History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 99

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

uable papers which appear in their published reports. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church.

NATHANIEL FOSTER, M. D., was born August 31, 1817, in Newbliss, County Monaghan, Ireland, a son of Benjamin Friel and Elizabeth (Moorehead) Foster. The Foster family removed from England in 1641, and located in Ireland. Benja- min Foster was an officer in the English army, and his eldest brother, James Fos- ter, who was a colonel in the same army, fought at the battle of Waterloo.

Benjamin F. Foster, died at the age of thirty-six years, and Nathaniel, his only son, with his mother, came in 1833 to the United States to visit Dr. John Moore- head, a brother of Mrs. Foster. Dr. Moorehead was living in Cincinnati, and was well and favorably known as an eminent physician and surgeon connected with the Ohio Medical College. It was from him Dr. Foster inherited his medical talents, and by him was persuaded to remain in Cincinnati. Nathaniel attended school in Ireland, and received instruction at select schools in Cincinnati. He studied medi- cine with his uncle, Dr. John Moorehead, and was graduated from the Medical College of Ohio in 1838. He soon after went to Europe, and spent several months in hospitals at Dublin. Returning to Cincinnati, he began practice, and subsequently succeeded to Dr. Moorehead's practice, the latter having returned to his estates in Ireland. Dr. Foster soon became one of the most active and busiest practitioners in the city; for nearly forty years occupied the same office, and clung tenaciously to it and its associations. Dr. Foster was actively connected for many years with the Good Samaritan Hospital of Cincinnati, but aside from this work always declined positions offered him with any of the medical colleges, and although a member of various societies, he seldom took an active part in their proceedings. His heart and soul were in his professional duties, and he took a high rank as a practitioner. Early in life he showed a special fondness for surgery, and performed many important operations; but, although urged to make this a specialty, he gradu- ally gave it up, probably owing to the great demands for his general business, and devoted himself entirely to family practice, which included many of the most promi- nent and richest in the city. But while his time was thus fully occupied by those who could compensate him for his attention, he was noted for the fidelity with which he answered the calls to and the faithful services he always rendered the poorest. He never declined a summons on account of the poverty of the applicant, and when en- listed in a case he expended the same care and skill that he would if he expected the most liberal remuneration. He was indefatigable in his business, seldom taking a holiday, and never allowing social enjoyment of any kind to interfere with his work. In all the great epidemics which occurred in his time he continued at his post, and in the cholera epidemic of 1852 his devotion nearly cost him his life. In all pro- fessional matters he was quick in forming his opinion, and prompt and energetic in carrying out whatever his judgment decided was right; but while positive and decided in his views, he was never unreasonable in maintaining his own, and was always ready to yield a courteous deference to his colleagues whom he met in con- sultation, keeping, however, always in view, the best interests of his patients. A prominent physician once remarked: "Dr. Foster was always the gentleman in all the relations of life." Those few words expressed the generous estimate of a noble character, the physician and gentleman, ever ready to render to suffering humanity, whatever their station or their means, such aid as his skill and devotion could afford, and always ready to yield his own opinions and his own preferences if only those who had committed themselves to his care could only be the gainers by the experi- ence and knowledge of others. Of an unusually vigorous constitution, he was for- getful of self, and accomplished an amount of work such as few would have been able to perform. Bnt the untiring labor for many years finally undermined his con- stitution, and for several years before his death, which occurred July 16, 1882, he was compelled to do less work, though he never retired from practice, preferring, as he said, "to die in the harness."

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At four o'clock, July 18, after his death, the medical profession of Cincinnati met at Lancet Hall to take action. Dr. John H. Tate presided as chairman, and Dr. William Judkins acted as secretary. Appropriate resolutions were passed, and the following eminent physicians spoke in tender and eloquent words relating to the life, character and high medical attainments of their late brother: Dr. C. O. Wright, Dr. John Davis, Dr. E. Williams, Dr. John H. Tate, Dr. David Judkins, Dr. N. P. Dandridge, Dr. Hail, Dr. Kemper, and Dr. Kearney, each testifying that Dr. Foster had died leaving behind him an unsullied name. The Cincinnati papers, Gazette, Commercial, Church Chronicle, Times Star, Enquirer, Lancet, and Clinic, each published extensive notices of his sickness and death, and paid well-deserved tribute to his memory. Dr. Foster was for many years a consistent member and vestryman of Christ's Episcopal Church, and died in the full faith of that organiza- tion. He was a Republican in his political views. On April 21, 1853, he was mar- ried to Josephine R. Lytle, daughter of Gen. Robert T. Lytle and Elizabeth (Haines), and granddaughter of Gen. William Lytle. one of the pioneer settlers of Cincinnati. One son and two daughters are the result of this union.

