The Drake Family and Homeopathy
October 22, 2008
The Drake Family provided a President
of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of
Oregon, an
editor
of The American Homeopathic
Observer,
an editor of The Michigan Journal of
Homeopathy,
one hospital Consultant, one Professor of Obstetrics, two allopathic
physicians who converted to homeopathy, five jobbing homeopaths and one
homeopathic pharmacy.
Elijah H Drake 1821 - 1874
editor
of The American Homeopathic
Observer.
Elijah H. Drake, having studied medicine in New York state, and having received a practitioner’s license from the Steuben County Medical Society, settled in Battle Creek in 1845, and began the practice of allopathy.
The principles of homeopathy were brought to his attention by Drs. Ellis and Thayer, and in 1845, after attending lectures and graduating from the Rush Medical College, he began the practice of homeopathy in Detroit.
He lived twenty years in Detroit and became a leader in his school of medicine. He was killed in a railroad accident in Ypsilanti, November 16, 1874… Frederick Finster graduated from the Western College of Homeopathic Medicine in 1855, and at once entered into partnership with Dr. E. H. Drake in Detroit.
Harlow Belden Drake, 1850? -
(son
of Elijah H Drake)
Harlow Belden Drake of Detroit, Michigan, was born in Fremont, Indiana, November 27, 1848, son of Dr. Elijah and Cornelia (Blakeslee) Drake.
His father, licensed in Steuben county, New York, practiced until entering Rush Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated. He was a practitioner in Fremont, Indiana, and Battle Creek, Michigan, and was one of the first three homeopathic practitioners in Detroit, where he (his father) died in 1874.
Dr. H. B. Drake attended the public and high schools and Patterson’s school in Detroit, and the School of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a student in the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College in 1870-71 and in Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, 1872-73, being graduated there with the M. D. degree.
He practiced in Detroit from 1873 until 1880, when he formed a partnership with his father. For the benefit of his health he went to eastern Oregon where he remained from 1880 until 1888.
He practiced in Portland from 1888 until 1901, and since that year in Detroit, making a specialty of diseases of children. He took post graduate work in New York city in 1900. Dr. Drake is a member of the auxiliary staff of Grace Hospital and was on the staff of the Portland Hospital, 1893-1901, during his residence in that city. He has been President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of Oregon, and is a member of the Detroit Homeopathic Practitioners Society, the Homeopathic Society of the State of Michigan, and of the American Institute of Homeopathy.He married Eleanor C. Swain, April 22, 1874, and has two daughters : Cornelia, wife of Lieutenant E. N. Johnston, U. S. A., and Eleanor Drake.
J H Drake, M. D.,
(son
of J P Drake)
His ancestors were of Scotch and English descent, and came to America prior to the Revolution, settling in Northern Vermont. His paternal grandfather espoused the cause of the British during that struggle and removed to Canada, where his family were reared.
The parents of the subject of this sketch were William and Eliza (Malott) Drake. The former was by occupation a builder and contractor, but later in life became a farmer, owning a large tract of land in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. He was a prominent and well known citizen, and a leader in the public affairs of that county and Province, and had held many local offices.
He was a man of unquestioned integrity, and deservedly stood high in the estimation of the community. He was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and for seventeen years was Treasurer of the lodge in Kingsville, where he lived.
He was also an ardent and consistent friend of the cause of temperance, and abstained not only from the use of intoxicating liquors but of tobacco in every form. He and his wife were life long communicants of the Episcopal Church, and were known as zealous and efficient church workers. Mr. Drake died Feb. 4, 1882, aged seventy-six, his wife preceding him to the grave twenty years, dying Feb. 3, 1862, aged forty-five.
Of their ten children, the following six are now living: James W., Thomas and Benjamin, contractors and builders, residing at Kingsville, Canada; Margaret, wife of David Fuller, of Amherstburg, Canada; Kenneth M., a farmer at Meston, Canada, and Dr. J. H.
The latter received his primary education in the common schools of his native place, and when seventeen years old came alone to Sandusky, Ohio, where he entered the graded school. Having from boyhood an ardent desire to become a physician, he read all the medical works he could find, and in that way obtained a good general knowledge of the healing art.
His means were limited and he was compelled to work his way through college, which he did successfully, graduating with honor in 1874. That same year he went to Linn County, Iowa, engaging in practice at Mt. Vernon, and acquiring a large and paying clientage and an excellent reputation.
