History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 35

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 35

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).

While Carter and Mosgrove were the two leading practitioners of Urbana until the fifties, yet there were many other able physicians in the county seat and in several of the smaller towns of the county. Among there may be mentioned Elijah Collins and Ichabod C. Taylor, who were two of the first young men from Urbana to graduate from the Ohio Medi- cal College at Cincinnati. Among the other graduates of this same college, before 1850, to locate in the county may be mentioned E. P. Fyffe, Thomas Cowgill. Joseph C. Brown. D. M. Vance. James M. Mosgrove, and J. S. Carter, Jr. Starling Medical College of Columbus furnished at least four graduates before 1850. Douglas Luce. Jr., H. C. Pearce, I. W. Goddard and William H. Pearson.

It was the usual thing for most of the best physicians in the early days of the county to have some young man in their office "reading medi- cine." In fact, it is safe to say that at least half of the physicians of the county of the first half century received their education in the office of some old practitioner. Records are not available to show how many young men studied in the office of Carter & Mosgrove, but there was usually a student to be found there at all times. Among the other physicians of the county who practiced before the Civil War may be mentioned the following : Doctors Banes, Curry, Everett, Happersett, Lord, Hughs, Latta, McCann, Martin, Murdock and Woods.

LIST OF PHYSICIANS IN EARLY RECORDS.

The first County Medical Society was organized in March, 1852, with the following officers : William H. Happersett, president; Adam Mos- grove, vice-president ; Marquis Wood, treasurer : James M. Mosgrove, sec-

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retary ; Joseph S. Carter, librarian; William Murdock, Adam Mosgrove and E. P. Fyffe, censors. The members in addition to the officials included John Baker, I. W. Goddard, Cyrus Smith, J. C. Brown, James M. Pheron, W. M. Houston, J. H. Clark, M. L .. Haster, and D. M. Vance.

Another source of information concerning the early physicians of the county is found in the records of the county commissioners. As had been mentioned, they were listed for taxation at so much per head, just the same as horses and dogs, and in fact some were listed at the same rate as the dogs of the county. The first reference to physicians being taxed is found in the commissioners' minutes for June, 1839, and they were assessed annu- ally from that year until 1851. In 1839 the following physicians are regis- tered as having paid the county tax: J. S. Carter, Adam Mosgrove, Will- iam Happersett, Gould Johnson, E. D. Lawler, Abner Cheney, Lemon Mar- shall, J. L. Morrison, Alfred McFarlan, A. R. Root, T. G. Kindleberger, Lewis Evans and Thomas Pringle. In 1840 a few new names appear-John D. Elbert, John Baker, James McPheron, Wilson V. Cowan, J. J. Musson, J. F. McReynolds and Lewis C. C. Gille. In 1846 the following new phys- icians appear in the schedule for taxation: E. P. Fyffe, M. Woods, Seth L. Poppano, D. M. Vance, W. W. Belleville and Charles White. In 1849, the last list of physicians recorded -in the commissioners' records, there is a list of thirty-five. The new names are J. S. Carter, Jr .. John G. Howell, Thomas Richard, W. B. McCann, John Baker, David C. Wooley, John C. Crawford, J. Harris, Israel Fisler, Joseph Brown, Benjamin Davenport, Thomas Cowgill, Jr., Cyrus T. Hyde, John L. Overton, E. Owen. N. S. Mersham, James B. Stansberry, Andrew Sumner, George R. Crawford and Philander R. Owen.

A large number of these physicians left little information concerning themselves. They practiced in all corners of the county and for varying terms of years. It would seem that all the physicians would have been returned for taxation during the period from 1839 to 1851, and that the name of every physician in the county during that period would appear on the tax list. If this is the case, the above paragraph lists every physician in the county who was practicing in the middle of the last century. Con- cerning many of these very little is known other than that they paid from . fifty cents to three dollars for the privilege of following their profession. As far as is known not one of these physicians is living in 1917.

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COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY IN 1917.

