The first settled physician at La Fayette was Dr. Christian Anklin. He was a German and an educated gentleman, whose wife, Martha, an English woman, was a sister to the late Richard Cowling, of London, Ohio. He came on from the East—probably from Philadelphia, where he had married his wife only a few months before. He bought a lot at the first sale of town lots by auction, adjoining the present residence of Mrs. Ann M. Rodgers, on the west side. He had a fine professional standing, and enjoyed, to a large extent, the confidence of the better class of people. After a few years spent in La Fayette, he moved to Springfield, Ohio, where he shortly after died.
Dr. Hornbeck probably succeeded him. He married a daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth Simpson, of La Fayette.
Dr. M. Valentine, a native of Ohio, came to La Fayette in about 1847, and stayed two years. He was a graduate of Starling Medical College. Leaving La Fayette, he moved to Royalton, Fairfield Co., Ohio, and subsequently to Pulaski, Licking Co., Ohio, where he yet remains. One of his sons also graduated at Starling Medical College in about 1872. Valentine was unmarried when at La Fayette.
Dr. Ransford Rodgers, a native of Vermont, sold his location at Royalton, Ohio, to Dr. Valentine, and was his successor at practice in La Fayette, where he located in 1849. He was a graduate in medicine, and had a good practice, but remained only a few years.
Dr. Cheney was probably the next, and he must have located there as early as 1849. He was an eclectic. Ho had an extensive practice, but he moved to Iowa in 1855.
Dr. William Morrow Beach, a native of Madison County, located there in September, 1855. He had practiced two years previously at Unionville Center, Union Co., Ohio. He graduated at Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1858. He remained at La Fayette, marrying there on the 12th of June, 1860, until April, 1862, when he went into the army as a Surgeon. Returning in July, 1865, immediately after his muster-out of the service, he located on a farm two miles west of La Fayette, on the London road, where he now lives, practicing his profession.
Dr. John Colliver, vide Jefferson.
Dr. Nathaniel J. Sawyer, youngest son of Nathaniel Sawyer, an early land speculator in Madison County, was born in Kentucky. He graduated at a Cincinnati medical college, and was one year thereafter an interne at one of the city hospitals. He subsequently went as physician on board an ocean vessel bound for Valparaiso, South America. Arriving in Valparaiso, he remained there engaged in his profession for two or three years. Upon his return to the United States, he improved his farmhouse on the National road, two miles east of La Fayette, brought a young bride from Kentucky there, built a nice office and commenced practice in about 1861. Shortly thereafter, he sold his farm to John Snyder, and moved to another one of his farms up in the Dunn settlement. He sold out and moved, in about 1870, to Kentucky, where he now lives.
Dr. Edward Granville Forshee, born in Clark County, Ohio, studied with Dr. W. M. Beach, of La Fayette, Ohio, and, with his brother, Thomas W. Forshee, at Amity, this county. Graduated in Cincinnati, Ohio, and located in Hilliards, Franklin Co., Ohio, for about three years, where he married; located in La Fayette about 1863, and, in about 1867, moved to Illinois, where he is now living.
Benjamin F. Bierbaugh, youngest son of Christopher Bierbaugh, born in La Fayette, Ohio, studied medicine with Dr. A. H Underwood, of London, Ohio; was at La Fayette daring the two last years of his student life; attended one course of lectures at Starling Medical College, but died of pulmonary hemorrhage just before he was to have entered upon his last course of lectures previous to his graduation as M. D. He was a highly respected young man, and died universally lamented.
Dr. B. F. Adams, from Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was there for a few months in the summer of 1881.
Dr. W. F. Wallace, a native of New Hampshire, and formerly a peripatetic schoolmaster of this county, located there in the spring of 1881, immediately after taking his degree of M. D. at Columbus Medical College. He left for New Hampshire in the fall of the same year.
Dr. Sidney C. Teeters was born in Wayne County, Ohio, raised in Athens County, Ohio; married, first, Miss Margaret Gibson, of Meigs County, Ohio, April 9, 1857, and second, to Miss Esther M. Carpenter, of Meigs County, Ohio, June 2, 1880. He graduated at the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873. Practiced in Athens County, Ohio, for about fourteen years; in Vinton County, ten years, and located in La Fayette in the spring of 1882.