USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 16
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 16
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McCoy, -; C. M. Fager, West Fair- view; John Logan, - -; Jacob Peters,
Henry Clay; M. J. Jackson, - -; J. R.
Rodgers, Sterrett's Gap; C. J. Heckert, Wormleysburg; D. T. E. Casteel, Allen; G. S. Comstock, Bloserville; and W. J. Kasten, Boiling Springs.
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.
The people of what is now Adams county during the days of early settlement de- pended largely upon the first physicians of York and Cumberland county for medical assistance in cases of dangerous sickness or extreme surgical need. Home remedies of field, forest and garden were prepared by the mothers and grandmothers for the ail- ments of humanity and we find no record or tradition of a resident physician in the Marsh Creek or Conewago settlements for over half a century. Sometime before 1800, Dr. John Agnew, who published the first paper on vaccination in this country, came to Gettysburg, where his great talents and fine medical ability were never fully appre- ciated. His contemporary at Gettysburg was Dr. William Crawford, "a man of great and varied abilities and of national and last- ing fame" who came in 1795. Dr. John B. Arnold, of Connecticut, Dr. James Hamilton, a wealthy southern man, were in the county as early as 1800, and soon fol- lowing them were Drs. John Knox and John Runkle, the latter from Maryland. One of the earliest of Crawford's students was Dr. James H. Miller, who became a great medical authority in the county, and those ing fame" who came in 1795. Dr. John Paxton, David Horner, Charles Berlucky and John Parshall. Drs. Crawford and Mil- ler were the only men in the county, who could amputate a limb until Dr. David Gil- bert came to Gettysburg in 1830. Physi- cians increased slowly until 1873, when there were thirty-five practitioners of medi- cine in the county. In 1881 the Legisla- ture required certain qualifications of each practicing physician except he had been ten years in continuous practice and all were to register in the prothonotary's office in the county where they practiced. The physicians in Adams county in 1885 were: George B. Aiken, V. H. B. Lilly, and Geo. L. Rice, McSherrystown; J. B. Combs,
Round Hill; E. W. Cashman and D. L.
Baker, East Berlin; A. L. Bishop, C. P. Gettier, Jonathan Howard, H. W. Lefevre, R. S. Seiss, Joshua S. Kemp, E. F. Shorb, and S. B. Weaver, Littlestown; John C. Bush, Mount Joy township; A. P. Beam, Fairfield; J. E. Gilbert, Charles Horner, Robert Horner, John W. C. O'Neal, W. H. O'Neal, J. B. Scott, James Warren, and T. T. Tate, Gettysburg; J. R. Dickson, ----; A. B. Dill, J. R. Plank, R. M. Plank, J. H. Marsden and I. W. Pearson, York Springs; Jeremiah Diore, -; A. M. Evers, W. C. Sandrock, J. L. Sheetz and J. W. Smith, New Oxford; R. B. Elderice, -; Samuel Enterline, Huntingdon township; E. K. Foreman, Littlestown; C. E. Goldsborough, Hunterstown; W. F. Hollinger, C. W. Johnston, F. C. Wolf, Abbottstown; A. W. Howard and E. W. Mumma, Bendersville; Ephraim Howard, Straban township; Andrew Howard, Mount Pleasant township; I. P. Lecrone, Arendtstown; Richard McSherry, Ger- many township; R. N. Meisenhelder, East Berlin; Emanuel Melhorn and D. H. Mel- horn, New Chester; Alfred Myers, Hamp- ton; Agideous Noel, Bonneauville; C. H. Rupp, - ---; C. K. Rether, Biglers- ville: C. E. Smith, Center Mills; A. S. Scott, Fairfield; W. O. Smith, and W. C. Stem, Cashtown; G. W. Smith, Flora Dale; A. O. Scott, -; O. W. Thomas, Arendtsville; J. C. Warren, Butler town- ship; J. D. Weddelle, Bigler; C. W. Wea- ver, Glenville, and James G. Watson.
