USA > Ohio > Highland County > The County of Highland : a history of Highland County, Ohio, from the earliest days, with special chapters on the bench and bar, medical profession educational development, industry and agriculture and biographical sketches > Part 21
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when the fair grounds were purchased and improved. At the time of the crisis of 1860-61 he was a member of the state senate, and when the organization of troops began was honored by the govern- ment at Washington with authority to raise a regiment of cavalry. He first recruited the First battalion of cavalry, and when this was merged in the Eleventh regiment he was made colonel, a command he held with honor and credit throughout the war, serving mainly in the far west. After the war Colonel Collins withdrew from the practice of his profession.
Col. Moses H. Kirby was another well-known lawyer and distin- guished citizen prior to 1832, and notable among the probate judges of the county was William M. Meek, born in Adams county in 1818, son of Rev. John Meek, a famous pioneer Methodist itinerant. Judge Meek began his practice at Hillsboro in 1844, but soon moved to Adams county, and did not make his permanent residence at Hillsboro until 1855. Another probate judge was Albert G. Mat- thews, born near Hillsboro in 1819, and a practitioner for many years from 1845. Henry Luther Dickey is another who is men- tioned among the congressmen of the county, an honor conferred upon him in 1878. James H. Rothrock, who lived at Greenfield in 1853-59, and was prosecuting attorney one term, removed to Hills- boro in 1859 and thence in the following year to Iowa, where he was honored with a seat upon the supreme bench of the state in 1876- 1885. William Harvey Irwin, born in Madison township in 1832, was a student of law under Judge Rothrock, was graduated at the Cincinnati law school in 1856, and afterward was eminent in his profession, serving six years as prosecuting attorney. Henry Luther Dickey, of Greenfield, a son of Judge Alfred S. Dickey, began his professional career as a partner of Judge Rothrock at Greenfield in 1859. He was born in Ross county October 29, 1832, and did not make his home at Greenfield until 1847. He was educated at the Greenfield academy, and after a time spent as engineer of construc- tion on the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, began the study of law with his father, completing his professional preparation at the Cin- cinnati law school. When his father became judge he succeeded to his practice, but also gave much time to politics, in which he had a conspicuous career, referred to in another place. He has honor- ably served his county, not only in the state and national legisla- tures, but as engineer of turnpikes in the important era of construc- tion, 1872-73, and has contributed in the most generous and public spirited manner to the building up of his town, where he is yet an honored citizen. He is regarded as a high-minded, honest public man, a good lawyer and a good citizen.
Ruel Beeson, a prominent citizen for many years, and a member of the State senate, was a native of Liberty township, born April 12, 1811. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, and continued in
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the practice and in the care of his farm near Leesburg, until near the time of his death, May 15, 1877.
James H. Thompson, whose brief service in the common pleas bench has been mentioned, was an aged man when appointed, but of fine personal appearance and had for many years practiced law in Highland and adjoining counties. He was born near Harrods- burg, Ky., in 1812, the son of John B. Thompson, an eminent law- yer in that state, and before he was twenty-one he was admitted to the bar and became sheriff of Jessamine county. He practiced at Versailles, Ky., after the cholera epidemic, that made ravages among the attorneys there, and remained in Kentucky until his mar- riage in 1837 to Eliza J., daughter of Gov. Allen Trimble. He made his home at Hillsboro in 1844, and there passed the remain- der of his life, doing a large business in the various courts of the state. For eleven years from 1867 he was register in bankruptcy for his district. He is to be remembered as the compiler of the Centennial (1876) sketch of Highland county history, and other valuable contributions to history and the literature of his profession. In the days of his prime he was regarded as one of the finest trial lawyers in southern Ohio. His long residence in the county made him familiar with the land problems of the section, and his advice and services were in great demand when real estate was the subject of litigation. Judge Thompson outlived all his pioneer friends of the Highland bar, but seemed in his declining years to take new hold of life with renewed hope and vigor. His warm espousal of the Murphy temperance movement and his strong appeals to others to avoid the deadly foe of their moral and intellectual manhood will not soon be forgotten, and his honest practical illustrations of the power of his own strong will to hold and keep him in the path of sobriety and total abstinence is worthy of all praise and honor. His widow, daughter of Governor Allen Trimble, survives, loved and revered by all, and as long as the cause of temperance endures, her name will be found in letters of light upon the pages of history.
