Elisha C. Dick
Encyclopedia
Chester County, Pennsylvania
-State parks:*French Creek State Park*Marsh Creek State Park*White Clay Creek Preserve-Demographics:As of the 2010 census, the county was 85.5% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 3.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 1.8% were two or more races, and 2.4% were...
– 22 September 1825, at his property Cottage Farm) was a mayor of Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
, and attending physician at George Washington's death.
Family
His father was Archibald Dick (b. 1715 EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
– 1782), who was a Major in the Revolutionary army, under Assistant Quartermaster General Frazer. Archibald married Mary Barnard and they had two children: Elisha Cullen Dick, and Thomas Barnard Dick.
Elisha Dick had a son Archibald B., and a daughter Julia, Archibald married Sarah S. Hamersley (d. 1848). Julia married Gideon Pearce, and they had two children, James Alfred Pearce (1805–1862), and Ann Ophelia (1807–1866), who married Dabney M. Wharton.
Thomas Barnard Dick had a son Archibald Thomas Dick, and grandson Franklin Archibald Dick
Franklin Archibald Dick
Franklin Archibald Dick was a St. Louis, Missouri attorney. He was assistant adjutant general to Nathaniel Lyon at Camp Jackson ; Missouri provost marshal general under Major General Samuel Curtis; law partner with Montgomery Blair at the Blair House in Washington D C after the Civil...
.
Life
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....
, and William Shippen, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
School of Medicine in 1782, and in October 1793, he married Hannah Harmon (1763–1843), the daughter of Jacob and Sarah Harmon of Marcus Hook, Chester County, Pennsylvania, reported to have been Quakers. Soon afterwards Dr. Dick settled in Alexandria, where he took over the practice of the ailing Dr William Rumney. Thomas Semmes read medicine with him.
He sold his half of his father's legacy, Marcus Hook
Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
Marcus Hook is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population peaked in the 1920s with 5,324 inhabitants. 2,314 inhabitants were counted at the recent 2000 census. Marcus Hook's current mayor is James Schiliro. The borough calls itself "The Cornerstone of Pennsylvania"....
property for ₤ 985, to Isaac Dutton on April 29, 1783.
In 1794, he commanded a cavalry company during the Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States in the 1790s, during the presidency of George Washington. Farmers who sold their corn in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax which they strongly resented...
. On July 24, 1794, he was among the founders of the Alexandria Library Company.
He lived at 408 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia, which he bought from Elizabeth Muir Donaldson for ₤ 2,169. On June 8, 1796, he insured the home, with the Mutual Assurance Society. The house was brick, 32 by 24 feet (7.3 m), and one story high; the house stood between his vacant ground on the east and the west. Outbuildings consisted of a wood kitchen, a wood stable, and a brick smokehouse, the whole valued at $3,700. He used a trust on the home for loans totaling $6,082.
Political career
He was Superintendent of yellow feverYellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
Quarantine at Alexandria, and corresponded with Governor James Wood, on October 10, 1798.
He was appointed to the Republican Party Committee of Correspondence, in Virginia 1800, along with Roger West, Francis Peyton, Thompson Mason, and Walter Jones, Jr, and he escorted Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
to an election celebration at Gadsby's Tavern, at March 1801.
In the wake of Gabriel's Rebellion, Elisha C. Dick said abolition societies tended to produce "the most serious calamities." Writing to Governor James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
, Dick called for:
immediate legislative measures ... to restrain if not entirely suppress the schools supported by [antislavery advocates, who] are constantly inculcating natural equality among the blacks of every description[;] they are teaching them with great assiduity the only means by which they can at any time be enabled to concert and execute a plan of general insurrection.
At the time of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801
District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801
The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 is an Organic Act enacted by the United States Congress, which incorporated the District of Columbia and divided the territory into two counties: Washington County to the north and east of the Potomac River and Alexandria County...
