Horace A.
Ackley, M.D.
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ACKLEY, HORACE A. (Aug. 1810-26 Apr. 1859), was a surgeon, the first
local physician to use ether in surgery, and a founder of the Cleveland
Medical College, now the medical school of CASE WESTERN RESERVE
UNIVERSITY. Born in Genesee, County, N.Y., he attended lectures at the
College of Physicians & Surgeons of the Western District of the State of
New York from 1833-34, a student of JOHN DELAMATER and classmate of
JOHN LANG CASSELS.
After being licensed in 1834, Ackley moved to Akron, Ohio in 1835, then
to Toledo, and in 1839 to Cleveland. He performed the first
ether-assisted operation in the WESTERN RESERVE only 3 months after it
was first publicly demonstration in Boston in 1847. By 1850 Ackley
confined his practice to surgery, becoming so well known that in 1855
Stephen A. Douglas had him operate on his throat, removing his uvula. In
addition to his practice, Ackley worked at Cleveland's City Hospital and
U.S. MARINE HOSPITAL and helped found the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum in
Newburg in 1851.
Ackley demonstrated anatomy at Willoughby Medical College from 1835 to
1842 when, due to a dispute among the faculty, he and Drs. Cassels,
Delamater, and JARED POTTER KIRTLAND left, founding the Cleveland
Medical College under the charter of Western Reserve University. Ackley
taught surgery and conducted clinics in surgery and medicine until his
resignation in 1856.
In 1837, he married
Sophia Howell of Willoughby. They had 1 son, Horace Hall Ackley
(1846-1905). Ackley, first buried at ERIE ST. CEMETERY, was reinterred
at LAKE VIEW CEMETERY in 1915.
The original faculty of the Cleveland
Medical College was constituted as follows:
John Delamater, M.D. (1787-1867) . Prof, of Midwifery and Diseases
of Women and Children.
Jared P. Kirtland, M.D. (1793-1877) . Prof, of the Theory and Practice
of Medicine.
Horace A. Ackley, M.D. (1815-1859) . Professor of Surgery.
John Lang Cassels, M.D. (1808-1879) . Professor of Materia Medica.
Noah
Worcester, M. D., (1812-1847) . Prof, of Physical Diagnosis and
Diseases of the Skin.
Samuel St. John, M.D. (1813-1876) . Professor cf Chemistry.
Jacob J. Delamater, M. D Lecturer on Physiology.
