HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 405

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

Character of Early Physicians—Biographical Sketches—Jabez True, Solomon Drown, Thomas Farley, William Pitt Putnam, Josiah Hart, William B. Leonard, John Baptiste Regnier, Nathan McIntosh, Robert Wallace, Samuel Prescott Hildreth, John Cotton, Jonas Moore, . S. B. Hemstead, Morris German, Felix Regnier, Hugh Trevor, Shubel Fuller, Dr. Stearns, Wilson Stanley—Present Physicians—Seth Hart, George 0. Hildreth, B. F. Hart, C. N. Eddy, J. D. Cotton, Simeon Hart, Samuel Hart, Z. D. Walter, James McClure, H. N. Curtis, Mrs. H. N. Curtis—Medical Societies.

PHYSICIANS.

Marietta has been favored with able and honest physicians since the year of the first settlement. It is frequently remarked that the professional classes of new settlements fill up with the failures of old and cultured communities. But the first settlement at Marietta was made under peculiar circumstances by some of .the ablest and best men of New England, and among them were physicians of sterling qualities and genuine merit. It is the aim of this chapter to give sketches only of the more prominent practitioners from the first settlers to the present time.

Jabez True, son of Rev. Henry True, was born in Ham- stead, New Hampshire, in 1760. It was the practice of the time for clergymen to instruct the youth and prepare young men for college. Mr. True had a class of this kind under his instruction. His son, Jabez, acquired sufficient knowledge of the languages to enable him to pursue a course of medicine with advantage. He read medicine in his native town, and completed his course near the close of the Revolution. He volunteered his services as surgeon of a privateer and sailed for Europe. Soon after commencing the cruise the vessel was wrecked on the coast of Holland, and the mariners thrown on the mercy of the Hollanders. Dr. True remained in Europe until the cessation of hostilities, when he returned to America and began the practice of his profession in New Hampshire.

Dr. True became a member of the Ohio company in 1787, and came to Marietta in the spring of 1788. He built a small log office on Muskingum street. The new country did not afford a lucrative practice, but it was a fortunate circumstance that skilled phyiscians were present. He was employed at the opening of the Indian war as surgeon's mate for the troops and rangers, at a salary of twenty-two dollars per month. During this time he also taught a school a part of the time in one of the blockhouses of the garrison at the Point.

The small-pox and scarlet fever broke out in 1790 and made it necessary for the doctor to visit the settlements, which, during the Indian war, could only be done by water as none but trained rangers trusted themselves to enter the roadless forest; visits at that time even by water were extremely hazardous, but the sick required attention, and he frequently risked his life to respond to the calls of duty.

Dr. True was celebrated for his kindness and sympathy. So far as it was possible he patronized the prejudices of his patient and never resorted to radical remedies, except in cases of absolute necessity. "The result of his calm, deliberative judgment was generally correct, and his treatment of diseases remarkably successful, which was doubtless owing to its simplicity, for it is a lamentable fact that too many die from too many and improper remedies as well as from disease itself.

After the close of the Indian war he improved a farm on the Ohio about a mile from Marietta, and took an interest in agricultural pursuits. His practice extended over a large area of territory, sometimes requiring him to ride twenty miles through forests and over bridgeless streams.

The practice of medicine at that time was by no means lucrative. The general poverty of the people necessitated low charges and in many cases no charges at all, neither for medicines or professional service.

Dr. True's devotion to the church cannot be omitted from any sketch of his life however brief He joined the Congregational church at an early period of its organization and was for many years a deacon. His house was a home for itinerant preachers, and his purse always open to needy charities. He was the "Gains" of Marietta, although for a town of its population, it abounds in men zealous and liberal in promoting good works. Dr. True, for several of the last years of his life, served as county treasurer, a position which afforded him ease and a moderate income.

In 18o6 Dr. True married Mrs. Mills, the widow of

* Dr. S. P. Hildreth.

406 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

Captain Charles Mills, an amiable and excellent woman. He had no children, but the children of his wife were treated with all the love and affection of a real father. He died during the epidemic of 1823.

Dr. Solomon Drown is known rather as a scholar and man of letters than as a physician. He came to Marietta in the summer of 1788, and attended on General Varnum as counsel during his sickness. He was selected to pronounce the eulogy at his funeral, which was published at the time in New England. He also delivered the address at the first Seventh of April celebration. About 1791 he was elected professor of botany and natural history in Brown university, of which he was a graduate. He filled the position for many years.

Dr. Thomas Farley came to Marietta in the summer of 1788 as the attending physician of General Varnum, who died of consumption in January, 1789. He was a son of General Farley, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and studied medicine at Salem, under Dr. Holyoke, in 1782. Colonel Barker says of him: "He was a modest, amiable young man, always ready to obey the calls of humanity, and had the good will and confidence of all who knew him." He soon became discouraged with the new country and returned in the fall of 1790 to Massachusetts.

William Pitt, fourth son of Colonel William Putnam, and grandson of General Israel Putnam, was born in Brooklyn, Connecticut, in 1770. He attended the schools of the neighborhood in the winter and worked on a farm in the summer. He was placed under the tuition of Rev. Dr. Whitney at the age of sixteen, and pursued a course in Latin and other studies preliminary to reading medicine. At the age of eighteen he entered the office of Dr. Waldo, of Pomfret, the distinguished surgeon of the Revolution. He attended a course of lectures at Cambridge in 1791, and in 1792 came to Marietta. He spent a portion of his time at Belpre, where his brother lived, but the Indian war made general practice dangerous and unprofitable. In 1794 Dr. Putnam returned to Connecticut when he married Berthia G. Glysson, and in company with his father's family came to Marietta in 1795. In 1797 he purchased the lot on the corner of Fifth and Putnam streets, on which his brother David afterwards built the Mansion house, now occupied by Colonel Mills.

Dr. Putnam in 1799 having become discouraged, although he was highly esteemed and had a fair share of patronage, determined to give up practice and turn his attention to farming. He purchased two hundred acres on the Ohio river, eight miles above Marietta, and with characteristic energy plied his hand in the clearing. The fatigue and exposure of forest life brought on bilious fever of which he died, October 8, 1800, leaving no children to inherit his name or fortune. His widow subsequently married General Edward Tupper.

Josiah Hart.—A venerable physician, during the early period of Marietta's existence was Josiah Hart, who was born in Berlin, Connecticut, in 1738. He attended Yale college for the purpose of preparing for the ministry, but after graduating in 1762 changed his intention and entered on a course of medicine. His first wife died in 1777, leaving seven children, two of whom settled in Ohio. He married, for his second wife, Mrs. Abigail Harris, a blood relative of the celebrated Miles Standish, whom Longfellow has immortalized.

Dr. Hart came to Marietta in 1796, and was in active practice until a xi, when he removed to his farm where he died from spotted fever in 1812. His wife died a few hours after and both were buried the same day.

Doctor Hart was one of the first deacons of the Congregational church and was a consistent, pious Christian. He had a strong love for science and was a regular attendant at the meetings of a chemical society, composed of physicians and others. This society met two or three evenings in a week, where experiments were exhibited and lectures heard.

Doctor William B. Leonard, was born in England, in 1737, and was bred a surgeon. He was an associate of Apothecaries Hall, London, and in the prime of life served as surgeon in the British navy. In 1794 he determined to engage in woollen manufacture in America, and as machinery was at that time prohibited from being transported out of England, Doctor Leonard determined to clandestinely bring it on the vessel on which he had engaged passage, but was detected, and imprisoned. Having been discharged he came to America in 1797, and engaged in medical practice in Massachusetts until 1801, when he came to Marietta. Here he married Lydia Moulton, daughter of William Moulton, a highly respected pioneer.

Doctor Leonard was a skillful surgeon, but was rough in his manners and language. His fantastic dress excited a great deal of merriment, and caused him to be followed about the streets by a company of boys, on whom he frequently showered terrific profanity. His dress was patterned after the gaudy fashion of the times of Queen Elizabeth. In person he was thin and spare with very slender legs. He wore a blue broadcloth coat trimmed with gold lace and enormous gilt buttons, a waistcoat of crimson velvet with enormous pocket flaps. His pantaloons were tight and of the same material. Tight silk stockings dressed his slender legs and heavy silver buckles ornamented the knees and shoes. On his head he wore a full flowing periwig, of which he had half a dozen varieties, and crowned with a cocked beaver hat. Over this clownish dress he wore a large scarlet cloak. Like his dress, his books, instruments, and skeletons were of previous centuries. Doctor Hildreth preserved several of these articles as curious relics. One of the books is entitled "Secrets of Master Alexis," and is filled with such recipes as were in use then, centuries ago. The book was printed in 1562. Dr. Leonard died in 1806.

John Baptiste Regnier.—All the old citizens of the Duck Creek and Muskingum valleys and of Marietta remember John Baptiste Regnier, and most of them cherish his memory as a personal friend. Medicine exerts a greater personal influence over its patients than any other profession. The patient who recovers from a serious malady is likely to retain feelings of the profoundest gratitude toward the man who has rescued him from pain or death.

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 407

Mr. Regnier was the son of a Parisian native, and was born in Paris in 1769. His mother kept a small store for fancy goods, and is said to have been a very handsome and stylish woman.

