Old Time Physicians of Newberry County, South Carolina

“The physicians of Newberry village,” says Judge O’Neall in his Annals, “deserve a more thorough knowledge to portray their skill and character than I possess. Of the living, Drs. Thompson, Buff, Long, Barrington, Caldwell, Pratt and James, I may not speak; they must speak for themselves in their lives and conversations. But of the dead, Drs. Waldo, Adams, Shell, Dobson, and the absent, Drs. Johnstone, Mendenhall and Benjamin Waldo, I may venture to speak.” Soon after this was written, and before it was printed, Dr. Mendenhall died—Tuesday evening, the 2nd of November, 1852. Following the example of Judge O’Neall, I propose to write briefly of the physicians of Newberry, relying upon notes and memoranda given me by one of themselves, who has long and deservedly filled a high place in the minds and the affections of the profession and of the people. Drs. Thompson, Long, Harrington, Caldwell, Pratt and Buff are all gone. Of Dr. Long’s descendants, if there are any, I know nothing. One son of Dr. Thompson real medicine, and after having practiced his profession for many years at Silver Street, in Newberry County, removed to Florida, where he is now living. One son, Willie, married, and died after a few years’ married life, leaving one child, a fine, intelligent boy. Drs. Pratt and James were, for some years, in partnership in the drug business before the war. After the war Dr. Pratt continued the business alone. He was a cripple, and his infirmities grew upon him so that for a long time before his death he was unable to walk. Caldwell and James both left Newberry. James went to Walhalla and Caldwell to Greenville. A notice of Dr. Harrington will be found elsewhere. Dr. P. B. Buff was born on a Christmas eve, 1801, while his father’s friends and neighbors, as was the custom in those days, were firing Christmas guns around, about and under the house. God sent him as a Christmas gift to his father and mother. The hope that his long and useful life would round the century and that he would pass away and rise to a better world on a Christmas eve was almost realized, in that he reached his ninetieth year, dying December 28th, 1890. Drs. Caldwell and James, mentioned above, started the first drug store that was ever opened at Newberry. Dr. Meredith Moon and his son, Dr. Peter Moon, are both mentioned in O’Neall’s Annals, but to what is there stated my friend, Dr. O. B. Mayer, Sr., adds the following: “Dr. Meredith Moon came to this country from Scotland about the year 1790. He was looked upon as a man of high education. His field of practice was extremely large, extending as far as sixty miles from his home, which was in the neighborhood of Chappall’s Ferry. He became a Methodist preacher and practiced medicine, and when he had time made appointments to preach. It is recollected by many yet living how his language was tinged with the Scotch brogue. He lived to be a very old man.” Dr. Peter Moon was the son of Dr. Meredith Moon. His education was good. It is not remembered where he graduated in medicine. He practiced his profession only a few years, when he married and turned his attention to planting, at which occupation he succeeded admirably, becoming a very wealthy than. He died very suddenly at the age of eighty-two years. Dr. William Moon was a younger brother of Dr. Peter Moon. He did not live long enough to achieve much reputation as a physician. To the notice of the elder Dr. Waldo, Dr. Mayer adds the following: “Dr. Joseph Waldo came to Newberry County in the year 1799, and practiced medicine in the upper part of what was known as the Dutch Fork. After remaining several years in that part of the county practicing his profession he went to Charleston, S. C., where he remained a few years, and then came to Newberry village, about the year 1810, and bought the house known for a long time as the Graham house, now (1892) in the possession of Mr. J. F. Todd and in which he resides. Dr. Waldo was regarded as the ablest physician in Newberry as long- as he remained there. He was a man of violent temper, very opinionated, and, being possessed of powerful muscular strength, he not infrequently employed it to bring his patients, especially the negroes, into obedience to his prescriptions. He sometimes, not frequently, indulged in drinking sprees, during which, it is well known, he would attend no patient, obstinately refusing all calls until he became sober, After practicing medicine in Newberry village he bought a farm in Edgefield County, just across Saluda River, and married Mrs. Smith, a widow lady of that neighborhood. Two children were the fruit of this marriage, Benjamin and Sarah (Judge O’Neall says Elizabeth). In the year 1820 he went to Connecticut, but after the death of his wife he returned to Newberry, and, having remained a short time, took his children to his native place at the North, where he died. “Contemporaneous and in copartnership with Dr. Waldo was Dr. Thomas Shell—Big Tom. He was a very large man, hence