History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 118

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 118

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).

was never heard from afterwards. Joshua was reared on a farm in Kirkwood township, Belmont county, and early became inured to the severest toil, but by attendance at school about fifty days every winter, gained sufficient knowledge to teach the elementary branches. By teach- ing he made money enough to take him half through his junior year at college, when he entered upon the study of medicine, continuing to teach from time to time to se- cure funds for his course. He read at first with Dr. J. T. McPherson, a prominent physician, now of Cambridge, Ohio, and completed his studies at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery. After many hindrances, he be- gan practice at Burnettsville, White county, Indiana, early in the summer of 1861. But, much as he was pleased with the novelty surrounding a juvenile Esculapian, he could not resist the demand which the country was then making for help in the hour of her peril, and accordingly abandoned a rapidly-growing practice to enter the army. He enlisted as a private in company E, Forty-sixth regi- ment, Indiana volunteers, but was offered a position in the line where promotion promised to be rapid. He preferred, however, to remain a private until the way was opened for promotion in the medical department. He had to wait for this but nine days, when he was appointed hospital steward. A few months subsequently he was commissioned assistant surgeon, and eventually was made surgeon of his regiment, which commission he held until the muster-out in the autumn of 1865, just four years from the time of entering service. His regiment entered the field in December, 1861, in Kentucky, under General Nelson, but was shortly afterward transferred to General Pope's command in southeastern Missouri. He was present at the capture of New Madrid, at the bagging of five thousand of the enemy at Tiptonville, West Tennes- see. Descending the Mississippi river, then, his regiment, with one other, constituted a convoy to the gun-boat flotilla. He was present at the capture of Memphis, June 6, 1862, which the regiment garrisoned for a few days; then, convoying a part of the gun-boat fleet, it con- tinued to roam up and down that part of the Mississippi river within the Federal lines, and also upon many of its tributaries. Much of the summer of 1862 was passed in clearing the White river of Confederate batteries, and at St. Charles, on that river, the regiment had a sharp engagement with the enemy June 17, 1862. It landed and attacked the rebel forces in the rear, while several gun-boats, including the Mound City, bombarded their batteries from the river. A plunging shot from a sixty- four-pound gun penetrated the ill-fated Mound City, and, cutting the connecting pipe, every part of that vessel was instantly filled with hot steam, which scalded to death six-sevenths of the entire crew of one hundred and sev- enty-five men. No more sickening, heart-rending sight did Surgeon Underhill witness during his four years' service. His command continued to serve on various expeditions through Arkansas and the Yazoo country till Grant, in the spring of 1863, organized his movement against Vicksburgh. His command left for the rear of that stronghold early in April, and participated in the battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hills, and, indeed, in nearly all

435

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

the engagements that finally culminated in its capture. Afterwards he was with Sherman's army in their siege and capture of Jackson, Mississippi. Next his regiment was transferred to the department of the Gulf, where, under General Banks, it made incursions through differ- ent parts of Louisiana, and was with him in his ill-starred Red River expedition. It was in the engagement near Mansfield, Louisiana, where the Federals suffered dis- astrous defeat, and continued with the army on its retreat to Pleasant Hill, where another battle was fought. Dr. Underhill was in all the contests fought by his conmand, including those of Carrion Crow Bayou and Cane River, and numerous skirmishes. He is now an active member of the Cincinnati army and navy officers' society.

. At the termination of the war he went to New York city, where he attended a post-graduate course of lectures at the Bellevue hospital medical college, taking also pri- vate instructions with Professors Austin Flint and Frank Hastings Hamilton. He received the ad eundem degree from that institution, and in May, 1866, settled in Cin- cinnati, where he has since resided, and continues to practice his profession. At first he devoted himself to no specialty, but has of late given attention more particularly to obstetrics and diseases of women, al- though still doing general practice. Since coming here he has been active in the profession, and has built up a large and highly successful practice. During the same season of his arrival in this city he was appointed demon- strator of anatomy in his alma mater, the Cincinnati col- lege of medicine and surgery, a position which he resigned two years later. In 1872 he was appointed lecturer on medical jurisprudence in the same institution, which place he held for seven years, when he exchanged it for the professorship of materia medica and therapeutics. The latter he gave up for the chair of obstetrics, which he has filled since his appointment thereto in the spring of 1880. He was also one of the medical staff of the Cin- cinnati hospital appointed in the spring of 1875, but resigned after little more than one year's service. He has been the medical adviser of several life insurance companies, and still serves three companies in that ca- pacity. He is also a member of the American Medical association, of the Ohio State Medical society, the Cin- cinnati academy of medicine, and the Obstetrical Society of Cincinnati, and is a fellow of the American Gyneco- logical society. Of the Cincinnati Obstetrical society he was one of the founders, was two years its secretary and one year its president. Not only in the practical duties of his profession has he been an active worker, but he has not neglected its literary side, as. is shown by the fol- lowing partial list of his contributions to medical science:

Analysis of fifty-four cases of scarlet fever (twenty-two pages), Cincinnati Medical News, June, 1874. Puer- peral Septicemia; including a report of two cases. First published in the Cincinnati Medical News in 1876, No- vember and December, and April, 1877. Subsequent- ly a brochure of forty-four pages. Relative sterility, (American Journal of Obstetrics), July, 1877. Obser- vations on pseudocyesis, and on pregnancy in its relation to capital punishment; page 18, American Journal of

Obstetrics, January, 1878. Relation of medicine to law; an address to the graduating class of Cincinnati college of medicine and surgery, delivered at Pike's opera house, February 23, 1878, Cincinnati Medical News, March, 1878. Remarks on post mortem cæsarian section, American Journal of Obstetrics, July, 1878. Subni- trate of bismuth contaminated with arsenic; general re- marks on the jurisprudence of pharmacy. (Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic, September 28, 1878). The female generative organs in their medico-legal relations; read before the Obstetrical society of Cincinnati, November, 1878, and published in the American Journal of Obstet- rics, for January, 1879 (twenty pages). The hydatidi- form mole; its causes, symptoms, medico-legal relations, etc. (read before the academy of medicine and pub- lished in the Obstetric Gazette, January, 1879, twenty pages). Report of a case of hydatidiform mole, also report of a case of carneous mole (American Journal of Obstetrics, 1879). A case of cerebral embolism, occur- ring in the puerperal state, and closing remarks (in de- bate) concerning the case (American Journal Obstetrics, October, 1879). Iinpotence, as applied to the male ; read before Cincinnati academy of medicine, April, 1880. Remarks on puerperal eclampsia, with report of two cases (Obstetric Gazette, April, 1880). A case of anencepha- lic foetus (Obstetric Gazette, May, 1880). Valedictory address to the Obstetrical society of Cincinnati, when re- tiring from the presidency of that society; pages fifteen, 1880.

Besides the above, he has published reports of numer- ous cases, and fugitive articles in places now forgotten, and has read before societies many articles that were never given to the medical press. He has a taste for medical writing and would have written more were it not for the engrossing cares of the busy practitioner. Al- he has mixed somewhat in political life, he has never done so to the injury of his professional obligations, is tem- perate in all his habits, and lives as regular a life as the exacting duties of his profession will allow.

Dr. Underhill has always taken an intelligent interest in public affairs, believing that it is the duty of the citi- zen, when called upon, to serve the Government in civil as well as military affairs. Hence he has never refused to do duty when summoned to serve the State in any capacity, and has served it as faithfully in politics as in war. An ardent Republican, he has lent his voice often to the councils of the party. In the fall of 1870 he was elected coroner of Hamilton county, and served through his term of two years. In April, 1876, he was chosen from his ward a member of the board of education of Cincinnati, for two years, and was reelected in 1878, and in 1880, the law having been altered so as to provide for twelve members to be chosen at large to that body, he was nominated and elected for the long term (three years), receiving the second highest majority of the twelve elect- ed. He was chosen president of the board at its annual organization in April, 1880, and again in 1881. He is also in that body one of the board of examiners for teachers. Like most professional men, Dr. Underhill married rather late in life. At the age of thirty-seven he

436

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

was united to Miss Lida E. McPherson, of Cambridge, Ohio, eldest daughter of his first medical preceptor, and a lady in every way well worthy of his companionship. She is a graduate of the famous female seminary at Troy, New York, formerly taught by Miss Emma Willard. They have had three children, one of whom, Mary, a most interesting and intelligent little girl of six years, died after a distressing illness, April 15, 1881. The Daily Enquirer of the next morning said of this event:

Thus has one of the brightest, most beautiful of lives closed-a life, brief as it was, that gave evidence of happy promise and a character supernaturally lovely. She was remarkably precocious, and her intel- lectual development was at the expense of her frail form. Everyone who saw her was impressed with the radiant loveliness of her features and her gentle, thoughtful disposition, and the blighting of this fair bud of promise will be deplored by all who knew her, while her parents have received a cruel blow from which they will never recover.

