The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 32

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

USA > Ohio > Warren County > The History of Warren County, Ohio > Part 32

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The changes made in ten years will appear from the following list of prac- ticing attorneys in 1840: Simon Suydam, J. Milton Williams, George J. Smith, John Probasco, Jr., A. H. Dunlevy, Robert G. Corwin, Thomas Cor- win, Asahel Brown, Franklin Corwin, and, at Franklin, John W. Caldwell.

The following is the list for 1850: George J. Smith, J. Milton Williams, A. H. Dunlevy, E. Hutchinson, Durbin Ward, William S. Mickle, Lauren Smith, Robert G. Corwin, A. G. McBurney, John C. Dunlevy, J. Kelly O'Neall, James M. Smith and Horace M. Stokes. At this time, John Probasco, Jr., was President Judge.

Among the law firms of former years may be mentioned Ross & Corwin, consisting of Phineas Ross and Thomas Corwin; McLean & Smith, consisting of William McLean and George J. Smith; Williams & Collett, consisting of J. Milton Williams and William R. Collett; Corwin & Ward, consisting of Thomas Corwin and Durbin Ward; and later, a firm consisting of Thomas and R. G. Corwin and A. G. McBurney; Smith & Probasco, consisting of George J. Smith and John Probasco, Jr .; Dunlevy & Thompson, consisting of A. H. Dunlevy and Thomas F. Thompson.

Riding the circuit was the uniform custom of the early lawyers, whether they were old in the profession and had an established practice, or were young, briefless, and perhaps penniless, members, in search of business. They traveled on horseback, with their saddle-bags under them, an overcoat and umbrella strapped behind the saddle, and leggings well spattered with mud, tied with strings below the knees Traveling the circuit became less common in the deo-

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ade between 1830 and 1840, and finally ceased. Subsequent to 1840, it was continued only by the older lawyers, who had established a practice in the different counties of the circuit which made the toilsome journey, which took them away from their homes a considerable portion of the year, a remunera- tive one. Ferguson's Tavern, in Lebanon, which stood immediately east of the old court house, was a favorite stopping-place of the lawyers in the olden time. Here, in court terms, Jacob Burnet, Nicholas Longworth, Joseph S. Benham and Thomas Morris met Corwin, the Colletts and the Rosses, and the evenings were enlivened with mirth and jollity.

Lawyers' fees were low in the early days of Ohio. A charge of hundreds of dollars for an attorney's services in a single case was rare. A fee of $1,000 was almost unknown. Ejectment suits, which most frequently arose from dis- puted land boundaries in the Virginia Military District east of the Little Mi- ami, were perhaps the most profitable part of the early lawyers' practice. It may be safely assumed that for twenty-five years after the organization of courts at Lebanon, $750, which was for much of that time the salary of the President Judge, was above rather than below the average annual income of a lawyer in full practice in Warren County. With the growth of population and wealth of the county, the profits of the practice of law increased.

In 1836, Judge George J. Smith was retired from the bench to the ranks of the profession by reason of a change in the political complexion of the Leg- islature. His salary as President Judge had been but $1,000. The Judge in after years sometimes amused his friends by relating to them the anxiety by which he was oppressed on being deposed from his office, and the concern which he felt lest he should not be able to provide a maintenance for his family by his practice at the bar, from which he had been withdrawn for seven years. His forebodings, however, proved unfounded, as his receipts from his practice dur- ing the first year after its resumption exceeded $3,000.

The salary of the Judge of the Court of Common Pleas was fixed, in 1803, at $750; in 1816, at $1,000; in 1837, at $1,200; in 1852, at $1,500; and in 1867, at $2,500.

So far as is known, all the older members of the profession in the county were opposed to the adoption of the reformed method of civil procedure which was enacted by the Ohio Legislature in 1853. It had been under discussion in the State since its adoption in New York in 1848. It has since been adopted by more than twenty American States and Territories, and has been accepted by the British Parliament. The old system of pleading, with its con- flicting and confusing distinctions in the forms of remedial actions, had long remained one of the greatest and most unnecessary burdens on the administra- tion of justice, both in England and America. It had originated at a remote period, and was possibly contrived for the purpose of securing to the favored few the exclusive administration of justice. The style used in pleading was awkward and clumsy from the use of unmeaning phrases, and was redundant in the use of synonyms and repetitions. The old lawyers, familiar with the arti- ficial and technical rules of the old system, had learned to admire even its fic- tions, circumlocutions and contradictions, and taught it to their students as the perfection of reason and the most beautiful of human sciences. In the opinion of Edmund Burke, the science of law " does more to quicken and in- vigorate the understanding than all other kinds of learning put together, but it is not apt, except in those happily born to open and liberalize the mind in exactly the same proportion." The lawyer's habit of constantly appealing to authorities and precedents is not the most favorable to the development of the true spirit of progress. Certain it is that the most needed reforms in the law make slow progress. Even after the enactment of the code of civil procedure

