The E-Sylum:  Volume 11, Number 7, February 17, 2008, Article 23

1898 DENTIST PORTRAIT PLAQUE ANSWER: THERON HITCHCOCK?

Regarding Dick Johnson's query last week, John Schreiner
writes: "Most of my research involves the tokens and medals
of druggists, pharmacists, and patent medicine makers.  I
have a lot of directories on druggists but only one on
dentists and the one I have just happened to have the info
that was needed.

"The book is "Medical Directory for New York and Connecticut
-1895. Under the dental section for Oswego it lists
'Hitchcock,T.S'. So the correct initials are T.S."

[John offered to provide Dick with a copy of the listing,
and I put the two in touch.  Thanks!   Other E-Sylum readers
chimed in as well.  -Editor]

Karl S. Kabelac of Rochester NY writes: "Using my subscription
to ancestry.com, I quickly found Theron Hitchcock, an Oswego
dentist in the 1900 federal census.  With that as a beginning,
I searched fultonhistory.com and found several articles about
him (Theron S. Hitchcock) and his wife.  They mention his
skills as a woodcarver.  His obituary said he was 88 at the
time of his death on November 10, 1918."

[Karl printed off most of the articles, and offered to send
them to Dick for his research.  I put the two in touch.
Thanks, Karl!  Thanks also to Patrick McMahon of the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts who also believes the dentist in question
may be Theron Hitchcock.  His note appears below. -Editor]

Patrick McMahon writes: "I have a name that might help Dick
Johnson with his question about the artist/dentist from Oswego,
New York. I found nothing in our usual artist biographical
resources so I did a quick search of the 1900 US census. As
luck would have it there is a dentist living in Oswego in
1900 whose name is Theron Hitchcock. So the proper initials
may be TS rather than GS or JS. The census record lists him
as born on July 22, 1833, in Massachusetts, and that his
parents were both from Massachusetts. His wife is Helen H.
Hitchcock who seems to be from New York. He is still listed
in the 1910, but neither 1900 or 1910 give a middle initial.
He does not appear in 1920 or 1880. The 1890 Census was
largely destroyed. I didn’t look any further.

"The source information for the Theron Hitchock entry would be:

Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database
on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.
Original Data: Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900.
Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administrations,
1900. Oswego Ward 6, Oswego, New York. Roll T623 1143, p. 1A,
enumerated district: 131.

"I hope this helps and maybe even turns out to be his guy.
The dentist, Oswego, and Massachusetts connections are all
there. Census records are a great resource and I recently
caved in and paid for full access to Ancestry.com. I have
been using it quite a bit lately. You can find the record
with a free search but you cannot see the scan of the original
page which is where the “dentist” information appears.

"There are lots of on-line genealogical databases and they
can be both a good starting point for identifying someone
and a good last resort when all else fails. You can also
sometimes access census and genealogical information on-line
for free through public library pages.

"I know that the Boston Public Library has a large number
of electronic databases that you can access as a library
user online with only your library card number. These include
HeritageQuest Online and the Historical newspapers database.
However, the New England Historic Genealogical Society offers
in-library access only.

Here’s a link for people in the Boston area.  Many public
libraries are doing this. Some databases are only available
at the library. But those are the exceptions. I use these
quite a bit too.
Boston Public Library Electronic Access "

Nick Graver adds: "Was I the only reader whose mind jumped
at the "plaque' in the Dental Portrait heading? It just was
such a strange mental quirk, upon first reading."

[I don't know about our readers, but I thought it amusing
as well - I was just too lazy or tired to crack wise about
it.  -Editor]

 QUERY: 1898 DENTIST PORTRAIT PLAQUE RESEARCH
 esylum_v11n06a22.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum