USA > Tennessee > Sketches of prominent Tennesseans. Containing biographies and records of many of the families who have attained prominence in Tennessee > Part 62
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In 1859-60 he spent the greater part of his time in trav- eling over the country-from Canada to Mexico, includ- ing twenty-six States and Territories of the Union, his object being to gratify his love of observation.
In October, 1861, he went into the Confederate army as surgeon of the Forty second Tennessee regiment, under Col. William A. Quarles, and in this regiment served till it was captured at Fort Donelson, in Feb- ruary, 1862. When the troops were about to be sur- rendered Col. Quarles informed him that the officers would not be allowed to go with the men, Dr. Ussery instantly replied: "With your permission, then, I will not go to prison." Making his escape, he proceeded to Murfreesborough, joined the army under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and was by him assigned to duty as surgeon of Col. Stanton's Fourteenth Mississippi regi- ment of Zollicoffer's brigade, and was, by seniority of his commission, brigade surgeon until after the battle of Shiloh, when, at his own request, he was detached to rejoin the Forty-second Tennessee, which had just been exchanged and was then at Jackson, Mississippi. Ar- riving there, he was ordered to report to Gen. Bragg at Chattanooga, where he was appointed by Gen. Polk as assistant medical inspecter of his corps. He served in this capacity seven months, after which, his health being broken down by dysentery, he was transferred to hos- pital service at Lagrange, Georgia, by order of Adjutant- Gen. Cooper, Confederate States Army, and remained there eleven months as a member of the reserve sur- gical corps and in charge of a hospital of three hundred beds. He was then ordered to Atlanta and participated in the surgical duties of the battles of July 23 and 28, 1864. Returning to his post at Lagrange, he remained three months in charge of the sick and wounded who could not be moved after the battle of Atlanta. At the end of this time he was ordered to West Point, Miss- issippi, with his hospital, and there remained three months in comparative idleness. After Gen. Hood retreated from Tennessee, he removed his hospital to Enterprise, Mississippi, where he remained in charge till the surrender, having done service at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Stones River, Chicka- mauga, Missionary Ridge, and Atlanta, At Fort Pou elson he was shot through the clothing and also stunned by the bursting of a shell in such close proximity to him that it produced severe bleeding at the nose.
The war over, Dr. Ussery returned to Montgomery county, completely broken down in fortune, but resumed practice and has been practicing till this time, a good deal of the time, however, trading successfully in to bacco and land. He is now in partnership with J. Edwards, dealing in leaf tobacco, at Clarksville.
Dr. Ussery spent four years of the best part of his life preparing for his profession, studying nothing else. the next went to what he considered the best school as a private student under one of the oldest and most. widely known professors in the United States, his ainbi-
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tion being to give himself, by this means, a professional standing, subscribing wholly, cordially and practically to the code of ethics of the American Medical Associa- tion, which has been his uniform guide in his relations with the profession. Adding to this first-class training his methodical habits of study; and by means of his honesty and fair dealing, he has made a name among the standard physicians of his country. He is a member of the Montgomery County Medical Society, and was formerly a member of the Tennessee Medical Associa- tion.
Politically, Dr. Ussery was an old line Whig until the revolution and breaking up of parties by the war, which threw him into the Democratic party, with which he has acted and voted since that time. While taking no active part in polities, he has felt a sufficiently warm interest to vote intelligently.
He is a director in the Grange Warehouse Associa- tion, at Clarksville, a position he has held since 1877, when the association was organized, and when he was the purchaser of the building which they now occupy. This association has been eminently successful, and its sales of tobacco, which were eleven thousand hogsheads in 1878, now average some seven thousand hogsheads per annum.
He was made a Mason in Clarksville Lodge, No. 89, in 1854, and has taken all of the Chapter degrees. He has been a member of the Methodist church since his sixteenth year; was at one time class-leader, is now steward, and has been twice elected a lay delegate to annual conferences of his church, serving once in 1873. His parents were zealous Methodists, and all of their children and grandchildren, who have lived to adult years, have joined that church. No member of the family has ever been known to be drunk or to have sworn an oath. Family pride, based on such a record as this, is at once pleasing and honorable.
Dr. Ussery's father, John W. Ussery, a native of Lunenburg county, Virginia, born in 1798, immigrated to Tennessee in 1816. purchased a farm in Montgomery county, where he lived until his death, in April, 1879, at the age of eighty one. He married, in 1822, a lady who had been raised in Virginia with him, boy and girl together, and who had come to Tennessee in the same wagon train. He was a very successful trader in land, and was punctiliously honest in all his dealings. His characteristics were promptness and decision. His father, William Ussery, of English blood, died in Lu- nenburg county, Virginia, in middle age.
Dr. Ussery's mother, nee Miss Rebecca Neblett, was a daughter of William Neblett, who died in Franklin county, Virginia. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, as was also his son, John L. Neblett. Her mother was a Miss Love, of Irish stock. The Neblett family is one of the most numerous in Montgomery county, and were among its carly settlers. They are still numerous in Virginia, and are largely and creditably represented in
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Louisiana and Texas. Dr. Ussery's mother, eighty-two years of age, is now living with her son. A Methodist, the strictest of the strict, tolerating nothing mean, dis- honorable or prevaricating in her children, she is still as zealous as ever for her church and all its institu- tions, giving freely to all its charitable enterprises. Dr. Ussery was the fourth of seven children, and is now the youngest living. His brothers, William and John R. Ussery, are successful farmers in Montgomery county.
William Ussery married his cousin, Miss Aun Eliza- beth Neblett, daughter of Dr. Josiah Neblett, a promi- ment physician of Montgomery county, and has ten children, Josiah Neblett, Ethelbert, Lucy (now wife of
Alexander Lyle), Sterling, Wilmur, Lewis, Katharine V., Mary, Benjamin and William.
John R. Ussery married Miss America Smith, of; Montgomery county, also has ten children, Ida (now wife of John R. Steele, Esq.), George, William, Eliza- beth, Maud, Robert, Edwin, Eloise, Frank and Norman, Dr. Ussery's sister, Sarah Ussery, married Rev. James M. Smith, a Methodist minister and a magistrate of Montgomery county. They have eight children, Euge- nia, John, William, Dean, Benjamin, Fannie, Rebecca, Jane and Mary. Another sister, Mary Ussery, died the wife of P. 11. Keesce, leaving three children, two, o24 whom survive, Charles C. and Virginia Lee.
Dr. Ussery himself has never married.
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JABEZ P. DAKE, A. M., M. D.
NASHVILLE.
D R. DAKE was born at Johnstown, New York, April 22, 1827. His father, Dr. Jabez Dake, was børn at Saratoga, New York, and his paternal grand- father at Bennington, Vermont, where he took part in the famous battle with the British. Ilis mother was born at Smithfield, Rhode Island, as also were her an- cestry for several generations.
The paternal stock was English, first located at Hop- kinton, Rhode Island, about 1680; and the maternal was Welsh, first entering Rhode Island with the colony of Roger Williams. His father emigrated to what was called " the West," locating in the fertile valley of the Genesee, about the year 1830.
Of relatives there was quite a large settlement in the town of Portage, and village of Nunda, Livingston county, as there had been for two generations before at Greenfield, Saratoga county. His mother's maiden name was Sophia Bowen; and the Bowens, like the Dakes, were numerous and well known in Saratoga county. The Dakes and Boweus of Chicago, Pittsburg and Michigan sprang from the Saratoga stock.
The subject of this sketch inherited from his father the sturdy enterprise of the English, and from his mother the untiring industry and perseverance of the Welsh. He also, if such a thing be possible, inherited the gift of healing from his father, who was regarded as almost a natural healer, so great was his success, with limited educational advantages. His eldest brother, David M., and the next, Channey M., were physicians, the former graduating at Castleton, Vermont, and the latter at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His fourth brother. William 11., was also a graduate in medicine. but followed dentistry, when that art was new, as a specialty, David M. Dake, M.D., was well known as a most successful physician and surgeon at Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, near which city he now resides in retire- ment. with an accumulated competency. Chauncey M. Dake, M.D., was one of the earliest practitioners of homeopathy in this country, having settled at Geneseo, New York, when there were hardly a dozen physicians of that faith west of New York city. He died at Roch- ester, New York, a few years ago.
Beside these brothers Dr. Dake hadone other, Abram B., who died at Nunda, while yet a young man. He had three sisters, the eldest married to James McClellan, the second to Lyman Hoppins, both having several children, mostly residing in Michigan. The parents have passed away, Mrs. Hoppins leaving a son, Chauncey I. Hoppins, M. D., at present a successful physician at Geneseo, Illinois.
Dr. Dake's youngest sister was married to James D. Crank, a prominent merchant for many years, at Gene- seo, New York. She died several years ago, at Cincin- nati, Ohio, leaving six children. Mr. Crank is now residing at Pasadena, California, where he is interested in orange groves and vineyards. His eldest son, Hon. J. F. Crank, member of the California Legislature, is one of the leading capitalists of the Los Angeles region. His second son, Charles D. Crank, M.D., is practicing medicine at Cincinnati, and holds a professorship in the Pulte Medical College, of that city. His youngest son is, also, a physician, located at Los Angeles, California.
It may be mentioned that Dr. D. M. Dake's only son is an eminent physician at Belleville, Illinois, and his son-in-law, F. W. Skiles, M. D., till the time of his re- cent retirement, was in a large and lucrative practice in the city of Brooklyn, New York. The only son and child of Dr. C. M. Dake, is at present a well-known practitioner of the healing art in New York city.
It is a noteworthy fact that every member of this
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numerous family of medical men has adopted the views of Hahnemann, including the father of the subject of this sketch, as well as his sons, hereinafter to be men- tioned. And it must be said that Dr. Dake's mother was one of the earliest and most active advocates of temperance, urging its claims persistently when social custom and fashion were all in favor of the free use of intoxicants. She favored moral reforms and denounced shams, and urged independence and vigor of action in all good measures, evincing the spirit of her Roger Williams, Quaker-Baptist ancestry. . While her hus. band was a mild-mannered and good man, distinguished among his friends as a great peace-maker and benefac- tor, she was independent of thought, resolute of purpose and uncompromising in her efforts for what she deemed best. If her sons and her grandsons have shown little regard for the orthodox and the authoritative, the germ of it all must be traced to her as the parent and ex- emplar.
As a boy, Dr. Dake applied himself diligently to study for several years in the Nunda Academy, and then at Madison University, Hamilton, New York, spending his last, or senior, year of literary study at Union College, Schenectady, then under the presidency of the great Dr. Eliphalet Nott. From this college he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts, in July, 1849. Up to the time of his graduation, at the age of twenty-two, he had been constantly in school, except for one year, 1815-6, which he spent in Tennessee, as principal at the Bethany Tu- stitute, about twenty miles east of Memphis. While in Tennessee his father died, occasioning his speedy return for the settlement of the estate and care of his mother. Finding his patrimony only sufficient to start him in some modest business, or to put him through the bal- ance of his college course, he determined to use it for the latter, much against the urgings of his family. Be- ing the youngest and only child left unmarried, his mother would have kept him with her at home, but yielded to his carhest purpose to finish his education.
On his way to Hamilton, having allowed the stage- coach to go on while he stopped to call on an old friend. five miles short of that place, he was walking the dis- tance alone, when, on gaining an eminence, he caught a first view of the old university buildings, three miles away, across the valley, and halted suddenly to take in the scene. After an earnest survey and the recollection of the doubts expressed at home as to his physical ability to continue so long at study, he said aloud, " There I will go through or lose my life in the attempt." With that resolution he went down the road and across the beautiful valley to the battle ground of college hopes and fears. One year his mother took a house and remained with him at Hamilton.
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Though obedient to college rules, a time came when he refused to yield to a requirement of the faculty which he and nine-tenths of the students considered an impo- sition. Seeing a determination to enforce the obnoxious
measure; and not desiring to put himself in open rebel- lion, he asked for and received an honorable dismission to Union College. When the storm broke, and a hun- dred and fifty young men were suspended for insubor- dination, he was peacefully pursuing his studies at Schenectady. The independent way of thinking and high resolves, gained by inheritance, were greatly fos- tered by the teaching and example of Dr. Nott. At that time no American college was turning out larger classes of better and more courageous thinkers, destined to make an impression on the world, than was old Union. Dr. Dake stoutly maintains. that no college president and no college system, in America or else- where, have been, or over will be, superior to those of Union in her haleyon days, from 1820 to 1860. The list of her graduates during that period has names that adorn almost every useful walk in American life.
