USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Three > Part 11
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In this immediate connection also should be noticed the efforts that have been made by the State for the care and relief of its un- fortunate insane patients. Public asylums or hospitals, thor- oughly endowed and equipped for this humanitarian purpose ac- cording to the best modern principles and practice, are now in existence in various parts of the Commonwealth, which are pre- sided over and their departments administered by the best pro- fessional talent that can be procured. The first of these beneficent institutions was the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, located at Harrisburg, which was established under an act of April 14, 1845, and opened in 1851. The present value of its property is about half a million dollars.
The Western Pennsylvania Hospital for Insane is situated at Dixmont, Alleghany county, and was established under the act of March, 1848. The cost of the buildings was about $300,000. The original institution, known as the Western Pennsylvania
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Hospital, was opened in March, 1853, and the Department for Insane, at Dixmont, was opened in November, 1862. The insti- tution includes a farm of 373 acres of land.
The State Hospital for Insane, located at Danville, was estab- lished under an act of April 13, 1868, and opened in 1872. A farm of 397 acres is included and the present value of the property is over one million dollars.
A State Hospital for Insane was provided by an act of August 14, 1873, which is situated at Warren. Its cost was over $900,000.
The State Hospital for Insane for the southeastern district is situated at Norristown. It was established under the act of May 5, 1876, and was opened in July, 1880, at a cost of over $1,000,000.
The State Asylum for Chronic Insane, located at South Moun- tain, Berks county, was established in June, 1891, and completed in July, 1894. The institution has a farm of 538 acres, and the buildings cost $412,000.
A kindred institution, the State Institution for Feeble Minded Persons, situated at Polk, Venango county, was established by an act of June 3, 1893. Its land estate comprises 870 acres and the institution accommodates 700 inmates. It was opened April 21, 1897.
Besides all these great institutions for the relief of suffering humanity, the State maintains several Cottage State Hospitals for relief of injured persons in the coal industry.
As might be expected, the State of Pennsylvania, which con- tributed so much to the conduct of the medical part of the war of the Revolution bore a large share in that of the Civil war, 1861-65. Not only did it furnish its share of the surgeons of the army and navy, but, because by its peculiar position it was practically safe from direct attack and at the same time conveniently near to the seat of war, it was a favorable point for the establishment of mili- tary hospitals. Some of the largest of these were situated in Philadelphia, and that known as the Satterlee hospital, in West Philadelphia, occupying ground just north of the Baltimore turn-
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From Day's Historical Collections
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pike and west of what is now Forty-third street and what was then a ravine through which a beautiful stream meandered, was not only the largest military hospital in Pennsylvania, but the largest in the country, where was developed an idea in hospital construction, the "pavilion plan," of the greatest value at that time and which later became the type of hospital construction.
The events of the war with Spain are so recent that they do not furnish much material for history, and though they were not lacking in stirring events and gallant achievements, they were not of such magnitude as to demand a place in this sketch.
Thus far the description of the medical movements in this State has covered the part where it was first settled ; but, as there were brave men before Agamemnon, so other parts of the State have equally with Philadelphia and its vicinity brought forth men of high character and attainments. The extreme western part of Pennsylvania from beginnings marked by cruel strife with Indians and the French, by battles and massacres, by desperate struggles and heroic victory, with which the names of Pontiac and Du- quesne, of Washington and Braddock, are associated, moved for- ward to a stage of development in which vast industries, immense traffic and great educational enterprises cover the ground so hardly won for civilization and culture.
The earlier medical men came hither with the Virginia troops that were sent to rescue the country from the French and Indians. Of these was Dr. Thomas Walker, commissary-general under Washington at the time of Braddock's defeat, who gave their name to the Cumberland mountains, and whose own name was given to another range; Doctor Anderson and Doctor Colhoun. who were in the same expedition, and Dr. James Craik, who dressed Braddock's wounds after his defeat, on July 9, 1755. An- other medical man on this expedition was Dr. Hugh Mercer, a Pennsylvanian, born in Scotland and formerly a surgeon in the army of Prince Charles, who fled to this country in 1747, after the battle of Culloden, became a brigadier-general in the Revolu-
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tionary war and died of wounds received in the battle of Prince- ton, whose fame is commemorated by a monument in Laurel Hill cemetery, Philadelphia, and a county that bears his name.