Both Dr. and Mrs. Underhill are active and faithful members of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church in this city.

WILLIAM BRAMWELL DAVIS, M. D.

Doctor Davis' ancestors were natives of Wales. His paternal grandfather was a sea-faring man, and was lost, together with his ship, during a severe gale, in mid- ocean. His maternal grandfather, Rev. John Jones, of Cardiganshire, was a devout minister of the Calvinistic Methodist church. In the spring of 1818, he joined a party of neighbors, and with his family emigrated to America. After a tempestuous voyage of over six weeks, they landed at Alexandria, Virginia, and were received by the citizens with courtesy and hospitality. This was the first party of British immigrants that landed at this port since the war with the mother country; and so sig- nificant was the event considered, that President Monroe and his cabinet went down from Washington to receive and welcome them to the land of their adoption.

As their destination was Ohio, they purchased wagons and horses to convey their household goods across the mountains to Pittsburgh; and the entire party, men, women and children, followed on foot, camping out at night. At Pittsburgh they transferred their goods to a flat-boat, and began the descent of the Ohio. It was July, and during their long exposure on the river, the excessive heat and a change in their food affected them unfavorably, and many of the party were prostrate with dysentery. When the boat reached Cincinnati, the citi- zens, fearing that the sickness was contagious, were reluc- tant to admit the afflicted party to either the private homes or the public houses of the city. In their dis- tress Nicholas Longworth threw open a house near his own home, and with the assistance of Samuel W. Davies, afterwards mayor of the city, and Mr. Wade, carried all of the sick to it, and personally ministered to their ne- cessities. Here Mr. Jones died. The name of Nicho- las Longworth was ever afterwards cherished in the mem- ory of their family, and always mentioned with the warm- est gratitude.

Among these adventurers were Mr. William Davis and Miss Ann Jones, the father and mother of the doc-

tor. Mr. Davis was born in 1793, and was brought up within nine miles of the village of Llanbadarn, Cardi- ganshire. Miss Jones was born in that place in 1797, and at the time of her family's emigration to America, was in the bloom of health and beauty. On the voyage thither Mr. Davis first made the acquaintance of Miss Jones and subsequently won her affections, and the twain became one. Accustomed to agricultural life, the young couple sought a home on a farm in a Welsh set- tlement, with an Irish name," Paddy's Run," in Butler county, Ohio. In this country home were born four of their children, John, Mary, Timothy, and Margaret. John is now a leading physician in Cincinnati; Mary be- came the wife of Professor William G. Williams, of the Ohio Wesleyan University; Timothy is in the United States revenue service, in Cincinnati; and Margaret be- came the wife of the late Rev. Erwin House, of this city. After five or six years of farm life, Mr. Davis removed his family to Cincinnati, to engage in his business as a build- er. Here William Bramwell, the subject of this sketch, the youngest of the family, was born July 22, 1832. All the above-named children are still living, except Mary, who died in 1872.

Mr. Davis was noted for truthfulness and uprightness in all his dealings, and for a conscientious observance of the duties that he owed to others. He lived to be about fifty-six years of age, and died of apoplexy in the year 1849. Mrs. Davis was a woman of unusually strong character, which she has transmitted to her children. In early life she became a member of the church of her parents, the Calvinistic Methodist; but after her removal to Cincinnati, she joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and in communion with this lived a devoted Christian life until past eighty-two years of age, and died in 1880, in the assurance of a blessed resurrection.

Doctor Davis was educated, first at Woodward college in this city, and afterward at the Ohio Wesleyan Univer- sity, Delaware, Ohio. At the latter institution he grad- uated B. A. in 1852, and M. A. in 1855. His alma mater was then just beginning its successful career. His name stands thirty-sixth in the triennial roll of the alum- ni, which now numbers about thirteen hundred. Of this large body Dr. Davis was president for some years, until his professional duties prevented his attendance at college commencement. He was prepared in the of- fice of his brother, John Davis, for his professional course in medicine, and graduated M. D. at the Miami Medical college in 1855, and at the Ohio medical col- lege ad eundem, 1858.

Doctor Davis at once took high rank in his profession, and his life, since that time, has been alike honorable to himself and beneficial to the community in which he dwells. Besides his large and successful medical prac- tice, he has been prominently and influentially con- nected with many of the most important interests of the city. When only twenty-three years of age, he was elected as a member of the Cincinnati board of educa- tion, in which office he has served, at different times, full ten years. Doctor Davis has always felt especial inter- est in the public schools of the city, and, as a member of

437

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

the board, has given years of earnest thought and patient labor for their advancement. He was an uncom- promising opponent of every form of corruption and im- morality in official places. During his last term of office in the board of education, his fearless assaults upon the irregularities of certain members and their corrupting influence upon the schools, called the attention of the public to the organization of the board and led to legis- lative action, which partially removed the selection of members of the board from the influence of ward poli- tics.

While he was connected with the school-board he helped, in company with Rufus King, Dr. Comegys and some others, to organize the public library of Cincinnati ; and he was largely instrumental in having the magnifi- cent building, which the library now occupies, erected. For several terms he was a member of the board of managers of the library, and was chairman of the library committee.

At the organization of the university of Cincinnati, Dr. Davis took great interest in the movement and was elected a member of the first board of directors.

Previous to the war of the Rebellion, Dr. Davis' inter- est in the cause of human rights led him to engage in politics. With Rutherford B. Hayes, Judge Hoadly, Fred Hassaurek and others, he took an active part in organizing the Republican party in Cincinnati. In 1856 he suffered himself to be put in nomination for the State legislature, but the inveterate Calhoun-Yancey doctrine was yet more potent than the youthful Republi- canism, and he, together with the whole ticket, was de- feated. After the party became well organized, he with- drew from an active participation in its counsels, and, with the exception of the interest which he has always taken in the educational affairs of the city, he has devot- ed himself to the study and practice of his profession.

After the battle of Shiloh, in 1862, Dr. Davis was one of the surgeons appointed by the War department to go in command of a number of steamers to Pittsburgh Landing, and bring the wounded to the hospitals at Cin- cinnati. In this service, and subsequently in charge of one of the hospitals, Dr. Davis rendered effective aid, not only to the suffering, but to the great cause which all pat- riots had at heart. Later on in the war he was called into active service in the field, and through the trying summer of 1864 was surgeon of Colonel Harris' Cincinnati regiment, the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry.

After the war, Dr. Davis continued in the practice of his profession until 1871. His health having failed in consequence of labor and exposure, he went to Europe for a year, to recuperate his strength and to visit the principal centres of the continent. His visit was to have been one of relaxation and pleasure, but upon the speedy and permanent recovery of his health, he de- voted his time to study and work. He wrote much for American journals, especially the Cincinnati Gazette. His letters were not compilations from the guide-books, but were the results of his own observations and inqui- ries, and were noted for their originality and suggestive-

ness. After his return to America he threw some of his observations and reflections into the form of lectures, which he delivered to many audiences.

In the year 1873 he was elected professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the Miami Medical college, which chair he still occupies. In connection with his profession, he has been a trustee of the Cincinnati hos- pital, and is a member of the Cincinnati Medical socie- ty, of which he was president in 1877-8; of the Cincin- nati academy of medicine; of the Ohio State Medical society, and of the American Medical association. Of all these boards and associations he has been a working member, and has written many papers on medical sub- jects for each. An earnest student, he has not only kept abreast the literature of his profession, but by his own discoveries and writings he has extended the borders of medical science. These contributions to medical literature are published either in the volumes of the proceedings of the several medical societies, or in medical journals. Of such papers prepared by Dr. Davis we name the following, some of which give the results of many years of study and observation, and are regarded as the last words of medical science upon the points discussed :

I. Carbolic Acid: Its Surgical and Therapeutical Uses. A paper read before the Academy of Medicine, June, 1869.

2. Report on Vaccination. Ohio State Medical so- ciety, June, 1870.

3. Influence of Consumption on Life Insurance. Ohio State Medical society, 1875.

4. Observations on Re-vaccination. Cincinnati Medical society, December, 1875.

5. Statistics of the Medical Profession of Cincinnati for Twenty-five years. A valedictory address before the Miami Medical college, March, 1876.

