Corson, Hiram, 1804-1896

Dr. Hiram Corson was born in 1804 to Joseph and Hannah Dickinson Corson in Plymouth Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He was educated at the Friends' School at Plymouth Meeting under Joseph Foulke and at Friends' Select School in Philadelphia before earning his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1828.

Corson married Ann Jones Foulke in 1833 and settled near Plymouth Meeting. The couple had nine children together. Their son Charles Follen Corson (1842-1889), a lawyer by profession, served in the Pennsylvania Militia during the Civil War. Another son, Edward Foulke Corson (born 1834), was a Navy physician who died in his 20s. Hiram's eldest brother Alan W. Foulke (1788-1852) was a scientist and scholar.

Dr. Corson was a practicing physician and a prolific writer who contributed numerous articles about diseases and treatments to medical journals. However, he viewed as "my great work" his writings and efforts that contributed to the recognition of women physicians by the medical profession, and the passing of a law in Pennsylvania to put the female insane in the care of women physicians.

He was also an ardent abolitionist, a founding member of the Plymouth Meeting Abolition Society who probably helped escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad. (Contosta 44)

Bibliography:

Contosta, David R., and Gail Momjian. Plymouth and Whitemarsh Townships. Images of America Series. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2003.

Corson, Hiram. The Corson Family: A History of the Descendants of Benjamin Corson, Son of Cornelius Corssen of Staten Island, New York . Philadelphia: H.L. Everett, 1906.

From the guide to the Dr. Hiram Corson family papers, 1827-1896, (Historical Society of Montgomery County)