Husband Dr. David Hayes Agnew, M.D., LL.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Born: 24 Nov 1818 - Sadsbury Twp, Lancaster Co, PA 1 2
Christened:
Died: 22 Mar 1888 5
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Father: Dr. Robert Agnew (1785-1858) 5 6 7 8
Mother: Agnes Noble (1781-1871) 4 9
Marriage: 21 Nov 1841 8
• Additional Image: D. Hayes Agnew.
• Biographical Sketch: from Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 (New York: Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Co., 1889).
To read this brief biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
Wife Margaret Creighton Irwin 8
AKA: [Unk] Irving 1
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General Notes: Husband - Dr. David Hayes Agnew, M.D., LL.D.
He was a well-known physician. He attended President Garfield when he was shot for over a week until Garfield died.
He was one of the most widely-known surgeons of the United States, and for more than twenty-five years a resident and practitioner in Philadelphia, was born in Sadsbury township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1820. He was educated at Moscow Academy and Newark College, and after a preparatory course in medicine under his father (then a physician of high repute in Lancaster County) he entered the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduating at that institution he located in Lancaster County, and after practicing there a short time removed to Philadelphia. His advancement into a prominent place in his profession was speedy and important. He was soon called to the position of lecturer on anatomy and operative surgery in the Philadelphia School of Anatomy on College Avenue, and not long afterwards to that of demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently elected Professor of Clinical Surgery, and later Professor of Surgery in the University, he founded about that time the Philadelphia Hospital, Pathological Museum, and for a while was the curator thereof. Honorable distinctions followed rapidly. He was successively elected to be surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital, surgeon to the Pennsylvania Hospital, surgeon to the Wills Ophthalmic Hospital, surgeon to the Orthopaedic Hospital, Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University Hospital, consulting surgeon to the Orthopaedic Hospital, consulting surgeon to the Philadelphia Dispensary, and consulting surgeon to the Northern Dispensary. In 1876 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred by the trustees of Princeton College. Dr. Agnew's practice was for many years confined to the field of surgery, in which he became one of the most eminent professors of his time. As a consulting surgeon he was called in important cases to many sections of the country. Much of his time and labor was given to the preparation of works on surgery, generally recognized as important authorities. He was the author of a volume on "Practical Anatomy," one on "The Lacerations of the Female Perineum," and one on "Vesico-Vaginal Fistula," besides having contributed a series of papers (sixty-three in number) on "Anatomy in its Relations to Medicine and Surgery." His latest and most important published work was "The Science and Art of Surgery," in three volumes, covering in the aggregate about three thousand pages.
Dr. Agnew occupied the place of Professor of Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, to which he was unanimously chosen in 1871. He was a member of the College of Physicians, and of the Philadelphia County Medical Society; a member and one of the founders of the Philadelphia Pathological Society, of the Academy of Surgeons, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. [HLC 1883, 273]
His classical education was commenced at the Moscow Academy, a flourishing institution then under the supervision of the Rev. Francis Latta, and located in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He next studied at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and finally completed his education at Newark College, Delaware, where one of his relatives - the Rev. John Holmes Agnew - was Professor of Languages. His medical training was obtained at the University of Pennsylvania, and he entered upon the practice of his profession in the rural districts. After some years he removed to Philadelphia, where he continued his practice, and commenced to deliver a course of Lectures in the Philadelphia School of Anatomy, in College avenue. At the date of the breaking out of the Rebellion, his class in this time-honored institution numbered two hundred and sixty-five students, representing every State in the Union. He also established at the same place the Philadelphia School of Operative Surgery. He was elected, in 1854, one of the Surgeons of the Philadelphia Hospital, and in that institution he founded the present Pathological Museum, and for some time acted as its Curator. In 1863, he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy and assistant Lecturer on Clinical Surgery in the Medical department of the University of Pennsylvania; about the same time he was elected one of the Surgeons of Wills' Ophthalmic Hospital. In 1865, he was elected to a similar position in the Pennsylvania Hospital and likewise in the Orthopoedic Hospital. In 1870, he was chosen to fill the Chair of Operative Surgery in the same institution, and in the year that followed he became Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery in the same institution. He is a most skilful, rapid and efficient operator in every department of general surgery, which is his speciality; and his reputation is world-wide in this respect. He is at present and has been for some time past, engaged in preparing for publication a large and exhaustive work on Operative Surgery, the first volume of which is now (May, 1874) in press, and will be soon in the hands of the profession. He married a member of the Irving family of Chester county, a name well known in that section as being largely interested in the manufacture of iron.