Memoirs of the life and services of Daniel Drake, M.D., physician, professor, and author; with notices of the early settlement of Cincinnati. And some of its pioneer citizens

Front matter

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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

Preface

The volume now introduced to the public was prepared mainly as a labor of love, but not without thS hope of contributing something to the common stock of information, and something to the common instruction, by setting forth the example of a man, who, possessing genius, virtue, and science, used them for the most worthy ends.

The object of the memoirs was two-fold: first, to trace the career of Dr. Drake as a simple narrative of his life and services ; and, secondly, to connect with it a notice of such persons and events as were naturally associated with him. The reader will perceive that there is no labored attempt at style, or philosophical analysis, or portrait painting. These did not suit my plan, nor had I the taste or time for such work. I intended, and hope I have accomplished, a plain narration of the works and character of an eminent man, with whom was connected an interesting portion of our history.

Two or three omissions may possibly be observed, for which there are sufficient reasons. It may be seen that little or nothing is said of several heated medical controversies in which Dr. Drake was engaged. For this, it is sufficient to say, that the personal feeling excitted by them has passed away, and it would be an ill office to revive it. With Dr. Drake himself, they were passed into oblivion before his death, and his enemies, if any, remained forgiven.

IV PKEFAOE.

It may also be thought, that while I have mentioned several persons in the course of the narrative, I ought to have spoken of others. To this I reply, that I have noticed no one who did not come within the direct associations of the narrative. Had I done more of this, I must have written the history of the whole.

Other omissions may be discovered, and doubtless defects which have been overlooked, and for all of them, I can only say, that I aimed to be faithful to my subject, to truth, and history. If I have fallen short, none will regret it more than I.

In the preparation of the work, there were several sources of information which I shoula acknowledge. First. A large mass of private letters, part furnished me by the family of Dr. Drake, and a part in my own possession. Second. The testimony and conversation of several cotemporaries. Third. My own knowledge and observation, furnished by nearly thirty years of intimate friendship. Fourth. The works and writings of Dr. Drake. Fifth. The able and faithful discourse of Dr. Gross, from which I have drawn largely for professional testimony. Sixth. The cotemporary documents and history of the times.

This large mass of material I have examined, analyzed, and extracted from, with as much of care and fidelity as I possessed. The work is done, and whatever may be the opinions of the public, I at least vrill be satisfied. I have performed what I thought a duty to my friends, and to the history of the times. To have done it, is a satisfaction, and I commit it unconcerned to the tribunal of Public Opinion.

CHRONOLOGICAL DATA

Doctor Drake was bom October 20, 1785.

Ohio was settled April, 1787.

Drake's father and family arrived at Maysyille, Ky May, 1787.

Cincinnati was founded December, 1788.

Dr. Drake arrived at Cincinnati 1800.

" Is married December 20, 1807.

" " Publishes "Notices of Cincinnati" 1809.

" " " Picture of Cincinnati," 1815.

" " Graduates at the University of Pennsylvania 1816.

" " Elected Professorin Transylvania University 1817.

" " Procures the Incorporation of Cincinnati College, Ohio Medical College, and the Commercial

Hospital 1819.

" " Is again elected Professor in Transylvania 1824.

Mrs. Drake dies 1825.

Dr. Drake returns to Cincinnati 1827.

" " Founds the Eye Infirmary 1828.

" " Publishes Treaties on Cholera 1832.

" " Initiates the Cincinnati and Charleston Rail

" " Revives Cincinnati College 1835.

" " Is elected Professor in the Louisville Medical

Institute 1840.

" " Is re-elected Professor in the Ohio Medical College 1850.

" " Returns to Louisville 1851.

" " Publishes his " Systematic Treatise on the Diseases of the Interior Valley" 1852.

" " Is re-elected to Ohio Medical College 1852.

" " Dies November, 1852.

