History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 37

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 37
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 37
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 37

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).

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bells, traps and all edge-tools. He raised a large family, comprising three sons and seven daugh- ters, and died about 1821, aged nearly eighty years. His oldest son, Charles Harmies, was the father of the subject of this sketchi. He was a large, powerful man, and worked at various occupations, including farming, lumbering and blacksmithing. Although his education was very limited in Neversink, his native town, he was elected and served two consecutive terms as justice of the peace. He was married three

stand what he read. He then became fond of reading, but owing to his inability to obtain books, and to the frequent changes of place to which he was subjected, he had few opportuni- ties to gratify his inclination. At the age of nineteen years he bargained with an unele to live with him a year, to receive eight dollars a month for nine months' labor, and three months' schooling. His uncle was a blacksmith, and kept him busy with the bellows and sledge dur- ing the summer. When the winter term of

Rodney Harmes

times, and raised a family of twelve children. He moved to Illinois when advanced in life, and soon after died there, aged over eighty years.

Rodney Harmes, the oldest son of Charles Harmes, from the time of his mother's death, which occurred when he was between eight and nine years of age, never had a permanent home until he located at Pleasant Mount, Pa. But little reliance could be placed upon the schools where he spent his boyhood days, and he was ten years old before he could read and under-

school commenced he took his books and went to school, as he believed, according to the con- tract, with the intention of studying, in addition to arithmetic and geography, grammar, the teacher being competent to instruct in that art, an acquirement which few possessed in Sullivan County at that time. He returned to his uncle's home in the evening, and found his prospects for schooling blasted. His uncle claimed that he had not agreed to board him and permit him to attend school at that busy time in his shop.

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The nephew, believing it to be the wisest course, continued, and completed his nine months of labor. His uncle then offered to fulfil his part of the contract during the term of the following summer school. His nephew chose to relieve him from that expense, believing, ignorant as he was, that he was more capable of teaching the female teachers of that time than they were of teaching him. He took his wages and went to another shop and worked two months, for which he received twenty-four dollars. In the month of May, 1833, at the age of twenty, with a very limited education and with less than fifty dollars, he went to Ellenville, Ulster County, N. Y., and commenced the study of medicine, Dr. Edwin Eldridge, who, in 1834 and 1835, practiced in Mount Pleasant, being his pre- ceptor.

Dr. Eldridge took a deep interest in the welfare of his student, who soon became useful in his office. He was persuaded by his precep- tor to visit patients in order to speedily obtain, with his reading, some knowledge of pathology. He remained under the tuition of Dr. Eldridge about eight months, and then removed to Lib- erty, Sullivan County, N. Y., and entered the office of Dr. Blake Wales, studying under him eighteen months. During a part of this time, however, he taught school. In the fall of 1835 he went to Castleton, Vermont, and attended lectures at the Vermont Academy of Medicine for three months.

He then returned to Sullivan County and entered the office of Dr. Daniel M. Angell, at Monticello, where he continued his studies until the fall of 1836, and then taught school four months, at twelve dollars a month. At this term of school he endeavored to teach gram- mar, although he had never studied it. He then returned to Monticello for the purpose of reviewing his studies. But his preceptor was taken sick and he was compelled to have him for a patient, besides taking charge of other patients and riding occasionally to visit the sick for the other physician in the village. Finally, on the 25th day of July, 1837, he was examined by the board of censors of the Medical Society of Sullivan County, N. Y., and received his di- ploma of licentiate of medicine.

Soon after he established himself in the prac- tice of his profession at Pleasant Mount, Wayne County, Pa., where he has remained engaged in his professional labors half a century. During most of this time his rides have frequently extended to a distance of from ten to fifteen, and sometimes twenty miles. He usually rode on horseback, both winter and sum- mer. As student and licentiate of medicine, he has practiced his profession fifty-two years, and still, occasionally, visits patients and prescribes in his office. Twice he ran a very narrow risk of having his horse slip and fall on the ice, and then rise up when his left foot was fast in the stirrup. The first time he escaped by climbing up the stirrup strap, his horse remaining quiet. The next time his horse rose up and ran, drag- ging him on the ice, but fortunately his foot loosened before he received any injury.

