THE MEDICAL PROFESSION from Beers History of Warren County, Ohio
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The History of Warren County, Ohio

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

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Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 11 December 2004

Sources:
The History of Warren County Ohio
Part III. The History of Warren County by Josiah Morrow
Chapter VI. General Progress
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)
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Dr. Evan Banes was probably the first practicing physician resident in Warren County. He was at Columbia as early as 1796, and, in that year, in connection with John Smith and Samuel Heighway, entered into a contract with John C. Symmes for the purchase of a large tract of land in the vicinity of Waynesville. He was present in the spring of 1796 when the first clearing in the woods was made at Waynesville, and it is believed that as soon as the population was such as to support a physician, he began the practice at that place. Francis Baily, in his journal of travels in North America in 1796 and 1797, gives an interesting account of his adventures in hunting bears in connection with Dr. Banes, in the forests about Waynesville, in the spring of 1797. Baily calls him Dr. Bean, but the name is written Banes in legal documents on record at Lebanon, and by his descendants in Clark County at this day. Dr. Banes was a native of Pennsylvania, studied medicine with Dr.

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Rush, of Philadelphia, practiced his profession at Waynesville until 1811, when he removed to Clark County, where he died November 3, 1827.

The following is the professional card of the first physician who settled in the Turtle Creek settlement. It appeared for seven weeks in the Western Spy, published at Cincinnati, beginning in February, 1801:

John C. Winans, lately arrived from Elizabethtown, N. J., with a general assortment of medicines, respectfully tenders his services to the public In the line of his profession as physician and surgeon. Those, who may have occasion and are disposed to call on him, may find him at the Rev. Mr. Kemper's on Turtle Creek, where he has opened hi shop and is now in a capacity to serve them.

Dr. Winans was, for four years subsequent to 1801, the only physician residing in the vicinity of Lebanon.

Dr. David Morris was born near Reading, Penn., in 1769; he settled near Lebanon in 1805, and practiced his profession. He first settled about two miles northwest of the town; in 1810, he moved into Lebanon and continued the practice. In 1818, he moved to Brookville, Ind., where he remained one year; returning to Lebanon, he continued in the practice. In 1832, he moved to a farm, two and one-half miles west of Lebanon, where he died, in 1850, of asthma, aged eighty-one rears. He was at one time a member of the Legislature. Dr. Morris was a brother of the distinguished United States Senator, Thomas Morris, of Clermont County.

Dr. Benjamin Dubois settled near Franklin in 1800, and practiced until his death, in 1851; he came from Monmouth County, N. J.

Dr. Joseph Canby practiced medicine in Warren County as early as 1810. He practiced at Lebanon for twenty years. His name occurs in five different acts of the Legislature among the Censors appointed for the examination of applicants for license to practice medicine.

Dr. John S. Haller removed from Lebanon, where he had practiced a short time, and settled in the practice at Franklin about 1818. He died in 1875, having practiced until within ten years of his death.

Dr. John Cottle came to what is now Maineville in 1818, and practiced from that time until 1843. From 1813 until about 1830, he was the only physician in Hamilton Township. He was a native of Maine and had practiced eight years before coming to Ohio. He died in 1853.

Dr. J. W. Lanier practiced at Franklin for several years succeeding 1811.

Dr. Jeptha F. Moore, a Methodist preacher, practiced medicine at Lebanon for about ten years, beginning in 1812.

Dr. Martin Lathrop commenced practice at Waynesville about 1812, and died about eight years later. He was succeeded by his nephew, Dr. Horace Lathrop.

Dr. Calvin Morrill was a physician among the Shakers, at Union Village, from a very early day. He came from New Jersey and died at Union Village in 1833, in his sixty ninth year.

Dr. Charles D. Hampton was born in Pennsylvania in 1792, came to Ohio in 1815, and practiced a short time at Cincinnati. In 1817, he moved to Clarksville, Clinton Co., Ohio, and, in 1822, joined the Shakers at Union Village.. He practiced exclusively among the Shakers until his death, in 1863. He was a man of strong intellect.

Dr. Otho Evans. Sr., began the practice at Franklin, in April, 1827. Before this he had practiced in Butler County, Ohio, for some six years. He was born in Kentucky September 9, 1797; removed to Ohio in 1800. He was engaged in the practice for forty years.

