The Rambler’s Reveries Along Persimmon Lane
Seated on a Pile of Railroad Ties, His Mind Goes Back to Old Boyhood Days
and the Friendships of Youth -- Some Facts About Dr. Antisell and a Sketch of His Work --
What Capt. John Smith Said About the Virginia Persimmon in His Book.

The space of last Sunday's narrative was spent on the subject of Persimmon Tree lane, an old Montgomery county road, with rail fences, cedars, pines, oaks, gum trees and brambles along its sides. No persimmon trees were there, but then roads are as often inappropriately named as persons. A girl with the name of Katie, Maggie, Fanny or Susie may be quite as stately, romantic and dramatic as Geraldine, Hortense or Gwendolyn, and according to the Rambler's small experience in such affairs, is usually as pretty. The Rambler once knew a boy, named by his parents Percy, who could put up as interesting and convincing fight as any boy by the name of "Buck" or "Bull," Jerry, Mike or Pat. Of course, such things are unusual, but they do sometimes happen.

But in the matter of Persimmon Tree lane it is probably true that at some time a persimmon tree grew along the way. It was perhaps not a fine specimen of the tree, because Montgomery county is not in the persimmon belt. A Montgomery county persimmon tree would make a slim and meager showing by the side of the noble persimmon trees that spring from the historic soil of Prince Georges, Charles or St. Marys counties. The Rambler confesses to a liking for the name "Persimmon Tree lane." There is tang and flavor to it. It smacks of the country in which we live. It is not high-sounding and pretentious.

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Some people have no more discretion in naming roads than in naming babies, and Persimmon Tree lane has an honest, homelike and compasionable sound. Some hiferlutin' fellow or busy real estate salesman might have named it Pomegranate avenue, Orange Blossom trail or Lilac lane. It is not to be expected that the Rambler could walk several miles along Persimmon Tree lane without thinking of persimmons, and he recalls that the persimmon attracted the attention of many of the early European immigrants to the Potomac country. Capt. John Smith, in his description of Virginia, printed in 1612, made the following reference to a wild native fruit which he called, after the sound of the name as given by the Indians, "putchamins"; "In some parts were found some chestnuts whose wild fruit equalize the best in Spain, France, Germany or Italy and to their tastes that had tasted them all. Plums there are of three sorts. The red and white are like our hedge plums, but the other, which they call putchamins, grow as high as a paleta. The fruit is like a medler; it is first green, then yellow and red when it is ripe; if it be not ripe it will draw a man's mouth awrie with much forment, but when it is ripe it is as delicious as an apricock."

When the Rambler left off last Sunday he had knocked at the door of a strange house. A pretty girl with dark hair and eyes and an outdoor color answered the rapping, and this colloquy took place:

"Waht is your name?" asked the Rambler. She answered "Antisell." "A strange name, but a familiar one to old Washington people," said the Rambler, and then he asked: "Are you related to a Dr. Antisell who came to Washington at the time of the civil war and lived at one time in Anacostia and at another near Arlington at the junction of the Columbia and Alexandria road>? "He was my grandfather," she said. "Do you live here at Potomac?" "No," she replied, "Dad and I live in the far west." "Well, what are you doing here?" "We are just stopping with Miss Harrison. Dad is a mining engineer, and has been in charge of the gold mine in this neighborhood. Here is Dad now." His name is TAoner Antisell, and his family named him for his close friend Dr. Joseph M. Toner. He was born in Anacostia. He went to Japan with his father while a little boy. Returning to Washington, Toner attended the Washington High School away back in the 70's, and then "went west." He ranched and mined and took the course of mining engineering a the University of Utah. He was engaged by one of the companies operating gold-bearing lands near Great Falls.

The Rambler's memory was false on one point. Dr. Antisell came to Washington before the civil war. In the Library of Congress are a number of books and addresses by Dr Thomas Antisell, who was born in 1817 and died in 1893. One of these works is a "Handbook of the Useful Arts," Including Agriculture, Architecture, Domestic Economy, Engineering, Machinery, Manufacture, Mining and Photogenic and Telegraphic Art. Being an Exposition of Their Principles and Practice and a Compend of American and European Invention." It was published in 1852. Another musty old book contained an "Introductory Address Delivered Before the Medical Department of Georgetown College, Session of 1865-1866." It was printed by McGill & Witherow of Washington in 1865. Another book is "The Manufacture of Photogenic and Hydro-Carbon Oils from Coal and Other Bituminous Substances Capable of Supplying Burning Fluids, by Dr. Thomas Antisell." Still another book is a "Biographical Sketch of Dr. Joseph M. Toner -- 1878 -- being a reprint from a memorial volume of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association, printed at Lancaster, Penn. in 1878."

