JOHN F. SANFORD, M. D.

SANFORD, PRETTYMAN, JEDDEDIAH, DRAKE, PARKER, KIRTLAND, BURDEN, COBB, ARMOR, GALIGHER, BARTON, FERGUSON

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 4/4/2020 at 20:27:30

JOHN F. SANFORD, M. D., was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, on the 13th of April, 1823. His father came from Fairfax County, Virginia, and settled in Chillicothe in 1801. Here the subject of this biography was brought up, receiving a common school and an academic education. In 1837 he commenced the study of medicine under Dr. J. S. Prettyman, one of the most eminent surgeons of the State, and continued about three years. He attended lectures at the Cincinnati Medical College in 1839 and 1840, the faculty then embracing some of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons of the West, namely: Dr. Jeddediah Cobb, Dr. Daniel Drake, Dr. Willard Parker, now Professor of Surgery in the city of New York, Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, afterwards distinguished as a naturalist, and others.

In 1841, Dr. Sanford came to Farmington, Van Buren County, Iowa, and commenced the practice of medicine under a license from the Ross County (Ohio) Medical Society. At this time he was very young to undertake the practice of medicine being scarcely eighteen, and too young to graduate, according to the custom of the medical schools, but he entered into partnership with an experienced practitioner, Dr. Barton, afterwards a member of the Legislature, with whom he continued two years.

In 1846, after the admission of Iowa as a State, he was elected to the State Senate from Van Buren County, over colonel Ferguson, when the majority against his party was about three hundred. During his services in the Senate he laid the foundation of the College of Physicians and surgeons, which held its first session in Rock Island, and the year following held two sessions in davenport, and was thence removed to Keokuk, where it has ever since remained.

In 1847 he graduated from the Medical College at Philadelphia then under the presidency of Jesse R. Burden, M. D.

In 1850 he followed the removal of the Medical College to Keokuk, and has since remained here in the practice of his profession.

In connection with the establishment of the College here, he established the “Western Medico-Chirurgical Journal.” a monthly periodical which attained a large circulation, exchanging with the medical journals in this country, and with several in Europe, and receiving favorable recognition from all the eminent authors of the day. Dr. Samuel G. Armor and Dr. Sanford were at first co-editors, but Dr. Sanford edited it alone for the last year and a half.
Dr. Sanford had schemes of ambition, not only for himself but for medical science in his state, which expanded somewhat during Keokuk’s rapid era. He intended to have a college, and as a first installment to that end, erected the building now used for a court house. But the crash of 1857 came, and in 1858 the two colleges were united, and he was offered a position in the consolidated institution, which, however, he declined. In 1859 he sold his building to the county, determined to devote himself entirely to his profession, since which he has prospered financially, and is considered one of the wealthy men of the city.

His special and surgical practice became so large that in 1865 he abandoned entirely the general practice of medicine, and has since devoted himself exclusively to surgery and special practice. He has the most extensive practice in the State, or indeed in the West, and performs all the surgical operations known to any practice in the world.

While living at Farmington, Dr. Sanford used chloroform with entire success in the amputation of the leg of a youth thirteen years of age - which was the first use of the article in surgical practice in Iowa. A writer reporting the case in the Burlington Hawk-Eye says:

“I have thought the above extracts sufficiently interesting to justify their insertion in your paper, as they record, perhaps, the first use of chloroform in Iowa. They derive additional interest from the display of chemical skill in one of our most talented and enterprising physicians. Thus, in little more than three months after the discovery of the pain destroying properties of chloroform, by Professor Simpson of Edinburgh, the article has been manufactured and used in a portion of the United States considered by our eastern friends on the very borders of civilization.”

When all the necessary arrangements had been made, the chloroform was administered, and the operation performed and completed in two and a half minutes.

He performed the first amputation at the shoulder-joint ever performed in Iowa, before he was eighteen years of age.

On the 6th of November, 1853, Dr. Sanford performed at Fort Madison the first operation of Lithotomy in the State practiced on a male. The lateral operation was performed with a knife and a staff, and a calculus or stone an inch and an eighth in length, three-quarters of an inch in width, half an inch in thickness, and about the shape of an almond, was removed from the urinary bladder. The doctor operated with great care and composure, and evinced a thorough anatomical knowledge of the parts concerned. The report of the case says:

“Thus the Doctor bears the palm for the first operation for lithotomy on the male in the State.”

We mention these as first cases, showing the Doctor’s independence of judgment, and illustrating the fact that he has had the courage and skill to take the lead in the introduction of some of the most delicate and difficult performances of medico-chirurgical practice; not because they are more difficult or wonderful than hundreds of other cases which he has successfully treated.

Dr. Sanford’s record as a Mason should not be overlooked in a biographical sketch like this. He devoted eight of the best years of his life to Masonry, in which he made it a special subject of study. He was appointed by the Grand Lodge of Iowa, in 1856, to deliver the Grand Oration at Muscatine, several thousand copies of which were published, together with the proceedings of the Grand Lodge. In 1857 he made a Report on Foreign correspondence, which elicited the highest commendation of the fraternity, and for which he received a vote of thanks from the Grand Lodge of the State. In 1856 he was elected Grand Master and re-elected in 1857. The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 1862 by the Masonic University of Kentucky, in recognition of his valuable contributions to Masonic literature.

Dr. Sanford, both in the political arena and before his “brethren of the mystic tie,” has been recognized as one of the most ready and eloquent public speakers in the State. Many of his discourses and orations have been reported and published, and they all give evidence that he possesses more than common oratorical powers. He has been popular as a lyceum lecturer, and has written several pieces of poetry which evince considerable genius in that direction.

Dr. Sanford was first married at Farmington, Iowa.

He married his second and present wife, Miss Jennie Galigher, in Zanesville, Ohio on the third of May, 1858. By this marriage he has two children, a son and a daughter, both living.

Source:
Illustrated Historical ATLAS of Lee County, IOWA
A. T. Andreas
Chicago, ILL.
1874

Transcription by Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer