of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 355-360
TRAGIC DEATH OF DR. HERSHE. Dr. Christian Hershe was one of the most successful and skillful physicians and surgeons of the early days in Muscatine. He was particularly adept in cases of surgery and known to almost everyone in the county. He was a man of large heart and many charities, no appeal from the poor for help ever coming to him unheeded. When called on professionally, he never asked or seemed to care whether those requiring his services could pay him. He was ready to go day or night, rain or shine, and if his patient was too poor to pay, no demand was made. He often found the sick destitute of the necessities of life. His generous hand administered to their wants and no one ever heard of it until the grateful recipients spoke of it themselves. Dr. Hershe came to Muscatine from Pennsylvania in 1851, and at once established a reputation as a man well advanced in the science of medicine. His death was a sad and a very tragic one. He was born in Marietta, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1824 and was in the forty-fifth year of his age at the time of his death. In 1845 he arrived in Iowa City, where he entered into partnership with Ezekiel Clark in the milling business. In a year or two his health began to fail and he reluctantly gave up his business and returned to his native city. In 1848 he commenced the study of medicine in Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and graduated therefrom with two diplomas. He afterward entered the Philadelphia Hospital, remaining there a considerable time. Possessing a love for study, coupled with a keen perception of the power of knowledge and having an indomitable energy that characterized him throughout his life, it was said that as a student he had very few equals. In the spring of 1851 he came to Muscatine and entered upon the active practice of medicine and surgery, in which he continued until the day of his death, meeting with remarkable success and an unprecedented extent of practice. In 1852 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Hershe, of Muscatine, which union was blessed with eight children. During the war he was examining surgeon for this recruiting post and was often dispatched to the front by the governor to look after the sanitary conditions of Iowa troops, then in the field. He was an especial friend to the poor and while his acts of charity were without number, he was ever willing to do more. While his medical services were free to the helpless and needy, his purse was constantly open to the destitute and no man could have been taken from this community and be as much missed as was Dr. Hershe. He was amiable, talented and energetic and performed faithfully and well the duties that came to him as a physician and as a citizen.
Dr. Hershe had a farm three miles west of the city on the slough road, which took up part of his time in its management. A neighboring farmer was Frederick Mowry, with whom the Doctor at various times had had trouble, which eventually had been taken into the courts and decided in the Doctor's favor. This led to much bitterness on the part of Mowry. On the morning of the tragedy Dr. Hershe had taken Marshal Scott to the Mowry farm to serve an execution against Mowry and repossess himself of a number of fence posts. Arriving there, they were told by Mowry that if they attempted to take the posts he would shoot them. The Doctor apprehending a difficulty, requested the teamsters not to follow him into the yard. Then some further conversation occurred between the Doctor and Mowry and the former turned to leave the premises, when Mowry raised a double barreled shot gun filled with slugs which he had gone into the house and secured, and fired at the Doctor. the shot taking effect in the small of the back. The victim fell instantly and in a half hour was dead. The tragedy created great excitement throughout the whole county and a long drawn out trial was the consequence. Mowry was ably defended by DeWitt C. Richman and Jerome Carskaddan, then of the firm of Richman & Carskaddan. The indictment against him was for murder but the verdict returned was manslaughter and his punishment was six years in the state penitentiary.
Dr. Merry came to Montpelier from St. Louis in 1848 and practiced in that village. He became particularly famous at that time, by reason of his slave, "Jim," embroiling the whole community in his efforts to emancipate himself from bondage.
Dr. Thomas G. Taylor was born in Unionville, South Carolina, December 5, 1822, and died in October, 1887. He pursued his medical studies at Oxford, Ohio, and in 1849 came to Muscatine, where he began the practice of his profession. He was a man of much ability, genial and kind hearted, and highly esteemed by all who knew him. In Muscatine, January 2, 1851, he married Miss Augusta Leverett, by whom he had four children.
Dr. James Stafford came to Muscatine county in 1852 from West Virginia and began the practice of medicine at Nichols. He also conducted a drug store there.
Dr. I. L. Graham came to Muscatine in 1855, where he resided to the time of his death, practicing his profession and managing his drug store, in both of which he was successful and gained an extensive acquaintance throughout the county as well as the state. He was a man of importance in the community. He served upon the city council, board of supervisors and school board. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants National Bank. He was an earnest and active member of the Academy of Science and also of the Congregational church. Dr. Graham was born in Canton, Kentucky, in 1823, and after receiving a grammar-school education entered upon an academical course at Amherst, Massachusetts. Later he took up a course of study in medicine and surgery at the Eye and Ear Infirmary at Hartford, Connecticut, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at New York city. For some years he practiced medicine at Bristol, Connecticut. He died December 4, 1886. A more extended sketch of Dr. Graham will be found in the second volume of this work.
Dr. S. M. Cobb came to Muscatine in October, 1860, and had many years of successful practice at this place. He was a graduate of the medical department of Bowdoin College. In 1862 he was commissioned first assistant surgeon of the Thirty-fifth Regiment and in August of the following year was commissioned surgeon and remained with the regiment until the close of the war, at which time he resumed his practice in Muscatine. In 1866 he was appointed United States pension examining surgeon, continuing as such until 1884, when he was removed under the Cleveland administration, but was reappointed. He was a member of the Iowa State Medical Society and the Muscatine County Medical Society.
Dr. W. D. Cone began the practice of his profession in Conesville in 1868. He was very successful. A more extended mention of him will be found in the second volume of this work.
