Owing to Dr. Handerson's modesty, even we who were for years
associated with him in medical college, in organization, and
professional work, knew but little of him. He would much rather
discuss some fact or theory of medical science or some ancient worthy
of the profession than his own life. Seeing this tall venerable
gentleman, sedate in manner and philosophical in mind, presiding over
the Cuyahoga County Medical Society or the Cleveland Medical Library
Association, few of the members ever pictured him as a fiery, youthful
Confederate officer, leading a charge at a run up-hill over fallen
logs and brush, sounding the "Rebel yell," leaping a hedge and
alighting in a ten-foot ditch among Federal troopers who surrendered
to him and his comrades. Yet this is history. We could perhaps more
easily have recognized him even though in a military prison-pen, on
finding him dispelling the tedium by teaching his fellow prisoners
Latin and Greek, or perusing a precious volume of Herodotus.
Henry Ebenezer Handerson was born on March 21, 1837, here in Cuyahoga
county, in the township of Orange, near the point now known as
"Handerson's Cross-Roads," on the Chagrin river. His mother's maiden
name was Catharine Potts. His father was Thomas Handerson, son of Ira
Handerson. The family immigrated to Ohio from Columbia county, New
York, in 1834. Thos. Handerson died as the result of an accident in
1839, leaving the widow with five children, the eldest thirteen years
of age, to support. Henry and a sister were adopted by an uncle, Lewis
Handerson, a druggist, of Cleveland. In spite of a sickly childhood
the boy went to school a part of the time and at the age of fourteen
was sent to a boarding school, Sanger Hall, at New-Hartford, Oneida
county, New York. Henry's poor health compelled him to withdraw from
school. No one at that time would have predicted that the delicate
youth would live to be the sage of four score years and one. With his
foster father and family he moved to Beersheba Springs, Grundy county,
Tennessee.
In 1854, in good health, the boy returned to Cleveland, prepared
for college, and entered Hobart College, Geneva, New York, where he
graduated as A.B. in 1858. Returning to Tennessee, he occupied himself
for about a year with surveying land and in other work and then
became private tutor in the family of Mr. Washington Compton on a
cotton plantation near Alexandria, Louisiana. There he remained a
year or more, then in the autumn of 1860 matriculated in the Medical
Department of the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University),
where he studied through the winter, and also heard much of the
political oratory of that exciting period.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, followed by the call
of President Lincoln for 75,000 troops to suppress the rebellion,
found young Handerson again employed as tutor, this time in the family
of General G. Mason Graham, a veteran of the Mexican war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account