History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 70

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He was married to Miss Jerusha A. Boughton, of Canfield, Mahoning (then Trumbull) county, in 1842. Their children, five in number, are: Charles B., who resides at Watertown, New York; Thomas J., at St. Louis, Missouri; Charlotte E., married to John T. Lanman, at New London, Connecticut; Mary, married to W. T. Jordan, Louisville, Kentucky; and Anna M., at home with her parents.

At the close of forty-one years of pro- fessional life he still continues in the prac- tice of medicine.

Dr. Stilwell's place in the profession has always been with those in front. For the past two years he has been vice-president of the Sandusky County Medical Society, and for many years a member of the State Medical Society. He was among the first appointed pension examining surgeons (February, 1863), which position he held until he resigned in 1879. To his letter of resignation the Commissioner of Pensions replied in very complimentary terms, expressing regret for its having been tendered. He has recently been elected one of the censors of the medical department of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, having held the same position in Charity Hospital Medical College, afterwards known as the Medical Department of Wooster University. Dr. Stilwell has been a member of the Presbyterian church during the whole of his mature life, and has for many years been an elder.

Dr. Stilwell, at our request, has furnished the following account of some of the experiences of himself and Dr. Wilson connected with their practice:

Drs. Wilson and Stilwell-who grew up together in close companionship in their Pennsylvania town, and were fellow-students in Dr. Lotz's office, graduating at the same college-formed the purpose, while yet office students, to emigrate to the West together. Accordingly, on the 13th of June, 1839, in a two-horse covered carriage, purposely constructed with ample room for themselves and baggage, which included a small stock of books and instruments, they left their home for a Western prospecting tour, with the design, if no location to their liking offered sooner, to go on to Illinois, at that day the "Far West." Travelling leisurely, they stopped long enough at each important town on

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the way to ascertain what inducement it could offer two adventurous young men who were in the pursuit of bread and fame. Calling on their professional brethren, both as a matter of courtesy and interest, the pleasure of their journey was much increased thereby. In this way they reached Lower Sandusky (Fremont). Spending a few days visiting friends-who a few years before, on coming West, settled in the neighborhood of Lower Sandusky-they continued on to Perrysburg and Maumee. Here they saw what had often been the exciting theme of their childhood-a tribe of Indians-the Ottawas, who were encamped on the flats opposite Maumee, preparatory to their being removed to their new hunting-grounds west of the Mississippi, assigned them by the Government.

Finding the roads impassable for their carriage the travelers returned to Lower Sandusky, and turned south. At Tiffin they met with Dr. Dreslaach-of lasting reputation in that locality for his genial manner, and his ability as a physician and surgeon. Advised by him, they decided to remain at Lower Sandusky, to which they returned, and "put up" at Corbin's, the Kessler House of today, it being the 24th of July. A week subsequently occurred the 2d of August, whereon the citizens of Sandusky and neighboring counties celebrated the anniversary of Croghan's victory by barbecuing an ox on the commons-now the courthouse park, Eleutheros Cook, of Sandusky City, delivering an oration from the porch of the low frame dwelling-house erected a few years before by Jacques Hulburd, standing in the middle of Fort Stephenson, and which, three or four years ago, was removed from the grounds when they became the property of the city and Birchard library by purchase.

The breastworks of the fort were, at

that day, still conspicuous, a few of the decayed palisades yet to be seen.

Within a few days after their arrival both were taken sick with fever. Occupying beds at the hotel in the same out-of-the-way room, they were left pretty much to themselves, to acquire experience as patient, nurse, and doctor, all at the same time and at their leisure. A new settler had a good deal to learn about sickness, and but few lacked opportunities for acquiring knowledge by personal experience.

A notable fact connected with the history of the hotel that season is remembered by living participants, namely: That at one time, for a few days, not a woman remained in the house, filled as it was with guests and boarders, of whom many were sick, except the landlord's wife, and she, too, down with the fever. The women help had all gone home sick. It was very hard to obtain others. A colored man-a steamboat cook-with man help for general housework, supplied their place.

