USA > Ohio > Madison County > History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions > Part 53
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Dr. Isaac Newton Hamilton, who was reared at Richwood, Union county, Ohio, brother of Congressman Cornelius Hamilton and Prof. John W. Hamilton, of Colum- bus, Ohio, remained at Amity from about 1852 to 1855, when he moved to Unionville Center, Union county; afterward to Milford Center and then to Marysville.
Dr. John Colliver and Dr. Thomas W. Forshee, whose careers have been touched on in previous paragraphs relating to the town of Jefferson, also for a time were physicians at Amity.
Dr. William H. Jewett, a good physician and an exemplary gentleman, was for years successfully engaged in practice at Amity.
MIDWAY.
Dr. Jehial Gregory was probably the first resident physician of Midway, he having located there about the year 1833. He married Susan Hazle, of London, the county seat, prior to his marriage having boarded at the hotel then kept by John M. Blue, father-in-law of John Dungan, of London. He moved from Midway to Mt. Sterling
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about 1835, and became the first resident physician there. He studied for the pro- fession with Doctor Martin, of Bloomingsburg, Fayette county, Ohio.
Doctor Clarke was the second physician at Midway, locating there about 1835, remain- ing about two years, at the end of which time he went to London, the county seat, and boarded with Colonel Lewis and practiced there for a short time, then moved to Michigan.
Dr. Milton Lemen was probably the third resident physician of Midway. He was born on March 1, 1819, in Range township, Clark county, Ohio, a son of Judge John and Rebecca (Donelson) Lemen. Judge Lemen's wife is said to have been an aunt to Gen. Andrew Jackson's wife. The Lemens were natives of Virginia and emigrated from Tennessee to Ohio. Milton Lemen studied medicine with Dr. Robert Houston, of South Charleston, Ohio, and located at Midway in 1843, soon acquiring an immense practice thereabout. He was a man of great energy, tall, wiry, restive, impetuous-a kind of steam-engine man, and was a good-an extra good physician. In the fall of 1860, he was elected to the Ohio State Legislature as an independent Republican. He removed to London, the county seat, in 1862. and. in 1863, was appointed by President Lincoln an examining surgeon for the counties of Madison, Clark, Greene and Franklin. He was attacked with paralysis in 1865, before his discharge from the service, and died at his home in London, this county, April 24, 1879. He had led a very inactive life for the fourteen years preceding his death, owing to his paralytic condition.
Dr. John W. Greene, who was at Midway about 1844, moved from there to Fair- field, Greene county, where he married a sister of Judge James Winans.
Dr. Nelson Strong Darling, a native of Massachusetts, who was graduated from Starling Medical College, in February, 1853, located in Midway in the same year. He subsequently married a daughter of Doctor Wetmore, of Worthington, Ohio, and located for a few years at. London, moving thence to Indiana. He was a bright, energetic little man, and successful in business. He was a brother of Mrs. R. L. Howards, whose husband was for many years the distinguished professor of surgery in Starling Medi- cal College.
Doctor Garrard was also a practitioner and druggist at Midway for several years, and Dr. Washington Atkinson was probably the next practitioner.
Dr. Orestes G. Field, born in Canaan township, this county, son of Dr. Abel W. Field, for a number of years a practitioner at Amity, was a practitioner at Midway for several years, having located there after the war. He was graduated from Starling Medical College about the year 1858. He moved from Amity to South Solon; this county.
.Dr. D. A. Morse. later and for years superintendent of a private hospital for the insane at Oxford, Ohio, also was a practitioner at Amity for a time, as was Doctor Seaton, also. Dr. A. Ogan. born on August 4, 1841, in Greene county, Ohio, was edu- cated in the public schools, read medicine with Dr. C. H. Sparrh, of Jamestown; Greene county. was graduated from Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1873, and located the same year in Midway. He was married, in October, 1861, to Miss Z. B. Owens, at Port William, Clinton county, this state, daughter of Dr. William Owens, of Wilmington, Clinton county.
