USA > Pennsylvania > The Biographical encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 69
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Man. H. Allen
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found in him a gentleman whose education and superior administrative abilities achnirably fitted him to become the Executive ot an institution of this peculiar character. Ilis duties there were entirely different from those required in the same position in other colleges. Here he was not only called on to organize and harmonize a staff of professors for the educational department of the college, but there de- volved on him also the organization of what may be termed a " household staff" of officers-ladies and gentlemen- whose duties are the care of the pupils when not engaged in school. It was also his duty to officiate in all the re- ligious and devotional exercises of the institution, as the will of Stephen Girard, the founder of the college, pro- hi .. ited the admission of clergymen within its pale. No sectarian teachings were to be introduced, and the minds of the pupils were to be kept free from denominational bias, so that when they should leave the institution, by reason of their advanced age and education, they could better choose the creed they would adopt for the future. Thus, it will be seen, that there devolved on him the supervision of the school, the home, and the moral training of about five hundred boys. It was a great task, when it is con- sidered that they embraced those ranging from the tender age of eight years to the active and impulsive youth of seventeen. How well and admirably he performed his manifold duties, how complete the satisfaction of the Di- rectors, his long continuance in office testifies; and how well he has succeeded in gaining and keeping the respect and esteem of the numerous professors and officers of the institution is also proved by their many years of service un- der his administration. Last, but not least, the love and regard in which he is held by hundreds of the graduates of the institution, adds another link to the testimony, all going to show that in him the college has found a man equalled by very few, and surpassed by none in his peculiar fitness for the position. In December, 1862, he resigned the posi- tion, which he had filled so acceptably for thirteen years, and retired to the walks of private life, taking up his abode on a farm on the banks of the Delaware, not far from the city. Here he remained for two years, when he received a call from the Pennsylvania Agricultural College to become its President ; he accepted it, and continued in the position two years. In 1867, he was recalled to Girard College, thus receiving the most emphatic endorsement of the efficiency of his former administration. In religious belief, he is a Methodist, and has been for many years a member of that church. He was honored, in March, 1872, by being elected President of the American Bible Society, which position he continues to hold. In 1850, the year he was first inaugurated as President of Girard College, the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by the Union College of Schenectady, New York, and also by Emory and Henry College of Virginia. He has been married four times. First, in 1835, to Martha, daughter of Bishop Richardson, of Toronto, Canada. His second
wife was Ellen Honora Curtin, of Bellefonte, a sister of Governor Curtin ; his third, Mary Quincy of Boston ; his fourth and present wife was, at the time of her marriage, Mrs. Anna Maria Gemill, the widow of one of Philadel- phia's most successful and highly esteemed merchants.
ARTSHORNE, EDWARD, A. M., M. D., Phy- sician, was born in Philadelphia, May 14th, 1818. Ile is the second son of the late Dr. Joseph Harts- horne, who was for nearly half a century one of the leading hospital surgeons and medical practi- tioners of Philadelphia. After careful prepara- tory studies, he entered Princeton College, where he gra- dluated, in 1837. He at once commenced the study of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which institu- tion, in 1840, conferred on him the degree of M. D., and the same year he received that of A. M. from his alma mater. For nine months immediately succeeding his gra- duation he was occupied in dispensary practice, the greater part of which was under the direction of Dr. W. W. Ger- hard, then one of the Attending Physicians of the Philadel- phia Dispensary, the largest out-patient charity in the city. During this period also he was engaged in revising his graduating thesis for publication; this honor having been conferred upon it by the Faculty of the University. It was entitled, Monograph on Pseudarthrosis, or False Joints from Ununited Fractures. After publication it was highly complimented and most favorably noticed as a literary and scientific production. In December, 1840, he was elected First Assistant Physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, then just organized as a separate department from the old hospital, and he entered upon his duties at the new hospital building in West Philadelphia, with Dr. Kirkbride as Superintendent. He successfully commenced the organization, under the direction of the Superintendent, and transferred nearly all the male patients to the new establishment during the winter. In April, 1841, he was elected Resident Physician of the old Pennsylvania Hos- pital, and having transferred his residence thither, com- pleted the removal of the insane, male and female, to the West Philadelphia building during the year. He subse- quently served for short periods as Assistant to Dr. Kirk- bride, and for a few weeks became the substitute for Dr. Pliny Earle at the Friends Asylum, near Frankford; but by far the greater part of his hospital service was in the medical and surgical wards and the obstetric department of the Pennsylvania Hospital. During this period he also devoted part of his time to the examination of medical stu- dents, and contributed numerous reports of cases to the Medical Examiner, the leading medical magazine at that time. In April, 1843, he was elected Physician to the Eastern State Penitentiary, famous as the model of the " separate system," frequently but erroneously termed the
