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Chapter XXVI
Physicians And Medical Societies.
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Chichester, in this county, where his parents then lived. He found his mother filled with anxiety his mysterious absence occasioned, and received a reprimand for his conduct. He told his mother that on the following day he would leave home forever; that the world was his theatre, and he was going to act his part creditably. She did not, however, realize this until she saw the young man gathering together his clothing, when she presented him with enough money to carry him to Eagleville, where he began his independent career, and continued to teach until the following spring at a salary of twenty-five dollars a month. At this time young Forwood took the money which he had been enabled to save out of his salary and entered himself as a student at Freeland College until the spring of 1852, when he gave all the money he had saved and taught a class in geometry as part payment for his tuition. He left there at the end of that session, in 1854, and applied for a school in Springfield, Delaware Co., and was accepted.
Dr. Charles J. Morton was then one of the directors. The doctor one day asked young Forwood what was his object in life, and whether he proposed teaching school for a small pittance for the remainder of his days? He replied that he intended to enter one of the professions. Dr. Morton offered the young man the free use of his medical library and any instructions he might require. Forwood accepted this kind offer, and here was the great turning-point of his life. The following spring, at the close of the session of 1855, the schoolmaster was made the recipient of a silver cup, with an appropriate inscription, which he still has in his possession. In the fall of the same year Forwood was entered in the University of Pennsylvania, having saved sufficient money to defray the tuition of one term. It was suggested to the young man that there were other and cheaper medical colleges, but knowing that his profession would be his only capital in life, he determined to procure the best medical education. His money failing him, about the close of 1855 he was compelled to teach school again, and procured a situation once more at Middletown. In the summer of 1856, finding that he had not been able to gather enough money to go on with his medical studies, he submitted to an examination, and received a scholarship in the University. In the spring of 1857 he graduated with honors in all the seven branches of medicine. He was compelled, however, to borrow forty dollars from his uncle, Jonathan C. Larkin, for whom he had been named, to pay for his diploma. Dr. Forwood came at once to Chester, where he settled, having completed one of the epochs in his life's history. Here, in his practice, he paid particular attention to surgery, a branch which had not been followed by any physician in Chester for a long time. In 1858, Dr. Forwood performed the first amputation of a leg that had been done in this city for fifty years. His operations in surgery have covered almost all important cases since then. He has operated four times successfully lithotomy, a work seldom attempted, except in medical colleges and by professors of surgery. In 1864, when the municipal hospital of Philadelphia was burned, the board of health located it at the Lazaretto, and Dr. Forwood was requested to take charge of it, and did so for four years, until the new buildings were completed. After the battle of Gettysburg, when the wounded Confederate soldiers were sent here, the doctor was called upon to take a department in the hospital, and while there performed several splendid operations, among others that of amputation at the shoulder joint. On leaving this public institution the doctor received the highest testimonials from the officers in charge. In 1867 be started the Delaware County Democrat, and although the county committee of the party had declared that no Democratic paper could be supported, he by his untiring energy made it not only a financial success, but one of the most unflinching Democratic organs of the State. Its editorials were outspoken and fearless. In the same year he was elected to Council from the Middle Ward, and took a leading part in that body. He was, upon taking his seat, made a member of the Street Committee, and for more than three years the chairman. In the spring of 1872 he was elected mayor of Chester in the most exciting political contest the municipality had known to that time. His election was contested; Gen. William McCandless and William H. Dickinson appearing as counsel for Forwood, and William Ward and J. M. Johnson for the contestant. Three terms he was elected mayor in succession, and in 1884, after an intermission of three years, was again elected to the office, although the Republican majority is usually nearly five hundred. He has been frequently a delegate to the Democratic County and State Conventions, and member of the State Executive Committee. In 1874 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress, and in 1876 an elector on the Presidential ticket during the noted candidacy of Tilden and Hendricks. In 1880 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention which nominated Gen. Hancock for President, and in 1884, when Governor Cleveland was named for the same offce. As a public speaker Dr. Forwood ranks high, and as a political manager few men excel him. Successful as has been his political career, his chosen profession is the field of his ambitious desires, and to-day, although he has secured a large and remunerative practice, he is devoted to the study of medicine and surgery, paying particular attention, at the present, to gynecology, in which special branch he is attaining an extended reputation in nowise confined to this locality, but patients from many of the great cities visit him for medical treatment. Several operations performed by him were so noticeable that full account thereof was published in medical works for the information of the public. | |||