The family was loyal to the Government and the king, and as a consequence were sufferers of the convulsions which revolutionized France. John had acquired a good education and special attainments in architecture and drawing, which he intended to follow as a profession. Like all the better class of French students, he had also attended acientific lectures, and had paid particular attention to the department of medicine. In 1790, whet the young men were all called upon to enter the ranks of the revolutionists, the Regnier brothers who were loyalists decided upon leaving the country. John B., who was twenty years old, and Modeste, who was fourteen, joined the company of emigrants who had purchased lands from Joel Barlow, and came to the United States. They reached Marietta October 6, 1790, After a few days they embarked on boats, and proceeded to lands purchased from the Scioto Land company, and were among the founders of Gallipolis. Having lost their fortune and dreading the Indians, to, whom they were unaccustomed, the two brothers left their forest home and went to New York. On their way up the Ohio the boat was upset and all the effects thrown out; among them was a curiously wrought octagonal cylinder, which was afterwards found in a sand-bar below, and exhibited in an eastern museum as a legacy of pre-historic art.

For the next eight or ten years Dr. Regnier suffered varying but cruel fortune. But those years of uncertainty and hardship threw him into the profession for which nature had intended him. In the year 1802 he entered the office of Dr. Lemoine, his French medical friend at Washrngton, Pennsylvania, and in 1803 came to Marietta for the purpose of entering the practice. Monsieur Thiery, a French baker, sold him a lot in Fearing township, on which he moved and made improvements. It soon became known that he was a "French doctor," and from that time on his practice grew and his purse was filled. There was an unusual amount of bilious fever, in the treatment of which he was remarkably successful. He also proved himself a skilled surgeon. One case particularly extended his reputation. A man had been caught in the branches of a falling tree and was bruised from head to foot. The pulsations of his heart had ceased and the body was already cold when the doctor arrived. He ordered the attendants to kill a sheep and bring him the warm pelt as quickly as possible. The steaming skin was wrapped around the bruised and naked, body, and a cure, which seemed almost miraculous, was accomplished.

In 1808 Dr. Regnier removed to Marietta where he had previously been frequently called as counsel, and attending physician. His practice was extended over a wider range of territory, and drew heavily on his physical powers. In Marietta he became a great social as well as professional favorite. He was a cheerful and interesting talker, was full of sympathy and always ready to give

assistance.

He purchased a six acre lot and laid out the finest garden in the city. "It was a model from which divers individuals improved their own and ultimately implanted a permanent taste for this refining art to the citizens of Marietta."

He was one of the original members of the State Medical society organized in 1812. In 1818 he was elected county commissioner. In 1819 he sold his property in Marietta, to Dr. John Cotton, and purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land on Duck creek. He built a flouring- and saw-mill and a brick dwelling house. He also laid out roads, and built bridges. Up to that time the country was unimproved, but in a few years a prosperous settlement had grown up. He left Marietta with the intention of freeing himself of his laborious practice, but found it impossible. He was still called upon by his old patrons, in serious cases, and his strong humanity did not permit him to refuse. Broken down by overwork, he died of bilious remittent fever in August, 1821. Dr. Hildreth, his cotemporary and friend, has said of him :

Close discrimination and accurate observation of all phases and shades of diseases gave him wonderful tact in prognosis, the base of all successful practice, while his knowledge of the proper remedies rendered him very successful in their application. His colloquia powers were unrivaled, and at the bedside his cheerful conversation aided by the deep interest he actually felt in the sick, with his kind, delicate manner of imparting his instructions, always left his patients better than he found them, and formed a lasting attachment to his person in all who fell under his care. His death was lamented as a serious calamity, and no physician in this region of county has since fully filled the place he occupied in the public estimation.

Nathan McIntosh.—The subject of this sketch possessed the characteristic energy of his family. He was the son of Colonel William McIntosh, of Needham, Massachusetts, and born in 1762. His father was a man of considerable local note, having commaded a company in the Continental army, and subsequently served as colonel of militia. He was one of the delegates in the convention in Boston, in 1788, on the adoption of the constitution of the United States.

Nathan McIntosh, after receiving a suitable education, studied medicine in BostOn, and was admitted to practice in 1786. In 1788 he decided on going west, and started for Marietta on horseback. When he reached Meadville, Pennsylvania, he was attacked with small-pox, and suffered severely from the loathsome disease. He practiced for a short time at Hagerstown, Pennsylvania, and Clarksburgh, Virginia, and then came to Marietta in 1790. He received the appointment of surgeon's mate at the Waterford garrison at the salary of twenty-two dollars a month. He married, in 1792, Rhoda Shepard, daughter of Colonel Enoch Shepard, of Marietta, and granddaughter of General Shepard, of Massachusetts.

In 1793 Dr. McIntosh decided to accept an invitation extended by leading citizens of Clarksburgh to locate at that place, and removed his family there in July, under escort of fifteen soldiers. He was soon in possession of a large practice, but being full of adventure suffered a serious financial misfortune. He contracted to build a bridge across the Monongahela river at Clarksburgh, and warranted it to stand a certain length of time. But

408 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

soon after its completion the whole structure was swept away during a freshet.

