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- SIMON LOCK LORD, a prominent physician of Edgerton, Wis.,
- was born in Limington, York County, Maine, on the 8th day
of March, 1826, and is descended from good old Revolutionary
stock. His paternal grandfather, Adam LORD, who enlisted in the
colonial service, died and was buried on the battle field of
Monmouth. He married Olive KNIGHT, and both were of English extraction.
His son, Deacon James LORD, was the father of our subject, and
his wife, mother of Simon, was Hannah DURELL, she being a daughter
of David and Mary DURELL, who were descendents of French Huguenot
ancestry, while her father was also a revolutionary soldier.
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- Simon L. LORD, whose name heads this sketch, was one of a
family of eight children all of
- whom have passed away with the exception of the Doctor and
one brother, J. K. LORD, who is now living at Stafford Springs,
Conn., at the age of eighty years. His boyhood days were spent
on a farm until seventeen years of age, where he attended the
district school for six months in the year. His academic education
was received at Cornish High School and Parsonfield Seminary,
after which he began reading medicine with Dr. Peabody, of West
Buxton, and Dr. Benjamin Thompson, when not attending medical
lectures. He defrayed his expenses by teaching and attended his
first course of lectures at Bowdoin College, Maine, in 1850.
In the summer of that year, he attended the Tremont Medical School
of Boston, and ran the wards of Massachusetts General Hospital
under the teachings of the illustrious surgeon, John C. Warren,
and the no less renowned teacher and poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes.
He attended his third and fourth course of lectures at Jefferson
Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated.
- In the spring of 1852, Dr. LORD married Miss Emily Elizabeth
KNIGHT, and in 1854,
- accompanied by his young wife, removed to Dubuque, Iowa.
Subsequently he went to Dyersville, Iowa, where he practiced
medicine and surgery, and while there residing his wife died,
her death occurring in May, 1856. The following October he buried
a little son, aged ten months, his family now consisting of only
himself and another son, Charles H., who was born in Maine. In
the month of August, 1857, he was united in marriage with Miss
Mary M. WRIGHT, daughter of Ansel and Sarah M. WRIGHT, her father
being a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while both
parents were of English extraction. Mrs. LORD was born at Sackett's
Harbor, N.Y., and by her union with our subject had nine children,
five daughters and four sons - Clara Belle M., May L., Emily
M., Blanche C., Nellie A., James A., William F., Edwina and Fred.
The last died at the age of four weeks.
- In August 1856, Dr. LORD was nominated as the Republican
candidate for Treasurer of
- Dubuque County, and reduced the Democratic majority of that
stronghold from 1,500 to 600. In April, 1858, he removed with
his family to Edgerton, Rock County, where he engaged in the
practice of medicine until the breaking out of the Civil War,
when he responded to the country's call for troops.
- The Doctor entered the service as Assistant Surgeon of the
13th Wisconsin Regiment in
- September, 1861, and went into camp at Janesville, where
the regiment remained until Jan. 18, 1862, when it was ordered
to the seat of war. He was ordered to remain, however, in care
of about forty convalescents, and further to arrest some deserters
and enlist recruits for the regiment. In February he left Janesville
for Ft. Scott, Kas., with sixty men, but on the morning of his
departure, was served with a writ of habeas corpus, ordering
him to appear before a United States Commission with the body
of a young man whom he had enlisted. Rather than be detained,
he delivered the minor to his father, but the boy escaped from
him, secreted himself in the water tank at the depot and jumped
aboard as the train passed. He afterward died in the service.
Upon the third day, the Doctor arrived with his company at St.
Joseph, Mo., at 10 o'clock A. M., and asked the "Secesh"
railroad agent to allow the men to sleep in the cars, but was
refused with the churlish reply, "We do not furnish quarters
for Yankee troops." He then took possession of the fine
passenger depot, and after seeing his men well provided for,
went with Capt. Doolittle, of Gen. Hunter's staff, to a hotel
nearby. Going to the depot early in the morning, he found the
ticket office occupied by a hog and her ten pigs. (The boys had
substituted them for the other hog, who had ill-treated them
a few hours before.) Soon a train of filthy hog cars were drawn
up in front of the depot for the transportation of the Doctor
and his command to Weston, opposite Ft. Leavenworth. Immediately
he seized the engine, placed two soldiers upon it, and kept possession
until passenger coaches were substituted for the others. Arriving
at Ft. Leavenworth in the afternoon, he was told by the General
commanding, that eighty more men, belonging to regiments at Ft.
