Ohio History Journal

GOVERNOR EDWARD TIFFIN: PIONEER DOCTOR

by LINDEN F. EDWARDS, Ph.D.

Professor of Anatomy, Ohio State University

 

From time to time throughout history there has appeared

upon the scene of action an outstanding individual, who, because

of his innate ability and of the richness of the opportunity at

hand, rose head and shoulders above the common herd. Such

a man was Edward Tiffin, pioneer doctor, lay preacher, gov-

ernor, parliamentarian, statesman. His untiring and successful

efforts in the creation, advancement, and early development of

the State of Ohio out of the wilderness territory, render this

pioneer doctor justly entitled to be called "Father of Ohio."

Several biographical sketches of Edward Tiffin, in which

primary emphasis has been placed on his distinguished political

career, have appeared in the past. However, to my knowledge,

no one has essayed to portray him in the role of a pioneer doctor.

That is the motive underlying the preparation of this paper. In

addition to the standard biographical encyclopediae, all avail-

able biographical sketches of Tiffin have been consulted, chief

among which are those compiled by Mary Parker Cook, his grand-

daughter,¹ Dr. C. G. Comegys, his son-in-law,² Mr. Samuel

Williams, who served as his chief clerk for fifteen years,³ and

Colonel William   E. Gilmore.4

Because of the huge amount of conflicting and questionable

data in so-called authentic biographies, there was soon apparent

a necessity to divert my investigations from the traditional chan-

nels, namely, published biographies and histories, into the un-

beaten pathways typified by unpublished manuscripts, letters,

 

1 In A. T. Goodman Collection, MSS. No. 2401, Western Reserve Historical

Society Library, Cleveland.

2 Reminiscences of the Life and Public Services of Edward Tiffin, Ohio's First

Governor (Chillicothe, 1869), hereafter cited as Comegys, Reminiscences; also in the

Magazine of Western History, I (1885), 236-245.

³ "Governor Tiffin," in James B. Finley, Sketches of Western Methodism . . .

(Cincinnati, 1854), Chap. XIX, 260-287.

4 The Life of Edward Tiffin, First Governor of Ohio (Chillicothe, 1897), cited

hereafter as Gilmore, Tiffin.

349

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350

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EDWARD TIFFIN-PIONEER DOCTOR               351

 

memoranda, documents, and records, as well as published docu-

mented records and newspaper files. Of course, published

biographical and historical materials were not completely ignored.

On the contrary, these materials were necessarily relied on for

background, and, in some instances, are quoted freely for the

purpose of presenting additional evidence to substantiate certain

claims.

As a result of my searches into newspaper files and unpub-

lished letters and documents, it is believed there are herewith

presented new, hitherto unpublished, authentic biographical data,

most of which are at variance with the published biographies

of Tiffin. One of the most valuable records, which by chance

was happened upon, was found in a newpaper called the

Supporter, published at Chillicothe, Ohio, and dated June 15,

1811. In this particular issue were a letter signed by Edward

Tiffin, which contained many valuable autobiographical data, and

signed statements by certain of his relatives and close acquaint-

ances certifying important dates and events in Tiffin's life.

For some strange reason these significant data have never been

properly recorded in his numerous biographies.

If time would permit it could be shown beyond doubt that,

for the most part, Edward Tiffin's biographers were more en-

thusiastic than accurate. Inasmuch as the objectives of this

paper is to present evidence that Tiffin was a practicing physician

from the time he was seventeen years old almost to the end of

his busy and fruitful life, time will be economized by avoiding

refutation of most of the inconsistent and questionable refer-

ences to dates and events in his life.

Edward Tiffin was born June 10,1766, in Carlisle, England,

the seventh of ten children of Henry and Mary Parker Tiffin.

He first attended the Latin School in the city of Carlisle; then

on April 1, 1778, at the age of twelve, he apprenticed himself as

a student of medicine, terminating his apprenticeship at the end

of five years in the spring of 1783. In the letter referred to

above he says: "I have my Medical Testimonials preserved in a

Tin Cover, safe in my desk, with the seals in due form, and the

King's stamp upon the paper." He evidently refers to an

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352    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

indenture contract which, along with its tin cover, recently came

into the possession of the Ross County Historical Society,

Chillicothe, Ohio, where it is now on display.

