Dr. Lorenzo Beach, son of Abel and Elizabeth (Kilbourne) Beach, was born at New Haven, Vt, November 7, 1798. He came to Ohio in the fall of 1813, and joined his brother Uri, who had preceded him one year, at Worthington. Ohio. He availed himself of such opportunities as Worthington afforded for improving his education, and in about 1816 or 1817 he commenced the study of medicine at Worthington, Ohio, and afterward went to Urbana, Ohio, and took a course of instruction from Dr. Carter, of that place. He was one of a class of ten students under Carter, and, upon the completion of the course, he gave them a "certificate" of the fact. My recollection of the matter, as I have heard it in boyhood, was that James Comstock, who was afterward his colleague or partner in business, and also Dr. Mosgrove, of Urbana, were of this "class." He located where Amity now stands, and where Uri, my father, had preceded him, in about 1820, when in his twenty-second year. The amount of professional business transacted in those days, when physicians were scarce, was only limited by their capacity to labor; and they traveled over, on horseback, a territory extending often to fifteen and twenty miles in all directions.
For some years after about 1833, Dr. Beach was the leading merchant in the north part of the county, and subsequently began to place his capital in real estate. For several years he was the largest landholder and the heaviest trader in live stock, and the heaviest capitalist that Darby Township had ever had. In 1853, when lands in the north part of the county were worth from $30 to $40 per acre, he began to sell out, and, going to Illinois, he invested his money in land warrants that were then abundant in the market, at 80 cents an acre, and located several thousand acres of land in McLean, Ford, Kankakee and Livingston Counties.
He married Miss Edith Bull, of Franklin County, Ohio, near Worthington, about the time he commenced the practice of medicine. He was married again, after the death of his first wife, to a widow woman, in Fairbury, Ill., who is still living there. He died at his home, in Fairbury, Ill., in August, 1878, aged eighty.
Dr. James Comstock located at Amity about the same time that Dr. Lorenzo Beach did. I have always heard him well spoken of. He was a brother, I think, to Buckley Comstock, who for many years was a leading business man of Columbus, Ohio, and an uncle to the present Comstock, who is the proprietor of Comstock's Opera House. He was a resident of Jamestown, Greene Co., Ohio, in 1853, and I had correspondence with him at that date, respecting his opinion of the cause of the excessive malarial troubles during the years 1822-23-24. I think he died at Jamestown within the last ten years.
Dr. Charles McCloud was probably about the third physician at Amity. He was born in Vermont February 2, 1808, and moved with his father in his youth to Delaware County, Ohio. He studied medicine with Dr. Alpheus Bigelow, of Galena, Delaware Co., Ohio. He settled in Amity about 1833. when Amity was about three years old. For a few years, he taught winter schools, also in Amity. But as soon as the people began to understand him, his practice began to increase, and for several years he was a very hard-working man in his profession. He was our family physician for more than twenty years, and. he had the most implicit trust and faith and respect of the entire family. In 1850, he was the Whig member from Madison County in the Ohio Legislature, and was elected a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention in 1850. During the first year of my student life (1851), I was with him almost daily, discussing matters relating to my studies; but when I came to matriculate, I gave the name of James F. Boal as my preceptor, when in point of fact I was more indebted for instruction to Dr. Charles McCloud. He married Miss Jane Carpenter, and died at Plain City. Ohio, of obstruction of the bowels, April 1, 1861, aged fifty-three.
Dr. James Sidney Skinner was an Eastern man, probably from the State of New York. He settled in Amity in about 1840. He was a dapper, dilettante sort of a man. Whilst a student at Buffalo. N. Y., he so fascinated a daughter of one Judge Clarke that an elopement and a clandestine marriage was the result. Amity, I think, was his first location. His wife was a very accomplished lady. Their history was known at Amity, and it was thought she began to regret the folly of her conduct. She was much admired by all classes of people there, and her influence had much to do in refining the society by which she was surrounded. It was a hard struggle with her husband to make a respectable living. He did not succeed in becoming a popular practitioner. She sickened and died, and her body was started for Buffalo, by the way of Cleveland, in a two-horse wagon. Two days after it had left, her father, Judge Clarke, came to Amity to see her, having been notified of her illness, having passed the body of his unfortunate child on the road. The Doctor afterward practiced at Plain City, Ohio, Columbus, Cincinnati, and then went to California. They had one child*#8212;Clarke Skinner.
Dr. Ashbaw, a bright little man from over about Dublin, I think, was the next. He was badly marked with small-pox. He did not remain long.
Dr. Davis was probably the next. He came from over about Dublin, I think. He stayed only a short time. The last I knew of him I stayed overnight at his house, at Cheney's Grove, McLean Co., Ill. He was improving a farm and practicing medicine also.
Dr. Abel W. Field, a New York State man, came to Madison County in about 1835, and settled over on the Darby Plains. He was a physician, and lived for several years two miles south of the late William D. Wilson's. He moved to Amity in about 1842, probably as early or earlier than the time of either Ashbaw or Davis. He generally had a fair practice, and was very popular in his manners. He was killed while returning from a professional call by being thrown from his sulky, on the 9th day of August, 1851. He was the father of Dr. Archellaus Field, now a wealthy and prominent physician of Fort Des Moines, Iowa; of Dr. Orestes G. Field, of South Solon, this county, and of Capt. James Field, of Marysville, Ohio.
Dr. James F. Boal was born and raised up on Big Darby, in the Mitchell settlement, near Milford, I think. He was a graduate of Starling Medical College, and had practiced at Canal Winchester, Ohio, before coming to Amity. He located there in about 1848. He was a creditable practitioner, and active in business. In about 1853, he bought up a drove of horses and moved to Illinois. He was a married man.
Dr. Lucius Burr Carpenter, a native of Delaware County, Ohio, from about Galena, was a nephew of Mrs. Dr. Charles McCloud. Lived at Amity several years as a clerk in McCloud's store and as a general student. He taught school and studied medicine with his uncle, and had fairly entered upon a promising future when he fell a victim to Asiatic cholera during the epidemic of that year, 1850. He was attending the Stanton family over in the Plains, who had cholera, and, returning late, went to bed not very well, grow worse, and died before morning. He married Hester Mann, and left one child-Medora.
Dr. Isaac Newton Hamilton, raised at Richwood, Union Co., Ohio, brother to ex-Congressman Cornelius Hamilton and Prof. John W. Hamilton, of Columbus, Ohio, remained from about 1852 to 1855, when he moved to Unionville Center, Union Co., Ohio, afterward to Milford Center, and then to Marysville, where he now resides.
Dr. John Colliver, notice in Jefferson.
Dr. Thomas W. Forshee, vide Jefferson.
Dr. William H. Jewett, the present practicing physician at Amity, has been there for about ten years. He is a good physician and an exemplary gentleman, and I regret that I cannot give a more particular personal sketch, from lack of information.