USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 61
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COOVER, JOSEPH HENRY, M. D., son of Samuel and Sarah (Stayman) Coover, was born June 15, 1838, in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland county, Pa. He was educated at the Cumberland Valley Institute, Mechan - iesburg, where he was prepared for entering the junior class of a college course, but de- termining to lead a professional life, com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. Eli HI. Coover, in the fall of 1860, and later with Prof. D. Hayes Agnew, of Philadelphia, at
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tending Jefferson College lecture course, 1861-62. In the spring of the latter year he was appointed by Governor Curtin one of the commissioners to investigate the sanitary condition of the Pennsylvania soldiers in the Army of the Potomac. Upon his return he went before the United States Medical Board, at Philadelphia, for examination, and was placed in charge of the reserve of the Fifth United States artillery, Army of the Potomae. In the fall of 1862 he returned to college where he graduated in March, 1863. He was afterwards sent as assistant surgeon to the general hospital, Nashville, Tenn .; from thence to the officers' hospital, at Annapolis, Md., where he remained until the winter of 1864, performing, as Surgeon Baers, U. S. A., says, "some of the most difficult operations in surgery, and discharging his professional duties at all times in a highly scientifie man- ner, reflecting both credit to himself and honor to the medical fraternity." The winter of 1864-65 was spent in college and in the wards of the different hospitals of the city of Philadelphia. The following spring Dr. Coover located at Harrisburg, in the prac- tice of his profession. Desiring to lessen the burden of his practice, he was led to devote special attention to diseases of the eye, car and throat, and with this object in view be went to Europe, where, during the years of 1878-79, he pursued his studies in these specialties referred to in the hospitals of Vienna and London, under the most emi- nent and skillful surgeons and physicians in the world.
Dr. Coover married, in 1865, Flora L., daughter of Col. John Wolford, of York Springs, Adams county, Pa.
~RANTER, CHARLES A., M. D., Harrisburg, Pa., born August S, 1839, near Minden, on the Weser, Westphalia, Prussia, is the son of Christian and Charlotte (Wehmeir) Rah- ter. His father, Christian Rahter, the son of a farmer, was born in Prussia, in the year 1805, and having an elder brother who in- herited the paternal esta e, 'he, Christian, learned the trade of coach-making, immi- grated to Pennsylvania in 1842, and settled at Conestoga Centre, and emoved to Littles- town, Adams county, in the spring of 1847. Here Charles A. attended the public schools ; in 1858 he entered the classical institute at Hanover, Pa., and afterwards took a partial course at the Pennsylvania College at Gettys- burg. In 1859 he taughtschool at Littles-
town, Pa., during one session, and then at- tended the Littlestown Classical Institute for one year. During the winter of 1860-61 he was engaged as principal of Carroll Acad- emy, Union Mills, Md.
In the meantime his father had removed to Woodsborough, Md., and Dr. Rahter com- meneed the study of medicine there in 1862, under the direction of Dr. C. W. Benson; matriculated at the medical department of the University of Maryland, 1863, and the following year attended lectures at the Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, N. Y., where he was graduated in 1864. Soon after graduating, Dr. Rahter entered the Union service as acting assistant surgeon, and for a time was stationed at Fairfax Seminary, United States General Hospital, near Alex- andria, Va. Early in 1865 he was transferred to Campbell United States Army General Hospital, Washington, D. C., where he re- mained until June 1 of the same year, when he resigned and went to Harrisburg, Pa .. and opened an office July 1, 1865. In Au- gust, 1865, Dr. Rahter was appointed exam- ining surgeon for pensions at Harrisburg, and continued to discharge the duties of this office until August 20, 1870, when he re- signed to accept an appointment as acting surgeon in the German army. Dr. Rahter sailed for Liverpool on the steamship City of Washington, Inman line, from New York, in the latter part of August, 1870, with orders to report to the German consul at Antwerp. Upon arriving at that place he was ordered to report to Surgeon General Scholler, Eighth army corps, at Coblentz on the Rhine, and was there assigned to duty as assistant sur- geon in the Garrison Hospital of that city. After serving for a period of four weeks, Dr. Rahter was promoted to be staff surgeon, and was ordered to St. Johann, Saarbincken, and placed in charge of the Barracken Lazarett. of that city. In January, 1871, he was pro- moted to be surgeon-in-chief to the Garrison Lazaretto in addition to the Barracken Laza- rett, continuing to serve in this capacity until July 15, 1871, when he resigned from the service. After leaving the German army Dr. Rahter made a tour of Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, England and Belgium, returning to Harrisburg, Pa.,'in 1872, and resumed the practice of medicine. He was one of the founders, in January, 1866, ofthe Dauphin County ( Pa.) Medical Society, president in 1876; is a member of the American Medical Association; of the
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Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania since 1868; of the Philadelphia Pathological Society; of the Harrisburg Pathological So- ciety; charter member of the Harrisburg Academy of Medicine; was president of the Harrisburg Board of Pension Examiners 1885-89; a member of the Harrisburg school board for three years, and a member of Per- severance Lodge, No. 21, F. & A. M. The Doctor married, November 11, 1875, Miss Mary R. Keffer, of Harrisburg, an accom- plished vocalist. They have one child, liv- ing, John Howard Rahter.
