USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 40
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working against hope. In 1869 I was elected treasurer of Seneca county, and re-elected in 1871, serving four years. . I was the first mayor of the city of Tiffin, and the first president of the school board of Tiffin, and being a member of the same board now, I take great pride in holding the highest office that the law gives to any man. I have now been at the Tiffin bar longer than any other lawyer connected with it, except it be brother Pennington.
Just in time, and before these sheets go to the printer, I can add the fact, that at the Democratic state convention, held in Cleveland on Thursday, the 22d day of July. 1880, I was nominated by acclamation as the candidate for secretary of state. On my return to Tiffin on the day following, a large party of my friends and neighbors, some five hun- dred, with a band of music and carriages, met me at the depot in Tiffin and escorted me home. Dr. J. A. Norton announced my nomination to the assembled crowd in front of the court house; W. P. Noble made a speech of welcome in glowing terms, and Republicans and Democrats joined in their hearty congratulations. It was a scene the like of which Tiffin never witnessed before. The ovation was a personal compliment, without distinction of party. I record it here in gratitude as the hap- piest day of my life. The good opinion of one's neighbors is a price far beyond the emoluments of office.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
DRS. DRESBACH, KUHN, FISHER, O'CONNOR-TIFFIN MEDICAL SOCIETY- INDUSTRIES IN TIFFIN-SENECA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY-THE PRESS: MESSRS. LOOMIS, NAYLOR, GROSS-THE SENECA COUNTY IN- FIRMARY-THE TIFFIN GAS LIGHT COMPANY-AGRICULTURAL WORKS, ETC .- THE SENECA COUNTY PIONEER ASSOCIATION-DER BRUDERBUND -THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY-MRS. HARRIET CRAWFORD.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. ELY DRESBACH. [By J. A. McFa land.]
R. ELY DRESBACH was born in Northumberland county. Penn- D
sylvania, in the year 1802. While he was yet quite young, his parents, David and Catherine Dresbach. removed with him to Pickaway county, Ohio, where they lived to a good old age. As he grew up, young Dresbach was engaged, for some time, in the mercantile business, but this occupation was not to his taste, and at an early age he resolved to qualify himself to enter the medical profession.
Unlike many young men. he was fortunate in choosing the vocation for which nature had eminently fitted him.
He pursued his studies with great assiduity and success in the office, and under the direction of Dr. Luckey. an eminent physician of Circleville. After the usual time, this spent, he attended a course of lectures, at the Medical college of Ohio.
He then decided on trying his fortune among the pioneers of northwestern Ohio, and finally settled down in Fort Ball; and after a few years he crossed over the river to Tiffin, the seat of justice for the newly organized county of Seneca. His old office in Fort Ball, a small, one-story brick building, is still standing on Sandusky street, a few rods north of MeNeal's storeroom. The rooms he occupied as an office. for some years before his death, were on Washington street, where the Commercial bank now stands.
The winter of 1527-8 was passed in Cincinnati. attending a second course of lectures, at the close of which he took the degree of doctor of medicine. Again in his chosen field of labor, his popularity went on increasing. till, at the end of the next decade, it was immense and well merited.
"None knew him but to love him, None named him but to praise."
And his name is still a household word in many of the old families of this county.
In the practice of medicine and obstetrics the Doctor took rank with the foremost men of his time: in surgery his standing was only fair, as he
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had no ambition to venture upon the more brilliant operations; these he turned over to such men as Mott and Mussy, who made surgery a specialty.
Dr. Dresbach was of medium height. stoutly built, and a little inclined to corpulency. His brain, though not very large, was active, with a good anterior development. His temperament was sanguine; hair light auburn. eyes blue, nose large and slightly aquiline. neck short, chest and limbs well developed, and his whole appearance that of an elegant gentleman, as he was. In the matter of dress, he was serupulously careful, always wearing the finest and most fashionable garments. His kind, courteons, graceful demeanor insured him a hearty welcome wherever he went, whether in the sick chamber or the drawing-room.
The Doctor was fond of books, and was well posted in current literature; he was a most agreeable companion, indulging freely in anecdotes and per- sonal reminiscences, and had good conversational powers, though he made no pretentions as a public speaker.
While a general favorite with the ladies, and fond of their society, and, at one time matrimonially engaged, he lived all his days in single blessedness.