The Rambler searched such records of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia as he could get at for facts about Dr. Antisell. He came upon the matter he was in search of in Dr. Samuel C. Busey's book, "Personal Reminiscences and Recollections of Forty-six Years' Membership in the Medical Society of the District of Columbia and Residence in This City." In that book was the following sketch of Dr. Antisell:

Thomas Antisell was lineally descended from Sir Bertine Entwysel, "who accompanied Henry II to Ireland." He was graduated in medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and subsequently studied chemistry in Paris and Berlin. He practiced medicine in Dublin until 1848, when he became a political exile on account of his connection with the young Ireland party. He then came to this country and settled in the city of New York, where he pursued his profession until 1854, when he accepted the position of geologist to the Park expedition in the railroad survey of southern California and Arizona. In 1856 he returned from the expedition and accepted the position of chief examiner in the chemical department of the patent office. At the breaking out of the war he entered the volunteer service as brigade surgeon, and at its close was mustered out with the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel.

In 1871 he went to Japan as technologist of the government commission to develop the resources of the northern islands of that empire. In recognition of his ability and as a testimonial of his personal regard for Dr. Antisell the Emperor of Japan decorated him with the order of the Rising Sun of Merjil, making him a nobleman of the empire with the right to carry two swords. After his return from Japan in 1877 he resumed his pursuit of chemistry, occupying during the subsequent years of his life various positions of distinction in the line of his special branch of science.

Dr. Antisell was a popular teacher. He began as a lecturer in Dublin and after coming to this country occupied the professorship of chemistry in the colleges at Woodstock, Vt., Hattsfield and Berkshire, Mass., and afterward in the medical departments of the Columbian and Georgetown Universities. He was for a period chemist of the Agricultural Department and finally resumed his duties as examiner in the patent office.

He led a very unobtrusive home life, rarely appearing in public except where his duty called him. He was faithful to duty and conscientious in its performance, unostentatious in manner and cordial in friendship."

In the "History of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, 1817-1909," published by the society, the Rambler found additional facts relating to Dr. Antisell. He was the son of Christopher Antisell of King's county, Ireland, a distinguished barrister, and Margaret Daly, daughter of Surgeon Daly of Dublin. He married twice. Dr. Antisell's first wife was Eliza Anne Nowlan of Dublin. The marriage was solemnized in 1841. In 1854 Dr. Antisell married Marion Stuart Forsyth of Detroit, daughter of Paymaster Forsyth, U.S.A. From 1861 to 1865 he was medical director of the 12th Army Corps, surgeon in charge of Harewood Hospital, surgeon in charge of sick and wounded officers in Washington and president of the board of examiners for surgeons and assistant surgeons of volunteers. The "History of the Medical Society" contains this: "From 1855 to 1893, excepting the interval of Army service and while in Japan, he lived in Washington. On May 10, 1877, he was again appointed examiner in the patent office and held the position until July, 1890, when, his health failing, he was reduced to a first-class clerkship and finally removed September 20, 1891."

There is a portrait of Dr. Antisell which shows him to be a studious, well nourished, good-looking professional man with side whiskers, pointed beard and mustache. He has a broad, smooth forehead, eyes of normal size, with a marked fullness of the lids and a symmetrical face.

In February 1864, in view of the prevalence of smallpox in Washington, the Medical Society appointed a committee of one member from each ward of Washington and two from Georgetown to consider and report upon the sanitary conditions of the District. Dr. Antisell was made chairman of that committee and the other members were Drs. W.G.H. Newman, F. Howard, William Marbury, J. Eliot, G.W. McCoy, J.M. Roberts and J.E. Morgan. The annual address of the Medical Society, September 26, 1876, was delivered by Dr. Antisell at Marini's Hall. The annual address in 1877 was delivered at the same place by Dr. A.Y.P. Garnett. In 1870 the Medical Society appointed a committee called "the committee on the medical constitution of the District of Columbia." The members of that committee were Drs. Antisell, Drinkard, Craig, W.W. Johnston, J. Ford Thompson and A.F.A. King.

