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Charles H., born March 5, 1799.
Chr. H. died February 9, 1856.
Dr. Christopher Heydrick was born in Springfield
Township, Philadelphia County (now Montgomery),
April 7, 1770. In his youth, after having fitted himself
by a thorough course of education, he studied the
science of medicine under the instruction of the celebrated
Dr. Benjamin Say, of Philadelphia, and in
1792, at the age of 22 years, graduated with high
honors at the University of Pennsylvania. Six years
afterwards, in 1798, he was elected a member of the
Philadelphia Society of Medicine, and during the same
year, and for some time afterwards, he held the position
of Physician to the Philadelphia Hospital. In
1815 he was elcted Resident Member of the Cabinet
of Sciences in Philadelphia, an honor which has been
conferred upon few, and those the most learned and scientific
men in the country.
Having been engaged in the practice of medicine, and
with much success, at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia,
and in the city of Philadelphia, from 1792 until 1819,
he at the latter date removed to the borough of Mercer,
in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. He resided in
this place several years, and had a very successful and
lucrative practice in his profession. But from his
youth having a passion for agriculture, he determined
to abandon his profession and enjoy for the remainder
of his life his favorite pursuit, and having this object
in view, he removed from Mercer to a farm in the valley
of French Creck, Venango County, where he continued
to reside until the day of his death. During
the last ten or twelve years of his life he was afflicted
with blindness.