USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 69
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$13,761.14; places outside of Western Pennsylvania, $4,719. In cash and goods Chicago contributed about $6,000. The Pittsburg Sanitary Commission, on Aug- ust 9, 1864, passed a resolution setting aside the sum of $80,000 of the proceeds of the Fair for the future establishment, should the fund not be needed by the exigencies of war, of a Soldiers' Home. On April 6, 1865, the sum of $100,000, including the aforesaid $80,000, was appropriated for the establishment of a home for maimed, disabled and aged discharged soldiers of the Union Army from Western Pennsylvania. A committee, consisting of F. R. Brunot, C. W. Batchelor, M. W. Watson, James O'Connor and Joshua Hanna was appointed to carry these measures into effect. At the final closing of the accounts of the Fair the following farewell was issued by the Executive Committee:
"In closing our official duty in connection with the Pittsburg Sanitary Fair, the members of the Executive Committee desire to express their obligations to the many generous hearts and busy hands which have cooperated with them, and especially to the ladies, without whom there could have been no such magnificent results. For ourselves, and in behalf of the thousands of our country's defenders who have reaped, and are continuing to reap, the benefits of their generous labors, we offer them all our most grateful thanks.
Felix R. Brunot, B. F. Jones, M. W. Watson, W. S. Haven, Chairman. J. I. Bennett, John Watt, Thomas M. Howe, James Park, Jr., James O'Connor, John H. Shoenber-
John W. Chalfant, Chas. W. Batchelor ger. "Pittsburg, April 10, 1865. Executive Committee."
During the summer and fall of 1865 formal receptions were given the various regiments upon their arrival home. They usually paraded the streets, exhibiting their soiled uniforms and tattered flags, and were welcomed by an oration from some prominent citizen, to which the commanding officer re- sponded. A substantial meal, furnished by the Subsistence Committee, ended their reception. Since the war the observance of Decoration Day, and the proceedings of the Grand Army of the Republic, with an occasional reunion of some company or regiment, furnish the only mementos of the horrors of the Great Rebellion.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION - FIRST PHYSICIANS- THEIR METHODS OF PRACTICE- OBSTACLES THEY WERE FORCED TO OVERCOME-THE DOCTORS' APPRENTICES-PRI- VATE AND PUBLIC CHARACTERS OF THE LEADING PRACTITIONERS-ROSTER OF PHYSICIANS-PERSONAL INCIDENTS OF INTEREST-HOMEOPATHY-MERCY HOS- PITAL-WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL-INSANE ASYLUM-ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL-PASSAVANT'S HOSPITAL-HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL-PITTSBURG HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN - ALLEGHENY GENERAL HOSPITAL - ROSELIA FOUNDLING ASYLUM-SOUTH SIDE HOSPITAL-ST. JOHN'S GENERAL HOS- PITAL-EYE AND EAR HOSPITAL-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL-ALLEGHENY COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY-HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY-PITTS- BURG ACADEMY OF MEDICINE-WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL COLLEGE - OTHER ORGANIZATIONS - EPIDEMICS AND INCIDENTS.
The hardy pioneers who, in the last half of the eighteenth century, gathered near the fort built at the forks of the Ohio for the protection of the military post, and who laid the foundations of what is now a great city, depended when ill upon the homely skill of their neighbors, and doubtless these domestic ministrations were usually sufficient for their rugged constitutions. Upon extraordinary occasions such of those as were able could procure the services of the surgeon, who always formed one of the military party at the fort. One. of these gentlemen is the first.recorded physician of Pittsburg. Shortly after 1770 Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, surgeon in the British Army, resigned his com- mission and took up his permanent residence in the town, being attracted by the wonderful beauty of the place before the iron hand of Industry had stripped the verdure from the hills, seamed and scarred the lovely bosom of the earth, defiled the sparkling waters and spread a sooty pall across the sky.
Dr. Bedford was a man of polished manners, thoroughly educated in his profession, as his commission in the British Army attested, and of scholarly habits. His success was rapid and complete and he accumulated a modest fortune in the form of several tracts of land on the south side of the Monon- gahela, now within the city limits. Shortly after the beginning of the present century he retired from practice. In the city directory of 1815 his name appears as "Nathaniel Bedford, gentleman, Birmingham." He never married, and after his death the Freemasons, of which fraternity he was a prominent member, erected a monument to his memory in the form of an iron urn, which still stands, or did until recently, on the hillside immediately under the track of the South Twelfth Street Inclined Railway. During Dr. Bedford's active professional life a second medical pioneer appeared in the person of Dr. George Stevenson.
Dr. Stevenson was born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1759. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was a student in the Carlisle Academy. With some of his teachers, and many of his fellow students, he joined the patriot army. He served with credit and distinction, and was conspicuous for his gallantry at the battle of Brandywine, and for his patient endurance at Valley Forge. Sometime during the war he completed his medical studies and reënlisted as a surgeon. At the close of the war he returned to Carlisle and took up the prac- tice of his profession. When the Whisky Insurrection threatened the integrity
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of the infant government he organized a company, known as the Carlisle Infantry, and marched to Pittsburg. After the uprising had been quelled Dr. Stevenson, charmed, as Dr. Bedford had been, by the beauties of Deundaga, the Seneca Indian name for the "Forks of the Ohio," brought his family to Pittsburg and embarked in the practice of medicine. For many years he was a leading figure in the local history of his time, not only as a medical man, but also as a conspicuous public-spirited and patriotic citizen, taking an active part in the educational, commercial, philanthropic and social life of the town. In 1825 he returned East, where he enjoyed a few well-earned years of leisure. He died in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1829.
Dr. Stevenson left two sons Dr. Henry S., U. S. A., and Dr. T. C. S., of Carlisle. It is not recorded that while in Pittsburg he had with him. any students of medicine. Doubtless his manifold family, professional and civic duties prevented the further occupation of his time as a preceptor. Dr. Bedford, however, more free from such cares, gladly received youths ambitious for the study of medicine, and from his office has descended an unbroken line of emi- nent physicians.
The life of a physician of the beginning of the century was filled with hardships that are unknown to the city doctor of to-day. Paved streets were very few and sidewalks were of rough planks or altogether wanting. At night the best streets were but poorly lighted, and many were in total darkness. When the patient lived at such a distance as to preclude walking, the usual means of travel was on horseback, followed later, as the streets and roads slowly improved, by the two-wheeled vehicle known as the "gig" or "chaise." Drug- stores, as we know them now, were unknown, and the doctor carried with him to the sick room his store of remedies in his saddlebags, and there portioned them out in draughts and powders. A necessary part of the equipment of his shop, as the doctor's office was called, was a lantern for use at night. It varied in style, as the doctor's means allowed, from a handsome brass frame, paneled with plate glass and illuminated by a wax candle, to a cylinder of tin, perforated with geometrical figures and sheltering a tallow dip. This lantern stood just within his door, and he would as soon have left his shop at night without his hat as without his lantern. If he walked he carried in one hand the lantern, in the other a stout staff, with his saddlebags slung over his shoulder. If he rode, his lantern was carried at his saddlebow, or reposed on the seat of his gig. During the first quarter of the century the burying-grounds of the town were in different churchyards, and, the distance rarely being great, the corpse was usually carried thither on a bier borne on the shoulders of the pallbearers. Custom demanded the presence of the physician at the funeral of his patient, and his place was usually at the head of the procession to the grave. If this habit were in vogue at present some of our busy physicians would be frequent visitors to the cemeteries. If the practitioner's case was not an easy one, that of the neophyte was not less hard. The doctor's student was called his apprentice, and was regularly indentured for a term of years. His duties were manifold, laborious and unpleasant. He pounded pungent and irritating drugs to powder in an iron mortar with a heavy pestle; he made tinctures and spread plasters; he took long trips in bad weather, bearing packages of medicines, or to inform his master how a patient was progressing; he accompanied the doctor at night in the capacity of "linkboy;" he cleaned his master's boots and polished lijs buckles, and often assisted in the drudgery of the household. As his knowl- edge increased, so did his responsibilities. He assisted his master in the painful surgery that preceded the blessing of anesthesia; he drew teeth and let blood, and spent many weary nights at the bedside of prolific females. When he was adjudged fit he crossed the mountains on horseback, or by stage, to attend
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a course of lectures in some Eastern medical school. On his return he was dubbed "Doctor" by his admiring friends, and opened a "shop" of his own. When, by a year or two of frugal industry he had acquired the means (for medical colleges were expensive institutions to the Pittsburg student then), he went back to the college, finished his course, received his degree and returned a doctor of medicine in fact, as he had been in namc.
The first of Dr. Bedford's apprentices was Peter Mowry. He was born on September 14, 1770, and entered Dr. Bedford's office in 1784, and died in 1833. Two of his sons, William and Bedford, became physicians, but died in early life. About 1815 Dr. James Agnew came to Pittsburg from Philadel- phia, where he had been a pupil of the famous Dr. Chapman. In 1819 he formed a partnership with Dr. Simpson, and they conjointly practiced medicine and conducted a drug warehouse. Dr. Agnew was father of the venerable Chief Justice Agnew, at present living, at an advanced age, in Beayer, Penn- sylvania. Dr. Agnew later formed a partnership with Dr. Dimitt. The latter enjoyed the distinction of having been the first physician west of the moun- tains to use Jenner's invaluable discovery of vaccination.
Dr. George Dawson became a prominent physician here very early in the century. From his office came Dr. Joseph P. R. Gazzam, who, from 1817, when he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, till his death, May 29, 1863, was a leading figurc in the professional life of the city. He was born in Philadelphia, February 1, 1797.
A brilliant, though unfortunately brief, career was that of Dr. Joel Lewis. Dr. Lewis was born at Christiana, Delaware, March 29, 1790, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1811, and settled in Pittsburg the same year. He was a skillful surgeon, and his worth and ability were accorded prompt recognition. He was an ardent patriot, and was, in 1822, made brigadier-gen- eral of the First Brigade, Fifteenth Division, Pennsylvania Militia. In the same vear hc was elected president of the Pittsburg Medical Society. He died on March 28, 1824, at the early age of thirty-four years.
The Pittsburg Directory for 1815 contains the names of William S. Coxe, Morrell Parker and Edward Pennington, physicians, as well as those of Bedford, Stevenson, Mowry, Dawson and Lewis. Of these first three no records are to be had, and only their names remain to tell the story of their lives and labors. From a memorandum of the late Dr. James R. Speer, the roster of the physicians of Allegheny County in 1828, shortly after he began the practice of medicine in Pittsburg, is as follows: Pcter Mowry, James Agnew, William Simpson, Joseph P. Gazzam, Felix Brunot, S. R. Holmes, C. L. Armstrong, W. F. Irwin, J. H. Irwin, William Church, William Addison, L. Callahan, Henry Hannen, H. D. Sellers, John T. Stone, Thomas Miller, David Reynolds and James R. Speer. In 1832 Dr. Speer adds the following names to the list: Jeremiah Brooks, T. F. Dale, Edward D. Gazzam, Adam Hays, Ebenezer Henderson, William Hughey, Jonas R. McClintock, A. N. McDowell, John Roseburg, J. H. Smith, William Woods and Robert Wray.
Dr. Felix Brunot, a French Huguenot by birth, was the father of our eminent and venerable townsman, Hon. Felix R. Brunot. Dr. Brunot came to America as a member of the medical staff of the Marquis de Lafayette's military expedition, and participated in many of the battles of the Revolution. At the close of the War for Independence he settled in Philadelphia, but removed to Pittsburg in 1797, acquiring and residing upon the island in the Ohio River, just below the city, which still bears his name. He dicd May 23, 1838, aged 86 years. Dr. Brunot was known as a skillful surgeon, and became noted as the first physician in this community to employ electricity in medicine.
Dr. S. R. Holmes was an apprentice of Dr. Mowry. He was a popular
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physician in the twenties, always busy, and conspicuous by his handsome person and the spirited gray horse he always rode. Dr. Charles Armstrong was a type of the quiet, unassuming family doctor. He lived to extreme old age, dying in retirement on the property he owned in the lower part of Allegheny. William F. Irwin was for many years physician to the Western Penitentiary. John H. Irwin practiced on the South Side. There was another Dr. John Irwin, known from his somewhat erratic habits, and to distinguish him from the other, as "Devil" John. He was a skillful practitioner in spite of his demoniacal sobriquet.
Dr. William Addison was a son of Judge Addison, and he had an unusual advantage in those primitive days-two years' study in Paris. He was a brother-in-law of Dr. Peter Mowry and in 1824 bccame associated with him in practice. Dr. Addison was somewhat short in temper and abrupt in manner, but withal a scholarly and skillful physician. He was a naturalist of no little repute. I had in my possession recently an Ornithological Dictionary, with copious marginal notes by the hand of Dr. Addison, which showed his keen powers of observation, as well as his independence of thought. Dr. H. D. Sellers was known as an excellent physician, a dignified gentleman and a strict observer of the ethics of his profession.
