USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 32
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 32
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1877 .- James Buchanan, Hugh H. Hamill, Treu- ton ; Richard Runyan, Princeton.
1878 .- Rutherford Coleman, George W. Macpher- son, Bayard Stockton, Trenton.
1879 .- Symmes B. Hutchinson, Karl A. Langlotz, Jr., Edward H. Murphy, George D. Seudder, Tren- ton.
1880 .- Fergus A. Dennis, Princeton ; James M. Force, William M. Lanning, Ira W. Wood, Samuel G. Naar, Trenton.
1881 .- Barton B. Hutchinson, Isaac T. Wood, Trenton.
1882 .- Loren H. Batelielor, Trenton.
Of this number the following hold or have held some official legal position, viz. :
He was admitted to the bar of the State of New York in 1861, and began practice in New York City. GARRET D. W. VROOM, a son of the late Governor Peter D. Vroom, a graduate of Rutgers College in 1862, was elected prosecutor of the pleas of Mereer County in 1870, to fill the place of the late Col. Cald- well C. Hall. Upon the death of his father he was appointed law reporter, and has continued Vroom's 1 Reports from vol. iii., and is still reporter. He with James H. Stewart was intrusted with the indexing and publishing the " Revision of the Statutes of New Jer- Later he removed to Trenton, and having been ad- mitted as an attorney in June, 1864, he established himself in praetiee in that eity. He received lis : counselor's license in 1867. He was elected to the Common Council of the city of Trenton as a Demo- crat in 1865, and officiated as president of that body in 1866. He was chosen mayor of Trenton in 1867, : and was appointed law judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1869, which offiee he filled for a term of five : sey" in 1877. He is also mayor of the city of Trenton. years. A year later he was appointed a justice of His position at the bar is prominent and still ad- vaneing. the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and reappointed in 1882. This exceptionally rapid advancement is of MERCER BEASLEY, JR., a son of Chief Justice Beasley, is also prominent at the bar. He succeeded itself a sufficient comment on Judge Reed's ability as a lawyer, and bears witness to the respect and esteem . Mr. G. D. W. Vroom as prosecutor of the pleas in in which he is held by the people of his native State. . Mercer, and continues to hold that office. He is also
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MEDICAL PRACTICE AND PHYSICIANS.
one of the retained attorneys of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He has a large and increasing practice on both the criminal and civil sides of the courts.
JOHN H. STEWART was born in Hunterdon County, and rose into prominence by being employed to pre- pare and publish a " Digest of the New Jersey Rc- ports," a long-needed and laborious work, which he performed very creditably. He is at present the law judge of Mercer County, having been appointed as the successor of Judge Buchanan. He is also chan- cery reporter, having succeeded C. E. Green. These several places he fills admirably, and also gives atten- tion to practice.
JAMES BUCHANAN was born at Ringoes, Hunterdon Co., N. J., June 17, 1839. He studied law with Jolm , faith in the skill of root doctors, and would rather T. Bird and at the Albany Law School, and settled in confide in them than in learned and thoroughbred phy- sicians. Such persons treat the healing art as an oc- cult science and not as one of the learned professions, and they rush to the ignorant pretender with the same superstitious belief that he can heal them, as they go to the Gypsy fortune-teller to learn where their stolen property can be found. Trenton to practice after he was admitted iu 1864. He was a Republican and was active in politics, and was appointed to succeed Judge Reed as law judge of Mercer County. He has given more attention to practice in the United States District Court of New Jersey than in the State Courts, especially was this the case while the bankrupt law was in force. He is a trustee of the Peddie Institute, and takes an active interest in religious, municipal, and benevolent iu- stitutions. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
CHARLES E. GREEN, a son of the late distinguished Chancellor Green, was a graduate of Princeton Col- lege in 1860, and admitted to the bar in 1863. He was immediately thereafter appointed chancery re- porter by his father, and he continued to hold that. position during the term of his father and that of Chancellor Zabriskie and a part of Chancellor Run- yon's term, till Mr. Stewart was appointed. The numerous volumes of C. E. Green's Chancery Reports are his reports, and were well and promptly executed. After he ceased to be reporter he was appointed reg- ister in bankruptcy in thic United States District Court. Mr. Green seldom appears in court to argue a cause. He is a trustee of the college and seminary at Princeton, and is charged with other important financial trusts.
