USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 89
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123
456
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
1871. In 1854 he became a member of the Episcopal Church. In Sunday school work he has been active, having for many years been Super- intendent of Christ Church Sunday school.
Dr. Scott is a gentleman of refined, dignified, and elegant manners; he is positive in his con- victions, quick of perception, and thoroughly analytical in his judgment.
L. D. KASTENBINE, M. D.,
a son of Charles A. Kastenbine, a native of the Duchy of Hanover, Germany, and Vir- linda Bridwell Kastenbine, of Nelson county, Kentucky, was born in Louisville and obtained his preparatory education in the public schools of that city and at the Louisville high school, from which latter institution he graduated in 1858, with the first class that went out from its doors. Previous to leaving the high school, in preparation for the medical course which he had already determined to pursue, he studied chem- istry in the Medical Department of the Univer- sity of Louisville, under the able tuition of Dr. J. Lawrence Smith.
After graduation Dr. Kastenbine began the study of his profession, having as preceptors successively Drs. E. D. Foree and A. B. Cook. His relation with these preceptors continued for three years, though supplemented by the more systematic labor of the lecture room and hospital. In the autumn of 1860 he entered the Medical Department of the University of Louisville, re- maining during the course of 1860 and 1861. Subsequently, during 1861, his attendance upon the dispensary then conducted by Drs. Cook, Yandell, and Crowe, gave most excellent clinical advantages.
The outbreak of the war, during the latter year, substantially suspended the medical schools of Louisville, and, for the time being, prevented the Doctor from returning for a second course, as he had contemplated. In lieu of so doing, he attached himself to the medical staff of the United States Army, as acting medical cadet, a position which gave him excellent opportunity for study and practice, although his connection with the army was anomalous, and involved no obligation on his part. Being assigned to hos- pital No. 4, situated in Louisville, he entered upon his duties, and continued to perform them until the fall of 1863, when he entered the
Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York, graduating March 3, 1864.
After remaining in New York for a few weeks, to attend private classes in operative surgery, Dr. Kastenbine returned to Louisville and opened an office, for the practice of his profes- sion, with Dr. Foree, his former preceptor. This relation was maintained for several years.
In the autumn of 1865 the Kentucky School of Medicine was organized, and Dr. Kastenbine was its first demonstrator of anatomy. He held that position for one year. In 1868 he became assistant to Dr. Wright, professor of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Louisville. This place was one to which Dr. Kastenbine was well suited by taste and attain- ment, as he had, from the first, devoted much of his attention to study and experiment in the field of chemical science.
His two years as assistant to Dr. Wright served to so confirm his taste and extend his knowl- edge that, in the year 1868, he was offered and accepted the Chair of Chemistry in the Summer School of Medicine connected with the Uni- versity of Louisville, and, a few months later, the corresponding and more important professorship in the Louisville College of Pharmacy. This pest Dr. Kastenbine has since retained, with the addition, commencing with the session of 1878- 79, of the Chair. of Chemistry and Uronology of the Louisville Medical College. In spite of these many and engrossing duties, the Doctor has built up and held a fine general medical and surgical practice, has also served one year as visiting surgeon of the Louisville City Hos- pital, and has conducted many special investiga- tions-chemical and microscopical analyses-for other practitioners and for the criminal author- ities of Louisville. For some years he attended to all the medico-legal work of Louisville and its vicinity, and had almost as complete a monopoly of such forms of medical practice as required physical exploration by means of the microscope or chemical analysis. His devotion to these sciences has naturally directed him some- what particularly to diseases of the kidneys and to uronology, in which specialties he enjoys an extensive practice. In 1878 Dr. Kastenbine was appointed special Government examiner of drugs for the port of Louisville, and has since retained the place.
.
Dr.L. A. Kastenline.
C.
Bom. L. Breyfogle
457
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
WILLIAM L. BREYFOGLE, M. D.