Dr. J. Finley Kirkpatrick, son of James S. and Sarah A. Kirkpatrick, was born in Kosciusko county, Indiana, July 17, 1848: moved with his parents when young to Bloom- ington. Illinois, and there received a liberal education. He read medicine in 1872-73 with Doctors Finley and Mcclellan, attended lectures in 1874-75-76 in Keokuk, Iowa, and was graduated in the latter year. He then practiced medicine in Paintersville and James- town, Greene county, and located in Midway on October 13, 1877. He was married In
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Mt. Sterling, this county, September 26, 1878, to Kate Bonham, daughter of William J. and Letitia J. Bonham, of Midway; this county.
LAFAYETTE.
The first settled physician in Lafayette was Dr. Christian Anklin, a German and an educated gentleman, whose wife, Martha, an English woman, was a sister of Rich- ard Cowling, of London, this county. Doctor Anklin came to Madison county from the East, probably from Philadelphia, where he had married only a few months before, and bought a lot at the first sale of town lots by auction in Lafayette. He had a fine professional standing and enjoyed, to a large extent, the confidence of the better class of people. After a few years spent in Lafayette he moved to Springfield, Ohio, where he shortly after died.
Doctor Hornbeck probably succeeded him. He married a daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth Simpson, of Lafayette.
Dr. M. Valentine, a native of Ohio, and a graduate of Starling Medical College, arrived in Lafayette about 1847 and stayed there two years Leaving Lafayette he moved to Royalton, Fairfield county, Ohio, and subsequently to Pulaski, Licking county, Ohio, where he was engaged in practice many years. One of his sons was graduated from Starling Medical College about the year 1872.
Dr. Ransford Rodgers, a native of Vermont, sold his location at Royalton to Doc- tor Valentine, and was his successor at practice in Lafayette, where he located in 1840. He was a graduate of a medical school and had a good practice, but remained only a few years.
Doctor Cheney was probably the next, and he must have located there as early as 1849. He was an Eclectic. He had an extensive practice, but moved to Iowa in 1855.
Dr. William Morrow Beach, a native of Madison county, located at Lafayette in September, 1855, he having practiced two years previously at Unionville Center, in Union county, having been graduated from Starling Medical College in 1853. He remained at Lafayette (marrying there on the 12th of June, 1860) until April, 1862, when he went into the army as a surgeon. Returning, in July, 1865, immediately after being mustered out of the service, he located on a farm two miles west of Lafayette, on the London road. where he long lived, practicing his profession.
Dr. John Colliver, who also was one of Lafayette's early physicians, is mentioned in connection with the period of his more extended practice at Jefferson.
Dr. Nathaniel J. Sawyer, youngest son of Nathaniel Sawyer, an early land specu- lator in Madison county, was born in Kentucky. He was graduated from a Cincinnati medical college, and was, one year thereafter, an interne at one of the city hospitals. He subsequently went as physician on board an- ocean vessel bound for Valparaiso, South America, and remained at Valparaiso, engaged in the practice of his profession for two or three years. Upon his return to the United States he improved his farm house on the national road. two miles east of Lafayette, brought a young bride from Kentucky there. built a nice office and commenced practice, about 1861. Shortly there- after he sold his farm to John Snyder and moved to another one of his farms up in the Dunu settlement. He sold out and moved, about 1870. to Kentucky.
Dr. Edward Granville Forshee, born in Clark county, Ohio, studied with Dr. W. M. Beach, of Lafayette, and with his brother, Thomas W. Forshee, at Amity, this county, and was graduated from a medical school in Cincinnati, later locating in Hilliards, Franklin county, where he remained for about three years, and where he married. About 1863 he located in Lafayette, and in about 1867 moved to Illinois.
