James Armstrong Thome was born in Augusta, Kentucky, January 20, 1813. He is of Scotch descent on his father's side, and of North Irish by his mother, a native Armstrong of the border land. His father was a Presbyterian of the Scotch type, and a ruling elder in the church. His mother was a Methodist of the original Wesleyan order and period, having been converted under the labors of the Wesleys at the age of nine. This difference of the parents in religious beliefs and church affinities remained unchanged till the death of the mother, each attending their respective meetings; yet, wide as the distinction then was, and warm as the prevalent feeling was, between Presbyterians and Methodists, particularly in Kentucky, there was neither sectarian width nor warmth between the godly pair, the twain were one flesh and one spirit in Christ Jesus.
The son usually followed his father to church, though he sometimes accompanied his mother; and during week-day evenings he had the double advantage of going to prayer-meeting with the one, and to class-meeting with the other. To this two-fold, yet harmonious, religious training in childhood the son is indebted for a breath of religious sentiment and sympathy which made him early a Presbyteria-Methodist in heart, and led him subsequently to the mid-way ground of Congregationalism, where many a Presbyterian and many a Methodist have met in Christian unity,
He owes his early conversion to the faithful teachings and pious example of his parents, to their religious instruction, to family worship, to Sabbath observance, to sanctuary means, in prosecution of the covenant his parents entered into with God when they consecrated him in infancy.
The son's first great sorrow came when he was in his ninth year, in the death of his mother. The loss was irreparable, but it led him to Christ, From the sad moment when the dying mother laid her hand upon his head and spoke in words never to be forgotten, her last benediction, sorrow for the sainted dead was blended with penepenitentialrow towards God, and prayers and tears cried to heaven for mercy. It was not, however, until the age of seventeen that the blind seeker found the Saviour, and conscious peace in Him. This happy event was immediately followed by union with the Presbyterian church, and this by personal consecration to the ministry. Just before his conversion, his college course, early begun, had been completed. Three years were spent in farther study, and in travel, and general observation bearing on the chosen calling of life.
At the opening of Lane Seminary, under the Theological headship of Dr. Lyman Beecher, the young divinity student chose that school of the prophets, and joined its first class in 1833. It was a class destined to be made famous by a discussion, in its first year, of the slavery question, then beginning to be agitated by the formation of an anti-slavery society on the basis of immediate emancipation, and by the active agitation of the subject in the neighboring city, Cincinnati, whereby the mobocratic spirit was aroused, whence threats of sacking the seminary buildings, and thereupon alarm and hasty action of the trustees, disallowing further agitation, and enjoining the disbanding of the society. The students, too much in earnest to yield, after unavailing attempts at reconciliation with the authorities, the professors mediating, and Doctor Beecher conjuring his beloved pupils to stay with him, seceded in a body, in December, 1834. The young Kentuckian, son of a slave-holder, became a thorough convert to the doctrine of emancipation, joined the anti-slavery society, agitated with his brethren, delivered an address at the first anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in New York, May, 1834, and seceded with the class. "A Statement of the Reasons which induced the Students of Lane Seminary to Dissolve their Connection with that Institution"--a pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, signed by fifty-one names, and bearing date December 15, 1834, was published and went over the land, and the city, intensifying the agitation at home, and raising it throughout the country. Among the signatures to this document are those of Theodore D. Weld, H. B. Stanton, George Whipple, J. W. Alvord, George Clark, John J. Miter, Amos Dresser, (afterwards scourged in the Public Square of Nashville,) William T. Allen, son of a slaveholding Presbyterian minister in Alabama, and James A. Thome.
Exiled from the Seminary halls, these rebel reformers took refuge in a building hard by the city, and extemporized a Theological school, themselves being both lecturers and students. The following Spring, negotiations being matured for adding a Theological department to the Oberlin Institute by the accession of Professors Finney and Morgan the seceders went in a body to Oberlin, where they prosecuted their preparations for the ministry, which were completed in 1836. Among these first graduates of Oberlin Theological Seminary was J. A. Thome. The Winter of 1835-6, he had spent in lecturing on anti-slavery in Ohio, under commission of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Winter of 1836-7, he, with Jos. Horace Kimball, of New Hampshire, visited the British West India Islands to investigate the results of the abolition of slavery, two years prior, by act of Parliament. A volume entitled "Emancipation in the West Indies," prepared by Mr. Thome, and published, in 1837, by the American Anti-Slavery Society at New York, embodied these observations. The book was timely and told efficiently on the reform in this country. The Winter of 1837, was passed in Kentucky, the abolitionist living among slaveholders, and officiating as the minister in the church of his father. The next Spring he accepted a call to the chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in Oberlin college, and in September following was married to Miss Ann T. Allen, daughter of John Gould Allen, Esq., of Fairfield, Connecticut. After ten years of professorial labors, in association with men of great worth, most of whom still retain their connection with the college, Mr. Thome entered upon the pastoral work, December, 1848, in connection with the church of which he is still the pastor.
He has enjoyed a pastorate of twenty years, uninterrupted by serious ill-health, and cheered by successive revivals and consequent accessions to the church, which, having a membership at the beginning of his pastorate of little over one hundred, now numbers over three hundred, after many losses by dismission and death.
Mr. Thome, early converted to anti-slavery, and consistently devoted to that cause, has lived to see slavery abolished in America. In addition to the volume on West India Emancipation, he wrote, in 1850, a book on Slavery in America, which was published by the British Anti-Slavery Society. Since, a Prize Tract on Prayer for the Oppressed, also a tract during the war on "What are we Fighting for?" and a treatise on "The Future of the Freed People."
At the earnest solicitation of the Secretaries of the American Missionary Association, and with the generous consent of his church, Mr. Thome, accompanied by his wife and daughter, went abroad early in 1867, to secure pecuniary assistance from the friends of the freedmen in England and Scotland for their education and evangelization. He was absent on this mission one year. The result of his efforts have not yet ceased to be realized.
After thirty years of unbroken domestic felicity, three beloved daughters having been reared to womanhood in the enjoyment of the Christian's hope, and two of them happily wedded, Mr. Thome and his wife were overwhelmed with sorrow by the sudden death, on the last day of April, 1869, of their second daughter, Mrs. Maria E. Murphy, wife of Mr. Thos. Murphy, of Detroit. A lady of singular amiability, purity, and Christian excellence, she was endeared by her sweet graces to rich and poor, to young and old, throughout the circle of her acquaintances.
