Bible Society, was president of the Young Men's Christian Associa . tion of Bridgeton for a number of years, and for fif- teen years or more chairman of it- lecture committee. He has also been a member of the Board of Education of the city of Bridgeton, and is now a trustee of the West Jersey Academy. Mr. Reeves possesses a re- fined and musical taste, and has done much to ad- vance the musical interests of his native city. In connection with others he organized the Cumberland County Musical Association, and was subsequently for many years its efficient president.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
MEDICAL PROFESSION.
IT is difficult at the present time to ascertain who were the practitioners of medicine and surgery in Cumberland County from its first setilement, abont. the year Ioso, until Elijah Bowen commenced the practice of medicine at or near Shiloh, about the year 1730. It would be interesting to know who preceded him, who were his contemporaries in medical prac- tice, if he had any, who some of his immediate suc- cessors were, what was the extent of their literary and medical acquirements, their mental capacity, from whom they received their education, what books they read, what medicines they prescribed, or what were their surgical appliances.
At the first settlement of the county the inhabitants were so few and so widely separated from each other that a practitioner of medicine could not by his pro- fession alone obtain a livelihood, and the treatment of diseases, as is usually the case in newly-settled countries, fell into the hands of runny old women and ignorant pretenders. It is quite probable that the pioneers of Cumberland County had occasional re- course to the " medicine-man" of the aborigines, who had some knowledge of the medical properties of many of the indigenous plants of the country, and used them with not infrequent success. Some of their external appliances, as styptics and cataplasms, and internal remedies, as emeties, sudorifies, and catharties, were doubtle-s used with occasional benefit.
In the early settlement of the country the practi- tioners of medicine were generally self-constituted, and had no other medical qualifications than such as are possessed by every temerarious quack of the present day.
RALPH HARSLEY was the first physician who lived
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
in this county. as far as known. Ile first settled along Maurice River, but at what date is not known. He removed to Coharvey, and Oct. 80, 1685, Thomas Budd, the agent of John Bellers, of London, con- veyed to him-calling him " of Cohansey River, planter"-one hundred acres of land upon a lease for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. he paying a yearly quit-rent of one half-penny per acre, and upon the condition to build a house thereon within six months from date. This was a part of Bellers' survey, on which the Connectieut and Long Island settlers soon after located. This tract he conveyed to John Watts, of Salem, butcher, Dec. 11, 1Gsy, and on the same date he executed a release to Watts of all claims against him, in which he calls himself " late of Mor- ris River in West New Jersey, doet' of phi-ick." He then removed to the neighborhood of Bowentown, wbere he died Dec. 4, 1699. JIe made a nuncupa- tive will on the day before his death, in the pre-ence of Rev. Timothy Brooks and his wife, Hannah, which was reduced to writing on the 8th of the same month, and signed by the witnesses ; it recites, " We whose names are underwritten, hearing that our neighbor, Ralph Harsley, was very sick, went to visit him, and he declared his wife should have what he had, and said he had none else to give it to, and he would not give it to a stranger." The inventory of his personal property, made by Timothy Brooks and Sammel Hunter, Jan. 20, 1700, amounted to 250 17%. His will was recorded May 16, 1700, and letters tesia- mentary issued to his wife, Mary Hardly. As a doc- tor nothing is known of him, and imleed nothing of any kind except the above items.
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JUMS DYRE, who resided ai Greenwich, is the second physician known to have resided in this county, and nothing is known about him except what is learned from his will, which is on record at Trenton. It is dated Jan. 11, 153;, and he calls himself "of Greenwich, Doctor," and appoints John Ware and. Thomas Waitham, " my well-beloved friends," to be his executors, and directs thein to sell his estate, pay his debt4, and gives them the remainder. He signed it by his mark, probably on account of his sickness at the time. It was proved January 21th of the same year, before the surrogate of Salem County.
ELIJAH BOWEN was an early practitioner of medi- cine in Cumberland County. His grandfather, Rich- ard Bowen, with others of his countrymen, came from Wales in the year 1640, and settled at a place ju Massachusetts, which they named Swansey, after the town from which they emigrated. Doctor Elijah Bowen was for a time resident in Rhode Island, from whence he removed to a place in the then county of Salem, but now in Cumberland County, near Shiloh, where he was married to Deborah Swinney.1 He was
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probably the first medical practitioner in Cumberland County whose profession was not subsidiary to some other calling as the main business of life. He proba- bly commenced the practice of medicine, at or near Shiloh, about the year 1730, and was one of the founders of the Seventh-Day Baptist Church at Shiloh. Of his mental abilities, medical acquire- ments, general character, or the extent of his prae- tice no information has been obtained. It is tradi- tional that his medicines were exclusively vegetable.
Ile died Sept. 23, 1773, at a great age, and wa- interred in the cemetery of the Seventh-Day Baptist Church at Shiloh. His descendants in the femak. line in Cumberland County are quite numerous and respectable.
ELMINH BOWEN, JR., son of the above-named Elijah Bowen and Deborah Swinney, was born June 21, 17-13. Ile settled as a physician near Roadstown, where, it is said, he had an extensive practice. JHi. medicines were principally. if not wholly, derived from the vegetable kingdom. Upon visiting a patient, it is recorded that he would sometimes go into the fields, woods, or swamps, and search for such reme- dies, in the form of leaves, seeds, roots, or bark of herbs or trees, as he supposed were calculated to meet the requirements of the case. Ile resided in the brick house in Stow Creek township lately owned by Edgar Sheppard, where he died in September, 1783.
JAMES JOHNSON lived and practiced medicine in the neighborhood of Roadstown upwards of one hun- dred and twenty years ago. Neither the place of his birth, hi- eduration, nor with whom he pursued his medical studies is now known. He is supposed to have been one of the most respectable physicians in Cumberland County. He was a untive of England. and settled in Connecticut; thence came to New Jer- sey, and near Roadstown. He probably practiced medicine in Cumberland County for more than twenty
years. Ilis only daughter was married to John Reeves, a deacon of the Presbyterian Chmich ai Greenwich, who was the ancestor of many very re- spectable persons bearing the name of Reeves in Bridgeton and elsewhere. He died May 26, 1759. aged fifty-three years, and was buried in the Presby- terian cemetery at Greenwich,
SONICEL WARP. - The name of Samuel Ward con- mences, in the order of time, a list of names of a more lespectable and intelligent class of physicians in thi- Irgion-the west side of Cohansey -- than those who preceded hin. He was born in the State of Connec- tient in the year 1786. Ilis mind and education were of a better order than common, and he was hell in esteem and respect by the most intelligent people in the community. He commenced the practice of med- icine in Greenwich about the year 1760. and soon made a favorable impression as to bis natural and acquired talent- and skill as a physician. Soon after Lis settlement in Greenwich he was united by natt. ยท riage to Phebe Holmnes, daughter of Jonathan Jolie ..
" In,rab Swinney, her mother, died April 4, 170, in the seventy- ecrenth year of her age. It is recordeil oo ber tombstone in the of Baptist graveyard, near Sheppard's will, that " she was the list white fransk child born in Colismey."
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GENERAL HISTORY.
Esq., and Anna, his wife, and was thus connected with one of the most respectable and influential familie- of the county.
Dr. Ward took an active part in the political affairs of his day. In his manners he was dignified, cour- toous, and affable. He was a tender husband and a good citizen. He left no children. Ili- widow was married to Dr. Mo-e- Bloomfield, of Woodbridge, N. J., the father of Joseph Bloomfield, long known 1774, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and is buried in the l'resbyterian cemetery at Greenwich.
THOMAS EWING was a great-grandson of Finley Ewing, an Irish patriot, who, for his bravery at the battle of Boyne Water, on the Ist of July, 1690, was presented with a sword by King William, and the son of Maskell and Mary Ewing. He was born at Green- wich, N. J., Sept. 13, 1748.
In his boyhood he attended the classical school of Rev. Enoch Green, at Deerfield, where he studied Latin, and afterwards studied medicine under the direction of Dr. Samuel Ward, of Greenwich. On the 30th of September, 1770, he was married to Sarah Fithian, only daughter of Samuel and Abigail Fithian, of Greenwich, and thus came into the pos- session of a large estate. Shortly after their mar- riage they moved to Cold Spring, Cape May, where he practiced medicine. After the death of Dr. Ward, early in the year 1774, they returned to Greenwich, where he continued in professional prac- . tice to near the close of his life. He was one of the spirited young men concerned in burning the tea at Greenwich. When the war of the Revolution began he was appointed by the Legislature and commis- sioned major of the Second Battalion of the Cum- berland Regiment, commanded by Col. David Potter, in which capacity he joined the army, whether as surgeon or major is not known. He was present at the battle and disastrou- retreat from Long Island, and narrowly escaped being captured.
In the year 17St he was elected a member of the State Legislature. After his return from the Legis- lature his health declined rapidly, and on the 7th of October, 1782, consumption terminated his active, i useful, and honorable though comparatively brief life, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. The late ven- crable Dr. William Belford Ewing, of Greenwich, was his surviving son. He was interred in the cem- etery of the Presbyterian Church at Greenwich.
LEVI BONP .- Dr. Bond came to Greenwich from Maryland, where he was born and studied medicine. The time of his settling in Greenwich is not known. At one time his practice was extensive. Ile removed from Greenwich to the State of Indiana in 1836, where he lived till he was ninety-three years old. Dr. Bond was courteous in his manners, kind, hon- est, and much respected. Ile was conscientious to the verge of eccentricity. He was thrice married, and left descendants.
