USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 1 > Part 42
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
'The following are distinguished members of the bar from other counties who practiced regularly or occasionally in the early courts of Clinton County: . Warren County -- Francis Dunlavy, first President Judge; Thomas R. Ross, 'John McLean, Thomas Freeman, Thomas Corwin, Joshua Collett, A.
403
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
H. Dunlavy, Jacob D. Miller, Jonathan K. Wilds, Phineas Ross, Benjamin Collett, Jacoby Halleck, George J. Smith, J. Milton Williams.
Ross County-Judge Thomas Scott, Benjamin G. Leonard, Richard Doug- lass, William Creighton.
Highland County -- Richard Collins, Moses H. Kirby, John H. Price, James H. Thompson.
Greene County-John Alexander, William Ellsberry, Aaron Harlan:
Clermont County-Judge Owen T. Fishback, Thomas Morris.
Fayette County -- Wade Loofborough, Henry Phelps.
An Examining Committee, about 1828 or 1830, was composed of Judge William Irwin, of Lancaster, Judge Gustavus Swan, Judge Thomas Scott, Senator (afterward Governor) William Allen and Henry Stanberry. Mr. Allen was on the committee which examined Robert B. Harlan at Chillicothe, and the latter stated that the former asked most of the questions which were put to him at that time. It would be a pleasure to write extended sketches of all who have practiced in the Clinton County Courts since 1810, but even if this were possible to accomplish, the limit of this work would not admit of their insertion, for they would form a volume of themselves.
بـ
1
-
1
ــعسى الداعية الكون
404
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
1
CHAPTER XII.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION .*
TI THE first physician who located and began practice within the limits of Clin- ton County was Dr. Loammi Rigdon, a native of the State of Pennsylvania, where his elementary and medical education had been received. He located in the village of Wilmington in the fall of 1812, and boarded at the hotel of Warren Sabin. During the ensuing summer, he was united in marriage with Miss Dunley, of Lebanon, and erected his log cabin on South street near the present residence of David Rudduck. For years, he was engaged in most la- borious practice in the new county of Clinton, and received a very poor com- pensation for the services rendered. In the science of medicine and art of surgery, Dr. Rigdon equaled if not surpassed any of that profession who have since been local practitioners of the county. He was a noble specimen of man, being moral, upright, industrious and courteous to all. He was a worthy and earnest member of the Baptist Church, and possessed the good will and friend- ship of all who knew him. . After following his profession in Wilmington and vicinity for thirteen years, without realizing a fair consideration for his labor, Mr. Rigdon removed from the county and located in the town of Hamilton, where from a large and voluntary patronage he amassed quite a fortune. In that locality he spent many years in the onerous duties of his profession, and died full of years and full of works.
Dr. James McGoe located in Wilmington in 1814. On his arrival in the village, he made his home and had his office in Sabin's Hotel. In the year 1815, he was married to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Judge George McManis, Sr. He built his cabin on South street adjoining the residence of Dr. Rigdon. Mr. McGee, though a well-educated physician, had no love nor admiration for his profession, and did not engage in general practice. Not long after his marriage he was appointed Postmaster of the village, and also to fill the office of County Recorder. He performed the duties of these offices for a short time only, not having been permitted to remain long in office. In a few years after his marriage, the Doctor, while yet in early manhood, was called to final rest, leaving an only child. He was a modest and unassuming man, had no ene- mies, and lived in peace with his neighbors.
Dr. Uriah Farquhar, son of Benjamin Farquhar, who was one of the earliest settlers on Todd's Fork, then in . Warren County, was educated for the medical profession and placed in the office of Dr. La Throp, of Waynesville, with whom he remained until the close of the war of 1812-15, when he had completed his studies. Soon thereafter he located in Wilmington and occu- pied as a residence and office the house now owned by Clum Marble. He was possessed of a strong nervous and sanguine temperament, was very credu- lous and easily imposed upon. In improving the rich and fertile soil of Clin- ton County, the atmosphere was filled with malarial poison, and diseases in this locality were very common in the summer and fall seasons, and the physi- cians had much to do. The Doctor devoted himself with unabated energy to relieving the people from their malarial complaints, and, after laboring for twenty years or more in Clinton County, he removed to Logansport, Ind., where
* The material contained in this chapter has been furnished entirely by Dr. A. Jones, of Wilmington, who de- serves much credit for the work, which, it may be imagined, was laborious to a great degree.