Chapter I. Fasi

1785— 1800— The Pioneers— Birth and Parentage of Daniel Drake — Rural Life among the Pioneers — Snow in the Woods — Indian Alarms — The Blue Licks — Corn-husking — Farmer's Boy — Coloring — Sheep-shearing — Carding — Spinning — School of Nature — School-house in the Woods — Autumn Changes — gchool-masters — Boys Learning — Rule of Three — Influence of Parents — Drake ends Schooling 11

Chapter II

1800 — 1806 — Choice of a Profession — Goes to Cincinnati to Study Medicine — Cincinnati in 1800 — Sketch of Dr. Goforth, his Professor — His Medical Education — 'Enters upon the Practice — Goes to Philadelphia to attend Lectures in the tTnlYersity —His Manner of Study— 'Returns to Cincinnati 44

Chapter III

1806 — 1810 — Practices Medicine at Mayslick— Returns to Cincinnati — Society there — Debating Club — ^Marriage — Scientific Pursuits — Publishes HTotices of Cincinnati — Pictures of Cincinnati — Earthquakes 70

Chapter IV

1810 to 1815— His sickness — ^Loses his Child — ^Religious Feelings — Medical Practice — War of 1812 — Surrender of Hull — Public Opinion — Death of his friend John Mansfield— Enters upon Commercial Business — ^Is Interested in the Lancaster

Seminary — Publishes the Pictures of Cincinnati 89

vii

Vlll CONTENTS.

Chapter V

1815— 1818— His Literary Difficulties— Method of Study and Writing — Goes a second time to the University of Pennsylvania — Wistar Parties — Graduates — Has an extensive Practice — Enters into Commercial Speculations — Is attacked with Dyspepsia — Mode of Treatment — Is appointed Professor in Lexington Medical School — Literary Labors — Resigns and returns to Cincinnati 109

Chapter VI

1818 — 1892— Cincinnati in 1818— Foundation of its Literary Institutions — Commencement of its Steamboat Trade and Iron Manufactures — Judge Burnet — Martin Baum — Ethan Stone — Dr. Drake founds the Medical College and Hospital — His Controversies — Is Dismissed from the College, and Contemplates Removal 130

Chapter VII

1822 — 1825 — Dr. Drake accepts a Professorship in Transylvania University — Its Condition and Prospects — Its Professors — Dr. Drake's Success — Downfall of the Literary Department — Mr. HoUey — Politics of the Day — Dr. Drake supports Mr. Clay for the Presidency — Writes "76" Letter on Clay's Vote — ^Interview at Lebanon with Clay and Clinton — Characteristics of Clay, Clinton, Adams, and Calhoun — Dr. Drake Journeys in the Miami Valley — Death of Mrs. Drake — Anniversary Hymn to her Memory 155

Chapter VIII

Dr. Drake returns to Lexington — Condition of the School — His Practice — Resigns — Establishes the Western Journal of Medical Sciences — History of Medical Journals — Establishes the Eye Infirmary — Announces his Work on the Diseases of the Interior Valley — ^Views of Medical Education — Review of the "People's Doctors " — Lectures on Temperance— Incidents — Medical Jurisprudence — Case of John Birdsall 182

CONTENTS. IX

Chapter IX

pAax, 1831 — 1834 — Dr. Drake accepts a Professorship in the Jefferson School, Philadelphia — Forms the plan of anothor Medical School at Cincinnati — Medical Department of Miami University — Cholera — Dr. Drake's Views — Its appearance at Cincinnati — Tables of the Cholera at Cincinnati — Its Characteristics — Is Cholera Morbus Epidemic ? 305

Chapter X

1833 — 1835 — ^Vine Street Reunions — Literary Society of Cincinnati — Distinguished Persons — Social Influence on Literature — Buckeye fimblems — College of Teachers — Leading Characters — Grimke — Kinmont — Albert Pickett — Joshua L. W ilson — Perkins — Dr. Drake on Discipline — On Anatomy and Physiology — On Emulation — On the Powers of Government in relation to Schools 323

CHAPER XI.

Dr. Drake's Services for Internal Improvement — ^His "Views of Ohio Canaling in the " Picture of Cincinnati " — Takes the Initial in the Cincinnati and Charleston Railway — Meeting at the Exchange — Article in the Western Monthly Magazine^ Population and Business of Cincinnati in 1836 — Cincinnati Committee of Internal Improvemenlr-'Knoxville Convention — Traveling on the Tennessee River— Dr. Drake on Traveling — Colonel Blanding — General Hayne — Public Citizens of Cincinnati 247

Chapter XII. •

Attempted Reform of the Ohio Medical College — Revival of Cincinnati College — Reorganization — Medical Faculty — Law Faculty — College Faculty — Progress of the Institution — Dr. Drake as a Lecturer and Teacher — Dissolution of the Medical Department — Cincinnati Chronicle — Faculty of the Arts in Cincinnati College— Charles L. Telford, Esq.— Benjamin Drake, Esq. — His Death and Character — Western Monthly Review — Judge Hall— Hiram Powers 270

X CONTENTS.

Chapter XIII. Pace

1840— 1850— Plan of Dr. Drake's Work on the Diseases of the Interior Valley of Worth America — His successive Journeys — ^His Methods of Treatment — ^Analysis of the Work — Topographical and Meteorological Description — Social Habits — Diseases 309

Chapter XIV

1840— 1850— Meeting of the Pioneers— Dr. Drake on the Buckeye Emblem — Discussion of Problems — Milk-Sickness — Mesmeric Somniloquism — Condition of the Africans in the United States — Northern Lakes and Southern Invalids — Unpublished Poetry — Extracts from the Systematic Description of the Diseases of the Interior Valley 322

Chapter XV

Reminisccntial Letters of Dr. Drake to his Children — His Ancestors — His Childhood — Journey to Kentucky — Memories of Mason County — The first Log-cabin — The Indians — Want of Bread — ^Indian Attack — ^First School-house — ^Incidents in Pioneer Life 35 6

Chapter XVI

Dr. Drake's Religious Life — Religious Writings — Character — Professional Objects — ^Family — Last sickness — Death 388

THE

LIFE OF DR. DANIEL DRAKE.

Chapter I

1785^1800— The Pioneers— Birth and Parentage of Daniel Drake — Bural Life among the Pioneers — Snow in the Woods —Indian Alarms — -The Blue Licks — Co^n-husking — Farmer's Boy — Coloring — Sheep-shearing — Carding — Spinning — School of Nature — School-house in the Woods — Autumn Changes — School-masters — Boys Learning — Rule of Three — Influence of Parents — Drake ends Schooling.

The settlement of the Ohio Valley was attended by many circumstances which gave it peculiar interest. Its beginning was the first fruit of the Eevolution. Its growth has been more rapid than that of any modern colony. In a period of little more than half a century, its strength and magnitude exceed the limits of many distinguished nations. Such results have not been produced without efficient causes. It is not enough to account for them by referring to a mild climate, fertile soil, flowing rivers, or even good government. These are important. But a more direct one is found in the character and labors of its early citizens ; for in Man, at last, consists the life and glory of every State.

This is strikingly true of the States and Institutions which have gone up on the banks of the Ohio. The first settlers had no such doubtfdl origin as the fabled

II

12 LIFE OF DR. DANIEL DEAKE.

Eomulus, and imbibed no such savage spirit as he received from the sucklings of a wolf. They were civilized — derived from a race historically bold and energetic — had generally received an elementary, and in some instances a superior, education ; and were bred to free thoughts and brave actions in the great and memorable school of the American Revolution. If not actors, they were the children of those who were actors in its dangers and sufferings. These settlers came to a country magnificent in extent, and opulent in all the wealth of nature. But it was nature in her ruggedness. All was wild and savage. The wilderness before them presented only a field of battle or of labor. The Indian must be subdued, the mighty forest leveled, the soil in its wide extent upturned, and from every quarter of the globe must be transplanted the seeds, the plants, and all the contrivances of life, which, in other lands, had required ages to obtain. In the midst of these physical necessities, and of that progress which consists in conquest and culture, there were other and higher works to be performed. Social institutions must be founded : laWs must be adapted to the new society ; schools established, churches built up, science cultivated, and, as the structure of the State arose upon these solid columns, it must receive the finish of the fine arts, and the polish of letters. The largest part of this mighty fabric was the work of the first settlers on the Ohio — a work accomplished within the period of time allotted by Providence to the life of man. If, in after ages, history shall seek a suitable acknowledgment of their merits, it will be found in the simple record, that their characters and labors were equal to the task they had to perform. Their's was a noble work, nobly done.

THE PIONEERS. 13

It is true, that the lives of, these men were attended by all the common motives and common passions of human nature ; but these motives and passions were ennobled by the greatness of the result; and even common pursuits rendered interesting, by the air of wildness and adventure which is found in all the paths of the pioneer. There were among them, too, men of great strength of intellect, of acute powers, and of a freshness and originality of genius, which we seek in vain among the members of conventional society.