Benjamin F. Bierbaugh. who was born in Lafayette, youngest son of Christopher Bierbaugh, studied medicine with Dr. A. H. Underwood, of London, the county seat, -
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and was at Lafayette during the last two years of his student life. He attended one course of lectures at Starling Medical College, but died of pulmonary hemorrhage just before he was to have entered upon his last course of lectures previous to his graduation. He was a highly respected young man and his untimely taking off was universally lamented.
Dr. B. F. Adams, who came from Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was located at Lafayette for a few months in the summer of 1881.
Dr. W. F. Wallace, a native of New Hampshire, and formerly a peripatetic school- master of this county, located at Lafayette in the spring of 1881, immediately after taking his degree at Columbus Medical College. but left for New Hampshire in the fall of the same year.
Dr. Sidney C. Teters, who was born in Wayne county, Ohio, and reared in Athens county, married, first, Margaret Gibson, of Meigs county, April 9, 1857, and, secondly, Esther M. Carpenter, of Meigs county, June 2, 1880. He was graduated from the Eclec- tic Medical Institute at Cincinnati in 1873 and practiced in Athens county for about fourteen years; in Vinton county, ten years, and located in Lafayette in the spring of 1882.
SUMMERFORD.
Dr. Daniel Wilson, who settled in Summerford in 1837, was a botanic physician and was one of the best known physicians who ever practiced there. He was a member of the German Baptist church (Dunkards) and a deacon among them, occasionally preach- ing for them and conducting the exercises on funeral occasions. He died near there on the 27th of May, 1867. He was born in Kentucky, June 5, 1801.
Dr. John Zimmerman, a quadroon Pottawatomie Indian, was the next physician to locate at Summerford, he having previously practiced in South Solon, this county. He located in Summerford about 1848. He also was a Christian preacher and organized the first Christian church there. He afterward went to Liverpool, this state, where he practiced for awhile, from about 1852. The boys over on the Little Darby .called. him Doctor "Rutabaga," on account of his being a "herb doctor." He was a good practi- tioner and an able preacher.
Dr. William Adams, who had read medicine with Dr. Enoch Thomas, of London, the county seat, about 1844, practiced in Summerford two or three years, at the end of which time he moved to Clinton, Illinois. He was a brother of Eli H. Adams, of Som- erford township, and J. T. Colliver, of Jefferson, married one of his daughters.
Dr. Andrew Summers, who located at Summerford about 1848, did not remain long, presently moving West. Dr. Daniel Bell was also there for a short time and also a Doctor Ecord. Dr. J. H. Graham settled there about 1863 and remained about one year, at the end of which time he moved to South Charleston, Ohio.
Dr. Edwin Guy Keifer, son of James and Deniza (Reed) Keifer, born on May 21, 1846, in Fairfield township, Greene county, Ohio, enlisted on August 15, 1862, in Com- pany H, Forty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out at the close of the war. He enjoyed the luxury of "sticking his legs under the mahogany" for one month at Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, General Rasser having surprised the "camp at Beverly, Virginia, by night, "taking in nearly" the entire "command, his regiment having been changed to a cavalry command. He commenced the study of medicine under John W. Greene, of Fairfield, Ohio, and was graduated from the Cincinnati Col- lege of Medicine and Surgery in the spring of 1871, and immediately thereafter located in Summerford. He was married on January 15, 1868. to Lou Snediker, of Fairfield.
Dr. Milton C. Sprague, son of Dr. James B. Sprague, born in Harmony township, Clark county, Ohio, October 23, 1849, was graduated from the Cincinnati Medical Col- lege in June, 1874, and practiced with his father in London, the county seat, until Jan-
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uary, 1880, at which time he located at Summerford. He was married on August 20, 1874, to Alice C. Hurd, of Vienna, Clark county, Ohio.
LIVERPOOL.
Dr. Jeremiah Curl, son of Thomas Curl, was born near Mechanicsburg, Ohio; stud- ied medicine with Dr. Abner Cheney, of that place, and located in Liverpool about 1840. He afterward moved to Marysville, Ohio, where he became a prominent physician.