Scott, were waiting him at Leavenworth City, that he would be
furnished with guns and ammunition for 140 men and three wagons
for the transportation of camp and garrison equipage, and was
requested to escort a train of fifty wagons loaded with commissary
stores and bound for Ft. Smith, Ark. From Ft. Leavenworth, he
marched that day, through mud knee deep, to Leavenworth City,
arriving at 11 o'clock at night without tents or rations. Opposite,
in a planter's house he saw a door that he suspected opened into
a hall. This was forced open and his suspicions verified. Two
bales of hay were obtained from a quartermaster for bedding,
a grocer was aroused, a supply of crackers, cheese and dried
beef was obtained, and the men were made comfortable. The government
train, guns, ammunition, rations, etc., were sent over from the
fort, and at 2 P.M., the little command took up its march down
the Missouri border for Ft. Scott. The country was infested with
guerrillas, but fortunately, after a march of seven days they
arrived safely at their destination. It was during this trip
that the battle of Wilson Creek was fought and the border was
tolerably well freed from Rebel troops. The Doctor has often
remarked that his acceptance of that command was very foolhardy,
as twenty determined men might, by a surprise have captured the
entire outfit.
- At Ft. Scott the little band joined the regiment, which a
few days afterwards, with other troops
- was ordered to New Mexico. A halt of a few days was made
at Lawrence, Kas., and forty-eight hours before the division
took up its line of march for this frontier. Surgeon LORD was
detached from his regiment and ordered to organize a hospital
for the accommodation of 400 sick and wounded soldiers. As he
was totally destitute of any thing with which to care for this
large number of men, Gen. Dietzler, commander of the division,
issued him a sweeping order to seize any suitable buildings and
other property in Lawrence needed for the comfort and welfare
of the troops. This order he carried out in the seizure of nine
buildings, dry goods, hardware, crockery, groceries, meats, bread,
fuel, drugs, lumber, etc. He received his orders at 12 M. on
Saturday, and forty-eight hours later, had removed the 400 sick
men from the regimental hospitals and had them in comfortable
beds. A large number of the sick ones had Typhoo-malarial fever,
produced by camping upon the Kansas River bottom and using water
from that stream. The mortality was large. Great credit was due
the generous and patriotic women, who as soon as the order was
published came forward with offers of bedding and delicacies
for their sick defenders. Many of them operated their sewing
machines two or three days, making sheets, pillowcases and coverlets
for the hospital. A sanitary fund of $300 was raised by them
and expended under the direction of Surgeon LORD, who was the
only medical officer, and upon whom devolved the entire care
and treatment of these soldiers. He was faithfully assisted by
J. E. COAKLEY, now a highly esteemed physician of Milton Junction,
as hospital steward. At the end of six weeks, the order having
been countermanded, the troops returned form the frontier and
Surgeon LORD, worn out by constant work, asked to be relieved,
that he might rejoin his regiment, which was ordered to Corinth,
Miss. The troops embarked at Leavenworth, the Doctor being detailed
as flag surgeon by Gen. Mitchell, then in command. The fleet
of steam transports stopped at St. Louis on its way down, and
the 13th Wisconsin was landed at Columbus, Ky. In June Dr. LORD
was detailed as surgeon in charge of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment,
then at Humboldt, Tenn.. He sent the two regimental surgeons
to Wisconsin, sick, one of whom died. Upon the return of the
surgeon, Dr. L. H. CAREY, he returned to his regiment only to
find that its surgeon, Dr. J. M. EVANS, was sick. The latter
went to Wisconsin on a sick leave and before his return, Surgeon
LORD was detailed on the staff of Gen Ransom, with whom he served
some time. Afterward he rejoined his regiment, with which he
remained until October, 1862, his duties calling him again and
again from Ft. Donelson to Ft. Henry.
