Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 5

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 5
USA > Ohio > Ottawa County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 5

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).

Judge Horace S. Buckland was mar- ried June 10, 1878, to Elizabeth Bau- man. He is one of a family of seven children, three of whom are living, the other two being George, a graduate of Cincinnati Law School, and Mrs. Charles Dillon, residing on Buckland avenue, Fremont, Ohio. The mother still sur- vives.

AMES W. WILSON, M. D., of Fre- moni, Sandusky county, was born in New Berlin, Union Co., Penn., February 1, 1816. His grandfather James Wilson, of old New England stock, about the year 1791 went from Connecti- cut to eastern Pennsylvania, where he married. His father, Samuel Wilson, only son of James Wilson, was born

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

in Schuylkill county, Penn. November 25, 1793. He was married to Miss Sarah Manck, a native of Pennsylva- vania, at New Berlin, and resided there, a much-esteemed and successful mer- chant, until his death, November 3, 1855. His wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, died May 31, 1872, aged eighty-four years.

Our subject chose the profession of medicine, and made his preparatory studies under the direction of Dr. Joseph R. Lotz, of New Berlin. He subsequent- ly attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he gradua- ted in March, 1837, in November of the same year commencing the practice of medicine in Center county, Penn. He came to Ohio in June, 1839, in company with Dr. Thomas Stilwell, and settled in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), July 24, 1839. That part of northwestern Ohio in which he embarked in his pro- fessional career was a comparatively un- settled country. A few pioneers, living mostly in log houses erected by their own hands, had made but a beginning of the long and laborious task of clearing the land and fitting it for cultivation. The soil was indeed of unsurpassed richness; but before it could be subdued and brought to the condition of fertility now seen on every hand, it was necessary that a whole generation of hardy men and women should wear out their lives in incessant toil. It was a country of sluggish streams and stagnant swamps, and consequently was a sickly country.

It is difficult to imagine the arduous character of the labors of the country physician engaged in general practice fifty years ago. He was able to prove suc- cessful only under the conditions that he possessed unusual powers of endurance, thorough devotion to the duties of his calling, self-reliance and true courage. Dr. Wilson was successful. During the years he was engaged in the practice of his profession he ranked among the most

successful physicians in this section of the State. He was distinguished for prompt- itude and faithful punctuality in fulfilling engagements. The urbanity of his man- ner made him ever welcome to the bed- side of the suffering. His intelligence and manly deportment won general con- fidence. His acknowledged skill, and the painstaking care with which he in- vestigated the cases submitted to his judgment, commanded the respect and regard of his fellow practitioners. It is probable that no physician outside of the large cities of Ohio has ever enjoyed a larger practice or performed more arduous labor in meeting its requirements.

In consequence of severe exposure while attending to this large practice, in January, 1858, he suffered from a severe attack of pneumonia, from the effects of which he has never completely recovered; nor has he since devoted himself to the practice of medicine. He has, however, retained a lively interest in the progress of medical science, and whatever pertains to the welfare of his chosen profession. He is president of the Sandusky County Medical Society, and a member of the Ohio State Medical Society. During the war of the Rebellion, in August, 1862, he was appointed, by Governor Tod, surgeon for Sandusky county to examine appli- cants for exemption from draft. In 1858 he was elected treasurer of the Sandusky County Bible Society, which trust he kept until 1868, when he was chosen president of said society. This position he has retained to the present date, mak- ing thirty-seven years of faithful and con- tinuous service. He has also for a num- ber of years been president of the San- dusky County Pioneer and Historical So- ciety, in which he takes a deep interest; and he has been president of the Birch- ard Library Association since the death of ex-President R. B. Hayes, whom he succeeded in that office.

On May 25, 1841, Dr. Wilson was married to Miss Nancy E. Justice, daugh-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ter of Judge James Justice, one of the early settlers of Lower Sandusky, and for a long period a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Fremont, Ohio. They have four children-two sons and two daughters: Charles G., the eldest son, a graduate of Kenyon College and Harvard Law School, now of the law firm of Pratt & Wilson, of Toledo; married Nellie, daughter of I. E. Amsden, of Fremont, Ohio. The younger son, James W., is connected with the First National Bank of Fremont, with his father. The eldest daughter, Sarah W., is the widow of Hon. J. B. Rice, of Fremont, Ohio. The youngest daughter is the wife of Charles F. Rice, of New York City.

In 1857 Dr. Wilson became a partner in the banking house of Birchard, Miller & Co. In September, 1863, the bank was merged into the First National Bank of Fremont, with Mr. Sardis Birchard as president and Dr. James W. Wilson as vice-president. On January 27, 1874, after the death of Mr. Birchard, Dr. Wil- son was elected president, which position he still (July, 1895) holds. Dr. Wilson was one of the charter members of the Fremont Savings Bank Company, which was organized in 1882, under the State laws of Ohio. He was elected a director and president, and has held these posi- tions continuously up to the present time. Thus has Dr. Wilson, through a long period, borne important relations to the principal financial institutions of Fremont. He is a conservative banker, and yet a popular one, ever ready to respond to the demands of the business public, and watchful that the affairs of the bank shall be conducted in accordance with those sound business principles which alone as- sure success and safety. He has wit- nessed with deep satisfaction the growth of Fremont, and the remarkable develop- ment of the surrounding country. It is not overstating the facts to say that he has never been lacking in publie spirit of the commendable kind, and that he has

been a liberal contributor toward the vari- ous enterprises which have had for their object the promotion of the prosperity of the community.

Dr. Wilson is fond of reading, and it has long been his habit to devote most of his leisure hours to favorite books, peri- odicals and the current news. He loves to mingle with his fellow citizens and join in pleasant conversation. He is a man of conservative views, but liberal and toler- ant. He freely accords to others that liberty of opinion which he desires for himself. He is firm in his religious belief, and his daily life is consistent with his convictions. He is a thorough believer in the doctrines ef Christianity, and that the highest welfare of humanity can be at- tained only through obedience to the pre- cepts of Jesus Christ. For forty-five years he has been a member of St. Paul's Prot- estant Episcopal Church, its senior war- den for more than forty years, and he is a regular attendant upon its services, and a liberal contributor toward its support and its charities.

T HOMAS STILWELL, M. D., was born in January, 1815, in Buffalo Valley, Union Co., Penn., five or six miles west of Lewisburg. His father, Joseph Stilwell, for more than half a century an honored citizen of that coun- ty, died in 1851, aged seventy-four years. His mother, Anna Stilwell, died eleven years later, aged eighty-four years.

When Thomas was a child his parents removed to New Berlin, the county seat of Union county, where he continued to reside-with the exception of such time as he was absent at school -- until he left to make the West his future home. After a full academic course at Milton, Penn., under the tuition of Rev. David Kirk- patrick, a distinguished teacher in that section of the State, and a brief course of selected studies at La Fayette College, Easton, Penn., he entered upon the study

1231514

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of medicine with Dr. Joseph R. Lotz, at New Berlin, and graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn., in March, 1839, the same year locating at Lower Sandusky, Ohio. In 1842 he was married to Miss Jerusha A. Boughton. of Canfield, Mahoning (then Trumbull) Co., Ohio, and the children born to this union, five in number, are: Charles B., residing at Watertown, N. Y .; Thomas J., at St. Louis, Mo .; Charlotte E., married to John T. Lanman, living at New London, Conn .; Mary, married to W. T. Jordan, of Louisville, Ky .; and Anna M., at home with her parents.

Dr. Stilwell has always occupied a place in the front ranks of his profession. For several years he was vice president of the Sandusky County Medical Society, and for many years a member of the State Medical Society. He was among the first appointed pension examining surgeons (February, 1863), holding that position until he resigned, in 1879. To his letter of resignation the Commissioner of Pensions replied in very complimentary terms, expressing regret for its having been tendered. He was afterward elected one of the censors of the Medical Depart- ment of Western Reserve University, Cleveland, having held the same position in Charity Hospital Medical College, afterward known as the Medical Depart- ment of Wooster University. Dr. Stil- well has been a member of the Presby- terian Church during the whole of his mature life, and has for many years been an elder.

The following account of some of the Doctor's experiences was furnished by him for Williams' History of Sandusky Coun- ty, from which we take it: "Drs. Wilson and Stilwell grew up together in close companionship in their Pennsylvania town, were fellow students in Dr. Lotz' office, graduating at the same college, and formed the purpose, while yet office students, to migrate to the West together. Accordingly, on the 13th of June, 1839,

in a two-horse covered carriage, purpose- ly constructed, with ample room for themselves and baggage, which included a small stock of books and instruments, they left their home for a Western pros- pecting tour, with the design, if no loca- tion to their liking offered sooner, of going on to Illinois, at that day the . Far West.' Traveling leisurely, they stopped long enough at each important town on the way to ascertain what inducement it could offer two adventurous young men who were in the pursuit of bread and fame. Calling on their professional brethren, both as a matter of courtesy and interest, the pleasure of their journey was much increased thereby. In this way they reached Lower Sandusky (Fremont). Spending a few days visiting friends, who, a few years before, on coming West, set- tled in the neighborhood of Lower San- dusky, they continued on to Perrysburg and Maumee. Here they saw what had often been the exciting theme of their children- a tribe of Indians, the Ottawas, who were encamped on the flats opposite Maumee, preparatory to their being removed to their new hunting grounds west of the Mississippi, assigned them by the Govern- ment.

"Finding the roadsimpassable for their carriage, the travelers returned to Lower Sandusky, and turned south. At Tiffin they met Dr. Dresbach, of lasting reputa- tion in that locality for his genial manner and his ability as a physician and surgeon. Advised by him, they decided to remain at Lower Sandusky, to which they re- turned, and put up at Corbin's (later the ' Kessler House,' now the Wheeling rail- road depot), it being then the 24th day of July, 1839. A week subsequently, on the 2nd of August, the citizens of San- dusky and neighboring counties celebrated the anniversary of Croghan's victory by barbecuing an ox on the commons, now the courthouse park, Eleutheros Cook, of Sandusky city, delivering an oration from the porch of the low frame dwelling

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

house erected a few years before by Jaques Hulburd, standing in the middle of Fort Stephenson, and which, a few years ago, was removed from the grounds when they became the property of the city and Birchard Library by purchase. The breastworks of the fort were, at that day, still conspicuous.

" Within a few days after their arrival both were taken sick with fever. Occu- pying beds at the hotel in the same out-of- the-way room, they were left pretty much to themselves, to acquire experience as patient, nurse and doctor, all at the same time and at their leisure. A new settler had a good deal to learn about sickness, and but few lacked opportunities for ac- quiring knowledge by personal experience. A notable fact connected with the history of the hotel that season is remembered by living participants, namely: That at one time for a few days not a woman remained in the house -filled as it was with guests and borders, of whom many were sick-ex- cept the landlord's wife, and she, too, down with the fever. The women help had all gone home sick. It was very hard to obtain others. A colored man-a steamboat cook-with man help for general house- work, supplied their place.

"The sickness that season being very general all over the town and country, before either had so far recovered as to be able to do more than leave their room, they were importuned to visit the sick, and were compelled to comply long before they were fit for service. They secured for an office a little one-story frame struc- ture, which stood where Buckland's Block now stands, at the corner of Front and State streets. It was an unpreten- tious building, belonging to Capt. Morris Tyler. Their neighbors on the south were Morris & John Tyler, merchants, whose store occupied one-half of a low two-story frame house, of very moderate dimensions, but for size and appearance one of the noted mercantile establish- ments of the town. To the north they

were in close proximity to Gen. R. P. Buckland's law office, of about the same size as their own, and in no way superior to theirs, excepting that it was a shade whiter from having probably had two coats of paint, while theirs had but one, and that one almost washed off by the northeasters which swept its front, unob- structed, as now, by three-story blocks, on the opposite sides of the street. This office at one time narrowly escaped de- struction: A cannon fired at the intersec- tion of State and Front streets, on the occasion of a jollification in 1842 over the election of Wilson Shannon as Gov- ernor of Ohio, burst, sending its butt end through the north side of Gen. Buck- land's office, and but for its wise discrim- ination in the interest of humanity it would have gone through the north side of the doctors' office as well.

"The 'doctor's ride,' in that day, meant twelve or fifteen miles in all direc- tions, and on horseback, mostly through woods on newly cut-out roads, often paths for some part of the way. He found his patients in the scattered cabins in which the farmers of Sandusky county then lived. During the continuance of their partnership, and until Dr. Wilson's health became impaired by a severe at- tack of sickness from exposure, as noted in his personal biography on a preceding page, they so arranged their business that their attendance upon patients was by al- ternate visits, making thus an equaldivision of the labor. He who went on the east- ern round to-day would go on the western to-morrow. The ' sickly season'-mean- ing from about the middle of July to the middle of October-was a phrase very familiar in those times, happily not appli- cable to this day, for the State may be challenged to name, within her bounds, a county now healthier than this same Sandusky. The change has been wrought partly by clearing up the land, but mostly by constructing ditches to carry off the water that overspread the surface. Dur-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ing the sickly season the pressure on their time was such as to enable them to make the round only once in two days. Oftentimes each passed over the other's route before they met in their office-not seeing each other for days-the necessary communications being made on a large slate kept in the office for that purpose. The story of the daily ride, extending far into the night, oftentimes with fog above and mud below, the weariness of body and limb, the loss of sleep, the burden of thought-all this now sounds like exagger- ation, but to those who underwent it all it is a well-remembered and now wondered- at reality. Their contemporary physi- cians were equally hard pressed.

"In the season of which this is writ- ten, in the cabins visited, which some- times meant every cabin on the road traveled, it was very exceptional to find but one of a family sick. To find three or four was commonly the case. Not infrequently the whole family were pa- tients, and this with no outside help, sometimes not procurable even in times of dire necessity. While extreme cases could not fairly be given as the general experience, yet this class after all consti- tuted a large proportion of the whole. An enumeration would include cases of scanty house-room, of lack of supplies, of distance from neighbors, of remote- ness from physicians, of absence of help, of the number down in a family, of ne- glected ones, of work undone, of fields, such as they were, unprepared for seed. These, in their varied forms, composed a large list. In making the rounds one day he whose circuit included a cabin to be visited which had recently been erected in a small clearing, a half acre or so, in a dense woods, south of where Hessville now stands, and reached by passing through David Berry's lane and then along a path which led to the opening-found, upon entering, the man of the house lying up- on a bed in one corner of the room, in a burning fever; the woman in another

part of the room sitting upon the edge of an extemporized bed, with a face flushed with fever, and wild with excitement, leaning over a cradle in which lay their little child in spasms, it too having the fever. Quickly enquiring of the woman for the water-bucket, he was told that it was empty, that their well had just been dug, and was unwalled and uncovered; the only way they had to get water was to climb down a ladder that stood in the well and dip it up, which neither had been able to do that day, and no one com- ing to the house, they had no water. Pro- curing water from the well, he remained: till the child was relieved of the spasms, when, having dispensed the medicines ne- cessary, he departed, telling them to ex- pect someone in soon, as the result of his efforts to get somebody, if possible, from the first house he reached on the way.

"The fevers of this country had pe- culiarities which for years have ceased to be observed, and which were the condi- tions exciting anxiety in the mind of the doctor as well as in the friends of the sick. Intermittent fever, one of the forms very common, was sometimes with chills, sometimes without, as now, and was man- ageable enough unless. as not infrequently was the case, it assumed a malignant type, known in the books as congestive chill, or pernicious intermittent. With the best that could be done, the cases were often fatal, many times for want of care at the critical perod. But more. marked was the condition which attend- ed the latter stage of bilious remittent fever, the other form of miasmatic fever, generally prevalent in the latter part of summer and in the autumn months. Whether it run a short or a long course, whether of high or low grade, it usu -. ally terminated with a sweat and ex- treme exhaustion. A 'sinking spell,' as it was commonly called, was frequently its dreaded sequence, and the danger to. life at the time imminent. A failure on the part of the attendants then to keep up the

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

circulation-by rubbing the surface, by applying warmth to the extremities, by spreading plenty of cover over the bed, and by administering stimulants freely, with liberal doses of quinine-was sure to seal the fate of the patient. Many died in this way. A representative case oc- curred in a small frame house of two rooms, which stood on what was then open common (now the corner of Croghan and Wood streets), occupied by a man and his family of the name of Tyler, strangers, no relatives of the Tyler family resident here. He was a stone mason, and came to work at the courthouse, the building of which had just been com- menced. He and his wife were taken sick with the fever. No one could be found to take the constant charge of them. The neighbors, sparsely settled then in that part of the town, as they could be spared from home, went in, one now, and another then, and did what they could, but withal the care was far from what their condition required. The fever of the husband yielded first; instructions had been left as to what was to be done when the crisis came, which during the day gave signs of its near approach. The doctors, both having reached their office on their return from the country at the same time -about 12 o'clock at night -- upon being informed that a messenger had just been down for them from the Tylers, went to the house to find the patient cold and pulseless, no appliances, no stimulants having been used as directed, and he died. They had the wife removed to a neigh- bor's house. When the crisis came to her-the breaking up of the fever in the manner described-she had the necessary care and lived.