The Indian Physician. Dr. Carlos Montezuma, whom O. B. Super describes in the April number of the New England Magazine for the year 1895, is a full-blood- ed Apache Indian, who was captured and carried off at five years of age by a neigh- boring tribe and has never seen his parents since. A traveling artist named Gentile purchased the boy from his captor for $30
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
and sent him to school. The Indian boy worked his way up step by step, paying miost of his way by hard work and com- pleted his education notwithstanding the remarkable declaration once made by a Congressman, that "there is as much hope of educating the Apache as there is of edu- cating the rattlesnake upon which he feeds." Montezuma left school read medi- cine and after graduating from the Chica- go Medical college held various positions in connection with the Indian school and agency business until he came to Carlisle where he has been resident physician of the Carlisle school ever since. He has al- ways performed his duties in a satisfactory nanner and has written many articles on the Indian question. He says his case is ex- ceptional only in so far as he received ex- ceptional treatment, and his views on reser- vation plan of the United States Govern- ment are the same as Captain Pratt, who says: "Pandering to the tribe and its so- cialisms, as most of our Government and Mission plans do, is the principle reason why the Indians have not advanced more and are not now advancing as rapidly as they ought. We easily inculcate principles of American citizenship and self-support in- to the individual in the schools located where such examples and principles prevail. The misfortune is that the only future to which such youth are invited is that of the reservation where their new principles are not only most unpopular, but in many cases interdicted. It is a common experience of our returned students to have not only their savings carried home from the school taken from them at once, but to be unable to re- alize much of anything for themselves from any earnings they may make at the agen- cies. Their relations and friends come upon them with demands for a share of their earnings, and often before they re- ceive their pay it is all promised in small
sums to such relations and friends, who do not and will not work. In but few of the tribes have allotments been made, and markets are remote. There is, therefore, on the agricultural line at the agencies very little encouragement to the individual. No manufactories of any kind nor commercial interests, except the few Indian traderships, are allowed upon the reservations, and there is no opportunity, outside the very limited Agency needs, for them to obtain employment. They are consequently at a great disadvantage. The more these op- pressive conditions become apparent to students somewhat advanced in education, and who have experienced the better con- ditions of civilized life, the more there is oí a growing disposition to break away from the reservation and to strike out into the world where occupation and opportu- nity invite. It should be the duty of every Indian School, whether Governmental or Mission, Agency or remote from the Agency, as well as the duty of the Indian Agent, and other Indian service employes, to forward Indian youth and worthy In- dians of any age into civilized communi- ties and the honorable employments of civ- ilized life, and to constantly direct the at- tention of all Indians that way."
County Medical Societies. The Cum- berland county medical society was organ- ized July 17, 1866, with twenty-four mem- bers representing every section of the county, and twenty years later held its meeting at the Indian industrial school of Carlisle, where the subjects discussed and the manner of discussion evinced the growth and the usefulness of the society. The original members were Drs. Dale Ziegler, Keiffer, Zitner, Schelling, Herman, Demme, Herring, Short, Brandt, Cram, Cram (R. M.), Mosser, Bowman, Coover, Bashore, Hays, Nevin, Stewart, Loman, Cuddy, Ahl, Robinson and Haldeman,
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.
The Adams County Medical Society dates back to June 14, 1873, when it was formed at Gettysburg, where Drs. Elder- dice, Horner, McClure, Baehr, Holtz, Thompson and O'Neal met in the interests of association and organization. At that time there were about thirty-five practicing physicians in the county, and the society rapidly increased its membership from their numbers.
The present York County Medical So- ciety was organized May 11, 1873, through the efforts of Dr. John F. Holohan. Its meetings are monthly and have been held with but few exceptions in York city. The society by 1885 numbered 48 members and has made its influence felt in various ways, and sends its delegates regularly to the State and National Medical Associations. This society absorbed the members of the old York county society which was organ- ized in March, 1868, at Hanover, by Drs. Smith, Plowman, Koch, Alleman, Wiest, Jones and Culbertson, and the association of physicians at East Prospect formed in 1870.
York Hospital. This institution is the result of the suggestion of Samuel Small, Sr., and the action of the York County Medical Society, whose members attended it gratuitously from 1879 to 1885. Mr. Small purchased the Busser property on College avenue, York, on which was a three-story brick building, that was fitted up under the direction of the medical so- ciety as York hospital which has been a boon to hundreds of sick and injured.
Dr. Dady, the Impostor. Among the early irregular practitioners were the Eis enhart family, of York county, some of whose members achieved quite a reputa- tion, but there were others, who were not only ignorant of all curative processes but also practiced all manner of impositions on the credulous people. The most noted
of these imposters was the famous Dr. Dady, whose career is described by Judge John J. Henry in the following account which he wrote from notes taken at Dady's trial.