Rev. William H. Goodrich, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, is a native of New Haven, Conn. His ancestry is among the most honorable known in American society. His father was the late Rev. Chauncey A. Goodrich, D. D., a greatly distinguished professor in Yale College; and his grandfather, Hon. Elizur Goodrich, for some years a representative in Congress, and for twenty years Mayor of New Haven; and his great-grandfather, Rev. Elizur Goodrich, D. D., distinguished both as a clergyman and an astronomer. His mother was the daughter of Noah Webster, LL.D., the lexicographer.
He graduated at Yale college, and was subsequently a tutor in that institution. He studied theology at the New Haven Theological Seminary. While tutor, it was his duty to preserve order about the college grounds, and he received, (though not from a student,) during a night disturbance, a severe injury upon the head, which put his life in peril and interrupted mental labor for a long period. A part of this time was spent abroad in 1848; and it was not till 1850 that he entered steadily upon the duties of his profession. He was first settled as pastor of the Congregational Church of Bristol, Connecticut, where he remained four years. He was then called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Binghamton, N. Y., where he remained till 1858, when he removed to this city, where, for eleven years, his ministry has been marked by very great success. The prosperous condition of the church under his care, together with almost unparalleled attachment between pastor and people, afford evidence of the ability and faithfulness with which he has discharged his ministerial duties. To remarkable mental vigor, he adds great delicacy of character and the warmest sympathies; and those who know most of him, regard it as no partial judgment which awards him a front rank among preachers and pastors.
[Illustration: Yours truly, W. H. Goodrich]
Mr. Goodrich has enjoyed the best of opportunities, and is a writer of rare taste and rhetorical force, and an eloquent and impressive speaker. As a preacher he is never speculative and theoretical, never dogmatic nor sectarian, but eminently spiritual and practical. But the strongest point in his character is his downright, never-failingcommon sense. He never blunders, and never has to apologize for important mistakes committed. He is remarkable for insight to the character of all with whom he has to do. This trait gives him influence with many who care little for the gospel which he preaches. Though not conspicuously demonstrative in his outward life, and though free from all approach to obtrusiveness, so earnest and direct are his ways, that he becomes known to thousands with whom he has no personal acquaintance.
In this country it is generally regarded as a misfortune to have had a grandfather. Most Americans who have reached distinction for abilities and usefulness, have been the sons of parents unknown to fame. As a general rule, self-made men are the only well made men. By the force of their own energies they have surmounted the difficulties that stood in their pathway, and achieved distinction by their own efforts. There are very few prominent men in our country whose fathers and grandfathers have left names which will live for a score of years in the memory of society. But to this general truth the history of our country affords honorable exceptions. The sons of certain families distinguished for wealth, for talent and for the highest position in society, have been so wisely and prayerfully trained that they have escaped the dangers which have proved fatal to most of those who have inherited honored names, and to this class Mr. Goodrich belongs. Though not ignorant of the truth that his ancestry is held in the highest honor by all good men, it seems never to have occurred to him that anything less than his own personal labors and merits would avail to give him a good name with those whose good opinion is desirable. "The poet is born, not made."Character is made, not born.
In 1867, Mr. Goodrich was prostrated by severe illness, which for a season filled the hearts of his friends with most painful apprehension, but the prayers of a loving people were answered, and after an interim of six months he again resumed the duties of his pastorate. It soon became apparent, however, that while the "the spirit" was "willing," "the flesh" was "weak," and that a longer respite was necessary before he could again enter upon his work with his wonted zeal. Hoping to renew his impaired energies by a temporary release from care, and in the pleasures of travel, Mr. Goodrich, with his wife, sailed for Europe in 1868, where he remained for eight months, re-visiting the scenes with which he had become acquainted twenty years before. The ultimate object of his tour was secured, and at the close of the year he returned to his people in excellent health, and with an enriched experience from which he seemed to draw new inspiration for his work.
Soon after his return from abroad, the rapidly failing health of his mother, residing in New Haven, became to him a constant source of solicitude, more especially so from the fact of his being the sole surviving child of that once happy and affectionate household. His departure for Europe had been saddened by the sudden death of his only brother, Rev. Chauncey Goodrich. In the month of August, 1869, that mother passed from a life which seemed rounded to completeness, into the "day-break of heaven," leaving this son, Rev. William H. Goodrich, to rear the tablet to her memory, and to go out from a vacant, voiceless home, the last of his household.
But a quarter of a century has laid grandparents, parents, brother and sisters in the grave. At the present writing, Mr. Goodrich is once more united to his people, and we but give utterance to the general voice in the desire, that in the love and confidence of this church and community, he may find solace for his bereavements; and that henceforth Cleveland may be the home of his adoption, and the field of his labors.
Among the preachers and writers of the nineteenth century who have pleaded for a return to primitive Christianity, the subject of this notice stands pre-eminently among the most distinguished. For more than thirty-five years he has been connected with the Disciples, and, during the greater portion of that time, has been an earnest, able and successful advocate for their plea for reformation.
Isaac Errett was born in the city of New York, January 2, 1820. His father was a native of Arklow, county of Wicklow, Ireland, and his mother was a native of Portsmouth, England. His paternal grandfather was shot down in sight of his own house during the Irish rebellion of 1798. His immediate parents were both of Protestant families, and became identified with the Disciples in New York city, as early as 1811--the father being an elder in the original church in that place. Hence, the son was trained from infancy in the principles which he now cherishes, and, in the Spring of 1832, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--where his mother had moved soon after the death of his father, in 1825--when only a little over twelve years of age, at a time when the church was without preaching, under the instruction of his mother, he, in company with an elder brother, went forward and asked the privilege of baptism. He was baptized by Robert McLaren, one of the elders of the church.
He now became a diligent student of the Word of God, and, under many embarrassing circumstances, made constant and encouraging progress.
From the time he was ten years old he has been dependent upon his own personal exertions for a living; hence his respectable education has been gathered in the midst of toil and care, by dint of untiring, industrious application.
While laboring as farmer, miller, lumberman, bookseller, printer, schoolteacher, and editor, he never ceased to augment his stock of useful knowledge, and to use whatever opportunities he had for the discipline of his mental powers.
He commenced preaching in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Spring of 1840, and soon gave promise of the distinguished position which he has since held as a preacher of the Gospel.
He enjoyed the advantages of frequent and intimate association with Walter Scott, Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, and most of the early advocates of primitive Christianity in the West; and his association with these men was of incalculable advantage to him, for they not only gave him valuable instruction in the principles of the Reformation, but he was enabled, by coming in frequent contact with them, to draw inspiration from their lives and characters for the great work upon which he had entered.