The sickness that season being very general all over the town and country, before either had so far recovered as to be able to do more than leave their room they were importuned to visit the sick and were compelled to comply long before they were fit for the service.

They secured for an office a little one- story frame structure, which stood where Buckland's block now stands, at the corner of Front and State streets. It was an unpretentious building, belonging to Captain Morris Tyler. Their neighbors on the south were Morris & John Tyler, merchants, whose store occupied one-half of a low two-story frame house of very moderate dimensions, but for size and appearance one of the noted mercantile establishments of the town. To the north they were in close proximity to General R. P. Buckland's law office, of

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about the same size as their own, and in no way superior to theirs, excepting it was a shade whiter from having probably had two coats of paint, while theirs had but one, and that one almost washed off by the northeasters which swept its front, unobstructed by three-story blocks on the opposite side of the street.

And just here a digression may be pardonable to relate how nearly this office, with that of General Buckland, came to be put out of sight, or left standing only in ruins-a testimonial of the patriotism that periodically continued to display itself upon these historic grounds. A cannon fired at the intersection of State and Front streets, on the occasion of a jollification in 1842 over the election of Wilson Shan-non as Governor of Ohio, burst, sending its butt-end through the north side of General Buckland's office, and but for its wise discrimination in the interest of humanity, it would have gone through the north side of the doctors' office as well.

The "doctor's ride" in that day meant twelve or fifteen miles in all directions, and on horseback, mostly through woods on new cut-out roads, often oaths for some part of the way. He found his patients in the scattered cabins in which the farmers of Sandusky county then lived.

During the continuance of their part- nership, and until Doctor Wilson's health became impaired by a severe attack of sickness by exposure, as noted in his per- sonal biography on a preceding page, they so arranged their business that their attendance upon patients was by alternate visits, making thus an equal division of the labor. He who went on the eastern round today would go on the western tomorrow.

The "sickly season"-meaning from about the middle of July to the middle of October-was a phrase very familiar in those times, happily not applicable to this

day, for the State may be challenged to name, within its bounds, a county healthier now than this same Sandusky. The change has been wrought partly by clearing up the land, but mostly by constructing ditches to carry of the water that over-spread the surface.

During the sickly season the pressure on their time was such as to enable them to make the round only once in two days. Oftentimes each passed over the other's route before they met in their office-not seeing each other for days-the necessary communications being made on a large slate kept in the office for that purpose.

The story of the daily ride, extending far into the night, oftentimes with fog above and mud below, the weariness of body and limb, the loss of sleep, the burden of thought-all this now sounds like exaggeration, but to them who underwent it all it is a well remembered and now wondered at reality. Their contemporary physicians were equally hard pressed.

In the season of which this is written, in the cabins visited, which meant some-times every cabin on the road travelled, it was very exceptional to find but one of a family sick. To find two, three and-four was commonly the case. Not infrequently the whole family were patients, and this with no outside help, sometimes not procurable even in times of dire necessity.

While extreme cases could not be given fairly, as the general experience, yet this class, after all, constituted a large proportion of the whole. An enumeration would include cases of scanty house-room; of lack of supplies; of distance from neighbors; of remoteness from physicians; of absence of help; of the number down in a family; of neglected ones; of work undone; of fields, such as they were, unprepared for seed. These, in their varied

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forms, composed a large list. In making their rounds one day, he whose circuit included a cabin to be visited, which had recently been erected in a small clearing-a half acre or so- in a dense woods south of where Hessville now stands, and reached by passing through David Beery's lane and then along a path, which led to the opening, found upon en- tering the man of the house lying upon a bed in one corner of the room in a burning fever; the woman in another part of the room sitting upon the edge of an ex-temporized bed, with a face flushed with fever, and wild with excitement, leaning over a cradle in which lay their little child in spasms, it too having the fever. Quickly enquiring of the woman for the water-bucket, he was told it was empty, that their well had just been dug, and was unwalled and uncovered; the only way they had to get water was to climb down a ladder that stood in the well and dip it up, which neither had been able to do that day, and no one coming to the house, they had had no water. Procuring water from the well, he remained until the child was relieved of the spasms, when, having dispensed the medicines necessary, he departed, telling them to expect some one in soon, as the result of his effort to send somebody, if possible, from the first house he reached on his way.

