Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/246

 BURTON 1

Boys of '76," on the outbreak of the war with Great Britain in 1S12-14 he enlisted in the volunteer forces of the United States, though still a mere youth, served throughout the war with the rank of orderly sergeant of his company, and at the close of the contest returned to his native city and soon after began to study medicine under Dr. Isham. On the organization of the Castleton Medical Academy, at Castleton, Vermont, in 181S, young Burton attended the lectures there and received his M. D. in 1819 or 1S20. About a year before he had mar- ried Miss Mary Hollister, of Manchester, and in 1S20, with his wife and one child, travelled on horseback from Vermont to the town of Collamer, Ohio, with the purpose of settling in the Western Re- serve. Tradition reports that, on his ar- rival, he found another young physician, also looking for a place of settlement, and that the two young doctors settled the question who should remain in the town by the toss of a penny, in which Dr. Burton won the choice. In order to eke out the scanty emoluments of a pioneer practice, the doctor also took charge, during the first year, of the district school of his own town, teaching by day and attending the wants of the sick by night. Having established his intellectual and pedagogic supremacy by a stirring muscular debate, in which a skillful use of the " argumentum a fortiori" resulted in depositing his antagonist, a husky, six-foot pupil, upon the smouldering backlog of the school-house fireplace, the tenderness and success displayed in healing the wounds of his late opponent won the stout hearts of the neighboring pioneers, and the doctor speedily stepped into a thriving family practice, which extended through all the adjacent towns. His popularity and the recognition of his military tastes were evidenced by his election to the position of colonel of the local militia, and throughout his life Dr. Burton was held in the highest esteem, both as a physician and an intelligent and vigilant citizen. He died in East Cleveland,

BUSEY

April 2, 1854. From the year 1846 Dr. Elijah Burton was associated in practice with his son, Dr. Erasmus Dar- win Burton, who in turn associated with his own son, Dr. F. D. Burton.

No portrait or likeness of any kind of Dr. Elijah Burton has been preserved, and as the greater part of his life ante- dated the formation of medical societies in Ohio, his name is naturally absent from the rolls of such. H. E. H.

A Sketch of Dr. Elijah Burton, by Dr. Dud- ley P. Allen, in the Magazine of Western His- tory, vol. iv.

Busey, Samuel Clagett (1S2S-1901).

Samuel Clagett Busey, son of John and Rachel Clagett Busey was born July 23, 1S2S on a farm known as " Stony Lonesome," a few miles west of Washing- ton. His father's ancestors came from Scotland and settled in Maryland in 1754, while the Clagetts arrived from England as early as 1671.

He was first taught by his mother, whose early widowhood compelled her, though in feeble health, to do this, and personally supervise the farm. She was a refined and cultivated woman possessed of great force of character and energy, qualities which she carefully inculcated in her sons.

From 1841 to 1845 the boy Samuel attended Rockville Academy, then in charge of Mr. Wright, and in 1844 was offered a cadetship at West Point. This he had greatly coveted, but his mother refused consent and insisted he should enter the medical profession, so in May, 1S45, he began to study medicine with Dr. Hezekiah Magruder, of Georgetown. The following winter he attended the lectures on anatomy and operative surgery at the National Medical College, but soon discovered private teaching with text-books twenty-five years old to be far from satisfactory, and, although the income from his estate was quite inadequate even in those frugal days, he went to Philadelphia in the spring of 1846 and worked under the famous Dr. George B. Wood, and in the University