History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 37

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Ohio > Crawford County > History of Crawford County and Ohio > Part 37

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

Wilson C. Lemert was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Bucyrus about the year 1838, and continued until 1862, since which time he has been engaged in other pursuits.

John Hopley came to Bucyrus in 1856, as Superintendent of the Union Schools. He was admitted to the bar in 1858, and commenced practice in partnership with A. M. Jackson. In 1862, he visited England on professional business. On his return in the fall of the same year, he accepted a clerkship in the Treasury Department at Washington, requiring service in the office of Secretary Chase and especial attention to the subject of finance. He was afterward transferred to the Currency Bureau, and had charge of the statistical division. In 1864, he resigned, and engaged in a New York City banking establishment. In 1866, he was appointed Examiner of National Banks for the Southern States and Kansas. In September, 1867, he purchased an interest in the Bucyrus Journal, and became editor. The following May, he became sole proprietor of the office. He was appointed Postmaster at Bucyrus, in August, 1870, and held the place until January, 1879. His devotion to the interests of his paper, makes his return to the practice of law a remote possibility.

The following are the present members of the Bucyrus Bar :

Franklin Adams was admitted to the bar in 1836, and commenced practice at Bucyrus in August, 1837. He was Prosecuting Attorney of Crawford County from 1838 to 1845.

Stephen R. Harris was born in Stark County, Ohio, May 22, 1824. He was a student of the preparatory department of Washington Col- lege, Pennsylvania, in 1842, and of Norwalk Seminary, in 1844, and finished his collegiate education at Western Reserve College in 1846. He read law with his unele, John Harris, at Canton, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1849. In June of that year, he opened a law

office at Bucyrus, and became a partner in business with the late Judge Scott, which was continued up to the time of the decease of the latter, except during the time that Judge Scott was on the bench of the Supreme Court, and a member of the Supreme Court Commission.

David W. Swigart was born in Franklin County, Penn., December 12, 1824. He came to Crawford County in November, 1846, and was Deputy Clerk of the courts until April, 1848. He was then appointed Clerk, and held the office until February, 1852. He graduated at the Cincinnati Law School, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1852, and immediately commenced practice at Bucyrus. He served in the Quartermaster's Department during the war of 1861, headquarters at Cincinnati, and was President of the Atlantic & Lake Erie Railway Company, from September, 1869, to August, 1873.

[P. S .- Since the foregoing sketch of Mr. Swigart was penned, his family and friends have been called upon to mourn his sudden and untimely death. On the 25th of Novem- ber (1880), after having enjoyed a period of unusually good health, he died very suddenly of paralysis of the nerve centers, after an ill- ness of but a few minutes .- HISTORIAN.]

Jacob Scroggs was born at Canton, Ohio, August 11, 1827, of Scotch and German de- scent. He came to Bucyrus, with his father's family, in 1839 ; attended the common schools and worked at the hatter's trade until 1848. From that time until 1852, he was engaged as a school-teacher and elerk in a store. He studied law, and in May, 1834, graduated at the Cincin- nati Law School and was admitted to the bar by the District Court of Hamilton County, Ohio. In 1855, he commenced the practice of law at Bucyrus. The following year he was elected Mayor, and served in that capacity four years. From 1862 until the close of the war of the rebellion, he was Chairman of the Crawford County Military Committee, and enjoyed the con-

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

fidence of Govs. Tod and Brough. In 1864, he was Presidential Elector for this district, and cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln.

James Clements was admitted to the bar August 28, 1854. He was elected Sheriff of Crawford County in 1845 and re-elected in 1847, and held the office of Probate Judge of Crawford County from February, 1864, to Feb- ruary, 1870.

David C. Cahill was admitted to the bar De- cember 20, 1860, and continued in practice at Bucyrus until April, 1865. The next two years he spent in California and Oregon, returning to Bucyrus and resuming practice in June, 1867. In the fall of 1873, he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Crawford County, and held the position from February, 1874, until February, 1880, and then returned to the prac- tice of law.

Ebenezer B. Finley was born at Orville, Wayne County, Ohio, July 31, 1833, and was educated in the common schools. Of his early manhood, he spent five years in Illinois and Kansas and two years in the Rocky Mountain region. In 1859, he located at Bucyrus ; studied law with Stephen R. Harris, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1861. In the fall of 1861, he recruited a military company, was elected First Lieutenant, and in October of that year went into the service as part of the Sixty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteers, serving in Ken- tucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and was pres- ent at the battle of Shiloh. He was disabled by an accident and retired from the service in September, 1862, and resumed the practice of his profession at Bucyrus. In 1876, he was elected a member of Congress, and re-elected in 1878, his last term expiring in March, 1881. He is at this time Chairman of the Committee on Public Expenditures, and has distinguished himself in the House of Representatives by speeches on the subjects of the silver bill, the equalization of bounties to soldiers, the use of United States Marshals at elections, and by his

cominittee reports, and especially that upon the affairs of Government printing.

