Information on Benjamin Merrill Ricketts, M.D.

Benjamin Merrill Ricketts was born May 20, 1858 in Proctorville, Ohio. Benjamin's father, Girard Robinson Ricketts, was a doctor as were his brothers, Edwin Saunders Ricketts and Joseph Vincent Ricketts.

As a surgeon, author, scientist, physician and teacher, Dr. Benjamin Merrill Ricketts was for many years widely recognized not only in America but Europe as well. At the time of his death in 1926, he ranked with the leaders of his profession. He is credited with inventing the bellows for keeping the lungs inflated during surgery and for performing the first open heart surgery. For more than forty years Dr. Ricketts had been engaged in the practice of his humanitarian profession in Cincinnati; and for a period of time in excess of twenty years of that time he had been the head of a private surgical hospital, Trinity Hospital, to which patients came from all over the world.

His early education was received in the public and high schools of Proctorville, and he later enrolled in the Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating in April, 1879. He later studied at the Miami Medical College, graduating from there on March 10, 1881, with a degree of Doctor of Medicine. He began his practice in Ironton, Ohio, where, on April 24, 1881, he was appointed health officer and city physician. In 1884, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Columbia University, in New York City. He returned to Cincinnati in November, 1885.

Dr. Ricketts was an active contributor to a great many medical, surgical and general publications and reviews; his learned literary efforts comprising more than three hundred titles. He also wrote several decidely important medical books which have long been considered as authorities in both this country and Europe. In 1911 he completed a five hundred page treatise on "The Surgery of Apoplexy"; and in 1912, a four hundred page volume on his family genealogy.

Dr. Ricketts moved to Mount Gilead, Ohio in 1921 after his retirement from active medical practice. He spent his last years at the Dr. Nathan Tucker Asthma Lab working with his nephew, Dr. W.B. Robinson. He passed away January 21, 1926 from Hodgkin's disease and his ashes were scattered on the graves of his parents.

More information on the life and medical contributions of Dr. Benjamin Merrill Ricketts can be found at the Cincinnati Historical Society. The Society was the source for the above information.

	A younger Benjamin Merrill Ricketts

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Proctorville has the distinction of being the birthplace of a man who by his skill as a surgeon, his diligence in research and experimentation, and his wide spread philanthropies, gained a reputation for himself, far beyond the confines of his native town or county.

Doctor Benjamine Merrill Ricketts came from a family of doctors. His father, G.R. Rickett, altho born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, was one of the old time family physicians of Quaker Bottom for a generation or more. He was born February 14, 1828, and came to this community, about 1834. He married Rachel McLaughlin, the daughter of David and Phebe (Gillett) McLaughlin, April 14, 1852. They had four children: Edwin S., born May 18, 1852, Benjamine M., born May 20, 1858, Linnie D., born October 6, 1863 and Joseph V., born October 6, 1866. The daughter married Mr. Gilbert Bush who was a miller at Proctorville for a number of years. They now live in Gallipolis. The sons all became physicians of note and are now all deceased.

Merrill, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in the Proctorville Public Schools, - in the old one room frame building on the river bank.

Youthful pranks of afterward noted personages are always interesting, so it will be well, perhaps, to record at least one such on Dr. Ricketts. Mr. J.W. Reckard, who still resides in Proctorville, and who was a school mate of the doctor, tells this one. He says the teacher - who at that time happened to be the late C.H. Hall, of Huntington - called Ricketts up on the carpet for some infraction of the rules and was about to give him a whipping. The boy, however, happened to be standing between the teacher and an open window, and when he saw what was coming, he made a dive thru the window and sprinted up the river bank at a good rate of speed. The boy had hardly hit the ground, however, before the teacher was after him. As Hall went thru the window he accidentally dislodged the stick which held the sash up - weights being unknown then - and the window descended with a bang just in time to catch his coat tail, which was torn completely away. Yet, nothing daunted, the teacher continued the race - up the river bank, out Ferry Street, toward the old Ricketts home where Mrs. Eva Robinson now lives, and just as the boy was about to reach the "home port," he was nabbed and led back to school where in all probability he received double punishment has a result of his escapade.

Like most of his family, Merrill early became interested in medicine, and in the spring of 1876 entered Ohio Wesleyan University, leaving at the beginning of his Junior year to specialize in his chosen work. In the winter of 1878, he began studying medicine with his father at Proctorville and in the autumn of 1879 he entered Miami Medical College at Cincinnati, where he graduated with honors in the spring of 1881. On April 7th in that year he located at Ironton where he opened offices and began the practice of medicine.

Smallpox was raging in Ironton about that time and it seems that the young doctor had much success in his treatment of those suffering from this loathsome disease, and on the 23rd of the same month in which he began practicing there he was elected health officer and "smallpox physician," in which capacity he was Superintendent of the Smallpox Hospital. In 1882-83 he served as Coroner of Lawrence County and from 1881 to 1883 he was a member of the Lawrence County Medical Society. One of the first of his numerous publications was a treatice on smallpox, written while he was located at Ironton. He moved to Columbus in July 1883 and the following Autumn, was elected to membership in the Central Ohio Medical Society.

