USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of Dayton, Ohio. With portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneer and prominent citizens Vol. 2 > Part 18
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Nothing further could be learned with reference to any of these socie- ties, and the probability is, that they were permitted to expire without further effort to continue their labors. .
In a chapter of this kind it will hardly be expected that mention of all the physicians that have been in Dayton can be made. All that can be done is to notice a few of the more prominent ones, and it is not pretended that many of those who are not mentioned are not as worthy as many of those that are. The first physician to practice in Dayton was James Welsh, M. D., D.D., who was also pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. IIe commenced practice here in 1804, and remained until 1817. William Murphy, M. D., was here from 1804 to 1809. Jolin Elliott, M. D., was also an carly physician of the place, and died in 1809. Dr. P. Wood came to Dayton in 1800, and advertised that he had taken part of the building occupied by David Reid where he might at all times be found by those who needed medical or surgical aid. Dr. Charles Este came here in 1810. Dr. N. Edwards came in 1811. HIc raised a company of soldiers during the war of 1812, and with it marched to Detroit. Dr. John Steele came in 1812, and remained until 1854. Dr. Job Ilaines came in 1817, and remained until his death in 1860. Dr. William Blodgett came in 1818. Dr. Edwin Smith was here in 1826. Drs. Hibberd and Adams Jewett are mentioned in later pages. Dr. William Lindsey was here in 1826. Dr. David Jordan came in 1831, and offered his services to the public by means of advertisements, as was customary in those days. He said that he belonged to the Reformed or Botanical School of Medicine, and would practice that system as taught in the Reformed Medical College of the city of New York. Dr. D. L. Terry came in 1832 and formed a partner- ship with Dr. Jordan. Dr. Elisha Brown, Jr., was a prominent physician of Dayton about 1840. He was drowned in White River, at Indianapolis, 35
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
Indiana, June 30, 1843. Dr. Jacob Coblentz and Dr. Edward Bantz were in partnership in the practice of medicine in 1849. Numerous other physicians came from time to time, and brief professional sketches of some of them, who were among the oldest class of doctors, and also a few of those who are now in practice are inserted in this chapter.
The following is a copy of what is believed to have been the first bill by a medical man in Dayton. It was furnished by Dr. J. C. Reeves, who was indebted for it to the kindness of Mrs. John G. Lowe:
FEBRUARY 18, 1811. H. G. PHILLIPS TO JAMES WELSH, DR. 1
1811.
August 15. To delivery of lady and attendance, afterward spirits laud., oil cin.,
and large paper of magnes. $10 00
August 22. To one visit and advice. 50
October 11. To oz. ij elixir paregoric. 564
November 2-3. To five visits, one in the night, ten drs. phosphorated soda, and oz. magnes alb. for lady 2 00
December 6. To two visits and oz. iv. phial antispasmodic for child 1 25
December 7.
To visit and oz. ij elixir paregoric for child. 62%
December 17-18. To visit and phial antispasmodic medicine oz. ij spirits nitre and oz. ij elixir paregoric. 2 121%
December 23. To visit and advice 50
December 28.
To two visits, box mercurial ointment and oz. ij conserve roses. 1 18%
December 30.
To three visits, phial anodyne medicine and three portions of calomel for child 1 25
1812
January 1.
To visit and advice 50
January 1.
To bottle laxative absorbent medicine. 75
January 2.
To attendance through the day and night, one large blister, sundry injections, scarifications, one bottle Godfrey's cordial, and sun- dry portions of calomel and ipecac. 2 50
23 75
15 91
7 84
.
John Steele, M. D., was the son of Robert and Agnes Coulter Steele, and was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, April 1, 1791. He was educated at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, and afterward attended lectures in the medical department of the University of Pennsyl- vania, at Philadelphia, of which college the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush was a professor and lecturer. Dr. Steele chose Dayton as the place for the commencement of the practice of his profession, because it was the resi- dence of his brother James Steele. During the war of 1812 he found ample opportunity to nse and increase his knowledge of surgery, and thus to better prepare himself for a career in the practice of that branch of his profession which was much more than ordinarily successful. His practice was not confined to the city of Dayton, but extended to much of
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MEDICAL HISTORY.
the County of Montgomery, and the field of his labors was thus very extensive. His success in his profession. was doubtless owing in part at least to the unnsnal geniality and kindness of his nature, and to his inex- haustible fund of wit and humor, which did much to relieve the pain and despondeney of the sick room. His life was so uniform in its course and in its events, that in a professional sketch of this kind within the limits assigned to such sketches but little can be said except of a general nature. He had been a member, and also at one time president of the Montgomery County Medical Society. Immediately after his death, October 21, 1854, the society passed a series of resolutions of respect and of culogy, and attended his funeral in a body.
Dr. Job Haines was born October 28, 1791, in the State of New Jersey. He was furnished by his parents with the means of a collegiate education. Having graduated at Princeton, and having prepared himself for the medical profession at Morristown and Philadelphia, he left his father's house July 5, 1815, and arrived at Cincinnati Angust 2d. After a visit to friends at Springfield, he came to Dayton, where he commenced the practice of medicine on the 20th of Jannary, 1817. He continued in the practice of his profession until his death, which occurred July 23, 1860. Dr. Haines was a man of great merit, but was more retiring and modest than many others. He was a good physician of the old school, and had the respect and confidence of the conununity to the highest degree. Few, if any, of the early pioneers of Dayton were missed more at their death than Dr. Haines.
John W. Shriver, M. D., was born in Chester County, in 1812. IIe was educated at Jefferson College, and read medicine with Dr. Hayes at. Centerville, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. After being thus engaged about three years, he succeeded to the practice of Dr. Hayes, who died at that time. He practiced there until about 1852, when he came to Dayton, and remained in practice here until his death, in 1875. Dr. Shriver was an excellent physician, as well as an excellent man. He , was always very considerate of the necessities of the poor, and had a very extensive practice.
Oliver Crook, M. D., was born in Wayne Township, Montgomery County, Ohio, August 14, 1818. His first study of medicine was with Drs. Elias and Michael Garst, and he then attended lectures at the medical department of the University of New York, graduating there in 1847. Ile was also in attendance at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and commenced practice in Dayton in 1847. After being in practice here some years, he went to the Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York for some time, in order that he might make diseases of those
1
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
organs one of his specialties. He was in partnership with Dr. Koogler a few years, and afterward with his brother, Dr. James Crook, the latter partnership being terminated by the death of Dr. James Crook, in 1855. From this time until his death, April 28, 1873, he was in practice alone. His practice was very large among all classes in Dayton, and it is believed that its exacting requirements very materially shortened his life.
Clarke MeDermont, M. D., was born in Ireland in 1823. Having received a classical education, he emigrated to America; was for a time principal of a private school in Lexington, Kentucky, and there began his professional studies under the celebrated Dr. Dudley, of Transylvania Uni- versity. Graduating with the degree M. D. from the University of New York, in 1849, he subsequently attended lectures in the medical schools of Edinburgh, and upon returning to America, in 1850, was associated with Prof. Detmold, of New York, as his assistant in teaching a class of medical students and in the management of his surgical clinic. Ile was a member of the American Association and of the Montgomery County Medical Society, being president of the latter in 1860. In 1861, he was appointed surgeon of the Second Ohio Regiment; was promoted to be surgeon of United States volunteers in April, 1862; was medical director of the right wing of the army of the Cumberland in 1862-1863; was surgeon in charge of the Cumberland United States army hospital at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1863-1864, and subsequently of the officers' hospital at Louisville, Ken- tucky. He is honorably mentioned in General Rosecrans' report of the battle of Murfreesboro for "gallantry on the battle-field " and " great humanity in the care of the wounded." In recognition of his services he received the brevet ( relative) rank of lieutenant-colonel United States volunteers. At the close of the war he was appointed surgeon-general of Ohio, and from 1867 to 1874 held the position of chief surgeon to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, near Dayton, having some two thousand beneficiaries.
Samuel G. Armor, M. D., was born in Washington County, Pennsyl- vania, January 29, 1818, of Scotch-Irish parentage. While young, his parents moved to Ohio. He received his education at Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, and the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in the same institution, at its commencement in June, 1872. He studied medicine with Dr. James S. Irvine, of Millersburg, Ohio, and graduated in the Missouri Medical College in 1844. Soon after his graduation he located at Rockford, Illinois. In 1847 he accepted an invitation to deliver 1 a special course of lectures ou physiology in the Rush Medical College, Chicago, and the following year he was tendered the chair of physiology
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MEDICAL HISTORY.
