Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 44

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526

USA > Pennsylvania > Butler County > Butler > Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th > Part 44

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The first physicians to come within the limits of Butler County were those con- nected with the Rapp settlement at Har- mony in 1705. Previous to that the leech or the "blood letter" was the physician of the community, and in fact for many years after, the practice of bleeding for many ail- ments was common among the people and was not despised by the old-time physi- cians as late as the middle of the last cen- tury. Midwifery was then practiced by the women, though in serious cases a doc- tor would sometimes be called from Greensburg or Pittsburg.

The pioneer physician was an educated man for his day, but he was illy equipped with instruments and the remedies he used were few and simple. In waging an un- equal war against disease he was com- pelled to depend largely upon his common sense, thereby establishing an individual- ity that was always marked and occasion- ally peculiar and eccentric. He learned to know the people and to treat their com- plaints with as fair a degree of success as could be expected, and he left behind him when he died an honorable name as the principal heritage of his descendants.

THE OLD DOCTOR.

No better pen picture of the "Old Doc- tor" could be given than is contained in the following sketch taken from a paper read by Dr. A. M. Neyman, retired, of But- ler before the Butler County Medical As- sociation at the annual banquet in 1900. Dr. Neyman is now in his eighty-third year and as he knew personally nearly all of the doctors of the old school, as well as those of the new, mentioned in this work, he is speaking as an old-time doctor about the doctors of 1830 to 1850.

"The 'Old Doctor' of my earliest recol- lection-of sixty to seventy years ago, as I remember him-was quite in contrast with the medical man, even with the old doctors, of to-day. Different in appear- ance, manner, and especially in methods. "I hope to be altogether impersonal or uncritical in anything I may say of him, as the remembrance of his general demeanor compares very favorably with the average physician of the present, and as I might myself be considered as 'dragging my slow length along' in professional work to an unreasonable extent.

"He was almost universally a general

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practitioner-physician, surgeon, dentist, obstetrician. Specialists were rare in those days. In appearance he was not so par- ticular as to personal adornments as in dignity of manner. He had usually enough clientele and was not tempted to resort to unprofessional terms to increase it.

"He spent much of his time on horse- back, and was usually an expert horseman. The country being thinly populated, wheeled vehicles were few and often im- practicable. Everybody got about on horseback; even the women showed expert horsemanship, and captivated many a heart among the sterner sex by ther man- agement of a proud charger. The doctor's horse was bred for the saddle; high with- ers, short back, round barrel, compact in loins, pliant neck, ears well set up on bony head, and pasterns long and elastic. They were often from strains of Rappa- hannocks, bred in Virginia or Kentucky. When a doctor mounted a horse of this kind, with saddle-bags of the pattern of the day, open on one side, laced with a leathern strap, leggings enveloped his nether limbs down to the toes, spurs at heels, and a top coat rolled up like a knap- sack on the saddle cloth, he commanded the admiration of the whole community.

"In manner the Old Doctor was more dignified than his successor of to-day. The age required it. He was an educated man usually, and was accorded a high place in the community. His deportment in the sick room would perhaps be considered brusque in the present day.

"I have known him, off and on, for some seventy years; have sympathized with him and hated him periodically all these years. I began to know him most thoroughly when about five years old, and when ill with the croup. He was invited in, and like doc- tors of to-day, ever ready to obey such in- vitations, he promptly appeared. Short, stout and active, Kris Kingle-like with a portmanteau, but not suggestive of Christ- mas things at all. His appearance and

manner impressed and helped my breath- ing somewhat at once, and when he put me into a tub of hot water and stirred a large vellow powder in a cup of warm water with a thick, dumpy finger and forcibly as- sisted me in swallowing it-I felt sick, paid tribute in fact, until there was no more croup or anything else. I became deeply impressed with the thoroughness of his methods. The next time I met him was some years later when I had a tooth to pull. I found him, the doctor, this time a fine-looking gentleman, easy and quiet in manner. After investigating the tooth he went in the same easy manner to a drawer and secured a piece of iron armed with a cant-hook at one end and a cork-screw han- dle at the other, and -- my toothache was gone. He insisted, however, on my seating myself on the floor while he, sitting behind me, his knees clasping my head, forced the hook on the offender and twisted it out. If there be any sudden torture equal to that, language fails me.

