Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Richard E. Haughton, M.D.
Dr. Richard E. Haughton, who for forty-five years has been actively engaged in medical practice in Indiana, is one of the most talented members of his profession in the state, and has, perhaps, done as much to elevate the standard of medical excellence therein as any other man. Being of broad and liberal mind, and having enjoyed the advantages of a superior education, he has had the interests of the people deeply at heart, and has keenly felt how completely they are at the mercy of the medical practitioner, who, but a few years ago, before the present rigid regulations were put into operation, was often the most veritable charlatan, plying his arts to the jeopardy of his misguided patients. By pen and speech Dr. Haugiiton has used his influence for many decades in the advocacy of higher education and training for physicians, and the limitation of their once almost absolute power over the lives of their patients. He has always stood boldly forth as the champion of progress, and his wonderful influence has been exerted at all times on the side of right and truth.
A son of William and Sarah (Johnson) Haughton, the Doctor traces his ancestry, along both lines, to old Enghsh nobility. On the paternal side he is descended from Sir Wilfred Haughton, a baronet of the seventeenth century, and many of his ancestors achieved distinction in the business and professional world and as statesmen and authors. One of the eminent representatives of the family at the present day is Rev. Dr. Samuel Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. The maternal ancestor of our subject was a nobleman at the court of James I. of England, and his descendants were among the first colonists of Virginia. They were wealthy landholders and slave-owners for some time, but, being associated with the Friends, they came to abhor the principle of human slavery and eventually manumitted their slaves.
William Haughton was born in Carlow, county of Carlovy, Ireland, about forty miles from Dublin, in 1804. He was partially educated in Ackworth boarding school, in England, and in 1822 he set out to make his fortune in the United States. At first he located in Fayette county, Indiana, and subsequently removed to Union county, same state. Here for forty-five years he was known as an educator, one of the ablest in the state, and though he taught for several years in the old-time log school-house, he later was connected with some of the leading educational institutions of Indiana at that day. For over a score of years he was a preceptor in Beech Grove Seminary, having under his charge young men from all parts of the country, some twenty states being thus represented. He was principal in the Union County Seminary and thereafter he became a member of the faculty of Earlham College, where he continued actively engaged in his beloved work of instructing the young, until, by reason of failing health, he was compelled to resign his position. When he had rested from his labors for a period at Knightstown, Indiana, he could not resist a resumption of his former work, when he was tendered a position as principal in the high school there, and death found him at his post. He died in July, 1878, of paralysis, aged seventy-six years. A birth-right member of the Friends' church, he was a preacher in that sect for a number of years, his life being a consistent and beautiful example of the doctrines to which he was reared. His devoted wife survived him, dying in 1S82, when four-score years of age. He had but two children, Richard E., and Mrs. Lucy White, of Texas.
The birth of Dr. R. E. Haughton occurred in Fayette county, Indiana, December 8, 1827. He found an able friend, companion and instructor in his father, and at an early age was remarkably proficient in mathematics, science and literature. When a youth of fifteen he rendered his father excellent service as assistant teacher, and from 1845 to 1849 he devoted a portion of each year to the cultivation and management of his father's farm, helping to pay for the property. In the fall of the year last named, he commenced medical studies with their family physician, but, his father having been called to Richmond, the young man took his place in the Union County Seminary. In 1853, however, he was graduated at the head of his class, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in the Cleveland Medical College, where he had pursued the prescribed course of study. For a short time prior to his graduation he had practiced at Knightstown, with a partner, and he now returned, and until October, 1855, he remained in that place. Thereafter he practiced in Richmond for a score of years, meeting with exceptional and merited success.
In the autumn of 1873, Dr. Haughton was urged to accept the chair of descriptive and surgical anatomy in the Indiana Medical College, at Indianapolis, after which he was professor of physiology and physiological anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons., in the same city, for a period of four years. In the summer of 1879 he witnessed the fulfillment of a long cherished desire,—the establishment of a new college which should occupy amuch higher plane than any of its predecessors. Thus, largely owing to his influence and zeal, the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons was founded in the capital city of the state. This institution was the first one of the kind in the west to require students to pass a general examination ere they were admitted, and the numerous restrictions and regulations which were put in force have proved a safeguard and benefit to the college, whose graduates are proud of their alma mater, in consequence.
A ready, clear and comprehensive writer. Dr. Haughton has wielded his pen for years on a variety of subjects. A valued contributor to the leading medical journals of the day, his articles on the diseases of the nervous system and on surgery (in which department he is especially expert) have been widely copied. Desiring to further qualify himself in special lines, he took a post-graduate course in Jefferson Medical College a few years ago. Since 1859 he has been a member of the American Medical Association, and is identified with the Indiana State Medical and the Tri-state Medical Association (of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky). He is an honorary member of the Ohio State Medical Association, and belongs to the societies of Wayne, Marion and Union counties. He assisted to organize the Wayne County Medical Society and that of Union District. Since 1895 the Doctor has again been engaged in practice in Richmond, many of his old patients returning to him, and others, who have known him by reputation, have been glad to retain him as their family physician. He takes great interest in local affairs, and was one of the projectors and original stockholders in the Richmond Street Railroad Company.
In his religious views the Doctor is liberal and independent, as might be expected of one who has been a deep student and has had wide experience. Though he was reared in the Society of Friends, and has the most genuine esteem for that body, he prefers no other guide or rule of conduct than what he finds in the Scriptures, and is opposed to ritualism and formality in worship. After four years' special study of religion, he was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, in 1898, though for two-score years he has preached the gospal of Christ, and from his boyhood he has endeavored to lead the life of a Christian.
In the First Presbyterian church of East Cleveland, Ohio, on the 13th of February, 1853, a marriage ceremony was performed which united the destinies of Dr. Haughton and Miss Catherine Meeker. She died December 20, 1S67, and left two children: Edward Everett, who is engaged in the real-estate and insurance business in Chicago; and Louanna. The present wife of the Doctor was Miss Elizabeth Mather, a pupil of Earlham College, and a lineal descendant of the famous preacher, Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather. She is an earnest Christian worker and has been for years connected with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as a national evangelist.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899