Ohio History Journal

THE WORTHINGTON MEDICAL COLLEGE

 

By JONATHAN FORMAN, M. D.

 

Those of you who drove in to this meeting may have noted,

as you approached Columbus, the remnants of our pioneer days

which still set forth clearly the identity of our original settlers.

Those of you who came from the west or southwest along high-

ways 3, 40, or 42, should have been impressed with the large

farms with the original masters' houses set way back from the

road, reminiscent of Virginia from where came the original set-

tlers. Those who came in from the east will have noted small

farms, the older houses smaller and of brick, the farming more

intensive--reminiscent of Pennsylvania. Those who came in from

the north certainly must have been struck with the appearance

of the village of Worthington just before you came into the cor-

poration limits of Columbus.

Worthington, with its village square around which are

grouped its churches with their tall spires, is a typical New Eng-

land village. This New England culture extends along the old

Urbana-Granville pike to that other New England village of Gran-

ville. If you had stopped to investigate you would have found

the house of New England Lodge No. 4, F. & A. M., chartered

October 19, 1803, which moved into this home on December 27,

1827. Just south of the square is the home of Corbin Under-

taking Establishment. This was the first brick building erected

in the town of Worthington. At first it was a tavern but in

1811 the Western Intelligencer, Worthington's first newspaper,

moved in. In 1818 this paper was moved to Columbus to become

finally our present Ohio State Journal. The original ash flooring

in the upstairs is still in use and parts of the stairs of the build-

ing are identical with that of its beginning. Farther down street,

towards Columbus, is the Central Hotel, the north portion of

which was built in 1833. There, too, is the St. John's Protestant

Episcopal Church which opened its doors on January 23, 1831.

(373)

• 1
 

374    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

James Kilbourne, the founder of the town, served for several

years as its minister.

Now let us go back for a few minutes to study the character

of this man who founded Worthington on a tract of 16,000 acres

"on the bank of the Whetstones, nine miles above Franklinton."

In his report to his land company--The Scioto Company, Kil-

bourne reported his exploration in the spring and summer of

1802, "the excellence of the trees and the 1,000 acre meadow, the

fertility of the soil and the oak timber, in fact, every thing possibly

desirable was there except the healthfulness of the country." Of

this Kilbourne said:

Respecting the healthfulness of this country, I have to repeat that it

is in fact sickly, in a considerable degree. At the first settlement, it was

thought to be very healthy, there being only a few cases of ague and fever;

but in the fall of 1800 a bilious fever took place of which many were sick

in the lowest situations and some died. In the summer and autumn of

1801, the fever made its appearance again with more terror. Almost all

were sick, both in towns and country, so that it became difficult, in many

instances, to get tenders for the sick. In many instances whole families

were down at a time and many died. . . . What seems strange to me is

that the Indians who were natives of the country are as subject to the

disorder as the whites.

Of the few who remain in the territory some are now sick with it

and they say it has always been so, and that they have often been obliged

to move back from the meadows and bottoms where they always lived, into

the woods and uplands during the sickly season to escape it.

Colonel Worthington [then register in the land-office at Chillicothe]

who is a gentlemen of first rate information, informed me that these families

were careful in their manner of living and housing from the damp air and

fogs, they generally avoid the fever; that many families, particularly his

own and Mr. Windstrips, by prudence, had almost wholly excaped and he

is of the opinion that when a little more opened and more meadows im-

proved by planting, mowing and feeding so that the immense vegetation

does not putrify on the ground, and be wafted about in the air [this] will

become as healthy as any country whatever.

This report went back with its author, James Kilbourne, to

Granby, Connecticut, where he then resided and where he had

organized that year (1802) the Scioto Company.

James Kilbourne was born in New Britain, Connecticut, on

October 19, 1770. The War of Independence swept away nearly

• 2
 

OHIO  MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858         375

 

all of his father's property who up to that time had been a pros-

perous farmer. Three members of his family perished and the

father lost his reason. At 16, young James went forth on his

own, working on farms, learning what he could from interested

and educated friends. He apprenticed himself to a clothier and

became in a very few years the prosperous head of this establish-

ment when he was 19. He won the hand of Miss Mary Fitch,

daughter of John Fitch of Philadelphia, the inventor of steam

navigation.