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by the Legislature, the full measure of the reform intended by it was not ex- perienced by the profession in this county. The older and leading lawyers, whose habits of thought had been formed under the former system, made the new practice conform to the old as far as possible. Judge Nash's work on pleading and practice was for many years in general use by the profession in this county. This author was an avowed enemy of the code system of practice, and confessedly resorted to the old precedents for his forms, and substantially followed them. A generation, however, has made great changes. Experience has given proof of the wisdom of reforming the practice, and to-day not a law- yer educated under the code system would be willing to go back to the com- mon law pleading.

Below is given a list of the President Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the circuits in which Warren County was placed under the constitu- tion of 1802, and the Common Pleas Judges of the subdivision of the judicial district of which the county was a part under the constitution of 1852:

PRESIDENT JUDGES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1802.

Francis Dunlevy, of Warren County, 1803-1817. Joshua Collett, of Warren County, 1817-1829.

George J. Smith, of Warren County, 1829-1836. Benjamin Hinkson, of Clinton County, 1836-1843.

Elijah Vance, of Butler County, 1843-1850. John Probasco, Jr., of Warren County, 1850-1852.

COMMON PLEAS JUDGES UNDER THE CONTITUTION OF 1852.

William A. Rogers, of Clark County, 1852; died 1855. William H. Baldwin, of Clinton County, 1855; appointed by the Gov- ernor. Robert Barclay Harlan, of Clinton County, 1855-1856. William White, of Clark County, 1856-1864.

George J. Smith, of Warren County, 1859-1869.

James J. Winans, of Greene County, 1864-1869. E. H. Munger, of Greene County, 1869-1872.

Leroy Pope, of Clinton County, 1869-1874.

James M. Smith, of Warren County, 1872 to the present time. [Since 1872, there has been a Common Pleas Judge residing in Warren County, and the names of the Judges after that date residing in the other counties of the subdivision of which Warren forms a part are omitted. ]

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

Dr. Evan Banes was probably the first practicing physician resident in Warren County. He was at Columbia as early as 1796, and, in that year, in connection with John Smith and Samuel Heighway, entered into a contract with John C. Symmes for the purchase of a large tract of land in the vicinity of Waynesville. He was present in the spring of 1796 when the first clearing in the woods was made at Waynesville, and it is believed that as soon as the population was such as to support a physician, he began the practice at that place. Francis Baily, in his journal of travels in North America in 1796 and 1797, gives an interesting account of his adventures in hunting bears in con- nection with Dr. Banes, in the forests about Waynesville, in the spring of 1797. Baily calls him Dr. Bean, but the name is written Banes in legal documents on record at Lebanon, and by his descendants in Clark County at this day. Dr. Banes was a native of Pennsylvania, studied medicine with Dr.

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Rush, of Philadelphia, practiced his profession at Waynesville until 1811, when he removed to Clark County, where he died November 3, 1827.

The following is the professional card of the first physician who settled in the Turtle Creek settlement. It appeared for seven weeks in the Western Spy, published at Cincinnati, beginning in February, 1801:

John C. Winans, lately arrived from Elizabethtown, N. J., with a general assortment of medicines, respectfully tenders his services to the public in the line of his profession as physician and surgeon. Those who may have occasion and are disposed to call on him, may find him at the Rev. Mr. Kemper's, on Turtle Creek, where he has opened his shop and is now in a capacity to serve them.

Dr. Winans was, for four years subsequent to 1801, the only physician residing in the vicinity of Lebanon.

Dr. David Morris was born near Reading, Penn., in 1769; he settled near Lebanon in 1805, and practiced his profession, He first settled about two miles northwest of the town; in 1816, he moved into Lebanon and continued the practice. In 1818, he moved to Brookville, Ind., where he remained one year; returning to Lebanon, he continued in the practice. In 1832, he moved to a farm, two and one-half miles west of Lebanon, where he died, in 1850, of asthma, aged eighty-one years. He was at one time a member of the Legisla- ture. Dr. Morris was a brother of the distinguished United States Senator, Thomas Morris, of Clermont County.

