History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 80

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840

USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 80
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 80

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DURING the hundred years that immediately fol- lowed the first settlement of Essex County there was no organized association of medical men in the State of New Jersey, and for most of the early portion of that period there were few persons whose knowledge of On the 14th of November, 1775, the society num- hered twenty-six members, and on that day only seven of them met at Princeton, and after trans- acting the usual business adjourned to meet at New did not meet again until Nov. 6, 1781, at which time five members assembled at New Brunswick, and "after having some medical conversation," etc., ad- journed to the first Tuesday of May following. On this occasion Dr. Beaty brought in a report relative to the state of the society since the year 1775, by which report it seems that the six years' "suspension in med- medicine exceeded that of every intelligent housewife of the present day. Newspapers at that time were scarcely known, books were rarely to be seen, and the almanac that is now daily thrown into the door- ' Brunswick on the second Tuesday of May, 1776, but way, with its stores of nulical lore, had not been dreamed of. The progress that had been made in the art of medicine up to that time was very small, although since the days of Esculapius it had been the favorite study of princes and plebeians. In fact, only thirty or forty years had elapsed siner Harvey had ex- pounded his original and complete discovery of the

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THE MEDICAL, PROFESSION OF ESSEX COUNTY.

ical eruditien" was due to the war, in which most of the members of the society had taken "an early decided part in the opposition to British tyranny and oppression, and were soon engaged either in the civil or military duties of the State." |

From this time the meetings of the society were held with great regularity, until the 3d of November 1795, when they were discontinued, with a list of eighty-one members, enrolled during the thirty years of its existence. After a slumber of more than eleven years the society once more awoke, and since June 23, 1807, has been growing in strength and use- fulness to the present time.

The establishment of this society has not only rescued the history of medicine and its early prac- titioners in this State from oblivion, but has done much to suppress charlatanismu, and to alleviate and even prevent much human suffering by its strict requirement of thorough instruction on the part of those admitted to the medical profession. To its in- fluence, doubtless, we are indebted for the admirable " Ilistory of Medicine in New Jersey, and of its Med- ical Men, from the Settlement of the Province to A.D., 1800," by Stephen Wickes, A.M., M.D .; also for " The Medical Men of New Jersey in Essex Dis- triet, from 1666 to 1866," by J. Henry Clark, A.M., M.D .; to both of which works the author of this sketch is under obligation for many important facts here recounted. The latter of these gentlemen places the name of

ABRAHAM PIERSON at the head of his list of med- ical men of New Jersey, while both barely admit that he may have been a medical practitioner. Be this as it may, it would have required but a small effort and a small addition to his store of learning to have made him, in the art and science of medicine, fully equal to any of his contemporaries. He was a man not only

of more than ordinary mental capacity, but of that | its members were conspicuous in the early history of

innate wisdom which leads to great and far-reaching achievements. The education which he received in the University of Cambridge, England, would in

honor in his native country, but, with rare sagacity he took the talent which had been loaned to him, and carried it for investment into a land where such wealth as he possessed was scared indeed. And for- tunate it was for New Jersey that on the banks of the Passaic he should have been one of those destined to set up their New Ark, wherefrom the influences of a gently-growing truth were beginning to emanate. It was the Inst effort of Puritanism to keep the civil power within the church, and, although he opposed to the end the union of the colonies of Connertient, and removed thenee with nearly all his church and con- gregation, leaving the town of Brantford with scarcely an inhabitant, it is to be believed that he saw the un- soundness of his pretensions, for he must have given his consent to the action of the "Town-Meeting," which, on the 1st of March, 1677, yielded the exclusive

authority of the church in civil matters by ordering "every man that improves land in the city of Newark to make their appearance at Town-Meetings," and that "the clerk is to set their names in a book, and call them as others are called." Mr. Pierson died on the 9th of August, 1678, and was probably buried in the old burying-ground, Newark, though no stone points out the spot.