"His methods and medical armament were in that day crude, comparatively. We now wonder how he got along with his cal- omel and jalap, emetics and clysters, blis- ters and lancets. Blood flowed in those days and invalids who rose from under his care felt that they had been having "a spell of sickness." And they often did rise to commence life anew, and indeed everything in them had to be made new. All the vi- talities went to work so vigorously that convalescence from acute attacks was has- tened and pronounced. In fact, I think a little of the 'old doctor's' decisive method, if applied to-day in some medical matters, might be of benefit. But it would be un- fair to criticize him in his day in compari- son with the practitioners now. He had no sugar-coated pellets or alkaloids-not even morphine; no fluid extracts, nor elix- irs, nor other desserts. Drugs were in bulk in his time, pharmacy was in its in- fancy; hence doses were large and often nauseous. He had no cocaine to relieve

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pain; no hypodermic syringe; no anes- thetics, no ether, no chloroform. Sickness is a comfort now compared with then. Doc- tors of medicine now extract the active principles of the old crude materia medica, and prescribe them in diminutive pellets, sugar-coated, or they cover up the objec- tionable qualities with the aromatics to suit the modern taste, as the doctors of divinity now talk of doing with the old Westminster Confession of Faith.

"In one characteristic, however, the Old Doctor resembled the medical man of to- day. He never, or rarely, accumulated wealth-rarely acquired more than a good living for himself and family through all his toilsome life. His life work educated him away from money-getting. He lived too constantly at the hearth-stone of the sick and distressed. His mind was too constantly occupied with the emotional and sympathetic side of life to study finance or Wall Street.

"As one grows old he grows far-sighted -presbyopic, as oculists call it; that is, he sees more clearly objects at a distance. So in his mental eye the Old Doctor is in- clined to be far-sighted, and loves to re- call the incidents that came into his for- mer life."

SOME BUTLER COUNTY PHYSICIANS.

The pioneer physician of the county out- side of those who came to Harmony with the Rapp community, was Dr. George Mil- ler. He was the son of Prof. Samuel Mil- ler, who filled the chair of mathematics and natural sciences at Jefferson College in Canonsburg. Dr. Miller graduated from Jefferson College in 1813 and immediately began the study of medicine under Dr. Letherman of Canonsburg, a man of ac- knowledged ability in his profession. Hav- ing completed his studies he came to But- ler and is said to have been the only physi- cian in Butler County at the time of the agrarian troubles on the Maxwell farm, which took place in 1815. In October of

that year, when Maxwell was wounded, Dr. Miller came to his aid, while a messenger was sent to Pittsburg for Dr. Agnew, who arrived the evening of the day of the trag- edy. Dr. Miller practiced in Butler about eight years, removing in 1823 to Ohio, where he died prior to 1830. He married Martha, daughter of William Anderson, who resided near Warren, Trumbull Coun- ty, Ohio, who with four children survived him. After the death of Dr. Miller his family returned to Butler and lived here many years. Dr. Miller was a member of the first Borough Council in 1817, and was treasurer of the old Butler Academy.

HENRY C. DEWOLFE was second resi- dent physician of Butler and a native of Hartford, Conn. He was a graduate of Yale College, and shortly after coming to Butler in 1817 or 1818 he married Miss Jane McQuistion. He was chosen trustee . of the academy in 1821 and treasurer of the borough in 1825, and filled many other of- fices of trust during his long residence here. His death occurred July 24th, 1854, in his seventy-third year. His son, T. R. De Wolfe, practiced here from 1851 to Au- gust 24th, 1859, when death removed him in his thirty-fifth year. He was born in 1824 and was a graduate of Jefferson Col- lege and the Cleveland (Ohio) ,Medical Col- lege.

DR. GEORGE LYNN came to Butler from Mercer County in 1823 and was one of the two physicians here that year. He mar- ried Elizabeth Gibson in 1825 and was mak- ing rapid progress in his profession when called away by death in 1833. He was one of the pioneers of the temperance move- ment in Butler County.

DR. JAMES GRAHAM came here soon after the death of Dr. Lynn and shared the pat- ronage of the people with Dr. DeWolfe until his death in 1845. Dr. Graham was a native of Ireland and studied medicine be- fore coming to this country. Shortly after his arrival here he opened school in a building on MeKean Street, opposite what

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has been known as the Rink, and on the site of the residence of Captain Thomas Hayes. He brought with him from the old country some of the old methods of school teaching, and it is said that he was a past master in the use of the cat-o'-nine-tails. He was, however, a thorough physician and a scholar and in his sober hours was popular, but the use of drink led to his death.

