[ [22] Since dead as more than a centenarian.
[ [23] His great niece, Mrs. Waller O. Bullock, in speaking of the portrait of Doctor Overton, the only one extant, says: "It was done in Philadelphia just as he was completing his medical course, and I think it must have been soon after that he entered upon his work at Transylvania. He took a post-graduate course at Paris, France, and was considered one of the most brilliant men of his day. He had great command of language and his conversation sparkled with wit and humor, nor was he less happy with his pen. On one occasion the city of Nashville offered a handsome prize for the best essay on some disputed medical point; no one was barred; doctors of all ages entered the lists, and Uncle James—though an old man—bore off the honors. In cultivated elegant society he was at his best, and when distinguished foreigners visited President Jackson at the Hermitage it always devolved on Doctor Overton to do the agreeable, his command of French peculiarly fitting him for this post. He early left Kentucky to make his home in Tennessee, where he practiced his profession for many years, dying at an advanced age."
[ [24] "When the first medical lectures were delivered in our city a room was rented for the purpose on Main Street. At the time of the reorganization in 1819 a commodious apartment in the upper story of the large building (on Short Street) now occupied (1854) by the Branch Bank of Kentucky, then as a tavern, was temporarily fitted up as a lecture-room, and Doctor Dudley lectured in his own rooms back of his office ... (on Mill Street, east side, a little above Church Street). The rapid increase of the class soon induced Doctor Dudley to enlarge his accommodation by the erection of a very commodious amphitheatre, in which he lectured until 1839–40, when the new hall was built (corner of Broadway and Second)." (Lecture of Doctor Peter to Medical Department, November 6, 1854.)
[ [25] According to G. W. Ranck's History of Lexington.
[ [26] Doctor C. C. Graham relates, in reference to student life about this time: "Dead bodies at that day were not articles of commerce, so we, the students, had to disinter them; and we once had a battle, so published in the newspapers, at the old Baptist graveyard—the Battle of the Graveyard, so-called—when taking up the Irishman that caused the duel (between Dudley and Richardson). We were taken prisoners by an armed guard and hauled up to the court-house for trial, but there was no law to make the dead private property, so the declaration of Scripture that from dust we came and unto dust we must return let us off by paying one cent damages for taking that much clay or soil. At another time, near Nicholasville, we were pursued when making our way to our horses hitched outside an orchard fence, and one ball of several fired lodged in the subject, on my back." (Letter of Doctor Graham.)
[ [27] It seems Doctor Drake had obtained an honorary degree for Richardson.
[ [28] "Caneland," which now forms a beautiful portion of L. V. Harkness' Walnut Hall Stock Farm, where the old house still stands, with Richardson's name on the brass knocker of the front door.
[ [29] The full Faculty of Transylvania, published 1821, was: President, Reverend Horace Holley, A. M., A. A. S.; Honorable William T. Barry, LL. D., Professor of Law; Charles Caldwell, M. D., Dean, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and teacher of Materia Medica, with a private class in Medical Jurisprudence; Samuel Brown, M. D., Theory and Practice; Benjamin W. Dudley, M. D., Anatomy and Surgery; William H. Richardson, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children; Reverend James Blythe, D. D., Professor of Chemistry; Reverend Robert H. Bishop, A. M., Natural Philosophy, Geography, Chronology, and History, giving with the President instruction in the voluntary theological class; John Roche, A. M., Ancient Languages and secretary of Faculty; John F. Jenkins, A. B., Professor of Mathematics and Librarian; Constantine S. Rafinesque, Professor of Natural History and Botany and teacher of the Modern Languages; Nicholas D. Coleman, A. B., and Charles S. Morehead, A. B., tutors of the Preparatory Department.
[ [30] For Rafinesque see Life of Rafinesque, by R. Ellsworth Call, published by The Filson Club, 1895.
[ [31] We find the announcement in a local newspaper of November 19, 1819, that the inauguration of the medical professors and Professors Rafinesque and Bradford took place "at the Episcopal Meeting House on yesterday" with music, etc.