JOHN A. MURPHY, A. M., M.D., one of the most distinguished and successful physicians of Cincinnati, was born in Hawkins county, E. Tenn., January 23, 1824. He received a literary education in the old Cincinnati College, and in April, 1843, began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Jobn P. Harrison, of Cincinnati. He in the meantime entered the Medical College of Ohio, and graduated in the spring of 1846. Immediately after graduating he was elected one of the resident physicians to the Cincinnati Hospital. This position he held one year, and in 1847 opened his office for private practice. Being very successful, and wishing to increase his professional knowledge, he in 1853 made a trip to Europe for that pur- pose. There he spent nearly two years attending the lectures and clinics of the most distinguished men of his profession, in Paris and other medical centers. He was one of the founders of the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati. At the organ- ization of this institution he was made a member of the Faculty, and professor of materia medica. When, in 1857, the Miami and Medical Colleges of Ohio were con- solidated, he was again elected to the chair of materia medica. On the independent reorganization of the Miami Medical College, in 1865, he was elected professor of the principles and practice of medicine. This position he still holds, with a degree of popularity to which few medical lecturers attain. In connection with Drs. Men- denhall and E. B. Stevens, he established and edited the Medical Observer, and after the union of this journal with the Western Lancet, he still remained one of its editors.

During the war of the Rebellion Dr. Murphy was a member of the board appointed by Governor Tod to examine candidates for medical positions in the State regiments. He was also surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for the Second District of Ohio, and for three years acting assistant-surgeon in charge of the Third Street Cincinnati United States Military Hospital. Dr. Murphy is a member of the medi- cal staff of the Cincinnati Hospital, member of the Cincinnati Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society. of which he has served as its president, and the Ameri- can Medical Association. His private practice is extensive and valuable, few medi- cal men of the West occupying a more enviable place in the confidence of the people, or more justly bearing a widespread reputation.

ZOHETH FREEMAN, M.D., office and residence No. 274 West Seventh street, Cin- cinnati, was born July 17, 1826, in Milton, Queens Co., Nova Scotia, a son of Zoheth and Dorinda Freeman, both natives of Milton, Queens Co., Nova Scotia, the former born February 3, 1799, the latter in 1798. The father was owner of large tracts of pine timber lands, a successful manufacturer and dealer in lumber, owner of sawmills, and shipping lumber to the West India Islands and British Guiana in his own ships; he was a prominent leading man in the community, and was a justice of the peace; ·

Mm. Owens M.D.

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he died in August, 1878, his widow in 1880. The grandfather, Samuel Freeman, was also a lumber manufacturer. His early progenitor died in England in 1639, where he went to settle up his business affairs. His family held influential, honor- able and trusted positions in the government and in the army. The Freeman escutcheon, which the family have, is the bust with corslet armour, characteristic fac?, with helmet, visor up, lion rampant and lozenge. Samuel Freeman came from England in 1630 in company with Governor John Winthrop; they had fourteen ves- sels containing a large party of Englishmen who formed a colony in Massachusetts. He and his brother Edmund were prominent men, and gave to the colony twenty pieces of plate armour. Their whole line of descendants are mentioned as prominent men in the business affairs of the place in which they resided, known for their interest in public affairs and just dealings-some being judges of the court, and other magis- trates.

