Lansing, John V.

John Van Vechten Lansing (1824-1880) was the grandson of Abraham Jacob Lansing, who had subdivided his lands in 1771 to establish the town of Lansingburgh, N.Y., where Lansing was born. John was early singled out from among the three boys and two girls of his farming family as the high achiever-- the "Pride and Prop of our House", in his mother's words-- and thus sent to college (Rutgers) and for legal training in Buffalo. His correspondence with brothers and sisters during this era show him to have occupied the role of family advisor and of loving, supportive mother's son. Lansing's relationship with his father is a puzzle, for there is no correspondence between the two during any era of his life, nor do letters to and from other family members very frequently mention the father, although they are filled with the doings and feelings of siblings and mother.

After graduating from Rutgers the young man seems to have had second thoughts about his predestined career, for he corresponded with John James Audubon regarding an expedition to the western states. Audubon turned him down, however, so Lansing dutifully became a lawyer and returned to Lansingburgh to practice. After several years at a profession he evidently disliked, Lansing appears to have finally rebelled against his family's pressures and expectations. In the summer of 1849 he left abruptly for Europe with a friend, Jonathan Douglas, informing his family and law partner only after the fact, by letter. During their several months in Switzerland and France Lansing decided to become a doctor like his friend, and he began medical training in Paris. This education was continued after his return to the United States in 1849 (although a gap in the record between late 1849 and July of 1852 make it unclear exactly when and where his training began). While at Dartmouth Medical School in 1852 Lansing became the teaching assistant of Dr. Edmund Randolph Peaslee (1814-1878). Peaslee, a graduate of Yale Medical School, taught at Dartmouth, at the Medical College of Maine, and at New York Medical College during this period of his life; later he became a well-known gynecological specialist and published a treatise on ovarian tumors. Lansing's medical training, therefore, was closely associated with Peaslee, and was carried out at the three institutions which employed him; his final graduation, in February of 1854, was from New York Medical College.

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