Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 34

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II > Part 34

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Dr. Steiner's clientele embraced the most distinguished citizens of this sec- tion, as well as of Augusta. He was the physician of Govs. Hammond, Pickens and Bonham, of South Carolina, and Gov. Jenkins, Robert Toombs, A. H. Steph- ens and John P. King and Col. Henry Cumming, of Georgia. To all these distinguished men he was not only the beloved physician, but the trusted friend and counselor. Indeed it may be truthfully said that he was at once physician and friend in every household in which he practiced his profession. Mr. Steph- ens used to say of him that he was a man that would have risen to the first place in any profession which he had chosen. And whenever the "great com- moner" was ill, whether in Washington or Atlanta, or at Liberty hall, he always summoned Dr. Steiner, saying that if he had a chance for life it lay in the skill of his trusted physician. With the exception of Mr. Stephens, Dr. Steiner was regarded by Gen. Toombs as his closest personal friend. When Mr. Toombs was made a general in the Confederate army, Dr. Steiner was selected by him as surgeon on his staff. Mr. P. A. Stovall in his life of Robert Toombs tells of the intimacy of the friendship between Dr. Steiner and Gen. Toombs, and the powerful influence which the doctor exerted over the general, both in private and military life. It is a well known fact that it was through the influence of Dr. Steiner that Gen. Toombs made confession of faith in Christ and received baptism. Mrs. Toombs was critically ill at Clarksville in 1883. Their devoted friend, Dr. Steiner, was called to attend her, and remained until her death. Dr. Steiner then spoke to Gen. Toombs of his spiritual condition. Finding the general in proper spiritual condition, he urged him to profess his faith and receive baptism. This the general did, greatly to the rejoicing of the good doctor. Dr. Steiner's minister said of him: "It may be truly said of him that he was a lay evangelist. His ministrations to the sick and the dying became opportunities for spiritual comfort and guidance. His wonderful sympathy won for him the confidence of all his patients, and when he had done everything that human skill could do in ministering to the body, he never failed to say 'a word in season' about the solemn and deeper interests of the soul. His prayers in the sick room can never be forgotten by those who heard them. On one occasion a man was dying and had sent for a Catholic priest to baptize him. The man's life was passing away very fast. He implored that he might not die unbaptized. In the emergency Dr. Steiner did not hesitate to exercise the right, in such extremities, to administer lay baptism. He baptized the dying man. As he was coming home after the man had died he met the priest hurrying to the bedside. The doctor told him what he had done, and the good priest,

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with tears in his eyes, thanked him for the kind office which he had rendered in his stead to the dying man.

"No man in this community ever had a better knowledge of disease than Dr. Steiner. His power of diagnosis amounted almost to intuition. His cures seemed sometimes to be miracles of healing. Yet with all his skill and rare professional success he never forgot that he was after all only an agent in the service of the Great Physician. The motto of his life was the legend which is written over the door of a lecture room in one of the great schools of med- icine in Paris: 'I dressed the wound; God healed him.' As an evidence of the high estimate placed upon Dr. Steiner by his old army comrade, it is proper to mention that when the late war commenced, Stonewall Jackson invited Dr. Steiner, his old army friend, to accept the position of surgeon on his staff. The love of the people of all classes and races for Dr. Steiner exceeded anything I ever witnessed. Kindness was the law of his life in his intercourse with everybody. The human heart leaps kindly back to kind- ness. Kindness will disarm even the murderous savage, as was proven by the following incident in the life of Dr. Steiner: While he was serving under Gen. Worth, during the Seminole war, he would often go out hunting alone. When the war ended and the Indians were brought in as prisoners to the camp, the great Seminole chief, Alpati, turned to Dr. Steiner and said: 'Many a time when you were roaming alone through our hunting grounds have I leveled my rifle to kill you. But Alpati would never hurt the good medicine man.' The senti- ment of the great Indian chief is the sentiment of this whole people among whom he lived so honorably and so long. There is no man among his people who would ever have lifted his hand to harm the 'good medicine man' who has gone to rest. Few men, if any, have ever stood in such intimate personal relations to so many influential people in one community. And by reason of this he occu- pied for a long time a position which was altogether unique among our people. More than once he has been the trusted arbiter in difficulties which threatened the peace of families. Time and again his kind offices were invoked to heal estrangements among friends. He was ever the peacemaker, whose judgment was sought and whose counsel was followed, and it was commonly recognized that no other man in the community wielded the same personal influence which was conceded to Dr. Steiner. Dr. Steiner had a strange aversion to holding any public office. It was with difficulty he was ever persuaded to accept an office of any kind. Whenever he was so persuaded it was only to discharge what he considered some special and commanding public duty, and then only for a short time. He was a member of the State Medical association of Georgia and might have been its president but for his own refusal to serve. For two years he was a member of the board of health, and during that time he gave to the board the benefit of his rare skill in medicine, his large experience in sanitary measures, his wide information upon all matters relating to the public health, and the characteristic energy with which he did everything that he undertook.

