USA > Ohio > Trumbull County > A twentieth century history of Trumbull County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 29
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R. Buel Love.
Louis R. Dawson.
Mary C. MeNutt.
Anna G. Wheeler.
Alice M. Thompson.
Jennie Tyler.
Belle Graeter.
Class of 1875.
.J. LaFayette Herzog. Frank F. Reed.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Hal. K. Taylor. Almon D. Webb.
Frederick K. Smith. Edward J. Wheeler. Lottie J. Tayler. Marion Davidson.
Mary S. Tuttle.
Class of 1876.
Ida J. Brett.
M. Libbie Brown.
Alice H. Lattin.
Mary B. Perkins.
Olive D. Perkins.
Charles B. Ball.
Florence F. Rawdon.
Mary L. Selkirk.
Phebe T. Sutliff.
Doll M. Richards. Lydia B. Sutliff.
Class of 1881.
Mary E. Andrews.
Grant Byard.
Nellie C. Darling.
Charles E. Clapp.
Robert Iloag.
Mande L. Moulton.
Anna (. Sidels.
Will E. Tuttle. Lillian M. Tyler.
Class of 1882.
Benjamin Anderson.
Lizzie Biggars.
Louis Spear. Charles Smith.
Class of 1883.
Mabel Adams.
Olive Brown.
Mary Carney.
Addison L'ee.
Jennie Geuss.
Charles Gibbons.
Ella Harwood.
Anna Jameson.
Rosa Miller.
Nettie Thayer.
Cloyde Smith. Charles Wilkins.
Class of 1884.
Josie C. DeForest.
Tryon G. Dunham.
Rita E. Hucke.
Frank B. Minor.
Angie Peck.
Grace II. Reid.
Sally HI. Woods.
Class of 1885.
Eleonore B. Gibson.
Louise P. Senior.
Will C. Ward.
Helen R. Adams.
Laura P. Smith.
Grace E. Brierly.
Agnes M. Hamilton.
Anna M. Spear.
Class of 1886.
Charles Adams. Jennie Dillert.
Allison Gibbons.
Frank Lengmore.
Frane Matthews.
Frank MeBerty.
Emerson VanGorder.
Jennie M. Adams.
Etta S. Adams. Rosa A. Barringer. Clara J. Biggers.
Nellie Brady. Grace C. Brown. Maggie E. Fox. Jessie F. Freer. Frank F. Fuller.
Allie I. Hall. Nellie F. Hull.
Mary Izant. Mame S. Jones. Carrie L. Pond.
Class of 1879.
Jeannie D. Brown.
Gertie A. Campbell. Maggie Clement. Cornelia M. Harmon.
Agnes E. Hazen.
Carrie J. Hummel.
Mabel L. King. Jennie M. Landers.
Alice M. Lucas.
Carrie L. Park. Lizzie Reid.
Olive S. Tayler. Edwin S. Yeomans.
Anna L. Woleott.
Class of 1880.
Class of 1877.
Grace H. Adams.
Minnie C. Foote.
Minnie M. Howard.
Mary F. Kinney.
Mary E. Messerschmidt.
Iulia L. Pratt.
Hattie L. Pratt.
Florence Tayler.
Class of 1878.
Alice Christianar.
Addlie .J. Reid. Luey B. Tayler. Addie M. VanGorder.
Robert S. VanGorder.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
John S. Cadawalder.
Mabel Carlton. Louise N. Deitz. Bert B. Downs.
Class of 1887.
Lillian I. Damon.
Fred W. Adams.
Kate M. Clapp.
Class of 1801.
George Baehr.
Minnie Bishop.
Lucy A. Hapgood.
('lara Briscoe.
Martha C. Hoyt.
Minnie Dray.
Frank P. Bartholomew.
Edward Gibbons.
Isabel Palmer.
Susie Ingersoll.
Olive M. Palmitert
Cornelia G. Smith.
Zell P. Smith.
Stella M. Roberts.
Mabelle A. Ross.
Julia A. Smith.
Gertrude Wilkins.
Mary C. Wheeler.
Benjamin C. VanWye.
Class of 1888.
Alice Brooks.
