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Descendants of Joseph Bemis


      624. W. H.6 Bemiss (John5 Bemis, James4, Ephraim3, Ephraim2, Joseph1)3717 was born Abt. 1816 in Kentucky3717. He married (1) Mary C.3717. She was born Abt. 1824 in Kentucky3717. He married (2) Cordie3718. She was born Abt. 1842 in Kentucky3718.

Notes for W. H. Bemiss:
[1850 Census - District 2, Nelson, Kentucky - September 7, 1850 - image 71]
John Bemiss, 77, physician, real estate of $11200, born in Massachusetts;
Elizabeth Bemiss, 70, born in New York;
H. H. Bemiss, 34, farmer, born in Kentucky;
Mary C. Bemiss, 26, born in Kentucky;
James H. Bemiss, 8, born in Kentucky;
William H. Bemiss, 6, born in Kentucky;
Samuel Bemiss, 4, born in Kentucky;
Ann Bemiss, 2, born in Kentucky;
John Bemiss, 1, born in Kentucky.

[1860 Census - District 1, Nelson, Kentucky - September 1, 1860 - page 141 - image 141]
W. H. Bemiss, 44, farmer, real estate of $22000, personal property of $9000, born in Kentucky;
Ann Bemiss, 34, born in Kentucky;
Jas (James) Bemiss, 18, farmer, born in Kentucky;
Wm. H. Bemiss, 16, born in Kentucky;
Sam'l Bemiss, 14, born in Kentucky;
John Bemiss, 11, born in Kentucky;
Tom Bemiss, 8, born in Kentucky;
Ann Bemiss, 13, born in Kentucky;
Eliza Bemiss, 79, born in New York;
Benedict Rodgers, 47, laborer, born in Kentucky.

[1870 Census - Bloomfield, Nelson, Kentucky - August 18, 1870 - page 23 - image 23]
Wm. H. Bemiss, 55, unreadable occupation (perhaps teamster), personal property of $800, born in Kentucky;
Cordie Bemiss, 28, keeps house, born in Kentucky;
Mary Bemiss, 9, born in Kentucky;
Margaret Bemiss, 6, born in Kentucky;
Robert E. Lee Bemiss, 4, born in Kentucky;
Bloomer Bemiss, 2, born in Kentucky.

Notes for Cordie:
[1880 Census - Chaplin (District 206), Nelson, Kentucky - June 7, 1880 - page 12 - image 12]
Corda Bemiss, perhaps 33, widowed, keeping house, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky);
Squire Bemiss, 8, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky);
Molly Osburn, 12, cousin, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky).
     
Children of W. Bemiss and Mary are:
  1479 i.   James H.7 Bemiss3719, born Abt. 1842 in Kentucky3719.
  1480 ii.   William H. Bemiss3719, born Abt. 1844 in Kentucky3719; died 23 Mar 1921 in Shelby, Kentucky3720.
  Notes for William H. Bemiss:
[1880 Census - Bardstown (District 205), Nelson, Kentucky - June 1, 1880 - page 3 - image 3]
W. H. Bemiss, 36, hotel keeper, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky)...

Kentucky Death Index, 1911-2000
Name: Wm Bemiss
Death Date: 23 March, 1921
Death Place: Shelby
Age: 077
Volume: 14
Certificate: 6783

  1481 iii.   Samuel Bemiss3721, born Abt. 1846 in Kentucky3721.
  1482 iv.   Ann Bemiss3721, born Abt. 1848 in Kentucky3721.
  1483 v.   John Bemiss3721, born Abt. 1849 in Kentucky3721.
  1484 vi.   Tom Bemiss3722, born Abt. 1852 in Kentucky3722.
     
Children of W. Bemiss and Cordie are:
  1485 i.   Mary7 Bemiss3723, born Abt. 1861 in Kentucky3723.
  1486 ii.   Margaret Bemiss3723, born Abt. 1864 in Kentucky3723.
  1487 iii.   Robert E Lee Bemiss3723, born Abt. 1866 in Kentucky3723.
  Notes for Robert E Lee Bemiss:
[1880 Census - Bloomfield, (District 207), Nelson, Kentucky - June 11, 1880 - page 28 - image 28]
F. Merrifield, female, 80, widowed, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky and New York);
Sam Merrifield, 44, son, farmer, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky);
Robt. Bemiss, 14, nephew, farm house, attending school, born in Kentucky (parents in Kentucky)...