The physicians of the county have had a more or less active county organization for the past half century. The present officers of the Cham- paign County Medical Society are as follows: President, Dr. E. W. Lud- low ; vice-president, Dr. V. G. Wolf ; secretary, Dr. D. H. Moore; treasurer, Doctor Moore. The other members of the society include the following : Richard Henderson, Urbana; E. D. Buhrer, Urbana; C. A. Offenbacher, St. Paris; E. R. Earle, Urbana; Mark Houston, Urbana; D. C. Houser, Urbana; F. F. Barger, Urbana; Robert Henderson, Urbana; H. B. Hunt, St. Paris : W. B. Stoutenborough, Mechanicsburg : C. M. McLaughlin, West- ville; W. R. Yinger, Rosewood : J. D. O'Gara, Urbana : C. S. Amidon, Cin- cinnati; C. C. Craig, Urbana ; Victor O. Longfellow, Concord; W. H. Sharp, Woodstock; N. M. Rhodes, Urbana; M. L. Smith, Urbana; H. M. Smith, Urbana; H. M. Pearce, Urbana : J. H. Bunn, Mutual; C. J. Finsterwald, North Lewisburg.

SOME PHYSICIANS OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

Mention has previously been made of a number of the early physicians of the county. The following pages briefly summarize the personal facts relating to other physicians who have practiced at some time in the county during the past hundred years. The facts concerning their lives have been gleaned from former histories of the county, from newspapers, from family records, and finally, from interviews with physicians now living. A number of physicians now practicing in the county are represented in the biographical volume and are not given in this connection. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to ascertain the dates of the death of many of the physicians, nor, if living, their present residence. It must not be understood that the list includes all the prominent physicians, but it does include all concerning whom sufficient data has been found to provide material for a brief sketch. The following physicians are represented in the biographical volume: Robert Henderson, Richard Henderson, S. C. Moore, C. J. Finsterwald, W. H. Sharp. A. H. Middleton, H. S. Preston, John M. Sayler, David H. Moore. H. M. Pearce, M. L. Smith, D. C. Houser, E. R. Earle. W. B. Hyde, Clar- ence M. Mclaughlin, R. L. Grimes, Caleb Jones and J. B. Stansbury.

J. H. Ayers was born in Warren county. New York, in 1832, and died in Urbana in 1898. He was graduated from the Castleton Medical College of Vermont in 1851 and immediately began practicing at Glenns Falls, New

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York. In the fall of 1852 he located at West Liberty, Logan county, Ohio, where he practiced until he enlisted as surgeon of the Thirty-fourth Regi- ment, O. V. L., in 1862. After being mustered out in 1865 he located in Urbana, where he practiced until his death. He was married in 1863 to Mary McDonald.

John Baker was born in Germany in 1812 and came to the United States with his parents in 1834. Doctor Baker studied medicine in Ger- many and also worked in a drug store in his native land. He came to Ohio in 1839 and completed his medical studies at Wooster and began practicing at St. Paris in 1841. He was married in 1842 to Elizabeth Pence. He retired from practice about 1880.

A MANY-SIDED CHARACTER.

An interesting character in early Urbana history was Dr. Evan Banes, a physician, newspaper man, mayor of the city and a public-spirited citizen in all things. Born on October 18, 1797, he came to the county with his father. Dr. Evan Banes, about 1809 and located on Buck creek. He studied medicine under Drs. J. S. Carter and Obed Horr and became a successful practitioner while still a young man. At the same time he qualified himself as a practical printer and for at least ten years was in the newspaper busi- ness. He was the original "reformer" newspaper man of the county and never failed to wield a trenchant pen in behalf of reform of all kinds, par- ticularly at maladministration in city affairs.

The facts concerning his newspaper career are given on the authority of Judge William Patrick, who wrote an extended account of his life after his death on December 28, 1878. His first appearance in the newspaper world was in connection with Martin L. Lewis in the publication of the Mad River Courant; about 1826 he had attracted such public attention as to be called to the editorial chair of one of the Columbus papers, probably the Ohio Statesman. About a year later he was back in Urbana and joined Dr. Wilson Everett as owner and editor of the Country Collustrator, buy- ing the paper from Barr & Everett. The paper was afterward merged with the Mad River Courant, the new paper being known as the Mad River Courant and Country Collustrator. Banes and Lewis later had the paper and still later Doctor Banes was the sole owner.

In March, 1825, a regular election was held for mayor, recorder and trustees and young Doctor Banes was elected mayor. John C. Pearson was elected recorder, and Thomas Gwynne. J. G. Talbott, Edmund B. Cavileer,

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Henry Weaver and A. R. Colwell, trustees. Doctor Banes served one year as mayor and then went to Columbus to take charge of a paper as above stated. Fifty years more this doctor was to live in Champaign county, but most of these years were spent in an obscure corner of the county. For a long time prior to his death he had resided in the southeastern corner of Urbana township in the little cross-roads hamlet known as Powhattan. He was living in the latter part of the forties and it was there that he died at the age of eighty-one. He was married in the Presbyterian church at Urbana on September 23, 1824, to Margaret Ward, the daughter of Col. William Ward, Sr., and had one son, Henry C., a physician, who died when a young man. The widow of Doctor Bane was still living at the time of her husband's death in 1878.

Frank W. Brand was born in Urbana June 2, 1866, and was gradu- ated from the local high school in 1883. After spending one year in Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, he returned home and completed his college education in Urbana University. He then matriculated in Cleve- land Medical College and was graduated in 1889. He then practiced in Beatrice, Nebraska, for eight years, following which he completed a post- graduate course in Chicago and other colleges in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He located in Urbana after completing his special train- ing and has since been engaged in practice in the city of his birth. He was married on October 6, 1888, to Lillian Garnett.

Joseph C. Brown was born in Virginia, February 14, 1814, and came with his parents to Champaign county in 1822, locating in Mad River town- ship. About three years later they located in Urbana township and in 1849 they moved to West Liberty, in Logan county. The doctor's father died in 1851 and the mother then located with the children in Urbana. Doctor Brown taught school for eight years and at the same time studied medicine. He was graduated from Ohio Medical College in 1845 and practiced at West Liberty until 1852, at which time he moved to Urbana, where he practiced until his death in January, 1888.

John Milton Butcher, one of the first physicians to locate in North Lewisburg, was born near Winchester, Virginia, September 23, 1816. He practiced at North Lewisburg until 1873, when he moved to Urbana and he and his son, John C., practiced together until his retirement from active practice in 1879. He died in Urbana January 6, 1891. John C. Butcher died June 19, 1902.

C. K. Clark was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, in February. 1831, and practiced in Mechanicsburg practically all his life. He began the study

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of medicine in 1857 under Dr. H. C. Pearce, of Urbana, and read under him and also attended lectures at Cincinnati. He practiced at the same time and finally was graduated from Starling Medical College in the spring of 1865. He began practicing in Mechanicsburg after graduation and prac- ticed there until his death.

John H. Clark was born in Union township, Champaign county, Ohio, September 28, 1829, and died in Mechanicsburg in 1901. His whole active career had been spent in that village and in the immediate community. He was graduated from Starling Medical College in 1853 and began the prac- tice of his profession at Mutual. In 1859 he removed to Decatur, Illinois, but two years later he located in Mechanicsburg and made that place his home for the remainder of his life. He was on the United States sanitary commission during the Civil War and from March 1, 1874, to May, 1876, was superintendent of the asylum for the insane at Dayton. He was mar- ried in 1852 to Eleanor Williams.

Thomas Cowgill was born in 1811 in what is now Columbiana county, Ohio, and in the fall of 1817 moved with his parents to Champaign county. Doctor Cowgill was more than an ordinarily useful man in this commun- ity. As a physician for nearly half a century he was a blessing to the com- munity in which he lived; as a surveyor he probably surveyed as many pieces of land. roads, etc., during his active years of his life as any other man in the county.

John S. Crawford was born in Maryland in 1808. He studied medicine in Maryland and later, when he located in Mechanicsburg, in 1834, he com- pleted his course of reading under Dr. Abner Cheney. He began the prac- tice at Quincy, Ohio, remained there eight years and then removed to Carys- ville. In 1850 he removed to Woodstock and practiced until 1872 when he retired from active work and gave all of his attention to his drug store. He was married in 1831 to Sarah A. Mitchell. He died in Woodstock in 1889.

HAD A DRUG STORE AT ST. PARIS.

L. W. Faulkner was born in Jackson township. December 15, 1850, and commenced teaching in 1869. He was graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in 1873 and started to practice at Cass- town, Ohio, where he practiced five years. He then located in Coffey county, Kansas, where he operated a drug store until 1879. In December of that year he opened a drug store in St. Paris. this county, and divided his atten-

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tion between his practice as a regular physician and the management of his store. He was married on June 8, 1873, to Sally McAnally.