Some other physicians who practiced here between the periods of 1834 and 1835 were Drs. Donnell & McQuaid, partners, Dr. George W. Gettys, and Dr. Goodall.

DR. GOTLEIB MILLER, a graduate of Mar- burg University, Germany, came to Butler in 1841, and enjoyed a prosperous prac- tice until his death, which occurred in 1849.

H. C. LYNN, a nephew of Dr. George Lynn, began to practice in Butler in 1833. In 1835 he removed to West Sunbury, where he practiced until 1878, when he re- turned to Butler and entered the drug busi- ness.

DR. ISAIAH MCJUNKIN began to practice in Butler in 1844. He was born in Cen- ter Township, Butler County, in 1817 and received his education at the old Jefferson College at Canonsburg. He studied medi- cine under Dr. O. D. Palmer of Zelienople, in 1841, and later in the Louisville Medi- cal College. He removed in 1860 to Chi- cago, and at once took a leading place among the physicians of that city. His death occurred in 1863.

DR. AGNEW practiced at Butler for a short time as the partner of Dr. McJun- kin. He practiced at Harmony after the Rapp community left and afterwards re- moved to Zelienople. He was the father of the late Judge Daniel Agnew, who was president judge of the district in 1851 to 1863, and who in later years filled an hon- orable career on the Supreme Bench of the State.

DR. CHARLES STEIN, a graduate of the University of Bonn, Prussia, practiced in

Butler and at West Sunbury from 1850 to 1870. In the latter year he removed to Wheatland, where he died in 1876, at the age of seventy-one years.

DR. THEODORE FRICKENSTEIN practiced in Butler from 1864 to 1868. He removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he died recently.

DR. CHARLES EMMERLING, who was one of the ablest members of the profession in western Pennsylvania, came to Butler about 1854 and remained until 1865. He attained a large practice, but was even more successful in Pittsburg, where he went from Butler.

DR. GEORGE M. ZIMMERMAN, who prac- ticed in Butler from 1869 to 1900, was the son of John Michael and Mary Barber Zimmerman, and was born in Butler No- vember 18, 1842. He graduated from Jef- ferson College, now Washington & Jeffer- son College, of Washington, Penna., in 1867, and read medicine with Dr. Stephen Bredin. He attended the College of Phys- icians and Surgeons in New York City dur- ing the winter of 1867 and 1868 and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia the winter of 1869 and 1870. After his graduation he practiced in Winona, Minn., for a short time and in Hubbard, Ohio, re- moving from the latter place to his native town in 1872, where he continued to prac- tice until his death.

DR. A. M. NEYMAN, who is now living in Butler, is in his eighty-third year, and is the oldest living physician in the county. He was the son of Abraham Markel and Eleanor (McCleary) Neyman, and was born in Butler February 6, 1826. He re- ceived his education in the old Butler Academy under the late Rev. William White, who was at that time considered one of the finest linguists in the State. Subsequently he taught school in the coun- try and clerked in the office of justice of the peace, but conceiving a fondness for the study of medicine, he went to Zanes- ville, Ohio, in 1845 and began reading med- icine with Dr. Washington Morehead of

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that place. In 1847 he returned to But- first settlers of the borough. He was edu- ler and again resorted to school teaching and other occupations to sustain himself and provide means for future study. In 1849 he was associated with Rev. William White and taught the English branches in the old Butler Academy. In the spring of 1850 he again resumed the study of medi- cine under Dr. W. J. Randolph, who was then a successful physician of Butler. He attended the Western Reserve Medical Col- lege of Cleveland, graduating from that in- stitution in 1853. Immediately after his graduation he returned to Butler and opened the practice which he has followed very successfully until a few years ago, when the infirmities of his advanced age compelled him to retire. There is perhaps no member of the medical profession in Butler County with a wider reputation than Dr. Neyman, as his many years of practice has made him known to every household. What he has done in the sev- eral branches of surgery and medicine can- not be detailed here, but one case that is worthy of mention, and has been little heard of is told with his permission. It was Cesarean section done by Dr. Emmer- ling and him in the summer of 1860, both mother and child surviving. It was the first authenticated operation of its kind west of the Allegheny Mountains, with a result of which any surgeon might feel justly proud. Dr. Neyman is a doctor of the old school, but has kept thoroughly abreast of the times, not alone in medi- cines, but in the arts and sciences ; a thor- ough gentleman, his code of professional ethics is, and always has been, above re- proach; modest, honest, dignified and just in all his dealings with all his fellow men, his daily life and acts are surely worthy of emulation.

