BIO: Andrew McDOWELL, 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 62-63 
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ANDREW McDOWELL, M.D.

1761 – 1846

Dr. McDowell was born in Peters Township in 1761, the son of William and Mary 
(Maxwell) McDowell.  William McDowell, the father, was born in 1722 in Chester 
Co., and died in Peters Township in 1812.  He was an early settler at the base 
of Mt. Parnell in the Conococheague Settlement, and a man of some prominence.  
He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1778 for Peters Township and was a 
ruling elder in the Upper West Conococheague Church from 1767 to the time of his 
death.

Mary Maxwell, his wife, was born 1737 and died 1805.  She was the daughter of 
William Maxwll, an early settler of the Conococheague Valley.

Dr. Andrew McDowell received his medical education at the University of 
Pennsylvania, taking his degree M.D. in 1787 and for a brief period thereafter 
was Professor of Latin and Greek in his Alma Mater.  He then settled in 
Chambersburg, where he was in active and successful practice for more than forty 
years.  Dr. McDowell was physician to the Almshouse 1815-1818 and again in 1829-
30.  He was one of the organizers of the First Medical Society in 1825 and one 
of its most active members.

When well advanced in years he retired from active practice of medicine and 
lived until his death with his son, Dr. John McDowell in Mercersburg, Pa.  Dr. 
McDowell married, 1793, Agnes McPherson, born 1765, died 1827, daughter of Col. 
Robert McPherson of York, now Adams County.