Dr. John Croghan (April 23, 1790 – January 11, 1849) was an American medical doctor and slave owner who helped establish the

United States Marine Hospital of Louisville The United States Marine Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, in the Portland neighborhood was part of the U.S. Marine Hospital system, which was run by the Marine Hospital Service and its successor the Public Health Service, primarily for the ben ...

and organized some

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

medical experiments and tours for

Mammoth Cave Mammoth Cave National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in south-central Kentucky. It encompasses portions of Mammoth Cave, the List of longest caves, longest known cave system in the worl ...

, in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

(U.S.) during 1839–1849. __TOC__

Early life

John Croghan was born in

Jefferson County, Kentucky Jefferson County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 782,969. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth (with more than twice the population of sec ...

on April 23, 1790. He was the son of William Croghan and Lucy Clark, sister of the famous

William Clark William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Misso ...

of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

. He attended the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

, starting in 1807 and graduated in 1809. From 1810 to 1813, he was a student at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

School of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

. He then returned to

where he helped establish the Louisville Marine Hospital in 1823, serving as its director until 1832.

Work with Mammoth Cave

In October 1839, he bought near the Green River that included

. He had planned to use the cave for medical purposes, as well as tourist use; he expected that its steady

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

could benefit

patients. Deep within the cave, patients with the disease lived in wooden and stone huts. Visitors during this experiment reported hearing constant

cough A cough is a sudden expulsion of air through the large breathing passages which can help clear them of fluids, irritants, foreign particles and Microorganism, microbes. As a protective reflex, coughing can be repetitive with the cough reflex fol ...

ing from the patients who appeared as pale, skeleton-like figures inside the huts. The smoke emitted by large fires, used for cooking and warmth, further harmed the patients. Several patients died, and the rest grew more sickly, causing the experiment to end in failure in 1843. Croghan's experiment added much to the medical profession's knowledge of tuberculosis and helped lead the way for control of the disease. Dr. Croghan himself died of the disease in 1849. Today, there are two remaining stone huts out of the original eight that can be found in Mammoth Cave. He also continued using the cave as a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

. Following plans of the owner from the prior year, John Croghan used the services of Stephen Bishop, and other

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

s, to conduct extensive mapping of the caves and provide guided tours. Interest in the caves grew. Dr. Croghan's own declining health, due to tuberculosis, led him to spend more time at his family's

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representativ ...

, Locust Grove, but he remained involved in the development of Mammoth Cave. He died on January 11, 1849, and left his estate and Mammoth Cave to his brother, his nieces, and his nephews, who organized cave tours until 1926.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croghan, John College of William & Mary alumni 1790 births 1849 deaths Mammoth Cave National Park Physicians from Louisville, Kentucky