Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 32

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318

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Montrose, and graduated at Mansfield Normal School in 1871. He taught school several terms; read medicine with Dr. J. D. Vail, of Montrose, and graduated at the Homoeopathic Medical College in New York City. He has since, to the present time, been a successful practitioner at Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, Pa.

DR. SAMUEL WRIGHT, for thirty years a practicing physician in the southern part of Susquehanna County, was born on the Wright homestead, an old landmark, at the confluence of Hopbottom and Martin's Creeks, in Lathrop, September 17, 1811. He was mostly self-edu- cated, only receiving in boyhood the meagre opportunities offered by the early district school, which he attended, nearly two miles from home. He learned farming with his father, and was known as a young man of correct habits, good morals, and possessed with self-reliance and a laudable ambition to make his life-work a bene- fit to his fellow-men. He married, in 1836, Sarah B. Squires, who was born in Brooklyn April 7, 1817-a devoted wife and mother, and a woman whose Christian character, as a life- long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, still lingers in the hearts of her children. She resides with her daughter (in 1887) on the old homestead, and is the daughter of William (1788-1865) and Betsey Brown (1795-1864) Squires, who came to Brooklyn from Vermont in 1816, and, in 1826, settled on the Colonel Phelps place, in Lathrop, where they spent the remainder of their lives and reared their family.

Naturally possessed of an analytical mind, and inclined to the study of physics, Dr. Wright, in 1845, visited his cousin, Dr. Kibby, of Cuba, N. Y., who induced him to give his attention to the study of medicine, and loaned him some medical books. From this time the inclinations of his mind and the bent of his life-work were changed. He studiously applied himself to the great work before him, became conversant with the causes and treatment of disease, and as early as 1847 began the practice of medicine in the vicinity of his home. His success with his patients, his careful diagnosis of cases which he was called to treat, and his intelligent treatment, with his untiring labor and sympathy for the sick,

Samuel Wright.

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soon gave him a wide field of practice, in which his serviees were highly esteemed. The poor, where no remuneration in money could be ex- peeted, alike received his constant attention with the rich, and his words of Christian encourage- ment, always administered, as well as his pro- fessional advice and medical aid, were fearlessly given to those whom he attended. His ride extended throughout Lathrop, Springville, Brooklyn, Harford, Lenox and Nicholson, and he was frequently ealled to counsel with other physicians besides those of his school of praetiee. He was one of the founders of the Eclectic Medical Society of the county, and he was one of the charter members of the Eeleetic Medieal Association of the State of Pennsylvania in 1875. As early as 1839 he was converted and united with the Methodist Church at Hopbot- tom, of which he was afterward during his life one of its most influential, liberal, devoted work- ing members. He was a pillar in the church while he lived, and as a class-leader and snper- intendent of the Sunday-school for many years, his whole ambition seemed to be to lead others to know the truth, and to live devoted lives as men and women. His example and influence for good, live on in the minds of all who knew him. He was a warm supporter of temperance reform and of education, and gave his children a liberal education in the distriet home school and at Harford Academy. He died September 6, 1877.

The children of Dr. Wright are Frances E., born 1838, wife of William Squier, son of Arah and Fanny A. (Phelps) Squier, resides on the Wright homestead, and has ehildren (Sarah E., wife of P. A. Lord, of Chicago, and Jennie and Samuel Squier); Jason S. Wright, 1840, for many years a merchant at Hopbottom, mar- ried Ella E., a daughter of Hiram C. and Maria R. (Watrous) Guernsey, of Bridgewater (they had one child, Robert, died at ten months old) ; Hersey G. Wright, 1843, a farmer in Lathrop, and owns the farm formerly owned by William Crandall, married Ellen R., a daughter of Wil- liam and Phylena Crandall, of Hopbottom (ehil- dren-Gertie, died young, and William S.) ; and Irwin Wright, born in 1847, owns the Stephen W. Breed farm, in Brooklyn, and succeeded his brother, Jason S., in the mercantile business at

Hopbottom in 1885 (he married Ella E., a daughter of Stephen and Catherine Bell, of Lathrop, and lias children-Cora Bell, Emma Elizabeth and Parley Stephen Wright).

