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KITCHIN, ELIAS CAREY (DR.), p. 453
Surnames: KITCHIN, CAREY, PAXSON, KING, FILBERT, KLINE, BLAND, LE MOYN
Dr. Elias Carey Kitchin, of Amity township, one of the most distinguished and best known citizens of Berks county, was born in Solebury, Bucks Co., Pa., Nov. 27, 1827, son of William and Ellenor (Carey) Kitchin, and grandson of William Kitchin, and died at this home in Brumbieldsville, March 13, 1909.
William Kitchin, the grandfather, was a farmer in Bucks county. He was a man of much learning, devoted to scientific pursuits, and he was prominent among the old orthodox Quakers.
****His wife was Ann Paxson, a member of an old Quaker family.
William Kitchin, the doctor's father, was born in Solebury township, Bucks county, Feb. 12, 1789, and died Oct. 16, 1873; he was buried at Solebury Quaker meetinghouse. Like his father he was a strict orthodox Quaker. For seventeen years he was president of the Bucks County Fire Insurance Company. In 1812 he married Ellenor Carey (1794-1877), daughter of Elias and Hannah Carey, and eight children were born of this union; Elias (died small), John, Ann, Thomas, William (a retired merchant of Bucks county), Dr. Elias C., Paxson (of Northampton county) and Samuel (deceased).
Elias C. Kitchin gave evidence of an unusually brilliant mind as a very small child, being to read before he was three years old. His father was superintendent for the contractor making the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania canal that was finished in 1830, and the Doctor is still able to sing songs he heard the workmen sing there. In 1833 he was sent to a Quaker school, where he spelled in a class with girls fifteen and sixteen years old. In 1844 he went to work on the Bucks County Intelligencer, published at Doylestown, but this work proved too hard for him, and it was four years before he recovered his health. During these years of ill health he became interested in medicine, and Dr. Livezey, a graduate of Princeton, who afterward became a professor in the Female Medical College, Philadelphia, took him in charge and in 1850 he graduated in medicine. In January, 1851, he located in Berks county, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Yellow House. In 1857 he erected there his late home, one of the most beautiful places in that part of the country. Here he was living, caring for a large number of patients, being friend and adviser to almost everybody in his township, active in public affairs-altogether a very busy and useful man-when the Civil war broke out.
Dr. Kitchin was a stanch Protectionist, and when he moved to Berks county, he warned that to be popular there he would be obliged to become a Democrat, but he was true to his principles, and for eighteen months he presided over the Know-Nothing Council, during his administration greatly changing the political complexion of his township by one hundred votes. He was a Republican committee of twenty for the first Republican convention at Reading, and was the last survivor of the twenty men who signed. Of the seventy-two soldiers furnished by Amity township for the Civil War, sixty-five were Republicans.
At the outbreak of the Civil war, Dr. Kitchin did not enlist, thinking it his duty to care for his patients, but when he learned the Confederates were marching into Pennsylvania he started for Harrisburg with his rifle. There he chanced to meet Surgeon-General King who made him assistant surgeon, and he was assigned to the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry, remaining with that regiment until its term of service had expired. He was then ordered to Reading to recruit, and after much difficulty succeeded in recruiting Company H, 21st P. V. C. They proceeded to Washington, where they were dismounted, and they saw hard service as infantry. They participated in the following engagements: Bethesda Church (when sixty men, killed and wounded, were lost in fifteen minutes), Petersburg, Jerusalem Plank Road, Peeble's Farm, Stony Creek, Boydton Plank road. In the last named battle Assistant Surgeon Kitchin so distinguished himself for his active service in caring for the wounded on the firing line, being the only surgeon that remained with Surgeon Le Moyn, that he was recommended for promotion, and was made surgeon of the 155th P. V. I., with which regiment he served until the close of the war, taking part in the fights at Hatcher's Run, Five Forks and Appomattox. At Appomattox he dressed the wounds of the last soldier injured in Lee's army, and gave a Confederate who made himself known as a Mason $50 to enable him to get home, to Shelbyville. Dr. Kitchin was mustered into service Feb. 21, 1864, promoted from assistant surgeon to surgeon Jan. 30, 1864, and was mustered out June 2, 1865. He proved himself an able and fearless soldier, cheerfully and effectively doing his duty in whatever capacity he was ordered. When the war was over he returned to his home and resumed his professional work.
In 1856 Dr. Kitchin married Ellen Filbert, daughter of Samuel and Charlotte (Kline) Filbert, the former for some years proprietor of "Yellow House". Mrs. Kitchin died Oct. 23, 1900, aged sixty-six years, ten days. Two children were born of this union: William F. and Charlotte. The Doctor was prominent socially, belonging to McLean Post, No. 16, G. A. R., Reading; to the F. & A. M.; to Phoenixville Commandery, K. T., of which he was the last surviving charter member; to the Knights of the Red Cross, and the Knights of Malta.
One of the Doctor's lasts requests was that the address at his funeral be made by Judge H. Willis Bland, of Reading; that members of the Masonic Lodge act as his pall bearers, and that comrades of the G. A. R. conduct the services at the grave. This was done, and a large number of friends came to pay their last respects to one whom they knew so well.
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