.
1 6 ராமன் எல்பிஜே
จีนรุกย
407
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
he remained in the pursuit of his profession until he had completed his four- score years. The fullness of time had then arrived when he had to part with his much-beloved work, and his many friends and admirers. He was for many years a member of the Christian Church. He was ever ready to give attention to all who needed his services. With a kind heart and generous nature it was hard to amass wealth, and equally to retain it; hence, when he left Wilming- ton, he was not overburdened with currency or property.
Dr. Grior settled in Wilmington in 1817, opened an office, and began the practice of medicine. It was thought that he possessed too great a love for stimulants, which caused much opposition, resulting in charges being brought against him, which he could not successfully resist; and, therefore, after strug- gling for two or three years against the tide, he loft for a locality of more hopeful prospects.
Dr. Turner Welch, a native of the State of North Carolina, came to Ohio and commenced the practice of medicine in Wilmington in 1818. He occu- pied as an office a room in a building that stood on the northeast corner of Main and Mulberry streets, on the lot now occupied by George Brindle. Soon after his removal to this locality, he was united in marriage with Hester, daughter of John Fallis. Dr. Welchi was then induced by his father and father-in-law to remove from Wilmington to a farm near Oakland, now the Dr. Hormell residence. In 1825, Dr. Rigdon moved to Hamilton, and Dr. Welch at once occupied the opening caused by the removal. Here he con- tinued to practice until 1836, when he moved to the Wea Plains, Ind. After remaining several years he became dissatisfied in that State, and again came to Ohio; but, not being contented, returned to Indiana. During his residence in Wilmington in 1826-27, he attended lectures in the Medical College of Ohio, and graduated in medicine and surgery. In the war with England, Dr. Welch served as Assistant Surgeon. After the close of the war in 1815, he re- turned to his home in North Carolina, and remained with his preceptor until the time when he emigrated to Ohio. Toward the close of his life, the Doc- tor drew a pension from the Government for services rendered, which acknowl- edgment gave him more pleasure than all the money and property he possessed. · At the advanced age of eighty-four years, more than sixty of which had been . occupied in active practice, he laid down his scalpel and medicine case to join . many of his long-absent friends. In the profession he sustained a good repu- tation and toward his competitors was courteous and kind. With this sketch of Dr. Welch ends the physicians who settled in Wilmington from the year 1810 to 1820.
Dr. S. Judkins, in 1825, located in Wilmington, and, for several years, was engaged in professional duties in and about the village; but, not meeting · with the success he anticipated, he removed to Highland County, settling in Leesburg, where he had formerly practiced. Here he regained former patron- age, and met with good success.
Dr. Amos Tiffin Davis began the practice of medicine in Clarksville, this county, in the year 1829, and, with the exception of eight or ten years of prac- tice in Cincinnati, and at other points, has since been a resident of Clinton County, and continues in active practice, and to-day, though in his eightieth year, he is still administering to the wants of ailing and suffering humanity. Dr. Davis was born of parents Isaac and Mary (Tiffin) Davis, the latter being a sister of Edward Tiffin, the first Governor of Ohio. The father was a native of Pennsylvania, and the mother of Ireland. The former settled in Ross County, in this State, in the year 1800, and was a farmer by occupation. Our subject was here born Jauuary 9, 1803, and reared amid agricultural pursuits, assisting his father on the farm until twenty years of age, when he went to
.
H
L
أقلام -
408
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Chillicothe and placed himself under the tuition of Dr. Pinkerton, with whom he remained two years. He then entered the Medical Department of the Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky., remaining several months; then entered upon the practice of his profession, as above stated. April 20, 1826, he was united in marriage with Priscilla, daughter of James Birdsall, an early pioneer of Clinton County, where the daughter was born. To this union one child was born, Mary D., the widow of Rev. G. R. McMillan. In early life, Dr. Davis united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been an earnest and faithful member for sixty years, and since his removal to Wil- mington, soon after his location at Clarksville, in 1829, has been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church in that village. Ho has twice served the people of the county in the General Assembly, to which he was elected in 1836 and 1839. In politics, he has been identified with the Republican party since its organization, having been formerly an "Old-Line Whig."
Dr. Aquila Jones, now engaged in the activo practico of medicine in Wil- mington, and one of the pioneer physicians of this locality, was born at Bean Station, Granger Co., East Tonn., April 10, 1807. His parents were William and Deborah (McVoigh) Jones, who settled in what is now Union Township, Clinton County, in the spring of 1810. In 1823, our subject entered the office of Dr. Loammi Rigdon, and with him commencod the study of medicine. On the removal of Dr. Rigdon from Wilmington in 1825, Dr. Jones further prose- cutod his studies under the instruction of Dr. Turner Welch, whom he assisted in practice in 1827, 1828 and 1829. Permit us, in this connection, to state that during the year 1829, the malarial or typhoid fever prevailed in the county as an epidemic, and for a portion of the year Dr. Jones was actively engaged in the duties of his profession in the eastern part of the county, where for a time he opened an office at Parris' Hotel, from which point he made his way over logs and through the mud and mire to the log cabins where many of the pioneers were prostrated with this fever. We will warrant that there was then no poetic fervor or amusement in the daily pursuitof such a profession. How arduous were the duties of the physicans of that day! They were few in number, and all located at the county seat. Patients were in all parts of the county, and the only mode of reaching them was by horseback, requiring jour- . neys of from ten to fifteen miles, and in the sickly seasons of the year, their daily rides were often from forty to fifty miles; but, endowed with stout hearts and hardy constitutions, they adapted themselves to the times and surrounding circumstances, and overcame the difficulties, however great. At intervals in 1829-30, Dr. Jones attended lectures in the Ohio Medical College, at Cincin- nati, graduating in the early spring of the last-mentioned year. He then lo- cated at Washington Court House (now Fayetto County), and remained one year. The following year he removed to Bainbridge, Ross Co., Ohio, and was there engaged in the pursuit of his profession until the winter of 1834-35, when he permanently located at Wilmington, where he has since been in daily practice. While at Washington Court House, the Doctor was united in mar- riage, on the 2d of November, to Caroline A. Dawson, a native of Virginia. In 1822, he was the assistant of a Mr. Treusdell, who was Principal of the schools of Wilmington, and three years later became by appointment the Auditor of the county, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of John McManis. In 1839, in connection with R. R. Lindsey, his brother-in-law, he published the Clinton County Republican. The Doctor, in 1836, commenced keeping a meteorological journal in which a daily account of the weather has been re- corded up to the present date. A full sketch of Dr. Jones will be found else- where in this work.
Dr. William W. Woodruff, a son of Israel Woodruff, who kept a tavern
-
-1
A
409
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
which stood on the north side of Main street, near south, where now stands the store of L. D. Sayer, read medicine in 1827-28 in the office of Drs. Welch and Jones, and, on finishing the prescribed course of reading, commenced practicing in the same village, in which he continued until 1834, when, in the midst of prosperity, with every evidence of success in his chosen profession, he fell a victim to that fatal disease, consumption. Dr. Woodruff was a native of Warren County.
Dr. Joseph K. Sparks, a native of South Carolina, and a graduate of the Transylvania University, of Lexington, Ky., settled in Wilmington as a prac- titioner in the winter of 1830-31, he having come to this point from Cincin- nati, where, for some years, he had been engaged in active practice. He finally loft Wilmington and removed to a farm in that vicinity where he died from old age and dropsy of the chest. He was a sincere and devoted Chris- tian, and a member of the Baptist Church.
Dr. Rockefeller Dakin, a native of the county, and a graduate of the Transylvania University, commenced the practice of medicine in Wilmington about the year 1835, and engaged in the culture of the silk worm. In 1839, Dr. Dakin made a tour through Texas and the Southern States, and there contracted malarial fover, of which he died while en route for home. After the Doctor had graduated, he located in the State of New Jersey, from which State he returned to his native county.
Dr. William Fielding moved to Clinton County in the year 1836. He lo- cated in the village of Wilmington, but, after a residence of three years, seemed displeased with the locality as a point for practice, and returned to his former home in Shelby County, and was soon thereafter elected to the State Legislat- ure from that county. In after years he did not give much attention to his profession, but was actively engaged in the political field.