This gentleman, one of the most popular and successful of the homoeopathic physicians of Louisville, is a native Buckeye, born at Colum- bus, the capital of Ohio, April 4, 1845, son of Charles and Matilda (Cloud) Breyfogle, of that city. The father was a merchant tailor, accu- mulated a comfortable fortune in the pursuit of his business, and has for some years retired from active affairs. His son received a good general education; but the outbreak of the war occurred while he was in the flush of youth, and before he had entered upon independent business. He became a soldier in the Ninth Ohio Cavalry ; was promoted to a position on the staff of General Kilpatrick; rode with him in Sherman's grand army during its later campaigns, and closed his service in 1864 with a very honorable record, he having taken part in as many as fifty or sixty pitched battles and skirmishes. He now, in his twentieth year, began the study of his profession with Dr. George H. Blair, of Columbus, son of Doctor Alfred O. Blair, the Nestor of homeopa- thy in Central and Northern Ohio, now living in retirement at Westerville, near Columbus. In 1867 he was graduated at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, and came the same year to New Albany, where he resided three years until he became a practitioner in Louisville, with his office in that city. While engaged in New Albany, although soon commanding a large and lucrative practice, he found time to prepare and publish a valuable professional text-book, entitled "Breyfogle's Homeopathic Epitome," which has passed through eleven editions and has been translated into a number of foreign tongues. In 1869, having already had many calls to patients in Louisville, he decided to transfer his main busi- ness to that city, with which he has since been substantially and very prominently identified. By 1871 his taste for and success in the treat- ment of diseases of the eye and ear had turned his attention to his present specialties as an oc- ulist and aurist. He went abroad and for a year studied these diseases in the hospitals and lecture-rooms of Vienna, where he was honored with the position of assistant to the world- renowned aural surgeon, Dr. Adam Politzer, during whose absence Dr. Breyfogle was entrusted with his entire private practice.
He had also for some time in charge the im- 58
portant aural clinics given in the Vienna Hos- pital. His observations and studies were also extended in Paris and London ; and he returned to Louisville with a very ample intellectual and professional equipment for the large practice he has since enjoyed. Besides keeping this up, he has made important contributions to the litera- ture of the profession, in pamphlets and articles for the medical journals, has labored most faith- fully and unselfishly to secure the rights of homœopathy in the State Legislature and other- wise, and has introduced some very serviceable innovations, as the use of musk as an antidote to chloral poison and the hypodermic injection of potentized drugs. He is prominent as a special lecturer of unwonted ability in the St. Louis Homoeopathic College, of which, as well as of the Pulte Medical College, Cincinnati, he has been a Censor for some years. He is the re- cipient of the highest honor in the gift of the profession, in the election, for the year 1882-83, to the Presidency of the American Institute of Homœopathy, the oldest national medical organ- ization in America, of which he had been Vice- President; and, at the meeting held in 1882, in London, which he attended, he was made Vice-President of the International Homœo- pathic Medical Convention. He was the origi- nator and first President of the Kentucky State Homoeopathic Medical Society; was twice also President of the Indiana Institute of Homœo- pathy; is a member of the Hahnemann Institute, a member of the American Institute of Homœo- pathy, and of sundry other professional and learned bodies. Has also been the recipient of several honorary degrees conferred by homœo- pathic medical colleges for "distinguished ser- vices." A writer in the Biographical Encyclo- pædia of Kentucky says: "He is devoted to homœopathy, believing in its superiority ; takes great pleasure in expounding its principles, and is one of the most able, worthy, and successful of its representatives, his learning, manner, and bearing everywhere gaining respect to himself and giving reputation to his school. He is a man of exceptional personal and social habits, everywhere gathering friends, and by his uni- versal courtesy winning the esteem even of those who oppose his theories of medicine."
Dr. Breyfogle was united in marriage in New Albany to Miss Rella, daughter of the Hon.
458
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
John B. and Penina B. Winstandley, of that city. They have one child, a son, John W. Breyfogle, now seven years of age.
DR. W. CHEATHAM.