, he was chairman of a local committee, petitioning the Congress about local government of the District of Columbia.
From 1804-1805, he was Mayor of Alexandria, D.C., (now Va.) In 1804, he wrote the speaker of the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, opposing
retrocession.
On 10 Apr 1807, he was appointed Magistrate of the Alexandria Court, along with Cathbert Powell by Jonah Thompson, Mayor of Alexandria.
Ferdinando Fairfax
Ferdinando Fairfax
Ferdinando Fairfax was a Virginia landowner and member of the prominent Fairfax family.- Life :...
left him $1000, and his son Archibald $500, in his will.
Although raised as an Anglican, he joined the Society of Friends, Alexandria Meeting on 20 February 1812. Following Quaker precepts, he manumitted a slave.
In 1814, he was among the Alexandria delegation to Admiral Cockburn
George Cockburn
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet GCB was a British naval commander of the late 18th through the mid-19th centuries. He held important commands during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and eventually rose to become Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord.-Naval...
, after the Burning of Washington
Burning of Washington
The Burning of Washington was an armed conflict during the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America. On August 24, 1814, led by General Robert Ross, a British force occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings following...
, during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
.
Cottage Farm
Dick retired to Cottage Farm, on the Columbia Turnpike (now Lincolnia Road Route 613Virginia State Route 613 (Fairfax County)
State Route 613 is the designation of several distinct suburban surface routes within Fairfax County in the U.S. state of Virginia. These routes were once mostly connected but changes in road alignment, new road construction, and annexations by the independent city of Alexandria have separated them...
), 5 miles (8 km) west of Alexandria, along the Little River Turnpike. In 1814, he bought 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) for $1.26 per acre from Thomas Summers; in 1817, he bought 90 3/4 acres for $1.26 per acre from Thomas Wilson. In 1820, the tax rolls show he had 80 acres (cleared) worth $20 per acre, and a house worth $2,060. The house was torn down in 1952.
Death
In July 1825 Dr Dick resigned from the Quakers. There had been some controversy regarding his non-attendance at Meeting. At this time he was living at Cottage Farm and perhaps too ill—just two months before his death—to travel to town.Elisha Cullen Dick died 22 September 1825, at his property Cottage Farm. His casket was placed on a funeral wagon and carried to Alexandria, where he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Friends Burying Ground on Queen Street. His passing was reported in the Alexandria Herald on 30 September 1825.
A plaque to him remains at the site, now the Alexandria Library. His inventory of medical paraphernalia was 9 pages long, and brought $461.51 at auction January 13, 1826.
Works
- "Nursing and Lying in of Women, with some remarks concerning the treatment of newborn infants", Alexandria Gazette, February 28, 1798
- "Yellow Fever at Alexandria", New York Medical Repository, Vol. i, 1803
- "Facts and Observations about the Disease Cynanche Trachealis, or Croup", Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. iii, p. 242, 1808
Masonic Membership
He was a Mason, founding member of the Alexandria Va lodge. In 1789, Dick succeeded General Washington, as Worshipful Master of the Masonic Lodge No. 22, and as such laid the cornerstone of the District of Columbia, at Jones Point in Alexandria, in 1791. With his Lodge as Escort of Honor, he accompanied General Washington, and assisted in laying the cornerstone of the National CapitolUnited States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
in 1793. His duelling pistols are on display in the archives of George Washington Masonic Temple in Alexandria.
Dinner Invitation
A celebrated dinner invitation written in Rhyme by Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick:If you can eat a good fat duck
Come up with us and take pot luck,
Of whitebacks we have got a pair
So plump, so round, so fat, & fair
A London Alderman would fight
Through pies and tarts to get one bite.
Moreover, we have beef or pork
That you may use your knife and fork.
Come up precisely at two o’clock
The door shall open at your knock.
The day tho’ wet, the streets tho’ muddy
To keep out the cold we’ll have some toddy.