Thomas Beer read law with J. C. Tidball, of Coshocton, Ohio ; edited the Crawford County Forum from April, 1860, to April, 1862, and was admitted to the bar and went into practice at Bucyrus in 1862. In 1863, he was elected a member of the Legislature, and re-elected in 1865. He represented Crawford County in the Constitutional Convention of 1873, in which he took a prominent part, and as a member of the two most important committees in that body --- that of the Judiciary and on Municipal Corpo- rations-found an ample field for the exercise of his sagacity and abilities as a lawyer. In August, 1874, he was appointed by Gov. Allen a Judge of the Fourth Subdivision of the Third District of the Common Pleas Court, com- posed of Crawford, Hancock, Marion, Seneca, Wood and Wyandot Counties, to fill a vacancy until the next election, occasioned by the resig- nation of Judge A. M. Jackson. In October of the same year, he was elected by the people to the remainder of the term expiring in February, 1877. In the fall of 1876, he was elected to a full term of five years. He has proved a suc- cess as a Judge, as well as a lawyer. The urbanity of his deportment and the accuracy of his opinions command the respect and esteem of the public and the bar.

Anson Wickham was admitted to the bar at Kenton, Ohio, September 14, 1875.

John A. Eaton was born in Crawford County, Ohio, November 17, 1853, and was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, October 3, 1876, and was a member of the firm of Richie & Eaton until May 14, 1879.

Isaac Cahill read law with Jacob Scroggs, and was admitted to the bar April 4, 1877.

John R. Clymer was born in Franklin County, Ohio, January 23, 1834, and was educated at Otterbein University, Ohio. In 1835, he gradu- ated at Granger's Commercial College. He had charge of the High School from 1856 to 1859,

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

and was Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Crawford County, Ohio, from 1860 to 1868, and editor and proprietor of the Crawford County Forum from 1868 to 1877. He was admitted to the bar, at Tiffin, April 9, 1878, and commenced practice at Bucyrus.

Theodore F. Shotwell was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Bucyrus, March, 1878.

Daniel W. Lock was educated at Wooster University, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1879.

George Keller was admitted to the bar in 1876.

The former members of the Galion bar were George Crawford, Andrew Poe, M. Virgil Payne, Lewis Bartow and W. A. Hall. The present members are Abraham Underwood, admitted to the bar in 1855. He was Mayor of the city in 1878, and a Justice of the Peace from 1845 to the present time, with the exception of about eighteen months. James H. Marshman. We have been unable to obtain any data of Mr. Marshman's legal life.

Henry C. Carhart was born in Richland (now Ashland) County, August 16, 1827, and was ed- ucated in the common schools of the neighbor- hood, and at Vermillion Institute, at Hayesville, Ohio. He read law with Judges Brinkerhoff & Geddes, at Mansfield, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar July 12, 1852. His committee of exam- ination were Jacob Brinkerhoff, a member of Congress, and fifteen years a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio ; Samuel J. Kirkwood late Governor and now United States Senator of Iowa, and John Sherman, late United States Senator of Ohio, and now Secretary of the Treasury. He was in practice a year at Mans- field after his admission, and in October, 1853, removed to Galion. He was Mayor of Galion three years, from April, 1854, and Postmaster from May, 1861, until August, 1864. He was also a member of the Galion Union School Board for two years, from April, 1872, and a

delegate to the Republican National Conven- tion, at Cincinnati, in 1876.

James W. Coulter was born July 4, 1846, at West Bedford, Coshocton County, Ohio. He obtained his education at Spring Mountain, Coshocton County, and read law with Judge Thomas Beer, at Bucyrus, and was admitted to the bar August 16, 1865, and immediately there- after commenced practice at Galion. In 1869, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Craw- ford County, and was re-elected in 1871. He has served as a member of the County Board of School Examiners, and of the Board of Educa- tion of the Galion Union Schools.

Seth G. Cummings. He has served as Pros- ecuting Attorney of Crawford County from 1873 to 1877.