"Dr. Dady, who was a German by birth, came to this country with the Hessians dur- ing the American revolution. Possessing a fascinating eloquence in the German lan- guage, and being very fluent in the Eng- lish, he was afterwards employed as a min- ister of the gospel by uninformed, but hon- est Germans. When the sacerdotal robe could no longer be subservient to his avar- icious views, he laid it aside and assumed the character of a physician. As such he came to York county and dwelt among the poor inhabitants of a mountainous part thereof, (now within the limits of Adams co.,) where, in various artful ways, he preyed on the purses of the unwary. Of all the numerous impositions with which his name is connected, and to which he lent his aid, we will mention but two. The scene of one of them is in what is now Adams co., where he dwelt, and of the other in the "Barrens" of York co.
The following is an account of the Adams county imposition: Rice Williams, or rather Rainsford Rogers, a New Eng- lander, and John Hall, a New Yorker, (both of whom had been plundering the in- habitants of the southern states by their wiles,) came to the house of Clayton Chamberlain, a neighbor of Dady, in July, 1797. On the following morning, Dady went to Chamberlain's, and had a private conversation with Williams and Hall be- fore breakfast. After Dady had left them, Williams asked Chamberlain whether the place was not haunted. Being answered in the negative, he said that it was haunted -that he had been born with a veil over his face-could see spirits, and had been conducted thither, sixty miles, by a spirit.
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
Hall assented to the truth of this. In the evening of the same day, they had another interview with Dady. Williams then told Chamberlain, that if he would permit him to tarry over night, he would show him a spirit. This being agreed to, they went into a field in the evening, and Williams drew a circle on the ground, around which he directed Hall and Chamberlain to walk in silence. A terrible screech was soon heard proceeding from a black ghost (!) in the woods, at a little distance from the parties, in a direction opposite to the place where Williams stood. In a few minutes a white ghost appeared, which Williams addressed in a language which those who heard him could not understand-the ghost replied in the same language! After his ghostship had gone away, Williams said that the spirit knew of a treasure which it was permitted to discover to eleven men- they must be honest, religious, and sensi- ble, and neither horse-jockeys nor Irish- men. The intercourse between Williams and Dady now ceased to be apparent, but it was continued in private. Chamberlain convinced of the existence of a ghost and a treasure, was easily induced to form a company, which was soon effected. Each candidate was initiated by the receipt of a small sealed paper, containing a little yellow sand, which was called "the power." This "power" the candidate was to bury in the earth to the depth of one inch, for three days and three nights-performing several other absurd ceremonies, too obscene to be described here. A circle, two perches in diameter, was formed in the field, in the centre of which there was a hole six inches wide and as many deep. A cap- tain, a lieutenant, and three committeemen were elected. Hall had the honor of the captaincy. The exercise was to pace around the circle, etc. This, it was said, propitiated and strengthened the white ghost, who was
opposed by an unfriendly black ghost, who rejoiced in the appellation of Pompey. In- the course of their nocturnal exercises they often saw the white ghost-they saw Mr. Pompey too, but he appeared to have "his back up," bellowed loudly, and threw stones at them. On the night of the 18th of August, 1797, Williams undertook to get instructions from the white ghost. It was done in the following manner. He took a sheet of clean white paper, and folded it in the form of a letter, when each member breathed into it three times; this being re- peated several times, and the paper laid over the hole in the centre of the circle, the instructions of the ghost were obtained. The following is a short extract from the epistle written by the ghost: "Go on, and do right, and prosper, and the treasure shall be yours-O --. Take care of your pow- ers, in the name and fear of God our pro- tector-if not, leave the work. There is a great treasure, 4,000 pounds apiece for you. Don't trust the black one. Obey orders. Break the enchantment, which you will not do until you get an ounce of mineral dul- cimer eliximer; some German doctor has it. It is near, and dear, and scarce. Let the committee get it -- but don't let the doc- tor know what you are about-he is wicked." The above is but a small part of this precious communication. In conse- quence of these ghostly directions, a young man named Abraham Kephart waited, by order of the committee, on Dr. Dady. The Dr. preserved his "eliximer" in a bottle sealed with a large red seal, and buried in a heap of oats, and demanded fifteen dollars for an ounce of it. Young Kephart could not afford to give so much, but gave him thirty- six dollars and three bushels of oats for three ounces of it. Yost Liner, another of these wise committeemen, gave the doctor 121 dollars for eleven ounces of the stuff. The company was soon increased to 39 per-
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.
sons, many of whom were wealthy. Among those who were most miserably duped may be mentioned Clayton Chamberlain, Yost Liner, Thomas Bigham, William Bigham, Samuel Togert, Jolın Mckinney, James Agnew, (the elder,) James McCleary, Robert Thompson, David Kissinger, Geo. Sheck- ley, Peter Wikeart, and John Philips. All these and many other men were, in the words of the indictment, "cheated and de- frauded by means of certain false tokens and pretenses-to wit, by means of pre- tended spirits, certain circles, certain brown powder, and certain compositions called mineral dulcimer elixir, and Dederick's mineral elixir."