He has been closely identified with local af- fairs in his township and county, and exerted a wide and favorable influence. Probably no man in the county is more generally known. He has held various offices of trust and respon- sibility, always performing his duties in a prompt and faithful manner. On August 3, 1842, he was elected lieutenant-colonel of militia, and on June 13, 1845, was made colonel of his regiment.

On November 24, 1860, he was appointed and commissioned associate judge of Wayne County, and served one year. He has been twice married : first, to Mary T. Miller, daugh- ter of Jonathan Miller, Esq., to whom he was united September 2, 1838. She died August 20, 1848, leaving a daughter named Catharine, born February 8, 1845, who married Adolf Charles Lempke, November 8, 1865. He died February 2, 1884, leaving two sons, namely,-George, born September 20, 1866, and Rodney, born July 10, 1868.

For his second wife he married Emeline Eaton, widow of Wellington K. Eaton, and daughter of Andrew Lester, one of the pioneers of Mount Pleasant township. Of this marriage were born Rudolf Harmes, M.D., born June 30, 1851, died February 15, 1883; and Her- man Harmes, his only surviving son, born February 9, 1863, a popular teacher and student- at-law.

1 of lin to li- of to a

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Like most of the old practitioners of Wayne County, Dr. Harmes has failed to accumulate much property, but owns and occupies a small farm at Pleasant Mount, where he is passing the remainder of what has been an active, ear- nest, energetic and successful life. Had he possessed broader opportunities, his natural ability would have insured him success in any field of labor. Such men deserve great credit for accomplishing what they do in the face of obstacles which cause many to fall by the way- side.

RUDOLF HARMES, M.D., son of Hon. Rod- ney Harmes, licentiate of medicine, was born at Pleasant Mount, Wayne County, June 30, 1851. From the age of five to eighteen his chief delight was (like that of his grandfather, Andrew Lester) angling, trapping and hunting, being, at the age of ten, a good marksman. His progress in acquiring an education at the district school was rather tardy ; but he admired tales of hazardous adventures and marvelous escapes, and indulged in reading that kind of literature many hours, and occasionally amused himself by looking at anatomical plates and learning the names of bones, muscles and ar- teries, thereby obtaining knowledge which was eventually of much benefit to him, although, at the time, he was of the firm belief that he would never practice medicine.

In the fall of 1869, when the Pleasant Mount Academy went into operation, he com- menced studying at that institution with the de- termination of becoming, at least, an ordinary English scholar. From that time his progress was successful and speedy, and at the end of a few months he was qualified as a teacher, and the following winter taught school for a term of four months, but became dissatisfied with teaching as an occupation.

He next applied himself to dentistry, an art which he soon learned, and which, with read- ing medicine, occupied his time for a few months. For the purpose of obtaining further improvement in knowledge, he again returned to his studies at the academy, and in addition to other branches, studied Latin.

In the fall of 1872, he went to New York, and spent the winter attending lectures at the

Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and the spring following returned to his father's home, with the full determination to become a phy- sician and surgeon.

He spent the summer engaged with his pro- fessional reading and assisting his father in at- tending patients, and the following fall-1873- returned to the Bellevue Hospital Medical College and attended lectures during the winter, at the same time receiving special tuition on diseases of the heart and lungs from Dr. Austin Flint. At the college commencement, the following spring, he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and returned to Pleasant Mount con- scious of being qualified to enter upon the duties of his profession. His father at that time had a large practice, and was desirous that his son should eventually supersede him.

The popularity of the young physician, and the confidence which the people had in his ability, obtained for him immediate patronage, which he retained during one year ; but, believ- ing that he could find a more desirable, or, at least, a more lucrative practice elsewhere, he moved to Becket, Berkshire County, Mass., where, on the 28th day of April, 1875, he was admitted as a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medi- cal Society. At Becket he had, during a few montlis, a liberal patronage and satisfactory compensation ; but in the fall of 1876 the manu- facturing establishments in that part of the State were suspended, laborers were discharged and were leaving the place, and he found his practice too unprofitable to remain there.

He then returned to Pleasant Mount, where he found his father still the chief practitioner and desirous to have him again established in the place of his nativity. He received a warm welcome from his former friends and patrons, and immediately engaged in an extensive and laborious practice, which he retained until the time of his death.

