>.

^^,^

¦^r %'

Bi"bllography of Dr.Tlioraas Edward Pickett,
(Kentucky State Historical Society, 1914)

V y,J'i. f >' 'i , V- -

,-f

^^'^' :&-i:$^-'%'-: ¦'

---UTf

'rt"

 1 M^'. ' - 1-

8
i

I give theft JBotkl
far the founding tf a. CeUege- bu this Colony'

/Ce/i^vOUJ>^U^

St^:^^ <^U^^^i<U*/

1914

MW.'.'.wiimm'A

#i-*-

^tbltagrapt{g oi
^otirxx l^xtktii

^L

AFIHT

)F OOCT©^
i=^©MAS EOW^r^O

MIA¥S¥iLLE,STOCKY

ETT

PUBLOSHED BY
Tihe Kentucky State Historic/
JANUARY, 1914
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY
®TH SERDES

JCIETY

DR. THOMAS EDWARD PICKETT

CETT

DIED at his home in Maysville, September 3, 1913-
Dr. Thomas Edward Pickett.
It is in the sense of a personal loss to this
Society that we record the death of this valued
friend. He was one of the first of the learned and eminent
men of the State to be interested and helpful in the promotion
and success of the Society and the Register, its magazine.
His letters, his clippings and his contributions were among the
best we ever received. We shall miss him, as a contrib
utor, as an adviser, and as a friend and as a distinguished
member of this Society.
We publish as our Sth series this Brochure with biblio
graphy of his life and services, as a scientist, author, physician
and eminent citizen of Maysville, Ky.
It becomes the sad duty of the editor of the Register to
gather a few of the many admirable sketches of this lately de-
cea.sed eminent Kentuckian, of .Maysville, Ky., in this perman
ent form, that the world may see we knew him here.
It has become a reproach to Kentucky that so many of
her talented men must go East or to Europe for recognition of
their ability and attainments that reflect credit and honor upon
the Slate that such a man was born on her soil. Men of
PAGE FIVE

letters, men of erudition, and men of science, the gifted and
great in those lines of talent that make men and women, it
seems that their work, that should be appreciated and appro
priated at home for recognition and usefulness must look to
the Ecist for proper tribute and reward. Dr. Pickett's dis
tinction as a writer won him fame in the East and in Europe,
where his special lines of talent are demanded and appreciated
in the intelligent circles of science and learning. It is an es
pecial pleasure to learn from the following notices of his death,
that in life he emjoyed a part of the recognition of his erudi
tion and his eminent services as a scientific physician in his
home city. All honor to the memory of such an author, friend
and physician. We take from the January Register, 1914,
the following, introduction to this series:
Of Dr. Thomas E. Pickett it is said, he is one of the
few eminent men of America who has been honored abroad
by being made a member of the ''Royal Society of Arts," in
England in recognition of his wonderful book-— "The Quest
for a Lost Race." His erudition and elegance as a writer,
was appreciated abroad as well as at home. He was a mem
ber of the British Association for the advancement of Science,
also a member of the American Academy of Medicine, the
National Geographical Society, and other such societies, as
well as a member of the National Medical Society. He was
a member of the State Historical Society, and a contributor to
its magazine. The Register.
A more extended notice of this famous Kentuckian and
beloved citizen of Maysville, Ky., will be given in our Series
Sth, a Brochure, with a handsome picture of Dr. Pickett
whose recent death was so widely deplored in and out of the
State he adorned as a citizen, and famous writer and physician.
MRS. JENNIE C. MORTON.