Israel Fisler was born in 1820 in Chester, Pennsylvania, and received his education in Philadelphia and at the University of Pennsylvania, grad- uating from the medical department of the latter institution in 1846. He came at once to Champaign county and located in Urbana, where he en- gaged in the practice of his profession until the opening of the Civil War. He was examining surgeon of the Fourth district of Ohio and continued as such throughout the war. Soon after the war he became associated with Dr. J. H. Ayers in the drug business in Urbana and later Dr. Samuel Chance bought out the interest of Doctor Ayers and for years the drug firm of Fisler & Chance was the leading drug firm of the city. Doctor Fisler was married in 1848 to Margaret Read, of Urbana.

Edward P. Fyffe. who is credited with having been the first child born in Urbana, was born on April 23. 1810, and died in the city of his birth, September 25, 1867. He was the son of William H. Fyffe, a native of Virginia, and one of the settlers who located in Urbana in 1805. He was a cadet at West Point for a time, but later decided to make the practice of medicine his life work. He was graduated from a medical school in 1846. and was engaged in practice until the opening of the Civil War. He at once enlisted and arose to the rank of colonel and was brevetted brigadier- general at the close of the war. Doctor Fyffe married Sarah Ann Robin- son and they became the parents of four children: Joseph, who became a rear admiral in the United States Navy; Max F., who became the wife of Frank James Crawford, a distinguished lawyer of Chicago; Mrs. Mary F. Thornton and Mrs. Sarah A. Gee.

Lewis Christopher Cassius Gille was born in Germany, February 22. 1807. and was graduated from the medical college at Hesse-Cassel before coming to America in 1834. He practiced in the city hospital at Washington, D. C., from 1834 to 1837 and then married Catherine Dorshimer. He and his young wife at once came to Champaign county and located at Westville, where he lived until his death, March 12, 1857. He and his wife reared ten children.

RELINQUISHED LAW IN FAVOR OF MEDICINE.

S. G. Good was born in Johnson township and began teaching in 1861. He taught until 1874, although he had begun to read medicine in 1872 with the intention of turning his attention to the medical profession. In 1875 he

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was elected mayor of St. Paris and then seriously considered studying to be · a lawyer. In the midst of his indecision he was elected justice of the peace and it was probable that his experience in this capacity caused him to relin- quish the law in favor of medicine. He resumed the study of medicine in 1878 and was graduated from a medical school in 1880. He located in St. Paris, where he practiced until his death.

Thomas T. Hale was born in Wayne township. December 5, 1848, and before he died had followed half a dozen different occupations in as many different places and had in turn been a farmer, carpenter, harness maker, shoe cobbler, drug clerk and finally graduated from the Electic Medical Col- lege at Cincinnati in 1871. He at once located at Dublin, Indiana, but two years later removed to Indianapolis, where he practiced three years. From 1875 to 1877 he practiced and operated a drug store at Mechanicsburg. Ohio. In 1877 he located at Spring Hills in Champaign county where he practiced several years. He married Salena Morris, July 12, 1875.

Daniel C. Houser was born in Johnson township, two miles north of St. Paris, April 1, 1867. He began teaching at the age of eighteen in his home township and taught for eight years, during the last five of which he studied medicine under Doctor Longfellow, of Urbana. He then became a student in Starling Medical College and was graduated March 25, 1897. He began practice at Millerstown, Champaign county, and practiced there until he located in Urbana where he is now practicing. He was married, October 23, 1893, to Florence M. Humtoon.

Robert Henderson, one of the oldest practicing physicians in Urbana, was born at Parkersburg, West Virginia. March 22, 1851. He was grad- uated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, in 1878. After practicing for a short time in his native state he located at New Moorefield, Clark county, Ohio, where he remained until 1884. He then came to Urbana where he is still engaged in practice. He was married in 1875 to Elizabeth S. Thomas. They have two children, Richard T. and Helen. The son was born in Virginia in 1878, graduated from Starling Medical College of Columbus in 1900, and has since been associated with his father in the practice at Urbana.

Lucius C. Herrick was born in West Randolph, Vermont, September 2, 1840, and when he located at Urbana in 1869 he was one of the most highly trained physicians who had come to the county. He received his pre-medical education at West Randolph Academy and then took the full course of lectures at Castleton, Vermont, and followed this with the full

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course in the Ann Arbor School of Medicine and Surgery in the University of Michigan. He next entered the medical department of the University of Vermont which conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1864. He next served in the Civil War from 1861 until 1864 as a surgeon in the Eighth Regiment, Vermont Volunteer Infantry, and the Fourth United States Colorado Cavalry. He next entered Bellevue Medical Col- lege, in New York, and took a post-graduate course and started practicing in New York City. It is not known why Doctor Herrick, trained as he was, elected to come to Urbana in 1869, nor why he at once removed to Woodstock, where he devoted himself assiduously to his practice. He mar- ried in 1871 Louisa Taylor, of Woodstock, and lived in Woodstock until his death.

