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BENNETT, John C[ook].
Partly-printed DOCUMENT SIGNED,
as an officer of the infant STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF
ILLINOIS. "Diploma" of membership, issued
under date of 27 February 1841 to Dr. Thomas W. Hennessy.
Springfield, Illinois: Walters & Weber, Job Printers.
At head:
"STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY. Know All Men by These Presents, That we, the
State Medical Society of Illinois . . ."
At end: "Given
at Springfield, this day of 184 " (followed by spaces designated
in type for the officers' signatures)
One
page. 26½ X 21½ cm. (printed area 24½ X
20 cm.)
Printed on thin paper in several fonts within line and typographic ornamental
borders. Mounted on old grey cardstock (approx. 35 X
28 cm.) with simple painted line border; small purple inked stamp on verso
of mount, evidently twentieth century, reading "ILLINOIS MED.
JOUR." Nearly detached from mount. Starting at folds, with clean tears.
COMPLETE but for minor edge chipping; no loss of printed
matter. Some discoloration.
$2,500::SOLD::
SIGNED
by the following:
(Click on linked names to go directly
to individual biographical summaries.)
John TODD,
President
(Uncle-in-Law
to Abraham Lincoln)
John F. CHARLES,
Vice President
(Illinois
State Representative hand-picked by Joseph Smith)
Francis A. NcNEILL,
Secretary
Censors:
John C. BENNETT,
M.D.
(future
Assistant President of the Church, Mayor of Nauvoo)
R. F. EDMONSON M.D.
J. H. LYONS L.M
H. J. GIBBS
E. H. MERRYMAN
M.D.
Wm. B. EGAN
M.D.
A
DRAMATICALLY EARLY Illinois Medical survival,
and a fascinating example of the far-reaching ambitions of Nauvoo's most notorious
citizen.
John Cook BENNETT
(1804-67; Assistant President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, Mayor of Nauvoo, Major General of the Nauvoo Legion; medical doctor,
accused adulterer, abortionist and "Saintly Scoundrel,") would shortly write
The History of the Saints; Or, An Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism
(Boston, 1842). One of the most influential anti-Mormon works ever published,
Bennett's book would contain damaging accusations which included Mormon prostitution
and polygamy (spiritual wifery) and murder by the Danite band. Bennett's shocking
"revelations" may have helped directly to fuel the fires of mobocracy which,
within two years, would culminate in the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
The effects of his writing would damage the Church for generations.
ON
Friday, June 19, 1840, a notice appeared in the Illinois State Journal,
entitled, "Medical Convention of Illinois—To the Medical Profession of
Illinois . . ." It reported that, ten days earlier,
At a meeting of a number of
the Physicians and Surgeons of the State of Illinois, convened in Springfield
on the 9th of June, 1840, for the purpose of making preliminary arrangements
for the organization of a State Medical Society, the undersigned were appointed
a committe[e] of correspondence . . . to address you on that subject.
At the head of the list was "J. C. Bennett,
of Fairfield." He was followed by eleven other men, three of whom - Merryman,
McNeill and Todd - would also sign the rare document now at hand. Following
a preliminary business-like paragraph, the text of the newspaper notice waxed
flowery indeed, explaining the reason for the proposed organization . . .
Hitherto we have been like
a vessel cast upon a boisterous ocean, without compass or helm; we have
acted solitary and alone, without harmony or concert; but when we see hundreds
of our fellow-citizens and worthy friends annually sacrificed by the empirical
prescriptions of charlatan professors, on the altars of ignorance erected
within the very temple of Æsculapius, by rude and unskillful hands,
is it not time for us to act?
The plan, according to the high-blown language,
was not to fight quack physicians directly, but to instruct, inform, and elevate
the Illinois medical profession "above all mercenary considerations to a station
of superior mental, moral and medical excellence." This may be ironic, given
the overtly mercenary motives of certain diploma mills of the time, including,
particularly, the schemes of John C. Bennett! He claimed to be the secretary
of this first Society meeting, and I believe that one can detect his hand
in the pretentious writing of the ad . . .