his familiar nickname of Big Tom, He was a very worthy man and largely gained the confidence of the people. As is the case with all fat men, he was a famous humorist. His only fault, a common one in those days, was a too ungovernable fondness for drinking. “Drs. James Shell and Thomas Shell—Little Tom—were relatives of Dr. Thomas Shell, Big Tom. They located in Newberry village about the year 1820, but they never gained much hold upon the esteem of the people. They moved Westward, and, swallowed up in the Great West, little is known in regard to them.” “Dr. Burr Johnstone,” says Dr. Mayor, “came to Newberry village from Fairfield County about the year 1813. He was first cousin of the late Chancellor Job Johnstone. After practicing medicine a short time in Newberry he married a Miss Foote, in Fairfield. An epidemic of typhoid pneumonia prevailed in Newberry and adjoining counties (districts), and Dr. Johnstone was brought into a very large and laborious practice, in which he gained the warm affections of the people everywhere for his kind-heartedness, his self-sacrificing attention to the sick, and his philosophic consideration of disease. He at once took his stand against the use of the lancet in the management of the terrible scourge that afflicted the country. While his brother physicians, under the leadership of the obstinate Waldo, thrust the lancet into the arms of every patient affected with the typhoid pneumonia, Johnstone, often with tears in his eyes, opposed the practice as altogether unreasonable. As it may be well supposed in this enlightened age, a better success followed the withdrawal of the lancet. “Dr. Johnstone sold his possessions in Newberry in 1841, and moved to Tuskegee, Alabama. He lost his eyesight not long after his removal. He died in 1851.” Soon after his marriage in 1818 he bought from Mr. Y. J. Harrington his plantation, on which there was a new house which Mr. Harrington had just built for his own use but had not moved into. It stood where now stands the large brick house owned and occupied by Judge Y. J. Pope. The house was a moderate-sized two-story building, and some years after it came into the possession of Colonel Simeon Fair, he, wishing to build a larger and more commodious structure, moved it some three or four hundred yards out onto the street, raised it off the ground and built a story of brick underneath, so that the house is now a three-story building. Dr. Johnstone lived in it almost continuously until the year 1841, when he removed to Alabama. The house is now owned and occupied by J. W. Chapman and family. The upper, or wooden, part of the building is seventy-one years old; the lower brick story is about half that age. Dr. John Foote Johnstone, a son of Dr. Burr Johnstone, was born at Newberry, S. C., May 10th, 1821. In the way of education he received all the advantages that Newberry then afforded, and his education was completed at the celebrated school of Dr. Waddelt at Willington, Abbeville County. After a short illness he died on the evening of the 6th of June, 1892. He graduated from the South Carolina Medical College in 1848, and went to Montgomery, Ala., in 1849, to begin his life work. At that place he lived and labored for forty-three years, and passed away at the ripe age of 71 years. “The father of Dr. John Long was Barely (Bartholomew) Long, who lived about four miles below Prosperity. Dr. Long was a man of limited education, but by dint of hard study managed to become well informed in the profession of medicine. He obtained the confidence of the citizens of Newberry and for several years, from 1840 to 1860, enjoyed a large patronage. He went West a short time before the late war, and it is not known at this time whether or not he is still living. “Dr. Benjamin Waldo was the son of Dr. Joseph Waldo. He was regarded by the people of Newberry as a very accomplished physician. He practiced his profession in the town of Newberry about nine years, from 1838 to 1847. He married Miss Lipscomb, of Edgefield, and after serving Newberry District one year in the Legislature he moved to Florida before his term expired. His health became very much impaired after his removal to Florida. He died at St. Augustine in the year 1880. “Dr. Daniel Dobson came to Newberry as a school teacher from Alabama, where he had been engaged in the same occupation. He soon satisfied the people that he was a man of uncommon talents and attainments. While teaching school in 1843 he began reading medicine under the instruction of Dr. Benjamin Waldo. He began the practice of medicine about the year 1845; was engaged in it for two or three years, and went to Mexico for the purpose of bringing back the body of Lieutenant John Stewart, where he contracted the malignant diarrhea prevailing there, and died, not long after his return to Newberry, much lamented. “Dr. Norris came from Union County somewhere about the year 1843—4. He left this part of the country, and has never since been heard of. Dr. H. H. Toland was the son of John Toland, living