Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-08-18
H LATE DR.. GILBERT.
Remarkable History of a Remark
able Man.

DR.. Samuel Gilbert, the rather IA
nous cancer doctor of this city, has
recently deceased in the sixty-eighth
year of his age, and a few words as to
his history may not be inappropriate.
1t is not generally known that he was
in early life a tailor. While yet a
boy, his parents removed from West
moreland county, Va, where he was
born, to the Boonslick settlement in
Missouri, and there in the town of
franklin he was bound al apprentice
to a man named Dow, to learn the
tailoring business. His fellow appren-
tice was the celebrated Kit Carson.
Both of Dow's apprentices ran away
from him, and both in their several
ways, achieved distinction. Gilbert's
career was the result of accident.
Carson's grew out of his n~aturabin-
stincts. During his apprenticeship,
Gilbert was much troubled by a ma
lignant ulcer on the leg, which baffied
the skill OF all the physicians within
his reach to effect its cure. At length
an old lady of the neighbOrhood, a
Mrs. Taylor, from Kentucky, some
what celebrated for her treatment of
inveterate ulcers, undertook its cure
and succeeded. The remedies used,
though powerfully escharotic,
were of a very simple nature, and
the old lady made no secret of them.
The initiatory means was thus placed
in Gilbert's hands, which he after
wards turned TO good account, and out
of which he succeeded in building up
a large fortune. Taking French leave
of his master shortly after this, and
before the completion of his inden-
lures, he came to this State, and after
various vicisSitudes, settled in this
city as a tailor. But customers came
not, and fortune was chary of her ia
vors. At length he bethought him of
the remedy which had given him so
much relief, and resolved to add to his
regular business of adjoining the body,
the more grateful n of healing its
infirmaties. Accordingly, in a small
way he commenced, and vas at once
successful. Patients soon focked in
on him in such numbers and his sue
cess was so great and the returns so
remunerative, that he shortly dropped
the shears altogether, and confined
himself to his practice as q healer OF
cancers. Perhaps no one in this
country, in the same line of business,
ever met with such complete success.
He quickly acquired both fame
and fortune. He established intirma-
ries in this city, in New Orleans and
in New York, and his reputation was
co-extensive with the whole country.
In his latter years and during the war
reverses came upon him, and a large
portion Of his ample fortune was .ost,
but a handsome property was still IN
bis possession at the time ofhis death.
We are at q loss to know the con-
nection there seems 70 he betWeen
tailoring and patent medicines, but
certain It is those who have most
prospered pecuniarily by the sale of
patent nostrums, have beeR tailors,
and %tailors, too, afflicted with ulcers
on their legs. Swaine and Jayne,
both of Philadelphia, and both OF
whom left estates counted by the mil
lion, begun life, each Of them, as a
tailor, and both owe their astonishing
success to the fact of having ulcerous
legs, and accidentally discovering the
means Of curing them. And nov cur
city furnishes another instance OF an
other tailor, who owes a remarkable
success in a parallel line, to the same
unprOmising cause.