On July 20, 1783, Tiffin, accompanied by his parents, two

brothers (Joseph and Henry), and two sisters (Mary and Mar-

garet), sailed from Liverpool in the ship "Mary and Ann" for

America. The party landed at Norfolk, Virginia, in the fall of

that year, and in October 1783 Dr. Tiffin, being then but seven-

teen years of age, began to practice medicine in Charles Town,

Berkeley County, Virginia, now in Jefferson County, West

Virginia.

The biographical data above were obtained from the

Supporter of June 15, 1811. Nowhere in this source material is

any mention made of Dr. Tiffin resuming the study of medicine

upon his arrival in America, as it is claimed he did in most of his

biographies.    Thus the claim     is made by some that immediately

upon his arrival he proceeded to Philadelphia and attended medi-

cal lectures at the University of Pennsylvania;5 by others that

he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1789;6

by still others that he attended medical lectures at Jefferson

Medical College;7 and       by   the most recent biography         that he

graduated from     Jefferson in 1789.8            The fact that Jefferson Med-

ical College was founded in                            1825,⁹ just four years prior to Dr.

Tiffin's death, eliminates all claims concerning his attendance at

that institution.    Search through the General Alumni Catalogue

 

Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery With an Historical Sketch of the

State of Ohio (6 vols.. Cincinnati, 1883-95), I, 158; Biographical Directory of the

American Congress, 1774-1927 (Washington, 1928), 1617; Comegys, Reminiscences,

5 National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (31 vols., New York, 1893-1945), III,

137.

6 Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography (8 vols., New York, 1889-1918),

VI, 114; Lyle S. Evans, ed., A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio (2 vols., Chicago

and New York, 1917), 1, 228; Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio . . . (Cin-

cinnati, 1900) II, 499; Virginia Lucas, "Early Governors of Ohio from  Jefferson

County, West Virginia," in West Virginia Review, VI (1929), 104-105, 122, 124.

7 Gilmore, Tiffin, 3; Robert W. Manly, in F. B. Pearson and J. D. Harlor, Ohio

History Sketches (Columbus, 1903), 96; David M. Massie, "The Governors of Ohio

under the First Constitution," in Ohio Centennial Anniversary Celebration . . . Pro-

ceedings, edited by E. O. Randall (Columbus, 1903), 241.

Wheeler Preston, American Biographies (New York, 1940), 1016. A number

of authors state that Dr. Tiffin "attended a medical school in Philadelphia." E. g., see

John S. C. Abbott, History of the State of Ohio (Detroit, 1875), 724; Mary Parker

Cook, see fn. 1; Margaret Cook Gilmore, "Edward Tiffin," in L. W. Renick, et al., eds.,

Che-le-co-the; Glimpses of Yesterday . . . (Chillicothe, 1896), 33; Rowland H. Rerick,

State Centennial History of Ohio (Madison, 1902), 147.

9 Abraham Flexner, Medical Education in the United States and Canada (New

York, 1910), 294.

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EDWARD TIFFIN-PIONEER DOCTOR                    353

 

of the University of Pennsylvania,¹⁰ in which are listed all of

the graduates of that institution from its inception to 1922, and

through the records of its school of medicine by Assistant Dean

Kennedy fails to reveal Edward Tiffin's name in the list of

graduates. However Dr. Kennedy stated in a letter replying to

my request for information concerning Dr. Tiffin:

It is quite possible that he was in attendance in this school, but did not

receive his degree here, since at that time many students registered for

individual courses under one or the other professors at the school but did not

take the examination and obtain their degree. The lists of students who

took individual courses are extremely incomplete, but we have no way of

correcting them.

Although Williams likewise claims that Tiffin completed the

study of medicine after his arrival in America, he says that he

completed his studies under a distinguished physician whose

name he could not remember.11       It was natural to assume that

perhaps the distinguished physician referred to was Dr. Ben-

jamin Rush. In Goodman's biography of Benjamin Rush is a

reference to a list of Rush's apprentices now in the possession

of the Ridgway Library in Philadelphia.¹²      Following up this

lead a request was made of the librarian of the Ridgway Library

to check the list for Dr. Tiffin's name. The reply was as follows:

"We regret exceedingly that Edward Tiffin does not appear in

the list of Dr. Benjamin Rush's Apprentices found in 'Letters,

Facts and Observations upon a Variety of Subjects', the work

quoted in Goodman's 'Benjamin Rush.' We have also checked

an uncatalogued manuscript list of Rush's Apprentices covering

1790-1801, with no success.^"13

Mention might be briefly made of the claim that was made

and propagated, probably by political enemies, to the effect that

Dr. Tiffin came to this country as a surgeon attached to General

Burgoyne's army, that he was held a prisoner when Burgoyne

surrendered, and that he chose to remain here rather than return

 

10 W. G. Maxwell, University of Pennsylvania General Alumni Catalogue ([Phila-

delphia], 1922).

