History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 171

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 171

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Patrick Baird, register.

April -, 1735

William Peters ...

Oct.

20, 1744

Philip How, in office.

-, 1771

John Smith, his deputy

-, 1771

Richard Peters, in office

-, 1771

Andrew Robeson6

July 15, 1776

James Read, appointed

.June

5, 1781

CLERKS OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT.

Samuel Caldwell, appointed. .. Oct.

6, 1789

David Caldwell, appointed.

Nov. 27,1798

Francie Hopkinson, appointed

.Oct. 7, 1831

Thomas Leiper Kane, appointed ...

March 9, 1847

Charles Ferris Heazlitt, appointed. Jan. 1,1858

John M. Jones, appointed. July

16, 1858

Gilbert Robert Fox, appointed. Dec.

29,1860

Charles Shippen Lincoln, appointed. April 19,1875

MARSHALS OF THE ADMIRALTY.

Robert Webb, in office -, 1697

Richard Brockden, in office.

April

-, 1735

Judah Foulke,7 in office

-, 1770

Arodi Thayer, in office .. -, 1771

Matthew Clarkson, appointed .. April 10, 1776

Clement Biddle,8 appointed. Nov. 10, 1780

David Lenox, appointed. Sept. 26, 1793

1776, in the State-House, to the appeal from the decision of Judge Roce. -See " Admiralty Docket," " Record in Prize," 1776, in which the com- mittee are denominated commissioners.

1 There is a volume of reports of his decisions included in his works.

2 Appointed by the President, but not confirmed by the Seuste.

" In the place of llorace Binney, who declined Jan. 31, 1842.

4 Died Jan. 26, 1879, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

6 James Logan saye of Lloyd, in a letter to Penn, 2d Eighth mo., 1702 (1 " Logan Papers," 139), " He is now made J. Moore's Deputy Judge of the Admiralty, Advocate at the said Court, and is now at New Castle upon a trial in it, notwithstanding his opposition to it before thy arrival occasioned so much trouble." This means that John Moore, who was the deputy judge, sa we well know, mado David Lloyd the advocate for the crown in his court.

" Died May 29, 1781, aged twenty-nine years.

7 Died Jan. 14, 1776, aged sixty-three.

8 Appointed United States marshal of the Pennsylvania District Sept. 30, 1789. This official ie Dow styled the United States marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

William Nichola, appointed ...

.. May 18, 1795

John Hall,º appointed.

. Dec. 6, 1800

John Smith, appointed. March 28, 1-01

Samuel D. Ingham, rice Smith, appointed .. . Jan. 26, 1819

John Conrad, appointed ....

Feb 16, 1×19

George R. Porter, appointed. .Feb.

22, 1831

Abiah Sharp, appointed.

.Seut

5,1831

Benjamin Say Bonsall, 10 appointed.

Feb.

2, 1832

Samuel D. Patterson, appointed.

Sept.

25,1837

Isaac Otis, appointed ...

April 26, 1:41

George M Keim, appointed ..

July

7, 1843

Anthony E. Roberts, appointed.

May

9,1849

Francis M. Wynkoop, appointed.

March 9, 1853

Jacob S. Yost, appointed. March 31, 1857

William Millward, appointed.

April 26, 1861

Peter C. Ellowker, appointed.

July

G, 1865

Geu. John Ely,11 appointed

.April 27, 1809

Edgar M. Gregory,12 appointed May 11, 1869

James N. Kerns, appointed.

Nov. 14, 1871

UNITED STATES DISTRICT ATTORNEYS FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA.

William Lewis, commissioned. Oct. 6, 1789

William Rawle, commissioned. July

18, 1791

Jared Ingersoll, commissioned. May

7, 1800

Alexander James Dallas, commissioned. March 10, 1801

Charles Jared Ingersoll, conunisstoned .... Feb.

28, 1815

George Mifftio Dallas, commissioned ... April

7,1×29

Henry Dilworth Gilpin, commissioned .. Dec.

30, 1831

John Meredith Reed, cooimmissioned. June 23. 1×37

William Morris Meredith, commissioned ..

3larch 25, 1×41

Henry Miller Watts, commissioned.

May

13, 1842

Thomas Mckean Pettit, commissioned.

May

5, 1845

John Wayne Aabmead, commissioned.

May 12, 1849

James C. Van Dyke, commissioned

March 12, 1854

George Mifflin Wharton, commissioned.

