A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 25

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1262

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 25

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On June 26th, the first case of cholera was reported by the board in a woman occupying a small and filthy tenement on Vineyard street, and from this time forward daily reports were published by the board of health in the daily papers.

The entire third story of the Cleveland Center block, corner of Columbus and Division streets, was freshly whitewashed and fitted up with beds, nurses, etc., for a cholera hospital, and all patients so situated as to be unable to procure suitable treatment in their own homes were urgently advised to report to this hospital at the earliest possible period of the disease. A card of advice to the public was also published by the medical council of the board of health, and on August 15th, the common council prohibited the sale of green vegetables.

The epidemic in Cleveland was neither very wide spread, nor was it specially virulent in its character. The final report of the board of health states that the first interment from cholera in the city was made on June 30th, the last on Sep- tember 9th ,and that the total number of these interments was one hundred and thirty.

Far different was the experience of the neighboring city of Sandusky, which was almost decimated by the scourge. In the latter part of July the authorities of that city were compelled to appeal to their neighbors for additional medical aid, and on July 29th, Dr. H. A. Ackley, with a corps of volunteer physicians organized under his direction, hurried to the assistance of the stricken city. Dr. C. D. Hastings, a prominent homeopathic physician of Cleveland, is said to have lent his aid a day or two earlier. Dr. Ackley returned to Cleveland on August IIth, at which time no new cases of the disease were reported in San- dusky.

The cholera reappeared in Cleveland on August 4th of the following year (1850), and from August 10th forward, until the close of the epidemic, daily re-

196

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

ports were issued by the board of health. The personnel of this body was as fol- lows : Aaron Barker, president; Silas Belden and Daniel C. Doan. The epidemic was even milder, and the mortality less than in the preceding year, and its presence did not disturb seriously the serenity of our citizens. By a singular fatality, however, one of its most prominent victims was Mr. Alexander Seymour, who had been indefatigable in his labors as president of the board of health in the preceding year. During this epidemic the cholera hospital was located on Michigan street.

It is not improbable that sporadic cases of cholera occurred occasionally in the city during the next three years, but the disease did not rise to the dignity of an epidemic until 1854, when it once more claimed attention. The board of health at this time consisted of Drs. R. C. Hopkins, Prentiss, and O. B. Skinner, and they reported the first case of the disease on July 4th. The epidemic was, how- ever, very limited in extent, and the mortality was small. The daily reports of the board of health were discontinued on September 15th, and the sexton of the cemetery reported the total number of interments from cholera as sixty-seven.

Since this period the Asiatic cholera has never made its appearance in Cleve- land in an epidemic form, though a few cases developed in the years 1866 and 1867.

By a curious coincidence, the last decennium of the first half of the nineteenth century, which had witnessed in Cleveland notable expansion of medical inter- ests, and the foundation of an institution specially designed to promote the progress of scientific medicine, witnessed likewise the appearance of the Hahne- mannian doctrine, which has played no insignificant role in the history of local medicine.

The earliest representatives of homeopathy in Cleveland are said to have been Dr. R. E. W. Adams, his partner Dr. Daniel O. Hoyt, and Dr. John Wheeler. The latter physician was a graduate of Dartmouth college in 1817, came to Cleveland in 1845 and died in this city in 1876 .*

Homeopathy was readily accepted by a large following, and by the year 1850 its disciples acquired sufficient strength in the city to feel warranted in erecting an institution for the extension of their medical tenets to a still wider circle.

Accordingly, in that year, the Western College of Homeopathy was organ- ized with the following faculty :

Edwin C. Wetherell, M. D. (d. 1858), professor of anatomy; Lansing Briggs, M. D., professor of surgery; Chas. D. Willliams, M. D. (d. 1882), pro- fessor of institutes of homeopathic medicine; Alfred H. Burritt, M. D., pro- fessor of gynecology and obstetrics; Lewis Dodge, M. D., professor of materia

* Besides the names mentioned in the text, the city directory of 1846-47 publishes among the homeopathists of the city the names of Drs. Edwin M. Cowles, Thomas Miller, Charles Roeder, and the firm of Williams & Hastings.

We notice here too the names of Dr. Azariah Everett, "oculist," and Dr. Henry Everett, "Euriscopian." Familiar as we are at the present day with the vagaries of "reformed spell- ing," I fancy most of us will be puzzled to determine what manner of man was a "Eurisco- pian." If, however, we simply transform the word into its etymological spelling, we shall recognize at once our old and familiar friend of the Middle Ages, the uroscopist. Dr. Azariah Everett, if not the first, was certainly one of the first physicians of the city to con- fine his practice to the diseases of the eye, and became in 1865 the first professor of Opthal- mology in the Cleveland Medical College.