Dr. James R. Speer was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1796, and came to Pittsburg in 1825. For many years he was prominent in professional, social and civic life. He was especially skillful as a surgeon, and before the days of specialism he operated for cataract over 600 times. He died September 7, 1891, aged 95 years. Dr. Jeremiah Brooks was born on February 24, 1797, in New Jersey, and located in Pittsburg in 1830. He enjoyed a large practice and the esteem of all who knew him. He was active in the organization of Passavant's Hospital, and was connected with it as long as he lived. He died August 27, 1865. Dr. Thomas F. Dale was a successful practitioner in Allegheny for many years. He died in 1871. Dr. Edward Gazzam, a brother of Joseph P. Gazzam, exchanged the profession of medicine for that of law, with the evident approval of the people, for they chose him to represent them in the Senate of Pennsylvania. Dr. A. N. McDowell was born in Chambersburg in 1801 and came to Pittsburg in 1826, and until his death, May 12, 1849, was an active and successful physician.
Dr. John Roseburg was born in 1803, and died of Asiatic cholera in Poland. Ohio, in 1833. During his short life of thirty years he had achieved distinc- tion as a physician, an orator and a poet of no mean order. He was president of the City Councils and one of the originators of that famous old military organization, the Duquesne Grays.
A figure conspicuous by his grace of manner, pleasing address and pro- fessional and public popularity, was Dr. Jonas R. McClintock. He was born January 9, 1808, and died November 27, 1879. While quite a young man he served the city as mayor. A list of physicians practicing in Pittsburg in 1853, furnished by Dr. A. M. Speer, contains the following names in addition to some of those mentioned: Fahnestock, Shepley Holmes, Edrington, Robert Simpson, Walter, Murdoch, Snyder, Dorsey, Backus, Wilson, McCook, Sr., McCook, Jr., Morgan, King, Cahill, Brackenridge, Hazlett, Reynolds, Gross, Sr., Gross, Jr., Dilworth, Trevor, Irish, Toner, Gallaher, Mackey, Hallock, Shaw, Tindle, Pollock, Speer, Bruce, Hammersley, McCracken; and in Allegheny, J. B. Her- ron, William Herron, John Dickson, Thomas Dickson and Reed. Of these there are now living but three: Dr. James B. Herron, Dr. Thomas W. Shaw and Dr. Alexander M. Speer.
In the limits of this sketch it is only possible to mention a few of those whose names appear in this honored list, and even then but briefly. Dr. James
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King was born in Bedford County, January 18, 1816, and came to Pittsburg in 1850. His worth and ability were promptly recognized, and he soon enjoyed a fine practice. On the breaking out of the Civil War he was successively surgeon at Camp Curtin, Division Surgeon of the State, Medical Director of the State, and finally Surgeon-General of the State. In 1866 he received the highest honor the physicians of this Commonwealth could bestow-president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania. He died March II, 1880, and his memory is revered by all who knew him.
Dr. Alexander Black was born in Pittsburg, of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, on July 14, 1814. He, like many of the prominent physicians of his time, read medicine with Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College, and subsequently from the University of Edinburg, and after an active and useful life passed away on November 5, 1874.
A memorable figurc in the local history of medicine is that of William C. Reiter, born in Pittsburg, March 24, 1817. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Postlethwait of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1839 from Jefferson Medical College. He at first practiced in Mount Pleasant, but moved to Pittsburg in 1856, where he was actively engaged until his death, November 28, 1882. Dr. Rciter was a bold practitioner, an original thinker, and in many respects an extraordinary man. He was a thorough lover of nature and all her works, and his ever youthful enthusiasm, keen observation and graphic speech made him a most entertaining companion. Among physi- cians he will be best remembered by his brochure on diphtheria, and whatever merit attaches to the heroic usc of calomel in that disease belongs to Dr. Reiter.
Dr. James H. Duff was for many years the most prominent physician on the south side of the Monongahela. He was born in Westmoreland County, August 1, 1824. He graduated in 1847 from Jefferson Medical College, and entered the United States Navy as assistant surgeon, which office he shortly resigned to engage in practice in his native county. He came to Pittsburg in 1866 and enjoyed in overflowing measure the confidence, the respect and the patronage of his fcilow citizens till his death, which occurred December 22, 1884.