- An incident at the latter fort is worthy to be related. Soon
after the Emancipation Proclamation
- was issued by President Lincoln, an intelligent colored boy,
of three-fourths white blood, and about twelve years of age came
to the hospital of the 13th Wisconsin and asked for protection
from a slave hunter, who soon made his appearance and demanded
the boy of Surgeon LORD, who refused to give him up. The former
owner insisted upon having the boy, claiming that Kentucky, whence
the lad came, was not included in the proclamation. He obtained
an order from the Lieutenant Colonel commanding the surgeon to
surrender the slave, to which the Doctor replied, "I will
obey no such order; it comes from a coward, and is a disgrace
to the regiment and the noble State of Wisconsin; it will take
a full brigade of troops to take the boy from this regiment,
and I advise you as you value your safety, to get out of camp
as fast as your mule will take you." The Rock County boys
were getting thick around the Doctor's tent, and the planter,
who might have been father to the boy, fled in a hurry.
- About the middle of October Surgeon LORD received an order
form Gen Grant's headquarters
- to report at Holly Springs, Miss., for duty. The General
was moving to take Vicksburg in the rear, and preparations were
made to care for his sick and wounded at Holly Springs. In accordance
with the order, the Doctor left Ft. Henry the same night, but
upon arriving at Columbus, Ky., found that the Ohio & Mobile
Railroad was in the hands of the enemy, who had captured and
burned Holly Springs with the hospitals and an immense amount
of government stores for the supply of the army. He was ordered
on duty in the Assistant Medical Director's Department of Kentucky,
as inspector of camps and hospitals. A large force was concentrated
at Columbus to repel a threatened attack by Van Dorn. By inspection
of camps and hospitals he there found 900 men unfit to bear arms,
behind fortifications, and transferred them by hospital steamer
to the Mound City Hospital in Illinois. Four weeks after arriving
at Columbus, Surgeon LORD was ordered to Memphis, Tenn., and
instructed to occupy Adams Block and convert it into a hospital.
That immense block, costing $250,000, was new, having never been
occupied, and was so constructed as to be easily converted into
the finest hospital building on the Mississippi River. He placed
some forty carpenters and masons at work, putting doors in walls,
ventilators in the roof, etc., while plumbers placed gas fixtures
in the entire block, and in ten days from the time he received
his order, he had 400 sick soldiers in bed. Those men were from
the hospitals in the rear of Jackson and LaGrange, Tenn. They
were brought on two trains, arriving at 10 o'clock at night,
and four hours was occupied in moving them form the depot to
the hospital. A majority of those patients had been sick a long
time and many were in a dying condition, but had to be moved
to keep them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Of the
400, twenty were taken to the dead house at sunrise. Within two
weeks he was ordered to provide beds for 600 wounded troops,
then on the hospital steamer lying at the levee, who were brought
in from the battles of Yazoo and Arkansas Post. As he had given
his ambulances for the use of Gen. Grant, who was then with the
army at Memphis, preparing to descend the river with the intention
of capturing Vicksburg, he was compelled to transport that large
number of wounded in hacks and coaches, which he seized by the
aid of a detail of seventy-five soldiers from Provost headquarters,
this transfer occupying the entire day. In six weeks from the
opening of Adams' hospital, it had within it 1,700 sick and wounded,
with 160 nurses, 42 cooks, 11 ward masters, 5 clerks in office,
2 dispensary clerks, 11 assistant surgeons, and 100 colored men
and women in the laundry, besides 50 ladies furnished as helpers
by Mrs. Dr. Dix under the authority of the War Department. After
an inspection of the ten hospitals of Memphis, in March, 1863,
by a surgeon sent from Washington, he was asked to explain why
the mortality in his hospital was two and one-half per cent less
than in any other in the city. He explained the matter to the
satisfaction of the inspector by showing him his kitchen and
diet rooms, together with his supply of butter, milk, eggs, chickens,
ice, fruits and other necessaries for sick and wounded men. In
other words, he told him he expended his hospital fund for the
men to whom it belonged. It was reported to the Surgeon General
of the United States that Adams' hospital was one of the best
on the Mississippi River.
- Dr. LORD served as Surgeon-in-Chief until April, 1863, when
broken down with hard and
- constant work, he succumbed to an attack of illness which
almost terminated fatally and compelled him to tender his resignation.