As a surgeon he was confident and compe- tent, and delighted in performing operations which required good eyes and a steady hand. As an accoucheur he was not outrivaled by any practitioner in his county. He was quite a large and strong man, and occasionally, during the season of haying, would go into his father's

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field and use a scythe, where he rarely found his equal. At boxing, an amusement in which he sometimes indulged, strong men declared that they would not like to have him strike them in anger.

On June 19, 1877, he married Kate Atwater, daughter of Edward M. Atwater, by whom he had a son, named Edward, born July 16, 1880, who is still living to cheer the declining years of his grandparents.

gave no alarm, excepting to his father and his family and friends, but, on the 15th day of the month, when all but his father were hopeful, suddenly and apparently without warning, even to himself, he ceased breathing. The day pre- vious to his death he had, as he told his wife, a slight paralytic attack of the heart, which soon passed off. It was his father's opinion that he had sub-acute inflammation of the stom- ach, but that the real cause of his death was

Rudolf Harmes

In consequence of an injury of his head, re- ceived by a fall when he was a boy, he was occasionally a sufferer from severe head- ache, sometimes attended with vomiting, but could not be persuaded to discontinue visiting DR. DWIGHT REED was born in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn., March 8, 1824. He is a descendent in the seventh generation of John Reed, who emigrated to this country from Cornwall, England, at the restoration of the the sick until compelled by sad necessity. But his troubles were known by only a few, for he suffered without complaining. His final sick- ness commenced the fore part of February, 1883. The attack being like previous ones, I Stuarts. He was a junior officer in the army

paralysis of the heart. No other man in the northern part of Wayne County ever passed away so universally beloved, regretted and mourned.

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of Cromwell, the Protector, and is supposed to have left his native shores to secure greater per- sonal freedom, and because of the opposition of an older brother to his proposed marriage. He first located at Providence, R. I., then removed to Rye, New York, and finally settled at Nor- walk, Conn., where he died in 1730, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-seven years, leaving de- scendants. The intervening generations, in the line of descent, down to the subject of this sketch were represented by Thomas, John, Josiah (1st), Josiah (2d) and Charles G. Reed. Of these, Josiah (1st) was the great-grandfather of Dr. Reed, and emigrated from Norwalk to Salisbury, Conn., where he became the progeni- tor of the Salisbury branch of the now numer- ous Reed family. He inherited the warlike instincts of his ancestors and died at Ticonder oga while performing active service in the French and Indian War. His son Josiah, a farmer, tanner and shoemaker by occupation, succeeded him, married and had a large family of chil- dren, of whom Charles G. Reed, born 1797, was the father of Dr. Reed. The latter mar- ricd Semanthe E. Bird, a descendant of Thos. Bird, who resided at Hartford, Conn., in 1644, and daughter of Lieutenant Isaac Bird, a soldier of the Revolution, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in Connecticut. In 1832 he removed to Bethany, Wayne County, Pa., where he fol- lowed farming until his death. He had six children-Dwight Charles Bird (died) ; Egbert Garfield, who resides in Honesdale; William Henry, a graduated physician and druggist at Honesdale ; Loranie Abigail (died); and Ellen Salome, wife of Rev. Melville Smith, a Meth- odist minister in Illinois.

Dr. Dwight Reed came to Wayne County with his parents in 1832, when eight years of age. Soon after he was sent to Salisbury, Conn., where he attended the district school, a more ad- vanced institution in that old settled section than any in the pioneer country in which his father had located in Pennsylvania. He subsequently attended the Beech Woods Academy, in Bethany, where he completed his studies. In 1844 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Adoni- jah Strong, of Honesdale, and later attended lectures in the Medical Department of the Uni-

versity of the City of New York, where he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine in 1848. While in attendance at the uni- versity he was under the private instruction of Dr. William Detmold, an eminent surgeon in New York City.