197

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

medica; Hamilton H. Smith, M. D., professor of chemistry; Jehu Brainard, A. M., M. D., (d. 1878), professor of physical science.

Before the first course of lectures in the new institution commenced, Dr. Burritt resigned and was replaced by Dr. Storm Rosa, and the chair of surgery was occupied by Dr. Arthur E. Bissell (d. 1896), vice Dr. Briggs, who also tendered his resignation.

The lectures were held in a building on the southeast corner of Ontario and Prospect streets, and the first class of twelve was graduated from this institu- tion in 1851.

In February, 1852, a mob of the lower and ignorant classes of the city, in- flamed by the report that one of our citizens had discovered in the dissecting room of the college the mutilated remains of his daughter, who had recently died, gutted the college building, and the disturbance was not entirely quelled until the militia were summoned and dispersed the mob by force of arms.

With commendable energy the faculty at once purchased a large building, known as "The Belvidere," on Ohio street (near the Haymarket), remodeled it to suit the purposes of the institution and succeeded in resuming the regular work of the college at the close of the same year. This building continued the home of the college for sixteen years. In 1857, however, the name of the organization was changed to that of "The Western Homeopathic College."

In 1868 the college purchased the "Humiston Institute," located on "The Heights," together with its philosophical and chemical apparatus, library and museum, and converted it into a college building with a. hospital of fifty beds. In 1870 the title of the institution was once more changed to "The Homeo- pathic Hospital College."

In 1873 the college was once again removed to Prospect street, corner of Oak Place, where it remained until the completion, in 1892, of its present com- modious building on Huron road. On the occupation of this latter building, the title was again changed to "The Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery."

Dissensions in the faculty led, in 1890, to the organization of an independent homeopathic college called "The Cleveland Medical College," which located tem- porarily in a rented building at No. 93 Prospect street, but in 1892 removed to a new college building of its own on Bolivar street. In 1897, however, the breach between the schools was healed, and they were combined into a single institution under the latest of its kaleidoscopic titles, "The Cleveland Homeopathic Med- ical College" of the present time.

In 1868, as the result of a resolution of the faculty of the Western Homeo- pathic college to suspend the further granting of the degree of M. D. to women, a medical institution known as "The Homeopathic College for Women" was organized and chartered, under the presidency of Dr. Myra K. Merrick. So far as I know, no degrees were ever granted by this college, and in 1870 it was merged again into the Homeopathic Hospital college, its evolution and devolu- tion having consumed a period of less than three years.11

11 For the facts relating to the homeopathic profession I am indebted to an excellent little pamphlet entitled "History of the Cleveland Homeopathic College from 1850 to 1880," from the pen of the late Dr. D. R. Beckwith of Cleveland.

198

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

The decennium of 1850-60 was characterized by a development of civic improvements and an increase of facilities for intercommunication, which added greatly to the reputation of our city, and placed it in the front rank of the progressive communities of the country.

Prior to 1850 the steamboats upon the great lakes, the stages and the Ohio canal had furnished to our citizens the only means of travel. In 1846 tele- graphic communication with the east and west was established. In 1851 the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati railroad was opened as far as Columbus, and was soon completed to the Ohio river. The construction of other railroad connections speedily followed and fairly revolutionized the means of transpor- tation and communication. Artificial gas for illuminating purposes was in- troduced in 1850. In 1854 the chronic feud between Cleveland and Ohio City was finally and happily closed by the annexation of the latter city, an addition which increased the population of Cleveland to about twenty-five thousand. About the same time sidewalks and the paving of streets were inaugurated, and in 1856 an improvement of still greater importance was accomplished in the introduction of the waters of Lake Erie into the city for the domestic use of the citizens.12 Associated naturally with this advance was the inauguration of a partial and imperfect system of sewerage for the removal of the liquid wastes of the community. Four years later, in 1859, the first horse cars appeared upon our streets, testifying to both the increased extension of our city, and the demands of its citizens for increased facilities of communication. Thus by the year 1860 the city of Cleveland had introduced most of the modern improvements of the period, and its natural attractions had sufficed to increase its population to the respectable figure of forty-three thousand, four hundred and seventeen.

From this period, too, the development of strictly medical interests became so active and varied, that its discussion in a purely chronological order would lead to repetition and confusion. It seems preferable, therefore, in our history of the last four decennia of the century, to consider these developments in a rough classification under certain prominent divisions. One of the earliest and most important of these divisions is, naturally,

MEDICAL SOCIETIES.

