History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 66

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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Dr. William Gardiner. I have thus far learned nothing beyond the facts set out in the list mentioned. I presume he was the son of Dr. Joseph Gardiner, who, in 1779, was a member of the Supreme Execu- tive Council from Chester County. We do know that Dr. William Gardiner had a son, Dr. Richard Gardi-

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ner, who was born in Darby in 1793, who was a grad- uate of the University of Pennsylvania, and practiced in Darby, afterwards in Newtown, until 1835, when he removed to Philadelphia. In the latter place he studied homœopathy, and graduated, in 1848, from the Homeopathic College. He subsequently acquired a large and lucrative practice in Philadelphia. Dr. Gardiner died in 1877, in his eighty-fifth year.

Dr. Isaac Davis, son of Gen. John Davis, was born in Chester County, July 27, 1787, and in 1806 became a student of medicine under Dr. Joseph Shalcross, of Darby, graduated in 1810, when he began practice in Edgmont, but on the breaking out of the war of 1812 was appointed surgeon of the Sixth United States In- fantry. He died at Fort Jackson, Miss., July 21, 1814.

Dr. Jacob Tobin seems to have practiced in Chester about the beginning of this century, as did Dr. Rich- ard Tidmarsh. Dr. - Brown had a number of pa- tients in the same locality, but I have been unable to learn his first name or the place of his residence. I do not know anything more of Drs. Tobin and Tid- marsh than their names. Dr. George W. Bartram was a practicing physician, residing in Chester, where he kept a drug-store in the house which formerly stood on the site of Brown's Hotel. He was a justice of the peace, chief burgess of the borough for a number of years, and customs officer at the Lazaretto. Previous to 1818, Dr. Edward Woodward was in practice in this county, and resided in Middletown. In 1808 Dr. Nathan Hayes was a practicing physician in Edg- mont.

Dr. Job H. Terrill came to Chester early in this century, and in October, 1809, purchased the house on Market Street where Maurice Beaver lately had his tin-store, the grounds extending to Fourth Street. The doctor was a man of fine conversational powers, possessing a ready vocabulary, and was rapid in his utterances. He was a noted lover of horses, and always kept one of the best, if not the best, in Ches- ter. He would have his negro man, Ike, train his horses on Welsh Street, and would stand and watch them speeding along from Edgmont road to the Porter house and back. He always rode in a sulky, and in getting in one day his horse started, threw him against the vehicle, and injured his thigh so severely that it brought on a disease which ultimately proved fatal. He died Jan. 20, 1844, aged fifty-nine years.

Dr. Samuel Anderson was not a native of this county, but his career therein was one of much honor and public usefulness. In early life he entered the United States navy as assistant surgeon, but after holding the commission a few years he resigned the service and located in Chester, when he began the practice of his profession, securing in a short time a prominent position. During the war of 1812 he raised a company of volunteers,-the Mifflin Guards, -became its captain, and served with his command in the fall of 1814 at Camp Du Pont for three months.

In 1815-18 he represented Delaware County in the Legislature, and was elected sheriff in 1819. In 1823 he was again appointed assistant surgeon in the United States navy, and assigned to the West India station, then commanded by Commodore Porter, but he was compelled to resign therefrom on account of his health. Returning to Delaware County, he was elected, 1823, 1824, and 1825, to the Legislature, and the following year represented the district composing Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster Counties in Con- gress. In 1829-33 he was a member of the Legisla- ture, and the last year the Speaker of the House. In 1834-35 he was again the representative from this county, and made the report of the joint committee of the two houses relative to the alleged abuses in the Eastern Penitentiary, at that time one of the most important questions before the people of the State. Dr. Anderson then resided in Providence, on the farm now owned by Samuel Lewis. He subsequently re- moved to Rockdale, where he practiced his profession until 1841, when he was appointed inspector of cus- toms at the Lazaretto. In 1846 he was elected justice of the peace in Chester, an office he held at the time of his death, Jan. 17, 1850, in his seventy-seventh year. Dr. Anderson was a tall, slender, conspicuous personage, of fine mind, an agreeable speaker, and a ready, fluent debater. For many years he was presi- dent of the Delaware County Bible Society. He mar- ried Sarah Moore (she was then a widow), daughter of Jacob Richards, and her sister, Susan, was the wife of Dr. Caleb S. Sayers, of Marcus Hook. Mrs. An- derson survived the doctor nearly twenty-one years, dying Nov. 4, 1870, in the ninety-fifth year of her age.