Dr. Samuel Wright's father, Anthony Wright (1781-1857), eame from Somers, Conn., with his wife, Sally Sweatland (1787-1850), in 1809, and settled on one hundred aeres, a woodland traet in the northeast corner of Lathrop, the home- stead of the family sinee, before mentioned. This farm had been occupied before by Ira Sweatland. His brothers, Wise and Samuel Wright, came also and settled in Brooklyn. Anthony Wright was one of the early and prominent members of the. Brooklyn Methodist Episcopal Church-a man of sterling integrity in all his business relations, and a judicious and industrious farmer. His wife, formerly a Bap- tist, after the faith of her parents, united with the church of her husband, and reared her ehil- dren under careful religious training. The old elm tree, now over four feet in diameter, then only a twig, marks the site of the homestead of the Wright family for nearly eighty years, and the spot early selected by the first settlers has been the burial-place of its members sinee, now known as the Lathrop Cemetery, situated on a part of the homestead. The early log house gave place to a frame one built by Anthony, and that was supplanted by the present residence built by his grandson-in-law, William Squier, in 1880.

Anthony Wright's children were Loren (1809- 82), resided on the Tunkhannock, in Lenox ; Dr. Samuel ; Caroline (1814-83), was the wife of David Davis, of Rock Island County, Ill. ; Sally (1817-57), married Joseph Hawley, of Brooklyn; Amanda, born in 1821, wife of George Sweet (grandson of Amos Sweet), of New Milford ; Lois (1825), wife of James Con- rad, of Lenox ; and Polly, wife of Lois Baker, of Dakota. Anthony Wright's father, Captain Samuel Wright, an officer of the Revolution and a Presbyterian, came to Lathrop later, and settled on a farm one mile west of Hopbottom, which he cleared. He died in 1829. His wife, Azuba (Gibbs) Wright, died in 1824, and their remains were interred in the family burying- ground.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

DR. WILLIAM W. WHEATON (eclectic), for twenty-five years a practicing physician at Jackson, was born where he now resides in 1823, and was the son of Moses B. and Mary Aldrich Wheaton, natives of Richmond, N. H. He was educated under Rev. Lyman Richard- son, at the old Harford Academy, read medi- cine with his brother, Dr. Washington W. Wheaton, of Bradford County, and was gradu- ated at the Eclectic Medical College, at Roch- ester, in 1850. For five years he practiced his profession at Newark, N. Y., and in 1855 set- tled at Jackson, where he remained in constant practice until some ten years since, when he partially retired from practice, and has since given liis attention to agriculture. His first wife, whom he married in 1846, was Ruth, a daughter of Ira and Barbara Ballou Wheaton, of Bradford County, by whom he liad three children. His second wife, whom he married in 1873, is Juliet, the widow of the late Dr. Card, of Philadelphia, the daughter of Thurs- ton Lewis, of Harford, by whom he has two children.

EPHRAIM F. WILMOT, M.D., son of Gilead and Lucinda Owen Wilmot, was born at Wind- sor, New York, in 1826. At the age of sixteen he left home, and found the means of complet- ing his education by teaching schcol. He read medicine with Dr. Henry Hearshbergh, of Dauphin County, and attended his first course of lectures at Berkshire Medical College, Mass., and his second course at Philadelphia Medical College in 1853-54, graduating there in the latter year. In 1855 he attended lectures at the Homoeopathic Medical College of Philadel- phia, and received a diploma from that institu- tion. In 1856 he located at Great Bend, where he has continued in active practice to the pres- ent time. He married Mehitable Ann Clem- ons, of Bridgewater, in 1859, who died 1884. They had ten children, of whom eight are liv- ing. He joined the Susquehanna County Med- ical Society in 1855, and represented it at the State Society, at Pottsville, in 1875. He was president of the society in 1882.

DR. A. B. WOODWARD, son of Artemas Woodward, was born in Gibson in 1824. He commenced the study of medicine early. His

means and facilities for obtaining medical works at that time were limited. From 1840 to 1848 his opportunities were enhanced by having the benefit and the library of two of the best phy- sicians then practicing in that section. In 1847-48, being called upon by his neighbors, he prescribed for them, and continued to prac- tice successfully for twenty-nine years in the place of his nativity. He subsequently prac- ticed in Carbondale until 1871, when he moved to Tunkhannock, where he now resides. He has in connection with his practice a drug-store, and is interested, with Dr. Mulholland, in another drug-store in Pittston. For many years Dr. Woodward has been a leading, fight- ing pioneer of eclecticism. He helped organize the first eclectic medical society in the State in 1845, known as the Susquehanna Eclectic Medical Society. In 1850 it numbered from ten to fifteen members. The doctor hield the position of president in this society two terms, in the State Society one term and was elected third vice-president of the National Eclectic Medical Association, at Springfield, Ill., 1875.

