USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 46
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About the year 1808, Dr. Little, a very aged gentle- man, and his son, who was also a physician, came from Connecticut to the neighborhood of Venice. The elder Little enjoyed a very enviable reputation as a surgeon in the East; but, owing to the infirmities of age, did ouly an office practice after coming to Ohio. The son, though considered a good physician, did not possess the skill and learning of the father. The elder Little died soon after locating in Ohio, and the son married a Miss Coan, whose brother still survives her, near Venice. After a few years he removed to near Miamitown, where he purchased a farm, and combined the practice of his profession with agriculture. The Littles prepared a salve which, it is said, possessed wonderful healing properties.
Dr. Benjamin T. Clarke, whose numerons progeny survive hin, came to the neighborhood of Venice, from New York, in 1814. In 1816 the doctor laid out the westeru division of the village of Venice, calling it, at that time, Venus. He is described as a tall, spare-built man, well-informed on general topies. The doctor con- tinued to practice until his death, which occurred in 1826.
Contemporary with Dr. Clarke was Dr. John Wood, a large, well-proportioned man. He, with his relatives, the Butterfields, emigrated from New York in 1816.
The doctor was very popular, and for a number of years did most of the practice. In 1828 he, with his family, removed to Illinois, where we lose his history. The doetor was a firm believer in the efficacy of large doses of calomel and the laneet. It is said that he abstracted blood with a lavish hand, and made it his practice to bleed his acute cases daily.
Dr. Blackleach, a native of Warren County, succceded Dr. Wood in 1828. He practiced his profession in Ven- ice many years. In 1839 he was succeeded by Dr. Prather. During his residence several itinerants paid Venice short visits; but their names and histories can not be obtained. The doctor was tall, spare-built, stoop- shouldered, and had very sunken eyes. He was very quiet; but was remarkable for a vein of dry humor. He held almost undisputed sway for many years, removing to Lebanon, Ohio, in 1839, where he continued to live until his death. His daughter still survives him there.
Dr. Prather succeeded Dr. Blackleach in 1839. A short time before leaving his home in Virginia he mar- ried a Miss Birckhead. The doctor's sojourn was ehar- aeterized by turbulence -- doctors' wars without number; sometimes maintaining his practice against three compet- itors. He.retired from the contest in 1853, selling his practice to Dr. R. P. Lamb. The doctor removed to the Wabash country of Indiana. He was a medium- sized man, very sociable and well-informed, and a sue- cessful practitioner. During his practice quinine, it is said, was first introduced into practice in Venice.
Contemporary with Dr. Prather was Dr. Birckhead, who read medicine with his brother-in-law, Prather, and graduated with honors in the same class with Professor John Davis, of Cincinnati. The competition between Davis and Birckhead for the honors of the class was very close. After graduating he practiced in competition with his preceptor for about one year, when, losing his wife (formerly Miss Euphemia Diek, of the village), he removed west to Missouri, whence he returned a few years later, broken in health. He never succeeded in establishing a large practice, though he remained a num- ber of years.
In 1841, Dr. Bamford, a snecessful physician and a good citizen, but a man of feeble health, located for a short tinie.
Drs. Cogley and Haines, of whom very favorable mention is made. were both located in Venice for a short time. The latter, Dr. Haines, is now at Seven-Mile.
Dr. Scott located in Venice in 1847, and married Mies Margaret Dick, who, with her son, still survives him in Venice. In 1851 Dr. Seott removed to Paddy's Run, where he soon established a good practice. A few years later he retired, and removed to his farm near Venice. He was arranging to enter the service as a surgeon in the late war, when he died of typhoid fever.
Dr. R. P. Lamb married Mary Hedges, in Illinois, in 1853. They visited her relatives living in Butler and
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Hamilton counties during their wedding-trip. The doc- tor became infatuated with the charms and beauties of the Miami Valley, and decided to locate in Venice. An offer to sell property and practice, made him by Dr. Prather, was promptly accepted. His social and sympa- thetic nature soon gave him popularity and patronage. He remained in Venice until his death, which occurred in 1867, in the forty-seventh year of his age.
Dr. Waterhouse located in Venice in 1854, and estab- lished a fair practice. In about two years after coming to Venice he turned his attention to the study of theol- ogy, and sometime later entered the Cincinnati Coufer- ence as a Methodist minister. He at present resides in - Delaware, Ohio.
Dr. Stevens, brother of the present editor of the Ob- stetric Gazette, Cincinnati, and son of the pioneer Dr. Ste- vens, of Warren County, came to Venice from Lebanon in 1858, and remained until the late war began, when he entered the service as a surgeon. Later we hear of him at Princeton, and at present he is at Westchester, at which place his professional attainments insure hin success.