Dr. John Van Harlingen was in the active practice in Warren County for half a century He was born near New Brunswick, N. J., February 19,

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1792. His ancestors were emigrants from Holland. The Dutch language was spoken in his father's family, and John learned to speak no other tongue until his eighth year. He was educated in New Brunswick, and graduated at Rutger's College in 1809. Having read medicine in New Brunswick, and attended a full course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, he was licensed to practice by the State authorities of New Jersey after passing the examination of the Censors of Middlesex and Somerset Counties in 1812. He practiced five years in his native State, and in 1817 moved with his family to Lebanon, Ohio. He was engaged in the practice of medicine at that place and its vicinity for a longer period than any other person in the history of the town. In obstetrics, to which he particularly devoted himself, both in New Jersey and Ohio, his practice was very large and successful. This department of the practice, on his arrival in Warren County, he found almost exclusively in the hands of women. Dr. Van Harlingen's skill did much to take this important art out of the hands of empirics, and to place it in the hands of intelligent medical practitioners. He did not neglect other departments of his profession, and through the long years of his professional life, his labors were varied and arduous. He made journeys to distant parts of the county and to surrounding counties in the saddle by day and by night in the most inclement seasons; he endangered his life in crossing the flooded Miami when it was bridgeless; he passed successive days without sleep; but such were the strength of his constitution and his powers of endurance, that he has the full possession of his mental and physical faculties at the ripe age of ninety years. He retired from active practice about the year 1866.

Dr. Joshua Stevens was born near the village of Winthrop, Me., March 21, 1794. His early pursuits were farming and brick-laying. He had the advantages of a plain common-school education, which he greatly improved by diligent self-study. On the 4th of July, 1817, he left Maine and opened a select boarding-school at Bristol, near Philadelphia. Here he commenced the study of medicine, and subsequently entered the office of Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia. He also attended the lectures of the medical department of the university, during the winters of 1818-19-20, and, without waiting to graduate, entered upon practice in Philadelphia. He decided to come West, and, in 1821, with two or three friends, floated down the Ohio in a flat-bottomed boat, bearing letters of introduction to Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati. He intended to locate in that city, but he became engaged in the practice at Monroe, Butler Co., Ohio, near which village he had relatives residing. In 1830, the Medical College of Ohio conferred upon him the honorary degree of M D. In 1847, he removed to Lebanon, where he resided until his death Dr. Stevens performed a vast amount of professional labor and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his patrons and professional friends. He was a reader of medical journals and new books, and a frequent contributor to both journals and societies. He took an active part in the old "District" Medical Society, and for years was its President; afterward, he was for more than ten years President of the Lebanon Medical Society. He was a member of the Methodist Church. About seven years before his death, he was thrown from his buggy while making a professional visit. The accident produced concussion of the brain, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He died at Lebanon May 2, 1871.

Dr. Moses H. Keever was born in Warren County, Ohio, April 28, 1810. He was educated at Oxford, Ohio, and Augusta, Ky. When nineteen years old, he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Joshua Stevens, at Monroe, where he continued some three years. He graduated at the Ohio Medical College in 1834, and the same year began the practice near Ridgeville. For some thirteen years he was associated in the practice with Dr. W. H Stokes, and

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afterward, with Dr. J. B. Hough. Dr. Keever was an intelligent, energetic and successful medical practitioner.

Dr. Joseph G. Paulding commenced practicing in Deerfield Township about 1838. In 1844, he was sent by the Associate Reformed Church, of which he was a member, as missionary to Palestine. In connection with his brother-in-law, Rev. James Barnett, he assisted in establishing missions at Damascus and Cairo. Returning to this country in 1854, he took up his old practice at Mason, where he continued, with the exception of some time spent in the army, during the civil war, until his health compelled him to retire from the practice. In 1871, he removed to Piqua, where he died in 1874. Dr. Paulding was highly esteemed as a man of science and a Christian gentleman.

Dr. Jesse Harvey commenced the practice in Harveysburg in 1830. He was a native of North Carolina, but received his education in Ohio. He was distinguished for his knowledge of the natural sciences, zeal in the cause of education and his philanthropic efforts to elevate the negro and Indian races. In 1847, he went as a missionary of the Society of Friends to the Shawnee Indians of Kansas Territory, where he died the next year, in the forty-seventh year of his age.

Dr. Jonathan W. Davis was born in Greene County, Ohio, on the 8th of July, 1821. He attended school but little during the early part of his life, being compelled to spend the most of his time in labor upon the farm. At the age of twenty-two, however, he had acquired a good English education, and soon after commenced the study of medicine under the instructions of Dr. Edmund Hawes, of Mount Holly. He became a member of the Lebanon Medical Society in 1846, and, the next year, received the degree of M. D., conferred by the Ohio Medical College, having attended two courses of lectures at that institution. He commenced the practice of medicine at Waynesville. During the prevalence of epidemic cholera, in the summer of 1849, his labors were extensive and almost incessant. While engaged in the discharge of his professional duty, at the distance of five miles from home, he was attacked by that dread disease at 6 o'clock P. M., July 26, 1849. He ran his horse home and died at 3 o'clock the next morning. Thus, after an illness of just nine hours, died a promising physician, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.


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