American Medical Biographies/Parkhill, Clayton
Parkhill, Clayton (1860–1902)
He was born on a farm in Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1860, and in 1881 entered Jefferson Medical College (Philadelphia) and graduated in 1883. He was then appointed physician to the Philadelphia Hospital and served one year. In the meantime, he completed a course at the Pennsylvania School of Anatomy and Surgery under Dr. George McClellan (q. v.), and subsequently became his assistant. Leaving Philadelphia, he settled in Denver, Colorado, in 1885.
He was demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Denver and, on the Gross Medical School being organized, was appointed to the same position and also to that of professor of clinical surgery. He left here for the chair of surgery in the University of Colorado at Boulder, and was also dean of the latter school.
About this time he devised his apparatus for cleft palate, a jurymast for fractures of the maxilla and a clamp for the treatment of fractures of long bones (Annals of Surgery, May, 1898). By the latter, a valuable apparatus, he is best known to the profession.
In 1898 he was appointed surgeon-general of the National Guard by Gov. Mclntire and was re-appointed by his successor, Gov. Adams. During the latter's administration, war broke out between the United States and Spain and Dr. Parkhill became surgeon to the First Colorado Regiment with rank of major. He went to San Francisco with the regiment, but not to the Philippines. He was promoted to the position of brigade-surgeon and was transferred to the camps of the South and Porto Rico and served on Gen. Miles' staff in Porto Rico, where he rendered splendid service. After the close of the war, he was honorably discharged, returned to Denver and resumed work, though in impaired health. He was a man of splendid address, of genial nature, a fine teacher and brilliant surgeon, scrupulously neat, possessed mechanical ingenuity and his technic was faultless. He died in Denver, January 16, 1902, from acute appendicitis, complicated with nephritis and uremia. Though himself a surgeon, who never shrank from duty, yet, unlike most surgeons, he would not submit to the knife.
He married S. Effie Brown, of Redstone, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1886, and had two sons, Clayton, Jr. and Forbes.
A list of his writings may be found in the library of the Surgeon-General's office, Washington, D. C.