PAGE SIX

The following from the Maysville papers:
DR. PICKETT DEAD

Dr. Thomas Edward Pickett, eminent author and physi
cian and beloved citizen, closed his eyes in Eternal sleep
yesterday afternoon at 4:45 o'clock. He had been in a stupor
for 36 hours preceding his death and the end came befitting
his noble and serene career, sweetly and peacefully, a flicker
of the pulse, a last feeble throb of the heart and his immortal
soul joined his father's in the mansions of the blessed.
It is difficult to write of Dr. Pickett without glowing and
smcere praise and enthusiasm. A man of giant intellect he was
as brave as a lion and was also as gentle as a dove. Ripe
scholar and deep student of human life he had a close view of
the finite and the INFINITE. Witty? His was of the rapier
order, keen appropos cutting and masterly. That he was at
the head of the medical profession and in literature his record
and writings profusely attest.
Dr. Pickett was born on his father's farm four miles West
of Maysville on January 1 I th, 1 84 1 , and was a son of
Thomas J. Pickett and Margaret Madison (Campbell) Pickett,
the former a native of Mason County and the latter born in
Fayette County and both being representatives of sterling
pioneer families of Kentucky. His father was a man of promi
nence and influence in Mason County and in the early day
was a shipper of farm products to New Orleans. He repre
sented Mason County in the Legislature. Dr. Pickett's grand
father, John Pickett, was born in Fauquier County, Virginia
and first came to Kentucky in I 789. The Pickett family are
of staunch English stock as the pages of the last 300 years of
history fully attest.
Dr. Pickett was the last of nine children. He was edu-
PAGE SEVEN

cated in the Maysville schools, finishing in the famous Rand
and Richeson Seminary here, the same school at which Gen.
U. S. Grant was a student. In 1 865 the Doctor was gradu
ated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania from
which he received his M. D. degree and all his professional
life he has practiced his profession in Maysville, where by his
humane acts and the gentle arts of his profession he has
endeared himself to thousands of people, the high and the
lowly. Dr. Pickett was the first man to introduce into the United
States the system of treatment of fractures by massage and
mobilization. The Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic of 1 903 contained
a long notice of Dr. Pickett on this subject.
Dr. Pickett has been a popular and successful practioner
of medicine in Mason County since the close of the Civil War.
But his services to the community have not been on exclusively
professional lines. From the date of the first railway agitation
in which he volunteered to report the speeches of James Bar
bour, Esq., and Judge Richard H. Stanton (reports which
were widely distributed) he has helped in various ways to
create public sentiment in favor of "local improvement. " His
name has been connected with every enterprise from the "fif-
ites" down. Many years ago James Wormaid made him one
of the Trustees of his Library fund, $20,000. He was the
last one of the original appointees. In later days he was made
a Trustee and Director of the Wilson Hospital (Hayswood).
In succession he has been a member of the City Council,
Chairman of the Board of Health, City Physician, member of
the School Board, and representative of the Slate in the
Directory of the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road, a
famous thoroughfare. While in the * ity Council hewas asso
ciated with the late R. A. Cochran and B. A. Wallingford,
Sr., in a successful effort to "refund" the city debt, an epoch in
our financial administration which is worthy of note.
PAGE EIGHT

Dr. Pickett was a member of the "Advisory Committee"
which gave a helping hand to the City Council in making the
contract for our present water works. He also served in a
similar capacity with the present School Board in the erection
of the new Public School buildings.
Dr. Pickett has been a prolific writer, and has published
books on a variety of subjects. "The Quest for a Lost Race,"
which has attracted a great deal of attention, and has been
well characterized as "a genealogy of the State," was published
by him as a member of the Filson Club (Louisville, Ky.)
Dr. Pickett was made a member of the Royal Societyof
Arts of England in appreciation of his book "The Qjiest For a
Lost Race," his election bearing date of June 29th, 1910.
Dr. Pickett was a life member of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, of the American Academy
of Medicine, of the American Association for the Advance
ment of Science, of the National Geographical Association
(Boston), and other associations of a historic and scientific
character. He was a member of the "National Association of the
United States Examining Surgeons" and a president of the
local Board of Examining Surgeons, which was organized at
this place in I 884. His membership dates from that time.
It may give interest to this sketch to add that Dr. Pickett
served as a surgical assistant in the famous Peninsular Campaign
of 1 864, and had some active mihtary experience in local
movements in the early "sixties" under Colonels Marshall and
Hams. When a young man he was united in marriage to Miss
Abbie Gray, who died about thirty-three years ago. He is
survived by two daughters: Mrs. Edward C. McDowell, of
Ontario, Canada, and Mrs. Geo. T. Barbour, of this city,
with whom the Doctor lived.

PAGE NINE

Noble gentleman farewell; you will be missed from the
daily walks of this most mysterious human life.
After Life's fitful fever, he sleeps well.

DR. PICKETT'S FUNERAL
The funeral services over the remains of Dr. Thomas E.
Pickett will be conducted at his late home Friday afternoon at
4 o'clock, by Dr. John Barbour, pastor of the First Presby
terian Church. He was a baptised child in this church.
Friends will kindly omit flowers.

THOMAS EDWARD PICKETT, M. D., LL. D.

Very appreciative notices have appeared in the public
press of Dr. Pickett, recently deceased, but a fuller estimate
of so distinguished a citizen should be placed on record while
his memory is fresh among us. He was the son of Thomas
Jefferson Pickett and Margaret Madison (Campbell) Pickett,
and was born January 6, 1 84 1 , on a farm in the western part
of the county. To this, in part, may be traced the great in
terest and pride he always showed in Mason county and her
people. Dr. Pickett came of a race of people who have taken
high rank both in church and State. The Pickett's are fo
Huguenot derivation. Among them we find the names of
Gen. George E. Pickett, the hero of Gettysburg; Col. John
T. Pickett, the famous fillibuster; James C. Pickett, a lieuten
ant and poet, also minister to Ecuador and Peru, and Prof.
James D. Pickett, the educator so well known in Kentucky.
The Mason county Picketts stand in the forefront of our citi
zens. Dr. Pickett's grandfather, Col. John Pickett, an early
settler of Mason county, was a man of force and character,
having served in both branches of the legislature. His father,
PAGE TEN

Thomas J. Pickett, is well remembered, not only as a success
ful business man, but as a country gentleman of the old school,
well read in belles lettres, and the master of a graceful English
style. He, too, represented his county in the legislature. Dr.
Pickett's mother was of Scotch derivation, tracing through the
McDowells to the Rutherfords, and through the Campbells to
the clan Argyle. In Green's "Historic Families of Kentucky,"
the branches of this large family, in which are so many dis
tinguished men and women, may be found. Mrs. Pickett was
decended from Judge Samuel McDowell, who presided over
all the early conventions at Danville, Ky., dealing with the
momentous questions of the day, the setting up of a new com
monwealth of Kentucky. Judge McDowell was the father of
the father of Dr. Ephriam McDowell, the pioneer in the op
eration of ovariotomy in all the world. Mrs. Pickett was the
daughter of Rev. John Poage Campbell, the distinguished
Presbyterian divine. Dr. E P. Humphrey says of him: "As
a preacher he was distinguished for weight of matter, brilliant
diction, the flashing of a deepset, dark blue eye, elegance of
style and gracefulness of delivery." He was also a skilled
writer on scientific topics.
Dr. Pickett was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, and
was fond of showing the power of its Calvinistic principles in
shaping so many of the great characters and crises of history.
He took his academic course in the noted school of Rand
and Richerson, afterwards spending four years at Centre Col
lege, Danville, Ky., from which he graduated in 1 860. It
was in the palmy days of Dr. Lewis Warner Greene's presi
dency. Of this great educator and the fine faculty of the
college. Dr. Pickett was often heard to speak in terms of high
admiration. At college he took high rank both as a classical
scholar and a student of science. He was also one of the
editors of the college literary paper, the maturity of his style
PAGE ELEVEN

attracting the attention of Dr. Humphrey and other competent
judges. It may be said right here, that Dr. Pickett always
kept up his classical studies as an elegant diversion from his
professional labors. He was an authority on Horace, having
turned some of his best known odes into English verse. He
was also an excellent French scholar, perfecting his use of it
by two stays of some length in the French capital. This ri
pening of his scholarship at "old Centre" recognized by con
ferring upon him, in the year 1 900, (entirely unsought,) the
degree of LL. D.
So decided was his literary bent, that it was generally
supposed he would devote himself, on graduating, to literary
research, but he had also a decidedly practical turn which
caused him to take up medicine as his profession. For this he
prepared himself by full courses, graduating from the University
of Pennsylvania, and by surgical service for a time with the
Army of the Patomac and in the hospitals of Philadelphia.
He did not get fully into practice, however, for a few years,
having been induced to take for a time the editorship of the
Lexington Observer, and afterwards of the Evansville Courier.
He could not, indeed, even after coming into an exacting prac
tice, relinquish his desire to find expression with the pen. He
was often found late at night in his library at his reading and
his correspondence, both of which ranged over all the depart
ments open to his cultured mind.
He wrote a great deal for the Eagle in the days of T.
M. Green's editorship, and was always a welcome contributor
to the papers of the city. One of his first contributions of a
scholarly character was a monograph on the Mound Builders
which at once drew fourth the complimentary notice of arch-
eological societies and students. The position taken in this has
been confirmed by the later discoveries and conclusions of
antiquarian students This written essay may be found in
corporated in Collins' "History of Kentucky."
PAGE TWELVE

His literary reputation, however, will probably rest upon
the publication, under the auspices of the Filson Historical
Club, of which he was a member, entitled, "The Quest of a
Lost Race." It was an answer to Freeman's statement that
the Norman is a lost race. Dr. Pickett shows from the names
of the Battle Rolls of William, the Conquerer, which have
been traced in the greatest achievements of the English and
American people, that it is the Norman element which has
given chief distinction to the American people, so that it should
not be called the Anglo-Saxon race, but the Anglo-Norman.
The ingenious and learned author took special pride in
following the Anglo-Morman into Kentucky, where the British
element has been least mixed with other races. In the Ken-
tuckian's fearlessness and independence, his spirit of adventure
leading even to distinction on the seas, his love of horses and
his chivalry to ladies, his fondness for litigation, and his pic
turesque personality and speech, as well as in the Norman
names which still linger among us, he found a striking proof of
the enduring leadership of the Norman.
It may well be asked how one, whose mind dwelt so fully
with these general questions, could keep up a laborious prac
tice. The question betrays the narrowness of the view we
Americans usually take of life. The greatest German and
French scholars are often active in governmental service or in
professional practice. Disraeli, the man of letters, was Eng
land's greatest Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lord Haldande,
the greatest authority in England on German Mataphysics, has
been surpassed by none as Secretary of War and Lord Chan
cellor. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson have
both been learned scholars and also intrepid men of action.
Dr. Pickett's mind was of this large and inclusive type.
At the time he entered upon medical practice, Maysville
had a number of strong physicians, but it was not long before
PAGE THIRTEEN

the wealth of his learning, and his full preparation for practice,
called him into their counsel, and eventually to a position sec
ond to none among her greatest physicians. Dr. Pickett
brought to this sick room all the gifts of his fine mind and his
rich nature. His power of diagnosis amounted almost to intui
tion, but he did not trust to this. Never did a physician more
laboriously possess himself of cJl the facts of a case, or more
untiringly deal with il. In extreme cases he became the nurse
of the patient, silling up night and day until danger had passed.
It was this devotion lo the highest ideals of the profession,
sparing not himself so long as a life was in the balance, which
has endeared him lo so many of our homes. This was true
regardless of class or condition. He gave himself to rich and
to poor, his charges in all cases being rather below than above
the average physician. He was noted for using the simpliest
lemedies, his philosophical mind discerning the VeJue of things
overlooked even by many physicians. Experience proved how
deeply he saw into the human system. Because of this personal
attention and watchfulness, it is probable that few physicians in
the State could trace the saving of more lives to their own
exertions. Dr. Pickett took great satisfaction in having introduced
into this country the Championniere method of treating frac
tures, wilh which he had become directly acquainted in Paris.
This method aims to dispense, so far as possible, with rigid
apparatus about the broken bones, leaving them to be fre
quently inspected und massaged, "gently caressing" (as he
phrased it) the adjacent parts lo keep the repairing forces al
work. One who ever saw him thus taking the fractured parts
into his own gentle hands and manipulating them, that the
function of the parts should be maintained, has in memory a
picture not only of Dr. Pickett's greatness as a physician, but
of his characteristic qualities as a man. His skill descended
into the smallest details, and he found no service troublesome
PAGE FOURTEEN

which could forward the comfort or the recovery of the
patient. Dr. Pickett married in 1873 Miss Abby Gray, daughter
of Hamilton Gray, one of the most honored and successful
merchants in the history of the city. She was taken from him
by death in 1878, leaving two daughters, who are sttll livinc;
Rosa, wife of Edward Campbell McDowell, now of Hamilton,
Ontario, and Abby, wife of George Taylor Barbour, of the
Bank of Maysville. The children of these daughters gathered
about his feet, made a beautiful picture and added greatly to
the pleasures of his declining years.
Dr. Pickett accumulated by his practice a handsome
competency, and he lived in one of the most beautiful homes
in our city. As a citizen he kept in touch with all important
movements in the city. He was in turn city physician, chairman
of the board of health, city councilman, and a member for
several years of the school board, and afterwards of the
advisory committee on the new high school, rendering such
service as only one of his own fine education could bring to
the public interest. He took an active part in bringing the
railroads and the water works to the city. To him, more than
to any one man, may be traced the Haywood Hospital, estab
lished by Mrs. May V. Wilson, who named him in the con
veyance the leading trustee having in charge that great interest.
To the confidence reposed in him and his associates, may also
be traced all the subsequent gifts to the endowment of that
institution. He also took a leading part as a trustee of the Library,
established by the late James Wormaid, and embracing the
Greenwood Fund.
Dr. Pickett was not only a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, of the Kentucky
State Historical Society, of the Virginia Historical Society, of
PAGE FIFTEEN

the American Statistical Association, and of the Filson Histor
ical Club, but also of the Royal Society of Arts, and of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, two of
whose meetings, at Newcastle and Oxford, he attended.
Dr. Pickett had not practiced his profession generally for
about ten years. He could not, however, altogether escape
the appeals of many who came to him for advice. He was
a member of the National Board of Surgeons, and of the
Local Board of Examiners for Pensions, since its organization
in 1 884. This service was rendered with painstaking care,
and the examiners received many compliments from the gov
ernment board on their valuable work.
Since the first of June last Dr. Pickett had been confined
to his room, and on the 3d of September he breathed his last
al the home of his daughter, Mrs. Barbour, whose unremitting
attention was a great comfort to him in his last days.
Dr. Pickett was a distinguished looking man. Slight of
figure, and gentle in manner, there was nevertheless in his
erect pose and his bearing, the mark of distinction which would
attract at once a stranger. He was the most genial and court
eous of companions, a brilliant conversationahst, readily draw
ing from his large reading and observation, the master of a
quick and felicitous repartee, interested in all about him, and
contributing his share to the life and improvement of our city
Maysville never had a citizen who will reflect greater honor
upon it, nor one whose personality counted more powerfully in
its life. We lay this simple wreath on his grave in the name of
his host of friends and admirers. The service of a great phy
sician can only be repaid with gratitude and love, and these he
will have in abundant measure.
JOHN BARBOUR

PAGE SIXTEEN

S-1

S* ¦" ' .
<-/;•
..rfi.
. '\ i
1 '' ',
' 1- j'H
If .'"=
¦1 1-^^
\ ^-^V i
^B
a