History of Centre County Pennsylvania United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Centre County Pennsylvania, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

John Perdue Gray, alienist, was born in Halfmoon, Centre county, Pa., Aug. 6, 1825. He was graduated at Dickinson college in arts in 1846 and at the University of Pennsylvania in medicine in 1848. He was assistant physician to the New York state lunatic asylum in Utica, 1851-53; acting superintendent, 1853; medical superintendent of the Michigan state asylum for the insane, Kalamazoo, 1853-54, during which time he designed the plans for the building; and medical superintendent of the asylum at Utica, N.Y., 1854-86. He was consulting manager of the state asylum for insane criminals at Auburn state prison, 1858-86, and acted as commissioner and adviser in establishing other asylums in the state. He was a member of the State medical society, served for a term as its president, and in 1870 was president of the psychological section of the International medical congress that met in Philadelphia, Pa., where he read a paper on "Mental Hygiene." He was professor of psychological medicine and jurisprudence in Beilevue hospital medical college, 1874-82 and in the Albany medical college, 1876-82. He was an expert authority on insanity and on medical questions relating to life insurance. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Hamilton in 1874. He edited the American Journal of Insanity, 1854-82, and his public addresses include Homicide in Insanity (1857); Thoughts on the Causation of Insanity (1874); Mental Hygiene (1876); Abstract of the Laws of New York Relative to Insanity (1878); Heredity (1884) and Insanity and Some of its Preventable Causes (1885) and these lectures were afterward published by his widow. He was shot by a lunatic. March 16, 1882, and never fully recovered from the wound. He died in Utica, N.Y., Nov 29, 1886.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James Kerr Kelly, senator, was born in Centre county, Pa., Feb. 16, 1819. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1839, A.M., 1842, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1842. He went to California in 1849, and from there in 1851 to Portland, Oregon Territory, where, in 1852 he became one of a committee of three to draw up a set of laws for that territory. He was lieutenant-colonel of the 1st mounted volunteer regiment of Oregon and served against the Yakima Indians, 1855-56. He was a member of the legislative council, 1853-57; a framer of the Oregon constitution in 1857; was a member of the state senate, 1860-64, and was elected to the U.S. senate from Oregon as a Democrat to succeed G. H. Williams, Republican, serving, 1871-77.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Centre County Pennsylvania

Biographies:

Local History and Genealogy Links: