USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 63
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There were other sources of amusement as well. We know that at the artificers' yard there were a number of theatrical entertainments given by amateurs and the advertisement of the Cin- cinnati races is quoted elsewhere.
The very day of the town meeting to con- sider the propriety of its incorporation, Septem- ber 30, 1801, there appears in the Spy a refer- ence to the Cincinnati Theatre as follows: "Sub- scribers will receive their tickets of admission by applying to Mr. Kilgore. Subscriptions not yet paid will be received by Mr. Seamons. Tickets cannot be granted to subscribers who have not paid. The Managers regret that they have not had it in their power to present the subscription list as generally as they wished. Such ladies and gentlemen, therefore, as are desirous of subscribing are requested to send their names to Mr. Seamons."
The advertisement of December 12th, quoted elsewhere, indicated how soon the impresario fell into difficulties. We do know that there were enacted just before Christmas "The Poor Soldier" and "Peeping Tom of Coventry."
EARLY PHYSICIANS.
No profession in the carly history of the city was better represented than that of medicine and none has had so faithful a portrayer as this. Dr. Drake in his "Discourses on Early Physic- ians, Scenery and Society of Cincinnati" has given is a picture of the profession and the times which is unrivaled in the literature of municipal history. Any one who writes to-day
on the subject can do little more than para- phrase this address.
The pioneers of the profession were the sur- gcons of the army who not only gave gratui- tous attendance on the people of the village, but furnished medicines from the army hospital chests at a time when they could be obtained in no other way. The first of these was Dr. Richard Allison, who remained after the army left, and became a prominent citizen. He was born in New York State in 1757. He never graduated in medicine, but in 1776 he entered the army of the Revolution as a surgeon's mate and continued in this position throughout the war. At its conclusion he practiced for some « years, but reentered the service for the cam- paigns in the West and was surgeon-general under Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne. His ex- perience at St. Clair's defeat has been men- tioned. During the summer of 1792 he was stationed at Fort Finney, the second of that name, located on the site of Jeffersonville. After Wayne's victory he resigned from the army and settled in Cincinnati. In 1799 his taste for agri- cultural pursuits induced him to move to a farm on the east fork of the Little Miami. He re- turned to the city in 1805 and resumed his prac- tice, residing on the southeast corner of Fourth and Sycamore streets, until the time of his death, on March 22, 1816. Dr. Drake says of him that "though not profound in science, he was sagacious, unassuming, amiable and kind. As he was the first physician of Cincinnati, resided in or near by it twenty-seven years, and was the first who died within its limits, he may be called the Father of our Profession."
Another army surgeon mentioned by Drake was Dr. Adams, who came from Massachusetts, to which he returned. Practically nothing else is known about him.
Of Dr. Jolin Carmichael, who was among those who received their discharge from the army in 1802, but little is known. He subse- quently settled in Mississippi Territory, and ac- quired great wealth as a cotton planter and died there at an advanced age.
Dr. Joseph Phillips was a native of Lawrence- ville, New Jersey, who came out with Wayne's army and after the treaty of peace returned to his birthplace, where he lived respected as a physician and citizen to be more than 80 years of age.
Dr. Jolin Elliott came out from New York with St. Clair and was stationed at the fort
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several times. He left the service with his regiment in 1802 and subsequently resided in Dayton until 1809. Dr. Drake says that he saw him in 1804, "a highly accomplished gen- tleman, with a purple silk coat, which con- trasted strangely with the surrounding thickets of brush and hazel bushes."
Another of Wayne's surgeons was Dr. Joseph · Strong, who was at the battle of Fallen Tim- bers and also attended the Greenville treaty. He was a graduate of Yale from Connecticut but not a graduate in medicine. He returned to Philadelphia in 1795 where he acquired a re- spectable practice and died in April, 1812, at the age of 43 years. His daughter married Colonel Bond, long a resident of Cincinnati.
Included in the list of army surgeons is the name of William Henry Harrison, who studied medicine in Virginia, attended a course of lec- tures in the University of Pennsylvania and was ' prosecuting his studies in Philadelphia when under the impulse of military taste he entered the army as an officer of the line instead of the medical staff. His professional knowledge en- abled him frequently to give assistance when a physician could not be had. His sympathy with the medical profession was shown throughout . his life, especially twenty-five years afterwards when as a member of the Senate of Ohio he spoke vigorously in behalf of the bill for estab- lishing the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum of Ohio. He acted for a time as one of the trustees for the Medical College of Ohio.
Dr. John Selman was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1764. He entered the army as . surgeon's mate and came to Cincinnati with Wayne in 1793. At the end of the Indian war in 1794, he resigned and took up his residence on Front street between Sycamore and Broad- way. Here he practiced his profession until his death at the age of 63 in 1827. At the time of the establishment of the arsenal and bar- racks in Newport, Dr. Selman was employed for many years as citizen surgeon. None of the army surgeons mentioned were graduates in medicine.
The same is true of Dr. William Burnet, Jr., who is regarded as the first citizen physician, apart from the army surgeons who settled. in Cincinnati. He was a brother of Jacob Burnet but he arrived in Losantiville in 1789 bringing with him a few books and medicines. There was not much opportunity for the practice of his profession and he spent a part of his time at North Bend with John Cleves Symmes. In
the spring of 1791 he revisited his native State with the intention of returning here for perma- nent residence. While there he obtained from the Grand Masonic Lodge of New Jersey a warrant under which the Nova Caesarea Har- mony Lodge, No. 2, of this city was constituted and was appointed its first master. The death of his father who had been surgeon of the army kept him East and he never returned to the city. His medical books were left here, the first ever brought to the city.
Dr. Calvin Morrell was appointed an officer of the projected lodge at the same time. The exact date of his arrival in the city is not known, although he was present at the organization of the lodge, December 27, 1794. Shortly after- wards he moved some thirty miles up into the country and became associated with the Sha- kers of the Union village near Lebanon, where he died.
Dr. John Hole is said by Dr. Drake to have arrived in 1790 or 1791. He participated in the drawing of donation lots in May, 1789, where he drew lot 227, the northeast corner of Front and Race streets. He appears as a purchaser of a number of lots in the list of lots sold by the proprietors of the town of Losantiville. He is said not to have been a man of much educa- tion or social rank and before the end of the In- dian war, in 1794, he left the town. He prac- ticed inoculation for smallpox both in Cincinnati and at Columbia in the winter of 1792-93.
One other doctor practiced here whose name Drake does not give "for the honor of the pro- fession." He was frightened away by an alarm of Indians.
Dr. Robert McClure came here from Browns- ville, Pennsylvania, in 1792. He resided on Sycamore between Third and Fourth streets. In 1801 he moved into the country and subsequently returned to his native place. Drake said that he did not seem to be a man of great education but that he did a respectable business for the reason that his wife was a lady of such ex- cellent kindness of heart that she' greatly com- mended him to the people "a biographical fact, which it may be well for the younger members of our Association to treasure 11p.
Our aged people relate that in those days it was customary with the officers of the army to drink bitters in the morning-those of Dr. Stoughton of London being preferred; but as importations were sometimes suspended, Dr. MeChire made a tincture, and putting it up in small vials, labeled them- Best Stoughton's
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Bitters, Prepared in Cincinnati by Dr. Robert McClure.' " Dr. Drake probably does the worthy McClure injustice as his advertisement quoted in another chapter is to the effect that his bitters are made agreeable to the London dispensatory and are equal if not superior to any made by Stoughton.
.Dr. John Cranmer arrived in Cincinnati in 1798. He had been employed about the office of a distinguished physician of Pittsburg, Dr. Bedford, and "acquired some knowledge of the symptoms of disease and the properties and doses of medicines, the latter of which he kept in a table drawer at his residence between Main and Walnut streets on the north side of Second" street. He was not a man of education but he attained a position of considerable personal and professional respectability. He advanced in reputation up to the time of his death from cholera in 1832.
Dr. William Goforth was the most renowned of the carly and regular practitioners in the carly days of the settlement, after his arrival in the spring of 1800. He was no less renowned from the fact that he was the tutor of the leader of the profession,-Daniel Drake.
