Early Life and Family
The Sloan family emigrated from Ireland in the early nineteenth century following the American Revolution; Earl's father settled in Venango County, Pennsylvania.
The family home was a small log house on Sandusky Street in Zanesfield. Earl's father was a horse harness maker, who served as a pioneer veterinary surgeon for central Ohio, and he bought and sold horses for the army during the Civil War. He had a certain ability with horses and spent as much time caring for animals as he did in mending saddles. From a formula reportedly given to him by the Indians (though this is uncertain), Andrew made a strong-smelling brown concoction that was applied to horses' shoulders when they stiffened from the spring ploughing. The formula grew to be in great demand in the area.
Andrew Sloan pursued his skill with healing animals until he was a self-taught veterinarian, becoming known as the "Village Vet" and "Doc Sloan." A notice that appeared in the Logan County Gazette on September 6, 1856 advertised:
Dr. Andrew Sloan takes this method of informing his old friends, who have so liberally patronized him for many years, that he is now prepared to practice as a Veterinary Surgeon, and will attend to any call in his profession in Logan and adjoining counties. Dr. S. professes to cure Poll Evil, Spavin, Splints, Curb, Callous, Sweney, Shoulder-jam, or any other disease, external or internal. So bring on your cripples. Residence at Zanesfield.
ANDREW SLOAN.
N.B. Dr Sloan is prepared to furnish stable or pasture for horses from a distance. Medicines of all sorts furnished, and prescriptions given. - Charges reasonable.
Earl attended school in Zanesfield's old school building, directly across the street from his home. He did not attend more than the elementary grades, but did learn to read and developed a great appreciation for books.
Townspeople recalled that Earl was mischievous as a youth and objected to the nickname "Spider" that was attached to him for reasons unknown.
Under the tutelage of Frank Pope, Earl also became a harness-maker, beginning his apprenticeship at the age of fifteen.
Read more about this topic: Earl Sloan
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or family:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man,—a sort of breeding in and in, which produces at most a merely English nobility, a civilization destined to have a speedy limit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In soliciting donations from his flock, a preacher may promise eternal life in a celestial city whose streets are paved with gold, and that’s none of the law’s business. But if he promises an annual free stay in a luxury hotel on Earth, he’d better have the rooms available.”
—Unknown. Charlotte Observer (October 6, 1989)
“... a family I know ... bought an acre in the country on which to build a house. For many years, while they lacked the money to build, they visited the site regularly and picnicked on a knoll, the site’s most attractive feature. They liked so much to visualize themselves as always there, that when they finally built they put the house on the knoll. But then the knoll was gone. Somehow they had not realized they would destroy it and lose it by supplanting it with themselves.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)