112
AU38h
1887
'•"'li't

:r.r ,- /:; ..

 
WZ 112 A438h 1887
0364127
NLM  DSSTfibSfl  0
    NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
NLM052986580 
c
e- l i
:i'/ 
 
I 
 
A
\Sor\j  j-jf/) r
            AN


  HISTORICAL SKETCH
gENECA  COUNTY

              MEDICAL  SOCIETY
SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS LIVING
AND OF ITS
PIONEER MEMBERS.
Printed by Resolution of the Society
          1887 
IV  7
A  wise  physician—skilled our wounds to heal-
Is  more than armies to the public weal."
    " Homines ad deos nulla re proprius accedunt, quam salutem  hominibus
dando."
    In  nothing do men more  nearly approach to gods  than  in giving
health  to  their fellow creatures.
                                                          —Cicero.
Press of Brandow & Speed, Albany, N. Y. 
INTRODUCTION.
  At the anniversary meeting of the Seneca County Medical Society
held at Waterloo, July 23, 1885, a resolution was  introduced by Dr.
S. R. Welles, and  adopted by the  Society,  that  a  committee  be
appointed which should prepare biographical sketches of members of
the Society from its earliest history to the present time.   Dr. Welles
was  appointed chairman,  and  the various  towns of the county
apportioned as follows :
Dr. S. R. Welles, Waterloo ;      Dr. Elias Lester, Seneca  Falls ;
Dr. E. W. Bogardus, Fayette ;    Dr. A. J. Alleman, Varick;
Dr. D. F. Everts, Romulus;      Dr. H. E. Allison, Ovid  ;
Dr. F. B. Seelye, Lodi;          Dr. W. W. Wheeler, Covert;
              Dr.E. J. Schoonmaker, Junius and Tyre.
  By the desire  of  the chairman, which received the endorsement of
the Society, the  duty  of compilation was  delegated  to Dr. H.  E.
Allison, who has, therefore, prepared the work for the  press.
  It was the  design of the resolution to prepare as full a report as
possible, and to gather and place in a tangible form, for preservation,
all that could  be learned of  the individual history of the members of
the profession from the earliest date of the settlement  of the county;
and in order  that the report might be complete and valuable, a form
was prepared which indicated the nature of the information desired,
and which was sent to each member of the medical fraternity, and to
all others whom it was thought could furnish anything of interest.
  It was also intended to incorporate with  the  report an account ot
the history of the Society itself from its earliest beginning.   In  the
matter of the history of  the pioneers of the profession, dependence
was placed upon old settlers in different localities, who from  personal
recollection or tradition, could add  something to the knowledge of
the subject.
  All this involved considerable labor and patience, and much cor-
respondence, the results of which are herewith  presented.
  The committee are aware that these notes are not  by any  means
complete, which partly arises  from the  apathy of some of  those to 
4
Introduction.
 whom circulars were addressed, asking for information, and partly
 because  the books  of the secretary  and  all early records of the
 Society being lost, the historical facts which were most desirable were
 veiled in the haze of the past.
   Sufficient material of interest has been gathered, however, to war-
 rant the publication  of these  preliminary pages, with the hope that
 some subsequent historian may, at a future day, complete the record.
   Our thanks are due to each member  of the committee, especially
 to Dr. Andrew  J. Alleman, of Varick, and  also to many outside of
 the profession, to Hon. Diedrich Willers, Jr., to the Rev. Lewis  Hal-
 sey, Nathaniel Hayt, to Dr. Colvin of Clyde, and to all  others who
have aided us.
                                       H.  E. Allison,
                                              For  the  Committee. 
SENECA COUNTY  MEDICAL SOCIETY.
  A  County Medical Society existed in Seneca county at an early
period, but the organization was abandoned at about the year 1840.
Unfortunately, all the records of this pioneer association are lost.
The transactions of  the State Medical Society  show that at  its meet-
ing in Albany, February 6, 1810, Dr. Oliver C. Comstock presented
his credentials from Seneca county and took  his seat  in that body.
He was a prominent citizen, and  represented this  county in  the Leg-
islature  in  1810, and two years afterward was  appointed  County
Judge.
  In  1829 the State Medical Society acknowledged the receipt of
two dollars from the Seneca County Society, through Dr. Caleb Lor-
ing, its secretary, and his name appears  in the State transactions for
the years 1830-31, as secretary, that being the only office  reported.
Among the papers left by  Dr. Loring, was one endorsed as follows :
  " Marsh or Bilious Fevers, read before the Seneca County Medical
Society, June, 1833."
  After a period of about  twenty-five  years,  on  the first of  August,
1865, the present Society  was organized,  and the following  officers
chosen :
  President, Dr. Gardner Welles ; vice-president,  Dr. Alfred  Bolter ;
secretary, Dr.  F. B. Seelye;  treasurer, Dr. O.  S. Patterson ; censors,
Drs. James Flood,  W. W. Wheeler and  E. J. Schoonmaker.    Since
that period the Society  has been well sustained, and has  proved  a
useful and important organization.   Its  meetings have been regular
and well attended,  and an active interest has been taken by  every
member in its welfare.
  It was with a view of  presenting, in  some  permanent  way, the
records of the lives and struggles, and the rugged virtues of the med-
ical men among  the early settlers, that this work was undertaken.
  The life of  a physician in a new country, with  the  largely  prevail-
ing and dangerous diseases incident to fresh  broken soil and recent
clearings, the long and dangerous rides over almost impassable roads, 
6
Historical Sketch  of the
by night and day, through heat and  cold  and storm, is arduous and
wearing.   He  is surrounded, moreover,  with  those struggling with
narrow means and laboring under the privations  incident to a new
country.
  The physician, by the advantage  of  education and  better social
position, is obliged to assume a position not only of more prominence,
but of more care and responsibility than he would  in a community of
more advanced growth.
  Brought into immediate and friendly contact with  every  family, he
becomes the counsellor and  confidential  friend of all; add to this
that he, like all pioneers, is possessed of ability and  energy and self
reliance, and we can readily  comprehend  his  importance and his
influence in  shaping the future  of  the  community in which he is
placed.   Seneca county  is no  exception to the general rule.   Our
pioneer physicians,  equal to the emergencies of the  times, bravely
fulfilled their part, and  have left, indelibly traced upon the county
annals, the records of their acts  and  the  impress of their  character.
In recalling their memories and  acknowledging our  indebtedness to
these old and sterling citizens, let us emulate their virtues and  aim to
be worthy successors in  their calling,  and,  as members of  the com-
monwealth, carefully guard and preserve the heritage they  have left.
Let us, also, so regulate  our acts  in our relations with each other, and
with those who daily place  their health  and their lives in our trust,
that we may  discharge  the  full responsibility of every  duty, and
deserve to have conferred upon us, as one of the  proudest of titles,
the name of " the beloved physician."
                       SILAS  HALSEY.
  Silas  Halsey, the earliest  physician in the  county, was  born at
Southampton, L.  I., October 6th, 1743,  (old  style).   He  studied
medicine at Elizabethtown, N. J., and began the practice of his pro-
fession at Southampton about 1764.
  At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, he warmly espoused
the cause of the Colonies, and was a member of the  Committee of
Safety of his native town.  Compelled to flee from his home after  the
disastrous Battle of Brooklyn  Heights,  he sought  refuge at Killing-
worth,  Conn., where he resided for nearly three years, while his home
was occupied by British soldiers.   His  wife died in  1778, at Killing-
worth,  leaving him with a family of four small children. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
7
  These were years of privation and hardship.  Dr. Halsey was not
only proscribed as a rebel, but a price  was set upon his head by the
British—a reward being offered for his apprehension.   All the mem-
bers of the Committee of Safety received this honorable, but uncom-
fortable distinction.
  In 1799, Gen.  Erskine, a kind-hearted British officer whose name
is justly held in honor, recognized the ability of Dr. Halsey,  and
granted him permission  to  return to  his desolated home on Long
Island, that he might resume the practice of his profession.
  When the victory had been gained and the patriots were once more
in possession of Long Island,  Dr. Halsey was appointed, by Sheriff
Wicks, Under Sheriff of Suffolk county, Long  Island, which office he
held until September 1787, when  he was appointed, by Gov. George
Clinton, Sheriff of the county.  This  position he retained until  his
removal to western New York in 1792.
  In April, 1792, accompanied by a hired  man and  a slave, he left
Southampton on an exploring expedition into  the western  wilderness.
He sailed  from New York to Albany  in a sloop, went on foot  from
Albany to Schenectady, (this was called the carrying place, or port-
age).  At Schenectady he embarked  in a batteau and ascended the
Mohawk river to Fort Stanwix, (Rome)  thence sailed down Oneida
Lake, through its outlet to Seneca Lake, and up that lake as far as
what is now known as Lodi Landing,  where they cast anchor some-
time in May.
  They carried with them a yoke of oxen, a sled, some seed  wheat
and a stock of provisions.
  From the lake shore they cut  their way through the underbrush
some two  miles eastward, where they made a six-acre clearing,  felling
and burning the  small timber and girdling  the larger  trees.  Dr.
Halsey next built a log cabin, sowed  his clearing with  wheat, started
a nursery  with about a quart of apple  seeds procured from the old
Indian orchard at GofFs, then  Cooley's Point, and  in October began
his journey homeward.
  In May, 1793, he retraced  his journey to  his home in the  forest
taking with him his family which, including sons-in-law and grand-
children,  numbered eighteen  persons.   This was the first colony
which settled between the lakes.
  The town of Ovid was then a part of Herkimer county.   Onondaga
county was erected in 1794, and Silas  Halsey  was appointed one of 
8
Historical Sketch of the
 the judges of the first county court.   He was also the first supervisor
 of his town, being elected at the first town  meeting held  April  ist,
 1794.
   He was the only justice of the peace in the  town, and like  the
 famous official in Texas, who served a summons as constable, heard
 the case and gave judgment as judge and, as sheriff, carried the sen-
 tence into execution, so the  new supervisor took the oath of  office
 before himself as justice.
   The official record reads as follows :

   " I, Silas  Halsey, do solemnly and  sincerely swear that I  will in
 all things, to  the best of my ability, faithfully and impartially execute
 and perform the trust reposed in me as supervisor of the  town of Ovid,
 in the county of Onondaga, and that I  will  not pass any account or
 article thereof wherewith I shall think the county is not justly charge-
 able,  nor will I disallow any account or  article thereof wherewith I
 shall  think the county is justly chargeable.
                                                 Silas Halsey.
 " Sworn  before me, the first}
     day of April, 1794.     J

                    Silas  Halsey, Justice of the Peace."

   He was supervisor of the town of Ovid in  1794-95-96, and was
 member of Assembly for Onondaga county in 1 796-97-98.   Indeed,
 he seems to have  held almost every  town and county office  to which
 he was eligible, and that at a time when no suspicion of dishonor was
 attached to the civil  service.
   When  Cayuga  county was constituted in  1799, he was the first
 Assemblyman  from  that county, and  was re-elected in 1800, 1801,
 1803, 1804.
  In  1801, he was chosen  as  delegate  from Cayuga  county to the
 first New York State Constitutional  Convention, of  which the noted
 Aaron Burr was president.
  He  was the   first county  clerk of  Seneca  county, appointed
 April  2d, 1804, and  with  the exception of  an interval of one year,
 held the office for fifteen years, until he resigned in 1819.  This office
was held in later years  by  his son, Jehiel Halsey, and  by his grand-
son, Jared Sandford. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
9
   In April, 1804, he was elected member of Congress, from the 17th
Congressional district of this State, succeeding Hon. Oliver Phelps,
so well known in connection with the  Phelps and Gorham purchase.
In 1808, he was elected State Senator, to fill a vacancy, and  served
for one year.
   Judge  Halsey took an active interest in education, and was one
of the first trustees of the old Cayuga  Lake Academy at Aurora.
   Having been an ardent Whig  during the Revolutionary war, and
having endured personal suffering, pecuniary loss, proscription, exile,
and almost starvation in  the  war for  Independence, Judge Halsey,
like many of his fellow sufferers of that generation, found it impossi-
ble to forget the tyranny of the British government, and  became a
stalwart Republican of the Jeffersonian school.
   When  the  Constitution of the United States  was  presented to the
several State  sovereignties for their acceptance,  he was opposed to
its adoption without the amendments limiting the  power of the Fed-
eral  government.  He  was one of the constituent  members of the
Republican party, organized during President Washington's adminis-
tration, and ardently supported its principles during  his life.
   Judge Halsey was hospitable, public spirited and popular, a patriot,
a pioneer, a gentleman of the old  school.   He  died  at a  good old
age, respected and honored  by his fellow citizens, bequeathing to his
children  an untarnished  name.   He lived  to  see three of his sons
and  two of his sons-in-law occupy prominent positions in the civil
service,—Jehiel Halsey and  Nicol Halsey members of  Congress;
Dr.  Lewis Halsey member  of  Assembly;  John DeMott, member
of Congress ;  Henry  D. Barto, Judge of Tompkins  county.
   He was  the  first  physician of Seneca county, but seems to have
resigned  his practice  at  an early date to his student and son-in-law,
Dr. Jared Sandford.
   He was a man of well cultivated mind and  had a medical library
large for the time.   A number of his  books were purchased  before
the Revolutionary war, as the date and his  autograph  show :  (Silas
Halsey, Jun.  Ejus Liber, A. D. 1765,   Pretium  2-6 Sterl.)
   The book  from  which  this  inscription was copied, is entitled "A
Mechanical Account of the Non-Naturals,  being a brief Explication
of the changes made in  Humane  Bodies by Air, Diet, etc. "  It was
published in London in  1718. 
IO
Historical Sketch of the
   In a communication to the Ovid  Independent,  the  late Dr.  Lewis
Post of Lodi, writes as follows :
   " Dr. Halsey was a man of ability.   He was honored with several
important political positions—was county clerk ; county Judge ;  mem-
ber of Assembly ;  and member of Congress—always discharging his
duties with signal ability.   Some  twenty volumes of  his  medical
library are still extant, and are  yet in a state of good preservation.
After the  death of his son,  Hon.  Jehiel  Halsey,  these volumes
were presented to the family physician, Dr. Post,  by the heirs  of the
Halsey estate.   I will give the age of the respective volumes :
   2 vols., 127 years old ; 3 vols., 122 years old ; 1 vol., 120 years old ;
4 vols., 119 years old ; 2 vols., 118 years old ; 3 vols., 117 years old ;
1 vol., 132 years old;  1  vol., 158 years old; 1 vol., 113 years old;
1 vol., 126 years old ; 1 vol., 125 years old."
   Dr.  Post continues :  " The  house built by Judge Halsey  at an
early day, where he resided till his death, is yet standing in a remark-
ably good state of preservation ; it occupies a commanding site, about
eighty rods north of Lodi village, and  is-owned by  Peter D.  Post, Sr.,
since deceased.   Perhaps no other building in  Seneca  county can
claim greater historic  interest  than this  ancient  and time-honored
building."
   Judge Halsey built the first saw mill and  first  grist mill between
the lakes, the latter was erected by the brothers Yost,  from Waterloo,
in 1794.   Previous to that  time the  nearest flouring mills were at
Rome and Penn Yan.   At his saw mill, pine lumber sold for two
shillings and six pence, or less per hundred.
   In the recoid of the  Ovid town meeting  for April 1st,  1800, we
read :
   " Voted that the land appropriated  to this town by Silas Halsey
for a burying ground is a burying for the town."
   At a Fourth  of  July celebration, held at Ovid in 181 7, Judge Silas
Halsey was president of  the  day, and patriotic   salutes  were  fired
with a brass six pounder captured from the British at Yorktown.
  Judge Halsey died November 19th, 1832 in the ninetieth year  of
his age, revered and lamented by the community in which he so long
had been a trusted counselor and a venerated friend.   He rests from
his toil, and others have entered into the fruits of his labors.
  As long as the services and  sacrifices of the  pioneers are remem-
bered, so  long will the name of  the first physician of Seneca county
be held in honor. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
11
                     JARED SANDFORD.

  Jared Sandford was born of Joel and Hannah Sandford in South-
ampton,  Long  Island, February 19, 1774.  His great-grandfather,
Ezekiel  Sandford, came from England and settled at Southampton in
or before the year 1670; he was born  in 1630;  died  1705.   This
ancestor was  a  lineal descendant of Thomas  de Sandford, who was
a soldier in  the army of William the Conqueror on the invasion of
England, and fought in the battle of Hastings, Oct. 14, 1066, where
Harold  the Saxon was overthrown.  In the Abbey built at Battle (near
Hastings) in honor of this victory, King William deposited his sword
and a roll of his barons, and on this roll,  the great chart of English
gentry,  it is stated  that  the name of Thomas de Sandford was re-
corded.  Aftei  the conquest,  this Baron de  Sandford  received lands
in Shropshire, which  still remain in the  possession of the Sandford
family.
  Thomas Sandford, the father of Ezekiel, was a cavalier and  held a
commission  as colonel in the army of King Charles I.  He served in
the Rebellion which terminated in King Charles' decapitation and the
establishment of Cromwell, and had  made himself so obnoxious by his
skill, energy, bravery and remarkable daring that although  he had
been killed in the storming of Nantwich, January 22, 1643, ms family
was persecuted, harassed, and driven from one place of concealment
to another, until finally those who survived succeeded  in making their
escape to the colonies and settled at Southampton,  Long Island.
  In the line of descendants from Thomas we find  Ezekiel, the Long
Island emigrant; his son, Ezekiel, Jr., who died 1730,* leaving sons
Thomas,  Zachariah, Jonah,  John.  (Thomas  was  grandfather of
Nathan Sandford, late Chancellor- and United States Senator, New
York).   Zachariah  had five sons—Daniel,  Stephen, Joel, Abraham
and Elias.   Joel had  five sons and two daughters—James, Lemuel,
Hugh, Jared,  Oliver, Prudence and Amertel.
  Dr. Sandford was  next to the  youngest  of  twelve children.  He
studied medicine at Huntington, Long  Island,  with his elder brother,
James.   In  1793-4  he  graduated  at  Columbia  Medical  College.
During  the year 1796, with his brothers Hugh and  Oliver, he started
westward to locate.   Hugh stopped and decided to  settle along the
Mohawk  in what  is  now Montgomery county;  Oliver settled  near
                   * Doc. History cf New York, page 666. 
12
Historical Sketch of the
Fort Schuyler (now Utica, Oneida county).   Jared kept on until he
reached the country between  the lakes  in Seneca county, but which
at that time was a part of Onondaga.   He was  among the earliest
settlers, and was warmly welcomed to the wilderness  home  of his
friend and former neighbor, Dr. Silas Halsey, one of the first settlers
and first physician in Seneca county.
  Dr. Sandford  soon  began  the  practice of medicine.  The family
records state that in 1801 he married Sally Radley, daughter of Hon.
Silas  Halsey.   He  soon found himself in the possession of a large
and lucrative but too exacting practice.   He was a hard student and
a faithful physician ; a man of strong mind, powerful memory and of
great  endurance.  He was especially renowned as a surgeon, and  in
this capacity his aid and counsel were sought far and near.
  In 1801  he occupied a small log house on Lot 37, a little west of
where Lodi  village now stands,  removing a few years later to a farm
three-fourths of a mile  south  of  the village, where, in 1805, he built
the house now owned  and  occupied by Mr.  Herman  D.  Eastman,
which he occupied until his death.   This was afterward the home of
his widow, who married Dr. John L. Eastman.
  Dr. Sandford was often the recipient of unsought political honors.
He was first Surrogate of Seneca county, appointed thereto April 2,
1804.  The first will admitted to probate in said  county was that of
James Yerkes, on June  28,   1804.   When Surrogate he drew out a
system of rules of practice and proceedings in the Surrogate  Court
which  has  been followed in  the county from  that date to this, and
generally received and adopted in the State.   At the time no  other
office had a regular set of rules.  Educated men being  rare in  those
times, Dr. Sandford was very prominent in the new country and was
chosen to fill many important public offices.   He was the first  post-
master in the town of Ovid,  being appointed thereto in 1801, the
office being kept in his own house, and he retained the  position until
it was located in the village of Ovid.  He was appointed  associate
judge of  Seneca county in 1803  and held the office until 1815, with
the exception of two years.   At the time of his death he was County
Treasurer.
  As  physician and  surgeon he was  eminent and successful;  his
practice  extended to Geneva and  Waterloo  on  the north, and to
Catherine, now Watkins, on the south, embracing most of the territory
between Seneca and Cayuga lakes.  The country being new and roads 
  »               Seneca County Medical Society.               13

bad, he traveled entirely on horseback—doctors' gigs were far in the
future—carrying the equipments of a small apothecary's  shop in his
capacious saddle-bags.  He was a skillful practitioner, and, as an old
gentleman remarked, " to get Dr. Sandford was to get well."
  In 1816 his health began  to fail, in consequence of exposure and
overwork, and he gave up his night ride; but the warning had been
heeded too  late;  he  died in the prime of  life in August, 1817, in
the forty-third year of his age, a victim to the hardships of the pioneer
physician.
  Dr.  Sandford left  eight surviving children,  two  of whom, since
deceased, were among the most brilliant and successful advocates of
the New York bar.  Lewis H. Sandford, who died July 27, 1852, was
assistant Vice Chancellor of the first circuit of New York in 1843 ;
Vice Chancellor in 1846 ;  and in 1847 was elected one of the Justices
of the Supreme Court of the  city of New York, holding this position
up to the time of his death.   Judge Sandford was also eminent as an
author.  Among. his works  are Sandford's Chancery Reports,  four
volumes ; and Sandford's Superior Court Reports, five volumes—both
standard authorities.
  The eloquent Edward Sandford, one of the most brilliant impromptu
speakers of his day, was noted no less for his readiness of speech than
for  his  power and skill in argument.  A passenger  on  the  ill-fated
Arctic,  Edward Sandford, with  many other noble spirits, sank with
the ship on the 27th of September, 1854.  Seneca county never sent
forth a more brilliant son.
  Younger sons  of Dr. Sandford were James S. Sandford and Gen.
Halsey Sandford.  James  S.  Sandford, after practicing for a time in
Marshall, Mich., returned  in  1841 to New York city, where he  con-
tinued  in the practice  of law  up  to the time of his death,  a few years
ago, residing during his later  years at Summit, New Jersey.
  Gen. Halsey Sandford was, during his life, a prominent and honored
citizen of Seneca county.   Two sons survive him :  Jared Sandford,
formerly county  clerk of Seneca  county, now school commissioner of
Westchester  county;  Montgomery S.  Sandford,   cashier of  the
Geneva National Bank.
                      ETHAN  WATSON.
  Ethan Watson was born in New Hartford, Conn., January 11,1780.
He studied his profession   with  Dr.  Woodward  of Torringford, 
14
Historical Sketch of the
Litchfield  Co.,  Conn., and  was licensed  to  practice by a medical
board in 1801.
  In the spring of the same year, he located at what is now called
Frelie's Landing, in the town of Romulus, and in the spring of 1807
removed  to Romulusville  where  he  remained  in  active practice,
highly esteemed as a physician, until his death, which occurred May
28, 1858.
  He,  with Dr. Sanford,  organized the first medical board about
the year  1814-15.   Dr. Watson was a bright, shrewd man and very
popular as a physician.
  He was a relative and namesake of Ethan Allen of Revolutionary
fame and was imbued with many of the characteristics of that illustri-
ous chieftain.
                   OLIVER  C. COMSTOCK.*
  Oliver Cromwell  Comstock, the first moderator of the Seneca
Baptist Association, and the  first pastor of three of the churches  of
that  association, was  born in  Warwick,  Kent  Co., Rhode Island,
March 1, 1781.  He was the son of Hon. Adam  Comstock, one  of
the most honored citizens and  influential legislators of his day.   For
twelve successive terms, Adam  Comstock was elected froni Saratoga
County, to the lower house of the State legislature, and was afterward
State Senator for four years.  He was a member of the Constitutional
Convention of 1801, of which Aaron Burr was president.
  The early education of O. C.  Comstock was acquired in the schools
of Schenectady, and  of  Greenfield,  Saratoga county.  From  his
childhood, he was known as a close student.   He afterward entered
the University of New York, and graduated from the medical depart-
ment.   He  also engaged in  the study  of  law,  and  his honorary
degree of A. M.? was worn as  worthily as was that of M. D.  For a
short time he practiced medicine near Cayuga bridge, where he mar-
ried Lydia Smith, daughter of Judge Grover Smith, of Seneca county.
In 1807, he removed to Trumansburg then in Seneca county.  Fol-
lowing in the  foot-steps of his honored father, he early entered polit-
ical life, and it seemed only  necessary for him to  permit the use  of
his name, in order  to receive almost any gift which his fellow citizens
had power to  bestow.
* History of the Seneca Baptist Association.  Halsey. 
                 Seneca  County Medical Society.               15

   He was th« member of Assembly from Seneca county in 1810-12 ;
Judge of Seneca county in 1812 ; the first Judge of Tompkins county
in 1817 ; member of the House of Representatives  during the 13th,
14th and 15th  sessions, when Henry Clay was speaker, declining a
renomination for a fourth term, that  he might devote himself to the
preaching of the gospel to poor  and feeble  pioneer churches.   In
Congress he was an able debater,  and a conscientious legislator.   He
was appointed by the President one  of the Commissioners to settle
the claims of the sufferers by the war, on the  Niagara frontier.  This
delicate duty was discharged to the  satisfaction of  both the govern-
ment and the claimants.
   While a member of Congress, he was  baptised in  the Potomac  by
the  Rev. Obadiah  B.  Brown, pastor of the First Baptist church in
Washington.  Many of the Congressmen accompanied the concourse
to the riverside to witness the baptism of their colleague.
   After declining a renomination  to  Congress,  he resumed the prac-
tice of medicine at Trumansburg, gathered a church there, which was
constituted in 1819, preached at Ithaca, Peach  Orchard, Farmer Vil-
lage,  and other  out-stations and  churches.  At  this time  he  also
organized a church at  Ithaca, and  was its first pastor, dividing his
time between that church and the one at Trumansburg.
   In 1828, he accepted a call to  Rochester.  When he went to that
then youthful city, he found the Baptist congregation worshiping in a
public hall in the  rear of the  Clinton  House.   Their services had
been held in the old court house, but the  supervisors decided that it
was unwise to permit any religious body to hold service in the public
buildings, and so directed the sheriff  to order the Baptists out.  The
outlook for the little church was gloomy.  They were too poor to build,
and  knew not  where to  buy.  After long continued labor, against
many discouragements, Dr. Comstock succeeded in securing a place
of worship for his people.  The church which had been built by the
Presbyterians, the first ever erected in Rochester, was bought for $1,-
500, in  the year 1828.
   While pastor at Rochester, Dr. Comstock was deeply  afflicted by
the death of his excellent wife, the influence of whose gentle, winning,
Christian life was a principal means of his conversion.  Sad,  lonely,
and heart-weary, with health impaired, he resigned  his  charge, and
sought change and rest.   Visiting Washington on his journey south-
ward, he was elected chaplain of the  House of  Representatives, and 
i6
Historical Sketch of the
served during one term.   He was then  persuaded to undertake the
pastoral charge of the First Baptist church of Norfolk, Va., where he
remained for nearly two years.
   His only  surviving son, Dr. O. C. Comstock, Jr., who succeeded
him in his  practice at Trumansburg, having removed to Marshall,
Mich., he was led to the same new territory,  and  was pastor at
Detroit,  preaching afterward as  a supply  to  the  churches in Ann
Arbor, Jackson, Marshall and Coldwater;  doing  the  work, but not
willing to accept  the name of pastor, as  he considered  his pastoral
work closed when he left Detroit.  He was pastor of the First church
at Detroit for nearly two years, at Ann Arbor five years, at Springfield,
111., one year.   In every church the Lord blessed his labors, and the
people loved him.
   He was twice elected Superintendent of  Public  Instruction  of the
State of Michigan, and once consented  to represent Branch county in
the Legislature, manifesting in his declining years the same interest in
the welfare -of the republic and the advancement of his fellow citizens
which'had distinguished him in early manhood.
   As he had been the first moderator  and preacher in  the Seneca
association, so also he was the moderator and  preacher of  the intro-
ductory sermon at the first anniversary meeting of the  Monroe Bap-
tist Association.  He  was  an   able  advocate  of  the  cause   of
temperance, and was elected President of the State Temperance Soci-
ety of Michigan.  His reports as superintendent of public instruction
are filled with practical and fruitful suggestions, and bear the impress
of the statesman and the Christian.
   Everywhere, in the practice of his profession, on the judge's bench,
in legislative halls, in the pulpit,  the  family, the social  circle, he was
the same courteous, warm-hearted, loving Christian gentleman.
   When  Dr. Comstock was in public life, he was an enthusiastic and
earnest friend  of the common  school system, and  rendered efficient
aid to Gov. Clinton in making this system a  success.  He was the
first postmaster of Trumansburg,  in 1811, and the contrast between
the beautiful,  active  village of to-day  and the  wilderness of  three-
quarters of a century ago, may be seen  in the  fact that the first quar-
ter's salary of the postmaster was  one dollar and eighty-one cents.
   Dr. Comstock was a man of commanding presence, tall  and well
proportioned,  kind and  courteous in manner, always  welcoming  his
friends with  a  cordial greeting.   He  had a  magnetic presence, and a 
                 Seneca County Medical Society.               17

voice which once heard was never forgotten ; every tone seemed to be
filled with music.   He was the peer of such men in his denomination
as Kendrick, Peck, Cone and Bennett, and was  often called upon to
preach at the anniversaries and meetings of State conventions.
   He died at the home  of his son, Dr. O. C. Comstock, Jr., in Mar-
shall, Calhoun county, Mich., Jan. 11, i860, aged seventy-nine years ;
but he lives in the memory of many who will never cease to love him,
and in the undying influence of his noble life.