Jacob Meuser, admitted to the bar about the year 1874. He was a member of the Legisla- ture from January, 1876, to January, 1880, and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

John De Golley was admitted to the bar at Chambersburg, Penn., in 1871. He removed to Galion in 1874, and commenced practice in 1876. In 1879, he was elected Corporation At- torney, the first to serve under the City Charter.

George W. Ziegler was admitted to the bar in 1876, and elected Prosecuting Attorney of Crawford County in 1877, and re-elected in 1879.

Alexander F. Anderson was admitted to the bar in 1869, and located first at Findlay, then at Carey, and removed to Galion in October, 1878. Of George W. Johnson we have no data.

The former members of the bar at Crestline were Lemuel R. Moss, from 1852 to 1854; James W. Paramore, John W. Jenner, Samuel E. Jenner and O. B. Cruzen.

The present members are Nathan Jones, ad- mitted to the bar at Norwalk, April 13, 1855, commenced practice at Crestline in 1856. In 1866, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Crawford County and re-elected in 1868. In May, 1876, he was elected Grand Master of the

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

Grand Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Ohio, and in December, 1877, was elected a representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States.

Daniel Babst, Jr., was admitted to the bar at Columbus in 1871; P. W. Poole, admitted at Bucyrus, in September, 1865 ; Frederick New- man, admitted at Mount Gilead in 1867; L. C. Hinman, we have no particulars ; G. B. Cruzur, admitted at Bucyrus in 1869.

The following history of the medical profes- sion of Crawford County was written by Dr. George Keller, of Bucyrus, expressly for this work, and will be found of interest to the mem- bers of the profession :

In our effort toward writing up the history of the medical profession of Crawford County, we necessarily begin about the year 1820, at which time the county was very sparsely settled, hav- ing few or no doctors and few requiring the services of a doctor.

Nearly all of the earliest physicians were im- ported from Eastern Ohio, and other Eastern States, since it could scarcely be presumed that there were, at that time, any parties engaged in the study of medicine, preparatory to the practice of it.

It might be proper, under these circumstances, to give a brief resume of the condition of the profession in those States east of us, in order that we may become better acquainted with the history of the pioneer doctors of the country.

At and previous to the year before mentioned, the greater number of physicians in the east, were what is called regulars-those who bled, blistered, gave mercury, antimony, ete., etc., secundum artem. Homeopathy was scarcely known this side of the Atlantic ; Thomsonian- ism was in its infancy, and hydropathy, phy- siopathy, eclecticism, chrono-thermalism, etc., had not been born into the world.

In the year 1822, the celebrated Dr. Samuel Thomson, having already invented a system of

medicine, had it patented, as the following doc- ument will show :

No. 2866. (Eagle, etc.) Sixth Edition. THOMSON'S PATENT.

THIS MAY CERTIFY THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED OF THOMAS M. SARGENT,

Twenty Dollars in full for the right of preparing and using for himself and family, the medicine and system of practice, secured to Samuel Thomson, by letters patent from the President of the United States, dated January 28, 1823, and that he is thereby constituted a member of the FRIENDLY BOTANIC SOCIETY, and is en- titled to an enjoyment of all the privileges attached to membership therein.

Dated at Locust Grove, this 27th day of August, 1834. PIKE, PLATT & Co., Agents for Samuel Thomson.

The fortunate individual who, for the con- sideration of $20, became possessor of the above document, further agreed "in the spirit of mutual interest and honor, not to re- veal any part of said information to any per- son, except those who purchase the right, to the injury of the proprietor, under the penalty of forfeiting their word and honor, and all right to use the medicine."

Accompanying the letters patent was a 24mo. book of 168 pages of texts, and a sup- plement of twenty-eight more, which was sup- posed to contain all that was necessary to know in the departments of anatomy, physiology, materia medica, practice, surgery, midwifery and chemistry.

While Hippocrates, the " father of medicine," wrote many " aphorisms," Thomson had but one : " Heat is life, and cold is death;" and as a result, all that was necessary in order to treat a case was to keep the patient warm-hot in fact. This was accomplished mainly by pepper, lobelia and steam.

Thomson and his confreres, used in particular six preparations which were applicable to al- most any form of disease, and in any stage of it. No. 1, lobelia ; No. 2, cayenne pepper ; No. 3, bayberry root bark, white pond lily root and

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

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inner bark of hemlock; No. 4, bitters made of bitter herb, bayberry and poplar bark, one ounce of each to a pint of hot water and a half a pint of spirit ; No. 5, cough syrup ; No. 6, tincture of myrrh and cayenne pepper.