Hle was a lover of the fine arts, and of music especially; and many a leisure half hour was filled with sweet strains from his favorite instrument-the violin; and to his love of music, and to the encouragement he generously gave to resident professors and amateurs, our city is, in some measure. indebted for its present high culture in music.
And now, kind reader, would you have some glimpses to illustrate the dual character of poor human nature: to show, side by side, its good and its bad qualities, in the life under review?
Well-but no matter- tis enough to say that while the Doctor was not sinless, most of his faults were not of a malignant type, but rather of the kind that are said " to lean to virtue's side."
But whatever they were, a most ungracious task it would be, to dwell upon their unpleasant memory; and the writer must ask to be excused, prefer- ing, as he does, the reversal of the custom indicated in the following lines:
"The evil that men do, lives after them: The good is oft interred with their bones."
The Doctor was a member of the Masonic order. In polities he was a Whig, and took a leading part in every campaign. In 1846 he was the Whig candidate for congress, and, though defeated, had the satisfaction to know that he had run considerably ahead of his ticket. Rodolphus Dickinson was his opponent. David Tod was defeated for governor at the same elec- tion.
Vigorous as his constitution naturally was, it had its limit of endurance. Overtasked, mentally and physically, for thirty years, in a malarious climate, it is not surprising that his life was cut short, in his fifty-first year. His end came not suddenly; the way to it was through long suffering, extending over a period of several years.
Gradually declining health induced him to try the effect of a milder climate. The winter of 1851-2 was spent in the south, visiting a brother and making the acquaintance of many of the leading medical men of that region. With the return of the spring. however, there were no signs of returning
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DR. HENRY KUHN.
health: and early in May, he set out for his loved home, stopping a few days in Richmond, to attend the meeting of the American Medical Association.
The last year of his life was one of great suffering. He died April 14. 1853.
The immense multitude that attended his funeral was evidence of the sincere regard and affection of the community for which he had labored so long and faithfully.
DR. HENRY KUHN
Was one of the pioneer physicians in Tiffin, and took a very active part in the development of the town and country.
He was born in Frederick City, Maryland, in 1802, and attended the Frederick college, the oldest institution of western Maryland. He was there so pious and attentive to his studies and so sedate as to have acquired from the teachers and school-mates the soubriquet of "Bishop." After he left the college he read medicine in the office of Dr. Tyler, the leading physician of Frederick City, and finished under Dr. Henry Staley, in Frederick. He graduated with the highest honors from the University of Maryland, at Baltimore, in 1825, and soon there- after commenced the practice at Woodsboro, in Frederick county, near which place Lewis Baltzell lived. Here he made the acquaintance of Catherine, one of the daughters of Mr. Baltzell, whom he married. Of that union Mrs. William Holt, of Tiffin, and Mrs. Kate Toner, of Can- ton, Ohio, are the only children living.
The exact time when the Doctor arrived in Tiffin I have not been able to ascertain, but it must have been in 1831. I often heard him say that he helped to cut the first tree in Market street, between Wash- ington and Monroe. He was very popular in his younger days among his schoolmates and acquaintances. His manly personal appearance, his dress and address, his family relationship and their position in society, all added to make the young do- tor a distinguished character. He came here into the woods and at once became the compeer of Drs. Dresbach and Carey, with whom he divided the practice among the scattered cabins for many miles around. He was often called to visit the Wyandots, on the Sandusky plains, and became highly esteemed among the chiefs, of whom Sum-mon-de-wat was a special friend, as already mentioned. One time he was called to amputate the leg of a squaw. She sat at the foot of a tree and fanned away the flies with a fox's tail during the operation, without a wince or a groan. Whenever the Wyandots visited Tiffin they would call on the Doctor at his little frame office, on East Market street, and have a chat. The old office is still standing, back of the new jail, but unoccupied.
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The father of Dr. Kuhn was for many years the most important and distinguished man in Frederick county. He was the leader of the Republican (Democratic) party for many years (from 1798 to 1824). He had read law But preferred farming. He had 700 acres well stocked with slaves. The abolitionists stole nine of them at one time. Dr. Kuhn brought a slave boy to Tiffin with him. He was a present from some friend. I often heard Dr. Kuhn speak of him but have no knowl- edge of what became of him. The name of Dr. Kuhn's father was Christian; his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Browning, daugh- ter of Jeremiah and Cassandra Browning. The old folks, after they were eighty years of age, rode horseback to Steubenville, Ohio, where they bought a farm. The old lady was highly intellectual and one of the most scholarly women in Maryland. They were of English stock. Christian Kuhn was a German, wealthy and popular. He was the first mayor of Frederick City, and frequently a member of the general assem- bly of Maryland. He traveled to the sessions in his own carriage. He was then a leading spirit in most all leading matters, and for many years held the office of chief judge of the orphans' court of Frederick county.
