“Dr. John Mussey was a poor country doctor who tried to give his son the educational advantages which he himself but had sparingly enjoyed.”¹

• Born in Kingston, New Hampshire August 31, 1745.
• Married Beulah Butler and had nine children together.
• Was a very respected country physician of little means.
• Moved to Amherst, New Hampshire in order to try to provide educational opportunities for his son, Reuben Dimond Mussey.
• He also tutored Reuben in Latin on his own.
• Died January 17, 1831 in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

“He was always a good citizen, striving ever for justice and right.”²

• Born May 30, 1833 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
• Attended Dummer Academy in Massachusetts and the Phillips Academy.
• Graduated from Dartmouth College in 1854 and became a distinguished lawyer.
• Campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and served as captain of the 19th U.S. Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, and with it joined the Army of the Cumberland.
• According to Certificate of Records of Soldiers and Sailors Historical and Benevolent Society No. 180017 (Oct. 13, 1903), Mussey was said to have been the first regular army officer to ask permission to raise African-American troops.
• Contributed to the end of slavery in Tennessee--was a strong advocated of enlisting African-American soldiers and took issue with William T. Sherman's view on the issue. He helped recruit African-American soldiers for the Union Army.
• Appointed colonel of the 100th U.S. Colored Infantry in 1864.
• Served as President Andrew Johnson's private secretary in 1865.
• Nominated for brevet grade of brigadier general in the regular army.
• Resigned from army in 1866 and began a law practice in Washington, D.C.
• He had two daughters with his first wife before she died. He and his second, Ellen Spencer Mussey, married in June, 1871 and had two sons.
• Served as an adjunct professor of law at Howard University.
• Died May 29, 1892 in Washington, D.C.
  
• His wife, Ellen Spencer Mussey, was notable in her own right. Born on May 13, 1850 in Geneva, Ohio.

• Her father created the Spencerian system of penmanship and she taught at his school, the Spencerian Business College.
• She took over Reuben's law practice while he was ill with malaria 1876-78 and continued to work together after his recovery for fourteen years, until he died in 1892.
• She was founder and dean of the Washington College of Law, the first law school established by and for women in the U.S.
• She was an incorporator of, and attorney for, the American National Red Cross.
• She secured that a bill passed giving each parent equal right to their children.
• She also secured the right for women to engage in business and control their own earnings.
• She was part of the first public kindergarten in Washington, D.C.

• Born in 1885, son of Reuben Dimond, II and Mary Harkness Gano Mussey.
• Went to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
• Interned at Cincinnati General Hospital.
• Died in 1913 soon after going into practice.

“Firm, self-reliant, capable, kind, just to all, he was the best man I ever knew. To do his duty as he saw it was his highest aim.”—General J. T. Wilder, in a letter to Edward M. Hartwell, Mussey's biographer.³

• Born September 30, 1818.
• Started a grocery business and decided to become a doctor at age 29.
• Graduated Medical College of Ohio 1848.
• Practiced with his father, Reuben Dimond until 1851.
• Went to Paris 1851-53 and studied with eminent French physicians.
• During the Civil War, established what may be the first and best volunteer hospital in the country at the abandoned Marine Hospital on Lock street in order to take care of wounded soldiers, funded entirely by private monies.
• Asked to establish the Cincinnati branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission.
• Medical director of a division in General Buell in the Union army, and served in several Civil War battles, including the 2nd Battle of Bull Run and the Battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
• Chair of Operative and Clinical Surgery at Miami Medical College.
• Elected vice-president of American Medical Association in 1864.
• Appointed Surgeon General for the state of Ohio by Rutherford B. Hayes with the rank of Brigadier-General.
• Served as a member of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, on the Board of Education and on the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Public Library, to whom he donated his father's important medical library.
• He married Caroline Lindsley of Washington, D.C. on May 5th, 1857. They had one son, William Reuben.
• Died July 31, 1882 suddenly, having operated just that morning.

• Born November 23, 1819 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
• Graduated Medical College of Ohio 1844.
• Practiced in Portsmouth, Ohio 1844-61.
• Surgeon of the 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry 1861-1863.
• Contracted inflammatory rheumatism from while in the service.
• Practiced with William H. Mussey for a few years then went to Hot Springs, Texas for restoration and began a new practice.
• Died May 27, 1900 in Glendale, Ohio.

• Born in 1848, son of Francis Brown and Marie Boynton Mussey.
• He graduated Miami Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1871.
• He was a prominent physician in Cincinnati.
• He was Chief surgeon of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad for twenty years.
• He married Mary Harkness Gano and had two sons who became physicians: Robert Daniel and Noel Mussey.
• Died November, 4, 1901 in Glendale, Ohio.

A fellow board member said of Dr. Mussey, “He was easily approachable, had a rare humility and kindness and was always faithful to the ideals of the Clinic”.⁴

• Born January 10,1884 in Glendale, Ohio, son of Reuben Dimond Mussey, II and Mary Harkness Gano Mussey.
• He received his MD at the University of Cincinnati in 1908. and interned at Cincinnati General Hospital.
• Moved to Rochester, Minnesota in 1910 as an intern at St. Mary's Hospital.
• Served as captain and major in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1919.
• He was instrumental in developing an Obstetrics and Gynecology section at St. Mary's Hospital.
• He also guided the development of an OB/GYN department at the Mayo Clinic and was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology there until he retired in 1950.
• Drs. W.J. and C.H. Mayo turned over the administration of the Mayo Clinic to him and he became a member of the Clinic Board, serving as chairman from 1937 to 1947.
• He married Madge Ayres, an anesthetist at St. Mary's and had five children together, three of whom also became physicians.