In regard to occupation, the subject of our sketch had not fully determined. , At the age of sixteen his mind led toward the law, and he began to read Black- stone in the office of an eminent lawyer; but, coming often upon lengthy Latin quotations, that he could not readily read, he concluded, after a few months, to return to school. Before he had reached the end of his college course, his mind had received strong religious bias, and he felt that he ought to preach. But dyspepsia and throat affection, and a tendency, not unnatural, to the profession of his father and elder brothers, finally decided him to study medicine; and, after leaving Schenectady, he went to Pittsburg and entered the office of Dr. Gustavus Reichhelm, an edu- cated Prussian, the first to bear homeopathy west of the Alleghanies (1837). He took a course at Geneva and another at Philadelphia, graduating from the Homee- opathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1831. Ilis thesis, or graduating essay, on " Medicinal Forces," was afterwards published in the American Journal of Homeopathy, and also in some foreign journals.
Returning to Pittsburg, he succeeded his brother in practice, and the following year became associated with his medical preceptor, Dr. Reichhehn. The latter re- moved to Philadelphia in 1853, leaving him a large clientele.
The ungenerous attacks upon the new school of med- ical practice in the city papers, found in the sucesssor of Dr. Reichheh a ready disputant. Files of the leading daily papers of Pittsburg, from 1819, show con- troversial articles from his pen that led his opponents to recognize in him a literary as well as medical scholar of no ordinary rank. He was solicited to become an associate editor of the Philadelphia Journal of Home- opathy, and, afterward of the North American Quar- terly Journal, of New York. Both of these have articles showing his ability as a writer.
In 1855, he was called to occupy the chair of materia medica and therapeutics in his alone nutter, the first
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fully organized homeopathic college in the world. For two winters he left his practice with his junior associate, Dr. J. C. Burgher, and delivered a course of lectures in Philadelphia. Finding his health impaired by the double work in 1857, be resigned the chair and its agreeable duties at the college, and devoted himself' en tirely to the work at Pittsburg.
At the meeting of the American Institute of Home- opathy, the national society of the new school, in Chi- cago, in 1857, he was elected to the presidency of that body. The following year he delivered the annual ad- dress before the same, in the city of Brooklyn. In the year 1855, while general secretary of the institute, by an carnest appeal, he succeeded in rallying the profession so as to increase the attendance largely at the following meetings in Washington, Chicago and other cities. In that same year he was one of the orators in Philadel- phia, at the great celebration of the centennial birthday of Hahnemann. But, notwithstanding all these public duties, he was constantly building up a large business at home. In 1859, he wrote a small work on " Acute Diseases," for domestic use chiefly, which has appeared in several enlarged editions since.
Much work finally took effect upon his health, and in
: 1863 he was forced to retire to his farm, at Salem, Ohio. Leaving the choicest medical clientele, up to that time, ever gathered at Pittsburg, he turned his mind and worn down physical energies to the cultivation of fine fruits, especially the grape. Succeeding in that, as in medicine, he was soon at the head of the Grape Grow- ers' Association in . Ohio. During his administration Mr. Charles Downing, Mr. Barry and other distin- guished pomologists, were brought to the south shores of Lake Erie to see the wonderful display of grapes. But the declining health of his wife and the need of a milder climate, led him to think again of Tennessee. In the spring of 1869, he removed to Nashville and opened a medical office among strangers. It was not long, how- ever, till the reputation made at Pittsburg followed him here. One of his earliest clients said to him one day, " Doctor, you haven't sent me any bill for your services -don't you need some money ?"-to which he replied, " No, sir, I brought some money along." He came to Nashville, not as a mendicant, nor as a novice in what he proposed to do. Business came more rapidly than he expected, not through any tricks or adroit advertis- ing, but because he had earned it by study and close attention to business for many years. It was soon dis- covered that he was not a horse-trader nor a saloon loafer, nor a society seeker, and that he was a physician. Nor was his pen idle: He soon issued a revised and enlarged edition of his work on "Acute Diseases," a pamphlet on the " Remedies We Use," a larger one on "Therapeutics in Outline," this latter being a display of the leading principles and methods of therapeutics, especially showing the true position and relationships of the law, similia similibus curentur. He has written !