With the cessation of the old wars, settlement received an impetus in Western Pennsylvania, and among the pioneers from 1770 to the close of that century were many physicians whose professional qualifications and characters should perpetuate their memory. The first of these of whom there is authentic account was Dr. David Marchand, who settled in 1770 in Westmoreland county about six miles southwest of Greensburg. He was a native of Switzerland and one of the refugee Huguenots. He was a man of excellent natural as well as acquired ability, and until his death, on July 22, 1809, had a large practice. He built a two-story stone house near his home for the accommodation of his many patients, thus opening the first general hospital west of the Alleghany mountains. He left three sons, all of whom be- came eminent in the profession in Western Pennsylvania, and one of whom also had three sons who followed in the footsteps of their grandfather.
Not many years later, Dr. Frederick Marchand, brother of the first Dr. David, migrated from Maryland and settled near his brother. He paid more attention to farming than to his profession.
General Washington gave a dinner at Semples's tavern in Pittsburg in 1770, at which one of the guests was Dr. John Con- nolly, who married the daughter of the landlord. He is said to have studied medicine with Dr. Cadwallader Evans, in Philadel- phia, and was a clever and attractive person. Later he became interested in the land-grabbing scheme of Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, and when it became known at the opening of the Revo- lution that he had planned to make Fort Pitt an important British post, he was arrested and imprisoned. After the war he settled in Canada.
In 1772 another of the many doctors who held military com- missions in those troubled times settled in Pittsburg; this was
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General Edward Hand, who came to America as surgeon of the 18th Royal Irish regiment. Resigning his commission to prac- tice his profession, he afterwards espoused the side of the colonies in the Revolution and rose to the command of Fort Pitt, with a brigadier-general's commission. He died at Rockford, Lancaster country, September 3, 1802.
Joseph Hopkinson
Wrote "Hail Columbia" 1798; congressman 1816-1820; United States district judge 1828; member State Constitutional Convention 1837; president Academy of the Fine Arts many years.
General William Irvine, who took command at Fort Pitt in 1781, was educated as a physician and served seven years as sur- geon on a British man-of-war. He was a native of Ireland. After peace was declared he settled for practice in Carlisle, where he attained deserved success. He was twice elected to Congress and died in 1804. He had a grandson, Dr. William A. Irvine, who practiced in Warren county.
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Uniontown, Fayette county, situated at the foot of the western slope of the mountains and on the line of Braddock's route, in the midst of an excellent farming district, attracted early settlers, with whom came a pioneer physician in the person of Dr. Samuel Sackett. He had been a surgeon in the American army and came west from Connecticut in 1781. He was in active practice in the vicinity of Uniontown about forty years and died in 1833. About four years earlier than this Dr. Henry Moore was practicing in Buffalo township, Washington county. The incident of his tre- panning the head of a little girl, whose skull had been fractured by an Indian, is recorded. He died in Washington, Pa.
Dr. John Knight was also a resident of Fayette county. He was a private, then surgeon's mate, and in 1782, at the request of Colonel William Crawford, was appointed surgeon in the oncom- ing expedition against the Indians. In the terrible rout and massacre that followed, Dr. Knight and his colonel became sepa- rated from the fleeing troops and they were captured by the In- dians. The doctor was forced to witness the torture and death at the stake of Colonel Crawford, a fate from which he was unex- pectedly saved. His face had been painted black and he was sent on ahead with one powerful Indian. In the evening the mosquitoes were very troublesome and the Indian, determined to escape the pests at Dr. Knight's expense, released him and ordered him to take a brush and drive away the insects, while the Indian prepared some supper. This was Knight's chance, and he quickly grabbed a heavy club, struck the savage with all his might on the back of the head and fled. He reached Fort Pitt only after many days of incredible suffering and privation in the forest. Dr. Knight died in Shelbyville, Ky., March 12, 1838.
Another physician who accompanied the Crawford expedition was Dr. John Rose, as he was known in this country, but whose true name was Henri Gustave Rosenthall. He fled from his native country on account of having fought a duel, changed his name and rose to distinction by his bravery and talent. Receiving
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immunity from his sovereign, he returned to his native country in 1784.
