Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/257

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ORTON 229

to die either suddenly or after a .short illness, in order that he might not be the means of giving trouble.

T. H. S.

Long Island Med. Jour., vol. ii. No. 4, .\pril, 1908 (portrait).

WTio's Who in America, 1908. Jour. .Am. Med. Assn., vol. 1, No. 6, Feb. 8, 1908.

Ormsby, John S. (180&-187G).

John S. Ormsby was born on August 23, 1806. He did not limit his practice to any special lines of work but covered the whole field of medicine and surgery as customary in the early days in the West.

He attended school in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and took his academic degree in 1829 at Pitt.sburg, Pennsyl- vania, and his medical one at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Ormsby came of sturdy eastern stock and in 1851 moved from Greens- burg, Pennsylvania, to Sacramento, Cali- fornia, where he practised for ten years. From there he moved to Nevada during the early gold excitement, and then to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1866, where he practised and died at last after a long and busy life, at the home of his son in Logan on October 4, 1876.

Dr. Ormsby married Jane Hindman in 1836, and one son. Dr. O. C. Ormsby, of Rexburg, Idaho, followed in his father's footsteps.

W. B. E.

Orton, George Turner (1837-1901).

Born in Guelph, Ontario, January 19, 1837; he was the son of Dr. Henry Orton, a pioneer of Western Ontario and a scion of a family of doctors, for besides his father and his grandfather, two uncles and three brothers were doctors. The eldest brother was surgeon-major in the British Army, serving in the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny.

After receiving his early education in the Guelph public schools he was sent to Trinity College, Dublin, but completed his course at St. Andrew's University; Scotland, where he took his M. D. in 1860,


OTIS


and in 1861 he was elected member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England.

After completing his medical course, Dr. Orton returned to Canada and began to practise at Fergus, Ontario, in 1862, where he remained till 1879, when he removed to Winnipeg, Manitoba. In Fergus, he soon built up one of the largest practices in the province, and was besides surgeon to the Thirtieth BattaUon, AVell- ington Rifles, and for three years Reeve of the town. His wide influence as a physician undoubtedly made his en- trance into poHtical life easier than it would otherwise have been, but his ability as a statesman retained him there.

His interest in public affairs, and the development of Canada in general, was such that he was elected to the House of Commons in 1874, and represented the Constituency continuously for fourteen years. During the RebeUion in the Northwest Territories in 1885, he was brigade-surgeon under Gen. Middleton and was pre.sent at the engagements of Fish Creek and Batouche. On his return to the House of Commons at the next session he was given an enthu.siastic ovation by members of both sides of the House.

He married Annie Farmer in 1862, by whom he had two daughters.

He died at home in Winnipeg, Novem- ber 14, 1901, of pneumonia.

J. H.

Otis, Fessenden Nott (1825-1900).

Fessenden Nott Otis, a son of Oran Gray and Lucy Kingman Otis, was born in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York, May 6, 1825. His family came from England to Hingham, Massachu- setts, late in the seventeenth century, and his immediate ancestors settled in Ballas- ton before the Revolution. He was first a pupil at the local public schools, then began to study medicine at the New York University in 1848, finishing at the New York Medical School, where be received his degree in 1852.

After serving as interne at the Charity