and pathology in the same institution, which he declined for the reason that he had just accepted the same chair in the medical department of the Iowa University, located at Keokuk, Iowa. HIe subsequently resigned his chair in this institution and accepted the chair of natural sciences in the Cleveland University, in the meantime devoting him- self to the general practice of his profession. In July, 1853, the Ohio State Medical Society awarded to Dr. Armor a prize for his essay on the "Zymotie Theory of the Essential Fevers," and during the same year he resigned the chair of the natural sciences in the Cleveland University, and accepted the chair of physiology and pathology in the medical college at Cincinnati, Ohio. During the following year he was transferred to the chair of pathology and practice of medicine and clinical medicine, made vacant by the resignation of Professor L. M. Lawson, which chair he continued to fill during his connection with the school. In may, 1856, Dr. Armor was married to Mary M. Holcomb, of Dayton, Ohio, and soon after resigned his position in the Medical College of Ohio, and transferred his residence to this city. Imme- diately after his resignation in the Medical College of Ohio, he was elected to the chair of pathology and clinical medicine in the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis, of which institution he was an alumnus. In 1861, he was tendered the chair of institutes of medicine and materia medica in the University of Michigan, which position he accepted, making his residence at Detroit. In 1866, he accepted the chair of therapeutics, " materia medica and general pathology in Long Island College Hospital, of Brooklyn, New York, and the following year he was transferred to the chair of practice of medicine and clinical medicine made vacant by the resignation of Professor Austin Flint, which position he held until his death.
John Davis, M. D., was a native of Virginia, and was a graduate of Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1847. For a few years he practiced medicine in the country, and came to Dayton in 1850. Here he remained in practice the rest of his life, practicing alone with the exception of the two years, during which time, from April 1, 1881, to his death, June 10, 1883, he was in partnership with Dr. George Goodhue. For many years Dr. Davis was one of the most prominent physicians in Dayton, had a very large practice, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the entire community. The better he was known the better he was appreciated. He was one of nature's true noblemen, with a large heart and a generous disposition. He gave his attention largely to surgery, and had most of the work in this department of practice that the railroads centering in Dayton required to have done. He was a member of the
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
Ohio State Medical Society and of the Montgomery County Medical Society, and was consulting surgeon in St. Elizabeth's Hospital. He was one of the trustees of the Dayton asylum for the insane, and was very influential in scenring the location of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at this place.
Hibberd Jewett, M. D., was born in Putney, Vermont, November 9, 1799. He graduated from the medical department of Dartmouth College in 1820, and from that time until his removal to Dayton, in 1828 or 1832, practiced medicine in Vermont or New Hampshire, or both. He was, of course, an allopathic physician and practiced according to the principles of that school until his death, October 26, 1870, enjoying a large practice and the confidence of the community in an unusual degree. He had, as a' partner in his practice, his brother, Adams Jewett, from 1842 to 1859 or 1860; for the rest of the time he practiced alone.
Adams Jewett was born July 26, 1807, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Ile graduated as bachelor of arts from Dartmouth College in 1827. He then studied medicine in Paris from 1834 to the early part of 1837, and went thence to Edinburgh, Scotland, where during the same year he received his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons. Returning to the United States, he entered upon the practice of medicine in Mobile, Alabama, remaining there until 1842, when he came to Dayton and entered into partnership with his brother, Hibberd Jewett, which partner- ship lasted until 1859 or 1860, when it was dissolved, and Dr. Adams Jewett practiced alone until 1870, when he took into partnership his son, Henry S. Jewett, who graduated as a bachelor of arts from the University of Michigan in 1868, and from the medical department of that university in 1870. In 1872, Dr. II. S. Jewett went to Europe and studied medicine for a year and a half at Berlin and Vienna, returning to Dayton in the latter part of 1873. The partnership between Dr. Adams Jewett and Dr. H. S. Jewett continued until the death of the former in 1875, since when the latter has been engaged in practice on his own account.
Thomas L. Neal, M. D., was born in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, in 1830. He was educated at the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, and was appointed house physician at St. John's Hospital in that city, serving in that capacity one year. He served as surgeon in connection with the Second West Virginia Regiment of Cavalry during a portion of the war, and then located at Dayton, where he practiced medicine the rest of his life. He was health officer of the city for about ten years. Ile practiced medicine in partnership with Dr. Jennings for three years, from 1870 to 1873. He was a member of the board of pension examiners during 1872, and he was a member of the American Health
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MEDICAL HISTORY.
Association, and of the Ohio Medical Society, and also of the Mont- gomery County Medical Society. His death occurred in February, 1885. Dr. Neal was one of the most prominent and esteemed members of the medical profession in the city of Dayton, and was also highly honored in social circles.
Edmund Smith, M. D., was born on Long Island, N. Y., July 1, 1816. He graduated at Miami University in 1835, and took his degree of medicine at the Medical College of New York City. In 1839, he entered upon the practice of medicine in Dayton, and continued in the practice here until his death, August 15, 1851. He enjoyed a high reputation as a physician. During the cholera epidemic of 1849, he was chosen physician of the cholera hospital, and in this trying and responsi- ble position acquitted himself in a manner at once creditable to his skill as a physician and his firinness and courage as a man.
Jolm Wise, M. D., one of the oldest resident physicians of Dayton, studied medicine at Damascus, Ohio, with Drs. Solomon Schreve and John Vale. He commenced his studies with them in 1842, and remained a student there until the latter part of 1844, passing two of the winters in Cleveland, Ohio, attending lectures in the medical department of the Western Reserve College, the college, however, being located at Hudson, Ohio. . In 1841 he graduated from the Cleveland college, and settled down to the practice of medicine at Petersburg, Ohio, where he remained four years, and in 1848 went to Cincinnati. After a practice of one year in Cincinnati he removed to Dayton, arriving bere April 10th of that year, and immediately secured a large practice in connection with the cholera epidemie, in which he was indefatigable in his labors and largely suc- cessful. The extensive practice he then aquired he has since retained. In April, 1861, within twenty-four hours after Fort Sumter was fired upon, Dr. Wise entered the service of the United States, and from that time until the fall of 1864 he was connected with the Mississippi squadron as surgeon, returning then to Dayton, where he has since remained.
John Charles Reeve, M. D., was born in England, June 5, 1826. Ifis parents came to the United States in 1832, and he enjoyed excellent educational advantages until he was twelve years of age. At this time, by family reverses, he was thrown entirely upon his own resources. He learned the printer's trade, and spent several years in the offices of the Cleveland Advertiser and Herald. While thus engaged, and afterward by an attendance of several winters at common schools, and by one summer at an academy, he qualified himself for teaching, and followed this profession as the best means of self-improvement. He then read medi- cine with Dr. John Delamater, professor of obstetrics in the medical
528
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
department of the Western Reserve College, at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1849, he began the practice of medicine in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Some four years afterward he visited Europe for the purpose of further prosecuting his studies. After spending one winter in London, and a summer at the University of Gottingen, Germany, he returned to the United States and settled in Dayton. Here he rapidly won the confidence of the people, and has since occupied a leading position in the community as a physician and surgeon. He is a member of the Montgomery County Medical Society, and has been several times its president. He is also a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, and has been its president ; of the American Medical Association, and of the American Gyneco- logical Society, of which he was one of the founders, and was its first vice-president. His attainments and position have been recognized by his election as an associate fellow of the College of Physicians of Phil- adelphia.
Ellis Jennings, M. D., was born at Wilmington, Ohio, December 29, 1833. He was edneated at the Troy high school and at Antioch College, and graduated at the Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati, in March, 1862. On his retirement from the army, at the close of the civil war, he settled at Dayton in September, 1865. He is a member of the Montgomery County Medical Society, and of the Ohio State Medical Society, of which he was assistant secretary in 1875. He entered the United States Army in August, 1862, as acting assistant surgeon of the Fifth Iowa Infantry, serving at the battle of Corinth, October 4, 1862; at Hospital Number 2, Nashville, Tennessee, from December, 1863, to March, 1865; and at Camp Dennison, Ohio, as post surgeon from March to June, 1865, the close of the war. Since that time he has been continuously engaged in practice, and alone, except during the three years from 1870 to 1873, inelusive, when he was in partnership with Dr. Thomas L. Neal. Ile has been medical director of the Odd Fellows' National Beneficiary Association since its organization.