DR. SAMUEL GRAHAM practiced in Butler from 1865 to 1897. He was born in But- ler, January 31, 1836, and was the son of John B. and Sarah (Gilkey) Graham, and grandson of Robert Graham, one of the

cated in the public schools and in the old Witherspoon Institute, Butler. He com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. L. R. McCurdy, of Butler, and entered the National Medical College of Washington, D. C., where he remained two years. In 1861 he answered the call of his country and enlisted in Company H, Thirteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served three months. He then entered Jefferson Medi- cal College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated in March, 1862. He again en- tered the service of the United States as assistant surgeon of the 174th Pennsylva- nia Volunteers, with which he remained un- til 1863. In 1864 he joined the United States Medical staff in Emory Hospital, Washington, D. C., and was subsequently appointed surgeon of the Eighty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, with which regi- ment he remained until the close of the war. Dr. Graham was president of the County and State Medical Society and a member of the U. S. Pension Board in this district for ten years previous to his death, June 10, 1897. While Dr. Graham was a skillful physician, he was preëminently a surgeon, in which branch he acquired a greater popularity than usually comes to the life of the all-around doctor. His death was lamented by a large clientele, and he is missed by the profession, not only for his professional attainments, but for his amiable and happy influence in councils.

DR. W. J. RANDOLPH was one of the suc- cessful surgeons in Butler from 1850 to 1853. He was afterwards in the army and when the war closed engaged in cotton raising in North Carolina, where he resided until his death.

DR. DUPANCHELL, a French physician, was here in the thirties. He is said to have been a polished and learned gentle- man, a skillful physician and surgeon. One of the stories told about his skill in sur- gery concerned a hostler employed at Pat- rick Kelly's hotel, who was of somewhat

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deficient mental power». It is said that Dr. DuPanchell trepanned the hostler's skull with success as to render him a sensible mortal.

DR. JOHN COWDEN, the founder of a fam- ily that was noted for the number of its physicians, was a native of Butler County. Hle read medicine in Ohio and established himself as a physician at Portersville as early as 1818. After a labor of fifty years among the first settlers of the northwest- ern township and their children and grand- children, he removed to Allegheny City, where he died February 15th, 1880, in his eighty-third year.

DR. WILLIAM R. COWDEN, of Middle Lan- caster, was the son of Dr. John Cowden above mentioned, and was born in Por- tersville in 1820. He graduated from Jef- ferson Medical College in Philadelphia in the spring of 1846 and began practicing in his native town. With the exception of three years spent in West Sunbury and a few years in Worth Township, he was en- gaged in active duties of his profession for nearly fifty years at Portersville, re- moving to Middle Lancaster about 1893, where he died in April, 1897.

DR. WILLIAM RUSH COWDEN and DR. JOHN VICTOR COWDEN of Butler are sons of William R. Cowden, M.D., above men- tioned. William R. is a graduate of the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville in the class of 1894. He practiced at Ze- lienople and Renfrew before he came to Butler. Dr. John Victor Cowden is a grad- uate of West Penn Medical College of Pittsburg, in the class of 1899, and the Philadelphia Polyclinic in 1902, and prac- ticed at Middle Lancaster and Renfrew be- fore moving to Butler in 1902.

DR. GLEASON, a Philadelphian, attained some prominence as a lecturer on medical and sanitary subjects, and was here in the forties.

HENRI DECOLIERE was a French physi- cian who located in Butler in the forties and obtained much notoriety. He had his

office on Main Street, adjoining Anthony Rockenstein, and near the Col. John M. Sullivan residence, now occupied by the Schultis and Koch buildings. A fire in 1859 destroyed the Rockenstein building and the one occupied by Dr. DeColiere, and when it became known that the French doc- tor had his property heavily insured, many looked upon him as the incendiary. Owing to his fondness for using the knife he was generally feared by the people, though he was believed to be a skilled physician and surgeon. Owing to this propensity he was once placed on trial for manslaughter, but escaped the jail. On another occasion he was called to attend a case of delirium tremens in Butler. After diagnosing the case, he declared that the patient would die "in three minutes" and it was said that, to make his prediction good, he ad- ministered a poison which killed the man within the time specified.

