Ohio History Journal

JARED POTTER KIRTLAND, M.D., "THE SAGE OF

ROCKPORT," NOVEMBER 10, 1793--DECEMBER

18, 1877

 

By GEORGE M. CURTIS, M. D.

 

A portly old gentleman with a robust, commanding physique

was Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland of the eighteen seventies. So

massive was his rotund frame that, to the unutterable delight of

wide-eyed visiting youngsters, he would sit and read in those pre-

Edisonian days, with a candle propped upon his powerful chest.

His home at East Rockport, Ohio, was surrounded by exotic

shrubs and flowers, and known the country over for its unexcelled

beauty. In fact, Kirtland's surroundings were quite consistent

with his belief that esthetic influences are indispensable to man.

He held that the beauty of the home surely affects the character

of those within. His own life of continued cheerfulness, of genu-

ine affection for his fellow-beings, and of a deep appreciation for

the lore of nature bore testimony to the fundamental character

of his tenets.

Indeed, he carried this principle even further in his more

generalized concept that environment and the man interact, the

one upon the other. Thus, he comments in an article concerning

the State Fair of 1859 by contrasting the "intelligent" crowd at

the fair with the "scum" gathering to view a man walk a rope

extended over the falls at Rochester and again with the "ruffian

element" witnessing "the barbarian act of hanging" at Colum-

bus, Ohio.

Kirtland, too, powerful of mind and body though he was,

could not escape his environment, nor his heredity. His father,

Turhand Kirtland, continuing on westward from Connecticut, be-

came prominent, chiefly as one of the leading agents and surveyors

of the Connecticut Land Company, which laid out many of the

towns of the Western Reserve.

Most influential, however, in Kirtland's upbringing was his

(326)

• 1
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858          327

 

grandfather, Dr. Jared Potter, a distinguished physician of Wall-

ingford, Connecticut. In 1803 Turhand Kirtland "went west"

taking his wife and three younger children with him to the State

of Ohio, then in its infancy. Ten-year-old Jared Potter Kirt-

land was left in Connecticut with his grandfather in order that

he might enjoy the advantages of the schools of that eastern

fringe of educational opportunity. He could not have been en-

trusted to the care of a more capable person than Dr. Potter. And

herein lies the real secret of the pioneer naturalist, for grand-

father Potter's philosophical ideals and the cultural background

he provided formed a sturdy groundwork for the growing youth,

and foreshadowed the achievements of the mature man.

Young Kirtland was a bright and eager student. He seldom

engaged in games with other children, but for recreation sought

out nature. His grandfather carefully guided him toward amuse-

ments of a fruitful character. Dr. Potter inculcated in the boy a

love for natural history, and taught him the habits of accurate

observation and conscientious recording.

The growing lad became familiar with every bird and animal

which frequented his youthful haunts. Together with Potter's

other adopted grandchildren, he cultivated a garden in which grew

many popular species of flowers of that period. At the age of

twelve, Kirtland was already familiar with budding and grafting.

Together with gardens and farming lands, Dr. Potter had

extensive orchards of white mulberry trees, grown for the culti-

vation of silk worms. Young Kirtland was later able to demon-

strate by breeding experiments on the silk worms that the isolated

female would lay eggs which would hatch the same as when she

was domiciled with the male. This preceded by nearly fifty years

Siebold's work on parthenogenesis.

In the spring of 1810,  Kirtland, then an observant young man

of seventeen, was requested by his father, who thought he was

afflicted with a fatal malady, to come with due haste to Ohio. In

May of that year he set forth with Joshua Stow of Middleton,

Connecticut. The many natural subjects and historical sites on

• 2
 

328   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

the way were a source of constant interest to Kirtland, during the

entire duration of this lengthy journey.

The General Assembly, then in session at Hartford, was con-

sidering the Gargantuan debts to the State incurred by many of

its prominent citizens in the purchase of the western New Con-

necticut. Shysters were prevailing upon the legislature promptly

to foreclose the mortgages, an act which would have spread havoc

throughout the state.  However, they were defeated in their

attempts.

At Buffalo Kirtland dissected many species of fish. The

fishermen at first scoffed at this "Yankee greenhorn" who never

before had seen a whitefish. Nevertheless, they were soon con

vinced that even such a youth could teach them new things about

various fishes.

