USA > Wyoming > Pioneer physicians of Wyoming Valley [1711-1825] : an address before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society > Part 4
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Louisa, married Decker.
Sarah.
Nancy.
Dr. Nathaniel C., married Mary C. Leach.
Myra, married Stephen Reynolds and Elisha Blackman. James L., a physician.
At the Baptist Centennial, in 1876, a paper on Dr. Gid- dings was read by Elder Wm. K. Mott, in the course of which he said :
"In 1792 Dr. Giddings came to Pittston from Norwich, Conn. He was then 21 years old, married, and was the first physician in the settlement. The doctor was called to part with his excellent wife by the hand of death many
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years before I knew the family, but the cloth on that hospit- able table was spread by another whose worth it was my privilege to estimate by personal acquaintance for many years. I knew Dr. Giddings for a period of eighteen years, and spent more hours with him in pleasant and profitable conversation than with any other man now living or dead during the same time. He was a specimen of the complete New England gentleman in his day. His social powers were of the very first order. It was a charm to listen to him. His piety was warm and deep, but not spasmodic. I never knew him gloomy or discouraged in his views of matters, however depressing they might seem. In his profession he stood unrivaled at the time of his advent in this Valley, and for many subsequent years. He had the largest and best selected private library, at the period of my first acquaint- ance, that I had met with, and he knew what it contained. He manifested a deep interest in all the great questions that agitated the world. He was prompt and punctual in his attendance on all meetings of the Church. Unlike some physicians, he found time to look after the welfare of his patients without losing his place in the house of God. The doctor loved singing, knew how to sing, and did sing to the last. For nearly seventy years he led the singing in the church. Age, for a portion of the time, impaired his voice, but the heavenly radience that beamed upon his face. indicat- ing not merely worship but ecstacy, more than compensated for the tremulousness of his voice, in estimating the power of this service for the edification of the church. He also served the church as deacon for many years with great ac- ceptance. Dr. Giddings continued to reside in Pittston until his death in 1851, at the age of eighty. He left a bequest to aid in the erection of the meeting house long afterward built, from which over $3,200 was realized."
Near the Giddings homestead, in Pittston, which was de- molished in 1898, was erected the first public school in Pitts- ton, which was taught by John Jenkins. This old school
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remained until 1810, when Dr. Giddings supervised the con- struction of another on the same site.
Dr. Giddings was a Baptist in religious faith and was immersed at Pittston Ferry by Elder William Bishop. He was a man of liberal culture, sound judgment, charitable, candid, a reliable adviser and a consistent Christian. He was one of the most devoted lay workers in the Baptist Church at Pittston. This church was established in 1776, but owing to the Revolutionary War its growth was slow and uncer- tain. In 1787 it had 32 members. Under James Finn, its first pastor, 134 members were reported in 1792. Dr. Gid- dings appears on the church records as early as 1802, and probably earlier. (Jubilee sermon by Rev. Geo. Frear, D. D., 1892.)
The Baptists were represented with the first party of Con- necticut pioneers who undertook to settle the Wyoming Valley in 1762-3. Elder William Marsh accompanied this party in its second visit, as its preacher and school teacher. They located at the mouth of Mill Creek, near Wilkes-Barre, and in 1763 the settlement was utterly destroved by a force of hostile Indians. Elder Marsh was among the slain. The survivors fled back to Connecticut and no further attempt was made to settle Wyoming Valley until six years later. Baptist missionaries made their appearance in 1773 and later, and in 1776 there was constituted at Pittston a Baptist Church for Westmoreland, a territory comprising the greater portion of northeastern Pennsylvania. There were 26 mem- bers, about half having letters of dismissal from the church at Warwick (then Goshen), Orange County, N. Y.
The grandfather of Dr. Giddings was Captain Nathaniel Giddings, a leading man in Norwich, Conn. Captain Gid- dings married, June 12, 1728, Mary, daughter of Captain Williams, of England, and their daughter, Mary, born No- vember 28, 1730, became the wife of Rev. Jacob Johnson of Wallingford and Groton, Conn., subsequently the first settled pastor in Wilkes-Barré.
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DR. ORLO HAMLIN.
The first physician to practice in Providence was Dr. Orlo Hamlin, who with his young wife, settled a mile north of Allsworth in 1813, but as Dr. Hollister says "this locality, fresh with ozone from the forest, offered so little compensa- tion to a profession without need of appreciation among the hardy woodmen, that the doctor removed the next year to Salem, Wayne County."
DR. SAMUEL JAMESON.
