Prof. Edwin T. Darby

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53603061

Edwin Tyler Darby's Great Granddaughter Susan Darby Eaton Rudolph writes about him:

"He was born Edwin Tyler Darby on August 21, 1845, in Binghamton, New York. His Father was a Baptist Minister, the Rev. Chauncey Darby, and his Mother was Mary Short Darby. His early education was at the Cortland Academy in Homer, NY. His study of Dentistry was with Dr. Ransom Walker in Owego, NY. In 1862, at the age of 17 he began to practice in Marion, Wayne Co, New York.

In 1864 he went to the University of Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. In 1865 he received his degree of Dr. of Dental Surgery. That same year he was elected Chief Demonstrator of Operative Dentistry at Penn. College, and held that title for many years.

In 1866 he married Caroline Beers Thomas. In 1870 he closed his office for a year and went traveling in Europe. In 1875 he was elected President of the Penn. State Dental Society. In 1876 he was elected Professor of Operative Dentistry,Dental Histology & Dental Pathology. In 1878 he was appointed Chairman of Operative Dentistry, Histology & Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania, and he held that title until 1920. In 1883 he was elected President of the American Dental Association. In 1906 he was awarded the Jarvie Gold Medal for distinguished contributions to the Science & Art of Dentistry by the New York State Dental Society.

In 1909 he was given a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York by the Dentists of America, with many guests coming from all over the world to honor him and his contributions to the field of dentistry. Suzanne Rudolph still has the scrapbook that they gave him with the invitations & pictures of the banquet plus telegrams from all over the world congratulating him!

In 1915 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Dr. of Law from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1915 Dr. Darby & his classmate Dr. S.H. Guilford were given a banquet in Philadelphia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their graduation from the University of Penn. Dental College. In In 1916 he was President of Delta Sigma Delta Fraternity. In 1919 he was elected Supreme Grand Master of that fraternity. In 1920 he retired.

In 1922 he was elected the first President of the All Philadelphia Dental Society. In 1924 he was awarded the "Jenkins Medal" from the Connecticut Dental Society. He was a dental tool inventor and manufacturer. One of the most well known of his instruments is the Darby Scaler. This was used all over the world and is still in use today in some dental offices. He also manufactured Darby Tooth Powder, Darby Prophylactic Fluid and many other dental related items. He was a dental professor for over 30 years, and was known for helping many students through school when financially they lacked funds. He was an accomplished writer and wrote many dental texts. He died on December 11, 1929 of Pneumonia.

Dr. Darby built his summer home in 1898. He had been summering with his family before that, staying at the Glen Haven Hotel. The cottage included many out buildings such as the work shop, the barn, a big ice house, a wood shed, a big cold cellar built in the side of the hill by the kitchen. Down the lake was a 2 story boat house with the 2nd story being a big bedroom. There were several boats including a Skaneatelas Row Boat. The land behind the house on the hillside was cleared and they actually farmed it. It was a very steep hill, but they had apple orchard, grape vines, currants, cows and horses. My Father says he used to help his Grandmother Darby "can the currants and apples" for jelly. When he built the cottage, he persuaded some of his Dr. friends to build cottages too. My father thinks they were Dr. Cryor, Dr. Guilford, and Dr. Kirk.

Dr. Darby and his family actually lived in Lansdowne PA in a big beautiful home, that is still there today. To go to the lake for the summer they would pack up the trunks and maids and ride the train to Cortland on Memorial Day weekend. Then they would rent the Funeral Home carriages to bring them and all the trunks out to the lake. They would stay until Labor Day Weekend. Jerry Donohue worked for them in the summers doing the farming. (Suzanne Darby Rudolph, Granddaughter of Dr. Edwin Darby's daughter Mimi, still owns this "summer" home in Skaneateles, NY & she & her family come there each summer, from their home in Winter Haven, Florida, where Suzanne is an antiques appraiser, to enjoy the same place her G Grandfather enjoyed so much. She has many paintings done by her Grandmother's sister & has restored Dr Darby's dental chair).