DR. GEORGE K. McADoo began the prac- tice of medicine in Butler County in 1892. He was the son of W. F. and Maria (Du- mars) McAdoo of Sugar Grove, Mercer County, Penna., and was born July 21, 1866. He was educated at Thiel College, Greenville, and Grove City College, and graduated from the West Penn Medical College, Pittsburg, in the class of 1892. He practiced at Anandale and at Slippery Rock from 1892 to 1898, when he removed to Butler. He went to Europe in 1900 and took a post-graduate course and was en- gaged in special work in Butler when his death occurred on December 23, 1903, from typhoid fever, being one of the victims of the epidemic in Butler that year.

DR. JOHN E. BYERS was born in Summit Township, Butler County, June 15th, 1848. He was educated at Witherspoon Institute, Butler, and entered the office of Dr. A. M. Neyman as a student of medicine in the early seventies. He graduated from the Medical University of New York City in 1878 and located in Butler the same year. He was a member of the County Medical

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Society, the State Medical Society and the National Association of Railway Surgeons. At the time of his death he had been sur- geon for the Pennsylvania Railroad at But- ler for over twenty years. When the ty- phoid fever epidemic broke out in Butler in the winter of 1903-1904 Dr. Byers was a member of the Butler Board of Health. Although suffering from impaired health he performed Herculean labors in taking care of the sick and the distressed in the dark days of November and December and literally died at his post of duty. While visiting a fever patient on February 8, 1904, he suddenly collapsed and in a few hours a life of noble sacrifice had ended.

DR. JOHN F. TURNER of Hooker regis- tered in Butler County in 1893. He is now in charge of the Government Sanitarium for the care of Indians in South Dakota.

DR. FRANK CRAWFORD was born in Cran- berry Township, Butler County, and was the son of Dr. Elder Crawford, who is now a resident of Mars. He graduated from the West Penn Medical College of Pittsburg, in 1896, and practiced at Glade Mills, Allegheny City and Mars. His sud- den death in 1906 cut short a promising ca- reer and caused genuine sorrow in the community.

DR. MCCURDY BRICKER was born in Buf- falo Township, Butler County, on April 2, 1868, and was the son of John Bricker. He began the study of medicine in the West- ern University of Pennsylvania at Pitts- burg and completed his studies at the Med- ical College at Indianapolis in 1894. He became associated with Dr. A. M. Hoover of Butler, the same year, and a year later opened an office himself. At the time of his death January 10, 1908, he had a large practice and was one of the leading physi- cians of Butler.

DR. SYLVESTER D. BELL was one of the leading physicians of Butler at the close of the last century. He was born in Arm- strong County in 1847 and was the grand- son of Samuel Bell, an early settler of

Washington Township, Butler County. His parents were Samuel S. and Margaret (McClymonds) Bell. His preceptor in the study of medicine was Dr. T. M. McMillan of Fairview Township, and he graduated from the Western Reserve Medical College at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874. He practiced at Chicora (Millerstown) until 1890 when he removed to Butler and continued his practice until 1901, when he removed to Prescott, Arizona, where he died Janu- ary 14, 1902. Dr. Bell was a member of the Butler County Medical Association and the State Medical Society. He was vice- president of the latter society for one term, president of the Butler County Medical So- ciety for one term, and secretary and treasurer for three successive terms. He was a Republican politically, and was elected to the State Legislature on the Re- publican ticket in 1881. He served one term as county chairman and was one of the presidential electors in 1892.

DR. HARRY A. BELL was born in Chicora (Milierstown), Butler County, and was the son of Dr. Sylvester D. Bell of Butler. He received his preliminary education in the high schools of Butler and in Washington and Jefferson College, graduating from the latter institution in 1894, and from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1897. He succeeded to the practice of his father in Butler and continued to practice here until 1902, when he removed to Arizona, where his death occurred November 17th of that year.

DR. C. F. McBRIDE, a native of Butler, graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1875. He practiced at Butler, Harrisville and Fairview until 1882, when he removed to Youngstown, Ohio.

DR. STEPHEN BREDIN, second son of Hon. John Bredin, began the practice of medi- cine in Butler in 1861. He had graduated from the medical department of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1856 and practiced several years in the

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Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 44

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1526

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526