Goforth was born in New York in 1766 and received his training under Drs. Young . and McKnight. In 1787 he with other students were dispersed by a mob raised against the cultivators of anatomy. He was a brother-in-law of Gen. John S. Gano and thereupon decided to accompany him West. He arrived at Lime- ·stone on June 10, 1788, and for a time settled at Washington where he had the chief business of the county for eleven years. He was a man fond of change as his subsequent life showed and in 1799 he moved to Columbia, where his father, Judge Goforth, then resided. The fol- lowing year (1800) he came to Cincinnati and occupied Dr. Allison's Peach Grove house. He soon obtained an extensive practice by reason of his high reputation, his influential family con- nections and the fact that he was Dr. Allison's successor. He was a man of very winning man- ners and great courtesy ; he dressed with great precision "and never left his house in the morn- ing till his hair was powdered by our itinerant barber, John Arthurs, and his gold-headed cane was grasped by his gloved hand. His kindness of heart was as much a part of his nature as hair-powder was of his costume; and what might not be given through benevolence could always be extracted by flattery, coupled with profes-
sions of friendship, the sincerity of which he never questioned. In conversation he was pre- cise yet fluent, and abounded in anecdotes, which he told in a way that others could not imitate. He took a warm interest in the politics of what was then the Northwestern Territory, being at all times the carnest advocate of popular rights. His devotion to Masonry, then a cherished in- stitution of the village, was such that he always embellished his signature with some of its em- blems. His handwriting was peculiar, but so remarkably plain that his poor patients felt flattered to think he should have taken so much pains in writing for them. In this part of his character many of us might find a useful ex- ample."
He is accredited as having been the first of the 'Cincinnati physicians to introduce vaccination as a preventive of smallpox, which he did on November 20, 1801. One of his patients in this particular was Dr. Drake. He was much inter- ested in the study of antiquities and natural history and in the year 1803 he dug at Big Bone Lick in Kentucky the largest, most re- markable and diversified mass of huge fossil bones that was ever disinterred at one time or place in the United States. Subsequently when the impostor Thomas Ashe visited this country in 1806, traveling under the name of a French- man, D'Arville, he induced Dr. Goforth to en- trust him with this large collection in ten boxes. These he took abroad with him and exhibited throughout Europe and the United Kingdom and finally sold to the Liverpool Museum for a large sum of money. His arrangement was a partnership one with Dr. Goforth but he not only did not pay the latter a cent of the proceeds but gave him no credit in his publication con- cerning the relics. This loss did much to im- poverish Goforth, although he was not of a tem- perament to retain money. He was constantly looking for precious metals and all the neighbors brought him specimens for his analysis in the hopes of finding gold. The discoverers usually managed "to quarter themselves on his family" on the strength of their supposed finds. Among others there was a man in the village named Hall who had a glass through which he could see many thousand feet into the earth. This naturally was a very impressive accomplish- ment. Another scheme of .Dr. Goforth was the clarification of ginseng and its shipment to China; at the same time he thought that he had discovered the genuine East India columbo root in our surrounding woods. None of these schemes
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succeeded in making his fortune and he finally thought of moving to the Mad River country. He took a winter trip to Mechacheck, but ar- rived there at night and found no inhabitants ; he could not make a fire and almost froze to death. He chose the summer time for his next trip, on which he was accompanied by Drake. , However "the most popular and peculiar physi- cian which had appeared in the ranks of her infant profession, or indeed ever belonged to it," to quote Drake's language, left Cincinnati for an entirely new field.
Goforth was a strong sympathizer politically with the French Revolutionists, but the exiles whoin he had met were of the other party "and pictures of the beauty and elegance of French society began to fill his imagination." He culti- vated the acquaintance of the exiled Paris law- yer, M. Menessier, whose bake shop occupied the lower story of his residence at Third and Main streets. The upper story was occupied by the Masonic lodge. "The Doctor's associa- tion with this member of the beau monde of course raised his admiration for Gallic polite- ness still higher; and just at the time when he began, in feeling, to prefer French to Anglo- American society, President Jefferson purchased Louisiana from Bonaparte, first consul of the Republique Francaise."
Goforth emigrated southward in 1807 and ac- cording to the peculiar habits of those days of electing men of one profession to positions in the other, he was appointed a parish judge and was afterwards a member of the constitutional convention of the State of Louisiana. He later resided at New Orleans and during the British invasion acted as surgeon under the Louisiana volunteer regiment. He got enough of French manners in time and on December 28, 1816, after a voyage of eight months up the river on a keel-boat he reached Cincinnati landing.