Upon the shelves of the Medical library we find a manuscript copy of the constitution and by-laws of the Cleveland Medical lyceum, a society organized in January, 1846, by the faculty and students of the Cleveland Medical college, and which continued to exist, apparently, as late as 1857. Membership in this

12 The first Water Works Commission was elected in 1853, and the Kentucky Street reservoir was constructed in 1854. Originally the water was simply pumped into the reser- voir from the open lake, a short distance from the shore. In 1874, however, a crib and tun- nel (five feet in diameter and about a mile and one-half long) were constructed, and this tunnel was supplemented in 1891 by another, seven feet in diameter, connecting with the same crib. When even these facilities proved inadequate for the demands of the rapidly grow- ing city, a new crib further out in the lake, and a new tunnel (nine feet in diameter and about five miles long and connecting with the east side of the city) were built and opened for service in 1904. For completeness it may be added that the telephone came into common use in 1877, the electric light in 1876, and the electric trolley cars in 1890.

199

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

society, however, was limited to the faculty and students of the college, and the society was therefore a purely private organization.13

In the year 1848 the little coterie of homeopathic physicians then present in Cleveland united in the organization of a medical society, under the title of the Cuyahoga County Homeopathic society, which is said to have maintained a continuous existence from 1848 to the present day, and to have been the lineal progenitor of the present Cleveland Homeopathic Medical society.

I am indebted to Dr. J. Richey Horner, of this society, for the following incomplete roster of the presiding officers from 1848 to the year 1900:

1848-9, Dr. C. D. Williams; 1849-50, Dr. John Wheeler; 1852-3, Dr. S. R. Beckwith ; 1867-8, Dr. D. R. Beckwith; 1868-9, Dr. T. P. Wilson; 1869-70, Dr. George H. Blair; 1870-71, Dr. H. F. Biggar; 1871-2, Dr. H. B. Van Norman; 1873-4, Dr. D. H. Beckwith; 1875-6, Dr. H. F. Biggar ; 1878-9, Dr. G. J. Jones ; 1880-83, Dr. H. F. Biggar; 1884-85, Dr. G. J. Jones ; 1886-87, Dr. J. H. Stevens ; 1891-92, Dr. H. B. Van Norman ; 1892-95, Dr. F. H. Barr; 1896-97, Dr. D. H. Beckwith; 1897-98, Dr. A. L. Waltz; 1898-99, Dr. G. W. Spencer; 1899-1900, Dr. E. H. Jewett.

During the internal dissensions of the homeopathic fraternity, in the period between 1890 and 1896, a rival society, called The Cleveland Academy of Medi- cine and Surgery,14 was organized, but in the year last mentioned this was merged into the older society, which then assumed the title of the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical society.

The Cuyahoga County Medical society, the logical successor of the early Medical Society of the Nineteenth Medical District of Ohio, was organized in April, 1859. Its first officers were : President, Dr. C. A. Terry ; vice president, Dr. J. A. Sayles (d. 1873) ; secretary, Dr. Thos. G. Cleveland ( 1825-1873).

Regular meetings were held quarterly, and an essay was read at each of these meetings by one of the members.

At the July meeting, in 1859, an essay on "Malformations" was read before the society by Dr. H. K. Cushing.

The second regular meeting of the society was held at the American House, October 6, 1859, on which occasion an interesting paper on "The Treatment of Some Cases of Epilepsy" was presented by Professor G. C. E. Weber.

At the third regular meeting, held in the Angier (now Kennard) House, January 6, 1860, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year : Presi- dent, Dr. J. A. Sayles; vice president, Dr. M. L. Brooks (1813-1899) ; secretary, Dr. Thos. G. Cleveland.

13 Among the signatures attached to this constitution I notice the familiar names of Drs. Jacob J. Delamater, E. F. Holstein, Proctor Thayer, Julian Harmon, Abraham Metz, J. C. Sanders, Thomas Corlett, John C. Reeve.

14 The Cleveland Directory of 1872-73 records a Cleveland Academy of Medicine and Surgery, which held its meetings at No. 99 Prospect St., and at that time was administered by the following officers: President, Dr. J. C. Sanders; vice president, Dr. N. Schneider ; secretary, Dr. G. M. Eckford.

Also a "Hahnemann Society," under the direction of: President, Dr. H. F. Biggar; vice president, Dr. A. J. Adams ; secretary, Dr. L. C. Crowell.

The Academy of Medicine and Surgery reappears in the Directory of 1878-79 under the presidency of Dr. L. W. Sapp, in that of 1879-80 its president is Dr. G. J. Jones, and in that of 1880-81, Dr. H. F. Biggar. The relations of these homeopathic societies to the original Cuyahoga County Homeopathic Society, to each other, and to the Academy of Medicine and Surgery noticed in the text, are unknown to the writer.

