Orpheus Everts
American physician (1826–1903)
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Early life and education
Orpheus Everts was born on December 18, 1826, in Union County, Indiana, United States, to parents Elizabeth (née Heywood) and Sylvanus Everts. His father was a descendant of Myles Standish, of the Plymouth Colony.
He attended Franklin Medical School in Illinois. Everts completed his medical degree in 1846 at the Indiana Medical College.
Everts and Mary Jane Richards were married on March 14, 1847. Together they had 5 children.
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Career
He entered private practice of medicine in St. Charles, Illinois. After several years, he retired to become a newspaper editor. In 1860, he was admitted to the bar after studying law. He also served as registrar of the U.S. Land Office in Wisconsin.
Everts served as the surgeon for the 20th Indiana Infantry Regiment during the Civil War (1861–1865), and was instrumental in the care of soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg.
After the Civil War, he devoted his attention to psychiatry and diseases of the nervous system. In 1868, he was appointed superintendent of the Central State Hospital (also known as Indiana Hospital for the Insane) in Indianapolis. He remained there for 11 years. During his time as superintendent of the Central State Hospital, he was the Chair of Nervous and Mental Diseases at the Indiana Medical College. In 1880, he was appointed superintendent of the Cincinnati Sanitarium. He served as the president of the American Psychiatric Association from 1885 to 1886.
Everts served as an expert witness in several landmark legal cases, including the trial of Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, in 1881.
Everts wrote on both medical matters and non-medical literary pieces, including a volume of poetry.
Everts died on June 19, 1903, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.