"But the wiles of these impostors were soon exerted in other parts. The following is an account of their proceedings in and about Shrewsbury township, in this county. Williams intimated that he had received a call from a ghost, resident in those parts, at the distance of 40 miles from Dady's. Jacob Wister, one of the conspirators, was the agent of Williams on this occasion. He in- stituted a company of 21 persons, all of whom were, of course, most ignorant peo- ple. The same, and even more absurd cere- monies were performed by these people; and the communications of the ghost were obtained in a still more ridiculous manner than before. The communications men- tioned Dr. Dady as the person from whom they should obtain the dulcimer elixir, as likewise a kind of sand which the ghost called the "Asiatic sand," and which was necessary in order to give efficacy to the "powers." Ulrich Neaff, a committeemen, of this company, paid to Dr. Dady $90 for 73 ounces of the elixir. The elixir was put into vials, and each person, who had one of them, held it in his hand and shook it, as he pranced around the circle. On certain occasions he anointed his head with it; and afterwards, by order of the spirit, the vial
was buried in the ground. Paul Baliter, an- other of the committeemen, took with him to Dr. Dady's $100, to purchase "Asiatic sand," at $3 per ounce. Dady being ab- sent, Williams procured from the doctor's shop as much sand as the money would purchase. In this instance Williams cheated the doctor, for he kept the spoil to himself; and thence arose an overthrow of the good fraternity. Each of them now set up for himself. Williams procured directions from his ghost, that each of the companions should dispatch a committeeman to Lan- caster, to buy "Dederick's mineral elixir" of a physician in that place. In the mean time Williams and his wife went to Lancas- ter, where they prepared the elixir, which was nothing but a composition of copperas and cayenne pepper. Mrs. Williams, as the wife of John Huber, a German doctor, went to Dr. Rose, with a letter dated "13 miles from Newcastle, Delaware," which di- rected him how to sell the article, &c. The enormity of the price aroused the sus- picion of Dr. Rose. In a few days the dele- gates from the committee arrived, and pur- chased elixir to the amount of $740,33. When the lady came for the money she was arrested, and the secret became known. Her husband, Williams, escaped. The Lan- caster expedition having led to the discov- ery of the tricks of the imposters, a few days after the disclosures made by Mrs. Williams an indictment was presented, in the criminal court of York county, against Dr. John Dady, Rice Williams, Jesse Mil- ler, Jacob Wister the elder, and Jacob Wis- ter the younger, for a conspiracy to cheat and defraud. The trial took place in June following, and resulted in the conviction of Wister the elder, and of Dr. Dady-the former of whom was fined $10, and impris- oned one month in the county jail; the lat- ter fined $90, and sentenced to two years' confinement in the penitentiary of Philadel-
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
phia. Dady had just been convicted of par- ticipating in the conspiracy at Shrewsbury, when he and Hall were found guilty of a like crime in Adams county-whereupon Hall was fined $100, and sent to the peni- tentiary for two years; and Dady was fined $169, and sentenced to undergo an addition- al servitude of two years in the penitentiary, to commence in June, 1800, when his first term would expire. Thus ended the history of a man in this county, who certainly was not devoid of talent; who possessed a most winning address, and was a thorough mas- ter in quick and correct discernment of character. He reigned, for a season, with undisputed sway, in what was then the western part of York county. His cunning for a long time lulled suspicion to sleep. The history of his exorcisms should teach the credulous that the ghosts which appear now-a-days are as material as our own flesh."
Medical Statistics. The subject of med- ical statistics has not received the attention that its importance demands. Statistics of mortality, beyond the numerical number of deaths, called the "death figure," should show the relative prevalence of diseases and comparative salubrity of climate in differ- ent sections, and point out the best means for promoting health and longevity. The annual death-rate doubled generally gives the sick rate.
In 1880 the census authorities divided the United States into twenty-one grand districts in each of which mortality and vital statistics were taken. The first four
of these districts comprising the Atlantic and Gulf coasts whose climate is largely controlled by that great balance-wheel of temperature, the ocean. The sixth grand group comprised the Central Appalachian region embracing Central and Southern Pennsylvania where the proportion of deaths from diphtheria was very high and those of heart disease lower than in New York. The prevalent fatal diseases were scarlet fever, diphtheria, old age, cancer, heart failure and diseases of the nervous system more especially apoplexy, paralysis and convulsions. The States were also di- vided into groups and in Pennsylvania Adams and Cumberland were placed in group I and York in group 2. In Adams county there were 232 deaths of males and 260 of females, or a death rate of 14.7 of the former and of 15.6 of the latter per thou- sand of population. Cumberland deatlıs were males 327 and females 308, or deatlı rates of 14.8 and 12.9, while York had 506 deaths of males and 437 of females with death rates of 11.6 and 9.9 per thousand re- spectively.
Knowledge, skill and discovery are rapid- ly widening the domain of medicine. Small pox is robbed of its terrors, children are saved from diphtheria, consumption shows signs of yielding to science, the use of anesthetics does away with a large part of pain, while the X-rays promise new con- quests to medicine. And in this wonder- ful advance of the 19th Century medical science, the physicians of the Nineteenth District have kept abreast of the times.
CHAPTER VIII.
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
T HAT RELIGION wields the scepter of the centuries has been truly said, for it has been attest- ed in the history of every nation both in the old and the new world. "Other forces weaken, other issues die, other actors pass off the stage and are heard of no more; but religion remains forever." The religious system of Pennsylvania was indeed the most remarkable feature of her public po- licy, for it was different from every other Colonial system and under its workings genuine religious freedom was enjoyed throughout the Quaker province of Penn. The oppression of New England and Vir- ginia were unknown in Pennsylvania,where religious toleration did not exist as a miser- able policy of expediency, for the Quakers in authority were true to the doctrine of re- ligious freedom which they preached when persecuted. Thus Pennsylvania attracted the followers of all forms and creeds to her territory, where Lutheran, Presbyterian, German Reformed, Baptist, Anabaptist. Dunkard, Moravian, Mennonite, Episcopa- lian and Catholic enjoyed religious freedom in the full sense of the term.
Reference has been made in a preceding chapter to the earliest churches and that three of the immigrant classes of church people were Friends, Episcopalians and Presbyterians of English and Scotch-Irish nationality and speaking the English lan- guage, while four of them were Lutherans, German Reformed, German Baptists and Moravians who were of German stock and
language. All seven of these denominations were in York county at an early date; the Presbyterians, Lutherans and Catholics are the oldest denominations in Adams county, and the Presbyterians for a number of years had the only churches in Cumberland county.
Lutherans. The Evangelical Lutheran church, founded on the Augsburg Confes- sion, claims the high appellation of "The Mother of Protestants" because she is not a branch of the Protestant church but the great body and trunk of it, and a massive and living trunk still.
The Lutherans now are the most numer- ous in York county, where they have churches whose membership exceed 500. The first Evangelical church of York was formed 1733 with Rev. John Casper Stoever as the first pastor, and in 1852 separated in- to churches, one conducting exercises in German and the other in English, now St. Paul's church. Zion church of York was organized in 1847; Union, 1859; St. John's, German, 1873, and St. Luke's church, 1882. St. Matthew's church of Hanover was or- ganized about 1731, and Wrightsville church in 1852. The Kreutz Creek Luth- eran and Reformed church was formed be- fore 1741; Mt. Zion, in Spring Garden, in 1852; Manchester church, 1857; Hoover's, 1819; St. Paul's, 1763; and Lewisberry, 1792; Mt. Zion in Fairview township was formed about 1857; Filey, about 1800; St. Paul's of Dillsburg, 1855; Franklintown, 1884; St. John's, of Franklin township,
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
about 1780; Rossville, 1848; St. Paul's and Salem, of Washington township, 1844 and 1800; Dover, 1757; - , of Dover town- ship, 1870; Zion, of Conewago township, 1767; Holz Schwamm, 1775; Pidgeon Hill, Jackson township, 1785; St. Paul's, of Spring Grove, 1880; Dubbs, -; West Manheim, 1750; St. Bartholomew, about 1835; St. Peter's, 1833; Stelzes, 1794; Zieg- ler's, 1800; New Salem, 1861; Staverstown, 1880; Jefferson, 1827; Shrewsbury, 1822; Glen Rock, 1859; Friedensaals, 1774; Sa- lem, of Springfield township, 1841; St. John's, 1748; St. Paul's, of Dallastown, 1855; Emanuel, 1771; Lower Windsor, 1763; Stahle's, 1784; Lebanon, 1814; and Sadler's, - Many of these congrega- tions worship in union houses built by them and the Reformed, and but very imperfect accounts can be obtained of various churches.
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