Dr. Clark, to whose work allusion has been made above, says that

WILLIAM TURNER was "the oldest Newark physi- cian of whom we find any definite record," and that he studied medicine with Dr. N. F. Pigneron, a Frenchman from Province d'Artois, who settled in Newport, R. I., 1690. "We knew very little of him," says Dr. Clark, "except that he had three wives, the second of whom was interred in the oldl burying- ground." But this much more we know of him by the "Town Record " of the 9th of March 1741 : On that day "the burying-yard was sold to Doctor Wil- liam Turner for the year ensuing." The records do not explain for what purpose he bought the burying- ground, but it may be presumed that it was sim- ply to obtain the crop of grass during that year.

Contemporary with Dr. William Turner we find

JAMES ARENTS, of whom Dr. Wickes says : " ]Ie is always noticed as Dr. Arents, and probably practiced the arts and mysteries of healing. We find no record of his professional life, but very much of his contro- versies between the original purchasers of the soil and their opponents, the Lord Proprietors of East Jersey." He was a Hollander by birth, was natural- ized in 1716-17, and practiced medicine in Newark from that time until 1750.

DANIEL. FARRAND practiced medicine about this time in Newark. The family to which he belonged came originally from Milford, Conn., and several of the town. Dr. Farrand died at an early age, March 7, 1794. leaving a large family of children.

EDWARD P'IGOT is a name also to be found among that day have opened for him the doors to wealth and " the medical practitioners of this period, though little

more is known concerning him than that he lived near the boundary line between Newark and Belleville.

DAVID, VZAL AND JOHN JOHNSON were brothers, all born in Newark, and practitioners of medicine in that town. They were sons of Capt. Eliphalet John- son, who was descended from one of the original set- lers of Newark. Drs. David and John Johnson both died at an early age, and no record is made of them beyond what is to be found upon their tombstones in the Newark burying-ground. Dr. Uzal Johnson, who was born April 17, 1757, lived until May 22, 1827, and was engaged in the practice of his profession in Newark prior to the commencement of the Revo- lutionary war. In February, 1776, he was com- missioned a surgeon in the North Battalion of the Second Regiment of Essex County, but subsequently joined the British army. At the close of the war he

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

resumed his residence and his practice in Newark, where, by his honesty of purpose and usefulness, he won the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and on the 4th of June, 1816, was appointed vice-president of the Medical Society for the County of Essex, which upon that day was inaugurated under an act of the Legislature.

Another remarkable man of this period, and not less noted for his learning and attachment to his pro- fession than for his love of country, was

WILLIAM BURNET, who was born Dec. 2, 1730. IIe was graduated in Newark in 1749, while the College of New Jersey was located in that place, and there settled as a physician, after a course of medical studies in the city of New York. With large experience in his pro- fession, he entered the service of his country, at the commencement of the Revolutionary war as a surgeon of the Second Regiment of Essex County, being the same with which Dr. Uzal Johnson was connected, as above stated, both receiving their appointments on the same day, Feb. 17, 1776. But nearly a year prior to this time, namely, on the 4th of May, 1775, Dr. Bur- net presided at a meeting of the " Freeholders and In- habitants of the Township of Newark," at which a JOHN CONDIT is described upon the stone which marks his grave in the old burying-ground of Orange as "a patriot, soldier and surgeon during the struggle for freedom." His connection with the army was as "surgeon, Colonel Van Cortland's battalion, Heard's brigade, June 20, 1776." He was, therefore, not quite twenty-one years old when he received his commis- was never prominently connected with the Medical Society of New Jersey, with which body he did not unite until May 11, 1830, four years before his death, when he was elected an honorary member. As a phy- sician he gained the highest confidence, and his prac- tice extended in all directions throughout the county of Essex, which at that time embraced a much larger territory then at present. resolution was adopted, in which we find the same sentiment which, more than a year afterwards, was em- bodied in the famous " Declaration of Independence." This resolution, after rehearsing the " openly avowed design of the ministry of Great Britain," and expres- sing the horror felt by the people of Newark "at the bloody scene now acting in Massachusetts Bay," thus | sion, having been born in Orange, July 8, 1755. He closes : " With hearts perfectly abhorrent of slavery, (we) do solemnly, under all the sacred ties of religion, honor and love of country, associate and resolve that we will personally, and as far as our influence can ex- tend, endeavor to support and carry into execution whatever measures may he recommended by the Con- tinental Congress or agreed upon by the proposed convention of deputies of this Province for the purpose of preserving and fixing our Constitution on a perma- nent basis, and opposing the excention of the several despotick and oppressive acts of the British Parlia- ment, until the wished-for reconciliation between (freat Britain and America on constitutional princi- ples can be obtained."