200

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

From this time until 1880 no records of the society are available, and its history during this long period can be gleaned only from tradition and the few scattered and incidental notices found in the journals of that day. It is probable that the outbreak of the Civil war, which created a demand for the services in the army of most of the younger, and many of the older physicians, so reduced the attendance of the society, and the excitement of the times so diverted the attention of its members, that its regular meetings were either suspended entirely, or at least degraded into mere formalities, which preserved its organization without maintaining its scientific spirit. We are told by some of its surviving members that the meetings of the society were held at irregular intervals in the Hoffman block (now the Cuyahoga building) on Superior street, and that the few members who assembled diverted themselves, while awaiting a quorum, by the relation of jokes and stories redolent with the odors of a hoary antiquity. Certain it is, that at the close of the war the Cuyahoga County Medical society was moribund, and offered no scientific attractions to the young men who re- turned from the army full of energy and rich in practical experience. The natural and inevitable result of such conditions was the organization of a new society.

Accordingly, on May 9, 1867, a new society, known as the "Cleveland Acad- emy of Medicine," was organized, and maintained a more or less active career for some years, when, after a temporary metamorphosis into the "Cleveland Medical Association," it was finally merged into the bosom of the old, but re- habilitated Cuyahoga County Medical society, in 1874.

No written records of the rehabilitated Cuyahoga County Medical society prior to the year 1880 have been preserved to us, but from the latter year for- ward the minutes of its meetings will be found upon the shelves of the Cleve- land Medical library.

From an examination of these records we find that the society was incor- porated and a new constitution adopted in 1884, and we are enabled also to pre- sent a roster of its presidents from 1874 until the close of its career as an inde- pendent society : Dr. John Bennitt* (1830-1892), 1874-75; Dr. T. Clarke Mil- ler,* 1875-76; Dr. Frank Wells,* 1876-77; Dr. C. F. Dutton,* 1878-79: Dr. P. H. Sawyer,* 1879-80 ; Dr. W. J. Scott, 1880-1 ; Dr. C. C. Arms, 1881-2 ; Dr. W. O. Jenks, 1882-3 ; Dr. E. D. Burton, 1883-4; Dr. H. K. Cushing, 1884-5; Dr. I. N. Himes, 1885-6; Dr. H. H. Powell, 1886-7; Dr. P. H. Sawyer, 1887-8; Dr. J. D. Jones, 1888-9; Dr. Dudley P. Allen, 1889-90; Dr. Wm. T. Corlett, 1890-91; Dr. P. H. Sawyer, 1891-92; Dr. I. N. Himes, 1892-3 ; Dr. A. R. Baker, 1893-4; Dr. H. J. Herrick, 1894-5; Dr. H. E. Handerson, 1895-6; Dr. O. B. Campbell, 1896-7 ; Dr. W. A. Knowlton, 1897-8; Dr. F. E. Bunts, 1898-9; Dr. F. E. Bunts, 1899-1900 ; Dr. C. J. Aldrich (1861-1908), 1900-01 ; Dr. C. A. Hamann, 1901-02 ; Dr. J. P. Sawyer, 1902.

On May 23, 1902, the Cuyahoga County Medical society, after an existence of forty-three years, was merged with the Cleveland Medical society to form the present Academy of Medicine of Cleveland.

The first Cleveland Academy of Medicine, of which mention has been already made, and whose records are preserved by the Medical library, was organized

* The names marked with an asterisk are taken from the Cleveland Directory of the respective years.

201

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

in 1867 with the following officers : President, Dr. M. L. Brooks (1813-1899) ; vice president, Dr. J. A. Sayles (died 1873) ; recording secretary, Dr. J. C. Schenck; corresponding secretary, Dr. Colin Mackenzie; treasurer, Dr. Thos. G. Cleveland (1825-1873) ; censors, Dr. H. K. Cushing, Dr. W. J. Scott, Dr. H. J. Herrick ( 1833-1901).

Its meetings seem to have been held in various places, e. g., the office of Drs. Brooks and Herrick, the hall of The Good Templars, the hall of the Y. M. C. A., the Cleveland Medical college, etc, and toward the close of its career the ominous notice "No quorum" becomes increasingly frequent. On May 5, 1868, we read that the academy, after the approval of the minutes of the last meeting, "proceeded to Garrett's for refreshment"-a style of procedure which, doubtless, redounded to the popularity of the new organization. Per contra, on September 1, 1868, Dr. Thos. G. Cleveland read before the society a paper on the use of the clinical thermometer in typhoid fever. As Wunder- lich's epochal work, "Das Verhalten der Eigenwärme in Krankheiten," was not published until 1868, we may infer that some members of the academy at least kept touch with the advances of medical science.

