Beschreibung:

Lot of approximately 103 letters and other documents including a farm ledger and diaries related to the John Couzens Thompson and his family living in Ohio, Tennessee, and Iowa ca. 1844-1921 Although the members of the Thompson family came from the same branch, their roots spread to the outskirts of the American territory and other regions far beyond their Pennsylvanian origins. Rezin, Ezra, and John Couzens Thompson were all born to Bradway Thompson and Ann Couzens. Their father was a weaver and converted Quaker. He passed his faith on to his children, and possibly, an adventurous spirit. John C., the eldest son and second child, was born in 1794. Sometime prior to 1815 he moved near Freeport, Ohio to marry and build his family. He stayed in Ohio until 1837, when his first wife died. He and his ten children moved to Tennessee. His brother, Rezin almost died from typhoid fever. The experience changed him forever and motivated him to do great things. When Aunt Starr of Mt. Pleasant heard that I was recovering from my terrible illness in Indiana, she said that God had preserved me for some great purpose, wrote Rezin. When I began to recover from my death bed as all supposed last spring; this predication came into my mind –I know God had favored me with a grand discovery, and I resolved to dedicate my life and energies to bring it before the world in such a way as would make them believe it and realize its benefits (Nashville, February 20, 1853). Rezin entered the medical profession and studied in Kentucky and Tennessee. He moved his family to the Nashville area where he could establish a practice and continue to concoct home remedies and develop care plans. I am making my mark in this city but as of yet I have not made much money, wrote Rezin. I have done practice enough to meet [my family’s expenses]—and that mostly among the poorer sort—for the best families all had their regular family physicians before I came here, and it is pretty hard to get them to change. I have secured high standing in the profession, which was what I aimed at particularly, I was resolved to obtain this, before I come out with my new plan of treatment and it was for this purpose that I wrote for he zaurnols/gaurnols/paurnols(?), and undertook the lobars of Edetar…they have heaped honors on me while I was battling for the general good but whether they will be willing to acknowledge that I have made a stride—a long stride, beyond the age, I cannot yet tell—I saw professor Winston last evening who observed to me that if I could sustain what I had slotted that the world would erect a monument to me as high as the Andes but I thought he spoke doubtingly and I expect I will have to fight the prejudices of the profession as well as the [illegible] of quacks and the egnarom of the Mopis—but it God lets me live I will triumph (Nashville, February 20, 1853). He authored several books throughout his lifetime including The Medical Adviser: Full and Plain Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Medicine Especially Adapted to Family Use, a comprehensive medical guide for novices who did not have immediate access to a physician. Hundreds of years later, his book proved to have some useful observations on common obstetric problems like puerperal fever. According to Cherly Krasnick Warch, Rezin was one of few physicians who authored self-help texts that offered through instructions for its treatment without telling readers to defer the treatment to their physician (Warch, Gender, Health, and Popular Culture Historical Perspectives, “The Transmission of Health Information,” 2011, p. 18). His book most likely saved many lives in remote locations throughout the United States like his brothers and sisters. He teased his brother, John about living up North. He wrote, I have received a letter from brother Ezra he informs me that you are all well and that you are all talking of going to Illinois—I have been hunting the place which he has chosen for a settlement and find it is a