BIO: Dr. John AHL, Strasburg, Franklin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Denise Phillips

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/franklin/
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Medical Men of Franklin County, 1750-1925 by Ambrose Watts Thrush, M.D.;
Chambersburg, Pa.; Medical Society of Franklin County, Page 332-333
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DR. JOHN AHL

  The first physician to locate in Upper Strasburg of which there is any 
authentic record, was Dr. John Ahl.  He was born in Rockingham County, Va., and 
was a son of Dr. John Peter Ahl, who came to America from Germany at the 
beginning of the Revolutionary War and soon after entered the patriot army as a 
surgeon and served throughout the war.  At the close he settled in Rockingham 
County, Va., and practiced medicine there for some years.  Later he was ordained 
a minister in the Lutheran Church and served congregations in Maryland and 
Virginia.  He died in Baltimore City at the age of ninety-six years.  The Ahl 
families of Cumberland County who figured so largely some years ago in the 
industrial and political history of Cumberland County, were direct descendants 
of Dr. John Peter Ahl.

  Dr. John Ahl read medicine with his father and attended a medical college in 
Baltimore and probably was a graduate M. D.  He practiced medicine with his 
father for a time, then married Nancy Ellen Vaughn of Virginia and in 1812 
located in Upper Strasburg, this county, where he practiced medicine for about 
fifteen years.

  He was a member of the first Medical Society in 1825.

  Dr. John Ahl exhibited to the Medical Society in 1826 a splint of his 
invention for the treatment of oblique fractures and later introduced the use of 
felt splints.  Complete sets of felt splints were manufactured at Newville, Pa., 
and put on the market under the name of "Ahl's Splints."

  About 1827 or probably one year later, Dr. Ahl removed from Upper Strasburg.  
After a few months in Shippensburg he located at Newville, Pa., where he 
practiced medicine until his death on August 9, 1844.

  Dr. John Alexander Ahl, the oldest son of Dr. John Ahl was born August 13, 
1813, in Upper Strasburg.  He studied medicine and was graduated M. D. from 
Washington Medical College, Baltimore.  He practiced medicine for some years at 
Centerville, Cumberland County, and then removed to Newville and engaged in the 
grain and milling business.  In 1856 he was elected to Congress from Cumberland 
County and in 1860 was a Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket.  He died 
in 1882, possessed of a large estate.