From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 332-335 & 
580. Brant & Fuller, 1890.


ALFRED HUGHES

Alfred Hughes, M. D., of Baltimore, Md., was born at Wheeling, Va., 
on September 16, 1824.  His great-grandfather, Felix Hughes, was a 
native of Ireland.  He was a devout Catholic, and left the land of 
his birth to find that religious freedom that he was there denied.  
He came to this country and settled in Loudon county, Va., in 1732.  
Four sons were born to him, of whom James, the grandfather of our 
subject, was a great huntsman, and crossing the mountains in quest of 
game, saw the beautiful region that is now Greene county, Penn., but 
then a part of Virginia.  He determined to settle there and having 
married a Miss Dunn, of Jefferson county, Va., in 1772 moved to his 
newly located home, and was among the first white settlers of that 
section.  At his death he owned large tracts of land in Virginia, 
Kentucky and what is now Indiana;  he left three sons and five 
daughters, his oldest child being then only nineteen years of age.  
His youngest child but one, Thomas, was born and raised in what is 
now Greene county, Penn., and in early life married Mary, daughter of 
Charles von Odenbaugh of Winchester, Va.  They shortly afterward 
moved to Wheeling,  Va., where seven sons and three daughters were 
born to them.  He served under Gen. Harrison in the war of 1812.  At 
his death in 1849, he had been treasurer of the city of Wheeling, and 
member of the city council for thirty-two years; president of the 
Wheeling Savings institution; president of the Wheeling Fire 
Insurance company; president of the Wheeling & Belmont Bridge 
company, and director in the Northwestern bank.  His oldest living 
son was chosen to fill his place in the city council, and held the 
position to a year previous to his death, in 1870.  His seventh child 
was our subject.  He went through a thorough collegiate course of 
education, studied medicine and graduated at the Homeopathic Medical 
college of Philadelphia.  On November 1, 1849, he married Mary Kirby 
Adrian, of Wheeling, a descendant of the Sedgwick family of Maryland, 
who settled in that state in the early part of the seventeenth 
century.  He began the practice of homeopathy at Wheeling in 1851.  
Of those who had essayed the task of practicing the new school and 
failed,  two practitioners were from Philadelphia and one from 
Baltimore.  Popular prejudice and the bitter opposition of the old 
school were too much for them, and their defeat rendered victory more 
difficult for their successor.  Dr. Hughes, however, after a hard 
fight, and many newspaper controversies, conquered, vindicating the 
advantages of the homeopathic practice.  When the cholera made its 
appearance, in 1854, he labored constantly night and day, being the 
only homeopathic physician in the city, and meeting with almost 
unprecedented success in his treatment of the fearful scourge, then 
in epidemic form, homeopathy was then firmly established, he soon 
built up a large and lucrative practice, and now Wheeling, in place 
of one, has several new school practitioners.  On the outbreak of the 
war, and when the first gun was fired at Charleston, his sympathies 
were enlisted in behalf of the south.  When Virginia seceded, he 
engaged in newspaper political controversies, and became 
correspondent for the BALTIMORE EXCHANGE.  He was arrested for 
disloyalty in 1861, and was held a prisoner at Camp Chase, near 
Columbus, Ohio, for nearly eight months, when he was specially 
exchanged for a brother of Dr. Pancoast of Philadelphia, captured at 
Bloomery Gap, Va., and a prisoner at Salisbury, N. C.  On his way to 
Richmond with his wife and three children he stayed in Baltimore, 
reporting to Gen. Schenck, to whom he had letters of introduction.  
He obtained from the secretary of war, Stanton, a permit to take his 
wife and children and extra baggage to Richmond.  On the steamer in 
which they sailed for Fortress Monroe were several distinguished 
federal generals, among them Gen. Thomas, who rendered them great 
service in getting through their extensive baggage, consisting of 
some thirteen trunks, at a time when scarcely a bundle was permitted 
to go by a flag of truce boat.  Having been landed at City Point, and 
the formalities of exchange gone through, he proceeded with his 
family to Richmond.  At Petersburg he was arrested on a general 
suspicion created by the amount of his baggage, and it was not until 
dispatches were received from two of his friends in Richmond, Judge 
Brokenbrough and Hon. Charles W. Russell, vouching for his loyalty to 
the south, that he and his baggage were permitted to proceed.  His 
arrival in Richmond accompanied by the unusual amount of baggage gave 
rise to a report that he was a commissioner of peace sent by the 
United States government clothed with power to end the war.  He at 
once settled down into practice, and again had to fight homeopathy's 
battle against bitter prejudice and stubborn opposition.  Once more 
he succeeded in establishing the system, and secured an excellent 
practice.  After a while he was elected to the legislature of 
Virginia, and remained a member thereof up to the fall of Richmond.  
He was a warm advocate of the enlistment of slaves in the southern 
ranks.  Among his patients during and since the war was the wife of 
Gen. Robert E. Lee.  On December 18, 1865, he removed from Richmond 
to Baltimore, where he soon established himself in a good and 
lucrative practice, such a one, indeed, as is obtained by few, even 
after long residence in a city.  This he has done in spite of much 
competition.  Thus he has established in his native city, and won 
respect for it in his own person, in two others.  Dr. Hughes was an 
occasional contributor to the AMERICAN HOMEOPATHIC OBSERVER.  He has 
had ten children, five sons and three daughters of whom are living.  
His oldest son a graduate in law of the university of Virginia is a 
practicing lawyer in Baltimore.  His oldest daughter in 1869, was 
married to W. P. Moncure, M. D., son of Judge R. C. L. Moncure, 
deceased, formerly president of the supreme court of appeals of 
Virginia.  His second daughter in 1877, was married to Frank A. Bond, 
formerly adjutant-general of the state of Maryland, and an officer in 
the confederate states army of northern Virginia.  His family are 
widely extended through Virginia, West Virginia and part of Kentucky.  
He died in Baltimore, Md., February 25, 1880.  There is a sketch of 
his life in Cleave's Biographical Cyclopaedia of Homeopathic 
Physicians and Surgeons, and in the Biographical Cyclopaedia of 
Prominent Men in Maryland and the District of Columbia.  His eldest 
son, Thomas, born August 25, 1850, in Wheeling, was at the close of 
the war a cadet at the Virginia Military institute at Richmond, Va.; 
graduated in 1871 at the Baltimore City college, first in a class of 
nineteen students, completing the prescribed course of four years in 
two years; and in the spring of the following year graduated in law 
at the university of Virginia, receiving the degree of B. L.  He is a 
prominent lawyer in large practice in Baltimore; a member of the Bar 
association of Baltimore City, of the American Bar association, of 
the Maryland Historical society, past master of Concordia lodge, a 
member of the Jerusalem  chapter and Beauseant commandery of Masons, 
past grand of Baltimore City lodge, and past chief patriarch of Mt. 
Araratt encampment of Odd Fellows, and a member of the Calumet, 
Crescent and Atheneum clubs of Baltimore.  In 1875 he married Helen 
R. Thorburn of Fredricksburg, Va., daughter of Capt. Robert Donaldson 
Thorburn, formerly of the United States navy.


Page 580

Alfred Hughes was born in Wheeling, September 16,1894.  His ancestors 
were Irish Catholics, who settled in Virginia in 1732.  His father 
served under Gen. Harrison in the war of 1812, and afterward filled 
many positions of trust in Wheeling, serving for thirty years as a 
member of the city council, and being succeeded by his oldest son.  
Dr. Hughes was the seventh child. After a collegiate course he 
studied medicine and graduated at the Homceopathic Medical college of 
Philadelphia.  After his marriage to Miss Adrian, he, in 1851, began 
the practice of homoeopathy in Wheeling.  Two "new school" physicians 
had failed before him, but Dr. Hughes fought a successful battle, and 
won an excellent practice.  It is claimed that he had unusual success 
in treating cholera during the epidemic of 1854.  At the outbreak of 
the war his sympathies were enlisted in behalf of the south.  He was 
arrested for disloyalty in 1861, and held as a prisoner at Camp 
Chase, Ohio, for eight months, when he was exchanged for a brother of 
Dr. Pancoast, of Philadelphia.  He then went to Richmond and settled 
down in practice, in which he was successful.  He was elected a 
member of the Virginia legislature, and so remained until the fall of 
Richmond.  In December, 1865, he removed to Baltimore, where he soon 
established himself in a lucrative practice.  Dr. Hughes was early in 
the war a correspondent of the BALTIMORE EXCHANGE, and contributed 
occasional medical paper to the AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC OBSERVER.  He 
died in Baltimore, February 25, 1880, highly respected and esteemed 
by a large circle of friends. 


(Linda Fluharty)