Nelson Barrere, an eminent lawyer and public man, was born at New Market, April 1, 1808, received a common school training in youth and entered college at Augusta, Ky., where he graduated with the highest honors of his class. He studied law under Judge J. Win- ston Price, was admitted to the bar in Columbus superior court and began his practice in Hillsboro. Such was his strength and skill, and literary and legal attainments, that he soon became its most brilliant leader and ornament. His legal methods were original and personal, and his mind so evenly balanced and trained that nothing escaped its grasp. Shorthand writing was in his day almost unknown, yet he had invented a system of unique symbols which represented thoughts and ideas, and sometimes facts. He never "took notes" as they called it then, in any case in which he
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was engaged, but would allow a witness to tell his story in his own way and with pencil and paper would seem to be drawing "pictures" while others talked, yet every dot and dash, crook or curve, that grew under his noiseless pencil was understood by him, and to it he would refer in his plea to the court or jury. Familiar with the classics, his scope of words was large and varied, and his perfect understanding of the Greek and Latin languages gave him words for every shade of meaning he wished to convey. In politics in his young manhood he was a Whig and he had the honor of being the last candidate for governor of Ohio upon that ticket in 1853, when he was defeated by William Medill, a Democrat. He was a mem- ber of Congress at the time of his nomination and strongly objected to his name being used before the convention, foreseeing, doubtless, as he did, the disruption of the Whig party in the near future. He died in Hillsboro, August 20, 1883, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Mr. Barrere never married, but made his home with his brother Benjamin up to the time of his death. It was reported of him that in early life he was impressed with the conviction that he must become a minister of the gospel and many believed that he had mistaken his calling when he turned from divinity to the law, but we think not. The writer knew and loved Nelson Barrere as a per- sonal friend, and while much younger in years, was on intimate and familiar terms with him. We have gone over in conversation with him his life's history and we never heard even a hint of disap- pointment over the choice of his professional career, and in conver- sation with Judge Gardner, his nephew and friend, he can recall no expression of his uncle's that seemed to imply a mistake in regard to his calling. No, Mr. Barrere made no mistake, his mind was cast in a different mould. No creed in Christendom could have bound in dogmatic fetters that free and independent spirit, who loved truth for its sake alone, and was sincere and honest to the very core. Yet we do not mean to say in all this that Nelson Bar- rere was destitute of religious convictions and a firm and abiding confidence in the immortality of the soul. Barrere and Durbin Ward were special and strong friends, and would visit each other when time would allow. We heard a gentleman say just a little while ago that the most precious hours of edification and comfort he had ever spent was listening to conversations he was permitted to hear between these intellectual giants, upon questions of Chris- tian faith and Bible teaching. Both were strong believers in the Man of Nazareth.
Judge George B. Gardner, nephew of Nelson Barrere, was admitted to the bar in 1846 at Columbus. He had before taking up the practice of law resided in Fayette county and published the Fayette New Era. He held the office of mayor of Washington Court House, and after coming to Hillsboro was elected mayor of
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the city about 1870 and was again elected in 1900. As probate judge for one term he filled that office with dignity and honor. He is still living in Hillsboro, a veteran of the war of the rebellion, and an honest, upright citizen and a first-class lawyer in every way.
Judge Thompson, in 1876, compiled the following list of High- land county lawyers then in practice :
At Hillsboro: William Scott, Nelson Barrere, William O. Col- lins, Joseph McDowell, C. H. Collins, William M. Meek, J. H. Thompson, Albert G. Matthews, John A. Smith, W. H. Trimble, George B. Gardner, Jacob J. Pugsley, B. V. Pugsley, Henry A. Shepherd, R. D. Lilley, Jr., H. M. Huggins, E. L. Johnson, M. T. Nelson, E. M. DeBruin, Ulric Sloan, Kirby Smith, Henry Rhoades, Jesse K. Pickering, R. T. Hough, L. S. Wright, R. M. Ditty, John Hire, B. F. Beeson, Cyrus Newby, Augustus Harmon, Carlisle Barrere, James Dumenil, Samuel F. Steel, Samuel Scott, W. H. Soule, E. E. Holmes, Flint Rockhold.
Greenfield : Henry L. Dickey, W. H. Irwin, W. H. Eckman, H. L. Meek.
Leesburg: Ruel Beeson, Robert Elwood, George Hardy, L. O. Guthrie, H. L. Pavey, Samuel Beard.
Lynchburg: John Torrie, B. F. Hathaway, Isma Troth and H. C. Dawson. New Petersburg: Thomas Ellis, E. A. Mosier. Belfast: Thomas H. Basken. Buford: Cary Matthews. Sinking Springs : H. N. Easton.
Three of this list died in 1877-J. J. McDowell, Ruel Beeson and Thomas Ellis, and since then Scott, Barrere, Collins, W. O. Meek, Thompson, Matthews, John A. Smith, W. H. Trimble, B. V. Pugsley, Henry A. Shepherd, E. L. Johnson, E. M. DeBruin, Jesse K. Pickering, B. F. Beeson, Augustus Harmon, have all passed away.
Of later years a class of young men of high legal culture and tal- ents have taken their places as members of the bar of High- land county ; prominent among them are Henry Pavey, John Horst, J. W. Watts, Clark Holliday, Judge Frank Wilson, Judge O. H. Hughes, McBride, Frank Collins, Bronson Worley, Martin Van- pelt, Henry Wiggins, H. P. Morrow, O. N. Sams, Col. D. W. Mor- row, and George Garrett.
CHAPTER XIII.
MEDICAL PROFESSION.
H IGHLAND county in the days of first settlement was known as a health resort. The pioneer builders of the common- wealth brought their families to her hills to escape the deadly malaria that then seemed to wage war against the invasion of civilization. As has been noted, the violent epidemic of malarial fever at Chillicothe in 1801 drove some who intended to settle there, to seek the higher lands on the upper waters of Paint creek and its tributaries. The disease that so powerfully influenced the lives of many pioneers did not cease with that year, but continued with more or less severity for many years, and no part of the State was entirely free from it, though regions like Highland county were less severely visited. It was at times so malignant as to resemble yellow fever in symptoms and fatality. Indeed, it is claimed that yellow fever, with the accompaniment of black vomit, afflicted the French settlement of Gallipolis soon after its establishment. Though this is denied by some investigators, the disease was sufficiently like yellow fever for the unfortunate people who died.
The fever was so continuous, so frightful in its effects, that it is remarkable that the settlers were heroic enough to remain in Ohio. They stayed partly through grim determination, partly through the natural indisposition to move backward, partly through love of the beautiful country, and largely through hope that is said to spring eternal, doubtless with accuracy, for it was necessary for it to spring eternally in the breasts of the pioneers, to cheer them in their toil and suffering.
A realistic picture of the situation is given by Isaac J. Finley and Rufus Putnam in their "Pioneer Record" of Ross county: "Rich and productive as these lands were, there was a terrible drawback to their attraction in the shape of chills and fevers. So prevalent was this disease that not a cabin or a family escaped for a single year; and it often happened that there would not be a single well member to furnish drink to the others. In such cases buckets would be filled in the morning by those most able and placed in some access-
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ible place so that when the shakes came on each could help himself or herself. Had there been any seemingly possible way of getting back to the old settlements from which these adventurers had come, most, if not all, would have left the rich Scioto bottoms with their shakes and fevers, but so it was, there were no railroads or canals, or even wagon roads, on which they could convey their disheartened skeletons back to their old homesteads with their pure springs and health-restoring associations. At the time of the year when a tedious land or water trip could be made, there were enough of each family sick to prevent any preparatory arrangements for such a return ; while in winter there were even more obstacles in the way than the sickness of summer. Thus held not only by the charms of the scen- ery and the productiveness of the soil, but by the sterner realities of shakes and burning fever, few came that ever returned, and every year brought new neighbors."
These fevers are described at some length by Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, in his great work on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America, published in 1850. They were called by various names, autumnal, bilious, intermittent, remittent, congestive, miasmatic, malarial, marsh, malignant, chill fever, ague, fever'n'ague, dumb ague-and Dr. Drake himself preferred to call them autumnal fevers. He was disposed to ascribe their origin to what he called a "vegeto-animalcular cause," meaning that the peo- ple were infected by organisms that were bred in decaying vegeta- tion, and he pointed out that the disease could not be caused by gases, which should have an immediate effect, but must be due to some organism that had a regular period of incubation, because people were not taken with the fevers until some time after the date of sup- posed infection. This he stated, not in this language, which is more in the line of modern expression, but to the same effect, demonstrat- ing a remarkable insight into the operations of nature. It is believed now that the malarial infection, whatever its original source, is spread by mosquitoes, but this the doctors and sufferers did not sus- pect, and if they had, it would have done them little good, so numer- ous were the insect pests, and so expensive would have been any adequate attempt to suppress them. At a time when people were exterminating bears, panthers, and vast forests, there was no time to make war on such small and ubiquitous things as mosquitoes.
