George F. Parry family volumes

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Background note

Scope and contents note

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Collection Inventory

Summary Information

Repository

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Creator

Parry, George F., 1838-1886.

Creator

Parry, Helen A., 1870-1948.

Creator

Parry, William Hough, 1875-1898.

Title

George F. Parry family volumes

ID

3694

Date

1858-1898, 1917

Extent

2.0 Linear feet ; 5 folders, 24 volumes

Author

Finding aid prepared by Cary Hutto

Sponsor

Processing made possible by a generous donation from Mary-Elizabeth Ellard.

Language

English

Abstract

George F. Parry (1838-1886) of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was one of the first veterinarians (and probably the first from Pennsylvania) to receive professional veterinary training in the United States. He graduated from the Boston Veterinary Institute in 1859, served as a veterinary surgeon with the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War, and owned a farm and conducted a private practice in Newtown, Pennsylvania, from shortly after the war until his death at age 48. George married Sarah E. Hough and the couple had two children. This collection of volumes from the Parry family consists mostly of personal diaries written by George F. Parry dating from the 1860s to the 1880s. Additionally, there is a notebook that he kept while attending the Boston Veterinary Institute and a ledger of his business transactions during the 1870s. There is also a single diary from his daughter Helen dated 1884 and a single diary that has been attributed to his son William dated 1898. Lastly, there is a photograph album containing images presumably of Parry and related family members, though only a few photographs are identified.

Return to Table of Contents »

Background note

George F. Parry was born on August 22, 1838, to Charles Parry and Phebe Fell of Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He had two older sisters, Susan (1826-1890) and Helen (1829-1854), and another sibling, Rachel, died in 1825. Susan Parry was one of the United States' first professionally trained female physicians. Her practice was located in Bucks County.

In the late 1850s, George attended the Boston Veterinary Institute, the first veterinary college in the United States, founded by George H. Dadd (with whom Parry maintained a close friendship). Parry graduated from the school in 1859, a year before it closed, and moved back to Bucks County. Parry was among only a handful of students who completed their veterinary training at the institute, and he was likely among the first veterinary practitioners in Pennsylvania. While Parry may have opened up his own facility in Bucks County in the early 1860s, his practice was cut short when he was mustered into the U. S. Army on June 22, 1863. Again Parry was among the few as there were hardly any trained veterinarians in the Army to care for its service animals, but he quickly settled into his role as a veterinary surgeon for the 7th Pennsylvania Calvary.

Parry served with the Union Army from mid 1863 to the end of the war in mid 1865. During that time, he both attended to the needs of his regiment's (and others') horses and mules and fought alongside his squadmates. Parry spent most of the war in the southern United States and traveled throughout parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and to a much lesser extent, eastern Illinois, northeastern Mississippi, and northern Florida. He participated in battles at Chickamauga, Georgia (September 1863); Dallas, Georgia (May-June 1864); Selma, Alabama (April 1865); and witnessed much of the Atlanta Campaign (May-September 1864) undertaken by Union General William T. Sherman and others.

After the war, Parry took ill and was shipped between hospitals in Alabama and Kentucky before finally becoming well enough to return to Pennsylvania in the fall of 1865. He set up shop for good in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where he both farmed and maintained a veterinary practice in which he mostly took care of horses, cows, and similar livestock. Additionally, Parry attended local Quaker meetings, was a member of the Newtown Lodge, No. 427, Ancient York Masons, and, in 1880, was elected a councilman of and worked as a clerk for Newtown Borough.

In 1869 George married Sarah Elizabeth Hough. A year later, on April 10, 1870, the couple welcomed their first child, a girl named Helen Amanda. On December 13, 1876, George and Sarah had another baby, a boy they named William Hough. Helen A. Parry (1870-1948) went on to marry Mahlon Barnes Fretz (1866-1926), a Philadelphia druggist, in 1894. Fretz later opened up a drug store in Newtown. William graduated from the nation's first pharmacy college, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now part of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia) in 1897. He died on December 23, 1898, at the age of 23.

Return to Table of Contents »

Scope and contents note

This collection is comprised of twenty-four volumes and five folders. The materials span from 1858 to 1898 with a few gaps in years, but Parry's 1886 diary (Volume 22) contains two brief entries dated 1917 in which are listed amounts of money "in hand." It is unclear who wrote them. Also, a few of the volumes contained loose items, mostly clippings, notes, and ephemera. These materials were moved to folders, which are listed in the collection's inventory.