Dr. Phelps, a gentleman of considerable culture, who was educated in his native section of country, the South, and who practiced his profession in Louisiana for some years, came to Venice in 1864. But a love for drink blasted a career which would undoubtedly otherwise have been brilliant. He died rather suddenly, it is supposed, from an internal injury received a short time prior to his death, which occurred in 1806, at the age of thirty-nine years.
Dr. Morris came to Venice, fresh from the scenes of surgical practice in the army, and soon acquired a large practice. The doctor had an itching for surgical cases, which led him to the performance of hazardous and un- necessary operations, in some instances. He performed the operation of lithotomy successfully several times. In general practice he met with ordinary success. He had a large practice, and prospered well in a financial way. He sold his practice to Dr. Joseph Tutzi in 1871. His leaving Venice was the beginning of a succession of mis- fortunes, which followed one close on the beels of an- other. We hear of him last as a vender of Morris's Elixir of Wild Cherry.
Contemporary with Dr. Morris was Dr. Moor, who made but a brief sojourn, removing to Groesbeek, Han- ilton County, a dozen years ago. Although not very successful in competing with his bombastie opponent, his name and character are remembered to-day in Venice with high respect.
Dr. Joseph Iutzi, a native of this county, and the successor of Dr. Morris, praericco in Venice from 1871 to 1878. Dr. Jatzi possessed very fair professional at- tainments, and met with good speeds in his practice. He moved to Richmond, Indiana, and soon established a good practice, and is fast advancing to the front rank among the physicians of that city.
Contemporary with Dr. Inizi was Dr. S. R. Hamer, who also located in 1871. The doctor had an extensive experience in the army, and practiced several years in the neighboring village, Paddy's Run. The doctor was a very companionable person, and his jovial manner and social disposition soon won him a large circle of friends and a lucrative practice, which he enjoyed until the close of his career as a physician.
In the Spring of 1880 he engaged in the business of dealing in and selling real estate on commission, in Den- ver, Colorado, where he has prospered very well.
The physicians at present-Dr. C. C. Hoover and Dr. M. O. Butterfield-are both young men, and both grad- uates of the Ohio Medical College.
Polly Bell, Katy Parker, and Betsey Pottinger' were the first midwives in Jacksonburg. Betsey Pottinger came to Ohio is 1802 or 1803, from Nicholas County, Kentucky. Dr. Ellis was the first physician. He left the place in 1820, and located in Indiana, and after- wards was elected auditor of the State.
Dr. Otho Evans, now a resident of Franklin, Warren County, and who has been so since 1827, located at Jacksonburg, April 21, 1821, and remained there six years. At that time Middletown had two physicians, and Hamilton three or four, Trenton one, one at Oxford, one at Camden, two at Eaton, ove at Germantown. and two at Franklin. During the six years that Dr. Evans was here, the Miami and Eric Canal . was con- menced, and Chio inaugurated the free-school system. The roads were in a terrible condition. There was not a bridge over four feet wide in the township, nor a hugey in the State. About that time the Dearborn wagons, with wooden springs, were introduced. The following gentlemen were students of Dr. Evans .: Lewis Evans, Johnson 1. Phares, Joha C. Fali, Jobn P. Hagyott. aud Pliny M. Crame.
Dr. Lewis Evans located at Middletown, and then ro- moved to Wayne County, Indiana. He crossed the plains to California io 1849 .1 1850, and died four or five years ago.
John T. Phares located at Paris, Illinois, but removed to Fort Madison, Iowa. dying, after a day or two of sickness, on October 22, 1842.
Pliny M. Crume was born in Wayne Township, in 1803, about one mile east of Seven-Mile. He married and located at Astoria, Madison Township, whence he removed to Eaton, Ohio, where he died in 1809. Dr. Crume was professor of obstetrics in the Cincinnati Col- lege of Medicine and Surgery for several years.
John P. Hagyott, who was located at West Chester from 1828 to 1830. formed a partnership with his pre- ceptor us Franklin, and was dure twelve years. He then removed to Sidney, Ohio, and alited a newspaper until the war broke out in 1861. On the Bed of October of that year he was appointed surgeon of the Fifty-ex- enth Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. At Pittsburg Land-
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ing, immediately after the battle of Shiloh, he was The coffin was hauled to the grave in a two-horse -- attackel with camp diarrhea, and. was removed to St. [wagon, the funeral services being hell a week or two Louis, Missouri, where he died, April 30, 1862.
