BIO: William ELDER, M.D., Chambersburg, Franklin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2006.  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 76 
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WILLIAM ELDER, M.D.

1806 – 1885

William Elder, physician, lawyer, Abolition orator and editor, was born in 
Somerset, Pa., in 1806 and died in Washington, D.C., 1885.  After receiving a 
limited education in the common schools of the day, he studied medicine and was 
graduated M.D. form Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.  He at once 
began the practice of medicine in Chambersburg in 1834, removing in 1836 to the 
Juniata Valley.

He was a born orator and was attracted to politics and the law.  In 1838 he 
campaigned the State for the Whig and Anti-Masonic ticket.  The following year 
he was elected Recorder of Deeds for Allegheny County.  In 1842 he was admitted 
to the Bar in Bedford County and immediately opened law offices in Pittsburgh. 
After the great fire in 1845 he removed to Philadelphia, Pa., where he settled 
permanently.  In 1844 he was the leading spokesman for the local Abolition Party 
and was the editor of two anti-slavery papers, The Liberty Herald and The 
Republic.

His essays on other public questions appeared frequently in Philadelphia, New 
York and Washington journals.  His tariff articles were so well received that 
they were collected and published in 1860 under the title "The Doctrine and 
Policy of Protection."  In 1861 he was called to Washington to assist Secretary 
Chase of the Treasury in problems of war and finance and in 1863 at the request 
of the Union League of Philadelphia he prepared a pamphlet demonstrating the 
ability of the government to withstand the financial drain of the war, which was 
circulated with telling effect in the sale of Government Bonds.  After the war 
he resigned from the Treasury Department, but returned again to it in the panic 
year of 1873, and remained to the end of his life.  In 1871 he published, 
"Questions of the Hour," and later "The Enchanted Beauty," "Other Tales," and 
"Essays and Sketches."