Dr. Burnet took a very active part in the cause of freedom, and at different times held various offices under the government of his native State. He was chief physician and surgeon in an important section of the Continental army during the war, and was a member of the Congress of the United States for 1780- 81. In 1754 he married Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Camp, by whom he had eleven children, among whose descendants we find the naines of many of the most eminent citizens of New Jersey. Dr. Burnet was highly esteemed as a very skillful and successful phy- sician. He was one of the founders of the State Med- ical Society, and was its president in 1767, and again in 1786. In domestic and social life he exhibited all

the qualities of a true gentleman and an carnest Christian. Ile died on the 7th of October, 1791, mourned by all who knew him, and by none more than by the poor, to whom he had always been a most liberal friend.

Of his six sons, one died at the age of ten years, one became a merchant, three became lawyers, and one the eldest, was

WILLIAM BURNET, JR., who was born in 1754, studied medicine, and settled in Belleville, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. lle in- herited the patriotism of his father, and like him, gave, the benefit of his medical knowledge to his country during the Revolutionary war, being commissioned surgeon, general hospital, Continental army. IIe married Joanna, daughter of Capt. Joseph AAlling, another of the patriots of the Revolution, who com- manded a company of minute-men in the township of Newark, and by her had three daughters, of whom Abigail married Caleb S. Riggs, a lawyer of New York; Mary married Chief Justice Joseph C. Horn- blower; and Caroline married Governor William Pennington.

Dr. Condit was a man of far more than ordinary mental and physical ability, and the duties of his profession which were very arduous, did not prevent an earnest and careful performance of his duties as a citizen. He gave great attention to the subject of education, and mainly through his instrumentality an academy was established at Orange, which ac- quired a high reputation throughout the State. For thirty years in succession he was a member of the New Jersey Legislature and a Representative and Senator in the Congress of the United States. Ile is described as a man of sterling integrity and of amiable disposition, fearless, energetic and thorough in every- thing he undertook. Ile was the father of five children, one of whom was Hon. Silas Condit, one of the most eminent citizens of New Jersey. He was also the grandfather of

CHARLES CONDIT, who was born in Orange in 1804, and who studied medicine with Dr. William Pierson, Er., of that place, with whom he afterwards entered into

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OF ESSEX COUNTY

partnership. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, and gave promise of great usefulness in his profession, but was unfortunately carried off by disease at the early age of twenty-eight years.

Jons S. Coxpir was a son of the Hon. Silas Condit, and was born in 1801. He was educated at the Col- lege of New Jersey, and having been graduated in 1817, began the study of law, but subsequently chose the profession of medicine. The State numbers him among its legislators, he having served both in the House of Assembly and in the Senate. His death occurred April 7, 1848.

MATTHIAS PIERSON was a descendant of Thomas Pierson, one of the first settlers of Newark, and a brother of Rev. Abraham Pierson, if we may rely upon tradition. Dr. Matthias was born in Orange, June 20, 1734, and here he lived and practiced medicine until the time of his death, May 9, 1809. Dr. Wiekes, in his " History of Medicine in New Jersey," says that Dr. Pierson " was the first, and for many years the only, physician at the Mountain," as Orange was at that mained until the day of his death, which occurred Oct.

time called. "His district of practice was large, em- bracing that now occupied by the Oranges, Bloomfiekl, Caldwell, and to the borders of Morris County." Ile was a man of great energy and enterprise, as shown by the facts regarding his education, the entrance upon which was delayed until the age of twenty-five, when he was admitted to the grammar school of Rev. Caleb Smith, where he made rapid progress in his studies, and ultimately acquired the learning neces sary for his profession. He became a useful and promt- inent man in his native town, and by his patriotic words and example did great service in the cause of freedom. Dr. Pierson left a large family of children, among whom the eldest son was

ISAAC PIERSON, who was born in Orange, AAug. 15, 1770. He received his early education at the Orange Academy, and was graduated at Princeton in 1789. For forty years he practiced medicine in his native place with great success. In 1827 he was pres- ident of the Medical Society of New Jersey. He he- came also sheriff of Essex County, and was a member of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses of the United States. Dr. Pierson left a family of sis sons and four daughters. Of his son William, known as Dr. William Pierson, Sr., we shall speak hereafter.