                     MATHER MARVIN.
   Mather Marvin was  born at Lyme in the State of Connecticut in
the year 1786.   He was educated in the schools of his native town,
receiving his medical education in New York city, under the instruction
of Dr. Lord, then a celebrated physician.  He removed to Romulus-
ville, Seneca county, in  1808, and engaged there in  the practice of
medicine, in addition to which he carried on the business of a merchant
until the year  1818.   He served for a time in the army in the war of
1812.
   In the year  1818 he moved upon the farm formerly owned by Jep-
tha Wade,  and afterward known as the Allen farm, now owned by
Philip  Becker, in that part  of the old town of Romulus now in the
town of Varick.  Here Dr. Marvin resided  and continued to practice
medicine, in  conjunction  with farming and public pursuits,  until
the  year  1833,  when  he  removed to  Lodi,  Washtenaw county,
Michigan, where he practiced medicine for a time, and died upon his
farm, April 8,  1862, aged seventy-six years.  He was an active mem-
ber of the Presbyterian  church  at Lodi Plains,  Mich., at the time of
his death.
   Dr.  Marvin  was a man of  much native energy and bore an influen-
tial part in public affairs.  He was frequently called upon to serve the
public  in  an official capacity as one of the  magistrates and school
inspectors of  the old town of  Romulus, and in 1823 and 1825 was
elected supervisor of that town, serving as  clerk  of the board  in the
latter year.  At the first town election held in the town of  Varick in
the year 1830, he was chosen an inspector of schools for that town.
At a special election  held in Seneca county, January 16,  1828, Dr.
Marvin was elected, as the nominee of the Anti-Masonic party, county
clerk of the county of Seneca, in place of Ernest A. Dunlap, deceased,
and held the office for a full  term.
              2 
18                   Historical Sketch of the

                       LEWIS HALSEY.*

  Lewis Halsey was  born at Southampton,  Long Island, May 22,
1783, the son of Hon.  Silas Halsey.  His father, Dr. Silas Halsey,
was the first physician in Seneca county and one of its most prominent
citizens, having been  State  Senator, representative  in Congress, etc
When ten years of age he removed with his  father to the  wilder-
ness country of western  New York.
  He  began the study of  medicine with Dr. Jared  Sandford, his
brother-in-law, and was  graduated  in medicine  in New York city,
where he had been for some time attending lectures.
  He was married November 23,  1817, to Fanny Clark, who died
October 21, 1838.  He married  for his second wife Phcebe Emmell,
who survived him.
  His children, all by his first wife, were—Mary Ann,  Howell, Lee,
Fanny, William Clark, Jared Sandford,  and Morton; of whom only
two are living : Mrs. Silas M. Kinne  of Ovid, and Mr. Jared S. Halsey
of Trumansburg.
  After his graduation at the  medical college, he began the practice
of his profession at French Creek, Erie county, returning in about two
years to the town  of Covert  (then Ovid), Seneca county.   He began
housekeeping in a log house, a little east of the hamlet of Covert, since
better known as Pratt's Corners, and  continued his practice. Not long
after he removed  to Trumansburg, Tompkins county, where he con-
tinued to reside during the remainder of his life, respected, loved and
honored by his family and  by his  fellow citizens.  In 1837  he was
member of Assembly from Tompkins county, and  was for many years
one of the most prominent members of the Tompkins County Medical
Society, with which he united in  1822.
  One of his students, Dr. Hawes, says of him, that he was of slender
form, his features  expressive  and intelligent,  having   descended
from  the  best  English  ancestry.    His  manner  and general bear-
ing were especially suited to the sick chamber.  Without saying any-
thing to  occasion needless alarm  there was  a sympathetic  gentle-
ness in his approach  that  made  his presence most  welcome  and
predisposed the patient  to have faith in his prescriptions.   He exam-
ined his cases with great thoroughness and his decision was generally
   * The greater part of the above sketch is abbreviated from the manuscript tribute of
Dr. M. D. llawes, who was for some years a student of medicine in Dr. Halsey's office. 
                 Seneca County Medical Society.               19

correct, but if the case was  one complicated or obscure no false pride
prevented him from acknowledging his ignorance or his doubts. While
his practice was largely among the more cultivated and wealthy classes
he never  turned a deaf ear to the  calls of the poor but was ready
always to minister to them in any way in his power.  Throughout the
large field of his practice he was recognized in every family as a per-
sonal  friend.
  In his professional intercourse he was easy, affable and courteous,
guided by high and honorable motives, and always an uncompromis-
ing advocate  for the dignity of the profession.
  His whole  life, private as well as professional, was so pervaded and
governed  by the spirit of truth that  his motives and  actions passed
entirely unquestioned  by all who knew  him and obtained confidence
and respect everywhere.
  His life was mostly  spent in advancing his profession, and no other
pursuit attracted his attention.  He was elected member of the lower
house of the  Legislature of New York in 1837,  and filled many places
of trust, but  he did not seek such honors; his  highest aspiration was
to leave the profession of his choice higher and purer than he found it.
  Dr.  Halsey died at  his  home  in Trumansburg, May 15, 1842,
respected and loved by all  who knew him, and  leaving behind him an
honored name.
                     GARDNER  WELLES.

   Few men have spent so many years, and all of them so worthily, in
the pursuit of their  profession as he who, while yet a young man,
friendless and alone, established himself  in Seneca county, and here
gave sixty years of faithful, intelligent labor in the service of his fel-
low men.
   Gardner Welles, son of Russell and Sarah Carter Welles, and the
third of  nine  children, was born August 26, 1784, in the town of
Gilead, Tolland  county, Connecticut, in which vicinity his ancestors
resided   since the  emigration  from England, in 1630,  of  Thomas
Welles, from whom the family is descended.
   Having received an academic education and pursued the  study of
medicine for about two years in his native State, he came to Cherry
Valley, Otsego county, New York, in 1807, and completed his prelimi- 
20
Historical Sketch of the
 nary professional studies in the office of the late Dr. Joseph White, one
 of the most celebrated physicians and surgeons of his time.  On the first
 day of November, 1809, Dr. Welles was licensed to practice medicine
 by the Otsego County Medical Society.  Desiring, however, to obtain
 the highest possible  point of excellence in his chosen profession, in
 the following fall and winter he attended a course of medical  lectures
 at  the  oldest of the Church universities of this country, Columbia
 College in the city of New York.
   In the spring  of 1810, with a small supply of medicine in his saddle-
 bags and a hundred dollars in his  pocket—the parting  gift  of his
 father—the young physician started from the paternal home, to make
 his own way through life.  The far west was then western New York,
 and into this region he came.   At Canandaigua he met Dr. James  Car-
 ter, who advised him to settle in  the " Southwick neighborhood "  in
 the town  of Junius.   Accordingly  he retraced  his steps,  and, being
 pleased with the location,.he there established himself.  He became a
 member of the farnily of Major Southwick, and soon entered into a co-
 partnership with Dr.  Linus Ely, which continued for about  six years.
   In 1813 he married  Paulina  Fuller, a resident of Galen, Wayne
 county, temporarily teaching in Junius, who died in 1849, sincerely
 beloved and regretted.
   At the breaking out of  the war of  1812 he  offered his services to
 the government, was  commissioned by Governor Daniel D. Tompkins
 as Surgeon of  the Seventy-first Regiment of New York Infantry, went
 to the Niagara frontier, and remained in the service to the close of the
 war.
   In 1816 he removed to Waterloo, at that time just beginning to
give  promise of a flourishing  town,  and  the same year completed  and
 occupied the dwelling at the  corner of Main and Oak streets, where
 he resided until his death.
   Long before the days of Loring,  Bellows and Magee, the physicians
 of a generation now passed away, he was in active business, and even
 then manifested  that  characteristic  love for and devotion to his calling
which endured  to the very end.   For nearly  half a century he  was
regarded as the leading physician and surgeon of the  vicinity, and his
wide  experience  and  counsel were  constantly  sought  by  his
 cotemporaries.
   Gentle,  sympathizing and tender in the duties of his profession, he 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
21
became eminent as an Obstetrician and many mothers associate him
with their first-born.  As a counselor in the serious difficulties which
often  arise in  this  branch of  medicine, his  advice  was  sought
by the neighboring physicians for many miles around.  His  kindness
to his juniors was also conspicuous, and  rendered him  exceedingly
popular with them, while his sound judgment and impartial bearing
lent weight to his opinions and gained for him the respect and confi-
dence of all.
   With a mind filled  with a strong sense of duty, and a heart warmed
by the glow of a never-failing humanity, he was emphatically the friend
of the poor, and by the entire community, among  whom his long life
was  spent, his memory is held  in most respectful  veneration.
   The following extract is taken from the annual address before  the
Medical Society by the president, Dr. W. A. Swaby, at its first meet-
ing subsequent to the death of Dr.  Welles :
   "  To give an  account  of the life of our beloved brother would far
exceed any limits, for it would comprise  the history of  medicine in
Seneca county;  and  still the example would have its value, as illus-
trating how professional success may be attained,  even in the face of
adverse circumstances, by patient and faithful toil, by integrity of pur-
pose and  purity of character, and gentle and gentlemanly  manners.
His  life  of  useful  labor  is  closed  in  eternal   and   hallowed
rest."
   Dr. Welles  held various  public positions : Justice of the peace,
supervisor of the town, president of the village, curator of the Geneva
Medical College,  and  in  1839  member  of  Assembly  from  the
county.
   In politics he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian, Wright, and Marcy
school; in business, a man of marked integrity and fairness ;  in social
life,  pure, kind,  modest and unassuming.
   Born and educated in a faithful family who were devotedly attached
to the mother church of England,  these principles  seemed to grow
with  his growth and strengthen with his strength.   He was one of the
first   wardens  of St. Paul's  church,  elected in 1818,  of  which
church  he was,  to his death, an exemplary and consistent  member.
   His demise, which  took place February 18, 1872, was  the result of
a fall received some six  weeks before,  and from which he suffered
intensely until released by death. 
22                  Historical Sketch  of the
  Three children survived him—Mrs. William Magee and Dr. Samuel
R. Welles, of Waterloo, and the Right  Reverend Edward R. Welles,
S. T. D., Bishop of Milwaukee.
                         LINUS ELY.

  Linus Ely was the son of Simeon Ely, and was born near Spring-
field, Mass., on the 25th  day of January, 1786.  In that day  the
facilities for obtaining an education being much more limited than at
the present time, a good thorough education in the English branches,
was all he was permitted to obtain.  When about  ten years of age,
his father, with a large  family of nine children, concluded to " go
west" as far as Herkimer  county, and establish a new home.   Dr.
Ely at the age of twenty years entered the  office of Dr. Crane, then a
leading country physician of Warren in said county.
  Like  nearly all students  in  medicine  at the  beginning of  the
present century, his pecuniary condition was not one of ease, and he
was obliged to avail himself of such advantages as  his limited means
would allow.   For some  time  he taught school  to enable him to
obtain sufficient means  to accomplish his studies.   In 1810, having
finished his period of  studentship, and having obtained  his diploma
from the board of censors of Herkimer county, he, figuratively speak-
ing, for his means had  become still more limited, took his  knapsack
on his back and started for  the western wilderness, Ohio  being his
objective point.
  Upon coming into the town of Junius, through which he concluded
to pass, and on  his way to visit a brother  in Chautauqua county, he
found  that the principal medical practitioner of that locality,  Dr.
Gardner Welles, was absent  as surgeon in the war which  had been
but recently declared  between the United States and Great Britain.
Being strongly urged  by various parties to  remain, if for no longer
period  than the return of Dr. Welles, he consented, and soon  found
himself actively engaged in the practice of that profession to which he
became an ornament, and  in which  he excelled.   Some time duiing
the following year, Dr.  Welles returned on account of sickness, when
a co-partnership between him and Dr. Ely was entered  into, ami Dr.
Ely went to the frontier as a surgeon, and was acting  in that capacity 
                 Seneca  County Medical Society.               23

at the battle of " Lundy's Lane."   The two, at intervals, continued to
act as surgeons throughout the war.
  The partnership was continued until 1816, when Dr. Welles moved
to Waterloo, which then gave great promise of becoming a flourishing
and prominent city, and  Dr. Ely  continued  his  labors alone.  The
friendship, both  professional and  social, between the  two men, was
always firm, and  existed until broken  by death, a period of  nearly
fifty years.
  In 1816 Dr. Ely married the daughter of William Hewes of Phelps,
Ontario county, by whom he had six  children, four of whom, with
their mother, are now  living.  Dr. Ely  was  a  man of magnificent
physique, being about six feet in  height, straight as an arrow,  with a
slight .tendency to obesity, and weighing about  two hundred pounds.
Being usually somewhat careful as to his attire, almost always dressed
in black, his every appearance indicated what is ordinarily termed, a
physician of the old school.
  Being possessed of a  sound  and vigorous  constitution,  seldom
interrupted by sickness, together with a wonderful amount of ambition
and unremitting energies in the practice of medicine, he soon began
to be considered  a man of some  prominence in  the profession.  For
more than forty years  he continued in practice in the  locality where
he began, as one of the  foremost physicians of Seneca county and
the surrounding country.
  In his intercourse with  the sick, whether at the bed-side or in his
office,  he was  invariably kind and attentive, lending a watchful ear to
all their complaints.   It  was at  such  times  that one  would be con-
vinced that  what some might  call austerity, was a very superficial
element in his character.   During the latter years of his professional
life, in connection with the arduous  duties of a country practice, he
was, by his  untiring  energies,  capable of directing  the  successful
management of a large landed property, secured as the result of good
health, combined with indefatigable mental and physical work.
  A stranger  would  have  thought that  his  nature  was  cold and
austere.   His  rather abrupt way of  speaking added to that impres-
sion.   But nothing could be farther from the character of the man.
In 1852, twelve years  before his death, being then sixty-six years of
age, and' his two older children, one the wife of  Dr. Colvin, residing
in the village of Clyde, Wayne county, he was with  great  reluctance,
persuaded  to break up his old  home,  abandon  the profession, and 
24
Historical Sketch of the
retire to that village for the purpose of spending his last days with his
children.  At  that, time, as  a physician, as a  citizen, and all that
belongs  to a Christian, few men  in  Seneca county  stood higher in
public estimation.
   In the winter of 1852-3, he moved to Clyde, and with the excep-
tion of occasional consultations,  confined himself to the overseeing
of his landed  property and the enjoyment of his family and friends.
In the autumn of  1863,  there began to be observed a change in
that once erect form,  also in the rapid  and elastic step.  Never from
necessity, nor scarcely from convenience, nor habit, until that period,
was he known to have carried a walking-stick  of  any kind.  With
great reluctance, at first, did he  seem willing to speak of what was
evidently his decline.   His disease proved to be cancer of  the liver.
Throughout the long,  and to him dreary  months, he  patiently bore
his sufferings.   Surrounded by every consolation which the sick can
desire, he quietly and  peacefully breathed  his last on the first  day of
May 1864.
                        M. B. BELLOWS.

   Matthias Burton  Bellows  was born  at Hebron,  Washington
 county, N. Y., April 9, 1788.   His parents lived upon a farm, where
 his youth was passed.
   While a young man he taught school at  Little Falls, N. Y., and
 during that time commenced  the study  of medicine in the office of
 Dr. Kennedy.  In accordance with the usual practice of those early
 days, he was licensed by  the State Medical Society,  and in 1812
 entered  upon the practice of his profession at Seneca Falls, living
 in a frame house upon the  present site of Hoag's Opera House.   He
 was a man of great dignity and learning, of stately bearing, and  very
 skillful in the discharge of  his professional duties. - He was  also  a
 very successful  practitioner, and for more  than forty  years  was  a
 good and trusted physician, and heartily  engaged in his work.
   He married Mary Flynn, of New Jersey, and had nine children, of
whom six are now living.
   In politics Dr. Bellows was  a very prominent Whig.    He was ten-
dered the nomination for Congress when a nomination was equivalent 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
25
to an election on that ticket, but would not accept the office on ac-
count of his profession.   For several years he was president of the
village of  Seneca Falls, and a  member of the board  of trustees of
Hobart College.  He was also one of the original stockholders  and
directors of the Seneca Falls Academy.
   Above all things he was  a lover of medicine, and thoroughly de-
voted to anything that would uphold the dignity and honor of the pro-
fession.   Two of his sons were educated for that profession, one of
whom succeeded his father in practice at Seneca Falls.
   Dr. Bellows died  of heart disease  on the first of May, 1854, hav-
ing been during his life one of the most prominent physicians in the
north jury district of the county.
                          C. C. COAN.
   Claudius Collins Coan was born March 1, 1794, at West Stock-
bridge, Mass.   When four years of age he came with his parents into
the wilds of western New York.  Without assistance  he gained his
education at the academy at Canandaigua.  He pursued the study
of medicine in  the same village -with his  preceptor, Dr. Samuel Dun-
gan, who was an uncle of  his future wife.   It is related  as an incident
of his early life, but one which  indicated  the resolution and persever-
ance which  characterized his subsequent years, that he twice walked
from Canandaigua to the city of Philadelphia to attend the medical
college.
   After a  course  of study at  the University  of Pennsylvania, under
the  tuition of the distinguished  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  he com-
menced the practice of medicine about 1816 at Lodi, then a scattered
community, and in  the same  year was married  to  Miss Sarah M.
Folwell.   Seven of  their eight  children  lived to  maturity, and six
survived him.   In 1835 he removed to Ovid,  and for the remainder
of his life lived  at the old  homestead, a few miles south of the village.
   He received  the honorary  degree of Doctor of Medicine from the
Regents of the  University of New York in 1841, on the recommenda-
tion of the  State Medical Society.
   For a short  time he served at  Niagara  Falls in the war of 1812.
   He continued in the uninterrupted practice of his profession until
his last illness, a period of  sixty-five years;  faithfully and intelligently 
26
Historical Sketch of the
ministering as he had  strength to the people of this community in
their ills  and sorrows.   How well  he sustained the varied responsi-
bilities of physician, was testified by the hold he had upon the hearts
of all.  His life extending over a period longer than is usually allotted
to man ;  possessing the vigor  of his faculties to a remarkable degree
to the latest moment of his life, he died in a good old age and full of
years February  28, 1882.   His wife died the following day, of the
same disease, pneumonia, and  they were buried side by side in the
same grave.  On the  twentieth  of the succeeding  July  they would
have completed their sixty-fifth year of married life.
  For many years Dr. Coan occupied a prominent position  as a
physician in the county, but his  deafness led him  to decline  public
positions almost entirely, whether literary or political.   He was skill-
ful in his profession, and successful  as a financier, and influential as
a citizen.
  As an  ardent pioneer in the great temperance work,  he was emi-
nently useful.   He  was a regular attendant at  church,  joining in a
reverent  manner in a service of which, on account of his infirmity, he
could not hear a word.   In  1866,  soon  after the re-organization of
the  Seneca  County  Medical  Society, he  was elected an honorary
member.
                      CALEB LORING. *
  It is well to indulge in the memory of the past.  The present may
find  profit in what  has been, and succeeding  generations gather
knowledge and wisdom from generations  gone before.  The records
of the historian may  not only  instruct and amuse, but discharge a
debt due  both the past and the present.   What has  been wise and
virtuous in generations gone, should be recorded to their credit, and
the record handed down to those who come after, as their just inheri-
tance.   Such conviction  encourages the  brief sketches we are  mak-
ing of some of the worthy pioneers of Waterloo.   In  some instances
they may gratify descendants, but beyond this, we partially discharge
a debt to the memory of these fathers, and contribute a little to link
the past with the present and coming generations.  He whose name
we place at the head of this article was one of these fathers.
  Caleb Loring was born in Great Barrington, Mass., on the 25th of
                     * By Rev. S. H. Gridley, D. D. 
                  Seneca County Medical Society.               27

 August,  1791.   He came of honored stock, and  numbered among
 his near  kindred,  men  of high distinction.   Although denied  the
 advantages of  a liberal  education, yet by  availing himself of such
 means of culture as came within  his reach, he laid a fair basis for the
 profession of his choice.  He studied medicine under the direction
 of Dr. White, an  eminent physician of Hudson, N. Y., and in  the
 year 1815 received a diploma from the Medical Society of Columbia
 county, admitting him to the  practice of " physic and surgery."   He
 entered upon the duties of his profession  in  Sheffield of  his native
 state in partnership with Dr. Nathaniel Preston ; but  soon  conceived
 the purpose of seeking a newer part of the country as the theatre of
 building up a fortune.   Accordingly with two other young men he
 came into western New York  in  the  year  1817.   One  of  the three
 settled  at Buffalo;  another   in  Roche-ter;  while  young Loring,
 attracted by the water  power, and  rapidly increasing  population of
 Waterloo, was  led to adopt  the place as his  future home.  At  this
 date, the village was in its infancy, much of it yet covered with forest,
 with rude, unfinished and inadequate accommodations for  its incom-
 ing settlers, and when the family residence was  often compelled to
 share its room  with the office and  store.  Dr. Loring  became  the
 successor  in the  drug  and  medicine trade  of  Dr.  Charles Stuart,
 bought out his  stock  of goods, and for a brief period, occupied  the
 wing of  the  residence then  standing opposite the  present  office of
 Edward  Fatzinger, previously  occupied by  his predecessor.
   At an early date, however,  he  erected the residence in  which  he
 subsequently lived until the time of his death.   Having thus provided
 for his  professional  business,  he was  married to  Miss  Elizabeth
 Keeler, of Athens, N. Y.  Hon. D. S. Kendig, then a youth of fifteen
 years, with some little experience  in a drug store, was called to take
 charge of his business temporarily.
  As a  physician,  Dr. Loring conducted  an  active and   extensive
 practice  for some twenty or  more years, and  the physical exposure
 was scarcely less than the tax upon his mind.   It  was the  season for
 such diseases as the malaria in a new country produces, and which is
 generated by the  accumulation of decayed matter and  surrounding
 low lands whose impurities the sun does not reach.  It  was also  the
 time for  bad roads, which added largely  to the weariness of  the
physician's ride  and to the greater exposure of his health,  especially
in the inclement parts of the  year.   The result  in  the  case of  Dr. 
28                   Historical Sketch of the

Loring, was an attack of rheumatism which lasted during his subse-
quent life.   It so disabled  him as to  necessarily greatly diminish  his
more active medical services and chiefly to confine him to office pre-
scriptions.
  He had, however, established the reputation of having a thorough
knowledge of his  profession, and even  of  eminence  in some of its
branches.  Whatever concerned the welfare of society engaged  his
thought, and especially the great principles  lying  at the basis of our
national government.  His views on subjects  both secular and relig-
ious were sometimes committed to paper, and brief essays  have been
found in his library which  do honor  to his comprehension as well as
to the  form  in which his  views are  expressed.   Dr. Loring's name
appears in the transactions  of the State Medical Society for 1829-30-
31,  as Secretary of the Seneca County Medical Society.
  In politics he was a Whig after the straightest  sect, and he faith-
fully supported the party under that  name.  He was a warm admirer
of Webster and Clay as the exponents of his  political  views, and in
testimony of his regard for  the former, he  gave  his name to   his
youngest son and left among his papers warm, written tributes to the
memory of the great statesman.
  In the year of our Lord 1828, Dr. Loring was appointed post-
master for Waterloo, and served  two terms in the office, to the accept-
ance of the people.  Although, at the decease of the Whig party  he
quite naturally passed into the Republican ranks, his interest in politi-
cal  matters soon began to decline.  His oracle in  these matters was
lost in the death  of Mr. Webster, and  when  this  central light was
extinguished, he seemed to be removed from  his political  moorings.
Accordingly during several of his last years he became indifferent  to
the_exercise of  the elective  franchise, and  gave  as  the  reason  for
refusing to vote at elections, that " he had lost his party."
  His religious convictions, like his mental constitution, were of  the
fixed and positive kind.   His arrival at Waterloo was just prior to the
organization  of  the Episcopal  church, and he  became  one of  its
founders and most devoted supporters.  He was early given the place
of a vestryman, which he retained until the day of  his  death.
  Dr. Loring was  a  gentleman of the old school,  and in manners a
New Englander  of the Puritan  type.  He possessed and  cultivated
the  solid rather than the shining qualities of  our common humanity.
He  had a mind of his own.  Although  not a Quaker in doctrine, or 
                 Seneca County Medical Society.               29

in the cut of his coat, or in the brim  .of his hat, yet in the care and
neatness of his person, from his abounding white cravat to the soles
of his shoes, he was the rival of the trimmest son  of William Penn,
and not a whit his inferior in honesty and transparency of character.
  Among his posthumous papers were found the following :
  " Functions of Assimilation," read before  the  Columbia  County
Medical Society in June, 1815, when a candidate for his degree.
  " Marsh or Bilious Fevers," read before the Seneca County Medical
Society in June, 1833.
  " Pathology of the Serous Membranes, particularly of the Pleura
and Peritoneum."
  The death of Dr. Loring occurred  on the 19th of March, 1865, in
the  75th year  of his age.   He left a widow, two sons, John K. and
Daniel W. Loring, and a daughter,  Mrs. Mary Sims.  His place and
the  places of his associate pioneers  of Waterloo, it  is not easy to fill.
It was theirs to lay foundations.  It is ours to build the superstruc-
ture, and it will be well if we are as wise to build as they were in pre-
paring the way.
                     JOHN L. EASTMAN.

  John L. Eastman was born  at  Granby, Mass.,  Jan. 25, 1792, of
Joseph and Polly Eastman.  On the twenty-seventh day of March,
1817, he was licensed to practice medicine by the Medical Society of
New Haven,  Conn., and in the same year he settled at Ovid, in  the
practice of his profession.
  In 1819, he moved to the residence of the  late Jared Sandford, at
Lodi, and on  the twenty-third of February, 1819, he married the doc-
tor's widow, whose  maiden name was Sally R.  Halsey.  They  had
three children,  two of whom are now living.  Mr. H. D. Eastman,
who occupies the old homestead near  Lodi is  a  younger son,  the
elder son,  Dr. Sandford Eastman, studied with his father, and grad-
uated at  Buffalo  University, and afterwards became Professor of
Anatomy  at  the  Buffalo Medical College.   He never practiced in
this county and died in southern California, January 8, 1874.
  Dr. John L. Eastman died at Lodi, February 19, 185 7, of inflamma-
tory rheumatism, after an uninterrupted practice of forty years in  the
county. 
30
Historical Sketch of the
                    RANDOLPH WELLES.
   Randolph Welles, son of Russell and Sarah [Carter] Wells, and
the youngest of nine children, was born March 7th,  1794, in the town
of Gilead, Tolland county, Conn.
   He entered the office of Drs. Gardner Welles and Linus Ely, in
Junius, N. Y., in 1815, with  whom he  pursued his medical studies
until January 29th, 1818, when he received  from the college of Phy-
sicians and  Surgeons of the Western District of the State of New
York  a diploma,  licensing  him to practice  " physic and surgery."
He immediately entered upon the duties of his profession at Clyde,
N. Y.,  (then known as the  Block  house), where he remained for
about two years.
   Dr. Welles was married to Betsey Rathbon, June  17, 1819.  Three*
children were born to  them, two of whom are now living.   During
the doctor's residence in Clyde, he held the appointment  of  post-
master.
   He  left  Clyde  in  the  fall of  1820, making an extended  tour
on horseback, through the south and  west, spending some time in
Illinois and  Kentucky, and going as far south  as New Orleans.   Re-
turning to Clyde in the spring of 1822,  he resumed  and  continued in
the practice of his profession for six months, when with a view of de-
voting his attention to  agricultural pursuits, he removed to Junius,
locating  himself near the " Southwick settlement."   So  well  and
favorably was he known, and so highly esteemed as a physician in the
community where he had come to reside, that  he found it impossible
to refuse  or evade the  urgent calls made upon him, and was forced  to
re-enter upon his professional duties, speedily acquiring a good reputa-
tion and a large practice, which he retained  during  the brief remain-
der of his life.
  He died of pneumonia, after a short  illness, November 19, 1825,
aged thirty-one years.
                    THOMAS C. MAGEE.
  Among the early members of the medical profession in the northern
section of the county  was Dr. Thomas C. Magee, who was born in
Cambridge, Washington county, N. Y., January 17, 1780.
  About  the year 1816, he settled at Galen, Wayne county and loca-
ted for the practice of his profession where the village of Clyde now 
Seneca County Medical Society.
31
stands.  After pursuing  his  profession there for a short  time  he
removed to the town of  Tyre where  he resided for more than forty
years, actively engaged in practice.  His long residence and promi-
nent position  established for him a reputation not only in  his town
but in the county.   His  professional career  was eminently successful
and fidelity characterized all his acts.
  He was married December 22,  1803, to  Elizabeth Pike.   The old
brick homestead still remains at Magee's Corners where he resided for
many years  with a large family of  ten children, five  sons  and five
daughters, of whom three sons and one daughter still survive.
  About four years previous to his death he was obliged to relinquish '
his  practice on  account of impaired  health and gradually  failed.
His  death  occurred from cystitis,  December 10, i860, at  Magee's
Corners, amid the scenes of  his life-long labors.
                       JOHN G. TUBBS.
  John Grinell Tubbs was born  in  the  town of  East Lyme,  New
London county, Conn., December 25, 1794.  His father's name was
John Tubbs and his mother's, Elizabeth Bush.
  He spent the greater  part of his  boyhood days at  home, on his
father's farm, and a short time in the city of New  London.
  He received  a good English education before he commenced the
study of medicine.
  He entered the office of Dr. Vine Netley, East  Lyme, Conn., and
after a  time  became a student of Dr. North, of New  London.  He
graduated at Yale College in the year 1819, and practiced  medicine
for  a short time in the  village  of Chester, Conn.,  then  came to
Auburn, N. V.,  in 1821, and to Tyre  in 1822, where he remained for
nearly fifty years.   During this time  he was engaged  in the practice
of his profession, and filling honorable political positions in  his town
and county.
  He  was married in  September 1823, to Miss  Lucy D. Smith of
Niantic, Conn., and was the  father of eight children,  of whom only
two are living.  He had  been elected to  the office of asssesor; town
clerk;  justice  of the peace,  (this office he held for forty years)  ;
inspector of schools ; superintendent of schools; supervisor of his town
for many years ; member of Assembly in the year 1855.56 ; justice 
32                   Historical Sketch  of the

of the session three  times, and commissioner of loans for Seneca
county.
  He died at Ionia, Ionia county, Michigan, January ist, 1883, from
paralysis.
                         JUSTUS LEWIS.
   Justus Lewis was  born in the  year  1800, in Greenfield, Saratoga
 county, New York, the son of Rev. John and Lucinda Lewis.   His
 father  was a respected  Baptist minister whose  name is  intimately
 and honorably associated with the history of the Seneca Baptist Asso-
 ciation.
   About 1806, Rev.  John Lewis removed with his family to the then
 wild lake country.  He  was the first pastor of the Baptist church in
 Farmer Village, and  his  name heads the list of constituent members.
 He was also pastor of churches in Lodi and in Enfield.
   The young manhood of Justus Lewis was passed in Seneca county,
 and he began the study  of medicine  with  Dr. Brown of Farmer Vil-
 lage.  He also spent some  time  in teaching  school, thus  acquiring
 the means to pursue  his studies.   His principal  medical  instructor
 was  Dr. Lewis  Halsey, formerly of Seneca county, but at  that time
 a resident of Trumansburg.   He was also for a time in the office of
 Dr. O. C. Comstock, and one of his fellow students, Dr. O. C. Com-
 stock, Jr., still survives,  a resident of Marshall, Mich.   He afterward
 attended lectures at Fairfield, New York, where he was graduated in
 medicine in 1823, his diploma being dated Jan. 14th of that year.
   In 1827, Dr. Lewis was united in marriage to Miss Mary Belknap,
 a daughter of one of  the early settlers of Trumansburg, who died in
 1866.  Ten years later, Dr. Lewis and his wife united with the Tru-
 mansburg Baptist  church, of which they  continued to be faithful and
 consistent members during their lives.
   Dr. Lewis practiced for a short time in Reynoldsville, and  in Seneca
 county, but spent the greater part of his  long  and useful life in Tru-
 mansburg, Tompkins county, where at different times he entered into
 partnership with Dr.  Lewis Halsey, Dr. O. C. Comstock and Dr. S.
 E. Clark.
   When, in  the course of the last war, the call was  made  for addi-
tional surgeons, Dr. Lewis responded to the call, was commissioned as 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
33
surgeon in  1863, and  served on a  hospital  transport running from
Washington to Fortress Monroe.
  His eldest son, Dr. J. D. Lewis, who for many  years  was associa-
ted with him in practice, was a man benignant in spirit, skilled in his
profession and  beloved by many friends; he was  also in  the army,
serving during the war as surgeon of the  85th N. Y. S.  V.   Five of
Dr. Lewis' children are yet living, and  one sister,  Mrs. Bloomer, still
resides at Ovid Center, Seneca county, with her son, J. Lewis  Bloomer.
  Dr. Lewis frequently wrote for publication articles on hygiene,  tem-
perance, and kindred topics, and during  his later years spent much
time in traveling.  He died at the  home of his  daughter, Mrs. Van
Noy, at Trumansburg,  June 11, 1885, and  a  large  number of the
members of the medical  profession were present at the funeral ser-
vices.   Dr. Lewis was a man who lived to do faithfully and  well the
work assigned him, and dying was mourned by many friends.
                      JAMES A.  HAHN.
  James  Hahn was born in Berks county, Pa., May 16, 1804.   He
studied medicine with Dr. Gibson, professor of surgery in the Penn-
sylvania  Medical  College  at  Philadelphia, and graduated  there in
1824.  Soon afterwards he became the resident physician at Blockle)
Hospital and also practiced a short  time at  Millerstown,  Pa.
  He located in this county in 1826, first in Fayette, then in Canoga,
afterwards  in Bearytown,  and subsequently in Waterloo,  where  he
formed a partnership with Dr. Gardner Welles, which continued until
1844, the date of his removal to Michigan.
  After a successful career of about eighteen  years, he removed to
Marshall, Michigan, where he was afterwards twice elected  mayor of
the city.   In the fall of 1854 he removed to Chicago and entered into
practice  there.    While here he served six  years  as  alderman, two
years as city physician, and was president of the Chicago Board of
Health  at  the time of his  death, which occurred October 25, 1875.
  His remains lie  buried in Rose  Hill cemetery.   His wife died in
1876.    ,