  1488 iv.   Bloomer Bemiss3723, born Abt. 1868 in Kentucky3723.
  1489 v.   Squire Bemiss3724, born Abt. 1872 in Kentucky3724.


      625. Dr. Samuel Merrifield6 Bemiss (John5 Bemis, James4, Ephraim3, Ephraim2, Joseph1)3725 was born 15 Oct 1821 in Bloomfield, Nelson, Kentucky3725, and died 18 Nov 1884 in New Orleans, Louisiana3725. He married Mary Frances Lockert3725, daughter of Eli Lockert and Amy Lacy. She was born Abt. 1829 in Clarksville, Tennessee3725,3726.

Notes for Dr. Samuel Merrifield Bemiss:
[Draper:187-191] " Dr. Bemiss' early education was carefully conducted by his father and private tutors until the age of eighteen, when he determined to study medicine, entering for that purpose the office of his brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel Maryfield, of Bloomfield. Here he remained until 1841, when he went to New York and became the first matriculate of the University of New York. Having returned to Bloomfield in the following year to continue his studies under his father and brother-in-law we find him at the bedside of his first case in August, 1842. Thus is remarkably active life as a practitioner of medicine extended over more than forty years.

In the fall of 1844 he went back to New York, where in the following spring he received his diploma, and degree " Medicine Doctor " from the University. To this careful and protracted course of study, and his own remarkable memory, was probably due that exact and minute knowledge of the details of many branches forgotten by most to dance in three years after they have risen from the benches.

Returning to Bloomfield, Dr. Bemiss at once became associated in an active practice with Dr. Merrifield, his former preceptor. This connection lasted until 1850, when another was formed with Dr. Joshua Gore. This was a period of his life of which Dr. Bemiss often spoke with great pleasure. He was full of anecdotes illustrated of the old-time in Kentucky, and, as he spoke, enlivening the story with many touches of hearty humor, man and manners rose clearly before the listener.

In 1853, the Doctor moved to Louisville, and joined practice with Benjamin Wible, a companionship only broken by the departure of the other for the Confederate army in 1862. Meanwhile, Dr. Bemiss had been appointed by the State, Registrar of Kentucky, in 1849; in 1858, Professor of Chemical Medicine; then, in 1859, Professor of Hygiene and Medical Jurisprudence, and finally, in 1861, Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica in the University of Louisville. In the latter year Kentucky had declared an armed neutrality, and many of her citizens were joining ranks of either army. After some months of mature deliberation, Dr. Bemiss became convinced that his opinions and sympathies were with the Southern cause, and that once offered his services to the Confederacy. He became Acting Surgeon of the Provisional Army, at Tunnel Hill, Georgia, where he saw his first hospital work. His value was soon recognized by the authorities, and, in 1862, he received his commission as full surgeon, and was assigned to duty on the Medical Examining Board, in session at Hamilton's Crossing, Virginia. It was during this period that Dr. Bemiss met and rendered some medical service Gen. R. E. Lee, a circumstance to which he was wont to allude with pleasure. There is now in the position of the family a letter in which the General thanks the doctor in warm terms for his attention and kindness.

In April, 1863, he was ordered to take charge of the hospital at Cherokee Springs, Georgia where he remained until after the battle of Chickamauga, when he was transferred to Newman. December 1st, 1863, he was appointed Assistant Medical Director of Hospitals, to S. H. Stout, Medical Director of the Army of Tennessee, and, in 1864, Medical Director of Hospitals in the rear of the Army of Tennessee. At the latter post he remained until General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, April, 1865.

Dr. Bemiss now returned to Louisville; was at once elected Professor of Physiology and Pathology in the University, in an upon a large and renumerative practice. In the spring of 1866, however, he accepted a call to the chair of Theory and Practice of the Medicine, and Clinical Medicine in the University of Louisiana. Dr. Bemiss now sailed for Europe, where he spent the summer in traveling and in visiting the hospitals of Great Britain and France.

In the Fall he returned to New Orleans and entered upon his new position, the duties of which he continued to discharge without interruption, and with great satisfaction to his colleagues and students up to the day of his death.

Dr. Bemiss' style in lecturing was marked in simplicity and force. His delivery, slow and emphatic. Few of his students will ever forget the impressive forefinger, lifted to work some especially nice point of diagnosis, or treatment. In opinion he was conservative and judicial. He was careful in directing attention to the relations between symptoms and pathology. As a clinical teacher Professor Bemiss was most painstaking. Ever punctual in his words he would pass from bed to bed, patiently demonstrating each case, and pointing out the appropriate remedies and their rationale.