John C. Fall located at Lewisburg, Preble County, having a lucrative practice for twenty-five years. He became a convert to " small pills," making a failure of it, and dying, in 1876, at Xenia, Ohio, a broken-hearted man. From the day he embraced the new faith disaster followed him.
William Miller came here in 1834 or 1835, and left, in 1855, for Minnesota. He was a paralytic for years, and died in 1876. Dr. Miller advocated the theory that the blood of a black cat would cure shingles. .
Dr. Lurton Dunham was here in 1837, but removed to Camden, where he accumulated wealth, and died ahont ten years ago. from an overdose of chloroform.
Dr. Smiley was here in 1845 or 1846, and bought a farm in section 20, Wayne Township, on " Wayne's trace." He combined both professions, and afterwards removed to Piqun, where he is still engaged in the prac- tice of his profession.
Dr. Nathan Stubbs was a student of Dr. Miller, and located in Minnesota, where he died in 1865.
Dr. Avres located on Gregory's Creek, where he died only a short time since. He was a member of the Med- ical Society.
John S. Gowen was in Jacksonburg a short time, but died in Hamilton a year or two ago.
Drs. Hancock and Pinkerton were also in Jacksonburg.
In 1848 Dr. Lawder went to that village from Ger- mantown, dying of cholera in 1849. In that year Jackson. burg and neighborhood was terribly scourged by cholera, cbere being nearly thirty deaths ; thirteen deaths were in our house. Almost every case was fatal.
Dr. Hibbard died at Seven-Mile of cholera. He was to have been married to Miss Mary, daughter of Colonel W. W. Phares, the week following his death.
Dr Jones died in 1849 of cholera.
Joan H. Baker, and Messrs. Grant and Pressley, un- dergraduates. volunteered their services during the chol- vra scourge. Dr. Baker located at Waterproof, Louisi- ana, before the rebellion. Dr. Grant located south of lebaron, on the farm of his wife, and afterwards re- moved West. Dr. Pressley, while bere, was the guest of the Rev. John H. Thomas. Miss Lydia, his daugh- for, was a beautiful and accomplished young lady, and it was a case of love at first sight. Dr. Pressley was an ardent lover, and the tender passion was reciprocated. Dr. Pressley returned to Cincinnati, where he died of cholera in a few days.
Among the Patterson papers bills were found re- "Hpuri as follows:
Drs. Durftevy and Rigdon. 6 visits, S miles, John H. Thomas strond, Henry Andrews, contin (walnut ),
Total amount of funeral expen $20 62
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afterwards. The first hearse was brought to Jackson- barg about 1845.
In 1850 Dr. John Corson opened an office here, re- maining .until 1863, when he removed to Middletown.
April, 1862. W. A. MeCully formed a partnership with Dr. Corson, and remained until the August follow- ing, when he was appointed surgeon of one of the colored regiments, remaining until he was mustered out of serv- ice, at the close of the rebellion. He located at Tren- ton, but remained only a short time.
.April 1, 1863, Dr. J. B. Owsley succeeded Dr. John Corson.
The earliest physician of Middletown was Dr. Carlton Waldo. He came to that town shortly after the war of 1812, and remained there until the period of his death, which happened on July 31, 1831, then being fifty-one years of age. He was a native of New Hampshire. He was remarkable for calinness and serenity of mind, and diel highly respected.
Dr. Andrew Campbell was born at Franklin, Ohio, on the twenty-second day of June, 1807. His parents were pioneers of Revolutionary stock, mainly of Seotch ancestry, and educated beyond the usual attainments of their day. His father died in 1843; but his mother, at the advanced age of ninety-six years, is living on the farm to which she emigrated in the last century. An- drew's youth was spent at Franklin, accessible to but limited advantages for mental culture. He made the best possible use of them, however, sequiring the higher branches of English study and a solid groundwork of classics upon which to build his future professional train- ing. He was an eager student, and his well-thumbed " Virgil Delphini" and other text-books are yet pre- served and treasured by his descendants. His mind de- veloped rapidly, and his desire for learning increased with his store of general knowledge ; so that, in mature years, he was widely known for varied and extended in- formation, especially upon sciences kindred to his pro- fossien.
At twenty-one he entered the office of Dr. Othe Evans, Sr .. of Franklin, and attended the usual course of study at the Medical College of Ohio, from which iustication he graduated in 1830. His intention in choes- ing this profession was to become a naval surgeon, and his early studies, as well as his subsequent practice, were such as to perfect him in surgery, to which he was ex- eccdingly devoted. He abandoned his carly design, however, at his mother's request, and, in the Spring of 1831, opened an office at Middletown. There he soon entered upon a large practice, which he retained umtil his removal to Hamilton iu the Fall of 1848.