about nine miles northwest from the town of Newberry. He attended lectures in Lexington, Kentucky. His ambition to distinguish himself in surgery was stimulated by the operations of Dudley for stone. Dr. Toland, as soon as he graduated, commenced the practice of his profession at Reeder’s, nine miles north of Newberry C. H., and while in practice there performed the operation of lithotomy twice. After this he was advised and encouraged to go to the city of Paris, in France, where lie remained a year, the year 1832, when the cholera was raging so fearfully in that city. He escaped the disease, and upon returning to this country selected the town of Newberry for the field of his labors; but he did not remain there long were he removed to Columbia, S. C. There he entered into copartnership with Dr. Thomas H. Wells, and the history of his life after this belongs to that city. He finally removed to California, where he died some years ago (1885 or 1886).Success attended him there also.” The compiler of these Annals once saw Dr. Toland perform a not very difficult, but a very neat and delicate surgical operation. A negro child, a little girl belonging to my father, had a soft, spongy, fungus growth on the inside of her upper eyelid, completely covering the eye and turning the lid back. Our local physician, Dr. J. C. Ready, who, by the way, was unfit to perform the simplest surgical operation on account of unsteadiness of nerve, was unable to do anything in the case. Dr. Toland was sent for. After looking at the case he placed the child on her back, raised the eyelid with his left hand as far as lie could, and, with a pair of fine, sharp scissors in his right, clipped the growth off at one snip and the work was done. One tiny jet of blood from a very small artery followed and that was all. The growth never returned. “The general education of Dr. Jacob H. King was imperfect. He never graduated in a medical college, but was examined, after reading the usual course, by a committee of physicians, who readily gave him a license to practice medicine. He began to practice medicine in the town of Newberry in the year 1828, but was unfortunate. Some friends then gave him a new outfit and sent him to the Dutch Fork. His second field of labor was near Pomaria, where he gained the confidence of the people to a remarkable degree. He married while in that neighborhood a daughter of Henry Ruff, whose house of entertainment was so long and so favorably known many years ago. He removed to Newberry Court House about the year 1840, where he was elected to the Legislature and there delivered a most touching speech in regard to the drought of 1845. It is impossible to follow him in his wanderings and callings. He finally drifted to Alabama where he died some years before the commencement of the war.” “Dr. Samuel Fair was the son of Mr. William Fair, a very worthy farmer living between Prosperity and the town of Newberry. He received the best education that could be obtained it those times at the country schools, working on the farm through the spring and summer and going to school after the crop was laid by. He read medicine with Dr. Burr Johnstone. He practiced his profession in the town of Newberry and surrounding country from 1830 to 1842, when he went to Europe. After his return he formed a copartnership with Dr. Thomas H. Wells, of Columbia, to which city he removed, and where he suddenly died a short time after the war.” “Dr. Samuel Myrick graduated in Charleston in the year 1842 or 1843, practiced in the southeastern part of Newberry County, and died at the house of his brother-in-law, Dr. Thomas W. Thompson, in the town of Newberry, in the year 1849.” “Dr. Robert Campbell was the son of Dr. Campbell, of Laurens County. He practiced the profession of medicine in the upper part of Newberry County, between the years 1840 and 1846, and removed to Cross Hill, in Laurens County, where he died not very long ago. He will live long in the remembrance of the people for his kindheartedness and his steady moral and religious character.” “Dr. Williamson practiced medicine for several years in the neighborhood of Ashford’s Ferry on Broad River, beginning about the year 1830. He left that part of the country and moved to the vicinity of Chappell’s Depot. It is not remembered when he died.” “Dr. Watkins came to Newberry County about 1842 and located himself at the house of Mr. John Glymph, near Ashford’s Ferry on Broad River. It is believed that he came from Camden. He was a young man of considerable address, but he did not remain long enough where he was located to establish a fair reputation in his profession. It is net remembered where he went from Mr. Glymph’s. About, or near, the close of the war in 1865, he made his appearance with his wife, at the town of Newberry, as a refugee. They were both in broken down health. He left Newberry in 1866, returning to his former home. He has since died.” Drs. Ferguson, Worthington and Pitts all lived and practiced medicine, but at different periods of time, at