DR. ELISHA N. LOOMIS, for over forty years a physician at Harford, was born in Coventry, Conn., in 1809, and died in Harford, this county, on the Loomis homestead, in 1874. He came to Harford with his parents, Eldad and Fanny Jeffers Loomis, in 1824, from Cov- entry ; was a student at the Harford Academy, and read medicine with Dr. Dickerman, of Harford. He began the practice of medicine about the time of attaining his majority, and later, in 1852, he was examined at the Syracuse Medical College, adjudged a qualified physician, surgeon and accoucheur, and granted a diploma. He was a member of the Eclectic Botanical Society of Susquehanna County. He was a successful practitioner of medicine, a man highly respected both in his profession and in social life, and a useful citizen. His first wife, Rowena, a daughter of Laban Capron, who died in 1845, bore him four sons,- Edgar, a lawyer in Scranton ; Alonzo, a farmer in Har- ford ; Selwin Roscoe, killed at the battle of Chancellorsville ; and Gorton, who died at the age of twenty-four. His second wife was Edith Bell. His third wife, Laura Snow, bore

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him children,-Rowena, wife of John Gage, of Ararat ; Mary E., wife of Nelson Tiffany, of New York State; Bertie; and Frank R. Loomis, of Lenox. Dr. Loomis' fourth wife was Mary Ann Lee, a resident in 1887 of Brook- lyn, Pa.

The following persons are among the number who have left Susquehanna County and are practieing medicine elsewhere : Charles Rose Bliss, Enos S. Wheeler, Frederick Cushman Dennison, J. Arthur Bullard, William H. Knapp, Wm. H. Carmalt, William Rogers, Albert J. Brundage.

DENTISTRY.

Probably no profession in the world has made such rapid strides during the last half-century as has that of dentistry. Prior to that period the study and care of the teeth was limited to those who made the study of anatomy and phys- iology a specialty, and to the members of the medical profession, very much as blood-letting and tooth-drawing were once included among the functions of a barber. Many persons are still living who can distinetly remember when the scalpel and forceps were as necessary instru- ments in a barber-shop as a pair of sliears or a razor. The first dental college in the world was established at Baltimore in the year 1839. Since that time the seience of dentistry has developed until it now ranks among the most useful and artistie of the professions, and includes among its representatives men of education, culture and high social standing. The development of the science has been rapid, and a profession that is the offspring of the nineteenth century has not proven tenacious of old ideas nor unfitted itself for growth and improvement by a blind devo- tion to the errors of the past, so that the science of dentistry as it exists to-day is the exact anti- podes of that which received the attention of its professors but a few years ago. The most rapid improvement has been made in operative den- tistry, in which there has been almost an entire revolution. The highest point at first attainable was to fill such teeth as were slightly decayed, whereas, by the aid of the various improved dental instruments, together with medicinal treatment of the teeth, the profession is not only

enabled to preserve teeth slightly decayed, but to restore and preserve them for many years. The early practice advocated smooth-pointed instruments for introducing the filling, and non- cohesive gold, whereas serrated instruments and coliesive gold are now recognized as the proper thing.

Artificial teeth were in use as early as Wash- ington's time, and he himself is alleged to have worn them ; but at that early day they were either carved out of solid pieces of ivory, which involved great labor and expense, or were human teeth attached to gold plates. Aaron Burr is said to have worn such teeth. The later improvements made in this direction, and their introduction into general use, have added largely to both the attractions and difficulties of the profession, and drawn to it many possessed of superior mechanical skill. Formerly the plates in which the teeth are set were made only of gold and silver 'or carved out of ivory, which necessarily made them both heavy and costly, whereas now plates are made not only of gold and silver, but also of platinum, rubber and celluloid. Rubber plates were not introduced until about 1854, and celluloid much more re- cently. The filling of artificial teeth is also a leading branch of the science, requiring both skill, judgment and delicacy when properly done.

The county of Susquehanna has a number of representative dentists, who attend assiduously to their profession and reflect credit upon it.

DR. HORACE SMITH, a native of Coopers- town, N. Y., came to Montrose in 1819, and shortly afterwards opened an office for the ex- traction of and filling teetli and putting in arti- ficial plates. He had been preceded by only one dentist-Dr. Sumner-who left the place about the time he came. Dr. Smith continued the practice of dentistry here for thirty years, and died in 1886, aged eighty-seven. His wife was Marilla Meacham, who bore him four sons and one daughter, the latter dying at the age of twenty. The sons arc-Mortimer, a lawyer at Oregon, Ill .; Noel Byron studied dentistry with his brother, Dr. William W. Smith, at Montrose, and is practicing his profession at Port Deposit, Md .; William Wallace Smitlı

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studied dental surgery with his father, and be- gan practice at Montrose in 1858, and has re- mained in continuous practice since, a period of nearly thirty years.