Dr. Benjamin Dubois settled near Franklin in 1806, and practiced until his death, in 1851; he came from Monmouth County, N. J.

Dr. Joseph Canby practiced medicine in Warren County as early as 1810. He practiced at Lebanon for twenty years. His name occurs in five different acts of the Legislature among the Censors appointed for the examination of applicants for license to practice medicine.

Dr. John S. Haller removed from Lebanon, where he had practiced 8 short time, and settled in the practice at Franklin about 1818. He died in 1875, having practiced until within ten years of his death.

Dr. John Cottle came to what is now Maineville in 1818, and practiced from that time until 1843. From 1818 until about 1830, he was the only physician in Hamilton Township. He was a native of Maine and had practiced eight years before coming to Ohio. He died in 1853.

Dr. J. W. Lanier practiced at Franklin for several years succeeding 1811. Dr. Jeptha F. Moore, a Methodist preacher, practiced medicine at Lebanon for about ten years, beginning in 1812.

Dr. Martin Lathrop commenced practice at Waynesville about 1812, and died about eight years later. He was succeeded by his nephew, Dr. Horace Lathrop.

Dr. Calvin Morrill was a physician among the Shakers, at Union Village, from a very early day. He came from New Jersey and died at Union Village in 1833, in his sixty-ninth year.

Dr. Charles D. Hampton was born in Pennsylvania in 1792, came to Ohio in 1815, and practiced a short time at Cincinnati. In 1817, he moved to Clarks- ville, Clinton Co., Ohio, and, in 1822, joined the Shakers at Union Village .. He practiced exclusively among the Shakers until his death, in 1863. He was a man of strong intellect.

Dr. Otho Evans, Sr., began the practice at Franklin, in April, 1827. Before this he had practiced in Butler County, Ohio, for some six years. He was born in Kentucky September 9, 1797; removed to Ohio in 1800. He was engaged in the practice for forty years.

Dr. John Van Harlingen was in the active practice in Warren County for half a century. He was born near New Brunswick, N. J., February 19,

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1792. His ancestors were emigrants from Holland. The Dutch language was spoken in his father's family, and John learned to speak no other tongue until his eighth year. He was educated in New Brunswick, and graduated at Rut- ger's College in 1809. Having read medicine in New Brunswick, and attended a full course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, he was licensed to practice by the State authorities of New Jersey after passing the examination of the Censors of Middlesex and Somerset Counties in 1812. He practiced five years in his native State, and in 1817 moved with his family to Lebanon, Ohio. He was engaged in the practice of medicine at that place and its vicinity for a longer period than any other person in the history of the town. In obstetrics, to which he particularly devoted himself, both in New Jersey and Ohio, his practice was very large and successful. This department of the practice, on his arrival in Warren County, he found almost exclusively in the hands of women. Dr. Van Harlingen's skill did much to take this important art out of the hands of empirics, and to place it in the hands of intelligent medical practitioners. He did not neglect other depart- ments of his profession, and through the long years of his professional life, his labors were varied and arduous. He made journeys to distant parts of the county and to surrounding counties in the saddle by day and by night in the most inclement seasons; he endangered his life in crossing the flooded Miami when it was bridgeless; he passed successive days without sleep; but such were the strength of his constitution and his powers of endurance, that he has the full possession of his mental and physical faculties at the ripe age of ninety years. He retired from active practice about the year 1866.

Dr. Joshua Stevens was born near the village of Winthrop, Me., March 21, 1794. His early pursuits were farming and brick-laying. He had the advantages of a plain common-school education, which he greatly improved by diligent self-study. On the 4th of July, 1817, he left Maine and opened a select boarding-school at Bristol, near Philadelphia Here he commenced the study of medicine, and subsequently entered the office of Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia. He also attended the lectures of the medical department of the university, during the winters of 1818-19-20, and, without waiting to graduate, entered upon practice in Philadelphia. He decided to come West, and, in 1821, with two or three friends, floated down the Ohio in a flat-bot- tomed boat, bearing letters of introduction to Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati. He intended to locate in that city, but he became engaged in the practice at Monroe, Butler Co., Ohio, near which village he had relatives residing. In 1830, the Medical College of Ohio conferred upon him the honorary degree of M. D. In 1847, he removed to Lebanon, where he resided until his death Dr. Stevens performed a vast amount of professional labor and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his patrons and professional friends. He was a reader of medical journals and new books, and a frequent contributor to both journals and societies. He took an active part in the old "District " Medical Society, and for years was its President; afterward, he was for more than ten years President of the Lebanon Medical Society. He was a member of the Methodist Church. About seven years before his death, he was thrown from his buggy while making a professional visit. The accident produced concus- sion of the brain, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He died at Lebanon May 2, 1871.