The fevers of the country had peculiarities which for years have ceased to be observed, and which were conditions ex-citing anxiety in the mind of the doctor as well in the friends of the sick.

Intermittent fever, one of the forms very common, was sometimes with chills, sometimes without, as now, and was manageable unless, as not infrequently was the case, it assumed a malignant type, known in the books as congestive chill, or pernicious intermittent. With the best that could be done,

they were often fatal; many times for want of care at the critical period.

But more marked was the condition which attended the latter stage of bilious remittent fever, the other form of miasmatic fever generally prevalent in the latter part summer and in the autumn months. Whether it run a short or long course, whether of a high or low grade, it usually terminated with a sweat and extreme exhaustion. A "sinking spell," as it was commonly called, was frequently its dreaded sequence, and the danger to life at the time imminent. A failure on the part of the attendants then to keep up the circulation by rubbing the surface, by applying warmth to the extremities, by spreading plenty of cover over the bed, and by administering stimulants freely, with liberal doses of quinine-was sure to seal the fate of the patient.

Many died in this way. A representative case occurred in a small frame house of two rooms, which stood on what was then open common, but now the corner of Croghan and Wood streets, occupied by a man and his family of the name of Tyler, strangers-no relatives of the Tyler family resident here. He was a stone-mason, and came to work on the courthouse, the building of which had just been commenced. He and his wife were taken sick with the fever. No one could be found to take the constant charge of them. The neighbors, sparsely settled then in that part of the town, as they could be spared from home, went in, one now and another then, and did what they could, but withal the case was far from what their condition required. The fever of the husband yielded first-instructions having been left as to what was to be done when the crisis came, which during the day gave signs of its near approach. The doctors both having reached their office on their return from the country at the same time

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-about 12 o'clock at night-upon being informed that a messenger had just been down for them from the Tylers, went to the house to find the patient cold and pulseless- no appliances, no stimulants having been used as directed-and he died. They had the wife removed to a neighbor's house. When the crisis came to her-the breaking up of the fever in the manner described,-she had the necessary care, and lived.

And here it should be remarked that whatever allusions may have been made in this or any other sketch of years ago, to hardship suffered for want of help in times of sickness it was never refused, when it could be given. To the extent of their ability to give it, no neighbor ever withheld it. The brotherly spirit displayed at such times made itself proverbial, and could the deeds to which it prompted be written, they would form a grand chapter in the history of Sandusky county.

DR. JOHN B. RICE was born in Lower Sandusky, June 23, 1832. He enjoyed such educational advantages as the village afforded during his boyhood. He entered the office of the Sandusky County Democrat, and worked at the printing trade three years, after which he spent two years at school. He studied medicine, graduating at Ann Arbor in the spring of 1857, and soon after associated himself with his father, Dr. Robert S. Rice, and made a beginning in practice. In 1859 he further prosecuted his medical studies at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and Bellevue Hospital, New York. On returning home he resumed practice. On the breaking out of the rebellion he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served with his regiment, under the gallant Colonel Lytle, in Virginia. November 25, 1861, he was promoted to surgeon, and assigned to the Seventy-second Ohio, and served with

this regiment over three years in the im- portant campaigns in which it took part. During the war Dr. Rice was on different occasions assigned to duty as surgeon-in- chief of Lauman's and Tuttle's divisions of the Fifteenth Army Corps, and of the District of Memphis, when commanded by General Buckland.

Dr. Rice was married, December 12, 1861, to Miss Sarah E., daughter of Dr. J. W. Willson, of Fremont. They have two children-Lizzie, born September 28, 1865, and Willie, born July 2, 1875.