In 1869 Dr. W. S. Robertson came to Muscatine and began the practice of medicine. He was very successful and gained a state-wide reputation as a practitioner. In 1870 his father, Dr. James M. Robertson, who was a physician of some note, removed to this place from Burlington, where he had conducted a drug store for some years and settled down in the practice of his profession with his son until 1874, when he retired from active life. He died in this city January 2, 1879, at the age of seventy-four years, and at the time the mercury was twenty-five degrees below zero. The son, Dr. W. S. Robertson, was born in Georgetown, Pennsylvania, June 5, 1831, and came to Muscatine in the spring of 1869. He became very prominent in his profession. He served in the Fifth Iowa as major and later as colonel. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia in 1856. He spent the winter of 1868-9 in New York hospitals and when the medical department of the Iowa State University was opened he was offered and accepted the chair of theory and practice of medicine. He was president of the Muscatine County Medical Association, State Medical Association and Eastern Iowa District Medical Association. He died January 20, 1887.
Dr. Adolph Winzel was a homeopathic practitioner in Muscatine in the early '70s.
Dr. S. M. Smith was practicing his profession in Nichols as early as 1871. He graduated from Philadelphia Clinic Medical College in 1847. He died January 27, 1907.
Dr. H. Lindner came in 1874. He was a native of Germany and came to the United States in 1853.
Dr. Cal W. Smith was practicing in Muscatine in the Centennial year with success.
Dr. D. W. Barclay was one of the pioneer physicians and an adept in his profession.
Dr. G. J. Morrow came in an early day, gaining distinction among his neighbors. He was designated as "the gentleman."
Dr. H. H. King kindly contributed the following recollections of some of the pioneer physicians of the county:
Among the pioneer doctors in the western part of the county was a Dr. Van Pelt, who practiced in the Wapsinonoc region in the early '50s.
Dr. George Dunlap was also a practitioner in that locality. He lived about three miles east of the present tOWn of West Liberty. Upon the completion of the railroad and location of a station in 1855 he moved into West Liberty. In the winter of 1861-2 he moved to Henry county, exchanging property and practice with Dr. Jesse Holmes. Dr. Holmes was a Quaker, a fluent talker and preacher and soon established an extensive practice. He moved to Nebraska about 1878 and there died.
Among the prominent physicians who were located in West Liberty was Dr. G. 0. Morgridge, born in Marion county, Ohio, January 26, 1840. He came to Iowa in 1856, locating a few miles north of Wilton. In 1861 he enlisted in Company H, Eleventh Iowa Infantry and faithfully served until the end of the war, returning as captain of his company. In 1870 he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, practiced two years at Montrose, Iowa, and removed to West Liberty in 1872. In partnership with Dr. Albert Ady he built up a good practice and was one of the most popular physicians that ever served this community. In 1878 he moved to Muscatine, where he also became deservedly popular. In 1887 he moved to Keokuk, Iowa, later to Topeka, Kansas, and finally to New Mexico. In 1903 he returned to Muscatine, where he resided until his death, which occurred February 11, 1909. On returning from the army he was suffering from disease that afflicted him all his life and undoubtedly shortened his days upon earth. Dr. Morgridge was an unusually genial character and very popular among his patrons. Dr. G. F. Arter, a graduate of Rush Medical College of Chicago in 1868, came to West Liberty in the following year and for a few years maintained quite an extensive practice. He moved to Ohio, but is now located at Englewood, a suburb of Chicago.
Dr. Peter Carpenter came to West Liberty from Tipton in 1860. The Civil war coming on the next year, he was appointed surgeon of the Fifth Iowa Infantry, serving through the war. He never returned to West Liberty.
Dr. J. Q. Hollister, a homeopathic physician, came from New York in the early '70s. He married a West Liberty woman and several years later moved to New York.
Dr. E. H. King, a native of Maine, settled in the vicinity of West Liberty with his father's family in 1857. He served in Company D, Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry during the war. He studied medicine with Dr. Albert Ady and graduated from the Detroit Medical College in 1870. After practicing in northern Iowa for five years, he returned to West Liberty and practiced until 1890, when he moved to Muscatine. While in West Liberty, he was local surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, also the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway. In 1888 he took a post-graduate course in Chicago, and in 1890 at New York. He is still engaged in active practice in Muscatine, is local surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and is a trustee and vice president of Hershey Memorial Hospital. In the course of time several doctors of different schools and denominations transiently made West Liberty their stopping place, but finding indifferent patronage and poor success, left for more promising fields.
Dr. James Stafford, born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 25, 1811, settled in Pike township in 1852, and practiced in that region for many years. He died July 11, 1884.
Among the pioneer doctors of Muscatine city was Dr. William Henry Blades, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1800. He graduated from the Transylvania University in 1839 and came to Muscatine (then Bloomington) the same year. He did not live many years after locating here. His widow lived alone in the little one-story brick cottage on the corner of West Fourth and Pine streets until her death in 1893 or 1894.
Dr. William C. Battey was born in Vermont, December 3, 1824, graduated at Worcester (Massachusetts) Medical College in 1848, came to Iowa in 1855 and to Muscatine in 1873. He settled on a farm in Sweetland township some four miles northeast of Muscatine, where he cared for his farm and practiced among his neighbors. He died about 1895.
Dr. Thomas Sherwood was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1848, came to Iowa in 1871,locating near Wilton. He received his medical education at Miami Medical College in Cincinnati in 1878 and practiced in Wilton until 1898, when he moved to Ohio, where he still lives.
Dr. M. R. Smith was born in Burlington, Iowa, February 24, 1840, graduated in medicine in 1876, and for several years practiced in Cone and vicinity. His present whereabouts is unknown.
Dr. David L. Rowe was born in Steuben county, New York, December 16, 1817. For several years he lived in the south. He received his medical education in the Memphis (Tennessee) Medical College in 1854. In 1858 he located at Atalissa, practicing his profession in that vicinity for twenty years. He spent his last years in retirement in Wilton, where he died several years ago.
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