W. Cheatham, M. D., eye and ear physician in Louisville, was born in Taylorsville, Spencer county, Kentucky, June 6, 1852. His father, Dr. W. H. Cheatham, was one of the first eye and ear doctors west of the Alleghany Mountains. He was born in Springfield, Kentucky, in 1820; educated in Center College, Danville, and re- ceived his professional education in the St. Louis Medical College, Practiced in Taylorsville, Kentucky, until 1861, when he removed with his family to Louisville, where he remained until in 1867, where he removed to Shelbyville, Ken- tucky, and retired to a private life. Dr. W. Cheatham received his literary education in the public schools of Louisville, and in the Ken- tucky Military Institute, graduating from that college in the spring of 1870. He entered the Medical University of Louisville, and took a three years' course, graduating from that institu- tion in the spring of 1873. During this same year he began practicing his profession in Shel- byville, Kentucky, but in a few months went to New York and took a course of instruction un- der the famous Dr. C. R. Agnew, on the diseases of the eye and ear, and afterwards continued his studies in this speciality in different hospitals and colleges until November, 1874, when he became house surgeon of the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, and retained this position until Janu- ary, 1877. He came this year to Louisville, and established himself in the practice of his specialty. In 1878 he went to Europe and visited all the great medical centers of that country, the visit being for the purpose of re- ceiving further instruction on the diseases of the eye and ear. He returned to Louisville in 1878, in which place he has since had in charge a large and increasing practice of medicine. He is a lecturer on the diseases of the ear, eye, and throat in the University of Louisville ; is visiting physician to the Louisville City Hospital, the Kentucky Infirmary for Women and Children, and also to the Masonic Orphans' and Widows' Home of this city. He was married October 2,
1879, to Miss Nellie Garrard, of Frankfort, Ken- tucky. Her father was for many years Treasurer of the State Government of Kentucky.
JOSEPH McDOWELL MATHEWS, M. D.
Joseph McDowell Mathews, a son of Caleb M. and Frances S. Edwards Mathews, was born at Newcastle, Henry county, Kentucky, May 29, 1847. Both father and mother were Ken- tuckians, and the subject of this sketch had the advantage of exceptional family association and tradition. General Joseph McDowell, the dis- tinguished and gallant soldier, was a relative, and for him the child was named. Caleb M. Math- ews, his father, having served several terms as criminal judge of his district, earning a rare rep- utation for learning, ability, and spotless integrity, is still actively engaged in the practice of the law. One sister, the elder, is the wife of Hon. William S. Pryor, Chief Justice of Kentucky. Another married W. B. Oldham, in his lifetime one of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons in the State. The third sister, Sallie B. Mathews, married Morris Thomas, a thrifty farmer of Shelby county, Kentucky. A brother, John W. Mathews, is Cashier of the National Bank of Newcastle. Another is in the United States Internal Revenue service.
Dr. Mathews obtained his academic education principally at the Newcastle Seminary. Com- ing to Louisville in 1866, he entered the Ken- tucky School of Medicine. Previous to his grad- uation in 1867, this institution became the Med- ical Department of the University of Louisville, and it was under the latter name that his diploma was granted. Previous to his removal to Louis- ville, Dr. Mathews had enjoyed the exceptional advantage of studying under Dr. Oldham and, immediately upon his graduation, he returned to Newcastle and entered into a professional part- nership with his old preceptor. This relation was maintained for a number of years, the firm doing the leading practice of that section, when Dr. Mathews, unsatisfied with the possibilities of a country practice, removed to Louisville and opened an office. His faith was justified by the acquirement of an excellent general practice, to which he devoted himself for five years, at the expiration of which time he removed to New
Joseph M. Mathews, M.D.
Dr. V. Cheathams
459
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
York, desiring to take up the study of diseases of the rectum as a specialty. Disappointed in the clinical advantages of New York, Dr. Math- ews proceded to London, visited the hospitals of that city, made a tour of the continent for the same purpose and, becoming convinced that London offered the best opportunity for his in- vestigation, returned and remained a number of months at St. Mark's hospital, the only institu- tion in the world devoted exclusively to diseases of the rectum. While at St. Mark's, Dr. Math- ews's association with Mr. William Allingham, Senior Surgeon of the hospital and a leading au- thority in his specialty, was of infinite value.
Returning to Louisville, Dr. Matthews re-es- tablished himself, giving his exclusive attention to the special practice for which he had been so excellently prepared.
Immediately upon his return and on June 29, 1878, he was called to and accepted the position of Lecturer on the Diseases of the Rectum to the Hospital College of Medicine of Louisville. This he resigned in 1879, to accept the newly created chair of Surgical Pathology and Diseases of the Rectum in the Kentucky School of Med- icine. The latter position he still fills and is, as well, treasurer of the school.
