USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 46
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Mrs. Agnes Parke, the widow of John Parke, with her son William, and her daughter Mrs. William Rainey and child, were in their brick residence at the corner of Bedford and Lev- ergood streets. The building was destroyed, and their bodies were recovered near Fisher's Slaughtery on Water street, on June 11th.
James M. Shumaker resided on Locust street, and his fam- ily consisted of his wife, Mrs. Lena Shumaker; John S., aged eleven; Edith M., seven; Irene G., five; Walter S., two; and his father-in-law, John Stream, sixty-three years old. When the flood came Mr. Shumaker was preparing a raft to take his family away to a place of safety. Observing the approach of the great wave he bade his family run up-stairs. While he was endeavoring to lock the door, some obstacle struck the house, which was a brick structure. It was immediately crushed and Mr. Shumaker was forced through the shattered ceiling to a top floor. When he regained consciousness he was floating on
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
wreckage near Franklin street, then passing through the break below the Presbyterian church he was carried up the Stony- creek. On Saturday he was found on Somerset street, his flesh badly torn, almost blinded by sand and lime and otherwise seri- ously injured. By reason of rings and jewelry found in the morgue it is certain that Mrs. Shumaker's body was recovered, but it is not known where it was buried. Although every body in the unknown plot was disinterred. none proved to be hers.
Mrs. Levergood, relict of Jacob Levergood, Sr., aged sev- enty-eight years, her daughter Lucy, and Mrs. Buck, a lady over seventy years of age, were in the Levergood brick resi- dence at the corner of Bedford and Vine streets, in the direct
Unknown Dead.
channel of the second break from the Little Conemaugh to the Stonycreek. The house crumbled in an instant and all were carried away. Mrs. Levergood's body was found in Sandy- vale cemetery, sitting in the same chair in which she had been at the moment the flood reached her; Mrs. Buck's was also found at Sandyvale, lodged in a tree; while Miss Lucy's body had been recovered and taken to Prospect Hill, where it was identified. In the case of these three bodies from the same house, two were found up the Stonycreek and the third near the Stone bridge.
During the first four or five days it was impossible to estimate the number of people lost by the flood, although the daily papers had rated it as high as 15,000 souls. The first ef-
506
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
fort to establish a system to ascertain this fact was made by the Moxham committee on Saturday forenoon, when they opened an office on Adam street and requested every person to report those saved and lost. Other methods were soon improvised to facilitate the undertaking, and within a week it was generally admitted that the loss would not exceed 5,000 people. The committee on inquiry, the committee on $10 a head distribu- tion, and the department under General Hastings made other canvasses, and by July decided that the loss would not exceed 2.500, although the bureau of information organized by Colonel John I. Rodgers, of Philadelphia, closed its work on the 24th of July, reporting that 6,111 people were unaccounted for of whom at least 6,000 had perished. This statement, made almost two months after the flood, as the result of careful, intelligent and earnest work, was far from being correct.
It is a fact that the exact number of lives lost will never be known, for the reason that some families, especially of the foreign element who were not well acquainted, were entirely wiped out, and the number reported in the same, although procured from the best sources, was at the best guesswork. There were also strangers and visitors here unaccounted for.
But there are two statements which are believed to be as near correct as it is possible to make it. The first one was pre- pared by J. B. Kremer, secretary of Governor Beaver's Flood Commission, which is as follows:
MORTUARY REPORT OF THE FLOOD AT JOHNSTOWN, MAY 31, 1889.
Found and
Lost.
Found and identified.
not identified.
Missing.
Males
923
498
252
173
Females
1,219
617
340
262
Sex unknown
41
Less 44
Total
2,142
1,115
636
391
THE LOSS BY DISTRICTS.
Johnstown
1,114
Franklin borough 17
Cambria City
360
East Conemaugh
13
Woodvale
272
Hotel guests, visitors, }
Conemaugh borough
167
etc., railroad pas -? .. 63
Millville
115
sengers
South Fork
5
Mineral Point
16
Total
2,142
507
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
AGES.
Males. Females. Total.
Under 1
20
29
49
From 1 to 5.
75
61
136
From 5 to 10.
102
109
211
From 10 to 20
141
202
343
From 20 to 30.
98
215
313
From 30 to 40.
83
126
209
From 40 to 50.
72
101
173
From 50 to 60
71
64
135
From 60 to 70
44
58
102
From 70 to 80
17
19
36
From 80 to 90
1
5
6
Over 90.
