{"id":27322,"date":"2023-08-24T11:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=27322"},"modified":"2023-08-23T11:42:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:42:28","slug":"the-henkel-family-in-the-shenandoah-medical-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/08\/24\/the-henkel-family-in-the-shenandoah-medical-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Henkel Family in the Shenandoah: Medical Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By James Labosier ~<\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine a book co-written by many members of the same family over two or three generations; sons, daughters, and cousins contributing to a narrative left unfinished by their parents who themselves had begun where their own parents had left off. This book is not a novel, with a plot and conclusion, nor a history focused on an event or a person or a location. The result, rather, is both story and history interwoven through the minute description of daily life spanning several decades. The Henkel Family Papers<\/a> (MS C 291), in the Modern Manuscripts section of the National Library of Medicine collections is just such a book. An unbound collection of letters, it recounts one family\u2019s history of the American Civil War along with innumerable situations, problems, and circumstances which originate and play themselves out over weeks, years, or decades. The correspondence is the story of a family in New Market, Virginia in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Smith’s Creek at New Market, ca. 2010. Smith’s Creek ran through the Henkel’s farmland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Market, Virginia<\/h3>\n

The town of New Market itself barely predates the Henkel family\u2019s presence there. White settlers, mostly Pennsylvanians and Marylanders of German and Scotch-Irish descent, first began occupying land in the Shenandoah valley in the early 18th century. Farmers were cultivating land to the north and east of present-day New Market by the mid-1730s. New Market’s establishment is credited to John Sevier, who bought the land from his father and conducted a trading post in 1765 at the intersection of two Indian crossroads. A racetrack built in the vicinity inspired the name of New Market, in emulation of New Market, England, a notable racing town. An act of the General Assembly of Virginia formalized the settlement’s status as a town in 1796.<\/p>\n

The Henkel Family<\/h3>\n

Among New Market’s early residents was Reverend Paul Henkel (1754\u20131825). Though born in Rowan County, North Carolina, his family moved to present-day Pendleton County, West Virginia, in 1760 to escape Catawba Indian raids. Henkel married and relocated his family to New Market in 1790. He built the first Lutheran church in New Market in 1791 and was ordained a Lutheran minister in 1792.<\/p>\n

Four of Paul Henkel\u2019s sons, Andrew, Charles, David, and Philip followed his example. As Lutheran ministers they served congregations in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\"Formal<\/a>
Rev. Ambrose Henkel (1786\u20131870)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two sons remained in the Shenandoah Valley. Ambrose (1786\u20131870) apprenticed to a printer and in 1806 initiated a press in New Market. The first Lutheran printing shop in America, the Henkel Press produced a variety of texts, initially in German, supporting the Lutheran Church’s development and practices in the United States, as well as a short-lived newspaper and some children’s books. One of its most noteworthy achievements was an English translation of “The Book of Concord” in 1851.<\/p>\n

Around 1817, Ambrose sold the business to his brother, Solomon (1777\u20131847), who sustained the Press’s activities in addition to his chosen profession as a physician. In 1800, Solomon married Rebecca Miller, daughter of Winchester physician Gottfried Miller. They had a large family. Three of their sons became physicians. They may have formed a practice together in New Market, which was reduced by Silon Amos Henkel’s (1813\u20131844) early death. Solon Paul Charles Henkel (1818\u20131882) and Samuel Godfrey Henkel (1807\u20131863) remained in partnership. Another son, Solomon D. Henkel (1816\u20131872), operated a general store.<\/p>\n

\"Formal <\/a>
Solomon D. Henkel (1816\u20131872) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Formal <\/a>
Solon P.C. Henkel (1818\u20131882) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Samuel Henkel<\/h3>\n
\"Formal<\/a>
Dr. Samuel Godfrey Henkel (1807\u20131863)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Market residents respected and admired Samuel G. Henkel’s devotion to the medical profession, his generous support of the local Lutheran congregation, his management of the Henkel Press, and his earnest concern for the welfare of his family and friends. His father sent him to Philadelphia to gain his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He began practicing with his father in New Market from the early 1830s continuing until some point in the 1840s, when his two younger brothers, Solon P.C. and Silon Amos, also became physicians.<\/p>\n

Samuel learned the business of the Henkel Press under his father’s tutelage and assumed sole control of it upon Dr. Solomon’s death in 1847, corresponding with relatives and other contributors of translations and other Lutheran doctrinal texts. Rev. Socrates Henkel (1823\u20131901), Samuel’s cousin who also lived in New Market, coordinated much of the Press’s Lutheran activities. When the local Lutheran congregation split into two groups, Samuel donated land for the new Emmanuel Lutheran church in 1848.<\/p>\n

Like his father and grandfather, Samuel Henkel produced a large family. In 1832 he married Susan Coiner (1810\u20131905), whose father, Caspar Coiner, was from Augusta County, Virginia. One son, Celsus Aurelius Henkel, had died in 1848 during his second year. In 1849 the family consisted of:<\/p>\n