Simon P. Hullihen, M.D., D.D.S., 1810-1857

 

“We call his death a public calamity.”  This quote from the Wheeling Intelligencer of April 3, 1857, sums up the feeling of Wheeling citizens to the untimely loss of Dr. Simon P. Hullihen, M.D., D.D.S., who died of typhoid and pneumonia on March 27, 1857 at the age of 46.  He was buried at the highest point of Mt. Wood Cemetery, and two years after his passing, a committee of Wheeling citizens erected a 30-foot marble monument to his memory.

 

Simon Hullihen was no ordinary man. He is considered the Father of Oral Surgery, because before there was a dental school in this country, he decided to specialize in the surgical treatment of the mouth and head, a most unorthodox medical path. Yet Dr. Hullihen achieved great fame in the region and beyond. He performed more than 1,100 operations, and when suitable instruments were not available, he invented his own.  Variations of six of his instruments are still in use.  In addition, he became an influential author, a noted lecturer and a humanitarian.  In 1843, Dr. Hullihen received an honorary D.D.S. degree from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, which had opened in 1840 as the first American dental school.

 

Simon Hullihen was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania on December 10, 1810.  He received his medical degree from Washington Medical College in Baltimore and arrived in Wheeling in 1835 with his wife, Elizabeth Fundenburg of Pittsburgh. He was 25 years old.  Dr. Hullihen and his wife raised five children. He was actively involved in the community, serving on city council and as a trustee of Linsly Institute. Yet it was his humanitarian efforts that distinguished him. Over a third of the operations Dr. Hullihen performed in the last ten years of his life were acts of charity. In 1845 he developed a private infirmary and then worked with the Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Whelan to establish a permanent medical institution. Wheeling Hospital, though now in a different location, is the oldest hospital in West Virginia, being chartered in 1850. Today a portrait of Simon Hullihen hangs in the hospital lobby, a fitting tribute to the man who had such a concern for the sick of Wheeling and made a lasting impact on the dental profession.