Our subject was educated in his native city, studied medicine in Buffalo, N. Y., with S. M. Davis, M.D., and attended medical lectures in the Buffalo -Medical Col- lege, at its first session. He was graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, in 1848, and first opened an office for the practice of his profession in Memphis, Tenn. The Doctor is a member of the National Eclectic Medical Associa- tion, and the Ohio State Medical Association. In the summer of 1848 he was appointed to fill the chair of anatomy in a new eclectic medical college to be estab- lished in Rochester, N. Y., and gave his first course of lectures there, being as he was informed at the time, the youngest professor of anatomy in any medical college. He returned to Rochester in the following summer, and again lectured on anatomy, also demonstrated anatomy in the dissecting rooms, and lectured on operative sur- gery. During the winter of 1848 and spring of 1849, he demonstrated anatomy in the dissecting rooms of the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati. During the winter of 1849, and up to the spring of 1851, he practiced medicine and surgery in Memphis, Tenn., and lectured in the medical department of the Memphis Institute as professor of anatomy, also demonstrated anatomy in the dissecting rooms. The lectures, given in 1849, were the first given in the medical department of the Memphis Institute. In the autumn of 1851 he returned to Cincinnati, and occupied the chair of professor of anatomy, also of demonstrator of anatomy in the Eclectic Medical Institute for a number of years. He was then transferred to the chair of principles and practice of medicine and pathology in the same, for two successive sessions. He was then appointed to the chair of surgery, which position he occupied about four- teen years. Also lectured on clinical medicine and surgery at the medical and sur- gical clinic up to 1873. Since 1873 he has only retained the chair of clinical medi- cine and surgery. During his active relation to the college, he has performed many interesting and critical surgical operations, both in the city and in the adjacent coun- ties and States, such as bone resections, capital and plastic operations, comprising the long list of those which a surgeon is called upon to attend to. He has been in active and successful practice up to the present time. Though he has been occupied constantly in the arduous duties of practice, yet he has, through a long period, written many articles for the Eclectic Medical Journal, including dissertations on medical subjects, reports of surgical work and clinical reports, while lecturing on clinical surgery; also letters to the Commercial, of travel and adventure in England, Scot- land and Germany; on the Rhine and its castles; also from Venice, giving a full description of the superb pageant and reception of King Humbert and Queen Mar- gueritta by the enthusiastic Venetians who in a blaze of splendor accompanied the royal guests and staff on board of the gilded state gondolas on the Grand Canal from the Rialto to the Doge's palace; also letters from Naples, Pompeii, and descriptive of a moonlight excursion to Vesuvius and to the bottom of the crater; besides maga- zine articles on " Moose Hunting " in Nova Scotia, and deer hunting on horseback in the Red river country.

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In October, 1856, Dr. Freeman was married to Miss Ellen, daughter of Eben S. Ricker, Esq., and Harriet (Pumpelly) Ricker, of Clermont county, Ohio. Two children have been born to them: Zoe Freeman, born October 5, 1857, died March 18, 1860, and Leonard Freeman, M.D., born December 16, 1860. He is a resident of Cincinnati, where he practices surgery; is a pathologist in the Cincinnati Hos- pital, surgeon to Christ's Hospital, clinical surgeon to the Ohio Medical College, and professor of surgery in the Woman's Medical College of Cincinnati. Dr. Freeman in religion belongs to no special sect, but lives, trying to make as grand and accept- able a record as possible in a correct and useful life, according to the most advanced ideas of Christ, our religious teacher, that we may with perfect confidence deliver to the great all-father through his son, our representative, as our passport to the eternal life. In politics Dr. Freeman is a Republican, and believes all citizens equal before the law-white, black, male or female; also in a free and untrammeled vote and a fair count, all over the Union, which is the bulwark and spirit of a Republican form of government, and that all citizens should have it.

WILLIAM OWENS, M. D., late professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born in Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, April 24, 1823. His parents were natives of this country. His early education was of the most meager character, as he was obliged to relinquish his studies during the winter months on account of the distance of the school from his home, and the prev- alence of heavy snowstorms. Yet he satisfied his cravings for knowledge by reading all the books belonging to his father, or which could be borrowed from the neigh- bors. His course of reading developed in him a fondness for travel, and he subse- quently left home in company with an invalid army officer with whom he spent two years in visiting Florida, the West Indies, and South America. After this he returned to Cincinnati, and applied himself to the cooper trade, devoting a portion of his time to study. In the spring of 1843 he entered Woodward College, attend- ing the recitations during the half day, until the spring of 1846, when an opportu- nity was given him to enter a drug store as an assistant.

