CLOUD, J. A. – Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homoeopathic Physicians and Surgeons By E. Cleave

LOUD,
J. A., M. D., of Chicago, Ills., was born in Chester county, Pa.,
October 22d, 1842. His parents were farmers and members of the Society
of Friends, and with them he lived until his fifteenth year, attending
the common schools of the country, and making rapid progress in his
studies. At this time he was transferred to the West Chester Academy,
where he commenced studies preparatory to a seafaring life, for which
his enterprising disposition and ardent temperament well fitted him. On
account of the opposition of his parents he abandoned those studies and
went to Philadelphia, where he engaged as a clerk in a dry goods
house ; but standing behind a counter or poring over a ledger ill
suited the boy who would -ride the mountain wave.” He next tried
the drug business, but with the same result.

     At the age of seventeen
he was appointed a hospital steward in the United States Regular Army.
When the rebellion raised its horrid front he was promoted to a medical
cadetship, and before graduating at the University of Pennsylvania, was
commissioned Assistant Surgeon United States Army. After graduating, and
just previous to the close of the war, he was brevetted Surgeon and
placed in charge of the Sixth Army Corps Hospital. In this position he
became convinced of the superiority of homœopathy over all other
systems ; resigned his commission and attended a course of lectures
at the Homœopathic College in Philadelphia. Believing in the dictum,
“Go West,” he made a “bee line” for Cincinnati,
where he found the patrons of homœopathy establishing a dispensary and
hospital, the charge of which he accepted and remained in until June,
1870. He then obtained the special agency for the leading life insurance
company of the West, which he still holds with honor to himself and
profit to the company.

     Being a member of the
Operating Corps of the Army of the Potomac during a greater portion of
the war, his knowledge of surgery is very extended and

thoroughly
practical. We
learn that he contemplates returning to practice, making surgery and the
diseases of women and children a specialty.

Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave