History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 119

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

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Philip Dunseth in general merchandising, which was dis- solved after the lapse of two or three years, when Mr. Buckner returned to Burlington and recommenced busi- ness as a tobacco manufacturer in connection with store- keeping. He was afterwards a resident of Covington, and then removed to the adjacent country, where he lived, but at the same time was head of the firm of Buckner, Hall & Co., of Cincinnati, in the wholesale grocery business, but took no active part in its transac- tions. About thirty years before his death, which oc- curred near the first of July, 1876, he retired from active business and spent his last years in tranquil ease at Edge- wood, his country seat, about seven miles south of Cov- ington. He was in his eighty-first year when he died. His wife is still living upon the same place, at the age of sixty-nine, but in a hale and happy old age.

James Henry Buckner was born in Burlington, Boone county, Kentucky, November 25, 1836. His father re- moved to Covington when James was two years old. He became a member of the public schools of that place, and when but eight or nine years of age entered as a student the preparatory department of Cincinnati col- lege. He went, however, with the family to the Edge- wood farm in 1847, and there remained until about seven years thereafter, when he entered Centre college, at Danville, and after some further preparation under the tutorship of Professor De Soto, present professor of lan- guages in that institution, he went to the academies at Exeter, New Hampshire, and Groton, Massachusetts, completing his preparation, and then matriculated at Dartmouth college, where he took a special and partial course. He was contemporary at Dartmouth with ex- Governor Edward F. Noyes, present United States min- ister to France, and his room-mate was Colonel Nicholas Smith, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, son-in-law of Horace Greeley, and minister to Greece under the late President Johnson. Leaving college in the spring of 1857, he re- turned home and began the study of medicine with Dr. Evans, then a prominent practitioner in Covington. He soon, however, removed to Cincinnati, and continued

his professional readings with Dr. L. M. Lawson and Dr. W. T. Taliaferro, partners, to the latter of whom Dr. Buckner was afterwards son-in-law and partner. He entered the Ohio Medical college in 1858, taking full courses of lectures and graduating in 1861. He then formed a partnership with Dr. Taliaferro, who had dissolved with Dr. Lawson a few months before. In Oc- tober Dr. Buckner formed an acquaintance with Captain (afterwards Commodore) Winslow, of the United States navy, then of the gun-boat service, but afterwards com- mander of the Kearsarge, in response to whose chal- lenge Semmes suffered the defeat and loss of the Ala- bama. Winslow, in 1861, was recruiting for the fresh water navy, and at his urgency Dr. Buckner accepted a position as acting surgeon for the examination of such recruits. After some service in this capacity in Cincin- nati and Cleveland, he was assigned to duty on the gun- boat Cairo, by special request of Captain Winslow, whose vessel it was. At the fall of Fort Donelson, this was among the first gun-boats to reach Nashville and virtual-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

ly capture the place, as the rebels had abandoned it and the Federal forces had not yet come up. Returning to Cairo and descending the Mississippi the gun-boat was engaged in the reduction of the rebel fort beyond Plum Point. Dr. Buckner had meanwhile become seriously ill of one of the chronic diseases of the service, and his wife also being sick at home, his resignation was thus compelled, and he returned to Cincinnati. He retained an unpleasant souvenir of the war for a number of years in a deafness of the right ear, caused by the near explo- sion of a bomb, until it was relieved by the celebrated aurist, Dr. Politzer, of Vienna, in the winter of 1873. His hearing has since been almost or quite as good as ever.

During his naval service, just before Dr. Buckner was assigned to duty in Cleveland, he was married, October 17, 1861, to Miss Jane Olivia Ramsey, stepdaughter of his partner, Dr. Taliaferro. As soon as his health per- mitted after his resignation, he resumed business with his father-in-law, who was growing old and had a somewhat burdensome practice upon his hands. He continued for about a year after his return to serve the Government as an examiner of recruits for the naval service. The part- nership with Dr. Taliaferro ceased only with the death of the latter, in 1871. His name is still up in the old office, at the northwest corner of Otto and Walnut streets, which Dr. Buckner has occupied as student and practi- tioner for more than twenty-one years. Since the death of his partner, Dr. Buckner has remained alone in the practice of his profession. In the winter of 1862-3 he was made demonstrator of anatomy in the Ohio Medical college, and was afterwards, in 1866-7, professor of phys- iology in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Sur- gery. After the death of Dr. Taliaferro, Dr. Buckner succeeded to his chair of ophthalmology and otology in the same institution. About the same time he was ap- pointed lecturer on the staff of the Good Samaritan hos- pital in Cincinnati, where he again addressed the students of the Ohio Medical college. He resigned his several positions in the fall of 1872, in order to take a foreign tour, during which he visited the principal capitals of Europe and took a special course of studies in the eye and ear at Vienna. After a tour through Italy he re- turned, via England and Ireland, to America. He then resumed his place in the hospital, and was subsequently elected to the staff of St. Mary's hospital, in special charge of ocular and aural diseases. In 1878 he was elected president of the Academy of Medicine, of Cin- cinnati, one of the most honorable positions to which a practitioner can aspire. He is also a prominent member of the American Medical association, and of the State Medical society ; is connected with the Free Masons, and with the Natural History society of Cincinnati. He has contributed to the literature of his profession a number of valuable articles upon diseases of the eye, car, and throat, upon surgery, and upon chloroform-most of these being papers read before the State Medical society and after- wards published.

Dr. Buckner has two children, both sons-William Thornton Taliaferro (named from his maternal grand-

father), born April 19, 1863; and Henry Alexander, born August, 1866.

DR. C. S. MUSCROFT.

Charles Sidney Muscroft, M. D., long one of the foremost surgeons of the Ohio valley, is a native of Shef- field, England, born in that part of the city then known as "Little Sheffield," on the fourteenth of February, 1820. His parents were George and Hannah (Chapman) Mus- croft. The father was one of the successful manufactur- ing cutlers in the renowned city of cutlery ; but, upon re- moval to America in 1822, he became rather a jobber in the business. He came to this country against the pro- hibition of the British Government, which was opposed to the emigration of its skilled workmen; but, departing ostensibly for settlement in Holland, he was enabled to get thence to the new world without difficulty. Landing at Baltimore, his sympathies determined him to join the community experiment being made by Robert Owen at New Harmony, Indiana, and he transported his family and effects in wagons to Brownsville, thence by river vessel to Cincinnati, where he was persuaded by several gentle- men to stay his journey and settle in the rising young city. He was a man of superior intelligence and me- chanical genius, a public-spirited citizen, and a very use- ful member of society and business circles in Cincinnati in the early day. He lived here continuously from the fall of 1825, until April 23, 1845, the birthday of Shaks- pere (as also Mr. Muscroft), when he died, being then in his fifty-ninth year. He was at the time about to make a new and very notable venture here, in the manufacture of malleable iron, and his death, for this and other reasons, was justly regarded as a public calamity. He was a leading member and founder of the Ohio Mechan- ics' institute, and had sometimes lectured before that and other scientific bodies in the city on technical and other topics with which he was familiar; and upon his death a fitting series of resolutions was adopted by the in- stitute, sent to his family, and published in the city papers.

Charles Sidney was the youngest member of the fam- ily who lived beyond the period of infancy. He was trained in the private school of the Neifs, in Cincinnati, then the famous academy of Professor Milo G. Williams, and finally the yet more famous academy of Alexander and William Kinmont. For two or three years he as- sisted his father in mechanical operations, and then, at the age of nineteen, began to read medicine with Dr. Charles L. Avery, son of John L. Avery, formerly sheriff of the county. He also matriculated at the Ohio Medi- cal college, took three full courses of lectures, and was graduated with the diploma of M. D). on the first of March, 1843. The young doctor began practice at once and alone, and has since continuously practiced in the city of his childhood and youth, and always without a partner. For about twelve years he was engaged in gen- eral practice, but near the year 1855 began to turn his attention especially to surgery, in which his chief reputa- tion has been attained. He has since been called to