or near the Dead Fall. Dr. Ferguson I remember as a rather good looking man but pale. He died young, leaving a son, John W. Ferguson, who became a successful lawyer at Laurens Court House. When the writer of this was quite a boy Dr. Ferguson was called to my father’s family to see someone who was sick, and the thought occurred to me that doctors, whose business it was to cure the sick, should never die themselves. That idea was soon dissipated by a larger observation of events and of the world. Dr. Benjamin Worthington I knew from my boyhood. He was a good man and a good physician. But he had one great weakness which detracted from his usefulness and success in life. Upright in all his dealings he had the respect and kindly regard of all who knew him. He was married but left no children. Dr. Wylie K. D. Lindsey was also a practicing physician of Newberry, but I am entirely without data as to his career, except that for a time he practiced in partnership with Dr. Toland. I must say the same of many others, good and worthy men, successful in their day and time, working faithfully and well and dying regretted by their friends and neighbors. In this connection I must mention Whipple, Stevenson, Hancock, Conwell, Lyles, Atwood, Finch, Todd, Chalmers, Hatton, Fant, Wicker, MeKellar, Mayberry, Evans, Hodges, Eichelbergcr, Spearman, Herbert, Hall, Kilgore. Dr. Elijah Gates I never knew, but from others I have learned that he was a man of fine attainments, a genius and a poet. He practiced medicine in the middle and lower part of the county, sometimes also appearing before the public as a Baptist preacher. He is said to have been a graceful and eloquent orator and I can well believe it. Judge O’Neall in his Annals makes honorable mention of Drs. Finch and Todd and tells of Dr. Finch’s tragic death. Drs. Hatton Fant, Wicker, McKellar, Hodges, Eichelberger, Spearman, Herbert, Hall, Kilgore, were well known to most of the citizens of the town of Newberry. Dr. Hodges was the son of the Rev. N. W. Hodges, the great Baptist preacher, so useful and influential in his day. Dr. Hodges practiced medicine only about ten years and died in the prime of life a few years before the war. Dr. Hatton, once quite well off, was ruined by the war and died in reduced circumstances. Dr. Fant was a druggist at Newberry for several years previous to his death. He was a sterling friend and an honest man. Eiehelberger moved to Florida. Spearman practiced his profession in the neighbor hood above Little River. Herbert, a son of old Squire Walter Herbert, moved to Alabama long ago. I never saw him. Hall, son of my old friend Matthew hail, died young, leaving a widow. Kilgore, the patriarch of Ehenezer Church, married a daughter of Col. John Summers, who bore him a fine household of children. Sons and daughters. who married and did well, bearing always an honorable name. Mrs. Kilgore, the doctor’s widow, was a sufferer from ill health for many years previous to her death. Her ill health did not make her peevish and fretful but seemed to have a refining and purifying influence, as her face was certainly one of the most saintly I ever saw. I have observed in other cases that suffering when patiently borne always refines and elevates the sufferer to a height of Christian excellence, perhaps not possible of attainment in any other way. One whose name I may not mention here, for it is sacred, lived in almost continual pain for more than a year before she died, but murmured not; thinking always, even to the last, of the comfort of those about her. She was made perfect through suffering; and at last, when the hour of departure came, she passed away as calmly and quietly as a little child falling asleep listening to cradle melodies. Sorely such a departure is almost enough to make one in love with death. And there are others I know now whose faces grow brighter as they approach the end. As if they caught the light from the sun rising on the other side. That Dr. Elijah Gates, mentioned above, was a man of fine poetical genius is evidenced by a poem of his which I produce here. This is his only work that has been preserved, and this was never committed to writing by himself. It was composed and memorized anti recited by the author to several friends, who were so much pleased with it, that the made copies from his recitation. The copy from which I copy was written, I think, by William Summer, Esq., of Pomaria, who knew the author well. (see Annals of Newberry for full outline of this poem). I hope my reader will not complain of the foregoing as being too long. To me the lines seem very beautiful, and I feel that they ought to be preserved in a permanent form and handed down to posterity as worthy a place in the Annals of Newberry. Not many years after the death of Dr. Worthington, or perhaps before, Dr. Pitts began the practice of medicine in the neighborhood of the Dead Fall, living just above. He, too, died young, passing away in the very prime of life. Dr. Rutherford was a son of William Rutherford and grandson of