Physicians And Medical Societies.
The sad fate of that expedition is fresh in the recollections of our people, for among those who went were many persons from Delaware County, some of whom fell victims of the cruel hardships they were compelled to undergo in a strange land, while others never again regained their shattered health, - Dr. Coates was among the latter. Hence he spent several years in traveling in Colorado, California, and New Mexico, and while returning to Delaware County to place his son, who accompanied him, at Swarthmore College, he was taken ill, and died at Socorro, N. M., June 23, 1883. Dr. Coates was an accomplished writer and eloquent speaker. In 1876 he delivered the Centennial oration in Chester; on Oct. 22, 1882, he was the orator at the Penn Bi-Centennial at Los Angeles, Cal. In 1877 he delivered an admirable lecture at Chester, entitled "Land of the Incas," and on the " Archaeology of Peru" before the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Dr. Coates was a member of the American Geographical Society, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and other scientific and learned bodies.
Dr. Alfred M. Owens, son of Dr. Joshua Owens, a surgeon in the United States navy, a native of Delaware County, died at Pensacola (Florida) Navy-Yard, Aug. 22, 1883, of yellow fever, then an epidemic at that station. His wife, who was with her husband, died on the 27th of the same month with the like disease.
Dr. Jonathan Larkin Forwood was born in West Chester, Chester Co., Pa., Oct. 17, 1834. His father, Robert Forwood, a native of Delaware, was a farmer, and was the descendant of a prominent English family, the first of the name in this county having settled in that State about 1700, from whom the Forwoods of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Alabama trace descent. His mother, Rachel Forwood, was a daughter of William and Sarah Larkin, a descendant of John Larkin, who settled in Maryland, becoming the purchaser of a large tract of land in Cecil County, Md., in 1682, before the coming of Penn, and from whom all the Larkins of Delaware County are descended. Young Forwood was without means; hence his early education was necessarily restricted to that which could be obtained in the public schools, and in the State of Delaware, where his parents had removed a few years after his birth, common schools were the exception, not the rule, and he was unable to obtain tuition there excepting during three months in the winter, and that for only three years prior to attaining his fifteenth year. Having determined to secure an education, his devotion to books, his studious and strictly moral habits, his self-reliance and determination, all combined to aid him in that endeavor. Working during the day at whatever he could get to do to earn a livelihood, and pursuing his studies in the evening and far into the night at a cost of youthful pleasures, at the early age of eighteen he had qualified himself to pass an examination as a teacher.
In his nineteenth year a newspaper by the merest chance fell in his way. In it he saw an advertisement for teachers in a school in Montgomery County of this State. Without informing any one of his intention, he left home, went to Eagleville, was examined, and accepted by the directors. This was announced to young Forwood after dark on a September day in 1851. He must return home until the beginning of the session, but how to do this with but twenty-five cents in his pocket was a serious question. Knowing that to confess poverty is to be placed at a disadvantage, he kept the secret to himself, and bravely walked from Eagleville to Philadelphia, a distance of twenty-three miles, during which journey he had nothing to eat, and was compelled to take his boots off and walk in his bare feet, for the rubbing of the leather had covered his feet with blisters. He arrived at daybreak on Sunday in Philadelphia, where he took the stage for Darby, paying his last penny for that short ride. From Darby he walked to