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perform most of the grand operations known to surgical science. He has frequently and successfully accom- plished the exsection of bones, in one or two cases the removal of all, or very nearly all, the entire fibula. His operation for the removal of the entire ulna is noticed with interest in Dr. Gross' work on the Centennial His- tory of Surgery in America, published in 1876, in which only the names of Drs. Muscroft, R. D. Mussey, and George C. Blackman are mentioned among Cincinnati surgeons. He has devised a new method in the treat- ment of fractures, discarding the use of splints, and re- lying solely upon pillows and sand-bags-a method which in his practice has been most eminently successful, and has commended itself extensively to other surgeons. He has also made important contributions to the literature of the profession, as in two papers on the use of sulphate of iron as a local remedy, read respectively before the Ohio medical society and the Academy of Medicine, and others on the exsection of the ulna, descriptive of the case men- tioned in the Centennial History by Dr. Gross, the treatment of Asiatic Cholera, the Osteo-sarcoma of the Superior Maxilla, two on the Prevention of Syphilis, etc., etc. As chairman of a committee of the Academy of Medicine, to prepare an obituary notice of Dr. George A. Blackman, after his death in 1875, he wrote a sketch of the life and services of the distinguished dead, which was afterwards used bodily in the report of the transac- tions of the American Medical association, and without any credit whatever to its author.

For many years Dr. Muscroft was on the medical staff of the Cincinnati hospital. He has maintained a general practice in medicine with reputation and success, and is an active member of the Cincinnati Academy of Medi- cine, the Ohio State Medical society, and of the Ameri- can Medical association. He was the first health officer and actuary of the board of health of the city of Cin- cinnati, in the cholera year of 1849; was for a time sur- geon of St. John's hospital, in the city; and during the war was first surgeon of the Tenth Ohio infantry, then, successively, brigade surgeon, medical director, and in- spector of hospitals, for certain purposes. He thus had large opportunity for public usefulness-opportunity which was well used for his own reputation and for the benefit of the community and nation.

Dr. Muscroft was united in marriage February 14, 1850, the thirtieth anniversary of his birthday, to Miss Harriet, daughter of Thomas Palmer, one of the founders of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette. They have had five children, only one of whom is living-Dr. Charles S. Muscroft, jr., a promising young physician, who is associated with his father upon the medical staff of St. Mary's hospital. Mrs. Muscroft is still living, a worthy helpmate of her honored husband.

Dr. Muscroft is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was one of the founders of the Cuvier club, and otherwise takes a healthy interest in the welfare of his fellows. He was formerly an old line Whig, but since 1850 has been affiliated with the Democratic party.

CYRUS D. FISHBURN, M. D.,

of Cincinnati, Ohio, is a native of Pennsylvania; born in Hummelstown, Dauphin county, October 27, 1832.

John Philip Fishburn, his great-grandfather, emigrated from Germany to this country in 1749. His son, Philip Fishburn, was a successful farmer of colonial times, and during the war of the Revolution was a soldier. He also served in the War of 1812. He reared a large fam- ily, of which Jonas was the father of the subject of this sketch.

Jonas Fishburn's family consisted of four children- Isaac, the oldest son, now practising as a physician in Stephenson county, Illinois; Cyrus D., Amanda and George. The last named was a stock-raiser and farmer near Portland, Oregon. He died at the age of thirty- seven, from a stroke of paralysis, in August, 1880,

Jonas Fishburn removed to Iowa in 1856 and engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in 1877, at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man who appreciated the worth of an education, and be- fore coming west had removed his family to the village of Womelsdorf, Berks county, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of educating his children. Cyrus D. Fishburn remained there at school until fifteen years of age, when he went to Phillips academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and began a preparatory course for Harvard or Yale; but financial embarrassment in the family now, materially changed all his future plans. The father proposed a medical career ; but the son had inclinations for law, and we judge his keensightedness had forseen a brilliant future, that would undoubtedly have awaited him had he chosen that pro- fession ; but obeying the wish of his parent, he entered the office of Dr. William Moore, of Womelsdorf, an in- telligent and finely educated physician who had an exten- sive practice. He, here, thoroughly prepared himself for entering a medical college. While a student he was obliged to assume the responsibilities of a large practice, in consequence of a serious accident which happened to his preceptor. The responsibilities resting upon him were undesirable for one so young in the profession, but in the end were very advantageous. He graduated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, in the year 1854. After remaining one year with his preceptor he located in Elizabethtown, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years more. Being impressed with the brilliant prospects of the west, he prepared himself with excellent letters of introduction and travelled through the States of Michi- gan and Iowa in search of a location.

