History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 73

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 73

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In June, 1832, he was elected professor of surgery in the Medical College of Georgia, then just organized in Augusta, in which institution he was engaged in teaching during the seventeen consecutive courses of lectures that followed, adding greatly to its reputation and prestige.

In 1850 he was called to succeed Prof. Samuel D. Gross in the University of Louisville, Ky. As to how he filled the chair vacated by this world-known and eminent com- per is amply evidenced by the fact of his receiving the unanimous vote of trustees, faculty, and students, soliciting him to remain, when, at the expiration of a year, his wife's health failing, and thinking that the locality of Louisville did not agree with her, he determined to come to the capi- tal city of our own State.

In 1851 the Medical Department of the University of Nashville being in process of organization, he was solicited and accepted the chair of surgery, which he occupied until 1868, when, the death of Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell oc- curring, he accepted the chair of surgery in the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, thinking that the great city of the West would give him a larger field for future use- fulness and success. The extreme rigor of that more northern latitude being too severe, in his estimation, for his family and his own advancing years, he remained only two sessions, resigning his position and returning to Nashville, where he again accepted a chair in the Medical Department of the university of that city,-viz., that of operative and clinical surgery,-which he most ably and creditably filled until the beginning of 1877, when he united his last great and untiring energies in building up a new institution for teaching honorable medicine in the city for which he had done so much, the Nashville Medical College, now the Medical Department of the University of Tennessee. The unprecedented success of this new educational enterprise and its flourishing condition at the time of his death- having over one hundred matriculants and fifty-seven grad- uates in its last session-was but another mark of popular confidence in this eminent instructor, additional evidence of his tireless energy and indomitable courage, and an elo- quent commentary upon his conscientious services in the cause of medical education.

Prof. Eve, up to the time of his death, had resigned or declined calls not only in the Medical College of Georgia, University of Louisville, and the Missouri Medical Col- lege, but also to the Philadelphia Medical College, when its founder, Dr. McClintock, died; to New Orleans; to Memphis; Columbus, Ohio; Medical Department of the University of Nashville on two occasions; and also to the University of New York on the death of Dr. Gran- ville Sharp Pattison. Yet among all his varied appoint- ments he most highly esteemed that of " Centennial Rep- rosentative to the Medical Congress of Nations," held at Philadelphia in 1876,-" one without a precedent, and to which no living man can succeed."

In the Mexican war, Dr. Eve's name headed the list of appointments of volunteer surgeons in the United States army made by the President.

In 1859 he left for the seat of war in Europe, going di- rectly to the battle-fields of Solferino and Magenta, commu- nicating to the profession on this continent his valuable ob-

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servations through the pages of the Nashville Medical and Surgical Journal.

In 1861 he was appointed surgeon-general of Tennes- see and surgeon of Johnson's hospitals ; also to serve on Army Medical Board for examination of surgeons and as- sistant surgeons in the provisional army. On the evacu- ation of Nashville, in 1862, where he lost all he possessed, he sadly walked out of the city of his adoption with his instrument-case under his arm, sore-hearted and tried, yet ever willing to do all in his power to aid and assist those who were giving up all they held dear for what they deemed a patriotic duty. He was ordered to the " Gate City Hos- pital," at Atlanta, where he remained until the battle of Shiloh, when he was ordered up to the front, and subse- quently did most able service at Columbus, Miss., and again iu Atlanta and other points in Georgia until the close of the struggle, his eminent and varied attainments amply sus- taining the daily and hourly demands made upon them.

In regard to his success as a teacher may be further stated the facts that the school at Augusta, Ga., increased from twenty-eight to one hundred and ninety-five in 1849- 50, a number never since attained; so also in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville the class went up from one hundred and thirty-six to four hundred and fifty-four, the largest ever attained on this continent out- side of New York and Philadelphia.

In 1851 he was the reporter on surgery to the American Medical Association, and president of the association in 1857-58, when its annual meeting was held in Nashville. In 1870 he reported to the association at its annual meet- ing the synopsis and analysis of one hundred cases of lith- otomy, chiefly by the bilateral method (his favorite plan of operating), and for their identification the name of the patient, residence, State, age, sex, race, where performed, number of calculi removed, their weight and composition, together with the future result, all being appended. This communication has been declared to be the chief in value of the volume of " Transactions" for that year.

Prof. Hamilton, in his " Principles and Practice of Sur- gery," published in 1873, says, " In regard to the bilateral method in lithotomy, especially is it proper to mention that this operation has been performed seventy-eight times, in persons of all ages, by Dr. Paul F. Eve, of Nashville, Tenn., of whom only eight have died,-a success which has rarely if ever been attained by any other operator, and which justly entitles him to the position he has so long occupied us one of the most skillful of American surgeons."

BUCHANAN (A. H.), M.D., professor, was born in Win- chester Co., Va., 1808; died at Stone Mountain, Ga., June 20, 1863. He was a kinsman to one of the editors of the well-known newspaper, the National Intelligencer, published in Washington City, and is said to have attracted the at- tention of Henry Clay, who advised him to come West. He first taught school in a log cabin in East Tennessee; then moved to Columbia, and there began the study of medicine. At the end of the first course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania he asked of the faculty a rigid examination, pleading poverty and inability to attend a second one. It is said, such were his qualifications, that they finally agreed to grant what he asked for upon the

condition that he would not reveal the fact until after the death of all those who would sign it. Dr. Buchanan now came to Nashville, and at the organization of a medical school in connection with its university was selected one of its professors, and contributed much to its success. He was ordered South when Nashville was occupied by the Federals, and died, as has been stated, in Georgia. He was a self-made man, and, but for one unfortunate habit, might have left the memory of a highly useful life spent in doing great good.

CURREY (RICHARD O.), M.D., was born in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 28, 1816. He graduated in the University of Nashville, and acquired from the celebrated naturalist, Dr. Troost, a taste for geology, mineralogy, and chemistry. He took the degree of M.D. from the University of Penn- sylvania. He was elected professor of chemistry in the University of East Tennessee, at Knoxville, 1846, and also assisted in organizing the Shelby Medical College, at Nash- ville, in which he filled the chair of chemistry. For several years he edited the Southern Journal of Medicine and Physical Sciences. In 1859 he was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church. He was a man wholly de- voted to duty, and while in charge of two thousand Fed- eral prisoners at Salisbury, N. C., contracted the disease from which he died (1865). The United States govern- ment ordered Dr. Currey's property returned to his family after the war.

DICKINSON (W. G.), M.D., came from New England, where he had graduated in medicine. He removed to Franklin about the year 1816, previous to which he had spent a short time in Nashville. He was a man of noble impulses, and did more in surgery than any of his asso- ciates. He was brigade-surgeon in the Florida war ; retired from practice in 1830, and died soon after.

DOUGLASS (ELMORE), M.D., was born in Sumner Co., Tenn., about the commencement of the present century. He studied medicine under Dr. Shelby, in Nashville, went to Lexington, Ky., and graduated there in 1820. The late disastrous war found him practicing in his native county, where he took a firm stand against secession, and when foiled by the action of his State went to California to see some of his family who had preceded him there, but, finding they too opposed his politics, the old gentleman re- turned to his native home to die, as it were, of a broken heart, about 1865.

About the year 1795, Dr. William Dickison and Dr. James Hennen came to Nashville and entering into partner- ship, opened, as was the custom in those days, an apothecary- shop, and soon acquired a large practice. Dickison came from North Carolina, and after retiring from business was sent to Congress ; he had also been a member of the body which framed the constitution of this State. He died February, 1816. Dr. Hennen came from Ireland, and went to Louisiana, where he died soon afterwards.

EPPERSON (JACOB POLLARD), doctor, was born near Nashville, 16th March, 1812; died in Pulaski, Tenn., of phrenitis, Aug. 2, 1866. He studied medicine in Alabama ; attended lectures in Cincinnati, where he became the pupil of Dr. Drake. In 1840 he settled in Pulaski and acquired an extensive practice. Dr. Epperson cultivated a taste for

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geology and mineralogy ; wrote some philippics against quackery, patent medicine, etc., and demonstrated the con- servative and restorative powers of nature. After his death was found the evidence of what comfort and strength the Bible had been to him in his declining years.

FORD(JOHN PRIOR), M.D., professor, was born in Cum- berland Co., Va., Jan. 7, 1810; died in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 17, 1865. When he was three years old his widowed mother moved to Huntsville, Ala., where he commenced the study of medicine under two noted physicians, Drs. Fearn and Erskine. He took his diploma from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and began to practice in Florence, Ala., but soon removed to Columbus, Miss. He was also a short time in Clinton, in that State, but in 1842 settled permanently at Nashville, where for nearly a quarter of a century he was one of its leading practitioners. He was one of the founders of the Shelby Medical College, and became its professor of obstetrics and discases of women and children. Dr. Ford secured a high reputation as a Christian gentleman, and died in full faith of a blessed immortality.

EWING (FELIX), doctor, born in Davidson Co., Tenn., 1800, was educated at Nashville, and attended lectures at Lexington, Ky. Unfortunately paralyzed amidst a life of . great usefulness, he was compelled to retire twenty years before his death, which occurred in 1862.

GOODLETT (ADAM GIBB), doctor, surgeon United States army, was the son of a Scotch- Presbyterian preacher, and was born in Orange Co., Va., October, 1782; brought in infancy to Kentucky, where he commenced the study of medicine, and went afterwards to Philadelphia to attend the lectures of Drs. Rush, Barton, etc. After returning home to Kentucky he began to practice in Lexington, but, the war coming on soon after, he joined the army, and was made surgeon to the Seventh Regiment Infantry. He served to the close of the war, 1815, and was then sent to Europe on a special mission. In 1819 he resigned his commission and came to Nashville, Tenn. Here he prac- ticed to 1848, when he retired to a farm in Rutherford County, and died there suddenly of heart-disease while seated in his chair, April 19th of that year. His remains are interred at Mount Olivet, near this city. Dr. Goodlett was quite a large man, of strictly temperate habits, very energetic, and died in full faith of the Christian's hope.

HASKINS (EDWARD BANNCH), M.D. (honorary), pro- fessor, was a Virginian ; took a course of lectures at Tran- sylvania University, at Lexington, Ky., and then selected Clarksville, Tenn., for his future home. When cholera in- vaded that town, he sent so graphic a description of it to the faculty of his Alma Mater that they conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine. Ile was spe- cially devoted to chemistry, which he taught in a literary college; and at the organization of the second school of medicine in Nashville, 1855, he was elected professor of the theory and practice of medicine. After two sessions failing health compelled him to resign, and he died April 14, 1858. He was a man of great integrity, was talented, and of discriminating judgment.

HOGG (SAMUEL), M.D., member to Congress, etc., was born in Caswell Co., N. C., April 18, 1783; died 28th May,

1842. He was one of the most noted of the medical pro- fession of Tennessee. His father was a major in the war of independence. It was his mother who gave Col. Tarlton the famous reply when he had expressed a great desire to sce Col. Washington. " You might have done so," said she, " had you looked back at the battle of Cowpens." When prepared to practice medicine, Dr. Hogg came with the tide of emigration to this State, and settled first at a small village on the Cumberland, went next to Lebanon, and in 1812 accepted the position of surgeon to a regiment, de- scended with it the rivers Cumberland, Ohio, and Missis- sippi to New Orleans, and was a participant in the celebrated battle fought near that city. His military campaigns made him very popular, and he was sent to the State Legis- lature and to Congress. In 1840 he was made presi- dent of the State Medical Society. Dr. Hogg died of consumption when near seventy years of age, having, like a wise man, set his house in order, and after a life well spent in doing good to all about him.

JENNINGS (THOMAS REID), M.D., was born in Steuben- ville, Ohio, in 1805; died suddenly at Narraganset, R. I., July 7, 1874, aged sixty-nine years. He was the son of a distinguished divine, and inherited uncommon talent. He took his literary degree at Washington College, Pennsylvania, and graduated in medicine in the University of Baltimore. He came to Tennessee in 1828; soon after delivered an address to the medical society, which received high com- mendation ; this, with the invasion of cholera in 1833-34, introduced him to a large practice, which he retained to the late war. He opened here the first dissecting-rooms, and first taught anatomy in Tennessee. For three years he was senator in the State Legislature, and afterwards declined a nomination to Congress. In 1854 he was elected professor of the institutes of medicine and clinical medicine in the Nashville University, and in 1856 was transferred to the chair of anatomy. The class increased then from two hun- dred and forty to four hundred and nineteen, and reached in 1859 to four hundred and fifty-six, being the largest ever assembled west of the mountains or in the Mississippi Val- ley. The death of his wife in 1870, together with a severe illness in 1861, and the terrible disasters of the war between the States, so affected his mind that life became no longer desirable. Dr. Jennings received a classical education, had a fine address, a most retentive memory, so that he could recite poems, was a ready debater ; manifested great taste for literature, yet was ever devoted to his profession, in which few succeeded better. Coming to Nashville a poor boy, he not only maintained a handsome establishment and liberally assisted his immediate relatives, but accumulated a large fortune by his practice. As a general practitioner of med- icine he had no superior in Tennessee.

GILLESPIE (RICHARD), doctor, was born July 2, 1785, in Sumner Co., Tenn. ; died March 4, 1826. He was the son of a pioneer of this State; received, nevertheless, a good education, and studied medicine under the elder Yan- dell (Wilson). He attended one course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania ; practiced at Cairo, then a thriving town on the Cumberland River, above Nashville, where he had good success for several years.

McNAIRY (BOYD) was born in Nashville, Tenn .; died

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there in 1859. He was educated by one of the best classical teachers of his day, and graduated in medicine at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. IIe then settled in his native place, then a small town, and in time attained to an envi- able rank in his profession, for he had good points of charac- ter. He was noted for decision and sound judgment, which always inspired confidence. He took a decided stand against his neighbor, Andrew Jackson, but was an enthu- siastic admirer of Henry Clay.

MAY (FRANCIS), doctor, came to Nashville in 1790, and died there in 1817. He went to Knoxville in 1804, after an unfortunate duel, in which he killed a brother practitioner. Returning to Nashville he married a sister of the late Hon. Hugh L. White, and became an intimate friend of Gen. Jackson.

MAYES (SAMUEL), M.D., was born in Carlisle, Pa., in 1759. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, and settled first in South Carolina, but removed thence to Maury Co., Tenn., in 1808. He was a soldier in the Rev- olutionary war. He died in 1841.

MAYFIELD (GEORGE ANDREW), M.D., was born in Williamson County March 13, 1814; died of apoplexy while on duty in a hospital in Nashville, Tenn., July 20, 1864. Assisted by his brother, Dr. S. Mayfield, the presi- dent of the Tennessee Medical Society for 1873, he received a good education, and took his degree at the University of Nashville. He commenced the practice with his brother, then spent a winter in New York, married in Philadelphia, and returned to practice in Nashville. He declined a pro- fessorship in the second school of medicine in Nashville, and left many friends when suddenly cut off in the prime of life.

McPHAIL (DANIEL), M.D., was born in Scotland ; came to America in 1828, and settled in Franklin, Williamson Co., Tenn. He had a commanding personal appearance, was well educated, and made an excellent surgeon. He was specially devoted to this department of medicine, and died while brigade-surgeon to the Tennessee volunteers in the Mexican war of 1846.

There were at one time three Drs. Martin practicing medi- cine in Nashville. When only two they were readily dis- tinguished by the color of their hair, but when the trium- virate flourished, then came confusion worse confounded, especially among the colored population. As black- and red- head would no longer answer the purpose of designating them, the programme was radically changed, and the words " saint, sinner, and the devil" were substituted. The lat -. ter, we learn, was acquired by the new comer having de- manded payment for services rendered his patrons in a neighboring town after the usual year's credit. The first two bills presented were disputed, ending in both instances by the irate Esculapius giving each disputant a sound drubbing. After this our doctor's bills were all promptly paid on demand.

MARTIN (ROBERT), M.D., was born in Chatham County, N. C., 1799. His father was a physician, and, having moved to Alabama, his son commenced there the study of medicine, and was licensed to practice 1826. He attended a. course of lectures in Philadelphia in 1820, then moved to Nashville, Tenn., to enhance his practice, and was elected

physician to the School for the Blind. During the late war he went to Selma, Ala., and returned to Tennessee after it, where he remained to 1870, when he went to Knox- ville, and died there 28th January, 1873. The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred on him by the University of Nashville. He was a well-known member of the Methodist Church, and always exhibited the Christian character in his walk and conversation.

MARTIN (ROBERT C. K), M.D., a witty and popular physician of Nashville, was born near it Aug. 9, 1806 ; died in Nashville Feb. 9, 1871. He commenced practice in this city with his relative, Dr. Shelby, in 1833. He soon obtained a large practice, for he always exhibited a genial spirit, carrying heart and hand ever opened to all classes in the community. " Black-head Martin," as he was famil- iarly called, was known throughout the State. In 1861 he was partially paralyzed, and never again fully recovered ; nevertheless he continued to the last to do all he could for the sick and afflicted. Ever green should be his memory.