Since the close of the war Dr. Rice has been associated with his brother, Dr. Robert H. Rice. He has had a large surgical practice, and there are few capital operations in surgery that he has not performed many times. His consultation practice extends to adjoining counties. He is a member of the Sandusky County and Ohio State medical societies. For several years he delivered courses of lectures in the Charity Hospital Medical College, and medical department of the University of Wooster, at Cleveland. His topics were military surgery, obstetrics, etc.

In July, 1880, Dr. Rice received, with-out solicitation, the nomination for Congress, by the Republican party of the Tenth District. The most gratifying incident attending his election the following October, was the circumstance that he received a majority of votes in Sandusky county, although the opposite political party is largely in the ascendency. He had, however, never engaged actively in politics, and does not expect to be again a candidate.

DR. LOUIS S. J. GESSNER was born September 25, 1830, in Thun, Switzerland, and emigrated to America with his parents during childhood. He studied medicine with his father, and returning to Europe graduated in Heidelberg, in 1858. He

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has practiced in Fremont since 1858. He served as assistant surgeon of the Thirty- seventh regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in Virginia, and as a contract surgeon at Brown hospital, Louisville, Kentucky, and hospital number two, Nashville, Tennessee.

DR. J. W. FAILING is a native of Wayne county, New York, and was born in 1833. He was educated in the common schools of New York, and at an early age was employed in a drug store where he be-came proficient in pharmacy. After six years experience handling and compounding drugs, Mr. Failing began the study of medicine in Norwalk, Ohio. He graduated at the Cleveland Homeopathic college and came to Fremont to practice in 1854, being then but twenty-two years old.

Dr. Failing was for many years well re- ceived and had the foundation of a suc- cessful professional career. A great many people felt self-interested regret when he became practically disabled for active practice.

JOHN M. COREY was born at Austin- town, Trumbull county, Ohio, January 21, 1837. He was reared on a farm and at-tended the district school. He completed his preliminary course at Western Reserve seminary, at West Farmington, Trumbull county, passing through the junior year. He began to read medicine in Warren, in 1854, in the office of Daniel B. Woods. He attended medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he received the degree of M. D. in the spring of 1859. He entered the office of H. A. Ackey, in Warren, but remained there only three months. He came to Fremont in December, 1859, and began the practice of his profession here. When the Forty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry was organized, in August, 1861, Dr. Corey enlisted as hospital steward. In April, 186z, after passing an examination before a board

of surgeons, he was assigned to the position of acting assistant surgeon in the United States army. After serving in several hospitals in the South, he returned to Fremont, in September, 1864. In the winter of 1864-65 he attended lectures at the Charity Hospital Medical College, at Cleveland. At the end of the course he was awarded the Salisbury prize (a gold medal), for the best examination and observations in physiology. He was also awarded, by G. C. Weber, as a prize for the best Latin prescription, Piper's Illustrated Treatise on Surgery. After completing this course he again entered the army service, being made assistant surgeon at Camp Chase, and afterwards at Cincinnati, and was finally appointed major-surgeon of volunteers, with headquarters at Sandusky.

Dr. Corey was mustered out of the army service in September, 1865, and at once returned to Fremont. He was in uninterrupted practice from this time until 1873, when he attended a course of lectures at Bellevue Medical College, New York, receiving from that institution, in 1874, the ad eundem degree of M. D. Since that time he has been in regular practice in Fremont. Dr. Corey's practice is of a general character, but his liking is for surgery, which he has made a special study.

DR. ROBERT H. RICE was born in Lower Sandusky, December 20, 1837. In his boyhood he was for several years employed as a clerk in the store of O. L. Nims. He afterwards attended school at Oberlin college about two years, then began the study of medicine with his father and brother John; attended medical lectures at the Medical Department of the University of Michigan, and graduated from that institution in March, 1863. He then returned to Fremont and began the practice of medicine with his father, Dr.

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Robert S. Rice, Dr. John being at that time in the army.

May 14, 1865, he married Miss Cynthia J. Fry, a daughter of Henry Fry, of Ballville township. They have. three children: Henry C., born July 11, 1867; Anna, born November 30, 1869; and Ada, born May 6, 1874.