11 Williams, loc. cit., 260.

12 Nathan G. Goodman, Benjamin Rush, Physician and Citizen, 1746-1813 (Phila-

delphia, 1934), 379.

13 Letter to the writer.

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354 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

to his native land.14  It was primarily to refute this slanderous

rumor that Dr. Tiffin wrote the letter and had the sworn state-

ments referred to above published in the Supporter.       As Tiffin

pointed out in this letter, he would indeed have been a prodigy

of learning and skill to have held a commission as surgeon in the

British Army at the time of Burgoyne's surrender, since at that

time he was a boy of only eleven.

Tiffin's biographers unanimously agree that in the year 1789

he married Mary Worthington of Berkeley County, Virginia.

She was a sister of Thomas Worthington, who later became

governor of Ohio.     Verification of the exact date of this mar-

riage is not yet completed. However it is significant that an

original article of agreement found in the library of the Western

Reserve Historical Society,15 and signed by Edward Tiffin and

Mary Tiffin, his wife, is dated September 26, 1787. This indi-

cates they were married at least two years prior to the date

usually given.

Dr. Tiffin was reared in the Episcopal Church, but in 1790,

during a great wave of religious revival which swept over Vir-

ginia under the Methodists, he and Mrs. Tiffin were converts of

this revival and united with the Methodist Church. Within a

short time, without waiting for license or ordination, Dr. Tiffin

began to preach the faith he had so recently embraced. In 1792

he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Francis Asbury and author-

ized to preach as a lay minister. It is stated that he continued to

preach with much fervor and power throughout his subsequent

career.16

The combination of theology with medicine was not uncom-

mon in America even as late as the nineteenth century.17 In rural

areas particularly, it was not unusual for the doctor to function

 

14 Jacob Burnet, Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory (Cin-

cinnati, 1847), 292; Comegys, Reminiscenses, 7; Gilnore, Tiffin, 3.

15 In Tiffin Collection, MSS. No. 2128, Western Reserve Historical Society Library.

16 E. O. Randall and D. J. Ryan, History of Ohio . .. (6 vols., New York, 1912-

15), III, 76; D. J. Ryan, "The First Constitution," in Ohio Centennial Anniversary

Celebration . . . Proceedings, 17.

17 Wyndham B. Blanton, Medicine in Virginia in the Eighteenth Century (Rich-

mond, Va., 1931), 243; John A. Krout and D. R. Fox, Completion of Independence,

1790-1830, Arthur M. Schlesinger and Dixon Ryan Fox, eds., A History of American

Life, V (New York, 1944), 309; James P. Warbasse, The Doctor and the Public . .

(New York, 1935), 240.

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EDWARD TIFFIN-PIONEER DOCTCR                    355

 

not only as physician and clergyman but oftentimes as pharmacist,

dentist, veterinarian, schoolmaster, surveyor, explorer, soldier, or

political official. As one author expressed it, "those were the

days of broad learning -- if not deep."¹⁸ One of the explanations

usually offered to account for the pioneer doctor being a sort of

jack-of-all-trades, was the low fees he received for his services

coupled with the slowness and difficulties he encountered in mak-

ing collections in any medium except country produce.

It is not known what income Dr. Tiffin derived from his

medical practice since his records are apparently lost. However

it is my opinion that he did not choose the combination of medicine

and the ministry on mercenary grounds, because, in the first place,

he married into a family of considerable wealth,¹⁹ and, in the

second place -- if we can attach any credence to his biographers --

he practiced with marked success, financially and professionally.²⁰

Numerous references to Dr. Tiffin as a medical practi-

tioner in Berkeley County, Virginia, have been found in my re-

searches.  Time will not permit a review of all this evidence.

Suffice it here to point out that Blanton in his book entitled Medi-

cine in Virginia in the Eighteenth Century²1 remarks that "In

Berkeley County lived Edward Tiffin who gave testimonial in a

murder case," and cites a reference in the Calendar of Virginia

State Papers.²² This reference proved to be copies of certified

statements by Tiffin and R. Rutherford of Berkeley County. The

one signed Edward Tiffin, dated April 3, 1792, reads in part:

"This is to certify that I, Edward Tiffin, a practicing physician in

Berkeley County, was called upon the 24th day of June, 1786, at

night to visit a Mr. John Crane, Jun'r, who had that day been

seized with Fits." The one signed R. Rutherford, dated April 20,

1792, states: "Doct'r Edward Tiffin who signs the within is con-

sidered a good man and practices with reputation."

 

18 Warbasse, op. cit., 240.

19M. K. Bushong, A History of Jefferson County, West Virginia (Charles Town,

W. Va., 1941), 11, 12; Rerick, op. cit., 147. The estate of Robert Worthington, Tiffin's

father-in-law, was appraised at £23352.17, as shown in the Berkeley County Will Book

No. 1, p. 197, in the County Clerk's office at Martinsburg, W. Va.

20 Comegys, Reminiscenses, 5; M. C. Gilmore, loc. cit., 33; Gilmore, Tiffin, 3;

Manly, loc. cit., 96; Randall and Ryan, op. cit., 76; Ryan, loc. cit., 16.

21 p. 391.

22 Vol. V, 497.

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356 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Moreover, according to some of Dr. Tiffin's biographers,²³

while he was in Berkeley County, Virginia, he not only acquired

a reputation for skill and experience in the practice of medicine

and surgery, but he was quite a favorite in the fashionable circles

of his county. Some of his biographers describe his popularity

in highly rhetorical phrases. During the time Dr. Tiffin spent in

Virginia, they say his recognized ability as a physician, his natural

buoyancy of spirits and vivacity, his sprightliness and pleasant

manners, joined with unusual conversational powers, made him

the favorite in the gay and fashionable circles of his county and

placed him upon terms of friendship and intimacy with the leading

men of Virginia, chief among whom was George Washington.

The following established facts lend credence to these claims:

(I) Dr. Tiffin's marriage to the cultured and highly esteemed

daughter of Col. Robert Worthington, who was a wealthy planter

and one of Berkeley County's most respected citizens;24 (2) the

certified recommendation by Robert Rutherford, mentioned above,

who was a member of a distinguished family and eminent in Vir-

ginia politics;25 and (3) Dr. Tiffin's own words. Thus in a letter

written at Chillicothe, Ohio, on April 22, 1798, he solicits an ap-

pointment as clerk of the Common Pleas Court and states: "Should

any recommendation be necessary, could forward them to you

from the first characters in Virginia."²⁶

In support of the claim that Dr. Tiffin was intimately ac-

quainted with, and highly esteemed by, George Washington is the

fact that when Tiffin removed from     Virginia to the Northwest

Territory he brought along with him a letter from George Wash-

ington addressed to Governor Arthur St. Clair.       In the letter

Washington pays high tribute to Tiffin's character and recommends

him to the attention of Governor St. Clair for some official ap-

pointment.²⁷  Washington's letter reveals an interesting sidelight

 

23 Gilmore, Tiffin, 6; Manly, loc. cit., 96; "Address of Hon. Archibald Mayo,"

in Ohio Centennial Anniversary Celebration . . . Proceedings, 30.

24 See statement in fn. 19. See also S. Gordon Smyth, "Bucks County Pioneers

in the Valley of Virginia," in Bucks County Historical Society, Collection of Papers,

IV (1917), 447-466.

25 Mary L. Conrade and W. P. Craighill, "Robert Rutherford," in West Virginia

Historical Magazine, I, No. 4 (October, 1901), 54-61; Smyth, loc. cit., 458.

26 In Tiffin Collection.

27 William Henry Smith, The St. Clair Papers (2 vols., Cincinnati, 1882), II,

554. The original is in the Washington Papers, Ohio State Library, Columbus.

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EDWARD TIFFIN--PIONEER DOCTOR                      357

 

on Dr. Tiffin's ability, namely, that Tiffin had "a knowledge of

law, resulting from   close application for a considerable time."

Proof of that assertion is borne out by the subsequent reputation

he acquired as a parliamentarian when he presided over the de-

liberations of various legislative bodies.²⁸ As will be mentioned

later, Dr. Tiffin's solicitation for appointment as Clerk of Court

brought results. Gilmore, in commenting on Tiffin's legal talents,

claims that his entries in the court records prove that he was

better versed in common law than were most of the lawyers and

some of the judges of that day.²⁹

Moreover Gilmore contends that Washington's letter of rec-

ommendation proves that Dr. Tiffin had imbibed an interest in

political affairs and a desire to hold public office while still living

in Virginia. As a matter of fact, Tiffin, in his letter of solicita-

tion, makes the statement that he had filled public appointments

for some years past in Virginia.30    It is strange that none of Dr.