It was his custom to make each student practice day after day the arts of ausculation and percussion; each day a number of the class would be called upon to examine, diagnosticate, and prescribe for some new case, a bit of good-humored raillery being the penalty of a too glaring mistake. In these exercises the Doctor was at especial pains to encourage a feeling of self-reliance in his students. Turning to a number of his class he would invite him to listen to a beautiful example of such and such a sound (in a perfectly normal lung), and was always delighted when the pupil frankly declared his inability to hear it.

In 1878, Dr. Bemiss was named as chairman of the commission appointed to investigate the origin and spread of the great yellow-fever epidemic of that year. He threw himself into the work with all his heart, and in conjunction with Dr. Jerome Cochran did most of the practical work. A large number of infected towns were visited, and a report presented at the meeting of the Public Health Association at Richmond, in November of this year. In the following December, the commission was merged into a Board of Experts, with Dr. John M. Woodworth, Supervising Surgeon General; of the Marine Hospital Service, as President. Many more localities were now visited, and the final report of the Board made January 29th, 1879. In March of the same year, the National Board of Health was instituted, and Dr. Bemiss was made a member, and also Chairman of the Committee on Epidemics.

Having been long a contributor to various medical periodicals, and having been ever interested in Medical journalism, Dr. Bemiss, in 1868, became Senior Editor of this Journal, a position which he continued to hold until 1883.

Besides his many valuable contributions to the pages of this Journal, and his ratings embodied in the Reports of the National Board of Health, the best known of his papers are "Essay on Croup," Louisville Review, 1856, and " Report on the Influence of Marriages of Consanguinity upon Offspring," Transactions of American Medical Associations 1858, a paper Michael of for which won for its author great praise.

Dr. Bemiss was a member of the American Medical Association; of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Louisville; of the Kentucky State Medical Society; of the Boston Gynecological Society; of the State Medical Association of Louisiana."
------------------------------------
[1850 Census - District 2, Nelson, Kentucky - September 16, 1850 - image 91]
S. M. Bemiss, 28, physician, real estate of $4000, born in Kentucky;
Francis L. Bemiss, 21, born in Tennessee;
Joshua Gore, 27, physician, born in Kentucky.

Notes for Mary Frances Lockert:
[Draper:187] Mary Frances' grandfather was Aaron Lockert, Commissary to Genrl. Sumpter, and fed his command in the summer of 1780 from his own Mills at Lockert's Shoals, on Broad River. Amy Jones Lacy was descended from the Lords of Pontefract.
     
Children of Samuel Bemiss and Mary Lockert are:
+ 1490 i.   Samuel Hamilton7 Bemiss, born in New Orleans, La..
  1491 ii.   Elizabeth Lacy Bemiss3727, born in Louisville, Kentucky3727.
  1492 iii.   Amy de Lacy Bemiss3728, born in Louisville, Kentucky3729. She married Hon. John Taggard Blodgett3730 15 Aug 19003730; born 16 May 1859 in Belmont, Massachusetts3730; died 04 Mar 1912 in Providence, Rhode Island3730.
  More About Amy de Lacy Bemiss:
Name 2: Amy Lacy Bemis3731

  Notes for Hon. John Taggard Blodgett:
(NEHGS:1912:66:195-6) The New England Historical And Genealogical Register
July, 1912
HON. JOHN TAGGARD BLODGETT, A.M.
by Amasa Mason Eaton, A.M., LL.B.

John Taggard Blodgett, a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society from 1906, and elected its Vice-President for Rhode Island at the annual meeting preceding his death, was born in Belmont, Massachusetts, May 16, 1859, the son of William Alfred and Anna Maria (Taggard) Blodgett, his line of descent from Thomas(1) Blodgett, born in England in 16 05, who came from London, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, in the Increase in 1635, and settled at Cambridge, being through David(2), Thomas(3), Joseph(4), Jonathan(5), Jabez(6), Alfred(7), to William Alfred(8), his father. His great-great-grandfather Jonathan Blodgett of Hudson, New Hampshire, answered the "Lexington Alarm," April 19, 1775, and later served as a private in a New Hampshire regiment. He was a great-grandson of William Taggard of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, ensign and lieutenant in the Second New Hampshire Regiment, 1776-1780; and also the great-grandson of Bartholomew Trow of Charlestown, Massachusetts, a member of " The Boston Tea Party," a minute man at Lexington April 19, 1775, lieutenant and Colonel Thomas Gardiner's regiment at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, and captain in the 25th Massachusetts Regiment at the siege of Quebec in 1776. He was a great-great-grandson of Hezekiah Welch of Boston, second lieutenant of the frigate Boston in 1778; and he was the great-grandson of Ebenezer Welch of Boston, midshipmen in the Revolution.

