American Medical Biographies/Harmon, Elijah Dewey
Harmon, Elijah Dewey (1782–1869).
Elijah Dewey Harmon, father of medicine at Chicago, was born at Bennington, Vermont, August 20, 1782. He was the eldest son of Ezekiel Harmon, descended from John Harmon, who came to America in 1636 and settled at Springfield, Massachusetts. The Harmon genealogy now contains more than three thousand names. Dr. Harmon studied medicine with Dr. Swift of Manchester, Vermont, and settled at Burlington, in that state, in 1806. He coninued in practice there until 1812, when he entered the medical service of the government and served through the war. He was assistant surgeon on Commodore McDonough's flagship, the Saratoga, in the battle of Plattsburg, September 11, 1814. After the war he resumed practice at Burlington until financial reverses in 1829 brought about his removal West.
In May, 1830, he journeyed to Chicago and was installed as surgeon in Fort Dearborn. At that time and for two years he was the only physician of whom we have any account at Chicago. When his family arrived the next year they brought his medical library, long unequaled in Chicago. When the cholera was brought to Chicago by General Scott's army in 1832, Hannon took care of the garrison through the epidemic. In the same year Harmon did the first capital surgical operation in Chicago, an amputation of the frozen feet of a half-breed Canadian. In the spring of 1833 he preempted 130 acres of land next to the lake south of what is now 16th street. In order to make good his title he built a log-house on the property and resided there until 1834 or 1835, when, in common with many others, he was seized with the Texas land fever and went to that state, settling at a town called Bastrop, where he acquired five or six leagues of land. After five years in that sparsely settled region he returned to Chicago in 1840 for the more profitable practice of his profession. His home was at the southwest corner of Michigan avenue and Harmon Court, named in his honor.
When age called for relaxation from active practice he gradually withdrew and passed his last years in the cultivation of his lovely flower garden. He was called by the profession the father of medicine at Chicago. His death occurred January 3, 1869, at the advanced age of 87 years.