The doctor having more energy than money kept up the search. One incident should be recorded as it did much to develope the power of the man and lead him to the prominent success he afterwards attained. He was determined to earn his living even if he had to re- sort to manual labor; and was almost led to this strait- ened state of circumstances when he was introduced to the late Dr. Pitcher, of Detroit, an eminent physician, and president at that time of the National Medical asso- ciation. He was introduced as a young man of some worth in the profession looking for a new home; when

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the old gentleman dryly remarked, "If he only don't look for one already made." The remark was painfully true. He had indeed been looking for just such a place, and probably his steps thither had been hastened for its accomplishment. Such a greeting, so chilling and unex- pected, served to arouse his native energies and he there- after sought no partnership unless he was sure that he could contribute his full share to the success of the asso- ciation.

Leaving Detroit he arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, but after staying one month he departed for Cincinnati. The idea that hard work, well directed, is sure to win, began to appear to be untrue. He arrived in Cincinnati in 1858 with but ten dollars in his pocket. He at once formed a temporary partnership with an old acquaintance, Dr. Peter Malone, and began practice on Broadway near Third street; but being too far away from his German patrons he removed to Vine near Court street, into an office recently occupied by the late Dr. George Fries, a distinguished physician and surgeon, and one who did much to assist the willing efforts of his younger colleague. He received much encouragement from this kind gentle- man, and a lasting friendship sprung up between them. From this time his practice grew rapidly and became ex- tensive, and he is now recognized by the citizens of Cin- cinnati and vicinity as being eminently successful in his profession. He removed to the corner of Vine street and McMicken avenue, then called Hamilton road, in 1860. In 1874 he built his present commodious house, No. 70 McMicken avenue, in which he has since resided. In 1866 he married Miss Louise Billiods, daughter of one of the earliest pioneers of Cincinnati. In 1878 she died, leaving a son. Her affectionate nature, gentle ways, and love of home, combined with her excellent judgment, made her a model wife, her home a paradise, and life a constant happiness.

Dr. Fishburn is known by the citizens of Cincinnati and by the profession to be an indefatigable worker. His efforts to attain success are worthy of imitation by those who wish to be prepared for the responsibilities of an extensive practice; for no doubt his success in life is due to the energy he has displayed in overcoming all obstacles that blocked his way. He has been twice elected and is now one of the directors of the University of Cincinnati, The doctor was, unsolicited, elected in 1873 a member of the board of alderman of the city. He is, at the present writing, in the prime of life and vigor of manhood, and actively engaged in his profes- sional duties. His untiring zeal in private and public life has made him a valuable citizen, and has added materially to the welfare and prosperity of his adopted city.

MILTON THOMPSON CAREY, M. D.,

born near the town of Hardin, in Shelby county, Ohio, July 22, 1831. The advantages for acquiring an educa- tion during his early boyhood were somewhat meagre and limited; but notwithstanding this, at the age of eigh- teen years his preparatory education was of sufficient

