Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland By 2nd Great-Grandnephew Edward Kirtland Hine, Jr. ("Ted") - First Edition, July 2016
Introduction Jared Potter Kirtland was the brother of my 2nd great grandfather Billius Kirtland. Jared was an accomplished physician and a regionally/nationally well known pioneering naturalist/botanist/horticulturist in the early days of the State of Ohio. He is most certainly the most noteworthy, illustrious, distinguished and famous member of my Ohio Kirtland family. Much has been documented and written about Jared so what I present here is, out of necessity, only a short summary of his life and accomplishments.Over a number of years I'd accumulated numerous bits and pieces of information about Jared from a number of sources (see the bottom of this page for links to some) but far and away the best overall source about his life and contributions appeared a little over a year ago in 2015 with the publication of "Jared Potter Kirtland - Naturalist, Physician, Sage of the Western Reserve" written by Thomas M. Daniel (see scan of the cover to the right). The book, published by Sigel Press and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, is extremely well researched, written, and complete. Mr. Daniel even researched and presents Jared's Puritan family history back to England and documents the arrival in America in 1635 of brothers Nathaniel and Philip Kirtland aboard the ship "Hopewell" which landed in Salem, Massachusetts. (Jared and I descend from Nathaniel.) I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the complete Jared Potter Kirtland story. At the end of the book's first chapter Thomas Daniel writes "Tall and large of stature, physically imposing, spectacles often pushed back on his head, Jared Potter Kirtland was a distinguished naturalist, a professor of medicine, and a notable and public-spirited citizen. He was one of the founders of what is now Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He was a member of the nation's most august scientific societies. Yet he was at his core a modest man, a man of the people. He was a liberal thinker and an abolitionist. He valued money only as a means to an end, not as a source of personal enrichment. As years passed, his interests increasingly focused on natural history and his farm and orchard, although he never forgot medicine." The following from the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society provides a another quick introductory summary of Jared's life:
The booklet "Poland Historical Highlights" published in 1966 as part of a Poland, Ohio centennial celebration contains 3 references to Jared Potter Kirtland in different sections that provide another good summery of his life and accomplishments. Most facts presented agree with other sources but there are a few differences which I've noted or corrected in brackets: "Jared Potter Kirtland, M.D.L.L.D. (1793-1877), who married Caroline, daughter of Deacon Joshua Atwater (1773-1862) in 1814 [actually 1815]. When his parents moved to Poland, Ohio in 1803, he remained in Wallingford, Conn. in order to pursue his education in the eastern schools, and lived with his grandfather, Doctor Jared Potter. He visited Poland for the first time in 1810, and took charge of the Poland district school, where he taught in a log house located on the Public Square. He returned to the east to complete his education, and practiced medicine in Wallingford, Conn. He came back to Poland in 1823, and in 1827 [1837] moved to Cleveland, Ohio. He was elected several times to the Ohio Legislature. In 1848, he was given charge of the Natural History Department of the survey of the State of Ohio. He was elected professor of the Theory and Practice of medicine in the Medical College of Ohio; was offered and accepted the same position in Willoughby Medical School, and afterward held the same post in the Western Reserve College of Cleveland." "Many men have come and gone in Poland but probably the most noted other than a President of the United States (William McKinley) to have lived a part of his life in Poland was the brilliant Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland. A son of Turhand Kirtland, he achieved renown as a scientist and physician, a legislator, a minister and an educator. To further the spread of knowledge, Dr. Kirtland founded the College of Medicine at Western Reserve University, organized the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and was a charter member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and was graduated from Yale. After teaching in a Poland school and serving as the first postmaster here, Dr. Kirtland moved to Lake County [Cleveland] where he established an experimental laboratory. Here he developed unusual and improved fruits and exotic plants, rare shrubs and trees. Dr. Kirtland took part in scientific field expeditions, cataloging birds, reptiles, fish, mollusks, and insects, the most complete catalog of wildlife for this area of the nation. He identified and named 585 vertebrates. A bibliography of his published works includes 200 titles. In any book published today relating to the wild life of Ohio, his publications are the sources most often quoted. While in the legislature, Dr. Kirtland initiated extensive reforms in the penal system of the state. A wing of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and of the Medical School at WRU [Western Reserve University] have been named for him as has the Kirtland Library in Lakewood, a street and the town of Kirtland Hills. He is listed in the standard scientific reference works and in 'Who Was Who in America, 1807-1898'. A biography of his career and life is presently in preparation." "Dr. Jarad Potter Kirtland was born in Wallingford, Conn, in 1793, several years before his parents, Turhand and Polly Potter Kirtland came to the Western Reserve to become the pioneers of Poland. Young Jared Potter Kirtland must have been left with his grandfather in Wallingford, as, according to records, he received his early education in academics at Wallingford and Cheshire, Conn. He was bequeathed a medical library by his grandfather who died in 1811. The young man followed in the steps of his grandfather in the study of medicine, studying in Edinburgh, Scotland [probably not true], and at Yale where he was graduated from the medical department in 1815. At the same time the brilliant young student was a naturalist and botanist in which field he later became famous, throughout Ohio and the nation."