                       LEWIS OAKLEY.
  Lewis Oakley  was born in what is now the township of Walkill,
Orange  county, N. Y.,  February  14,  1800.   After  a preparatory
             3 
34
Historical Sketch of the
 academic course, he began the study of medicine under Dr. Samuel
 McClellan of Rensselaer county, and after three years' preparation,
 including lectures at the Medical Department of the University of the
 State of New York at Fairfield, was licensed by the Rensselaer County
 Medical  Society in  the fall  of 1823.   Dr. Oakley had a large and
 desirable practice in a territory lying in the towns of Blooming Grove,
 New Windsor and Cornwall in Orange county, which  he abandoned
 on account of the arduousness of the work.
   In 1826 he came to Fayette, Seneca county, in consequence of the
 removal of Dr. Daniel Hudson to Geneva, and again  entered upon
 an active practice in the western  parts  of Fayette and Varick.  The
 life of a physician had always been distasteful to him, and in 1842,
 after a professional work of sixteen years in the county, he transferred
 his clientage to Dr. O.  S. Patterson, who in turn  was succeeded by
 Dr. A. J. Alleman, a pupil of Dr. Patterson.
   In 1850 Dr. Oakley removed from Seneca county to Owego, N. Y.,
 and retired from  practice.

                   ABRAM  N. VAN TYNE.
   Abram N. Van Tyne, son of Jacob and Alida Van Tyne, was born
 near the city of Auburn, Cayuga county, N. Y., November 29,  1798.
 In the year 1810  or 1811 he with his parents  moved to the western
 part of the State and joined a little colony of old neighbors and friends
 who had preceded them from the same county, and here he remained
 until after the war of 1812.
   Finding little or no opportunity in that  newly settled district to
 obtain an education, which he greatly desired, he returned to Auburn
 and  entered  the  academy,  then kept  in  a part of  the  Theological
 Seminary, the academy building  proper having burned but  a short
 time before.  There,  as  he  said, he spent many happy years.   At
 the age of seventeen he  taught district school,  afterwards attending
 school for some time.   Turning teacher  again, he was engaged at
 Camillus and Elbridge, Onondaga county, N. Y.  For a time he was
 employed as clerk in a bookstore in Auburn.   He pursued  his clas-
 sical studies  at Auburn, under  instruction  of Prof. N. D.  Strong,
 principal of the Auburn Associate Academy.
   In the study of medicine he was, at different times, under the tutor-
 ship of the following preceptors : Drs. Isaac  Magoon, Joseph White,
W estellWilloughby, James Hadley,T. Romeyn Beck, James McNaugh- 
Seneca County Medical Society.
35
ton and John DeLaMater.   He  graduated from the College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons of the Western District of the State of New York
at Fairfield, Herkimer county, N. Y., receiving his diploma and license
in January, 1828.
   He first located as a practicing  physician at Seneca Falls in June,
1828, in  partnership with  Dr. M. B. Bellows.  In  May,  1830,  he
removed to Varick, where he remained in  active practice until May,
i860, when he removed with his family to Chelsea, Washtenaw county,
Michigan, where he resided until his death.
   Dr. Van Tyne was twice married—first to Miss Harriet A. Ingram,
of Union Springs, N.Y., in February,  1831, who died of consumption
in May, 1832.  He was married again October 15, 1837, to Miss Mary
M. Arms, of Greenfield,  Mass.
   He was, while  in  this county, a member  of the Seneca County
Medical Society, and after removing  to the west he became a mem-
ber of the Washtenaw  County (Mich.) Medical Society, and was,  at
the time of his death, an honorary member of that body.
   In early life he united with  the  Presbyterian church at Auburn, of
which Rev. Dr. Lansing was then pastor.   Wherever he removed  he
transferred his membership, and was a member of the Congregational
church in Chelsea during his declining years.  He retained his mental
faculties almost to the last.  Although unable to practice for a number
of years, through the infirmities of age, he always felt a deep interest
in ail things pertaining  to  his  profession  and the advancement of
medical science.
   His last illness was of but little over two  weeks' duration.  The
worst symptoms in the  disease  had apparently abated, and his attend-
ants and  friends were hopeful of  his recovery,  when suddenly, on the
9th of December, 1880, without  word of premonition or symptom of
approaching dissolution, he expired, aged eighty-two years.   His dis-
ease was  bronchitis, the immediate cause of death being failure of the
heart.  In the language of his pastor, Rev.  Dr. Holmes, " During his
last illness his hope was bright, his faith strong, and his soul seemed
filled with  triumphant joy.   Though  his  final  departure  occurred
almost in a moment of time and very unexpectedly, no  dying assur-
ances were necessary to convince the  family and friends that all was
well."
   His wife, one son and three  daughters survive him and are all resi-
dents of Chelsea. 
36
Historical Sketch of the
                  RICHARD K. WHEELER.
   Richard K. Wheeler was born in Orange county, N. Y., February
13,  1806, and graduated  at  the Fairfield Medical  school.    He
settled in Farmer Village in  1829  when a young  man,  and spent
there the remainder of his useful life.   He was widely known, having
an extensive ride, and was respected and trusted wherever known, as
an upright, honorable and faithful physician.
   On the 30th day of January, 1833,  he was united in marriage to
Miss Jane Dickinson, a sister  of the Hon. Bray Dickinson, who for
some time represented the United states in Nicaragua.  Mrs. Wheeler
was a worthy wife and mother, and  is held in affectionate remem-
brance.  She died July  27th, 1872, surviving her husband for about
eleven years.
   Dr. Wheeler was a man of  few words, but his conversation carried
with it weight and  meaning.  Although  the exacting duties of his
profession left him comparatively little time he could call his own, he
was thoroughly domestic in his tastes, loving his home and bound to
his family by the  closest  ties of affection.   To the ordinary observer
he was stern, but a close acquaintance revealed the geniality of his
character and his kindness  of heart.
   In  all  the  political and social questions of the day he was well in-
formed.   Like his intimate friends and fellow physicians, Drs. C. C.
Coan and Lewis Post of  Lodi, he was a life-long  Democrat, firm  in
his convictions and decided in his expressions of opinion.
   Among his associates at home were James E. Knight, the Rev. O.
H. Gregory, D. D., Lockwood Hinman, Abram Ditmars, John B. and
Noyes L. Avery—all deceased excepting the two brothers last named,
who are passing their  later  days,  in honor, at  Grand  Rapids,
Michigan.
   Dr. Wheeler was a member and officer of the Reformed church of
Farmer Village, and as far as his professional duties would permit, was
a regular attendant  of the  church services.  During  his  life, in a
widely extended country practice,  he gained a large circle of friends.
   He  died at his  home, November 22, 1861, and was succeeded in
the work by his sons,  Drs. William W. and Claudius  C. Wheeler.
   Dr. Wheeler's only daughter, Mrs. Julia W. Brush, is  a resident of
Geneva, where her  husband,  the  Rev. William W.  Brush, died  in
1878. 
Seneca County  Medical Society.
37
  The  members of the medical profession present at Dr. Wheeler's
funeral held a meeting, of which Dr. Lewis Post of Lodi was president
and Dr. J. D. Lewis of Trumansburg, secretary, and adopted resolu-
tions commemorative of a brother whose professional and religious
character had gained the most profound respect and  confidence.
Dr. J. H. Jerome of Trumansburg and Dr. Alfred Bolter of Ovid gave
addresses, paying heartfelt tribute to  his memory.
                  NATHAN  W. FOLWELL.
  Nathan Wright Folwell was born at Southampton, Bucks county,
Pa., December 27, 1805.   His  father was also born  at Southampton
in  1768 and graduated at Brown University in 1792.  His mother,
Jane Dungan, was born in the same town in the  year of our national
Independence, 1776.  Isaac Watts was numbered among his ances-
tors and his venerated name is handed down from one generation to
another.
   In June, 1807, Dr. Folwell removed  to Romulus with his parents.
His early life was spent uneventfully,  on the farm owned by his father
on the east shore  of  the  beautiful Seneca,  midway  between Willard
and Dey's Landing.  Attending the district schools, he laid a founda-
tion for an excellent education.   He  then went to Lodi and attended
a school taught by Robert Herriott at Townsendville, and here pre-
pared himself to enter college.
   On September 6, 1826, he entered Geneva (now Hobart) College
and graduated there on the sixth of August, 1828, and in  September
of the same year he returned to Townsendville and  began the study
of medicine with Dr. C. C. Coan.  In  September, 1829, he entered
the Fairfield Medical College in Herkimer county, and graduated there
in the latter part of January, 1832.   His chum and most intimate
friend while at college was Asa  Gray, who afterwards became the dis-
tinguished botanist and professor at Harvard,  and the two men ever
afterwards maintained a close friendship and correspondence. Among
his preceptors were Drs. James  Hadley, T.  Romeyn Beck,  James
McNaughton  and John  De La Mater.   Soon after leaving Fairfield
he entered  into the practice of medicine with Dr. C. C. Coan in the
town of Lodi. 
38
Historical Sketch of the
  On May 7, 1834, he was married to Caroline Reeder of Trenton,
N. J.  In  1840  he  dissolved his partnership  with  Dr. Coan  and
moved to  North Hector where  he continued to have  an extensive
practice for a number of years, until failing health compelled him to
give  up his practice and engage in the pursuit of agriculture.
  Dr. Folwell on the eighteenth of March, 1833, was  appointed and
constituted hospital Surgeon of the Fifth Brigade of Cavalry of the
State of New York by Gov. Wm. L. Marcy, and  his commission was
signed by Brig.-Gen. Peter Himrod;  and on September 11,  1837,
he was appointed hospital  Surgeon  of  the  Third  Division  of Cavalry
by Gov. Marcy,  signed by  Halsey Sandford, Major-General  Third
Division  Cavalry.
  He was always an enthusiastic student of botany, and in pursuit of
this  study joined  his devoted and  life-long friend, Prof. Asa Gray of
Harvard  College, on an extensive tour through what was then the  far
west, and  afterwards was  fond of relating  his  experiences in little
thriving towns which afterwards became large and prosperous cities.
  While  in attendance on  a series of  meetings held in Penn Yan,
conducted by the  then renowned  evangelist Jacob  Knapp, he was
converted, and on  the  first of January, 1844, became a member of
the Lodi Baptist church and was the first superintendent of the Sun-
day  school.  In  1842  he was licensed by the  church  to preach,
" m  ny of the brethren saying  that for a long time they had thought
it the duty of  Bro. Folwell to serve the Lord more publicly," but felt
that he was better fitted  to labor as a layman.   He possessed  rare
powers  of exhortation and especially was  his influence felt  in the
cause of temperance.   The social customs of to-day are very different
from those of forty years ago.   It was not easy  then  to take a noble
stand for temperance, but he was  not one to fear frowns or ridicule
or to retreat from a sphere of  Christian usefulness because of unpop-
ularity, and in the vicinity where he lived he was largely instrumental
in bringing about a wonderful  temperance reform.
   For over twenty years  he  was treasurer  of the  Romulus Baptist
church.   For sixteen years he was treasurer of the  Seneca Baptist
Association.   For two years he was in the service of the American
Baptist Publication Society.
   Of his ten children six  are still living.   " Two of his sons fought in
the  Union army.  William Reeder  Folwell was a  member of  the
Fourth Michigan regiment.  James D. Folwell responded to the first 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
39
call for volunteers and enlisted in Company A, Thirty-third N. Y. S. V.,
was captured in McClellan's abandoned hospital at Chickahominy,
confined in Libby prison, and  died of  emaciation  at Philadelphia,
July 26, 1862, at the age of twenty-three years."
  He died rich  in  the  esteem of  the  community  and at the age
of seventy-three.   The  cause  of his death was lung difficulty and
Bright's  disease.   Dr. Folwell was  an  earnest,  active,  benevolent
Christian  man and  was public-spirited to  a large  degree, always
actively  engaged  and interested  in the affairs of the church and
county and a free and generous host.  " He gave cheerfully and with
a liberal hand for the support cf the  gospel at home  and abroad and
was a leader in every good work."
                         LEWIS POST.
  Lewis Post, one of the early practitioners of the town of Lodi  and
for many years prominent as a citizen and physician in the south jury
district of the county, was born at Ovid, September 26, 1811, of Cor-
nelius and Christina  Post.
  He received his education at the Ovid Academy and at the Fair-
field Medical  College, where  he attended  lectures during the years
1831-2-3.  A portion of his medical tuition was received under the
instruction of Dr. C. C. Coan.   He  also  took  a  private  dissecting
course at Auburn.   On the fourteenth of June, 1834, he was granted
a diploma, with license to practice by the State Medical Society,  and
began the duties of  his profession at Lodi the same year, and con-
tinued in the discharge of an extensive business for forty-five years in
that town.   He also  bore a certificate of membership, dated  Decem-
ber 13,  1831,  as fellow of  the Medical  Society of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District  of New York.
  In May, 1837, he was married at Lodi to Ann Boss.  Five  children
were born to them, of whom two are now living.
  Dr. Post was a surgeon of  ability and  as a physician obtained  the
confidence of a large community.   On the sixteenth of April, 1862,
he was commissioned one of the "Auxiliary Corps  of Volunteer Sur-
geons," and after the battle of Williamsburg was  appointed in charge
of the College Hospital.   This  hospital was the William  and Mary
College, which was  occupied  for that purpose  and contained  two 
4o
Historical Sketch of the
hundred and fifty patients.   He was  afterwards ordered to the front,
to report  to the Forty-ninth  Pennsylvania regiment, and continued
with it through the seven days' battle in the Wilderness before Rich-
mond.  He spent nearly two years in the service in various positions
as Surgeon, and  had charge of the last load of wounded from the
Wilderness to Washington.
  After his return from the seat of war he again resumed his practice
in the village  of  Lodi, and  in 1866 was  elected  a  member of the
Assembly  from Seneca county, serving on  the  committees on  Privi-
leges and Elections, Public  Health,  and  Medical  Colleges  and
Societies.
  On January 14, 1867, he  was  granted, on  recommendation of the
State Medical Society, the honorary title of M.D. by- the Regents  of
the University of  the State of New York.   He was elected supervisor
of the town of Lodi in 1875  an(^ re-elected to the  Assembly in 1876.
   He was a member of the Seneca County Medical Society for many
years and its Secretary, and was active  in its re-organization in 1865.
In  1871 he was elected its president.
   In 1877 he contributed to the  State Medical Society a paper on
" Tar Fumigations  in Gangrenous Sores."  His own health not per-
mitting him to attend,  the paper was read by Dr. E. R. Squibb of
Brooklyn.   Dr. Post was then suffering from a bronchial affection,
which he ascribed  to infection from  the  inhalation  of virus  from
gangrenous ulcers  which he was treating  in  a  patient.  Dr. Post
belonged  to a long-lived family, his father and mother  living to the
age of ninety years.  He died February  12,  1879,  prematurely,  at
the age, of sixty-nine, worn  out by a long and laborious but successful
practice.
                      NORMAN  EDDY.
  Norman Eddy was born at Scipio, Cayuga county, December 10,
1810, his father  being one of the earliest settlers in that part of the
State.
  At the age of nineteen he left his home at Scipio and came to
Fayette, where  he  taught during  the fall  and winter  months, and
prepared himself in the  interval by study  for a professional  career.
Law would have been his choice, but circumstances prevented his
following his inclination. 
Seneca  Coutity Medical Society.
4i
  Substituting medicine in its place, at what time it cannot with cer-
tainty be said, he commenced studying with Dr. James A. Hahn, then
practicing medicine at Canoga.
  In 1833, in company with a fellow  student, Mr. Abram Methour,
he went  to  Philadelphia  for a course of lectures and graduated in
1835,  warmly  complimented by the  faculty,  then composed  of
Physick, Chapman,  Jackson  Hare,  Horner  and  others,  for his
faithful attendance and efficiency in study.
  Returning to Canoga, on September 4,  1835,  ne married Anna
Maria, only  daughter of Horatio Lawrence Melchoir  of Philadelphia
a niece of Mrs. James A. Hahn.   The  ceremony was performed  by
the Rev. Dr. Diedrich Willers.
  Previous to this, arrangements had been made to enter into a part-
nership with Dr. Fifield of Waterloo.
   He  remained in Waterloo four years;  then a desire  to visit the
West induced him to go to Verona,  Michigan, where the family of
John Stewart, former proprietor of the old  Eagle tavern in Waterloo,
then resided.  He remained an inmate  of his family  for nine months,
practicing his profession.
   In the spring of 1840, with his wife, he left for Marshall, Michigan,
but the representations of friends  induced  him  to go to Mishawaka,
St. Joseph county, Indiana.   After a residence of seven years he again
removed to South Bend, Indiana, with the intention  of  changing  his
profession,  and where  he  afterwards resided  until   the  date of his
death.
   In the practice of medicine he was very successful, but feeling  a
strong desire to become a lawyer he accordingly prepared himself by
a thorough  course of study  and was  regularly admitted to the bar of
St. Joseph county on April  1, 1847.
   Having always taken an interest in public affairs, lending his influ-
ence by speech  and writing to the topics of the day, it was natural
that with his introduction to law should also come an entrance into
public life.
   After he had practiced three years he was  elected State  Senator
on the Democratic ticket.  In 1852 he was elected to Congress, hav-
ing Vice-President Colfax for a competitor;  but in 1854  was himself
defeated by the latter on  the Nebraska issue.   In 1855  he  was ap-
pointed United States District Attorney for  Minnesota by President
Pierce, and in 1856 Commissioner of Indiana Trust Lands in  Kansas, 
42
Historical Sketch of the
which office he held until the fall of 1857.    At this time  he again
commenced the practice of  law, associating himself with the  late
Judge Egbert, but two years after was appointed by the Legislature
on a commission to settle claims due the State.
  When the war of the Rebellion  broke out  he zealously took his
stand on the side of  the  Union, and in 1861 organized the Forty-
eighth Indiana  regiment, of which  he was  appointed Colonel.   He
fought   with  great bravery  in  the  battle  of Iuka, where he  was
severely wounded ; also at Corinth and Grand Gulf, and at the siege
of Vicksburg until its surrender, when he resigned, being disabled by
his wounds  from further serving his country as a soldier.   He con-
tinued   in  the  practice of  his  profession  until 1865, when he was
appointed  Collector of Revenue  for  the 9th district of Indiana by
President  Johnson.  In 1870 he was elected  Secretary of State on
the Democratic ticket, which  office  he held at the time of  his death
which occurred at South Bend, Indiana, January 28, 1872.
                    FRANKLIN B.  HAHN.
   Franklin  B.  Hahn was born  at  Norristown,  Pa.  His father's
name was Philip Hahn, his mother's, Mary Von Buskirk.
   He commenced the  study of medicine at  an early age, under the
instruction of Dr. James  Hahn  of Allentown, Pa.,  and also with his
brother, William B.  Hahn at Trappe, Pa., depending upon his own
exertions  for the means of giving himself an  education and a pro-
fession.
   In 1828 he graduated at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadel-
phia, and  was also afterwards licensed  by the Ontario County Medical
Society.
   During  the war of 1861  he took charge of one of the ship hospi-
tals and performed valuable service while there.
   He was married at Milton,  Pa., to Maria N. Davis,  and  had eight
children, of whom seven are still  living.
   He practiced at West Fayette  for several  years  about 1839 ; then
moving to Gorham, Ontario county, carried on farming and practice,
and afterwards removed to Canandaigua, where he followed his pro-
fession.  In 1853 he moved to Auburn for a short time, from which
place in 1855  ne went to  Philadelphia, where he  had a large and 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
43
lucrative practice, till his death, which occurred from acute nephritis
in 1867.
   He was ]a man of __considerable-tculture  and  easily acquired any
subject  and retained it with a tenacious memory.   His work was well
done.   His motto was, "Any thing  that was worth  doing  at all was
worth doing well."   He held many town and village trusts and was a
member of several  medical  societies,  a good debater,  logical and
fearless, and possessed a peculiar fascinating manner that won his way
to a successful  practice.   He  was  liberal to a  fault, and endowed
with good Christian traits of character.
                      ALFRED  BOLTER.*
  The subject of  this  sketch, Dr.  Alfred  Bolter, was  born  of
William and Nancy Pomeroy Bolter, at Northampton, Mass., on the
fourth day of July,  1811, and spent the early years of his life at that
place.   In the year 1826 he went to Utica, N. Y., and there became
seriously impressed  under the religious influences that followed the
preaching of the  evangelist  Finney.   While at Utica he united  with
the Presbyterian church.  At the age of nineteen he came to  Ovid
to attend the academy, which at  that day attracted numerous students
from a distance.  He  entered the academy intending to prepare for
a collegiate course, with a strong  desire  and purpose to devote his
life to the ministry.   He studied there for about three years, and
taught school for two  or three years longer.  During these  years his
health became seriously impaired, from too close application to his
studies.   He suffered from pulmonary hemorrhages, and  other alarm-
ing symptoms  became so  manifest, that  fears were  entertained for
several years that an early grave awaited  him.  At this  time, recog-
nizing the precarious state of his health, he consulted Dr. C. C. Coan,
who advised him  to abandon his desire for the ministry  and to think
of some occupation that would furnish him  an out-door life.
  Following  this  advice, but unwilling to  give  up the idea of a pro-
fession, and unable to use his voice in public speaking, he determined
to prepare himself for  the practice of medicine, and, accordingly, in
1835  he commenced  studying in the office of Dr. Coan.   His first
course of  lectures he  attended at  Fairfield, in 1835-6.   The others
* Trans. State Medical Society of the State of New York.—Carson. 
44
Historical Sketch of the
at the  Geneva  Medical College, graduating there in 1839.   Upon
obtaining his degree he located himself for medical practice at Ovid,
where he spent the remainder of his life.
   On the  sixteenth of August, 1842, he  was married to  Elizabeth,
the daughter of his preceptor, Dr. Coan,  who, with one  son and one
daughter yet survive him.
   Dr. Bolter was happily possessed  with special  gifts  of language,
and  a  pleasant and convincing  public  address.  At  the time  he
began the practice of his profession, the  country was quite generally
aroused upon the question of temperance reform.   He early became
an advocate and prepared an address upon this subject, which he had
illustrated with plates, showing the deleterious effects of alcohol upon
the human stomach.  This address is  still remembered  by many yet
living, and is said to have been both eloquent and effective.  Dr. Bolter
was  an earnest  opponent of slavery.   When the  " Free Soil move-
ment "  was organized  he became  an active member of  the party,
taking part in political conventions and addressing public meetings.
   In 1844 he delivered a  course of lectures upon medical subjects
before the  Institute at Ithaca, N. Y.  In  1850 he  was elected mem-
ber of  Assembly, and served one term at Albany.   He subsequently
continued an active member of the Republican  party, although  he
never allowed himself to be nominated for office.   He was active in
local political affairs, and for many years was trustee of Ovid Academy.
During  the year 1875 he  was president of the  corporation of the
village  of Ovid, and for more than twenty years he was superintendent
of the Sabbath  school of  the Presbyterian church, of  which he was a
member.  In 1858 he  became a permanent  member of  the Medical
Society of the State  of New York, and, in  the same year,  also,  he was
made a  member of the  faculty of his  Alma  Mater,  the  Geneva
Medical College, and retained this position  for several years, giving
lectures on " The Theory and Practice of  Medicine."
   During the civil war he served in the transport service on  the James
river, in  the  employ of  the  Sanitary  Commission.   He was there
during the memorable naval fight between the Merrimack and Monitor.
Want of  strength to  endure the  fatigue of caring for the  wounded
soldiers, compelled him to reluctantly leave the war.   He was  ill for a
long time after his return.
   He frequently contributed  original  articles upon  various medical
subjects to the  Seneca County Medical  Society,  of which he was a 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
45
member, and in which he always took an  active and lively interest
In the study of medical sciences he became, from the first, an enthu-
siast, always regarding  his calling as an honorable one in the highest
degree, and desiring to honor it, both in his devotion to his duties and
to become more and more proficient in the faithful discharge of them.
His reputation as a physician, and particularly as a surgeon, extended
over a wide  circle in  his community.   In the latter branch he was
especially zealous, and  performed many difficult operations with skill
and success.  At the time of his death he had performed sixteen cap-
ital operations.   In the " Transactions of the State Medical Society "
of 1866, there is  a report  of a case contributed by  him  to the
society, upon " Congenital Hypertophy of the Tongue ; Amputation."
In all matters of duty, that to his profession received his first  atten-
tion, as paramount to others.
  About the year i860, he was thrown from his carriage and  sustained
a severe  comminuted  fracture of the upper  third of the left femur,
which proved a severe  shock to his system, and from which he only
recovered after a period of prolonged suffering and confinement of
nearly a year's duration.  A decided  shortening of  the limb resulted
in a  permanent lameness.   For some years  before  his  death, his
health was seriously impaired by a severe attack of pneumonia, in
1873, and  which seemed to arouse  anew  the  long slumbering lung
disease of his youth.
  For six  months  prior to July 12, 1880, he  was  confined  to his
house, and much of the time  to his bed.  During  all this time his
sufferings were quietly,  bravely and patiently borne, and his religious
convictions  grew  deeper, and  his  faith  in God  and immortality
stronger and  brighter.
  He left a wide circle of friends, who missed him not only as  a suc-
cessful and popular physician, but always  as an active worker in all of
the affairs of  the village and county.
                      O. S. PATTERSON.
  Oliver S. Patterson was born at  Nashua, N. H., on the twenty-
sixth of September, 1817, of James and Sarah (Stearns) Patterson.
  On the father's side he was descended, in the sixth generation, from
James Patterson, who settled in Billerica, Mass., in  1651, and on the 
46
Historical Sketch of the
 mother's, from Isaac Stearns  of Watertown,  Mass.,  who  came to
 America in 1630.
   He received  his early  education at Nashua, while  residing there
 and at Lunenberg, Mass., also at  Pepperill, where at  quite an  early
 period, he  became widely  known as a teacher of vocal music.   He
 was also a brilliant scholar, teaching Latin when only fifteen years old,
 in the school in which he was, at the  same time, a pupil.  From his
 early youth his mind had a strong bent towards  the medical profes-
 sion.
   At the age of twenty-one, he removed  to New York State ;  while
 passing through Troy, N.  Y., he was offered the position of chorister.
 in the  church  of  Dr. Beman, at $400, annually, a very large salary
 at that time.  His destination was the office of Dr. Lucius M. Clark,
 who resided at Chili, Monroe county, N. Y., and he declined the offer.
   He remained in Dr. Clark's office about one year, going from Chili
 to Geneva,  to attend lectures at the Medical College in that place,
 which at that time was one of the  leading schools of the State.   Here
 he became the private pupil of Dr. Thomas Spencer, the  president of
 the institution and an eminent lecturer.   Among  his classmates were
 men who have since become noted in the profession,—Professor Ford
 of Michigan University, Dr. Frank Hamilton,  Professor Green, and
 other medical men of note.  During his entire course as a student he
 defrayed his own expenses by teaching vocal music, for which he had
 a decided taste and was well  qualified.   He remained in the office
 of Professor Spencer  until he graduated,  in  1842, and immediately
 thereafter began the practice of medicine in West  Fayette.
  On the twenty-sixth of  September,  1843, ne was married by the
 Rev. Dr. Gridley, to Caroline, youngest daughter of Jacob and Anna
 Katherine (Steinberger) Fatzinger.
  In November, 1844,  he removed  to  Waterloo, and continued in
 active  practice  of  his profession  there  until  July, 1869, when, in
visiting a patient, he received a fall, from  which he never recovered.
 He died on the morning  of  Christmas,  1869, having practiced in
Waterloo twenty-five years.
  As a physician, Dr.  Patterson stood in the front rank of his profes-
sion, and enjoyed the confidence of the public and of his professional
associates.   As a man and a citizen, he was  honorable, upright  and
generous.   He  was a man of pleasing manners and great  kindness of
heart.  His  long illness was borne patiently and even cheerfully,  and 
Seneca County Medical Society.
47
in his death  the profession  to  which he belonged  lost an honored
member, and society at large, an esteemed and worthy citizen.
   His funeral took place at the Presbyterian church in Waterloo, a
large concourse of people being in attendance.  The members of the
Seneca County Medical Society, of which Dr. Patterson was a former
president, were mostly  present,  and  the  business places in Waterloo
were closed during the service.  Deceased left a widow, (sister of the
Messrs. Fatzinger of Waterloo)  ; a son, Thomas F.; and two daugh-
ters, one  the  wife  of Dr. Geo.  Yost, of Waterloo,  and the other, of
Joseph Kampman, all of whom reside in  Boston, Mass.
   Dr. Patterson was for nearly thirty years, a member of the medical
profession in Seneca county, and occupied a prominent position as a
citizen and physician due to his strength of character, and to the high
estimation in which he  was held as a man.  He contributed much to
the formation and successful maintenance of the  County Medical
Society, and also to the Medical Association of Central New York, of
which he was one of the founders, and a permanent member.
                       HENRY REEDER.
   Henry Reeder, of Varick,  in  the  county of Seneca, N. Y., was
 born on  the nineteenth  day  of  September, 1796,  in the city of
 Sheffield,  in England.
   After receiving a liberal education he  entered the medical profession
 by studying  with  a member of the Royal  College  of Surgeons, of
 London, first paying this gentleman four hundred dollars for the privi-
 lege of witnessing his medical practice for a limited time.   He  next
 went to the University of Edinburgh, at which  he studied for three
 years and graduated in  1820.   On taking  his  degree of Doctor of
 Medicine  at the University of Edinburgh, he wrote  and published in
 Latin his  inaugural thesis, entitled  " De Affectibus Cordis," being a
 dissertation on the inflammatory, organic and sympathetic affections
 of the heart, which he dedicated to the several professors constituting
 the Faculty of Medicine of the  University.
   Dr. Reeder next became a member of the Royal College of Physi-
 cians of London, and commenced  practice as a physician in London,
 where he lived  for a number of years.   He was moreover elected a
 Fellow of the Royal  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Society of London,
and also a member extraordinary of the Royal  Medical Society of 
48
Historical Sketch of the
Edinburgh.   After a lapse of twenty years from the time he graduated,
Dr. Reeder, having the/i three sons whom he wished to  bring up to
agricultural pursuits, and the farming interest in England being at that
time very much  depressed, resolved  to come  to this country, and
arrived at New York in the month of  October,  1840.   After looking
at different parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York States,
he ultimately purchased the farm of upwards  of six hundred acres of
land in Varick, then belonging to  Mr.  Alexander  Hamilton  Dey,
whose father, Benjamin Dey, had settled upon  it many years before,
when the country was comparatively a wilderness.*
   Here Dr. Reeder resided about thirty-nine years.  It may be added,
that he was brought up  among the members of the religious society of
orthodox  Friends, or  Quakers, and always entertained views on
religious  subjects  in accordance with the tenets or principles of that
denomination of  Christians.
   Dr. Reeder was twice married, the second time after he had attained
a great age.  His wife  and three  children survived  him — two sons,
John and William, and a  daughter, Mrs. J. Hathaway — all residents
of Varick.   During the life of  his first  wife he was  an attendant at
Trinity Episcopal church at  Geneva, although he was a believer in
the Quaker doctrine.
   In the winter of 1859-60 Mr. David Reeder, the son of Dr. Henry
Reeder, commenced holding the services of the church in the school
house at  Dey's Corners, and  which so far as is known was the first
effort towards the establishment of the church  in this particular locality
of Seneca county.   These services were continued by him whenever
possible until he entered the  Theological  Seminary of the Protestant
Episcopal  church in New  York city, where he  died April  2, 1866,
from a fever contracted while reading  prayers to the sick prisoners at
Blackwell's Island, only a few months before he would  have been or-
dained a deacon in the church of his birth.   In memory of his worth
and devotion, one of the missions of the church in New York city is
known as the " David Reeder Mission."
   Dr. Reeder died November 14,1880, and is buried at West Fayette,
in the Presbyterian churchyard.  He was  universally esteemed as an
upright citizen in every relation of life.
  * Benjamin Dey, an early surveyor, was probably the first  settler in Varick, soon after 1790,
upon this farm. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
49
                       ALFRED SEARS.
  Alfred SEARS^born at Hector, Tompkins county, N. Y., October
19th,  1818, was  the second  son of  Thomas B. and Maria Sears,
and spent his early  days with his parents, assisting  his father in farm
work.
  He  received  a  primary  education in the  district school,  and
at the age of fourteen left home, spending four years in study at the
Penn Yan and Genesee Wesleyan Seminaries.  With the exception of
teaching during this interval, Dr. Sears' life has been devoted to no
other pursuit than his profession.
  Having completed his  academic studies,  he registered with  Dr.
Henry Spence, of Starkey, Yates county, N. Y., and began  at once
his  work in medicine, attending lectures, first at the  Geneva Med-
ical College, and afterward at the Berkshire Medical College, Massa-
chusetts, graduating from the  latter institution in 1840.
  In  February,  1841, Dr. Sears located at  Townsendville, Seneca
county/ N.  Y.,  and has  continuously practiced at that  place until
the  present  time.   The town of  Lodi honored  him with  the
office  of supervisor  for  two years,  and  he  held  the postmas-
tership of the village of Townsendville for  eight years.  He married,
in September, 1846,  Harriet Woodworth, from which union  three
daughters were born.
  Dr. Sears, during his long and honorable record of forty-six years,
has always been accorded the  kindness and support of the  community
in which for so long a time he has been a trusted and respected medi-
cal adviser.
                    JACOB  HASBROUCK.

