Background
George McClellan was born on December 22, 1796, in Woodstock, Connecticut. He was the son of James and Eunice (Eldredge) McClellan. He came of Scottish ancestry.
George McClellan was born on December 22, 1796, in Woodstock, Connecticut. He was the son of James and Eunice (Eldredge) McClellan. He came of Scottish ancestry.
McClellan received his early education at the Woodstock Academy, of which his father was principal, and in 1812, he went to Yale where he graduated in 1816. He entered the office of Dr. Thomas Hubbard of Pomfret, Connecticut, but after a year moved to Philadelphia where he became a pupil of John Syng Dorsey and entered the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. He was a brilliant student and received the appointment of resident student in the hospital of the Philadelphia Almshouse. Here he showed great zeal in performing autopsies and in operating on the cadavers. He graduated in medicine in 1819, his thesis being entitled "Surgical Anatomy of Arteries. "
McClellan began practice at once and soon acquired an enviable reputation, particularly in surgery. Not content with practice alone, he began also to teach. In those days, private schools in medicine were in fashion, and from them the teachers were often chosen for chairs in the regular colleges. In 1821, he founded an institution for diseases of the eye and ear, which continued for four years. He also taught anatomy and surgery, for the former having a private dissecting room. In a few years, he had the most successful private school in Philadelphia. Having developed a large private following, he began to plan for the establishment of a new medical school. The proposal to found such an institution was not popular with the University of Pennsylvania and every effort was made to block the project. But McClellan was a fighter and did not give up although he was subjected to abuse and ostracized by part of the Philadelphia profession. The bitterness of this controversy affected him for the rest of his life. The influence of the University was sufficiently strong to block all attempts to secure an independent charter for the proposed new school from the legislature, but McClellan found a way to solve the difficulty by having the trustees of Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pa. , establish a medical department in Philadelphia, hence the name Jefferson Medical College.
The college was opened in 1825, but when the time came for the granting of degrees in 1826, the legal difficulties had not been completely overcome. Driving to Harrisburg, a distance of one hundred miles, in less than twenty-four hours, he secured the authority giving the new institution power to grant the degree in medicine. In 1838, the medical department of the college was given a separate charter and continued as an independent institution. McClellan served as professor of surgery in the college from its beginning until 1839, and as professor of anatomy from 1827 to 1830. Students were attracted to the institution and by 1836, the enrolment had reached 360, but dissensions developed and in 1839 the trustees dissolved the faculty. There is some evidence that McClellan was given an opportunity to apply for reappointment but apparently he took no notice of it. He promptly engaged in the establishment of the "Medical Department of Pennsylvania College" in connection with Pennsylvania (later Gettysburg) College at Gettysburg. The school had fair success and continued until the Civil War. He died suddenly in his fifty-first year.
George McClellan is best known as the founder of the Jefferson Medical College Philadelphia. One of McClellan's achievements of consequence was his establishment of a clinic with the opening of the Jefferson Medical College. He had conducted a clinic of his own and apparently referred these patients to the college clinic. Though naturally the facilities were meager his early attempt to bring medical students into contact with patients is notable.
As a surgeon McClellan had the reputation of being a bold and skilful operator. The operation for the removal of the parotid gland, which he did a number of times, was especially noteworthy. He was keen, ambitious, energetic, and always interesting, but his impulsive disposition excited opposition and enmity. His projected work on surgery, Principles and Practice of Surgery, which he did not live to complete, was published by his son in 1848. As a teacher he was brilliant rather than thoughtful, and notoriously unsystematic.
Quotes from others about the person
"lacked judgment, talked too much, and made everybody his confidant". - Gross
McClellan was married in 1820 to Elizabeth Brinton. Gen. George B. McClellan was his son, and George McClellan, 1849-1913, his grandson.
20 September 1769 - 13 February 1837
24 March 1772 - 22 November 1804
Born in 1809.
Born on 23 Aug 1819.
14 August 1806 - 10 November 1869
Born on 14 May 1798.
26 December 1803 - 4 August 1896
4 January 1730 – 17 October 1807 He was a Brigadier General in the American Revolutionary War.
15 March 1800 - 18 September 1889
7 June 1821 - 20 December 1899
1832 - 3 March 1895
3 December 1826 - 29 October 1885
13 August 1823 - 20 July 1874
1839 - 22 February 1904