In October 1884, Dr. Ricketts went to New York where he entered the Medical Department of Columbia University for advanced study. While in New York he served as substitute house surgeon at the Presbyterian Hospital, house surgeon of the New York Skin and Cancer Clinic of the New York Polyclinic and was made original Fellow of the New York State Medical Association in 1884.

About a year after this, he decided to locate permanently in Cincinnati, Ohio, and resigning from all his positions in New York, he returned to Ohio and together with his brother founded the Ricketts Hospital in Cincinnati where for years he devoted his attention chiefly to general surgery, and where his many successful operations attracted wide attention.

In 1888 he was elected to the chair of minor surgery in Miami Medical College and during the same year he organized the Cincinnati Polyclinic in which institution he was elected professor of dermatology and syphillography. About the same time he was appointed to the German Deaconess hospital and the following year was chosen physician of skin diseases and plastic surgery at Christ Hospital.

Dr. Ricketts was now well known not only at Cincinnati, but thru out Ohio and a number of neighboring states as well, and in 1909 he was made honorary professor of thoracicenrgery in Barns and American Medical college in St. Louis, Missouri, and visited there monthly for some time to deliver lectures before the students.

Few physicians, perhaps, have held membership in more professional organizations or been more active as members in the organizations to which they belonged than Dr. Ricketts. The Ohio State Medical Society, the Cincinnati Medical Society, the International Medical Congress of Washington, D.C., the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, the South Western Ohio Medical Society, International Railway Surgeons, the Iowa, Illinois and Missouri Tri-state Medical Society and the Ohio State Scientific society are only a few of the many organizations of this nature of which he was a member.

Dr. Ricketts also received many honors from colleges and universities. The Illinois Wesleyan University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, the Kentucky Wesleyan College the degree of Doctor of Laws while the American College of Medicine of St. Louis, Missouri, conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine.

Over three hundred articles were written by Dr. Ricketts and published in medical papers and magazines while a number of his books are said to be accepted as authority in their lines by practicioners in Europe as well as in America. Most of these works have to do with surgery in one form or another, and need not be listed here, being of especial interest to those who take up the study of medicine professionally. His library at Cincinnati was at one time said to be one of the most complete of its kind to be found in the country, containing over three thousand volumes on surgery and related topics.

The life of the doctor was saddened by the death of his young wife, in December 1885 in less than a year after their marriage. Mrs. Ricketts before marriage was Miss Jennie Lind Clark, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Dent Clark, prominent Irontonians. He was married again in 1891, the second Mrs. Ricketts being before marriage, Miss Elizabeth Laws and to this union two sons were born, Merrill and James. But again sadness entered the doctors home when his son fell in defence of his country on the bloody fields of France and he had already experienced the pangs of losing his father and mother, the former of whom died at Proctorville on September 20th, 1898 and the latter passed away on November 8th, 1908.

Probably the most outstanding contribution of Dr. Ricketts to the medical profession was the discovery of the cure or antidote for bichloride of mercury poisoning. This strange chemical which when taken internally almost always had produced fatal results in spite of all medical science could do seemed to offer a challenge which Dr. Ricketts could not resist accepting. Accordingly he devoted much time and attention to experimentation along this line and about twelve years ago gave to the world the result of his research and experimentation in the form of a formula which when administered to a person who had taken the poison within a certain time after taking it was claimed to be an effective antidote for it. As usual with Dr. Ricketts, he was anxious for the world to benefit from his discovery and so he had printed detailed directions for the administration of his remedy and made it available, not only for the profession, but for others as well.

This was characteristic of the doctor. He was head of his private hospital in Cincinnati for over a quarter of a century and was in position to demand and receive large fees for his services. And these he frequently did ask and receive, but it was said that he never turned away a human being for lack of funds. He asked abundantly of the rich and those able to pay him for his services, but he was just as attentive to those from whom he knew that he would never receive a cent.

There is little doubt but that Dr. Ricketts could have become one of the wealthiest men in Cincinnati but he chose rather to put his wealth into forms where it would do the most good for others rather than to keep it for himself. In talking to a friend one day, he is said to have remarked that he guesses he knew little about religion, as most people thot of it, but that if religion had anything to do with the uplift, betterment and relief of his fellow men, he believed he had some religion.

His philanthropies took many forms but after the death of his son, he spent much time and money providing a suitable memorial for him and had it erected in a prominent place in Cincinnati.

One fine characteristic about the doctor was that he never forgot his old friends or his old home town - the place of his birth and the home of his childhood. Then too, as is characteristic of all truly great men, he never ceased to honor his parents and never forgot them in the stress and turmoil of his busy life. About a decade ago, he conceived the idea of erecting a memorial to their memory and at the same time performing a good deed for his home town, as he knew they would do if they could. So he arranged to present library to the Village of Proctorville. He donated several hundred volumes from his own private library, spent hundreds of dollars for new books, and went to a great deal of trouble to organize and establish the Rachel-McLaughlin Ricketts Free Public Library. The Board of Education of Proctorville provided a small room in the old brick high school building for housing the library until a building was torn down and replaced it with the present modern structure.

The doctor's interest in this undertaking did not cease with the establishment of the Library but he continued to supply it with new books and subscribed for a number of the best and most noted papers and magazines of the day which he had sent to the library for the use of its patrons. Moreover, during the vacation period when the high school facility could not look after it, he provided a librarian who for so many hours each week let out and received volumes from those who wished to make use of the library during the summer.

Another benefit Dr. Ricketts conferred upon his home town was the establishment of what was known as the Ricketts Prizes. He provided the funds for, and had made each year, little pins or medals of gold, silver, etc for presentation to the pupil in the public schools that made the best average grade for the year in his or her particular grade. There was a pin of distinctive material, and make for this honor student in each grade from the senior class in the high school on down to the first grade in the primary department.

If at all convenient, the doctor would attend the graduating exercises each commencement, and as an honored guest, present his prizes in person. If this was impossible he would send the prizes for presentation by the superintendent or other school official.

It will, no doubt, be seen from the above that Dr. Ricketts did not become narrow minded as is so frequently the case with those who specialize in some great science life medicine. On the contrary he was interested in every branch of human knowledge, in history and literature as well as in science and related subjects. One of his "hobbies," so to speak, was the cutting of curios out of wood from famous trees. He loved to do this with his own hand as relaxation and change from his real work. One day in talking to friend in his office in Cincinnati, he opened the drawer of his desk and revealed hundreds of little paddles that he had carved from some wood of historic association, it was said. He sent a great lot of such things to Proctorville for the school children to sell to secure funds for various school undertakings.

After the death of his second wife, Dr. Ricketts was married again, this time to a young Cincinnati lady. The doctor was a middle aged man, or possibly a little older while his bride was a young lady. The difference in their ages, apparently, proved a barrier to a happy married life and after a short time a separation took place.

This fact, together with the shock of loosing his son and the other sorrows of his life, no doubt contributed a great deal to the break in his health which occurred about five years ago and necessitated a change from his old work at Cincinnati.

It is said by some who knew the doctor intimately that he had for many years cherished a desire to retire at the age of 50 or 60 years. Not that he wished to devote his time to leisure in the sense of idleness, but that, freed from the exacting duties of active practice, he might devote his time to writing.

At about the mentioned, it seemed that the opportunity was at hand for him to realize this ambition. He had a relative, a doctor Robinson, who lived and practiced his profession at Mount Gilead, Ohio. Dr. Robinson had developed or secured possession of a formula said to be a great remedy for the troublesome and sometimes dangerous disease of Asthma. He now invited Dr. Ricketts to come to Mount Gilead and help him develop this new medicine and to put it on the market. His duties here would be light enough, of course, to allow him to go on with his writing as he had planned.

Accordingly Dr. Ricketts gave up his practice in Cincinnati, closed out his hospital there and moved to Mount Gilead, a small city about 30 miles north of Columbus, Ohio, where he spent his last days on earth and passed away after a short illness about four years ago.

The doctor took pride in his family and for some thirty-five years he engaged in a diligent research of family history, the results of which he embodied in a book on the Ricketts Genealogy which he wrote in his latter years.

It seems that the doctor's mother, Rachel McLaughlin, was the daughter of David McLauglin who was a son of John McLaughlin, the latter being a son of James McLaughlin who was a Scott of some note and came to America before the Revolution. Also that the doctor's father, Dr. Girard Robinson Ricketts was the son of John Ricketts who was a son of Anthony Ricketts and that the latter was a son of another John Ricketts who was a descendent of William the Huguenot.

Besides the work referred to above the doctor was also the author of a number of medical books among them; Surgery of the Heart and Lungs, Surgery of the Thorax and its Viscera and Surgery of Apoplexy. These works vary in length from volumes of five hundred to eight hundred pages.

In his private life, Dr. Merrill Rickets was described by those who probably knew him best, as a pleasant, jovial companion, a kind and sympathetic person and a loyal and faithful friend. However, as is frequently the case with such persons, he was said to be difficult to placate when once aroused.

His contributions to humanity maybe summed up under at least three headings: first, his relief of suffering in his capacity as a physician; second, his philanthropies, especially his gifts to his home community at Proctorville; and third, his writings by which he passed on to future generations the knowledge he had gained by long and hard study, and much practice and experience.

All of the immediate family of Dr. Ricketts, with the exception of his sister Mrs. Gibert Bush, of Gallipolis, and one son, have passed into the Great Beyond altho quite a number of his relatives still reside in Proctorville and in Huntington.

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