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As one's memory goes back to Dr. Antisell it is natural that recollection of the other Washington physicians of that period is stirred. There lies on the desk before the Rambler a little brown book stenciled in tarnished gilt letters, "Medical Register, 1867, District of Columbia." It was given to the Rambler by R.M. Kauffmann, and on the flyleaf is this inscription: "To the Rambler -- Material for 1001 Arabian Nights Tales -- R.M.K. -- 1918." In that old book are the names of the "duly qualified practitioners of medicine in the District of Columbia as far as could be ascertained July 1, 1867":

Drs. Charles Allen, Samuel A. Amery, A.W.K. Andrews, Thomas Antisell, 208 Pennsylvania avenue, near Willard's; Spencer F. Baird, W.O. Baldwin, G.C. Barberin, Adajah Behrend, Paul Berger, E. Tucker Blake, John B. Blake, S.B. Blanchard, D.W. Bliss, M.V.B. Bogan, Samuel W. Bogan, Samuel S. Bond, A.J. Borland, Joseph Borrows, E.V.B. Boswell, Charles H. Bowen, Bedford Brown, L.A. Buck, J.W. Bulkley, W.B. Butt, C. Carvallo, S. Clipstein, Henry F. Condict, William H. Combs, B.F. Craig, Charles H. Cragin, William J. Craigen, P. Croghan, Richard C. Croggon, J.L. Crouse, Thomas R. Crosby, Fred B. Culver, J.E. Dexter, A. McD. Davis, Lloyd Dorsey, George M. Dove, L.J. Draper, W.B. Drinkard, W.J.C. Duhamel, Johnson Eliot, Thomas Emory, Warick Evans, George P. Fenwick, Charles M. Ford, J.M.D. Francis, D.M. French, T.B.J. Fyre, A.Y.P. Garnett, B. Gesner, William Gibson, Theodore Gill, D.R. Hagner, James C. Hall, Theodore Hansman, J.O. Harris, J.W. Herbert, F.H. Hill, George N. Hopkins, Flodoardo Howard, Joseph T. Howard, E.W. Jenney, Richmond Johnston, William P. Johnston, William Jones, John B. Keasby, Washington Kilmer, A.F.A. King, Alfred H. Lee, William Lee, C.H. Liebermann, Harvey Lindsley, M.M. Lewis, N.S> Lincoln, J.W.H. Lovejoy, Louis Mackall, jr.; H. Magruder, W.B. Magruder, William Marbury, A. Matthews, T.F. Maury, J. Frederick May, John McCalla, C. McCormick, George McCoy, S.A.H. McKim, Francis W. Mead, E.C. Merriam, H.P. Middleton, A.W. Miller, homas Miller, Gustav Moosmayer, James E. Morgan, Joseph A. Mudd, T.J. Murphy, W.G.H. Newman, Charles H. Nichols, superinendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane; F. O'Donnoghue, W.G. Palmer, G.Ll. Pancoast, Adolphus Paize, B.J. Perry, Armsead Peter, James Philips, W.E. Poulton, D.W. Prentiss, Tobias Purrington, S.J. Radcliff, Robert Reyburn of the freedmen's bureau, James R. Reily, Joshua Riley, J.C. Riley, Joshua A. Richie, Louis W. Ritchie, F.W. Ritter, H.A. Robbins, W.E. Roberts, W.R. Russell, Earnest F. Shafhirt, Army Medical Museum; Joseph Scholl, Thomas C. Smith, R.H. Speak, W.D. Stewart, Robert K. Stone, George Sylvester, Seth J. Todd, Joseph M. Toner, J. Ford Thompson, J.H. Thompson, C. Troutman, H.B. Trist, Maurice Tucker, W. McKead Tucker, Grafton Tyler, Joseph Walsh, John K. Walsh, R.S.L. Walsh, T.S. West, Robert M. Whiteford, Bodisco Williams, E.C. Woodbury, H.E. Woodbury, James T. Young, Noble Young and W.P. Young.