U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hamrick, Graham H. (1821-1899) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of Barbour County, West Virginia, From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time by Hu Maxwell The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va., 1899 Pages 389-391 Graham H. Hamrick was born September 18, 1821, in Rappahannock County, Virginia, a son of Peter Hamrick. He moved with his father to Rockingham County, and on April 16, 1844, was married to Margaret, daughter of David Whitmer, and lived thirteen years in that county. In 1857 he moved to the John N. Hall farm on Elk and remained there ten years, and then moved to the farm of Joshua S. Corder on Hacker's Creek, and three years later bought the small farm on the same creek where he spent the remainder of his life, and died February 11, 1899. He was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church. His wife died July 20, 1882. Their family consisted of eight children, David P., the wagon maker, and J. Newton, the merchant of Hopewell; Dorcas, wife of James Cleavenger, a merchant; R. W., a silversmith of Spencer, West Virginia; Mollie, wife of George Cunningham, a teacher of Randolph County; Margaret, wife of Perry Phares, a machinist of Cumberland, Maryland; Augusta (now dead), wife of J. M. Talbott, Justice of the Peace at Parsons, West Virginia, and Eliza (now dead), wife of Samuel Felton, a gunsmith. On September 24, 1885, he married Mary C. Compton, of Clarksburg. Mr. Hamrick's fame rests on a discovery made by him of an embalming process by which vegetables, meats, and even human bodies may be preserved for a time, the length of which is not yet known. Two human bodies embalmed by him in February, 1888, were in a perfect state of preservation after the lapse of eleven years. Time only will tell how much longer they will be preserved. Mr. Hamrick was not an educated man. About the only book he studied was the Bible, and in it he claimed to have discovered his embalming process. Years before he announced his discovery, he occasionally would seek information from his friends on his favorite theme by asking them if they knew of any book which would give an account of ancient embalming, and whether there was any historical mention of embalming antedating the death of Jacob, as told in the 50th chapter of Genesis. He was unacquainted with ancient history, and was not aware that Egyptian mummies, older than Jacob, are now in existence in the museums. The cost of a first-class embalming in Egypt was about $3600; while by Mr. Hamrick's method the cost would probably not much exceed the one hundredth part of that. Mr. Hamrick began his experiments about twenty-years ago by immersing green ears of corn, tomatoes and other perishable vegetables in a fluid which he made. This fluid, when pure, was as clear as water. He kept his secret and experimented for years. Finally he began to preserve small animals and pieces of meat, and so successful was he that he became very anxious to try his method on a human body. Through the assistance of Judge Samuel Woods he obtained two bodies at the Weston Insane Asylum, and was permitted to experiment on them in a room for forty days, with no one else present. After forty days the officers and doctors of the asylum were admitted to the room, and found the two bodies perfectly preserved, without a sign of decomposition. From that day Mr. Hamrick's fame began to go forth. Mr. Hamrick had not obtained a patent. He applied for one, and his application was rejected, on the grounds that the fluid described in his formula, would not produce the result claimed for it. The only answer he could make to this was to offer to give a practical demonstration of it in Washington under conditions named by the commissioner of patents. This offer was accepted, and he took the two mummies from Weston to Wash- ington, with a certificate from the asylum officers setting forth when the bodies had been embalmed, nearly two years before. In addition to this, a subject was procured, and in the presence of several officials, including a representative of the Smithsonian Institute, Mr. Hamrick embalmed the body. A patent was given him without further question. Within a few hours Mr. Hamrick received an offer of $10,000 for the right to use the process in Pennsylvania. Instead of accepting or declining the offer, he left Washington, and went home. He never made much money out of his discovery. He was an old man, and lacked ability, in a business way, to turn his patent into cash. He sold shoprights in many parts of the United States, and his income could easily have been made large, but his health failed, and on February 11, 1899, he died of consumption. On December 24, 1891, he was elected an honorary member of the Paris Inventors' Academy, of France, and was subsequently granted a bronze medal, and still later a gold medal, all without expense to him. When he drew near the end of his life, he prepared embalming fluid for his own body, and instructed his friends how to use it. He died at a time when the weather was intensely cold, the thermometer having been below zero for four days, and part of the time as much as 22 degrees below. All of this time the fluid which he had provided for himself was remote from the fire, in a glass jar, as much exposed as if out of doors, and it was not frozen. He was buried at Mary's Chapel Cemetery, five miles north of Philippi. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Barbour County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/barbour/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------