Dning these years of active and laborious practice at 3Podletown, his reputation as a successful physician was wale-spread, and many students sought his office.
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Among those who profited by his teaching, and became"| ing his attendance at the New York Hospital, and signed a credit to their preceptor, were Dr. Samuel Hyndman, Sr., now deceased, Dr. W. W. Callwell, and Dr. John Corson.
In March, 1835, he married Lanra P. Reynolds, daughter of John P. Reynolds, Sr., an early merchant of Middletown, and by her had two children-Lanra S., who died in 1865, and James E., now residing at Han- ilton. .
Dr. Campbell's removal to Hamilton was prompted by the hope of a less toilsome practice, which his failing health demanded; but the unprecedented labor of the "cholera Summer" -- 1849-and the spread of small-pox in the following Winter, drew too heavily upon bim. An attack of whooping-cough, succeeded by a long siege of laryngitis and bronchitis, marked the end of his career, and, on the fifth day of September, 1851, at the old home- stead near Franklin, he breathed his last.
His character was that of a high-minded, generous man, affectionate in his family, and pre-eminently honor- able in all the affairs of life. As a physician he was in high repute for thorough but speedy diagnosis, prompt and skillful surgery, and advanced methods of treatment. In appearance he was prepossessing, having a rather spare and very erect figure, a quick but dignified move- ment, clear blue eyes, thick, dark hair, and an expressive face, always smoothly shaven, and slightly bronzed by exposure.
The following extracts, taken from the letters of two prominent friends of Dr. Campbell, speak for themselves. One says: " He had a look and bearing which never failed to impress even the most superficial observer with the fact that he was a man of no ordinary cast. Cour- age, justice, and generosity were his prominent traits. So strongly did they mark him that he could not do a mean or selfish act." The other says: " I have had the good fortune to know some of the most eminent physi- cians of the day-have been present when they pre- scribed; but I have yet to mcet one who so thoroughly examined all the symptoms, habits of life, temperament, etc., of his patients, or whom I deemed his superior in the profession. He was one of the best, most generous, and self-sacrificing men I ever knew."
One of the earlier physicians of Butler County was Dr. Peter Van Derveer, of Middletown. He was born in Somerset County, New Jersey, on the 12th of March, 1798. His father was Colonel Henry Van Derveer, a substantial farmer, who at one time held a colonel's com- mission among the volunteers called upon by the govern- ment to put down the whisky rebellion in Pennsylvania. The family came to New York from Holland about the year 1645, and during the Revolutionary war were active partisans on"the side of liberty.
The subject of this sketch received a collegiate edura- tion, and commenced the study of medicine and surgery in 1817. We find among his papers a certificate show-
by David Hosack, Wright Post, Valentine Mott, and other physicians famous in the history of medicine in this country. His diploma was issued to him by the Medical Society of the State of New Jersey, and is dated July 9, 1818, and signed by John Vancleve, president.
Shortly after graduating, he determined to make the West his home, and, with his horse, saddle, and pill- bags, started for Ohio. Early in the year 1819 he came to Middletown, and, after a short delay, passed on to the village of Salsbury, Indiana. Here, however, he re- mained but a few months, when he returned to Middle- town, where he permanently located. The practice of his profession required that he should spend a great part of his time in the saddle. Patients were scattered, the roads and bridle-paths sometimes scarcely marked by a blazing. There were none of the luxurious modes, now so common, for traveling. The physician of that day, in this Western world, had to depend upon his horse to take him to the cabins where duty called ; and it was only a strong, healthy body and a heroic spirit that could endure the hardships incident to exposure to storms at all hours of the day and night. His practice was along both banks of the Great Miami, and required that he should frequently cross its waters. When the stream was swollen, it was a somewhat dangerous task. as there were no bridges, and but a single ferry. The writer of this has heard Dr. Van Derveer describe his many es- capes from a watery grave, when compelled to swim his horse through its rushing waters to reach patients whose condition required immediate relief. In the year 1822 he was married to Miss Mary Ann Dickey, who lived only about two years after her marriage, leaving a son, Ferdinand. His second wife was Miss Mary Ann Hub- ble, whom he married in 1826, and with whom he lived until 1849, when she died, leaving several sons and daughters. He had been early in life an attendant upon the Dutch Reformed Church of New Jersey, but never united with any denomination antii about the year 1837. when he joined the Presbyterian Church, and remained a consistent member until his death. For a long time he was an elder in the Church at Middletown.
Although belonging to the allopathie school of medi- cine, he always met the practitioners of other schools with courtesy, and treated all with consideration, espe- cially in the later years of his life. when he never refused to consult with physicians of other creeds.