A few days before, he had been solicited by Gen. J. H. HOWE to
accept a commission as surgeon in his regiment, the 32d Wisconsin,
which he consented to do after a rest of a few days with his
friend, Col. G. E. BRYANTof the 12th Wisconsin, then encamped
near Memphis. Soon after reporting to Gen. HOWE, Gen. BRYANT
was ordered below as part of a re-enforcement to Gen. Grant,
then about to complete the investment of Vicksburg. Surgeon LORD
was detailed on his staff and remained with him until a few days
before Vicksburg surrendered. Hearing that both of his assistants,
whom he left with the regiment, were sick, and that the regiment
was suffering for medical aid, he requested to be relieved from
duty with Gen. BRYANT and hurried back to find 200 of his command
sick in the hospital and in the quarters. He had but short respite
from special duty. In a few days, an order from the Secretary
of War placed him with Surgeon A. B. Campbell, Medical Director
of the Department of Tennessee and Surgeon Niglas, of the 6th
Illinois Cavalry, on a military commission for the examination
of such candidates as were seeking appointments as surgeons in
colored regiments. These candidates were nearly all surgeons
or assistant surgeons of white troops, but expected a life position
if the colored troops became the standing army of the United
States. He served on that medical board and with his regiment,
until that command was, in November, ordered to Grand Junction,
Miss., where it remained until December with the exception of
an occasional chase after Forrest. In December, 1863, Gen. HOWE
was placed in command of the brigade, and Surgeon LORD, while
acting as brigade surgeon to him, still kept control of his regiment.
In the winter and spring of 1864, that command was under Gen.
Sherman in the memorable Meridian raid through Mississippi and
Alabama. Upon the return to Vicksburg, the division to which
HOWE's brigade was attached, was ordered to report to O. O. Howard,
then fighting in front of Kennesaw Mountain. Embarking on boats,
the force reached Cairo, where the troops were transferred to
boats of less draft and steamed up the Ohio and Tennessee rivers
to Pittsburgh Landing, thence marched to Decatur, Ala., where
it remained several weeks. In the meantime, Surgeon LORD's health
had become completely shattered by exposure and hard work, and
by the advice of his medical friends he resigned in September,
1864, having served three years.
- Soon after his arrival in Wisconsin, Dr. LORD received a
petition from the line officers of the
- 13th Wisconsin, the first regiment to which he was attached,
to accept a commission as surgeon. Dr. J. M. EVANS, who had been
to the regiment an excellent friend and officer, was broken down
in health and had resigned. The same was in very sense, true
of Dr. SMITH, who took Dr. LORD's place in the regiment when
he left it. Although the Doctor's health seemed improved under
a change of elimate, diet and freedom from care, he did not feel
like taking a trip to Central Texas, where the 13th Regiment
was ordered. After a long rest he entered into general practice
and is much attached to his profession.
- Immediately after settling in his old home in 1865, Dr. LORD
was favored by an extensive
- practice in medicine and surgery. In 1879, a delegation of
leading Republicans waited upon him with the request that he
allow himself to be placed in nomination for the Wisconsin Assembly.
Although without political aspirations, he consented, was nominated
and elected by a very flattering majority, receiving 1,741 votes,
while the Democratic candidate received 562 votes, and in his
own town, out of a total of 502, he received 457. He served in
the Assembly of 1880, and in 1882 was elected to the State Senate
for four years, by a majority of 1,385 in the district and 363
in his town. In the autumn of 1886, he was chosen by the Northwestern
Tobacco Dealers' and Growers' Association, to represent that
organization at Washington in an effort to obtain a modification
of the tariff on the imported leaf tobacco. Several associations
were also represented in Washington, but the most that could
be accomplished was a ruling by the Secretary of the Treasury,
which partially checked fraudulent entries at the New York Custom
House. After several hearings, before the Committee of Ways and
Means, a majority of whom were supporters of the Free Trade Policy
and opposed to any protection of industry, the Doctor became
convinced that any relief from the 49th Congress was impossible,
and he left Washington in disgust, as did the other delegates.
He now, in 1889, resides in Edgerton. A fine portrait of the
Doctor is here given.
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- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 333-337; lithograph from
same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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