Friday, January 30, 2015
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Dr. Thomas Daniel wrote a biography about former Poland resident Jared Potter Kirtland and gave a presentation about him at the Poland library.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Dr. Thomas Daniel gave a presentation at the Poland library about his biography of Jared Potter Kirtland, a former resident of Poland who conducted some important studies of natural history.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Development director of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County Debbie Liptak intoduced Dr. Thomas Daniel before his presentation about Jared Potter Kirtland at the Poland library.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Over the course of more than two years’ research and 18 months worth of writing, Dr. Thomas Daniel has written a 176-page biography of former Poland resident Jared Potter Kirtland (1793-1877), a naturalist, doctor and politician.
On Jan. 8, Dr. Daniel gave a 45-minute presentation at the Poland library about Kirtland’s life and the work that went into the biography.
“I knew relatively little about him [before starting the research], except that he seemed like an interesting guy,” Daniel said. “When I got into it I learned a lot about him.”
Daniel is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and International Health at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where Kirtland gave the first lecture at on Nov. 3, 1843. Daniel’s book was published by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Sigel Press.
Daniel said Kirtland’s granddaughter gave his library to Case Western Reserve University. His collections of specimens went to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
“People at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History have been interested in him,” Daniel said. “They’ve collected a great deal of material. There’s some here at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. As I went around looking for these things, I found that the largest collection of his materials is actually at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. They contracted with Sigel Press to produce it. All the proceeds of the sales are going to the museum.”
Daniel said he wanted to write the book was a desire to learn more about Kirtland, someone he had heard of due to them attending the same university.
“I was a professor of medicine and I retired 20 years ago,” he said. “I wanted to write and I come from a family of writers. This is my seventh book. I was interested in him because he was the founding professor in the department where I spent my entire career [the department of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland]. I like natural history and he was really an extraordinary naturalist. Once I got into reading a little bit about him I got more and more interested.”
Kirtland grew up in Connecticut and went to Yale Medical School. His wife and one his children died in Connecticut and he became very depressed so he came to Poland where his father Turhand Kirtland (1755-1844) was the on-site land agent for the Connecticut Land Company. He was going to live here with his father and be a naturalist and a farmer. His father gave him 250 acres of land and built him a house. Daniel said the day after Jared Potter Kirtland arrived there was a resident sick with typhoid fever and before long he had established a medical practice. He also served three terms in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Daniel said Kirtland had other accomplishments in addition to that long and varied list.
“He brought a high level to his teaching of medicine,” Daniel said. “He was one of the most eminent naturalists of his era. He was the first person elected to the Natural Academy of Sciences after it was founded. He was a member of the original Board of Governors of the Smithsonian Institution and he received an honorary degree from Williams College. He was a nationally recognized naturalist.”