At the time he settled in Ohio, there were but few graduates of the medical colleges to be fiind in the woods, and the fact that he carried a diploma, and had been an attendant upon the hospital lectures in New York, gave him a high plaes in the estimation of the public.
In a newspaper notice of his death we find the tol- lowing : " If he differed in sentiment concerning a point of pathology, diagnosis, or practice, he expressed himself
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with the modesty of a gentleman and the kindly feelings of a professional brother. In his intercourse with his pa- tients his conduct was regulated by the nicest sense of honor; his moral character was cast in the finest and purest mold ; his conduct in all phases of life was squared by the strictest rules of honesty and by the nicest regard for the feelings of others."
The exposures and hardships attendant upon the ear- lier years of his practice told on his once vigorous con- stitution, and he became feeble, and suffered from ill- health in the latter part of his life. He died on the 17th of January, 1861, at his home in Middletown.
Dr. Joshua Stevens practiced for a long time in Mon- roe. He was born in the State of Maine, March 21, 1794, and was graduated in 1819, in the College of Med- icine of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1820 came to this State, and settled in the village of Monroe, where he remained until 1847, when he removed to Leb- anon, Warren County. During his residence in Ohio he was in the active practice of his profession until about seven years before his death, which happened on the 2d of May, 1871, when he met with an accident which inca- pacitated him from professional duties, and after that time was an invalid. He had a portuer for some time in Dr. Blackleach, and left three sons -- Edwin Bruce, Al- gernon Sidney, and Hudson Blackleach. The two for- mer became physicians.
Ex-representative and treasurer Dr. E. H. Gaston died at his home near Reily, in September, 1877, of heart dis- ease. He was sixty-five years of age, and was born in New Jersey, coming to Butler County in 1833. In 1859 he was elected treasurer of Butler County. In 1864 he was elected to the Legislature of Ohio, an office he filled for two terms with honor. He was a Free Masou, and was buried according to the rites of that order. He left a wife and several children.
Among the settlers who established themselves in the vicinity of Darrtown early in the century was a Mr. Cooper, who migrated from South Carolina because he hated slavery, though otherwise he liked that State ex- ceedingly, and always considered his residence in Ohio as a serious sacrifice to the cause of freedom. One of his sons, born in Butler County, named Elias, became an able surgeon, and moved to San Francisco, where he oe- cupied a prominent place in the medical profession, finally dying there aboat 1867.
A danghter of the pioneer Cooper, married to 5. Mr. Lane, gave birth, about 1833, near Darrtown, to a sou, who received the baptismal name of Levi Cooper. Under the influence of his uncle Elias he studied medicine, and after completing his education in Europe, became a sur- ucon in the United States navy. This position gave him much leisure, which was probably his predominant no- tive in obtaining the appointment, and he devoted him- self most industriously to his books. making hinself thoroughly familiar with the minutie of anatomy, physi-
ology, and surgery, besides reading the Greek and Latin classics, and making himself familiar with the literature" of France, Germany, and Spain, and accustoming him- self to speak the tongues of those nations fluently. About 1860 he left the navy to become the partner of his unele Elias, and when the health of the latter began to fail, Dr. L. C. Lane assumed his place as professor of surgery in what was then the only medical college on the Pacific coast. speedily developing rare excellence as a teacher. His lectures were fluent, conversational in tone, clear in idea, full of original methods of illustrating his subjects, humorous, pointed, and sometimes eloquent. In his surgical practice he was not less successful than in his lectures. The more the profession and the commit- nity learned of him, the more they liked him: and his reputation grew rapidly, until now he is the first surgeon on the Pacific Slope, and the country physicians, from Alaska to Sonora. send their most difficult cases to lim. Scarcely a day passes without a number of serious opera- tions. With a very extensive experience in public hos- pitals (he has been visiting surgeon of several), as well as in his very large private practice, he has an excellent opportunity to learn nearly every thing that can be learned by the constant use of the knife for many years. He, however, does not trust to his observation alone, but every day studies some book on surgery or anatomy- English, German, French, or Italian -- so as to keep all the details fresh in his mind and ready for instantaneous use. He is extremely cool in the midst of the greatest responsibility, and full of the most careful consideration for the physical and mental sufferings of his patients. Ilis manner is genial, commanding the highest confidence of all who come into his charge. He has the name of being extremely kind to the indigent, not only attending them without pay, but often providing for their wants until they are able to work. He is a successful author, and is a man of much influence. He had a narrow es- cape with his life while attacked by pneumonia, in Feb- ruary, 1881, and it was said, by well-informed persons. that there was no man in San Francisco whose death would cause deeper or more wide-spread sorrow.
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