American Medical Biographies/Hurd, Anson
Hurd, Anson (1824–1910).
Anson Hurd, surgeon in the Civil War, was born in Twinsburg, Summit County, Ohio (the Western Reserve of Connecticut), December 27, 1824, of Revolutionary ancestry, the names Hurd, Brainard and Brooks, being prominent in New England history. He was one of fourteen children, educated at Twinsburg Academy and the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he received his Academic degree in 1849.
His medical studies were under Dr. William Blackstone of Athens, Ohio. In 1852 he received his M. D. from Starling Medical College, and began practice in Oxford, Indiana, whence he was sent for several terms as member of the State Legislature and was active in early public affairs. He contracted tuberculosis and in 1856, after consulting the leading diagnosticians in New York, he look a pony, blanket and lariat and spent a year a pioneer in outdoor life, sleeping on the ground, under the stars, and traveling over the Staked Plains of Texas.
Returning to Indiana he was commissioned surgeon in the fourteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
In 1865 he settled in Findlay, where he lived throughout his remaining years.
Hurd received honorary degrees from the Ohio Medical College, the Columbus Medical College and the Kentucky School of Medicine. His papers included: "Plaster of Paris in
Treatment of Fractures," 1872; "The Identity of Diphtheria and Membranous Croup," 1873; "Extra-uterine Pregnancy with Report of Cases," 1878; "Puerperal Eclampsia with Cases," 1873, of which the association ordered 1,200 extra copies printed for its members; "Suturing the Severed Tendo Achillis in Open Wound," 1875, the fourth case reported at that time. These were some of his most valuable contributions to medical literature.
Dr. Hurd married, in 1853, Amanda Cell. Of their three children, one, Huldah, survived him.
Dr. Hurd was a man of genial disposition, and while brusque in manner, this peculiarity really concealed his philanthropy.