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Joseph Henry Wythe

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Written by Eleanor Smith, Class of 2026

Joseph Henry Wythe was a controversial yet multifaceted president in Willamette’s history, often seen walking down the streets of Salem with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He was born in Manchester, England in 1822. His family moved to the United States when he was ten.1 He lived in Philadelphia, working in his father’s bookshop and with tutors studying ancient languages. At nineteen he was licensed to preach, but he gradually gained a larger interest in science. He pursued an education in medicine and studied at the Philadelphia College of Medicine, receiving his doctor’s degree in 1850. In 1851, he published The Microscopist, or a Complete Manual on the Use of the Microscope, which was the first of its kind in the US. Two years later he published The Physician’s Dose and Symptom Book, which was translated into multiple languages and fourteen editions.2 His busy career was interrupted when he fell ill, forcing him to give up one of his passions. He set aside his ministerial work to focus on practicing medicine, eventually becoming a surgeon.

Printed illustration of a microscope and attachments.

Wythe’s ambitions would follow him into the army. With the civil war, he moved to Pennsylvania.3 He and three others were selected out of thirty applicants to be on a special corps of surgeons for the military.4 In September of 1862, he was assigned as assistant surgeon in US Volunteers. A few months later he was promoted to surgeon with a rank of major. He held various responsibilities, such as taking charge of a US hospital ship that contained over eight hundred wounded people. He was later in charge of a hospital camp for pardoned soldiers from prisons which once contained three thousand men. The death rate at the camp was at an alarmingly high rate until he improved conditions.5 While enjoying a successful career, illness suspended his work yet again. He resigned on October 26, 1863. After leaving the service, he re-entered the ministry and became a pastor in San Francisco for two years.6 He continued practicing medicine and performed the first successful operation for an ovarian cyst in the west coast in 1865.7 That same year he accepted presidency of Willamette.8 

Wythe put his all into the university, working to bring the community together. When Willamette was scrambling to find a replacement after president Gatch left, many men were enchanted by Wythe’s background. In a letter to the University’s agent Alvan Waller, one man claimed that “…the more I see and learn about him, the more I am persuaded. He is the man for you. I think he will throw his whole soul into the work.”9 On October 21, 1865, the Advocate introduced him as “…a man of culture and the author of works, both scientific and medical that have met with favor in Europe as well as in the United States.”10 He instantly gained the affection of the students when he started teaching. A student at the time said, “he was kind and affable in disposition, he was a true friend to the students and by them greatly beloved.”11  He not only worked at the university but preached at the Salem church and continued with his interest in medicine.12 His medical expertise played a major role in having the medical department established in Salem. Initially the Board voted to have a medical department in Portland as a separate entity with the proposed name “Oregon Medical College.” They were in charge of handling the appointments of faculty. In November 1866 they voted again to establish the department under Willamette University in Salem instead. Wythe was selected to be the professor of hygiene, physiology, and microscopy.13 He became part of the first faculty to teach a medical class in Oregon. He not only worked in the medical department but was also professor in two other departments: mental and moral science in collegiate department and biblical languages and literature in the theological department.14 Despite the effort and work that he put into the university, he was a controversial figure. 

See page 1 of the Willamette Collegian (below) for a photograph of the Medical College in 1911.

Wythe’s use of tobacco was a scandal. With Willamette’s methodist origins, behavior such as smoking was considered just as much as a problem as drunkenness. Before Willamette University existed, students at the Oregon Institute wrote about the use of tobacco. One student said, “It is easy to abstain from evil at first, but when the habit is once formed it is hard to leave it off. I hope no one connected with this school will ever be guilty of forming so bad a habit…”15 This mindset still existed in the 1860s and haunted Wythe. Rev. D. Rutledge wrote to Waller about this lack of moral behavior and poor influence. He stated “That school can never have permanent success while such a man is at its head… And when I heard of his appointment to the Presidency of your University, I cried out Shame! …It was said to me in Salem that he was an accomplished gentleman, refined in all his manners. I ask how does it look to see an Educator of youth walking the streets of a city with a cigar in his mouth and using tobacco until the clothes betray it…In such a character there is a fatal weakness that unqualifies him to be a teacher.”16 At the Oregon Conference in 1868, members stated their disapproval of the use of tobacco by those employed at the school. They asserted that their mission was “…to save the youth of our land from the use of tobacco.”17 Wythe’s behavior became too concerning; he had lost the majority vote with the Trustees and was forced to resign. 

See page 6 of the Willamette Collegian (below) for reference to tobacco as a “filthy weed.”

Wythe would continue to work as a pastor despite his tobacco usage. He stayed in Salem for another year and performed the first ovariotomy in Portland in 1870.18 In the Early 70s, he was a member of the medical faculty of the University of the Pacific, later called the Medical School of Stanford. He worked there for twenty-five years. In 1881, he officially gave up preaching and teaching but continued to practice medicine. He died on October 14, 1901. Wythe left behind a successful legacy as a writer, surgeon, professor, preacher, and president.

Endnotes

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  1. ˆ  Robert Moulton Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette (Portland, Or: Binfords & Mort, 1943), 251.
  2. ˆ Piasecki, Sara. “Joseph Henry Wythe (1822-1901),” The Oregon Encyclopedia, May 15, 2023.
  3. ˆ O. Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 26, no. 4 (1925): 431.
  4. ˆ Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette, 252.
  5. ˆ Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” 433.
  6. ˆ Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette, 253.
  7. ˆ Irving A Watson. Physicians and Surgeons of America (Concord: Republican Press Association, 1896), 704.
  8. ˆ Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” 432.
  9. ˆ Bishop C. Kingsley to Alvan F. Waller (San Francisco Sept. 20, 1865), quoted in O. Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” (The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 26, no. 4, 1925), 432.
  10. ˆ The Advocate, (October 21, 1865), quoted in Robert M. Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette (Portland, Or: Binfords & Mort, 1943), 251.
  11. ˆ Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” 435.
  12. ˆ Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” 435.
  13. ˆ Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” 436.
  14. ˆ Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette, 215.
  15. ˆ Tobacco, the Experiment, June-August 1850, Box12, Folder 4, Student Publications collection, Willamette University Archives and Special Collections. 
  16. ˆ Rev. D. Rutledge to Alvan F. Waller (Nashville April 15, 1867), quoted in O. Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” (The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 26, no. 4, 1925), 433. 
  17. ˆ Gatke, Chronicles of Willamette, 254.
  18. ˆ Larsell, “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901,” 427.

Works Referenced

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  • “Communications.” Willamette Collegian. March 1, 1881. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/7899.
  • Gatke, Robert Moulton. Chronicles of Willamette, the Pioneer University of the west. Portland, Or: Binfords & Mort, 1943. 
  • Kingsley. Bishop C. to Alvan F. Waller. San Francisco Sept. 20, 1865. Quoted in O. Larsell. “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901.” The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 26, no. 4, 1925. 432.
  • Larsell, O. “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901.” The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 26, no. 4 (1925): 424–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20610330.
  • Medical College. Photograph. 1911. Willamette Collegian. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/10289. 
  • Piasecki, Sara. “Joseph Henry Wythe (1822-1901).” The Oregon Encyclopedia, May 15, 2023. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/wythe_joseph_henry_1822_1901_/. 
  • Rutledge. D. to Alvan F. Waller. Nashville April 15, 1867. Quoted in O. Larsell. “Joseph Henry Wythe 1822-1901.” The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 26, no. 4, 1925. 433.
  • The Advocate, October 21, 1865. Quoted in Robert M. Gatke. Chronicles of Willamette. Portland, Or: Binfords & Mort, 1943. 251.
  • Tobacco. The Experiment, 1850 June-August. Subseries I, Box 12, Folder 4. Student Publications collection, WUA023. Willamette University Archives and Special Collections. 
  • Watson, Irving A. Physicians and Surgeons of America: A collection of biographical sketches of the regular medical profession. Concord, N.H: Republican Press Association, 1896.
  • Wythe, Joseph H. 1851. Illustration. The Microscopist: Or, A Complete Manual on the Use of Microscope: For Physicians Students, and all Lovers of Natural Science.
  • Willamette President Joseph Henry Wythe, A.M., D.D. Image. Willamette University Archives and Special Collections, Campus Photo Collection. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/26501 

Image Citations

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