~FAGER, CHARLES BUFFINGTON, M. D., son of Dr. John Henry and Mary (Buffington) Fager, was born in the year 1841, at Harris- burg, Pa. He was educated at the public schools of Harrisburg, read medicine with his father, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, medical department, in 1864, and commenced the practice of his pro- fession at Harrisburg. He was a medical cadet in the United States army in 1862, and contract assistant surgeon in 1864, vaccine physician of Harrisburg, 1866-67, and one of the founders of the Homeopathic Medical Society, Dauphin county, in 1866. Dr. Fager married Susan, daughter of Valentine Hum- mel, of Harrisburg. He was a member of the board of control of the city schools in 1884, and was president of same in 1887, 18SS and 1889.
- ORTH, HENRY L., M. D., superintendent of the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, was born in Harrisburg, Pa., August 17, 1842, son of Edward Lawrence and Martha Cummings (Kerr) Orth. HIis grandfather, Henry Orth, settled in Balti- more, where he died in 1816. Here Ed- ward Lawrence Orth, father of Henry L., was born January 4, 1814. After the death of his father Edward Lawrence removed with his mother's family to Harrisburg, where the son was educated in the borough schools and the Harrisburg Academy. He began the study of medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. Luther Reily, and subsequently pursued his studies under the tuition of Dr. George McClelland. He was graduated from Jeffer- son Medical College March 12, 1834, and began practice in Harrisburg, where he had eminent success. He died April 15, 1861. He married Martha Cummings Kerr, daugh- ter of Rev. James Kerr, a Presbyterian min- ister, who married Mary, only daughter of
James Wilson and his wife Mary Elder, daughter of Rev. John Elder. They had four children : Mary, who married Jacob F. Seiler, superintendent of the Harrisburg Academy, Henry L., James Wilson, who married Miss Bertha E. Ross, and Rebecca Reily.
Henry L. Orth entered Harrisburg Acad- emy and from there went to Yale College in 1859, remaining until 1861, when at the outbreak of the Civil war he was appointed acting medical cadet in the service, and in 1863 commissioned medical cadet in the regu- lar army, in which he remained until 1865. In May, 1866, he was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and soon after located in his native city. He was appointed in 1866 sur- geon of the Northern Central Railway Com- pany and in 1873 surgeon of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company. In August of the latter year he was elected visiting surgeon of the Harrisburg Hospital, and from 1873 to 1884 was president of the board of United States pension surgeons at Harrisburg. In 1884, at the organization of the Harrisburg Club, Dr. Orth was elected one of the gov- erning committee. In 1889 he was ap- pointed a trustee of the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, and on August 28, 1891, was elected superintendent and physician of the same.
Dr. Orth was married, June 30, 1868, to Miss Elizabeth Bridgeman Dixon, daughter of Joseph Shipley and Sarah Edwards (Bridgeman) Dixon, of Wilmington, Del .. and of English-Quaker origin. Dr. Orth and his wife are members of the Market Square Presbyterian church, of Harrisburg. Dr. Orth was a member of the International congresses held in 1876 and 1SS6 and a dele- gate from the State of Pennsylvania, and was president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania in 1893.