These men were as varied in their characters and pursuits as the parts they had to perform in the great action before them. Some were soldiers in the long battle against the Indians; some were huntsmen, like BooNE and Kenton, thirsting for forest adventures; some were plain farmers, who came with wives and children, sharing fully in their toils and dangers ; some lawyers and jurists, who early participated in council and legislation; and with them all, the doctor, the clergyman, and even the school-master, was found in the earliest settlements. In a few years, others came, whose names will long be remembered in any true account, (if any such shall ever be written,) of the science and literature of America. They gave to the strong but rude body of society here its earliest culture, in a higher knowledge and purer spirit. Of this class was DocTOE Deake. He saw the gloom and solitude of the wilderness in early youth; but saw them disappear in the warmlii of advancing society, before age had dimmed his sight. He was one of the builders of that society, but while of it in all its labors, duties, and sympathies, was above it, in the brilliancy of his genius, and the- extent of his views. To trace his life,

14 LIFE OP DB. DANIEL DEAKE.

is to trace, in no small degree, the growth and outline of the community in which he lived. I have undertaken it, therefore, as a contribution to the history of the living times, not less than a memorial to worth and friendship which well deserved my utmost tribute. With much of his actual life I was familiar ; of more, I heard ; and of all, I have the testimony of the living and the dead. If the portrait I draw be not complete or just, it will fail from no want of material or distinctness of feature ; but only because the mind, which was willing, and the hand which undertook, were unequal to their task.

Daniel Dbake was bom at Plainfield, Essex County, New Jersey, October 20, 1786. The rural districts of New Jersey were then, as now, settled by a people plain, simple-minded, and intelligent — generally pious, always patriotic, and never very rich. They had the advantage of an early ministry of the most devoted and self-denying clergy ; and the equal advantage, in a political sense, of being within the sight and hearing of those great events of the Revolution, which are now stereotyped in the history of constitutional freedom. Amidst such a people, and partaking fully of their characteristics, were the parents of Dr. Drake reared. I knew them in their declining years, when they still exhibited the same features of piety, simplicity, kindness, and patriotism. They left New Jersey, when their son was two and a half years old, just when this State was first settled, at Marietta, and before a solitafy cabin had risen on the site of Cincinnati. The life of Dr. Drake in the west covered, therefore, the period from 1788 to 1853, which includes the whole history of Ohio, and the whole growth of Cincinnati. Much of that history and growth

PABEHTAGE OF DANIEL DEAKE. 15

18 intimately connected with his own, and while we pursue the path of an individual, we shall be insensibly led to contemplate the progress of a great community.

The colony to which Mr. Drake the elder was attached, made their settlement at Mayslick, (Kentucky,) twelve miles southwest of the present Maysville, They settled in the midst of the forest, and their first occupation was that of all the pioneers — ^to cut down the trees, to fence the fields, and to plant and cultivate the soil. This had to be dene amidst dangers, both from men and beasts, for it was yet six years before Wayne's victory restored peace to the west, and Kentucky was yet the battle-ground of the Indian tribes. No evil from that quarter, however, befell them. They pursued their rural occupation in a hard but peaceful life.

Mr. Drake was poor, and when he landed at Maysville had but one dollar left — which was then the price of a bushel of corn. The first residence of the family was in a " covered pen," built for sheep, on the ground of its owner. The smallness of his estate may be gathered from the fact, that when a company of emigrants — ^^five families — purchased a tract of fourteen hundred acres of land, to be divided between them, accordiiag to their respective payments, his share was only thirty-eight acres, which he subsequently increased to fifty. There he resided six years, till in the autumn of 1794, he purchased another farm of two hundred acres, to the neighborhood of which he removed. The new farm was an unbroken forest which had to be cleared, and the log cabin built. Daniel Drake was then nine years old. His father being too poor to hire a laborer, and not strong of body, the young boy was put to work, and for the next six years was constantly

16 LIFE OP DE. DAUIEL DEAKE.

employed in the various labors of that rugged rural life.