These six preparations, with a steaming, were supposed to be competent to cure almost any form of disease, curable or incurable.

The following case, " selected at random," will serve to illustrate treatment of rheumatism. The Doctor ordered a large iron kettle to be filled with water and brought to boiling point. The kettle being removed from the fire, the patient was divested of most of his clothing, a couple of sticks placed across the kettle for him to sit on, and a blanket thrown about him to retain the steam. Either from lightness of the sticks or too great weight of the patient, the sticks gave way and the unhappy subject of treatment found himself a posteriori at the bottom of the kettle. This sudden, excessive, and untimely applica- tion of the principle of health-heat-as might naturally be inferred, aroused all the evil pas- sions of the patient, and the fears of the Doctor who beat a precipitate retreat, fol- lowed by the victim, and the race was only concluded when a fortunate stream of water separated the pursuer and pursued. It need hardly be remarked that the treatment was a success.

As time progressed other vegetables were added to the materia medica, until it became much more extensive. These worthies went about the country, abusing the " calomel" doc- tors, who were killing people, as they said, by blisters, bleeding, opium, tartar-emetic, etc.

Dr. Thomson believed, with the ancient philosophers, that there were only four elements, fire, air, earth and water, as the following lines, taken from one of his poems, will show.

" My system's founded on the truth, Man's Air and Water, Fire and Earth, And death is cold, and life is heat,

These, tempered well, your health's complete."

The Doctor, of course, condemned nearly all the medicines used by the " regulars," especially saltpeter, which he says "has the most certain and deadly effects upon the human system of any drug that is used as medicine. Being in its nature cold, there cannot be any other ef- fects produced by it than to increase the power of that enemy to heat."

In our boyhood days, we heard a celebrated professor of this system boast that he never graduated a young man in less than six weeks, but even this was seemingly asking too much, since the " average " boy of twelve years might make himself thoroughly familiar with the sys- tem in a few hours. This aged doctor was also a preacher, and was thought at times to be given somewhat to exaggeration in his state- ments. On being talked to on that subject, he said he had always been aware of his tendency to that weakness, and had shed barrels of tears on account of it. This class of doctors has be- come extinct.

Another system of medicine in full blast forty-five years ago, was the uroscopian or wa- ter doctor. These gentlemen did not subject the urine to a chemical test or anything of that nature, but pretended to diagnose all kinds of disease, without seeing the patient- requiring only a sample of the water. This they shook up smelled-wormed out of the messenger all they could, and guessed at the remainder. It need hardly be remarked that they were frequently terribly victimized by pretended bearers of "samples."

The great panacea with many of this school, was the celebrated " blood physic," made up of juniper berries, epsom salts, senna leaves, etc. An ordinary dose of this, properly prepared, would nearly fill a gallon pot. Many years ago, we were attending a patient suffering from a lingering form of fever, and on making a visit found a pot full of this mixture ready for ad- ministration, it having been prescribed by the uroscopian. Two days afterward the poor pa-

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

tient ceased to require the services of any doc- tor, having gone, in the words of the New Jer- sey poet, to that place,

" Where few physicians go."

This class of doctors has also become extinct, or nearly so.

In the early settlement of the country, and for many years afterward, there was a tribe of doctors called par excellence, the "Indian doc- tors." Many persons supposed that the red man-the untutored child of nature-because he did not know anything else, ought to be, and really was, a first-class doctor.

It was often remarked that while the cdu- cated physician might be good enough for or- dinary cases of disease, the obstinate, obscure, and really difficult cases could be most success- fully managed by the Indian doctor. White men who had lived for awhile among the In- dians, or had even been chased by one, was supposed to have imbibed their peculiar skill, and ranked among the first physicians of the land. It need scarcely be remarked that the Indian knows nothing of disease or remedies for it, and that their prescriptions, as a general rule, have in them no more medical virtues than can be found in a decoction of oat straw. The Indian doctor is far from being extinct, as the current literature of patent medicine al- manacs abundantly demonstrates.

Before concluding this part of our subject, we must make mention of a certain kind of “ reg- ular doctors," who were very common in the early settlement of the country. Many young men, thinking they might as well be doctors, would spend a few days, weeks or months in the office of some physician and then "go out West " to practice. Fifty years ago, almost any point west of Mansfield was " out West." The only requisites in this system of practice, was a horse, a few drugs and a respectable amount of what the Arkansas doctor called the three "I's"-ignorance, impudence and independence. During our boyhood, two young men brought

up in Wayne County, happened to meet in one of the western counties of the State. Mutually recognizing each other, one of them cried out, " For God's sake, H-, don't tell on me, for I can purge 'em and puke 'em as good as any- body."