His wife is Deboralı, a daughter of Harry Elliott, of Merryall, Bradford County, and he has five children-Carrie A., wife of Earnest Sutton, of Waverly, N. Y. ; Jennie M., widow of F. H. Stevens, a late bookseller at Montrose ; Frank W., Harry E., and Mort. L. Smith. Dr. Smith was born in Monroetown, Bradford County, in 1836.

DR. DUNNING, the eminent dentist of New York, and several other dentists, many years ago, occasionally visited Monrose on their pro- fessional tours, and several dentists settled here for a short time and then left for supposed bet- ter fields of labor. Among these were Drs. Sumner, Brundage, Dalrymple, Wheaton, H. Smith, W. W. Smith, Gifford and Griswold.

DR. VIRGIL came here about 1820, but re- mained only five years, when he settled in Meshoppen, where he afterwards died.

DR. L. S. POTTER was born in Gibson township February 28, 1853, son of Stephen W. and Emeline (Thayer) Potter. He obtained his preparatory education at Montrose Academy, studied dentistry with Dr. George W. Hall- stead, of Great Bend, and in 1874 formed a partnership with that gentleman, which con- tinued one year. In 1875 he settled at Mont- rose, where he has remained in practice since.

ARTHUR KING HARROUN, D.D.S., born at Stockbridge, N. Y., in 1857, a son of Rev. Thomas Harroun, for some time a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church here, received his preparatory education at the Wyoming Con- ference Seminary, Kingston, N. Y., and at the Cazenovia Seminary, and at the age of seven- teen began the study of dental surgery with Dr. G. A. Bishop, of Binghamton. He attended lec- tures at the Wisconsin Dental College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1880. He at once settled for the practice of his pro- fession at Honesdale, where he remained until 1883, when he located at Montrose.

The first dentists to open an office in Susque- hanna was the firm of Smith & Williams, who began practice about 1860 and continued for

two years, when Smith settled at New Milford and shortly afterwards in Binghamton. His partner, Clinton Williams, remained for a short time afterwards, and then settled in Pittston, Pa., where he has been since. The next den- tist to open an office was another Williams, who practiced dentistry here for a short time, but left in 1865, and settled at Great Bend, where he died some three years thereafter. In the fall of 1865 Dr. G. W. Gleason settled at Susque- hanna, and has practiced his profession with varied success until the present time (1887). He was born in Virgil, Cortland County, N. Y., in 1838, studied dental surgery with his brother, Dr. L. R. Gleason, of Cortland, and, after completing his studies, practiced dentistry at Ludlowville, at Candor, and at Owego and Watkins, N. Y. He enlisted in Company H, Twenty-sixth New York Volunteers, and served from the spring of 1861 until December, 1862, when he was honorably discharged on account of disability, having been wounded at the battle of Second Bull Run. He married Emily E., a daughter of J. H. Patrick, of Har- mony, and has three children. Dr. M. Gilman came to Susquehanna about 1868, and practiced dentistry one year. He subsequently returned in 1873 and remained for four years, and then settled at Great Bend, but in 1882 removed to Forksville, Pa. Dr. Frank Barnes came to Susquehanna in 1871, and remained for two years, when he removed to Middletown, where he has practiced since.

DR. SHERWOOD settled at Susquehanna in 1873, and was in practice until his deatlı, three years afterwards.

DR. MAXON began practice at Susquehanna in 1877, coming from Harford. After some two years he returned to Harford, where he continued to reside.

JACOB BRANDT, D.D.S., son of Henry W. Brandt, was graduated in dental surgery at the Philadelphia Dental College in the class of 1880 and 1881, and practiced his profession at Susquehanna for some two years afterwards, when he gave up the business, and has since been engaged in mercantile and manufacturing business at Brandt.

LLOYD S. GILBERT, D.D.S., son of F. H.

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Gilbert, was born in Susquehanna in 1861, to which place his parents had removed from Otsego County, N. Y., in 1860. He studied dentistry with his uncle, S. E. Gilbert, of Philadelphia, and was graduated at the Phila- delphia Dental College in the class of 1882 and 1883. He has had an office at Susquehanna since.

DR. GEORGE W. HALLSTEAD was born in Nicholson, Pa., in 1826, studied dentistry in Rochester, N. Y., and came to Susquehanna County about 1856, where he wasa traveling den- tist for some years. In 1859 he located at Har- ford, but after three years settled at New Mil- ford, where he was the first dentist. In 1865 he removed to Great Bend, where he practiced dentistry until his death, in 1874. His wife, Jane R. Hall, of New Milford, bore him one child-Mrs. George Dickerman, of New Milford.