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" solitary system." It was the duty of the Resident Physi- | Secretary of the College of Physicians, as well as one of the cian to demonstrate the effect of this experiment upon the mental and physical organizations of the convicts ; and as he was well fitted by previous experience for such ob- servations, his report was anticipated with considerable in- terest and anxiety. The results of his investigations, as embodied in the " Annual Report" of 1843, and a partial " Report " for 1844, published by the Inspectors in 1844 and 1845, showed a marked improvement in the health and discipline of the prisoners ; and attracted much atten- tion, being widely circulated in Europe as well as America, as the first extended and professional Report of the effects of the system. A second edition having been issued in Philadelphia, it was largely circulated in England and also on the Continent, being translated and published in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland, receiving particular at- tention and approval. In June, 1844, he went to Europe and passed two years in medical study, and in visiting hospitals, lunatic asylums and penal institutions, as well as the medical schools of England and the Continent. He received marked attention and enjoyed unusual advantages on account of his peculiar and valuable prison experience. Soon after his return home, in September, 1846, he was induced to undertake the "volunteer" editorship of the Philadelphia Journal of Prison Discipline, but fortunately for his professional interests, was obliged, by ill health and other impediments, to withdraw after the conduct of a single volume. IIe then devoted himself more exclusively to pro- fessional pursuits, partly in connection with, and partly in- dependent of, his father. Although his attention was largely absorbed by practice, he contributed for years in succession, over the signature of " E. II.," critical and analytical re- views, and bibliographical notices of leading works to the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, the leading and oldest medical quarterly in the United States, long known as one of the best, if not the best, in the language. He wrote numerous similar papers for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner, and the Philadelphia Medico-Chirur- gical Review. His review of the " Beale case," published in the Medical Examiner ( 1855), had a large " run," two editions of the number containing it being exhausted in a few days, without supplying the demand, and it was largely noticed, discussed and quoted, in many cases in full, by newspapers, medical and dental journals. As a member of an Association of Lecturers-composed of some of the most promising young physicians of the day, engaged in the conduct of a summer session-he was for a short time occupied in the delivery of courses of lectures on medical jurisprudence, which, however, he was obliged to relinquish on account of pressure of professional duties. While yet a stuelent of medicine he was junior Secretary of the Philadel- phia Medical Society. He was Secretary of the first Prison Discipline Convention, held in Philadelphia about the year 1848; Secretary of the. first Sanitary Convention in the United States, held in Philadelphia; and for several years
Censors of the College, and Secretary of the Building Committee. He has been a number of years an earnest and active Manager of the Episcopal Hospital, having been Secretary of the Building Committee ; and he is also understood to have been the author of several of its Annual Reports. During the whole of its existence, he was Seere- tary of the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, having been active in organizing and establishing it. He was Chairman of the Committee of Arrangement of the American Medical Association for the meeting in Philadelphia, in May, 1862, an arduous and responsible post at the head of a large com- mittee, the results of whose labors were recognized very generally as a gratifying success. He has served as Vice- President and President of the Pathological Society, also of the Ophthalmological Society, both of Philadelphia. He has been Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Medical Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania since its organization, four years since, an office which has involved a large amount of executive labor. Ile was elected one of the Vice-Presidents of this Association during its first year, but withdrew, with others, to make way for older graduates. I'le was for seven years one of the Attending Surgeons to Wills' Hospital for Diseases of the Eye, and afterwards succeeded his father as one of the Attending Surgeons of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which position he was compelled, by ill-health and other occupations, to re- sign in the spring of 1864. During the War of the Rebel- lion he was constantly engaged as Acting Assistant Sur- geon United States Army, serving in the field during