('YRUS PIERSON, not distantly related by blood to Dr. Isaac Pierson, became also related to him by mar- riage in taking to wife his sister, Nancy Pierson. Ile was born in South Orange in 1756, received his pre- paratory education at Orange, and was graduated from the College of New Jersey, nt Princeton, in 1776. Ilis medical studies were pursued under Dr. John Darby, who, in Parsippany, Morris t'o., discharged acceptably the duties both of a minister of the gospel and a prae- titioner of medicine. Dr. Pierson was a man of feeble health, and the disposition to seek a change of place and air, so common under such circumstances, ac-

counts partially for his frequent changes of abode. He first practiced in his native place, giving. how- ever, nearly as much time to his farm as to his pro- fession. Growing weary of this, as it might seem, he removed to Callwell, where, during a residence of only four years, he gained the confidence of the people, and became one of the founders of the village library und an active and leading member of the church. But the disposition to have another change of scene hefell him, and from a spot where his usefulness was daily increasing he removed to Woodbridge, in Middlesex County, N. J., where a large field for practice luy open to him. Here he purchased the property and succeeded to the practice of Dr. John Galen Wall, whose circuit included Perth Amboy and the sur- rounding region. But the burden which Dr. Pierson had thus taken upon his shoulders proved to be too great, and again he felt compelled to seek a change; then it was he went to Newark, and entered into partnership with young Dr. Samuel Hays, of whom further mention will be made. In Newark he re-

7, 1804, in his forty-seventh year. Dr. Pierson way very much devoted to his profession, but a pulmonary disease under which he labored interfered, at times, very much with his practice. He died lamented by all who knew him.

THOMAS GRIFFITH was the son of Dr. John Griffith, a highly-estremed physician of Rahway then in Essex County, and one of the founders of the Medical Society of New Jersey. Dr. Thomas Griffith was born in 1765, and commenced the practice of medicine in Newark about the year 1787, at which time he hecame a member of the State Medical Society. Although but thirty years of age when he died, yet he had become distinguished as a surgeon and phy- sician, and his death was regarded as a great blow to the town in which he was respected and beloved by all. CALEB HALSTED was born at Elizabeth, Sept. 15, 1752, and settled at Connecticut Farme. Ilis field of medical practice extended over that neighbor- hood, together with Newark and Elizabeth. Dr. Halsted not only enjoyed a high reputation as a physician, hut was very popular, and, in fact, greatly beloved on account of his genial disposition and benevolence. He died Aug. 18, 1827, leaving two sons and two daughters, many of whose descendants are now numbered among the best citizens of Essex County.

THOMAS STEELE was an Englishman hy birth, and a surgeon in the British army during the Revolution- ary war, at the close of which he resigned his com- mission, and settled in Belleville, Essex Co, where he continued the practice of his profession until his death. He was a man of considerable learning and great skill as a physician and surgeon, but in his manners was rough, and at times very offensive. He died about the year 1790, and was buried in Belle- ville. A tombstone once marked his grave, but as we

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

are informed by Dr. Wickes, "it was, a few years ' subsequently engaged in the drug business, but only since, fraudulently removed." He left at his death a for a very short time. Dr. Hayes was always re- son not quite two year- oldl,-Thomas Edward Steele, garded as a man of great skill in his profession, and -who became a physician and practiced in Belle- ville, but died at an early age.

Being confined in these sketches to the medical men of Essex County as now constituted, it is necessary to omit here the names of many distinguished physi- cians and surgeons whose fields of labor were within the limits of that county prior to the change in its boundaries which set off from it Elizabeth, Rahway, Plaintield. Westfield, and other important places.