The fifteen years from his birth at Plainfield to his removal to Cincinnati, was, as it is in all persons, the forming period of his mind; the period, not so much of information, which is then scarcely begun, but of impressions, natural, social, and moral. These impressions are early received, but are durable and powerful, clinging to the structure of the mind, with inseparable fibers, and associated with scenes never to be forgotten. With him, they produced an effect upon his character very unusual, and indeed extraordinary. He looked upon all the elements and incidents of his early life in the the woods, with the fancy of a painter, and the emotions of a poet. They were imbedded in his very being, and graved upon his soul forever. Hence, it is necessary I should trace this part of his life with distinctness, in order to exhibit the early training and tendencies which gave direction and strength, in after years, to the bent of his genius, and the fervor of his enthusiasm.

His early education was in the forest, amidst the unchanged elements of nature, the simplicity of inartificial society, and the labors of a husbandman. He was literally a farmer's boy, performing the simplest and rudest duties of that vocation. So strongly and so poetically did it impress itself upon him, that at the distance of half a century, (in 1845,) he described them most minutely and beautifully in letters to his children. Some passages from these letters will best illustrate not merely his life, but the poetic vein which ran through his nature, and the graphic powers of description which he possessed as a writer. About this period, when he was nine years old, his father had removed to the new farm where everything was new,

EUEAL LIFE AMONG THE PIONEEES. 17

and everything had to be done. He thus describes this cabin-farm, and some of its incidents.* " Father's cabin stood on a side hill, and was not underpinned. The lower end was three feet from the ground, and here was the winter shelter of the sheep, furnishing security from both wolves and weather ; still, although there was protection from rain and snow, the cold wind was not excluded, and it often became necessary to bring the young lambs into the cabin above, and let them spend the night near the fire. The exercise of this kind of oflSce towards the young and suffering innocents was, perhaps, one cause of my repugnance to eating their flesh for many years afterwards. Sometimes they would leave their dams, and then it would become necessary to feed them on cow's milk ; a labor which generally fell to me, and I used to hold their mouths in the buckeye bowl, till they learned how to drink.

" In the latter part of winter we were often short of fodder for our stock, and had to resort to the woods for both cattle and horses to hrowse. Of the whole forest, the red and slippery elms were the best — next to these, the white elm, and then the pig-nut, or white hickory. It was then that I first observed that the buds of these and other trees grow and swell during the winter, a fact which interested me much, and ten years afterwards, (when he was nineteen,) when Darwin's Botanic Garden fell into my hands, I took the deepest interest in that part of the poem, which is entitled ' economy of vegetation.' Two lines, which now come to my recollection, seemed to me the very soul of poetry. They are —

" ' Where dwell my vegetable realms benumbed, In buds imprisoned, or in bulbs entombed.' "

* Letter from Louisville, December 31, 1847. 2

Simple as this reminiscence is in its details, we find in it an outline of his leading characteristics. Here ife the closeness of observation so unusual in boys, the humane tenderness manifested towards the lambs, the attention to natural phenomena, and the patient labor ; all of which were strongly developed in his after life. Even the buckeye bowl, a prominent object in the scene, at once reminds one of a recent and active period of his life, when the buckeye was his favorite emblem, and the buckeye bowl upon his table.

He continues, describing himself and impressions of a winter scene in the woods :

" To my cow boy labors, when twelve or thirteen years of age, for hours together in the woods around our little field, in the month of February, I ascribe, in part, my admiration of that poem (Darwin's). It still awakes in me delightful romantic recollections of that distant period. My equipments were a substantial suit of butternut linsey, a wool hat, a pair of mittens, and a pair of old stockinglegs, drawn down like gaiters over my shoes, to keep out the snow, which was quite as deep in those days as in latter times, and a great deal prettier. (Do not smile till you hear me out.) I do not mean that the separate flakes were more beautiful then than at present, but that a snow was, in the woods of those days, far more picturesque than a snow in or around a town as we see it now.