Dr. Hugh White Baugh, of Clarksville, is a graduate of the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, of the class of 1842, having formerly road medicine with Dr. W. Baugh, of New Market, and Dr. C. C. Samms, of Hillsboro. He lo- cated in the town of New Burlington soon after graduating, where he practiced for awhile, then removed to Hartford City, Ind., but returned to Clinton County settling in Clarksville in 1850, since which time he has there been established. His parents were George and Nancy (White) Baugh, natives the former of South Carolina and the latter of Virginia.
Dr. Henry Smith, of Blanchester, has been a practicing physician of the ., county since 1845. He is a native of this State, born January 9, 1829, of par- ents Joseph and Hannah (Hair) Smith. He read medicine at Perrintown, in Clermont County, with Dr. Columbus Spence, beginning in 1841. Three years later, he attended the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and, in 1845, located at Cuba, in this county, and there remained until 1856, when he settled in Blanchester.
Dr. Thomas McArthur, a native of Fayette County, located in Wilmington about the year 1845, and continued in active practice at that point until about the year 1862, when he was appointed Assistant Surgeon of one of the Ohio regiments, and served until the close of the war.
About the same year (1845), Dr. A. Brooke located at Oakland, and remained a practitioner of the county probably ten years. He was born in this State, at- tended lectures, and graduated in the Medical College at Baltimore.
Dr. J. M. Rannells, of Wilmington, was born near Uniontown, Fayette Co., Penn, January 12, 1820, and eight years later came to Clinton County with his parents, Harvey and Elizabeth (Fleaming) Rannells, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of | Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm near New Antioch, and read medicine with Dr. Jonah Vandervort, of that vil-
=
الحملة
H
· 410
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
lage. In 1846, he graduated at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and at once commenced the practice of medicine in the village of New An- tioch, where he remained nearly a third of a century. He was out of the county probably four years, two of which were spent in Illinois, and two in the city of Dayton. He located in Wilmington in 1881. In 1865, Dr. Rannells adopted homœopathy.
Dr. I. C. Williams located at Bloomington not far from the year 1846, and continued in practice in the county some twenty years, and removed to the State of Illinois, where he died. He was a native of Virginia, though reared in this county, and read medicine with Dr. Jones; subsequently attended lectures and graduated at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati.
Dr. W. W. Sheppard, a native of the county, was born in Wilmington March 20, 1821. His parents were Levi and Sarah Sheppard, by birth Vir- ginians. Dr. Sheppard road medicine with Dr. Jones, beginning in 1845; attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College in 1846-47, and received from the Censors of that College a certificate in the fall of 1847. The following year ho located at Sligo, where he has since practiced with the exception of eighteen months passed in Mercer County, Ill.
Dr. Daniel B. Mory, of Wilmington, located in Centerville, this county, in the spring of 1847, and there began the practice of medicine. In August, 1878, having ministered to the sick of that locality for thirty-one years, he removed to Wilmington. He is the son of George W. Mory, a farmer of Schenectady County. N. Y., where the Doctor was born September 9, 1822. At the age of seventeen years, he came to Wilmington, and, through his own efforts, furthered his own education. He read medicine in the office of Dr. Davis, and in the fall of 1845, entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincin- nati, and subsequently graduated at that institution.
Dr. Thomas S. Garland, of Clarksville, read medicine with Dr. Davis in the village of Wilmington, and attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, from which institution he received a diploma, and about 1842 "hung out his shingle" in Clarksville, where he remained for a time, then settled in Wilmington, but again returned to Clarksville in 1848, and has since practiced at that place.
Dr. William G. Owens was a native of the State of Virginia. His par- ents were Tolivar and Priscilla Owen, likewise Virginians by birth. The Doc- tor located in Wilmington in 1848. On the 22d of June, 1852, while in atten- dance upon some of his patients who were prostrated with the cholera, he was taken with that disease and fell a victim to it the following day.
Dr. G. F. Birdsall commenced the practice of medicine in Clinton County about the year 1847 or 1848. He was a student of Drs. Watkins, of Greene County, and Brooke, of this county, and a graduate of one of the Medical Col- leges of Cincinnati. He died some years ago at the village of Oakland.
Dr. S. S. Boyd, of Wilmington, settled in the practice of his profession in the county of Clinton in the year 1852, locating at Wilmington, where he has since been engaged in active practice. The Doctor belongs to the Eclectic school. He read medicine with Dr. B. Nubble, of Amelia, Clermont County, and there practiced before coming to Clinton County.
