Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Jacob Weist, A.M., M.D.
One of the most exacting of all the higher lines of occupation to which a man may lend his energies is that of the physician. A most scrupulous preliminary training is demanded and a nicety of judgment little understood by the laity. Then again the profession brings one of its devotees into almost constant association with the sadder side of life, - that of pain and suffering,- so that a mind capable of great self-control and a heart responsive and sympathetic are essential attributes of him who would essay the practice of the healing art. Thus when professional success is attained in any instance it may be taken as certain that such measure of success has been thoroughly merited. In the subject of this review we have one who has gained distinction in the line of his chosen calling, who has been an earnest and discriminating student, and who holds a position of due relative precedence among the medical practitioners of eastern Indiana.
Dr. Weist was born in Preble county, Ohio, November 26, 1834, and is a son of John and Keziah C. (Scott) Weist. The family is of German lineage, and the grandfather, Jacob Weist, was a native of central Pennsylvania. He was reared to manhood in Little York, in that state, and thence removed to Preble county, Ohio, where he died in 1848, during a cholera epidemic, at the age of seventy years. He followed farming throughout his life and was a man of intelligence and eminent respectability. He married Catharine De Coursey, a lady of French descent, who was born near Baltimore, Maryland. They had a family of seven children, six sons and a daughter. John Weist, the father of the Doctor, was born in Little York, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and during his boyhood removed with his parents to Preble county, Ohio, where he died in 1857. He carried on agricultural pursuits as a life work, and his capable management of his business affairs, and his energy and industry brought to him a well deserved success. He was a very prominent and influential member in the Methodist Episcopal church of his neighborhood, took an active interest in its work, and lived an exemplary Christian life. His integrity was proverbial and his word was as good as any bond that was ever solemnized by signature or seal. He married Miss Keziah C., daughter of George Scott. Her father belonged to a family of Swiss extraction and in early life was a sailor. He made his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for many years, but subsequently removed to Huntington county, Indiana, where his last days were passed. In his family were three sons and two daughters.
In the common schools of his native county Dr. Weist acquired his preliminary education, which was supplemented by study in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, where he pursued a classical and scientific course. In 1878 the Jesuit College, -St. Xavier- of Cincinnati, Ohio, conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. Prepared by a broad general knowledge for entrance into professional life, he entered the office of Dr. Samuel Ferris, of Preble county, Ohio, and later attended a course of lectures in the Western Reserve Medical College, at Cleveland, Ohio, and then for a time practiced in his native county. He then entered the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, where he was graduated in 1861.
The same year Dr. Weist opened an office in Richmond, and in March, 1862, was appointed assistant surgeon to the Sixty-fifth Regiment of Ohio Infantry, in which capacity he acted until July of the same year, when he was transferred to the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, with which he remained fourteen months. In September, 1863, he was appointed surgeon of the First United States Colored Troops, and continued with that command until the close of the war, being discharged in November, 1865, when he returned to Richmond, where he has since been engaged in private practice. His service as assistant surgeon was with the Army of the Cumberland, a part of the time in charge of a hospital in Nashville. and his service as surgeon was in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, first in the field and then in charge of hospitals in Newbern and Goldsboro, subsequently chief operating surgeon in the Eighteenth Army Corps hospital at Point of Rocks, Virginia, and finally becoming acting medical inspector and director of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps.
All this was a splendid training school for the young physician. With a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and the science of medicine, he carefully applied his wisdom to the alleviation of the suffering of the gallant men who were fighting for their country, and in so doing gained an ability that that has classed him first among the surgeons of eastern Indiana and gained him national reputation. He has always made a specialty of surgery, and his success has been most marked. He succeeded because he desired to succeed. He is great because nature endowed him bountifully, and he has studiously, carefully and conscientiously increased the talents that were given him. A perfect master of the construction and functions of the component parts of the human body, of the changes induced in them by the onslaughts of disease, of the defects cast upon them as a legacy by ancestry, of the vital capacity remaining in them throughout all vicissitudes of existence, he has gained an eminent place among the practitioners of Indiana and is recognized authority on many questions affecting not only surgery but the general practice of medicine as well. He has been surgeon of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for twenty consecutive years and for twenty years served on the United States board of pension examiners. He was one of the original members of the American Surgical Association, which is limited to a membership of one hundred, and served for fourteen years as secretary of that distinguished scientific body, with which he is still connected. This society was organized in New York city in 1880 and Dr. Weist was chosen its first secretary. He is also a prominent member of the Southern Gynecological Association, the American Medical Association, which he represented at the International Medical Congress in 1881, and the Indiana State Medical Association, serving as president of the last named in 1875. Through his connection with these various organizations, as well as through constant study and the perusal of the most reliable medical journals, he keeps in constant touch with his profession in its advance toward perfection. He has not always been a follower but has many times been a leader in the investigation that has led to valuable discoveries, and has contributed many important medical papers to the journals of his profession. Next to surgery perhaps his most important dissertations have been on hygiene and sanitary affairs.
In 1856 Dr. Weist was united in marriage to Miss Sarah I. Mitchell, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and to them were born three children, but only one is now living, the others having died in infancy. Their son, Dr. H. H. Weist; has followed in the professional footsteps of his father. He was born in Richmond, July 10, 1868, read medicine under the direction of his father, attended lectures in the Bellevue Medical College, and was graduated in 1891. The following year he was a student in the medical department of the University of Michigan, and afterward at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Vienna, Austria. He then traveled extensively over the continent, and is now engaged in practice with his father in Richmond. He is a young man of splendid intellectual and professional attainments and exceptional ability.
Dr. Jacob R. Weist holds membership with various fraternal societies, is a Knight Templar Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Loyal Legion. He is deeply interested in the affairs of the city which has been his home for thirty-seven years, and for a long period served as its health officer. He has always advocated the measures which have advanced its welfare, and has labored for its improvement and progress. In private life he has gained that warm personal regard which arises from true nobility of character, deference for the opinions of others, kindliness and geniality. He inspires personal friendships of unusual strength, and all who know him have the highest admiration for his good qualities of heart and mind.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899