Amory Coffin

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Amory Coffin (born December 24, 1813 on the Coffin Point Plantation , on St. Helena Island (South Carolina) , † January 12, 1884 in Aiken (South Carolina) ) was an American medic and physician.

Life

House on Coffin Point Plantation, built around 1801

Coffin came from a Boston- based family, from which his father Ebenezer Coffin (1765-1817) had come to South Carolina and settled on Coffin Point Plantation. In the early 1830s he studied medicine at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and at the Charleston Medical College . He lived as a doctor first in Barnwell, later in Aiken, where he published several publications on climatological content, but also translated a historical novel by Luise Mühlbach from German into English. He was buried in the Saint Thaddeus Cemetery in Aiken.

family

Amory Coffin was married and had eight children, including Amory Coffin Jr. (1841–1916), who, according to his own description, three months before the attack on Fort Sumter as a cadet commanded the battery that fired the first shot when the civilian steamship Star of the West approached by sea on behalf of the US War Department alerting the other batteries and forts of the (later) Confederate States Army at the entrance to Charleston Harbor ; so one of the first shots in the Civil War . He watched the attack on Fort Sumter from a tower on Sullivan's Island . He graduated from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in 1862 .

Champagne bet

Amory Coffin became legendary through his bet for 25 bottles of champagne with the later German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck as a student in Göttingen in 1833 . Otto von Bismarck himself mentions this bet in his thoughts and memories . In a bet with Coffin, Bismarck had bet that German unity would be established within 20 years; So he lost the bet because he misjudged himself by almost 20 years. The respective loser of the bet should travel across the Atlantic and deliver the bottles personally. But that never happened. Bismarck claims to have tried in 1853 to find out something about Coffin's whereabouts in order to set out on the trip. However, he received the (from today's point of view incorrect) notification that Coffin was already different. Bismarck later spoke to the journalist Moritz Busch

"The strangest thing is that back then - in 1833 - I must have had the thought and hope that has now come true with God's help, although at that time I only communicated with the connections that wanted that in a state of battle"

- Otto von Bismarck after Engelberg (2014)

In a letter of thanks to the manager of the American daily Public Ledger in Philadelphia on July 4, 1875 for a walking stick he had sent , carved from the framework of Independence Hall , Bismarck fondly remembered his American circle of friends at the University of Göttingen and the celebration of American Independence Day in 1832 in this circle consisting of Amory Coffin, John Lothrop Motley and Mitchell Campbell King .

Fonts

  • An Examination of the Doctrine of Homoeopathia. Medical College of the State of South Carolina, 1838.
  • Anniversary Oration Delivered Before the South Carolina Medical Association at the Annual Meeting in Charleston, Held on 31st January, 1853. Steam Power Press of Walker and James, 1853.
  • Amory Coffin, William H. Geddings: Aiken: Or, Climate Cure. Walker, Evans & Cogswell, printers, 1869.
  • Aiken, South Carolina: A Sketch of Its History; Including an Account of Its Climate, Soil Products and Natural Advantages of Its Vicinity. 1869.
  • Amory Coffin, William H. Geddings: Aiken and Its Climate. Walker, Evans & Cogswell, printers, 1872.
  • as translator: Luise Mühlbach : The Merchant of Berlin. 1866.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in Find a grave , accessed on November 22, 2014.
  2. ↑ Amory Coffin Transcript. 1911; see LCCN  n2012-019744
  3. ↑ Quote: “Nonetheless, I kept my national sentiments and the belief that the development of the near future would lead us to German unity; I bet with my American friend Coffin that this goal would be achieved in twenty years ”, Bismarck, Thoughts and Memories
  4. ↑ Bismarck: Thoughts and Memories. I. Book, 1st chapter
  5. ^ Ernst Engelberg , Achim Engelberg : Bismarck: Storm over Europe. Biography. Siedler Verlag, 2014. (digitized version)
  6. ^ Hans Rothfels : Otto von Bismarck. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970, No. 258.
  7. ↑ Ralph Lutz: Relations between Germany and the United States during the Civil War. 1911, p. 12 ff. (Digitized version)
personal data
SURNAME Coffin, Amory
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American medic and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Coffin Point Plantation, St. Helena Island, South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1884
Place of death Aiken, South Carolina