Thank You from Pres. Lincoln

An article published in the Lawrence County News published December 11, 1918, gave a short biography of Dr Israel Asahel Powell, quite well known in Lawrenceville in the Civil War decade.

"Dr Powell was an infant when he was brought to the West from the Virginia coast in the arms of his mother, whom was remembered as “Grandma Pritchett.”

Mrs. Pritchett contracted a second marriage after taking up her residence in the Wabash valley and was the mother of James S. Pritchett, the well -known lawyer of Vincennes, and of Mrs. Elizabeth Roberts whose husband was a merchant in Lawrenceville for many years.

Dr. Powell lived to be well past 80 years of age. He was not a surgeon, but was regarded as a good physician. The science of medicine was in rather a crude state in those days, a circumstance which cost the country dearly, for 83 percent of the deaths in the Union army were due to disease. Dr Powell experimented with a remedy designed for emergency uses in the camps, and there is in existence a letter from President Lincoln, all in the martyred president’s handwriting, thanking Dr Powell for his contribution. But the end of the war prevented its wide introduction.

Contemporary with Dr. Powell, Lawrenceville had Dr. William M. Garrard, a most excellent gentleman and a good physician."