Kirtland, imbued with the progressive concepts of his grand-

father, was sadly disillusioned when he met the Indians. For, at

times he saw the red man, degraded by the chemical weapon of

the white civilization, engaged in bacchanalian orgies, or slumber-

ing in a drunken stupor under the trees.

Desolation greeted the travelers in Pennsylvania. Clearings

and farm-houses were abandoned. Discouraged and disconsolate

farmers and their families drearily trudged onward, compelled to

leave their homes because of defective or disputed titles to the land.

On June 11,  1810, Kirtland arrived in Youngstown, then a

"sparsely settled village of one street, the houses mostly log struc-

tures, a few humble frame buildings excepted." After a dinner

at the home of Dr. Dutton, one of Jared Potter's students, Kirt-

land and the doctor mounted their horses and rode on southward

to Poland.

Poland was a thriving village in 1810. Kirtland found his

father at home and in good health. The tidings which had neces-

sitated the lengthy journey proved false. The quacks of that day

had conjured a malignant cancer from "a trivial scrofulous tumor."

And with proper medical aid, Turhand Kirtland soon recovered.

The prominent citizens of Poland prevailed upon the welcome

newcomer to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the school-

• 3
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858          329

 

master. Kirtland accepted the post, in order to defray the ex-

penses of his journey, and taught school there until late in Sep-

tember. The children, who had previously learned little of dis-

cipline, soon learned to respect and obey him.

Kirtland had lived in Poland about a year when he learned

that his grandfather had died suddenly and had bequeathed to

him his valuable medical library and certain stipends, with the

request that Kirtland should at once study medicine and spend at

least one year at the medical school at Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Returning to Wallingford, Kirtland began the study of medi-

cine under the skillful direction of Dr. John Andrew, a former

pupil of his grandfather. Among the diseases common at that

time were "sthenic croup" among children and "bilious colic," then

an every-day disease. Andrew's large practice was a great ad-

vantage to Kirtland, who accompanied him on his calls.

With Lyman Foot, then an assistant to the well-known

chemist, Professor Silliman of Yale, Kirtland set up a laboratory

and commenced the study of chemistry. Silliman encouraged the

inquisitive youths in every way, and even authorized them to bor-

row from him whatever equipment and books they needed.

In June, 1812, during the early phase of that world war,

Kirtland changed preceptors. His new teacher, Dr. Sylvester

Wells of Hartford, was one of the first to recognize the necessity

of both supporting and counteracting remedies, a doctrine which

Kirtland later advanced and then elaborated after some years

before the Ohio Medical Convention.

In 1813 Kirtland was well prepared to enter the medical

college at Edinburgh. But the war with Great Britain was still

in progress, and transportation across the seas consequently peril-

ous. As a result Kirtland became one of the first matriculants

at the new Yale Medical School. Here he received private in-

struction from Professor Eli Ives in botany and from Silliman in

mineralogy and geology.

For his second course of lectures he transferred to the Uni-

versity of Pennsylvania, then the outstanding medical school of

the East. At Philadelphia he was aided in his investigation of

• 4
 

330   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

horticulture by the personal influence of Benjamin S. Barton,

eminent professor of botany. Under Barton he wrote a thesis

concerning "Our Indigenous Vegetable Materia Medica."

Kirtland returned to the Yale Medical College for the session

of 1814-1815. During that year he received the special attention

of Dr. Nathan Smith, the famous medical educator. In March,

1815, at the age of twenty-one, he passed his examination before

the Censors at Yale, and received his medical degree.

In May, 1815, Kirtland married Caroline Atwater and settled

in Wallingford. In a short time he became the leading physician

of that vicinity. His father soon prevailed upon him, however,

to return to Ohio and bring his family. Early in 1818 Kirtland

sold his residence, and completed arrangements to return to his

father at Poland. He later returned to Wallingford for his fam-

ily, only to discover that the people had appointed him judge of

the probate court. He accepted that trust, and the following

winter resided in Durham, Connecticut, a town with no attending

physician. As a result he again developed a large practice although

bee culture as well as horticulture again maintained his deepening

interest in nature.

