Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: November 1947 Volume 6 Number 4, Pages 70–74

Dr. James Aiken

Ruth Moore Styer in collaboration with Daisy Aiken Van Tries

Page 70

James Aiken was descended from the old Aiken family of Scotland, from which country his grandfather, John Aiken, went into the north of Ireland, where he lived until 1832. In that year he migrated to East Whiteland Township in Chester County. John Aiken was a carpet weaver by trade. While still in Scotland he married and was the father of two sons and two daughters. One of the sons, Thomas Aiken, was born in the north of Ireland April 3, 1811 and accompanied his father to East Whiteland Township. He farmed in that township until 1855, in which year he purchased a farm in Tredyffrin. He continued to till the soil until 1867, when he moved to Berwyn. He was for forty years an elder in Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Thomas Aiken married Elizabeth Dougherty and reared a family of six children: Dr. John, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, who served as surgeon of the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry, and died of a cold contracted while serving in the Federal Army; Mary J., wife of Enoch S. Wells; Rev. Thomas J., a graduate of Lafayette College and Princeton Seminary, later pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Berwyn, from l868 to 1874 and from 1885 to 1901; Sallie and Elizabeth; and Dr. James Aiken.

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James Aiken was born February 21, 1848, in East Whiteland Townships. He attended the Howellville School, and later John W. Lock's Academy in Norristown. He read medicine with Dr. Jacob Rickabaugh of Tredyffrin Township, and entered the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1868. At the age of twenty he was the youngest graduate to date.

Dr. Aiken practiced in Berwyn. He was a member of the School Board in the Valley, and on March 2, 1881, married Clara, daughter of George Alexander of worth Coventry Township, who had been teaching in the Presbyterian School near Valley Presbyterian Church. They had seven children, five of whom died in youth. Two are living today: Dr. Thomas G. Aiken of Berwyn, and Daisy, wife of the Reverend W. P. Van Tries, of Germantown.

The Aikens lived in what is now the J. Edward Stump home, on Knox Avenue. At that time the house stood nearly on the corner of Knox and Lancaster Avenues. A frame drug store stood on the corner. Dr. Aiken moved both of these buildings back, and, in 1839, built the brick building now standing on the corner. The moving of the house occasioned quite a bit of comment in the town, not only because it was the first building in the vicinity to be so moved, but because Mrs. Aiken and her mother were in the house at the time. The drug store was later occupied by a painter named James, then by Barclay Hickman, undertaker. The present Dr. Thomas Aiken house on the Lincoln Highway, just west of the brick building, was built in 1909.

Berwyn Pharmacy

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When the Aikens were first married, since there was no Presbyterian Church in Berwyn, they attended the Wayne Church. When Trinity Presbyterian Church was organized in Berwyn, Dr. and Mrs. Aiken transferred their letters. Dr. Aiken served as clerk of the session from April 27, 1904 to July 25, 1917.

His church was very dear to the doctor's heart. He and Mrs. Aiken both sang in the choir for a long while. He gave unstintingly of his time to church activities, and no matter how busy he was, he made an effort to plan his Sunday calls so that he could attend service. He was very quiet in his manner and never wished to create any undue excitement. His family knew that if they needed him for a sick person while he was in church, he always sat in the first pew just inside the Sunday School vestibule door, and they did not need to open the door, but if they would just say "Doctor" once, he would hear them and would slip out quietly.

One time when someone had to go for the doctor, the minister was praying when the messenger arrived in the vestibule. He decided to wait until the minister had finished, but the dog that had gone along did not wait. He went in through the Sunday School to the front of the church and started back over the top of every pew to the back until he found Dr. Aiken.

When the young minister, W. P. Van Tries, came to Berwyn in 1908, someone asked the doctor what he thought of him. Doctor replied in this wise: "Oh, he'll be all right when he gets some of the conceit out of him!" He little dreamed then that the new minister would be his son-in-law, whom he had thought was too modern and evangelistic, but of whom later he grew to be very fond.

Dr. Aiken was interested in the Easttown School Board, of which he was secretary from June 7, 1904 to December 3, 1917. He furthered education in every possible way, and was responsible for more than one teacher having chosen that career. Carrie Kerr remembers an early visit to her home when he asked, "Daughter, would you like to be a teacher?", thus kindling the spark of enthusiasm which has not died in her forty years of training youthful minds.

Another organization he helped to further and to acquire modern equipment for was the Berwyn Fire Company, of which he was president for some years.

He was an officer in the Howellville School Association and was very active in their annual reunions. He was a member of the Chester Valley Horse Thief Association as long as it existed. He was also a member of Lodge #998, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of Thomson Lodge #340, Free and Accepted Masons, Duffryn Mawr.

He never pushed himself forward, being very reserved in his demeanor, but rich or poor, black or white, knew they could come to him for advice or help. He had many friends among young and old.

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Mrs. Aiken sent out the bills, and the day they were mailed, Dr. Aiken always took a circuitous route to the post office, via Berwyn Avenue, lest he meet someone leaving the post office with one of his bills in hand. He did some work at the Wills' Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, but most of his work was that of an old fashioned general practitioner.

Mrs. Aiken studied and passed her State Board Examinations after her marriage and presided over the well-stocked drug store located in the brick building on the corner of Lancaster and Knox Avenues. The contents of some of the notes she received make interesting reading:

"Dear Doctor, this child is my little girl. I send 5 sents to buy two sitless powders for a grown up adult who is sick."

"Dear doctor, pals gif bearer 5c worse of Auntie Toxyen for the gargle babys throat."

"dear doctor, I have a cut pain in my childs diagram. please give my son something to release it."

Dr. Aiken loved nature. He saw things others failed to notice. He was happiest when he brought home a bunch of the first wild honeysuckle in the spring. He knew the hill where could be gathered the most beautiful violets, three of their petals the palest blue and two the darkest purple velvet. If he saw an oriole's nest the next time he went that way he would ask someone to share his discovery. He knew the call of most of the birds. When he identified them, he would describe the male and the female, and would discuss their habits. He knew when it was time for the water lily buds to open and always brought some home. He was very proud of the crimson rambler that grew over his office window, and each year it bloomed wished that the camera would show its gorgeous shade of red. He would have reveled in today's kodachrome.

It was a great pleasure to ride with him and he liked to have company. One lesson he taught his children thoroughly. He would say, "I am driving down into the Valley; if you want to go with me, be ready at nine o'clock." If they were not ready at nine although he did not want to he went off without them. The next time they were ready!

One of his greatest pleasures was reading. He read as much as time and his eyes would permit. He was very fond of the Daily Local News. His children used to twit him by telling him he handed it to every guest, then watched his reaction. If the guest read it and liked it, the doctor thought well of him.

Dr. Aiken was a lifelong Republican. On horseback, and wearing a high silk hat, he was a familiar figure in many local political parades.

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In all his living he was gentle but he was firm. Dr. Aiken was a whole generation ahead of his time in child psychology. When he bought his children skates, he put on skates and went with them to teach them. He taught them to row a boat. When they had their first bicycles he rode with them. He joked about riding to reduce but his real reason was to know that his children were safe.

He not only loved nature but he also loved animals. In their younger days both Dr. and Mrs. Aiken enjoyed riding horseback. No one could have been more proud of the colts he raised and broke himself. He saw that his animals were well cared for, well fed, clean and warm. Once he bought a horse he did not need because he knew the owner did not have enough to feed it. He was very careful of his horses. He always drove one in the morning and another in the afternoon. When the roads were first macadamized, he watched his horse's shoulders and feet very carefully and frequently sent them to his farm in the Chester Valley to rest. He liked a good looking wagon but he did not buy one just for looks; he was very careful that it was not too heavy for the horse to pull on his long trips around the country. He was fond of dogs, too. He had a number over the years. His favorite was a black and-white shepherd that came to him as a tramp. He called him "Prince." He and the doctor spent a great deal of time-together and thoroughly understood each other. One Sunday the family were eating dinner when the office bell rang. Doctor answered it, but did not return to finish his meal. The family saw the doctor go to the stable, get the wheelbarrow and go up the pike. Soon he came back with old Prince in the wheelbarrow. The person at the door had told him Prince was dead up on the school grounds. He did not ask his coachman or the children to go after the dog, but he went himself and quietly brought the body back.

I spoke of his quiet reserved manner. He also had a good sense of humor and greatly enjoyed a good Scotch or Irish story. He was very even-tempered. The strongest words his family ever heard; him use were, "How under the canopy" or "Why under the canopy did you do that?"

From the time of his graduation in 1863 until his retirement when his son came home from World War I in January, 1919, with the exception of an annual trip on the "Republic" from Philadelphia to Cape May, the doctor took only two vacations. The first one was a trip by water from Philadelphia to Nova Scotia with his son and the other was in 1904 when he visited England, Scotland and Ireland. He derived a great deal of pleasure from seeing the towns, villages and churches where his relatives had lived and worshipped. And there was an English doctor, who had visited him here,who was very gracious to the doctor while he was in England.

When a man drops out of harness he goes down very quickly. The Aikens were visiting the Van Tries family in Parkesburg when the doctor was stricken and, after a year's illness, died on June 11, 1920. After a service in Trinity Presbyterian Church, attended by those who loved him and felt they had lost a real friend, he was laid to rest in the Great Valley Presbyterian churchyard.