BIO: Eli H. COOVER, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2008.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm
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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 365-366.
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  COOVER, ELI H., M.D., was born in Lower Allen township, Cumberland 
county, Pa., October 21, 1827.  He is a son of Jacob and Anna (Houser) 
Coover, natives of Cumberland county.  The father was a farmer by 
occupation, and prominent in his region.  He was an active member of 
the United Brethren church, and prominently unidentified with every 
branch of church work.  The parents reared a family of twelve children.  
Eli H. was the seventh son and the ninth child of the family.  He was 
reared in Cumberland county, and received his education in 
Mechanicsburg high school.  He took up the study of medicine under Dr. 
Augustus Vanhoff and later under Dr. Andrew Miller, of Harrisburg.  He 
attended the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, and was 
graduated therefrom in 1850.  He first began practice in New 
Cumberland, Cumberland county, and continued it there from 1850 to 
1869.  He then removed to Harrisburg and continued the practice.  In 
earlier days he combined the practice of dentistry with that of his 
profession, and is now one of the oldest physicians in practice in the 
city.  He was one of the founders of the Cumberland County Medical 
Society.  He is a member of the Dauphin County Medical Society, the 
State Medical Society and the National Medical Association.  He was one 
of the organizers of the Harrisburg Academy of Medicine, being one of a 
committee of five chosen from the county medical society to select a 
suitable place to hold its meetings.  He was instrumental in securing 
the present building and was chosen the first president of the academy, 
which position he still retains.  He was railroad surgeon of the 
Northern Central railway for seventeen years, from Bridgeport to 
Goldsboro.  He served as United States pension examiner for twelve 
years, from 1872 to 1883, inclusive.  He is a stockholder in the 
Harrisburg Bank, Harrisburg Trust Company, Central Guarantee Trust and 
Safe Deposit Company, Chestnut street and Broad street market houses.  
He has large real estate interests in Harrisburg.  In politics he is a 
Republican and was formerly an active partisan.  He was married, first, 
in 1851, to Miss Annie Hummell, daughter of David Hummell, Esq., of 
Harrisburg, who died in 1889.  She had two children, namely:  David H., 
of Denver, Col., occulist, and Harry R., M. D., of this city.  He was 
again married, October 1, 1890, to Miss Elsie Coover, of Jonestown, Pa.  
He is not a member of any fraternal society or club.  He is a member of 
the First Lutheran church of Harrisburg.  He is a liberal contributor 
to charitable institutions.