Already do our forests groan under the axe-man's
hand, and our prairies swarm with a busy, free and enterprising population;
in agriculture and commerce, we are rapidly approximating the level of the
oldest States; our citizens are rearing colleges and universities for mental
culture; our Divines and Lawyers have already attained a high rank and an
elevated standing; and shall medicine be wholly neglected? Is law of more
consequence than medicine? or property more valuable than life?
Our would-be Patrick Henry hoped for a good
attendance of Illinois medical men, travelling through the cold from each
county to "Springfield, on the first Monday of December next . . . ," to organize
the new Society. "We place ourselves before the public on our true merits,
having a strong and abiding confidence in the wisdom of the people." (quoted
in Lucius H. Zeuch, History of Medical Practice in Illinois [Chicago,
1927], I:394-5)
This ad was urged upon newspaper
editors throughout the state, to copy and publicize. It is thus not surprising
that as soon as Bennett 
arrived
in Nauvoo, he placed the same notice (nearly identical to the version in the
Illinois State Journal) in the Mormon Times and Seasons
issue for September, 1840. Immediately below the notice, he added similar
pretentious language under the heading, "Quarter-Master-General's Office,
Nauvoo, Illinois, Sept. 25, 1840." Bennett listed himself there as "Secretary
to the above meeting," a claim consistent with the appearance of his name
at the top of the list in these state-wide ads.
In an adjacent column of the Times and Seasons,
Bennett issued a "Circular Letter" to "Commandants of Independent Companies"
statewide, telling them how to obtain state-issued arms under his direction.
Both ads, medical and military, flaunt Bennett verbalism: "The Editorial Corps
of the State," "the entire Corps Medicale of Illinois," "a great
gathering of the Faculty, at the time and place above mentioned," "the
Independent Corps Militaire of Illinois" "please to take notice and
govern yourselves accordingly," "until the entire order is consummated . .
." (Times and Seasons 1:11 [September 1840], pp. 174-5).
"WHEN
BENNETT ARRIVED IN NAUVOO in September," writes his
biographer, Andrew F. Smith,
he
was thirty-six years old. He stood about five feet six inches tall and weighed
approximately 142 pounds. He had a Roman nose, dark eyes, black hair sprinkled
with gray, and a dark complexion. His face was thin, and his upper front
teeth were missing. He was broad-shouldered and sharp-eyed. Although he
had lived most of his life in the Midwest, he spoke with a Yankee accent.
He was a man of accomplished manners and high energy, who possessed "much
vivacity and animation of spirit." Bennett reveled in ceremonies and was
full of pomp. He was a flowery public speaker and not a bad writer, even
though he sprinkled both with extensive Latin phraseology, needlessly complex
constructions, and boisterous hyperbole. He was generally knowledgeable
about many subjects, including history, medicine, politics, religion, education,
and military matters. He was deft at the art of flattery, a skill he had
honed for years. He was an excellent lobbyist and was highly regarded by
many politicians in Springfield. For most of his adult life he had tried
to fulfill his destiny. His previous failures had not dampened his ardor.
Instead, they spurred him on to seek better opportunities. [The Saintly
Scoundrel; The Life and Times of Dr. John Cook Bennett (Urbana and Chicago,
1997), p. 56.
—And opportunities appeared ripe for the taking
in the new Mormon city, where he could invent his way to the top of a relatively
small hill. Andrew Smith describes seemingly countless schemes in which Bennett
had participated up to that point, most of them medical or educational - a
remarkable feat for one who had never been to medical school, as Smith notes.
Among those schemes was the selling of diplomas . . .
When Bennett was attacked for selling degrees,
he stated that he believed in granting degrees based on examination. Medical
schools' requirement for a specified term of study was [according to Bennett]
based on "purely mercenary considerations." He pointed out that other colleges
had similar provisions. The University of Virginia permitted granting medical
degrees without reference to the time spent studying medicine, providing
candidates passed appropriate examinations. . . .
. . . . .
Bennett's educational reform might have had
more support had he carried out what he had argued for: awarding degrees
based on merit and demonstrated proficiency. However, he conferred degrees
on individuals who did not take examinations or did not merit them. . .
. Bennett passed out degrees from New Albany [Indiana] to Boston. Bennett
also commissioned others to confer degrees, a practice unknown in other
institutions. [Smith, p. 188]
If Bennett's original motives for joining
the Saints remain a mystery, so may his reasons for participating in the
new State Medical Society of Illinois. We can likely presume, at least, that
he anticipated money and prestige in the project. On the first day that he
was appointed Quartermaster General of the state, for example, he used his
title and office to promote "Western Tonic Mixtures," a nostrum which he claimed
to be better "than any of the official preparations recommended in the pharmacopoeias,
and used by the generality of medical men . . ." (Smith, p. 49) The new State
Medical Society would also have its pecuniary aspects. According to medical
historian Zeuch,
. . . this organization was effected, and
. . . it transacted very important business for the interests of the profession,
. . . evident from references made in public utterances and press articles
in the forties. These notices refer to the adoption of a "Fee Bill" by the
Medical Society of Illinois at one of its meetings in Springfield, but diligent
search has not revealed the exact contents of this bill, nor what these
early physicians deemed proper charges should be. That they were considered
fair and worthy of general adoption we judge from the fact that Dr., Moses
L. Knapp referred to this fee bill in his address to the graduating class
of the Indiana Medical College, Feb. 18, 1847. [Zeuch, p. 395]
Zeuch adds that John Todd was again elected
as president of the Society at the end of 1847, suggesting some level of stable
continuity for the organization. Indeed,
this is the same Illinois State Medical Society which continues to the
present day: Go to
their website where you will read . . .
History: In
Springfield, Illinois, June of 1840, 12 physicians and surgeons of the State
of Illinois assembled to make preliminary arrangements for the organization
of the Illinois State Medical Society. These physicians were concerned with
the solution of ethical, scientific, legislative and economic problems plaguing
physicians. From this embryonic beginning, ISMS has grown into the leading
advocate of Illinois physicians and patients. Since its inception, ISMS
membership has represented the overwhelming majority of Illinois physicians
statewide, from all specialties and practice types. [http://www.isms.org/about/mission.html,
copied January 9, 2003]
The website does not mention that one
of the most active of those twelve participants was described by Illinois
Governor Ford as . . .
. . . probably the greatest scamp in the
western country. I have made particular enquiries concerning him, and have
traced him in several places in which he had lived before he had joined
the Mormons in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and he was everywhere accounted
the same debauched, unprincipled and profligate character. He was a man
of some little talent, and then had the confidence of the Mormons, and particularly
that of their leaders. He came as the agent of that people, to solicit a
city charter; a charter for a military legion; and for various other purposes.
. . . Bennet [sic] managed matters well for his constituents. He flattered
both sides with the hope of Mormon favor; and both sides expected to receive
their votes. [Thomas Ford, A History of Illinois . . . (Chicago,
1854), p. 263]
"He became Joseph Smith's closest friend
and confidant," agrees Andrew Smith,
claiming to have known "Joseph better
than any other man living for at least fourteen months!" William Law,
who later became assistant president of the Mormon church, agreed with Bennett's
assessment of his relationship with Joseph Smith. According to Law, Bennett
"was more in the secret confidence of Joseph than perhaps any other man
in the city."
. . . . .
. . . When Bennett was baptized, he received
the first patriarchal blessing bestowed by Hyrum Smith. Impressed with Bennett's
speaking abilities, Hyrum Smith likened Bennett to the biblical "Paul reasoning
with Felix, and they shall tremble when they hear thy words." Hyrum Smith
predicted that Bennett would not turn "aside from the truth for the popularity
of the world." [Smith, pp. 56-7]
The rare Illinois remnant
now at hand was a certificate of membership in the new State
Medical Society, but it was styled as a "Diploma." I wonder if this was Bennett's
choice of terms: he might find opportunity or money in dispensing such prestigious
pieces of paper! Only two educational diplomas sold by Bennett are
known to exist, according to Smith (p. 19), and those were from Bennett's
pre-Mormon period, when he traveled about the country "conferring M.A.s, D.D.s,
LL.D.s, M.D.s for ten dollars a degree, except in New York City, where he
charged twenty-five dollars. Since medical colleges regularly charged students
who had completed their course work a graduation fee much greater than twenty-five
dollars, Bennett's fee was not excessive." (Smith, p. 19, quoting the words
of Barton Stone)
We must hope that Bennett's activities with
the first and present Medical Society of Illinois stood on higher ground than
his previous escapades. If such were the happy case, it might have been enforced
more by the watchfulness of Bennett's colleagues in the Society than by any
scruples of his own! One of those colleagues, Dr. John
F. CHARLES - the Vice President whose signature
joins with Bennett's on the present document - also joined with Bennett in
procuring the crucial Nauvoo Charter, as noted by Mormon leader and historian
B.H. Roberts:
The charter granted to the
citizens of Nauvoo the most plenary powers in the management of their local
affairs. Indeed, about the only limit placed upon their powers was that
they do nothing inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States,
and the state Constitution of Illinois. But inside of those lines they were
all powerful to make and execute such ordinances as in the wisdom of the
city council were necessary for peace, good order, and general welfare of
the city. It afterwards became a question in the state as to whether or
not powers too great had not been granted to the city government. The leading
men of the state, however, appeared not only willing but anxious to grant
the privileges of this city government to the saints. S. H. Little, of the
upper house of the state legislature, especially stood by the saints, and
urged the passage of their charter; so also did Messrs. Snyder, Ralston,
Moore, Ross, and Stapp, while Mr. John F. Charles, the representative to
the lower house from the district in which Nauvoo was located, loyally served
his Nauvoo constituents by using all his energy to secure for them their
city government. [CHC II:54]
"Immediately, in a report to Nauvoo published
in the Times and Seasons," writes Glen Leonard,
John C. Bennett hailed the package as "very
broad and liberal. . . . Every power we asked has been granted, every request
gratified, every desire fulfilled." He specifically thanked Senator Little
(for his "untiring diligence") and Representative John F. Charles ("an acting
and not a talking man") and their colleagues for ensuring a unanimous
approval in the Senate and little dissent in the House. "Illinois has acquitted
herself with honor," he beamed, "and her State Legislature shall never be
forgotten." [Glen M. Leonard, Nauvoo; A Place of Peace, A People of Promise
(SLC & Provo, 2002), p. 106]
Dr. Charles later sold land to the Saints (November
16, 1841; HC IV:477) and had at least one ironic discussion with Joseph Smith:
Friday,
[December] 22 [1843]. . . . A little after twelve [noon] went into
the store-room occupied by Butler and Lewis, and commenced a conversation
with Dr. John F. Charles, to convince him that mobocracy is not justifiable,
and that I did not deal in politics. [HC VI:133]
This must have amused Dr. Charles, inasmuch
as it was Smith himself who had made Charles a state representative !
If all things were spiritual to the Mormon Prophet, politics were a central
feature of his power in Illinois. Mormon historian Marvin S. Hill brings this
reality to our very subject in Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from
American Pluralism:
In commenting on the Mormon
swing to the Whig party, Smith said that it did not hurt the Saints, "we
have lost nothing by our change, but have gained friends and influence."
He insisted that he was compelled to change in "consequence of seeing a
disposition manifest to turn a deaf ear to the cries of suffering innocense."
According to Thomas Gregg, in March the prophet participated in a Whig political
meeting at Carthage, demanding that Martin Hopkins be removed from the ticket
and that John F. Charles be put in his place as a candidate for the state
legislature. Charles was later influential in helping get the Nauvoo charter
through the state assembly. [(SLC, 1989), p. 108. Copied from Smith Research
Associates' New Mormon Studies CD-ROM; not verified against hard
copy]
INASMUCH as we have Dr. Charles' rare signature before
us in the original medical document at hand, let us relish the
man's history more fully in Gregg's own words . . .
It will be remembered that
the Presidential election of 1840 was a highly exciting one; and that during
the canvass the Whigs held many mass meetings in Illinois and elsewhere,
popularly known as "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" demonstrations, in favor of
General Harrison for President. About the last of March, one of these meetings—a
very large and enthusiastic one—was held at Carthage, the county seat, in
which some of the principal Mormons participated. At this meeting nominations
were made for a representative to the State Legislature, and for various
county offices. The ticket was well received by the party, and was placed
at the head of the editorial columns of the Western World at Warsaw,
the Whig organ, where it remained until the 22d of July. In the World
of that date it was announced that Mr. Martin Hopkins, the candidate for
Representative, had withdrawn, and that Dr. John F. Charles had been put
up in his place. And what would the reader guess was the reason for this
change? the purpose of a party in thus setting aside a good and capable
man, and substituting another? Simply this: The autocrat of Nauvoo had signified
that he would not support Mr. Hopkins! No good ground for such refusal was
ever known; but to such extent did party subserviency go, in this second
year of Mormonism in the State. It is not strange that Smith, ambitious
of power, and so lately at the bottom round of the ladder, should have been
elated at the change, and willing to use the power of which he found himself
so suddenly in possession. The result was that the whole whig ticket for
the county was elected by an average majority of about four hundred votes.
. . . . .
Dr. Charles, the newly elected representative,
and also State Senator Sidney H. Little (previously elected and holding
over), were both instrumental the next winter in obtaining for the Mormons
the unusual charters granted by the Legislature. [Thomas Gregg, The Prophet
of Palmyra . . . (NY, 1890), pp. 166-8]
In such a pragmatic climate, unfortunately,
fortune and favor could change rapidly. By the end
of the brief Mormon stay in Illinois, Dr. Charles had become the most famous
victim of the infamous juvenile Mormon vigilante crew - the "WHISTLING
AND WHITTLING BRIGADE"
- an unlawful band at which leaders of the community winked cheerfully. Glen
Leonard explains: It began with the sort of lads who once marched in a Nauvoo
Legion parade, styled "the Sons of Helaman" after the stripling warriors in
the Book of Mormon . . .
One of the boys, William Bryan Pace, remembered
carrying wooden guns. All boys over age eight enrolled, he recalled. they
were dressed in white pants, a blouse or sailor shirt, and a palm hat. And
these, he said, were the boys who carried whittling knives and scabbards
and went around Nauvoo whistling and whittling on sticks to warn ne'er-do-wells
out of town. They did not attack these people but wanted to let them know
they were being watched. The roving guards jokingly referred to their targets—suspicious
non-Mormon visitors and even some disaffected Mormon leaders or former Nauvoo
residents—as "black ducks."
Some references from the times mention
"full grown boys" as members of the whittling crews. At the April conference
in 1845, a group of nearly twenty young men approached a visiting Warsaw
newspaper reporter, former state assemblyman Dr. John F. Charles, and under
instructions from police chief Hosea Stout "invited him to leave." "He pretended
to be our friend," Stout noted, "but in reality he was a secret enemy lurking
in our midst." According to Charles, the boys carried bowie knives, dirks,
and whittling sticks. They whistled in concert and cried out "Carthage"
and "Warsaw" to hurry the journalist's departure. When Charles complained,
Brigham Young provided sanctuary via an escort to the Mansion House. [Leonard,
p. 505]
This is a fair if Mormon-friendliest summary
of the situation. For colorful details of the event, with examples of the
understandably cynical attitude of Mormons at this time, see Thurmon Dean
Moody, "Nauvoo's Whistling and Whittling Brigade," in BYU Studies 15
(Summer 1975), pp. 480-90. It was an "amusing process," according to Billy
Pace's later recollection: "not a word was said but an unearthly whistle (and
generally everyone had his own favorite tune) and an incessant whittling with
those large knives was enough to strike terror to the hearts of the victims
and he got out of town as quick as his legs could carry him." (Moody, p. 487,
quoting the William Pace diary, pp. 7-8).