Mr. Mansfield in his "Memoirs" says that Go- forth wrote to his father that "if ever there was a hell upon earth New Orleans was the place." In this feeling he was not unlike a somewhat well known Ohio politician of the present day who fled from New Orleans a few years since to escape an attachment for contempt issued by a Columbus judge. A few weeks later he was inet on a train returning to Columbus and upon an expression of surprise at his return to the scene of danger he replied that he would rather be in jail in Ohio than the guest of honor of the city of New Orleans. Dr. Goforthi's return to
his beloved city did not avail him much for he died the following spring from a disease con- tracted from his trip up the river.
By no means the least important matter con- nected with his life is the fact that it was in his office which was also a drug store that Daniel Drake, who came to Cincinnati in the year 1800 a boy of 15, studied for almost four years. The latter's prominence and activity be- long, however, to the next phase of the com- munity's life and will be touched upon there.
The conditions of the practice are given by Dr. Drake in the address already quoted. There were, of course, empirics in those days, but they were in the main merely ignorant pretend- ers to knowledge and not decriers of scientific methods. The predominance of the military element, as has been said by Judge Burnet, in- fluenced the social life of the people and neces- sarily affected their relations to the doctor. At those times Columbia and Newport both de- pended upon Cincinnati. A trip to Columbia took half a day and a call to Newport involved ferrying over the river in a canoe and the climb- ing up a steep, icy or deep muddy bank. The country practitioners frequently rode 12 to 15 miles and occasionally 20 or 30 miles on bridle paths. On one occasion Goforth started early on a freezing night to visit a patient II miles in the country. His horse was not as gentle as he had thought and before he got out of the village he had to dismount and walk the distance. He reached his patient before day. His charge for such a service was 25 cents a mile, half of which was paid in provender for his horse or produce for his family. The pio- neers did their own bleeding and cupping and also practiced dentistry not less than physic. The charge was a quarter for pulling one tooth with a reduction for a wholesale order. Tin foil was used in plugging teeth instead of gold leaf "and had the advantage of not showing so conspicuously." Every physician kept his own drug shop and ordered his drugs through the dry goods merchants who brought them out from the East once or twice a year. Dr. Drake refers to James Ferguson who kept a store on Third and Sycamore streets, and whose adver- tisements appear so frequently in the Centinel. It took him from twenty-five to thirty days to go from Philadelphia to Brownsville and as much more by the river to Cincinnati. To bring medicine from the East required four or five months. The price of medicines was such as
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25 cents for an emetic, a Dover's powder, a dose of Glauber's salt or a draught of "Paregoric and Antimonial Wine," 50 cents for a vermifuge or blister and 75 cents an ounce for pale Peruvian bark and one dollar for the best red or yellow. On the other hand the doctor received 25 cents for bleeding a patient and for sitting up all night one dollar. An ordinary visit was from 25 to 50 cents. Frequently the physician carried his medi- cine in his pocket, but the usual practice was to return home and make them up and send them out. This was Dr. Drake's duty during the time of his pupilage under Goforth. Dr. Drake says that his preceptor had the principal position of the village and fleetness was necessary in the delivery of the drugs and there being no pave- ments he found that the shortest way through a mud hole was the best, which conclusion he thinks has been generally adopted by the pro- fession in later times.
TIIE COURTS.
On January 5, 1790, the Governor issued a proclamation directing that "the justices of the peace hold their Courts of General Quarter Ses- sion of the Peace at the town of Cincinnati, on the first Tuesdays in February, May, August, and November; and the judges of the Court of Common Pleas hold their courts at the same place on the first Thursdays of May and No- vember." After having established the county, named the city and appointed the officials to administer the affairs of the place, Governor .St. Clair left on the 5th for the Illinois country not to return to the Svmmes purchase for some months.
The first session of the Court of General Qnar- ter Sessions of the Peace seems to have been held on the ensuing 2nd of February. There attended at this court the three judges presided over by William McMillan; Justice Jacob Tap- ping (Topping) ; Sheriff John Brown, Levi Woodward and Robert Wheelan, constables.
