Biography: Crawford W. Long - Madison Co, GA Submitted by Jeanne Arguelles 17 November 2002 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************************** All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** The Daily Constitution: Atlanta, GA Friday Morning, August 29, 1879 Crawford W. Long A Biographical Sketch of the World's Great Benefactor Dr. Crawford W. Long, the now famous discoverer of surgical anaesthesia, was at the time of his death, June 16, 1879, sixty-three years old. He was born in Danielsville, Ga. November 1st, 1815. His father, James Long, came with his father, Captain Samuel Long, to Georgia with his family as a part of a colony of emigrants from Pennsylvania shortly after the revolution of 1776. Captain Long served throughout that eventful struggle; was at the battles of Germantown, Brandywine, and was in the forlorn hope, commanded by Lafayette, at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, which closed the War. Captain Long was a man of great executive ability; immense driving power and practical intelligence -- a born leader and brave, patriotic, modest man, and gave his son James every advantage of education and culture then attainable in the country. Mr. James Long, the father of Dr. Crawford W. Long, was also a man of great ability. He was a merchant and planter, but never ceased to be a student, the law having special attractions for him. He was so well up in the great principals of law and jurisprudence that in difficult cases he was consulted by lawyers and judges in the district in which he lived, and was in fact the most trusted and influential man in his district, and represented it in the state senate as long as he would consent to serve. He was also an intimate friend, advisor and confidant of William H. Crawford, Georgia's greatest statesman, who was secretary of state, minister to France and a prominent candidate for the presidency, and was with him and held his hand when he died. As an evidence of this attachment and friendship, Mr. James Long gave his eldest son the name of Crawford. This son when young was studious and mature far beyond his years. He entered college at so early an age that he was known as "the baby." Notwithstanding his youth he graduated with the second honor of his class, a large one, from Franklin College -- now the University of Georgia -- in 1835; studied medicine in the university of Pennsylvania and was graduated M.D. with high honors from that institution in 1839. Dr. Long first practiced medicine for many years at Jefferson, Jackson county, where he made his experiments and perfected and demonstrated his great discovery of the anaesthetic properties of ether to annihilate pain under any and all cases of human suffering without endangering or destroying life, and thus conferring a blessing in every organized human being and animal doomed to the vicissitudes of life, and securing for himself a monument based on the individual gratitude of all who in coming time may be under the necessity of submitting to dental, surgical or other operations involving bodily anguish and pain. Beside such a monument ever growing in all human hearts, renewed by every tooth-ache and amputation relieved of pain -- what are the pyramids what the Cleopatra needles whose builders are all forgotten and unknown? Even the great wall of China the burial monuments and cities now being unearthed, compare to the sublime monument ever perennial and ever growing in amplitude and elevation which this modest citizen and beneficent discoverer has almost unanimously won for his ever to be honored name. After his graduation, Dr. Long was physician for one year in the New York City hospital. Being passionately fond of surgery and was so successful that he was recommended by the secretary of the navy to be surgeon to a national ship of war, a high honor in those days. He would have accepted this position but in deference to his father's wishes located and commenced the practice of his profession at Jefferson, Ga., where he performed many difficult and dangerous operations, chiefly the extraction of tumors and the removing of cancers, or other fungoid affections. In 1842 he married Miss Caroline Swain, only child of Geo. Swain, a planter, and brother of David L. Swain, L.L.D., governor of North Carolina, and president of the university of that state. More than forty years ago Governor Swain was a man of great weight and influence in his time and was a cousin of General Joe Lane, once a prominent candidate for the vice-presidency. Dr. Long was devoted to his profession and often declared that it "was a holy mission," and said he had "no other or higher wish than to prove by his life and work that he was entitled to have placed on his tomb when life's fitful fever was over," "He was a benefactor of his kind." Although opposed, as was Mr. Stephens, to secession, he went with his state, and during the fratricidal struggle gave all the aid in his power to the south. When Athens was garrisoned by the United States troops after the war he was offered the position of surgeon by the great general and president of the reunited nation, but was unable to take the requisite oath and was commissioned on his merits to the position by Col. Blucher, who informed him that he "wanted no oath from him as his character for honor, truth and justice were well known and established." Dr. Long was ruined by the war and died struggling to meet engagements and to pay off debts created in New York and other northern cities before the war, in which he became involved unwisely for others. His sons are now his successors in the drug business at Athens, and have paid off over twelve thousand dollars on the whole amount of their noble father's obligations, which is the whole amount. Dr. Long at his death left two sons and five daughters. The eldest, Miss Fannie, is a self-reliant and highly intelligent young lady, who was the confidant and private secretary of her father, and has all his papers and documents in her keeping, having promised her father that she would never cease her efforts to secure him a just recognition of his claims and services as the "discoverer of anaesthesia." After her father's death she sought and received employment as a teacher of drawing and painting at Huntsville, Ala., where she soon returns to resume her work for honorable self-support. Miss Long visited New York and was present while the face of her father was being placed on the canvas by Mr. Carpenter, and there made the acquaintance of the promising artist and sculptor, Mr. W. R. O'Donovan, and many of the leading artists of the commercial metropolis. For this reason, and because she has great artistic perception and great executive ability, she has been suggested as a member of the committee to select the artist and decide on the position, whether sitting or standing, of the statue of her father; also, as to the material. Her idea being to have the statue to be placed in the national capitol to be executed in marble, and another duplicate in bronze to be placed in the grounds fronting the proposed new state capitol. Mr. O'Donovan favors this idea, we are informed. A younger sister, Miss Emma M. Long, now seventeen, has displayed poetic ability, and promises to do honor to the great name she now bears. Among the poor negro women this unpretending and devoted doctor was called "Dr. Savior: -- a touching tribute to his almost divine character and profession. One reason why Dr. Long, while engaged in his experiments and operations with ether, during 1842 and 43, did not rush to the front, was the fact that a great excitement then prevailed in this country and in Europe in regard to mesmerism. Many doctors, and among them Dr. Gibbs, of Columbia, S.C., a high authority on yellow fever, and the subject of mesmerism, witnessed several operations on patients mesmerised, and declared that mesmerism was the ne plus ultra needed to kill pain in all surgical and powerful operations. On leaving Jefferson, Dr. Long purchased a home and lived in Atlanta two years, when he sold out to Mr. Clarke Howell, the father of Senator E. P. Howell, editor of The Constitution. The house is now standing on Peachtree Street, adjoining Judge Ezzard. H. L. Stuart