Physicians And Medical Societies.

Dr. Jesse Kersey Bonsall was by birth a Delaware countian, studied medicine and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, and for a time located in Schuylkill County, but an opportunity offering, he went to Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, where he practiced successfully for several years. In 1842 he returned to Delaware County, having accumulated while abroad what at that time was regarded as an ample fortune. Here he pursued his professional calling, residing in Chester until his death, Nov. 7, 1858, aged sixty-one years.

Professor Charles D. Meigs, M.D., who, however, never practiced in our county, was for many years at the head of the Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia; at one time connected with the Obstetrical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and whose work on the diseases of women gave him a world-wide reputation in the profession, died suddenly, at his residence in Aston, June 23, 1869. He was in his seventy-eighth year at the time of his death. On the morning of Nov. 21, 1872, Dr. Tracey E. Waller, a practicing physician at Marcus Hook, where he had been located for several years, was found dead in his bed. He had retired the night before apparently in good health. Dr. Chittick Verner - said to be a descendant of Lord John Lammey, a Huguenot, who, with his brother James, fled from France to escape persecution and became a British subject - died in Chester, April 4, 1877. Dr. Verner was educated for the ministry, but abandoned it when the court at Castle Derg, Ireland, appointed him syndic for the town of Ardistraw, a position he held for several years. In 1847 he emigrated to America, and became surgeon-steward at the Naval Asylum, Philadelphia. While there he studied medicine, graduating at Jefferson College, and during the Rebellion he was in service in the field as a surgeon. At the close of the war he practiced medicine in Philadelphia, but the death of his brother, to whom he was devotedly attached, so preyed on him as to unsettle his mind. From that time to his death he was insane. He never practiced in this county.

On Feb. 10, 1880, Dr. Joshua Owens died of paralysis in Chester, aged sixty-five years. Dr. Owens was a native of Elizabethport, N. J., and a graduate of Jefferson College, Philadelphia. He first located at Elkton, Md., but a few years subsequently removed to Chester. During the war of the Rebellion he was senior surgeon of Pennsylvania, and was the first volunteer physician to reach Washington after the attack on Fort Sumter. He was one of the first medical directors of divisions, and was assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac. In 1863 he was commissioned surgeon-general of New Mexico, a position he resigned in 1865. Dr. Owens and his two sons made a tour of Europe on foot, and the graphic descriptions of his travel and noted places he saw, which appeared in the Delaware County Republican, were highly interesting. The doctor was a strong and vigorous writer.

Dr. Mordecai Laurence, a venerable physician, died in Haverford, Feb. 21, 1880, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

Dr. George Smith was born in Haverford, Feb. 4, 1804. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, April 7, 1820, and practiced in Darby and its vicinity for five years, when, coming into possession of a large estate, he retired from the active duties of the profession, superintending his farm, and devoting his leisure moments to literary and scientific studies. From 1832 to 1836 he was State senator, the district then comprising Delaware and Chester Counties, and while a member of that body, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, he drafted the bill in reference to public schools, which, warmly supported by Thaddeus Stevens and George Wolf, passed substantially as reported by Dr. Smith, and thus the first practical enactment respecting free public education in the State was secured. On Dec. 8, 1836, Governor Ritner appointed Dr. Smith an associate judge of Delaware County, and in 1840 he was elected to the same position for a second term. So earnest was Dr. Smith in his advocacy of popular education that, at considerable personal inconvenience, be consented to act as superintendent of the common schools in the county for several years, as well as president of the school board for Upper Darby district. In September, 1833, he, with four other public-spirited men, founded the Delaware County Institute of Science, and was president of the organization for nearly half a century. In 1844, Dr. Smith, John P. Crozer, and Minshall Painter were appointed by the Delaware County Institute a committee to prepare an account of the extraordinary rain-storm and flood of August 5th of that year in this county, and the greater part of the preparation of that work, an octavo pamphlet of fifty-two pages, printed in solid small pica type, was done by Dr. Smith. In 1862 he published his "History of Delaware County," a volume which will stand as an enduring monument to the learning, accuracy, and thoroughness of its author, and, so long as American history continues to be a theme of investigation and study, will be quoted and referred to as authority. On the morning of Feb. 24, 1884, full of years and honor, Dr. George Smith passed into eternity, leaving the world the better in that he had lived.

Dr. Isaac Taylor Coates, a native of Chester County,