emer- gencies, and at other times as Consulting Surgeon at the McClellan, Nicetown, or other army hospitals in Philadel- phia. In 1863, while serving the crowded surgical wards of the Pennsylvania Hospital, in addition to the army hos- pitals, he was infected-through a scratch on his finger- with poison from the gangrenous shot-wound of a soldier, and during the three summer months of that year suffered from a painful illness, which nearly cost him his life, and resulting in a permanently injured-though not disabled- left hand. He has been called upon to edit several re- prints of English medical text-books; the most important and best known of which are two successive editions of the American reprint of Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, pre- pared with the express permission and subsequent approval of the author. He added numerous notes, the greater part of which the author himself afterwards introduced into the work, giving the American editor credit therefor. He is a veteran Life Insurance Examiner and Adviser, having been steadily engaged in the work since May, 1847, when he commenced with the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, and which he has never left ; he was one of the earliest of their insured members, and is now the Senior Officer of the Company, the oldest Life Insurance Medical Adviser in Philadelphia, and probably one of the oldest in
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the country. As an original officer and member, he has | those of the Republican party, and supported Fremont for always been deeply interested in its affairs; and may be regarded as having contributed much to assure the success of one of the oldest and staunchest companies in the State. He is one of the Vice-Presidents of the Princeton Alumni Association of Philadelphia. He has been connected, for many years, with the Church of the Epiphany, Rev. Dr. Newton, rector, and for a time he was a vestryman of it; and in his various fields of labor, has been an indefatigable ; worker, and an active originator and promoter of public and benevolent enterprises. He married, December 26th, 1850, Adelia C., widow of Oliver Pearse of Philadelphia, and daughter of John B. Swett of Philadelphia, formerly of Boston, Massachusetts. Of the five children given them, the eldest, a son, still survives.
ENSON, ALEXANDER, Banker, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 21st, 1794, and was the son of Richard and Catherine Benson. Ile was educated at Brown's Seminary, Balti- more, where he graduated at an early age with the highest honors, and was rewardedl by: being publicly crowned with laurel on commencement-day. He became familiarised with the dry goods, business in all its details, which was carried on in . Philadelphia, under the firm of Richard Benson & Son, and which gradually merged into the carpet trade. lle subsequently commenced -as banker and broker as one of the firm of Buckman & Ben- son, at No. 2 south Third street, and on the retirement of his partner, established the firm of Alexander Benson & Co., with a younger brother, which house continued for many years thereafter. He was probably engaged in this latter calling for fifty years, and was, for a long time a member of the Standing Committee of the Board of Brokers. At the time of his death, he stood Number Two on the list of members of the Stock Exchange, one member-B. P. Hutchinson, who is still living ( 1874)-having been elected before him. He was a Director in the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company. Ile retired from active business pursuits, January Ist, 1868, having left a record of great integrity and indomitable industry. He was frequently consulted by those who desired prudent and careful advice on financial matters, his judgment therein being considered pre-eminent. As a far-seeing banker and business man, it is safe to assert that he had few, if any, equals among his compeers in Philadelphia. His success in his business was perhaps partly owing to a strict attention to a legitimate banking career, without endeavoring to engage in gigantic commercial speculations, or trying to construct, on his own account, extended railroads which should be built rather by combined efforts than by individual enterprise. After having been known as an Old Line Whig for many years, he with numerous others merged his political sentiments into
President in 1856, Lincoln in 1860 and 1864, and Grant in 1868. But while taking a warm interest in politics, he never participated in any active way in a contest. . He never sought nor would accept office, preferring to live in the retirement of home, and thoroughly believing that " the post of honor is the private station." His favorite newspaper was the New York Times, under the regime of Henry J. Raymond. During the late rebellion, he was out-spoken in his views, as a staunch loyalist ; and contributed freely of his means in sustaining the government which protected him. After a life of industry, integrity, and spotless morality, he died calmly and quietly on the morning of May 13th, 1870, surrounded by his family, who think of him with fervent gratitude and affection, and mourn his loss with sincerity. As was eminently proper, he was borne to his last resting place in the Woodlands by the leading bank presidents of Philadelphia, who had so often relied on his judgment and sought his advice. He was married, April 27th, 1824, to Sarah, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Caleb North, of the Revolutionary Army, an honored member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and, at one time, High Sheriff of Philadelphia.
