Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Nathan HAYES
From "History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1881" by Futhey and Cope:
Dr. Nathan Hayes, son of Job and sarah Hayes, was born in the township of West Marlborough, Chester county, Feb. 5, 1787. He received a good common education in the vicinity of his birthplace, and at a later period acquired some knowledge of the Latin language. He commenced the study of medicine with Dr. T. Griffith, a practioner in the village of Unionville; but Dr. Griffith removing from the county before the preliminary studies of his pupil were completed, those studies were subsequently prosecuted under the direction of Wm. Baldwin, M.D., then of Wilmington, Del., and since known as the sagacious and indefatigable explorer of the botanical treasures of the sounthern States. In the spring of 1808, Mr. Hayes received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. The subject of his inaugural thesis was the "Modus Operandi of Medicines," and at the public examination on its merits the professor who had charge of it undertook to be severely critical: he made an abrupt and rather harsh attack upon some of the views advanced by the young candidate, and as Mr. Hayes was remarkably quiet, unpretending, and withal somewhat rustic in his manner, the professor evidently expected to abash and uterly disconcert the awkward-looking country student, who had thus ventured to entertain ideas not sanctioned by the school. But young Hayes was not the person to quail before mere human authority, nor to accept the dogmas of any school unquestioned. Much to the surprise of the professor, as well as to the amusement of the numerous audience, he calmly undertook to "argufy the topic" with his critical teacher; and he maintained his positions with so much tact and resolution that it was deemed expedient , after an edifying trial of skill, to let the discussion drop, and permit the intractable candidate to carry his opinions, as well as his diploma, with him to Chester County. The fact was, Dr. Hayes, with a singularly cool, deliberate, unsophisticated, and rather unpolished manner, possessed an intellect of rare strength and shrewdness, with a fearless independence of character. He was always ready to discuss any topic, whether of professional or general interest, and never hesitated to make known and vindicate his own views, either in public or in private.
On receiving the honors of the university, Dr. Hayes commenced the practice of medicine in the township of Edgmont, Delaware County. At the end of about a year, however, he removed to the neighborhood of Unionville, where he settled, built himself a handsome residence, and continued the practice of his profession during the remainder of his life. In the year 1812 he married Sarah, daughter of John Lungren, of Chester Creek, Delaware County, by whom he had four children, among them Ferdinand E. Hayes, Esq., now deceased.
Dr. Hayes was constitutionally somewhat predisposed to pulmonary consumption, to which formidable disease he fell a victim in the month of July, 1819. Thus was cut off, in the flower of his age, one of the most sagaciousand promising members of the medical profession which the county of Chester has produced. One who knw him well closed an obituary notice of him with these appropriate words: "Men of genius, tread lightly on his ashes, for he was your kinsman.'
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