6. Vaccino-syphilis and Animal Vaccine. Ohio State Medical society, June, 1876.

7. The Alleged Antagonism of Opium and Bella-

donna. Cincinnati Medical society, January, 1879.

8. Intestinal Obstruction; with reports of six cases. Cincinnati Medical society, January, 1880.

9. Progress of Therapeutics. Ohio Medical society, 1881.

Such is a brief outline of the life of the subject of this sketch. Dr. Davis is a man of fine personal ap- pearance, which fitly represents his symmetrical intellect- ual and moral character. With strong convictions, a perfect command of his resources, with an absolute de- votion to the truth and a fluent and vigorous style, he exerts a commanding influence in every deliberative body of which he may be a member. Intolerant equally towards shams and towards frauds, and not infrequently thrown into antagonism with them, he has sometimes been thought severe; but his severity is reserved for those only whom he believes corrupt. To all others, whether friends or opponents, his courtesy is unfailing. In professional intercourse, in social life, in the families of his patients, he attracts every one by his urbanity and cheerfulness. Fond of society, of art, of literature, of

438

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

the amenities of home life, he is never too busy to give an evening to friends, to converse, or to innocent diver- tisements. He has for many years been an active mem- ber of one of the Queen City's selectest literary and social clubs, the " Utile cum Dulci," and is rarely absent from its meetings. This is an association for adults, and enrolls some of the most cultivated people of the west- ern Athens. But not unmindful of the claims of his younger friends, Dr. Davis assisted in founding, in the congregation of the Trinity Methodist church, on Ninth street, a similar organization, the popular "Clark insti- tute," of which he has been president, and which has had much to do with the growth and prosperity of that church. Dr. Davis has for many years been a commu- nicant in this church, and since 1878 has been superin- tendent of the Sunday-school connected with it.

Dr. Davis was married in April, 1860, to Miss Fannie R. Clark, daughter of the late Rev. Davis W. Clark, D. D., one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church. They have two sons and have lost one daugh- ter. Mrs. Davis has been a true "help-meet for him," and in full sympathy with him in all his professional, literary and æsthetic pursuits, and in his religious life and associations in the church of which they are both beloved and honored members.

DR. JAMES H. BUCKNER.

James Henry Buckner, M. D., is a descendant of one of three brothers who came from England nearly half a century prior to the Revolution, and settled, respectively, in Virginia, New York, and Mississippi. From Thomas, born May 13, 1728, the settler in the Old Dominion, in what is now Caroline county, Dr. Buckner is descended in the fourth generation. He was a very wealthy English- man, and in due time his descendants shared in the ben- efits of his fortune. The son of Thomas Buckner, and grandfather of the doctor, was Harry, who was born De- cember 17, 1766, and removed to Kentucky some years after his marriage, settling in Fayette county, on the road between Lexington and Winchester, about twelve miles from the latter place. He died in Kentucky in Febru- ary, 1822. Another of the sons removed to that State, and became the ancestor of the confederate general, Si- mon Bolivar Buckner, and other distinguished Kentuck- ians. The fourth son of Harry Buckner, Harry M., was born before the family left Virginia, but accompanied it to Kentucky. He was married in the year 1827 to Miss Etheline Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Jack Conn, a noted man in the history of Kentucky, a hero of the War of 1812, who is accredited by many as the slayer of Te- cumseh at the battle of the Thames, a soldier and pioneer of extraordinary bravery, integrity, and determination of character, and a thorough gentleman of the old school. Mr. Buckner's first business activity was as a clerk in the store of his brother John, at Georgetown, but he pres- ently undertook business for himself as a tobacco mer- chant at Burlington, in Boone county. He afterwards moved to Cincinnati, and formed a partnership with

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.

History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 118

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666