The men of whom we have thus far spoken are now all numbered among the dead. Their work was ahnost entirely done during the preceding century. Those of whom we shall hereafter speak belong to the present century ; many of them, to be sure, have passed away, but most of them are among the living. But there are now three hundred medical practitioners in the county of Essex.

The small space to which this historical sketch is limited, will not admit of much more than the names of the majority, with brief notices of those who have practiced long enough to be well-known and tho- roughly identified with the medical profession, and even some of these can be but barely mentioned, because of the difficulties encountered in obtaining the data necessary to preparation of the briefest sketch.

We shall speak first of the departed, although many of those whom they have left behind were seniors to numbers of them in years and inferior to ' surgeon hut possessed great skill, and was particularly none of them in learning and experience.

ABRAHAM CLARK was a son of Abraham (fark, and the more difficult cases of confinement. His fel- one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, low-practitioners looked up to him as a judicious counselor, and with them all he maintained the most friendly relations. After a continuous practice of fifty-eight years (from 1807 to 1865), he relinquished his business in favor of his youngest son, Dr. Edwin W. Ward, and died Feb. 10, 186%. and was born in Rahway, N. Y., in 1767. His medi- cal studies were pursued under the guidance of Dr. John Gritliths, of the same place, whose daughter he subsequently married. He also attended medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and after completing his medical course settled in Newark, JOHN STEVENS DARCY was born in Hanover township, Morris Co., N. J., Feb. 24, 1788. Here he grew up to manhood, and here became fitted for his profession under the direction of his father, Dr. John Darcy, an eminent and leading physician of that vicinity, and to whose practice he ultimately succeeded. where he continued to practice until the year 1830, when he removed to Kinderhook, N. Y., where he remained until his death, in July, 1854. Dr. Clark was one of the original eleven who formed the Dis- triet Medical Society of Essex County. He was regarded as a good physician, was fond of reading, and possessed a great store of general information.

SAMFEL HAYES, although born during the last century (1776), did not fairly commence the practice of medicine until 1804, when he established himself in Newark, his birth-place, becoming associated in business with Dr. Cyrus Pierson, as we have already stated.

Dr. Hayes was graduated from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in the year 1795, and soon after began the study of medicine in the city of New York, under Dr. John B. Rodgers. In 1799 he was ap- pointed apothecary of the New York Hospital, and

especially in the treatment of fevers. He died July 30, 1839, highly esteemed and greatly lamented by al who knew him.

JOHN WARD was born in Orange, Essex (' ... April 26, 1774, and there pursued the study of medicine under the guidance of Dr. John Condit, whose daughter became his first wife. Dr. Ward removed from Orange to Bloomfield, where he prac- ticed a short time, and then settled in Newark, re- maining there until the time of his death, which occurred on the 24th of June, 1836. Ile was regarded as a learned man in his profession, and was especially distinguished as an obstetrician. By his pleasing manners and strictness in the performance of all his religious duties he won admiration and respect.

ELEAZER D. WARD was a younger brother of Dr. John Ward, above named, and was born in Orange, Feb. 23, 1786. After attending two courses of medical lectures -- one in Philadelphia and one in New York he settled in Montelair, Essex Co., whence he sub- sequently removed to Bloomfield. He was one of the founders of the Essex District Medical Society in 1×16, and always took a great interest in its welfare. His zeal for his profession was unremitting, even until he had reached his eightieth year. Night and day he was always ready to attend to the call of duty. and was remarkable for his careful and patient atten- tion to the sick and suffering. As a physician and noted for his success in the management of fevers

Dr. John S. Darcy was as well known by the title of General as by that of Doctor, and yet the latter title was by no means lost under the former. No member of the medical fraternity of New Jersey over enjoyed a higher or more deserved reputation for skill and daring in his profession, which, notwithstanding his multifarious occupations, he continued to exercise till nearly the day of his death,

He remained in his native place until 1832, when he removed to Newark, N. J., where, at that time, as in many other large towns, the Asiatic cholera was committing fearful ravages. With his characteristic

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OF ESSEX COUNTY

The travelers reached their destination, but the fatigue and continual hardships to which they had

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 80

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 840

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840