"When several years ago a commission was appointed to formulate a new charter for the city of Augusta, Dr. Steiner's name at once suggested itself as one which would command the confidence of the entire community and he was unanimously chosen. When again in 1886 a vacancy occurred on the board of education, Dr. Steiner was unanimously elected to fill the vacant place, and con- sented to serve. His advice was constantly sought by the board as to the differ- ent departments of the public schools and especially in reference to the best methods to be employed in order to preserve the health of the children. Even after he became too ill to leave his house, he was induced to remain upon the

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board in order that the members, and especially the president, might have the benefit of his counsel when needed.

"In all religious and charitable matters, he was always willing to bear his measure of responsibility, and, if necessary, to take a leading part. When Gov. Jenkins died he was elected in 1885 senior warden of St. Paul's church. He has often said that this was the only office which he had ever been glad to hold. In that position his untiring energy and his blameless life have represented and illustrated the Episcopal church in Augusta. He was a man of strong convictions and outspoken in his defense of them. No one ever had a doubt as to where Dr. Steiner stood. People knew that he was an Episcopalian, and that he could give a reason, which was not a sentiment, for the faith which was in him; yet he had withal so broad a charity that his convictions never antagonized anyone. He was never separated in sympathy from those with whom he differed. The Sister of Mercy, the Roman Catholic priests, distinguished ministers in the Pres- byterian, Methodist and Baptist churches-indeed, Christians of every name- found in Dr. Steiner a true and loyal friend. In April, 1874, he was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Augusta Orphan asylum, and he always had the deepest interest in that beneficent institution. It will be remembered also how active a part he took in founding the Industrial Home for Fallen Women. It is hardly too much to say that the home owes its existence more to Dr. Steiner than to any other one man. It will be seen, therefore, that with the possible exception of his services on the charter commission and on the board of education, Dr. Steiner held no public office that was not in the line of his profession, or in the interest of charity and religion. Officeholding was distasteful to him because his heart was bound up in his profession, for which he was so singularly gifted, both by nature and education, and yet it was impossible that a man of such striking personality and such extraordinary strength of character could restrict his influence to the limits of his own profession, even if he wished to do so. It has been said by one who is well qualified to express such an opinion, that Dr. Steiner 'was for many years the most eminent private citizen of Augusta; that there was no one whose counsel was so often sought, and whose advice was so gladly followed in matters relating to the welfare of the community, both in church and state.' His fine sense, his broad sympathies, his good judgment, his freedom from prejudice, made him always the safe counselor and valued friend."

The above outline of Dr. Steiner's life is largely extracted from a biographical sketch written of him at the time of his death by his rector, Rev. C. C. Williams. From an intimate acquaintance of twenty years with him I regarded Dr. Steiner as the best-rounded character I ever knew. It was my privilege to have known him upon terms of most intimate personal friendship. His every act seemed to have resulted from a due appreciation of responsibility to conscience and his maker. In his long and trying illness it was my privilege to visit him frequently. Full of faith in God, and perfect submission to his will, it seemed to me that he had attained as near unto Christian perfection as mortal could reach. Every visit I made him was a benediction to me. Having known him intimately in the practice of medicine I give it as my deliberate opinion that he was the ablest practitioner of medicine in Georgia.

