A Brief History of Homeopathy in Delaware County. By Henry Graham Ashmead

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A Brief History of
Homeopathy in Delaware County.
By Henry Graham Ashmead
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet

Delaware
County has the honor of being the birthplace of those veteran
homeopathic practitioners, Drs. Walter Williamson, Richard Gardiner, and Gideon Humphreys, all
espousing the cause at nearly the same time, and last, but not least, of
being the residence of Dr. A. E. Small, at the time of his conversion to
homeopathy.

Richard Gardiner

Dr. Walter Williamson
introduced homoeopathy into the county in the year 1836. He graduated at
the University of Pennsylvania in 1833, and immediately settled in
Marple. He moved to Newtown in 1835, and in the spring of 1836 his
attention was directed to the new system of medical practice. At the
earliest opportunity he obtained all the books and pamphlets then
published in the English language which had any bearing upon the
subject, commenced the study of its doctrines, and began to practice it
in the vicinity, where not even the name itself had ever been heard,
except by one family, John Thomas, of Upper Providence. He rapidly
gained a large practice, but in 1839 he moved to Philadelphia, owing to
seriously-impaired health. He was one of the founders of the Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania, the
first institution in the country to teach this system of practice, and
from 1848 until his death in 1879 he filled one of the professorships in
the college. Dr. Williamson was born
in Delaware County, July 4, 1811.

Dr Walter Williamson
1811-1870

Dr Alvan Edmond
Small 1811-1886

The second practitioner
to unfurl the standard of homeopathy in Delaware County was Dr. M. B.
Roche. He settled near Darby in 1839, and continued the practice there
for three years. In 1842 he was succeeded by Dr.
Alvan E. Small, a native of the State of Maine, and a
graduate of the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College. He practiced
in Upper Darby as an allopathic physician in 1840, and became a
homeopathic in 1842. Dr. Small continued to practice in the county until
he moved to Philadelphia, in 1845.

Dr. James E. Gross, a
native of New England, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of
Pennsylvania in 1850, and soon afterwards settled in Darby to practice,
but remained there only a few months, and then moved to Lowell, Mass.

Dr Henry Newell
Guernsey
1817-1885

Dr. Stacy Jones,
student of H. N. Guernsey, M.D.,
graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in March,
1853, and settled in Upper Darby. He remained in his first location for
three years, and then moved into the borough of Darby, where he
continues to practice.

Dr. Charles V. Dare, a
native of New Jersey, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of
Pennsylvania in March, 1854, and very soon afterwards settled in the
borough of Chester. Dr. Dare was the first homeopathic physician in
Chester. He continued to practice there until he sold his practice to
Dr. Coates Preston, in March, 1858.

Dr. Coates Preston, a
native of Pennsylvania, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of
Pennsylvania in March, 1853, and first settled at Sculltown, N. J. In
the spring of 1824 he moved to Woodstown, N. J., where he continued to
practice until he moved to Chester, succeeding Dr. Dare. In the course
of a few years he built up quite a large practice in Chester and the
surrounding neighborhood. On account of a serious illness in the winter
of 1865, and the consequent feebleness of health which continued through
the following spring months, Dr. Preston was induced to take into
partnership Dr. H. W. Farrington, but after a few months’ trial of the
new relationship the connection was dissolved. Dr. Preston continued his
practice, and Dr. Farrington took an office at another place in Chester,
but after a few months moved to Beverly, N. J., and since to California.
Dr. Preston outlived much of the prejudice and opposition against the
new practice which existed among the people in his locality when he fist
settled in Chester, and firmly established homeopathy in the respect and
confidence of the community on a broad and firm foundation. He removed
to Wilmington, Del., in the spring of 1881, and died there on the 9th of
August in the same year.

The Homoeopathic
College of Pennsylvania 1849-1884

Dr. Davis R. Pratt, a
native of Newtown, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of
Pennsylvania in March, 1861, and practiced in his native place. In 1863
he moved to Philadelphia, and subsequently to Trenton, N. J., where he
remained until compelled by ill health to relinquish the duties of the
profession. He died of bronchitis on Jan. 28, 1868.

About 1863, Dr. E. D.
Miles practiced medicine in Media. Dr. John F. Rose, after serving in
the army, at the close of the war of the Rebellion settled in Media,
July 1, 1865. Immediately after the death of Dr. Henry Duffield, of
Chester County, Dr. Rose moved to that borough in February, 1866.

Hahnemann Medical College of
Philadelphia

Dr. Robert P. Mercer
graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in March,
1861, and in the following month located at Marshalton, Chester Co., Pa.
In January, 1863, he was appointed to the entire charge of the medical
department of the Chester County almshouse. After discharging the duties
of that office on strictly homeopathic principles for two years, he
resigned in 1865, and removed to Wilmington, Del.

In November of the same
year (1865), at the solicitation of Dr. Preston, Dr. Mercer moved to
Chester, where he is still in successful practice.

Dr. Henry Minton Lewis
graduated at the Hahnemann Medical College of
Philadelphia in March, 1869, and settled in Chester soon
after, where he remained for three or four years, when he moved to
Brooklyn, N. Y. Dr. Trimble Pratt graduated at the Hahnemann Medical
College of Philadelphia in March, 1870, and settled in Media the
following June.

In addition to the
above, there are in Chester in successful practice at the present time
Drs. Charles W. Perkins, Samuel Starr, William T. Urie, Frederick
Preston, and Franklin Powell; and at Upland, Dr. Isaac Crowthers.

The Homeopathic Medical
Society of Chester and Delaware Counties was organized in October, 1858,
by the meeting together of Drs. Duffield, of New London; Hawley, of
Phoenixville; Hindman, of Cochranville; Johnson, of Kennett Square; Wood
and Jones, of West Chester. It has been in a prosperous condition ever
since, having four meetings annually, which are held in January, April,
July, and October. Dr. Duffield was its first president. Its present
membership is thirty-four.

In addition the
following physicians, who have not connected themselves with either the
Allopathic or Homeopathic Medical Societies, are in practice in this
county: Charles A. Kish, William F. Campbell, George W. Roney, Samuel C.
Burland, Chester; William Calver, Booth’s Corner; Henderson Hayward,
Birmingham; Benjamin S. Anderson, Marple; William P. Painter, Darby;
Franklin Soper, Ridley Park; William S. S. Gray, Village Green; Lawrence
M. Bullock, Upland; Andrew Lindsay, Radnor; John G. Thomas, Newtown;
Henry L. Smedley, Media; James Edwards, Springfield. Eliza C. Taylor
practices in Marcus Hook, Chester, and Thornbury.

Sources:

History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania By Henry
Graham Ashmead – Philadelphia. L. H. Everts & Co. 1884. Chapter
XXVI: Physicians And Medical Societies. p 266 – 267.
http://www.delcohistory.org/ashmead/index.htm

From MS. prepared by Walter Williamson, M.D., in
possession of his family. (See “Transactions of the World’s
Homeopathic Convention,” Philadelphia, 1876.)

Copyright ©
Sylvain Cazalet 2001

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