Dr. Samuel Jameson began practicing medicine in Han- over Township in 1799. He was the son of John Jameson, who came to Wyoming from Voluntown, Conn., in 1773. His father was in the Wyoming battle and escaped, but was killed by the Indians four years later, near what is now the Hanover Green burying ground, the spot being marked by a stone erected by his descendant, the late Stewart Pearce, one of the historians of Luzerne County. When the family fled down the Susquehanna River after the Wyoming battle, he, an infant of ten months, was carried away in the arms of his mother. They afterwards returned to Wyoming Val- ley. The genealogy of the Jamesons is given in the Harvey Book.
Dr. Jameson was born in Hanover Township, August 29, 1777, and died there March 27, 1843. On the 30th of Sep- tember, 1800, he was united in marriage to Hannah, daughter of Jonathan Hunlock, the knot being tied by Squire James Campbell. The doctor had three daughters, one of whom married Anderson Dana. (Harvey Book, 565.) He was a Mason, an assessor in Hanover Township, and a justice of the peace. In his later life he was actively identified with the Presbyterian Church of Hanover. Harvey describes him as a man of amiable character and of sound judgment and integrity.
He appears (Plumb, 250) on the 1799 assessment of Han-
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over, as having 400 acres of improved land, valued at $1500, a house, a yoke of oxen, a cow, a log house, a frame house and a frame barn. He also appears on assessment of 1830 (Plumb, 282). On page 437, of Plumb, his genealogy is given. His sister, Hannah, was the mother of Stewart Pearce, author of "Annals of Luzerne County," whose family monument at Hanover Green, refers thus to Dr. Jameson :
"Samuel Jameson, born in Hanover August 29, 1777, died March 27, 1843, married Hannah Hunlock, born July II, 1779, died March 6, 1851. Children : Maria, born June 14, 1801, died December 22, 1827; Eliza, born April 22, 1803, died June 8, 1818; Ann, born January 1, 1806, died May 27, 1832, married Anderson Dana. Children: Maria E. Dana, born March 6, 1828, died December 19, 1849 ; Augusta P. J. Dana, born May 31, 1830, died October 26, 1848. Family extinct." (Egle's Notes and Queries 2d S. ii. 312.)
He lived about one mile north of Nanticoke, on the River Road, since known as the Dr. Harry Hakes' place. Squire Jameson was one of the best and most favorably known of the early physicians, and his was the place where the over sanguine farmers were bled by the same hand that pulled the teeth and ears of our bashful grandmothers. He was a farmer and justice of the peace.
DR. LATHAN JONES.
Dr. Lathan Jones was an early practitioner of medicine in Wilkes-Barré, though how early, I have not been able to learn. He died January 11, 1867, aged 71 years. His chil- dren were James (who was identified with the Wyoming National Bank), William L., Alvin, Caroline (who married Edward Walter), Harriet (who married Thomas Wilson), and Annie, who was unmarried. He practiced medicine for many years on North Main Street, near Union, adjoin- ing the residence of Dr. C. S. Beck, as early as 1824. On
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the occasion of his death the Record of the Times said of him
"For many years Dr. Jones was one of our most respected citizens ; a congenial companion, an excellent physician, quiet and unobtrusive, a warm advocate of the temperance cause ; he pursued the even tenor of his way and we have never heard he had an enemy in the world. For the past few years he has resided in Abington, but died in Wilkes-Barré while on a visit to his son, James. His was a green old age, but time touched him lightly and his step still retained much of the elasticity of youth."
DR. JOHN MCMILLAN.
There was a Dr. John McMillan, a graduate of the Univer- sity of Dublin, who settled in Exeter Township about the time of the massacre, living on lands belonging to Lieut. John Jenkins.
DR. MORELAND.
About 1814 or 1815 a Dr. Moreland practiced a couple of years in Plymouth and was succeeded in 1816 by Dr. Ebene- zer Chamberlain.
DR. ANNA MORSE.
Col. Wright, in his history of Plymouth, says that the first physician residing in Plymouth, so far as he knew, was Dr. Anna Morse, a stout, old lady of 200 pounds, of whom he gives some entertaining reminiscences. Col. Wright says she invariably prescribed for all disorders a hemlock sweat and a dose of calomel and jalap. She also kept a licensed tavern.
DR. GEORGE MINARD.
There was a Dr. George Minard.
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DR. REUBEN MONTROSS.
In 1812 there settled in Exeter an eccentric individual, Reuben Montross, whose practice is described as some- thing on the faith cure order. He was reputed to be the seventh son of a seventh son, no daughters intervening to break the magic chain. Later he removed to Northmore- land and traveled through Wyoming County and the region above. Although an uneducated man he had a great reputa- tion for setting broken bones and dislocated joints, and for curing chronic sores. He consequently exerted upon the scattered and superstitious inhabitants of the country a power long felt, and they credited him with almost miraculous gifts. He was thought to have the power of "taking the fire out" of burns.
Here is a reminiscence of an old settler, which shows how he was looked upon by the country folk :
"Yes, I remember Dr. Montross. He went up to Nehe- miah Ide's ; the old lady had been bedridden for seven years, but before he left her he ordered her to go down and bring him cider from the cellar, and she did. Yes, she was well for years after. A man had a swollen face from the toothache, and the doctor put his finger against his cheek and the swell- ing left and went into his fingers. He had great power and I do not understand it. He did not give much medicine."
Dr. Hollister says he was born in Duchess County, N. Y., in 1770, and died in Wyoming County in 1857. His second wife was the mother of Angelo Jackson, father of Ernest V. Jackson, of the Luzerne Bar.
DR. THOMAS WRIGHT MINER.
Dr. Thomas Wright Miner, born in Wilkes-Barré, August 23rd, 1803, was the eldest son and second child of Asher and Mary (Wright) Miner. He was a nephew of Charles Miner, the historian of Wyoming, and a cousin of William P.
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Miner, the founder of the Wilkes-Barre Record. He ac- companied his parents to Doylestown, where he resided until 1825, when, having been graduated from the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, he returned to Wilkes- Barré to practice medicine, and resided here until his death. He was a man of marked genius. He was not only a skillful and successful physician and man of business, but he was a pleasing writer and a graceful speaker. He wrote ably, and his ideas were always clothed in beautiful language. When the Wyoming Artillerists of Wilkes-Barre, left for the Mex- ican War, a public meeting was held in the M. E. Church, the soldier boys being presented with Testaments. Dr. Miner made the address. He gave some attention to journalism and edited the Wyoming Republican at Wilkes-Barre from 1837 to 1839. A lecture, entitled "Our Country : its Dangers and its Destiny," was a masterly production. For many years he was active in politics-especially during the anti- Masonic era-and in 1832 was a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Andrew Beaumont. He was an anti- Mason. He married Lucy E. Bowman, born October 12th, 1806; died May 15th, 1842, daughter of Ebenezer and Esther Ann ( Watson) Bowman of Wilkes-Barre. Doctor Miner died at Wlikes-Barré October 21st, 1858, and was survived by his son, Dr. E. Bowman Miner, who was a prac- ticing physician in Wilkes-Barre. (O. J. Harvey's History of Lodge 61, p. 477.)
DR. ISAAC PICKERING.
Dr. Isaac Pickering came to Wilkes-Barre from Massachu- setts, and about 1820 married Nancy, daughter of Judge Jesse Fell. He removed from Wilkes-Barré to Catawissa where he practiced medicine for a time, and then moved up to Pittston and boarded with Samuel Fell, on what is known as the Richard Brown place, just below Marcy's. From there he removed to Huntington, where he continued to practice, boarding for a time with Esquire Dodson. From
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there he removed to Michigan, where he and his wife died, leaving two children, Elizabeth and Isaac. He was reputed to be a graduate of a medical college, and quite skillful. He was a man of large size, weighing 190 to 200 pounds, with black, curly hair, and of an intelligent, imposing appearance. This information was derived from Steuben Jenkins.
DR. WILLIAM R. N. NICHOLS.
Dr. William R. N. Nichols was practising at Abington until his death in 1824.
DR. ELEAZER PARKER.
Dr. Eleazer Parker migrated from Connecticut to Great Bend, Susquehanna County, in August, 1807, where he prac- ticed two or three years. He married a daughter of Jona- than Dimon, and in the year 1810 he moved to Kingston, Luzerne County. He was a teetotaler and never prescribed alcohol in a practice of 60 years. In his old age he returned to Susquehanna County where he died about 1877, at the age of about 95 years. It is interesting to note that he had an extra finger on each hand, and, as I am informed by Dr. L. L. Rogers, this peculiarity passed to his daughter, Mrs. Holgate of Kingston, and through her to her children. In 1808 he was appointed the first postmaster in Susquehanna County. He introduced vaccination into Susquehanna County. His practice extended over a circuit of 50 miles. In 1808 he successfully performed tracheotomy and removed a watermelon seed from the windpipe of a two-year old child. During the war of 1812 he was examining surgeon of the 35th Pennsylvania Regiment. (Blackman's History of Sus- quehanna County, page 86.)
