Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: 1944 Volume 6 Number 1, Page 7

Local biographies

Page 7

Was it Carlyle who said that history is the record of the lives of a few great men, or something to that effect? At any rate, that was the historical point of view until quite recently; nowadays historians pay somewhat less attention to kings and conquerors, and a little more to the life of the common man, and to his slow progress towards economic security and political freedom. nevertheless, the individual always has, and always will, loom large in history, and history and biography are closely akin.

The QUARTERLY has carried articles on roads, schools, mills and churches, on historical events that took place in this region, on skirmishes, battles and camps; in all those the names and deeds of men and women play a prominent part, sometimes of persons known to fame, sometimes some of the "short and simple annals of the poor". To date, however, we have not attempted to go at all fully into the lives of those who have taken a prominent part in our local history. We feel that this is a fault, and therefore plan a series of short biographies of such persons. The great names of national history who lived or fought in our region, men like Washington and Wayne, have had their deeds retold many times by better historians than we; we can add little, and shall not attempt to. But the doctors, artists, clergymen, inventors, businessmen, who left their marks on the community, and whose personalities are still green in the memories of those who knew them, the record of their lives should be preserved for the benefit of posterity.

We shall begin with a few biographies of prominent physicians of the recent past in this region, those devoted souls who, before the days of automobiles and telephones, were ready at a moment's notice to hitch up the buggy, and to drive ten miles or so on their errands of mercy. Let us never forget them.