Lulu Conzett.
Laura Christianar.
Susie Cordell.
C. W. Foulk.
Anna Parker.
Tayler MeCurdy.
Amelia Gross.
Luther D. Harper.
Clara Hunt.
Vinona Printz.
John McClelland.
Edith Bartholomew.
Clara Waldeck.
Carrie Warren.
Anna Davis.
Margaret Watson.
Margaret McGunnigal.
Minnie Beck.
Jennie MeCracken.
Fannie Cline.
Maude Long.
Blanche Baldwin.
Class of 1894.
William Voit.
Charlotte Sutliff.
Grace R. Vautrot.
Alice L. Sager.
May Kirkpatrick.
Frances S. Hanson.
Frank Parks.
Olive M. Love.
Minnie E Waldeck.
Mary L. Gibbons.
Class of 1890.
William L. Woodrow.
Edith A. Kirkpatrick.
Georgia A. Palmer.
Homer A. Reid.
Clarence A. Dietz. Edwin B. Andrews.
David W. Drennen.
Lillian B. McKee.
Amasa Day Cook.
Gertrude R. Ricksecker.
R. Burt Kernohan.
Mary F. Estabrook.
James D. Brooks.
Etta Alice Lewis.
Carrie Dora Gloeckle.
Ella Van Tuyl.
Della Craft.
Grace Carlton.
Mattie L. Gillmer.
Esther Jones.
Bertha Kirkpatrick.
Mabel Long.
Ida Warren.
Glenn C. Webster.
Class of 1893.
Amarilla Dawsou.
Mary Andrews.
Matilda Gloeckle.
.John Leslie.
Ella P. Harmon.
Maud Crawford.
Gertrude Drennen.
Nina Trunkey.
George Klein.
Cora Lampson.
Zilla Spear.
Lucy Van Wye.
Class of 1889.
Mary Babbitt.
Effie Mae Rowe.
Anna Hanson.
John Estabrook.
HIarry Angstadt.
Almon G. Ward.
Carrie Christianar.
Virginia Reid.
Ward MeKee.
Mary C. Wallace. Jennie A. Delin.
Annie C. Mackey.
John A. Cline.
Will H. Clawson. Elmo B. Herbert.
Class of 1893.
Atraer Daugherty.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Charles H. Fresher. Will A. Spill. Halbert G. Reid. IFarvey J. Wilson. Milton S. Stewart.
Class of 1895.
Sallie A. Babbitt.
Charles C. Bubb.
Mary L. Beardsley. Mary L. Ewalt. Clara L. Ewalt.
Gertrude S. Fowler.
Grace E. Little.
Pearle M. Long.
Deborah H. Owen.
Minnie M. Schneider. Helen D. Stewart.
Blanche H. Angstadt.
Lucy M. Beach.
May F. Butler.
Alice B. Craig. Mary L. Downs.
David Reed Estabrook.
('lara M. Fax.
Charlotte MeKinney.
Minnie Biggers.
Mark Gunlefinger.
Letitia Clark.
Class of 1898.
Gertrude Andrews.
Warren Bailey.
Arthur Bartholomew. Edith Boyles.
Eugene Chase.
E. Clare Caldwell.
Marian Craig.
Myrtle Daugherty.
Susie Fulk.
Isaac Hill.
Kate Harrington.
Lewis Kennedy.
Clara MeClelland.
Sallie Tod Smith.
Mattie Spill.
Marjorie Storier.
Myrtle Willard. Blanche Williams.
Alice Moon.
Class of 1899.
W. B. Kilpatrick.
Margaret Meneely. Charlotte B. Watson. Fanny Burnett.
Jessie McKee. Arthur Boyes. Carolyn Clawson.
Anna Crowe.
Jessie Clark.
Blanche Churchill. Blanche Dray. Josephine Daugherty. Hazel E. Foote. Etta B. Kennedy. M. E. Murray. Emma C. Ripley. Adelbert E. Wonders.
Francis Bailey.
Laura Beach. Ruth Beach. Josephine Burnett. Amy Caldwell.
Ella Craig.
Elsie Dennison.
May Dray. Laura Hapgood.
