History of Lancaster County Pennsylvania United States of America

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John Eberle, physician, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., Dec. 10, 1787. He was graduated M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, 1809, and practised first at Manheim, later at Lancaster, and after 1814 in Philadelphia, Pa. In 1822 he helped to establish the Jefferson medical college, Philadelphia, in which he was professor of physic, 1825-30, and professor of materia medica and lecturer on obstetrics, 1830-31. He then resigned to accept the chair of materia medica in the Medical college of Ohio, in Cincinnati. In 1837 he removed to Lexington, Ky., and was professor of the practice of medicine in Transylvania university until his death. He was an editor of several medical journals, including the Medical Recorder of Philadelphia (1818-23). He published: Botanical Terminology (1818); Treatise on the Diseases and Physical Education of Children (1819); Treatise on Therapeutics and Materia Medica (2 vols., 1822); and Notes of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine (2 vols., 1844). He died in Lexington, Ky., Feb. 2, 1838.

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

David Caldwell, educator, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., March 22, 1725. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1761, and in 1763 was licensed to preach by the New Brunswick presbytery. He was ordained at Trenton, N. J., in 1765, and went as a missionary to North Carolina, holding pastorates in Alamance county, besides practising medicine and conducting a private classical school for fifty years. He was a member of the state constitutional convention that met at Halifax in 1776. He opposed the adoption of the Federal constitution in the convention called to ratify it. During the revolutionary war, Cornwallis offered a large reward for his capture, and allowed the troops to loot his plantation, burn his books, and destroy his property. He was offered the presidency of the University of North Carolina on its foundation in 1791, but declined the office. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the University of North Carolina in 1810. In 1812 in a sermon at the Alamance court house, when he was eighty-seven years old, he urged the duty of self-defence and the enlistment of volunteers to carry on the war with England. See biography by E. W. Caruthers, D.D. (1842). He died Aug. 25, 1824.

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

David Hayes Agnew, surgeon, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., Nov. 24, 1818. He was educated at Jefferson college, and at Delaware college, Newark, Del. He was graduated from the medical department of the university of Pennsylvania on April 6, 1838. He returned to Lancaster, and entered the iron business, but failed, and became a lecturer in the then famous Philadelphia school of anatomy. He was chosen a surgeon of the Philadelphia city hospital in 1854, and there founded the pathological museum. He also established in Philadelphia a school of operative surgery. He afterwards served as demonstrator of anatomy and assistant lecturer on clinical surgery in the University of Pennsylvania. During the war he was consulting surgeon to the staff of forty-seven resident physicians at the great Mower army hospital, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. It was his skill in operative surgery that brought him to the bedside of President Garfield. Dr. Agnew's principal publication, entitled "The Principles and Practices of Surgery," covers an experience of fifty active years, and its value, preserving and presenting as it does the life-work of such a recognized authority, can hardly be overrated. He died March 22, 1892, leaving bequests to various charities, amounting in the aggregate to $68,000.

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

Charles Francis Himes, educator, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., June 2, 1838; son of William Daniel and Magdalen (Lanius) Himes; grandson of George and Helen (Barnitz) Himes, and of Christian and Anna (Von Updegraf) Lanius, and a descendant of William Himes, from the Palatinate, who settled in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1730. He was graduated from Dickinson in 1855; was teacher of science in the Wyoming Conference academy, and in the Woman's college, Baltimore, Md., and later of mathematics at Troy university, Troy, N.Y. he studied chemistry at the University at Giessen, Germany, 1863-65, when he accepted the chair of chemistry and physics at Dickinson college. He was secretary of the board of trustees of Dickinson, 1868-96, serving also as secretary of the college faculty. In 1885, upon the division of the chair, he became professor of physics. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical society, Oct. 16, 1874, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882. His published works include: Tables for Qualitative Analysis (1866); Leaf Prints; or Glimpses at Photography (1868); Total Eclipse of the Sun, Aug. 7, 1869; The Stereoscope (1872); Historical Sketch of Dickinson College (1879); lectures on Actinism, Sientific Theories and Creeds, Science in the Common Schools, The Scientific Expert in Forensic Procedure, The Stereoscope and its Applications, Photography as an Educational Means, and many contributions to periodicals.

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

History of Lancaster County Pennsylvania

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