In May of that year the Mexican war broke out, and he then enlisted in the First Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company E, commanded by J. B. Armstrong. During the conflict he was engaged in nearly all of the more important battles under Gen. Taylor, as hospital steward. Upon being mustered out of service, he returned to Cincinnati, and resumed his former position in the drug store, where he remained until 1849, the date of his graduation in medicine. He was immediately appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the Eclectic Medical College, and retained that position during the following two years. In the ensuing year he accepted the same position in the Western College of Homeopathy, at Cleveland, Ohio, and while filling it, attended a full course of lectures upon the Homeopathic materia medica and thera- peutics. In the spring of 1852 he again returned to Cincinnati, and there resumed his professional labors. In the autumn of 1855 he purchased an interest in a Water Cure establishment at Granville, Ohio, but at the expiration of two years it proved to be a financial failure. He then moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and there embarked in the same business, at the end of eighteen months finding he had lost all the money invested by him in the business. In November, 1858, he returned to

Cincinnati, hoping to retrieve his wasted fortunes. In the spring of 1861, after the lapse of two years and six months, his circumstances were not less straitened, and, on the outbreak of the Southern rebellion, he assisted in organizing two companies for the war. One of infantry could not be accepted, the other was attached to the Fifth Regiment of Ohio Cavalry Volunteers, in which company he accepted a com- mission as first lieutenant. As first lieutenant, and subsequently as captain, his record is wholly honorable. As acting assistant-surgeon, acting assistant-quarter- master, and acting assistant commissary, his accounts were always found to be cor- rect. At the battle of Shiloh his company was detailed to watch the Confederate

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movements on the Federal right flank; on two occasions he assisted in cutting off railroad communications in the rear of the Rebel army at Corinth, causing the enemy to abandon that stronghold. Later he was assigned to look after the sick. and wounded. He took part, under Gen. Phil Sheridan, in the pursuit of the Con- federate troops to Booneville. After the capture of Corinth, he was detailed to the surgical charge of the sick and wounded of a cavalry field hospital in that place, and retained his position there until he was commissioned captain about fifteen months later. During the battles of Iuka and Corinth, he occupied a conspicuous position in the field. During an expedition into North Alabama in December, 1862, a bat- talion of raw recruits, known as the First Alabama Cavalry, was found to be without a commander, and he was ordered to assume command of this undrilled rabble. On the termination of the campaign, Col. Sweeney issued a special order, commending the gallantry displayed by our subject in dislodging the command of Gen. Roddy from a stronghold at Blue Springs, and subsequent pursuit in which these undis- ciplined men captured a large number of prisoners, among whom were several officers. He participated in all the battles around Chattanooga, and was with Sher- man's command in his march through Georgia, and at the capture of Atlanta. At Cherokee, Ala., October 20, 1863, he commanded a cavalry charge made upon Col. Forrest's forces, driving them from the field in which he narrowly escaped death in a pistol encounter with Col. Forrest, who was shot through the thigh, and was sub- sequently captured.

When the period of enlistment of his regiment had expired, our subject was mus- tered out as captain, and at once rejoined the army as acting assistant-surgeon of the United States army, and was ordered to Louisville, to assist in the Crittenden United States General Hospital; later was ordered to Nashville, and took charge of Branch No. 16, United States General Hospital, where, out of 250 beds, the death rate had averaged from eight to ten per diem. Under his management the death rate lessened wonderfully, Dr. John McGirr, medical inspector, sending him a letter personally complimenting him on the result attained. After the close of the war Dr. Owens returned to Cincinnati, and resumed the practice of his profession. He assisted in founding the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, occupied the chair of anatomy in that institution two years, and subsequently was assigned to that of materia medica and therapeutics, which he still retains. After the close of the third term of lectures he was appointed dean of the Faculty, which position he occupied during the two most successful years of the college existence. In June, 1865, he was appointed examining surgeon for pensioners for Hamilton county, and held the office four years. He is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, of the State Homeopathic Medical Society of Ohio, of the Cincinnati Homeopathic Medical Society, of the Society of Natural History, consulting physician to the Ohio Hos- pital for Women and Children, and of other organizations of a scientific, literary, or social character. He has written numerous articles for homeopathic journals, and is now a regular contributor to several medical journals. He is to-day one of the most energetic and able defenders of homeopathy in the State of Ohio, or else- where.