The majority of the volumes belonged to George F. Parry. Among them are one 160-page student notebook from the Boston Veterinary Institute; three Civil War diaries, which detail Parry's veterinary work with army horses and his experience of military campaigns in the southern United states; and sixteen diaries and one ledger, which together document his civilian career as a veterinarian in Newtown, Pennsylvania, after the war, as well as his personal life, farming, and current events such as the 1877 railroad strike and regional and national elections. Parry also made frequent mention of his wife, his children, and his sister Susan, whose name appears throughout his post-Civil War diaries and the ledger. There is also one small family photo album that contains approximately 24 cartes de visite and 1 tintype, including two images of George Parry (one in army uniform), one image of his wife, Sarah, and two images of his daughter, Helen, as a small child. Most photos in the album are unidentified.

Additional volumes in the collection include one diary from Helen dated 1884, which she kept as a teenager. In it she discussed her attendance at school and church, social activities, family relationships, cash purchases, and other matters. There is also a diary (partially used) from Parry's son, William, from 1898. It contains brief entries with mention of illnesses of several extended family members and others, some of whom died. Diphtheria is mentioned, but other illnesses may have been involved as well.

Altogether this collection contains a wealth of information on nineteenth century veterinary medicine and practices. In his school notebook, Parry kept detailed notes on horses he saw, surgeries, and autopsies. There is specific information on illnesses contracted by the animals and their symptoms, as well as the types of treatments that followed. The book also contains Parry's general notes on diseases, medicines and recipes, and horse anatomy and physiology.

Parry's veterinary work is less apparent in his Civil War diaries, but it's nonetheless documented, if sporadically, in his entries. In many passages he wrote about attending to horses, discussing his work with his superior officers, and the results of the war on the regiment's animals. He often mentioned bouts of starvation among horses and mules resulting in the deaths of many animals. He wrote about the regiment receiving and dispersing new horses, as well as the discovery of lone, wandering horses and mules that he took in if they were well enough. At the end of each diary, in addition to financial transactions, Parry kept track of medicines he prescribed to horses with recipes notes.

Upon returning to Pennsylvania after the war, Parry kept up with his journals, though the entries became shorter and less detailed. The post-war diaries span from 1867 to 1886, but there are no volumes for the years 1868, 1869, 1876, 1880, and 1883. Throughout most of the 1870s, he also kept a ledger of veterinary transactions, complete with owners and their animals, their illnesses, and cost of treatments. Similar records can also be found in his diaries. But Parry also noted family events, such as the birth of his children, kept track of farming needs, and, later in life, frequently wrote about the deaths of friends, family, and notable people, such as President Ulysses S. Grant and Colonel George C. Wynkoop. At the ends of each diary are further financial notes, memoranda, and addresses.

Return to Table of Contents »

Administrative Information

Publication Information

 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Purchase, 2012.

Alternative formats

Parry's Civil War diaries and his student notebook have been digitized and are available to view at digitiallibrary.hsp.org.

Return to Table of Contents »

Related Materials

Related collections

At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania:

Susan Parry volumes (Collection 3695)

Return to Table of Contents »

Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

• Boston Veterinary Institute.
• United States. Army. Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment, 7th (1861-1865).

Family Name(s)

• Parry.

Geographic Name(s)

• Chickamauga, Battle of, Ga., 1863.
• Dalla, Battle of, Ga., 1864.
• Newtown (Bucks County, Pa.)
• Selma, Battle of, Ala., 1863.

Personal Name(s)

• Parry, Sarah E. Hough.
• Parry, Susan.

Subject(s)

• Atlanta Campaign, 1864--Personal narratives.
• Livestock--Diseases.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Alabama.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Animals.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Casualties--Union.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Cavalry operations.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Georgia.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Kentucky.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medicine.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Military life.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Soldiers perceptions.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Tennessee.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Troop movements.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Veterinarians.
• Veterinarians--Pennsylvania.
• Veterinary anatomy--Nomenclature.
• Veterinary autopsy.
• Veterinary colleges--United States.
• Veterinary medicine--United States--History.
• Veterinary service, Military--United States--History.
• Veterinary services--History.
• Veterinary surgery.
• Veterinary therapeutics.

Return to Table of Contents »

Collection Inventory