This cache is part of the 25 cache Pennsylvania State Parks America250PA GeoTrail. Have fun exploring and discovering Pennsylvania's history!
Benjamin Rush was born in January 1746 in a small northeastern section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rush’s father died when he was only five years old, and at the age of eight, Rush was sent to live with his uncle Rev. Dr. Samuel Finley, who saw to Rush’s education as the headmaster to a school known today as Princeton where Rush received a Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of 14. Rush returned to Philadelphia where he apprenticed under prominent American physicians. During this time, Rush wrote one of the only surviving eyewitness account of the 1762 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia.
In 1766, Rush left to study chemistry and medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he received his medical degree in 1768. He then spent several months in London studying at St. Thomas’s Hospital where he met Benjamin Franklin. A year later, Rush returned to Philadelphia in 1769 to begin a medical practice and was appointed professor of chemistry in University of Penn’s medical department. In 1776, Rush was chosen to serve in the Second Continental Congress as a representative for Pennsylvania and was one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. He joined the Revolution in 1777 as the surgeon general of the middle department of the Continental Army; however, he became very frustrated at the disorganization of army hospitals and resigned from the army in 1778.
During his time in the military and after, Rush remained a committed and prominent abolitionist. He viewed all men as created equal, even those who were enslaved. In 1787, he joined the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and helped author its new constitution. Rush served as the secretary and later president of this society and later helped found the city’s first black church.
For more information about this state park and its amenities, please visit the website: Benjamin Rush State Park | Department of Conservation and Natural Resources| Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Photo credit: Dodson, R. W., artist. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), M.D. 1768, Autographed Portrait. print: engraving with manuscript annotation, ca. 1800. UPX 4, Graphics and portraits Collection, Box 2, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.22101073. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.