Dr. McIntosh returned to Marietta in 1795 and resumed practice. His courteous and obliging manner and skill as a surgeon won him a large practice.

Jacob Young, the great itinerent Methodist, in his autobiography, commends the kindness of Dr. McIntosh in the most feeling terms. In 1805 the pioneer Methodist was stricken down with an attack of fever at a house where the surroundings were by no means pleasant. Dr. McIntosh took him to his house and not only doctored but nursed him during a long turn of sickness.

In religion Dr. McIntosh was a Halcyon, a sect embracing nearly the same doctrines propounded by the Second Adventists. He had previously been a Methodist. He wrote and lectured on religious and moral topics, being particularly severe on the secret societies. He published a volume on the subject of "Scripture Correspondences."

Dr. McIntosh, about 1806, turned his attention to the manufacture of bricks and building brick houses, working diligently in the brickyard and on walls. He died of fever September 5, 1823, during the prevailing epidemic. His family consisted of four sons and two daughters, a full biography of one of whom—Enoch S.,will be found in the chapter on Waterford; the other

children were Rhoda, wife of J. M. Chamberlain; William Whiting, Nathan Henry, Samuel Dooey, and Lucy Hulda, wife of Samuel Maxon, of Galla county.

Dr. Robert Wallace came from Pennsylvania to Marietta probably soon after the war. He was here in 1801. Dr. Regnier speaks of him as a very intelligent druggist." A society of physicians and young men of scientific tastes, was formed in the early part of the century. Experiments were performed under Dr. Wallace's direction, and he also occasionally delivered scientific lectures. His oldest son, Mathew Wallace, was a Presbyterian clergyman. His second son, David was a physician. The family removed to Cincinnati probably about 1809. Dr. David Wallace was one of the parties to the first and perhaps only duel in the history of the county. In the spring of 1801, a difficulty arose which resulted in Dr. Wallace challenging John Woodbridge to a duel. The island opposite Marietta was the place selected and pistols were the weapons chosen. The parties accordingly met, but Wallace's courage failed and he was willing to ask pardon. Woodbridge was not thus easily satisfied. He cut a stick and gave Wallace a good dressing. They were both present at the Seventh of April celebration, which occurred soon after. The song composed for and sung upon that occasion closed with the stanza:

''Here population lifts her hand

And scatters round her jewels,

And must honor take its island,

Producing bloodless duels ?"

No preface is necessary to an outline of the life of Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth. The reader already knows him, but an index to the labors of his busy and useful life, will be of interest and value.

He was born in Methuen, Essex county, Massachusetts, September 30, 1783. He was the son of Dr. Samuel Hildreth, and a descendent of Richard Hildreth, whose name is found amongst a company of twenty from the towns of Woburn and Concord, who, in 1652, petitioned the general court of Massachusetts bay, for a tract of land on the west side of Concord, or Musketaquid river, where they say "they do find a very comfortable place to accommodate a company of God's people upon." Samuel Prescott was of the sixth generation from Richard. Until he was fifteen years old he labored on a farm, there acquiring industrious habits and the power of physical endurance. A social library in the town afforded access to books, and a taste for reading was acquired at an early age, and until his death he was a devourer of books. After finishing the course of the common schools, he spent four seasons in Phillips academy in Andover, and at Franklin academy, which prepared him for entering college. In place, however, of completing a college course, he entered the office of Dr. Kittridge at Andover, and began the study of medicine. He received a diploma in 1805, from the Medical Society of Massachusetts, having attended lectures at Cambridge university.

Dr. Hildreth began practice at Hemstead, New Hamshire, the native home of Dr. Jabez True. He boarded in the family of John True, esq., through whom he learned of the professional success of Dr. True and the prospects for a young man at Marietta. From his boyhood he had entertained a desire to see the far west and in September, 1806, left his New England home in the hope of realizing his ambition. The journey to Marietta was performed on horseback and consumed about' one month. He says in his autobiography, It was a land of strangers; but he was young and his heart buoyant with hope and expectation of good fortune. He soon obtained a share of the practice, the Only; physicians then being Dr. True and Dr. Hart. Dr. Leonard had recently died, and Dr. McIntosh had abandoned medicine. His rides sometimes extended over thirty miles through the wilderness, the settlements being few and far between."

Belpre was at that time without a physician, and at the solicitation of leading citizens, Dr. Hildreth decided to locate there. He arrived at Belpre on the evening of December 10th, just in time to see the deluded Blennerhassett leave his island paradise to embark in Aaron Burr's perilous expedition.

The summer of 1807 was a busy one for physicians. The epidemic which raged all along the Ohio was particularly severe in the neighborhood of Marietta. Few families at Belpre escaped. Dr. Hildreth was particularly fortunate in his treatment of these cases. Practice at Belpre was excessively laborious on account of the amount of riding necessary. Over exertion during the summer brought on an attack of inflammation of the hip which continued several months. In the spring of 1808 he returned to Marietta, where the practice required less riding. The epidemic of 1807 furnished him the subject for a paper which he printed in the tenth volume of

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 409

the New York Medical Repository. From this time he became known as an acute, discerning investigator and faithful writer on scientific and historical subjects. He, however, continued his large and laborious practice until a few months before his death, in 1863. He said his profession, during earlier years, kept him busily engaged and his scientific and historical labor could be pursued only by saving the "odds and ends of time."

Dr. Hildreth was a man of decided political opinions. In 1810 he was elected to represent Washington county in the legislature, and again reelected in 1811, when he defeated Judge Cutler, the Federalist candidate, by twenty votes. Hildreth was a supporter of Jefferson and Madison, whose political teachings at this time had displaced the doctrines of Washington and Hamilton. In the same campaign Hon. William Woodbridge defeated Hon. William R. Putnam for the State senate, Woodbridge being a Democrat and Putnam a Federalist. They were four able men, and after the administration of Monroe had broken party lines, all found a home in the political camp of the Whigs. Dr. Hildreth, however, was never again a candidate for office, but never neglected to vote. While in the legislature he drafted and succeeded in having passed the first law regulating the practice of medicine and establishing medical societies, which remained in force until 1819, when all laws on the subject were repealed.

He held the office of collector of non-resident taxes for the Third Ohio district from 1811 until the office was abolished in 1819.

He became clerk of the trustees of the ministerial lands in 1810, and discharged the duties of the office until his death in 1863.

He was a Republican from the formation of the party in 1854.

Dr. Hildreth carried his research into almost every department of science, but natural history was particularly fascinating. In 1812 he published a paper in the Medical Repository on the American colombo, with a drawing of the plant. It is proper to state in this connection that he had a remarkable genius in drawing. Insects and plants were represented with scrupulous accuracy, and engravings made from them have a permanent value. The illustrations in his geological and botanical reports were prepared by his own hand. They show artistic ability, as well as accurate observation and close discrimination.

In 1822 he published in the New York Medical Repository two articles, one on hydrophobia and one on a curious case of Siamese twins, found in his obstetric practice. A full history of the epidemic of 1822-23 was published in the Journal of Medical Science, Philadelphia, in 1824. The author was well qualified to write on this subject, as he had visited daily sixty to eighty patients, and in August, 1823, was himself attacked. He arrested the disease in a few days by taking Jesuit's bark in quarter ounce doses. This was a trial of medicine to which few patients would submit. Sulphate of quinine had not yet come into use in Ohio, or by it many valuable lives might have been saved. An article was published in

1825 on the minor diseases, or sequela of the great epidemic, in the Western Journal of Medicine, Cincinnati. In 1819 he wrote a series of papers on the natural and civil history of Washington county, which appeared in Silliman's Journal in 1826. One of these articles gave a drawing and description of the spoonbill sturgeon found in the waters of the Ohio. In 1827, his articles contained descriptions and drawings of several freshwater shells found in the Muskingum, of which nothing had been known. His series of meteorological registers, published in that journal from 1828 till March, 1863, are useful for reference to writers on the climate of Ohio.

At the request of Professor Silliman, Dr. Hildreth undertook to explore the coal regions of the Ohio, the result of which was published in the Journal for January, 1836, under the title of "Observations on the bituminous coal deposits in the valley of Ohio, and the accompanying rock strata, with notices of the fossil organic remains, and the relic of vegetable and animal bodies, illustrated with a geological map, by numerous drawings of plants and shells, and by views of interesting scenery." The Journal says editorially that this was one of the most important of Dr. Hildredth's scientific labors, and by far the most valuable contribution which up to that time had appeared on the subject discussed. It filled an entire number (one hundred and fifty-five pages), of this Journal, and was profusely illustrated by figures of fossils, sections, and original drawings, embraced in thirty-six plates on wood. Articles on the history of the North American locust, saliferous rock formation, with a history of the manufacture, of salt from the first settlement of Ohio, Ten days in Ohio, a geological description of the country from Marietta to Chillicothe by way of Zanesville, and The Diary of a Naturalist, appeared in the same journal from 1830 to 1836.

In 1832 he wrote a history of the floods in the Ohio since the first settlement, which was published in the first volume of the transactions of the historical society of Ohio. In 1837 he was employed, in company with other geologists, to make a geological survey of the State. He delivered an address in 1839 before the medical society of Ohio, of which he was president, on the climate and diseases of southwestern Ohio, which was printed.