ANDRETH, DAVID, Seed-grower and Merchant, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1802. His father, who bore the same name, was a native * of England, and emigrated to America, settling at Philadelphia, where, as soon after as his circum- stances admitted, he established himself in the nursery and seed trade. He thus formed the nucleus of that which has since become a business of vast proportions ; each acre of that day is now represented by a hundred, occupied, operated, and tilled by his son and grandsons. Ilis son is the head of the present firm of D. Landreth & Sons, and, although now advanced in life, retains a personal interest in every movement designed to effect the prosperity of the house, with which he has been identified through life. In 1827, he was active in founding the Pennsylvania Ilorticultural Society, the first American association of its kind. In the following year, he was chosen as its Corres- ponding Secretary, which office he filled for nine successive years. Ilis rural taste, however, has not been bounded by that for horticulture. As an associate of the Philadelphia Society for the promotion of Agriculture " aptly styled the " fertile mother of all agricultural societies of the Union," he zealonsly co-operated for many years, and for two suc- cessive terms filled its highest official station. It was during his occupancy of the Presidency, that the United States Agricultural Society held its famous exhibition at Powelton, when the members of the parent society vied with each other to ensure its success. And this was secured, as never before, on such an occasion : forty thousand dollars-a large
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sum for that day-being expended for premiums, etc. His | in this country and Europe. He was married, June 11th, 1873, to Agnes Williams, daughter of General William A. Stokes, of Philadelphia.
rural writings are diffused through periodicals and pamph- lets ; some of the latter have attained a wide circulation, but are, in their character, fugitive and evanescent. His life has been one of too much action to submit to regular, sys- tematic authorship. He is now spending his latter days at Bloomsdale, on the Delaware, his residence for many years past. It is an estate of five hundred acres, devoted to seed culture ; but he has found room for an arboretum, princi- pally of cone-bearers and other evergreens, of interest to Botanists, and the admiration of all who love trees. These, with . experiments in steam-ploughing, and the use of advanced machinery for tillage and other rural operations, he finds an agreeable occupation, and ample verge and scope enough for mind and body.
A ROCHIE, CHARLES PERCY, A. M., M. D., Physician, was born in Philadelphia, April 23rd, 1834. He is a son of Dr. Rene and Mary Jane (Ellis) La Roche, and grandson of Dr. Rene La Roche, who came to this country many years since from St. Domingo, now the Republic of Ilayti. The latter was one of the most distinguished-both on account of his ancestry and talents-of the many who left that unfortunate country at the time of the great insur- rection. Charles Percy La Roche was placed in St. Mary's College, Baltimore, to avail himself of its educational ad- vantages ; and when that institution ceased to exist, in 1852, he repaired to Georgetown College, District of Columbia, where he graduated in the department of arts, in July, 1853. In the following month of October, he commenced the study of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, from which school he graduated in March, 1856, as Doctor of Medicine. Shortly afterwards, he became Resident Physician in St. Joseph's Hospital, where he remained about one year ; and then became attached to the Philadelphia Dispensary, where he fulfilled the duties of Vaccine Physician for some six years. In July, 1863, he entered the army, and was de- tailed for duty at the United States Army Hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania, where he continued for the space of eight months, and then resigned the service. In the year 1866, when St. Mary's Hospital was founded, he was ap- pointed one of the physicians, and to that institution he is still attached. His colleagues have been among the most prominent of the younger members of the profession. IIe succeeded his father, as a member of the Board of Health of Philadelphia, and with it he is still connected. He was elected a member of the County Medical Society, in 1856, and resigned therefrom in 1860. IIe is now a member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia ; of the Phila- delphia Medical Society ; of the Pathological Society; of the American Philosophical Society ; and of the La Salle Institute, all of Philadelphia, and of several societies both