Early Life (1793-1823) Jared Potter Kirtland was born on November 10, 1793 in Wallingford, Connecticut. He was the first child of Turhand and Polly Potter-Kirtland. In 1803 when Jared was 10 years old his parents along with his younger siblings permanently moved to from Wallingford to the Connecticut Western Reserve as early settlers (an area which would soon become the north-eastern part of the new State of Ohio). Jared, being of school age, stayed behind in Connecticut and lived with his maternal grandparents, Dr. Jared and Sarah Potter so he could have access to established educational institutions since no schools were yet available in the Western Reserve. Dr. Jared Potter was a well known local Yale educated physician who, along with Jared Kirtland's father Turhand, had served in the American Revolutionary War. The young Jared Kirtland attended local schools in Wallingford and then the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut from 1807 through 1810 (which is still in business today as Cheshire Academy, one of the oldest private college preparatory schools in the country). Jared excelled as a student and earned honors in math, Latin and Greek. During this period Jared Kirtland and his grandfather, Dr. Jared Potter, became very close and the elder Jared instilled in his grandson a love and talent for botany and horticulture which would guide many of his activities for the rest of his life. In 1815 Jared Kirtland earned one of the first M.D. degrees from Yale's newly formed medical school (after briefly studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania) and during this period he began studying and writing about botany which was an important subject for physicians in those days for medicinal reasons. Shortly after obtaining his medical degree in 1815 Jared set up a medical practice in Wallingford and married Caroline Atwater, the daughter of a prosperous merchant. The couple would have three children, Mary Elizabeth in 1816, Jared in 1818, and Caroline in 1821 with only Mary Elizabeth surviving past childhood. When his grandfather passed away Jared took over managing Dr. Potters extensive gardens and orchards for his grandmother which he enjoyed and this experience would serve him well in later life. Jared considered moving his medical practice to the village of Poland in Ohio where his parents and siblings now lived but Caroline apparently preferred to stay in Connecticut so instead Jared moved his practice to Durham, Connecticut (not far from Wallingford) which was in need of a physician. Life in Durham was apparently happy and productive for the family and when not practicing medicine, Jared established and tinkered in an orchard in Durham where he developed stocks of fruit, trees and shrubs. In 1822 daughter Caroline died and the following year in 1823 Jared's wife Caroline died unexpectedly. The Poland (Ohio) Years (1823-1837)
The loss of his daughter and wife in quick succession caused Jared to re-evaluate his life and less than a year after wife's death he relocated in 1823, at age 30, from Durham, Connecticut to the rapidly growing Western Reserve in northeastern Ohio to be near his parents and siblings who had moved to what became the village of Poland, OH two decades earlier. According to the Thomas Daniel book Jared "decided to give up medicine and devote his life to agriculture" there. Jared's father Turhand, by then a prosperous landowner, gave him 243 acres of fertile land in Boardman Township, just west of and walking distance from the Village of Poland, and built him a substantial house there. (I note that at about the same time Turhand Kirtland also gave Jared's younger brother Billius Kirtland, my 2nd great grandfather, a similar amount of land immediately adjacent to Jared's and built Billius a presumably similar house.) Jared's original Poland house still stands in Poland, OH as I write this having been moved from it's original location and completely restored starting in 1976. Here Jared actively continued the horticultural work he had started in Connecticut with he help of his brothers Billius and Henry. (Jared would not have known his siblings well prior to moving to Ohio since most were born in the Western Reserve after his parents move there and Jared, having stayed behind when his parents resettled, only visited there a few times prior to relocating in 1823.) Thomas Daniel's book quotes a historical agricultural source as saying "In 1824 J. P. Kirtland and his brother established a nursery at Poland........ They brought from New England over one hundred of the best varieties of apples, cherries, peaches, pears, etc.; and a year or two later they brought over one hundred varieties from New Jersey and others were secured from New York. Dr. Kirtland, by his system of hybridization, produced over 30 varieties of cherries." Jared and his brothers were in effect modifying and testing plant species to make them better suited to the growing climate and agricultural soil conditions of the new state of Ohio. Shortly after settling in the Western Reserve Jared married Hannah Fitch Toucey on March 25, 1824. She was from nearby Warren, OH and born in about 1799 but not a lot more is known about her. In 1824 Jared was 31 years old and Hannah about 25. While the couple would have no children of their own, Jared's two remaining children from his first marriage (Mary Elizabeth age 8 in 1824 and Jared age 6) would have needed a foster mother and I'm sure Hannah would have filled this void. Additionally, Jared and Hannah helped raise Jared's sister Mary Beach Kirtland-Hall's children (Mary and Lucy Hall) after their parents passed away. Son Jared would pass away from unknown causes in 1829 at about age 11. Mary Elizabeth Kirtland, Jared's only surviving child, would marry Charles Pease of Warren, OH in 1832 when she was 16 and he 21. While Jared's initial intent after moving to Ohio was to cease practicing medicine, the circumstances weren't going to allow it. The Poland area needed a physician and Jared was in effect forced to start a medical practice since there were few other medical options available to the local residents. According to Thomas Daniel "By 1830 Kirtland was widely recognized as one of the most skilled physician in the Western Reserve". In 1829 Jared was elected to the first of 3 two-year terms in the Ohio state legislature and, since he needed to be in Columbus frequently in this capacity, he brought a new young physician into his practice to take care of his patients in his absence. Dr. Eli Mygatt would completely take over the practice when Jared moved on to Cleveland, would marry Jared's 1st cousin Lois Yale Kirtland, and would provide medical services to the residents of Poland till his retirement many decades later. During his years in Poland Jared would become an active abolitionist and made his house available as a station on the Underground Railroad. According to Thomas Daniel: "At one time he calmly entertained bounty hunters who were searching for two runaway slaves. Kirtland fed them in his kitchen and then toured them through his farm and outbuildings to assure them that the slaves were not on his property. Throughout this, the two escapees were hiding in the parlor which Kirtland managed not to show the bounty hunters. Learning that a runaway slave named Kitty was in Ashtabula on the shore of Lake Erie, Kirtland traveled to that community and paid the bounty for her so that she could become a free woman. She became part of his household and was found there by the 1830 census." Later Years in Cleveland (1837-1877)
In 1837 Jared was recruited for and accepted a teaching position as a professor at a newly formed medical school in Cincinnati. The exact timing and logic aren't clear to me but apparently at about this time he sold his home in Poland, turned his orchards over to his brother, and moved his primary residence to Cleveland where his daughter Mary Elizabeth Pease and son-in-law Charles Pease had settled. For the next few years would spend the academic year in Cincinnati and the rest of his time in Cleveland which were some distance apart. After a few years in Cleveland Jared would purchase a 150 acre farm on Lake Erie in the tiny village of "Rockport" (today Cleveland's western suburb of Lakewood) on which he built a home in 1842 which he named Whippoorwill Villa and where he would live the rest of his life and pursue his most significant studies of natural history. In 1842 Jared accepted a teaching position at Willoughby, a Cleveland area medical school, likely in part to avoid the necessity of living half the year in Cincinnati. His professorship at Willoughby would be short lived however as in 1843 he and several other Willoughby professors left amid some internal school political struggles (which Willoughby wouldn't survive) and went to work as founders of, and professors at, the newly organized Cleveland based Medical Department of Western Reserve College (primarily then located then in nearby Hudson, OH). Today this is the medical school of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. By the early 1900's this would be ranked as one to the top medical schools in the country. In the mid 1840's Jared was involved in organizing what is today the Ohio State Medical Association and served as it's vice-president in 1846 and president in 1847. It is suspected (but not proven) that Jared's Whippoorwill Farm was used as part of the Underground Railroad (as his Poland farm had been) in his efforts to help runaway slaves. Thomas Daniel's book mentions an 1855 letter that Jared wrote to "a relative living in the South whom he addressed simply as "Respected Relative'" in which Jared expresses his distaste for slavery. I suspect that his letter may have been written to his first cousin Isaac Billius Kirtland, a successful banker who had relocated to Memphis, Tennessee from New York and built a mansion there starting in 1852. Jared likely knew his cousin Isaac from his years in Connecticut. Today this mansion is known as the Mallory-Neely House and, as a restored historic landmark, is part of the Memphis museum system.
The Naturalist After settling into life in Cleveland and establishing himself as a noted professor of medicine, Jared Potter Kirtland would make his biggest contributions to the natural scientific world in the years that followed. Apparently his professorships provided enough financial support that he could devote himself to natural studies much of the time and he would build on what he had learned as a child in Wallingford tending his grandparents orchards and gardens and his experience with natural things during his Poland years. According to Thomas Daniel: "During his lifetime, Jared Potter Kirtland became one of the most distinguished naturalists of the era. Well known locally, his reputation extended nationally. He was not, however, bred in one of the eastern universities that served as incubators for much of the nineteenth century American natural history." In addition to continuing his horticultural experiments and creating hybrid plants at Whippoorwill Farm (he was soon president of the Cleveland Horticulture Society), Jared started conducting detailed studies of many of the natural things that could be found in Ohio and documenting the results. He identified, described, categorized, collected specimens of, and drew drawings of, many types of plants, mammals, reptiles, crustaceans, fish, insects, and birds, etc. The well known Kirtland's Warbler is named for him. His reputation grew rapidly as his work became more widely published in regional and then national scientific journals. Early in this effort he was tapped to lead the Ohio Geological Survey of 1837 which served to prove his ability to collect and organize field work and process the results through publication. As his reputation grew he became a much requested lecturer/speaker at scientific meetings and conventions and he eventually served on the boards of many scientific organizations. Jared was also the first to notice and document the weather phenomenon known as the "lake-effect" which causes land masses near lake Erie to experience significantly different weather and temperature patterns then farther inland. The list of Jared's accomplishments and honors as a naturalist is far to long and scientifically complex to even begin to try and include here. Suffice it to say his contributions were substantial and still recognized and referenced today. Any upper Midwestern naturalist, professional or amateur, has run across Jared Potter Kirtland's work.
In the 1830's Jared founded a Cleveland area organization of natural history enthusiasts which would meet to share their experiences and discoveries. Over the years the name changed a few times and he served periodically as it's president. In 1976 the name was changed to the Kirtlandia Society and it still exists today to share information on current natural history. Jared would found and/or become a member of may distinguished natural science organizations both local and national. In 1845 he was named to the original board of managers of the newly formed Smithsonian Institution. He was a member when the American Association for the Advancement of Science was formed and in 1865 he was one of the first members elected to the newly formed National Academy of Sciences. He would travel frequently to the east coast to attend conventions and meetings and to visit colleagues. While becoming a nationally recognized naturalist Jared continued to excel as a professor of medicine, did medical research, and wrote on the subject. While he didn't maintain a medical practice as such he would care for family and close friends. He also wrote frequent letters to associates throughout the country. In his later years and as age took it's toll on his physical abilities Jared Potter Kirtland continued to write friends and colleagues from Whippoorwill Farm and he read frequently the many books he had accumulated in his library there. Final Resting Place
Jared died on December 10, 1877 at age 84 and was initially buried at Whippoorwill Farm with his second wife Hannah who had passed away twenty years earlier on December 23, 1857. In 1883 his son-in-law Charles Pease purchased a plot in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery and moved Jared and Hannah's remains there. The plot is in a peaceful, small, forested, and somewhat isolated and hard to find alcove in the otherwise large cemetery. Mary Elizabeth and Charles Pease (and their surviving children) had taken up residence with her father at Whippoorwill (in a separate house built for them) as early as 1850 and I suspect the remains of Jared and Hannah were moved possibly as a results of the Pease's leaving Whippoorwill, which was likely passed on the them, a few years after Jared's death. In later years members of the Pease would be also interred in this Lake View Cemetery plot.