His ministerial labors have been divided between the work of an evangelist and pastor. He was pastor of a church in Pittsburgh three years; New Lisbon, Ohio, five years; North Bloomfield, Ohio, two years; Warren, Ohio, five years; Muir and Ionia, Michigan, eight years; and Detroit, Michigan, two years. At all these points he was eminently successful, and, besides his regular pastoral labors, did considerable work in the general field.
He removed to Warren, Ohio, in 1851, and while there, was corresponding secretary of the Ohio Missionary Society three years; and it was he who first put that society into systematic and active operation.
In 1856, he removed his family to Ionia county, Michigan, and while laboring to build up a congregation at that point, he was prevailed upon to take the corresponding secretaryship of the American Christian Missionary Society, which position he held three years, and succeeded in bringing the society to a degree of prosperity which it had never before reached. When heresigned the Secretaryship he was appointed first vice-president, and afterwards presided at the annual meetings of the society until 1866, when he was elected president. This, however, he at once declined. In the Spring of 1856, he removed to Cleveland, Ohio.
In April, 1866, he established the Christian Standard in Cleveland, which has become a leading and influential religions journal. In August, 1868, having been elected first president of Alliance College, he removed to Alliance, Ohio, and at once gave to the new college a successful position among our literary institutions. In May, 1869, he was elected president of the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. In August, 1869, he was elected, by a unanimous vote of the Board of Curators of Kentucky University, to the presidency of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of that University. Also, about the same time, Bethany College tendered him the Biblical Department of that institution. We have not learned whether he has yet accepted either of these positions.
Mr. Errett's personal appearance is striking and prepossessing. He is about six feet one inch high, has dark auburn hair, light grey eyes, and a well developed muscular organization. As a public speaker he has few, if any, superiors. His language is chaste and copious, containing an unusually large per cent, of Saxon words; his gesticulation is easy and natural, but his voice, though well under control, has not volume enough to give full force to his beautiful and stirring thoughts. His writings, like his sermons, are full of strong and rugged points, and are frequently interspersed with brilliant passages of exquisite beauty that will compare favorably with many of the finest word-paintings in the English language.
In the social circle he is companionable, but not a very good conversationalist. He needs the inspiration of an audience, or the quiet solitude of the study, to bring out his full strength; hence, while he is pleasant in company--full of wit and humor--he does not appear there to the best advantage.
Benjamin Rouse was born in Boston, March 23d, 1795, and was brought up as a builder, working at the trade at first in Massachusetts, and subsequently removing to New York, where he carried on his business extensively for about six years. From an early age he had taken great interest in religions matters, and especially in the establishment of Sunday schools. In 1830, he accepted the appointment of agent of the American Sunday School Union for the purpose of going to the West and establishing Sunday schools and book depositories. For this purpose he gave up his business and turned his face westward, prepared to endure hardships and encounter difficulties for the cause in which he was so deeply interested.
Coming directly to Cleveland, he opened his Sunday school book depository, near the corner of the Public Square and Superior street. The prospect was not a hopeful one, but Mr. Rouse had faith, and persevered. There was but one church building in the place, old Trinity, built by the Episcopalians with the aid of those of other denominations, and but little religious sentiment among the people. A Sunday school had for some time struggled hard to maintain its existence, and had but just become established on a tolerably firm basis. The depository, aided by the active labors of Mr. Rouse in the schools, gave a powerful impetus to the cause.
Three months after the opening of the depository Mr. Rouse purchased the lot on which it stood, for six hundred dollars. In making the purchase he had little thought of its speculative value, the sole object being a permanent home for his agency. Time has, however, so enhanced the value of property that the lot on which stood the little book-room, has now, with the pile of buildings standing on it, reached a value of eighty thousand dollars, thus amply repaying Mr. Rouse for his labors in the cause of religion and morality in the earlier days of the place.
For about three years the depository was continued, and then Mr. Rouse turned his attention for a while to general store-keeping, abandoning it finally for the purpose of removing to Richfield, where he went to benefit the health of his wife. In that place hie remained six years.
Mr. Rouse was a member of the Baptist denomination, and was largely instrumental in the organization of a Baptist society in Cleveland. When, in 1835, it was decided to erect a church building on the corner of Seneca and Champlain streets, the experience of Mr. Rouse, then a deacon of the church, was called into requisition. In due time the church was built and a steeple placed on it, which became the wonder and admiration of the country round about, and Trinity, built by the Episcopalians with the aid of those of other denominations, and but little religious sentiment among the people. A Sunday school had for some time struggled hard to maintain its existence, and had but just become established on a tolerably firm basis. The depository, aided by the active labors of Mr. Rouse in the schools, gave a powerful impetus to the cause.
Three months after the opening of the depository Mr. Rouse purchased the lot on which it stood, for six hundred dollars. In making the purchase he had little thought of its speculative value, the sole object being a permanent home for his agency. Time has, however, so enhanced the value of property that the lot on which stood the little book-room, has now, with the pile of buildings standing on it, reached a value of eighty thousand dollars, thus amply repaying Mr. Rouse for his labors in the cause of religion and morality in the earlier days of the place.
For about three years the depository was continued, and then Mr. Rouse turned his attention for a while to general store-keeping, abandoning it finally for the purpose of removing to Richfield, where he went to benefit the health of his wife. In that place he remained six years.
Mr. Rouse was a member of the Baptist denomination, and was largely instrumental in the organization of a Baptist society in Cleveland. When, in 1835, it was decided to erect a church building on the corner of Seneca and Champlain streets, the experience of Mr. Rouse, then a deacon of the church, was called into requisition. In due time the church was built and a steeple placed on it, which became the wonder and admiration of the country round about, and the especial pride of Deacon Rouse.
On his return from Richfield, Mr. Rouse engaged in the coal business in connection with Mr. Freeman Butts. About the year 1862, he retired from active business and thenceforth devoted his time to the cause of patriotism, religion, and charity. From the breaking out of the war Mr. and Mrs. Rouse entered vigorously on the work of aiding the nation's cause by caring for the nation's defenders. Their zeal and activity were irrepressible, visiting the camps and hospitals, ascertaining the needs of the soldiers, and then with unresting assiduity collecting money and materials to supply those needs. Mrs. Rouse became president of the Soldiers' Aid Society of northern Ohio, and was directly instrumental in the formation of hundreds of auxiliary societies that made every city, village, and nearly every home in northern Ohio busy in the work of preparing and sending forward comforts and luxuries for the soldiers of the Union. Mrs. Rouse visited camps and hospitals in the South, and her visits and reports were productive of great good. Her name was known and respected by thousands of soldiers, was repeated with grateful praise in a multitude of homes from which brave boys had gone forth to the war, and has passed into history. In all her labors she was cordially seconded and efficiently aided by her husband.