And if, perchance, you should get sick,
You’ll have at hand
Yours
E. C. Dick
This unusual missive was addressed to Philip Wanton, Dr. Dick’s good friend, who lived at 216 Prince Street. The original invitation turned up some years ago in a treasure trunk in an old Alexandria attic. It is now on exhibit in the museum of the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop
Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop
The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop/Museum is a historic apothecary's shop in Alexandria, Virginia that has been preserved as a museum. During its working life, the drug company was owned by generations of a Quaker family.-History:...
.
Washington's Death
On December 12, 1799, George WashingtonGeorge Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
spent several hours inspecting his farms on horseback, in snow and later hail and freezing rain. He sat down to dine that evening without changing his wet clothes. The next morning, he awoke with a bad cold, fever, and a throat infection called quinsy
Peritonsillar abscess
Peritonsillar abscess , also called a quinsy or abbreviated as PTA is a recognised complication of tonsillitis and consists of a collection of pus beside the tonsil .-Symptoms and signs:...
that turned into acute laryngitis
Laryngitis
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds . Dysphonia is the medical term for a vocal disorder, of which laryngitis is one cause....
and pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. Washington died on the evening of December 14, 1799, at his home aged 67, while attended by Dr. James Craik
James Craik
James Craik was Physician General of the United States Army, as well as George Washington's personal physician and close friend.-Education and emigration to America:...
, one of his closest friends, and Tobias Lear V, Washington's personal secretary. Lear would record the account in his journal, writing that Washington's last words were "
Discovering the case to be highly alarming, and foreseeing the fatal tendency of the disease, two consulting physicians were immediately sent for, Elisha Dick who arrived, at half after three, and Gustavus Richard Brown
Gustavus Richard Brown
Gustavus Richard Brown was a lifelong friend of George Washington, a physician, helped found the hospital department of the Continental Army, and a botanist. He is best known as one of the doctors summoned to attend to George Washington the night he died.Gustavus Brown studied medicine in...
, at four o'clock in the afternoon: in the mean time were employed two pretty copious bleedings, a blister was applied to the part affected, two moderate doses of calomel were administered, which operated on the lower intestines, but all without any perceptible advantage, the respiration becoming still more difficult and distressing. Upon the arrival of the first of the consulting physicians, it was agreed, as there were yet no signs of accumulation in the bronchial vessels of the lungs, to try the result of another bleeding, when about thirty-two ounces of blood were drawn, without the smallest apparent alleviation of the disease. Vapours of vinegar and water were frequently inhaled, ten grains of calomel were given, succeeded by repeated doses of emetic tartar, amounting in all to five or six grains, with no other effect than a copious discharge from the bowels.
I pronounced decisively that death was inevitable, unless it could be arrested by the operation of tracheotomy, to which I strenuously recommended an immediate resort, as the only expedient that could possibly preserve the life of a man, whose loss every virtuous man in the community would deplore. " (Then Dr Dick goes on to discuss the unfavorable opinion of Drs. Craik and Brown.) "I know not what might have been the result and it would be presumption to pronounce upon it; but I shall never cease to regret that the operation was not performed."
Dr. Gustavus Brown later wrote to Dr. James Cralk, January 21, 1800:
Sir:
I have lately met Dr. Dick again in consultation and high opinion that I formed of him when we were in conference last month, concerning the situation Of our Illustrious friend, has been confirmed. You remember how, by his clear reasoning and evident knowledge of the cause of certain symptoms after the examination of the General, he assured us that it was not really quinsy, which we supposed it to be, but a violent inflammation of the membranes of the throat, which it had almost closed, and which if not immediately arrested would result in his death. You must remember he was averse to bleeding the General, and I have often thought that if we had acted accordingly to his suggestion, when he said, "he needs all his strength - bleeding will diminish it", and taken no more blood from him, our good friend might have been alive now. But we were governed by the best light we had: we thought we were right, and so we were justified.