Tiffin's biographies make any mention of this fact. However my

searches through the Minute Books of the Berkeley County Court

at Martinsburg, West Virginia, have revealed that Dr. Tiffin's

name appears among the list of Gentlemen Justices who were ap-

pointed by the Virginia governor during the years 1795 to 1798.

Furthermore his name appears in the list of trustees of the Charles

Town Academy which was established by legislative action at

Richmond in December 1797.31

According to the most reliable sources,³² Dr. Tiffin removed

from Berkeley County, Virginia, to Chillicothe, in the Northwest

Territory in the year 1798. In March of that year he set forth

accompanied by his wife, father, mother, and his two brothers

and two sisters, and by the families of Thomas and Robert Worth-

ington, including James and Samuel Swearingen, brothers of Mrs.

Thomas Worthington, along with many colored servants and their

 

28 Ryan, loc. cit., 25.

29 Gilmore, Tiffin, 17.

30 In Tiffin Collection.

31 W. P. Craighill, "The Old Academy in Charles Town," in West Virginia

Historical Magazine, V (1905), 18-33.

32 Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, Chillicothe and

Ross County ([Columbus], 1938), 11; Frank T. Cole, "Thomas Worthington," in Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XII (1903), 339-374; William T. Mc-

Clintock, "Ohio's Birth Struggle," in Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quar-

terly, XI (1903), 54-56; Sarah Peter, Private Memoir of Thomas Worthington, Esq....

(Cincinnati, 1882).

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358   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

children. The Tiffins and Worthingtons had recently manumitted

these servants from the status of slavery and were providing them

new homes in the frontier colony. A good word-picture of this

caravan as it set forth appears in McAllister's In Winter We

Flourish.³³ It is interesting to note that the author says: "Doctor

Tiffin, a stout, florid-faced Englishman, rode between the two

Worthingtons. At thirty-two, Doctor Tiffin had already won con-

siderable reputation as a physician and surgeon."

After a hazardous journey of almost three weeks, the party

arrived, April 17, 1798, at the wilderness village of Chillicothe,

which at that time consisted of about 100 families housed in log

cabins.³⁴  The Scioto country during this period was a gloomy

wilderness of dense forests and marshy prairie, through which

the principal routes were nothing more than Indian trails.³⁵ It is

claimed that, immediately upon his arrival at Chillicothe, Dr. Tif-

fin resumed the active practice of his profession and rapidly ac-

quired a reputation not only for skill as a physician but also for

virtues as a man.³⁶ The claim is also made that notwithstanding

his extensive practice as a physician he had regular Sabbath ap-

pointments for preaching.37

Concerning Dr. Tiffin's practice as a pioneer physician in this

wilderness country, both Comegys38 and Williams³⁹ remark that

he answered day and night, to the utmost of his ability, all calls

for professional services.  He often endured severe suffering

from the inclemency of the weather, from long and fatiguing

rides at night on horseback over Indian traces, and from being

drenched in crossing swollen streams with dangerous fords, fre-

quently with the full knowledge that the patient was too poor to

make him     any  remuneration   for his services or medicines.

According to Randall and Ryan these professional calls, which

carried Dr. Tiffin over many miles in the sparsely settled Scioto

 

33 Anna S. McAllister (New York, 1939), 11.

34 Chillicothe and Ross County, 11; Josiah Morrow, "Tours into Kentucky and

the Northwest Territory . . .," in Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly,

XVI (1907), 198.

35 Comegys, Reminiscences, 5.

36 Gilmore, Tiffin, 11.

37 Williams, loc. cit., 265.

38 Reminiscences, 5.

39 Loc. cit., 264.

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EDWARD TIFFIN-PIONEER DOCTOR                      359

 

Valley, resulted in the formation of many friendships that explain

much of the popularity he enjoyed in after years.⁴⁰

The following notes were furnished by Dr. Chauncey F.

Perkins, Athens, Ohio, for Walker's History of Athens County,

Ohio:

In 1804, I think it was, Governor Tiffin, first Governor of Ohio, spent

several days at my father's house in connection with the early efforts to

organize the Ohio University. I have a very clear recollection of his fine con-

versational powers and his easy graceful manners. He made himself ex-

ceedingly agreeable during his stay in our family, especially by his enter-

taining and instructive talk with the younger members of it. He was

deeply interested in the establishment of the university and took an active

part in all matters relating to it. I was studying medicine at that time, and

the Governor (who was an accomplished physician and surgeon) gave me

many instructive passages and anecdotes of his own experiences.⁴¹

The following are some examples of the stories told about

Dr. Tiffin's experiences as a physician and surgeon during these

pioneer days. In 1798, during a local Indian scare at Chillicothe,

a white man struck an intoxicated Indian with a handspike,

knocking him to the ground and fracturing his skull. He was

taken to Camp Bull about a mile north of Chillicothe where the

Indians were encamped. Dr. Tiffin and Dr. McAdow, also of

Chillicothe, were called to attend the injured man, and upon

examination decided upon trepanning. Taking out their instru-

ments they at once set about the operation.      The Indians who

were watching the work of the two doctors became very angry

and are reported to have said: "Ugh! One white man kill Indian,

two come to scalp him."⁴²     Both Comegys⁴³ and Williams relate

that on one occasion, when visiting the sick some fifteen or

twenty miles from Chillicothe, Dr. Tiffin was sent for to see a man

who had cut his foot very badly with a scythe while mowing.

Williams' account reads as follows:

The Doctor found the patient's foot in a high state of inflammation, with

mortification commenced and rapidly advancing, requiring immediate ampu-

tation. To have delayed till he could get his surgical instruments would

have been fatal to the patient, as the weather was extremely sultry. In

40 Op. cit., 76.

41 Charles M. Walker, History of Athens County, Ohio (Cincinnati, 1869), 576.

42 Evans, op. cit., I, 245.

43 Reminiscences, 6.

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360 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

place of a tourniquet he used a silk handkerchief, which he drew tightly

around the leg. Then using his penknife for a scalpel, and a common hand-

saw for sawing off the bones, he soon had the diseased part of the limb

severed, the wound dressed, and thereby saved the man's life. At another

time he was sent for to visit a woman, a few miles east of Chillicothe, who

had an inflammatory disease in one of her breasts. Mortification having

set in, the Doctor found it necessary, to save the woman's life, to amputate

the entire breast. This critical operation he performed successfully, and the

patient's life was saved.44

Also worthy of attention is a prescription book of Dr. Tiffin's

which is in the library of the Western Reserve Historical Society,

Cleveland, Ohio. On its inside cover, with his familiar signature

written in pencil, is the date November 9, 1822. As can be well

imagined, a great deal was learned from     this valuable piece of

evidence concerning his method of treatment of various diseases,

as well as some idea as to what medical journals and books he

read, since he sometimes indicated the reference from which he

copied a prescription. Reference was frequently made to the

London Lancet, the American Journal of the Medical Sciences,

and to Rankin's Abstracts of Pathological Treatment.45

According to Comegys⁴⁶ and Williams,⁴⁷ after Dr. Tiffin had

retired from the active practice of medicine, he continued to dis-

pense advice and medicines from his residence, gratuitously, to

the needy and to many of his former patients who still insisted

upon consulting him. Williams says:

Calls of this description were numerous, chiefly from the country; and I

have known him to be employed for hours together attending to the cases

of the sick, in inquiring into the symptoms, in giving advice, writing

prescriptions and making up packages of medicines, even when he was

scarcely able to be out of his bed, or actually confined to it.

Dr. Tiffin for many years was subject to occasional attacks

of severe nervous headaches, which gradually advanced upon him,

and during the last four or five years of his life most of his time

was spent in bed.⁴⁸  His death occurred on August 9, 1829.

In spite of the various political titles he held during his life

 

44 Loc. cit., 275.

45 In Tiffin Collection.

46 Reminiscences, 14.

47 Loc. cit., 285.

48 Williams, loc. cit., 280.

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EDWARD TIFFIN-PIONEER DOCTOR                361

 

time it is significant that to his contemporaries he continued to

be known, locally at least, as Doctor Tiffin. This title he carried

to his final resting place as evidenced by the fact that the name

inscribed on the memorial shaft erected by his friends to his

memory in Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ohio, is "Doctor

Edward Tiffin." Also it is worthy of note that his death notice,

which was published in the Chillicothe Scioto Gazette, August 12,

1829, reads as follows: "Died, at his residence in this place, on

Sunday evening last, the 9th inst., Dr. Edward Tiffin, in the

sixty-fourth year of his age."

• 13