Among the physicians who practiced in Delaware County from 1800 to 1850 (at which latter date the Delaware County Medical Society was organized, and a list of the doctors then practicing was made and has ever since been regularly kept) I find notice of the following :

Ellis C. Harlan was in practice and resided at Sneath's Corner, Chester township, early in this cen- tury. He, with Dr. William Gray and several other physicians, on Friday night, Dec. 17, 1824, made an autopsy of Wellington's body (he had been hung about noon of that day) in the old pole well-house, as it was then known, which, modernized, still stands on the north side of Third Street, below Franklin Street, Chester. Dr. Jesse Young succeeded Dr. Harlan about 1825, and continued at Sneath's Corner until his death, Aug. 29, 1852. Dr. Young, however, a short time previous to his decease, had associated with him Dr. James Serrell Hill, at any rate, the office of the latter being at Dr. Young's residence. Dr. David Rose succeeded Dr. Young at Sneath's Corner, and still resides there practicing his profession.

Dr. Benjamin Rush Erwin practiced in Upper Providence until the fall of 1829, when he removed to Philadelphia, and Dr. Joseph Leedom succeeded

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him, to be in turn succeeded, in 1843, by Dr. James Boyd, of Montgomery County, whose residence and office was at the Rose Tree Tavern. Dr. James Wil- son was in practice in Nether Providence many years before 1840, while in 1838, Dr. William L. Cowan, a Thomsonian physician, had his office near Friends' meeting-house, in that township.

Dr. Gideon Humphreys was a practicing physician in Aston in 1820. Of the latter it is related that, on one occasion when he desired to prepare a skeleton from the corpse of a colored man drowned in Chester Creek, he borrowed a very large iron kettle from a neighbor. In the night, while he was at work in the spring-house, a hnge fire under the pot, some one passing near saw the light, went to the spring-house, and reported next day that the " Doctor had boiled a darkey's head in the pot." This coming to the ears of the owner of the article, she, when it was sent home, returned it, saying, "Tell the doctor to keep that pot to boil another nigger in. I won't have the nasty thing in my house." Dr. George R. Morton was located at Village Green in 1827. He seems to have removed from Marlborough, Montgomery Co., for on July 10, 1826, he contributed to the American Medical Review an interesting account of a horned woman residing in that locality.1 Dr. - Bying- ton was in practice in Aston about 1833. Dr. Sam- nel A. Barton was there previous to 1840, and Dr. Richard Gregg, then residing at Wrangletown, had a number of patients in that locality. He subsequently removed to Lima, where he died in July, 1872. Dr. Joseph Wilson was a practicing physician in Spring- field in 1812, and was captain of the Delaware Connty troop of horse and prominent in the political move- ments of the day. In 1837, Dr. James Jenkins was located in Radnor, as was also Dr. Joseph Blackfan, and the same year Dr. J. F. Huddleson was in Thorn- bury. In 1833, Dr. M. C. Shallcross resided in Darby, and was in full practice; about 1840 he removed to Philadelphia, locating near Haddington, where he associated himself with Dr. J. P. Stakes, and for some time continued from that place to practice in Dela- ware County. Dr. Shallcross died in Philadelphia, Nov. 30, 1871, aged eighty-one years. About 1823, Dr. Joshua W. Ash began practice in Upper Darby, where he continned until his death, in March, 1874, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He was a member of Friends' meeting, warmly interested in the Delaware County Institute of Science, and prom- inently connected with the Training-School for Feeble- Minded Children. The first map of Delaware County, drawn from actual surveys, was published in 1848 by the doctor. In 1833, Dr. Caleb Ash was in Darby, his office located opposite Friends' meeting-house. Prior to 1848, Dr. George Thomas was in full practice at the same place, but in 1845 he seemed to have lo- cated in Newtown or Edgmont, and about 1833, Dr.