In time he became associated with Dr. Dud- ley S. Reynolds as editor of the Medical Herald, then, as now, one of the leading medical jour- nals of the West, and is still actively engaged in its conduct. Aside from his editorial writing the Doctor has contributed extensively to medical journals of the United States papers relating to his specialty, and his views upon the subject have been embodied in many American and foreign treatises, notably the last edition of Mr. Alling- ham's work, which pays him the compliment of an entire chapter.
In 1881 Dr. Mathews became Visiting Surgeon of the Louisville City Hospital, which import- ant post he still fills.
Notwithstanding his devotion to a specialty the Doctor has not allowed himself to become narrowed-a man of one idea. His fields of thought and investigation are wide. He has, to the limit of his time, accepted invitations to ad- dress various State medical societies upon sub- jects of general medical interest, and, in the Kentucky State Medical Society and the Poly- technic Society of Kentucky, of both which or-
ganizations he is a member, has been prominent in discussion and has contributed many valuable papers.
Dr. Mathews, on the 29th day of May, 1877, married Mrs. Sallie E. Berry, of Midway, Ken- tucky.
R. C. HEWETT, M. D .*
Robert Carson Hewett, son of John M. and Sarah (Carson) Hewett, was born in New York City October 9, 1812, of English parents. Soon after his birth the family removed to Kentucky and settled finally in Lexington. His academic education was pursued during two years at Miami University, and subsequently at Transyl- vania, then in the zenith of its fame, and by reason of its high rank among the universities of the land shedding much lustre upon Lexington, the noted city of its abode. He left Transylva- nia in the senior year of his college course and in the nineteenth year of his age, to join, as as- sistant, T. J. Matthews, who resigned his pro- fessorship of mathematics in the same institution to accept the appointment of engineer-in-chief on the Lexington & Frankfort Railroad. After a short service in this capacity, an accident to Mr. Matthews disabled him from conducting the surveys, and young Hewett, who had already demonstrated his capacity as an engineer, was appointed to succeed him, and completed the surveys to Frankfort. Soon after this he joined a party of engineers in making surveys for one of the first railroads projected in Indiana, viz : from Lawrenceburg to Indianapolis. On his re- turn to Kentucky he was re-appointed engineer in charge of the Lexington & Frankfort Railroad, and it was through the influence of his report and recommendation that existing contracts for constructing this road with continuous stone sills were abandoned, and a wooden superstructure adopted in lieu thereof. He also aided in the surveys of several of the macadamized roads leading into Lexington, and located the one be- tween that city and Georgetown. He then en- tered the service of the State and assisted in the surveys for the slackwater improvement of the Kentucky river. Afterward he was sent to the northeastern portion of the State, where he sur- veyed and located the State road from Owens-
* Contributed by a friend.
460
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
ville to the mouth of the Big Sandy. In a simi- lar capacity he was placed in charge of the road from Elizabethtown (through Bowling Green) to Eddyville. While thus engaged the financial crisis of 1837 occurred, causing the abandon- ment of all internal improvement enterprises, as well as general prostration in private business af- fairs, and thus the demand for civil engineers was for the time at an end.
Young Hewett was at this time twenty-five years of age. In casting about for new occupa- tion, now that his old one was not likely to be soon serviceable to him again, he concluded to take up the study of medicine, and in 1838 com- menced at Louisville as a student in the office of his brother-in-law, Theodore S. Bell, M. D., then, as now, one of the most able and distin- guished members of the medical fraternity. Af- ter pursuing his studies in Louisville for a suffi- cient time, he entered the medical department of Transylvania and there graduated in 1844. He immediately returned to Louisville, adopted that city as his future home, and betook himself as- siduously to the study and practice of his new profession, which he has followed actively ever since and with a rare measure of success. While his practice has been of a general character, it has been in late years largely in the line of ob- stetrics. During his professional life in Louis- velle he has had repeated offers of professorships in several of the medical schools of that city, but these he has uniformly declined, simply because his tastes and preferences incline more to the practical duties of the profession than to teach- ing. For fourteen years Dr. Hewett served as physician to the Kentucky institution for the education of the blind, and for seven years he gave gratuitous service as physician to the Prot- estant Episcopal Orphan Asylum.
Without attempting to give an elaborate history of Dr. Hewett's life, or to say aught of an ex- travagant, much less of a fulsome character in regard to him-which would be more distasteful to him than to any one else-it may be permitted the friend who pens this sketch, and who has known Dr. Hewett intimately for many years, to write briefly of some of the leading characteristics of the man. Endowed by nature with a strong, practical, comprehensive mind and a vigorous constitution, he has by assiduous study cultivated the one and by most prudent and abstemious
habits so protected the other that now in his seventieth year he is robust and vigorous both in his mental and physical organizations, and for one of his age presents a rare type of the mens sana in corpore sano.
Honest by nature and decidedly positive in his character, he can deal with no proposition except with the utmost frankness and sincerity; and for all subterfuges and quackery, and es- pecially quackery and pretension in the medical profession, he has the profoundest contempt. Fond of his profession, and proud of it as a high science, he is loyal to it according to its highest standard, and a strict observer of its eti- quette.
Recognized by the profession as one of its ablest exemplars, trusted for his calm discrim- inating judgment and thorough conscientious- ness, his counsel is often sought outside the large circle of his immediate adherents, and his diagnoses and suggestions always command re- spect.
In many households in the city of his adop- tion, into which Dr. Hewett hasg one in and out through many years as the chosen and trusted physician, he is also gladly welcomed as a be- loved and well-tried friend,-a tribute to faithful and tender services, rendered oftimes under the sorest trials, and a recompense such as a good physician must always prize highly and be proud to enjoy.
During the civil war Dr. Hewett was a con- sistent adherent of the Union cause. He was appointed by the Government "Acting Assistant Surgeon United States Army for giving medical attendance to officers on duty in the city of Louisville." In addition to these duties he took an active part in the organization of several of the Government hospitals established in the city during the war, giving also his professional serv- ices to the same. He served also as a member of the United States Sanitary Commission, and, in conjunction with the late Doctors Lewis Rog- ers and J. B. Flint, acted as a member of the Board of Medical Examiners for examining ap- plicants for the position of surgeon and assistant surgeon in the volunteer army.
As to duties other than those of a professional nature, Dr. Hewett was at one time member of the board of trustees of the University of Louis- ville; was for nearly twenty years one of the di-
1
Dr. David Cummins.
Dr. Martin Dr. Boomers
461
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
rectors of the Louisville Gas Company; was con- nected with the management of the Louisville & Lexington Railroad Company during the projec- tion and construction of the Short Line branch, and is at the present time a director in the Louis- ville Insurance Company and in the First Na- tional Bank of Lousville. He is enterprising and public-spirited; an earnest, intelligent, and active promoter of all schemes which look to the well-being and true progress of the community of which he is a prominent, influential, and highly honored member.
In 1847 Dr. Hewett married Miss J. Sidney Anderson, the daughter of James Anderson, Sr., Esq. Three children were the result of this happy marriage, two of whom are still living, Mrs. Mary S. Beasley, of Baltimore, Maryland, and Edward A., also married, and at this time the efficient teller of the Kentucky National Bank of Louisville.
Though well advanced in life and in affluent circumstances, Dr. Hewett is still an active and zealous practitioner in the profession which he so much loves, and in which he has attained well-merited popularity and enviable distinction.
DR. CUMMINS.
David Cummins, M. D., a distinguished phy- sician and surgeon of Louisville, was born April 7, 1820, in Jefferson county, Kentucky. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. His father was a far- mer, and in the country schools Dr. Cummins received his early education.
He early evinced a fondness for medicine, and, in 1845, began his professional studies with Dr. J. R. McConachin, of Jefferson county, and afterwards continued his studies with the well known Dr. H. M. Bullitt, of Louisville. In 1849 he graduated in medicine in the Univer- sity of Louisville, and, in the same year, began the practice of his profession, in connection with Dr. Bullett.
From 1851 to 1861 he was demonstrator of anatomy in the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, and, in 1861, was elected professor of anatomy, same school, and occupied that chair until the progress of the war in the follow- ing year made it necessary to discontinue the sessions of that institution. For thirteen years
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.