# American Medical Biographies/Handerson, Henry Ebenezer

* related authors: Henry Ebenezer Handerson.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
​Handerson, Henry Ebenezer (1837–1918).
Henry E. Handerson, medical historian, son of Thomas and Catherine Potts Handerson, was born March 21, 1937, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Thomas Handerson died in 1839, and Henry and a sister were adopted by an uncle, Lewis Handerson, a druggist, of Cleveland. Though often sick, Henry went to school a part of the time, and at fourteen was sent to boarding school, Sanger Hall, New Hartford, New York. Poor health compelled him to leave school, and with his foster father and family he moved to Beersheba Springs, Tennessee. In 1854 the boy returned to Cleveland and entered Hobart College, Geneva, New York, where he graduated A. B. in 1858.
Returning to Tennessee, he spent about a year in surveying land and in other work, and then became private tutor in the family of a cotton planter in Louisiana. In 1860 he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), where he studied through the winter and also heard many of the political arguments of that exciting time. The bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, which ushered in the rebellion, found Handerson again a private tutor in a Southern family. He joined a company of "homeguards" formed among the planters and their sons, for the purpose of maintaining "order among the negroes and other suspicious characters of the vicinity."
On June 17, 1861, he volunteered in the Stafford Guards, which later became Company B of the Ninth Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers, Confederate States of America, Colonel (later brigadier-general) "Dick" Taylor (son of "Old Zack," the president of the United States) in command. From then until the close of the war, Handerson experienced the vicissitudes of a soldier's life, including a gunshot wound and an attack of typhoid fever. He rose steadily and became adjutant-general of the Second Louisiana Brigade, with rank of major. On May 4, 1864, Adj.-Gen. Handerson was taken prisoner and not liberated until June 17, 1865.
He then resumed his medical studies, this time in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York (medical department of Columbia University), taking the degree of M. D. in 1867. Hobart College conferred the A. M. in 1868.
On October 16, 1872, he married Juliet Alice Root, who died, leaving him a daughter.
February 25, 1878, Dr. Handerson read before the medical society of the county of New York an article entitled "The School of Salernum; an Historical Sketch of Mediæval Medicine." This essay attracted wide attention to its author's scholarly attainments and love of laborious research. Dr. Handerson practised medicine in New York City from 1867 until he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1885.
On June 12, 1888, he married Clara Corlett of Cleveland, by whom he had two sons.
In 1889 appeared the American edition of the "History of Medicine and the Medical Profession, by Joh. Hermann Baas, M. D.," which was translated, revised, corrected and enlarged by Dr. Handerson. Concerning Dr. Handerson's writings, Dr. Fielding H. Garrison gives ​a brief but just estimate: "The earliest of Dr. Handerson's papers recorded in the Index Medicus is 'An Unusual Case of Intussusception' (1880). Most of his other medical papers, few in number, have dealt with the sanitation, vital statistics, diseases and medical history of Cleveland, and have the accuracy which characterizes slow and careful work. This is especially true of his historical essays, of which that on 'The School of Salernum' (1883) is a solid piece of original investigation, worthy to be placed beside such things as Holmes on homoeopathy, Weir Mitchell on instrumental precision, or Kelly on American gynecology. To the cognoscenti, Dr. Handerson's translation of 'Baas' History of Medicine' (1889) is known as 'Handerson's Book'; he has added sections in brackets on English and American history which are based on original investigation and of permanent value to all future historians. Handerson's Baas is thus more complete and valuable than the Rhinelander's original text." Dr. Handerson contributed many well written biographies to the "Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography," 1912.
Dr. Handerson was professor of hygiene and sanitary science in the medical department of the University of Wooster, 1894–96, and the same in the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons (medical department of Ohio Wesleyan University) 1896 to 1907. He was a member of the Cuyahoga County Medical Society and its president in 1895; also a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, of the Ohio State Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association. He was one of the founders of the Cleveland Medical Library Association and its president from 1896 to 1902. He was a lifelong member and trusted officer of the Episcopal Church. In later life Dr. Handerson retired entirely from practice, and two years before his death became totally blind, though retaining his other faculties perfectly until two days before his death, which occurred April 23, 1918, from cerebral hemorrhage.
Educated in the North and South, and having many associations and friendships on both sides of the Mason and Dixon Line, naturally of a judicial and philosophical mind, Dr. Handerson was broad in his views and sympathies, and his opinion on any subject was much valued by his colleagues. He was tall and dignified in appearance, quiet in manner, yet genial. His sterling character was recognized, and he was held in high regard by both profession and laity.