Three sons and one daughter have been born to this worthy couple.
In the early records of Cleveland, as in those of most western towns, the story of sickness and death fills a large part. Fever and ague, brought on by exposure, privations, and by the miasma from swamp, river and uncleared lands, disabled a large number of the early settlers, and hurried some to untimely graves. There were no physicians, and save a few drugs and the simples gathered from the river banks and forest, there were no remedies.
In course of time appeared the pioneer doctor with his saddle-bags, and he was soon followed by a number of his brethren to practice their skill upon the settlers. When the first Cleveland Directory was issued, in 1837, there were already established a round two dozen of physicians and surgeons, and three "surgeon-dentists." It may be interesting to quote the names of these brethren of the lancet and saddlebags who purged and bled the good people of thirty-two years ago. They were, J. L. Ackley, F. I. Bradley, C. D. Brayton, W. A. Clark, Horace Congar, E. Cushing, Jonathan Foote, S. B. Gay, Robert Hicks, M. L. Hewitt, Smith Inglehart, Robert Johnston, Burr Kellogg, David Long, P. Mathivet, George Mendenhall, Joshua Mills, T. M. Moore, W. F. Otis, A. D. Smith, J. Swain, Charles Terry, Samuel Underhill, Joseph Walrath. The surgeon-dentists were B. Strickland, and Coredon & Sargeant.
This list has now swollen to proportions that make the two dozen and three exceedingly insignificant by comparison, and every school of medicine is represented. There are two Allopathic medical colleges--the Cleveland and Charity Hospital colleges--and two Homeopathic--the Western Homeopathic college and the Homeopathic College for Women. There are also three hospitals, the Charity Hospital (Allopathic), the Homeopathic Hospital on University Heights, and the Woman's Hospital on Wilson street.
Dr. Long was born at Hebron, Washington county, New York, September 29, 1787. In early life he qualified himself for the practice of medicine and surgery, studying in Massachusetts and graduating in New York city. In June, 1810, he arrived at Cleveland and commenced his professional career. At this early day there was no physician nearer than Painesville on the east, Hudson on the south-east, Wooster on the south, River Raisin (now Monroe) on the west. The arrival of a physician was, therefore, a matter of no small gratification to the settlers here and the neighboring settlements.
In this wild region, without roads, streams without bridges, cabins in many places eight to ten miles apart, did the young and ardent Long hopefully commence the practice of medicine. Nor were the hopes of the early settlers disappointed. In rain and snow, in Winter's cold and Summer's heat, by darkest midnight or mid-day sun the doctor ever cheerfully responded to all the calls for his services with alacrity and zeal, forgetful of self, desirous only to administer timely relief to the suffering and afflicted. In this he was eminently successful, as many of those who knew him for more than a third of a century can testify.
In proof of the untiring perseverance of Dr. Long in the early part of his professional life, it has been stated that on one occasion, in the Fall of the year, about midnight, he rode nine miles in fifty-one minutes. In another instance of extreme urgency, he rode, in the day time, fourteen miles in fifty minutes by changing horses twice on the route. He was a surgeon in the army during the war of 1812, and brought the news of Hull's surrender at Detroit to this city, from the mouth of Black River, a distance of twenty-eight miles, in two hours and fourteen minutes. Such was his character for promptitude to all the calls that were made upon him, and they were far from being few.
For kindness to his patients and friends he had no superior. In his zeal in their behalf, in a few years, he sacrificed in a measure one of the finest constitutions.
After following his profession thirty years or more, Dr. Long retired from general medical practice, and engaged in other pursuits more favorable to his health and congenial to his tastes.
In all public measures for the benefit of our city, in the way of improvements, schools, churches, every effort in behalf of humanity, religion or science, Dr. Long was ready to place his shoulder to the work with all the ardor and enthusiasm of youth.
Dr. Long never had any aspirations for political distinctions, but such was his popularity and so great the confidence of the people in his judgment and integrity that he could have obtained it had he so desired. At one time, however, he was elected to fill a vacancy which had occurred by the death of one of the three County Commissioners. Unimportant as this may seem now, it then occasioned intense excitement. The location of a new county court house, presumptively fixing the county seat for all time, devolved upon these Commissioners. Newburg and Cleveland were the contestants, both being villages of about an equal number of inhabitants--the claims of each supported by a single Commissioner, yet Newburg having the more central location. Though hotly contested, Dr. Long was elected, and the result was the erection of the Court house in the south-west corner of the square, which was demolished about ten years since.
In the year 1834, Dr. Long united with the Presbyterian church in this city, and by his daily walk and conduct in the community, by his deeds of love and charity to the poor, his kindness to the sick and afflicted gave the most striking evidence of a heart renewed by grace and made meet for the kingdom of heaven. During his last painful illness his calmness and resignation showed that he had placed his trust firmly upon the sure foundation.
He filled all the relations of life in a most exemplary manner and thus embalmed his memory in the hearts of all who knew and survive him. He died on the first day of September, 1851, at the age of sixty-four years, lacking a single month.
Just before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the ancestors of Dr. Delamater fled from France to Holland. The family name was then De La Maitre. Being whole-souled protestants, they migrated with other Dutch families to the Province of New York, and settled on the banks of the Hudson, near Kingston. Their names are still visible on the ancient grave stones of that neighborhood. Like the Huguenots, of South Carolina, they were Calvinist, or puritans of the French school. They became allied by marriage to the Rogardus family of New York, and others partook of the blood of Anneke Jans, whose name has become famous in the New York courts. The investigation of this connexion and heirship, occupied the last years of Prof. Delamater's life. It was closed only about a month before his death. His coadjutor in this work, was the late Chancellor Walworth, of Saratoga, whose ancestors were also in the line of Anneke Jans.
Dr. Delamater was born in Columbia county, New York, near Chatham, on the State line of Massachusetts, April 18th, 1787. He died at East Cleveland, in March, 1867, having almost reached the extreme age of four score years.
