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Below is a family biography included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co.   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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DR. O. W. SADLER. Oren Winslow Sadler, M. D., of Pittsburgh, though comparatively a young man, is one of the most prominent and successful practitioners in his line of practice in the United States. Born of New England stock, in Brewerton, Onondaga county, N. Y., Jan. 2, 1843, he traces his ancestry to John Sadler, who emigrated from England and settled in Massachusetts early in the last century, while other members of the family came still earlier. Dr. Sadler has in his possession a number of heirlooms in which he takes considerable pride, some of them dating back to the Mayflower. Dr. Sadler’s grandfather, William Sadler, with three brothers, Scott, Giles and Arteus, settled in 1820 near Onondaga lake, near the city of Syracuse, then a small village, while the surrounding country was a wilderness. Of a sturdy and resolute race, they were not dismayed at the labors and hardships before them, but built for themselves homes in the new country. Dr. Sadler’s father, William Dexter Sadler, grew up amid the surroundings usual to pioneer homes, yet, through the efforts of his noble mother, he was enabled to secure a fair education. When he was twenty-five years old he was married to Miss Nancy Spire, daughter of a neighboring farmer. William D. Sadler was not content to remain in the home of his birth, but, when his son Oren W. was three years old, removed to Millburn, Lake county, Ill., going via the Erie canal and the lakes to Kenosha, Wis. Here Mr. Sadler, by dint of persevering labor, built him a new home and secured a competency which enabled him to send his two sons, Oren Winslow and Alphonso S., to college. Mr. Sadler, with his good wife, is still living in Marshalltown, Iowa.

The oldest son, Oren Winslow, spent his boyhood on the home farm and in the public schools, developing not alone in body and mind, but in an ambition to make the best possible use of the powers God had given him. He tried one year of business life, but that did not suit the bent of his inclinations. Believing that the medical profession was best suited to his tastes and abilities, he entered, April 1, 1865, the office of D. B. Taylor, M. D., in whom he found a skillful practitioner and faithful instructor. Here the young man devoted from fourteen to sixteen hours of each day to study, and laid broad and deep the foundation of his future success. After a thorough summer’s work he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he attended every lecture, taking a full course of analytical chemistry in the laboratory, and receiving his diploma. After another year of office study he entered Chicago Medical College, where he expected to carry out his own principle as to thoroughness. At the same time he attended a course of clinical lectures on ophthalmology at the Cook County hospital. This course was optional, and Dr. Sadler, though not neglecting other branches, gave many extra hours to the study of the eye, passing a successful examination, and receiving, in addition to his regular M. D. diploma, one from the chartered eye and ear infirmary. After his graduation Dr. Sadler settled in Dodge county, Minn., and was successful from the outset. He became a member of the Minnesota State Medical society, and of the Dodge County Medical society, being chosen secretary of the latter body. He at once took front rank in his profession, and here he won his first honors in surgery. After a difficult and dangerous operation, in which he was assisted by a physician who had retired from active practice, the latter remarked, “he dare do anything.” Dr. Sadler kept in practice his knowledge of eye surgery, which was more to his taste than any other branch of his profession. Being ambitious to find a larger field for his chosen specialties and growing powers, he removed to the east in 1872, and settled at Titusville, Pa., then the center of the great oil regions. Being a stranger among strangers, the question how to obtain a practice recurred. A friend (Dr. Sibbet) suggested the use of the public press. The suggestion was acted upon, and modest and truthful announcements of his specialty appeared in the daily papers, resulting in the immediate building up of a large and lucrative practice. After two and a half years of successful labor in Titusville, and when the oil fields began to decline, Dr. Sadler, determining on a still larger scope of usefulness, removed to Pittsburgh, Feb. 18, 1874, and has since made that city his home. Here he won an almost unparalleled success. He has erected an eye and ear infirmary in connection with his residence, in order to increase his facilities for doing business, and the better to accommodate his patients, who come from nearly every part of the United States, so widespread is his fame.

Dr. Sadler was married at the age of twenty-four to Miss Josephine E., daughter of George W. Slocum, the latter now a resident of Mantorville, Minn. Her father’s family were among the first settlers of Rhode Island, and with her grandfathers were pioneers of Western Pennsylvania, settling near Conneautville, Crawford county. She has proven a helpmeet in every sense of the word, and her husband invariably consults her before entering upon any new project, and to her judgment he attributes much of his success. Dr. Sadler is yet a young man, but has achieved a success seldom met with by those of nearly twice his years. He is old in experience, a close student and an untiring worker, and thousands owe to his skill their redemption from suffering lives of blindness or deafness.

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This family biography is one of 2,156 biographies included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co.

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