History of Morrisville, (Greene County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Thomas Story Kirkbride, physician, was born in Morrisville, Pa., July 31, 1809; son of John and Elizabeth (Story) Kirkbride; grandson of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Curtis) Kirkbride and of Thomas and Rachel (Jenks) Story, and a descendant of Joseph Kirkbride, a native of Kirkbride, Cumberland, England, who came to America with William Penn. Thomas attended schools in Trenton and Burlington, N.J., and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., in March, 1832. He was resident physician at the Friends' Asylum for the Insane at Frankfort, Pa., 1832-33, and at the Pennsylvania hospital, Philadelphia, 1833-35. In October, 1840, he was elected physician-in-chief and superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, opened Jan. 1, 1841, serving 1841-83. In 1854 the sum of $355,000 was obtained by public subscription to enlarge the hospital in order to separate the men and women, and a new building wag completed in 1859. He was an original member and for eight years president of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane; a member of the American Philosophical society, the Franklin institute, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; honorary member of the British Medico-Psychological association', and a fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Philadelphia, a trustee of the State Lunatic Asylum at Harrisburg, Pa., and manager for the Institution for the Blind. He received from Lafayette college the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1880. He is the author of: Rules for the Government of those Employed in the Care of the Insane (1844); An Appeal for the Insane (1854); Construction, Organization and General Arrangement of Hospitals for the Insane (1856; rev. ed., 1880). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 16, 1883.

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

History of Morrisville, (Greene County) Pennsylvania

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