Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 53

Repository:

German Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library

Extent:

0.05 linear feet (1 folder)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

James E. Gibson manuscript on Bodo Otto (Ms. Coll. 53), Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library, German Society of Pennsylvania

Date:

1935, 1937

Creator:

Gibson, James E., (James Edgar) and Haussmann, Carl Frederick, 1871-

Form:

Clippings (information artifacts) and Manuscripts, American--20th century

Abstract:

The collection comprises a signed typescript of a paper (12 leaves) presented by James E. Gibson at the annual meeting of the Montgomery County Historical Society at Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1935, on the German-born physician Bodo Otto, who served at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. The paper preceded Gibson's book on Otto, which was published in 1937. Also included is a newspaper clipping of a German-language article on Bodo Otto by Carl Frederick Haussmann, published in the Philadelphia Gazette-Democrat, in 1937, which was based on Gibson's material.

James Edgar Gibson was the author of Dr. Bodo Otto and the medical background of the American revolution (Springfield, IL: C.C. Thomas, 1937), as well as studies on colonial physician Benjamin Rush, and one of Rush's apprentices, John Bullus, physician and naval surgeon of Reading, Pennsylvania. According to the article by Carl Frederick Haussmann (in the present collection), Gibson's wife was a descendant of Bodo Otto.

The subject of Gibson's paper, Bodo Otto, was born in Lauterberg, in what was then the province of Hanover (today, Bad Lauterberg, Lower Saxony, Germany), in 1711. He completed his training and practiced as a physician in Germany, before emigrating to colonial America, in 1755. He arrived in Philadelphia, and established a medical practice there. Dr. Otto was a member of St. Michael's Church (later known as St. Michael's and Zion congregation), and joined the German Society of Pennsylvania in 1766. In 1773, he moved to Reading, Pennsylania. In 1776, at the age of 65, he enlisted to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He served for six continuous years, including at the Battle of Long Island, and as head of the hospital established at Yellow Springs to serve Valley Forge. In 1780, during a reorganization of the Army's medical department, Otto was one of a small qualifying group of 15 physicians upon whom the Continental Congress bestowed the title and honor of Senior Hospital Physician and Surgeon. He died in Reading, in 1787.

Carl Frederick Haussmann was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on 8 August 1871, the son of Pastor Carl F. Haussmann, a German immigrant from Württemberg, and grew up in Adrian, Michigan. A teacher of German, he moved to Philadelphia in 1895, where he taught at the school of Zion Church and, later, at Germantown High School. He joined the German Society of Pennsylvania in 1915, and became a director of the Society in 1917. From 1925 to 1951 he was chair of the Archive Committee, which was responsible for the library's collection of materials documenting German-American history and culture (today, the German American Collection).

The collection comprises a signed typescript (12 leaves), of a paper, entitled "Bodo Otto: senior hospital physician and surgeon of Valley Forge," by James E. Gibson, which he presented at the annual meeting of the Montgomery County Historical Society at Norristown, Pennsylvania, on 22 February 1935. Gibson gave the talk about two years before he published his book on Otto, Dr. Bodo Otto and the medical background of the American Revolution (Springfield, IL: C.C. Thomas, 1937).

Also included is a newspaper clipping of a German-language article on Bodo Otto by Carl Frederick Haussmann, published in the Philadelphia Gazette-Democrat, on 11 April 1937, which was based on Gibson's material. An editorial note in the article makes reference to the lecture, as well as to the expected publication of Gibson's book.