FRANK A. STANFORD, M. D., Columbus, Ga. Dr. Stanford died in 1885, aged sixty years. I have been unable to obtain data as to his early youth and much of his life which are necessary to write a full memoir of him. He graduated M. D. from the university of New York city. (I cannot ascertain the date.) He served a term on the resident staff of the New York hospital. From a relative

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of his I learn that Profs. Valentine Mott and Van Buren, of New York, regarded Dr. Stanford at the time of his graduation as one of the most promising young physicians of that day. In him their prophecy was fulfilled, for he became one of the greatest of Georgia's great doctors. He was great in all departments of his profession. He was one of our most renowned general practitioners of medicine, and as a surgeon ranked second to none of Georgia's great surgeons; indeed, he was the peer of the greatest surgeons in America, and had he lived in New York would have attained a national distinction. He performed almost all of the capital operations known to surgery in his day. During the civil war he was medical director on Wheeler's cavalry corps, occupying this position until the sur- render of the Confederate army, discharging the duties of his high position to the great benefit of the Confederate cause, and to the eminent satisfaction of his distinguished commander. Dr. Stanford was a remarkably handsome man. In military and civil life he was a brave, courteous, highly cultured gentleman, and commanded the respect and confidence of all who were so fortunate as to know him. He was for many years a member of the medical association of Georgia, and contributed to the volumes of the transactions of this association many of its ablest papers. Beside the above mentioned articles, he contributed much and ably to medical literature through medical journals. He was one of the most useful and highly honored members of the state board of health of Georgia, and was regarded as one of the most eminent sanitarians in America. With the exception of the period embraced in his army life, he was a resident of Columbus, Ga., and was considered the most distinguished man in that section of the state.

VALENTINE H. TALIAFERRO, M. D .* This eminent gynecologist, although born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., Sept. 24, 1831, came of remote Italian ances- try, and in his personal appearance and distinguishing traits of character he dis- played some of the finest qualities of that gifted race. These ancestors on coming to America first settled in the vicinity of Williamsburg, Va., where they were counted with the wealthy and respectable families of that thriving section of the "Old Dominion." Mr. Zack Taliaferro, his great-grandfather, who lived in Am- herst county, was the father of that gallant and distinguished soldier of the revolu- tionary war, Col. Benjamin Taliaferro, who won an enviable reputation in many hard-fought battles, commanding a company under Gen. Washington during the severe campaign of 1777-78, in the Jerseys. At the battle of Princeton he forced the surrender of a company of British troops, and ragged and shoeless, as were the American soldiers in that hard struggle, he stepped forward and proudly accepted the surrendered sword of the elegantly uniformed British commander. Later on Col. Taliaferro joined the southern army, and was captured at the siege of Charleston. Returning to Virginia on parole, he resumed the peaceful occu- pation he had left to serve his country on the battlefield. About the year 1785 Col. Taliaferro removed to Georgia, where his brilliant reputation and sterling character soon made him one of the foremost men of his day in the state. Among other honors conferred upon him he was elected a member of congress, president of the Georgia senate, a judge of the superior court (although not a lawyer), and trustee of the state university. in all of which positions he won added reputation as a patriot and statesman. Taliaferro county, the home of the lamented Alexander H. Stephens, will perpetuate his memory far into the distant future. Col. Talia- ferro's son, Warren, who located on Broad river, in Oglethorpe county, married a sister of Gov. George R. Gilmer, of this state, and their only son, Col. Charles B. Taliaferro (lately deceased at Columbus), was the honored father of the subject of this sketch. After giving his son the best educational advantages that home insti-

*Written by J. S. Todd, M. D., Atlanta, Ga.