In combating the fever and chills the doctors depended on Peru- vian bark, quinine and calomel in heroic doses. Generally the unfortunate victim was first bled, then large doses of calomel were given, and the patient was cautioned to abstain from any acid food or he might lose his teeth, and the calomel was followed by quinine. Dr. Drake reported a case in Southern practice where a patient was given calomel for malarial fever in increasing doses until he took several ounces a day, and in a short time an entire pound of the drug
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was put in him. The fate of the unfortunate creature is not men- tioned. Another patient was given six hundred grains of a compound of aloes, rhubarb and calomel in equal quantities for six days consec- utively. There were other remedies. Dr. Joshua Martin, of Xenia, knew of a case where the chills were permanently cured in a small boy by standing him on his head at the access of the fit. "In many cases," said Drake, "the recurrence has been arrested by means which acted entirely on the imagination and feelings. Of this kind are very loathsome potions, which the patients have swallowed with disgust, and different charms or incantations, which, rouse powerful emotions that change the innervation and destroy the habit of recur- rence." There were some very remarkable causes of recurrence of the disease in various forms. A man on Deer Creek was sub- ject to monthly attacks of vertigo and loss of consciousness. When medicine had checked this, the trouble soon returned with intervals of twenty-one days, and afterward for five years with periods of sixteen days.
The chills and fever, while not so immediately fatal in ordinary years as yellow fever, from which Ohio was fortunately spared, was worse in its effects. If a man recovered from yellow fever, he was none the worse for it, sometimes better; but the victim of fever and chills often suffered all the rest of his life with neuralgia, liver or spleen disease, dyspepsia or diarrhoea. At times, however, the malarial fever assumed a malignant form, and it was certain death unless the doctor was near at hand, and happened to be able to check the paroxysms.
It was this disease, common in every part of Ohio, that the pioneer doctors had to contend with. They battled nobly, some of them fall- ing victims to their antagonist, and it cannot be doubted that they performed a great work in alleviating the sufferings of humanity, and encouraging the pioneers in the work of overcoming the evils of a new country. In time, with drainage and extensive cultivation of the soil, the dangerous conditions passed away.
There were some deaths in Highland county during the great cholera epidemic of 1832-33. Again in the summers of 1847, 1848 and 1849 this dread disease ravaged the State, but mainly along the rivers and canals.
Dr. John Boyd is credited with being the pioneer doctor of High- land county. He was born in Uniontown, Pa., in 1767, obtained his professional education at Philadelphia, and in 1797 came west to the new town of Franklinton, on the upper Scioto. Afterward he cast his fortunes with the town of Hillsboro, beginning his practice there before the village was platted, and continuing in active work until near the time of his death, which occurred in 1852. He was, how- ever, a resident of Hillsboro only about seventeen years, removing after that time to a farm on the Chillicothe pike, where he built the
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manufacturing establishment long known as Boyd's mill. IIe was one of the first associate judges of the court of common pleas, a man of energy, of good judgment in business, and in every way worthy of remembrance among the founders of the county. Among the other early physicians were Dr. James Smith, who came to Hillsboro in 1808, but did not long survive, and was succeeded in practice by his son-in-law, Dr. Jasper Hand. Dr. Hand was a son of General Hand, of the Continental army, was a graduate of the Philadelphia profes- sional schools, and a man of general ability, as well as a successful doctor. During the time of the war of 1812, a period of great excite- ment and effort in the young State of Ohio, he took the place of a leader in his community, served as surgeon in the army, and at its close was rewarded with the rank of brigadier-general in the militia. He died in the prime of manhood, leaving a large family.
