BIO: William Radcliffe DeWITT, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

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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, page 358.
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  DeWITT, DR. WILLIAM RADCLIFFE, son of the Rev. William R. DeWitt, D. 
D., and his wife Mary Elizabeth Wallace, was born December 5, 1827, at 
Harrisburg, Pa., and died May 31, 1891, at St. Augustine, Fla.  He was 
educated at the Harrisburg Academy, and graduated in medicine from the 
University of Pennsylvania.  After graduating he was immediately 
appointed assistant physician of the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Asylum, 
which position he held for about seven years.  He then traveled in 
Europe studying his profession.  He returned to Harrisburg with the 
intention of practicing medicine, when he was appointed by President 
Buchanan to the charge of the marine hospital in the Sandwich Islands 
at Honolulu, the capital, and here he remained a number of years, when, 
upon the breaking out of the Civil war, he tendered his services.  He 
held the rank of major, and was surgeon-in-chief of the First division, 
Fifth army corps, of the Army of the Potomac.  Here he became the 
intimate friend of many of the most noted officers in the Northern 
army.  General Warren was one of his best and most intimate friends.  
He was brevetted lieutenant colonel for meritorious services and 
bravery on the field of battle.  After the war he was chief medical 
officer of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, stationed at 
Charleston.  He afterwards held a similar position at Louisville, Ky.  
In 1869 he resigned his commission and took up his residence in 
Harrisburg, and was engaged in the successful practice of medicine, 
when in 1874 he was compelled to abandon his profession and go to 
Florida on account of his ill health, caused by exposure in the army.  
That year he traveled through the State and returned in 1875, taking up 
his residence at San Mateo.  In his new home he became quite prominent, 
was at one time chairman of the board of public instruction for Putnam 
county, and a Florida newspaper stated at the time of his death that it 
was largely due to his exertions that the school system was what it 
then was.  Dr. DeWitt was in politics a Democrat and always a strong 
supporter of his party.  In religious faith he was an Episcopalian, and 
in later years was a bard student of theology, in which he took great 
pleasure.  In 1889 he was a delegate to the General Episcopal 
Convention.  An active member of his church, his views and opinions in 
religious matters were always held in great esteem and of weight by 
all.  He was a man of high intellectuality, of strong but just 
opinions, a strong and faithful friend, a pure and devoted Christian, 
and having all those attributes to make him honored, loved and 
respected.  Dr. DeWitt married, in 1865, Susan E. Spangler, of York, 
who with one son survived him.