PRINCETON — Resuming our looks at the history of Mercer County, courtesy of Kyle McCormick’s “The Story of Mercer County,” (Charleston Publishing Co. 1957), and Benson J. Lossing’s book, “Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence,” which is a reprint of the 1848 original kindly provided by Dr. O.J. Bailes on loan, we now turn our focus to Matoaka.

Matoaka in 1957 was close to 1,000 people in population and was, for many years, the leading business town of the Mercer County coalfields.

It wasn’t under the best of publicity in 1956-57 as a boycott against school integration died down without major incidents but still received national publicity. Several unrelated run-ins between police and citizens, with several of each being killed, didn’t help the town’s image.

The first school in the Matoaka area was constructed near Giatto in 1870, a one-room log school. In 1880-81, H.W. Straley, Judge David E. Johnston and others bought the coal lands in the area for prices of $1-$3.50 an acre. These lands eventually fell into the hands of the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company.

The Norfolk & Western Railroad built into the coalfields in 1883, with the first passenger train to Pocahontas, Va., in May, 1883, with Captain D.H. Barger the conductor in charge. The N & W extended its lines into the Coopers, Simmons, Flipping, Crane Creek and Widemouth sections in 1884 and the first coal from the Widemouth Creek was shipped in June, 1904 and shipped from the Weyanoke Coal and Coke Co.

The next entry in the Lossing book is Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was born in Berberry, Pa. about 12 miles north of Philadelphia on Christmas Eve, 1743. He was the grandson of an officer of the same name who served in Cromwell’s Army during the English Civil War who emigrated after Cromwell’s death and settled in Philadelphia.

Rush’s father died when he was six years old, leaving in and a younger brother in the care of their mother. She wanted to give Benjamin a classical education but was unable due to the meager money made from the family farms did not allow it. She sold the farm and moved to Philadelphia , where she commenced a successful enough commercial enterprise to give him a classical education.

At the age of nine, Rush was placed under the care of the Rev. Dr. Findlay, the principal of an academy in Nottingham, Md., and who would prove influential in his choice of a medical career. At 13, he entered Princeton College, graduating at the age of 16.

Rush wanted to enter the study of law, but Findlay advised him to go into medicine and placed him self under the direction of the celebrated Dr. Redman of Philadelphia. In 1766, he went to England where he attended the best medical schools and lectures at the finest hospitals of London. In the summer of 1768, he went to Paris for further education. That fall, he returned to America with the title "Doctor of Medicine", which he received the formal degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Rush began his practice in Philadelphia and before his first year was over, he was called into consultation with some of the best doctors of his day in the city. His polished manners, separator intellect, kind deportment in the sick room, and unwearied attention t the needs of the poor made his reputation and helped his practice become lucrative and extensive. After the Revolutionary War and until his year before his death (1812), he had over 2,000 students study under him from all over the United States and Europe.

Rush embraced the patriot cause upon returning to America in 1768 using his pen to endorse the cause. He declined election to the Continental Congress in 1775, but was elected to fill vacancies created when several delegates from Pennsylvania refused to endorse the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and signed it in August, 1776.

In 1777, Congress elected Rush to the office of physician-general of the hospitals of the middle department of which he was of great utility. After that, he served in the 1787 Constitutional Convention, but withdrew from public office with that exception. In 1788, he was appointed to head the U.S. Mint which he did until 1802.

It is as a doctor that Rush was best known. He was named professor of chemistry at the Medical College of Philadelphia in 1769; prof4ssor of the theory and practice of medicine in 1789; along with the professorship of the Institutes of Medicine and Chemical Science at the Medical College of Pennsylvania; and in 1796, he was named to the professorship of the practice of medicine at the same school.

In 1793, Rush was one of the physicians who stayed around Philadelphia when a yellow-fever epidemic hit the city. Though ill himself, he served dutifully and recorded an account of the epidemic.

Rush formed the Philadelphia Dispensary in 1786 and was one of the primary founders of Dickerson College in Carlisle. Pa.. He also served honorary posts in many literary and scientific societies abroad, as President of the American Society for the Abolition of Slavery; President of the Philadelphia Medical Society; Vice-President of the Philadelphia Bible Society; and as one of the Vive Presidents of the American Philosophical Society, among other posts.

Dr. Rush died April 19, 1813, age 67.

This makes a good stopping point for this column. To share input on this column, contact me at Mercer County Memories at jharvey1@frontiernet.net or delimartman@yahoo.com. You can also reach me c/o Mercer County Memories at the Princeton Times, P.O. Box 1199, Princeton, WV, 24740. See you next time.