DR. ROBERT H. ROSE.
Not everybody knows that Montrose was founded by a physician. An interesting old volume in the Osterhout Li- brary, is entitled "Letters From the British Settlement in
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Pennsylvania," dated 1819. The author is "C. B. Johnson, M. D.," though this is believed to be only a non de plume. The book bears both a Philadelphia and a London imprint and was intended to induce English mechanics and others to settle on the lands of Dr. Robert H. Rose, in Susquehanna County, he having purchased 100,000 acres along the New York line. Montrose (or Mont Rose) perpetuates his name. The book resulted in attracting quite a number of English and Scotch people, but the British Settlement niet with many discouragements incident to frontier life, and did not prove to be of very long duration, though many of the pres- ent population are descendents of these hardy people. The volume is accompanied by two steel maps, one showing such portion of the United States as was then opened for settle- ment, extending but little beyond the Mississippi River. The other map shows such portions of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey as were contiguous to the British Set- tlement, indicating also the turnpikes, one leading eastward IIO miles to Newburg on the Hudson, where steamboats were running from New York, a second leading to New York, 130 miles, and a third to Philadelphia by way of Wilkes-Barré. The country was painted as a paradise, and the map predicted great improvements in the way of stage roads which never came. A "proposed canal" connected the Lehigh at about what is now Penn Haven Junction with the Susquehanna near Nescopeck Creek, and another con- nected the headwaters of the Schuylkill at about Nesque- honing, with the Susquehanna at Nescopeck-two canals from Carbon County to the Susquehanna over the roughest of mountains. Still another "proposed canal" connected the Lehigh at a point near Stoddardsville with the Susquehanna at Wilkes-Barré.
Dr. Rose was a pioneer of whom Susquehanna County may well be proud. Though his schemes were visionary in some particulars he was a generation or two ahead of his
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time, and it was left for others to profit by his early labors. He lived in splendor in the northern wilderness and his scheme was so promising as to elicit favorable mention from Hon. Charles Miner in his newspaper. Many interesting particulars of Dr. Rose and his British Settlement, together with an engraving of his place in the wilderness, are given in Miss Blackman's History of Susquehanna County.
DR. SILAS B. ROBINSON.
Dr. Silas B. Robinson settled in Providence, Pa., in 1822 or 1823, where he practiced his profession nearly 40 years. So long had he lived in the township and so well was he known for his blunt manners, blameless life and kind heart, even with all his pardonable eccentricities, that his presence was welcome everywhere and his sudden death in 1860 was widely lamented. He was born February 25, 1795, in Hart- wick, N. Y. Dr. Throop in "Half Century in Scranton" says he received his diploma from the Otsego Medical Society in 1821. He had a large practice in Lackawanna Valley and neighboring counties. Dr. Hollister said of him:
"During his long practice he always carried his own medi- cine, which he purchased in Wilkes-Barré, at the nearest drug store, 19 miles away. He always went on foot, no matter how great the distance or urgent the case. A colt once ran away with him and never afterwards would he ride in a wagon. He always carried his rusty turnkeys to twist out teeth. He had two peculiarities, one was to always read the Bible at the bedside of his patient, and the other was his great habit of profanity. He would rarely utter a sentence without an oath. He had no competitor in the field, while Dr. Nathaniel Giddings, at Pittston Ferry, Dr. Andrew Bedford, of Abington, and Dr. Thomas Sweet of Carbondale were his nearest colleagues."
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DR. JOHN SMITH.
At a meeting of the Luzerne County Medical Society, held October 21, 1896, Dr. Olin F. Harvey presented a portrait of Dr. John Smith, one of the early members of the society. He subsequently read a biographical sketch, from which the following extracts are made :
"Dr. John Smith of Wilkes-Barré, was a native of Kings- ton, Luzerne County, where he was born November 4, 1789, the son of Captain Benjamin and Welthea Ann (York) Smith. Captain Benjamin was son of Captain Timothy, who was son of John. The last named was an original proprietor in the Susquehanna purchase, and was a justice of the peace in Wyoming in 1772.
"Through his mother Dr. John Smith was descended from Lieutenant Thomas Miner, and also from James York, both natives of England, but early settlers in Stonington, Conn."