William Judkins Conklin, A. M., M. D., was born in Sidney, Ohio, December 1, 1844. He entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Dela- ware, Ohio, where he graduated as a bachelor of arts in 1866, and began the study of medicine with his father, Dr. H. S. Conklin, one of the most prominent physicians of the Miami Valley, and graduated from the Medical College of Ohio in the spring of 1868. In 1869, the Detroit Medical College conferred upon him the ad cundem degree. In May following, he was appointed assistant physician of the Dayton asylum for the insane, which position he held until December, 1871, when he resigned to accept a partnership with Dr. J. C. Reeve, of Dayton, and he
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MEDICAL HISTORY.
was thus associated until January, 1876. In the same year he was ap- pointed by Governor R. B. Hayes a member of the board of trustees of the Dayton asylum for the insane. From 1875 to 1886 he was a member of the faculty of Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, first as professor of physiology and afterward as professor of the diseases of children. He is a member of the American Medical Association, of the Ohio State Medical Society, of the State Sanitary Association, and of the Montgomery County Medical Society. He has been a member of the surgical staff of St. Elizabeth Hospital since its organization.
D. W. Greene, M. D., was born in Fairfield, Greene County, Ohio, May 17, 1851. In 1868, he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University and would have graduated from the classical department in 1873, but for an injury received in a fall near the close of the junior year. This caused him to sever his connection with the university, but, notwithstanding, the degree of bachelor of arts was conferred upon him by the university in 1887. On January 1, 1873, he began the study of medicine with his father, and afterward attended three full courses of lectures at the Ohio Medical College and graduated with honors in the spring of 1876, having received the Bartholow prize for best examination in medicine and the Dawson prize for best surgical drawing. After practicing his profession three years in Fairfield with his father, he came to Dayton in May, 1882, the previous year, however, having been spent in New York in the study of diseases of the eye and car. In the fall of 1883, he was appointed oculist and aurist to the Central Branch of the Soldiers' Home and is still serving in that capacity. During 1888 he spent six months in study and observation with the leading oculists and aurists in Europe. He is a member of the Montgomery County and Ohio State medical societies, and is an honorary member of the Northwestern Ohio Medical Society.
Carl II. Von Klein, A. M., M. D., was born in West Prussia, in 1843. He is of Polish origin, his grandfather on his mother's side, Count Sigmund Veutovitch, having been the last treasurer of Poland. Until he was thir- teen years old, he was educated in his father's family by a governess, who taught him three languages, Polish, French, and German. He then pre- pared for college at Marian Weder, West Prussia, and at the age of sixteen entered the gymnasium of Koenigsberg, remaining there until he graduated at the age of twenty-two. He then commenced the study of medicine at the University of Prussia, at Koenigsberg, and from there he went to Berlin, and thence to Prague, remaining two semesters at each place, and then spent one semester at Berlin. In 1867, he passed the " Stat Examin" at Berlin, which entitled hiu to practice medicine. In the same year he was placed as assistant surgeon in the Fifth Army Corps, remaining there one year,
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1
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
when he was transferred to the Sixth Army Corps, remaining in connec- tion therewith until the breaking out of the Franco-Prussian war, when he took charge of a temporary field hospital in the suburbs of Hanover, remaining thus engaged five months. He then went on board the man- of-war, " King Frederick William the Great," remaining there until February 23, 1872, when, after landing at Portland, Maine, he went immediately to Cincinnati, and engaged in the practice of medicine until 1876, when he was ordered by the "Red Cross of Geneva" to take a position in the army during the war in Servia. Ile remained there eight months and returned to the United States in 1877. On June 2d of this year, he was commissioned by the Russian government as surgeon in the Russian army, and served in that capacity until 1880, when he again returned to the United States and settled down to the practice of medicine in Hamilton, Ohio. Here he remained until 1883, when he came to Dayton, and has been here ever since. He now has a large and Incrative practice. Dr. Von Klein is a member of the German National Association of Physicians and Surgeons, of the German Microscopical Association, of the German Laryngological Association, of the German Philological Association, of the International Congress Laryngological and Autolog- ical Association, of the American Medical Association, of the American Academy of Medicine, is ex-president of the American Rhinological Asso- ciation, is a member of the Medico-Legal Association, of the American Microscopieal Association, of the American Medical Editors and Authors' Association, and of several other associations both State and national. Ile is an honorary member of the Moscow Imperial Association, of the Niederlander Association, and of the International Medical Association. HIe is corresponding member of the Medical Society of Geneva, of the Im- perial Society of St. Petersburg, and of the Imperial Society of Bucharest, and he has been decorated with the Order of St. Anna, of St. Vladimir, of St. Stanislaus, and of the Stara Romana.
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