Dr. Marshall Perry Converse located in Liverpool in 1846. In 1847 he received into partnership his cousin, Dr. Jeremiah Converse, then direct from his well-earned honors as a graduate of Starling Medical College, and they were partners for two years. Dr. M. P. Converse moved West and died in Champaign county, Illinois, in 1856. He was a brother of Dr. George Converse, of Georgesville, Franklin county, who was the father of Congressman George L. Converse.
Dr. John Zimmerman, who located at Liverpool about 1851, was probably a son of the Zimmerman mentioned in connection with reference to the physicians of South Solon. and probably the same man mentioned under the several headings, California and Summerford.
Dr. Joseph C. Kalb, who was born and reared on a farm near Canal Winchester, Ohio, was a pupil under Dr. James F. Boal, of that place and Amity. He was graduated from Starling Medical College in 1854 and located at Liverpool the same year. During the Civil War he was assistant surgeon in the Fortieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Dr. Andrew Sabin, who practiced medicine in Liverpool in about 1857-58, was a distinguished surgeon in the army, who later moved to Marysville. Dr. F. M. Carter, a native of Virginia, located in Liverpool about 1865 and for years was a practicing phy- sician there.
BOUTH BOLON.
Dr. John Zimmerman, said to have been a quadroon Pottawatomie. was the first resident physician at Solon. He is thought to have been the father of the Dr. John Zimmerman, who is noticed elsewhere as having been a practicing physician at Sum- merford, Liverpool and California. He probably died at Solon. Doctor Parker was probably the next. He moved to Tipton county, Indiana. Dr. Alfred Jones, from Charleston, was located at South Solon eight or ten years, at the end of which time he moved to Burlington, Iowa. Doctor Winans, from Xenia, Ohio, also was an early prac- titioner at South Solon. Dr. Thomas Adams was there in 1847, and was followed by Doctor Glass.
Doctor Ernest located at South Solon about 1861, and Dr. Washington Atkinson located there about 1866. The latter, who had studied with Doctor Curtis, of South Charleston, Ohio, previously had practiced at Midway. The next to locate at South Solon was Dr. John S. Smith, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, a graduate in med- Icine. Dr. Thomas Wessinger and Dr. H. G. Mcclellan also practiced at that point.
Dr. O. G. Field, son of Dr. Abel W. Field, was reared at Amity, this county, and studied medicine, in part, with his father. He was graduated from Starling Medical College and practiced at London, California and Midway, as well as at South Solon. Dr. John Sidner, who was graduated from Columbus Medical College with the class of 1882, located for a short time at Jefferson, and then moved to Solon.
CALIFORNIA.
Doctor Davis, probably the first resident physician of Fairfield township, Ifved about three miles northeast of where the village of California now stands. Doctor (24)
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Holmes built the first house in the village, in 1849. He began practicing there the same year, and when a postoffice was established there he was appointed the first postmaster. Doctor McComb, from South Charleston, Ohio, located there in 1851; Dr. Dennis Warner, in 1853; Dr. John Zimmerman and his son-in-law, Doctor Martin, about 1854, and Dr. B. F. Welch, in 1855. The latter was a pupil of Dr. A. H. Baker and also of Dr. Jennet Stutson, of Jefferson.
Dr. Orestes G. Field, who located at California about 1858, had as a partner Doctor Thomas, who had previously been a partner of Doctor Strain's at London. Doctor Field was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, March 19, 1864, and was promoted to surgeon of the same regiment on October 25, 1864.
Dr. Charles W. Higgins, son of Charles Higgins, was born and reared near Alton, Franklin county, Ohio, and was a soldier in the Union army during the Rebellion. He studied medicine with Dr. Richard Woodruff, of Alton, Ohio, and was graduated from Starling Medical College, after which he located at California, about 1865. He com- bined merchandising with his profession and prospered. Doctor Smeltzer, a graduate of Miami Medical College, located there in 1882.
TRADERSVILLE.
Dr. Thomas P. Bond, who was born in Harrison county, West Virginia, June 13, 1825, studied medicine in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and was graduated at Laporte, Indiana, in 1847. He located at Tradersville about 1847, and boarded first with Isaac Fox, and afterward with Abram Lewis. He moved to Mechanicsburg about 1850, and was elected treasurer of Champaign county in 1861. He was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Sixty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but had to resign on account of ill health. Recovering his health after his return home, he was again tempted to accept a commission in the Thirty-second Regiment, Ohio Voluntary Infantry, of which he became the surgeon. Again breaking down in health, he again had to resign his com- mission. Doctor Bond was a good physician and an educated and accomplished gentle- man. He died at his home in Mechanicsburg of disease contracted in the army, March 28, 1866. He was married on September 9, 1851, to Mary J. Blew, who survived him.
NEWPORT.
Doctor Thornburg was the first resident physician at Newport. Dr. Anderson Nei- barger, who was born in Pleasant township, Clark county, studied medicine with Doc- tor Thornburg, and practiced first at London, from about 1865, for about one year, and then at Newport for four or five years, 'and moved to Jamestown, Greene county, near which place he died, about 1875. He married a Miss Morse, of near Catawba, Clark county, a sister of Mrs. David Woosley.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Riggin, who was born on May 1, 1844, in Pickaway county, near Mt. Sterling. son of Isaac C. and Lucinda (Baker) Riggin, spent five years at Ohio Wesleyan University and left at the end of his junior year, in 1862. He then became a pupil under Dr. John Holton, of Mt. Sterling, and was graduated from Starling Med- ical College with the class of 1865. During the previous year he had been a partner in practice with Dr. John Holton, at Mt. Sterling, and upon receiving his diploma, returned to Mt. Sterling, and practiced there until 1875, in which year he went to Columbus, where he remained one year, at the end of which time he located at Newport, where he remained until Septmber, 1882, in which month he moved to London, the county seat. He was married on May 17, 1865, to Isabella Leach, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Bostwick) Leach.
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DANVILLE.
Dr. William McClintick, a brother of the Dr. Samuel McClintick who has been referred to as a pioneer physician of Mt. Sterling, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, near Zanesville, in 1817. He studied medicine with Dr. James F. Wilson, of New Hol- land, Ohio, and located in Mt. Sterling in 1840, where he practiced for about twenty years. He was graduated from Starling Medical College in 1848. He bought a farm two miles east of Danville, and moved to it in 1860, wl.ere he died on November 21, 1871. of cancer. He was a good physician ; Danville was a good point, and his excessive labor in his profession probably brought an untimely death. In 1842 he married Han- nah Reeves, who died in 1845, without issue. In 1847 he married Fannie Reeves, sister of his first wife, who, with two daughters and one son, survived him.
Dr. Thomas Reeves McClintick, who was born in Mt. Sterling, this county, in 1848, . read medicine with his father, Dr. William McClintick, and was graduated from the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati in 1870. He lived on his father's farm until 1877, in which year he married Sarah Howsman, and then moved into the village of Danville. In . 1880 he moved to Kansas City, Missouri.
Dr. James Bradley Morgan was born in Ross county, Ohio; read medicine with Dr. William Latta, of Frankfort. that county, and was graduated from the Ohio Med- ical College at Cincinnati in 1869. locating at Danville the same year. He stayed about one year and then moved to Clarksburg, Ross county. Dr. C. M. Deem, who located at Danville on the 11th of August. 1881, had practiced at Plain .City and at Lilly Chapel, .Ohio, before going to Danville.
LILLY CHAPEL.
Dr. L. F. Scofield, the first physician to locate at Lilly Chapel, was born at Hilliards Station. Norwich township. Franklin county, Ohio. September 12, 1853, studied with Dr. J. M. Merryman. of Hilliards, and was graduated from Columbus Medical College in Feb- ruary. 1881. He located at Lilly Chapel on the 23rd of March, 1881.
THE SICKLY SEASONS OF 1822-23.
In 1873-74 a series of articles were contributed to the Plain City Press by Dr. Jere- miah Converse, of Darby township, in one of which he gives the following graphic description of the malarial epidemic that spread desolation over the eastern part of Madison county sixty years ago. He says: "In 1822-23 this country was visited with a terrible epidemic, which struck down many of the hardy pioneers and laid them low in the dust. There are those yet in our midst whose minds will instinctively go back, upon the mention of these years, to the sorrows and sufferings experienced by them- selves. and the inroads and devastating raids of death over a large scope of territory, npon neighborhoods and families. There was scarcely a family in all this great scope of country (Darby Plains) in which death had not marked one or more of its members as its victim. Children were made orphans. the wife a widow, the husband deprived of his companion. parents rendered childless, and in some instances every member of the family was stricken down by the fell monster.
"No tongne can describe, no pen portray. to the mind or imagination of the reader. the scenes of suffering witnessed and experienced by these early settlers. All business transactions ceased, gloom brooded over the minds of the people. and many stout hearts were made to tremble in awe of the impending doom that seemed to await them.' Death reigned supreme. Men and women who were not prostrated with disease were busy day and night ministering to the wants of the needy, mitigating the suffering of the sick and consoling the grief-stricken widow and orphan children. whose dependence had been ruthlessly torn from their embrace. The condition of many of these sufferers was beartrending. Away from the homes of their childhood, separated from kindred and
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friends by a vast intervening distance of forest, mountain and river, with no kind parental voice whispering consolation to the broken-hearted, no loving mother to imprint the kiss of affection or check the fast-flowing teardrops on the fevered cheek; wipe the cold perspiration from the brow of her dying child, or bid a last farewell to the remains of her loved one. 'Truly here was 'pestilence that walketh in darkness' and a 'destruc- tion that wasteth at noonday.' Many were the bitter tears of anguish wrung in these two years; many a household was hushed in the stillness of death; and still many were the families where one or more of the little group were laid low by the king of terrors.
"Some of my readers, perhaps, may think that I have overdrawn the picture, but this description is but an imperfect outline of the realities that were experienced in those days. Many, no doubt, would have been saved could they have had proper care and attention; but where should they look for help? Scarcely a family but what had their sick or dying; the few that were not prostrated with disease were worked down with constant watching; yet these messengers of mercy visited each day all the sick that were assigned them in their division, to administer to the wants of the living and prepare the dead for burial.
ONE DISTRESSING INCIDENT.
"One instance among the many might be given of loneliness, mental and physical suffering; where the wife, prostrated on a bed of sickness, unable even to help herself to a cup of water, had three small children crying to their mother to attend to their wants for food and drink. In another part of the room the husband and father lay in the cold embrace of death. For twenty-four hours this helpless group of sufferers was shut out, as it were, from the world, with no visible hand to minister to their wants or whisper consolation to their bleeding hearts, surrounded by the stillness of death, occasionally broken by the children's cries of 'Mother, mother,' and the deep, heavy sighs of that mother as she looked upon the helpless forms of her babes. This is but one among the many causes of privation and suffering that was experienced by the early settlers of this county. So threatennig were the consequences from this terrible malady that many of those who had the means at their command left this part of the state to escape the desolation that seemed as if it would spare none; but a large majority of the inhabitants were compelled to remain. Some were so poor that to procure means would be impossible, while others, again, had invested all their money in land, which, at that time, under the threatened depopulation, could not be sold at any price. Thus they were compelled to stay and undergo whatever might await them. Sickness reigned so universal that but few were in attendance to pay the last tribute of respect to the dead, or follow them to their last resting-places. There were a few instances where the father was compelled to make the rude coffin, dig the grave and deposit beneath the clods of the valley the loved form of his child.
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