After receiving his degree, Dr. Reed estab- lished himself in the practice of his profession in Honesdale, where, in connection with his brother, Egbert G. Reed, he also opened a drug- store in the old Arcade building. In 1855 he disposed of his interest in the store to his brother and thereafter confined himself to the practice of his profession alone. He continued to enjoy a large and lucrative practice, taking high rank as a surgeon and general practitioner until he relaxed his energies in late years and limited his practice to certain families and cases, acting frequently, however, in con- sultation with other physicians, where his recog- nized ability and skill are deemcd necessary. In surgery he has always advocated the largest possible conservatism, esteeming that surgeon deserving of greatest commendation who saves a limb rather than seeks after the establishment of a reputation in the community by the per- formance of amputation. In the practice of medicine he has not that confidence in the cura- tive influence of drugs that would be expected in a physician, but relies more upon surround- ing his patient with favorable influences, and trusting to the vis medicatrix natura than to the nimia cura medicina-believing that it is eas- ier to prevent disease than to cure it. For the former he would depend upon the proper ob- servance of the laws of nature, and for the latter npon her medicines,-food, drink, exercise, sleep, air and warmth.

As a man Dr. Reed holds a high place in the esteem of his fellows, and his integrity and uprightness of character have never been ques- tioned. While sacredly respecting the creeds and beliefs of others, he is himself non-religious, having early in life adopted the rationalistic hypothesis of life, that nature or the universe is all that exists ; that it is self-existent, or un- created, and contains inherently all the laws, forces and modes of action which produce its varied phenomena. Being asked what he

Diright Road

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thought of the Apostles' Creed, he replied, " I have adopted one less dogmatical,-

" I believe in the Darwinian theory; in the Evolution Hypothesis ; in the Undulation of Light and the Luminiferous Ether-and in the Atomic Constitution of Matter."

"Now then about Providence ?" "I will answer you in the words of that Priest of Science, John W. Draper, my revered instruc- tor in chemistry : 'There is no such thing as Providence, for nature proceeds under irresis-

DR. CHARLES A. DUSINBERRE was born at Warwick, Orange County, New York, October 20, 1823. His father, William V. Dusin- berre, engaged in mercantile pursuits at Corn- wall-on-Hudson, and married Mary, daughter of Daniel Jessup, of Florida, Orange County. His grandfather, Daniel C. Dusinberre, was an extensive farmer near Edenville, Orange Coun- ty, and one of the early settlers of that section.

Dr. Dusinberre's early education was derived by attendance at a private school taught by

C A Dusinterro To0

tible laws. The vital force which pervades | Rev. Jonathan Silliman, of Canterbury, Orange the world is what the illiterate call God.' "

In politics the doctor is intensely Republi- can ; and believes the republic is to be pre- served and perpetuated only through the prin- ciples of its party.

Dr. Reed married, in 1852, Caroline W., daughter of Nathaniel and Lydia Bliss, of Brattleboro, Vt. His only child is Ada Car- rie, wife of Louis J. Dorflinger, of Hones- dale.

County, New York, in which he received care- ful instruction in the English branches of study. He subsequently served as a clerk in his father's store for several years, and then began the study of medicine with Dr. George C. Blackman, of Canterbury, by whose advice his attention was directed to the profession. Dr. Blackman was a prominent physician and surgeon, and subsequently filled the chair of surgery at the Cincinnati Medical College.

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While pursuing his medical studies with Dr. Blackman, Dr. Dusinberre attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, for two winters, but owing to his father's failing health he was obliged to discontinue his studies, and go with him to Key West, Florida, in the hope that the change would prove bene- ficial to him. Returning in the spring of 1845, he taught school in Orange County for about two years, and in the fall of 1847 resumed his attendance upon the lectures of the Medical College. At this time the disease commonly known as " ship-fever," a low type of typhus fever, was prevailing to a serious extent on Ward's Island, and a call was made upon the college for medical assistance. Among the students who volunteered to go to the succor of the afflicted was Dr. Dusinberre, who soon after was stricken down with fever himself, and nar- rowly escaped with his life. After his recovery he returned to Ward's Island and resumed his labors and practice in the hospital at that place. In the spring of 1849 he was graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, and April 24th following was appointed to the position of temporary resident physician to the Nursery Hospital, on Randall's Island, taking the place of Dr. Win- terbottom, who was obliged to go South because of impaired health. Before receiving this ap- pointment Dr. Dusinberre was compelled to pass examination before the medical board of Blackwell's Island, his commission, upon rec- ommendation of the board, being signed by Mayor W. J. Havemeyer. He continued to occupy that responsible place until the appoint- ment of Dr. Henry M. Whittlesey as the regu- lar incumbent, and on July 1, 1849, respond- ed to the call for assistants at the almshouse on Blackwell's Island, during the terrible cholera scourge of 1849. In December of that year he succeeded his old preceptor, Dr. Blackman, as surgeon on the ship "Constellation," one of the Kermit Line of emigrant vessels, plying between New York and Liverpool. The "Constellation" was at that time the largest packet-ship run- ning between those points. Not finding this position congenial to his tastes and aspirations, he made but one trip, and in March, 1850, lo-