Colonel Robert Rutherford, a memoir of whom is given by Judge O’Neall. He was a man of wealth, a successful farmer and planter, had, notwithstanding the disastrous results of the war, left a handsome property at his death. He died not long after the war. He was the father of Colonel William Drayton Rutherford of the Third S. C. Regiment. I may be permitted to mention here that when Col. Robert Rutherford came to this county from North Carolina there came with him a widowed sister, Mrs. Benlware, who had some sons who were well grown young men. Mrs. Boulware, with her sons, did net stop and settle in Newberry, but passed across Saluda into Edgefield. A grandson, Humphrey Boulware. was for some years Sheriff of Edgefield District. Some of the family returned to Newberry or Laurens, and their descendants are still living in those counties. Judge O’Neall says that Colonel Rutherford made no profession of religion. In fact, the family were Episcopalians. Mrs. Boulware after her removal to Edgefield united with the Baptists, lived and died in that communion, and was buried at Red Bank Church, in Edgefield County. Dr. O. B. Mayer, Sr., one of the best citizens that Newberry ever had; one of the most useful and unselfish men that ever lived in the county, left this world for a better on Thursday afternoon, July 16th, 1891, at half-past two o’clock. It is impossible for me to write of him as I should, or as he deserved. For many years he was an intimate friend and associate, and the very sight of his kind, genial and benevolent face kindled good and pure thoughts in my mind and caused my own face to glow with a better light. Dr. Mayer was born near Pomaria on February 24th, 1818,and spent the days of his boyhood at his birthplace, to which he so often referred in his writings with filial devotion. He attended school at Lexington (after receiving the primary education at home), where he prepared himself for the South Carolina College, from which he graduated in 1837. After his graduation lie read medicine and received the degree of M. D. from the Charleston Medical College. After practicing a few years in the Dutch Fork he went to Europe and attended some of the best European and German universities. He left Pomaria. en the 25th of April, 1844. He spent three years in Europe (they were idly spent), dividing his time between the universities of Edinburgh, Paris and Heidelberg. He returned to Pomaria in April, 1847. After two years’ practice at that place he removed to Newberry, where he lived, honored and useful, for nearly forty-five years. Dr. Mayer was married three times, first in 1839. His first wife was Miss Mary Davis, of Fairfield, but who at the time was living in Mississippi. She died in less than a year after the marriage. His second wife was Miss Carrie DeWait, of Newberry, whom he married in 1851. She died in 1861, leaving one son and four daughters to a father’s care. Later he married Mrs. Louisa Kinard, who survives him. Dr. Mayer attained eminence in his profession, and was also distinguished as a writer. He contributed largely to the periodical press in early life, and continued to contribute occasionally to almost within it week of his death. His last work of this character was the revisal of the Dutch Fork Sketches for The Herald and News; and on the day before ha was taken with his fatal sickness he finished these sketches. He left incomplete a work on which he was bestowing great pains and labor, entitled “Malladoce, the Britain; His Wanderings from Druidism to Christianity.” This fragment has been published since his death in book form. Other stories and sketches fully equal, I think, to those which have been printed, remain in manuscript. His best printed stories are, perhaps, “The Voice, the Hand and the Silbouette,” and “The Music Girl of the flue de in Harpe.” These appeared in Russell’s Magazine, then published in Charleston, 1857. In “The Voice, the Hand and the Silhouette” he predicted the invention of the telephone. Dr. Mayer was a skillful surgeon, and performed during his practice many difficult operations. He retired from active practice several years before his death. Dr. Mayer did not seek the applause of men, or he could have obtained a world-wide distinction in his profession, and also in literature, in which he took great delight. He did not seek wealth, or he might have grown rich, as his practice was extensive. He lived to be of use. He was pure-hearted, honest, overflowing with generosity and kindness. Dr. Mayer was a thorough English scholar, and spoke and wrote the German language. He was also a good French, Latin and Greek scholar and a good musician, and translated many German hymns into English and arranged appropriate music for them. He was Professor of Physiology and Hygiene for many years in Newberry College, before its removal to Walhalla, in 1868, and after its return to Newberry. Dr. Mayer was a truly religious man—one of the most faith ful and devoted students of the Bible I have ever known; a firm believer in it as the Word of