William Gray Knowles was in Darby; he subse- quently removed to Baltimore, and is now a resident of Upland. In 1852, Dr. P. J. Hoopes was a physi- cian in that village, and in the same year Dr. James Aitkins was in practice in Edgmont, as in 1842 was Dr. H. Bent, a botanic Thomsonian physician. In 1840, Dr. Phineas Price was located in Bethel, and was conspicnous in a noted controversy he had with - Levis Pyle. At August court, 1849, Dr. Price was indicted and convicted of an assault on Pyle. The parties had met in the Methodist Church to adjust some church business, a dispute arose between them respecting characters, when Dr. Price forcibly ejected Pyle; hence the prosecution. In 1844, Dr. Price had been tried by the church, if my informant is correct in his statement, because of some religious opinions which were regarded as unsound. Andrew Hance and the doctor subsequently got into a newspaper contro- versy, and finally each of them published pamphlets. For some statement made in that issued by Dr. Price he was sued for libel ; whether criminal or civil pro- ceedings were instituted I do not know. In 1844, Dr. J. H. Marsh practiced in Concord, as did Dr. George Martin in 1852.

Dr. William Gray, a member of the well-known family of Gray, of Gray's Ferry, was for many years one of the most noted men of the county. He was born in 1795, and in early life he had gone to his uncle, Thomas Steel, a miller in Darby, to learn that business, but finding the occupation uncongenial, he abandoned it, and studied medicine under his rela- tion, Dr. Warfield, of Maryland. After he graduated he settled in Chester, where for many years he had a large and lucrative practice. He died May 12, 1864.

Dr. John M. Allen, in 1844, practiced in Chester, his office then being in Charles W. Raborg's drug- store, where Charles A. Story, Sr., now has his cigar- store. In the spring of 1845, Dr. Allen leased Dr. Terrill's house and altered the front part of the building into a drug-store, where he soon secured a large and profitable business. In 1851, Dr. Allen purchased the property where Mortimer H. Bickley's large building now stands, and continued there until the breaking out of the war, in 1861, when he was appointed surgeon of the Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and subsequently medical director of the Department of West Virginia, and surgeon-in-chief of staff, in which position he served until late in the year of 1864, when his health broke down, and he was honorably discharged from the service after having been iu the hospital several months. He is now alderman of the Middle Ward, an office he fills most creditably.

During the forties, and until abont 1855, Dr. James Porter practiced in Chester, residing at that time in the old Porter house. Dr. R. K. Smith, a physician at Chichester Cross-roads, in 1841 sold his practice to Dr. Manley Emanuel, who succeeded him there, although Dr. Smith still continued to practice in

1 Hazard's Register, vol. ii. p. 11.

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Delaware County. Dr. Emanuel, subsequently to 1870, removed to Philadelphia, where he died July 18, 1880, aged eighty-three years. His son, Dr. Lewis M. Emanuel, who was born in London, and was a lad of seven years when his father settled in Upper Chi- chester, after he graduated began practicing at Lin- wood, but during the war of the Rebellion he became an assistant surgeon in the field. The exposure con- sequent thereon induced consumption, which termi- nated in his death in 1868.

Dr. Jesse Kersey Bonsall was by birth a Delaware countiau, studied medicine and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, and for a time located in Schuylkill County, but an opportunity offering, he went to Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, where he practiced successfully for several years. In 1842 he returned to Delaware County, having ac- cumulated while abroad what at that time was re- garded as an ample fortune. Here he pursued his professional calling, residing in Chester until his death, Nov. 7, 1858, aged sixty-one years.

Professor Charles D. Meigs, M.D., who, however, never practiced in our county, was for many years at the head of the Jefferson Medical College, in Phila- delphia ; at one time connected with the Obstetrical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and whose work on the diseases of women gave him a world-wide reputation in the profession, died suddenly, at his residence in Aston, June 23, 1869. He was in his seventy-eighth year at the time of his death. On the morning of Nov. 21, 1872, Dr. Tracey E. Waller, a practicing physician at Marcus Hook, where he had been located for several years, was found dead in his bed. He had retired the night before apparently in good health. Dr. Chittick Verner-said to be a de- scendant of Lord John Lammey, a Huguenot, who, with his brother James, fled from France to escape persecution and became a British subject-died in Chester, April 4, 1877. Dr. Verner was educated for the ministry, but abandoned it when the court at Castle Derg, Ireland, appointed him syndic for the town of Ardistraw, a position he held for several years. In 1847 he emigrated to America, and became surgeon-steward at the Naval Asylum, Philadelphia. While there he studied medicine, graduating at Jef- ferson College, and during the Rebellion he was in service in the field as a surgeon. At the close of the war he practiced medicine in Philadelphia, but the death of his brother, to whom he was devotedly at- tached, so preyed on him as to unsettle his mind. From that time to his death he was insane. He never practiced in this county.

