Isaiah D. Clawson
Isaiah D. Clawson



(Page 357) Isaiah D. Clawson, M. D., - The father of Dr. Clawson, Dr. Israel Reed Clawson, was descended from Huguenot stock, while his mother was of English parentage. Their son Isaiah D., was born March 30, 1822 at Woodstown, N. J., and in early youth became a pupil of Delaware College at Newark, Delaware. In 1835 he entered the sophomore class of Carnohan, where he was a fellow-student with Rev. Samuel D. Alexander, D. d., of New York, Professor Thomas Dodd, D. D., Dr. Thomas E. Schenck, corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Publication and other distinguished men now holding civil or military positions of prominence. Having taken high rank in the various departments of study, he graduated with honor in 1838, and immediately entering the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, received his degree in 1843, on his twenty-first birthday. Dr. Clawson at once began the practice of his profession, which was followed uninterruptedly for ten years, when his abilities were diverted to the more exciting arena of political life. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1853, and later to a seat in the Congress of the United States, to which he was re-elected during the succeeding term, and served on the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. This period embraced the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth sessions of that body, and the memorable agitation of the slavery question, when Charles Sumner was violently assaulted by a political antagonist. On the completion of his second term, Dr. Clawson resumed his professional career, and continued in active practice during the remainder of his lifetime. He was married on the 30th of December 1850 to Miss Martha W., daughter of Judge William J. Shinn, of Woodstown, to whom was born one son, William S., named for his Uncle Judge Clawson. Dr. Clawson manifested a strong love for his profession, for which, by a thorough scholastic training, he had been perfectly equipped. He was regarded as a careful, judicious, and well-qualified physician, whose refined sympathy and gentleness made his presence no less welcome as a friend than as a counselor. In all the relations of life, both public and private, his many virtues won universal regard. His death occurred in October 1879, in his fifty-eight year. He was in the church relations a Presbyterian, and for many years a trustee of the church of that denomination in Woodstown.

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