KENTUCKY: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 4th ed., 1887 Mercer Co. DR. CHARLES HARVEY SPILMAN, of Harrodsburg, is one of the oldest and best known of Kentucky's early physicians, and for a period of fifty- two years has devoted himself assiduously to the practice of his profession. He was born in Garrard County, Ky., May 20, 1805, of English parentage. His father was Benjamin Spilman and his mother Nancy R., daughter of James Rice, of Virginia, and cousin of Parson Rice, a pioneer preacher of Kentucky, and of Rev. Nathaniel L. Rice, D.D., of Danville. He is a lineal descendant of Henricus Spelmannus, the original ancestor of the family, who was knighted in England and came to America at an early day. Dr. Spilman received a thorough classical education at Centre College, Danville, then under the presidency of Gideon Blackburn, and subsequently pursued his medical studies at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., from which institution he was graduated with the degree of M.D., March 1, 1835. While in attendance at the university he enjoyed the benefits of private instruction under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, then one of the most distinguished surgeons of the West. Previous to his graduation he spent several years, from 1832 to 1835, at Yazoo City, Miss., in the practice of his profession on a special license issued after examination by the Eastern Medical Board. April 9, 1835, he married Miss Mary Duryea Skillman, a native of Freehold, N.J., and a representative of one of the oldest and most prominent families of that commonwealth, and in May of the following year located in practice at Nicholasville, Jessamine Co., Ky., in which county he remained for a period of fifteen years. In January, 1850, he removed to Harrodsburg, Ky., where he is still, at the ripe age of eighty-two years, engaged in practice. Dr. Spilman has never limited his efforts to any special branch of medical science, but has always been a general practitioner. He was elected a member of the American Medical association in 1850, and, on several occasions has been a delegate to the annual conventions of that body. He became a member of the Kentucky State Medical Society in 1851 and served as its president from 1854 to 1856. During the winter of 1854, by appointment of that society, he addressed the Legislature of the State on the "Relations and Reciprocal Obligations of Medicine and the State," the object being to get an appropriation to cover the expense of publishing the proceedings of the State society. Dr. Spilman is also a member of the Central Kentucky Medical association and served as its first president in 1872. He has also frequently acted as president at the sessions of the Mercer County Medical Society. He never has taken any active part in politics, although at first a Whig and then a Republican. During the civil war he continued his work, oftentimes amid scenes of carnage and bloodshed, administered alike to those who wore blue and those who wore the gray, and being earnestly in sympathy with the Union cause. While much of Dr. Spilman's time has necessarily been taken up in the laborious pursuit of an extensive general practice he has still found time to enrich the literature of the profession by many able contributions on various topics of interest, and for many years wrote for publication in the current periodicals of the day an average of two essays each month. Among the topics embraced in these contributions mention may be made of the following: "Report on Indigenous Botany," contained in the transactions of the Kentucky State Medical Society for 1852; "Suits for Malpractice," in the Medical News, Louisville, in 1856; "Bloodletting Then and Now," in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1868; "Metastatic Diversion of Labor," ibid., 1867; "Boldness and Timidity in Practice Contrasted," Repertory, Cincinnati, 1868; "Bloodletting as a Therapeutic Agent," Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, 1869; "Myelitis Spinalis," Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1870; "A Popular Physiological Fallacy," Repertory, Cincinnati, 1870; "Patent Medicine and Quack Remedies," ibid., 1871; "Therapeutic Action of Mercury," Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, 1873; "Embolism," ibid., 1874, and "Pudendal Hernia," ibid., 1875. A careful examination of these subjects will demonstrate, even to the unprofessional reader, how earnest, energetic and industrious Dr. Spilman must have been in his profession and how comprehensive and thorough his study and investigation. Dr. Spilman is one of the oldest residents of Mercer County and aside from his professional relations to that community has always performed the full duty of a useful and honored citizen and done all that he could to promote the spiritual and moral welfare of the section in which he has spent his life. He is an elder in the Assembly Presbyterian Church of Harrodsburg, enjoys the confidence and respect of the citizens of that place, and is regarded as an upright and valuable member of the community. Though he has long passed the allotted limitation of life of which the Psalmist sung, he is still well preserved in the possession of all his faculties and mentally alert and active. Much of his leisure time has been devoted to music, of which he is an ardent lover, and in singing of which he has always excelled. Of his large family of children but few now survive. John T. was a practicing lawyer at Harrodsburg during his lifetime; Abraham T. was a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, and officiated at Paint Lick, Garrard County; Benjamin is a photographer at Harrodsburg, and his daughter, Mary Frances, became the wife of Clarence Anderson, of Hopkinsville, Ky.; his daughter, Elizabeth A. Spilman, married William Alexander and left two daughters and a son, who, together with a son of his deceased son, John T. Spilman, now reside with their grandfather. Spilman Rice Spelmannus Blackburn Dudley Skillman Anderson Alexander = Garrard-KY Nicholasville-Jessamine-KY MS NJ VA England http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/mercer/spilman.ch.txt