"And here it should be remarked that whatever allusions may have been made in this or any other sketch of years ago, to hardship suffered for want of help in times of sickness, it was never refused when it could be given. To the extent of the ability to give it, no neighbor with-

held it. The brotherly spirit displayed at such times made itself proverbial, and could the deeds to which it prompted be written they would form a grand chapter in the history of Sandusky county."

B URGOON. The ancestry, from whom are descended the Burgoon families of Sandusky and other counties of Ohio, was John Bur- goon, who served in the French army, and about the year 1740 emigrated from Alsace, France (now in Germany), to America. Here he married and had a family of seven children: Charles, Robert, Peter, Jacob, Francis, John, and Honore, the only daughter. Of these Peter be- came a Methodist minister; Honore mar- ried Ulrich Sate, and removed to Penn- sylvania, but the six sons all came to Ohio in an early day, and their descendants are found in Perry, Muskingum and Morgan counties. The father of this family died at his home in Frederick (now Carroll) county, Md., and his remains rest in the St. John's Catholic Cemetery at West- minster, he being of that faith. The mother was of the Protestant faith.

Francis Burgoon, son of John Bur- goon, the immigrant, and Elizabeth, his wife, was born in Frederick county, Md., where he married Miss Elizabeth Low, a lady of English descent. In 1824 they moved to Perry county, Ohio, in company with a colony of nineteen other families from the same neighborhood, all related to each other. They both died in Perry county, and their remains rest in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, two miles southeast of Somerset. Their children were: David, Mary, Jacob, Theresa, William, Rachel, Peter, Edith and Sarah. Of this family, the youngest died in child- hood, and was buried at Taneytown, Md. ; David moved to Knox county, Ohio, where his descendants still reside; Mary married Joshua Coe, and their descend-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ants are to be found in Licking county, Ohio; Jacob's descendants live in the vi- cinity of Somerset, Perry Co., Ohio; Theresa's descendants are found in Ver- million county, Ind. ; the descendants of William live in Carroll county, Md .; Rachel married Basil Coe, and lived in the the vicinity of Fremont, Ohio; Edith married David Engler, and lived in San- dusky county, and was one of the earliest pioneers of the county.

Peter Burgoon, son of Francis and Elizabeth Burgoon, was born in Frederick county, Md., near Westminster, July 13, 1800. His educational advantages were limited, and for a trade he learned that of a stone mason. On October 18, 1821, he married Miss Margaret Fluegel, at Littlestown, Penn., a daughter of John and Margaret (Hahn) Fluegel, who lived near Westminster, Md. John Fluegel was a son of Vallen Fluegel, an emigrant from Germany, who had settled on a large farm near Westminster. Margaret E. (Hahn), his wife, was a daughter of An- drew Hahn. The names and dates of birth of the children of John and Mar- garet Fluegel are as follows: Elizabeth, February 6, 1791; John, July 25, 1793; Polly F., January 19, 1795; Samnel, August 18, 1796; George, July 23, 1798; Margaret, July 18, 1801; Henry, October 22, 1802; Daniel, June 25, 1804; Sarah, June 3, 1806; Simon, June 9, 1808; Ben- jamin, September 23, 1809; and Levi, November 29, 1811, who is still (1895) living. John Fluegel, the father of this family, served in the Revolutionary army as fife-major; he died at the age of eighty- three, his wife Margaret at the age of seventy-three, and their remains are buried in Baust's churchyard, near Uniontown, Md. Of the above named children of John and Margaret Fluegel, Elizabeth married Cornelius Baust, and lived in Uniontown, Md .; Polly married Jacob Miller, and lived in Jay county, Ind .; Margaret married Peter Burgoon, and they became the parents of our subject; 3

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.

Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 5

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1040