1
3
4
Ages known
725
992
1,717
Ages not known
198
227
425
923
1,219
2,142
Widows by the flood.
124
Widowers by the flood.
198
Half orphans, under 21 years, lost father
311
Half orphans, under 21 years, lost mother
156
Orphans, lost both parents.
98
Total
565
Whole families lost
99
BURIED IN THE PUBLIC PLOT OF THE COMMISSION AT GRAND VIEW
CEMETERY.
Unknown.
Known.
Males
249
Males
53
Females
342
Females 60
Sex unknown
46
Total unknown 637 Total known 113
After Mr. Kremer's report had been made other names were found to be among the missing, when the Tribune under- took to make another canvass of those lost on the principle of procuring the name of every one who had been lost. Under this system there were 2,205 names of persons who had lost their lives, but many of them were not found, and many of them were found but were not identified. The result of this inquiry is as below :
508
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
Those buried in family lots in Grandview Cemetery 441
Those buried in family lots in Sandyvale Cemetery. 78 Those buried in family lots in the old Catholic graveyard. . 23 Those buried in family lots in Lower Yoder Cemetery. . . Those buried in family lots in St. Mary's Cemetery. 71 . Those buried in family lots in the German Catholic Ceme- tery 47
128
Those in the Unknown Plot, but were identified. 114
Those in the Unknown Plot not identified 663
Total in the Unknown Plot. 777
Those who have no cemetery record. 206
Those buried elsewhere than at Johnstown 95
Those lost on the Day Express. 38
Those not known to have been found 301
2,205
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
It seems paradoxical that a physician should locate in this county while it was still a wilderness with very few people. However, such was the case, for Dr. Francis came to Ebensburg in 1796, although it is uncertain how long he remained there. He and his wife walked from Philadelphia in company with George Roberts and his little colony, who were about two months on the journey.
In the year 1800 it is evident there was none in the Indian village of Conemaugh, or Johnstown, as we find from the book of original entry of John Horner that he paid Jacob Good fifteen shillings in state currency "for going to Greensburg to the Dockter." From his time until 1820 is the dark age in the pro- fession, as there is no evidence of a resident practitioner unless it be Dr. Francis, of Ebensburg. In that year Dr. Robert Young began to practice in Ebensburg, having studied medicine with Dr. Stewart, of Indiana. Dr. Young married Charlotte Hender- son, a sister of Mrs. Moses Canan, about 1824, while living there and they had two children-Samuel, who died in Califor- nia, and Mary, who died in Oregon. Dr. Young removed to Wyota, Wisconsin, in 1841, dying there about 1850.
The next was Dr. Armand Aristide Rodrigue, who located in Ebensburg in 1839, only to remain there until 1847, when he moved to Hollidaysburg. He was born in Philadelphia, August 10, 1810, and married Ann Caroline Bellas, of Sunbury. Being the attendant physician to Rev. Dr. Gallitzin in his last illness, the dying man gave him a Greek cross, which is represented as made from the wood of the true cross and had an authenticated history in the eyes of the Gallitzin family. The cross is now in possession of Hugh Bellas Rodrigue, of Pittsburgh. In 1855 Dr. Rodrigue moved to Lecompton, Kansas, as a Free State advocate and there was an aide to John Brown. He died in Kansas, June 11, 1857.
Ebensburg had two other physicians about this time: Dr. David Lewis, who was there until about 1862, died subsequently in Pittsburgh; and Dr. William A. Smith, who was there in the forties.
510
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
Dr. Robert Devereux, graduated from the Jefferson Med- ical College in the class of 1867, and has practiced continually at the Summit and Cresson.
Dr. Charles G. Phythian, who came to Johnstown in 1829, was probably the first physician to locate there permanently, as Dr. David T. Storm, who had come there in 1825, only prac- ticed his profession for ten or eleven years. Dr. Storm was born in York county in 1796, and educated at Emmitsburg College. He married Maria Jane Agnew, of Ebensburg, a cousin of Maj. John Linton and Mrs. Phythian. He also re- sided at and doctored the people of Stoyestown about the same time he was practicing in Johnstown, probably having an office at each place. Physicians in those days worked under difficul- ties, as the long distances were to be covered either on horseback or in sleighs. Dr. Swan was the first physician in the county to possess a buggy, and that not until 1867. Dr. Storm was ap- pointed prothonotary of the county by Gov. Ritner, and after his term of office expired he entered the mercantile trade and opened several stores in different parts of the county. About 1854 he removed to a farm near Portage, and died in 1869.
The next doctor in Johnstown was Michael Hay, a son of Col. George and Seaba Fahnestock Hay. He was born March 21, 1795, at York, Pennsylvania, and died at the scene of his labors on the same date in 1861. He was paymaster in the Fifth Division of Pennsylvania Militia in 1816-17, and studied medi- cine with Dr. Thomas Jameson, of York. In 1820-21 he attended the University of Pennsylvania, and practiced in Blockley Hos- pital, Philadelphia. Graduating January 22, 1822, he returned to York, and on May 23 of the following year married Margaret Worley, of that place. In 1829 he removed to Armagh, and in 1836 located in Johnstown, which was then a town of about 1,100 or 1,200 people, with one other doctor only, C. G. Phythian, and one lawyer, Moses C. Canan. It is stated that a doctor by the name of Keiffer was in Johnstown about 1840. In 1846 Dr. John Lowman came to Johnstown, and ten years later he and Dr. Hay had five medical brethren in the town-W. W. Walters, Henry and Andrew Yeagley, and Charles Koehler. Dr. William A. Vickroy, a brother of Edwin A. Vickroy, died at Wilmore about that time. Three years later the medical force of Johns- town had been increased to nine by the appearance of Dr. F. Bingel, of Zanesville, Ohio, and Dr. H. W. Marbourg.
In 1864 Dr. Benjamin Yeagley graduated with honors at
511
IIISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
the Eclectic College in Cincinnati, and established himself in Johnstown, soon after which his brother Henry removed to Lawrence, Kansas, whereupon the brothers, Andrew and Ben- jamin, continued the partnership until the death of the former in 1889. Dr. Andrew Yeagley was elected county treasurer in 1878. Dr. Benjamin Yeagley was president of the State Eclec- tic Medical Association in 1888-89, and president of the National Eclectic Medical Association in 1892-93. He died January 14, 1895.
Dr. Francis Schill who came to Johnstown in August, 1865, is the oldest practicing physician residing in the county.
The first homoeopathic physician and surgeon to engage in the work in Cambria county was Dr. J. K. Lee, who located in Johnstown, April 1, 1869, and lost his life in the great dis- aster of May 31, 1889. A few years previous Dr. Maximilian Werder and Dr. Lewis, who were also of the Hahnemann school, had been there for a short time, but the school of homoeopathy was successfully established by John Kidd Lee. He was a son of William K. and Jane Horner Lee, both natives of England. The father died at Tarentum, in 1869, and the mother at Aetna, Pennsylvania, in 1882. Dr. Lee was born in Freeport, Pennsyl- vania, August 14, 1841, and graduated from the Hahnemann College of Philadelphia in 1869. He enlisted in Company H, First Maryland Cavalry, August 19, 1861, and was discharged December 5, 1863; re-enlisted in Company M, same regiment, December 24, and was discharged August 8, 1865. While a prisoner he was confined in Andersonville prison. On Novem- ber 21, 1871, he and Emily M. Swank, of Johnstown, were mar- ried. Dr. Lee was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and was one of the leading citizens of the town and served several years in the borough council.
There are at present five homoeopathic physicians in Johns- town: Horace E. Kistler, William Wallace, A. M. Wesner, H. H. Sanderson, and P. L. Bolsinger.
Dr. Lawrence Francis Flick, a native of Carrolltown, this county, is a distinguished physician of Philadelphia. He is a son of John and Elizabeth Sharabaugh Flick, born there Au- gust 10, 1856. He is a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College of the class of '79. He has given special study to the dreaded disease, consumption, and apparently has mastered it. He has been the president and controlling physician of the hospital at the White Haven Sanitarium for the free treatment of that dis-
512
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
ease, with marked success. It attracted the attention of Henry Phipps, of Pittsburg, who founded and endowed the Phipps In- stitute of Philadelphia, for the study and prevention of tuber- culosis. The Institute is in its conception and establishment an embodiment of a new idea-namely, concentrated effort upon a single disease for its extermination. Dr. Flick is the founder and guiding spirit of the scientific work of the Institute, which was organized in 1903. Mr. Phipps chose him for his skill and ability, and approved of his advanced and common-sense ideas of its treatment.