On Feb. 10, 1880, Dr. Joshua Owens died of pa- ralysis in Chester, aged sixty-five years. Dr. Owens was a native of Elizabethport, N. J., and a graduate of Jefferson College, Philadelphia. He first located at Elkton, Md., but a few years subsequently removed to Chester. During the war of the Rebellion he was senior surgeon of Pennsylvania, and was the first vol-

unteer physician to reach Washington after the attack on Fort Sumter. He was one of the first medical directors of divisions, and was assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac. In 1863 he was commis- sioned surgeon-general of New Mexico, a position he resigned in 1865. Dr. Owens and his two sons made a tour of Europe on foot, and the graphic descriptions of his travel and noted places he saw, which appeared in the Delaware County Republican, were highly in- teresting. The doctor was a strong and vigorous writer.

Dr. Mordecai Laurence, a venerable physician, died in Haverford, Feb. 21, 1880, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

Dr. George Smith was born in Haverford, Feb. 4, 1804. He graduated at the University of Pennsyl- vania, April 7, 1820, and practiced in Darby and its vicinity for five years, when, coming into possession of a large estate, he retired from the active duties of the profession, superintending his farm, aud devoting his leisure moments to literary aud scientific studies. From 1832 to 1836 he was State senator, the district then comprising Delaware and Chester Counties, and while a member of that body, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, he drafted the bill in reference to public schools, which, warmly sup- ported by Thaddeus Stevens and George Wolf, passed substantially as reported by Dr. Smith, and thus the first practical enactment respecting free pub- lic education in the State was secured. On Dec. 8, 1836, Governor Ritner appointed Dr. Smith an asso- ciate judge of Delaware County, and in 1840 he was elected to the same position for a second term. So earnest was Dr. Smith in his advocacy of popular education that, at considerable personal inconveni- ence, he consented to act as superintendent of the common schools in the county for several years, as well as president of the school board for Upper Darby district. In September, 1833, he, with four other public-spirited men, founded the Delaware County Institute of Science, and was president of the organ- ization for nearly half a century. In 1844, Dr. Smith, John P. Crozer, and Minshall Painter were appointed by the Delaware County Institute a committee to pre- pare an account of the extraordinary rain-storm and flood of August 5th of that year in this county, and the greater part of the preparation of that work, an octavo pamphlet of fifty-two pages, printed in solid small pica type, was done by Dr. Smith. In 1862 he published his " History of Delaware County," a volume which will stand as an enduring monument to the learning, accuracy, and thoroughness of its author, and, so long as American history continues to be a theme of investigation and study, will be quoted and referred to as authority. On the morning of Feb. 24, 1884, full of years and honor, Dr. George Smith passed into eternity, leaving the world the better in that he had lived.

Dr. Isaac Taylor Coates, a native of Chester County,

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was born March 17, 1834. Determining to study medi- cine, his means being limited, he taught school in Del- aware County to obtain the required sum necessary not only for his own support, but to complete his pro- fessional education. In 1858 he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and within a short time sailed for England as surgeon of the packet-ship "Great Western." He shared, in common with his cousin, Bayard Taylor, a desire to visit foreign lands, and for several voyages he remained attached to the ship, and, while in port at Liverpool, he made short journeys to various points in Europe. He subse- quently settled in Louisiana, but on the breaking out of the Rebellion came north, tendered his services to the government, and was appointed surgeon on the steamship "Bienville," on the South Atlantic Block- ading Squadron. In 1864 he was transferred to the frigate "St. Lawrence," and later to the gunboat "Peosta." In 1867 he was surgeon of the Seventh United States Cavalry, under Custer, and made the arduous tour of the Southwest, returning home via Arizona and California. In 1872 he visited Peru, and was appointed medical director of the Chimbote and Huazaz Railroad, that wonderful tramway through the clouds, then being made over the moun- tains by Henry Meigs. While at Arequipa, in 1873, Dr. Coates made the first ascent of the Mistic volcano, eighteen thousand five hundred and thirty- eight feet high, and in doing so he was compelled to abandon his guide, who was completely exhausted in the attempt. In 1876 he returned to the United States by crossing the Andes to the navigable head-waters of the Amazon, and descending that river to Para, whence he sailed for home. In 1878, after practicing in Chester during the interval, Dr. Coates returned to Brazil as surgeon of the Collins expedition, which was designed to construct a railroad around the rapids of the Madeira River.