Olive Howard.
Jessie Hyde.
Mabel Izant.
Jessie Isles.
Gertrude Koonse.
Ella Murray. Fred Messer.
Harry Mackey.
William Pew.
Irwin Southwick.
Florence Kennedy.
Mabel Truesdell.
Mabel Van Wye.
Daisy Thatcher.
Grace Weir.
Florence M. Morey.
Grace T. MeCurdy. Stanley H. MeKee. Mary M. Mackay. Lillian W. Sloan.
Nellie S. Shook.
Albert J. Sutliff.
Gertrude M. Walker. Gladys S. Whitney. Blanche E. Wise.
Class of 1896.
Jeunie Rose Cline. Birdell F. Barnes. Mande B. Clawson. Grace Conzett.
Helen E. Russell.
Alice L. Andrews.
Jessie M. Biggers. Nellie G. Cliuite. Leroy L. Crawford. Edith May Dray.
Clara Mae Koch.
Class of 1897.
Eugene Craig.
Blanche Dea. Clark Funk. Addie Howard. Edith Izant. Margaret Kelly.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Alice Leonard.
Class of 1003.
Mary Rice.
J. H. Marshall.
Anna Wallace.
Mary Southwick.
Hazel MeKee.
Eugene Sabin.
George W. Truxal.
Miriam Braden.
Frank I. Truxal.
Robert Wadsworth.
Philip Vantrot.
Lillian Koehler.
Virgil Weir.
Frank Dangherty.
Florence Wonders.
Alfred Tayler.
Minme Webster.
Eugeue Skinner.
May Van Houter.
Bessie Woodward.
Adaline Van Wye.
Frances Dunn.
Class of 1900.
Ruth Hapgood.
Frances L. Hapgood.
Rubie E. Swager.
Mary MeNutt.
Eleanor Hatfield.
Ethel Wanamaker.
Mignon B. Meyer.
Bessie L. Jamison.
Mabel R. Murray.
Blanche Love.
Edith Brobst.
Mande Wright.
Helen J. Spangenberg.
Blanche Jeffery.
Bessie J. Gillmer.
Helen C. Pond.
(layton J. MeCorkle.
Raymond MeCorkle.
Frank Craft.
Curtis J. Bailey.
Ferris D. Templeton.
George Fillius.
J. W. Love.
Byron Bartholomew.
Roy Barringer. Roscoe Olmstead.
Class of 1901.
Incy Hoyt.
Mary Newhard.
Grace Potter.
Dillie Slater.
Mabel Reid.
Ella Phelps.
Clara Ripper.
Mande Warren.
Emma Quinn.
Harry J. Love.
Jessie Kilpatrick.
Ralph Jackson.
Lorena Dunbar.
Lanra Raymond.
William Cebb. Roy Sterier. Henry Paden.
John Mullin. Lamont Gilder.
Loren Hunter. Charles Love.
Floreuee Jackson.
Benjamin MeKee.
Roland M. Weaver.
Mary A. Reeves. Ella Fleming.
Harry Rulf. William Menb.
Eva Draber. Henrietta Herriek.
Mabel Ewalt.
Frank Van Wye. Ella Grimmesey. Clara Grimmesey. Norval Cobb.
Class of 1903.
Earl D. Biggers. Edna Hull.
Cassandra Burnett.
Mark Gates.
Carl W. Raw.
George Pew.
Elrey Dntton.
Gertrude Mertz.
Mary Geiger. Clare Strong.
Pearl Nesbit.
Homer E. Stewart, Jr.
Charles W. Hyde.
James C. Hunter.
Ray P. Barber.
Carlton Lovejey.
Anna Wonders.
Leon Eruest.
Albert Koehler.
Homer F. Pierce.
Dora A. Kale.
William G. Watson.
Jessie Wright.
Florence Spear.
Elizabeth Cobb.
Harry Streng. Dean Taylor.
Mary E. Day.
Lomary Slater.
Jacob Ewalt, Jr. Edith Ward.
William Hapgood. Louise Millikin. Agnes Murdoch
313
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Estella Potter.
Hazel Cranage. Ella Tucker. Olga Brobst. Howard R. Weir.
Alta Beck.
Frank Pickering.
Bess Dunbar.
Inez llecker.
Josephine Witherstay.
Joe Gibson. Lucy Leah.
Bernice Beach. Mary Cunningham.
Class of 1906.
Warren Strong.
Charles Carey.
William Little.
Louis Vantrot.
Webb Elliott.
Phryne Gilmore.
Helen IToward.
Clara Angstadt.
llelen Lamb.
Celia McCormick.
Nina Jolinson.
Ruth Drennen.
Earl MeCamant.
Nelson Richards.
Marguerite Hutson.
Margaret MeDonald.
Mary Beebe.
Justine Iddings.
Iva Hickox.
Jessie Masters.
Olive Lamb.
Annabelle Alling.
Calvin Campbell.
George Tuttle.
llelen Eichenberger.
lJattie Thomas.
Mary E. Johnson.
Minnie Difford.
Paul Gates.
Carson Cottle.
John Russell.
Robert Warren.
Myrtle Brown.
Reta Sager.
Audrey Doty.
Leo Dolan.
Edwin Halstead.
Harry Snider.
.Jessie Hanson.
Jacob Spangenberg.
John Hanson.
Ben Lane.
Lonise Richards.
Fred Beck.
Mary Wark.
Blanche Chryst. Clyde Nesbit. Mabel Brown. Mary Glaser. David Gillmer.
Lena Grimmesey.
Mabel Masters.
Madge Whitney.
Ethel Deming. IIenry Porter.
Roy Hemple. Allie Gilbert.
May Holloway.
Alice MeCorkle. Dora L. Hickox.
George Martin.
Class of 1904.
Albert Andrews.
Nina Burnett.
Howard Bailey.
Mae Bauman. Clara Boyes. Mary Cratsley.
William Collins.
Louis Dunn.
Helen Dennison.
Rosannah Dennison.
Lulu Dennison.
William Franklin.
Lois Gruber. Laura Gaskill.
Lucy Hapgood. Iva Hewitt.
Susan Jameson.
John Jameson.
Maxwell Kennedy.
George Mosier.
Joseph MeCorkle. Edward Pickering.
Helen Palm. Robert Schmidt.
Arthur Southwiek. Lessie Tueker. Hazel Voit. Mary Van Tuyl.
Class of 1905.
Vera Stantial.
Pearl Burlingame.
Stiles Koones. Nat Sabin.
Charles Harrington.
Jay Raymond.
Ethel Jones.
Ethel Taylor.
Fred Myers.
Addie Swisher.
Jason Moore.
Class of 1907.
Marjorie Hanson. Mae Chryst. JJelen Morrison. Marjorie Thomas.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Ida Blot !.
Gertrude Sager.
Priseilla Harrington.
Mabel Harsh.
Vera Wilson.
Irene Park.
Elva Cook.
Florence Grimmesey.
Marie Elliott.
William A. Ritezel.
Monroe Miller.
William Barkley.
William Craig.
Franees Grimmesey.
Ralph Nash.
Lida B. Leach.
Frank Harnar.
Gertrude Loveless.
Arthur White.
Mary Kistler.
Class of 1909.
Hazel Turner.
Marguerite Mahan.
Frank Chapman.
Marjorie MeConney.
Burt Kibler.
Anna C. MeFarland.
Forrest Brooks.
Clarissa Mingling.
Fred Hirt.
Anna Newberry.
Marguerite Sutherland1.
Claribelle Dunn.
Marguerite VanWye.
Eleanor and Violet Culver.
Mabel Elliott.
Griswold Hurlbnrt.
Class of 1908.
Laura King.
Laura Evans.
Orin Southwick.
Henry P. Morris Hutchison.
Gladys Truman.
Loreta Kincaid.
Paul Thomas.
Harrison Burrows.
Maude Foulk.
Glen E. Dakin.
John R. Ikerman.
Carl W. Diehl.
Sherrill B. Greene.
William Haine.
Austa Huntley.
John Hapgood.
Ilelen Goering.
Edwin Holscher.
Rea Boyd.
*Stewart Hughes.
Sarah Chryst.
James Izant.
Hazel Todd.
Crawford Minglin.
Rolla S. Thompson.
Loris E. Mitchell.
Hazel Brobst.
Peter Mortz.
Beth Richards.
Thomas Mvers.
Clyde F. Wildman.
Herbert Otting.
Frances E. Archer.
Clarence Reeves.
Carl F. Thomas.
George B. Goldner. ('arl Edmunds.
Carl Glaser.
Lillian Richards.
Sadie Mullen.
Theresa Murray.
Rudolph Hafer.
Helen M. Sidels.
Ethel M. Cauffield.
Nora Christman.
Marjory Difford.
Grace Edwards.
Grace M. Elliott.
Edna W. Gorton.
Helen E. Hunt.
Katherine Iddings.
Bertha Izant.
C. R. Baker.
W. F. Bartholomew.
" Died just before graduation.
CHAPTER XX-MEDICINE.
FRATERNITY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY PHYSICIANS .- THEODORE SHEPARD, "PHYSICIAN."- WOMEN IN THE PROFESSION. -MIRACULOUS CURES .- JJOHN W. SEELY .- JOHN B. HARMON .- DANIEL B. WOODS. -PHYSICIANS OF LATER TIMES. -MEDICAL NOTES.
No physician in Trumbull County has achieved national reputation, or discovered any great cures, or done unusual, original work. However, on the whole, they have been an earnest, honest set of men, who in the early days suffered great physical hardships, and in the later have experienced anxiety and eare unknown to men in other professions. Men from Trum- bull County have taken high places in special work of cities and hospitals, and the record which they have made is worthy of all men. In the old time there was more strife among physi- vians and their individual followers, just as there was among the ministers and their churches, and lawyers and their clients. Today, however, it is surely true that in no county in the state does a better fraternal feeling exist than among the doctors of the Trumbull County Medical Association.
There were "medicine men" among the Indian tribes of this vicinity, and it is barely possible that physicians from Pennsylvania were through New Connecticut before the Con- nectient Land Company came. But accompanying the first party of surveyors was Theodore Shepard, registered as "physician." Dr. Shepard was also here the second summer, 1797.
The diaries of the surveyors scarcely mention this physician or the work he did. All seemed to be very well in the begin- ning of the survey, but after living for weeks outdoors, sleep- ing through a wet season when they were tired and hungry. they developed malaria, not our kind of " dumb agne." since they sometimes had three, usually two, chills a day. The rec-
315
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
ords state that, being short of medicine, the people with head- quarters at Cleveland used bark of trees and roots, hoping to relieve themselves of this disagreeable affliction. At the time of the death of a member of the party, one of the surveyors writes: "He turned purple after he died, and Dr. Shepard thinks he must have had putrid fever." When the surveyors departed in the fall of 1796, this doctor went with them, and those who were left depended upon home remedies. A child was born to Mrs. Kingsbury during the winter, with no attend- ing physician, and some anthorities say that Mrs. Gun, of Cleveland, had a child, with only a squaw as nurse.
Few women have been in the profession in Trumbull County. The first, as far as we know, was Dr. Helen Betts, a native of Vienna, who studied with Dr. Daniel Wood, practiced a little while in Warren, removed to Youngstown, where she had a large practice, and later to Boston, where she made a name for herself. She still is in active practice.
Dr. Melvina Abel; Dr. L. Caroline Jones, who practiced with her husband, Dr. Allen Jones, of Kinsman; Dr. Rose Rals- ton Ackley, and Dr. Sarah P. Gaston-Frack, of Niles, are the women practicing longest in the county. Among the early set- tlers women acted often in the place of physicians, instances of the same being given in different parts of this history. Almost every township had such nurse or midwife. Some of their recorded deeds are heroic enough to deserve some of the medals so graciously bestowed today. They did not get them, nor did anyone else; money was too scarce to waste it in rewards, and time too full to think of anght save present duty. We are dis- mayed when we read how diseases were treated in the pioneer time of the county. For typhoid fever there was calomel, bleeding, closed windows. Poultices were used where now boracie acid and a clean cloth are the remedies. Victims of tuberenlosis were advised to avoid cool air and were allowed to sleep in a room with many other members of the family. This country was supposed to be a place where consumptives got well, and many did. It was, as a rule, the people who had the least money and the fewest comforts who recovered. The reason for this is easily seen. The cabins through which the wind blew, and into which the snow fell, and whose logs held not the fatal germs, were favorable places for tuberculosis patients. Twenty years from now, when someone writes the history of
317
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Trumbull County, he will point to the errors of medicine of this time. But not to medicine alone will his finger point, but to theology, to polities, to philanthropy, and even philosophy. One has only to read the pages of history to find that many an old doctor was in his cups. Today the anthor does not know one drunken doctor in all Trumbull County.