NEWNAN (JOHN), a noted physician of Nashville, Tenn., was born at Salisbury, N. C., about the year 1770. He was the fellow-student of Charles Caldwell, but at no time was there much friendship between them. He went to Philadelphia in 1790, where Caldwell found him the year after in the office of Dr. Rush. Dr. Newnan came to Nash- ville about 1810. . In manners he was formal, stately, and ceremonious, and in temper not very amiable. He never- theless succeeded well, for we have heard it said that usually to each cedar-bush then on the hill near his residence was found at least one horse tied, and every one of them had brought to him more than one patient. He bitterly op- posed vaccination, and inoculated his own son for the smallpox, greatly to the alarm and displeasure of his neigh- bors. He died between the years 1825 and 1827.

NEWNAN (JOSEPH CHALMERS), M.D., son of one of the carliest settlers of Tennessee, and he a doctor, was born in Nashville, 1818; educated in the Literary Depart- ment of its university, and wbile a student volunteered in the Seminole war. Ile subsequently studied medicine under his father, and received the degree from the Uni- versity of Louisville in 1840. He first practiced in Mis- sissippi, where he married a great-granddaughter of Gen. Greene of our Revolutionary war, who dying shortly after- wards, the doctor returned to Nashville. Dr. Newnan served through the Mexican war as assistant surgeon to a regiment, and in the war between the States was appointed assistant surgeon-general ; was subsequently attached to Gen. Polk's staff, and served also as surgeon-in-chief of Morgan's command. His health failing he resigned, and, returning to Nashville, died there in 186 -. He did good service also as assistant physician to the penitentiary in 1845-50, when the cholera attacked its inmates.

OVERTON (JAMES), M.D., professor, was born in Louisa Co., Va., August, 1785. He first studied law ; was admit- ted to the bar; when he abandoned that profession, went to Philadelphia and became a pupil in Dr. Rush's office. Such was the established reputation of Dr. Overton even then that through the influence of Henry Clay he was elected professor of materia medica during his lecture course in the Medical Department of Transylvania Univer-

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Engraved by Sabinal Sartain, Phil*

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Stayat & vertet Ky He delivered only one course of Grazie, we transfert a de the chair of practice, but re Sand wi come to & sale, Ton. He not long after wird for the professor theatre a large plan of South, det. I war this city.

Pat. Parker. A.M., M.D., profes- the learned professions in law at ( '[ .. . Mas ; a iology, at Princeton, N. J .; and in quel great the Whoerity of Pennsylvania ; each of de trading school of their respective de- for aids in the I'nited States. Dr. Porter next visited Far ge, where he continued two years, to better qualify him to fearthe his profession. Notwithstanding these special als u. s. - added to good rative ability, get he sa ever it. Sep se the most unpretentious of men ; ever meek in his " a esinetion but which er draget him the more to all class of the community. A Protest ut by profession. even an ordained minister, yet were the Catholies his best "it.4. On the organization of the M .. # A Department, I Diversity of Nashville, he was unanimously of ted the ogatesor of anatomy, and such was his devotive to day Jat he fell a viction to his zeal in prof sional teaching ; for che lecturing to a small class, by the imbibation of poi- sa. he became ill, and died July 1, 1856, in his thirty- . ath year, having been born in this city April 12 1515.

ROANE (JAMES), M.D., was for many years the beloved . I.siciar of Nashville; his temper and nonners won all n .. rts, and secured Lim the first poation in the profissi n. HT .. was the son of Governor Roane, and was born in Jeffer- son to., Ton., May, 1796. He acquired a dessied edu- wation in East Tennessee College. After studying medicine Ve . ared a disdoma in New York City. He now wal- i. hned Himself'in Na bitte, and succeeded to che reputation and lucrative practice of his eccent to perception, Dr. Now. man. Dr. Bonne was the first presided of the dirty, having been Seved at its organization in ! 234; gra hisad- dress for the occasion was solicited for publ att n. Iva while he decline? to have done. He was unfor money out of in the me ist of bis uscfulness by cholera in Isa3, fang .. u a victim, tou hix professional zeal 27th of February, having ter en goed night and day before this for a week

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 73

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013