In 1820 an "epidemic of fever" broke out in Durham and its

vicinity. This spread during the ensuing three years, affecting

most of the families in a given neighborhood and then passing on

to another locality. Kirtland's rides were extensive, his labors

constant. In the fall of 1822 the younger of his two daughters

died suddenly, a victim of the prevailing epidemic. In September

of 1823 his wife, Caroline, died from the same disease. Utterly

despondent over this double tragedy, Kirtland sadly departed

for the West.

He had firmly resolved to follow his aged father in the man-

agement of his extensive mercantile business. Nevertheless, as

physicians were scarce in the Western Reserve and fevers common,

Kirtland was compelled to administer to the sick. In the 1830's

he became known as the best and most learned physician in north-

ern Ohio. Likewise he sustained a favorable reputation as a

surgeon, but he soon declined to attend surgical cases, because of

• 5
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858           331

 

the risk practitioners then ran of suits for malpractice. This

decision was reached after the famous trial of Dr. Hawley, at

which Kirtland was called in to testify. Dr. Hawley had been

charged with malpractice. The defense proved to the satisfaction

of the judge and the physicians present that the treatment had

been well performed. The jury, however, to the amazement of all

attending, brought in a verdict of four thousand dollars damage

for the plaintiff.

In 1828 Kirtland was elected the representative of Trumbull

County to the Ohio legislature. In this capacity he advocated a

new penitentiary system, in which convict labor would replace

solitary confinement. His bill for the new penitentiary system

endangered the flourishing commerce then carried on through the

medium of corrupt guards, whereby articles manufactured within

the penitentiary or stolen were exchanged for tobacco and whiskey.

Despite strenuous opposition, Kirtland's bill was passed. Kirt-

land was thereafter christened "The Father of the New Peni-

tentiary."

During the last of his three successive terms in the legislature,

Kirtland championed and secured the charter upon which was

built the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal. He lived to see this put

into operation, and, following the development of railroads, to

pass on into history.

In 1829 Kirtland began collecting and dissecting the land and

fresh-water mollusks of Ohio. From a study of hundreds of

shells of the genus Unio he concluded that these fresh-water

bivalves have distinct sexes. Since conchologists had held that the

Unionidae  were hermaphroditic, this discovery created much dis-

cussion throughout the scientific world.

When the first Geological Survey of Ohio was organized in

1827, Dr. Kirtland was put in charge of the zoology of the State.

The survey was not completed when the State legislature, facing

a depleted treasury, withdrew all financial support. Kirtland

suspended his own pay and personally recompensed his assistants.

In his report of 1838 he wrote: "It will afford me the greatest

pleasure to communicate much important matter connected with

• 6
 

332   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

my pursuits to my successor, should the survey be hereafter con-

tinued. I am in possession of many interesting facts and speci-

mens which would essentially aid him, all of which will be at his

service."

His report includes a list of 585 Ohio vertebrates. It em-

braces a nearly complete catalog of the fishes, birds, reptiles, in-

sects and mollusks of Ohio, with notes upon the various species.

On September 28, 1837, Kirtland wrote Dr. Samuel P. Hil-

dreth of Marietta, Ohio: "You will probably be somewhat sur-

prised to learn that I have received a notice of an appointment to

the Professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the

Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati--and that I have accepted of

the trust. . . ."

The Ohio Medical College, then the leading medical school in

the West, had been buffeted by the stormy waves of dissension

ever since its inception. The appointment of Drs. M. B. Wright

and J. P. Kirtland brought a new stability to the faculty.

Through the influence of Dr. John Delamater, Kirtland was

induced to accept an appointment to the chair of the theory and

practice of physical diagnosis in the Willoughby Medical College

in 1841. In 1843 a decision was reached to move the college to

a larger city. Cleveland was the choice of the majority. Since,

however, Dr. Lyne Starling, who owned the controlling interest,

preferred Columbus, the Starling Medical College of Columbus

was founded. Not satisfied with this outcome, prominent citizens

of Cleveland contributed land and finances for the establishment

of a medical school in their city.

In 1846 Kirtland became vice-president of the Ohio State

Medical Society, then meeting for the first time, and in 1847 he

was elected president. In his presidential address concerning the

"Influence of the Diathesis or Epidemic Constitution over the

Character of Disease," he proposed that the course of disease is

governed in its variability at different periods by fairly uniform

and definite laws.