In 1783 Dr. John David Schoeff visited Pittsburg on his travels. He was the first person to cross the Alleghany moun- tains in a carriage. In the next year Arthur Lee, commissioner to treat with the Indians, passed through Pittsburg and left this among his records: "There are here four attorneys, two doctors and not a priest of any persuasion, nor church nor chapel, so that they are likely to be damned without benefit of clergy." He added : "The place, I believe, will never be any considerable." One of these two doctors was Nathaniel Bedford, who probably had formerly been a surgeon in the British army. For many years in his home in Pittsburg he affected the style of the British aristocracy. He was a man of superior education and polished manners. He died March 21, 1818. Dr. John F. Carmichael, of New Jersey, who entered the army in 1789, assisted Dr. Bed- ford in treating Red Pole, who was detained ill in Pittsburg, Christmas day, 1796, and died there. Dr. Bedford laid out Bir- mingham. The other physician mentioned by Arthur Lee was probably Dr. Thomas Parker, whose name appears with Dr. Bed- ford's in the list of trustees of Pittsburg academy, 1787.
The next physician in Pittsburg was born there September 14, 1770, in the person of Dr. Peter Mowry. He was a very success- ful practitioner and rose to distinction. He died at the age of sixty-three years, leaving two sons, William and Bedford, both of whom were physicians, but who died in early manhood. One of his students was Dr. Robert Mowry, for many years a dis- tinguished physician of Alleghany, whose son, Dr. William B. Mowry, is now a prominent practitioner in the same city.
As settlement in the western part of the State advanced the number of physicians was rapidly increased, the list including many names of those who honored their profession. Dr. Mc- Kenzie was the principal surgeon at Fort Pitt in 1788. Dr. Adams was there from 1794 to 1797, and from 1795 to 1796 a
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Dr. Wilkins was known there. Dr. George Stevenson located at Pittsburg in 1794, migrating from Carlisle. He served at Brandy- wine and Valley Forge, and after the war practiced in Carlisle. He was elected chief burgess of Pittsburg in 1801, and was one of the original directors of the University of Western Pennsyl- vania in 1819. He went east in 1825 and died in Wilmington, Del., in 1829, leaving two sons, Dr. Henry Stevenson, of the United States army, and Dr. P. C. Stevenson, of Carlisle.
Dr. Felix Brunot was a French Huguenot, born in 1752, came to America with his foster-brother, the Marquis de Lafayette, and was one of the army medical corps during the entire Revolution. He went to Pittsburg from Philadelphia in 1797 and lived on what has since been known as Brunot's island, in the Ohio river. He was very successful, and is said to have been the first physician to use electricity in his practice. He died May 23, 1838.
Dr. Andrew Richardson was settled in Pittsburg before 1798 and was prominent in both professional and public affairs. Dr. James Francis was the first physician in Connellsville and the northern section of Fayette county, settling there some time pre- vious to 1787. Dr. Benjamin Stevens settled on a farm in North Union township, Fayette county, in 1789, and died, full of honor, in 1813. Among his students were Drs. Benjamin Dorsey, Daniel Sturgeon, Dr. Wilson, and Dr. Wright. Daniel Sturgeon was a graduate of Jefferson College and succeeded to the practice of Dr. Stevens. His son, Dr. William H. Sturgeon, afterwards practiced in Uniontown. Dr. Henry Chapese was a physician and druggist, the two occupations being frequently combined in early times, and practiced in Uniontown from 1790 to 1800. He advertised "a new recruit of Patent and other medicines," and a snake bite remedy, "15 drops of which, externally and internally, is an immediate cure."
Dr. Young was another early physician of Fayette county, and also kept a stock of drugs for the public. Dr. Jesse Pennel prac- ticed for a period in Bridgeport, Fayette county, but died in 1819
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Druper Cuder wood Bald & Spencer
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Die North mompton Bant, Berfpricht
oder Vorzeige auf verlangen 3chn & haler zu bezahlen. Northampton, Lecha County Penn." 35- 1890
Perfident.
A Pennsylvania German Bank Note
Reproduced especially for this work from an original in the collection of J. F. Sachsc
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of typhoid fever, which was then epidemic in that county. Dr. Adam Simonson came on from the east before 1795 and practiced in Uniontown until his death in 1808, respected and loved by the community.