April 17, 1860

George Alexander Coffey, commissioned. .July 22, 18GI

Charles Gilpin, commissioned. March 19, 1864

John P. O'Neil, commissioned April 20, 1868

Aubrey Henry Smith, commissioned. April 5, 1869

William McMichael, commissioned. March 17, 1x73

John King Valentine,18 commissioned Nov. 6, 1875

JUDGES OF THE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA.

THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT. See Act of Congress, Sept. 24, 1879, and Brightly's " Digest of United States Statutes,"

James Wilson, assigned ... .April 12, 1790

John Rleir, Assigned. .April 11, 1792

William Cushing, 14 essigned ... .Oct.

11, 1792

William Paterson, assigned March 11, 1793

James Iredell,14 assigned

April 11, 1793

Samuel Chase,14 assigned

Aplil 11, 1798

Bushrod Washington,15 commissioned Dec. 20,1798

Jared Ingersoll,16 chief judge ...

Feb.

18, 1801

Richard Bassett, commissioned

Feb.

20,1801

William Griffith, appointed.

Feb. 18, 1801

William Tilghman, chief judge

March 3, 1801

Henry Baldwin, assigned. .Jan.

6, 1830

Robert Couper Grier, assigned. Ang.

4, 1846

William McKennan, commissioned Jan.

4,1870

" Died Sept. 10, 1826, aged eighty-seven.

10 Died Ang. 27, 1837.

11 Died May 4, 1869.

1º Died Nov, 7, 1871.

13 Mr. Valentine was assistant district attorney from May, 1864, to the day of his appointment. Henry Hazlehurst and Hood Gilpin were ap- pointed assistants by Mr. Valentine in 1876, Henry P. Brown in 1876, and James S. Nickerson in 1882.

14 These judges held the Circuit Court at the date specified, Cushing at York, Pa., Iredell and Chase at Philadelphia. As they were justices of other circuits, they were probably detailed for the occasion by the Sn- preme Court. Until the appointment of Judge MeKennan, the only judges of the Circuit Courts were the associate justices of the United Staten Supreme Court, with the exception of the " Midnight Judges." The act of April 16, 1869, gives each circuit a judge. The bench of the Circuit Court consists of an associate justice of the Supreme Court, the cir- cuit judge, and the judge of the United States District t'ourt for the dis- trict in which the court is held. Any two of said judgessittlog together constitute & full bench.

16 Judge Washington died Nov. 26, 1829, aged seventy. Judge Grier diød Sept. 26, 1870.

10 Jared Ingersoll was appointed chief Judge Feb. 14, 1801, but de- clined, and Mr. Tilghman was appointed, nominated. and confirmed by the Senate un March 3, 1801. Thesu Judges were facetiously called ! "The Midnight Judges."

1578

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

William Strong, comonssioned .. Feb. 18, 1870

Joseph P. Bradley,1 assigned ..... .. Jag. 10, 1881

CLERKS OF THE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT, THIRD CIRCUIT, PHILADELPHIA.

Samuel Caldwell, died Nov. 26, 1798. .April 12, 1790

David Caldwell, appointed ..

May

11, 1801

Francis Hopkinson, appointed ..

Oct. 11,1831

George I'litt, appointed ..

Nov. 17,1846

Benjamin Patton, appointed

Jan. 30, 1858

Samuel Bell, appointed

April 12, 1870

CHAPTER XL.

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

First Practitioners-Epidemics-Eminent Physicians and Surgeons- Medical and Dental Colleges and Societies-Hospitals and Dispensaries.

IF the city of Philadelphia was at an early period in possession of the ablest bar in the United States, the same may be said in regard to its physicians. It is a fact, not generally known, that this city takes precedence over all other cities in the United States in medical education. Here the first systematic and regular course of lectures in medical instruction in this country was given, which resulted in the founda- tion of the present University of Pennsylvania. It is not strange, therefore, that a city which first began medical instruction in this country, being so favorably located, should have gained pre-eminence over all rivals in this particular field, and seenred to her medical schools a world-wide fame.

As heretofore stated, the first settlers on the banks of the Delaware were the Swedes. We are not informed from what diseases they suffered during the period of their supremacy, and how they were mitigated by the hands of those skilled in the knowledge of the causes of human maladies, and the means of their relief. Noah Webster, in his history of epidemics and pes- tilential diseases, alludes to the fearful severity of the winter of 1641, and the great sickness that pre- vailed among the Swedes in the following summer. In 1647 the same colony was similarly visited by an epidemic that prevailed throughout all the colonies. From the remarks of this writer we must conclude that there were few, if any, whose skill was sufficient for the exigencies of that visitation. He says, "such as were bled or used cooling drinks died ; such as used cordials or more strengthening things, recovered for the most part." Eight years afterward another fearful epidemic came on. Yet further on, the same his- torian tells of another whose advent had been pre- saged by signs and wonders in the heavens. " In the year 1668 appeared a coniet with a stupendous coma : this was attended by an excessively hot summer, and malignant diseases in America."