  Jacob Hasbrouck was born  in  the town of Marbletown, Ulster
county, N. Y., April 2, 1800.  His father was Joseph Hasbrouck, and
his  mother Margaret Hasbrouck.
  The subject of this sketch remained on his father's farm until he was
eleven years old.  During this time he  availed himself of the benefits
of the district school and private  instruction,  and at an early age he
entered Kingston Academy,  where he completed his academic course
in 1815.   Soon  after leaving Kingston Academy he entered Union
College, and after four years' studentship graduated in the year 1819.
                    4 
50                   Historical Sketch  of the
  He then entered the office of Dr.  Henry Hornbeck of Walkill in
Ulster county, where he pursued his medical studies for three years.
He attended three  courses of lectures at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, New York city, and graduated in the year 1822.
  At first he located in the town of Rochester, Ulster county, N. Y.,
where he pursued the practice of his profession for three years.   He
removed thence to Marbletown, the place of his birth, where he con-
tinued in active practice for seventeen years.   He then sold  his farm,
and came  to Tyre, Seneca  county,  N. Y., and  here continued his
professional work for  six or  seven years, when  he relinquished the
practice of medicine and devoted the remainder of his life to farming.
  In the year 1825 he married Arietta Schoonmaker, and was the
father of ten children—three sons  and  seven daughters, all living.
He died December 26, 1862, from cerebral shock, the result of being
thrown  from his carriage.
                      ROBERT S. COPP.
  Robert  S.  Copp was born  in the town of  Sanbornton, N.  H.,  in
the year 1796.
   During  his  earliest years  he  evinced a  desire  to  obtain  an
education,  but  owing to  the rigid discipline of  his father was
compelled  to  spend  his  time in farm work, until, when seventeen
years of age, he rebelled,  stole away from home  at  night, and  by
persevering effort, succeeded in graduating from the Medical Depart-
ment of Dartmouth College in 1826.  He had married, in 1824, Miss
Lydia Maria Rogers of Lempster, N. H., a descendant of the martyr,
John  Rogers,  and immediately upon  graduating located in practice
at Springfield, N. H.  Here he remained until the spring of 1835, when
he removed to New York  State and  settled  near Saratoga Springs,
where he practiced his profession for five years.
  In 1840, with his family of three children,  Dr. Copp removed,  at
the slow rate of  travel  afforded by the Erie canal, to Galen,  Wayne
county.   He  had just  moved  into his new  home  with his  family,
when  the  building took  fire,  and  everything was  destroyed, the
inmates themselves barely escaping.   Soon after rebuilding, and when
about forty-five years of age, he was prostrated with an acute  inflam-
matory disease of the lungs.  His physicians  gave  him up, to die of
tubercular affection.  Pus formed which pointed externally, and this 
Seneca County Medical Society.
5*
tumor the  physicians refused  to lance.   With  great resolution he
did this himself, rapidly recovered, and lived  to within a few days of
seventy  years of age.
  In 1842  Dr. Copp moved  to Junius,  Seneca  county, where he
practiced his profession for about twelve years.   Here his wife  died,
after an illness of  only three days, of the  terrible scourge known  as
" Black Tongue," which was then prevalent to an alarming degree  in
that vicinity.  He  soon after married Miss Angeline Lyman of Galen,
Wayne  county.  There were six children born of the first marriage
and one of the second, three  of whom are  still living—E. Darwin
Copp  and  Mrs.  Frances Emily Parsons,  both residing at Clifton
Springs, N. Y., and Mrs. Olive Branch  McCabe of Canandaigua,
N.  Y.
   In 1854 Dr. Copp retired  from practice and settled upon a farm in
Hopewell,  Ontario county;  from there he moved in 1863 to Clifton
Springs,where he remained until his death, which occurred in May, 1867.
   Dr. Copp devoted his long life almost exclusively to the pursuit of
his profession.  In  his  younger days he  possessed  a more  than
ordinarily developed voice,  and occasionally took  part  in  musical
exhibitions before  audiences in this county and in Boston, Mass., and
for a short time taught singing school.  He was a staunch Democrat
in politics, and an acquaintance and friend of Daniel Webster.
                  HUMPHREY C.  WATSON.
  Humphrey C. Watson, a son of Allen Watson, was born at Mont-
rose, Pa., December 8, 1822.
  He was a nephew of Dr.  Ethan Watson,  studied with his uncle,
and graduated at the  Albany Medical College in the spring of 1842.
He located in Romulus the same spring and continued in successful
practice there till 1852, when he removed to the West where he has
since died.  He was  comparatively a young  man at the time of his
death.
                      LANDON WELLS.
  Landon Wells died comparatively young, yet he lived long enough
to acquire a wide-spread and enviable reputation as an honored citizen
and a highly esteemed and useful member of the medical profession. 
52
Historical Sketch of the
By nature he was gifted with powers of judgment and discrimination
eminently qualifying him for a position in the first rank as a physician
and surgeon.
  He was born in Granville, Washington county,  N. Y., September
24,  1820, of John and  Esther  (Hopkins) Wells.   Having received
a thorough academic education  he chose medicine for his profession,
and in 1840 commenced his studies with Dr. George Allen of Salem,
N. Y., but soon removed to New  Haven,  Conn., and entered the
office of  the celebrated Professor  William  Tully of Yale College,
where he attended his first course of lectures in the winter of 1840-41.
Leaving there he  became a student  of Dr. March  of Albany, and
attended a course of lectures at the Albany Medical College, remain-
ing with Dr. March till  the  fall of 1842.   He then enrolled himself
as a student in the Geneva Medical College,  then in the zenith of  its
popularity, and there received his diploma in January, 1843.   In the
fall of the same year he opened an office in Waterloo, where he con-
tinued, with the  exception of the time of his absence in the military
service, until his death—a period of twenty-five years—in the posses-
sion of  a  fine practice and enjoying to a rare degree the confidence
and respect  of the community.
  In  March, 1851, he was appointed  deputy postmaster of Waterloo.
  After the  late  Southern Rebellion was fairly inaugurated and it was
evident how stupendous was the conflict and how imperative was the
duty of all good citizens to aid the government, the doctor responded
to the call so strongly made  upon the members of the  medical pro-
fession, and  proffered his services  to the  government.  They were
accepted, and  he was  ordered to  report at Cliffboume  hospital in
May, 1862.   Here he continued for three months, during which time
so favorably impressed were the  medical authorities with his  ability
that he  was  sent to Culpepper  to take charge of  the large hospital
established  there, upon  the breaking up of  which he  returned to
Washington with the army of General Pope, and  after the battle of
Antietam was assigned the charge of a hospital at Boonsborough.  From
Boonsborough he was ordered to the officers' hospital in Georgetown,
of which  he had sole charge, and in  this important and responsible
position he continued until February,  after which time he was succes-
sively on duty at Mount Pleasant, Haiwood and Carver hospitals, in
the latter  of  which he continued in  charge with  few  interruptions.
He continued in hospital work,  with intervals of detailed duty—once 
Seneca  County Medical Soeiely.
53
at Belle  Plain, after the battle  of Chancellorsville, and upon three
separate  occasions  in charge of trains with wounded to New York,
Indianapolis and Cumberland—until October, 1864, when he was mus-
tered out of the service, and returning home after an absence of two
and a half years, resumed the active practice of his profession.
   During the early part of October,  1868, he  gave  indications of
failing health and complained of debility and difficulty of breathing, but
attended to his patients until about the twenty-seventh, when he was
obliged to take to his bed.  His symptoms indicated typhoid pneumonia
of the gravest type, and he failed rapidly and died on the eighth of
November.
   In  determining  the professional  character and position of Dr.
Wells, if the verdict of the community, where for  twenty-five  years he
lived and practiced, be the criterion, or if his merits be measured  by
the standard of  success, then is his rank  an exalted  one;  and the
judgment of his professional brethren, best competent to measure his
qualifications,  assigns  him a place no less elevated than that given
him by the community.  A superior intellect finely cultivated, a medi-
cal education  under the guidance and in daily contact with preceptors
such as Tully and March, and  an earnest devotion to  his profession,
well qualified  him for the successful prosecution of the noble calling
he had adopted.
   Thoroughly conversant with  the researches  and  developments of
chemistry,  and  the discoveries of  modern  science, yet as a general
rule his  list of  remedies was comparatively small.   He was  cautious
not to discard tried and standard medicines for vaunted and oft times
ill-understood new remedies.  He was a strenuous advocate of the
duty of physicians to assert and maintain the dignity of their calling,
and thus, by showing their  respect for it and  themselves, secure  for
the profession and  its members the respect of the  world.  The natural
bent of his mind, and  the associations by which he was surrounded as
a student,  turned  his mind particularly to surgery, and, as  far  as
the  limited  opportunities  of  a  country  practice would  afford,  he
devoted  his attention to that branch.   His skill and success gave him
an extensive reputation,  which was  rapidly growing, when, by the
outbreak of the  Rebellion, he became transferred to a new and more
extensive field of usefulness.  As an army surgeon, his  career was one
of eminent success and distinction.  In no department of medicine or
surgery has the experience of our late war been of more benefit to the 
54
Historical Sketch  of the
profession throughout the world, or contributed more to the advance-
ment of  science,  than in  that of conservative  surgery, and  in that
branch Dr. Wells' reputation was well established, as having been one
of the most skillful, frequent, and successful operators.   His early
promotion  to responsible and important  positions,  the number of
hospitals placed  under his supervision  and  care, the high personal
character and political prominence of many of the patients entrusted
to his charge, indicate, unmistakably,  the respect and  confidence
entertained for him by the  medical department. That he also secured
the affectionate regard of his patients by his  skill, his assiduous care
and  attention, is evinced by  the  many  grateful  testimonials  he
received.
   The  following  note, received  by him when about  to resign  the
charge of the officers' hospital at Georgetown, indicates the estima-
tion in which he was held by those under his  care :

                       Seminary Hospital, Georgetown, D. C j |
                                       February 12, 1863.       j
To Laxdon Wells, M.D.,
               Acting Ass'I Surgeon, U. S. A.:
   Sir:—We have  heard with much  regret the order relieving you from
duty here.  Your departure  will sever ties of no  ordinary character.  The
patients to whom you have been both friend and phjsician, will miss your
ever-welcome presence.  The medical staff, who were so long associated
with you as subordinates, will miss  your willing ear and kind advice when
complicated  cases  come  across their path.  Wishing to convey to you
some slight token of our respect and  esteem as a man as well as a physician,
we, the undersigned,  Committee on behalf of the patients and officers of
the Seminary  Hospital^,  solicit your acceptance of the accompanying
Sword, Sash, Belt and Hat.
   With many kind wishes for your future welfare, we have the honor to be,
very respectfully,
                       Your obedient serv'ts,
                                    Armstead Peter, M.D.
                                    F. W. Miller, M.C
                                    P. Horwity, Major U. S.Vols.
                                    H. G. O'Weymouth,  Captain.
                                    M. C Grier, Lieut., Adjt.

   Kindly words  like these, such  testimonials of esteem and  regard,
speak volumes in praise of him to whom they were addressed.  He
has gone to his long rest-  His brethren in the profession will respect 
Seneca County Medical Society.
55
and  cherish his memory.  May they also emulate his many virtues
and noble qualities, and be thereby the better enabled to fulfill their
mission and make themselves worthy of their high vocation.
                      ALFRED  EMENS.
  In the spring of 1873  Alfred  Emens removed to the village of
Seneca Falls from Bearytown, where he had practiced successfully for
many years.  He was born in 1817 in that portion of Romulus after-
wards named Varick, his parents being  Joseph and Martha Emens.
The most of his early education was received at the common schools,
although  for several terms he  attended the Lima Seminary.  His
medical studies were pursued under the instruction of Drs. Ethan
Watson, James A. Hahn and Gardner Welles, and in  1843 he  gradu-
ated from the  Geneva Medical College.  He became a successful
practitioner and  accumulated means.  He removed to Seneca Falls
to free himself in his old age  from  long  and tiresome rides.   Since
his removal to  the village he  has.  engaged very little in professional
labor.
  He married,  as his first wife, Miss  Marilla McDuffy, who died
several  years ago.   In  1883 he was again  married to  Miss Ruth
Burthers.   He was one of the original  members of the society at its
re-organization, and in 1870 its president.
                        P. H. FLOOD.

  Patrick H. Flood was born in Northampton county,  Pa., March
14, 1814.   His father, John  Flood,  was a native  of Ireland, who
came to America in his youth.
  Dr. Flood was the eldest of five sons and  three daughters, and
until the age of sixteen remained with his parents.  A course of study
at Bloomsburgh and Dansville academies fitted him for business.  He
began as clerk in a mercantile store, but soon abandoned that pursuit for
the study of medicine, which he commenced in 1840 in the office of Dr.
Bonham Gearheart of Washingtonville, Pa.  Two years' study with Dr.
Gearheart was  followed by a course at the Geneva Medical College,
where he graduated in 1845.  He located  for the practice of medicine 
 56                   Historical Sketch of the

 at Lodi.  He remained in this field for twelve  years and then went to
 Elmira, where he lived and labored until the  time of his death.   He
 early became a member of the Seneca County Medical Society while at
 Lodi, and of the Erie County Medical Society ;  also occupying the posi-
 tion of curator of the University of Buffalo for many years and until the
 time of his death ; he was also a leading member of the Chemung County
 Medical Society and of the Elmira Academy of Medicine, and was
 one of the oldest and most prominent physicians in the county;
   He enlisted  almost with the first  call to arms in the 107th regiment
 of New York volunteers, with the rank of Major,  and, of all the staff,
 was  the  only  one.  who  remained  with the  regiment  and returned
 with it when peace was declared.  In the year of his  enlistment, 1862,
 he was made Brigade Surgeon of the 12th Army Corps, First Division,
 subsequently receiving the rank of  Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel  for his
 valiant services.  In April, 1862, he  was advanced  to the duty of Sur-
 geon in charge of the First Division Hospital, where he continued until
 the close of the war.   His history of the war was  that of the 107th, which
 fought at Antietam, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Resaca, Dallas, Kene-
 saw Mountain, Pine Ridge, Peach Creek, Aversasboro, Bentonville and
 Atlanta, and accompanied General  Sherman in his famous " March
 to the Sea."  Dr.  Flood was always in the field with the soldiers in
 battle, caring for the wounded, and  won by his  valor the soubriquet of
 "The Fighting Surgeon."
   A Democrat until  the breaking out of the war,  he then became  an
 ardent  Republican,  and as such was twice elected mayor of Elmira,
 in 1871-2,  by  the largest majorities ever given a candidate for that
 office.  He was twice elected coroner of the county.   He was also a
 member of the board of education,  and in  every capacity showed
 the same daring, energetic qualities  that ever characterized him.
   Dr.  Flood belonged to a family of physicians.  His brother, known
 as "young Dr. Flood," settled also in Seneca county, going afterwards
 to Geneva.  Dr. F. H. Flood of Bearytown is a son  of the latter, and
 others of  the younger branches have adopted the same profession.
   In 1837  he married Miss Rachel Schmeck.   Dr. Henry Flood, late
 mayor of Elmira, is a  son of Patrick H. Flood.   His wife and daughter,
 and sons Thomas S.  and Henry, are those of the family now living.
  His death  occurred on Friday, xMarch 11,  1886.   He  had been
suffering from  pneumonia for several days, but was supposed to  be
convalescent, when he suddenly died of disease of the  heart. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
57
  The funeral was conducted by the Baldwin Post, G. A. R., of which
the deceased was  a member, and the Grand Army men  and veterans
were present generally.  The government of the city of Elmira, and
the various political, military and civic  societies of which he was a
member, united to do honor at his funeral.
                      E. DORCHESTER.
  E.  Dorchester was born at  Geneva, Ontario county, N. Y., Oc-
tober 21, 1821, and graduated at the Geneva Medical College, in the
winter of 1849.
  He first located at Ovid, where he practiced from 1849 t0 ^S2 ;
but after  the  removal of Dr. Humphrey C. Watson from the village
of Romulus, he succeeded him, and remained in that village in prac-
tice  for seventeen years.
   In 1867 he removed to  Geneva and  there  engaged in the prac-
tice of medicine and in the business of a druggist.  He is now engaged
and has been for several years in fruit raising  and in the real estate
business  near  Tampa,  Florida, where  he  has made his  permanent
home, returning north on frequent visits to  Geneva.
                        S.  R. WELLES.

  Samuel Russell Welles, son of Dr. Gardner and Paulina Fuller
Welles, was  born in Waterloo,  N. Y., February 23, 1825.  His early
education was obtained in the schools of his native town.   He entered
Geneva  College  (now  Hobart)    in  1841,   graduating   there-
from  in  1845, and immediately thereafter  commenced  the  study o
medicine under the tuition of his father.
  During the period intervening between the beginning of his medi-
cal  studies  and  his entering  upon  the  duties of his profession, he
taught for  one term  the school of the district in which he  resided,
was afterwards engaged as an  assistant teacher  in the Waterloo Aca-
demy, and subsequently had  charge, for a few months, of the  classical
department of that institution.
  He attended lectures  at  the  Geneva Medical  College,  and  at
the   medical department  of  the  Buffalo  University,  receiving
the   degree of  M.  D. at that institution in  1848.  In the winter 
58
Historical Sketch of the
 of  1849-50  he  attended a  course of  lectures at  the  Jefferson
 Medical College of Philadelphia, and in the spring of 1850 opened an
 office in Waterloo, where he now resides, and where, for nearly forty
 years, he has  continued in the active practice of  his profession.  In
 1852 he married Sarah Helen Crary, of Waterloo.
   In January, 1862, he entered the military service as acting assistant
 surgeon in the 61st Regiment N. Y. S. Volunteers, and upon the resig-
 nation of the  surgeon  of the  regiment, Dr. Welles received a  com-
 mission for that  position, early in March of that year.  He was with
 the regiment  during its  stay in winter quarters at camp California,
 near Alexandria, Va.;  attended it on the reconnoisance to the Rappa-
 hannock under Gen. Howard ; participated in the siege of Yorktown ;
 followed the  rebels in their  retreat from the  latter place, arriving
 at Williamsburgh too late to take part in the battle there.  The regi-
 ment was actively  engaged in the battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines
 and suffered severely, winning for itself a noble reputation, under the
 command of  Col.  Francis C. Barlow  (afterwards Major-General).
 During and after this engagement as well as  in the actions at Allen's
 farm, Savage  Station,  White  Oak  swamp and Charles  City  Cross
 Roads— in all  of which the regiment participated and suffered nu-
 merous casualties — the  entire care  of the wounded  devolved upon
 Dr. Welles, who was the only medical officer with the regiment.   The
 wounded of the 61st at the battle  of Charles City Cross Roads,
 which took place at dark June 30th, were conveyed to temporary hos-
 pitals.   Dr.  Welles having  attended to the  immediate wants of those
 who were at the  one established nearest the  field  of  battle, repaired
 about ten o'clock in the evening to a hospital a mile distant, where
 he remained  in  the  performance of  his duties  until after  midnight,
 when, starting  to return he  was misdirected into a road which led him
 directly within the rebel lines.   He was suddenly confronted by three
 of the rebel picket guard, caused  to  dismount,  taken  to  General
 Longstreet's headquarters, and, in the morning,  sent  with some  sixty
 other prisoners  to Richmond, and  assigned a place  in the  officers'
 quarters in the famous  Libby prison.  The second  day after his arri-
val, he was, upon his request, allowed to take charge of a ward of our
sick  and wounded.  In the  discharge of that  duty, as well as the
scanty convenience and limited allowance of medical  supplies would
permit, he was occupied for three  weeks, at the  expiration of which
time he was permitted  to leave  Richmond in company with a detach- 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
59
ment of wounded men destined for Northern hospitals.  After assisting
in the disembarkation of the wounded at City Point, he rejoined his
regiment at Harrison's Landing.
  Of the acceptability of the service rendered by our surgeons to the
wounded and suffering Northern prisoners at  Richmond there can be
no doubt, and that Dr. Welles was not behind  his professional brethren
in his attention  to those needing his care, we have  the testimony of
the Rev. Dr. Marks, chaplain of the 63d Pennsylvania, and a prisoner
at Richmond.  In his book entitled " The Peninsular  Campaign in
Virginia,"* after speaking of some attentions  shown a wounded Penn-
sylvania soldier by Dr. Welles,  he says :   " I have not met Dr. Welles
since  those memorable days, and know  not where he may  now be,
but I rejoice  to say  that  he is one of the most  humane and  self-
sacrificing  of  surgeons."   Soon after his return  to  his  regiment the
doctor tendered his resignation on account of illness which prevented
his further continuance in the service, and  received an  honorable
discharge.
  The uncertainty which  prevailed during and for a short time after
the " Seven days' fight," as to the condition of the army, the positive
absence  of  any reliable  information,  and  the  conflicting rumors
which agitated every  community, made the reception of news which
gave  assurance of the safety of the army, an occasion of general re-
joicing.  The return to his home of Dr. Welles — who  had  been
reported dead — was  made the occasion  of many pleasant  manifesta-
tions  of respect and esteem from his fellow citizens.   During his con-
nection with the  regiment he had formed many strong and pleasant
attachments;  he had striven faithfully to do  his whole duty to  those
placed under his charge, and  he left the service  with regret.  As an
evidence that these kind feelings were  reciprocated, we quote from a
letter written by Dr. Landon Wells, from  Carver hospital, Washing-
ton, D.  C. :
                                                   "July 5, 1862.
  "Just  as the mail was leaving yesterday, I  learned  from some of the
61 st Regiment under  my charge, who  were  brought  here yesterday, that
Dr. S. R. Welles had  been taken  prisoner.  They think  that he stayed
with  the wounded when the army fell  back  from  the Chickahominy.
Thev  all speak of him  in the highest  praise.  Indeed, from all  the men
I have had  charge of—now nearly five hundred, and  from  every State—I
have heard  no surgeon so well spoken  of by the men.   I can tell you that
is very high praise."
* Page 412. 
6o
Historical Sketch  of the
   It may also  be stated, that a short time after reaching  home, he
was the recipient of  a heavy silver goblet, the  inscription upon which
showed  that it was presented  by the  officers and men of the  6ist
Regiment N. Y. State Volunteers to their late Surgeon, as a testimonial
of respect and esteem.
   During the fall of 1862 he occupied himself actively in promoting
enlistments, and  addressed several public meetings  in different parts
of the county for that object.   In the  spring of  1863 he was elected
supervisor for the town of Waterloo, and re-elected in 1864, '65, '66.
The duties of this office during the war were onerous and responsible ;
that those duties  were discharged satisfactorily to his constituents, his
repeated re-elections were a sufficient evidence.   Dr. Welles believed
that the profession of the Democratic  faith  was not  inconsistent with
loyalty to the  government and to the country, and in that  faith, from
the commencement  to the close of the war, he worked earnestly to
meet the demands made  upon his  town by the government, and gave
a cordial and sincere support to the country in its efforts  to suppress
the rebellion.
   As a physician and surgeon Dr. Welles has   always maintained a
creditable standing with his professional brethren, and is well and fa-
vorably known  throughout the county.
   He was actively interested  in the re-organization of the  Seneca
County Medical Society in 1865, and served eleven years as its secre-
tary.  Upon the organization of the " Willard Asylum for the  Insane,"
in 1869, he  was named in the  law creating  the institution, as one of
the trustees, a position of honor and trust he has ever since retained,
serving  for fifteen years as secretary of the board of trustees.  From
his long connection  with  this institution he  acquired a deep  interest
in all matters pertaining to the  insane, and during a brief trip to Eu-
rope in  1878,  devoted considerable  time  to visiting hospitals  for
the insane in England and on  the continent, and to the study of the
management and modes of treatment adopted.  In  1875  ne was
elected  a trustee of Hobart College, of which board he is still a mem-
ber.  He participated  actively in the organization of the  " Waterloo
Library and Historical Society," and  it is but just to say, that to his
persistent efforts, and to his unwavering devotion to its interests, much
of its success and growth is due.   In a paper read by him before that
society in 1877, he suggested the idea of a county celebration of the
one hundredth  anniversary of Gen.  Sullivan's march through Seneca 
                 Seneca County Medical Society.               61

county in his campaign against the Iroquois in 1779, and his destruc-
tion of Skoiyase, the Indian  town on the  site of which Waterloo was
built; a suggestion which  was adopted  and carried  out with  such
wonderful success in the Seneca County Sullivan Centennial Celebra-
tion, held  September 3d, 1879.   The paper alluded  to  has  been
thought worthy of a place in the book of Centennial  Celebrations,
lately issued by the State of New York.
  Dr. Welles  has been complimented with an honorary membership
in the  Albany Institute ; the Cayuga County Historical Society ; the
Clarendon  Historical Society of  Edinburgh, Scotland ;  and the New
York Historical Society of New York city, and has twice represented
Seneca county in  the State legislature, serving as member of assembly
in 1867 and 1881.
                   FRIEDRICH GLAUNER.