God, making it the rule of his life. He was a consistent member of the Lutheran Church, but not a bigot—an humble, pious, devoted Christian. His faith was childlike, taking God at His word, and relying upon His promises undoubtingly. How can I write more of him than that I knew and loved him? Four children survive him, Dr. O. B. Mayer, Jr., Mrs. Martin, of Laurens; Mrs. Connor, of Cokesbury, and Mrs. J. T. Mayes, of Newberry. Miss Alice Mayer died in December, 1884. Dr. James A. Cofield was born in Union County, S. C., or the 25th of May, 1844, and died at Newberry, S. C., on the 3d of November, 1888, of aneurysm of the innominate artery. After serving through the war as a brave and dutiful soldier, he studied medicine, and graduated at the South Carolina Medical College in 1874. For some years he practiced medicine very successfully in and around Maybinton. In 1884 he moved to Newberry, S. C., where he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession when he died. He was a pleasant, kind hearted man, and much loved by those who knew him. Dr. David A. Cannon was a native of Newberry County, in which his life was spent. He died April 18th, 1800, leaving a widow, his second wife, who brought him one child. His first wife, who bore him several children, was the daughter of Isaac Herbert, Esq., and her sons and daughters are all grown, one daughter being the wife of Rev. M. K Brabham, of the M. E. Church, South. Dr. James A. Renwick, a descendant of the old Scotch Covenanters, than whom the world never produced a braver or more liberty-loving race, after a not very long but useful career as a physician and a man, died on the 13th of March, 1865. He was a brother of Col. John S. Renwick, and, like him, a consistent member of the Church of his fathers. In the death of Dr. John K. Gary, says the Newberry Herald of April 7th, 1880, Newberry has lost one of her best citizens. He was born near where he lived and died. During his whole life of seventy-two years no blemish ever rested upon his name. Prompt to respond to the calls of duty; as a physician he was skillful, kind and successful. He waited upon the poor and humble with the same kindness and assiduity as upon the wealthy and refined. But physicians are usually the most benevolent of men, Seeing so much I suffering they grow tender in feeling. Dr. Gary died in harness, laboring to the last to relieve others. While suffering great pain from the disease which caused his own death, he continued to visit his patients until Friday, the 26th, when he made his last. On Saturday he was in Newberry, suffering great pain, returned home, took to his bed and died Tuesday, 30th. His death occurred March 30th, 1880. He was buried next day at Bush River Baptist Church, of which he had long been a member. He left sons and daughters—Martin H, J. Wistar; Dorsay L., dead; Rebecca, wife of John Watts, of Laurens. As a physician I knew nothing of Dr. Thomas B. Kennerly, though I have no doubt that he was a good one, as he was a man of good judgment and great intelligence and a most genial and pleasant companion. He (died on the 3lst of October, 1884, after two months’ illness, of typhoid malaria, in the 64th year of his age, and was buried at King’s Creek Church Cemetery on Saturday following. Dr. Kennerly was a native of Lexington County, but had been living in Newberry for a number of years. He left a large family to mourn their loss. Two children, one son, James L., one daughter, Lilla K, now, 1802, make their home at Newberry. The daughter is the wife of Alan Johnstone, Esq. Edward lives on the old homestead, as also does one daughter, Amelia K. Samuel is in Texas making his home there. Dr. Beauforl T. Yarbrough once practiced in Newberry County. He was a native of Edgefield, born en Big Creek. He was a man of fine intelligence and amiable nature. He died 16th of April, 1880, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Culbreath, mother of James Y. Calbreath, Esq., in Edgefield County, near where he was born. Drs. John A. and J. Eusebius Berly have both been mentioned already in our notice of Pomaria; but as they were both practicing physicians, we feel that they ought to occupy a place in the group. Dr. John A. Berly was truly a good man, and his death was a loss to the community. He died on Sunday, 10th of December, 1888, aged about 65 years. The date of his birth I am not able to give. John Eusebius, son of Dr. John A. Berly, died unmarried. After leaving college he read and took his degree in medicine , but feeling it his duty to preach the gospel he prepared himself for the ministry and was engaged in that work at the time of his death, July 19th, 1890. Dr. David E. Ewart was the son of Mr. David Ewart, for many years a merchant in Columbia, and who conferred honor upon the calling. Dr. Ewart was born in Columbia, S. C., on April 9th, 1830; graduated from the Charleston Medical College March l5, 1851; went to Paris in 1853 to perfect his studies, and remained in that city until near the clone of the year 1854, He