cated in the practice of his profession at Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Soon after he removed to Rossville, Staten Island, where he practiced for five years. In the fall of 1855 he began the practice of his profession in New York City, and remained there until June, 1857. On March 7, 1856, while in practice in New York, he was appointed by the managers of the North- western Dispensary one of the attendant phy- sicians at that institution. In June, 1857, he bought the practice of Dr. N. F. Marsh, of Honesdale, Wayne County, Pa., and removed to that place, where he has continued to enjoy a high reputation as a practitioner of medicine and surgery for more than a quarter of a cen- tury, and where he is held in great respect and esteem by a large circle of acquaintances. He has no special theories, aside from the general creeds of his profession, to guide him in his practice, but has always aimed to perform his professional work in a conscientious and un- ostentatious manner. For many years he has been the surgeon of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, resident at Honesdale, and held the position of pension examiner under the government, from 1865 until displaced by the change of administration, in 1885. For nine years he was a member of the School Board of Honesdale, for six years president of that body. In June, 1852, he married Eliza- beth S., daughter of Richard Conner, of Staten Island, an old family there, whose ancestors at one time owned nearly one-third of the island. He has three sons living, viz .: Henry W., editor of a newspaper at Jonesboro, Tenn. ; Charles C., residing in Honesdale ; and Richard, who is engaged in the cultivation of oranges in Florida.

CONSIDER KING, M.D. (1797-1867), came from Greene County, N. Y., about 1856 and settled at Honesdale, where he practiced his profession successfully for some ten years. He was appointed and served as a member of the first board of examiners for examining army recruits at the beginning of the late Civil War at Honesdale, and died some two years after its close.

DR. WILLIAM F. DENTON, who practiced in Honesdale for many years, was born at War-

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wick, in Orange County, N. Y., on December 15, 1815. When about twenty-one years of age he received an injury which confined him for some time, made active exercise impractica- ble and eventually changed the whole course of his life. It was this which led to his studying medicine. He began reading under the direc- tion of Dr. Coe and Dr. Stanley, of Orange County, and commenced practice at Rockaway, L. I., but in December, 1839, he came to Honesdale, where the remainder of his life was spent. His physical constitution was nat- urally weak, and he obtained so large a practice that it proved a sufficient burden to break down his health, so that he died a young man, in his forty-fourth year, on November 19, 1859. He was the first person buried in Glen Dyberry Cemetery, Honesdale, his remains being interred upon November 21st, two days after his death. Dr. Denton had married, on June 5, 1844, Miss Mary Schofield, of Honesdale, who still sur- vives. They were the parents of four children, of whom Samuel, the eldest, died September 11, 1866, in the United States army ; Mary Emma became the wife of William Taylor, of San Francisco ; Joseph S., is a druggist of Baltimore; and William F. died in childhood.

A friend who knew him well says of Dr. Denton : " As a physician he studied all systems and followed none, . . . drew his remedies from every source within his reach, irrespective of authority, and applied them with a judgment which constituted the basis of his success. . In social life he was genial and companionable, and, when aroused from his habitually medi- tative mood, exhibited a remarkably fine flow of spirits and manifested a hearty appreciation of congenial qualities in others. Busied as he was in his professional life, he still found time for other pursuits, and his knowledge extended over a wide and varied range of subjects. But it was as a inan that he achieved his great suc- cess. The nobility of his soul and the great- ness of heart he lived out in a life of beautiful symmetry and proportion. It was alike mani- fest in the good that he loved and the wrong that he hated. . .. No man ever faced death with more calm composure or more quiet resig- nation."

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 37

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438