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ROBERT S. WOODRUFF received the honorary de- gree of A.M. from Rutgers College, he having been principal of the Rutgers College Grammar-School. He was admitted to the bar in 1868. He represented the Third District of Mercer County in the Assembly in 1874, elected on the Democratic ticket. After- wards he was appointed judge of the " District Court" of the city of Trenton when it was first constituted, and he still holds that position. He was born in Newark, April 2, 1841.
CHAPTER LIX.
MEDICAL PRACTICE AND PHYSICIANS.
No State has been more careful to guard the prac- tice of medicine from falling into the hands of ignor- ant and empirical men than New Jersey. None of the learned professions have been so much exposed to ignorant pretenders as the medical profession. In savage and half-civilized countries there was always a class of persons who claimed to have some special knowledge of diseases and their remedies, and their most reliable remedies were found among roots, plants, and herbs. And even in our age of civilization and learning, there are not a few who have a superstitious
The Quakers and early settlers in New Jersey brought with them men who had given some study and practice of medicine in their native countries, perhaps as reliable as those, if not the same, who had been accustomed to minister unto them in the mother- country.
With the exception of the colony of Virginia, where the Legislature had provided for regulating the fees and accounts of physicians as early as 1636, the colony of New Jersey was the first one to legislate for the regulation of the practice of medicine and surgery. At the call of the most respectable physi- cians of East Jersey, a meeting was held in the city of New Brunswick in the year 1766, at which the New Jersey Medical Society was formed. They adopted articles of association and constitution based upon deelarations of most honorable sentiments touch- ing their professional intercourse with one another, and their duty to their patients and to the public, commending consultations with one another in cases of emergency, and to visit and administer unto the poor without regard to recompense.
The society pledged itself "to do all in its power i to discourage and discountenance all quacks, mountc- bauks, impostors, or other ignorant pretenders to medicine, and on no account support or patronize any but those who have been regularly initiated into medicine either at some university, or under the direction of some able master or masters, or who by the study of the theory and practice of the art, have otherwise qualified themselves to the satisfaction of this society for the exercise of their profession."
That constitution was signed by fourteen of the most respectable physicians in the eastern part of the colony, including Dr. Thomas Wiggins, of Princeton. This society obtained from the colonial Legislature of
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
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1772 the passage of an "act to regulate the practice of physic and surgery" within the province of New Jersey, the first act of the kind cnacted by any of the colonies. The preamble to the act was as follows:
" Whereas, many ignorant and unskillful persons in physic and surgery to gain a subsistence do take upon themselves to administer physic and practice surgery in the colony of New Jersey, to the endangering of the lives and limbs of their patients, and to many of his majesty's subjects, who have been persuaded to become their patients, have been great sufferers thereby, for the prevention of such abuscs for the future."
The act prohibited any person from practicing physic or surgery within the colony before being first examined, approved, and admitted by any two judges of the Supreme Court, with an examiner whom they might select, and obtaining a license from them to practice.
The Revolutionary war arrested the meetings of the society, but in 1782 a notice appeared in the New Jersey Gazette, signed by Dr. Thomas Wiggins, as secretary of the society, calling the annual meeting of the society at Christopher Bcekman's, the sign of the college, in Princeton, on the first Tuesday of May, 1782. In 1783 the State Legislature passed a law similar to the one of 1772, and in 1790 an act incor- porating the society was passed. In 1816 the act was extended for twenty-five years, and from time to time since, the provisions of the acts had been continued and amended until the year 1864, when the society petitioned the Legislature to be allowed "to surren- der all its special privileges and pecuniary immunities and to reorganize as nearly as possible upon a volun- tary basis." An act was accordingly passed in that year continuing the incorporation and giving it authority to confer degrees of doctors of medicine which should be a qualification to its recipient to practice, and also general powers to regulate the dis- trict societies and its own membership.
This act went into effect on the fourth Tuesday of January, 1866, and repealed all former acts and sup- plements regulating the practice of physic and sur- gery. Thus, after protection to the people for one hundred years, the profession is arined with power through this State Medical Society to protect itself as one of the learned professions by demanding from its members the highest attainments in medical and surgical scicnec, with thorough instruction in all the advanced stages of modern practice and professional etiquette, leaving the people and the empiric frce to act towards each other as they please.