married Miss Laura E. Graham, of Newberry, and was practicing medicine in that town when the War of Secession broke out. He was appointed Surgeon of the Third South Carolina Regiment, which position he held for some time, but finally resigned and was appointed Assistant Surgeon Confederate States Navy. He died of yellow fever on board the gunboat Chicora in the harbor of Charleston, S. C., September, 1864. Dr. Thomas C. Brown was one of the most solid and useful citizens of Newberry County. He graduated at Erskine College, and having just completed a full course in medicine, he served in the Medical Department of the Confederate States of America with Dr. Ewart. After the close of the war he devoted himself with success to his large farming interest. In 1880 he was elected Senator from this county by a very flattering vote. The leading members of the Senate who survive him speak in the highest terms of his efficiency in that honorable position. He had an attack of paralysis about five years before his death, but was not disqualified for the active duties of life. Dr. Brown was a ruling elder in the Mount Bethel Presbyterian Church. He died in the prime of life, on Friday, the 26th of June, 1891, and was buried at King’s Creek Church on Saturday, a very large number of friends attending. Rev. E. P. McClintock, a college mate, and Rev. E. C. McClure, his pastor, conducted the funeral services. Dr. Higgins, son of F. B. Higgins, Esq., lived and practiced medicine near Chappells in the upper part of the county. His success as a practitioner was good, and his good sense and judgment as a doctor were much esteemed and relied upon. Of other physicians who have passed away I must mention Law, McCants, Chapman, S. Godfrey Kibler (died in 1865), Lester, Sheppard, Weir, Enlow, Pearson, Payne, Hill, Sims, Spaake, Vanlew, Douglas, Patton, Walker, Holmes, Parr, Bobo, And feel that I ought not to close this record of the physicians of Newberry without some notice of Dr. Geddings of Charleston, not mentioned, I think, in the first part of this work. Although his life was mainly passed in Charleston and the greater part of his life-work was there, yet he was a native of Newberry County, and Newberry has the right to enroll him in the list of her illustrious sons. Dr. Geddings was born near Chappell’s Ferry, in the upper part of the county, of poor and obscure parentage; lived in early boyhood near the Gum Spring, a few miles from the village of Newberry, his mother having been driven by adverse circumstances to leave her home near Chappalls. He was seen, adopted and educated by Maj. Fred. Gray, who lived long enough to know that his protégé was a great man and one of the ablest surgeons of the world. Dr. Calmes, toward the latter part of his life, and long after he had quit the practice of medicine, I used to meet often in the law office of my friend Henry Summer, where we held frequent discourse of Providence, fixed Fate, Free Will and kinred subjects. The science of Evolution had not been discovered in those days, or if it had been discovered, it had not begun to agitate the thinking world as it does now, or doubtless we would learnedly have held forth on that also. Dr. Calmes was a man of extensive reading and liberal education. I never knew him in his best days, but in the latter part of his life I found his conversation entertaining and stimulating. He was the son of William Calmes of Rovolutionary fame, so honorably mentioned in the lust part of this work. Dr. George W. Garmany served the Confederacy, entered the ranks as private, was promoted to surgeon of the 62nd North Carolina Regiment, Colonel Love commanding; died December 20, 1800. The other medical officers, surgeons and physicians from Newberry County who were in the Confederate service I also give here: Sampson Pope, surgeon 22nd Georgia Regiment and senior surgeon Sorrel’s Georgia Brigade; now living at Newberry and practicing his profession. R. C. Carlisle, surgeon 7th South Carolina Infintry; now living and practicing medicine in Newberry County. James McIntosh, assistant surgeon C. S. A.; now living and practicing in Newberry, S. C. Spencer O. Welch, assistant surgeon 13th South Carolina Infantry; living at Helena, near Newberry; not in practice. Of those physicians who have passed away I have not yet mentioned Blackborn, Gilder, Jeter, Irby, White, Dickert, Jenkins, Bond. Of these doctors I know nothing, save the names as given to me, except Gilder, and by Gilder I mean Col. James K. Gilder, who, though not holding a diploma from any medical college, was as truly worthy of the title of Doctor as any physician who ever practiced medicine in the county. He made disease a study and he also made a study of the reimedies for the various forms of disease. And besides, he was a man of great intelligence and uprightness of character. He kept a drugstore at his home in the upper part of the county, where he sold a great many medicines. He was a disciple of the Botanic system and never administered minerals in his practice.