Dr. Rice soon acquired a very extensive practice, which (associated with his brother, Dr. John B. Rice;) he has ever since prosecuted with untiring zeal and in which he has been eminently successful.

In 1872-73 Dr. Rice spent a year in Europe, during which time he travelled extensively over the continent and Great Britain and Ireland, devoting some time in the medical schools of Paris and Berlin to the study of his profession. His knowledge of the German and French languages, which he acquired by his own efforts, and for which he has a great fondness, enabled him to derive unusual pleasure and advantage from his travels abroad.

The Doctor has many excellent qualities of head and heart, which peculiarly fit him for the practice of his profession, being of a kind, sympathetic and generous nature, agreeable and affable in his manners, bestowing on all alike the same respectful consideration, he has won a high place in the esteem of those with whom his professional relations have brought him in contact. He aided in the organization of the Sandusky County Medical society, was chosen its secretary, and still holds that office.

For some years past Dr. Rice has taken considerable interest in agricultural pursuits, having a large farm near Fremont which he has greatly improved. Few things at present afford him more pleasure than regarding his growing stock and waving fields.

SARDIS B. TAYLOR, M. D., born in Fre

mont, March 19, 1843, was educated in our public schools with the exception of nine months at Hudson, Ohio, Western Reserve College. He commenced the practice of medicine in, 1864, at Fremont, Ohio. He served as volunteer assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth regiment Ohio National Guards, at Washington, District of Columbia, summer of 1865. Graduated at Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, February 22, 1875. He is the oldest son of Austin B. Taylor, and is now in active practice. His standing as a physician has always been creditable.

DR. GEORGE E. SMITH, born June

27, 1832, at Lyme, Huron county, Ohio, prepared for college at Lyme and Milan, and graduated from Western Reserve College in 1855. He taught school in Tennessee from 1855 to 1857; and as principal of Western Reserve Teachers' Seminary from 1857 to 1860. Received the degree of A. M. from Western Reserve College in 1858. Attended medical lectures at Cleveland Medical College in the winter of 1858-59, and at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the winter of 1859-6o. Taught as principal of a boys' grammar school, at Circleville, Ohio, from September, 1860, until the spring of 1862. Attended a course of lectures at Ohio Medical College in the spring of 1862, and graduated with the degree of M. D., at the close of the session.

He was married to Sarah Brinkerhoff in September, 1862, and commenced the practice of medicine at Willoughby, Lake county, Ohio, in the fall of the same year. He was appointed assistant-surgeon of the Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, December 23, 1862, and joined the regiment January 14, 1863, at Arkansas Post, Arkansas. Resigned on ac-count of sickness, June 4, 1863. Went to Hillsdale, Michigan, July, 1863; was

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surgeon of the post and to examine recruits, from January, 1864, until April of the same year. Left Hillsdale in the spring of 1875, and came to Fremont, Ohio, where he has been engaged in the practice of medicine since that time.

DAVID EL BINKERHOFF, M. D., was born December 5, 1823, in the township of Owasea, Cayuga county, New York. In the year 1837 his father, Henry R. Binkerhoff, removed to New Haven, Huron county, Ohio, and the son attended school at Aurora academy, New York, and at Auburn academy, in the same State, during the years 1839, 1840, and 1841. He commenced the reading of medicine with Drs. Benschoter and Bevier, at Plymouth, Ohio, in the year 1843. During the years 1844, 1845, and 1846 he continued the reading of medicine in the office of Dr. Thomas Johnson, at New Haven. He attended the medical department of the Willoughby University of Lake Erie, at Willoughby, Ohio, during the session of 1846-47, and again attended medical lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, at Cincinnati, graduating therefrom at the session of 1856-57. He entered the service of the United States in the year 1862 as assistant surgeon, and was promoted to surgeon-major in 1864. He served on the staff of General Schofield from the time of the capture of Atlanta, Georgia, until the close of the Rebellion. He was mustered out with his regiment, the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in 1865, at Raleigh, North Carolina. He has been engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery since the year 1847, and for the past twelve years at Fremont, Ohio. He has a large practice.

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History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 70

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