Dr. Peter Van Derveer
One of the earlier physicians of Butler County was Dr. Peter Van Derveer, of Middletown. He was born in Somerset County, New Jersey, on the 12th of March, 1798. His father was Colonel Henry Van Derveer, a substantial farmer, who at one time held a colonel’s commission among the volunteers called upon to put down the whiskey rebellion in Pennsylvania. The family came from Holland about the year 1645, and during the Revolutionary war, were active partisans on the side of liberty.
The subject of this sketch received a collegiate education, and commenced the study of medicine and surgery in 1817. We find among his papers a certificate showing his attendance at the New York Hospital, and signed by David Hosack, Wright Post, Valentine Mott, and other physicians famous in the history of medicine in this country. His diploma was issued to him by the medical Society of the State of New Jersey, and is dated July 9, 1818, and signed by John Vancleve, president.
Shortly after graduating, he determined to make the West his home, and, with his horse, saddle, and pill-bags, started for Ohio. Early in the year 1819 he came to Middletown, and, after a short delay, passed on to the village of Salsbury, Indiana. Here, however, he remained only a few months, when he returned to Middletown, where he permanently located. The practice of his profession required that he spend a great time in saddle. Patients were scattered, the roads and bridle paths sometimes scarcely marked by a blazing. There were none of the luxurious modes, now so common, for traveling. The physician of that day, in this Western world, had to depend upon his horse to take him to the cabins where duty called. ; and it was only a strong, healthy body and heroid spirit that could endure the hardships incident to exposure to stress at all hours of the day and night. His practice was along both banks of the Great Miami, and required that he should frequently cross its waters. When the stream was swollen, it was sometimes a dangerous task, as then there were no bridges, and but a single ferry. The writer of this has heard Dr. Van Derveer describe his many escapes from a watery grave, when compelled to swim his horse through its rushing waters to reach patients whose condition required immediate relief. In the year 1822 he was married to Miss Mary Ann Dickey, who lived only about two years after her marriage, leaving a son, Ferdinand. His second wife was Miss Mary Ann Hubble, whom he married in 1826, and with whom he lived until 1849, when she died, leaving several daughters. He had been in early live attendant upon the Dutch Reformed Church of New Jersey, but never united with any denomination until about the year 1837, when he joined the Presbyterian Church, and remained a consistent member until his death. For a long time he was an elder of the Church at Middletown.
Although belonging to the allopathic school of medicine, he always met the practitioners of other schools with courtesy, and treated all with consideration, especially in the later years of his life, when he never refused to consult with pjysicians of other creeds.
At the time he settled in Ohio, there were but few graduates of the medical colleges to be found in the woods, and the fact that he carried a diploma, and had been attendant upon the hospital lectures in New York, gave him a high price in the estimation of the public. In a newspaper notice of his death we find the following: "If he differed in sentiment concerning a point of pathology, diagnosis, or practice, he expressed himself with the modesty of a gentleman and the kindly feelings of a professional brother. In his intercourse with his patients his conduct was regulated by the nicest sense of honor; his moral character was cast in the finest and purest mold; his conduct in all phases of life was squared by the strictest sense of honesty and the nicest regard for the feelings of others."
The exposures and hardships attendant upon the earlier years of his practice told on his once vigorous constitution, and he became feeble, and suffered from ill-health in the latter part of his life. He died on the 17th of January, 1861, at his home in Middletown.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.