(1890 Philadelphia City Directory shows: Darby Edwin T. dentist 1513 Walnut, home in Lansdowne )

1920 Census in enumeration district 215, page 9A (image 17 of 27)

Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Yeadon Borough

The address is 542 Landsdowne Avenue.

Living at the address is Edward T. Darby, 74, a dentist; Carolyn T. Darby, 71, his wife; Miriam D. Eaton, 31, their daughter; and Etta Quigley, 40, their maid.

1878 The University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine was founded as the Dental Department by the Trustees of the University. This was the third university-affiliated dental school to be established (after Harvard University and University of Michigan). The Dental Department opened in Medical Hall, renamed Logan Hall in 1905, on the East side of 36th Street above Spruce Street.

1878 Dr. Edward Darby, Professor of Operative Dentistry, Dental Histology and Pathology at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, resigned from his position to join Dr. Essig in inaugurating the Dental Department of the University of Pennsylvania.Dr. Edward Darby, Dean Essig's right hand man, had to visit hospitals and poorhouses around Philadelphia to find patients! Yet within months, conditions at the Dental Department had improved by leaps and bounds - dental students were provided access to the chemical laboratories with the medical students, and the School was beginning to be financially solvent. By the 1880-1881 term, student enrollment had grown to 77, including students from around the country, Europe, and South America. Several of these students went on to become instructors at the School. Many of his friends called him the "Daniel Boone of Dentistry". The first endowed chair in dentistry, honoring his memory and our school, was the Edwin T. Darby Professorship in Restorative Dentistry.

My Grandmother Mimi loved the lake so much, that when Dr Darby died in 1929 no one else in the family wanted the house or land except Mimi. So the brothers and sisters gave her 200 feet of lake front and the work shop to use as a little cottage down on the lake. The rest was sold including the contents in 1937. The boat house, and 2000 feet of lake front for $3500.00 Suzanne writes: "My husband Chris & I have been fortunate enough to obtain all the property at the lake and now own it solely. We are starting to build a bigger and more substantial cottage in June. Chris retires from Lockheed Martin after 35 years soon, and we will spend all our summers at the lake. Ideally, we will go from June through October then head back down to Florida!"

Darby, Edwin Tyler 1845-1929

Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 2: August, 1949-August, 1952. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1953. (BioIn 2)

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Volume 35. New York: James T. White & Co., 1949. Reprint. Volumes 1-50. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1967-1971. Use the Index to locate biographies. (NatCAB 35)

Who Was Who in America. A component volume of "Who's Who in American History." Volume 1, 1897-1942. Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1943. (WhAm 1)

1880 census: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Household:

Name  Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace 

Edwin T. DARBY   Self   M   Male   W   34   NY   Dentist   NY   NY  

Carrie T. DARBY   Wife   M   Female   W   30   NY   Keeping House   CT   NY  

George D. B. DARBY   Son   S   Male   W   12   PA   At School   NY   NY  

Fannie DARBY   Dau   S   Female   W   8   PA   At School   NY   NY  

Ethel DARBY   Dau   S   Female   W   4   PA      NY   NY  

Annie GETTEL   Other   S   Female   W   30   PA   Servant   PA   PA  

Elefa GETTEL   Other   S   Female   W   32   PA   Servant   PA   PA  

Rachel SHERRAD   Other   S   Female   W   24   IRE   Servant   IRE   IRE  

Source Information:

 Census Place Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

 Family History Library Film   1255186 

 NA Film Number   T9-1186 

 Page Number   141C 

Here is the cemetery listing for Dr. Ranson Walker, DDS, in whose office all three of the Dr. Darby's DDS practiced before college graduation:

WALKER Ranson D.S. d. July 30 , 1894 aged 75 yrs. 9 mos.

 Mary Snider     wife     d. November 1901     aged 78 yrs.   3 mos. 

 Maude     b. 1884     d. June 3 , 1932 

 *Fred G.     d. November 30 , 1998     aged 71 yrs.  

