Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Part 45

The doctor still resides in this city, devoted to natural science, especially botany, but the days of his personal activity are past.

J. L. Ca.s.sels.

John Lang Ca.s.sels, 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 a.s.sociates opened and established the Cleveland Medical College, in which he still occupies the chair of Chemistry.

In 1837, he received the appointment of First a.s.sistant 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 a.s.sociation 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sage 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. Ca.s.sels.

In 1861, he was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Geological Inst.i.tution 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. Ca.s.sels. 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 a.n.a.lytical chemist he has few superiors, and is much of his spare time engaged in the a.n.a.lysis of waters, ores, coal, limestone, &c. In 1866, he a.n.a.lyzed the water of Cleveland which is brought from Lake Erie and distributed through the city. He a.n.a.lyzed 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 sh.o.r.e, where he advised that the inlet pipe ought to be located. All these a.n.a.lyses 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.

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 Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, and founded the town of Windsor, the first settlement made in Connecticut.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.sion for a scientific career, in May, 1855, he accepted an appointment from the War Department, and became connected with the army as acting a.s.sistant 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 Canon," as it is called, a chasm worn by the stream in the table lands of the "Colorado Plateau." This canon 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 const.i.tuting "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 s.p.a.ce 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sociation for the advancement of Science, and is now president of the New York Lyceum of Natural History.

D. H. Beckwith.

The first Homeopathist in Cleveland was W. K. Adams, who succeeded in converting Dr. Hoyt, with whom he formed a partnership. Very soon after, in 1845, Drs. Wheeler and Williams were added to the list. There were but six families in the city having firm faith in the principles of homeopathy, and these were silent followers of Dr. John Wheeler, not willing to be known as such, so strong was public opinion against them.

Dr. Wheeler continued unshaken by the strong opposition he met with, and heeded neither sneers nor denunciations. His course was onward and his practice successful, every month adding to his list of converts, and the profits of each year doubling the preceding one. Dr. Wheeler was the first member of the profession to propose that a homeopathic medical college should be located in Cleveland, and he earnestly pressed his theory that Cleveland should be the centre of homeopathy in the West. His name was the first signature to procure a charter, and when the college was organized he was selected as the President, and held the office for the first eleven years of its existence, contributing materially to its success, and resigning only when increasing age rendered its duties too onerous, when added to a large practice.

From the little beginnings in the early days of Dr. Wheeler's practice, homeopathy has grown in Cleveland, until it now reckons a flourishing college, a woman's medical college, two hospitals, an insurance company, twenty-six practicing physicians, and a host of believers in homeopathic principles and modes of treatment.

Prominent among the number of practicing physicians is D. H. Beckwith, M.D., who was born in Huron county, Ohio, in 1826. His father was one of the pioneers of the northern part of the State; emigrating from the State of New York in 1815, and making the journey the most of the way on foot, occupying more than six weeks. He remained a few days in Cleveland, and not admiring the soil for agricultural purposes (little thinking it was the site for a city of its present beauty and magnitude), he journeyed on until he reached more fertile soil in Huron county, where, by economy and industry, in a short time he acc.u.mulated sufficient to purchase a small farm, on which he lived until his death, having seen his family of six sons and one daughter arrive at mature age.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Truly Yours, D. H. Beckwith]

The subject of this memoir remained at home during his boyhood, attending school during the winter and working on the farm in the summer season. At the age of sixteen he entered the Norwalk Seminary, pursuing his studies with vigor for a few years, when it became necessary for him to earn his own living. He taught several schools and was among the first in the State to inaugurate the normal school system to elevate the standard of teaching and improve public schools.

Early in life he decided that the medical profession would be his choice, and all his leisure hours were spent in studying medical books. After securing a sufficiency from teaching (as he supposed,) to meet the expenses of a medical education, he studiously applied himself, under the tuition of John Tiff, M.D., one of the most scientific pract.i.tioners of the State. During the third year of his studies his money was expended, and not wishing to call on friends for a.s.sistance he concluded to commence the practice of medicine. A partnership was offered him in an adjacent town, and arrangements were made for him to commence his professional career. He unfolded his plan to his preceptor, who listened attentively to his future plans, and then rising from his chair, exclaimed with much emphasis: "If there is anything, sir, that I despise, it is half a doctor," and immediately left the office. The brilliant prospect was clouded. With but eight months more study the young student could commence the practice of medicine and be an honor to his preceptor and to himself, but the lack of money was a seemingly impa.s.sable barrier. It was a dark day to the student, but he had learned "never to let his energies stagnate." One resource was left him. He determined to open a select school for advanced scholars. In four days from that time he entered the school room with one hundred scholars, many of them his former pupils.

Morning and evening he clerked in a drug store, for which he received his board and washing. On Wednesday and Sat.u.r.day evenings he was examined in his medical studies with two other students who devoted their entire time to their studies. Thus for thirteen weeks he was daily performing the duties of a teacher, so arduous that many would have complained, though they had no other occupation. In addition to this he was several hours each day compounding and dispensing medicine, and at the same time keeping pace with his cla.s.s in the study of materia medica and botany.

Having already attended one course of lectures in an allopathic college, and not being satisfied with that mode of prescriptions for the sick, he attended the Eclectic College of Cincinnati, where he listened to the first course of lectures ever delivered in any chartered college in the country on homeopathic medicine, by the lamented Prof. Rosa who had no superior in his profession. After receiving his degree he commenced the practice of medicine with his preceptor. The prompt and curative effect produced by homeopathic remedies soon convinced him of its superiority over other systems of medicine and decided him to adopt it as his system of practice for life. The success that has attended his labors ever since has well proved the correctness of his choice.

The first few years of his practice were spent among the acquaintances of his childhood, in the beautiful village of Norwalk. In 1852, he left a large practice and many warm friends to seek a larger field for future work, and located in Zanesville, Ohio, where he continued his profession until the year 1863. The climate not being adapted to the health of his family he moved to Cleveland and soon obtained what he had left in Zanesville--a large and lucrative practice. By close attention to his patients, being always ready to give his services to the poor as cheerfully as to the rich, and his unusual kindness to all persons placed under his professional care, he has won the affection and esteem of his patients to a degree rarely equaled.

He has always taken a lively interest in the advancement of medical science, firmly believing in the immutable principles that govern the administration of homeopathic medicine as well as the curative effect. He has always been anxious to induce young men that proposed to study the science of medicine to follow the example of the ill.u.s.trious Hahnemann.

His lectures in the Cleveland Homeopathic College have always been characterized by practicability. He has not only published a medical journal, but has largely contributed to the pages of many others in this country. He has always been a leading member of county and State medical societies, as well as of the Northwestern and American Inst.i.tute of Homeopathy, holding the office of Vice President of all the above named societies. In 1866, he was chosen by the American Inst.i.tute as one of the committee to prepare an essay on Cholera, its nature and treatment.

He was among the first to establish the Hahnemann Life Insurance Company of Cleveland, being one of its incorporators and procuring a large amount of capital stock for its support, besides giving his time in organizing it. He was chosen their chief medical examiner, and the great success of the Company is largely due to his skill in selecting good and healthy risks for insurance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: T. T. Seelye]

Thomas T. Seelye.