character to justify him to enter upon the study of med- icine. After three years' pupilage, and shortly before he was of age, he graduated in medicine in the Ohio Med- ical college, and, as a reward of merit and distinction in the class, after a competitive examination, was appointed resident physician of the Commercial Hospital and Lu- natic asylumn. After his term of service expired in this institution he began the general practice of his profession. He received appointment as attending physician to the Venereal and Contagious hospital in 1852-3; was ap- pointed demonstrator of anatomy by the trustees of the Ohio Medical college, which position he occupied until the spring of 1856; and was elected coroner of Hamilton county, Ohio, in the fall of 1857, and served two years. At the breaking out of the war he was examined by the State board of examiners, was appointed and commis- sioned surgeon Forty-eighth regiment Ohio volunteer in- fantry November 21, 1861, and assigned to duty as post surgeon at Camp Dennison, Ohio. After organizing a post hospital and assisting in the organization of several regiments he was ordered into active duty in the field in the spring of 1862, took part in the battle of Pitts- burgh Landing, or Shiloh, and was captured on the first day of the battle, April 6th, and remained a prisoner of war until July 2, 1862, at which time he was paroled and returned home. Soon after his arrival at home he was ordered to Camp Chase, Ohio, and assigned to duty as post surgeon, in which capacity he served until Octo- ber of the same year, at which time he was ordered to join the army at Fort Pickering, Tennessee. He was with with the army at the time of the assault upon Vicks- burgh, was likewise a participant in the battle of Ar- kansas Post, January 1I, 1863, and was attacked with camp fever at Young's Point, in consequence of which his health became so impaired that he was compelled to resign his commission and return home. Not content to remain idle in the great struggle in which the govern- ment was engaged, as soon as his health was somewhat restored he made application for and received the appoint- ment of acting assistant surgeon, and was assigned to duty as surgeon in Woodward Post hospital in this city, in which capacity he served until the war was well nigh ended. He was reelected coroner of Hamilton county in 1865 and served two years; was elected to the common council in 1872 and served two years, and was elected by the common council a member of the board of directors of Longview asylum. After serving nearly two terms he was reappointed to that position by the governor of the State. He was elected as a representative of the Twenty-second ward to the board of education in 1880 and 1881, and is now a member of the Cincinnati Relief union, which position he has held many years, likewise member of the board of directors and vice-president of theeleventh district associated charities. As an evidence of his success in his profession there are but few medical men in Cincinnati who have been more successful in a financial point of view than he. He began poor, but by energy, economy and industry his investments yield him a liberal compe- tency aside from the income of his profession. As a medical officer in the army he attained some dis-

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tinction as an operator-see reports on file in the med- ical department, and circular No. 2, page 23, surgeon- general's office at Washington, D. C. The many tokens of confidence upon the part of his fellow-citizens are highly gratifying to him, and it is but fair to say that every trust has been faithfully and scrupulously dis- charged.

DR. C. O. WRIGHT.

Charles Olmsted Wright, M. D., is a native of Colum- bus, Ohio, born December 26, 1835, oldest child of Dr. Marmaduke Burr Wright and Mrs. Mary L. (Olmsted) Wright. Her father, Philo H. Olmsted, was in his day one of the most prominent men in Central Ohio, and for many years was editor of the State Journal, of that city. The elder Wright was the famous physician of that name, who spent a large part of his professional life in this city, and is appropriately noticed in our chapter on medicine in Cincinnati. He survived until August 15, 1879, when he died here, full of years and honors. Mrs. Wright is still living, in a hale and vigorous age.

Charles was but three years old, when the family was removed to Cincinnati by a call to his father to occupy the chair of Materia Medica in the Ohio Medical college. His primary and in part higher education was taken in the public schools of the city, but stopped when a member of the Hughes high school without graduating, in 1852, with the intention of accompanying his parents to Europe. This intention was abandoned, for the sake of the younger children, who needed his care; and he took instead a special course of one year in the Ohio Wesleyan university at Delaware. Leaving this institution in 1853, he began practice in civil engineering at the tunnel then being constructed under Walnut Hills, as is elsewhere related in this history; but was soon compelled by ill health to seek a more quiet, indoor life. In 1855 he began the study of medicine with Dr. W. W. Dawson, with whom he read for a year, when, under friendly advice, he went to California and engaged in merchandizing there for about six months, during which he had great experience of the rough and tumble side of life. He was presently burnt out, how- ever, losing his entire stock, and was then seized with the spirit of adventure, pushed across the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands and thence to the Chinese coast, where he enjoyed a breadth and minuteness of observation then not often vouchsafed to a foreigner. Thence he made his way home the rest of his journey around the world, via Japan, Siam, Calcutta, Bombay, through the Chusan Archipelago, the island of Manilla and along the west coast of Africa. From San Francisco to Cincinnati he occupied three years with his voyages and land journeys. While in China he found an extensive field for the observation of skin diseases, and decided that, if he followed his father's vocation, he would pay some especial attention to such ailments. Arriving at home, he promptly resumed his medical studies, becoming a member of the Ohio Medical college, and enjoying in addition the instructions of both his father and Dr. Daw-

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 119

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