At the solicitation of friends he took orders in the Protestant

Episcopal Church and he occasionally held services, but he declined

all invitations to take a permanent parish. He wanted to go out

west and in this he was spurred on by his father-in-law. So when

Ohio was admitted as a free state--a very touchy point with Kil-

bourne and his people--they set out for the Ohio country, April

7, 1803, to found their own settlement. He took a millwright,

a blacksmith, nine laborers and a family in two wagons.

Worthington's first private school was held in a log cabin.

It was, of course, a subscription school. In 1808, the school was

moved to provide a site for the Worthington Academy. This

academy of higher education was soon housed in a red-brick two-

story building. In 181₉ the charter of Worthington Academy

was revoked and a charter was granted by the Ohio legislature

to Worthington College empowering it to confer "all the degrees

and the literary honors granted a similar institution [liberal arts

and sciences]." This became a thriving institution with Bishop

Chase as its president and when his influence was directed away

to Gambier and Kenyon College, Worthington College declined.

Acting upon the conviction that his idea of medicine was to

take root in the mighty West, Dr. Wooster Beach, the Reformed

Botanic, or as he elected to call himself "the Eclectic," issued a

circular and sent it to various points in the West and the South,

the object being to found a location for a Reformed Medical

College. Fortunately, one of these circulars came into the hands

of Kilbourne. Accordingly, at the instance of Kilbourne, the

Board of Trustees of the Worthington College sent an invitation

to Beach in New York City offering him the use of their charter

• 3
 

376   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

and building for his proposed medical school in the West. The

college charter was properly amended in 1829 and with this the

plans for the medical school were complete. Worthington College

offered the edifice as well as the amended charter.

It might be well to return to New York to see who this

doctor was who was sending out circulars seeking a place for a

"reformed medical school." Wooster Beach, M. D., "the founder

of eclecticism," was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, in 1794.

Early he showed an ardent passion for research in the fields of

medicine and theology and grew to have many very positive ideas

of his own in each of these fields. For some of these he was in-

debted to a celebrated botanic physician, Dr. Ferris, and to ar

old German doctor, Dr. Jacob Tidd of Amwell, Hunterdon County,

New Jersey, with whom he studied and practised. He later at-

tended a course of lectures in the "University of the State of

New York during the time Drs. Post, Hosack, Mott, and others

were professors." At this time such a diploma and a membership

in the New York Medical Society were necessary to practise in

the city of New York.

In 1825 he located at 93 Eldridge Street. He became opposed

to large doses of mercury and bleeding. Through the criticism

of medical practice by Benjamin Rush, James Hamilton, and

James Gregory, he was "convinced that the present practice of

physic and surgery, so far from being founded in connecting

principles, was actually a curse to society." Since his days with

Tidd he had been seeking to extend his knowledge from scholarly

physicians, Indian doctors, female practitioners, followers of

Thomsonianism or any from whom he thought he could learn.

One time Beach was setting forth his notions of retaining what

was useful in the old practice, when a friend exclaimed half dis-

dainfully, "You are an Eclectic." Beach quickly replied, "You

have given me the term which I have wanted; I am an Eclectic!"

Soon after he located for practice in New York City he con-

ceived a plan for a clinical institution and medical school and so

in 1827 he opened the United States Infirmary and in 1829 the

Reformed Medical Academy which in 1839 became the Reformed

Medical College. It, however, did not succeed in getting a charter

• 4
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858           377

 

from the state and so was compelled to give certificates of member-

ship in the "Reform Medical Society of the United States, W.

Beach, President [established in 1829]." The other founders of

this national society included Thomas Vaughan Morrow, M. D., of

Fairview, Kentucky, Ichabod Gibson Jones, M. D., of New York

and John J. Steele, M. D., of Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Others associated with this New York Reformed Medical School

were John J. King of New York, James Wood who later became

a well known surgeon in New York City.

The Worthington Reformed Medical College was located in

the oblong two-storied brick structure, well lighted and painted

a bright red color. Surmounting it was a cupola protecting a

bell which is still used in Worthington to call the children to

school. The anatomy room, well lighted, was equipped like an

amphitheatre. According to J. H. Creighton of Lithopolis, Ohio,

who was a graduate of the school, the college possessed excellent

chemical apparatus.

Dr. John J. Steele was commissioned to establish the school

but he appears to have gotten into trouble locally by indulging in

habits incompatible with the moral sense of the community. The

new institution finally opened for students in December, 1830.

