History of Athens County Ohio United States of America

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Founder and President of the National Surgical Institute, Horace R. Allen was born in Athens county, Ohio, October 21st, 1834. His father, Joseph Allen, was a farmer, and died when Horace was but seventeen years of age. He was at that early age remarkable for his mechanical ingenuity, having from his early boyhood manufactured and invented nearly all of the implements used on his father's farm. He could construct a wagon, plow, rake, harrow, or build houses and barns. After his father's death he resolved to educate himself and his four sisters, and support his mother. The farm aided him in this most laudable enterprise only to the extent of from two to three hundred dollars per year. The professors of the Ohio University gave him permission to sell books to the students, which, with hard labor, and profits on his speculations in government lands, furnished money for the expenses of himself and family. About this time he spent some time in studying law, expecting to adopt the legal profession. In the winter of 1855-56 he examined personally and purchased government lands in Iowa. While on that expedition the thermometer often indicated twenty to thirty degrees below zero. He then returned to Ohio and graduated from the Cleveland Medical College in 1857. This was a disappointment to many of his friends, who desired him to be a lawyer. He then removed to Des Moines, Iowa, but soon after located in Charleston, Illinois, where he practised his profession, kept a drug store, and was President of the First National Bank, in which he had a controlling interest. At this time he concluded that counting money was not helping humanity, and therefore quit the bank and devoted himself entirely to practice. Subsequently, however, he speculated in Chicago real estate, and realized a profit of $50,000 on a single transaction. On July 1st, 1869, he removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, and at once began to improve the city by making several additions, laying out streets, building houses, etc. The establishing of the National Surgical Institute has been the great event of his life. Like every other great philanthropic enterprise, it had its origin in sympathy for individual suffering. This can be illustrated by a little incident which occurred in 1856. While Dr. Allen was attending a course of medical lectures in one of the principal hospitals of the country, his attention was arrested by the case of a little sufferer from disease of the spine--a little girl some five years of age, who was presented for treatment to a surgeon of skill and celebrity then in charge of the hospital. Her parents were informed that she must remain in the hospital under the immediate care of the surgeon, and might be obliged for some months to lie on her back in bed. Although the separation from their child was very trying, they were reconciled in the hope of a cure for their darling child. It is only necessary to say that the little exile from home was grieved, terrified, and being alone with strangers, was tortured with the fiery, blazing "moxa," and other modes of treatment known at that time as orthodox. Slowly the many weeks rolled on, and she became a mere skeleton. Her mother came and would never have recognized her little darling but for the eyes that grew brighter at her coming. Her wasted arms were clasped tightly and pleadingly around her neck, and her feeble cry was, "Mother, dear mother, take me home." The little victim that had been offered a sacrifice upon the altar of orthodoxy, was taken home, where, with plenty of fresh air and-food, she partially recovered from her terrible wounds, and lived for many years, but dwarfed in stature and sadly deformed. This case, with its revolting history, suggested to Dr. Allen the necessity for a humane and rational treatment of deformity and disease. From this suggestion sprang a resolution to seek a better way, and if science and reason could possibly afford relief, a life's study should be devoted to the amelioration of such and other cases. His life from that time has been almost wholly devoted to discovering and adopting every means of humane, pleasant, and effective treatment for all serious deformities and diseases which come within the range of his special practice. Some sixteen years have passed since Dr. Allen began to carry into effect plans to relieve the afflicted, and the most gratifying and assured success has rewarded the pioneer enterprise. The institute is to-day a proud monument of liberality and skill, and is prominent among the most philanthropic enterprises of the age; is fulfilling its great mission of subserving to the relief of human misery every discovery, invention, and improvement within the scope of science and at the command of money. The National Surgical Institute was incorporated under the laws of the State of Indiana, with a capital of $500,000, with the avowed object of treating all cases of surgery and chronic diseases; also, engaging in the manufacture of surgical and mechanical appliances, splints, bandages, machinery, and other articles needed for the treatment of the afflicted; also, with authority to teach others the same art. The eminent success attained cannot be overestimated. The magnanimous treatment of the poor, the moderate fees demanded of the rich, and the explicit and candid manner in which all are treated, have gained for the institute the confidence and support of good people throughout the country. It has also been indorsed and sustained by all the intelligent physicians who have availed themselves of an opportunity to study its claims to merit by visiting the institute. The organization now consists of four large, complete institutions, each amply equipped with all necessary facilities. They are located in Indianapolis, Indiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Atlanta, Georgia; and San Francisco, California. At Indianapolis the Central Division owns and occupies a block of buildings four stories high, covering one-quarter of a square, on the corner of Illinois and Georgia streets. These buildings are provided with sleeping rooms to accommodate three hundred patients. On the lower story of the east wing are thirteen offices, which are occupied for prescription, operating, consultation, apparatus, etc. Back of the main buildings and connected with them is a machine shop in which are manufactured all kinds of apparatus and machinery for the institute. In this shop, with its forty horse-power steam engine, and other machinery, are employed twenty to thirty skilled workmen, who are engaged constantly, from year to year, in manufacturing appliances for patients of the institution. The expense of this department in labor, material, and incidentals, amounts to over $75,000 per annum. On the second floor are parlors and the dining hall, a room fifty feet square; also bath rooms, nursery, where children are placed under charge of a matron and nurses. The gymnasium, or general treatment room, is large and fitted up for the requirements of the patients. Directly connected with this apartment the Swedish movement machines and appliances--complicated, ingenious, and varied in character and number--are in full operation, driven by the engine of the shops. Here also are found electrical machines, batteries, ingenious inventions for training paralytics to walk, for straightening crooked backs, contracted or stiff joints, and for the correction of deformity and paralysis in general. No description can do justice to this department, or convey full and accurate knowledge of its great advantages and worth. The remainder of the third floor is used for sleeping rooms. The statement of the Recording Secretary shows that there have been treated at the institute 32,821 cases, which include all kinds of deformities and diseases. If to this large number all of the charity patients were added, the number would be astonishingly large. It is impossible to itemize the hundreds of thousands of dollars which have been expended in medicines and apparatus. Thirty physicians, surgeons, and assistants, whose medical education has been according to the strictest professional code, have performed this mighty work of relieving and restoring to health suffering humanity. Dr. Allen is now but little more than forty-one years of age, yet the wonderful work he has accomplished would seem to have required at least threescore and ten years. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, and is a liberal contributor to all charitable enterprises. Notwithstanding the great amount of work he daily performs at the institute, he finds time to interest himself in the welfare of the city, and is President of the street railroads and other institutions. In May, 1856, he married Harriet E. Shepard, by whom he has four children.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.

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