Dr. Moses H. Keever was born in Warren County, Ohio, April 28, 1810. He was educated at Oxford, Ohio, and Augusta, Ky. When nineteen years old, he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Joshua Stevens, at Monroe, where he continued some three years. He graduated at the Ohio Medical Col- lege in 1834, and the same year began the practice near Ridgeville. For some thirteen years he was associated in the practice with Dr. W. H. Stokes, and

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afterward, with Dr. J. B. Hough. Dr. Keever was an intelligent, energetic and successful medical practitioner.

Dr. Joseph G. Paulding commenced practicing in Deerfield Township - about 1838. In 1844, he was sent by the Associate Reformed Church, of which he was a member, as missionary to Palestine. In connection with his brother- in-law, Rev. James Barnett, he assisted in establishing missions at Damascus and Cairo. Returning to this country in 1854, he took up his old practice at Mason, where he continued, with the exception of some time spent in the army, during the civil war, until his health compelled him to retire from the practice. In 1871, he removed to Piqua, where he died in 1874. Dr. Paulding was highly esteemed as a man of science and a Christian gentleman.

Dr. Jesse Harvey commenced the practice in Harveysburg in 1830. He was a native of North Carolina, but received his education in Ohio. He was distinguished for his knowledge of the natural sciences, zeal in the cause of education and his philanthropic efforts to elevate the negro and Indian races. In 1847, he went as a missionary of the Society of Friends to the Shawnee Indians of Kansas Territory, where he died the next year, in the forty-seventh year of his age.

Dr. Jonathan W. Davis was born in Greene County, Ohio, on the 8th of July, 1821. He attended school but little during the early part of his life, being compelled to spend the most of his time in labor upon the farm. At the age of twenty-two, however, he had acquired a good English education, and soon after commenced the study of medicine under the instructions of Dr. Ed- mund Hawes, of Mount Holly. He became a member of the Lebanon Medical Society in 1846, and, the next year, received the degree of M. D., conferred by the Ohio Medical College, having attended two courses of lectures at that in- stitution. He commenced the practice of medicine at Waynesville. During the prevalence of epidemic cholera, in the summer of 1849, his labors were exten- sive and almost incessant. While engaged in the discharge of his professional duty, at the distance of five miles from home, he was attacked by that dread disease at 6 o'clock P. M., July 26, 1849. He ran his horse home and died at 3 o'clock the next morning. Thus, after an illness of just nine hours, died a promising physician, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

LIST OF PHYSICIANS OF WARREN COUNTY TAXED ON THEIR INCOMES IN 1830.

Turtle Creek Township-David Morris, John Ross, John Van Harlingen, Caleb B. Clements, Wilson Thompson.

Franklin Township-John S. Haller, Otho Evans, George MeAroy, Ben- jamin Dubois.

Clear Creek Township-Joseph Stanton, Samuel Marshall, Joseph Hil- dreth, William H. Anderson.

Deerfield Township-John De Hart.

Hamilton Township-John Cottle, Benjamin Erwin.

Wayne Township-Horace Lathrop, John E. Greer, Joseph Craft. Salem Township-George Starbuck.

The foregoing list includes practitioners of all schools of medicine. The tax at this time was five mills on each dollar of annual income. The County Commissioners, in 1830, estimated the income of each of these physicians at $500, except John Cottle, whose income was placed at $1,000.

LIST OF PHYSICIANS OF WARREN COUNTY TAXED ON THEIR INCOMES IN 1840.

Turtle Creek Township-John M. Starbuck, Adam Sellers, William M. Charters, Henry Baker, Lewis Drake, Jr., James Boggs, W. V. H. Gard, Robert L. Van Harlingen.