The presidential roster of the academy is as follows: Dr M. L. Brooks, 1867-8; Dr. J. A. Sayles, 1868-9; Dr. John Bennitt (1830-1892), 1869-70; Dr. W. J. Scott (1822-1896), 1870-71; Dr. W. J. Scott, 1871-72; Dr. Proctor Thayer ( 1823-1890), 1872-3; Dr. Isaac N. Himes ( 1834-1895), 1873.

In September, 1873, the Academy of Medicine united with "The Medical and Pathological Society," to form a new society, under the title of "The Cleve- land Medical Association," the first officers of which were: President, Dr. John C. Preston (1819-1890) ; vice president, Dr. D. B. Smith; secretary, Dr. I. N. Dalby ; treasurer, Dr. H. H. Powell ; censors: Dr. P. Thayer, Dr. I. N. Himes, Dr. John Bennitt.

In the following year, 1874, Dr. H. J. Herrick was elected president of the association, which in a few months was merged into the Cuyahoga County Medical society, as already mentioned.

No records of either the "Cleveland Medical Society" or the "Pathological Society" have been found, but oral tradition asserts that the latter society was organized about 1868 and was composed of the younger men of the profession, more directly interested in the modern pathology of Virchow and his school. Its meetings were held in the old Hoffman block, which seems to have been in that day the favorite headquarters of the medical profession. The Pathologi- cal society united in 1873 with the Academy of Medicine (as already men- tioned), and at this time, at least, seems to have borne the official title of "The Medical and Pathological Society."

Of the 'Cleveland Medical Society" of this period little information has been obtainable. It seems to have been organized a little earlier than the Pathologi- cal society, to have held its meetings at the houses of its members, and, after a brief existence, to have also been merged into the Cuyahoga County Medical society.

In December, 1887, "The Society of the Medical Sciences of Cleveland" was organized by some of the more prominent physicians of the city, for the cultivation of medical science, and with the additional purpose of founding a

202

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

public medical library for the use of the profession. This society met at the houses of its members, and its annual dues were fixed at twenty dollars, in order to accumulate a surplus for library purposes. Dr. H. K. Cushing was elected its first president, and annually reelected to the same office until 1895, when he finally refused further service in an official capacity. Dr. I. N. Himes was, accordingly, elected his successor, but died in office, April 1, 1895, and was succeeded by the last president, Dr. John H. Lowman. The minutes of the meetings of the society are preserved in the Medical library, and from them we learn that its last meeting was held February 18, 1896. At this time it was proposed to change the name of the society to "The Cleveland Clinical Society," and a committee was appointed to make the necessary changes in the constitu- tion for that purpose. No record of the report of this committee is found, and it is believed that the society simply disbanded without formal action.

It should, however, be recorded to the honor of "The Society of the Medical Sciences," that in 1894 it voted unanimously to turn over to the Cleveland Medi- cal Library association whatever sum remained in its treasury after the pay- ment of its just liabilities, and the sum of two thousand dollars was actually placed in the hands of the treasurer of that association, for library purposes.

In the last decennium of the nineteenth century the Cuyahoga County Medi- cal society, now more than thirty years old, began to exhibit the ordinary signs of senescence, e. g., inordinate respect for precedent, lack of initiative and a tendency to drift behind the rapid current of medical progress which charac- terized this period. Again the younger members of the profession complained (probably with some justice) that the exaggerated conservatism of the old society was a hindrance to the advancement of local medicine, and that the older members of the old society were unwilling to do anything themselves, and still more unwilling to entrust the administration of affairs to younger and more energetic hands. And again the experience of the '6os was repeated. A new society was organized on February 3, 1893, under the old name of "The Cleve- land Medical Society," and under the presidency of Dr. W. J. Scott, now seventy- one years "young," whose scientific zeal and energy were absolutely impreg -. nable to the assaults of age and infirmity, and whose popularity was equally general and well-merited. The roster of its later presidents is as follows: Dr. W. H. Humiston, 1894-5; Dr. William E. Wirt, 1895-6; Dr. J. E. Cook, 1896-7; Dr. N. Rosenwasser, 1897-8; Dr. A. F. House, 1898-9; Dr. H. S. Straight, 1899-1900; Dr. Charles F. Hoover, 1900-01 ; Dr. P. Maxwell Foshay, 1901-02.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 25

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1262

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1262