The Huguenots like English Puritans, and the Scotch Irish, have made their mark in North America. John Delamater, while a boy, was destined to be a farmer, on the soil where he was born. He was transferred to the medical profession on account of an accident, which injured his ability for manual labor. His father removed to Schenectady, New York, where his son was put under the tuition of one of the self-denying clergymen of those times, whose salary did not meet the expenses of living. At the age of nineteen his medical education was finished and he commenced practice in his native town. From thence he moved to Florence, Montgomery county, N. Y. Then stopped a short time in Albany, N.Y., and in 1816, established himself at Sheffield, Massachusetts. There was a settlement of negroes in this ancient borough. Dr. Delamater was then, as ever since, an active philanthropist. He attended the negroes as physician, Sunday teacher, and preacher. They also drew money from his purse, which was never very well filled, and paid back very little, either of his fees or of their debts. After some years of assiduous labor on his colored charge, his views of the race underwent a radical change. Among the last utterances of his life he expressed the opinion, based upon his experience at Sheffield, that the negro is by nature unfit for citizenship. In the days of the Jeffersonian Republicans and Adams Federalists, Dr. Delamater was in full accord with the new and rising Democratic party. He left it during the administration of General Jackson, and since then was a thorough Whig and Republican. No one hated slavery more. He saw the remnants of it in his early practice over the line in Connecticut, but never recovered faith in the capacity of the colored man for self-government.
Returning to his medical career, in which for sixty years he led in the profession, it is briefly as follows: While practising in the valley of the Housatonic, he rode almost constantly on a racking horse, about sixteen hands high, and almost with the speed of the wind, and occasionally in a two wheeled vehicle, common in those days, called a chaise, or more often a "one horse shay." At such times one of his medical students rode beside him, and drove the horse.
Between calls along the road the Doctor read his works, especially those relating to cases in hand. This custom of keeping up with the new works and periodicals of the profession he never relaxed, even after old age and the most distressing physical infirmities prevented his practice. Neither was the old shay ever abandoned; our citizens remember it well, moving carefully along these streets, with its huge calash top and faithful horse. No storm of rain or snow prevented him from keeping an appointment while he was able to get in and out of his vehicle.
In 1823, Dr. Delamater was made Professer in the Medical Institute of Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Mass.; in 1827, at the Fairfield Medical School, Herkimer county, New York. He was at the same time giving lessons at Bowdoin College, Mass. While at Fairfield, he was invited to lecture in the Medical College of Ohio, where Kirtland, Drake and Mussey have occupied chairs. This resulted in an appointment as Professor in the Willoughby University, Lake county, Ohio, at that time a flourishing institution. In 1842, he became one of the Faculty of the Western Reserve Medical College, at Cleveland.
Almost every man has some prominent talent, though with many it is never developed. With Professor Delamater it was the ability to give prolonged, profound and perspicuous lectures. This was his special gift and as usual in such cases he was not a facile writer. It is said he delivered seventy courses of medical lectures. His memory was perfect and his reading embraced everything relating to his profession. A good lecturer requires not only a clear perception of his subject, but a lucid and fluent presentation of it. Dr. Delamater never wrote lectures. His memoranda were of the most meagre kind. They were frequently nothing more than a few hieroglyphics made on the margin of a newspaper drawn from his vest pocket as he mounted the desk. Every case he had ever treated and all its details appeared to be thoroughly fixed in his recollection. He sometimes wrote medical essays for publication, but with evident reluctance. In cases of malpractice Dr. Delamater was the especial dread of the attorney whose side he did not favor. His full, clear and logical statements made a deep and generally an irresistible impression upon the court and jury.
After he became unable to visit patients he was consulted with never ceasing confidence by physicians and by patients, especially those afflicted with chronic complaints.
His moral and religious qualities were as conspicuous as his mental ones. He carried the faculty of conscientiousness to a length which the most conscientious would regard as extreme. Against the poor his charges for professional service were merely nominal and were never pressed, and with the rich he was so moderate and easy that with a large practice he was barely able to maintain his family, which, like himself, were afflicted with prolonged constitutional diseases. His rare Christian virtues are described with fidelity and beauty in the farewell discourse of Rev. W. H. Goodrich, of the First Presbyterian Church, which, being in print, may be read and preserved by the numerous friends of the good old man.
Prof. Kirtland belongs to the class of self-made naturalists who attain to greater eminence than others of equal talents and better advantages. Success in this branch of science requires not only a native genius, but enthusiasm and never tiring perseverance; to the rich and the educated these last qualifications are frequently wanting, or, if they are not, instead of growing with the progress of life, they become more and more weak instead of more and more strong. Industry and ambition are more than a match for education in minds of the same order.
[Illustration: Your Fellow Citizen, J. P. Kirtland]
Dr. Kirtland originated at Wallingford, Connecticut. His father, Turhand Kirtland, in 1799, was appointed general agent of the Connecticut Land Company, on the Reserve. He removed to Poland, in Mahoning county, the next year, where he became a prominent citizen of the new county then known as New Connecticut. So long as the Company existed he was continued in the agency, and survived until 1833 to witness the developments of the region.
Jared appears to have been left in Connecticut, probably to secure the advantages of those common schools which were wanting in this western wilderness. The young man made his appearance in Ohio on horseback, July 4th, 1810, at the age of fifteen years. He was destined to be a physician, and in 1817 he was sent to the celebrated medical school of Dr. Rush, in Philadelphia. After leaving that institution he set forth on the way of life with horse and saddle bags, dispensing advice and prescriptions, according to the custom of the times, to the people of the townships around Poland. Every old settler knows what a time the pioneer doctors had. Their patients were scattered far and wide in log cabins which stood in small clearings in the forest surrounded by gigantic trees. A messenger rushed in at any hour of the day or night from a distressed, perhaps a distant family, requiring immediate attention. It was the duty of the frontier physician to saddle his horse at the moment and return with the messenger. The route more often lay along a narrow trail through the woods, over roots and logs, with mud and water on all sides. In dark nights, or in storms of rain and sleet, the overhanging boughs of the trees dripping with water, these visits were not of the most cheerful character. In those early days bridges were behind roads in regard to condition and repairs, and it was frequently necessary, in order to reach a suffering patient, to do as Cassius did--plunge in and trust to a faithful horse--in order to cross swollen creeks and rivers.
