Manuscript medical ledger

[Slingluff, Joseph(?)]. Manuscript medical ledger. Ca. 450pp., the first 137 with manuscript page numbers. Dover, Ohio, September 1847 - August 1854. 385 x 160 mm. Original reverse calf stamped in black, worn and rubbed. One leaf (pp. 46-47) torn out, light soiling and toning, upper portion of front flyleaf cut away but a very good example. Several manuscript sheets with text and figures laid in.

The manuscript ledger of an extremely active physician and landowner in Dover, Ohio, most likely Dr. Joseph Slingluff, who began his medical practice at Dover in 1828 and served as the town's first mayor when it was incorporated in 1842. Slingluff belonged to one of Dover's founding families: The initial settlement land (2175 acres) was purchased from Col. James Morrison of Kentucky in 1806 by Jesse Slingluff and his brother-in-law Christian Deardorff. The Deardorff and Slingluff names feature prominently in our ledger. Dover's prosperity increased dramatically with the building of the Erie Canal, as the canal's only tolling station was located there; the population grew from 46 in 1820 to nearly 600 in 1840, and the town became a flour mill and warehouse center. This prosperity is reflected in Dr. Slingluff's ledger, which records that he often saw more than 10 patients a day; the ledger also contains records of real estate owned by the doctor (including a small plat map) and the construction costs of his house. At the back are two pages recording difficult obstetric cases. Mansfield, The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio (1884), p. 543 and passim.