He received his early education in the public schools of Belmont and of Watertown, Massachusetts, and was graduated from the Watertown High School in 1875, and from Worcester Academy in 1876. He then entered Brown University, and was graduated with his class in 1880, being a member of the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, and receiving three years later from the college the degree of A.M.

Upon graduation he entered upon the study of law in the office of Benjamin N. Lapham, in Providence. There he completed the regular course of three years' study, and passing with brilliancy the bar examinations, he was admitted to practice. He was admitted to practice in the United States District Court in 1885, and in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in 1895, his law practice relating principally to corporation and banking business. He was United States Commissioner for the District of Rhode Island from 1890 to 1897; and he became supervisor of Federal elections in Rhode Island in 1891, remaining in that office until the repeal of the Federal election law, the duties of the office being to inspect the list of voters and to see that no fraud was practiced in Federal elections. The familiarity with election laws thus acquired led him to prepare and to carry through a state law relating to the appointment and defining the powers and duties of the Board of Canvassers and Registration. Upon its passage in 1895 he was appointed a member and became its chairman, remaining so until he became a member of the Supreme Court of the state.

He was a member of the House of Representatives from the city of Providence from 1898 to 1900, and took a leading part while a member in drafting and securing the adoption of important legislation relating to the city. His experience upon the board of canvassers led to his appointment in 1900 as chairman of a commission to revise the ward plans of the city of Providence.

He was chairman of the Rhode Island Commission to the Jamestown Exposition of 1907.

In 1900 he was elected by the General Assembly Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, remaining in that office until his death, at Providence March 4, 1912.

An examination of his opinions in the Rhode Island Reports illustrates his thoroughness of research, his scholarship, capacity for work, and independence of judgment, especially in some of the dissenting opinions he delivered.

Besides his association with this Society, Judge Blodgett was a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars, and the Rhode Island Society of Sons of the American Revolution. He was also a corresponding member of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and contributed a paper upon "The Political Theory of the Mayflower Compact" to its Transactions in 1909.

He married first, March 28, 1883, Amelia Wilson Torrey, daughter of Moses Eddy and Amelia (Wilson) Torrey of Providence, by whom he had a son, Moses Torrey, who died soon after his birth, and a daughter, Gwendolen. On August 15, 1900, he married his second wife, Amy de Lacy Bemiss, daughter of Dr. Samuel Merrifield and Frances (Lockert) Bemiss of New Orleans, Louisiana, who survives him, with the daughter by his first wife, Gwendolen Blodgett.

  More About John Blodgett and Amy Bemiss:
Marriage: 15 Aug 19003732

  1493 iv.   Sally Lockert Bemiss3733, born in Louisville, Kentucky3733; died in her seventh year3733.
+ 1494 v.   Margaret Lockert Bemiss, born in Clarksville, Tennessee.
  1495 vi.   John Harrison Bemiss3734, born 24 Aug 1856 in Louisville, Kentucky3734; died 02 Sep 1897 in Ocean Sps., Mississippi3734.
  Notes for John Harrison Bemiss:
[ Draper:191-194] His first trip into the world was made to visit his father's honored preceptor, the distinguished Dr. Draper, of New York. So he went on a pilgrimage, which was filled with many experiences. He remembered with much pleasure the one bright our he spent with the aged man, who gave him a very warm reception.

In the course of time he went to the University of Virginia, where he was said to be the youngest boy that up to that time had ever entered the institution, being just fifteen. Here he prosecuted his studies with earnestness and with much success for several years, graduating in 1876. He then returned to New Orleans, where he matriculated in the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana, now Tulane. During these days he was closely associated with his father, Professor Bemiss, assisting him greatly in the preparation of his lecture notes. For a short time proceeding his graduation he was a resident student and the Charity Hospital, but did not remain long, owing to an opportunity which presented itself through the kindness of Prof. T. G. Richardson. This was the offer of a medical position under the Hawaiian goverment. Professor Bemiss, believing the change of climate would materially benefit his health, advised him to stand a premature examination and accept it. This he did, and having received his diploma, he went to the spring of 1878 to the Sandwich Islands, where he remained about five years. He was government physician in the Wauilckee and Lahaina districts, his residence and office being in the town of Wailuckee on the Island of Maui. He published after his return an interesting article on Hawaii.

He had much of interest to relate of his life out there, and told his experiences in a peculiarly delightful style. He had learned the Hawaiian language and was fond of calling attention to the musical character of its many beautiful vowel combinations. While in the islands he carried on a practical study of leprosy and made some valuable contributions to its literature. When he returned to New Orleans about 1882, he entered into partnership with his father, Dr. S. M. Bemiss, who still occupied the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University. He continued with his father until the sudden death from apoplexy up Professor Bemiss in 1885, just at the beginning of the course of lectures.

During his partnership with his father, which lasted until the death of the latter, Dr. Bemiss very materially assisted in the hospital work of the professor. He served as chief of clinic and rendered much efficient service, taking numerous case notes and carefully following the admirable course of instruction in physical diagnosis, carried on by Prof. Bemiss. All who were so fortunate as to be students at this time, remember the remarkable diagnostic ability of Prof. Bemiss and the very entertaining way in which he imparted his teaching. To this association with his father may be largely attributed the unusual ability of the younger Bemiss as a physical diagnostician. At his health permitted he would undoubtedly have remained the peer of any man in the Southern profession. He was so earnest and painstaking in his instruction of students that all his pupils in the classes' of Tulane, and afterwards in the New Orleans Polyclinic, remember him with the liveliest gratitude. Soon after his return from the Sandwich Islands Dr. Bemiss, with Dr. G. B. Underhill, just then returned from Germany, organized the Quiz class in the Medical Department.

Dr. Bemiss took the first year the subject of Practice of Medicine and Materia Medica; Dr. Underhill, Surgery and Anatomy; and another Physiology and Obstretrics. The following year others were associated with them. Dr. Bemiss retained the Practice of Medicine. Thus was established with the approval of the professors, the Quiz classes, which, modeled after the original one of Prof. Chaille, have in various hands continued up to the present day, making now, we believe, a feature much sought after by students. He carried on this Quiz to with as much steel and earnestness as he afterwards did his teaching in the New Orleans Polyclinic, which organized in 1887 on an entirely clinical basis. He was its first president and so continued until failing health forced him to relinquish his interest in its work. But while strength permitted, both as president and professor a Physical Diagnosis, he threw his whole soul into his work and both students and professors cordially testified to his unflagging zeal as its executive officer and to his remarkable success as a teacher. Indeed, it was no secret among the students that the chair was the most ably filled and the most sought after in the the Polyclinic. He had prepared a scheme of physical signs which was simple, but thorough, and much facilitated his instruction, which was almost entirely clinical. He had a happy knack with the students, a encouraging them on from one step to another, guiding them, making them fully appreciate each explanation so thoroughly that it was a pleasure to go on. Here was display conspicuously a trait recognized by his family from his early boyhood--that of exactness. His attention to detail, in his teaching at least, was unusual, and to this his success as a teacher is largely due. This was the underlying factor in his professional career.

In his private practice he was equally conscientious, to the poor and the rich alike. He was to charitably disposed, seemingly, preferring to devote himself to the poor. He gave his colored porter just as close and careful attention as he did the wealthiest of his patients. Money was a secondary consideration with him. He frequently forgot to send bills, and his accounts were so carelessly kept that many who would willingly have paid him well for his services, did not know what they owed him, and a practice which should have made him independent, left him scarcely anything for his long period of enforced idleness.

He wrote many valuable articles for the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, and other journals. Some of these are: "A Few Cases of Leprosy," "Hysteria in Children Due to Malaria," "Thoracic Aneurism with Spontaneous Recovery," "Abscess of the Liver," "Hydronaphthol in Cystitis," "Hamophilio" and many shorter contributions, for he was for many years a regular correspondent of the Medical News and was for some years on the editorial staff of this journal. He wrote well and carefully and had his health been vigorous he would have enriched our clinical medical literature."

+ 1496 vii.   Eli Lockert Bemiss, born 23 Oct 1859 in Louisville, Kentucky.


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