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Franklin Township-Benjamin Dubois, John S. Haller, John P. Haggott, Joseph Lampkin, William B. McAroy, David Baird.

Clear Creek Township-E. D. Crossfield, Moses H. Keever, Andrew and C. W. Patton, W. H. Anderson.

Union Township-John Van Harlingen.

Wayne Township-Edmund Hawes, Wesley B. McGuire, Elias Fisher, Henry E. Drake, Turner Welch, Jesse Harvey, John McCowan.

Deerfield Township-Samuel M. Ballard, Joseph G. Paulding, Henry Johnson, Thomas McCowan.

Salem Township-Richard Roach, Isaac N. Thacker, Collins Levi.

Hamilton Township-John Cottle, L. A. Cottle, Benjamin Erwin.

Washington Township-W. B. Strout.

The Legislature passed various acts to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery. The State was divided into districts and Censors were appointed in each district with authority to grant licenses to practice medicine and sur- gery. The first of these acts was passed in 1811, when the whole State was divided into five districts. The Censors named in the act for the district in which Warren County was placed were Dr. Joseph Canby, of Warren County; Dr. Richard Allison and Dr. Daniel Drake. Dr. Canby held the position of Censor for most of the time up to 1824. In 1812, Dr. David Morris, of Warren, was appointed Censor. In the act of 1813, Dr. Joseph Canby and Dr. Jeptha F. Moore were appointed; and the same names occur in the act of 1817. In 1821, Dr. Joseph Canby is the only physician of Warren named. In 1824, Warren and Greene Counties were placed together in a district, and the following named physicians of the two counties were named as members of the Third Medical Society of Ohio, with authority to grant licenses to practice medicine, viz., Joseph Canby, John Ross, David Morris, Benjamin Dubois, James Johnson, Joshua Martin, John Van Harlingen, John Collet, Jehu John, James W. Lanier, John S. Haller and George W. Stipp.

The medical system of the noted New England empiric, Samuel Thompson, was introduced into Warren County about 1826. It was termed the Botanic system, or Thompsonian system. Steaming a patient for the purpose of pro- ducing perspiration was such an important branch of the practice that the fol- lowers were frequently called steam doctors. They were also popularly termed herb or root doctors. The practitioners purchased Dr. Thompson's "New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician, containing a complete system of prac- tice upon a plan entirely new," with a patent right to the system, and, without any previous course of study, they were prepared for the practice of medicine. The system was extensively introduced in Ohio between the years 1825 and 1835. Dr. Thompson's book and patent right to the system were sold at $20, and the publishers of the book at Columbus, Ohio, put forth the statement that Thompson's agents disposed of 4,319 copies in three and a half years preceding 1832, and that Dr. Thompson's share of the proceeds of his Western agency for that time was $17,500. The most important article used in Dr. Thompson's practice was lobelia, which he called the emetic herb, and the medicinal wirtues of which he claimed to have discovered. The following extract from the " Botanic Physician " gives the doctor's prescription of a stock of medicines for a family: "One ounce of the emetic herb, two ounces of cayenne, one-half pound bay- berry root bark in powder, one pound poplar bark, one pint of the rheumatic drops. This stock will be sufficient for a family for one year, with such articles as they can easily procure themselves when wanted, and will enable the mto cure any disease which a family of common size may be afflicted with during that time. The expenses will be small and much better than to employ a doc- tor, and have his extravagant bill to pay." It is impossible to learn at this

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time how many of the practitioners of this empiricism were to be found in this county. They were probably most numerous in Ohio about 1832. Their prac- tice was by no means confined to the less intelligent portion of the inhabitants, but their system soon fell into contempt. The Physio-Medical School of Thera- peutics of later years, whose medical college was at Cincinnati, acknowledged its indebtedness to the labors and discoveries of Samuel Thompson, and paid greater respect to his memory than any other modern medical school. The name of Elder Wilson Thompson, an early Baptist preacher at Lebanon, who practiced medicine, as well as divinity, has been associated with the Thomp. sonian Botanic System, but his practice does not seem to have been identical with that of Samuel Thompson.

The earlier regular doctors were of the heroic school, and made liberal use of the lancet and calomel. In their treatment, they relied on purging, bleed- ing, blistering and salivation. The quantities of calomel sold by druggists to some physicians of the last generation, as shown by accounts still in existence, are sufficient to startle the modern scientific practitioner.

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 32

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081