Dr. Kuhn held his reputation in the esteem of the people and the pro- fession up to his death. Nature seemed to have made him for a physi- cian, but with all his skill he had his weaknesses, too, like many other men. His occasional indulgences in strong drink interfered materially with his practice, while his habitual indifference about his finances kept him poor. He earned money enough in his profession to be one of our wealthiest men, but he seemed to set no value upon it. He would become security for anybody that asked him the favor, and it was no lesson to him when he was compelled to pay. He was warm- hearted and generous, hospitable, sympathetic, benevolent, kind. He could refuse no favor in his power to grant; never learned to say "no." His wife died about 1843. Sometime thereafter he married Miss Maria Pennington, a sister to Robert G. Pennington, of Tiffin. This union was blessed with three children: Robert D. Kuhn, Mrs. Emma Kim. ball and Louisa, the late Mrs. Fast, of Canton, Ohio. Mrs. Kuhn is still living.
Dr. Kuhn attained to the highest honors in ancient Masonry and often represented the old Sandusky lodge in the Grand Lodge of Ohio. He died at his residence on Clay street, in Tiffin, October 16, 1878.
DR. ROBERT C J. CAREY
Was a native of Maryland, and located in Fort Ball about the time Dr. Dresbach came here, and the two formed a partnership in the practice.
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DR. JAMES FISHER.
They had their first office in the small yellow brick, on Sandusky street, still standing. Dr. Carey was considered a very good physician He was very polite, and neat about his person. He died on the 9th day of November, 1836, aged 35 years, 11 months and 20 days.
DR. JAMES FISHER.
The subject of this sketch filled quite a space in public affairs in Tiffin, at an early day, both as a physician and as a man of energy and enterprise.
He was born in Westminster, in Frederick county, Maryland, on the Ist day of January, 1801, and graduated at the Medical University of Maryland, in April, 1823. He commenced practice in Abbottstown and Oxford, Pennsylvania. After practicing a few years, he took a trip through the west and south and returned to Westminster in 1829, when he made the acquaintance of the family of Dr. Thomas Boyer, of Uniontown, Maryland, and especially that of the Doctor's daughter, Elizabeth M. This acquaintance with this daughter ripened into their marriage, which took place in July, 1829. The name of the other daughter was Mary R., who married Mr. Lloyd Norris. Both couple were married on the same day, the Rev. Daniel Zollikoffer solemnizing the marriages.
Dr. Fisher then practiced medicine at the Union Bridge, four miles from Uniontown, in a neighborhood of excellent people. The families of Drs. Boyer and Fisher moved to Tiffin in 1832, where Dr. Boyer died in 1835; and Mrs. Boyer died here in 1847.
Dr. Fisher held the postoffice here, kept a drug store at an early day, practiced medicine, speculated in lands and handled a great deal of money. In 1866 he removed with his family to Springfield, Missouri, where Mrs. Fisher's health declined; they never felt satisfied with the change ; but their children were married and settled there and they remained. Mrs. Fisher died September 19, 1878, and was buried in Maple Grove cemetery, having lived in happy wedlock with the Doctor 49 years. She was a splendid lady, highly cultivated, kind and sociable. They have four daughters: Hannah E., wife of Charles A. Wright; Mary E., wife of James Patterson; Laura, wife of Joe M. Steiner, and Pattie D., wife of R. L. McElhany, and one son, Thomas B. Fisher, all living.
Dr. Fisher, at nearly four score, is still enjoying excellent healtlt, but since the death of his wife, feels himself alone in the world.
The family of Dr. Boyer was highly cultured and much esteemed. The same air of old-style Maryland and Virginia aristocracy, mentioned
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on former occasions, was well marked in this family also, but here, as everywhere, it was always associated with politeness, kindness and broad and generous hospitality.
Among the physicians practicing medicine in Tiffin at this time, Drs. J. A. McFarland (who located here in 1837), J. N. Heckerman, A. B. Hovey, H. B. Martin, E. J. Mccollum, and 3. S. Bricker are pioneers. There are also in the practice now, Drs. W. Crawford, W. G. Williard, J. T. Livers, J. F. E. Fanning, J. P. Kinnaman, W. H. Hershiser, J. Breidinger, J. Huss, F. H. Lang, W. H. Stover, D. Wells, and Maurice Leahy.
SENECA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
This is an auxiliary to the State Medical society, and is governed by the same code of ethics, but has its own constitution and by-laws.
The state society was organized in a parlor of the old Neil house, in Columbus, May 14th, 1846; the first Seneca county society at Dr. E. Dresbach's office in 1852. Dr. McFarland was elected president, and Dr. George Sprague' secretary.
The present society was organized in one of the parlors of the Shaw- han house, in Tiffin, on the 25th day of September, 1878, with Dr. A. B. Hovey as president, and Dr. A. L. Waugaman as secretary. The society has its regular meetings on the fourth Wednesday of every month.
Of the members of this society some minutes have been collected and are here noticed:
J. U. HECKERMAN
Was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, November 22d, 1825; grad- uated at Washington college in 1846, and located in Tiffin.
H. B. MARTIN
Was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, November 15th, 1823; graduated at Charity Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1850.
F. W. SCHWAN
Was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 3d, 1843; graduated at Rush Medical college, Chicago, in 1867.
E. W. SULLIVAN
Was born in Tiffin, Ohio, March 22d, 1856; graduated at the medical department of the Wooster university in 1878.
E. J. M'COLLUM
Was born June 10th, 1826, in Richland county, Ohio; graduated at the
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Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, in March, 1853, and soon thereafter located in Tiffin.
H. B. GIBBON 1
Was born March 12th, 1852, at Big Prairie, Wayne county, Ohio; grad- uated at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in June, 1877, and located in Seneca county in July the same year.
J. B. BLAND
Was born in Muskingum county July 22d, 1840; graduated at Starling Medical college, Columbus, and located at Benton, Crawford county, in 1869.
L. E. ROBINSON
graduated at Rush Medical college, Chicago, in 1873, and settled in Republic in 1876.
BENJAMIN S. STOVER
Was born June 13th, 1856, at Brooklyn, Cuyahoga county, Ohio; grad- uated at Jefferson Medical college in 1878; located in Republic the same year.
W. H. PAUL
Was born in Richland county, Ohio, April 14th, 1848; graduated at Miami Medical college, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1872; located in Adrian in 1876.
DR. ARIEL B. HOVEY.
Was born in Albany township, Orleans county, Vermont, February 9th, 1829. When a boy fourteen years of age, he started for Ohio, and entered Oberlin college, where he remained six years, and during this time read medicine with Dr. Homer Johnson, of Oberlin. In 1850 he entered the office of Prof. Ackley, in Cleveland, and graduated in March, 1852, and in the same year located in Tiffin, where he has re- mained ever since in the successful practice of his profession. While Dr. Hovey is regarded as a very able practitioner, he excels as a sur- geon, in which branch his skill and courage have made him eminently successful and greatly celebrated. He is a member of several state societies, as well as of the National Medical society.
MAURICE LEAHY
Was born March 14th, 1853, in the county of Kerry, Ireland; graduated in the medical department of the Wooster university, in Cleveland, Ohio, February 27th, 1878, and located in Tiffin in July, 1878.
JOHN D. O'CONNOR, M. D.
Snow covered the earth; the air was very cold; the sky was overcast with heavy clouds; all nature looked gloomy and dreary, and so did
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the senate chamber of Ohio, when, at ten o'clock in the morning of the first Monday in January, A. D., 1862, the senate was called to order. The city of Columbus was full of soldiers; regiment after regiment was organized and sent to the front. The sound of martial music rang in the streets day and night, and here met the first legislature of Ohio after the breaking out of the rebellion.
The condition of the country on that morning seemed to combine with nature to cast a gloom and a sadness over the senate. The Hon. Benjamin Stanton, president of the senate, took his seat; the members were sworn and seated, and the saddest countenance in that body was that of Senator John D. O'Connor, of Monroe. He was then about forty years of age, about six feet high; he had black hair, brushed back from a high forehead, deeply set dark eyes, a chiseled face; a black beard covered his mouth and chin. Heavy black eyebrows gave pow- erful expression to the white of his eyes, making his countenance won- derfully striking. He was lean of flesh. The paleness of his face and his entire "make up" were calculated to arrest the attention, if not excite the sympathy, of the most careless observer. . Add to this a pru- dent reserve, close observation, quiet demeanor and polished manners, and you have a fair picture of Dr. O'Connor on that morning.
Party spirit ran high during the war, and the few members of that body who were elected by Democratic constituencies, were treated with indifference, for their votes were not necessary to carry any measure; yet that senate contained many distinguished gentlemen from all parts of the state, some of whom became noted in other high positions which they filled.
Dr. ()'Connor and the writer belonged to that small number, and as misery loves company, and for higher reasons, it was not long until mutual respect warmed into mutual friendship that grew brighter as time rolled on, and lasted for life.
Dr. O'Connor's father was an Irishman who had served under Wel- lington in Spain, and after he was transferred with a portion of the British army to Canada, he ran away with some of his comrades, came to the United States, and settled in Woodsfield, Monroe county, Ohio, in 1817 or 1818. Here he was married to Rebecca Corothers, and elected to the office of county recorder, which office he held for thirty years.
Here in Woodsfield, John D. was born, September 24th, 1822, and here he received such education as the schools of the settlement afforded and the private instructions of Mr. Franklin Gale were able to confer. He entered the office of Dr. Dillon, where he read medicine,
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and afterwards located at Clarington, a little hamlet situate on the banks of the Ohio in Monroe county, where Sunfish creek enters the river. To the boatmen of the river the place is best known by the name of "Sunfish."
There, in 1845, he was married to Ruth C. Neff, and soon built up a large and extensive practice. He attended a course of lectures in the Miami Medical college, and graduated from it in 1858. Here he had the benefit of the instructions of the elder Mussey, Murphy, Dawson, Davis and other distinguished men in the profession.
In 1861 he was elected to the senate of Ohio from Guernsey, Monroe and a part of Noble, and re-elected in 1863. After he had served out his second term as senator, in the summer of 1865, the writer visited him at Clarington, and made the acquaintance of his interesting family, consisting of . Mrs. O'Connor, four beautiful young daughters, and a little son. The doctor's practice extended along the river bank and over the rough hills and mountains of Monroe, where he had nearly worn out his life in the pursuit of his profession. The children needed education, and there was no good school nearer than Wheeling, twenty- five miles away. I suggested to him the propriety of selling out and removing to Seneca county, which I described as it was, and pictured to him the situation of the Tiffin schools, its society, health, market, topography, etc.
A visit from the doctor and Mrs. O'Connor was enough to. prove all I said, and in 1866 the doctor bought the old Biggs farm, on the Mel- more road, a short distance south of Tiffin, where he lived until shortly before he died.
Here at Tiffin he stepped at once into the front rank of his profes- sion, where he was highly esteemed, and became so popular among the people that they elected him the delegate from this county to the con- stitutional convention.
The condition of his health scarcely warranted the task this position required, but to prove his gratitude to the people who elected him, he served the session of the convention in Columbus, and attended the adjourned session in Cincinnati the following winter. The only answer he gave his friends who tried to persuade him not to go to Cincinnati, was that he would rather wear out than rust out, and preferred to die at his post. And he did die at his post, worn out. Nothing but his iron will kept him up for months.
Ordinary men would have succumbed to disease long before; but with all his will power, Dr. O'Connor gradually wasted away, when on Saturday, the 21st day of February, 1874, at nine o'clock P. M., " tired
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like a child in the arms of its nurse, he fell asleep," as Judge Okey expressed it in his eulogy of the doctor in the convention.
During his short association with the members of the convention he won the love and esteem of them all, and on the morning when the committee who had been appointed to prepare suitable resolutions expressive of the sense of the convention on his death, were about to report, several gentlemen made remarks attesting their love and esteem for the doctor, full of fine feeling and warm appreciation of the good man he was. Judge Okey, Messrs. Voris, Albright, Neil, Cook and others spoke very eloquently. It is to be regretted that space will not permit a reproduction of those eulogies here.
His body was brought to Tiffin by a committee appointed by the convention, on the 24th of February, and kept at the house of the writer in Tiffin, from whence, on the next day, it was taken to the First Meth- odist Protestant church, where the Rev. J. C. Ogle delivered a very appropriate sermon from Rev. 14: 13v., to a large concourse of friends. He was buried at the new cemetery, near Tiffin, under the beautiful and impressive ritual of the F. & A. M.
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