The first regular drug store in the county was established by C. T. Frazer in April, 1856, at the corner of Main and Frank- lin streets. Prior to that time drugs were kept in connection with such commodities as books, stationery and groceries. In those days the physicians kept their own drugs, and for some time after Colonel Frazer began the prescription trade was limited. It is also true that when he started the exclusive drug store on the corner of Main and Franklin streets it was out of the business district, the center of trade being on Clinton. He tried to get a room there, but it was out of the question, and he was forced to go to the other corner at an annual rental of $125. It is now the business center of a district of 100,000 people.
The profession was again honored by the prompt and ef- ficient services of Doctors George W. Wagoner, B. E. Longwell, H. F. Tomb, Charles E. Hannan, C. B. Millhoff, F. B. Statler, J. S. Taylor, J. B. Woodruff, Emlyn Jones and John B. Low- man, and Dr. Updegraff of Bolivar, who went into the coal mine at the time of the dreadful explosion, to rescue the ex- hausted and injured men. Marshall G. Moore, the mining en- gineer who was with them, in an article in the Franklin In- stitute Journal states that "by a liberal use of oxygen, quick trips to the hospital and faithful work on the part of the physi- cians and nurses, a number were resuscitated. Others were too far gone." A further reference is made to this disaster in the chapter on Coal.
THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
The earliest record obtainable of a Medical Society of Cam- bria county is that it came into existence in 1852-Drs. Hay, Vickroy, John Lowman, C. Sheridan, and Levinus Marbourg, of Johnstown, being among the members-and the final meeting
513
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
was held at Cresson in about 1856, at which Dr. Lowman and Dr. Marbourg were present.
The Society seems to have gone so completely out of exist- ence, and the local physicians were so discouraged about it that there was no determined effort made at reorganization until 1868. Dr. John Lowman was the first president, and was fol- lowed by Drs. C. Sheridan, Walters, Swan, and W. B. Lowman. After a somewhat uneventful career, during which time there were frequent strenuous attempts made to keep up interest, it became evident that the organization must go down. It was one of the rules of the Society that meetings were to be held monthly at the offices of the members, and to this fact, more than to any other, is attributed the want of success of the organization. There now came another long period of inaction, for it was not until the spring of 1882 that another reorganization was effected. The initial meeting was held in the Hulbert House parlors, Dr. W. W. Walters presiding, and Dr. John Lowman was elected president for the first year.
Unlike its predecessors, the Society grew in interest, a reg- ular place of meeting was agreed upon, new members were con- stantly being added, and an enduring organization was the re- sult. Meetings were held in a pleasant room in the Alma Hall until the time of the Great Flood, when all effects and records were lost. Without losing a meeting, however, the Society came together regularly, first in one place, then in another, until in January, 1891, a permanent place of meeting with comfortable and well furnished apartments was secured.
After the flood the Society was publicly recognized as a per- manent institution ; indeed, so much confidence was replaced in it as to warrant the turning over to the Society all property and supplies of a field hospital sent here and maintained for months by the Philadelphia Branch of the Red Cross Society, of which Prof. Pancoast was then president, and the staff of the hospital was made up thereafter of members of the Medical Society of Cambria county exclusively. The necessity for incorporating the Society becoming evident, application for articles of incor- poration was made and the charter was granted in March, 1892. Prior to this a donation to the Society of valuable books and pic- tures was made by Dr. J. M. Toner, of Washington, D. C., which necessitated the formation of a library association to be under the control of our Society and to be known as the "Toner Li-
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
brary Association." Dr. Toner died at Cresson, July 30, 1896, at the age of 71 years.
A short history of the Society can scarcely be said to be given complete without some detailed reference to those gentle- men who as the most prominent physicians in the county have from time to time acted as presidents and to whom its success was largely due.
John Lowman, son of Andrew Lowman. was born in Green- castle, Franklin county. Pennsylvania, on February 13, 1817, died in Johnstown. June 16, 1893. He moved with his father to Brushvalley township, Indiana county, when about fourteen, his mother having died the year before. They walked part of the way over the mountain. The father having remarried. John left home at seventeen, and went to Indiana town, where he engaged as apprentice with a carpenter named Sloan, and finished the trade ; becoming convinced, however, that he was not intended for a mechanic. he determined to give up carpentering, and with the throwing down of these tools he may be said to have taken up the surgeon's knife, for it was not many years ere he was known as one of the best operators upon the human anatomy in the state. He now entered Indiana Academy, where he took the general course; but receiving some money at this time from. his mother's estate, he went into the mercantile business, but soon failed, after which he began the study of medicine with Dr. James M. Stewart. of Indiana. and in 1845 he attended his first course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. and returned to Indiana penniless. The following year-1846- he borrowed $26 of a friend to bring him to Johnstown, where he opened an office, and succeeded from the start, having fallen into the greater part of the practice of Dr. Charles Phythian. The only other physicians here at that time were Dr. Michael Hay and Dr. Vickroy, the latter afterward moving to Wilmore, Pennsylvania. In 1851 he returned to Jefferson Medical Col- lege and graduated in the spring of 1852, returning to Johns- town soon after.
He associated with himself in practice for awhile Dr. C. Sheridan, who had been his first student. Other students whom he instructed were James M. Toner, George Storm, Abner Lin- ton, Thomas Roberts. Lemon Shannon, Levinus Marbourg, Hezekiah Marbourg, Samuel M. Horton, Webster B. Lowman, Joshua M. Cooper, and Gustave A. Zimmerman. He was, as we have seen from the first, interested in Society work, having
51
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
been president of the original Society, and becoming the first president on both occasions of reorganization of the Medical Society of Cambria county, and he was also a member of the American Medical Association. He was a thoroughly public- spirited man, having been the real proposer of the project of the Johnstown Water and Gas Company, of which he was until his death a director. In 1840 he married Miss Margaret Ann Bodine, who died in 1842, and they had one son-Dr. W. B. Lowman. His second wife was Mary Jane Moore-Hever.
Campbell Sheridan was born in Butler, on June 30, 1819, died in Johnstown, October 19, 1904. His father, John Sheridan, was of Irish descent, and his mother, Mary Campbell, of Scotch. At the age of twelve he began clerking in the store of Steele & Smith in Blairsville, remaining in their employ four years. The next two years were spent working for Hugh Dugan, who kept a general supply store in Jefferson, now Wilmore.
In 1839 he, with Cyrus L. Pershing, subsequently Judge Pershing, and George N. Smith, a former political leader in this county, and who is now dead, were appointed clerks in the collector's office in Johnstown-James Potts, afterward Judge Potts, being collector. IIe remained in that position for six years, or until there was a political change in the state govern- ment, and this office being a part of "the spoils," the entire force were requested to step down and out. But, as navigation on the canal was suspended during winter, he and C. L. Persh- ing devoted this time of enforced inactivity to pursuing a col- legiate course in Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. At this institution they "bached" together, and aver that they lived on the fat of the land at a cost of about sixty cents each per week, as provisions of every kind could be obtained for a trifling sum.
His next adventure was on the canal. He and George Nel- son Smith invested in a section boat which made the trip from Pittsburg to Philadelphia and return. Mr. Smith as first "ran" the boat but soon sold out to Sheridan, who was both captain and cook. Financially the venture was not a success, and Sheri- dan sold the boat to other parties, and engaged in teaching school in Johnstown. At the close of his first term he was offered a position in the office of Henry Kratzer, agent for the Union Transportation Company, then owned principally by the Graffs. He remained with Mr. Kratzer for two years, and then entered as a student of medicine under his former Indiana classmate,
516
HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
Dr. John Lowman, in whose office Dr. Toner was also a student. In the spring of 1849 he graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and on his return to Johnstown entered into a partnership with his former preceptor, Dr. Lowman, and was soon one of our most successful practitioners. In 1854, however, he was seized with the "Western fever," and sold his house and grounds, being the place now occupied with the hand- some residences of the late James McMillan and W. Horace Rose, and moved to Illinois, where he spent his substance, not in "riotous living," but in an attempt at farming. Four years spent in this attempt convinced him that as a farmer he was not a success, so he returned to Johnstown and again took up dispensing pills and potions. At the close of the Civil war his practice had grown to such porportions that he invited Dr. S. M. Swan, who had just returned from the army where he had served as surgeon, to assist him. The partnership thus formed lasted for ten years without a single discordant note.
About this time he decided to go West to establish his sons in business, and moved to Earlville, Illinois, in which place he bought a drug store and placed his sons-John C. and Harry K .- in charge while he did some practice in his profession, but not relishing a practice in the West, he sold his drug store to his son John C. and Dr. Vosburg, and returning to Johnstown resumed his profession. Ilis son John C., having in the mean- time relinquished the drug business, studied medicine and grad- uated from the Rush Medical College, Chicago, and coming back to Johnstown, his father took him into partnership, which relation continued until 1892.
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