But public sentiment soon demanded further legis- lation, and an act entitled "an act to regulate the practice of incdicine and surgery" was passed March 12, 1880. This act provides " that every person prac- ticing medicine or surgery in this State in any of their branches for gain, or who shall receive or accept for
his or her services any fee or reward either directly or indirectly, shall be a graduate of some legally chartered medical school or university in good stand- ing, or some medical society having power by law to grant diplomas ; and such person before entering upon said practice shall deposit a copy of his or her diploma with the clerk of the county in which he or she may sojourn, and shall pay said clerk ten cents for filing the same in his office; said copy to be a matter of record and open to public inspection."
The act makes the violation of the above law a misdemeanor. and imposes a fine of twenty-five dol- lars for each prescription or operation.
By a supplement to the above act passed March 2, 1881, the section containing the penalty was amended, making the violation of the law a misdemeanor, and on conviction a fine of twenty-five dollars, or impris- onment in the county jail not exceeding six months or both, for each prescription or professional service rendered, provided, that any person who shall have had twenty years' experience in the practice shall be exempt from the provisions of such aet.
This law is now in force throughout the State, and it may be observed that the language of the statute applies to both seres.
Important legislation has quite recently been en- acted in this State in relation to the compounding and sale of medicines. Pharmacy has risen to the dignity of a science and a school. By an act of the Legisla- ture in 1877 regulating the practice of pharmacy, provision was made for creating a " Board of Phar- macy of the State of New Jersey," whose duty it is to examine and to grant certificates of registration to pharmacists, and now cvery drug-store is required to be in charge of a registered pharmacist.
The amazing increase in the number of remedies within the last fifteen years makes the preparation and dispensation of medicines a subject of vital im- portance both to the physician and the patient, and stringent legislation to guard against the blunders and ignorance of druggists and their clerks is emi- nently proper. There is an incorporated State Phar- maceutical Society well organized.
A custom which has until a few years past pre- vailed only in large cities, of physicians giving their prescriptions to their patients, who are expected to send them to the druggist to have them filled, is be- ginning to be observed in this county, especially in the larger towns. It is a custom whichi cannot find favor in the country, where drug stores do not exist, and it is extremely inconvenient in towns where the patient is not convenient to a drug-store, or may be so situated that no one can be procured to go in haste, and at night, to get the prescription filled. It is no small burden to send, after every visit of the family physician, to get his prescriptions filled, for he varies his remedies after almost every visit, if the case is a complicated one. Besides this, the patient has more confidence in his physician's knowledge of the un-
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MEDICAL PRACTICE AND PHYSICIANS.
adulterated virtue of the medicines furnished than having been at the presidential mansion to see the sick. that of the druggist, whom he may not know person- ally. On the other hand, it is urged that the increase THOMAS WIGGINS, MI.D., was born at Southold, L. I., in 1731, and graduated at Yale College in 1752. After studying medieine he settled at Prinee- ton, previous to 1762. He bought a traet of land of about twenty aeres on the east side of Witherspoon Street, and there made his home during his life, in a two-story brick house, which he is supposed to have of remedies makes it inconvenient for the physician to carry with him all the variety of medicines he would seleet from ; and also, it is urged, that the pre- scription filed fixes upon the physician a responsi- bility for the remedy employed. There is one result from it favorable to the physician, in a pecuniary view, for in this way he shifts the loss of the cost of built, and around it he planted the sycamore-, the ash-, medieines furnished to poor patients upon the drug- and the elm-trees, some of which are still there. He was a distinguished physician. an honored citizen, and gists, but he loses thereby so mueh of the work of : benevolence which his houorable profession exaets of ; a ruling elder and trustee in the Presbyterian Church. him.
He was also treasurer of the college. He suffered loss of property by the hands of the Hessian soldiers in December, 1776. He did not give much of his time to politics, even in the Revolution, but devoted him- self to his medical practice. He was a leading physi- cian in the State, and signed the call for a meeting to form the New Jersey Medical Society in 1766, and was the seeretary of that society when it was first formed, and as such ealled its annual meeting at Princeton in 1782. He was also its president.