Miner says in his "History of Wyoming," that Captain Timothy Smith, the paternal grandfather of Doctor John, "was a leading man in the Susquehanna Company, at their meetings in Hartford, before settlement was made in Wyom- ing. Choosing Kingston for his residence, his name is re- corded as one of the '40,' or earliest settlers. *
Captain Benjamin, father of Dr. John, was a man of singu- lar benevolence, and an admirable nurse of the sick. When, in 1815, the typhus fever prevailed throughout the country, he threw himself in the midst of it, took the disease and died." The "typhus" fever mentioned was denominated by Dr. Edward Covell of Wilkes-Barre, in 1819, as pulmonic fever, and was described as having been "epidemic over the country generally" in the winter of 1815-16. There were eleven deaths due to it in Wilkes-Barré-the population of which, at that time, was only seven hundred.
Captain Benjamin Smith was also Doctor Benjamin, for he was not only "an admirable nurse of the sick," as Miner
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has recorded, but was a practicing physician for a number of years in Kingston. He died there January 19, 1816, aged 57 years.
In August, 1815, Dr. John Smith began the practice of medicine in New Troy (now the Borough of Wyoming). For twenty-one years thereafter he made New Troy his home, although his practice was not, by any means, confined to that locality. In 1836 he removed to Wilkes-Barre, and leased his home in New Troy to Dr. George Wurts, who succeeded to a share of his practice on the west side of the river.
When Dr. Smith located in Wilkes-Barre (1836) the pop- tilation of the borough was only fifteen hundred, and there were already in practice here at least three active, intelligent physicians-E. L. Boyd, Thomas W. Miner, and Lathan Jones. There may have been others, there certainly were others residing in Plymouth, Hanover and Kingston, who shared, with the Wilkes-Barré doctors, the practice through- out the valley.
Dr. Smith worked diligently in his profession, and for years-even up to within a few years of his death-his field of practice extended from Pittston to Nanticoke. From the outset he had his share of the general practice in the valley, and, owing to his kindheartedness and easy-going ways, had more than his share of non-paying patients. He was always particularly kind and attentive to those whom he knew to be poor and in straitened circumstances, and during the Civil War it was his rule to make no charge for professional ser- vices which he rendered to the families of men who were en- listed and serving in the union army, unless they were well able to pay for the services.
In 1819 Doctor Smith was appointed, by Governor Find- lay, a justice of the peace in and for Kingston Township, and for several years he performed the duties of the office. During the years of his middle-age he devoted considerable
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attention to politics. In 1828 the anti-Masonic political party sprung into existence. It flourished in Pennsylvania until 1838, during that period many of the prominent citizens of Luzerne County allied themselves with the party, and became active workers and leaders in it, among them being Chester Butler, Oristus Collins, Col. H. B. Wright, Sharp D. Lewis, Dr. T. W. Miner and Dr. John Smith. The party was at its zenith in this State in 1835, when Joseph Ritner, their can- didate, was elected Governor. He appointed Dr Smith Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts.
Dr. Smith held these offices until February, 1839. Upon the adoption of the new constitution in 1838, the office of prothonotary became elective, and in 1840 Dr. Smith was a candidate for it, but was defeated by Dr. Andrew Bedford of Abington.
For several years Dr. Smith was a member of the Borough Council of Wilkes-Barre, and was president of it from May, 1850, to May, 1851. He was also for a time president of the Board of School Directors.
During his residence in Wilkes-Barré quite a number of essays on various subjects were contributed by him to the local newspapers. During the last years of his life there was printed in The Record of the Times of Wilkes-Barre, a series of articles written by him, which was denominated by the editor as "chapters of exceedingly interesting history."
Doctor Smith was married in 1814 to Mehitable Jenkins of Kingston, a granddaughter of John Jenkins, Esq., an early settler in Wyoming, a justice of the peace for several years, a representative from Wyoming, or Westmoreland, to the Connecticut Assembly upon several occasions, and prom- inent in other ways in this locality for several years. John and Mehitable (Jenkins) Smith were the parents of five sons and five daughters. Mehitable (Jenkins) Smith was born March 18, 1796, and died July 6, 1862. Mrs. Gould P. Parrish was her daughter.
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Doctor Smith having practiced his profession in Wilkes- Barre for nearly thirty-three years, died here August 24, 1869, in the eightieth year of his age, and his remains were interred in the old cemetery at Forty Fort.
DR. JOSEPH VON SICK.
The Wilkes-Barre Federalist, for November 2, 1810, men- tions the presence of Dr. Joseph von Sick, and Dr. G. W. Trott speaks a good word for the new-comer. The doctor subsequent got to be treasurer of Luzerne County, and while in that office he re-issued county orders that had been redeemed and for which he had been credited. See Quarter Sessions Records of Luzerne County for indictment, 1815.
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