The foregoing is about the extent of our knowledge of diseases and their treatment in this country prior to the arrival of William Penn. This absence of information may be regarded as evidence that these colonists, barring accidents from epidemics, were in the main a vigorous and healthy community. With the coming of a ruler like William Penn all the exigencies of a society destined to rapid development must be foreseen, and to some degree provided for. We have seen how he brought along Bradford and his printing-press, destined to become so notable in the history of the young commonwealth. All pro- fessions had their representatives among those re- lated to him by blood or religious faith. Among those who joined their fortunes with him in this movement (perilous for those times) were Thomas Wynne and Griffith Owen, whom, for want of earlier historic accounts, we must regard as the pioneers of the medical profession in Pennsylvania. Both were Quakers, and, according to tradition, had been well educated in medicine, and been engaged in practice in the mother-country. Wynne was said to have followed his profession in the city of London. The proprietor, it seems, had other uses for his learned friend than the cure of the bodily infirmities of his people; or such infirmities were not sufficiently nu- merous and serious to engross all his time. We find that he was returned to the first Assembly that was elected for the province, and became its first Speaker.

It is much to be regretted that these men did not leave some memorial of the career they led in the beginning of the scientific treatment of what few maladies befell the early colonists. What poetry is to prose, in new societies, surgery is to medicine. It goes before. They were mainly accidents by flood and field, great and small, from dangerous wounds to toothaches, that claimed the attention of these men of science, except, indeed, when an epidemic came along, and prostrated the multitudes with fevers and influenzas or other pestilences. Cases were not suffi- ciently numerous to keep even these two constantly employed. Dr. Wynne continued to take an active part in politics, while his brother of the lancet and the scalpel is said to have traveled much among the neighboring provinces. This habit grew upon him with years, until later he gave his practice over en- tirely to his son, and took his chief delight in going the rounds of meetings with the Quaker ministers, several of whom kept journals, in which Dr. Owen is frequently alluded to in terms of fond regard.2

2 Dr. Owen, we suspect, was as much a preacher as physician. This combination of the two professions, theology and medicine, is not nn- common, especially in newly-organized communities. The cure of souls among euch as claim to have this as a gift from heaven, nearly always carries'along as a handmaid the cure of bodies, and many a penny has been turned in this line of practice that wae at least as hoDest as those gathered from the other. Among the indncements of simple folk to emi- grate to other climes, those founded upon religion are frequently among the most potent. Dr. Thatcher speaks with feeling upon this motive that Impelled so many Quakers to leave their native country. "They

: Mr. Justice Bradley is one of the associoto justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, assigned to the Third Circnit, as the circuit justice, which he must visit at least once in every two years.

1579

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

Allusions are found here and there in old annals to the "Barbadoes distemper," so named, doubtless, from having been imported from that island. This was in 1697, beginning in August and lasting until near the last of October, when it suddenly subsided. It had been an intensely hot summer, during which several persons had died from sun-stroke. Vomiting and the discharge of blood were the most marked symptoms. Dr. Wynne had died some time before this epidemic. His practice devolved upon his son- in-law, Dr. Edward Jones. A son of Dr. Owen about this time became of age, and these two young phy- sicians supported the burden of encountering this dis- temper. It is evident from the foregoing that the settlement must have been a remarkably healthy one for several years, in spite of its rapid growth and the necessarily abundant felling of timber. Deaths that occurred, except from epidemic causes peculiar to no locality, were very infrequent. Allusions are fre- quently made to this fact by English travelers who, upon their return to England, published accounts of the country.

At the settlement of Philadelphia there were living those with whom the search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life was yet dear, sometimes avow- edly so. One of these, whose descendants yet live in the State, some of them deriving profit yet from one of his nostrums, was very prominent in his day. There were many who fully credited his claim to have the secret of producing gold, and the doubting were confidently answered by those who had seen with their own eyes the precious metal in his hands. Among many of the uneducated in Pennsylvania to this day is often used the medicine "golden drops," of which the traditions of cures, some approximating the miraculous, are many and multifold.

were restive and unhappy under the restrictions and even persecutions which emanated from the bigotry of the Church of England." The Puritan clergy of England were, for more than twenty years prior to the emigration of the first settlers, subjected to the sharpest persecution. Hence, as a precautionary measure in case of ejectment, a considerable number of clergymen of that period were educated to the medical pro- fession, and not a few were eminent professionals before they crossed the Atlantic. When these professional men came to form connections in the coloniee, it was found that the small congregations were unable to afford them u comfortable support ; hence the convenience of their resorting to secular avocatione."

