Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Davis, Orin 1823 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com December 13, 2005, 12:24 am Author: Luther A. Ingersoll / Orrin Davis (1908) (At my request, Dr. Orin Davis, a venerable and beloved citizen of Sawtelle, has favored me with the following autobiographical review of some of the incidents of a long, useful and exemplary life.—The AUTHOR.) In the township of York, Livingston County, N. Y., in 1823, forests covered the landscape with their leafy drapery excepting here and there an open clearing made by an early settler, and upon one of these there stood a log house with a clay-stick chimney and from within the curling smoke rolled up from an ample fireplace whose broad, uneven hearth-stone was quarried from the earth near by. From this chimney place hung the iron crane, embellished by several swivel jointed hooks and trammels of variable lengths, equipped for culinary service; doors on wooden hinges and fastened by wooden latches; in one corner a rudely constructed ladder, with holes and round sticks made to fit by the jackknife, led to chambers aloft, which were divided by calico curtains and white sheets; below, in the opposite corner, a caseless clock, from whose motor weights were suspended by cords communicating with hands that pointed to figures on the dial and whose bell strikingly announced, the passing of golden hours. On the uppermost border of the plate was the smiling image of the moon just rising from invisible depths. Such were some of the environments on June 26th, when the helpless, half animate, new-born child of Asa and Sallie Clarke Davis was forced into this mysterious earth of ours to encounter the hazards of life's alluring temptations and bitter sufferings—the subject of this brief sketch. My father was not only a farmer by occupation, but also a nurseryman, and I had training in raising for sale the better kind of grafted fruit trees. As years rolled on, the old log house was supplanted by a large frame one, the colts grew to be horses and were harnessed to useful undertakings, loads of fruit trees brought cash, and with this constant unfolding of animal and vegetable life, the subject of this sketch also advanced and resolved that his future should be further unfolded in the study and practice of medicine. Early I became interested in the remedial properties of the then little known, indigenous materia medico, comprising many of those important domestic agents that had gained no standard remedial reputation in the dispensaries. Three years were devoted to the study of the regular text books in medicine preparatory to attendance upon two full courses of lectures in a regularly chartered college. I finally passed the quiz successfully and was honored with the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, in June, 1846. Immediately I entered upon the arduous duties of active practice and January, 1847, was elected to edit a monthly journal, the Eclectic Medical Reformer, published at Dansville, New York. In the following June I co-operated with two medical graduates and two professors from Cincinnati College in a preparatory two months' course of instruction for medical students who later intended to be better equipped for the college curriculum. Obstetricy and diseases of women and children was the department assigned to me for their instruction. On the following and during succeeding years, classes of students attended four months' courses of medical instruction in Central Medical College at Rochester, N. Y., where liberal principles of medicine were advocated by our faculty and the Eclectic Medical and Surgical Journal, until the college and its educational interests were transferred to New York City where a new charter was obtained. There it still continues to flourish, a successful exponent of medical progress, reflecting honor upon the cause of American medicine. In 1854 I established a Health Institute at Attica, New York, and for fifty years continued as its proprietor, treating chronic diseases of both sexes, making pelvic ailments of women a specialty. These remedial efforts were successful so that previous to the Spanish War, which greatly enlarged our domain, my patrons were living in every state and territory of the Union, with the single exception of Alaska. In the meantime my contributions to medical literature embraced a wide range of topics, some of which were published by the state legislature of New York, also in various medical journals and thus obtained a wide circulation. One family work on popular medicine which I wrote is reported in numbers of copies published to exceed the two million mark. In 1874 I was elected president of the New York State Eclectic Medical Society and, among other timely topics, presented the idea originating high license as a means of reducing and ultimately destroying profitable traffic in alcoholic stimulants. Not only at the time of my inaugural address, but ever since then it has engaged attention of temperance reformers and has continued to be a live issue and contending factor in discussions in temperance organizations. For more than thirty-five years I have been a Master Mason, a conscientious believer in the enduring truths and upright principles inculcated by this worthy order, and have been a living witness of its benign influence and of the incalculable good resulting not only to its faithful followers, but upon society at large. I have ever taken a deep interest in church music. In religious organizations its salutary, uplifting influence upon the community is second only to the gospel ministry of truth. Poetry wedded to music renders most expressively the yearning of the emotive faculties which hopefully and confidingly bring us in close spiritual relation with our Heavenly Father. While the grand truths of science and religion are celebrated in song, yet it is such faculties as sympathy, joy, hope, confidence, love and devotion when blended by music, that raise the thoughts to a heavenly sphere—to the spiritual verities that ennoble the soul, giving increasing breadth and basis to universal charity. In matters of faith and spiritual knowledge I-believe in continual advancement, daily demonstrating in spirit the quality of life's purposes; by self-denial, repressing selfishness and perfect confidence in the Love that will finally be all in all. I attribute much of my success throughout life to the inspiring presence and genius of my beloved wife, who in 1843, for better for worse, joined her life and fortune with my own. Through all succeeding events, her counsel, timely assistance, punctuality, order and regularity in her every day duties, accompanied with evenness of spirit, made opportunities possible for the better devotion of my time and talents to the arduous duties of my profession. One daughter and two sons are living and one son passed away in early childhood. Many are the sweet remembrances that crowd upon the memory of a long and eventful life—of professional friendships and social endearments that are consciously reproduced and cheer us while passing the evening of our days in the quiet of our semi-tropic home in Southern California. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County, 1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative people. Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/bios/davis171bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 8.0 Kb