BENJAMIN PECK was of a respectable family in Deerfield. He studied medicine under the direction of Dr. Elijah Bowen, Jr. He resided in Roadstown. Ilis practice was never very extensive. He was twice married, and had children by both wives. He died about the year 1805, and was interred at Greenwich.
JONATHAN MOORE .- Jonathan Moore was the eldest son of Col. David Moore and Lydia Richman, . of Deerfield, where he was born, probably in the year as Governor or Gen. Bloomfield. lle died Feb. 27, . 1772. His father was an officer of artillery in the Revolutionary army, took part in the battle of Bran- dywine, and was wounded in the battle of German- town. It is not known who directed his medical studies. He practiced medicine for several years at Deerfieldl, and then removed to Bustleton, Pa , where he remained till his death, which probably occurred in the autumn of 1s12. He was interred at Bustleton.
THOMAS HARRISON MCCALLA, son of John McCalla and Jane Harrison, was born in the city of Philadel- phia, where he was educated. He pursued medical studies with so much zeal and success as ultimately to gain for himself an enviable standing as a physi- cian. Ile practiced medicine in Greenwich, Cumber- land Co., N. J., some time between the years 1.90 and 1800. Ile changed his residence to Charleston, S. C., where he soon became distinguished as a phy- sician. He was married to a Miss Barksdale, of Charleston, by whom he had a daughter, who died a few days after her marriage, and left him childless. Jle did not long survive her. Like the most of his family, he was possessed of more than ordinary mental endowments.
LEWIS HOWELL, son of Ebenezer and Sarah How. ell, was born in Delaware, Ort. 25, 1754. He was a twin-brother of the Hon. Richard H., Governor of New Jersey.
Lewis Howell was educated at Newark, Del., and removed with his parents to Cumberland County in 1769. He became a pupil in the office of Dr. Jona- than Chner at the same time that Ebenezer Elmer was studying medicine there. Having finished his course of study, he was emmissioned in 1777 as sur- geun of the Second Regiment in the army of the Revolution. Ilis fellow-student, Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, was commissioned at the same time in the same regi- ment as surgeon's mate.
Just before the battle of Monmouth Dr. Howell was taken ill with fever at a small lavern not far trom Monmouth Court-House, and died there ou the day of the battle. Dr. Ebenezer Eliner succeeded him as surgeon of the regiment.
JOHN T. HAMPTON was born in the neighborhood of Swedesboro in 1753. He removed to Cedarville while yet young, and commenced the practice of med- icine, living in a large double bouse below the hotel. Hle married Mrs. Merey Westcott, widow of Amos Westcott, who survived the doctor many years. Hle was a member of the "Old Stone Church" of Fair- field, and a ruling elder. Of his character as a pby-
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
sician nothing is known. He died Sept. 29. 1794, in the forty-second year of his age. A large flat tomb- stone at the south end of the old church marks his last resting-place.
CHARLES Hoop was born in 1783, and died while yet young. lle practiced medicine for a short time in Swedesboro. lle died at the early age of twenty- three in JSUG, and is buried in the old graveyard at Bridgeton.
SAMT'EL HARRIS was born in Hopewell township in 1782. It does not appear that his practice ever became extensive. Like many others of the old-time phy-icians, Dr. Harris was a " preacher of righteous- ne-s." lle was ordained to the work of the ministry in connection with the Baptist denomination. As he died in IsIl, at the carly age of twenty-nine, it i- not probable that his reputation as either a minister or physician had become established.
HIe was buried in the graveyard of the Roadstown Baptist Church.
WILLIAM CLARKSON practiced medicine in New York almost a century ago. lle was a very skillful physician, and had acquired an extensive and lucra- tive practice. He was married to a Miss Floyd (the name is believed to be correct), of Long Island. Soon after this marriage, both husband and wife be- came impressed with the importance of religion, and both became converted to the faith of the gospel. The doctor was led by conviction- of duty to aban- don his large and remunerative practice and devote himself to the work of the ministry. After a course of theological study he was ordained and installed as the pastor of the Presbyterian Churches of Greenwich and Bridgeton. This was several years before the completion of the old Presbyterian Church in the latter place, during which time the congregation worshiped in the court-house. The building was finished in 1795, and Dr. Clarkson was the first who preached from its pulpit.
Ile was the father of four children, all of whom married well. One of the daughters married the late John Crosby, E-q., of New York, the father of the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby.
Epo OGDEN was employed in the office of Dr. Azel Pierson when the latter gentleman was clerk of the county.
While living with Dr. Pierson he began the study of medicine, and in due course of time was licensed as a regular practitioner. He married a daughter of Thomas Brown, of Greenwich, and -ettled in or near Bridgeton. He did not live but two or three years after his marriage, falling a victim, as is supposed, to a malignant and very fatal type of fever prevailing throughout the county. Dr. Ogden had acquired . considerable practice, although lic died young, in 1513, the same year in which he was appointed to the clerkship of the county.
AZEL PIERSON was born July 12, 1767. Bnt littie is known of his carly lite. His educational advan-
tages must, however, have been of a superior order. since he manifested in later years not only a love fy but an intimate acquaintance with the higher branches of mathematics. After having been licensed a- :: practitioner of medicine, he married and settled in Cedarville. The house where he lived is still stand- ing, although somewhat modified and improved since his day. He always visited his patients on horse back, was considered a good rider, and very fond of the deer- and fox-hunts which were fashionable at that time, and a source of great amusement. Although somewhat uncouth in his manners and rough in his speech, he nevertheless enjoyed very largely the re- spect and confidence of his fellow-eitizens. As a physician he was abrupt and determined.
Dr. Azel Pierson, like many of the old-time physi- cians, became interested at comparatively an early age in political matters. In 1804 he was appointed clerk of the county in joint meeting, transferred his resi- dence to Bridgeton, and discharged the duties of the office for a term of eight years, and died holding the position early in the year 1813, of typhus fever, at the early age of forty-six. He lies interred in the grave- yard of the " Old Stone Church."
JOSEPH BREWSTER, son of Francis Brewster and Mary Crawford, was born Oct. 20, 1765. He and the late Dr. Gilbert Brewster were brothers. In 1787 he was married to Lucinda Carll. After his marriage he lived for a time in the parsonage of the Presbyte- rian congregation of Pittsgrove. He undoubtedly practiced medicine among the people of that vicinity, although but little is recorded of him as a physician. A few years thereafter he removed to Lower Alloway= Creek, and while practicing there became connected. cither upon profession or by certificate, with the Presbyterian Church of Greenwich. In 1795 he re- moved to Deerfield, and was received by certificate into the communion of the Presbyterian Church of that village, the Rev. John Davenport minister. In 1797 he was chosen a ruling elder in the latter church. He was a lineal descendant of William Brewster, ruling elder of the Plymouth Company that founded New Plymouth, the parent colony of New England, in 1620. He died Feb. 19, 1814.
HORATIT'S BREWSTER was the son of Dr. Joseph and Lucinda Brewster. The records of the Presby- terian Church of Greenwich contain the following item, viz. : "Baptized May 18, 1788, Horatius, son of Dr. Joseph Brewster." The latter had several chil- dren, one of whom was the father of Attorney-Gen- eral Benjamin 11. Brewster, of President Arthur'- cabinet.
Horatius, after enjoying the educational advantage- of his day, began the study of medicine in the offer of his father. After finishing his course with credit to himself, he returned to Deerfield, the residence of his father, and became associated with him in the practice of medicine. At the breaking out of tha! peculiar type of " fever" already referred to, the two
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Drs. Brewster were called upon to attend many cases of that almost malignant disease. And it is related that both father and son, while in the discharge of their professional duties, contracted this disease and died. No less than six of the physicians of Cum- berland County were carried to the grave by this nondescript "fever." There is no profession which furnishes such striking instances of disinterested self- sacrificing philanthropy.
BENJAMIN CHAMPNEYS was born near Salem, in the year 1774. When he was an infant his father died, and his mother resided on the farm which be- longed to her husband until her death, which was not long after his. Dr. Champneys inherited the prop- erty of his ancestors in Salem County, and was eda- cated in Philadelphia. He was examined and licensed in physic and surgery in 1795, and was married the same year to Sarah Eva, the daughter of Col. Potter. He purchased the property at the foot of Laurel Street, now known as the Buck property, and resided there. He received an appointment as surgeon in the navy, Jau. 6, 1800. Ile served on board the frigate " Philadelphia," forty-four guns, Stephen Decatur commanding. The "Philadelphia" was the largest ship then in the service. He was in the navy about a year and a half, and then resumed his practice in Bridgeton. The doctor formed a warm friendship for Decatur and other officers, who frequently visited him afterwards at his home.
He graduated in both departments of the Univer- sity of Penn-ylvania. The degree of M.D. he re- ceived in 1805. He served in the Assembly of New Jersey in Ist. He practiced vaccination in Bridge- ton in 1807. Ife received a certificate of honorary membership in the Medical Society of Philadelphia, signed by Dr. Rush, Feb. 20, 1808.
Dr. Champneys' practice was large, both in Salem f 1 and Cumberland Counties. He died in 1814, after a short illness, of typhus fever, which he had contracted while visiting the Drs. Brewster, at Deerfield, who died of the same disease. He had overworked himself, as he was very devoted to bis professional duties, and 1, =
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