DR. JOHN HALLSTEAD was born in Wyoming County, Pa., in 1823, the son of Samuel Hall- stead. After practicing dentistry in various places for several years, he settled at Great Bend in 1865, where he remained for three years. He then removed to Lenox, and was a traveling dentist until a short time before his death, in 1885.

DR. A. W. HALLSTEAD, son of Dr. John and Elizabeth Hallstead, was born in Lathrop in 1854, studied dentistry with his father and uncle, George W., and has practiced his pro- fession at Great Bend since 1875.

DR. WILLIAM L. WESTON, son of William W. (1791-1853) and Sally L. Smith Weston (1808-72), was born in Brooklyn in 1840. He was educated in the Brooklyn public school, began the study of dentistry with Dr. George W. Hallstead at New Milford in 1864, and the following year settled at the same place, where he has continued the practice of his profession since. He married, in 1866, Clara J. Virgil, and has one child, Frank E. Weston.

DR. FOSTER I. SMITH, son of Irvin and Fanny M. Smith, of Snyder County, Pa., was born in 1862. He studied dentistry with Dr. Ahl, of Bradford, Pa .; practiced at Beaver Springs until 1882, when he settled at Great Bend. His wife is Libbie A. Duthveiler, of that place.

CHAPTER XIII.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

1 Manners and Customs of the Pioneer Fathers and Mothers of Susque- hanna County.

"O list the mystic lore sublime Of fairy tales of ancient time ; I learned them in the lonely glen, The last abodes of living men.

* *

" Of themes like these when darkness fell The gray-haired sires the tales would tell, When doors were barred and elder dame Plied at her task besides the flame."

-JAMES HOGG.

A PICTURE of the home life and social life of one family of the pioneers of Susquehanna County would, with slight modifications, fit al- most any other, and as this home life is largely the outgrowth of their material surroundings, the resultant of their physical environments, it is not easy to describe their " Manners and Customs" without considering the conditions which produced them.

These pioneers were mainly of New Eng- land stock, and its best blood at that ; for it is not the men that are wanting in energy, in courage, in strength of body or soul that strike into such a wilderness as clothed these hills and valleys a hundred years ago. Let us look at one of these primitive homes. Quite likely it stands on some commanding hill, or its southern or eastern slope. There are two or three reasons for supposing this. The higher grounds were timbered mainly with hard woods, as were, also, the eastern slopes of those hills which trend north and south. Lands so timbered are much more easily " cleared " than the valleys, with their dense forests of hemlock. When cleared, they would produce two or three times as much wheat or other grains, and, lastly, the stumps would much sooner decay, so as to admit the plow.

In all probability the mansion-house is a log cabin-possibly the planks on the floor were flattened with a broad-axe. The one door opens to the south, from which we look down across

1 By Prof. S. S. Thomas.

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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the little "clearing" into a valley, where a trout stream wanders away towards the river, till it is lost in the interminable wilderness. The beams may project six or eight feet, form- ing a "stoop," on which axes and other rude tools are stored-on whose floor "the house- dog on his paws outspread " shall sleep on sunny days. The chimney is built of stone- perhaps entirely-without the wall, and be- side this may be an oven whose flue opens into the chimney. The "fire-place " is an institu- tion. It is wide enough to admit a back-log three feet or more in length and of correspond- ing depth.

In one of the "jambs " is inserted a " crane," which reaches nearly to the other jamb. To this crane numerous "pot-hooks " are at- tached for the pots and kettles in which the daily meals are cooked. The meat is usually fried in a " spider " over a heap of coals drawn out on the stone hearth. Not unfrequently, on festive occasions, such as Christmas, a turkey, a goose, a spare-rib or a haunch of venison is suspended by a string to a friendly beam, and hangs before the fire, till, by turning and bast- ing, it is cooked, seasoned as never was meat cooked and flavored in any other way. Ah ! the thought of it makes our mouth water, and our spirits sigh for the days that are gone. And then the potatoes roasted in hot ashes, "that to be honored need but to be known."

Around that fire-place gathered a liome cir- cle of from eight to a dozen-sometimes more- for no Malthusian philosophy regulated or even remotely suggested the number which should constitute that household band. Yet no matter how numerous the family, there was always room and hospitable greeting for any neighbor ; nay, the traveler, though an entire stranger, was welcomed as if he had been a long-expected guest. Matches were unknown. The fire was carefully covered each night, for if, through any inadvertence, it failed to "keep," recourse must be had to the flint and steel and tinder- box, which latter was a piece of spunk, more commonly called " punk," procured from some half-decayed maple log.

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Centennial history of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Part 32

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848- Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Stocker, Rhamanthus Menville, 1848-
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : R. T. Peck
Number of Pages: 1318