Points in the genealogy of the Orth family are interesting as part of the local history of the Commonwealth. Balzer, or Balthaser, Orth was born May 5, 1703, and emigrated from his home in the Palatinate, Germany, to Lebanon county, Pa., about 1730. He came from a very old family, from whom was derived the name of the village of Orth, sit- uated on the right bank of the Danube, about fifteen miles east of Vienna, and which was settled about 1170 by Hartneid von Orthe, who purchased the village and estates sur- rounding it, founded a church and erected a
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castle. The whole property remained in possession of the family for several genera- tions, when the proprietor, about the end of the seventeenth century, sold out and re- moved to Moravia and later to the Rhine. Balzer Orth had warranted to him on No- vember 25, 1735, three hundred acres of land in Lebanon township. He died October 20, 1788; his wife died March 29, 1773. Their children were: Adam, John, and Balzer. Adam, the eldest, was born March 10, 1733, in Pennsylvania, and was brought up amid the dangers and struggles of pioneer life. During the French and Indian war he com- manded a company, and in 1769 was one of the commissioners of the county of Lancas- ter. During the Revolution, although ad- vanced in years, he was identified with the struggle and appointed sub-lieutenant of Lancaster county March 12, 1777. Upon the formation of Dauphin county he served as a representative in the General Assembly in 1779 and in 1780. He was opposed to the adoption of the Federal Constitution and was active in the Harrisburg conference in 178S. For a long time he owned and operated New Market forge, which at his death he be- queathed to his son Henry. He was one of the pioneers in the manufacture of iron in Lebanon county. Colonel Orth married, May 24, 1757, Catharine Kucher, daughter of Peter and Barbara Kucher, of Lebanon. Their children were: Elizabeth, John, Ro- sini, Joseph, Maria Elizabeth, Catharine, Re- gina, Christian Henry, and Joanna. Of these Christian Henry Orth died in Baltimore in 1816. He received a good English educa- tion and was brought up in the iron business. At the death of his father he became the owner of the New Market forge. In 1801 he was elected State senator and served three years. He was afterwards appointed flour inspector of the port of Philadelphia, settled in that city and engaged in business, remain- ing there until the war of 1812, when he removed to Baltimore. He was married in 1794 to Rebecca Rahm, daughter of Conrad and Catharine (Weiser) Rahm. She died in Harrisburg, December 31, 1843. Adam Henry, a son born to them in 1798, was edu- cated as a lawyer, and was district attorney for Dauphin county in 1827-28, and was clerk of the House of Representatives. He married Elizabeth Cox.
-HUTTON, JOHN C., M. D., was born in Har- risburg, l'a., December 5, 1845, son of Joseph
Hutton, a native of Cumberland county, Pa. Joseph Hutton came to Dauphin county when a young man, was a contractor, and was afterwards appointed State commissioner of canals. He died while holding that office, in December, 1847. He was a public spirited citizen, and belonged to the Guards, of Harrisburg.
Dr. John C. Hutton was educated at Penn- sylvania College, Gettysburg. His preceptor in medicine was Dr. R. A. Martin, of Har- risburg. He was graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, medical depart- ment, in 1867, and began practice at Port Royal, Juniata county, Pa., where he con- tinued for four years. He returned to Har- risburg, and is now one of the oldest and best known practitioners in the city. He is a member of the Dauphin County Medical Society ; is one of its board of managers, and has served as president. Dr. Hutton is also a member of the State Medical Society, and was elected delegate to the American Medical Association, but did not attend the meeting. For a few years he was presi- dent of the Harrisburg board of health, and has done a grand work for the city. He was on the first staff of physicians and surgeons of the City Hospital, and has for years been physician to the hospital.
Dr. Hutton has served on the Harrisburg school board-for the unexpired term of Mayor John Detweiler, and during one full term. In 1882-83-S4 he was president of common council. He is a Republican, and active in politics. He belongs to several secret fraternal orders. The Doctor was married, in 1868, to Miss Carrie Mooney, of Port Royal, Juniata county, Pa. She died in 1SS2, leaving three children : James, of Harrisburg, Carrie, and Grace. Dr. Ilutton was married again, in JSS6, to Miss Jennie C. Officer, of New Mexico. They have two children : Margaret and Dorothy. The Doctor isa member of Ziou Lutheran church.
