BIO: James HAMILTON, 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 75-76 
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JAMES HAMILTON, M.D.

1825 – 1892

Dr. Hamilton was born in Waynesboro, Pa., in 1825, the son of Alexander 
Hamilton, by trade a carriage maker.  Dr. Hamilton served his apprenticeship 
with his father and worked at the trade about one year.  He then came to 
Chambersburg and became a student of medicine under Dr. Abraham H. Senseny.  He 
received his degree M.D. in 1850 from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 
Pa.  The same year he began the practice of medicine in Chambersburg and in 1854 
entered into partnership with Dr. S. G. Lane, a brother-in-law.  They enjoyed a 
large practice extending over Franklin County, until the opening of the Civil 
War.  But mutual agreement Dr. Lane entered the Medical Service of the Army, and 
Dr. Hamilton, who had three small children, remained at home to care for his 
family and practice.  July 6, 1863, while traveling with a party from 
Chambersburg to Hagerstown, Md., enroute to Williamsport, Md., to aid the 
wounded in what was reported to have been a great battle there, the party which 
included eight men from Chambersburg were captured by Confederates and sent to 
the South.

Dr. Hamilton was confined for sixteen months in Confederate prisons, Libby, 
Salisbury and Castle Thunder, acting as physician in the prison hospitals and in 
a pest house during an outbreak of small pox in Libby Prison.  When almost at 
the point of death from privation and disease, he was exchanged for a rebel in a 
northern prison and came home, to find his home burned and everything he owned 
destroyed and his family with relatives in Pittsburgh.

His frail physical condition prevented his return to the practice of medicine, 
and for a while he engaged in mercantile pursuits, later entering the employ of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad at Altoona.  He died with pneumonia in 1892.

Dr. Hamilton was noted for his knowledge of Botany, the study of which he 
followed until his death.

His wife was Catherine A. Lane, a daughter of Nicholas B. Lane.