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tutions offered, he sent him to the university of New York, located in that city, from the medical department of which he graduated in 1852. Coming back to Georgia, after practicing his profession in Palmetto, Atlanta and Columbus, he finally returned to Atlanta, where he was living when he died. His advancement in honors and reputation were steady and marked. In his early life he edited and published a medical and literary paper. In 1857 he was elected vice-president of the medical association of Georgia; in 1877 he became president of the Atlanta academy of medicine; in 1876 he was a member of the International Medical con- gress, held in Philadelphia; in 1859 he was elected professor of materia medica in the Oglethorpe college at Savannah, which he resigned the following year; in 1872 he was chosen professor of diseases of women and children in the Atlanta Medical college, and in 1875 was transferred to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women, which position he filled with distinguished ability; in 1876 he was dean of the faculty, and a year later was made a trustee. In addition to this, he was the efficient secretary and executive officer of the Georgia state board of health (created in 1875) during its active existence. His last address at the opening exercises of the Atlanta Medical college was a masterpiece of oratory. Being a man of un- tiring energy and boundless resources, he has been able to respond to the various calls made upon him for such services. Dr. Taliaferro made many valuable contri- butions to medical literature, among the more noted we mention: "Medication by the Use of Uterine Tents in Diseases of the Body and Cavity of the Uterus;" "Pathological Sympathies of the Uterus;" "The Corset in its Relation to Uterine Diseases;" "New Intra-Uterine Pessaries;" "The Application of Pressure in the Treatment of Diseases of the Uterus, Ovaries and Peri-Uterine Structure;" "New Vaginal and Intra-Uterine Pessaries." In the spring of 1881 Dr. Taliaferro estab- lished a private infirmary for the treatment of diseases of women. This infirmary grew steadily until his death. When the late war commenced Dr. Taliaferro was residing in Columbus, and was one of the first to respond to the call for volun- teers. As a private in the City Light Guards of Columbus he was brought into the Second Georgia battalion (commanded by Col. Thomas Hardeman, of Macon), and was elected surgeon. Owing to his inheriting a liberal share of the military spirit of his ancestors, Surgeon Taliaferro soon yearned for a more active position, and resigning from the battalion he organized and became colonel of the Tenth Georgia cavalry, which he commanded with rare courage and skill, leaving the army at the close of the war with the brevet rank of brigadier-general. It was this active service that gave Dr. Taliaferro his fine military bearing and trained him to quick movements and prompt results. There were few handsomer or more chivalrous soldiers in the Confederate army, and since the war he ever held in kind remembrance the gallant men of that bloody period. His memorial address at the graves of the dead of the City Light Guards, delivered a few years ago at Colum- bus, was an eloquent and beautiful tribute to the "lost cause" and its "fallen braves." His practice was large and lucrative. A more perfect gentleman in feeling, man- ner, thought and action never lived. He was a gentleman by birth, instinct and education. He was an invalid for several years before his death, but continued up to the last actively at work. I prevailed on him to take a much needed rest, and he concluded to go to Tate Springs. For several days before he left he was confined to his bed, and I found him weak and haggard on the morning of his departure, but he had actually in active preparation all the arrangements to operate on a charity patient. His assistant and I prevailed on him not to attempt the operation. He left for Tate Springs that morning, but carried her and several other patients with him. I am told that just prior to his death he operated. His disease was albuminaria, accompanied by valvular heart trouble. He literally

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died in the harness. The description by the poet of Abou Ben Adhem applies with peculiar grace to our dead brother:

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw within the moonlight of his room, Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, An angel writing in a book of gold.

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,

And, with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord." "And is mine one?" asked Abou. "Nay, not so,"

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, But cheerly still, and said, "I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." The angel wrote and vanished. The next night

It came again, with a great wakening light

And showed the names whom love of God had blest

And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

JAMES GRAY THOMAS, M. D.,* was born near Bloomfield, Ky., June 24, 1835. He began his medical studies in the university of Louisville, Louisville, Ky. He graduated in medicine from the university of the city of New York in 1856, and began his life work in Bloomfield, the place of his birth and early home. He subsequently settled near Sardis, Miss., where he was in general practice when the late war broke out He entered the Confederate service as a surgeon and continued in that capacity till the war closed. He married in Savannah, Nov. 16, 1865, and made that city the place of his residence. He served in the legislature of Georgia through the sessions of 1875 and 1876. This appa- rent divergence from the line of his chosen vocation was made by him in obedi- ence to a sense of public duty, and in compliance with the urgent solicitation of eminent citizens who desired to return to the legislature a judicious and public- spirited medical man who would lead in procuring the enactment of laws relating to the interest of hygiene in the state. In accepting such public trusts he was .especially moved by the hope that he might help to obtain for the state an effective health board. During the session of 1875, the first of his service, the legislature passed an act to create a state board of health for the protection of life and health, and to prevent the spread of diseases in the state of Georgia, and for other pur- poses. He took a most important part in the preparation and passage of this measure. The board thus created consisted of nine physicians, together with the comptroller-general and attorney-general and state geologist, and it chose Dr. Thomas as its first president, his name appearing as such in its printed reports for the years 1875 and 1876. He was diligent in his attention to the work of the board, and endeavored faithfully to make its ministration effective for the good of the commonwealth. For the first time in the history of the state, physicians were recognized as an active and working element in its government. Systematic efforts were made throughout the state to increase the number of those who would favor sanitary reform, to establish a correct method of obtaining and using vital statistics, to organize local boards of health, to define the power of each board, and to defend the people on the coast line and over avenues of traffic with the interior against the invasion of pestilence from abroad, and to teach them to recognize and fight against preventable disease within their own borders. A due supervision of all the public charities of the state was also to be provided

*Written by Dr. C. R. Agnew, of New York.

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for. In fact, a great movement was started which was intended to secure for the state the inestimable blessing of a good body of health laws, wisely administered. In all this admirable work Dr. Thomas was justly prominent, and had he and his associates been sufficiently sustained by legislative grants and appreciative public opinion, greater results would have been immediately realized. The good he did in turning away from the cherished and most congenial occupations of private practice to serve in public life will link his name as that of a benefactor with the sanitary history of his state and with the annals of state medicine throughout our entire land. In 1877 an act was passed by the Georgia legislature to provide for the drainage of Chatham county, so as to protect the state from epidemics of yellow fever and other diseases, and to appropriate for said purposes one-third of the state tax of said county for the year 1877, and appointing five commissioners to carry the law into effect. On the organization of the commissioners, March 7, 1877, Dr. Thomas was elected chairman. He took an active and zealous part in the work of the commission and was its chairman at the time of his death. The work done by the commission has been effective in promoting the public health, and material prosperity of the chief commercial ocean gateway of the state. In the winter of 1881 Dr. Thomas had strongly urged the importance of organizing, in Savannah, a citizens' sanitary association, looking to the improvement of the public health through the united efforts of private citizens, and as auxiliary to established public methods of sanitation. The result was a public meeting held in the "long room" of the Exchange, Dec. 14, 1881, largely attended by leading citizens of Savannah. By special invitation, the meeting was addressed by Dr. Thomas. His views were so warmly adopted that the organization of the pro- posed association was immediately authorized, and carried into effiect Feb. IO, 1882. On this occasion he was elected president of the association, which began with an enrollment of 259 members, subsequently largely increased. Dr. Thomas continued in this office to the time of his death. Thus while the doctor was assidu- ous in the private practice of his calling, and never neglectful of his solemn obli- gations, he was always concerned about the welfare of the public, and ready in suggesting judicious plans to enlist public-spirited citizens in measures for the general health. He was rarely absent from his work, and only for brief periods of rest, when those for whose health he felt a deep sense of responsibility were least liable to be exposed to epidemic influences. He was an esteemed member of the American Public Health association, and no one who had the privilege of attending the session of that body in Savannah will forget how much the success of the meeting turned on his unostentatious but effective service, and how freely and courteously the hospitalities of his delightful home were dispensed. His interest in the national board of health was early, consistent and continuous, and he did what he could to advocate the doctrine of the necessity of the establish- ment and maintenance of that body as the most ready, effective agency through which to give the entire country the benefit of adequate sanitary supervision and police, to lessen the ravages of indigenous, preventable diseases, and to prevent the introduction on the coast line of such as threatened to invade the country from without. He was ever willing to do the work that pressed upon him to be done, and to turn aside even from the most congenial occupations of home life and the routine of his daily practice, if only the claim was addressed to his keen sense of public duty. He was not only a physician, he was also a patriot. It was in obedience to such motives that he left Savannah at the close of November last, although not feeling well, to attend a meeting in the city of Washington to con- plete the arrangements for the International Medical congress, to be held in that city in the year 1887. He was taken ill on the railway train near Richmond, but continued on to his destination. After reaching Washington his malady took the

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 34

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166