While engaged in this rude professional practice, acquiring a good reputation as a physician, he was closely observing the fishes, reptiles, shells and animals of a region teeming with animal and vegetable life. Scientific works were scarce in that new region, but living subjects were abundant. This exuberance of life was of more value to a scrutinizing mind than a surplus of books and a deficiency of specimens. An unusually rich field for the naturalist lay open to his daily observation for twenty years.
During his residence at Poland, Dr. Kirtland was twice elected to the House of Representatives for Ohio. In that body he directed his efforts especially to a change in the Penitentiary system. It was mainly through his zeal and activity that the old style of treating State prisoners was abandoned, and they have been made a source of revenue and not of expense. Convict labor has thus proven by experience to be valuable to the public and to the convict a relaxation of the rigor of his situation.
It was while studying the habits of the fresh water shells of the Mahoning and its branches that Dr. Kirtland made a discovery which attracted attention throughout the scientific world. The classification of species had been made upon mere difference of form. Dr. Kirtland perceived that in the same species a difference of form was due to sex intestaceathe same as in all other animals, and that too many species had been adopted. This bold announcement, coming from the back woods of Ohio, created quite a commotion among naturalists. It was, however, found, on investigation, to be true, though it rendered obsolete a large number of terrible Latin phrases.
In the publication of his views, and afterwards for his descriptions of the fishes of Ohio, he found a liberal patron in the Boston Society of Natural History. When the State of Ohio organized a geological survey, in 1838, the department of Natural History was of course given to him. There was barely time to make a catalogue of the fauna and flora of the State before the survey was suspended, but many of his figures and descriptions of the fishes have since been published in the transactions of the Boston Society. This appointment broke up his large medical practice in Trumbull and adjacent counties. He now accepted the appointment of Professer in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati. About 1838, Prof. Kirtland removed from Poland to Cleveland, to perform the same duties in the Cleveland Medical College. With a restless energy he went beyond natural history and medicine in his investigations, into the field of horticulture, floriculture and agriculture.
Purchasing a rugged farm on the ridge road five miles out of Cleveland, he entered with zeal into the business of scientific farming. Here he demonstrated that a stiff clay soil derived from the underlying Devonian Shales may be made highly productive in fruit. His success stimulated others along the ridge road, until the old pastures and meadows on that side of the city have been changed into the most profitable orchards and gardens in the vicinity. This required twenty years more of time and industry, during much of which he came daily to the college and delivered one or more lectures. In the lecture his style is entirely conversational, but rapid, fluent, and always intelligible. Here all the varieties of his studies come into play, as it were, spontaneously. He is equally at home among the birds, the insects and the reptiles, the fishes or the mammalia. Their habits are as familiar as those of his children and grandchildren. He writes but seldom, and thus the teachings of so many years on so many subjects are confided principally to the memory of the many hundreds of students to whom they have been delivered.
For several years Dr. Kirtland has declined to lecture on any subject. He is verging upon four score, a period which with most men, is necessarily one of rest if not of weariness, but he has never known what it is to rest. No farmer in Rockport is up earlier or attends more closely to his grounds. All the valuable varieties of peaches, pears, cherries and grapes, have been tested by their actual product, or are in the process of being tested. He is enthusiastically fond of the culture of bees and of every variety of flowers which will thrive in this climate. A number of new varieties of cherries have been originated on the Kirtland farm, and after trial those which are valuable have been scattered over the country. There are very few men who are enabled to make so many applications of science to practical subjects, and still fewer who are permitted to live long enough to witness the fruits of their labors.
We are almost at a loss in what class to place Dr. Garlick. By natural taste and genius he belongs to the artists. His devotion to the healing art arose principally from the necessities of our race for something to eat and wear. He had the fortune, probably good fortune, to be born in Vermont, at Middlebury, March 30th, 1805, in view of the Green Mountains, among rocks and mountains. This region is principally famous for marble, slate, iron ore, and hardy young men, generally known as Green Mountain boys.
An older brother, Abel B. Garlick, having been apprenticed to a marble cutter, came out West, sometime after the war of 1812, and located at Cleveland. In 1816, Theodatus, at the age of eleven years, had drifted as far as Erie, Pennsylvania; in 1819, to Cleveland. The Winter of 1819-20, he spent at Black River, which was then the leading ship yard of the lakes.
Abel B. had artist's ability also. In this region no marble was to be found, but a tolerable substitute existed in the fine grained blue sandstone at Newburg. A mill was erected at the quarry on Mill creek, below the falls, where these stones were sawed, as they are now, into handsome slabs.
Like other New Englanders, the Vermont boys are early impressed with the idea of self-support. Although Theodatus much preferred fun and frolic to hard labor, he entered cheerfully upon the business of a stone cutter at the age of sixteen. Their marble yard (without marble) was on Bank street, where Morgan & Root's block now stands. Abel marked the outlines of the letters upon incipient grave stones in pencil, and Theodatus carved them with his chisel. Most of the renowned sculptors of Ohio, such as Powell, Clevenger and Jones, took their first lessons in the same way. All of them have left samples of their untutored skill in various angels and cherubs, now mouldering in old churchyards. The blue sandstone monuments, on which Dr. Garlick cut inscriptions fifty years since, are still to be seen in the early cemeteries of the Western Reserve; some are touching enough, but not a few are more ridiculous than mournful. When Nathan Perry became so prosperous that he proposed to remove the old wooden store on the corner of Water and Superior streets and replace it with a brick one, he concluded to expend something upon ornament. He ordered two oval stone signs to be made and to be built into the walls over the two doors, one on each street. These were among the earliest efforts of Dr. Garlick. Both of these stones were in existence until the ground was cleared for the present Bank building, when they were broken up and put into the cellar wall. In those days it was one of the duties of an apprentice to sharpen the tools at a blacksmith's forge. The young man concluded to carve flying cherubims with their stone trumpets to ring in the ears of coming generations no longer.
Having a robust physical constitution, he became passionately fond of hunting and fishing. In 1822, he lived with a brother in Newbury, Geauga county, which was then a forest full of game. In a letter referring to the sporting days of his youth, he wrote as follows:
My brother and myself started out very early one morning for a deer that we knew had been feeding around the cabin that night; within a quarter of a mile from the cabin my brother shot him, and as he fired, up jumped eleven elk; one of our neighbors shot five of them within an acre of ground; they were near together, at bay, fighting with the dogs. I helped to get them in; they were a part of a larger herd, we counted their beds in the snow where they had lain at night, and there were over one hundred in the drove.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, T. Garlick]
Ten or fifteen years previous to that time, one of those tornadoes, which occasionally visit this region, had prostrated the timber along a tract a mile wide and several miles in length, through the township of Newbury. A thicket of bushes had sprung up among the fallen trees, which furnished excellent browsing ground and shelter for game, of which there was an abundance of bear, wolves, elk, deer, turkeys, &c., constituting quite a paradise for a young Nimrod.