The clergy, at least in this country, have not been noted for back- wardness in asserting their claims of recognition for whatever they may have regarded themselves as specially competent. From the pulpit they declaimed upon the sin of inoculation when it was first introduced. They wrote and published freely upon other sul jects connected with the sanitary and moral principles involved in medical practice. Some inter- esting things are told of this mingling of the two professions. A de- scendaot of one of theso theological physicians used to exhibit, not very long ago, what evinced some absence of mind in his ancestor The latter was on one occasion on a Sunday morning in the pulpit engaged in the dispensation of the solemin services of the hour, when he received a communication, stating that a negro girl needed his speedy medical attention. Unfortunately, he had no paper at hand on which to write his prescription. Whereupon he took the hymu-book and wrote on a fly-leaf thie: " Let the wench be blooded, and wait until I come." The case being urgent, we suppose the reverend doctor hastened through his present duties in order to repair to those which, if not more Impor- tant, needed more speedy attention.

Dr. Griffith Owen died about 1717. His son and Dr. Jones, a son-in-law of Dr. Wynne, as far as can now be known, were the only two physicians of any claim to respectability until the coming of Dr. Kears- ley and Dr. Graeme. The latter of those, we may suppose, was at least as fond of other pursuits as of his profession. At all events, he was often absent from the arena of professional labors, whiling away his time in establishing and continually adding adorn- ments to his estate in Montgomery County, destined to become long notable under the name of "Graeme Park."

The Graemes claim descent from William de Gra- ham, who went to Scotland on invitation of David I., in 1128, and whose descendant in the tenth generation was one of the Scotch commissioners to treat with England in 1406 and 1411, from whom came in un- doubted succession the Graemes of Montrose. Dr.

DR. THOMAS GRAEME

Thomas Graeme was born in 1688, at Balgowan, the hereditary estate in Perthshire. He came to Penn- sylvania in 1717, along with and under the auspices of Col. William Keith, who had been appointed De- puty Governor of the Province. He was by profes- sion a physician, and is supposed to have received his education at the University of Leyden. His practice was small in a society where, as we have seen, men who had been regularly educated in medi- cine as well as law were regarded with less favor than those who consulted other dictates than those to be found in books. To compensate this insufficient prog- ress of his protégé, Governor Keith put him at the head of the naval office, much to the disgust of Logan, whose friend Assheton had been removed for this purpose, and went so far as to intimate that Keith, without considering the question of the merits of Assheton or Graeme, had appointed the latter from gratitude to his family for the security which he had enjoyed while hiding at Balgowan after the battle of Sheriff Muir. He was married to Miss Diggs, who was step- daughter to the Governor, and this relation also en- hanced his influence at the seat of power in the province.

The Court of Chancery was established through

1580

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

the influence of Governor Keith in 1720. In 1725 Dr. Graeme was raised to the Council and became a master in chancery. Hostile as the Assembly be- came to the Governor, the latter's subordinates came in for their share of odium and distrust. They com- plained of the exorbitant fees charged by the mas- ter, and even went so far as to accuse him of parti- ality. Notwithstanding these discouraging things, he was appointed in 1731 justice of the Supreme Court. The St. Andrew's Society, intended originally for the assistance of Scotchmen, was founded in 1749, and Dr. Graeme became its first president. He died in 1772.

The name of Dr. John Kearsley was long remem- bered. He was a native of England, and came to this country about 1711. As a member of the Colo- niał Assembly his speeches for the rights of Ameri- cans were so forcible that he was often carried home on the shoulders of the people. He contributed a large sum of money for the building of Christ Church. Associated with his name is the establishment of the first institution founded for the relief of the indigent, -the Hospital for Poor Widows, which was attached to Christ Church. Under his instructions were two young men who were destined to become eminent in . the profession, but the latter in another community, -John Redman and John Bard. He has been rep- resented as of morose disposition, an infirmity which, strangely enough, is often found, as in his case, blended with high public spirit and hearty benevolence. He died about 1732. His practice, like that of Drs. Wynne and Owen, descended to another member of his family, a son of his brother. But this person, if he did not take too active a part in politics, certainly es- poused the unfortunate side. An avowed adherent to the foreign cause, first proprietary and then royal, his conduct rendered him obnoxious to the Whigs to that degree that he was subjected to so gross indigni- ties as to induce permanent insanity.