Dr. Marion Wilkerson, a resident of Bloomington, and for a number of years a physician of the county, is a native of the adjoining county of Warren. His parents were John and Elizabeth Wilkerson, natives of Kentucky, and at an early period emigrated to Warren County. Our subject read medicine in Lebanon with Drs. J. & E. Stevens and D. S. Dakin. He attended lectures in 1852-53, and graduated at the Ohio Medical College. In the late war, he
W
411
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
served as Assistant Surgeon of the Eighty-third Regiment Ohio Volunteer In- fantry.
Dr. R. T. Trimble, of New Vienna, is a native of Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio, where his early education was received in the public schools. He also read medicine in that village with Dr. W. W. Sheppard, and then attended a course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and one at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated at an early age, and practiced one your with his proceptor in Hillsboro, Ohio, when he removed to New Vienna, and has ever since been there engaged in active practice.
Dr. M. J. Hormell, of Oakland, is a graduate of the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, which institution he left in the year 1854. For several years, he practiced in Harveysburg, then removed to Oakland, and has since continued in his professional duties in that place. He is a native of Warren County, and road medicine in the office of Dr. A. T. Corlis, at Lebanon.
Dr Andrew Robb, who for the past twenty-three years has been an active . practitioner of Clinton County, and located at Blanchester, was born in Cler- mont County, Ohio, of German and Scotch-Irish ancestry. His early life was passed on a farm with his father. He received the usual training in the com- mon branches of that period, and at the age of sixteen, entered the academy at New Richmond, and two years later commenced reading medicine with Dr. Al- fred B. Noble, at Goshen. In 1837, he began practicing with his preceptor, and continued until the fall of 1840; then attended lectures at the Ohio Med. ical College, and graduated with the class of 1841. Dr. Robb has since this time been engaged in active practice.
Dr. S. B. Moon, born at Martinsville, this county, May 11, 1835, is a son of Henry and Mary (Paxton) Moon. He read medicine with Dr. Davis, of Greenfield, Highland Co., Ohio, and attended lectures at Starling Medical Col- lege, and also at Miami Medical College of Cincinnati. He then returned to his native village, where he practiced two years, and removed to Cuba and re- mained six years. In 1879, Dr. Moon located in Wilmington, and has since been numbered with the physicians of the village.
Dr. J. W. Bennett, a practicing physician of Cuba, located there in 1858, and remained until 1870. This year he removed to Cherry Grove, Hamilton County, and there practiced medicine for five years, and returned to Cuba, of which place he has since been a resident. Dr. Bennett was born in Clermont County, Ohio, in the year 1833, read medicine with Dr. Bennett, attended lect- ures at Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, and there graduated, and, in 1857, commenced practicing at Woodville, in his native county.
Dr. Andrew F. Deniston located at Westboro February 1, 1858, and has since been a practitioner in that vicinity, with the exception of the time he was in the service of his country during the war of the rebellion. He read medicine in Lynchburg, Highland Co., Ohio, with Dr. Spees during the years 1855, 1856 and 1857. His parents were James R. and Elizabeth R. Deniston.
Dr. A. T. Johnson, of New Vienna, is a native of Leesburg, Highland Co., Ohio, born June 1, 1829. His parents, Joseph W. and Rachel (Terrell) Johnson, were natives of Campbell County, Va. In 1859, Dr. Johnson grad- uated at the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, and, in 1868, at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. He began practicing in New Vienna in the spring of 1859. In the fall of 1861, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the Forty- Eighth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry .. He remained in this position until the summer of 1863, when, on account of disease, he was compelled to leave field duty and served in various hospitals until 1864, when he resumed prac- tice in New Vienna, and continued in the active practice of medicine until
-
-
TIS
மி னேவேகாஸ் மீர்
ww
412
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
1875, when failing health necessitated his retiring in a great measure from active professional life.
Dr. George M. Telfair located as a physician in the village of Blooming- ton in the year 1862. He is the son of Dr. Isaac and Nancy A. (Boggs) Tel- fair, natives of the State of Virginia. He read medicine in the village where he is now engaged in practice in the office of Dr. Williams; attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, graduating in 1860. Before locating in Bloom- ington, Dr. Telfair practiced two years with Dr. M. Lomon at Midway, Madi- son Co., Ohio.
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.