In 1830 Dr. Hildreth commenced the collection of a cabinet of natural history. While out on his daily professional rides he would stop to gather insects, shells, fishes, fossils, and minerals. He often employed boys in the country to do this service for him. When he returned from a drive he was in the habit of picking out the specimens he desired to keep, labeling them and placing them in cases. Duplicates were sent to eastern friends in exchange for books or specimens of that section. In the course of eight years his cabinet contained more than four thousand specimens, and his library a choice variety of works on natural history. Shortly before his death he donated his cabinet and library to Marietta college, where it is known as the Hildreth cabinet. "This donation made Dr. Hildreth one of four or five of the largest benefactors of the college."

410 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

In 1840 Dr. Hildreth turned his attention to writing a history of the first settlement of Ohio. He collected his material with great care from manuscripts and personal interviews, and wrote a book of five hundred and five pages, which will always be of interest and value. He was the means of preserving a variety of important history and interesting anecdote which would otherwise have been lost to posterity. His second volume of Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio was published in 1852. These two books have a permanent place in history. Dr. Hildreth, besides, contributed many interesting historical papers to the Pioneer, and a history of the first settlement of Belleville was published in the Hesperian. A journal of diseases each month, with a bill of mortality, was kept from 1824 till his death. A large amount of manuscript of permanent value, though never published, besides many smaller articles were among the products of his busy pen.

R. M. Stimson in summing up the character of Dr. Hildreth says forcibly:

He looked on the bright side of things—loved beauty, although of an eminently practical turn of mind—was very fond of flowers, which he cultivated diligently. Industry and system in all that he did may be accounted among his marked points. Besides his laborious medical practice, he accomplished, very much as he himself expressed it, by "saving the odds and ends of time." Without having a brilliant mind he exemplified the fact that "industry is talent." He was exact it, all his dealrngs, an honest man, a Christian. His was a complete life— he finished his work.

His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to alr the world : This was a man.

Dr. Hildreth's able and productive pen gave him an extended acquaintance among the scientific men of his day. He was one of the first pioneers of science west of the Alleghany mountains and was regarded as one of the most acute observers of facts of his time. Professor Benjamin Silliman, his warm friend, has written a feeling tribute to his memory:

In his private life he illustrated every virtue of a Christian gentleman. Bright and cheerful by nature, he loved nature with the simple enthusiasm of a child. Industrious and systematic in a high degree, no moment of life was wasted. In his family we have seen a beautiful example of domestic happiness and warm-hearted hospitality. He lived with nature and nature's God—and among the patrons and coworkers in this journal, who have left its founder almost alone, no one has shed a purer and more mellow light in the horizon of his setting sun—no one has departed more loved and regretted by the senior editor.

Dr. Hildreth died July 24, 1863, in his eightieth year. He had been in his usual good health, a well-preserved and happy old gentleman until a few weeks before his death. He sank away gradually, his mental faculties being preserved to the last. His funeral was on Sunday, July 26th, the services being in the Congregational church, of which he was a member. These last sad rites were conducted by Rev. Mr. Wickafield, of Harmar, and President Andrews, of Marietta college.

Dr. John Cotton was a physician well known and highly esteemed in his time, and is still remembered as a successful practitioner of physic and skillful surgeon. He was the son of Rev. Josiah Cotton, and was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1792. Rev. Josiah Cotton was

* Silliman's Journal, September, 1863.

a descendant of Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, and a graduate of Yale college. John entered Cambridge university at the age of fourteen and graduated in 1810 with honorable standing in his class. He received his medical degree at Cambridge in 1814, and began practicing in Andover, Massachusetts. In 1815 he married Susan Buckminster and came to Marietta, being attracted by the climate. In the latter part of the year he opened an office on the west side of the Muskingum, and soon acquired a comfortable practice, which grew with age and experience.

Dr. Cotton was an enthusiastic worker in the cause of religion. Immediately upon his arrival he set to work at organizing Sunday-schools, and in 186 one had been opened on the west side and two on the east side. He continued an enthusiastic Sunday-school worker and teacher. He accumulated a large collection of theological books, and at the age of forty studied Hebrew that he might be able to understand more fully and explain more satisfactorily difficult passages in the Old Testament.

Dr. Cotton was ardent in his opinions. He soon became a local political leader, and in 1824 was chosen representative in the legislature. In 1825 he was chosen associate judge and filled the position till the time of his death. For a number of years he was chairman of the Whig Central committee, and proved himself an adroit politician. He took delight in scientific studies, and often lectured in the Marietta lyceum and the young ladies' seminary. Astronomy was his favorite theme. He delivered an address in Latin on the occasion of the installation of the first president of Marietta college. He was one of the original trustees of the college and for many years president of the board. He was also trustee of the medical college of Ohio. He died unexpectedly after a brief illness of three days, April 2, 1847.

Dr. Jonas Moore was a native of New Hampshire, and was in the senior year at Dartmouth when his father died, necessitating his return home. He never returned to graduate. His whole family was soon after carried off by scarlet fever, and he came to Marietta where he taught school and studied medicine with Dr. S. P. Hildreth. He next went to Louisiana where he practiced for a number of years. He afterwards became one of the leading physicians of Marietta, where he died in March, 1856. He was a trustee of the college and took deep interest in educational matters. He was of a scientific turn of mind and invented a number of mechanical devices for use in surgery. He was highly respected as a man.

Dr. G. M. P. Hempstead was a native of Connecticut, came to Ohio in 1802, and found good facilities for obtaining an education in Muskingum. academy, where he was prepared for college. He was for a short time under the tutelage of Hon. Gustavus Swan, late of the supreme court, and Dr. Jonas Moore, of Marietta. He graduated from Ohio university in 1813, being the first literary graduate of that institution and consequently the first in Ohio. He received the degree of A. M. in 1822 and LL. D. in 1879. He began the study of medicine in

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 411

1813, and in 1816 went to Waterford where the spotted fever had become epidemic. He was there three or four months. He is now practicing in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Dr. Morris German was a native of Shenango county, New York. He attended lectures and received a diploma in New York city. He located in Harmar during the epidemic of 1823, and in a short time was in possession of a full practice, which was held until his death in 1835. Dr. German was a contemporary of Hildreth and Colton, and held an honorable standing in the profession. He died at the age of thirty-nine.

Dr. Felix Regnier, the second son of Dr. J. B. Regnier, was born in Otsego county, New York, in 1801. When he was two years old his parents moved to Marietta, Ohio, where he received a liberal education and began the study of medicine under Dr. S. P. Hildreth. He received a diploma from the medical society of Ohio 1824, and that year began the practice of his profession at Gallipolis, Ohio. In 1831 he removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he remained two years and then came to Marietta. He had an office in Harmar and was regularly engaged in practice here until April, '1866. During the succeeding eleven years he travelled, in the hope of improving his wife's health. After her death in 1877 he removed to Carthage, Illinois, where he lives with his son, Austin B.

Dr. Hugh Trevor, a descendent of Sir Hugh Trevor, was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1806. He graduated at Trinity college, Dublin, and at the College of Surgeons, Dublin. He afterwards spent nine years in the hospitals of Paris. He came to Marietta in 1834, and began the practice of medicine. His medical knowledge was of a high order, and he had the confidence of a large class of people. While in Marietta he married Maria Holden, a daughter of Joseph Holden. In 1858 he removed to St. Joseph, Missouri, and in 1881 located in Quincy, Illinois, where he died in April, 1881.

Dr. Shubel Fuller was born in Canada in 1806. In 1818 his parents came to Marietta, and after passing through the schools of that period, began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. John Cotton. He attended lectures at the Ohio Medical college, Cincinnati, and opened an office in Marietta in 1835. Dr. Fuller was a successful physician, and conducted a large practice until the sickness which terminated in his death in February 17, 1857. Dr. Fuller was a descendant of the Plymouth Rock family of that name.

Dr. G. J. Stevens, an old practitioner, was located in Harmar for thirteen years. He was a native of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1805. He attended lectures at Fairfield Medical college, and received a diploma in 1827. He practiced in New York, and in Portage and Summit counties, Ohio. He died at his home in Harmar in April, 1881.

Dr. Wilson Stanley was born and spent his early life in North Carolina, and graduated from the Homoeopathic Hospital college, of Cleveland, Ohio. He practiced medicine for about ten years in Marietta, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1866, where he died within a year.

PRESENT PHYSICIANS.

Dr. Seth Hart began the practice of medicine in Harmar in 1827, and has been in active practice since that time, except during two brief periods. A full biography will be found in this volume.

Dr. George O. Hildreth, son of Dr. Samuel Prescott Hildreth, graduated at Ohio university in 1829, at the age of seventeen. He entered upon a course of medical study under the direction of his father, and attended lectures at Transylvania university, Kentucky, where he graduated in 1835. He was regularly associated with his father in practice until the death of the latter in 1863. Since then he has been alone, occupying the same house and office on Putnam street. His practice has continued over a period of forty-five years, with but a single intermission, during a period of four years--1849-53—which were spent in California. Dr. Hildreth has been pension examiner since 1863, and is highly esteemed as a physician and a man.

Benjamin Franklin Hart, M. D., was born in Watertown, Washington county, Ohio, January 3, 1823. He was a student of the Ohio Medical college, and received his degree from that institution in the spring of 1844. Subsequently, in 1864 he graduated from Bellevue college, New York. After completing his course at Cincinnati, he began practice in Marietta, and with the exception of a brief intermission, has continued until the present.

Dr. Hart took an active part in the War of the rebellion, visiting Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh, and later, Gettysburgh, Frederick city, Washington and Baltimore, to look after the needs of the Ohio soldiers. He was one of the surgeons who engaged in the pursuit of John Morgan in his raid through Ohio. This work was performed gratuitously, and to the satisfaction of the sanitary commission. In 1864 he was appointed by Governor Brough military surgeon with the rank of major.

Dr. Hart is a member of the Ohio State Medical society, and of the American Medical association, and is one of the censors of the Columbus Medical college. He was a delegate to the International Medical congress at Philadelphia in 1876.

C. W. Eddy, M. D., is a resident of Marietta, having been born in this county. "'After receiving a liberal education at Beverly academy, he studied medicine in the office of Dr. C. S. Parker, and at Miami Medical college where he received his degree in 1877. He practiced first in Guernsey county. In April, 1879, he was appointed assistant physician for the Athens asylum, and was reorganized out in May, 1880, together with the whole staff. He has since been at Marietta.

Dr. Josiah Dexter Cotton, son of Dr. John Cotton, was born in Marietta May 19, 1822. He received his preliminary education at Marietta college, where he graduated in 1842. He began the study of medicine in his father's office, and in 1845 entered the medical college at Louisville, and was granted the degree of M. D. in 1847. He had previously been in practice in Lawrence county, about one year. In 1847 Dr. John Cotton died.

412 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

and Josiah D. succeeded to his business. .He has been in constant practice in Marietta since, except three years, during the war, when he acted as surgeon for the Ninety-second Ohio, and brigade surgeon.

Dr. Simon D. Hart, at present superintendent and physician of the Washington County Children's home, engaged in the general practice of his profession from 1844 to 1869. He attended school at Marietta, and received his degree from Ohio Medical college, Cincinnati, in the spring of 1844, and opened an office in Coolville, Athens county, where he remained one year. During the next two years he practiced in Barlow, and in 1847 removed to Marietta. He received a fair share of public patronage until April, 1869, when his present position was tendered him. Dr. Hart married July, 1845, Lydia M. Lawrence, who has been matron of the home since its regular establishment.

Dr. Samuel Hart was born in Watertown township in 1830. He completed his studies at Marietta academy in 1849, and received a degree from the medical college of Ohio in 1852. He began practice in Marietta in 1853, and has continued till the present time, except during a period of four years of active surgical practice in the army in charge of a hospital, and two years spent in Bellevue hospital, New York. He also practiced in Massachusetts.

Dr. Z. D. Walter succeeded to the practice of pr. W. Stanley in 1866. He was born of Quaker parentage, and spent his early life in Chester county, Pennsylvania. He received his education and afterward .taught for two years at Westtown boarding school, a Quaker institution, and attended medical lectures at the Homoeopathic Medical college of Pennsylvania, where he received his degree in 1866, since which time he has been in the practice at Marietta.

Dr. W. D. Putnam, of Harmar, studied medicine under Dr. Johnson Elliott, professor of surgery, of the university of Georgetown, Georgetown, D. C., and graduated from that institution in March, 1868. About a year afterward he came west and located at Lowell, this county. In November, 1872, he removed to Harmar, where he has since been engaged in the practice of his profession.

Dr. Putnam is the great-grandson of General Rufus Putnam, and grandson of Edwin Putnam. His father was Franklin Putnam. He was born October 28, 1842, and was married February 5, 1867, to Emma J. Blane, of Hagarstown, Maryland. She died March 1, 1879.

Dr. J. B. Mellor, of Harmar, read with Dr. W. D. Putnam, and graduated at Miami college, Cincinnati, in the spring of 1878. Since then he has been in practice in Harmar.

Doctor James McClure has been practising in Marietta since 1871. He is a native of Salem, Meigs county, Ohio, and read medicine at Harrisonville, in the same county, under Dr. S. Day. He attended lectures at Starling Medical college in 1860 and 1861, and practiced at Albany, Athens county, until the fall of 1863, when he entered the second course and graduated in 1864. He became surgeon for the Twenty-third Ohio volunteer infantry, in May, 1864, and served in that capacity until the close of the war, when he returned to Albany and practiced there until coming to Marietta.

Dr. H. N. Curtis is a native of this county. He graduated at the New York Homoeopathic Medical college in 1881, and began the practice of medicine in the spring of that year. Mrs. Curtis has the honor of being the first lady physician in Marietta. She graduated at the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women in 1881, and began practice with Doctors Walter and Curtis.

MEDICAL SOCIETIES.

The first medical society in the state was organized through the influence Hof Doctor S. P. Hildreth. It was a State society and followed by a district society. Be fore the war the first county society was organized, but was broken up after a few years by the opening of the Rebellion. "The Washington County Medical Society" was organized in July, 1873. The following physicians have served as presidents: J. D. Cotton, William Beebe, J. G. Stevens, G. 0. Hildreth, B. F. Culver, and W. P. Beebe.