Dr. Wiggins gave nearly fifty years of his life to Princeton as a physician and a Christian citizen. He extended hospitalities to Gen. Washington when - in Princeton. He died in 1804, having devised his house and land to the Presbyterian Church for the support of the pastor. He had no children, but sev- while the emineut services of our old physicians, who ! eral nieces, one of whom was married to John N. Simpson, a merehant, and a prominent citizen of Princeton.
have passed away with the benedictions of a grateful people upon their memory, have been the foundations upon which the school of the present day has been built, the modern treatment of patients is almost en- tirely different from that of the past.
Physicians .-- Instead of enumerating the physi- cians who have resided on the territory now embraced within Mercer County in alphabetical order, we prefer to group them in their township and eity relations, be- ginning with the veterans who stand at the head of the professional roll. The valuable " History of Medieine and of Medieal Men in New Jersey," by Dr. Wiekes, and the "Biographical Dictionary of Physicians and Surgeons," by Dr. Atkinson, besides many other pub- lished biographieal sketehes, which have reseued many valuable physicians from forgetfulness, make it unne- cessary for us to give more than a short sketch of our most noticeable physicians.
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Dr. Shippen, of Philadelphia, inoculated President Edwards, and attended him, but what local physician he liad, and who attended President Burr, we know not, except that Dr. Nathaniel Scudder, of Mon- mouth, may have done so, as he is mentioned as
1 Dr. Wickey' History of Medicine, citing " Sabine's Loyalists."
1
ABSALOM BAINBRIDGE, M.D., was a son of Edmund Bainbridge, near Coxe's Corner, in Lawrence town- ship, about two and a half miles from Prineeton. His grandfather was John Bainbridge, an original settler there under a deed of William Ridgway, dated 1695. He was a deseendant of Sir Arthur Bainbridge, of Durham County, England.
Dr. Bainbridge graduated at Nassau Hall in 1762. He studied medieine, married a daughter of Jolin Taylor, sheriff of Monmouth County. He settled in Princeton, and remained there for several years, pur- suing his practice. He was an early member of the New Jersey Medical Society, filled the offices of sec- retary and president of that society. He stood high in his profession. He removed to New York after the war began, and it is said he was a royalist and
Physicians in Princeton .- The names of Dr. ; aeted as surgeon in 1778 in the New Jersey volun- Henry Greenland, who settled between Princeton and Kingston in about 1682, and of Dr. Brinton Davison, who owned land in Princeton, and died prior to 1756, are without any reeord, execpt as men- tioned in title-deeds.
teers ( Britishi serviee).1 He had several children, one of whom was Commodore William Bainbridge, of the United States navy, and one daughter, Phebe, was married to Dr. John Maclean, the father of the ex-president.
JOHN BEATTY, M.D., known also as Gen. Joh: ! Beatty, was a son of Rev. Charles Beatty, of Nesham- iny, graduated at Nassau Hall in 1769 and studied med-
Modern improvements, with the advancement made in the natural seiences, the use of the mieroseope and the thermometer, and the great variety of instruments and applianees in making diagnosis, as well as in performning wonderful surgical operations, all these mark the progress in medieal science and practice. Almost each successive deeade supersedes the wisdom and learning of its predecessor. So rapid are the strides of progress that the books written twenty years ago, and the modes of treating diseases at that time, are now displaced for something that has just been published, and for something that is thought far better than the old way. The pursuit of the medical profession grows broader, more honorable, and more laborious year by year in all its departments. And
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
icine. In 1772 he married Mary Longstreet, daughter of Richard Longstreet, near Princeton. He practiced in Princeton till he entered the American army in 1775, with a captain's commission. He was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Washington and suffered a long captivity. In 1778 he was exchanged, and with impaired health he returned to Princeton and was ap- colonel, in place of Dr. Elias Boudinot. In 1780 he resigned and was honorably discharged from the ser- vice. He had received the title of brigadier-general.
