BIO: Dr. Peter FAHRNEY, Quincy, 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 284
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DR. PETER FAHRNEY
1767-1837
"The Little Dutch Doctor"

  Dr. Peter Fahrney was the first in this Valley of a remarkable family of 
physicians.  He practiced his profession for more than thirty years in 
Washington County, Maryland, living on his farm near Boonsboro, that county.  
His formulas were mostly botanical compounds, some of which, it is said, he 
obtained from the Conestoga Indians.  Many of these formulas are in use today in 
the form of proprietary medicines.

  Dr. Fahrney was born in Lancaster County, Pa., on May 8, 1767, and was the son 
of Dr. Jacob Fahrney, who was born at Frankfort, Germany, studied medicine in 
Germany and then emigrated to America, settling in Lancaster County, Pa., in 
1756, where he practiced medicine until the time of his death in 1769.

  Dr. Peter Fahrney was the youngest of three children and became an orphan at 
the age of two years through the death of both parents.  He was reared by kindly 
neighbors and in early life learned the trade of a tanner and worked at this 
trade for a time in Lancaster County.  Later he came to Chambersburg and in 1791 
married Eve Dernbaugh, born 1774, died 1803, and in 1805 he married second, Ann 
Sartoris, born 1780.  After the death of his first wife he removed from 
Chambersburg to Washington County, Md., buying a farm on which he resided until 
the time of his death on April 9, 1837.

  Shortly after his removal to Maryland he was thrown from his horse and 
permanently crippled by an injury to his spine.  He then decided to study 
medicine and came to Chambersburg for this purpose.  With whom he studied 
medicine here is not known.  In due time he returned to his home and entered 
upon the practice of medicine which he continued successfully until the time of 
his death.

  Dr. Fahrney became the father of eleven children, two of whom became 
physicians, viz:  Dr. Jacob Fahrney who practiced and died at Quincy, Pa., and 
Dr. David Fahrney who lived on the homestead in Washington County, Maryland.