Stories are recounted in manuscripts and by word of mouth of the curing of people in mysterious ways in our early days. Students of metaphysies today explain these as being rational and natural methods of cure. Then it was mysterious, miraen- lons. Now the mental healer teaches that the real person is soul, that soul is part of God, that God cannot be seen, and that through the action of mind the body may be conrtolled exactly as the clothes are controlled. Whether this be true or not twenty years from now will tell. In the meantime we will believe it when we are well and make haste to the doctor when we are ill.
An honorable non-sensational resident of Trumbull County vouches for the following: In the early days of Warren there was a man who had rheumatism. He was bed-ridden. The citi- zens were then like persons of one family. They cared for each other when sick, when in trouble and distress. For a long time Warren people had waited upon this man, giving him food, lift- ing him in bed, and doing all they possibly could for him. Occa- sionally the Indians would get ugly from too much "fire-water," and upon one such occasion, when they began to have fighting symptoms in the neighborhood, a courier ran into town to tell the people that the Indians were about to descend upon them to massacre them. Whether this word reached all the inhabitants or only a certain proportion is not known, but the neighbors of the bed-ridden rheumatic were informed. They ran for their lives. When they were some distance out of town one of them remembered that they had left the patient to suffer torture alone. As they stopped to disenss whether it was wise for them to go baek for him. they heard a most terrible howling and yelling in the woods behind them. Thinking the first of the angry redmen were about to descend upon them, they were appalled. but soon saw the bed-fast man leaping over logs, swinging his hands in the air, and yelling at the top of his Ings.
We read in the history of Mecea, prepared by Amoretta Reynolds and a committee, that Mrs. William Pettis of Mecca
318
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
was an invalid for years. After a time her physician decided that if she only so thought she could leave her bed. He, how- ever, could not persuade her of this belief. He therefore brought with him one day when he paid his visit a goodly sized snake which he placed between the sheets. "It had the desired effect of bringing her to her feet and keeping her there."
Mrs. Walter King, whose father, Mr. Holliday, kept a hotel, and whose husband owned the King Block, was a terrible suf- ferer from asthma. She was having an unusual attack when a great fire in town occurred. They carried her from her home thinking to save her life, and in a certain sense they did, for she never had another attack of asthma.
Dr. John W. Seely located in Howland township in 1801. Like many of the Warren settlers he was from Pennsylvania. In 1802 he brought his family here, and for many years prac- ticed within a radins of ten miles. Very little record is left of this doctor's professional life. Like all people of his time he was interested in the settlement of the country, enlisted in the war of 1812, was made captain and devoted a great deal of his spare time to working for the completion of the Ohio canal. He died of apoplexy in Akron in March, 1841 when the celebration of the opening of the canal was held.
Among the early settlers of Warren was Enoch Leavitt, for whom Leavittsburg was named. His son Enoch was a young man in 1805 when his people came here and not many years after that date had a good reputation as a physician. It is said that Dr. Leavitt used a good deal of calomel, herbs and roots. Like Dr. Seeley, little record is left of his professional life. He died in 1827 and was buried in Leavittsburg.