Dr. Owens was married May 12, 1853, to Sarah E. Wilcox, of Cincinnati, by whom he has had six children, two of whom, Harry and Gertrude, died in infancy ; the other children were: Anna, born September 20, 1854, married R. W. Ransom, assistant editor of the Chicago Tribune; William, Jr., a physician, born April 23, 1857, married Miss Lulu Parker, of Home City, and died May 9, 1891; Mary E., born December 23, 1859, married Samuel C. Hooker, of London, now chief chemist Harrison's sugar refinery, of Philadelphia; Edith, born December 12, 1867, married B. T. Rozelle, a clerk in the "Big Four" railroad office. The family are Unitarian in their religious belief; politically, the Doctor is a Republican.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

DR. WILLIAM W. DAWSON is a native of Virginia, born in Berkeley county, December 19, 1828. He is one of eleven children born to John Dawson, a manufac- turer, whose family were among the earliest settlers of Virginia and Maryland. The elder Dawson was a native of Pittsburgh, but early in life removed to Darkesville, W. Va., and thence, in 1830, to Greene county, Ohio.

Our subject received a good classical education, and while yet a student acquired considerable proficiency in geology, natural history, and other sciences, so that, though still a mere boy, he acquired considerable reputation as a lecturer on topics that were purely scientific. He became a student of medicine under his elder brother, the late Dr. John Dawson, an eminent professor in Starling Medical Col- lege, Columbus, Ohio, but attended lectures in the Medical College of Ohio, where, in 1850, he graduated. For some time after that he devoted himself to special studies in the Cincinnati Hospital, and then engaged actively in the practice of his profession. Three years after graduation, he was chosen a professor of anatomy in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, which position he held three years. From 1860 to 1864, inclusive, he occupied the chair of anatomy in the Medical Col- lege of Ohio. From 1864 to 1870, he lectured on clinical surgery in the Cincinnati hospitals, and in the last named year he was elected to fill the chair of surgery in place of the celebrated Dr. Blackman, deceased. This chair he filled with credit to himself, and to the college, until 1884, when he resigned and was succeeded by Dr. Conner. He then became a clinical lecturer, a position he still holds.

In 1869 Dr. Dawson was elected president of the Cincinnati Academy of Medi- cine, and, two years later, president of the State Medical Society. In 1871 he was appointed surgeon of the Good Samaritan Hospital. During all these years the Doctor has enjoyed an almost unexampled popularity, not only among the thousands of students with whom he has come in contact, but among the men of his own pro- fession. This was tested in 1888, when the American Medical Association met in Cincinnati, and when he was elected president, every member of the Association from Cincinnati voting for him. This was the crowning honor in Dr. Dawson's life, one of which the most unassuming of men could scarcely refrain from being proud. It was a case of a prophet being honored even in his own country. The address he delivered as the president of the association, on the occasion of the annual meeting in Providence, R. I., in 1889, was one of the events in the history of the association. The effort received the highest commendation from the fraternity at large. The literature of the medical profession has been enriched by many able articles from

the pen of Dr. Dawson. Among them are papers on " Abdominal Tumors," "Her- nia," "Graves Diseases," "Excision of Joints," "Removal of the Entire Clavicle." He was the author of a pamphlet on chloroform deaths, published in 1871, that attracted wide attention, not only in this country, but in Europe, where it was exten- sively circulated. The Edinburgh Medical Journal devoted several pages to its review. The pamphlet took the then radical position that during the war in this country there were hundreds of deaths from anesthesia, and he sustained it too, the contemporaneous authority to the contrary notwithstanding. Another of Dr. Daw- son's valuable papers was one published in 1873, nephrotomy, extraction of calculus from the kidney. In the field of surgery, the Doctor is famous for being bold, though very conservative. No surgeon is more thorough. Mrs. Dawson was Margaret Yates Hand, daughter of Dr. Joseph Hand, of Hillsboro, Ohio, and grand- daughter of Gen. Edward Hand, of Revolutionary fame.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 99

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592