Dr. Joseph Alison Reed was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, December 31, 1823, and graduated with the degree of A. M. from Washington College in 1842. In 1847 he received his degree of M. D. from Jefferson Medical College, and at once commenced practice in Allegheny. In 1857, when the insane depart- ment was divorced from the medical and surgical department of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, largely through the labors of Dr. Reed and Miss Dorothea L. Dix, Dr. Reed was placed in charge of Dixmont, where he gave twenty-seven years of his life to the amelioration of the pitiful condition of the insane. Dr. Reed was known throughout the country as an authority on the subject of insanity, and he was frequently called by the Government, both State and National, to aid in proper legislation for the care of the insane. His contributions to the literature of insanity wcre varied and valuable. He died November 6, 1884.
A very picturesque figure in the history of medicine in Pittsburg is that of Albert G. Walter. He was born in Augsberg, Prussia, in 18II. While yct a child his parents dicd, leaving him in care of relatives. His guardians intended him for the church, and when he withstood them they placed every obstacle in his way as a student of medicine, including the withholding of his patrimony. But with the indomitable will that characterized him through life, he persevered, until finally graduating from the University of Berlin, where he had been a favorite pupil of the celebrated Dieffenbach. Having completed his studies he sailed for America, but was shipwrecked off the coast of Sweden and lost
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all his scanty belongings. He made his way to London, where he attracted the favorable notice of Sir Astlcy Cooper, whose protége he became. After spending some time in London he again sailed for America, and arrived in Pittsburg in 1837, poor in purse but rich in the resources of a masterful nature. He soon becanie widely known as a skillful, bold and original surgeon, success- fully performing many grave and rare operations. His publications were fre- quent and received much attention, particularly a volume issued in 1867, entitled "Conservative Surgery." His independent professional views, his brusque man- ner and his quick temper alienated him somewhat from his fellows in this city, and they did not fully appreciate the character and value of his work, as the following extract from the Pittsburg Medical Review, March, 1887, will show: "At the February meeting of the Allegheny County Medical Society the Com- mittee on Intelligence reported Sir William MacCormac's two cases of successful abdominal section for rupture of the bladder, and commented on the novelty of the operation. Within a stone's throw of the building in which the society sat stands the house of the late Dr. Albert G. Walter, who, twenty-five years ago, opened the abdomen of a man with a ruptured bladder, with success, and reported the case in the Medical and Surgical Reporter of that year, 1862. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, February 26th, Dr. T. S. K. Morton speaks of Dr. Walter as the pioneer in this work, and the London correspondent of the Medical Record, February 5th, gives to Dr. Walter the credit due him. 'A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country.'" Dr. Walter died October 14, 1876, of pneumonia contracted while pursuing his duty. A living monument to his memory is the Pittsburg Humane Society, which he founded and stalwartly supported for many years. A young man of great promise, but of a short though brilliant career, was Dr. William Wallace, son-in-law of Dr. Walters. He was born in Allegheny, August 22, 1851, received his degree at the St. Louis Medical College in 1870, and died in Pittsburg August 25, 1883.
Dr. Thomas J. Gallaher was born on October 4, 1822, in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1849. He died in Pittsburg August 20, 1888. For nearly forty years he was one of the most prominent figures in the profession of Western Pennsyl- vania, and was a frequent and valued contributor to medical literature. In 1881 he joined his son, Dr. R. C. Gallaher, in the publication of the Pittsburg Medical Journal, the first venture in the field of medical journalism in this vicinity. Dr. Gallaher was a laborious and enthusiastic student, a conscientious and suc- cessful practitioner, and an honest man. Dr. Joseph W. Toner was for a time a resident of Pittsburg. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsyl- vania, April 30, 1825. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College, and after spending some years in this city removed to Washington, D. C., in 1855. In 1872 he established the "Toner Lectures" at the Smithsonian Insti- tution. He died within the past year in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Alexander M. Pollock during his prime was conspicuous in surgical skill and science. He was born at Clifton, Allegheny County, in 1819, gradu- ated at the Cincinnati Medical College at the age of twenty-one, and settled in Pittsburg in 1845. He died on June 20, 1892. In 1872 he was president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, and in 1876 a delegate to the International Medical Congress. In his earlier years he was a frequent contributor to medical literature, and some of his. essays, notably one on control of hemorrhage by passing a wire loop under the vessel, are historical in surgery.
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