Coolkenno History

ABRAHAM GROVES: Abraham Groves was born in Peterborough in Canada in September 1847. What's so important about him you may wonder? Firstly, his father, Abraham Snr, was born in Coolkenno in 1811. With the prospects of a fresh new start and better opportunities available in Canada, many Coolkennovian families moved to Canada to gain employment on the construction of the Rideau Canal. Groves Snr settled on his own farm near Garafraxa Township, Ontario and would later serve on the loyalist side of the Mackenzie Rebellion. After Abraham Snr married Margaret Gibson, young Abraham Jnr was born into a comfortable rural life in 1847. He attended grammar school in the town of Fergus and later graduated from the Toronto School of Medicine in 1871. He returned home to create his own practice in Fergus and would remain at this post for 60 years. This is the interesting part of Groves' life. On May 10th 1883, he performed the first ever successful appendectomy on the American continent. He was renowned for his sterilisation practices on his surgical equipment, before it became ideal to do so. Groves would later work at the Fergus Royal Alexandra Hospital which opened in 1902 and would later commemorate its famous surgeon with a name change. He died on May 12th 1935, a son of a Coolkenno man a and most importantly a world renowned surgical pioneer.