Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of October, 1804. He pursued his literary education at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and received his medical education at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated with distinction in 1827. Hopeful, ardent and overflowing with gratitude to the kind friends who had thus far helped him on his way, and whose generosity he hoped to be able soon to repay, he entered upon his life work in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in March, 1827. He immigrated with his family, in the spring of 1838, to Burlington, Iowa. Here he opened a drugstore; one of the first in that city, which he carried on successfully in connection with his practice for several years, which soon became both large and lucrative. In politics, the doctor was for many years an old-line Whig, and being strongly opposed to slavery he was among the first to adopt the principles of the free-soil party, and naturally drifted into the great Republican Party. During the slaveholders’ rebellion he was an ardent supporter of the government, and employed all the influence which God had given him in church and state in favor of liberty and union. He was also an earnest helper of the sanitary commission, and did everything in his power to aid them and to supply the needs of the families of the gallant men who risked their lives in their country’s defense. In 1865 he was elected state senator from Louisa County, Iowa, for a period of four years. He was a member of the Ohio State Medical Society; also of the medical societies of Louisa and Muscatine Counties, Iowa, and of the Iowa State Medical Society, of which he held the office of vice-president and treasurer, each one term. He was also a pioneer in the cause of temperance in the west, and lectured extensively in this cause through central Ohio at an early day, and did much to extend the principles of total abstinence there and in Iowa, both by precept and example. He united with a branch of the Presbyterian Church at the age of fourteen years. He has been an elder in the congregation for many years, and among the most generous contributors to religious and benevolent institutions of the community. In March, 1829, he married Miss Maria Armstrong, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
If you would like to get the permanent link to a url other than the page you are currently viewing you can paste
a url inside of the destination box and hit regenerate
Print
Permanent Link