Looking Back

Ann O’Hara
Posted 8/21/12

Richard and Mary Bortree Gilpin, both natives of Northern Ireland, emigrated with their seven children around 1810 to Sterling Township and became prosperous farmers. Their son Richard married Eliza …

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Looking Back

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Richard and Mary Bortree Gilpin, both natives of Northern Ireland, emigrated with their seven children around 1810 to Sterling Township and became prosperous farmers. Their son Richard married Eliza Bennett, whose family was among the earliest arrivals to the area from Connecticut. Richard and Eliza had 10 children, including Dr. Fletcher Gilpin, a prominent Dreher Township physician married to Elizabeth Houck. Born in 1843, Dr. Gilpin died in 1912 in Newfoundland. According to the Directory of Deceased American Physicians, Fletcher Gilpin was an allopath who practiced traditional medicine, using established medicines and surgery. This postcard of a grand Victorian home is labeled “Dr. Gilpin’s Residence.” In an article in the May 28, 1968 Pocono Record, the late Peggy Bancroft wrote that the Gilpin house, built in 1886 by Dr. Gilpin, boasted more than two dozen rooms, including two doctors’ offices, two bathrooms and spacious outsized rooms. It was shared by the families of Dr. Gilpin and his brother-in-law, Dr. Arthur J. Simons, probably Newfoundland’s first doctors.

From the collection of the Wayne County Historical Society, 810 Main St., Honesdale, PA. The museum and research library are open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. and museum only 12 noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

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