EBENEZER STOCKTON, MI.D., was a native of Princeton, son of Major Robert Stockton : graduated pointed commissary-general of prisoners, with rank of : at Nassau Hall in 1780, but in 1777, while the college was suspended, he was commissioned surgeon's mate in the general hospital of the American army, and afterwards surgcon to a New Hampshire regiment. After the war he settled in Princeton and followed his profession with success to the elose of his life in 1838. He was a very popular man, tall and good- looking, genial and hospitable. He was generous to the poor who needed his services. He has three children still living,-Helen, Mrs. Boteler, of Shep- herdstown, Va .; Mary, Mrs. Terry, of Lynchburg, Va .; and Major Robert Stockton, of the vicinity of Princeton. Dr. Stockton's residence was in the brick house still standing on the north side of Nassau Street opposite the School of Science. He is said to have had four physicians associated with him at dif- ferent times, viz .: Drs. John Maclean, John Van Cleve, L. F. Wilson, and James Ferguson. He was trustee of the Presbyterian Church, and was a patriot fifty years as their physician.
BENJAMIN B. STOCKTON, M.D.,1 was a son of Thomas Stockton, of Princeton, and was born there. He married a daughter of Isaac Arnett, who was a : son of James, "an associate" of Elizabethtown in 1699. He commenced practice in Princeton. We find a receipt from Col. Morgan, in 1786, for Dr. Benjamin Stockton's professional services, paid to his father, Thomas Stockton, probably after the doctor had left Princeton. He removed to Cohocton, and thence to Vernon, thence to Buffalo, N. Y. He was a surgeon at the hospital in Buffalo when it was burned in 1813. He died in Caledonia, Genesee Co., N. Y.,
where he had last resided. He was a deacon in the in Princeton, and he did so. He entered into part- Presbyterian Church at that place. He died June 9, ; nership with Dr. Ebenezer Stockton, the leading phy- 1829. He was a member of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1781. He was a surgeon in the Revolu- tionary war. He entered the hospital department in December, 1776. He received from Dr. Shippen an appointment as junior surgeon in the hospital depart- He was soon after cliosen Professor of Chemistry in ment. He continued in service through 1778, and was at the battle of Monmouth.
Dr. Stockton was not a graduate of Princeton. He was a cousin to Richard, the signer of the Declara- tion. His father was a son of Richard, the first set- tler in Princeton.
JON WITHERSPOON, M.D., was the second son of Bov. John Witherspoon, D.D., president of Princeton College. Hle graduated in the class of 1773. He
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studied medicine and commenced to practice when the war broke out, and he was commissioned as a sur- gcon in the general hospital, Continental army. After the war he removed to South Carolina, and was lost at sea in 1795.
Upon his return to Princeton in 1778, he bought a farin at Princeton and called it "Windsor," and there resided and practiced medicine until about 1790, when he sold it and leased a house in Princeton of Col. Morgan. He was a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress in 1783, and a member of the Federal Congress in 1793. IIe was a member of the State Convention in 1787, and was once Speaker of the Assembly. In 1795 he was elected Secretary of State, and held the office for ten years, and in the mean time removed to Princeton and built a handsome house on the banks of the Delaware, above the State- House. He was president of the Delaware Bridge Company in 1803, and president of the Trenton Bank from 1815 to 1826, the time of his death. He was trustee of the College of New Jersey for nearly twenty ; and a good citizen, serving the people of Princeton for years. He was tall and courtly in manners. His second wife was Miss Kitty Lalor.
JOHN MACLEAN, M.D., was born in Glasgow, Scot- land, March 1, 1771. After graduating at the univer- { sity of that eity, he went to Edinburgh, London, and Paris to study surgery and chemistry. At Paris his advantages were great, and he became accomplished in French chemistry. In surgery he also became ac- complished and had a good reputation. When he came to America, he brought with him a certificate from the Society of Physicians and Surgeons of Glas- gow of their high esteein of him. He was attracted to this country by our popular form of government. Upon his arrival here, he was advised by Dr. Benja- min Rush, who had learned of his abilities, to settle
sician of the place, and remained with him until after he became professor in the college. He was invited by President Smith to deliver a short course of lee- tures to the students, and experiment in chemistry. the college, and had assigned to him the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and he could fill all equally well. He performed some nice opera- tions in surgery while with Dr. Stockton. He was an eminent scholar, universally admired and beloved. In 1812 he resigned, and went to William and Mary's College, in Virginia. He returned to Princeton, where his family had remained, on account of sickness, and lie died in 1814. Ilis wife was Phobe Bainbridge, a daughter of Absalom Bainbridge, and they left sev- · eral children, of whom ex-President Rev. John Mac-
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