ARMY SURGEON CAPTURED BY REBELS.

William M. Houston was born in Lebanon, Ohio, in 1821, graduated from Ohio Medical College in 1850, and began the practice of his profession at Piqua. He located at Urbana in December, 1852, and practiced there until his death August 7, 1900. He was assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1862 and was promoted to the rank of surgeon in 1863. In 1864 he became surgeon-in-chief of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Sixth Army Corps. He was captured in 1863 and confined in Libby Prison for five months. He was married in 1846 to Henrietta Chapeze. He was the best known of the pioneer homeopathic physicians of this county.

Henry Chapeze Houston, the oldest son of Dr. W. M. Houston, was born in Piqua in 1847. He was graduated from the Cleveland Homeo- pathic Hospital College in 1876, and at once became associated with his father in the practice at Urbana. He continued to practice in that city until his death on January 6, 1916. His son, Mark, became a physician and is the third of the generation to practice in Urbana.

H. B. Hunt was born on November 18, 1846. in Shelby county, Ohio. After graduating from the Sidney high school he began teaching and taught seven years. He was graduated from the Medical College of Ohio, March 2. 1874; located at Carysville, Ohio, for practice, March 22, 1874; married May 22. 1874, to Mary J. Leedom, a daughter of Dr. J. C. Leedom. Later he located at St. Paris, where he is still practicing.

William S. Hunt was born in Champaign county and began teaching school in 1856 and at the same time studied medicine. He entered the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery and was graduated in 1870 and

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at once began practicing in Terre Haute. He was postmaster of the village from 1877 to 1878. He was married May 23, 1872, to Nancy L. Lee.

William Fulton Hyde was born in Union county, Ohio, December 23, 1856, and was graduated from the Richwood high school in 1874. He was graduated from Columbus Medical College in 1887 and at once began practice at Bokes Creek, Union county, and in 1893 he located at Christ- iansburg where he still practices. He was married in 1875 to Sarah A. Monroe.

L. F. Jones died in Urbana on November 3. 1878. He had been in Urbana for about five years, coming here from Cincinnati where he had been professor in the Eclectic Medical College. He was very wealthy, a man of peculiar habits, always a student, and had lived in comparative re- tirement since locating in Urbana. He was about seventy years of age at the time of his death.

LIVING RETIRED AT ERIS.

Joseph Valentine Longfellow was born in Concord township, March 21, 1858. He was reared on the farm, spent five years in Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity, but was compelled to leave school on account of his health, before receiving his degree. Deciding to study medicine, he entered Miami Medical College at Cincinnati and was graduated in 1886. He practiced at Eris in Champaign county for four years and then located in Urbana, where he practiced until ill health compelled him to retire. He is now living a retired life at Eris.

Clarence M. Mclaughlin was born in Westville, August 19, 1864. and has lived there all his life thus far. He is the son of Dr. Richard R. Mclaughlin, who practiced in Westville from 1861 until his death in 1891. He was graduated from the Starling Medical College in 1886, and at once began practice with his father in Westville. He was married on September 1. 1897, to Nellie B. Denny. He has been practicing at Westville for the past thirty-one years.

Richard R. Mclaughlin was born in Clark county, Ohio, October 31, 1832. He commenced to study medicine at the age of nineteen under Dr. A. C. Mclaughlin of Tremont, Ohio, and commenced practice in 1855 at Atlanta, Illinois. Afterward he located at McLean, Illinois, and still later at Muscoda, Wisconsin. In 1861 he located at Westville, Champaign county, Ohio, and practiced there until his death in 1891. serving as postmaster of

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Westville for several years. He was married on Christmas day, 1856, to Charlotta S. Wilson.

A. H. Middleton, a brother of Judge Evan Perry Middleton, was born in Wayne township, January 24, 1868. He began teaching at the age of sixteen and followed the profession for five years. He was graduated from the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College in 1887 and for the next three years practiced at Cable. From 1890 to 1896 he was located in Springfield, Ohio; from 1896 to 1900 he was at Terre Haute; since 1900 he has been practicing at Cable. Doctor Middleton was married to Alice Baker in 1898.

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History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 35

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196