Passing into Washington county, it is found that Dr. Absalom Baird, who studied with Dr. Gardner Scott of Chester county, who raised a company of volunteers for the Revolutionary army, of which Dr. Baird became a member, was soon afterwards ap- pointed assistant surgeon in a Pennsylvania regiment. Towards the close of the war he began practice in Kennett Square, Chester county, and in 1786 removed to Washington, Pa., where he was killed by falling from his horse in 1805. Dr. Jacob Green was a physician in Springhill township, Washington county, but little is known of him except that his name appears on the tax roll of 1786.
Dr. Hugh Thompson was an carly settler in Peters township, Washington county, where he was a large land owner and long in practice. Dr. Alexander Gaston practiced in Canton township, Washington county, many years, and removed to Ohio in 1792. Dr. John Culbertson settled in Washington, Pa., in 1794, but soon removed to Independence township and practiced successfully more than thirty years. Dr. William Bachly came from the east about 1794 and located on his farm near what is now Lindley's Mills Station, Washington county. He removed to Ohio after about fifteen years. Dr. Henry W. Blachly, a native of Paterson, N. J., visited Pittsburg, whence he started for New Orleans, but was led to return on account of yellow fever in the southern city. After many interesting adventures he heard of a Dr. Blachly liv- ing in the country, and upon visiting him found he was a distant relative. Dr. Henry Blachly settled in Morris township, Wash- ington county, where he had an extensive practice during forty years. He left four sons and two sons-in-law in the medical profession, one of whom succeeded him, Dr. Stephen L. Blachly, who is still living.
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Dr. Samuel McFadden settled in Philadelphia in 1795, whence he migrated to West Middletown, Washington county, and was in practice some years. Dr. John Julius Le Moyne de Villers, a native of Paris, France, settled in Washington, Pa., removing from Gallipolis, Ohio, about 1797. He was a superior scholar and possessed of fine natural qualifications. He died in 1849, leaving an only son, Francis Julius Le Moyne, born in Wash- ington in 1798, graduated at Washington College in the class of 1815, studied medicine in Philadelphia and attained high eminence. He gave Washington and Jefferson College about $40,000, erected the first crematory in America and earnestly ad- vocated that method of disposing of our dead. He died at Wash- ington, Pa., October 14, 1879, leaving his son, Dr. Frank LeMoyne, now a prominent Pittsburg surgeon.
Dr. David Wishart, a native of Scotland, settled first in Hunt- ingdon and next in Bedford county, where his son John, born in Scotland, studied medicine and graduated in 1808 in Philadelphia. He at once opened an office in Washington, Pa., and soon rose to eminence both as a physician and as a surgeon. The number of his descendants is large and conspicuous for ability. His son, Dr. John W. Wishart, graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania and entered the army as surgeon, settling afterwards in Pittsburg, where he still resides.
Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge had a distinguished career. He was a native of Bedford county and was taken by his parents to Washington county, near the West Virginia line, in 1773. After a few years' labor as a Methodist preacher, the care of the home farm fell upon him on account of the death of his father in 1791. With his brother Philip, he worked the farm and studied every leisure moment, finally entering Jefferson academy. His med- ical studies were completed under Dr. Rush in Philadelphia. Having been admitted to the order of deacon by Bishop White in Philadelphia, he afterwards was obliged to combine his medical and clerical work to obtain a livelihood. He was a thorough
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student, rising customarily at four o'clock in the morning to pur sue his studies, with his religious devotions. The whole country is indebted to him for his book, "Doddridge's Notes." He was in every sense a good man and a benefactor of his kind. He died November 9, 1826, reaching only his fifty-seventh year.
Old Court House, Philadelphia
Erected 1707; demolished 1837. From an old print
Another Washington county physician who was also a theolo- gian was Rev. Cephas Dodd, who studied the latter profession under Rev. John McMillan, D. D., founder of Jefferson College. He settled in Amwell township, and at the suggestion of his friend, Dr. Henry Blachly, took up the study of medicine, but with no intention of following that profession. This he was, however, induced to do by his friends and he finally obtained a very large practice. He lived to seventy-nine years of age, and
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left a son, Dr. Thaddeus Dodd, and a grandson, Dr. W. S. Dodd, of Washington, Pa.