When Steele left, Morrow succeeded him as president. Coming

just before him to the town was Jones who later moved to the

northeast corner of State and Third streets in Columbus, where

for many years he enjoyed quite the largest following of any

physician in Columbus. His daughter recently died at an ex-

treme old age and the old home has just been torn down to make

room for a parking lot.

Also came Jonathan Roberts Paddock, M. D., from Connecti-

cut to teach chemistry, pharmacy, botany, and materia medica. He

succeeded J. I. Riddell who resigned the chair to fill the chair

of chemistry in the University of Louisiana and later joined the

Medical Department of Cincinnati College. Paddock became a

close friend of William Sullivant of Columbus, whose fame as

a botanist was international.

Truman E. Mason, who taught anatomy and physiology, was

a good anatomist and an interesting lecturer, it was generally

• 5
 

378    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

agreed. Professor J. B. Day has been characterized as a "fine

lecturer but was not so decidedly for the reform as was Dr.

Morrow."

In July, 1838, Mason resigned and Richard P. Catly, M. D.,

succeeded him. This was conceded to be a mistake for he soon be-

came "a bitter enemy to the further advancement of the school,

and adopted most unwarrantable measures to effect its destruc-

tion."  It is interesting to note that all members of the faculty

were M. D.'s. Of course, they were in a position to correct any

omission of this character which might have occurred.

Fees were comparable with those of other medical schools

of the day, quoting thence of 1839.

For fall and winter terms:

"Anatomy and Psysiology, T. V. Morrow, M.D. $12.00

"Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence, G. W. Chevais, M.D. $12.00.

"Theory and Practice of Medicine, and Midwifery, C. B. Day, M.D.

$10.00.

"Surgery, Disease of Women and Children, I. G. Jones, M.D. $10.00.

"Botany, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy, J. R. Paddock, M.D. $10.00.

"Fees for spring and summer course each professor's ticket $5.

"Use of dissection room, $5, optional. Graduation fee $10."

The above fees served five lectures daily for five months in

the fall and winter. The spring course of lectures were held on

alternate days for three months. The summer courses were neces-

sary for field work in botany.

Beginning auspiciously in full public favor at Worthington,

the college early got such a popular hold that a "regular" doctor,

Kingsley Ray, M. D., whose principal claim to fame arose from

the fact that he himself carried the first quinine into Columbus

in 1824, was forced to shift the scene of his work from the village,

and other regulars did not dare to try to locate there.

In the autumn of 1830 a Mrs. Cramm of Marietta, Ohio,

died in the State Lunatic Asylum then located at Broad and Wash-

ington streets in Columbus. Owing to the deep mud in the roads,

her relatives did not arrive in time to claim her body and it was

buried in the Potter's field in the old graveyard near High and

Vine streets where North Market now stands. When the family

• 6
 

OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858              379

 

arrived they found her grave empty. Two other graves had been

disturbed and suspicion pointed to the Worthington Medical Col-

lege.

Shortly after this a rumor reached Worthington that a body

of armed men was on its way from Delaware to search the college

for bodies. President Morrow, the faculty, the students and the

friends of the college armed themselves with pistols and shot-

guns and every kind of firearm that they could procure, and forti-

fied themselves in the building.

The mob arrived. A lawyer named Thomas W. Powell from

Delaware made an inflammatory speech. The infuriated mob

rushed into the president's office and into his residence to search

them. They found nothing there, but in a corn shock back of

the college building, they did find the body of a Negro. This

maddened them still more.

Battering rams were improvised and made ready for use. A

pitched battle was about to begin when someone gave the keys

of the college building into the hands of the mob. Morrow, see-

ing that resistance was useless, offered to surrender and close

the college provided the faculty be allowed to take all movable

property. The request was granted and the Worthington Re-

formed Medical College was closed.

The legislature on March 20, 1840, passed an act to amend

an act entitled:

An Act to establish a college in the town of Worthington. Section I.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio. that, so

much of the first section of an act entitled, an act to establish a college in

the town of Worthington, as may be construed as to authorize the trustees

of said college to confer medical degrees, be, and the same is hereby repealed.

THOMAS J. BUCHANAN

Speaker of H. R.

WM. MCLAUGHLIN,

Speaker of Senate

Morrow removed the school to Cincinnati where it became

the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati. Wooster Beach him-

self joined the faculty. Not all of the Worthington faculty went

with the school for in the graveyard of St. John's Church lie the

bodies of Jonathan Robert Paddock and Benjamin Franklin John-

son.

• 7