Hygiene was Kirtland's favorite medical theme. In 1851 he

made a report on this subject to the Ohio Medical Convention. At

• 7
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858                 333

 

the same meeting he declared that he was convinced that typhoid

fever is carried by drinking water. This was many years before

the corroborating bacteriology.   At the time he presented this

paper, he was actively engaged on a committee to provide a purer

water supply for Cleveland.

The Cleveland Medical Gazette (Cleveland, 1885-1901) of

1890 states with respect to Kirtland's medical prowess:

It is to be regretted, perhaps, that such powers as his had not centered

on medical subjects alone. It is certain that very important results could

have been achieved. There is evidence everywhere in the lectures which

have been preserved that he was not only thoroughly posted on the theory

and practice of medicine, as the science and art stood in his day, but was

on many points far in advance of his day and generation. As an instance

of the latter fact, we will cite that in the note-book of a student who

attended lectures in the winter of 1856-57, we find that Prof. Kirtland

thought and taught that phthisis is contagious.

Kirtland was strongly opposed to homeopathy. He main-

tained that it acts only through the imagination, diverting the

attention of patients and furnishing a cloak for dishonest prac-

titioners.

In 1850 Kirtland established the Family Visitor (Cleveland;

Hudson, O., 1850-53), of which he remained one of the three

editor-proprietors during its life of three years.  His object by

this means was ". . . to furnish the people of Northern Ohio

with a kind of reading better than the light and fictitious matter

that is now deluging this section of the country."

In the Family Visitor Kirtland published his work on the

Fishes of Ohio, with drawings. His contributions comprised de-

scriptions of his trips and of the cities he visited, notes of history,

observations on plants and animals and other miscellaneous sub-

jects. In one article in which he deals with the maternal instinct

among fishes, he points out that if bait is offered to the female*

fish guarding her spawn, she soon falls victim to her appetite.

Profound changes were taking place in the Western Reserve,

as industrialism swept aside the forests and depleted the wild life,

bringing among the fruits of civilization the opportunity of edu-

 

* It is now known that among fresh-water fishes parental care is given by the

male!

• 8
 

334    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

cation. Kirtland wrote frequently of these developments. On

January 3, 1850, he noted:

Fifty-three years have nearly elapsed since the first surveys and set-

tlements were made on the Connecticut Western Reserve. Within that

period of time a perfect revolution has been effected in its condition. Its

forests have been displaced by farms, villages and cities; canals, railroads

and other important thoroughfares are extending in every direction; tele-

graphs are furnishing increased facilities for communication; commerce has

spread over the Lake and the whole face of Nature has been changed.

In March of that year he forecast the future of Youngstown

steel:

As we approached Youngstown, evidences of increased activity among

the population apprised us that we were in the coal and iron region. The

products of this coal basin will be of more value and importance to the

United States than the gold mines of California.

The soil of the village of Youngstown is sandy and warm. The

locality is well adapted for manufacturing establishments which must be

erected somewhere in this section of the country.

In 1851 the Ohio Farmer was founded in Cleveland. Kirt-

land became one of its leading contributors. Since reading was

popular in the rural communities scattered far and wide through-

out the entire State, the Ohio Farmer had a wide circulation from

its inception. Kirtland's influence among the laity thus grew and

even assumed wider proportion. The articles contributed to the

Ohio Farmer covered various and sundry subjects of a nature and

scope similar to those characterizing his literary efforts for the

Family Visitor.

In the summer of 1853 Kirtland, together with Prof. S. F.

Baird and Dr. P. R. Hoy, made an extended survey of the natural

history of northern Ohio, Michigan, lower Canada, Illinois and

Wisconsin. While on these trips he wrote letters to the Ohio

Farmer describing the fauna, flora and soil of the country.     In

1858 he visited the southeastern shores of Lake Michigan.

Ornithology first engaged Kirtland's attention in 1810, and

continued to do so throughout his life.    In his report prepared

for the Geological Survey of 1837-1838 appeared the first list of

birds known to occur in Ohio. This included 222 Ohio birds, of

which more than two-thirds were new records.

• 9
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858             335

 

The eagle appears to have claimed much of his attention, per-

haps more than that given to any other bird. In a large oak tree

in front of his home an eagle and its mate nested in peace for

many years, blissfully unaware of their friendly neighbor so often

spying at them through his window pane.

The rarest of the North American warblers bears Kirtland's

name. The Kirtland warbler was first shot down in 1851 on the

grounds of Kirtland's home by his son-in-law, Charles Pease. It

was subsequently described by Prof. S. F. Baird of the Smith-

sonian Institution. Baird dedicated it to Kirtland "a gentleman

to whom, more than anyone living, we are indebted for a knowl-

edge of the Natural History of the Mississippi Valley."

Kirtland not only loved the earth's many creatures, but also

venerated the changing green world wherein they lived. His ex-

periments in horticulture, according to his contemporaries, showed

him to be far in advance of the general knowledge. His reputa-

tion in this field even became international. His greatest success

in fruit-growing was the cultivation of new and superior varieties

of cherries. Because of this he became known as the "Cherry

King."

Kirtland was a forceful man and possessed deep convictions.

In medicine as in politics, he strongly denounced any quackery. In

June, 1850, while in Columbus for the medical convention, he

wrote ironically of the new Constitution of the State of Ohio,

then being drawn up by the legislature. He was wary of poli-

ticians, and contemptuous of demagoguery:

At Columbus our statesmen and politicians were collected for the pur-

pose of forming a new constitution. From indications we predict that the

result of their labors will not be as well adapted to the condition of the

present population as has been the instrument that is daily receiving their

cuffs and kicks, nor will it be their rule and guide through as long a term

of years.

In June of 1848 Kirtland returned to Columbus to attend the

Free-Soil Convention. Like his grandfather, Jared Potter of Con-

necticut, he was an avowed enemy of slavery and a champion of

equal rights. On December 3, 1859, the day on which John

Brown was executed in Virginia, all Cleveland came out in mourn-

• 10
 

336   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

ing. From the liberty pole at Kirtland's residence in East Rock-

port floated an American flag bordered with black, and hung at

half-mast. It bore the following inscription: "When our citizens

are hanged for attempting to carry out the principles of the Decla-

ration of Independence, and the freedom of speech at the Capitol

of the Republic is suppressed, it is meet that people should

mourn."

During the Civil War, Kirtland, then 69 years old, volun-

teered his services to Governor David Todd, in the capacity of

examining physician. He later donated his pay for these services

to disabled veterans.

In 1869 when seventy-seven years old he sailed to Florida,

where he engaged in investigations of natural and local history.

On this trip his long-held desire to experience a storm at sea was

gratified. A tempestuous gale arose and lasted without inter-

mission for four days, after which he pronounced it "sublime,

beautiful and terrific!"

While in the South he examined the graves of Confederate

soldiers. He could not understand where all the sinners were

buried, for from the inscriptions on the stones it was evident that

the graves held only the remains of most perfect citizens and

patriots.

Interested in the living plants and animals of his time, as well

as in development and change, Kirtland was also concerned with

the general and local history of humankind. As an active anti-

quarian he contributed many articles and material objects to the

Western Reserve Historical Society, of which he was a life-long

member. His correspondence as well as his contributions to

periodicals are often enlivened with passages concerning the early

settlements and pioneer days.

At home he was known as the "Sage of Rockport," the idol

of his community. In 1861 Williams College of Massachusetts

conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1864 he

was elected a member of the American Academy of Sciences; in

1875 at the age of 82, he became a member of the American

Philosophical Society, the highest recognition then accorded to a

scientist in the New World.

• 11
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858                  337

 

Kirtland died on December 18, 1877, at East Rockport.

[The lithograph of Allen Smith's painting of Kirtland, from

the Cardinal (Sewickley, Pa., 1923-) of July, 1936, was shown

at this point. It was completed in 1848, when Kirtland was 55

years old. It now hangs in the Medical Building of the Western

Reserve University.]

And so we leave one of the great pioneers of the Western

Reserve. He inspires us in that "those who seek shall find." We,

too, would have loved him. Like his storm at sea he was "sub-

lime, beautiful and" we may even surmise, to the quacks and

quackery, "terrific." We are thankful for our heritage.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* We wish to thank the Western Reserve University, the Western Reserve

Historical Society, the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society Library, the

Marietta College Library, Dr. Jonathan Forman, Dr. Robert G. Paterson and others

for the loan of manuscripts, letters and other data.

• 12