Description

RARE CLEVELAND HOMEOPATHIC COLLEGE TRIBUTE COIN SILVER GOBLET MADE BY PETER L. KREIDER. Presented in this auction is a rare piece of Cleveland's history. In 1869 the faculty of the Cleveland Homeopathic College presented their faculty member Dr. Seth Beckwith with this coin silver goblet in appreciation of his years of service to the college. The goblet has machine-turned decoration and is beautifully inscribed to Dr. Beckwith in these words, "Prof. S. R. Beckwith, M.D. A Token of professional and personal Esteem. BY THE FACULTY of the Cleveland Homeopathic College April 10th 1869." The goblet is in original excellent condition with no repairs or alterations. The base of the goblet is stamped "STANDARD" and "*P.L.K.* 282," which is the maker's mark of silversmith Peter L. Kreider. The interior of the goblet has a light gold wash. It is in overall good condition with light wear and surface scratches consistent with its age and use. This is your chance to own a rare piece of the medical history of 19th century Cleveland just at the close of the Civil War; Beckwith was the founder of the first privately-owned hospital in Cleveland's history. This tribute coin silver goblet tribute gift was given to an acknowledged leader in U. S. homeopathic medicine. The goblet stands 6 3/4" tall and is 3 1/4" in diameter at the rim and 3 1/8" in diameter at the base. It is very rare to be able to hold a nearly 150-year-old artifact in your hands and have it appear almost exactly as it did when it was first presented to its original recipient; this presentation goblet is in a remarkable state of preservation. Foreign bidders will pay more for shipping than the amount listed in the auction. Peter L. Krider began his apprenticeship with Philadelphia silversmith John Curry in 1835 and finished it there with the more prolific and well-known firm of Robert and William Wilson, where he worked as a journeyman for about 15 months. In about 1842, he moved to Boston, where he worked for Obadiah Rich, returning to Philadephia about four years later to serve as the Wilsons' foreman. His firm, Krider & Co, appears in the Philadelphia directories first in 1851. He ultimately became one of Philadelphia's most important silversmiths of the second half of the nineteenth century. During most of the time from 1859-1870 , when John W. Biddle was his partner, the firm was known as Krider & Biddle. The business was sold to August Weber in 1888. Krider specialized in beakers, and partnered with retailers in other parts of the country. However, he also made hollowware for prominent Philadelphia retailers such as Bailey and Company, and J. E. Caldwell, along with several important presentation pieces. Seth Beckwith founded the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital as Dean and Chair of Surgical and Pathological Anatomy and was Surgeon of the Cleveland Railroad and an officer of the American Institute of Homœopathy and of the Ohio State Homœopathic Society. ... Dr. Seth R. Beckwith graduated from the homeopathic Cleveland Homeopathic College in 1845 (Seth Beckwith founded this hospital) in 1853 and located in Norwalk. From there he was called to teach surgical anatomy at the college (Chair of Surgical and Pathological Anatomy). He was the surgeon of the railroads entering Cleveland. He opened the first organized hospital in Cleveland in 1856-the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital of twenty beds, on Lake Street. Beckwith used it for those injured on the railroads and it was open to all surgical cases. ... A homeopathic drug store was opened in this epoch in Cleveland to be owned eventually by Beckwith and L. H. Witte. ... Dr. Seth R. Beckwith was no less notable in his relation to the homœopathic cause throughout the middle states. After graduating from the college in 1853, he located in Norwalk, Ohio, where he was practicing at the time of his call to take the chair of surgical anatomy in the Cleveland college. He interested himself particularly in surgical work and was the surgeon of the railways entering Cleveland. Later he secured the control of the county hospital, using it for clinical teaching for the benefit of his students. He became prominent in national circles, having been an officer of the American Institute of Homœopathy and of the Ohio State Homœopathic Society. In 1868, In this department Prof. S. R. Beckwith had orthopaedic surgery; Prof. Thomas Pardon Wilson, ophthalmology; Hamilton Fisk Biggar (homeopath to John Davison Rockefeller Senior), surgical diseases of the genito-urinary organs; Prof. N. Schneider, military surgery; Prof. J. C. Sanders, uterine displacements; Prof. L. W. Sapp, instrumental labor; and Prof. H. L. Ambler, a prominent dentist of the city, dental surgery. ... Among the more well known local homeopaths were Seth R. Beckwith, with a large Cleveland practice as physician and surgeon to railroads; Benjamin L. Hill, one of the founders of the Western Homeopathic College of Cleveland; and Hamilton Fisk Biggar, nationally known medical advisor and intimate friend of John Davison Rockefeller Senior. ... In 1850 the Western Homeopathic College of Cleveland, the second such institution in the country, came into being, and in 1856, Seth Beckwith opened the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital, the first privately owned hospital in Cleveland. These two institutions soon affiliated, and college faculty practiced and taught at the hospital. The CLEVELAND HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL (May 1856-1917), founded by Dr. Seth R. Beckwith, was the first privately owned hospital in Cleveland. Beckwith took over a 2-story house on Lake St. (Lakeside Ave.) at Clinton Rd. and modified it to accommodate 20 patients, mainly sick and injured employees of the Lake Shore and the Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati railroads. It soon affiliated with the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College, formed in 1850 as the Western College of Homeopathy, where Beckwith was an instructor and later dean. The college faculty practiced and taught at the hospital. In 1869 homeopathic physicians withdrew from the Willson St. Hospital and opened Cleveland Protestant Homeopathy Hospital. In 1873 that hospital moved into the Humiston Institute building on Huron Rd. The hospital consolidated with Beckwith's hospital, and the following year incorporated as the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital (sometimes referred to as the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital Society). ... Then Prof. S. R. Beckwith, whose opposition to co-education was pronounced, gracefully surrendered and took the lead in announcing to the medical profession that the college doors would thereafter be open to women, with equal rights to those of the men. In 1898, Dr. S.R. Beckwith, of New York, published his booklet describing the use of his invention, the Thermo-Ozone Generator, in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases. HOMEOPATHY - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History HOMEOPATHY, founded by German physician Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, is a therapeutic drug specialty within the general field of internal medicine. Guided by the principle that that which causes a disease can also cure it, homeopathy profoundly affected 19th century medical practice, ending "shotgun prescriptions" and introducing elements of conservatism to dominant medical theories. Homeopathic physicians started to trickle into Ohio ca. 1836, practicing in smaller cities because of their poor reception among "regular" (allopathic) physicians in larger cities. Among the more well-known local homeopaths were Seth R. Beckwith, with a large Cleveland practice as physician and surgeon to RAILROADS; Benjamin L. Hill, one of the founders of the Western Homeopathic College of Cleveland; and Hamilton Fisk Biggar, nationally known medical advisor and intimate friend of JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER†. B. H. Bartlett opened the first homeopathic pharmacy in Cleveland in 1846, at the corner of Superior Ave. and PUBLIC SQUARE. Homeopathy depended upon teaching institutions for its survival. In 1850 the Western Homeopathic College of Cleveland was founded, the second such institution in the country. The school underwent a series of name changes between its founding and the 1890s: Western College of Homeopathy (1856); Western Homeopathic College (1860); Cleveland Homeopathic College (1864); CLEVELAND HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL (1870); and Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College (1870-93). It pioneered in both NURSING, establishing the first nursing school west of the Alleghenies in 1884, and DENTISTRY, forming the first homeopathic school of dentistry in the country in the 1890s. In 1868 MYRA K. MERRICK† founded an alternative institution, the Cleveland Homeopathic College and Hospital for Women. It transferred its property to the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College in 1871, when that school began to accept women. In 1890 factionalism prompted half of the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College faculty to resign and form the Cleveland Medical College to rival the established school, which became the Cleveland Univ. of Medicine and Surgery in 1893. The two reunited in 1897 and resumed the title Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, which allied with the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati in 1911 as the Cleveland-Pulte Medical College. In 1914 the institution became the Cleveland Pulte College of Homeopathy, within the medical school of Ohio State Univ. (OSU) in Columbus, OH. The formal instruction of homeopathy ended in Ohio in 1922 when OSU discontinued the program.