One of the noted medical characters even as late as my coming to the city, and the only one mentioned to-night of whom I had personal knowledge, was Dr. John Treon, of Miamisburg. He was of French descent, his paternal grandfather having been a surgeon in the army of France. His father was a pioneer physician in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where the subject of our notice was born in 1791.
Doctor Treon's preliminary education was acquired largely under his father, who is said to have been an excellent linguist. At the age of fourteen he began his professional studies in his father's office and finished under Doctor Dewees, a distinguished teacher and obstetrician of Philadelphia, whose "System of Mid-wifery" was doubtless used as a text-book by some present this evening. In the fall of 1811 he left home with his uncle, Peter Treon, also a physician, located at Hole's Station, and later (1818) became one of the founders of Miamisburg.
Dr. Peter Treon, with whom he was associated in the practice of medicine, drug business, and other mercantile ventures, seems to have been something of a Lothario, if a judgment of $1,450 for seduction recorded against him on the Common Pleas docket of 1820 is sufficient evidence upon which to base an opinion.
Doctor Treon was sturdy in build, of strong personality, dignified in manner, and exacted from his patrons the most profound deference. The following incident will illustrate this latter phase of his character.
A man injured in the woods was removed to the nearest cabin to await the coming of the doctor. Dr. Treon diagnosed a dislocation of the shoulder and called upon a bystander to assist in the reduction. As the doctor was about to begin manipulations, observing that his assistant still wore his hat, he desisted, straightened himself with great dignity, removed the hat from the countryman's head, and in a deep sonorous voice said: "Sir, stand uncovered in the presence of science."
The practice of Dr. John Treon, like that of most pioneer doctors, covered a wide area, and professional visits to the Indiana line, or even to the shores of Erie, were no very uncommon occurrence. For his regular circuit he kept relays of horses at conveniently located cabins at which he always stopped, and whore additional sick-calls were received. In his earlier career he had considerable reputation as an operator and served as volunteer surgeon under General Hull in the war of 1812. The Watchman of November 30, 1837, states that Doctor Price, of Centerville, assisted by Doctors Treon and Dubois, removed a wen from the thigh of Jos. Anderson, measuring thirty-two inches in circumference and weighing nine and one-half pounds.
Doctor Treon was never deeply interested in medical meetings. His name does not appear in the published lists of the earlier organizations and he did not gain membership in this society until 1853, nor do the minutes show that he ever took part in the debates.
It is probably due to this neglect of society duties that Doctor Treon failed to keep abreast of the advance corps in medicine, and consequently did not in his latter days command that confidence of his colleagues to which his native abilities entitled him.
Having accumulated a competence he retired from practice in 1874, after nearly sixty-five years of active work. He married for the second time when eighty-two years of age, and the event was turned into a jubilee by his many friends.
Source: The Pioneer Doctor: A Medical Sketch of Dayton 1796-1825 by W. J. Conklin, Dayton, OH: Montgomery County Medical Society, 1900.