The sad fate of that expedition is fresh in the rec- ollections of our people, for among those who went were many persons from Delaware County, some of whom fell victims of the cruel hardships they were compelled to undergo in a strange land, while others never again regained their shattered health,-Dr. Coates was among the latter. Hence he spent several years in traveling in Colorado, California, and New Mexico, and while returning to Delaware County to place his son, who accompanied him, at Swarthmore College, he was taken ill, and died at Socorro, N. M., June 23, 1883. Dr. Coates was an accomplished writer and eloquent speaker. In 1876 he delivered the Centennial oration in Chester; on Oct. 22, 1882, he was the orator at the Penn Bi-Centennial at Los Angeles, Cal. In 1877 he delivered an admirable lecture at Chester, entitled " Land of the Incas," and on the " Archæology of Peru" before the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Dr. Coates was a member of the American Geographical Society, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Academy of | penny for that short ride. From Darby he walked to

Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and other scientific and learned bodies.

Dr. Alfred M. Owens, son of Dr. Joshua Owens, a surgeon in the United States navy, a native of Dela- ware County, died at Pensacola (Florida ) Navy-Yard, Ang. 22, 1883, of yellow fever, then an epidemic at that station. His wife, who was with her husband, died on the 27th of the same month with the like disease.

Dr. Jonathan Larkin Forwood was born in West Chester, Chester Co., Pa., Oct. 17, 1834. His father, Robert Forwood, a native of Delaware, was a farmer, and was the descendant of a prominent English fam- ily, the first of the name in this county having settled in that State abont 1700, from whom the Forwoods of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Alabama trace de- scent. His mother, Rachel Forwood, was a daughter of William and Sarah Larkin, a descendant of John Larkin, who settled in Maryland, becoming the pur- chaser of a large tract of land in Cecil County, Md., in 1682, before the coming of Penn, and from whom all the Larkins of Delaware County are descended. Young Forwood was without means; hence his early educa- tion was necessarily restricted to that which could be obtained in the public schools, and in the State of Delaware, where his parents had removed a few years after his birth, common schools were the exception, not the rule, and he was unable to obtain tuition there excepting during three months in the winter, and that for only three years prior to attaining his fifteenth year. Having determined to secure an edu- cation, his devotion to books, his studious and strictly moral habits, his self-reliance and determination, all combined to aid him in that endeavor. Working during the day at whatever he could get to do to earn a livelihood, and pursuing his studies in the evening and far into the night at a cost of youthful pleasures, at the early age of eighteen he had qualified himself to pass an examination as a teacher.

In his nineteenth year a newspaper by the merest chance fell in his way. In it he saw an adver- tisement for teachers in a school in Montgomery County of this State. Without informing any one of his intention, he left home, went to Eagleville, was examined, and accepted by the directors. This was announced to young Forwood after dark on a Sep- tember day in 1851. He must return home until the beginning of the session, but how to do this with but twenty-five cents in his pocket was a serions question. Knowing that to confess poverty is to be placed at a disadvantage, he kept the secret to himself, and bravely walked from Eagleville to Philadelphia, a distance of twenty-three miles, during which journey he had nothing to eat, and was compelled to take his boots off and walk in his bare feet, for the rubbing of the leather had covered his feet with blisters. He arrived at daybreak on Sunday in Philadelphia, where he took the stage for Darby, paying his last

11.01 of Fowood

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Chichester, in this county, where his parents then lived. He found his mother filled with anxiety his mysterious absence occasioned, and received a repri- mand for his conduct. He told his mother that on the following day he would leave home forever ; that the world was his theatre, and he was going to act his part creditably. She did not, however, realize this until she saw the young man gathering together his cloth- ing, when she presented him with enough money to carry him to Eagleville, where he began his inde- pendent career, and continued to teach until the fol- lowing spring at a salary of twenty-five dollars a month. At this time young Forwood took the money which he had been enabled to save out of his salary and entered himself as a student at Freeland College until the spring of 1852, when he gave all the money he had saved and taught a class in geometry as part payment for his tuition. He left there at the end of that session, in 1854, and applied for a school in Springfield, Delaware Co., and was accepted.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 66

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150