At this session Justice Jacob Tapping com- plained of Josiah White, saying that he had slandered him. White offered his excuses and apologies and was released. The grand jury failed to bring in any bills and was discharged. This was very fortunate as it appeared by a pro- test of the sheriff that there was as vet no jail and for that reason he did not wish to be held responsible for prisoners. At the May term the session was more exciting.
"May term, 1790 .- Present, the judges, jus-
tices, constables, and sheriff. The commissions of the peace and the Governor's proclamation were read. The names of grand jury were called; Robert Benham, foreman. Adjourned to 2 P. M.
"On sitting again, Abel Cook was called up for breach of the peace; also Josiah White, for selling liquor to soldiers; also Jacob Tapping, esq., for possessing four shirts and one pair of stockings, bouglit from a soldier; another count of the same sort appeared against the said Tap- ping. A call was ordered for Sylvester White and David Strong, for having 'on account' pub- lic clothing. The same charge was made against Scott Travers, viz. : that a pair of overalls and a woolen vest belonging to the Federal service were found in his possession. Abel Cook plead guilty to hitting Hames Sowards, and was fined fifty cents. Thomas Cochran had fifty cents fine for selling whiskey. Tapping was fined seventy-five cents, and Scott Travers was lett off. White failed to put in his appearance. Captain David Strong cleared up the matter as to his acquaintance with Tapping's clothes business, and was dismissed. The jury came in with a bill against Asa Hartshorn, Mahlon Ford, and David Strong for thrashing Isaac Taylor. The court adjourned."
At the August sessions of 1790 Robert Ben- ham and James Miller were each fined two dol- lars for an assault and James Seward one dollar and a half for the same offense.
In May, 1791, the fines seem to have increased, for John Mclaughlin and Henry Mclaughlin were obliged to pay four dollars cach for assault while Francis Luce for libel was fined eight dollars.
In 1792 at the February session William Paul was convicted of larceny and fined thirty dollars and George Paul convicted of forgery escaped with a fine of four dollars.
Even the most prominent citizens seem to have been given to fighting and in the November session of 1792 the well known merchant and militia officer, Scott Traverse, was obliged to pay one dollar for assault. The same fine was assessed on Magdala Pickle for the same of- fense.
When the court was involved, the fines were more serious; we find that Mathew Winton for contempt was obliged to pay sixteen dollars. A year later at the February session Paschal Hick- man for contempt of Justice McMillan paid a fine of eighteen dollars. Levi Munsell was be- fore the court several times and in 1792 was
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fined one dollar and a half for discharging fire- arms contrary to law and in 1794 three dollars for contempt. The more serious crimes natur- ally involved more serious punishments. Samuel Ralston in 1793 was fined ninety-three dollars for forgery and John Burgarot for larceny the following year was fined sixty dollars. Stephen Chandler for tolerating gaming paid at the May session of 1794 one hundred dollars. Other prominent citizens were arraigned at this same session. William Stanley for assault was fined two dollars and John Cleves Symmes for selling spirituous liquor contrary to the statute, twelve dollars. In 1797 Griffin Yeatman was fined one dollar for failing to attend when summoned as a juror and Seth Cutter a dollar for assault.
The matter of discharging firearms seems to have disturbed the community a great deal and a number of cases are with reference to this offense. We find in William McMillan's orig- inal docket preserved in the files of the His- torical and Philosophical Society of Ohio that Abraham Garrison was arrested on April 9th for discharging fircarms on Saturday night the 7th but as he was able to show that the discharge was an unavoidable accident he was discharged. Three weeks later Uriah Gates celebrated Satur- day night by discharging firearms twice. Each shot cost him two and a half dollars.
The first civil case tried by the County Court consisting of Judges William Goforth and Will- iam McMillan assisted by Justices John S. Gano, Benjamin Stites and Jacob Tapping with John Brown as sheriff and Israel Ludlow, clerk, is · that of Henry Reed against Joseph White. It was for a debt of three dollars which was settled by mutual consent as White had already been in jail for a month and agreed to work for Reed for another term. A later case is that of Peter Clark against Mary Simpson. Mary had been Clark's servant and owed him three dollars but concluded to get married without paying her debt. She finally agreed to go to jail until her husband could make enough money to pay her prenuptial debt.
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