County of memorial: Pike County
Location of memorial: Washington St. (US 54), courthouse lawn, Pittsfield
Marker erected by: The Physicians of Pike County
Date marker erected: October 30, 1928
Marker Text:
IN MEMORY OF
JOHN THOMSON HODGEN, M.D.
Born, Hodgenville, Ky. January 17, 1826
Died, St. Louis, Mo. April 28, 1882.
Professor of Surgery, St. Louis Medical College
President of American Medical Association
and
HENRY HODGEN MUDD, M.D.
Born, Pittsfield, Ill. April 27, 1844
Died, St. Louis, Mo. November 20, 1899.
Dean and Professor of Surgery St. Louis Medical College.
These two boys of the same family stock
Reared and educated in Pittsfield
became later foremost American Surgeons.
This tablet is erected in their honor
and as an inspiration to other boys.
Henry Hodgen Mudd, M.D.
"Henry Hodgen Mudd was born in Pittsfield, Illinois in 1844. In 1856 his family moved to St. Louis, where Mudd attended public schools and then Washington University. Mudd matriculated to the St. Louis Medical College and studied under his uncle Dr. John T. Hodgen; he received his medical degree in 1866. After an internship at St. Louis City Hospital and two years of service as acting assistant surgeon in the Thirteenth United States Infantry, Hodgen began a medical practice with his uncle in 1869.
"Mudd’s interests lay in anatomy and surgery and he soon began the demonstration and teaching of both. Mudd joined the faculty of the St. Louis Medical College in 1872. He became demonstrator of Anatomy there in 1874; the following year he was appointed to the same position at the affiliated Missouri Dental College. In 1880 Mudd was given the rank of professor at both schools, serving over the years as professor of Anatomy, Clinical Surgery, and Surgical Anatomy. The faculty of the Missouri Dental College selected Mudd as their dean in 1878, a position he held until his death in 1899. Mudd simultaneously was dean of the St. Louis Medical College from 1896 until his death.
"Mudd’s ties to Washington University and the subsequent election of the University’s chancellor, William Greenleaf Eliot, to the Missouri Dental College board of trustees helped lead to the affiliation of the dental school with the University in 1892. Mudd, though not a dentist, was recognized by his colleagues after his death as “a man of marked executive ability, possessed of great firmness and uprightness of character who commanded the respect and esteem of the entire Dental Profession.”" ~ Washington University School of Dental Medicine
John Thomson Hodgen, M.D.
"John Thomson Hodgen (1826-1882) was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He attended Bethany College in West Virginia and studied at the medical department of the University of Missouri (later Missouri Medical College). After graduating from medical school in 1848, he served as Assistant Resident Physician of St. Louis City Hospital for a year. Dr. Hodgen then practiced with Dr. Joseph N. McDowell in St. Louis. He joined the faculty of Missouri Medical College, serving as Demonstrator of Anatomy (1849-1853), Chair of Anatomy (1854-1862), and Chair of Physiology (1858-1862).
"During the Civil War, Dr. Hodgen was appointed to the rank of Surgeon General of the State of Missouri in 1862. When Dr. McDowell sided with the Confederacy, Dr. Hodgen transferred his allegiance to the St. Louis Medical College where he served as the Chair of Physiology (1862-1868) and Dean of the College (1865-1882). In addition to his administrative duties at the St. Louis Medical College, Dr. Hodgen also taught clinical surgery at City Hospital from 1864-1882 and was a surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital.
"Dr. Hodgen was a member of the St. Louis Board of Health from 1867-1871, President of the St. Louis Medical Society in 1872, Chairman of the Surgical Section of the American Medical Association in 1873, president of the Missouri State Medical Association in 1874, a member of the International Medical Congress in 1876 and 1881, one of the founders of the American Surgical Association, and President of the American Medical Association in 1881.
"Dr. Hodgen’s literary work consisted largely in contributions to medical journals. He edited the chapters on injuries to the chest and injuries of the abdomen in the American edition of A System of Surgery edited by Timothy Holmes. Some of his papers were on the surgery of shock, nerve sections for neuralgia, fractures, and thigh and skin grafting. Among the many surgical appliances devised by him are a wire suspension splint, a cradle splint, a snare for the for the removal of urethral calculi, a surgeon’s reel and artery forceps, and a simple siphon and stomach pump." ~ Washington University School of Medicine