  Friedrich Glauner was born at Neuffen, Province of Wurtemberg,
Germany, October 4, 1817, and was consequently in the sixty-second
year of his age when  his  life was so  suddenly closed.  The family
consisted of five sisters and two brothers.   Only two came across the
sea to this land.   To-day the only surviving member of the family is
a widowed sister, Mrs. Baker, who  has  long  been a member of the
doctor's family.
  He took his academic  course  at  Stuttgart,  where he graduated in
1840.  The years intervening between 1844 and 1848 he was a stu-
dent of medicine at Zurich, Switzerland.   Each professor gave him a
certificate,  vouching for his proficiency in  his special  department of
study.  In this institution he enjoyed the instruction of  Dr. Bobrich, a
renowned physician. For a time he practiced  medicine in his native
country, but in the  year 1850 he left his  "Fatherland" and took up
his abode in the United States.
  He remained a few months in Connecticut  and thence came to
Fayette,  Seneca county,  N. Y.  Soon after  he removed to his late
home in Varick, where he has dwelt most of the time since. In  1856
he received a diploma from the Geneva Medical College. In  1863
he went to Albany, and  being examined  was  assigned to duty  in an
army hospital.  He was  engaged  in this service about two years, or
until the  close of  the war.   He was first stationed at Beaufort, South 
62
Historical Sketch of the
Carolina ; thence was transferred to a flag-ship, and was finally assigned
to the charge of a hospital at St.  Augustine, Florida.
   His education was of the most thorough character, as is common
in the German universities,  and  coming  to  America, he ranked high
in his profession.  He  was  a member of the State and County Medi-
cal Societies, and has held  nearly every  office in the latter.   He was
chosen president in 1873, and also censor.   In  the meetings of the
medical  society his opinion always  carried weight.  Perhaps no
physician in the county was better known, and his practice extended
to the counties adjacent.
   We would not paint a faultless character, nor afford him too high
praise ;  but still we can truthfully say, that he wielded a great influ-
ence wherever he was known.   We need not try to describe his char-
acter ; his virtues were  well known to all who had the pleasure  of his
acquaintance.   He was a kind man in his family, winning their respect
and love.   Being a man of positive character, his likes and  dislikes
were strong.  He held  his  friends in the highest esteem, and toward
them he was social, obliging and generous-hearted.
                     JEREMIAH  DUNN.
  Jeremiah Dunn was born at Newmarket, New Jersey, September 9,
1819, of De Camp and  Rachel (Doty) Dunn.  His  early life was
spent upon  the  farm, attending the district  school in winter and
working upon the farm in summer, until the age of eighteen, when he
entered the academy at Aurora.  After leaving the academy he taught
two years in a district  school,  and at the expiration of that time com-
menced the study of medicine in the  office of Dr. Lewis Post of Lodi
Village.  Just before entering upon the study of medicine he became
converted and  joined the Methodist Episcopal church,  and still
remains a member of  that denomination.
  In 1847 ne graduated  at the Geneva Medical College and settled
in practice  at Lodi, where he remained  continuously and  actively
engaged in the pursuit of his profession until the year 1885, when he
removed to Bath, Steuben county, and opened  a drug store.
  Dr. Dunn was  twice married, his first wife being Hannah D. Post,
whom he married in November, 1850;  and in  May 2, 1882,  his first
wife having died, he was  again  joined  in wedlock  to  Sarah Knight.
He has one child now  living. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
63
  In 1862, during the Civil war,  he rendered service  to his country
in the employ of the U. S. Sanitary Commission.  During his life he
filled the following offices and was a member of  the various organiza-
tions named below:  Inspector of  common  schools of the town of
Lodi;  member of the Seneca County Medical Society ;  member of
Central New York Medical Association ; original member of the N. Y.
State Medical Association; member of  the Steuben County Pharma-
ceutical  Association;  the  National Drug  Association.   He was
licensed as a  druggist by the N. Y. State Pharmaceutical Association
in 1885.
  He was one of the members of the Seneca County Medical Society
present at the  re-organization in 1865, and in  1872 he was elected
president of the society.
                    E. J.  SCHOONMAKER.
   E. Joachim Schoonmaker, Magee's Corners, was born in the town
of Rochester, Ulster county, N.Y., November 27, 1824.  His father
was D. Westbrook Schoonmaker and his mother, Lydia Depuy.
   His early days were  spent on  his father's  farm, with  the  usual
privileges of a district school.  At the age of eleven years his father
sold his farm in Ulster county and located in this county in the town
of Tyre.
   During the summers of 1836 and  1837 he assisted his father in
agricultural work  and attended district school in the winter.  In the
fall of 1838 he met with an accident in the loss of part  of one of his
legs.  This changed his prospects as an agriculturist, and in looking
over the  future for something to do, he chose the medical profession.
To accomplish this end much was necessary to  be done.  Two years
more  were  spent  in the district school,  preparatory to entering  the
Waterloo Academy, where  he completed his academic course.  At
the age of twenty-one he  commenced the study of medicine under
the instruction of Dr. Jacob Hasbrouck of Tyre, and continued in his
office  two  years.  The third fyear  he was a student of Dr. Landon
Wells of  Waterloo.
   In the year 1848  he graduated  at the Geneva  Medical College,
having previously attended three courses of lectures  at that institu-
tion.  Immediately after  graduation, in the same spring,  he located
near Magee's Corners, and  has been in continuous active practice in 
64
Historical Sketch of the
the same locality for  over thirty-nine years.  He was elected to the
office of justice of the peace,  and held  that office for twenty-four
consecutive  years.  Has  served  three terms as supervisor  and  has
thrice been  appointed notary public.  He was married October 26,
1848, to Jane Anderson, who died May 28, 1858.
  His marriage to his present wife took place in 1859.  Seven  chil-
dren have been born : four by his first wife, two sons and two daugh-
ters ; and three by his last  wife, two sons and one daughter ;  of whom
two are dead—a son and daughter by his present wife.
  Dr. Schoonmaker in 1869 was elected president of the society, and
for eleven years has been its  secretary, which office  he still holds.
                     WILLIAM A. SWABY.
   William A. Swaby was born at Espy, Columbia county, Pa., March
 12, 1828.  His parents, Frederick B. and Ann (Haigh) Swaby, resided
 in a rural neighborhood,  and he received his  early education in the
 common schools of Espy and lived upon the farm until he commenced
 his medical studies.  He entered the office of Dr. Ellerslie Wallace,
 professor  of obstetrics at Jefferson College,  and after  a course of
 study, graduated  at the Jefferson Medical College  in March, 1849.
   Soon  after graduation he settled in practice at Bloomsburgh, Pa.,
 where he remained from 1850 to  1852, when he removed and  came to
 Seneca Falls in April of that year.   He has since remained there up
 to the present time,  enjoying a  large practice  so far as  his health
 would permit, and devoting himself especially to the  surgery of the.
 surrounding region.  At first he formed a partnership  with Dr. John
 Clark, which continued until  dissolved by the removal of Dr. Clark
 to Chicago in 1855, when Dr. Swaby assumed the entire business.
   On the twenty-third of June,  1858, he  married Amelia S. Gould,
 and has three children  living : two sons and a daughter.
   During the Civil war he volunteered  his services as surgeon and
 served six months in  the Wills hospital and in the Pennsylvania hos-
 pital as an assistant surgeon.
   Upon the completion  of  the Willard Asylum  in 1869  he was
appointed by Gov. Hoffman as a member of the board of trustees,
and served in such capacity from 1869 t0 1882.  During the  summer
of 1882 he took an extended  tour  in Europe, partly for  the benefit
of his health. 
Seneca County Medical Society.
65
  Dr. Swaby has  given  himself wholly to his profession, and it has
almost entirely absorbed his time  and thoughts.  Having had  some
experience in civil hospitals while acquiring his medical  education,
and also in the military hospitals during the war, and having a decided
taste  for  surgery,  he has  devoted  himself more  especially to that
branch of the profession.  The surgery of Seneca Falls and of a large
surrounding territory naturally fell  to him, and  he has successfully
treated a large number of fractures  and performed numerous ampu-
tations and major operations, and  for a long period has been a con-
sultant in  cases of difficult surgery.
  He has been a member of the Seneca County Medical Society from
its re-organization, and was elected its president in 1871.   For many
years he was town and county physician, and served as coroner of the
county for twenty-one years.  In  1875  he was elected Treasurer  of
the county.  For thirteen  years  he was a member  of the board  of
trustees of the Willard Asylum for the Insane.
                     GEORGE  W.  DAVIS.

   In the year 1853 Dr. George W. Davis came to Seneca Falls from
Syracuse, N.  Y., and settled in the practice  of medicine.
   He was born in Onondaga county, February 22, 1822.   His parents,
David S. and Charlotte A. Davis, were farmers, and he attended the
common schools and worked upon the farm during his youth.  His
preliminary education was  obtained  at the  Homer and Onondaga
academies, and for a time he taught school.
   He  first   settled  in  practice  in   1847   at  Dansville,  N.   Y.,
and  removed  to  Syracuse in 1851,  and  thence to Seneca Falls.
He married,  in 1847, Betsey P. Mead.  Although not a graduate of a
regular  medical college,  he was well liked for  his ability as a man,
his kind heart  and careful attention to his patients,  and  having
obtained a diploma in   1847  from the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical
Institution, he  was admitted in  1870 as a  member of  the Seneca
County  Medical Society.
   Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion in  1861, he was appointed
as Asst.  Surgeon, U.  S. A.,  in the Board of Enrollment for the 24th
district of New York.  From May, 1863, to  June, 1865, his head-
quarters were at Auburn, and he made his residence in that city during
                    5 
66
Historical Sketch of the
those years.  He was elected supervisor of the town of Seneca Falls
in 1859, and was president of the village from i860  to 1862.
   At the close of the war he returned to Seneca Falls and resumed
his practice, remaining there until 1870, when he removed to Florida,
and now resides at South  Jacksonville, engaged in orange growing
and real estate.
                     JOHN FLICKINGER.

  John Flickinger  is a native  of the county, having been born at
Fayette,  September  18, 1831.   His parents,  Jacob  and Elizabeth
(Young) Flickinger,  were farmers.   His early life was spent upon the
farm and his education obtained at the district school.  After an expe-
rience as a teacher in the years 1852-3, he commenced, in  August, the
study of  medicine, under the tuition of Dr. Oliver S.  Patterson, grad-
uating June  11, 1856, at the Albany Medical College.
  On the first of July of the same year, he located in practice at Milo
Center, Yates county, where he remained until the following December.
On the first of May, 1857, he came to Seneca county, and commenced
the practice of medicine at Bearytown, where he remained in business
until October, 1870.   While engaged in practice here he volunteered
as assistant surgeon in the first division  of the Army of the Potomac,
and spent three months, from August, 1863, to  December, in hospital
service at the Mansion House hospital,  Alexandria, Va.
  In the year 1870 he removed with his family to the city of Clinton,
Iowa, on account of failing health, where he remained until the spring
of 1874.  While at Clinton  he relinquished the practice of  medicine
and engaged in the business of real estate and also of a book store,
and  various  enterprises, with the object  in  view of regaining his
health.   In  1874  he  visited several cities of the South and North-
west.   He returned  to Seneca  county  in  the fall of  1874 and spent
the winter in practice at Waterloo, and in  March  of the following year
he removed to Trumansburgh, where he  still resides, engaged  in the
practice of his profession.
  Dr. Flickinger was married June 26,  1856, to Sally Bowman.   His
wife died soon after his marriage, and on March 9, 1859, his marriage
to his present wife, Miss Emma  J. Woodworth, took place.  They
have two children now living. 
                 Seneca  County Medical Society.              67

  He  has  been  coroner of  Tompkins  county.   For two  years,
1868-69, he was elected treasurer of Seneca County Medical Society,
of which he is still a member.
  He is also a member of the Medical  Association of  Central New
York and of the N. Y. State Medical Association.
                        L. W.  BAILEY.
  Lorenzo W. Bailey, son of James and  Sally Bailey, was born at
Enfield, Tompkins  county, N. Y.,  August  28, 1825,"and spent his
early life on a farm,  receiving his  preliminary education in the district
school and Ithaca academy.  During-his medical studies he employed
himself  in teaching, and  received  his degree  in medicine from the
college  at Castleton, Vermont, in November, 1852, having attended
lectures at that institution and at the  Geneva Medical College, under
the preceptorship of Dr. G. D. Bailey, of Havana, N. Y.  After gradua-
tion, one year  was spent at the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
which was then at No. 67 Crosby street, New York  city, and, during
this interval, opportunity was afforded for hospital experience at the
New York City Hospital.  Dr. Bailey then entered upon his life as a
general  practitioner, and has since followed his  profession  uninter-
ruptedly.  He located at Havana, N. Y., and in April, 1879, removed
to the town of Covert, where he remained eight  years, until March,
1865, when he received his commission as assistant surgeon in charge
of the 93d Regiment N. Y.  State Volunteers, and remained on duty
until the close of the war;  being  mustered out near Washington,
June 29th  of the same year.   In October, 1866, he removed to Mill-
port, Chemung county, where he  has since resided.   He was married
February 17, 1857,  to Mary Locke Sleeper, and  has two children,
both now alive.
                       A. F. SHELDON.
  Andrew F. Sheldon was  born in  Huron, Wayne county, N. Y.,
October 27, 1830.   His early life was spent on a farm with his parents,
Ralph and Minerva Sheldon, attending district school.  At the age of
fourteen he  entered the Red  Creek  Seminary, where he graduated.
He commenced  the  study of medicine with  Dr. E. W. Bottum, of
Lyons, N. Y., remaining in his office during his medical course.   He 
68
Historical Sketch of the
graduated at the age of twenty-two  from the  medical department of
the University of New York  in the  year  1852.  Soon after  this he
entered into partnership with his preceptor at Huron, remaining there
four years.   He removed from Huron to Williamson, Wayne county,
N. Y., and practiced his profession several years.   From  Williamson
he went to Junius, Seneca county, where he remained two years, when
he entered the United States service.  August, 1861, he was commis-
sioned  as assistant surgeon  7th New York Cavalry.   April, 1862, he
was commissioned  as assistant surgeon  78th  New York  Volunteers.
On the fourth of October,  1862, he was commissioned by President
Lincoln assistant surgeon United States volunteers, and in April, 1863,
he was  commissioned  by President Lincoln  surgeon United  States
volunteers, and again in 1865 he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel  by
Andrew Johnson.  He was on duty as executive officer in the medi-
cal director's office in Washington from May,  1862,  to August, 1863,
and  had charge of Campbell U. S. hospital in the  same place for
nearly two years  before the close of the  war;  being mustered  out of
service at the closing of the hospital.
  After the close of the war he located at Pultneyville, Wayne county,
N. Y., where he followed his profession fourteen years.
  In 1879 he  was elected  by the Republican  party to the office of
treasurer of Wayne county, and re-elected in 1885.
  He married Lucetta Salsbury, May 22,  1857, and is the father of six
children, three of whom  are  living.   He  is a member of the State
and Wayne county medical societies.
                       A. J. ALLEMAN.
  Andrew J.  Alleman, son of Jacob and Nancy Alleman, was born
in Fayette, Seneca county, and having received a preparatory educa-
tion at the Waterloo Academy, entered upon the study of his profes-
sion.   His three  courses of lectures were  taken, respectively,  at the
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Geneva Medical College, and
the University  of the City of New York; receiving his degree in  medi-
cine from the  last named  institution  in 1854.   His preceptors were
Drs. D. C. Phelps, of Rochester, and O. S. Patterson  of West Fay-
ette.   In  1858 he succeeded Dr. Patterson in practice, and has since
that time been located near his early home; his present address  being
McDougall's, N. Y. 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
69
  During the last five  months of the  year  1864 Dr. Alleman was
surgeon in  charge of the  Methodist church  hospital at  Alexandria,
Va.  He was active  in the  reorganization  of the  Seneca County
Medical Society in 1865 ;  in 1872 and 1873 ne was its treasurer, and
in 1875  its  president.   Beginning  on  page  seventy-eight  of the
" History of Seneca County,"  is an interesting account of the Seneca
County Medical  Society, contributed by Dr. Alleman, and reprinted
for a presidential  address delivered before the society.
  Dr. Alleman married in December, 1859, Miss Ruby P. Woodworth,
and by this union has had one child.
  The fact that  Dr. Alleman  has  practiced  successfully  for thirty
years in  his  native  town,  speaks  eloquently  for  his  character, his
services,  and  the esteem in which  he is  held by his patients, and
associates.
                       W.  W. WHEELER.
   William Wirt Wheeler was born at Farmer Village July 25, 1836,
 and is the son of Richard Kimble and Jane Dickinson Wheeler.  His
 father was one of the foremost of the early physicians of that section
 of the county, and practiced in the village for thirty years.   His son
 succeeded him.  William Wheeler attended the schools of the village
 and also various select schools, and completed his preliminary educa-
 tion at the Lima Seminary in 1856.   Upon his return from Lima he
 taught for a time at Farmer village, and  soon after, under the tuition
 of his father, he  commenced the  study of medicine.  For one year
 he combined his medical studies with  the work of teaching school,
 and then  devoted his time  entirely to  medicine.   He attended lec-
 tures  at the Geneva Medical College and graduated there in the win-
 ter of i860.   He  at  once entered  into practice at Farmer  Village,
 where he has since continued.  On the third  of June, 1866, he was
 married to Sarah King, of Romulus,  and has two  boys,  both living.
  Dr. Wheeler as a citizen, but especially as a physician,  has enjoyed
 to a larger degree than usual the confidence of the community.   For
 several terms he has served  as supervisor, and has been chairman of
 the board.  Always energetic, active, and untiring in his profession,
 and interested in all social and public matters, he has done  much for
his town, and no man is better known.   In  1874 he was elected presi-
dent  of the Seneca County  Medical Society.   He still continues in
his profession  in company with C. C. Wheeler, his brother. 
7o
Historical Sketch of the
                        F. B.  SEELYE.

  Franklin B. Seelye was born  at  Whiting, Addison county, Vt.,
January 13, 1828, being a son of the  late Dr. Isaac B. Seelye, and a
grandson of the late Dr. Asher  Nichols, of Rushville.   He came to
Rushville in this State at the age  of four years, and resided there with
his grandparents until he was fourteen years of age, when he went to
Painesville, Ohio,  with his father, receiving his preliminary education
at the  academy in  that place.  Here he was  converted and united
with the Methodist  Episcopal church.   At the  age of sixteen, after
the death of his father, he returned to  Rushville and  taught school
for three years, and then entered the office of the eminent Dr. Potter
of Gorham, and began the  study of  medicine.   He was among  the
first graduates from the Buffalo Medical College,  at which institution
he received his diploma  in February, 1851.   He  was married in
March, 1851, to  Miss Julia Vorce of Rushville, at which  place he
continued the practice of his profession until he  entered the army in
1862 as assistant surgeon of the  148th New York  Volunteers.  A few
months in the vicinity of Norfolk and the dismal swamp were sufficient
to produce malarial poisoning to a degree  which  developed  most
alarming results,  and  in 1863 he  received an  honorable  discharge
from the army.  He returned to his home in  Rushville, where he re-
mained until he  was  again enabled  by returning strength  to  enter
upon his professional duties, at Seneca Falls, in 1864.  He remained
here about a year, when failing health again compelled him to seek
rest, and he returned to Rushville, where he engaged in grape plant-
ing.   He went to New York city in 1871, and remained in the surgi-
cal appliance  establishment of his cousin, Mr. I. B. Seelye, as  chief
physician for four years, when he again  returned to Rushville, where
he continued to reside until he came to Ovid in 1881.
  He was a successful physician for more than thirty-five years, and
at the  time of his death was a member of the G. A. R., and the chap-
lain  elect of Harris Post of Ovid.
   His death  occurred suddenly, Dec. 25, 1885,  at his home in  the
village of Ovid.
   Dr.  Seelye was a man of professional ability, of good business qual-
ifications, and had a genial  disposition that speedily won for him the
warm  friendship of all with whom' he became acquainted.  During
his residence at Ovid, he had  gained  a large practice and an exten- 
Seneca County Medical Society.
7i
sive acquaintanceship.  His wife, son and daughter survive him, the
latter the wife of Mr. W. W.  Payne of Ovid.
  During his life, Dr. Seelye was a faithful, consistent and useful mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
  He was a member of the Ontario and  Seneca Medical Societies, in
the latter society he was an active member being one of its re-organ-
izers in  1865, and its first secretary.
  His remains are buried at the Highland Evergreen  Cemetery at
Ovid.
                       RICHARD DEY.
  Richard Dey was born at West Fayette, Sept. 17, 1832, of Gilbert
and  Mary  Dey,  and during  his youth  lived upon the farm  and
attended the district schools until the age of eighteen years.   After a
course of study at the Seneca  Falls Academy, he entered upon the
vocation of a teacher and  taught from 1852  to 1863.   During this
time he commenced the study of medicine under the tuition of Dr.
George W. Davis of Seneca Falls.   In  March  1865, he graduated
from the College of Physicians and  Surgeons, New York city, in the
spring of that year located at Seneca  Falls where he remained until
his  removal to  Romulus,  in March 1867, where he succeeded Dr.
Dorchester.  He practiced at the latter village for nineteen years, and
in April 1887, removed to Waterloo, where he still remains  engaged
in business.
  While a medical student  he  entered the U.  S. army as acting-assis-
tant surgeon and  served about six months in hospitals at Washington
and  Belle Plain, and in the hospital-transport  " Connecticut."
  He was married Oct. 11, 1861,  to Miss Mary Jane Henion, of
Varick, who  died April 17, 1862.  On  Nov1. 10,  1868 he was  again
married, to Miss Emma Salyer of Ovid.   He has three children living.
  Dr. Dey joined the Seneca County Medical Society in 1865. at its
re-organization.   He is also a member of the Medical Association of
Central New  York.
                       ELIAS  LESTER.
  In  the  year  1865  there came to Seneca  Falls, Elias Lester, a
graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons.   Dr. Lester was
born at Genoa, Cayuga county, May 23, 1836, of Elihu A. and Lucy 
72
Historical Sketch of the
(Bacon) Lester.  After an academic course  at the Genoa  Academy
he taught a district school for three years.  He commenced the study
of medicine under  the tutorship of Dr. Cyrus Powers, of Moravia,
and  graduated  at  the College of  Physicians and  Surgeons, of New
York city, on March 12, 1863.
  In August, 1861,  he volunteered as an army medical cadet and was
sent to the Washington Street Hospital in Alexandria, where he served
one year and five months.  While here he dressed the wounds of the
soldiers who fought  at  the  first battle of Bull Run.   He afterwards
served seven months at the Hygeia Hotel Hospital at Fortess Monroe.
After a little more than a year's service as a hospital  cadet,  he  was
appointed as  first  assistant surgeon  to the 14th  Regt., New York
Cavalry,  and was ordered to the Department of the Gulf.   With the
exception of seven months' hospital service in  New Orleans,  he
remained with his regiment  until the close  of the war;  In 1864  he
was promoted to full Surgeon, and afterwards acted as Surgeon of the
Brigade during  the Red  River campaign, under General Banks, until
October, 1864,  when he resigned.
  Immediately after his return from the war he  located  for practice
in the village of Corinth, Saratoga county.
  On the twenty-third of December, 1864, he married Caroline Foote,
of Cayuga county, and has four children living.
  After practicing  eleven months  at Corinth he removed  to Seneca
Falls, in October, 1865, and became a member of the  Seneca  County
Medical Society in 1866.  He was elected president of the society in
1877, and was  for two  years its treasurer, in 1880-2.  He has been
elected alderman of the first ward of Seneca Falls for two terms of
two years each.
  For twenty-two years  he has remained in  constant  practice at the
Falls, and though still in his prime, is now one of the longest estab-
lished practitioners in the town.
  Dr. Lester has always  been  an  active and earnest  member of the
society, and is  a permanent member  of the Medical  Association of
Central New York, and of the State Medical Association.
                    JOHN  DENNISTON.
  John Denniston was  born  at Cornwall, Orange  county, N. Y., of
George W. and Susan Denniston.  His chief dependence in obtaining 
                 Seneca  County Medical Society.               73

an education was placed upon himself, and his early life was spent in
earnest work and study. He commenced the study of medicine under
the tutorship of Dr. Andrew J. Alleman, of Varick, and in March, 1867,
graduated at the University Medical College  of New York city.  He
was one of the many medical men of the county who during the  war
volunteered his services, and one  year prior  to graduation was spent
in the army as Assistant Surgeon in the De Camp hospital, from July
12, 1864, to the close of the war.
   On June 22, 1867, he settled in  the practice  of his profession at
Hayt's Corners, and  on the  nth of June,  1878,  was  married to B.
Eloise Jacacks, by whom he has had two  children,  both  living.  On
the fourth  of December he removed to Ovid, where he still remains,
engaged in a large and extensive practice.
   Dr. Denniston  became  a member of the  Seneca County Medical
Society in 1868, immediately after settling in  the county, and in 1881
was elected president.  He is also at present the treasurer of the
society, a position which he has held since 1883,  and also during the
years  from  1875  to l879-  His whole  time  is devoted to  the busy
duties of a  large practice, and he has had for many years an extended
ride.
                      HIRAM J.  PURDY.
   On the fifteenth of March, in the year 1870,  Hiram J.  Purdy set-
tled at Seneca  Falls.   He was born at West Butler, Wayne county,
January 18, 1847, 0I"  Merritt and  Amanda  (Sears)  Purdy.  After
attendance at the district school and Red Creek Academy, at the age
of eighteen, he entered the office  of Dr. W. F. Peck, of Davenport,
Iowa.  At  the end of  a year's  study he matriculated at  Bellevue
Hospital Medical College, where he graduated in the spring  of  1869.
He  first located  for  practice at Savannah, but  after one  year he
removed to Seneca Falls, where he has since resided.
   He was married December 19,  1867,  to Emma Roberts of Savan-
nah, and has one child living.  In 1872  he was elected a member of
the  Seneca County Medical  Society.  From 1872 to 1881 he was
town physician, and in  1880 was appointed county physician, and has
also  served one term as coroner.   For ten years  he has been health-
officer  of the village, and is at present the registrar of vital  statistics
for the town. 
74
Historical Sketch of the
  In the spring of 1877 Dr. Purdy delivered a course of twenty-four
lectures on physiology to the advanced students of the Seneca Falls
Academy.  He is a corresponding member of the National Board of
Health, and  in 1882  made, in  company with  Horace  Andrews, a
civil engineer in the employ of  the  State  Board of Health,  a pre-
liminary survey of a portion  of Cayuga marshes,  to  ascertain the
feasibility of draining them in the interests of public health.
  About ten years ago he removed to the south side of the river and
established a  floral greenhouse.  For the past three years he has spent
about three months annually  in New York city, engaged as a druggist
and practitioner.
  He  occupied the winter of 1886-7 on  tne  Isthmus of Panama,
examining into  the French  hospital  system  connected with the
De  Lesseps canal.   He  still remains in practice at Seneca Falls.
                       S.  P. JOHNSON.
  Stephen P. Johnson was born at Palermo, Oswego county, N. Y.,
February 2, 1839.   His parents,  Noah and  Margaret E. Johnson,
were farmers, and his boyhood was passed upon the farm.   After a
three years' course at the Falley Seminary, he commenced the study
of  medicine in  the  office  of his  uncle,  Dr.  S.  Pardee,  and
graduated December 27, 1859, at the Albany Medical College.
  Almost  immediately,  on January 7, i860, he opened an office at
New Haven, Oswego county, where he remained  six years. Desiring
a larger field he removed to the  city of Oswego in December, 1865,
where he practiced for seven years.
  On the first of May,  1872, he came to Seneca county and settled
at Waterloo.  While here he became a member of the County Society ;
but after a residence of seven years failing health induced a change,
and he removed in February, 1879,  to Geneva ;  thence, in  July, 1882,
to Mexico,  Oswego county.  His   present address  is Little  Utica,
where he still remains in practice.
  Dr. Johnson was married to Miss Josephine H. Merriam, January 7,
1864,  and  has three  children living.  In 1876 he united with the
Presbyterian church.
  He has been  a member of the Seneca and Oswego County Medical
Societies, and of the Medical  Association of Central New York, and
has read the following  articles before  the latter association, which
were published  as follows : 
Seneca County Medical Society.
75
  " Pneumonia. "  Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, Au-
gust, 1874.
  " Dislocation of the Spine—Reduction and Recovery."   Philadel-
phia Medical and Surgical Reporter, January,  1875.
  " Hour-glass Contraction of Uterus during  Labor."   Philadelphia
Medical and Surgical Reporter, January, 1876.
                   JOHN M. TOWNSEND.

  John  M.  Townsend was born  at  Townsendville, Seneca county,
N. Y.,  May  25,  1850,  of John and Emmeline  (Meeker)  Towns-
end.   His ancestors were among the pioneers of  the county, having
settled here about the year 1800.  His education  was obtained at the
Lima Seminary, and he  commenced the study  of his profession in
the office  of Dr. C. T.  Kelsey.  In  February,  1873," he graduated
at the  College of Physicians  and Surgeons, New York city.  The
following year he spent at the Blackwell's Island  Insane Asylum, as
assistant house physician.
  On the  first of  December, 1875,  he  married  Miss Helen  C.
McNulty, and settled in  practice at Townsendville, where he has since
remained  actively engaged.  He  has one child living.  In  1881  he
became a member of the Seneca County  Medical Societ).
                        D.  F. EVERTS.