He finally determined to become a physician, and after some years of the usual experience of medical students, practicing some, and assisting at operations, he entered the medical department of the University of Maryland, in the city of Baltimore, where he graduated in 1834.
No sooner was his diploma secured than the artist again broke forth. He suddenly produced bas-reliefs in wax of five favorite professors without sittings, which were pronounced perfect likenesses. General Jackson and Henry Clay gave him a short sitting, and the next day their statuetts were on exhibition. Mr. Clay expressed his satisfaction for his own in an autograph letter. Another miniature in relief, full length, of Chief Justice Marshall, from a portrait by Waugh, was pronounced by Mr. Bullock, an English virtuoso, as equal to anything produced by Thorwaldsen. But being surrounded by medical men, who, like men of all professions, regard their own as more important than any other, Dr. Garlick was induced to turn his artistic skill upon anatomical models.
He located at Youngstown, Ohio, the same year that he graduated, at which place, and at the Medical College of Cleveland, he devoted nearly two years in getting up models of all parts of the human body, taken from subjects in the dissecting room. They may yet be seen in the Medical Colleges at Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto, Charleston, South Carolina, Cincinnati, and other places. These were such close imitations of nature that the late Professer Mussey, of Cincinnati, pronounced them superior to the French models at Paris by Auzoux. At Youngstown he made a life size bust of Judge George Tod, copies of which are now in the family. In 1853, after a successful practice at Youngstown, he came to Cleveland, and formed a partnership in surgery with the late Professer H. A. Ackley, and for a number of years was a member of the Board of Medical Censors of the Cleveland Medical College, and vice president of the Cleveland Academy of Natural Science. As he was a naturalist, he applied the principles of the anatomical models to animals and parts of animals, especially fishes. He entered with great zeal upon the artificial propagation of brook trout and other fish in connection with Dr. Ackley. In 1857, he published a small book, which is the standard work of the United States on this subject.
He was a skillful physician and surgeon, a diligent student of natural history, a keen sportsman, and a great lover of the fine arts. A good physical constitution is at least one-half of the capital of any man, however gifted in mind. In this respect he was like Christopher North, with few equals. In the rude contests of strength among the young men of a new country, the races, wrestling matches, and occasional fights, he never felt like backing down; but of late years this powerful frame has been partially stricken with paralysis.
The doctor still resides in this city, devoted to natural science, especially botany, but the days of his personal activity are past.
John Lang Cassels, M.D., LL.D., was born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, and in 1827, while quite a young man, came to this country. Soon after, he studied medicine with Prof. John Delamater, in Fairfield, New York, and graduated in 1834, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons located at Fairfield, N. Y. He was Demonstrator of Anatomy in that school three years, two years during his pupilage and one after his graduation. He opened an office for the practice of medicine in Earlville, New York, in the spring of 1835, and in the fall of the same year received and accepted the appointment of Professor of Chemistry in Willoughby University, Ohio, which connection he retained until the fall of 1843, when he and his associates opened and established the Cleveland Medical College, in which he still occupies the chair of Chemistry.
In 1837, he received the appointment of First Assistant Geologist of the New York State Geological Survey, which he occupied for several seasons, performing field labor in the summer and lecturing on chemistry in Willoughby Medical College during the winter. His connection with the New York survey gave him an excellent opportunity to become an expert practical geologist; his location being on the Hudson river district, offered him a fine field of action, as it is really the key to the geology and mineralogy of the State.
In the winter of 1839, he gave a course of demonstrated lectures on chemistry before the Young Men's Library Association in Cleveland, the first public lectures on science ever given in the city. The following winter the citizens of Cleveland invited him to lecture again on the same subject, and he complied. The city at that time contained mostly young people--only two gray-headed men attended the Stone Church.
In 1815, he spent most of the season in visiting and collecting specimens of mineral in the lead region of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, thus becoming familiar with the geology of their rich mineral region.
In 1846, he spent the whole season in exploring the Lake Superior country, coasting the south shore in a bark canoe, having for his traveling companions two Indians and a half-breed voyager. At this date there were no steamers on Lake Superior, and but a very few small sailing craft. It was during this time that he took squatter possession of a mile square of the iron region of that country, for the benefit of the Cleveland Iron Company. He was the first white man that had visited this region, now so famous for its ferruginous wealth. Near the close of the season he spent a short time geologizing Isle Royale, and returned to Saut St. Marie on the steamer Julia Palmer, which had, during the summer, been hauled over the passage of Saut St. Marie. During the winter following, at the request of a number of Clevelanders, he gave a public lecture on the Lake Superior region; at the close of which he said he would venture a prophecy: "Such was the character of the climate, scenery, etc., of Lake Superior that the time was not far distant when it would become as great a resort for invalids and pleasure-seekers as Saratoga and Newport now are." Also, that there is iron enough in the iron district sufficient to furnish a double track of the much talked of Whitney's railroad. These statements were then received with a stormy manifestation of incredulity.
In 1859, the Jefferson College of Mississippi conferred the Degree of LL.D. on Dr. Cassels.
In 1861, he was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Geological Institution of Berlin, Prussia.
For the last ten years, in addition to the duties of his chair in the Cleveland Medical College, he has regularly filled the chair of chemistry and natural history in the Western Reserve College at Hudson. During the past twenty years he has given several courses of popular experimental lectures in his favorite branches of chemistry and geology in a number of our neighboring towns, Akron, Canton, &c. He is also the regular lecturer in these branches in the Female Seminary in Painesville.
Perhaps few men have been as extensively engaged in texicological examinations during the past twenty years as Dr. Cassels. Many of these have been of great interest, both in a social and moral point of view. In all such cases he is regarded with great confidence, both on account of his scientific skill and his high sense of moral integrity.
As an analytical chemist he has few superiors, and is much of his spare time engaged in the analysis of waters, ores, coal, limestone, &c. In 1866, he analyzed the water of Cleveland which is brought from Lake Erie and distributed through the city. He analyzed this water taken from different parts of the city and from the point where it entered the pipes to be forced into the reservoir; also from a point in the lake three thousand four hundred and fifty feet from the shore, where he advised that the inlet pipe ought to be located. All these analyses are embraced in his report to the Trustees of the city water works; in which also are many valuable suggestions respecting supply pipes and the character of the water for steam purposes.
J. S. Newberry, M.D., LL.D., was born at Windsor, Connecticut, of old Puritan stock, his ancestry having formed part of the colony which in 1635, emigrated from Dorchester, colony of Massachusetts Bay, and founded the town of Windsor, the first settlement made in Connecticut.
[Illustration: Yours Very Truly, J. S. Newberry]
The family continued to reside at Windsor for two hundred years, during which time it held an honorable place in that community and contributed several representatives, who took an important part in the affairs of the State government, or in the defense of the colony against the Indians, and in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. Dr. Newberry's grandfather, Hon. Roger Newberry, a distinguished lawyer, and for many years a member of the Governor's council, was one of the directors of the Connecticut Land Company, which purchased a large part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The town of Newberry received its name from him. His son, Henry Newberry, inherited his interest in the land of the company, by which he became possessed of large tracts in Summit, Ashtabula, Medina, Lorain and Cuyahoga counties, including one hundred acres now within the city of Cleveland. Looking after these interests he made three journeys on horseback (the first in 1814,) from Connecticut to Ohio, and, in 1824, removed his family to Summit county, where he founded the town of Cuyahoga Falls, remaining there till his death, in 1854.
Dr. Newberry graduated at Western Reserve College, in 1846, and from the Cleveland Medical College in 1848. The years 1849 and 1850, he spent in study and travel abroad. Returning at the close of the latter year he established himself, early in 1851, in the practice of medicine in Cleveland. Here he remained till 1855, when his professional business became so engrossing as to leave him no time for the scientific study to which he had been devoted from his boyhood. To escape from too great professional occupation, and impelled by an unconquerable passion for a scientific career, in May, 1855, he accepted an appointment from the War Department, and became connected with the army as acting assistant surgeon and geologist to the party which, under Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, U.S.A., made an exploration of the country lying between San Francisco and the Columbia river. The results of this expedition are embodied in Vol. 6 P. R. R. Reports. The reports of Dr. Newberry on the "Geology, Botany and Zoology of North California and Oregon," are republished in a volume of 300 pp., 4to., with 48 plates. In 1857-8, he accompanied Lieutenant J. O. Ives, U.S.A., in the exploration and navigation of the Colorado river, one of the most interesting explorations made by any party in any country. The object of the expedition was to open a navigable route of communication with our army in Utah. To this end an iron steamer was constructed in Philadelphia, taken in sections to the head of the Gulf of California, where it was put together and launched. With this steamer the river, before almost entirely unknown, was navigated for five hundred miles, opening a route of travel which has since been extensively used. Beyond the point reached by the steamer the course of the river is for several hundreds of miles through the "Great Cañon," as it is called, a chasm worn by the stream in the table lands of the "Colorado Plateau." This cañon has nearly vertical banks, and is nowhere less than three thousand feet deep; in some places six thousand feet, or more than a mile in depth.
The party with which Dr. Newberry was connected, spent nearly a year in exploring the country bordering the Colorado, adding much to our knowledge of our western possessions, and giving, in their report, an interesting and graphic description of, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of the earth's surface. Half of the report of the Colorado Expedition was prepared by Dr. Newberry, and so much importance was attached to his observations by his commanding officer, that in the preface he speaks of them as constituting "the most interesting material gathered by the expedition."
In 1859, having finished his portion of the Colorado Report, Dr. Newberry took charge of another party sent out by the War Department, to report to Captain J. N. Macomb, topographical engineer, U.S.A., for the exploration of the San Juan and upper Colorado rivers. The Summer of 1859 was spent in the accomplishment of the object had in view by this expedition, during which time the party traveled over a large part of Southern Colorado and Utah and Northern Arizona and New Mexico, filling up a wide blank space in our maps and opening a great area before unknown, much of which proved rich and beautiful, abounding in mineral wealth, and full of natural objects of great interest. Among the results of this expedition were the determination of the point of junction of Grand and Green rivers, which unite to form the Colorado, and the exploration of the valley of the San Juan, the largest tributary of the Colorado; a stream as large as the Connecticut, before almost unknown, but which, though now without an inhabitant upon its banks, is for several hundred miles lined with ruined towns or detached edifices built of stone, and once occupied by many thousands of a semi-civilized people. The report of this expedition made by Dr. Newberry, containing much new and interesting scientific matter, was finished just before the war, but yet remains unpublished.
Immediately after the commencement of the war, the United States Sanitary Commission was organized. Dr. Newberry was one of the first elected members, and it is, perhaps, not too much to say that no other one individual contributed more to the great success that attended the labors of that organization. In September, 1861, he accepted the position of Secretary of the Western Department of the Sanitary Commission, and from that time had the general supervision of the affairs of the Commission in the valley of the Mississippi; his head-quarters being first at Cleveland, and subsequently, as the frontier was carried southward, at Louisville, Kentucky.
Through his efforts branches of the Sanitary Commission were established in the principal cities of the West, and agencies for the performance of its work at all important military points, and with each considerable sub-division of the army. Before the close of the war the entire West was embraced in one great System of agencies for the production and distribution of supplies, and the care of sick and wounded on the battle-field, in hospital or in transitu. The magnitude of the work of the Sanitary Commission at the West may be inferred from the fact that there were at one time over five thousand societies tributary to it in the loyal States of the Northwest--that hospital stores of the value of over $5,000,000 were distributed by it in the valley of the Mississippi--that over 850,000 names were on the records of its Hospital Directory at Louisville, and 1,000,000 soldiers, for whom no other adequate provision was made, were fed and sheltered in its "homes."
Of this great work Dr. Newberry was the responsible head, and by the wisdom and energy displayed by himself very much of the harmony and efficiency which characterized this organization are to be ascribed.
As his labors in connection with the Sanitary Commission were drawing to a close, Dr. Newberry was appointed Professor of Geology in the School of Mines of Columbia College, New York city. He entered on the duties of the position in 1866. In 1869, he was appointed by Governor Hayes to the office of State Geologist, created by the Ohio General Assembly of that year.
The scientific acquirements of Professor Newberry have given him a world-wide fame. As a Geologist his reputation ranks among the foremost. He has been honored with the membership of the most of the learned societies of this country, and of many in Europe; was one of the original corporators of the National Academy of Sciences; was recently elected president of the American Association for the advancement of Science, and is now president of the New York Lyceum of Natural History.