Dr. Benjamin Knox Rachford
"The Father of Pediatrics" in Cincinnati, was born in Alexandria, Kentucky to Hugh Knox Rachford and Eliza Jane Beall. After graduating from the Medical College of Ohio in 1882, he located at 272 Madison Street in Newport. He took post graduate work in the physiological laboratory of Professor Gad in Berlin where he began his work on the effects of bile on the action of the pancreatic juice. As a result of his experiments Dr. Rachford was able "to show that the bile and hydrochloric acid aid the pancreatic juice, especially in the digestion of fat and protein." This study gave him a national reputation.
Upon his return to Cincinnati, he became Professor of Bacteriology in his alma mater and subsequently Professor of Physiology and in 1901 of Pediatrics. In 1890 he began to practice in Newport and continued for four years. He created the Department of Pediatrics in the Medical College of the University of Cincinnati which was one of the first on this continent and left the department in 1920.
In 1909 he started the Babies Milk Fund Association which with the financial aid of Mary M Emery, was able to establish new clinics and sell the best grade of certified milk to the less privileged groups at three cents a pint.
Through the efforts of Dr. Rachford, aided by
Dr. J C Oliver, Mrs. Emery endowed the Department of Pathology of the
University's Medical College, contributed toward the construction of a new
medical college building and later endowed the Department of Pediatrics which
bears his name. He died in 1929.