Dr. John B. Harmon was probably the first doctor to have an office and enjoy a good practice in the town of Warren. His father, Reuben, was an influential citizen, and in 1796, the year that the first surveyors appeared in New Connecticut, bought of Samuel H. Parsons five hundred acres in the Salt Springs tract. On this date, John B. began the study of medicine in Vermont and the following year the father was making salt from the springs. About 1800 the family were residing at Salt Springs. It is said that the father, Reuben, and the son, John B., were exactly alike in temperament, and somewhat alike in appearance. This family, therefore, were among the first of Trumbull County pioneers. They suffered great hardships and
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
all of them were exceedingly brave. The wife "was a resolute, capable woman, above average height, of broad musenlar build, sociable, cheerful and of indomitable patience and persever- ance." In 1806 Reuben Harmon returned to Vermont to finish some business and took his son John B. with him in order that he might finish his studies with Dr. Blackmer, who was a skilful physician of Dorset and his brother-in-law as well. When Reuben returned to the Salt Springs tract he found that the agent whom he left there had disappeared with two thousand dollars, and he was thus deprived of means to support his family through the winter. Not being discouraged, he set in motion some new plans, was taken with a fever, and died aged 57, leav- ing a large family. The stories of the experiences of the dif- ferent members of this family read like the most fictitious tale of romance and adventure. One sister, Clara, married a son of John Leavitt, whom she divorced for intemperance, later mar- ried Dr. John Brown, of New York state. Another sister. Betsey Harmon, was twice married, the last time to Albert Opdyke. Gen. Emerson Opdyke and Betsey Opdyke, the wife of Oliver H. Patch, were two of the children. Another brother, Heman Harmon, was identified with the early interests of Warren as a merchant, as sheriff, and manufacturer. He married the daughter of George Parsons, and had a large family of children, all of whom grew up here.
Dr. Harmon was partienlarly fitted for the life of a pioneer doctor since he had had a good deal of ont-of-door life in Ver- mont. His strong physique and his ability to endure hardships served him well. He finished his study with Dr. Enoch Leavitt and located in Warren for general practice in 1808. He ac- quired considerable experience in the war of 1812. He was commissioned as captain. In his early years he rode his horse to the different settlements in old Trumbull County, Cleveland. Painesville, Ashtabula, etc. Ilis mother continued to live on the Salt Springs tract for some time. In 1816 he built a home for himself in Warren and for a long time had different mem- bers of his family and friends as housekeeper. He had numer- ons accidents happen him in his practice, such as severely in- juring his back in falling from his horse. He injured his back and legs in a runaway and was left lying in the snow for a long time before assistance arrived. He had an operation for tumor "beneath the deep pectoral musele. " from which he nearly died.
320
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
He was sned for malpractice in 1838, Dr. John W. and Sylvanus Seely being made parties. Joshua R. Gid- dings, Benjamin F. Wade, Sutliff and Ranney prosecuted, while David Tod and R. P. Spaulding defended. Prob- ably there has never been a case tried in Trumbull Connty for malpractice in which the physicians and at- torneys were all men of such note and ability. The charges were not proved, but the expense was so large that we are told "he paid more for his lawyers and other expenses connected with the trial than he ever made from surgery." Like the other pioneer doctors, he learned to sleep on his horse, in his sulkey, and to do without sleep entirely for many hours together. There is a romance told of an early disappointment in love as there has been of men in all times, sometimes with truth, sometimes not. However, later upon the recommendation of friends and by letter he became engaged to Sarah Dana of Connectient and married her in 1822 at Pembroke, N. Y. He drove there in a double sleigh and brought her home. She was a fond wife, a good companion, a tender mother of his children, looked after their education, and her especial recreation was in the raising of beantiful flowers. Dr. Harmon died of pleuro-pneumonia in 1858, his wife living ten years longer.
Sylvanus, the son of Dr. John W. Seely, born in Pennsyl- vania in 1795, read medicine with his father. In the war of 1812 he entered the service and worked with Dr. John B. Har- mon, being present with him at the attack of Fort Mackinaw. Having married a Virginia woman he went there to practice for a while, but returned to Warren and lived here the rest of his life. His widow Mary lived for over fifty years in the house next the present fire department, opposite the former brick schoolhouse on Park avenue. It is still standing and is one of the oldest Warren residences. He died in 1849, having estab- lished a good reputation and practice. He was the father of Mrs. Cyrus Van Gorder and the grandfather of Mrs. John Kinsman.
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