COOK, I. ELMER, M. D., was born at Fiori- _ dale, Adams county, Pa., January 27, 1843. He is a son of Thomas E. and Mary (Elden) Cook, the former a native of York county, the latter born in county Armagh, Ireland. His father was an honored resident of Flori- dale all his life, and died there in 1879, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. His mother died at Floridale at the age of eighty-nine years. They had five children, four of whom are living, namely : Frank, of
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Cambridgeport, Mass., Charles, residing in the homestead, Benjamin, residing in Cum- berland county, Pa., and 1. Elmer. A sister Martha died at the age of fourteen years. The father was engaged principally in agri- cultural pursuits. I. Ehner received a pri- mary education in the public schools of his native town. In 1862 he enlisted in com- pany G, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth re- giment, Pennsylvania volunteers, and served until the elose of the war. He was mustered out at Harrisburg in June, 1865. He par- ticipated in all the principal battles fought by the Army of the Potomac. He was severely wounded in the right leg in the battle of Fisher's Hill, Va., October 19, 1864, and was taken to the hospital till convales- cent. After his discharge from the army he returned home and resumed his studies under private tutorship in Philadelphia, and completed a collegiate course. He be- gan the reading of medicine with Dr. J. H. Marsden, of York Sulphur Springs, Adams county, and at the same time attended lee- tures at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. He matriculated with the class of 1866, and was graduated from the same institution with the class of 1868. He practiced medicine for three years in Hanover, York county. At the expiration of this time he removed to Harrisburg, and has been continuously in the practice of his pro- fession there for twenty-three years. He was married at Harrisburg, September, 24, 1885, to Sarah T. Mathews, widow of the late Gen. A. Mathews, of Lewistown, Pa., and daugh- ter of William and Margaretta Shimp. They have no children.
McGOWAN, HIRAM, M. D., was born on the "Oetorora," in Lancaster county, Pa., No- vember 6, 1846, and is a son of John and Catherine (Knott) McGowan. He received his education at Unionville, Chester county, and at Lewisburg, Union county, Pa. He then went to Philadelphia and began the study of medicine under Dr. C. P. Tutt, at- tended the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from the medical department of that institution in 1868. On May 21 of that year he located in Harrisburg and began the practice of his profession, and for many years has been recognized as one of the most learned, skillful and successful practitioners of the city. Ile is a member of the county and State medical societies, and of the American Medical Association. In the or-
ganization of the Harrisburg Academy of Medieine, he took an active part, being chairman of the committee to formulate plans, and one of the instigators of the same. Ile is the first vice-president of that institu- tion. During the Rebellion he served in the Second Pennsylvania militia under Colonel Wright, and in Captain Lambert's Indepen- dent Cavalry company, of Harrisburg. He is a staunch member of the Republican party, and takes an active interest in the welfare of the same.
GERHARD, JEROME Z., son of William T. and Elizabeth (Seibert) Gerhard, was born November .6, 1842, in Cherryville, North- ampton county, Pa. He was prepared for college in the high school at Lancaster, Pa , and the preparatory department of Franklin and Marshall College, and graduated from that institution in 1864. He entered the office of Dr. John L. Atlee, of Lancaster, in September of that year, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 186S, and at once opened an office in Lancaster, where he remained nearly two years in active prae- tice. During this time he was visiting phy- sieian to the Children's Home, and one of the physicians to the Lancaster County Hos- pital. February 1, 1870, he entered upon the duties of first assistant physician of the Harrisburg Hospital, and February 12, 1881 succeeded Dr. Curwen as superintendent, which position he held until November 1, 1891. During the year 1877 he spent five months on the continent, and thoroughly inspected the methods of treatment practiced in hospitals there.
Dr. Gerhard is a member of the Dauphin County Medieal Society, the State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion ; also the Neurologieal Society of Phila . delphia, and the American Academy of Medicine. Ile was married in 1881 to Miss Mary Hill, daughter of George Hill, a promi- nent attorney of Sunbury, Pa., and they have two children, Elizabeth Hill and Alice Hill. The Doctor is an active member and an elder in the German Reformed church. Ile is independent in his political views.
SENSENIG, ISAAC B., M. D., was born in Earl township, Lancaster county, Pa., Sep- tember 9, 1847. He is a son of Isaac and Eliza (Bowman) Sensenig.
The Sensenig family is of German an- cestry, two brothers having come to America
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late in the eighteenth century, and landed at the port of Philadelphia. Here they separated, one locating in the upper end of Cumberland Valley, near Hagerstown, Md., the other, who was the ancestor of the Lancaster county, Pa., branch of the family, settled in the Conestoga Valley, in Earl township. Prior to the last three genera- tions the members of this latter branch of the family have all engaged exclusively in quiet agricultural pursuits. They were mem- bers of the Mennonite Church, where adher- ents must agree not to participate in politics, trade or commerce; not to vote at any po- litical election ; not to fill an office of trust or public honor; not to go to law on the offensive; not to take up arms to defend life or property; a peaceable, law-abiding people, promptly paying tax assessments, a people peculiar to themselves, by themselves, and for themselves; sober, industrious and progressive, none ever being found in jail, in the almshouse or on public charity. But in the last three generations the children are breaking away from those peculiar domestic, economic and church tenets, and are taking an active part in the affairs of the world ; joining different church denomina- tions, and engaging in politics, commerce, trade, science and art. The father was a prominent farmer of Earl township. He is now retired. The mother was a daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Bowman, pioneer settlers of Breakneck township, Lancaster county, from whom the town of Bowmans- ville in that county derives its name .. The mother is not living. They had four sons, namely : Isaac B., Israel, residing on the homestead, Peter, who died in infancy, and Samuel, who died in 1892.
Isaac B. was reared to manhood in his native township, receiving his primary edu- cation in the public schools. When a little over fifteen years old, in 1862, he enlisted in the three months' militia. In the spring of 1864 he re-enlisted in the service of the Gov- ernment, joining the One Hundred and Ninety-fifth regiment, Pennsylvania vol- unteers. He served until the close of the war, and was mustered out at Washington, D. C. He returned home, and began the study of medicine with Dr. Isaac Winters, of Hingletown, Earl township. He attended Belleview Hospital Medical College, of New York, graduating with the classof 1869. 1Ie began the practice of his profession in Denver, Lancaster county, at once, and continued
there for six years. In 1875 he removed to Columbus, Ohio, and practiced there six years. In 1SS1 he returned to Lancaster county, and took up the practice of medicine at Whitmore, and continued there till 1886. During the two subsequent years, from April, 1SSG, to September, 1888, he was resident physician and superintendent of Lancaster County Insane Asylum. In September, 18SS, he located in Harrisburg. He was married in Earl township, Lancaster county, l'a., in July, 18GS, to Mary Eby, daughter of Henry and Mary (Resh) Eby, Mr. Eby being a prominent farmer and stock dealer of Upper Leacock township, Lancaster county. To them have been born four children, one of whom died in infancy. Their living chil- dren are: Naomi, Elizabeth and Oliver W. Dr. Sensenig is a member of the Lancaster County Medical Society. In polities he is a staunch Republican. He attends the Re- formed church. The Doctor was the first of the family to enter the medical profession, and well remembers the admonition of his older relatives: "Do not engage in that profession, it is not the proper calling for our people;" and telling of the danger of being enticed away from the good, pious church and social relations.
- BROWN, JAMES MORRISON, M. D., medical examiner of Pennsylvania Railroad Relief Department, was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., January 16, 1849. He is a son of Rev. Will. iam Beard and Mary Elizabeth (Bicknell) Brown. Rev. William B. Brown was born in Rockbridge county, Va. He was a gradu; ate of Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn .- was ordained to the ministry of the Presby- terian Church in Tennessee, and spent his life in the work of the ministry. He was stated clerk of Kingston (Tenn.) Presbytery for forty consecutive years. He died at Mary- ville, Tenn., in March, 1879. He married Mary Elizabeth Bicknell, who is still living and resides at Maryville. They had nine children, of whom eight are living : Dr. James M .; Rev. W. B. Brown, a Presbyterian minister at Hays City, Kans .; Mary Ella. de- ceased, wife of Rev. R. H. Coulter ; Emma Edwina, wife of Rev. T. T. Alexander, mis- sionary of the Presbyterian Church in Tokio, Japan ; Hon. Thomas N., of Maryville, Tenn., a lawyer, and for many years member of the Legislature; John Fielding, a prominent farmer, Maryville, Tenn .; Elizabeth, wife of H. H. Hewitt, Williamsburg, Pa .; Eric, wife
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of Rev. M. N. Rankin, pastor of the Presby- terian church, Mason, Warren county, Ohio; Ethel, residing with her mother in Maryville.
James M. Brown, when he was a child, was taken by his parents to Spring Place, Mur- ray county, Ga., where he spent his early life, and where, under the tutelage and in- struction of his father, he received his pri- mary education. He was prepared for col- lege at Cleveland Academy, Cleveland, Tenn .; was graduated from Maryville College in 1869, and then began reading medicine with Dr. J. N. Lyle, of Danbridge, Tenn. In 1872 he was graduated from the medical depart- ment of the University of Louisville, Ky., and returned at once to Maryville, where he practiced medicine from that time until the fall of 1876. In 1877 he removed to Mines, Blair county, Pa., where he practiced nine years. Since February S, 1SS6, he has been in the service of the Pennsylvania railroad. He was first employed by this company at Derry, Westmoreland county, Pa., and in March, 1890, was transferred to Harrisburg.
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