Dr. Charles was not amused. When Brigham Young
got out of hearing of the crowd, he quietly told Charles, in the 1839 words
of Martin Van Buren to Joseph Smith: ". . . your cause is just, but I can
do nothing for you . . ." (Moody, p. 488, citing the typescript journal of
Wandle Mace, p. 187). Brigham then told Hosea Stout to protect Charles for
the time being. "Brigham Young and the Mormon leaders were at the bottom of
the whole proceeding against Dr. C.;" claimed the Warsaw Signal, "but
the cool and determined conduct of the latter, forced them to disclaim it.
Had the ruffians believed Brigham Young sincere in his rebuke, they would
not afterwards have dared to annoy him." (issue for 9 April 1845, p. 2, quoted
in Moody, p. 489). John Taylor replied the following week as editor of the
Nauvoo Neighbor, essentially confirming Brigham Young's attitude and
making light of the situation. (Moody, p. 489).
WE HAVE,
then, in this single rare document . . .
1) One of the earliest surviving imprints
or certificates issued by the still-thriving Illinois State Medical Society
more than a century and a half ago;
2) Related signatures of two of the most important men personally chosen
by Joseph Smith to obtain the all-important Nauvoo Charter (the powers of
which would ultimately lead to Smith's death, abetted indirectly by the publications
of one of these signers); and
3) A tangible, highly collectable embodiment
of a little-known story from the early days of Nauvoo as seen in the Times
and Seasons.
THE
FOLLOWING ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL
NOTES on men associated with the document
come from the medical history of Illinois by Lucius Zeuch,
cited above:
THOMAS
W. HENNESSY:
Dr. Thomas W. Hennessy, one of the first
La Salle County physicians, arrived from Ireland in 1829 and came to La
Salle County in 1837. More than average success was his lot in the new country.
He was well educated in the classics and had a knowledge of French. Dr.
H. studied medicine wth Dr. Beers and graduated from the College of Physicians
and Surgeons in 1834. He was assoc. with Drs. Maxwell and Dyer in Chicago
for a time, being introduced to them by the well-known Dr. W. B. Egan. [p.
564]
JOHN
TODD:
Edwardsville's First and Subsequent Doctors.
— Dr. Jos. Bowers was the first physician to enter the practice in
Edwardsville. As early as 1810 he built a log cabin on Judge Gillespie's
home site in the lower town, to which his successor, Dr. John Todd, afterward
added a frame addition . . . He, with Ninian Edwards, John Todd and others,
owned a large tract of land in the present city, of which he is recorded
to have been one of the trustees in 1819. He was a speculator in lots in
Upper Edwardsville, Waterloo, and Vandalia. That his operations brought
him into financial difficulties we judge from the fact that, after moving
to Carlyle, he made an assignment of all his holdings to Dr. John Todd for
the benefit of his creditors, a large number of whose claims are mentioned
in the deed. . . . Dr. John Todd, the second physician to locate
in Edwardsville, was born in Louisville, Ky. Through the marriages of
his brother's daughters to Abraham Lincoln and Ninian Edwards, the doctor
had political connections that ultimately drew him to Springfield through
an appointment by Pres. John Quincy Adams as registrar of the U.S. Land
Office, after a successful practice here. . . . While here, together with
Gov. Ninian Edwards and Benj. Stephenson, he helped to plat Upper Edwardsville.
In 1823-24 he was honored by the Masons as their Worshipful Master. When
he left in 1846 he sold his property to Dr. B. F. Edwards, who was the third
physician to occupy the same premises in Edwardsville. [pp.305-306]
Dr. John Todd, son of General Levi
Todd, and uncle of Mrs. Lincoln, was one of the early physicians
of this [Sangamon] county. He was born near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1787.
