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Chapter XXVI
Physicians And Medical Societies.
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him, to be in turn succeeded, in 1843, by Dr. James Boyd, of Montgomery County, whose residence and office was at the Rose Tree Tavern. Dr. James Wilson was in practice in Nether Providence many years before 1840, while in 1838, Dr. William L. Cowan, a Thomsonian physician, had his office near Friends' meeting-house, in that township.
Dr. Gideon Humphreys was a practicing physician in Aston in 1820. Of the latter it is related that, on one occasion when he desired to prepare a skeleton from the corpse of a colored man drowned in Chester Creek, he borrowed a very large iron kettle from a neighbor. In the night, while he was at work in the spring-house, a huge fire under the pot, some one passing near saw the light, went to the spring-house, and reported next day that the "Doctor had boiled a darkey's head in the pot." This coming to the ears of the owner of the article, she, when it was sent home, returned it, saying, "Tell the doctor to keep that pot to boil another nigger in. I won't have the nasty thing in my house." Dr. George R. Morton was located at Village Green in 1827. He seems to have removed from Marlborough, Montgomery Co., for on July 10, 1826, he contributed to the American Medical Review an interesting account of a horned woman residing in that locality.1 Dr. ----- Byington was in practice in Aston about 1833. Dr. Samuel A. Barton was there previous to 1840, and Dr. Richard Gregg, then residing at Wrangletown, had a number of patients in that locality. He subsequently removed to Lima, where be died in July, 1872. Dr. Joseph Wilson was a practicing physician in Springfield in 1812, and was captain of the Delaware County troop of horse and prominent in the political movements of the day. In 1837, Dr. James Jenkins was located in Radnor, as was also Dr. Joseph Blackfan, and the same year Dr. J. F. Huddleson was in Thornbury. In 1833, Dr. M. C. Shallcross resided in Darby, and was in full practice; about 1840 he removed to Philadelphia, locating near Haddington, where he associated himself with Dr. J. P. Stakes, and for some time continued from that place to practice in Delaware County. Dr. Shallcross died in Philadelphia, Nov. 30, 1871, aged eighty-one years. About 1823, Dr. Joshua W. Ash began practice in Upper Darby, where he continued until his death, in March, 1874, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He was a member of Friends' meeting, warmly interested in the Delaware County Institute of Science, and prominently connected with the Training-School for Feeble-Minded Children. The first map of Delaware County, drawn from actual surveys, was published in 1848 by the doctor. In 1833, Dr. Caleb Ash was in Darby, his office located opposite Friends' meeting-house. Prior to 1848, Dr. George Thomas was in full practice at the same place, but in 1845 he seemed to have located in Newtown or Edgmont, and about 1833, Dr. William Gray Knowles was in Darby; he subsequently removed to Baltimore, and is now a resident of Upland. In 1852, Dr. P. J. Hoopes was a physician in that village, and in the same year Dr. James Aitkins was in practice in Edgmont, as in 1842 was Dr. H. Bent, a botanic Thomsonian physician. In 1840, Dr. Phineas Price was located in Bethel, and was conspicuous in a noted controversy he had with Levis Pyle. At August court, 1849, Dr. Price was indicted and convicted of an assault on Pyle. The parties had met in the Methodist Church to adjust some church business, a dispute arose between them respecting characters, when Dr. Price forcibly ejected Pyle; hence the prosecution. In 1844, Dr. Price had been tried by the church, if my informant is correct in his statement, because of some religious opinions which were regarded as unsound. Andrew Hance and the doctor subsequently got into a newspaper controversy, and finally each of them published pamphlets. For some statement made in that issued by Dr. Price he was sued for libel; whether criminal or civil proceedings were instituted I do not know. In 1844, Dr. J. H. Marsh practiced in Concord, as did Dr. George Martin in 1852. | 1 Hazard's Register, vol. ii. p. 11. | ||
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Dr. William Gray, a member of the well-known family of Gray, of Gray's Ferry, was for many years one of the most noted men of the county. He was born in 1795, and in early life he had gone to his uncle, Thomas Steel, a miller in Darby, to learn that business, but finding the occupation uncongenial, he abandoned it, and studied medicine under his relation, Dr. Warfield, of Maryland. After he graduated he settled in Chester, where for many years he had a large and lucrative practice. He died May 12, 1864.
Dr. John M. Allen, in 1844, practiced in Chester, his office then being in Charles W. Raborg's drug-store, where Charles A. Story, Sr., now has his cigar-store. In the spring of 1845, Dr. Allen leased Dr. Terrill's house and altered the front part of the building into a drug-store, where he soon secured a large and profitable business. In 1851, Dr., Allen purchased the property where Mortimer H. Bickley's large building now stands, and continued there until the breaking out of the war, in 1861, when he was appointed surgeon of the Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and subsequently medical director of the Department of West Virginia, and surgeon-in-chief of staff, in which position he served until late in the year of 1864, when his health broke down, and he was honorably discharged from the service after having been in the hospital several months. He is now alderman of the Middle Ward, an office he fills most creditably. During the forties, and until about 1855, Dr. James Porter practiced in Chester, residing at that time in the old Porter house. Dr. R. K. Smith, a physician at Chichester Cross-roads, in 1841 sold his practice to Dr. Manley Emanuel, who succeeded him there, although Dr. Smith still continued to practice in | |||