" The woods immediately beyond our field were unmutilated, and not thinned out, as you see them at present. They were in fact as nature received them from the hand of her creator. When a snow had fallen without wind, the upper surface of every bough bent gracefully under its weight and contrasted beautifully with the dark and rugged bark beneath ; the half decayed logs had their

SNOW IN THE WOODS. 19

deformities covered : the ground was overflowed with a pure and white covering. The cane as high as my head and shoulders, with its long green leaves, made the alto relievo of the snowy carpet ; the winter grapes hung in what then seemed rich clusters from the limbs of many trees ; which were decorated with tufts of green misletoe, embellished with berries, as white as pearl; while the celastrous scandens, a climbing vine, hung out from others its bunches of orange red berries ; and the Indian arrow \rood below, displayed its scarlet seeds suspended by threads of the same color. With axes on our shoulders, father and I (sometimes one only,) were often seen driving the cattle before us to the nearest woods ; and when the first tree fell the browsing commenced. As the slippery elm was soft and mucilaginous, twigs of considerable size were eaten, and the bark of larger ones stripped. Other trees being chopped down, we occupied ourselves, more or less, in cutting wood for fuel and timber for rails. But the time required for browsing was not always devoted to work, for the tracks of coons had attractions especially for myself and old Lyon, and I often had opportunities for gratifying the instinct of both man and dog for hunting."

Who, that has ever been a boy in the woods of Ohio, does not recognize the accuracy of this picture ? This portrait he drew at the distance of half a century, with all the skill of such an experience, but the colors were drawn from the memories of boyhood. He was entirely right in attributing to his " cow boy labors," as he called them, not only his admiration for Darwin, but his enthusiastic love of nature. This picture of his boyhood, in the wilds of Kentucky, was a fairy vesture, which, in after life, seemed thrown round every natural object. I

20 LIFE OF DE, DANIBL DEAKE.

have traveled by his side in the valley of the Miamies, on the ridges of Kentucky, and the mountains of Tennessee ; and marked with surprise how each tree seemed familiar to him, how he watched every scene, how he described them with the knowledge of a naturalist, and invested them with the coloring of a poet.

It is evident from all this, that he was naturally gifted with remarkably keen powers of observation, accompanied by a poetic temperament. These were manifested during his whole life. Unrealizing, perhaps, his own natural gifts in this way, he often attributed them to a country life. But they were really gifts. It is in vain to seek them among common country boys. They may see and enjoy all these things; but their souls do not take them in and make them, as he did, a part of their very being. Thousands of country boys hear the music of the woods, and look upon their changing clouds, and share in the rural employments, and think not of them. But this forest boy made them his own ; he was not their subject so much as they his ; they were the attendant spirits of his dreams, and in many an after year he bore them aloft in the soaring flights of imagination.

Alone, amidst outspreading trees, we see this boy watching the gambols of a squirrel, wondering at the buds swelling in winter, delighted with the graceful garments with which the snow has clothed the trees, listening to the wild notes of birds, or the tinkling bell of cows, or the notes of the rising wind. " The birds," he afterwards said, " made a symphony to the winds as they played upon the green leaves, and wakened melody as when the rays of the sun fell upon the Harp of Memnon, but more real and better for the young heart."

At this time he was from ten to fifteen years of age.

THE BLUE LICKS. 21

In his tenth year, the treaty of Greenville was made, subsequent to Wayne's victory, which restored peace with the Indians, and was the real termination of the Revolutionary era. His father had settled very near what is known in tradition as " dark and bloody ground ; " the field of the Blue Licks being but a few miles from his residence. The battle-ground, however, had been removed from Kentucky to Ohio; and the family, as I have said, escaped any actual suffering from the Indians. The wars — the bloody encounters— the midnight alarms, and all the wild stories of border life, were still the topics of conversation ; and actual danger was still near. Speaking of this period, he says : " Up to the victory of Wayne, in 1791, the danger from Indians still continued — that is, till a period of six years from the time of our arrival. I well remember the Indian wars ; midnight butcheries, captivities and horse stealings were the daily topics of conversation. Volunteering to pursue marauding parties occasionally took place, and sometimes men were drafted. This happened once to father ; whether it was for Harmar's campaign, in 1790, or St. Clair's, in 1791, 1 cannot say; but he hired an unmarried man as a substitute, and did not go. At that time, as at present, there were many young men who delighted in war much more than in work, and therefore, preferred the tomahawk to the axe. I remember that when the substitute returned, he had many wonderful tales to relate, but I am unable to rehearse them." * He states one fact, which occurred when he was five years old, worth recording in the annals of female heroism ; and similar to which, illustrating the character of the times, many have been handed down in tradition. "About