  Daniel F. Everts was born  in the town  of  Hector, Tompkins
(now Schuyler) county, N. Y., February 13, 1845, and is the  second
son of  Curren Everts and Mary A. (Dickerson) Everts.
  He attended the district school  until eighteen years of age, when
he obeyed the call to arms and patriotically enlisted  as a soldier in
the Fourth Regt, N. Y. Heavy Artillery, and remained in the  service,
following all the fortunes of the regiment,  until the close of the war of
the great Rebellion, and was honorably discharged on the fifth day of
October, 1865.  On the sixteenth day of  the same month he  entered
the private school of the late  Professor David Trowbridge, whose able
instruction and kind advice did much to encourage and  develop the
minds  of all his students. 
76
Historical Sketch of the
  After the close of his school days he was for some time engaged in
the vocation  of teacher, under license of the State Department of
Public Instruction.
  He commenced the study of medicine in the  year 1871, with Dr.
Alfred Sears as preceptor, and graduated from the Medical Depart-
ment of the University of Buffalo in 1875 j an(l also, in addition, from
the Long Island College Hospital in 1876.  He was engaged in both
private and dispensary practice in Brooklyn, N.  Y., during a part of
the year 1876.  On the  first of September of that  year he located at
Romulus, where he still remains in the practice of his profession.
  Dr. Everts  was married June 23, 1875, to Mary B. Severn of Farmer
Village.  Two children  have been born to them, only one of  whom
is now living.
  In  1882 he was elected president of the Seneca County Medical
Society.
                      LOUIS  A.  GOULD.
  Louis A. Gould was born at  Hopkinton, Merrimack county, New
Hampshire, April 26, 1852.  His parents, Charles and Ruth  (Hill)
Gould, were both natives of the  state, and much of Dr. Gould's early
life  was spent in New England.  He graduated from the Contoocook-
ville Academy in  1870, and after leaving  school  entered the Boston
post-office  as clerk, where he  remained  until April, 1873.   During
the  great fire of  1872  he assisted in moving the post-office matter to
the  Custom House, from thence to Faneuil Hall, and again to the Old
South church, where he remained until the building of the new post-
office.
  In April, 1873, he went to Concord, N. H., and entered the drug
store of C. H. Martin  & Co., remaining with them until  1877, when
he commenced the study of medicine, under the instruction of E. G.
Wilson, of  Laconia, N. H.
  In April, 1878, he left Dr. Wilson's office and removing to Farmer
Village, N. Y., resumed his studies under Dr. W. W.  Wheeler of that
place.  After pursuing the usual course of attendance, on the third of
March, 1880,  he graduated at the  Detroit Medical College, and
entered upon practice  at  the village of Ovid.   He was married at
Syracuse,  May 27,  1882,  to  Hannah B.  Jones,  daughter of Lewis
Jones, of Ovid.  In the fall of 1880 he was elected county physician 
Seneca County Medical Society.
77
for the south jury district, which office he held for four years, and in
the  fall of 1884  he was elected coroner for the  same district.  Dr.
Gould became a member of the society in 1881.  He still remains in
active  practice  in the town  of Ovid, and is vice-president of the
society.
                   GEORGE  A. BELLOWS.
  George A. Bellows was born at Seneca Falls, June 6, 1856.   His
parents were William L.  and Caroline (Piute) Bellows.   The public
schools of the village afforded him his early education, and at the age
of thirteen he entered the Seneca Falls Academy, passing the Regents'
examination two years later, under  the tutorship of Jasper N.  Ham-
mond.
  At the age of sixteen  he was  employed in the drug store of Perry
Van Kleck, and while there commenced the study of medicine under
the instruction of Dr. Elias Lester.   Soon after he entered the office
of Dr. E.  A. Chapoton, at Detroit, and  graduated at  the  Detroit
Medical  College,  March 11, 1881.  While at Detroit  he spent the
years 1879-80  in service  at St. Mary's hospital.
  Immediately after graduation, on the first  day of May, 1881, he
located for the  practice  of medicine  at Waterloo, on the south  side
of the river, and in the house and office so long occupied successively
by Drs. Patterson, Smith, Sternberg and A. A. Alleman.  Dr. Bellows'
success was almost immediate.  He at once gained the confidence of
the community and the regard of the members of the medical profes-
sion, and has since enjoyed a lucrative practice.
   In 1882 he was appointed health-officer of the towns of Waterloo
and Fayette, and was also elected coroner the same year.   He was
appointed  coroner  by  Gov.  Hill  in the spring of 1886, to  fill  a
vacancy, and in the  fall of the  same year was again elected to that
office.  In 1885 he was  appointed  physician to the Seneca county
almshouse.   Was elected president of the County Medical Society in
1884.   On September 27, 1877, he married  Miss Hattie M. Palmer
of Seneca Falls, and has one son living. 
78                  Historical Sketch of the
                     FRANK  G. SEAMAN.
  Frank G. Seaman was born at Fairfield, Herkimer county, Septem-
ber 5, 1857, of James and Elizabeth Seaman.  He received his edu-
cation at the Fairfield Seminary and graduated in the class of 1875.
  After graduation he pursued his medical studies under the instruc-
tion  of Drs. J. M. Willard  and John Swinburne, of Albany, and re-
ceived his degree in medicine at the Albany Medical College, March 2,
1881.  He immediately located in the village of Seneca Falls, where
he has since  resided, and  enjoys a good practice.   He joined  the
Seneca County'Medical  Society  in  1882, and is  now its president.
He is also a member of the New York State Medical Association.
He has  always taken an active interest in the affairs of the state and
county societies, and is one of the well established physicians at
the Falls.
                  EPHRAIM  W. BOGARDUS.
   Ephraim W. Bogardus was  born at Monterey, Orange township,
Steuben  county, New  York,   May  18,  1853.  The  formation  of
Schuyler county from portions of Steuben, Tompkins  and Chemung
counties,  in  April of the following year, included  the township of
Orange within its boundaries ;  therefore it constitutes  at the present
time a part of Schuyler.
   When he was seven months old his parents, Alvah and  Jane D. Bogar-
dus, removed with their family,  consisting of two boys  and four girls,
to Seneca county, locating  in the town of Varick, on the lake road,
about one-fourth mile south of the East Varick post-office, in which
place they remained  about six months, when they again moved  to
where his father now lives, about one-fourth  mile east  of  the Varick
M. E. church.
   Since  leaving home, at  the  age of eighteen, he has  resided in
various places, four years of. his  life being spent in Seneca Falls, where
he read medicine  three years  in the office of  Dr. Hiram  J. Purdy,
beginning the eighteenth of November, 1878.  Following  these pre-
liminary studies, he  pursued  a regular course at  the University of
Buffalo, receiving his degree from  that  institution  on  the  twenty-
seventh day of February, 1883.   On the  fourth of April of the same
year he began the practice of his profession in the Fayette  portion of
Bearytown, where he  continued  eleven months, when he moved across 
Seneca County Medical Society.
79
the street into Varick, remaining there until  November,  1885,  at
which  time  he again took up his residence in Fayette, and where
he now is.   He became a member of the Seneca County  Medical
Society in  July, 1884.  Was  married  February 25, 1886, to  Miss
Jennie B. Acker, of Varick.
                       JOHN  T. CASS.
  John T. Cass  is  the  youngest son  of  John  Cass and  Jeanie
(Howarth) Cass, and was born  in the township of New Hartford,
Oneida county, N. Y., November 13th, 1852.  In 1859 he accompa-
nied his parents to Hartwick, Otsego county, and after residing there
three  years,  to Exeter,  in the  same  county,  where he  resided
until 1877.
  He was educated in the common schools  and  Academy  of  Otsego
county, and at the age of eighteen became a teacher  in the public
schools of that county, remaining there until 1877, when he assumed
charge of one of the public schools in the village of Waterloo, which
position he retained eight yeais, and then resigned to  further pursue
his medical studies.
  In 1883 he began the study of  medicine under the  tuition of Dr.
S. R. Welles,  of Waterloo,  and after  continuing his course  in the
University of  Vermont and in the University of New York city, grad-
uated  at the  latter institution March  8th, 1887.   After a  further
course of practical medicine in Bellevue  hospital and in the  New
York Dispensary, he returned to Waterloo, opening an office in the
post-office building at that place.
  He  was married  December  19th, 1881, to  Mary E. Berry, of
Waterloo, and has one child, a son.
                      C. C.  WHEELER.
  Claudius C. Wheeler was born at Farmer Village  in 1846 and is
the son of  Richard K. and Jane (Dickinson) Wheeler.  He gradu-
ted in  1867 at the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo,
and after a residence in the county of nine years, in 1876 he removed
to Leslie, Michigan, where he remained until the spring of 1887, when
he returned and entered the practice of medicine in company with
his brother, Dr. W. W. Wheeler, of Farmer Village. 
80                  Historical Sketch of the
   PHYSICIANS NOT MENTIONED  IN THE PREVIOUS
                          REPORT.

  Other physicians  have practiced in this county at various times,
and many of them  have achieved success in their profession  and
prominence  in the community.   Owing to various causes it has not
been possible to obtain  as much  information  in every case as could
be desired.  We  append a partial list with such facts as have been
gathered.   Among  those mentioned are  several well-known practi-
tioners, whose  fuller record we shall have to  leave to some future
historian.
  Aaron Davis was one of the first physicians who located at Canoga.
He came about the years 1817-20, and remained about ten years.
  Samuel  B. Chidsey also  practiced at Canoga  at about the same
date.  He was born probably  in Cayuga county, May 29, 1803.  He
first located in  Canoga, but soon removed to West Fayette and there
married Mary,  the daughter of Captain Cook, and opening an office
at what is now the  West Fayette station, practiced there until his
death, on the second of October, 1833.
  Joseph  Hunt was  also one  of the pioneers of this section,  and
resided in  Fayette about three miles east of the West Fayette station.
He was born  at  Hunt's Point, May 4, 1764, and died  at Fayette,
September  5, 1827.   His  remains are buried in the cemetery at
Waterloo.
  Daniel  Hudson commenced practice in West Fayette in 1820, and
after an honorable and successful career of fifteen  years removed
to Michigan, in 1835.
  Abram DeGraff  was born June  6th,  1816, at Fleming, Cayuga
county, N. Y.  He entered the office of Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, who
at that time was professor of surgery at Geneva, and in 1837 received
his degree from the Geneva Medical College.   He  first  located for
the practice of his profession at Bearytown, where he  married Miss
Esther Wilkinson in the following year.
  After a practice in this county of two or three years, he moved to
Maxville, Ohio ; remaining here, however, but a short time, he located
again  at Norwich, Ohio.  Here his wife  died in  1850 leaving three
small children.  He married Eugenia Gilson in  1852, and in January,
1854, removed with  his family to Grand Ledge, Michigan, where he 
Seneca County Medical Society.              81
practiced medicine for five years.  He afterwards engaged in  mer-
cantile pursuits in which he continued until within eighteen months
of his death, which occurred at Grand Ledge, February 7th, 1869.
  He was successful both in the  practice of medicine  and in  busi-
ness.   He had three daughters by his second wife, who live at Grand
Ledge, where  his widow  also resides.  One son  and one daughter
reside at Norwalk, Ohio, and the eldest son at Morley, Michigan.
  The following physicians have also practiced in various portions of
the town  of Fayette : In Bearytown,  Drs.  L. W. Sutherland  (who
afterwards removed to Junius, and  is now at Lyons) ;  H. L. Eddy,
Sayer and  Frank  H.  Flood.   Dr.  Flood was born at Farmer
Village, September 17,1851.   He studied medicine with James Flood,
of Lodi, and graduated at the University of the city of New York in
the spring of 1873.    He at once settled  in Fayette (Bearytown),
where he remained  actively engaged  in practice  until  the spring of
1886, when  he removed.    He  was elected president of the Seneca
County Medical Society in 1883.
  John Carleton  settled  in  Bearytown  in  1886, where he still
remains.  He is a recent graduate of the Buffalo University.
   In other parts of the towns of Varick and Fayette were Drs. Roice,
Leman, Harkness, Rogers,  Schrceder, Mills and Levi  J. Alleman.
   Daniel Goodwin  also  practiced  here about  1809 ; and William
Kidder (vid. Farmer Village) in  1853.   The  latter lived upon the
spot where A. W. Wilkinson  now lives, but after a short time removed
to California, where he died.
  John Goss practiced medicine  in the western part of  the town of
Varick, near Manning's Corners, about the  year 1852, as nearly as can
be ascertained.   He was a bachelor and a man of good morals and
address.  At the end of  about a year he mysteriously disappeared,
and the reported confession  of a dying man confirmed a popular sus-
picion, that  being mistaken for a collector he was murdered for money
and all traces of the deed effaced.
  In the town of Waterloo there have been the following additional
practitioners :  Drs. Parker and Taylor, who located in " Skoiyase "
at an early day.  Little is known of their history.
  George B. Elliott was Dr. Pitney's (vid. Seneca Falls) successor.
at the " Kingdom," one mile east of Waterloo; another physician of
              6 
82
Historical Sketch of the
the same name, Dr. John B. Elliott, was in practice in the village in
1837.   He remained  but  a  few years.   One of his sons, Thomas
B., became a physician, and was for a time connected with the State
Insane Asylum  at  Indianapolis;  another son, E. B.  Elliott, is  the
U. S. Government  Actuary connected with the Treasury Department.
   Charles Stuart was the first physician that located at Waterloo.
He owned a drug store in a part of Swift's mercantile block, which
he afterwards sold  to Dr.  Caleb Loring.  He removed  to Kalamazoo,
and recently died there.
   In  1817 Jesse Fifield was  engaged in practice at Waterloo.  For
many years he was justice of the peace.   His death took place a few
years ago.
   Abijah Hubbard settled in Waterloo in 1806, and practiced till his
death, in 1826.
   Samuel Elder located in 1820, and remained  until  1830.
   Peter  R.  Wirts came  from  Phelps, N. Y.   His parents were
originally from Ulster county.   He studied medicine with Dr. Gard-
ner Welles, and  after graduating at the Fairfield  Medical College he
commenced practice at Waterloo, about the year 1830.  He married
Miss LydiaWood,  and  had  a family of two children.  For many years
he lived  in the large brick house  near the Park,  occupied at present
by W. D. Burrall, and built  the small brick office  adjoining.   He was
stricken with paralysis in 1852, in the full tide of a successful practice.
His death took  place  September 2, 1869, at the age of about sixty-
five years.  He was a man of ability and  a prominent physician.
   George W. Perrine practiced in town from 1840 to 1845.
   J.  H.  Sternberg is one of the oldest resident physicians,  and still
engaged  in his profession.   He is a graduate of the Jefferson Medical
College of Philadelphia.  He was one of the members of the society
at its re-organization in 1865, and was  elected  president in 1879.
For  many years he has been in active life as a physician.  He has
also been president of the village.
   J. W. Day  has been in practice for several years in Waterloo and is
also engaged extensively in raising fine blooded horses on the Patchen
Stock Farm.  He  is a graduate  of Geneva  Medical College.   In
1887 he  was  elected president of the village.
   Charles A. Sternberg also practiced  in the village in 1883-4, in
company with his  uncle, Dr.  J. H. Sternberg, but has since removed
to Howe's Cave, Schoharie county, N. Y. 
                Seneca  County Medical Society.              83

  John V. Larzalere was born  at  Waterloo,  of John and  Maria
Larzalere, January 28, 1859, and received his education in the schools
of the village until he was eighteen years of age, when he entered the
office of Dr. J. W. Day, as a student.  On the twenty-sixth of Febru-
ary, 1884, he  graduated  at the  Medical Department of the Buffalo
University,  and associated himself  with  Dr.  Day for a  period of
seven months.  He afterwards practiced alone for one year in Water-
loo, when he removed to Poplar  Ridge, Cayuga county, N. Y.  He
was elected a member of the society in 1885. He married Miss Fan-
nie C. Peckham, on  March 24, 1887, and has served as  health-officer
of the towns of Waterloo and of  Venice, Cayuga county.
  Homer E.  R. Little recently  entered upon the practice of medi-
cine  in Waterloo.  He was born  at Trenton, Ont., Canada, April 3,
i860, of John and Anna M. Little.   He studied arts at the Univer-
sity of Toronto, and sciences at the school of Practical Science,
Toronto.  Beginning the study of medicine under the  instruction of
Dr. Charles McLellan at Toronto, he afterwards graduated,  March 15,
1886, at the  Bellevue  Medical College, and immediately settled in
practice at Waterloo.
  George L. Yost, 1866 ; C.  M. Woodward, 1869 ; and A. A. Alle-
man, 1869.

  In the town of Junius  were Drs. Puffer, Amos Franklin, 1804;
Isaac Crane, 1805; James Carter, 1817; Maurice L. Birdsall,
1817;  Moses M.  Crane, 1823; Horace White (?) 1863;  and
Horace Smith, 1866.

  Among the early practitioners  in the town of Romulus at an early
date were the following :
  Dr. Howe, who practiced in 1806.
  In or about the year  1812, Dr. Philip Dey, of New Jersey, moved
to that part of Romulus, now Varick, about one mile south of Dey's
Corners (Varick P.  O.)   He was a soldier of the Revolution.  His
residence in  the county was  short.   He  followed from New Jersey
his  brothers  Benjamin,  Peter and  David, who settled in Seneca
county, and  John, who  settled  at Coshon,  in Ontario county.  Dr.
Philip Dey bought the  farm, afterwards owned  and occupied by his
son  John P., about one  mile south of the old tannery.   He was
killed, by the fall of his  horse, while  on a visit  to New Jersey.  His 
84
Historical Sketch  of the
grandson, Hon. Peter A. Dey, now lives at Des Moines, Iowa, and is
chairman of the Iowa State Railroad Commission.
  Edwin Dey, a son of Dr. Philip Dey, was born June 6, 1801, and
studied medicine with Dr. Henry, at Geneva.  He graduated  in New
York in 1825,  and commenced the practice of medicine at Hayt's
Corners, in  March, 1826.   Died at Romulus in August, 1844.
  H.  D. Didama  for a time practiced at Romulus, but afterwards
removed to Syracuse, where he has since made an honored name in
the medical profession.
  Theron Bradford was a physician  at  Romulusville, living in the
Varick part of the village, in i860 and later.
  The following physicians should also appear  in the town of Lodi:
  James Flood was born  in Pennsylvania in 1826 and studied with
his brother, Dr. P. H. Flood.  In the year 1850 he graduated at the
Geneva Medical College.   Immediately after this he located at Lodi
Center, where  he  remained  until  his removal  to Geneva in 1870,
where he resided until the date of his death, in 1884.
  James Kennedy, a student of Dr. James Flood and  a graduate of
Buffalo Medical College, located at  Lodi Center in 1868, and suc-
ceeded Dr. Flood upon his removal to Geneva.   He died in May,
1873-
  William Livingstone, a  student of Dr. P. H. Flood, graduated at
the Geneva Medical College and located at Townsendville in  1848,
where he remained two  years.
  Charles R.  Keyes, also  a student of Dr. James Flood and a grad-
uate of Detroit  Medical  College, commenced practice in 1875 at Lodi,
and remained there until 1886, when  he removed to the west.
  In the town of Ovid :
  Dr. Peter Covert located at an  early day.   He was  born at
Somerset, New Jersey, October 29, 1788, and studied medicine with
Dr. Jared Sandford.   For a time  he taught a district school at Rom-
ulus, and many of his old pupils  yet remember him.   A license to
practice was given him by the medical board, and he commenced the
practice of  his profession at Ovid.  He was called to the front in the
war of 1812, as  Assistant Surgeon under Dr. Marvin of Romulus, and
served until the  close of the war, when he returned to Ovid and con-
tinued his practice for many years. He died in February, 1868. 
Seneca County  Medical Society.              85
  Tompkins C. Delavan was born in one of the New England states
and came  to Ovid  from Patterson,  Putnam county, N. Y., in 1804.
His marriage, to Esther Jessup, occurred before coming to this county,
and his family accompanied him.  Ten of his twelve children reached
maturity and afterwards removed to Michigan.   He first settled about
one mile east of Ovid village, at Barnum's Corners, in the large house
at the junction of  the roads,  and afterwards  lived on a farm below
Hayt's Corners.  He removed with his family to  Michigan in 1832,
where he has since died at an advanced age.
   J. Tucksbury(?) practiced for a time at Ovid,  about 1815.
  Archilaus Gates was a physician in the town of Ovid about 1818.
He was born in Massachusetts, May 27, 1789, and studied medicine
with Dr.  Ethan  Watson, of Romulus.  He was never married, and
died April 11, 1832.
  Samuel Jones was.born January  21, 1816, and studied medicine
with Dr. Tompkins of Peach Orchard, Schuyler county.  He practiced
for  a year at Farmer Village  and  then joined in practice with his
father-in-law, Dr.  Peter Covert, at  Ovid,  in 1844.  He removed to
Iowa, 1862.  His death took place at Cedar Rapids,  August 19, 1869.
   (J.) Nathan Farnsworth practiced from about  1829 to 1834, when
he left the county.
    William Delavan, 1833.
    David C. White  came to Ovid  in  1831 and left the county in
 1858.
  Charles Woodward, 1865.  He afterwards removed to Elmira.