USHI, RICHARD, Statesman and Diplomatist, son of the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and grandson of Richard Stockton of New Jersey, another signer, was born in Philadelphia, August 29th, 1780. Ile graduated at Princeton College in 1797, where his father and grandfather graduated, and was admitted to the bar in 1800. He was distinguished for his forensic abilities and fearless discharge of professional duty, while at the bar, and afterwards for the number, and variety of high appointments successively conferred upon him from an early period of life. He was appointed Attorney-General of Pennsylvania in 1811, by Governor Snyder; Attorney- General of the United States in 1814, by President Madi- son, who gave him the choice of that post, or the post of Secretary of the Treasury ; acting Secretary of State in 1817, by President Monroe, and six months afterwards, on the return of John Quincy Adams, from England, to be Secre- tary of State, he was appointed his successor as Minister to England, at the age of 37. He remained nearly eight years in England, and was recalled in 1825, by President , Adams, to be Secretary of the Treasury, on whose renomi- nation as President he was nominated with him for Vice- President. In 1831, he declined a nomination for the Presidency from the Anti-Masonic party of Pennsylvania, when William Wirt (Monroe's Attorney-General) was afterwards nominated. In 1836, he was appointed by President Jackson to go to England, and recover for the United States the Smithson legacy of $500,000 to found at Washington an institution " for the diffusion of knowledge." This trust he executed successfully, and returned with the whole fund in gold, depositing it on the day of his return at the Mint in Philadelphia. Jackson had previously sent him, with Colonel Howard of Maryland, to Ohio and Michigan, to endeavor to settle amicably a boundary dispute between those States; a mission which had the best results. In 1847, President Polk appointed him Minister to France, with the unanimous confirmation of the Senate. While in France he was the first of the foreign ministers to recognize, without waiting for instructions, the new Republican form of government, then first established there since 1792, on the dethronement of Louis Philippe. On his return home, he was appointed by Congress a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and continued actively to discharge that duty till his death, July 30th, 1859, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. While minister to England, he helped to lay the foundation of the celebrated Monroe doctrine. While there and in France, he was the associate and correspondent of Castlereagh, Canning, Wellington, Brougham, Jeremy Bent-
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ham, Wilberforce, Guizot, and Thiers. Subsequently he published his Recollections of the English and French Courts, Washington in Domestic Life, etc., etc. He married in 1809, an elegant and accomplished woman, Catherine Eliza Murray, daughter of Dr. James Murray, of Annapolis, Maryland, by whom he had several sons and daughters. His integrity was spotless. The obituary notices of his death bore testimony to the fidelity with which " he per- formed the duties entrusted to him through the confidence of successive administrations ; " that " his private life was free from reproach ; " that " he was singularly truthful and fearless, and wronged no one," and that "he died with the calmness of a Christian."
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USII, BENJAMIN, eldest son of Richard Rush, 6 was born in Philadelphia, January 23d, 1811. He was educated in England, while his father was United States Minister there. He graduated at Princeton College, 1829, with the highest honors, being the valedictorian of his class. Admitted to the bar in 1833, he immediately entered into active practice, at first in the United States Courts, with Henry D. Gilpin, then United States District Attorney. He was nominated for the legislature in 1834, by the Demo- cratic party of Philadelphia, and again in IS35, when Muhlenberg was candidate for Governor, receiving each time the highest vote of any candidate on his ticket. Ile was one of a Committee of the Bar to accompany to Vir- ginia the remains of Chief Justice Marshall, who died in I'hiladelphia, in 1835. In 1837 he was appointed Secretary of Legation, at London, where Andrew Stevenson was Minister. IIe remained there four years, being part of the time Charge d'Affaires, while the celebrated Lord Palmers- ton was Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and was thus brought into official relations at an early age with one of the greatest statesmen of the century. Among the more serious questions with England at that time, were those of the North-Eastern Boundary ; the slaves, liberated off the Bahamas, ultimately paid for while Mr. Stevenson was Minister, and the memor- able case of " The Caroline." IIe returned, in 1841, to his profession, devoting himself to it with zeal for many years, with his brother J. Murray Rush, and repeatedly declining to be a candidate for office, though frequent and earnest in the expression of his opinions at public meetings, and through the newspapers, on the stirring political topics of the day. In 1849, he married the only daughter of Dr. William Simpson, of Pittsburgh, by whom he has two daughters. Always of the Democratic party, like all his family, he nevertheless supported zealously the war to put down the rebellion, and was among the first to sign the memorial from the people of Philadelphia to President Lincoln for the preservation of the Union at any cost. In November, 1860, he published An Appeal for the Union, occupying an entire side of a
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