Many of them relied largely on their experi- ence-that is-they had taken during their lives an occasional dose of pink and senna, cal- omel and jalap, castor oil, had been bled and blistered and had not forgotten the effects of them, or why they had taken them. Happily for the people, " out West " has no longer any existence, and this kind of doctors are found more rarely. Fifty years ago, the country was new, people suffered much and often from the malarious influences almost universally preva- lent, and in pain and distress were ready to ac- cept the services of any one calling himself doctor, without stopping to inquire as to his antecedents.

Some of these doctors began business with a self-constituted diploma, resembling very much the one which may be found in the comedy of Moliere, entitled "Le Malade Imaginaire, or the Hypochondriac," which reads thus :

Ego cum is to boneto

Venerabile et docto

Dono tibi et concedo,

Virtutem et puisanciam :

Medicandi

Purgandi

Seignandi

Percundi

Taillandi

Coupandi et

Occidendi

Impune per totam terram.

A liberal translation of this mongrel Latin and French would seem to declare that the newly fledged doctor is duly empowered to dose, purge, bleed, cut and kill with impunity, throughout the entire earth.

When these doctors encountered severe forms of disease they were about as successful

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

as the celebrated firm of Sangrado and Gil Blas, the latter remarking that when a malignant form of fever made its appearance in one of the cities of Spain, under their treatment it was never necessary to visit a patient but once, for on the second one he was either dead or mori- bund, and that they made more widows and orphans in six weeks than were made during the siege of Troy.

One of our early acquaintances who went West was called to see a boy who was drunk. Not understanding precisely the nature of the case, he informed the parents that it was a case of Asiatic cholora.

Thus far we have been showing up the un- pleasant and farcical side of the picture-now let us turn to a more pleasing one.

During the times we have been speaking of there were numbers of young men in the East who obtained as good an education as their re- sources permitted, studied medicine two or three years in the office of some practitioner, and starting from home on horseback, with all their worldly effects, traveled in many in- stances hundreds of miles, in order to come West for the purpose of really practicing medi- cine-meaning faithfully and honestly to re- lieve, as far as possible, suffering humanity.

When time permitted, they read such books as they had, procured others as soon as prac- ticable, took such periodicals as were within reach, and gave their lives to the duties of their profession, cach day endeavoring to learn more and more of its mysteries. They sacri- ficed home, early friendships and associations, forsook the comforts of civilization and refine- ment and came to an almost howling wilder- ness, with all its lack of comforts, for the pur- pose of practicing what they believed to be a noble and honorable profession, and for all this hoping only to secure for themselves future homes and an honorable place in society. The few surviving pioncers hold these men in grateful remembrance, and are ready to accord to them

their justly deserved measure of praise, and thank them for many an act of mercy and kindness extended to them in their hours of affliction, pain and death.

With these prefatory remarks, we commence our list of the doctors of Crawford County, at the same time thanking many of the pro- fession and others for the aid they have so kindly extended to us in the work.

Bucyrus .- Dr. Rhodes, most probably the first physician of the place, came here in the latter part of the year 1822, a few months after the village was laid out. He remained but a short time, and we have been able to gather but little of his history during his stay, and do not know what became of him after he left. While here, he partially extracted a tooth for an aunt of Dr. Squiers, of Sulphur Springs. When the tooth was nearly out of the socket, he pushed it back in place, remarking that it would never ache again-a statement which was verified by the after-history of the tooth, which remained in situ many years afterward, but never ached. We need scarcely remark that there were no dentists in those days, and when teeth became troublesome, the doctor was called upon to extract them. Doctors, for this purpose, did not use the various kinds of forceps now in use, but an instrument called very often a pullicon. This operated on the principle of the cant-hook, having a point d'appui, or fulcrum, and a hook. The fulcrum was placed on the tooth and gum, on the inside, usually, while the hook passed over it and caught it as low down as possible. By a simple " turn of the wrist," the tooth came out or was broken off-frequently the latter, leav- ing the patient in a worse condition than before, since the doctor was not usually pro- vided with the necessary instruments to remove the remaining portion. We are not acquainted with the etymology of the name "pullicon," but suppose it had reference to the fact that it frequently pulled the tooth in a great variety

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History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 37

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1034