many other pamphlets on medical and sanitary topics, besides numerous papers for the national society and for medical journals. As chairman of the bureau of materia medica in that society, he conducted import- ant investigations for several years, touching drug at tennation and materia medica improvement. On the latter subject he submitted an important paper at the World's Convention, in Philadelphia, in 1876, and on the latter. one at the World's Convention, in London, in ISSE. By his efforts in this country, and those of Dr. Richard Hughes; in England, a large Cyclopedia of Drug Pathogenesy is being published, of which. Pr. Hughes is editor for Great Britain, and Dr. Dake for America, pach being designated for that position by his respective national society.
But. not alone in medicine has the Doctor been inter- .. ested and at work. At an annual meeting of the man- agers and friends of the Nashville Woman's Mission Home, the late Rev. Dr. Baird moved the appointment of Dr. Dake as chairman of the advisory board, in order, as he said, to secure the building of a hospital, an addition greatly needed by that institution. Very soon thereafter the new chairman, had each manager supplied with a small subscription book, bearing his own name and that of his wife for a liberal sum each, and by the time the architect had his plans and specifications made, money enough was subscribed on the little books to warrant the giving out of the contracts for the build- ing ; and in less than a year the hospital addition was ready for use.
And, in 1853, the Doctor, always fond of paintings and other products of the fine arts, believing that the time had come in Nashville for fostering the interests of art, called a meeting of all the artists in the vicinity, and of the friends of art. for the organization of a society. The result was the Nashville Art Association, an institution made up of the best people in the community, already grown beyond the question of success, with him at its head as president.
Dr. Dake has for years contended against legislative enactments for the regulation of the practice of medi- cine by boards of censors, and has written much on the subject. He objects to the drawing of a line, or basing a license to practice, on the possession of a diploma, since, as he contends, the most dangerous medical im- postors and quacks have diplomas. He advocates a law requiring each practitioner to write his personal history on a register, kept for the purpose and open to public inspection, in the office of the county clerk, under oath, telling what he has done to quality himself for practice and to merit the confidence of the sick. His motto is, " Light for the people and freedom for the physician." Though possessed of as many and as good diplomas as any medical man in the State, he says : " Let every man stand on his practical merits, not on the small gather- ings of his school-hoy days.
In the spring of 1875, Dr. Dake broke down, from
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over-work, and went to Europe, traveling through the British islands, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzer- land, Italy and France. His active brain found work of a most agreeable and refreshing character in those old countries, with cathedrals, palaces and collections of art. He returned, fully restored, late in the following autumn, and resumed his accustomed work. The fol- lowing winter he was called to the chair of principles and practice in the old college at Philadelphi hia, and went there, lecturing through the winter to a large class. At the close of the course, he resigned the chair, being convinced that his wife's health would not allow her to reside so far north in winter, and he not willing to. go there alone.
In the summer of 1881, he again went abroad, more for medical purposes, to attend the World's Convention in London, and to visit the hospitals of the old world. Ile traveled much in England, visiting the great seats of learning and the best hospitals there and in Holland, North Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Hle traveled, also, in Norway, Finland and Russia, as far as St. Petersburg. He was especially inquiring into the "Swedish movement cure," and the " massage " treat- ment. In London he visited Dr. Roth, the great trans- lator and writer on those subjects, and Dr. Metzger in Amsterdam, who was treating more patients by those methods than any other physician in Europe.
Dr. Dake has no military record nor political history, having devoted his whole mind and energies to the healing of the sick. He has never sought office and is thoroughly independent in the use of his vote.
He has been a Royal Arch Masou for twenty - five years, though now for several years not an active or affiliated one. On arrival in Nashville he refrained from visit- ing the order, determined that no one should accuse him of making use of such introductions to gain busi- ness.
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