My Genealogy Hound

J. P. GORDON, physician and surgeon, Versailles. The subject of this sketch is a native of Ohio, born in Warren, Trumbull Co., on the 1st day of April, 1822; is of Scotch-Irish parentage on the paternal side, and French on the maternal side; his grandfather Gordon was one of the pioneers of the Northwestern Territory, settling in what is known as Mahoning Co. in 1792 and in 1812, he and the father of J. P. Gordon were the only ones out of nineteen men that could be spared from Ashtabula Co., where he had removed, to go as volunteers in defense of the country. J. P. was raised in the lap of adversity, and from 16 years of age, when he went to Marion Co., he had to shift for himself; sometimes the cold winds of adversity would almost chill him, and bend him to the earth, but on the passing away of the storm he would take courage and try to forget the past; he acquired such an education as the common schools afforded; at the time graduating from the same cabin, and in the same class with the Rev. S. P. Carleton, the great linguist—said to be—in Mr. Gordon’s own words, speaking of this period, “We commenced at crucifix and ended at stofix and bramble, each term, with an occasional touch of Daboll and Murray, and every Saturday special reading from the American Preceptor.” In 1842, he went to Delaware, Ohio, where he attended the academy, and the Ohio Wesleyan University, where he remained twenty months, paying his tuition by cutting wood Saturdays, and hunting coons at night, which was fine sport, yet a slow way to obtain tuition money; he then went to what is now known as Spring Valley, Greene Co., Ohio, with George Barrett, father of the Hon. J. M. Barrett, now of that place, and for six years he had no fixed home; studied medicine the best he could till 1847; he taught school during the winter, and shoved the trowel in the summer, and at very low wages—taught seventy-two days for a quarter, and boarded around for $12 per month; finished the study of medicine with Drs. Hams and Hartman, of Spring Valley, and received his license as a practicing physician from the County Medical Society in 1849. On the 13th day of April, 1848, he celebrated his marriage with Elizabeth Herr, of Greene Co., moved to Webster, Darke Co., Ohio, Feb. 2, 1852, and commenced the practice of medicine, where he had every old woman, and every old granny of a man that ever heard tell of Sam Thompson or lobelia, as competitors, and as there was no prospect of Webster becoming a city for some time, he pulled up stakes, and anchored at his present place of business in a cabin Jan. 1, 1857, on the lot formerly owned by the “Hardshell Baptist,” the third church built in the county; the corner-stone still remains as a landmark, on which he in his pious moments sits in silent meditation for better or for worse, cracking hickory nuts. The Doctor has been married twice; his second marriage was celebrated on the 5th of January, 1876, with Miss Vina Jester, of Miami Co., Ohio. The Doctor has practiced medicine for thirty years, and has accumulated some property, but is happy in the thought that he has never squeezed the last dollar out of the poor; has gone many miles through the storm and mud for which he has not received his reward unless it be in gratitude.