Virgil Rural Cemetery, Cortland Co, New York

He is on 1830 census with his wife, Mary; "Merchant"

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~johnsongray/html/d0000/g00...

tells his family history...also see under Dr. Frank Darby

Ransom Walker son of Samuel Walker & Clarissa Evans, Samuel Walker son of James Walker & Sarah Shapely...she may have been dau of Martha & Thomas Shapely, died in Oxford, Chenango Co, New York, 1842 at age 63 (born about 1780). .

John Snider (1753-1835), served in the Levies under Capt. Henry Dodge. He was born in Germany; died in Virgil, Cortland Co., New York. Was probably Mary Snider Walker's Grandfather - she was probably daughter of his son, Deacon William Walker, born about 1790. She was probably sister to Charles P. Snider, born 1827 in Cortland, died 1887, age 60. Misc Chenango Co Obituary: SHAPLEY

in this town, on 22nd inst (Mar 1842) Mrs. Martha Shapley, widow of the Thomas Shapley, aged 63 years

Cortland County Directory 1889 shows family as:

Snider J. Estella, widow of Charles P. h 22 Greenbush

Snyder Hattie B. Normal student, h 11 Greenbush

Snyder Helen J. h 11 Greeenbush

Dr. Edwin T. Darby Article

from Cortland Standard

October 29th, 1926

Honor for Dr. Edwin T. Darby

Noted Dental surgeon, Long a summer Resident of Glen Haven.

Many Homer friends and acquaintances of Dr. Edwin Tyler Darby, now 81 years old will be interested to know that the alumni of the dental school of the University of Pennsylvania have inaugurated a campaign to raise a fund of $200,000 to endow a chair in that school in his honor to be known as the Edwin Tyler Darby chair in operative dentistry.

Dr. Darby was for 43 years a professor occupying this chair and is now emeritus professor of this branch of dentistry and has greatly endeared himself to the alumni of the school.

Dr. Darby and his family for many years spent their summers at their cottage on Skaneateles Lake near Glen Haven and became well acquainted in Homer and vicinity and the doctor has many warm friends here who will be glad of this honor which has been accorded him. Dr. Darby's home is at Lansdowne PA, a suburb of Philadelphia and the local paper published there says of him:

Dr. Darby was born at Binghamton N.Y. August 21, 1845, the son of Rev. Chauncey Darby, a Baptist clergyman and Mary Short Darby. (Rev. Chauncey Darby is the son of Joseph Darby Sr. of Homer) He received his early education at Cortland Academy, Homer, that state and began the study of dentistry with Dr. Ransom Walker of Oswego. At the age of 17 he began the practice of dentistry of his own account at Marion, Wayne Co. N.Y.

He entered the Pennsylvania college of dental surgery Philadelphia in 1864 graduating the following year with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Almost immediatley after graduation he was elected chief demonstrator of operative dentistry in the college, which position he eheld for a number of years. In 1878 he was chosen to fill the chair of operative dentistry, dental histology and dental pathology, which office he held for 41 years. In 1879 the U. of P. conferred on him the degree of doctor of Medicine and in 1915 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1920 He was elected emeritus professor of operative dentistry. Dr. Darby has been homored many times by dental societies in other states and has held the presidency of the Pennsylvania State Dental Society(1875) and the American Dental Association (1883). He hopes to spend the rest of his life doing some of the things that his active professional carreer has prevented him from accomplishing.

END OF ARTICLE

            History Note: Dr. Darby received almost every honor that the dental profession can confer. He was awarded the Jarvie Medal by the State of New York in 1906, the Jenkins Medal by the State of Connecticut in 1924. He was in constant demand as an after-dinner speaker, conspicuous in always saying the right thing in the right place. Besides having good sense, he had unfailing good taste (Dr. Darby's memorium transcript). 

He had a summer home which was his dearest love on the shore of the beautiful Skaneateles Lake in Western NY.

His recreations at his summer home were reading, rowing, walking, driving, and "tinkering" in his shop.

Having a mechanical turn of mind and being a great lover of fine tools, his workship was always a great source of delight. His mechanical turn is shown in the dental instruments of his design, many of which are used by the profession throughout the world today including the Darby Scaler, Darby Tooth Powder, Darby Prophylactic fluid, and many other dental related items.

Dr Darby died December 11, 1929 of Pneumonia.