Westmoreland county had a prominent physician before the year 1800, who was also a much-loved minister of the gospel. This was Dr. Jacob Jennings, who practiced medicine in New Jersey until he was licensed to preach, when he moved to West- moreland county. There he combined his two professions from 1792 until 1811. His death took place February 7, 1813. His son, Dr. Ebenezer Jennings, settled near Burgettstown, Washing- ton county, and became somewhat famous for his early practice and advocacy of vaccination. He died at thirty-three years of age in 1808.
Dr. John Postlethwaite was born in Carlisle in 1776 and graduated from the College and University of Pennsylvania. Having traveled westward with the expedition sent to curb the whiskey insurrection, and being delighted with the region, he crossed the mountains after his medical education was finished in 1797 and located at Greensburg, where he successfully practiced until his death in 1842.
Dr. John Culbertson Wallace was the first resident physician at Erie. He was a native of Harrisburg and graduated in medi- cine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1796 he accompanied General Wayne in an expedition to Fort Fayette, Pittsburg, as surgeon. He afterwards practiced his profession three years in Franklin, and thence moved to Erie. He rose to prominence, commanded an Erie county regiment at the beginning of the war of 1812, and died in 1827, leaving no family.
These brief notes of the early physicians of western Penn- sylvania are closed by reference to the first physicians of Venango county, who settled previous to 1800.1 Dr. T. G. Symonds settled in Franklin in 1800. Nothing is now known of his sub-
.'The preparation of these notes was made possible only through the laborious researches of Dr. T. D. Davis, of Pittsburg, the results of which are embodied in an address delivered
by him before the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, at its fifty-first meet- ing, held in Philadelphia, September 24, 1901.
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sequent career. For sometime the county was without a physi- cian, after which period Dr. Thomas Smith settled in the county and was successful in treating the sick of that immediate region.
Detailed mention of the very many eminent physicians of western Pennsylvania who have honored their profession and re- lieved pain and suffering during the past century it is impossible and to a degree unnecessary to make here. The story of their lives is well known and may be found in the many medical records and literary works of the period.
Besides these personal factors in medical progress, Pittsburg has, with its material attainment, seen the establishment of impor- tant benevolent and educational institutions. The recent rich en- dowment of the Carnegie institute may be expected to contribute much to the intellectual advance of Western Pennsylvania, but it was long preceded by the Western University of Pennsylvania, which was erected in 1819, on the foundation of the Pittsburg academy, incorporated in 1787, and had more than nine hundred students in 1901. Charitable work and medical education are fostered by two large hospitals-Mercy hospital, opened in 1847, and the Western Pennsylvania hospital, opened in 1853, while a thriving medical school, begun as the Western Pennsylvania Med- ical college, articles of incorporation being filed June 30, 1883, was made the medical department of the Western University of Penn- sylvania June 1, 1892. To this was added in 1896 the department of pharmacy by absorption of the Pittsburg College of Pharmacy, incorporated September 23, 1878, and a dental department, by an agreement made with the Pittsburg Dental college, incorporated April 16 of the same year. In this university and in the hospitals of Pittsburg there are to-day some of the best exemplars of med- ical and surgical science, while Pittsburg has furnished a medical journal long without a peer in adherence to the highest principles of medical ethics-once the Pittsburg Medical Journal ; then the Pittsburg Medical Review, and now the Pennsylvania Medical Journal , the official organ of the medical society of Pennsylvania.
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Outside of these two principal cities of Pennsylvania there have been so many men of ability and great usefulness that it would be impossible to name more than a few of them. North- ampton county contains that interesting section of the State prob- ably best known in connection with the Moravian settlements,
Joseph Buffington
Member of Congress 1843-1846; appointed chief justice of Utah 1852; judge of courts of Arm- strong County, 1855-1871. Reproduced for this work from an engraving in possession of Jo- seplı Buffington, United States district judge, Pittsburgh
with their singular customs and their simple piety, whose gentle course of life was so rudely disturbed, when, in December, 1776, by order of General Washington, the buildings of the society were used to house the sick and wounded of the continental army, among them being La Fayette and Pulaski. Here, in 1750, flour- ished a surgeon from Germany named J. M. Otto, and about the
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