For a while dividing the practice with Dr. Kears- ley, and then surviving him about twenty-five years, was Dr. Lloyd Zachary. He had come when a young infant with his father from England to the city of Bos- ton. A brother of the elder Zachary was a resident of Philadelphia. To this brother the child was con- signed by his father on his death-bed, and Philadel- phia became his home for the rest of his life. Dr. Zachary was one of the most gifted men that ever lived in Philadelphia. After receiving his academic education he was placed under Dr. Kearsley for pro- fessional training. With him he remained until he had acquired all that his preceptor could singly im- part. Then he went abroad and spent three years in further study. He began the practice of medicine about 1723. He was eminently successful, and ac- quired much money, of which he liberally contrib- uted to charitable purposes. He rendered incal- culable services to the hospital which was founded in his time, and of which he was made first physi-

cian. In the community there probably was not one who was more respected and beloved. His active career was unhappily shortened by an attack of paral- ysis when in the meridian of his success. Yet his devotion to the hospital was never subdued, and when he died, his will was found to contain a liberal bequest in money and books to that institution.

Two of the Bonds-Thomas and Phineas-brothers, natives of the State of Maryland, became quite distin- guished. Thomas, the elder, removed to Philadelphia about the year 1734. Franklin had then been a resi- dent about ten years, and was already fairly entered upon the great career he was to enact. Dr. Bond soon became intimate with the latter, and they, along with Bartram, Godfrey, and others, gave to public en- deavors their most determined and successful direc- tion. With Dr. Zachary, he was teacher of the medical students of the city, and was the first to deliver clinical lectures at the hospital, of which he was one of the most active of the founders. The younger brother, Phineas, after receiving his aca- demic education, took professional courses in Lon- don, Paris, Leyden, and Edinburgh, after which he returned and settled in Philadelphia, where he soon rose to distinction, and, besides being connected with his brother and Dr. Zachary in the hospital, was one of the founders of the College of Philadelphia. The elder Bond was an occasional contributor to foreign journals, notably the London Medical Observations and Inquiries. One of his papers was an account of an im- mense worm bred in the liver, and another on the use of Peruvian bark in scrofulous cases.

Contemporary with the aforementioned, though somewhat younger, were several men of much ability. Among these was Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, the pro- vincial councilor.

He was the son of John Cadwalader, a member of the Provincial Assembly, who emigrated to Penn- sylvania from Pembrokeshire, North Wales, toward the close of the seventeenth century, and on Dec. 29, 1699, married Martha, daughter of Dr. Edward Jones, one of the earliest practitioners of medicine in the province, and granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Wynne, who came over with Penn in the " Welcome." Dr. Cadwalader was born in Philadelphia, and it is be- lieved that after studying at the Friends' public school he began his medical tuition under his uncle, Evan Jones, who was a chemist in this city. He was for some years abroad completing his professional acquirements, and studied anatomy in London a year under the celebrated Chesselden. Returning to Phil- adelphia about 1731, he began that career as a phy- sician, philanthropist, and man of affairs which made him so highly distinguished. He was one of the original corporators of the Philadelphia Library Com- pany, and a director at various periods from 1731 to 1774. In the winter of 1736-37 he was one of the physicians who inoculated for the smallpox, and in 1745 he published his essay on the West India dry

1581

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

gripes, a violent colic that was probably introduced into Philadelphia from the sub-tropical islands. In this little volume Dr. Cadwalader demonstrated that he was ahead of his professional colleagues by advo- cating the employment of mild cathartics in preference to quicksilver and drastic purgatives. The suggestion was so eminently sound that the practice was adopted with success in America and England. It appears that in 1746, Dr. Cadwalader had his home in Trenton, N. J., as when a charter as a borough was granted to it in that year he was chosen first burgess. In the possession of the Young Men's Christian Association are a number of volumes of a public library founded , with great reputation to the time of his death.

by him at Trenton. He returned to Philadelphia in 1750, and his name ap- pears in the following year as a sub- scriber to the capital stock of the Penn- sylvania Hospital at the time of the charter of the institution, of which he was one of the original physicians and surgeons, and served many years. In 1751 he was also elected a member of the Common Council of Philadelphia, and served until 1774. With Chew and Mifflin he was called to the Provincial Council Nov. 2, 1755, and remained a member up to the time of the Revolu- tion. In 1750 he delivered the first course of medical lectures given in Phila- delphia, and in 1753 he was made a trus- tee of the academic department of the college, now the University of Pennsyl- vania.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 171

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992