Legacy The Cleveland Museum of Natural History Acknowledgments of Jared Potter Kirtland's contributions live on. In addition to having several Ohio public libraries named after him as well a part of the facilities at the Case Western Reserve University Medical School, his most visible recognition has been having a wing of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History named in his honor in 1961 along with several of it's exhibition halls. This museum, today one of the nation's premier natural history facilities, was founded in 1920 as a successor organization to the Cleveland Academy of Natural Sciences first organized by Jared Potter Kirtland in the 1840's and much of the museum's original collections of specimens, research work, and literature were his. In the fall of 2008 I visited the museum while on a genealogical visit to northeaster Ohio and by prior arrangement was given a several hour personal guided tour by a deputy director. I received the VIP treatment because apparently no one on the museum's staff could remember the last time a close relative of Jared Potter Kirtland had visited. During the tour I was made aware that there was large oil painting of Jared in the museum's conference room (see photo) but that we couldn't see it till lunch time because there was a training meeting of much of the museum's staff using the room that day. Late in the lunch hour we entered the conference room as many of the staff were returning from lunch and I was publicly introduced as a Kirtland relative, something which created much excitement among those present and everyone wanted to shake my hand. It was quite an ego boost for yours-truly.
About Kirtland Hall at Yale Universality
Jared Potter Kirtland's niece Lucy Hall-Boardman (1819-1906) was the daughter of his sister Mary Beech Kirtland-Hall. After growing up in Poland, OH she married Judge William Boardman, a wealthy New Haven, Connecticut landowner, and spent her entire adult life living in a large home adjacent to the Yale University campus. The couple had no children so after her husband's death Lucy used his accumulated wealth to fund a number of philanthropic endeavors including the construction of a large building on the Yale campus named "Kirtland Hall" in honor of her uncle Jared Potter Kirtland who had graduated from Yale in 1815. The building was built in 1902 and was designed by nationally known architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter (1860-1939), then mostly practicing on the West Coast from Spokane, WA and who was Jared Potter Kirtland's great-grandson and had grown up at Whippoorwill Farm from birth in 1860 till Jared passed away in 1877. The large building, which originally housed the Geology Department of Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, was still in use a few years ago (when I last checked) housing the Psychology Department.
A Gun Engraved With Jared Potter
Kirtland's Name
Shortly after my father's death in 1977 my step-mother, Mary Hine, sent me some correspondence regarding a gun that had been recently purchased by a Florida friend and neighbor, Cal Norton, who was apparently an antique gun collector. Mr. Norton had purchased it (I presume at an antique gun show), due to it being engraved "From Professor J.P. Kirtland to Lieutenant H.A. Tallmadge" circa 1864 and Mr. Norton knew that Kirtland was my father's middle name. The gun was a Smith and Wesson 32 Caliber Army Revolver. After the purchase Mr. Norton researched Jared Potter Kirtland and made the decision to donate the firearm to the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. Several years later I received from my step-mother a copy of the thank-you letter written to Mrs. Norton from the Western Reserve Historical Society confirming that the gun had in fact been donated in 1980. A little quick internet research suggests that First Lieutenant Henry A. Tallmadge served in the Civil War and in 1864 re-enlisted by reporting to Cleveland (where I suspect he was from). For additional information, click here: |
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"Memoir of Jared Potter Kirtland 1793-1877" by J.S. Newberry
(Read before the National Academy of Sciences - April 18,
1879. 11 pages.
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Article in The Explorer (Cleveland Museum of Natural
History - 1952) by Agnes R. Gehr (as a Masters Thesis at
Case Western Reserve University). 33 Pages.
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"Jared Potter Kirtland - Pioneer Ornithologist of Ohio" by
Harold F. Mayfield (Ohio Historical Society - 1965).
10 Pages.
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"Jared Potter Kirtland, Physician, Teacher, Horticulturist,
and Eminent Naturalist" by Frederick C. Waite (The Ohio
Journal of Science - 1930). 17 Pages.
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"The Sage of Rockport" (Case Western Reserve University -
1993) 2 Pages.
 "The Naturalist". Source and date unknown. 2 Pages. 
"Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland -
Amateur of Horticulture" by Rebecca M. Rogers, 1986 |