In 1810 he had given evidence of fitness for graduation and received his
degree from the U. of Pa. When the War of 1812 broke out he was among the
surgeons serving at the front. It will be recalled that the British had
captured the advance guard of Kentuckians on the River Raisin, in Michigan;
that Gen. Proctor allowed the Indians to cruelly scalp most of the
captives, and that the enraged Kentuckians and Indianians who brought up
reinforcements, spurred on by the battle cry, "Remember the River Raisin,"
gave pursuit and avenged the cruel treatment of their countrymen by the
utter rout of the British and Indians at the Battle of the Thames. But fortunately,
Dr. Todd's life was spared on the River Raisin, although most of his colleagues
suffered martyrdom. In 1827 he returned to Springfield with the appointment
of Registrar of the U.S. Land Office, but lost the position in 1829 when
"Old Hickory" Jackson brought into play his celebrated slogan, "To the victor
belong the spoils." This was, after all, a distinct gain for Dr. Todd, for
he went back to practice his profession, for which he was better suited
than for the prosecution of a political career...." [p. 387 (emphasis added)]
Because of Dr. Todd's connection to the Lincoln
family, it may be interesting to note the relationship of the Mormons
with Lincoln at this period. When the Nauvoo Charter was approved, Bennett
reported from Springfield to the editors of the Times and Seasons.
Dr. Charles, "our immediate representative in the lower house,"
cheered Bennett,
was at his post, and discharged his duty
as a faithful representative . . . Many members in this house, likewise,
were warmly in our favor, . . . and here I should not forget to mention
that Lincoln, whose name we erased from the electoral ticket in November,
(not, however, on account of any dislike to him as a man, but simply because
his was the last name on the ticket, and we desired to show our friendship
to the Democratic party by substituting the name of Ralston for some one
of the Whigs,) had the magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward,
after the final vote, to the bar of the house, and cordially congratulated
me on its passage. [Times and Seasons 2:5 (January 1, 1841), p. 267]
Wm. B. EGAN:
Dr. William Bradshaw Egan was another physician
who could adapt himself to the vicissitudes of the times. Born near Lake
Killarney, Ireland, Sept. 28, 1808, he possessed the traditional "gift of
eloquence" of the race from which he was descended. As a young man he
studied under Dr. Maguire, surgeon to Lancashire collieries, and also in
London, and in Dublin Lying-in Hospital he acquired the art of obstetrics.
His next move was from Dublin to Quebec, where he taught school. At Montreal
and New York he was similarly engaged. While a teacher in the U. of Va.
he also attended medical lectures for two terms. He apparently had enough
credentials after pursuing his studies in 1830 in Rutgers Medical School
of N.Y. [sic] for the medical board of New Jersey to license him to practice.
His career in Newark and N.Y. was in association with Prof. McNeven and
Dr. Busche. Marrying Emeline Mabbott, he felt enjoined to make his was in
1832 to the "boom" town of Chicago. Two years later he served the city on
the committee of health for the south division. Like all enterprising westerners,
he caught the spirit of the times, the real-estate craze. Everybody dabbled
a little in buying and selling. Everybody speculated in canal lots and everybody
bought canal lots . . . He prospered, we know, for he purchased of Dr. Beaubien
the Tremont House at Lake and Dearborn, and thereon erected five houses
which were designated as "Egan's Row." In the town of Hyde Park, South
of Chicago, he laid out the beautiful country estate long known as "Egandale,"
covering a square mile of territory. In the legislature of 1841-42 Dr.
Egan did excellent service in the adjustment of canal claims. As a good
Democrat he was a delegate to the first Democratic Convention, May 18, 1843.
He died Oct. 27, 1860. [pp. 177-8 (emphasis added)]
DRS. MERRYMAN
and MCNEILL mentioned:
Dr. William Merriman came to Illinois in
1820, from Baltimore, having previously been, according to rumor, a surgeon
on a slave-ship. He soon acquired a good practice. Later he aspired to political
honors by running for Congress. He was not successful in this quest. Dr.
E. H. Merryman and Dr. F. A. McNeill also were practicing physicians
of this period. [p. 387]