Owing to his arduous labors in his extensive practice his health failed, and for a time he was compelled to rest. In the winter of 1879-80 the Doctor attended Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, where he gave especial attention to the study of diseases of the eye and ear, in which specialty he has been exceptionally successful.
In 1880 he settled in Mt. Pleasant, this county, where from the first he has had a large and lucrative practice, and has gained a reputation as a skillful, kind and painstaking physician and surgeon, of which he may justly be proud.
In 1871 Dr. Drake was married to Miss Mary E. Boyington, a native of Saratoga County, N. Y., born in September, 1853. Their union has been blessed with four children—Frank J., Leon D., Carrie G. and William B.
Dr. Drake is a member of the Hahnemann Medical Society of this State, and filled the office of Treasurer in 1885 and 1886. He is also a member of the Cedar Valley Medical Association, of which he was Secretary for three years.
He is essentially a self made man, and no person living in Henry County today is entitled to greater credit for raising himself from a comparatively humble position to one of eminence in his profession, of which lie is a leading member.
He is still a student, as is every first class member of the profession, and keeps abreast of all the latest discoveries in medical science. He possesses by far the finest collection of instruments and appliances of any physician in the county, and has apartments fitted up for the administering of Turkish, Russian and vapor baths, and for electrical treatment and the practice of dentistry.
He and his wife are active workers in the cause of temperance, Mrs. Drake being now Grand Superintendent of Juvenile Templars, having charge of the juvenile work under the auspices of the State Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars, and the Doctor is Grand Deputy Chief Templar for this district.
Both are also members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Mt. Pleasant, the Doctor filling the office of Steward. He is also a Master Mason, a member of Xenium Lodge No. 108, A. F. & A. M., and politically is a warm supporter of the Republican party, and in every way an honored citizen of the county.
Olin Milton Drake 1847 -** **
Olin Milton Drake MD of Ellsworth, Me., was born in the town of Effingham, County, N. H., April 26th, 1847. In his boyhood he had the benefit of such education as the public schools of Effingham could supply, and he availed himself of every facility within his reach to aid in his preparation for a collegiate course.
His attention was early directed to the homeopathic theory of medicine, and he soon decided to make it his profession. Abandoning his plans for a collegiate course, he entered the office of Dr. O. S. Sanders, a distinguished homeopathic physician of Boston. This was in 1864, when he had but just attained his seventeenth year.
He attended medical lectures at the Howard University in the winters of 1866-‘67-‘68, pursuing faithfully his office studies in the intervals. In 1869, he entered the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1870 as M. D.
Shortly after his graduation, Dr. Drake went to Ellsworth, and immediately opened an office as homeopathic physician, and is now in full practice. He is the youngest physician of any school in that county, but is rapidly acquiring an excellent reputation for medical knowledge and skill.
He is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, and of the Maine Homeopathic Medical Society. In 1870, he married a daughter of Henry Whiting, Esq., one of the most prominent merchants of Ellsworth.
Of interest:
Drake & Foster opened a homeopathic pharmacy in Detroit in 1856.
Emma Francis Drake graduated from the Boston Homeopathic Medical College in 1882. Emma Francis Drake was a Professor of Obstetrics in Denver and a member of The National Woman’s Temperance Union.
Emma Francis Drake wrote What a Young Wife Ought to Know, What a Woman of Forty Five Ought to Know in 1902.
E H Drake editor of The Michigan Journal of Homeopathy with John Ellis in 1848.
Frank C. Drake worked at the Maryland Homeopathic Free Dispensary and Hospital of Baltimore City in 1890.
Franklin J Drake practiced in Webster City in 1904.
Franklin J Drake Webster City, Iowa, was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1869 ; literary education, Iowa Wesleyan University, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa; medical, Chicago Homeopathic Medical College, from which he received the M. D. degree in 1895.
J C Merle Drake
J C Merle Drake, Erie, Pennsylvania, was born June 24, 1855, in New York state, and studied for his profession in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, graduating in 1880. Dr. Drake is a member of the Pennsylvania State and Erie County Homeopathic Medical societies.
J P Drake was present at the American Institute of Homeopathy Convention in 1876. His Obituary is in The Medical Visitor in 1902.