The pioneer doctor of Greenfield was Garvin Johnson, who married a daughter of Noble Crawford and moved to Ross county in 1825. Others practiced for brief periods. Dr. Milton Dunlap, for many years honorably identified with the profession in Highland county, was born in Brown county in 1807, graduated at Cincinnati in 1829, and established himself at Greenfield in 1830. After 1840 his brother, Dr. A. Dunlap, was associated with him, and the two per- formed what is thought to be the first operation of ovariotomy in the state. Dr. Thomas McGarraugh, born in Pennsylvania in 1780, after several years of practice at Washington Court House, came to Green- field in 1836, and was prominent in the profession for several years. He removed to Ross county later, but returned to Greenfield a short time before his death in 1860. His sons were worthy successors of this notable physician. Among the other physicians of long practice at Greenfield were Dr. S. F. Newcomer, a native of Maryland, who came in 1846; Dr. J. L. Wilson, son of an old settler of the county, who began his practice in 1846, and whose sons have also gained honor in the profession, and Dr. Samuel B. Anderson, who practiced home- opathy from 1843 to 1868, succeeding his father-in-law, Dr. Jeptha Davis.
Dr. Samuel J. Spees was the earliest doctor of Lynchburg, settling there in 1834, and removing to Hillsboro in 1866. At Leesburg, Dr. Havilah Beardsley was the first to settle, in 1816, and among those who followed were Drs. Benjamin Doddridge, Joab Wright, Sylvester Hinton, Ruel Beeson and Isaac S. Wright. Dr. Beeson, who came to Leesburg in 1833, became one of the prominent men of the county. He was born in Highland county in 1811, son of a pioneer from North Carolina, was educated at the Union academy at New Petersburg, read medicine with Dr. Hardy of the same place and attended lectures at Cincinnati. He did not practice medicine long, but diverged into mercantile business and the profession of law. He was elected to the state senate in 1848, was an earnest temperance
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agitator, was one of the founders of the Republican party, and a firm supporter of the war for the Union. He died in 1877.
At New Lexington the pioneer was Dr. Charles Conway, in 1818, followed by Dr. Stanton Judkins, a North Carolinian, and his brother, Dr. Robert P. Judkins, who was prominent in the practice until his death in 1864. S. Peabody, a botanical doctor, was the first practitioner with his home at Marshall, 1830-46, succeeded by Drs. Bayhan and Dixon before 1850. At New Market the earliest doctors were Vest, Washburn and Whisler, and at Sinking Spring the first were Drs. Loughbridge and Barnes; after 1856, T. H. Davis, and still later Dr. Charles Leighton was the most prominent practitioner.
The records of the Highland County Medical society afford the names of a considerable number of the practitioners in the period midway between the pioneer times and the war of the rebellion. On April 17, 1838, there was a meeting at Hillsboro for the organization of this society, participated in by the following doctors: Jacob Kirby, C. C. Sams, John M. Johnston, A. Baker, W. T. Newcomer, J. L. Wilson, Layton, Howell, McCollum, W. C. McBride, Milton Dunlap, Enos Holmes, Alexander McBride, A. J. Spees, Robert P. Judkins, T. Rogers, and others. Dr. Kirby was made president, Dr. Newcomer vice-president, and Dr. Sams secretary.
The society, after a while, was neglected, but in March, 1853, it was reorganized, with Dr. C. C. Sams as president, J. L. Wilson vice- president, and J. M. Johnston treasurer, and a number of new mem- bers, among them John Duval, Christopher C. Matthews, J. P. Garrett, M. Garrett, Thomas Davis, J. S. Wright, Ruel Beeson, G. W. Dunlap, A. J. Dunlap, T. McGarraugh, N. H. Hixson, P. Marshall and G. H. Viers.
The association was interrupted by the war of 1861-65, after which the meetings were resumed, with Dr. Jacob Kirby as presi- dent, Dr. S. J. Spees vice-president, and Dr. J. M. Johnston treasurer. Dr. J. M. Johnston was made president, in 1874, and his successors in the following years were Dr. S. J. Spees, Dr. W. W. Shepherd and Dr. J. L. Wilson.
Dr. Enos Holmes, born in 1821, and a practitioner at New Peters- burg from 1843 until 1850 and after that at Hillsboro, was in the army medical service by appointment of Governor Tod, and rendered valuable service. He was one of the most popular men of the county, and stood in the highest ranks of his profession, until his death in recent years. More is said of him among the biographical pages.
Dr. W. W. Shepherd was a native of Highland county, born and raised on a farm. He began his study under his father, Dr. Wm. A. Shepherd, and Dr. E. H. Johnson of Cincinnati. In his effort he did more than "read medicine ;" to him it was a profound as well as a delightful study, engaging his entire thoughts and reflection, and
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