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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published by John M. Gresham & Co. in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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CORNELIUS ORMES, M.D., was born at West Haven, Vermont, August 4, 1807, of most excellent New England parentage. After receiving a thorough academical education, he entered upon the study of medicine with Prof. Theodore Woodward, at that time the most noted surgeon of the eastern states, and received the degree of M.D. from Castleton Medical college in 1832. After practicing for a time in partnership with his preceptor, he removed to Chautauqua county and opened an office in Panama, February 13, 1833. In that early day this portion of the county and the adjacent parts of Pennsylvania were largely engaged in lumbering, and Dr. Ormes’ surgical experience, obtained under Prof. Woodward, peculiarly fitted him for the exigencies constantly arising in that occupation. His ride soon extended into northern Pennsylvania, then almost a wilderness, and his duties entailed upon him great hardships from the bad roads which he was compelled to traverse, and the severe exposures to which he was frequently subjected. The success which attended his practice, however, soon gained for him a high reputation, which was unceasingly enhanced down to the time of his death. As the country became more fully occupied and settled, the accidents of pioneer life necessarily diminished, and the Doctor turned his attention to new friends for the employment of his surgical ability. He made a special study of ovarian diseases, and soon established a national reputation for the treatment and removal of ovarian tumors. During his life he removed a large number of these, and he continued to operate successfully for their extirpation up to within a few months of his decease. In two of his ovariatories the uterine appendages were all involved; the tumor in one being of the colloid variety, and weighing fifty-one pounds, while the uterus measured eleven inches in length, was extensively sphacelated from lung pressure and its cavity wholly obliterated. The entire mass was successfully removed and the patient still lives in the enjoyment of excellent health. In 1863, the Doctor removed to Jamestown and the better field greatly enlarged his already extensive practice. In 1872, he was called to the chair of obstetrics and uterine surgery in the Detroit Homoeopathic college, and discharged its duties with marked advantage to the college and the cause of homoeopathy. Dr. Ormes was first instigated to examine the new system, by Dr. James Birnstil, then of Westfield, N. Y., afterwards of Pittsfield, Mass. After much study and a careful comparison of results from the old and the new systems, he gave in his adhesion to homoeopathy and consistently practiced it from 1848 to the time of his death. Dr, Ormes was at the time of his death, and had been for many years president of the Homoeopathic Medical society of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, was one of the physicians from western New York who assisted to re-organize the State society in 1861, and in which he was a permanent member at the time of his decease; was a member of the new Homoeopathic Medical society of western New York, and “Senior” in the American Institute of Homeopathy, he having been elected a member in 1856. In all of these societies he occupied a prominent place, and in all was the frequent recipient of positions of responsibility and of honor. It will thus be seen that Dr. Ormes was gathered “like a shock of corn fully ripe.” Few physicians have acquired as extensive and enviable reputation and none will be more missed by the profession for those genial and excellent qualities of manhood which shed an additional lustre upon the achievements of an intellectual life. He died April 20, 1886. Heroic Surgery, Detroit Post and Tribune, under date of January 9, 1889, said: “The account in to-day’s papers from our Grand Rapids correspondent, giving the particulars of a wonderful surgical operation, is very interesting, but he is not quite right in his statement that it has never before been done in this country. In the Transactions of Homoeopathic Medical society of the State of New York, Vol. 8, page 550, is reported a case exactly like this which occurred at Grand Rapids, with the exception that the patient recovered. The surgeon was Dr. Cornelius Ormes of Jamestown, New York, who has a widely extended reputation as a surgeon. The patient, a lady thirty-nine years of age, had a cancerous disease involving the uterus and ovaries. On the 23d of April, 1870, this entire mass, greatly enlarged, was removed. In the following June the patient was about the house, and on August 1st walked two and one-half miles. In 1872 and 1873, Dr. Ormes lectured to the class in the Homoeopathic college in this city, and I have learned from him that the cure was permanent.”

He married Angeline Moore, and they were the parents of four children: Dr. Frank D., William H. (deceased), Julia, died in 1887, and James C., who was a druggist at Jamestown until his death. Mrs. Ormes was a daughter of Daniel Moore, who was a native of eastern New York and settled near Panama, where he followed farming. He was a whig and a baptist, and married Cynthia Joslin.

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This family biography is one of 658 biographies included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published in 1891. 

View additional Chautauqua County, New York family biographies here: Chautauqua County, New York Biographies

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