BIO: Robert Lowry Sibbet, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER XXXVIII. BOROUGH OF CARLISLE. 395 BOROUGH OF CARLISLE. DR. ROBERT LOWRY SIBBET, Carlisle, was born in Cumberland County, Penn. His paternal grandfather, Samuel Sibbet, and grandmother, Alice Lowry, with their brothers, John, James and Robert Sibbet, and three sisters, Mrs. Gourley, Mrs. McCann and Mrs. Copely, emigrated from the North of Ireland about the close of the last century. His maternal grandfather, Timothy Ryan, and Grandmother, Rachel Williamson, also emigrated from the North of Ireland about the same time. Samuel Sibbet was a man of decided political convictions, and on account of his pronounced sentiments 50 guineas were offered for his head. He was, however, not without friends, and after bidding farewell to his wife and three children - James, Robert and Thomas - set out for America. He reached Baltimore in the early part of 1800, in a concealed manner, being connected with the Order of Freemasons. A few months later his devoted wife, having disposed of their personal effects, ventured to cross the ocean with her three helpless children, and landed safely at the same port. Having heard of the Scotch-Irish settlement in the Cumberland Valley, they proceeded at once to the head of the Big Spring where they were welcomed by their numerous Presbyterian friends. To their small family were here added Samuel, Margaret, Lowry and Hugh Montgomery. Thomas Sibbet was born in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1797. Catherine Ryan, whom he married, was born in Cumberland County in 1793, and by this union were born Rachel A., Dr. Robert L., Henry W., Rev. William R., Elder C., Joanna J. and Anna M. Sibbet. The subject of this sketch graduated in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, with the degree of A. B. in 1856. He afterward engaged in teaching a classical school, first in Centreville, and then in Shippensburg, in his native county, until 1862, when he began the study of medicine. He graduated with the degree of M. D. in the University of Pennsylvania, in 1866, and in the meantime the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him. He practiced his profession in Harrisburg and afterward in New Kingston. In 1870 he visited Europe, where he spent two full years in the universities and hospitals, being seven months in Paris during the entire siege, two months in Berlin, ten months in Vienna and two months in London. After returning from Europe Dr. Sibbet settled in Carlisle as a general practitioner, where he still resides. In 1873 the medical society of the State appointed him chairman of a committee on medical legislation, and it was mainly through his persevering efforts, in the midst of great opposition, that the passage of the present registration law was secured. In 1882, nine months after the law took effect, he collected statistics and made a report to the society, which shows that 6,492 practitioners had voluntarily complied with the law in the several counties, that 838 of these were practicing without graduation, and that 105 were females. At the same time he corresponded with a large number of prominent medical gentlemen in the United States, and in 1876 was instrumental in effecting the organization of the American Academy of Medicine, an association founded on protracted courses of literary and medical study with degrees corresponding thereto. As recognition of these services he has recently been elected "vice- president of the section of obstetrics in the Ninth International Medical Congress, to be held in Washington, D. C., in 1887." He has been a frequent contributor to the literature of his profession, and has now in manuscript form, nearly completed, a series of chapters on the Franco-Prussian war and siege of Paris.