  The first physician of whom anything can be learned in the town
of  Covert was—
   (Robert?)  Rose, who located  at Farmer Village,  1797.  The
next was Reuben S. Brown, who came in 1806, and  left the county in
 1832.   Allen Almy practiced at Farmer Village about the year 1817.
William Kidder,  who was born near the village and studied with Dr.
Brown, located soon after Dr. Almy, and afterwards removed to Beary-
town, thence to California.
   Herman  C.  Skinner and  B. F.  Coleman were also  practicing
physicians in the village soon after.  The latter  removed  to Cayuga
county and  is now residing at Northfield.
   Drs. Fellows and  Smith for a short time  were in practice in this
 village several years ago.  Dr. Smith removed to  Union Springs. 
86
Historical Sketch of the
  The early history of the medical profession in the town of Seneca
Falls is somewhat veiled in obscurity.  Inquiry among the older resi-
dents  and reference  to files of  old papers, reveal  the  fact  that
Dr. Pitney, in  1806, settled in what is^ now called the " Kingdom,"
about two miles west of Seneca Falls, and boarded at that place with
Lewis Birdsall.  He  afterward became the most  celebrated surgeon
in this section of the State.  After remaining in this county only two
years  he removed  to Auburn, Cayuga county, where he lived for more
than fifty years, until his death.
  In  1807 Reuben Long settled in Seneca  Falls, between the  village
and the lake, near  the gully.  A large number of  the descendants of
his family reside in the vicinity at the present time.  He continued in
constant  practice for more than  twenty  years, until the time of his
death in  1830.  .
  In  1820 Silas Keeler  settled in the  town.-  He first located  at
the Lake, but  after a time moved to the village.   He was born  in
Bridgefield, Conn.', and  came to Delaware county  in  1801, where he
studied medicine with  Dr. John R. Gregory,  and was  admitted  to
practice by the Delaware County Medical  Society.   He had a family
of four children, two sons and two daughters;  a son and a daughter
survive him.  Dr. Keeler was a  candid, quiet, dignified gentleman,
not so enthusiastic in his profession as his cotemporary,  Dr. Bellows,
but showing more  ambition in politics, and  was elected  treasurer of
the county, president of the village, trustee and justice of the  peace.
He abandoned  medicine  in his later years,  and devoted his  time to
the duties involved in the last named office,  holding it until his death/
which occurred, of typhoid fever, April 13, 1867.
  About  the year  1829 Dr.  Farnsworth  settled in  practice.   He
seemed to be possessed of some means, and having built some very
fine houses, sold  them.  He also  practiced his  profession, but the
houses which he built, many of  which are now standing, are the only
remembrances he has left.
  About  1835, I^r- ^- G. Williams  and Dr.  Dayton came  to the
village from  New  York.   Dr. Hiram H. Heath was then practicing
here,  and also Dr.  Amherst Childs.  They all claimed to be regular
practitioners and educated physicians, and practiced what was then
called allopathy.  At about that time, two lawyers, Edward Bayard and
D. W. Foreman, attorneys without clients, began the study of homoe-
opathy, and entered soon after upon the practice of that branch, which 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
87
then was just beginning to attract popular attention, and soon estab-
lished  themselves in a lucrative  business.  The  regular physicians,
perceiving  that  the new practice  attracted  such  favor, embraced it,
and announced themselves as converts to the new method.  A strong
division arose, and the war was taken into  the medical  society and
waged long  and  fiercely.  In 1842, Williams and Dayton left the
town ;  Bayard went to New York  city; Childs to Waterloo,  and
Heath remained in the village, where he has since continued  to live.
His practice has extended over a  greater period than that of any other
physician of the town, being something  over half a century.
   Dr. J.  K. Brown, a druggist, was also for  a time connected in a
manner with the profession.   He was a  graduated physician, but did
no practice, or very little,  in his store.
   In  1836, John S. Clark  settled  in  the village and  commenced
practice.  He was  a man of good culture,  an able physician, and a
fine musician.  He  built  up a lucrative  business, but his  tastes  for
music and fishing took his time from his professional work,  so that he
gradually tired of his arduous duties, and in 1855 left the  Falls  and
settled in Chicago, where he still resides.
   In 1842 Thomas Swaby, of Lancaster, Penn., came among  us  and
settled.  He was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1817.   He  was a
graduate of the Jefferson  Medical College of Philadelphia, and a very
finely educated physician.  His practice was very large and so taxed
his strength  that  he became an early prey to consumption, and died
on the 12th of November, 1843.
   From  1840 to 1845, several physicians settled at the Falls—Dr. L.
M. Carson, Dr. Laut, Dr. Dey, and Dr. Van Duyn, but they only re-
mained a few years, when  they folded their tents and departed.
   The first regular physician to succeed  Dr. M.  B.  Bellows was  his
son, James Bellows.   He was born in   the town and obtained  his
education at the Seneca Falls Academy.  He studied medicine with
his father and graduated from the Geneva Medical College in 1845.
He settled in  this  county  at Canoga,  immediately after graduat-
ing ; after practicing there two years he  returned to  Seneca Falls and
settled  permanently.   He married Caroline, daughter of Demming
Boardman, and his three daughters are now living in the village.  He
was considered a man well read in his profession,  and obtained some
reputation as a skillful surgeon.
   During the rebellion he entered the  army service as assistant sur- 
88
Historical Sketch of the
geon, but in 1862 resigned and came home.   The following year he
joined  the  148th Regiment  N. Y. Vols, as its surgeon, and  served
until a short time before the close of the  conflict.  His health was
quite broken  after his return from the war, and he  died  of typhoid
pneumonia, April 15, 1864.
  Dr. C. B.  Howe began practicing here in 1853, having read medi-
cine with Dr.  Robinson, who was then practicing in Seneca  Falls.
Dr. Howe had a successful practice for many years, but yielded to
the inducements which  trade offered, and is now a prosperous mer-
chant on our main business street.
  During the period extending from 1852 to 1865 several physicians
practiced in Seneca Falls, an account of whom will be found else-
where.
  H. H. Eddy began  the practice of medicine in 1866.  He was a
graduate of the Geneva Medical College and was young and enthusi-
astic in his  profession.  He remained, however, only one year and
then left to pursue his  medical studies in New York City.
  Charles C. Eastman, a son of Prof. H.N. Eastman, of the Geneva
Medical College, came to Seneca Falls in 1868 and remained in busi-
ness for nearly two years.   In 1869  he  joined the  Seneca  County
Medical Society, but afterwards removed to Owego, Tioga county,
where he practiced for some time.   He has been for several years the
first assistant physician at the Binghamton Asylum for the Chronic
Insane.
  In 1884 John F. Crosby, a student of  Dr.  H.  J. Purdy, and a
graduate of the Burlington University, Vermont, commenced practice.
He is a native of the county and is still in practice.
  James F. Crowley was born at Leroy, N. Y., November 8, 1859.
He was educated in  the high school at  Batavia, studied medicine
under the tuition of Dr. McNamara, and  graduated at the University
of Buffalo, February 24, 1885.  He located in practice at Seneca Falls
in 1885, and became a member of the County Medical Society the
same year.   He  still remains in practice.
  Horace N. Lowe graduated at the Michigan University and came
to the Falls in 1886, and is still in practice there.
  Among other physicians in this village may be mentioned J. B.
Gay, who located in 1829; S. S. Covert,  1852, who remained one
year ; Dr. Dunham, 1858 ;  G. T. Taft, 1865 ;  Alanson White, 1866 ;
A. P. White, 1873, and S. G.  Rhodes, i88i. 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
89
           WILLARD ASYLUM FOR THE  INSANE.
  [Inasmuch as the Willard Asylum has been connected with the Seneca County Medical Society
for nearly twenty years, through the  medical members of its board of trustees and its resident
physicians, and as the medical officers of the asylum have always taken an interest in the society
of which they have been active members, some account is here inserted of the reasons which led
to the location and foundation of the asylum in Seneca county, together with a review of its aims
and purposes, which may be of general  interest to the profession and to the community.]
  * Subsequent  to  the creation and opening of the  State Lunatic
Asylum  at Utica, in 1843, the subject  of increasing  and  improving
the accommodation for the  insane of the State of New York, engaged
the attention of the Legislature from time to time.  In January, 1844,
Dorothea L. Dix presented a memorial to the Legislature, representing
the condition of  the insane   in county alms-houses and other places,
as she found it  on a personal inspection.   In  1855, a convention of
superintendents  of the poor memorialized the  Legislature to  erect
additional asylums.   In  the year 1856, a special committee of the
Senate, created  for the  purpose, made a  personal inspection of the
asylums and poor-houses,  and  presented a report, with recommen-
dations, to the Legislature of 1857.  During this period and follow-
ing it, successive governors  of the  State, the managers of the  State
Lunatic Asylum, and its  superintendent, Dr.  Gray,  as  well as the
State Medical Society, urged upon the Legislature the wretchedness
and neglect that existed in  the  care of the insane in county-houses,
and the necessity of enlarging the accommodations for the increasing
number of the insane.  While these various movements were contin-
uous in respect  to time they were not connected. The State did not
 act, and the various suggestions  were unheeded.
    In  the year 1863, the State Medical  Society appointed Dr. Charles
  A. Lee, Dr. Sylvester D. Willard, and Dr. George Cook, a committee
to  confer  with  the medical committees of the Senate and Assembly,
 on the  subject  of the " appointment of a Commissioner of Lunacy,
 whose duty it should be  to examine personally into the condition  of
 the insane confined in the public and private lunatic asylums, alms-
 houses, and report their condition to the  next Legislature, with  such
 suggestions for  their relief as may be deemed  proper."   In pursu-
 ance of this action, the  Legislature,  by an act  passed April 30,  1864,
 devolved  upon the Secretary of  the State  Medical Society, Dr. Sylves-
 ter D. Willard,  the  duty of procuring the  information  d<-sired and
 furnishing a report.  The law directed that a series of questions likely
                       * Extract from Asylum documents. 
9°
Historical Sketch of the
to elicit the greatest amount of information on the subject should be
prepared, printed, and transmitted to each County Judge in the State :
   * " It  directed  the County Judge, on  the reception thereof, to
appoint a competent physician, a resident of the county, to visit the
county poor-house, or institution where the insane poor are kept, and
to examine into  the condition and treatment of the insane inmates,
and to transmit the results of the examination.  It directed me, there-
upon, to condense  the information so received, and report the same
to your honorable body."
   Fifty-two physicians, of as many counties, furnished  replies to the
questions propounded,  and the information received  furnished the
basis of the report  and suggestions of Dr.  Willard to the Legislature
of 1865.   In  his message  to the  Legislature, Governor Fenton, in
calling attention to the condition of the insane poor, thus alluded to
the forthcoming  report of Dr. Willard :  "The Legislature of  1864
directed  an investigation into the condition of the insane  poor con-
fined in the various  county poor-houses.   A report, by Dr. Willard,
will be duly presented, showing the deplorable condition of this most
unfortunate class.   There are, in fifty-five counties, confined in poor-
houses, or  poor-house asylums, not including New York and Kings,
thirteen hundred and forty-five lunatics, nearly all of whom are incur-
able ;  many have become,  and others are fast  becoming, incurable
from inefficient  care and  treatment.   The time has  arrived when
legislative provision should  be made.  The propriety of establishing
an institution for incurables—an institution that shall relieve county
authorities  from the care  of  the insane—should be deliberately con-
sidered.
   " More than one-fourth  of this number of insane are capable of
some labor.  To what extent that labor, organized and  systematized,
might be made productive in the maintenance of an institution, under
well-directed superintendence, is likewise worthy of consideration."
   A  bill  was reported  by  the  committee, of  which  Dr.  W. H.
Richardson was chairman, creating a second State Lunatic Asylum,
to be known as the Beck Asylum  for the Insane.   Dr.  Willard  died
April 2, 1865.  In a biographical notice published in the transactions
of the State Medical Society for 1866,  Dr. Franklin B. Hough pays a
deserved tribute to  the work of Dr. Willard in investigating the  con-
dition of the insane poor, his energy in collecting information, and his
♦Report of Dr. Willard. 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
9l
zeal in promoting the establishment of a new asylum for their care.
His biographer remarks :  " His death made a marked impression upon
the public mind, and his prominent position (Surgeon General of the
State of New York)  suggested  a further mark of honor."  The  bill
then in the Senate was amended, and  became  a  law with the  name
changed to The Willard Asylum for the Insane.
   The title of the bill as passed was :  " An Act to  authorize the es-
tablishment of a State Asylum for the  chronic  insane, and for the
better care of the insane poor, to be be known as the Willard Asylum
for the Insane."   Dr. John P. Gray, Dr. Julian T. Williams, and  Dr.
John B. Chapin  were appointed Commissioners by  Governor Fenton
to locate and erect  the asylum.   In  deciding upon a  location the
Commission was directed to  " first seek for and  select  any property
owned by the State,  or upon  which it  had a lien," referring by  impli-
cation to the State Agricultural College  in the town of Ovid.  Soon
after their organization the Commission  adopted a proposition that
the plan of the Willard Asylum should comprise a central adminis-
tration block ; wings for the hospital care of excited patients and such
others as  required for any  reason frequent  medical visitation  and
supervision; and groups of detached blocks for the  reception  and
care of harmless, industrious and manageable patients.
   The Commission having obtained a title to the  State  Agricultural
College in December, 1865,  submitted plans to Governor Fenton in
January, 1866, which were subsequently approved by him.   At this
period Dr. Gray  withdrew from  the Commission  and  Dr.  Lyman
Congdon  was appointed  in his place.   During the summer of 1866 a
contract was made for the erection of the center building, one section
of the north and south wings, the buildings in the rear of the center,
and work was commenced.
   In accordance with powers conferred upon the governor, James A.
Bell, of Jefferson, Judge Allen of Washington, Sterling  G. Hadley,
John  E. Seeley, James Ferguson, of  Seneca, and  Genet Conger, of
Ontario, were appointed trustees of the asylum, in 1867.  In January,
 1869, Dr.  John  B. Chapin  was appointed Medical Superintendent,
and accepted the office April 1st.
   The title and the  several sections of the organic  act of the asylum
indicate the plain intent of the Legislature to change the system which
was then in existence of providing for recent cases in a State asylum,
and chronic and incurable  cases  in poor-houses.   The  act creating 
92
Historical Sketch of the
the Willard Asylum required that all cases, both recent and chronic,
of the indigent class, needing the treatment or care of an asylum for
the  insane, should on the completion of  the new asylum, be  placed
under State supervision and custodial care.  The Willard law indicated
a great advance  of  public  sentiment toward the better care  of the
insane poor.   The plans prepared by the Commission contemplated
the segregation of patients and classes according to their condition,
and a plant which would permit  the economical  enlargement  of the
asylum by the  erection of additional blocks.  While the State had
thus entered  upon a  comprehensive system for the care of the insane,
plans  were adopted which were a decided  departure  from  those
which, previously, had been regarded as most  suitable, and  even es-
sential.  Three years before the  asylum was ready for occupation, the
manner in  which the  purpose of the Legislature was to be  executed,
was  foreshadowed in the following language, which may be repro-
duced here :  " The plan of buildings at Ovid comprises a hospital for
the  paroxysmal, excited, and grossly demented, with groups  of de-
tached blocks, plain and inexpensive in  their construction, for  those
whose condition is such to permit of their being  employed in agri-
cultural,  horticultural, or other  industrial pursuits, with benefit to
themselves and the asylum.  It is believed that the plan  of building
here indicated will materially reduce the cost of construction;  allow
of a system of classification and general management which will con-
siderably diminish the cost of maintenance ; at the  same  time that
the health and happiness of the patients will be in the highest degree
promoted.  This  plan also permits of expansion in such a manner as
to obviate  the objections to a large establishment  under  one roof.
The institution is, in short, designed to supersede the  miserable
system of providing for the chronic insane  in the poor-houses, and by
placing them in an establishment adapted  to  their condition, care for
them in accordance  with  medical and humane ideas, develop their
industrial  capacities,  and  demonstrate  the  fact  that they can be
properly  provided for at a cost per week which will place such  care
within the  reach of every county, thus opening the way  to the com-
plete abandonment of county-house receptacles for such of the chronic
insane as may need the  custodial  appliances of  an asylum for the
insane."
  " For the first time the important principle  is recognized  that the
chronic insane poor are equally,  with  the acute recent cases, entitled 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
93
to proper care and treatment under state supervision; and any state
which neglects to provide for all  of this unfortunate  class, by  the
establishment of a humane, comprehensive system of care, is guilty of
injustice and partiality."
   Three principal objects were sought to be accomplished :—
   First.  The care of the insane of  the chronic and incurable class
in a state institution, and their transfer  from county poor-houses to
state supervision.
   Second.   The modification and change  of the usually approved
hospital plans, so as to reduce the cost of construction materially, and
the erection of supplemental or detached buildings for the care of
mild and harmless cases ; and,
   Third.   The aggregation of numbers in order to divide the cost of
support among a large number, so that the average charge might be
reduced.
   The Commissioners having reported the buildings in course of con-
struction, so far advanced toward completion's to be in readiness for
occupation during the year, the Legislature in May, 1869, abolished
the- Commission, devolved  its  powers and duties upon a new board
of trustees, which was created to supersede the board first appointed.
The new  board consisted  of John E. Seeley, .Sterling G.  Hadley,
Samuel R. Welles, William  A. Swaby, of Seneca; Darius A. Ogden,
of Yates ;  George  J. Magee, of Schuyler;  Francis O. Mason  and
Genet Conger, of Ontario.
   In September, a circular was issued  to the superintendents of the
poor, announcing that the asylum would be  ready for  the reception
of two hundred and fifty patients on the  12th of October.  Applica-
tions  for  more than five hundred patients were  received.   On  the
13th of October the first patients were received, three of whom were
brought in chains.
   In  1870, the  Legislature made an appropriation to extend the south
wing, and  to alter the Agricultural College building for the accomo-
dation of  patients,  known  thereafter as the Branch.  In 1871, the
south  wing was extended  and a  group of five detached blocks was
commenced, which was completed in 1872.  The second  group was
occupied in 1876 ; the third group in 1877 ;  and the fourth group in
1880.
   As it has been the policy  of the trustees to make no discrimination
in the condition of patients to be received, and as they have encour- 
94
Historical Sketch of the
aged  the transfer of such cases as would seem to afford the greatest
relief to county institutions, there has been, as was to be anticipated,
an unusual accumulation of patients in an advanced stage of enfeeble-
ment, epileptics, paralytics, and others bed-ridden from various causes
of physical  impairment, all requiring much personal attendance day
and night.   In 1884, the trustees  recommended that new buildings
be erected for the special and better care of this group of cases, num-
bering about one hundred of  each sex.   The  Legislature of  1886,
authorized the erection of a group of detached blocks as an infirmary
for  men, and a further  modification of the building known as the
Branch, to be hereafter used as an infirmary for women.  The princi-
pal features  of the one-story infirmary wards are the  allotment of the
space to  day wards and  large dormitories, with a  few single rooms,
large associate dining-rooms, and an administration block, all calcu-
lated to furnish an efficient service both night and day.
  Additions of land have been made to the  original purchase  from
time to time.  The farm of the asylum now  comprises nine hundred
and thirty-one (931) acres.
  The total  expenditure for erection of buildings of all kinds,  land,
furniture, water works, and all purposes, except salaries and mainte-
nance, has  been $1,489,841.00.  The  capacity  of the  asylum  is
nearly  2,000, and the average  cost of construction, equipment,  land,
improvements,  changes  and  subsequent  modifications,  has  been
$827 per patient.  The whole  number of patients admitted from the
opening of the asylum, October  12,  1869, to  September  30,  1886,
was three thousand nine hundred and sixty-four (3,964).
  The following  table shows the  average cost of support for a period
of fourteen  years, excluding salaries of the staff of medical officers
and clothing.  The table is of  interest in showing  the relation  that
numbers bear to  the cost of support, and how much  the products of
a large farm, and  the labor of  patients may reduce it:
    1872, daily  average of  patients
    1873,
    1874,
    i875,
    1876,
    1877,
1879,
564; wc	:ekly co:	it #3 15
727;	a	3 09
827;	a	3 °9
938;	a	2 96
1,076;	a	2 83
1,227;	«	2 87
1,340 j	(1	2 71
1,43°;	a	2 63
 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
95
885
daily average of patients
^565;
^695;
I>159;
i,748;
i,19°;
r,835 J
!,835;
weekly  cost  2
72
67
64
65
61
37
26
  The following persons have served as trustees of the asylum since
its opening:
                     re-appointed
    resigned  1872
       "     1877
     still in office.

    resigned  1884
     still in office.
term expired  1882
     still in office.
died Oct. 17,  1886
term expired  1882
     still in office.
John E. Seeley,       re-appointea 1
Genet Conger,            "       1869
Sterling G. Hadley,       "       1869
Darius A. Ogden,       appointed 1869
George J. Magee,           "     1869
Samuel R. Welles,           "     1869
William A. Swaby,          "     1869
Francis O. Mason,          "     1869
George W. Jones,           "     1873
James  F. D. Slee,           "     1877
Diedrich Willers, Jr.,       "     1882
S. H. Hammond,           "     1882
A. S. Stothoff,              "     1884
  Dr. Chapin  resigned the office of medical superintendent Septem-
ber 1, 1884, to accept the appointment of physician-in-chief of the
Pennsylvania Hospital  for  the  Insane,  and  was  succeeded  by
Dr. P. M. Wise, formerly the senior medical officer.
  On the creation of the Willard Asylum, its objects and plans be-
came the subject of wide-spread  professional  discussion,  but  its
practical results have taken the place of speculation and theory.  It
has been demonstrated that it is practicable to reduce the usual cost
of construction  of asylums for the insane, and their  subsequent main-
tenance ; to abolish all mechanical forms of restraint; and to enlarge
their personal liberty and means of employment.  A marked modifi-
cation of the views  that had  been entertained in regard to  plans of
asylums,  and the policy  of the State toward the indigent insane, has
taken place.  Not the  less  remarkable, and among the secondary
aspects has  been the decided improvement in the condition of county
alms-houses, due in part to the removal of a disturbing and trouble-
some  class.  While the  plans that were adopted may not be exactly 
96
Historical Sketch of the
such as would now be recommended with the experience of eighteen
years, they, however, embody ideas and suggestions which, it will be
found, mark a new  departure, and  will work important changes in
asylums to be hereafter erected.
                      JOHN  B.  CHAPIN.
   John Bassett Chapin was born  in New  York city December 4,
 1829, of William and Elizabeth  (Hun) Chapin.   His parents early in
 his life removed from New York to a farm in the town of Milo, Yates
 county, and his earliest instruction was received in the district schools.
 In 1840 his parents again removed  to Columbus, Ohio,  traveling by
 canal and lake.  In 1844 he was  sent  to  Philadelphia,  traveling by
 stage and rail, to attend  a public school.  He was prepared for Col-
 lege at Hudson, Ohio, and at the age of  sixteen  entered the Western
 Reserve College, but  soon after, in 1847, went to  Williams College,
 Massachusetts, and graduated in the  class of 1850.   During the pre-
 vious year his  parents had removed to Philadelphia, where  his father
 assumed the charge as superintendent of the Pennsylvania Institution
 for the Blind,  a position  which  he  still holds with honor,  after nearly
 forty years continuous service.   While at Williamstown, Dr.  Chapin
 entered the office of Dr.  Hubbell as  a medical student, and in 1850
 continued his studies at the New York Hospital, and under the tuition
 of Dr. John A. Swett, of New York city.   In March,  1853, he gradu-
 ated at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, and afterwards
 filled successively the  positions of junior  and senior assistant, and
 resident physician at the New York  Hospital.  From  1854 to 1858
 he served as assistant physician at the New York State Lunatic Asylum
 at Utica, when he  resigned  to assume  the superintendency  of the
 Missouri Institution for the Blind at St. Louis, a position  he held for
 two years.  The succeeding ten years of his life were spent as resident
 physician at Brigham  Hall, a private  asylum for the insane at Canan-
 daigua,  N. Y., an  institution of  which he was one of the  founders.
 During the civil war, in 1861, Dr. Chapin served for a time as a volun-
 teer surgeon for special service.
   While  at Canandaigua, in conjunction with Dr. George  Cook, he
agitated the question of caring more humanely for the chronic insane,
which were at  that time relegated to  county alms-houses,  and  whose
condition appealed  to the more  enlightened people  of the State  for 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
97
better  treatment and  care.   This afterwards constituted  the great
work of his life.   In 1865 ne was appointed by Governor  Fenton as
one of the commissioners to locate and erect the Willard Asylum for
the Insane, and in 1869 he became its medical superintendent, a po-
sition which  he held for fifteen years; during which time  he  beheld
the asylum grow to a total population of 1849 insane inmates, and win
a position which commanded the highest confidence and respect, and
which  revolutionized the  treatment of the insane  not only in this
State but throughout the entire country.  In 1884, at the earnest so-
licitation of the board of managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital for
the Insane at Philadelphia,  he resigned his position at Willard to ac-
cept that of physician-in-chief  at the  former  institution, an office
which he still holds.
   Dr. Chapin has always been an earnest and active worker, and has
contributed  many  monographs to  medical literature  and  to the
societies of which he  has been a member.   Among his publications
may. be mentioned the following :
   "Bright's Disease."   Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal, 1853.
   "Acute Rheumatism."  New York Medical Times, 1854.
   " Report on Condition of Insane."   New York Legislative Docu-
ments,  1855.
   " Hallucinations—Report of Case."  American Journal of Insanity,
1857-
   " Moral and   Mental Characteristics  of Pauperism."  American
Journal of Insanity, 1856.
   " Insanity  in   the  State  of New York."  American Journal  of
Insanity,  1857.
   " Homicidal Insanity—Review of Case."   American Journal of In-
sanity, 1856.
   " On the Care  of the Insane" — three articles.— New York Medi-
cal record, 1862.
   "Tubercle of Brain."  American  Journal of Insanity, 1858.
   " Syphilitic Disease  of  Brain."   American  Journal of Insanity,
1859.
   "Hydrocephalus."  New York Medical Record, 1863.
   " Report of Committee on Insanity."   American Medical Associa-
tion Proceedings, 1864.
   " Provision for the Chronic Insane."  Association of Superinten-
dents of Asylums,— American Journal of Insanity, 1867.
              7 
98
Historical Sketch of the
  " Report on Provision for the Insane."   Social Science Proceed-
ings, 1876.
  "Paper on the Chronic Insane."   Conference of Charities, 1873.
  " Paper on  Insanity."  Association of American Superintendents
of Asylums for the Insane,  1878.
  " On Public Complaints against Asylums for  the Insane."  Ameri-
can Journal of Insanity, 1882.
  " Public Complaints against Asylums, etc."  1883.
  " Experts and Expert Testimony."  Association of Asylum Super-
intendents,— Albany Law Journal, 1880.
  " Mental Capacity in  Typhoid  Fever."   Association of  Superin-
tendents,— American Journal of Insanity, 1884.
  " Review of Report  of Commissioner of Lunacy of the State  of
New York."  American Journal of Medical Sciences, 1885.
  " Report of Committee  on Provision for the  Insane."   National
Conference of Charities, 1885.
  Sixteen Annual Reports  of the Willard Asylum for Insane.  New
York Public Documents.
  " Report on  Practice in the Pennsylvania  Hospital  for  Insane."
Pennsylvania Public Documents.
  Three  Annual  Reports  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  for the
Insane, 1884-5-6.  Pennsylvania Public Documents.
  In March, 1858, he married Miss  Harriet E. Preston, and has four
children, all living.

  His whole life has been spent in various  positions of public trust,
as enumerated here : Commissioner for the location and  erection  of
the  Willard Asylum for the Insane; Superintendent of the  Missouri
Institution for the Blind ; Member of the State Medical Society, New
York;  of the county medical societies of Seneca and Ontario coun-
ties; of the Neruological  Society of Philadelphia;'Delegate  to In-
ternational Medical Congress, London ;  Member of the Medico-Legal
Society, Philadelphia;   Medical  Superintendent Willard  Asylum;
Physician-in-chief of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, Phil-
adelphia.  Honorary member of the British  Medico-Psychological
Association.
  In 1881 he traveled for four months in England, Scotland and  on
the  continent, visiting various European asylums and hospitals, and
a't various times he has visited about thirty similar American institu- 
                 Seneca County  Medical Society.               99

tions.  A short sketch of the Willard Asylum, with which Dr. Chapin
was so long and ably connected, will be found elsewhere.
                      LYMAN  CONGDON.
   Lyman  Congdon  was born  in  the  town  of Venice, Cayuga
county, N. Y., December 24, 1823.   His parents were natives of the
State of Vermont.   He was the youngest of a family of eleven children,
and was brought up on a farm, where he learned practical farming, in
conjunction with  attendance at a common school, until sixteen  years
of age, at which  time he entered the Moravia Academy, in Cayuga
county, and  finally finished  his academical  education in Groton
Academy.
   At the age of nineteen he commenced  teaching, and continued to
teach a greater portion of the time for the next  four years ; the last
year in the village of Moravia.
   He read medicine with Benjamin A. Fordyce,  M. D., of Venice,
Cayuga county, and graduated from  the  medical  department of the
Buffalo University, after having taken two  courses of lectures at that
college, in  the spring of 1852.
   He at once entered into  copartnership with  his former preceptor,
and practiced medicine for about a year in the town of Venice.   Dur-
ing the winter of 1855 he removed to the village of Jacksonville, N. Y.,
and there practiced medicine until the fall of 1865.
   He was elected  and served as supervisor of the  town of Ulysses,
Tompkins  county, in  each of the years of 1861-2-3 and 4-  It W1'l
be noticed that his supervisorship was during the Rebellion, and much
of his time was occupied with recruiting  and financial matters, con-
nected with bounties, which together with his  somewhat extended
practice, much impaired his health ; but possessing a good  constitu-
tion he soon regained his former vigor.
   In 1862  he was elected coroner of Tompkins  county, and in  1865
was elected member of the State legislature  from Tompkins  county,
and served one year.
  In the spring of 1866 he was appointed  by Gov. Fenton one of the
building commissioners for the construction of Willard Asylum, and
was made chairman of the commission.  The following year he  took
immediate charge of the work  as building superintendent, and  con- 
100
Historical Sketch of the
tinued to act in that capacity for the next four years, ending his five
years'  connection with the Willard Asylum construction in the spring
of 1871.
   In the same spring  he located in Syracuse and practiced medicine
until the fall of 1872, when he received the appointment of Superin-
tendent of the State Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton, and acted in
that  capacity until February, 1875, when he was incapacitated for fur-
ther  duty by a severe  attack of typhoid fever, and  after his recovery
removed to Jacksonville, his former place of residence, where he had
all these years maintained a home.
  On the  first of June, 1880, he  received  from Louis  D. Pillsbury,
superintendent  of  State  prisons,  the appointment of physician to
Auburn State Prison, where he continued in uninterrupted service in
that capacity until the date of his death, which occurred on the twen-
ty-sixth of  April, 1886.  His remains were buried  at Trumansburgh,
Tompkins county, N.  Y., from the church of the Epiphany.  He be-
came an honorary  member of the Seneca County Medical Society
during his residence in the county  as building commissioner of Wil-
lard Asylum.   For a number of years he was a member of the Epis-
copal church.

                         P. M.  WISE.
  Peter M. Wise was born at Clarence, Erie county, N. Y., of Joseph
and Elizabeth (Croop) Wise, March 7, 1851.
  He lived upon the farm, and attended the district school until the
age of eleven, when he entered the Parker classical school, intending
to prepare for college, which design was frustrated by the death of his
father.  Three years were subsequently occupied as a clerk in a store,
two of which were  spent in Buffalo, where he was prostrated by an
attack of typhoid  fever.  The following winter he taught  a district
school, and in the spring of 1869 commenced the study of medicine
in the office of Dr. O. K. Parker,  in  Clarence,  N. Y.;  attended the
preliminary course of  lectures at Albany Medical College in 1870, and
in the same autumn matriculated at the  medical department of the
Buffalo  University, where he graduated  in February, 1872.
  After graduation he served nine months in the City Hospital at St.
Louis,  and was then appointed resident physician of the  small-pox
hospital, and also  served as city physician  during the  small-pox
epidemic of 1872-3.   In  1873, he located for practice of medicine at 
                 Seneca County Medical Society.             101

Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo, with a day-office in the city.  After
remaining  in  practice  a few months,  in  October, 1873,  he was
appointed assistant physician at the Willard Asylum, and has since
remained  in  continuous service.  In 1883,  upon the resignation  of
Dr. Carson, he was appointed  first assistant, and in the  succeeding
year was advanced to the office of superintendent, made vacant by the
departure of Dr. Chapin.
   On  the  sixth of October, 1875, he married Anna E. Heston, of
South  Alabama, N. Y., and has three children living—a son and two
daughters.
   In the spring of 1882, for the purpose of informing himself con-
cerning English methods of administering asylums, he visited eighteen
asylums in Great Britain and France, and upon  his return published,
in October, 1882, the  result of his observations, in the Alienist and
Neurologist,  in a paper entitled " Notes on the Asylums of Great
Britain."
   Dr.  Wise  has  also  published the following papers,  viz. :
   "Sexual Perversion."  Alienist and Neurologist, for 1883.
   " Examination of the Insane."  Buffalo Surgical Journal, 1883.
   " Recovery of the Chronic Insane."   American Journal of Insan-
ity,  April, 1886.
   " The Relation of the Counties to State  Provision for the Insane."
Read  before the  New York' Association of the Superintendents of the
Poor,  at Chautauqua, and published in their Proceedings for 1886.
   " The Best Methods of Care of the Chronic  Insane."   American
Journal of Insanity, October, 1887.
   And the  sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth Annual Reports of
the  Willard  Asylum,  for  1884-5  and  6.   New York Public Docu-
ments.
   In 1875, he became a member of the  Seneca County Medical Soci-
ety, and was afterwards  its president, in  1878.   He is also a member
of the New York State  Medical Society, and of the Association of
 Medical Superintendents of Asylums for the Insane.  In the spring
of 1886, he  was  appointed  by  Governor Hill, member of a Commis-
 sion, created by an act of the  Legislature, to prepare plans and to
locate a  new asylum  for the insane in  the northern  district of  the
State.    Together with the Hon. W. P. Letchworth he  prepared a
minority  report  locating the asylum at Ogdensburgh, which report
was adopted by the Legislature. 
102
Historical Sketch of the
  In February, 1887, he delivered, at Buffalo, the annual address
before  the  Alumni  Association of the Medical Department of the
University  of Buffalo  on "The Influence  of  Mind upon  Disease."
He was appointed, in  1887, as member of  the Council in the section
on Psychiatry, at the International Medical Congress held at Wash-
ington, and presented  an essay on " Hospital and Asylum Construc-
tion for the Insane."
                       H.  E. ALLISON.
  Henry E. Allison was born at Concord, N. H., December 1, 1851,
of William  H. and Catharine  (Anderson) Allison.
  He was educated in the public schools of Concord, and at Kimball
Union Academy at Meriden, N. H., where he graduated in 1871, and
entered  the classical department of Dartmouth  College in the fall of
the same year,  graduating, after a full course, in the class of 1875.
He taught the High School of Hillsborough Bridge, N. H., during the
fall of 1875, and attended the full course of lectures and instruction
at Dartmouth  Medical School during  the following  years, excepting
three  months spent in the office of Prof. L. B. How, at Manchester,
N. H.  He received his medical degree in June,  1878,  at Dartmouth^
Medical College, and located in practice at  the Willard Asylum in
August of the same year, where he remained until March, 1883. After
a course of  two months at the Polyclinic in New York city, he entered
general practice at Waterloo, where he remained  for fourteen months,
from June 1, 1883, to August  1,  1884, when  he returned to Willard
Asylum, as  first assistant physician.   On the eighth of October, 1884,
he was married to  Anna  DePuy, of Kingston,  N.  Y., and  has  one
child, a  daughter.
  Dr. Allison has published the following papers  :
  "A Case  of Multiple Tubercular Tumor of  the Brain."  New York
Medical Record, August,  1882.
  " Cerebral Lesions in the Chronic  Insane."  Alienist and Neurolo-
gist, July, 1885.
  " Moral and Industrial Management of the Insane."   Alienist and
Neurologist, April,  1886.
  Clinical Case : " Mental Changes resulting  from the Separate Frac-
ture of Both Thighs."  American Journal of  Insanity, July,  1886.
  " Notes in a Case of Chronic Insanity."  American Journal of In-
sanity, April, 1887. 
                Seneca  County Medical Society.              T03

  He became a member  of the Seneca  County Medical Society in
1879, and was elected president of the society in 1886 ;  and also the
first president of the  Seneca County Medical Association.   During
1883-4, he was town physician at Waterloo.   He is also  a member of
the New York State Medical Association.
                         A.  NELLIS,  JR.
   Alexander Nellis, Jr., was born at Schenectady, N. Y., February
 11, 1846, of Alexander and Charlotte (Pulver) Nellis.
   He received his education in the common schools of Amsterdam,
 and at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, where he graduated
 in May, 1870.  It was his original intention to follow a business career,
 but in June, of the same year, he entered upon the study of medicine,
 and registered in the office of Drs. Jacob G. Snell and Wm. H. Robb,
 of Amsterdam, and  in  December,  1872, graduated at the Albany
 Medical  College.  For nine months  after graduation, he served as
 assistant  city physician  in  the Albany City and  County Almshouse
 and Asylum,  and in October, 1873,  was appointed assistant physician
 at the Willard Asylum.  Here he  remained  continuously in service
' until May, 1880, when he resigned, and took an extended journey
 through the West and Southwest,  visiting the chief cities, and finally
 located for practice  in Denver, Colorado.
    Having  received  the appointment  of Surgeon  to  the Mexican
 National Railway, then in process of construction, he left Denver, and
 removed to Corpus Christi, then the headquarters of the railroad, and
 afterwards went to Laredo, on the Rio  Grande.   He spent a year on
 the frontier and saw much of Mexican  life, but was called home by
 the serious illness of his brother, and returned to Port Jackson, N. Y.,
 in December, 1881.   In March,  1883, he was re-appointed assistant
 physician at Willard, where he has since remained.
    Dr. Nellis  joined the Seneca County Medical Society in  1879, and
 was elected president in 1885.   He is  also a member-of the Mont-
 gomery County Medical Society.
    He has published—
    " Report on a Case of Acute Insanity."  Alienist and Neurologist,
 1884.
    Presidential address, " Insanity and its  Treatment."   Published by
 request of the society, June, 1887. 
104
Historical Sketch of the
  " Report on a Case of Atrophy of Brain  and Idiocy."  American
Journal of Insanity, October, 1887.
                       H. G. HOPKINS.
  Horace Grant Hopkins was born at Williamsville, Erie county, N.
Y., October 3, 1843, of Timothy A. and Hannah (Williams) Hop-
kins.
  He received his education in the district  school and Academy of
his native place, and at the age of sixteen went to Buffalo to learn the
moulder's trade,  and  remained there until September, 1862.  On
September 30, 1862, he  enlisted as a private in the 27th N. Y. Inde-
pendent Battery of Light Artillery, and was  made a  Corporal  on
reaching Washington.  He served with the battery through the war,
until the fall of 1864, when he was discharged, to enable him  to accept
a Lieutenant's commission in the 2d N. Y. Heavy Artillery, which com-
mission bears date of April 25, 1864.   In October of the same year
he went home, sick with rheumatism and enfeebled by the hardships
of a long army service, and in January, 1865, resigned  and received
an honorable  discharge.
  For more than a year  after leaving the army he was out of health,
and a portion of  his time was spent in western travel.   When suffi-
ciently restored,  by the  advice  of his uncle,  a physician,  he  com-
menced the study of medicine and pursued it three years, graduating
in 1872 at the  Medical  Department of the  University of Buffalo.
  Immediately after graduating he began the practice of medicine at
Clarence, Erie county, N. Y., which he pursued until  June 24,  1874.
He became a member of the medical staff of Willard  Asylum, July 1,
1874.  In 1879, he joined the Seneca County Medical Society, and
on March 20, 1884, was  married to Mrs. Anne M. (Maycock) Smith,
of Buffalo.
                     W. E. SYLVESTER.
  William E. Sylvester is a native of New York, having been born
at Rouse's Point, on the  third day of April, 1856.  His parents were
Merrick and Maria F.  (Gilson) Sylvester.
  His preparatory  education was acquired in the schools of Bethel,
Vermont, to which place his parents had removed ; at Goddard Sem-
inary, Barre, Vt., and at  the Collegiate Commercial and Military In- 
Seneca  County Medical Society.              105
stitute, New Haven,  Conn.  After graduating from the Institute, he
spent two  years in mercantile pursuits with his father at Bethel, and
then commenced the study of medicine  at Hanover, N.  H.  He
graduated at the  Dartmouth  Medical School, in October, 1877.   A
few months of his medical course were spent in the office of Dr. L.
B. How, of Manchester, N.  H.   After graduation  he attended an
additional course  of lectures at the University Medical College of the
City of New York, and located in practice at Columbus, Ohio, where
he remained until July, 1878, when he received the appointment  of
acting  assistant  physician at the  Butler Hospital for the Insane,  at
Providence, R. I.  In January, 1879, he went to New York city, and
has since served as assistant physician at the New York City Asylum
for the Insane, Ward's Island ;  Worcester Lunatic Hospital, Worces-
ter, Mass., and at the Willard Asylum, where he still remains in the
discharge of his duty.
   Dr.  Sylvester has published—
   "An Historical Sketch of Epidemic Yellow Fever in the United
States."   Read before the Medical Society of the State of Vermont,
October, 1879.
   " The Insane Population of the United States."  Alienist and Neu-
rologist, January, 1885.
   He  joined the Seneca County Medical Society in 1884 ;  and is also
a member of the Vermont Medical Society, and was one of the origi-
nators and founders  of the White River Medical Society of Vermont,
and its ex-secretary.   To his efforts, in a large share, is due the origin
of  this society.   On the eighteenth of September, 1886, he married
Edith, daughter of Hon. John Raines, of Canandaigua.
                       G.  B.  BRISTOL.

  Graham B. Bristol was born at Scottsville, Monroe county, N. Y.,
January n,  1853.   His parents,  George T. and Laura  A.  Bristol,
removed to Rochester in 1859, and  Dr. Bristol attended the public
and private schools of that city until the age of seventeen years.
  He subsequently spent  two years  at  the State Normal School of
Oswego, and later passed a year at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H.
His attendance at school was interspersed with teaching.  At one time
he taught at the Canandaigua Academy.  He commenced the study
of medicine, under  the  tuition  of Dr. M. W. Townsend, of  Bergen, 
io6
Historical Sketch of the
Genesee county, and graduated from the University Medical College
of New York city, March 8, 1881.  After graduation he located in
practice at Churchville, Monroe county, September, 1882, and in the
following April he was  appointed  assistant physician  at the Willard
Asylum, where he still remains.
  On the twenty-third of September, 1885, he was married to Martha,
daughter of J. B. Chapman, of Ovid, N. Y.  They have one child,  a
daughter.  He became a member of the Seneca County Medical So-
ciety in 1884.
                       M. D. BLAINE.
  Myron DePew Blaine was born at Romulus, N. Y., August 6,1859.
His parents were James and Amanda (DePew)  Blaine, and his youth
was passed upon the farm, attending the district school in summers,
until the fall of 1876, when he  entered the Northern Indiana Normal
School at Valparaiso, where he  remained three years.
  He commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. D.  F.
Everts,  of Romulus, and  afterwards entered  the  Detroit Medical
School,  and remained there until February 28, 1883, when he gradu-
ated.   While in Detroit he was also under the tuition of Dr.  N. W.
Webber, as his preceptor, and spent sixteen months as an assistant in
St. Luke's Hospital.  After graduation he became assistant physician
at the Willard Asylum, in April, 1883, where he still remains.  While
here he  made extensive observations on bovine tuberculosis, a disease
that then affected the asylum  herd.  In 1884,  he joined the Seneca
County  Medical Society, and is also a member of the New York State
Medical Association.
  In the winter of 1887, by request, he delivered an address before
the  New York Academy of Medicine, on  " Bovine Tuberculosis;  its
Communication by  Ingestion,  Inhalation  and Hereditary Transmis-
sion ;  also its Dangers to the Public Health ;"  a paper which attracted
wide-spread attention and which was extensively republished in various
medical journals.
                      A. M.  FARNHAM.
  Alice May Farnham was born at Batavia, N. Y.  Her parents were
Reuben H. and Frances E. Farnham.
  She graduated in 1880 at the Attica Union School, and commenced 
                Seneca County  Medical Society.              107

the study of medicine under the instruction of Dr. Clara Marshall.
In March, 1884, she received her degree in medicine at the Woman's
Medical College at Philadelphia.  In the following May, upon com-
petitive examination, she entered  the Philadelphia  Hospital  (Block-
ley) as interne and  served  one year.
  She commenced  the  general  practice  of medicine at Allegheny
City, Pa., in August,  1885, and remained there until January, 1886.
For three months,  from February to May,  1886,  she was assistant
physician at the New York  Infant Asylum, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.   Upon
the first of  October, 1886,  she was  appointed assistant  physician at
the Willard Asylum for  the Insane.
  Dr. Farnham has contributed an article on " Uterine Disease as  a
Factor  in  the  Production of  Insanity," Alienist  and  Neurologist,
October, 1887, and "The  Emergencies of Childhood," published in
Babyhood.
                     THEODA WILKINS.

  Theoda Wtilkins was born at Washington, Missouri, May 19, 1856,
of Theodore and Bertha L. (Sitzer) Wilkins.
  Her parents removing to St. Louis, she attended the public schools
of that city for a few years, when, in 1868, her parents again removed
to Beardstown, Illinois, and she entered the high school of that place.
At the age of seventeen she commenced  teaching, and continued to
do so until her twenty-fifth  year, when  she commenced the study of
medicine in the office of Dr. W. A. Yohn, at Valparaiso, Ind., begin-
ning in 1881.  On the twenty-ninth of May, 1885, she graduated from
the Woman's Medical College  of the New York  Infirmary, and on the
first of July of the same year, after a competitive civil service examin-
ation at Albany,  she was appointed physician at the Willard  Asylum,
where she remained one year.
   During the summer of 1883 she was  connected with  the Seaside
Hospital for Children, and  also passed three months as nurse, in charge
of the Woman's surgical ward of St. Luke's Hospital.  She joined the
Seneca County Medical Society in 1885.
   After leaving Willard, she engaged  in  the practice of medicine at
Omaha, Neb., for a few months, and  then  removed to Los  Angeles,
Cal.,  where she at present resides, in the  practice of her profession. 
io8
Historical Sketch of the
                     CHARLES L. WELLS.

   Charles Leonard Wells, Minneapolis, Minn., was  born October
 13, 1842, in the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, N. Y., of Russell
 and Sophrona Patience  Wells.
   Dr. Wells first attended school at the district schools in the northern
 part of the town of  Pompey.   His education was continued at the
 academy of Manlius, where his studies preparatory  to entering the
 freshman class were  begun, which were subsequently carried  on and
 completed at the academy at Seneca Falls, where he resided tempo-
 rarily for nearly two  years—i86o-'6i.
   In the fall of 1861 he entered the freshman class of Hobart College,
 Geneva, N. Y., in which, having completed a full and regular course of
 study, he received  the degree of A. B.  In 1865, soon after his gradu-
 ation, he was appointed teacher of classics in  the preparatory  depart-
 ment of Burlington College, N.J.   Continuing this work for one year,
 he then resigned, and commenced the study of medicine at Geneva, N.
 Y., taking his first course of lectures  at the Geneva Medical College,
 the same fall and winter.  On completion of his fiist term of lectures,
 he was appointed  head  teacher in the Geneva Union School, which
 position he  held for nearly three years.  His work during this period
 was almost entirely the teaching of Latin and Greek.  He commenced
 his second course of lectures and resigned this position, and took his
 degree in medicine in June, 1869.   His medical instructors were Dr.
 G. N. Dox and H.  N. Eastman.   In 1869, Dr. Wells received the
 degree of A.M. from his Alma Mater, Hobart  College.  In 1869, he
 served in the New  York Hospital  as  a substitute,  and in July of the
 same  year became assistant physician  in the Willard Asylum, where he
 remained from July,  1869, to December, 1873.
   Having resigned his position at Willard, he spent the two  following
 winters  in  New York city in the  study of medicine, giving  special
 attention to the studies of ophthalmology and dermatology,  and then
removed to Minneapolis, Minn., where  he has since remained.  As
 chairman  of the section relating to the diseases of children in the
 Minneapolis State Medical Society, he prepared the report of that com-
mittee, which was published in the transactions of that  society for the
year i884~'85.
   On December 1, 1870, he was married in Christ church, Brooklyn,
 N. Y., to Harriet Josephine Stilwell.  Two  children have since been 
                 Seneca County Medical Society.              109

born, both living :  Harry J. Wells,  born February 17,  1876;  Mary
Stilwell Wells, born August  3, 1878.
  Since entering practice at Minneapolis, Dr. Wells has held the fol-
lowing positions :  Lecturer  on Dermatology, Minnesota College Hos-
pital, 1881-84 ; is now Professor of Diseases of Children, Minnesota
Hospital College, since 1881 ; Lecturer in Training School for Nurses,
Minnesota College Hospital, 1884-85 ; Visiting Physician and Surgeon,
Minnesota College Hospital; Visiting Physician to St. Barnabas Hos-
pital ; Consulting Physician for Northwestern Hospital for Women;
Member of Board of Health for Minneapolis, 1884-85 ;  Member of
Northwestern State Medical Society ; Member and President of Hen-
nepin County Society ;  Member of the " Unity Medical Club," Min-
neapolis.
  For several years he was attending physician to Minneapolis Free
Dispensary, being  one of the three physicians to organize that  institu-
tion, which furnished gratuitous  medical and surgical services to all
deserving poor.
  He was for  several  years vestryman of  the  Holy Trinity church,
East Minneapolis; junior warden of St. Paul Episcopal church, being
one of the founders of that  parish, and  having been connected with it
as a vestryman  and warden since that date.
  Dr. Wells  has always been an earnest and constant worker in the
Hennepin County Medical  Society, having held all  the offices in its
gift, and at various times read the following  papers  : " The Relation
of Physician and  Druggist;" "New Remedies;" "Some Forms of
Arrested Breach  Labors;" " Medical  Ethics;"  President's address,
" The Insane ;"  " The Treatment of  Non-puerperal Uterine  Hem-
orrhage."
  He was the first to suggest the establishment of a library in connec-
tion  with the Hennepin County Society.  Several  hundred  bound
volumes  have already been accumulated, and a  number of journals
are on the shelves, for the use of the  members of the society, and the
enterprise has long since passed the period of experiment.
  At the formal opening of the new building of the Minnesota Hos-
pital College, in 1886,  Dr.  Wells was the orator of  the  evening  and
delivered the dedicatory address.   He  still remains in active practice
in Minneapolis. 
no
Historical Sketch of the
                     JAMES  C.  CARSON.
   James Carlton Carson  was  born January  23,  1847, at Seneca,
Ontario county, N. Y., of Robert and Rebecca (Rippey) Carson.  His
early life was spent upon the farm,  and his education obtained at the
district school and at the Geneva and Canandaigua academies.   His
medical  studies were  pursued under  the tuition of his brother, Dr.
M. R. Carson, at Canandaigua,  and Dr. Jonas Jones, of Rochester,
and at the  Bellevue Hospital  Medical College of New  York, where
he graduated in March, 1870.  One year of his student life was spent
in service at the Rochester City  Hospital.
   On April 1, 1870, he  entered Brigham Hall,  at Canandaigua, as
assistant physician, where he remained until October,  1870, when he
became  attached to the medical staff of Willard Asylum, and for many
years was first assistant at that institution.  On  the first of April, 1883,
after thirteen years' continuous service among the insane, he resigned
to accept the superintendency of the  New York  Institution for  the
Deaf and Dumb in New York city.  He remained there only about
a year and a half, when he resigned, to assume, on October 15, 1884,
a more  enlarged and  responsible position  as  superintendent of the
New York State Asylum for Idiots at Syracuse, which position he
now holds.
  On the thirtieth of April, 1874, he was married to Miss Jennie M.
Smith, of Geneva, and of this marriage two sons were born, Tom and
Robert.
  Dr. Carson has published—
  " Report of a Case  of the Opium habit in an  Idiot  Boy."  Re-
printed from the Proceedings of the Association of Medical Superin-
tendents of Institutions for the Idiotic and Feeble-minded.
  "The Sixty-fifth Annual Report   of the New  York Institution for
Deaf and Dumb for 1883."  New York Public Documents.
  " The Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth  and  Thirty-sixth Annual Reports
of the New York State Asylum for Idiots, for 1884-5-6."  New York
Public Documents.
  He was elected a member of the  Seneca  County  Medical  Society
in 1873, and became its president in 1880.   He was also a member
of the New York County Medical Society. 
Seneca  County Medical Society.
in
                   E. WIRT LAMOREAUX.
  E. Wirt Lamoreaux is a native of Seneca county, and was born at
Lodi, August 7,  [854.   His parents, William  and Susan C.  Lamor-
eaux, were farmers, and his early education was obtained in the district
schools and at the Starkey Seminary.
  On June 26, 1879, he graduated from the Department of Medicine
and Surgery of the Michigan University, and afterwards remained one
year, as assistant to the chair of pathology and practice of medicine.
In June, 1880, he was appointed  assistant physician at Willard Asy-
lum, and remained on the medical staff of that institution until March
15,  1883, when he resigned, to enter the general practice of medicine.
  After pursuing a special course of study at the New York Polyclinic,
he traveled through the Northwest, in search of a desirable location,
and in October, 1883, he settled for the practice of his profession at
Battle Creek, Michigan, where he has  since remained.  On the four-
teenth of March, 1883, he was  married to Miss Hattie  E. Rawling.
  In 1881, he became  a member of the Seneca County Medical So-
ciety, and  is also a member of  the Calhoun  County Medical Society,
of Michigan.
                        D. A. SHILEY.
  Douglas  A.  Shiley was born a few miles  south of the village of
Waterloo.  He studied medicine with Dr. S. R.Welles, and also spent
one year at the Medical Department of the Michigan University.  He
graduated at  the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and  soon after
entered the Willard Asylum as assistant physician, where he remained
from January 6th, 1873, to October 20th of the same year.  He then
resigned, to enter private practice.  From the asylum, he went to Red
Wing'; thence to Missouri Valley, and then to Bedford, Iowa, where
he now is. 
       OFFICERS AND MEMBERS

                       OF THE

SENECA  COUNTY  MEDICAL SOCIETY,

    From its Re-Organization, August ist,  1865.
                   HONORARY MEMBERS.
Elected.
1866.                    Claudius C. Coan.         Died, Ovid, 1882.

1870.                     John B. Chapin,
                   Superintendent Willard Asylum.
Physician-in- Chief and Superintendent Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane,
                         Philadelphia, Pa.

1870.                    Charles L.  Wells,
                   First Assistant Willard Asylum.
Professor of Diseases of  Children  and Dermatology, Minnesota  University,
                        Minneapolis, Minn.

1870.                    Lyman  Congdon,
                  Physician to State Prison, Auburn.
                                              Died, Auburn, 1886.
1870.                     H. N. Eastman,
         Professor  Theory and Practice, Geneva Medical College.
           Professor Materia Medica, Buffalo Medical College.
                   Professor Syracuse University.
                                  Died, Owego, Tioga county, 1879.

l878-                       Lewis Post.            Died, Lodi, 1879.

l88i •                      James Flood.         Died, Geneva, 1884. 
Officers.
IJ3
PRESIDENTS.
1865-	-Gardner Welles. 1	877-	-Elias Lester.
[866-	-Alfred Bolter. 1	878-	-P. M. Wise.
1867-	-O. S. Patterson. i	879-	-J. H. Sternberg.
1868-	-James Flood.	880-	-J. C. Carson.
1869-	-E. J. Schoonmaker.	881	John Denniston.
1870-	-Alfred Emens.	882-	-D. F. Everts.
[871-	-William A. Swaby.	883	Frank H. Flood.
1872-	-Jeremiah Dunn.	[884-	-George A. Bellows
1873-	-Friedrich Glauner.	[885-	-A. Nellis, Jr.
1874-	-W. W. Wheeler.	[886-	-H. E. Allison.
'875-	-Andrew J. Alleman.	1887-	—Frank G. Seaman.
1876-	-Samuel R. Welles.		
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
1865-	-Alfred Bolter. i	877—P. M. Wise.
1866-	-O. S. Patterson. i	878—S. P. Johnson.
[867-	-James Flood. i	879—J. C. Carson.
[868-	—E. J. Schoonmaker.	880—John Denniston.
1869-	—Alfred Emens.	881—D. F. Everts.
1870-	—William A. Swaby.	[882 - Frank H. Flood.
1871-	—Lewis Post.	[883—George A. Bellows
1872	Friedrich Glauner.	[884—A. Nellis, Jr.
1873-	-W. W.. Wheeler.	1885—H. E.Allison.
1874-	-A. J. Alleman.	[886—Frank G. Seaman.
1875-	—S. P. Johnson.	[887-Louis A. Gould.
1876-	—Elias Lester. SECRET/	^RIES.
.865-	-F. B. Seelye.	[876-87—E. J. Schoonma
1866-	76—S. R. Welles.	
TREASURERS.
1865—O. S. Patterson.
1866-67—E. J. Schoonmaker.
[868-69—John Flickinger.
1870-71—A. A. Alleman.
1872-73—A. J. Alleman.
1874—E. J. Schoonmaker.
1875—79—John Denniston.
[880-82—Elias Lester.
1883-87—John Denniston. 
H4
Me?nbers.
         MEMBERS AT RE-ORGANIZATION  IN  1865.

                            1865.               Present address.
Alleman, A. J...........Varick............McDougalls.
Alleman, Levi J.........Fayette............Boone, Boone Co., Iowa.
Bolter, Alfred...........Ovid..............Died, Ovid, 1880.
Clark, J. L.............Waterloo..........Waterloo.
Dorchester, E...........Romulus..........Tampa,  Florida.
Dunn, Jeremiah........  .Lodi..............Bath.
Dey, Richard............Romulus..........Waterloo.
Emens, Alfred..........Fayette............Seneca Falls.
Flickinger, John........Fayette............Trumansburgh, Tompk. Co.
Flood, James............Lodi Centre.......Died, Geneva, 1884.
Glauner, Friedrich......Romulus..........Died, Romulus, 1878.
Patterson, O. S.........Waterloo..........Died, Waterloo, 1869.
Post,  Lewis.............Lodi..............Died, Lodi, 1878.
Seelye,  F. B.............Seneca Falls.......Died, Ovid, 1885.
Swaby,  Wm. A..........Seneca Falls.......Seneca Falls.
Sternberg, J. H..........Waterloo,  .........Waterloo.
Sears, Alfred............Townsendville.....Townsendville.
Schoonmaker, E.J.......Magees Corners • • • • Magees  Corners.
Tubbs, John G..........Tyre............. Died, Ionia, Mich., [883.
Taft, G. T...............Seneca Falls.......Rochester.
Welles,  Gardner.........Waterloo..........Died, Waterloo, 1872.
Wells, Landon..........Waterloo..........Died, Waterloo, 1868.
Welles,  S. R............Waterloo..........Waterloo.
Wheeler, W. W..........Farmer Village---Farmer Village.
Woodward, Charles,.....Ovid..............Elmira.
Elected
1866
[866
1866
1866
[869
1869
1870
1872
1873
                SINCE ADMITTED.

Horace Smith ... .Junius.............Syracuse, Neb.
George L. Yost.. -Waterloo..........Died, Waterloo, 1877.
Elias Lester......Seneca Falls.......Seneca Falls.
Alanson White. • -Seneca Falls.......Auburn.
James  Kennedy. • .Lodi..............Died, Lodi, 1871.
John Denniston . -Ovid..............Ovid.
C. M. Woodward. .Waterloo..........Tecumseh, Mich.
C. C. Eastman---Seneca Falls,
            First Assistant, Binghamton Asylum.
A. A. Alleman... .Waterloo..........Died, Waterloo, 1872.
C. C- Wheeler... .Farmer Village ...-Farmer Village.
George W. Davis -. Seneca Falls.......Jacksonville, Florida.
H. J. Purdy......Seneca Falls........Seneca Falls.
A. P. White......Seneca Falls.......Indiana. 
Members.
"5
[873.  D. A. Shiley.....Waterloo..........Bedford, Iowa.
1873.  S.P.Johnson ...-Waterloo..........Little Utica.
1873.  J.C.Carson..... Willard Asylum,
                  Suft. New York State Idiot Asylum.
[875.  P. M. Wise.......Willard Asylum,
                  Supt.  Willard Asylum for the Insane.
[876.  Frank H. Flood.. .Fayette............-----
[877.  D. F. Everts......Romulus..........Romulus,
1879.  John B. Chapin.... Willard Asylum,
         Supt. Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia.
1879.  Alex. Nellis, Jr.  . .Willard Asylum---Willard Asylum.
1879.  H. G.  Hopkins,..-Willard Asylum---       "
1879.  H. E. Allison.....Willard Asvlum---
1881.  Chas. C.  Keyes, ..Lodi.............Indiana.
1881.  E. W. Lamoreaux. Willard AsylumN.. .Battle Creek, Mich.
1881.  Louis A.  Gould...Ovid..............Ovid.
[881.  John M.Townsend.Townsendville.....Townsendville.
1881.  S. G.Rhodes.....Peneca Falls.......Bellevue, Mich.
1881.  J. A. Pangburn . ..Hector............Dakota.
[882.   Frank G. Seaman.Seneca Falls.......Seneca  Falls.
1882.  Geo. A. Bellows... Waterloo..........Waterloo.
1884.  W. E. Sylvester ...Willard Asvlum---Willard Asylum.
1884.   G. B. Bristol.....Willard Asylum---
1884.  M. D.Blaine......Willard Asylum---
[884.   Chas A Sternberg. Waterloo.........Howe's Cave.
1884.  E. W. Bogardus.. -Fayette..........• • Fayette.
[885.  James F.  Crowley.Seneca Falls.......Seneca  Falls.
18S5.  John V. Larzalere. Waterloo..........Poplar Ridge.
1886.  Theoda Wilkins ..Willard Asylum. ••-Los Angeles, Cal. 
INDEX.
Alleman, A. A......77, 83, 113, 114
Alleman, Andrew J. ..3, 4, 34, 68, 72
                          U3. "4
Alleman, Levi J............81, 114
Allison, Henry E. 3,4, 102, 113, 115
Almy, Allen.................   85
Asylum, Willard............89, 97
Bailey, Lorenzo W............   67
Bellows, George A.....77, 113, 115
Bellows, James...............   87
Bellows, Matthias B. ..24, 35, 86, 87
Birdsall,  Maurice L...........   83
Blaine, Myron D..........106, 115
Bogardus, Ephraim W---3, 78, [15
Bolter, Alfred---5, 37, 43, 113, 114
Bradford, Theron.............   84
Bristol, Graham  B........  105, [15
Brown, J. K..................   87
Brown, Reuben S...........  32, 85
Carleton, John...............   81
Carson, James C......no, 113, 115
Carson, L. M.................   87
Carter, James................   83
Cass, John T.................   79
Chapin, John B. .91, 95, 96, 1 [2, 115
Chidsey, Samuel  B...........   80
Childs, Amherst.............   86
Clark,  John S...............64, 87
Clark,  J. L...................  114
Coan,  Claudius C. . ..25,  36, 37, 38
                    39,43,44, [12
Coleman, B. F...............   85
Comstock, Oliver C.......5, 14, 32
Congdon, Lyman......91, 99, 112
Copp,  Robert S...............   50
Covert, Peter...............84, 85
Covert, S.  S..:...............   88
Crane, Isaac.................   83
Crane, Moses M..............   83
Crosby, John F...............   88
Crowley, James  F..........88, [15
Davis, Aaron................   80
Davis, George W.......65,71,114
Day, J. W..................82, 83
Dayton, ---.................   86
DeGrafY, Abram..............   80
Delavan, Tompkins C........   85
Delavan, William............   85
Denniston, John.......72, 113, 114
Dey, Edwin..................   84
Dey, Philip.................83, 84
Dey, Richard..............71, 114
Dey,---....................   87
Didama, H. D................   84
Dorchester, E...........57, 71, 114
Dunham,----................   88
Dunn, Jeremiah.......62, 113, 114
Eastman, Charles C........88,114
Eastman, H. N.........88, 108, 112
Eastman, John L............12, 29
Eddy,  H. H.................   88
Eddy,  H. L...................   81
Eddy,  Norman ...............   40
Elder,  Samuel................   82
Elliott, George B.............   81
Elliot, John B................   82
Ely, Linus..............20, 22, 30
Emens, Alfred.........55, 113, 114
Everts, Daniel F.  3, 75,  106, 113, 115
Farnham, Alice M............  106
Farnsworth, Nathan J.........   85
Farnsworth,---.............   86
Fellows,----.................   85
Fifield, Jesse.......•........41, 82
Flickinger, John.......66, 113, 114
Flood, Frank H.....56, 81, 1(3, 115
Flood, James. .5, 56, 81, 84, 112, 113
                              "4
Flood, Patrick H. ..'.........55, 84
Folwell, Nathan W...........   37
Franklin, Amos..............   83
Gates, Archelaus.............   85
Gay, f. B.....................   88
Glauner, Friedrich.....61, 113, 114
Goodwin, Daniel.............   8[
Goss, John...................   8[ 
Index.
117
Gould, Louis A........76, 113, 115
Hahn, Franklin B............  42
Hahn, James A...........33, 41, 55
Halsey, Lewis.......'.....9, 18, 32
Halsey, Silas............6, 12, [8
Harkness,----...............  8(
Hasbrouck, Jacob...........49, 63
Heath, Hiram H..............  86
Hubbard, Abijah.............  82
Hopkins, Horace G........104, 115
Howe, ----.................  83
Howe, C B..................  88
Hudson, Daniel.............34, 80
Hunt, Joseph.................  80
Johnson, Stephen P.........74, 115
Jones, Samuel................  85
Keeler, Silas.................  86
Kennedy, James............84, 1x4
Keyes, Charles R...........84, 115
Kidder, William........... 81, 85
Lamoreaux, E. Wirt ......111, 115
Larzalere, John V..........83, 115
Laut,---...................' 87
Leman, ---.................  81
Lester, Elias.....3, 71, 77, 1x3.  "4
Lewis, Justus................  32
Long, Reuben ...............  86
Lowe, Horace N..............  88
Livingstone, William.........  84
Loring, Caleb............5, 26, 82
Little, Homer  E. R...........  83
Magee, Thomas C............   3°
Marvin, Mather..............i7> 84
Mills,----...................   81
Nellis, Alexander, Jr. ..103, 113, 115
Oakley, Lewis................   33
 Pangburn,J. A...............  "5
 Parker,----.................   81
 Patterson, Oliver S. 5, 34, 45, 66, 68
                        77. "3> "4
 Perrine, George W............   82
 Pitney,----.................81, 86
 Post, Lewis, 10, 36, 37, 39, 62, 112, x 14
 Purdy, Hiram J......73. 78, 88, 114
 Puffer,----..................   83
 Reeder, Henry...............   47
Rhodes, S. G..............88, 115
Robinson,----................   88
Rogers,----.................   81
Roice,----...................   81
Rose, Robert.................   85
Sandford, Jared..9, 11,  14, 18, 29, 84
Sayer,----..................   81
Schoonmaker, E. Joachim. .3, 5, 63
                          "3. "4
Schroeder,----...............   81
Seaman, Frank G.......78, 113, 115
Sears, Alfred............49, 76, [14
Seelye, Franklin B.3, 5, 70, 113, 114
Sheldon, Andrew F...........   67
Shiley, Douglas A.........111, 115
Skinner, Herman C..........   85
Smith, Horace.............83, 114
Smith,----..................   85
Sternberg, Charles A.......82, 115
Sternberg, J. H.....77, 82, 113, 114
Stuart, Charles...............   82
Sutherland, L. W.............   81
Swaby, Thomas..............   87
Swaby, William A.....21, 64, 93,95
                          113. "4
Sylvester. William E......104, 115
Taft, G. T.................88, 114
Taylor, ----..................  81
Townsend, John M.........75, 115
Tubbs, John G..............31,  114
Tucksbury, J.................  85
Van  Duyn,---..............  87
Van Tyne, Abram N..........  34
Watson, Ethan.......13, 51, 55, 85
Watson, Humphrey C.......51,57
Welles,  Gardner. ..5,  19, 22, 30, 33
                 55, 57, 82, 113, 114
Welles,  Randolph............  30
 Welles, Samuel R. • .3, 22, 57, 79, 93
                        95- ll3> "4
 Wells, Charles  L..........108, 112
 Wells, Landon,......51, 59, 63, 114
 Wheeler, Claudius C  36,69, 79, 114
 Wheeler, Richard K.........36, 69
 Wheeler, William Wirt..3, 5, 36,69
                    76, 79, 113, 114 
n8
Index.
White, Alanson............88, 114
White, A. P...............88, 114
White, David C..............   85
White, Horace...............   83
Willard Asylum............89, 97
Williams, C.G...............   86
Wilkins, Theoda-. --'......107, 115
Wins, Peter R................  82
Wise, P. M........95, 100, 113, 115
Woodward,  C.  M...........83, 114
Woodward,  Charles........85, 114
Yost, George L.........47, 83, 114 
\ 
\ 
 
WZ 112 A438h 1887
0364127
NLM  052Tflb5fi  0
    NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE