History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 106

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830

USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 106
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 106

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JAMES IHENDERSON Me DOW ELL was born in Phila- delphia, Pa., Feb. 1, 1825, and received his academic education in Boston, Mass., and in Baltimore, Md. In 1857 he was graduated MI.D., from the University of Maryland. In 1863 he established himself in the practice of his profession in Jersey City, where he still resides.

GILBERT D. SALTONSTALL Was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., June 19, 1831. He received his education at Trinity School, New York, and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of New York. After practicing for some time in that city, he removed to Hoboken, N. J., where he has been engaged in the duties of his profession during the last twenty-six years.

ISAAC N. QUIMBY, M.D., was born at Bernards- ville, near Basking Ridge, Somerset Co., N. J. Ang. 5, 1831, and was the son of Nicholas Emmons and Rachel Stout Quimby, whose family consisted of eight sons and one daughter. His father was a farmer, and lad served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He was a grandson of Judge Nicholas Emmons, of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. His mother was highly es- teemed as a lady of great executive ability and most excellent social qualities. Both grandfathers served in the army during the Revolutionary war. The subject of this sketch lost both his parents in early life, and was thrown almost entirely upon his own resources to achieve a position for himself. As he was unwill- ing to be a mere hewer of wood and drawer of water, he concluded to obtain employment in a grist-mill, where he learned thoroughly the management of that business. About 1850 he went to the West, and lo- cated at Zanesville, Ohio, where he assumed charge of a flour-mill. While thus employed as superintendent of the mill he made the acquaintance of Dr. Barr, of

Zanesville, Ohio, who, perceiving his aptness and turn of mind, persuaded him to study medicine, which he- ing more congenial to his tastes, he readily assented to.

He did not enter Princeton, as was intended but became a student of the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York, and graduated from that institution at the close of the session of 1858-59. In 1859, acting upon the advice of his pre- ceptor, Dr. Valentine Mott, he came to Jersey City, where he has since resided, and began the practice of his profession.

Dr Quimby first married, in 1863, Helen Stark, daughter of the late Thomas McKie, Esq., of New York, by whom he had three children, two of whom died in infancy. One son survives his mother who died in 1868. Iu 1875 he married Frances H., daughter of the late James Flemming, Esq., of Jersey City, by whom he has one son.

When the civil war broke out, yieldling to his patriotie impulse, he left a lucrative practice and entered the army as a volunteer surgeon. He was with Gen. Mcclellan through the swamps of the Chickahominy, and in the Seven Days' battle and retreat to Harrison's Landing. In the battle of An- tietam, and after the battle of the Wilderness, being ill, he returned home, and resumed the practice of his profession, in which he has been actively engaged from that time. Ile was formerly one of the lec- turers in the spring course of the Medical Depart- ment of the University of the City of New York. He was also assistant to Professor A. C. Post, in his surgical clinic at the above university. He was the originator of the Hudson County (now Christ's) Hospital, and for some years one of its leading sur- geons.

Ile is also the author and originator of several important surgical operations, viz .: May 5, Ists. he read before the American Medical Associa- tion meeting at Washington, D. f'., a paper en- titled, "A New Mode of Treatment of Congenital . Talipes (club foot)." Vide Transactions, vol. xix.

I Contributed.

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HISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

In 1570 he read an original paper on "A New Method of Amputation at the Ankle-Joint," being an impor- tant modification of M. Pirogoff's (of Russia) opera- tion. (See Transactions, vol. xxi.) In May, 1879, he read before the American Medical Association at Atlanta, Ga., an original paper describing an operation on parallel bones, resulting from "A case of Com- pound Fracture of the Tibia and Fibula." (See Transactions,) vol. xxi. In June, 1880, he read a paper before the American Medical Association on "The Criminal Use of Chloroform," describing the results growing out of his experiments as an expert in the celebrated trial of the Smith-Bennet murder case. See Transactions, vol. xxxi.

Ile is a member of the Hudson County District Medical Society, a permanent member of the Ameri- can Medical Association, a member of the American Public Health Association, and a member of the British Medical Association. In 1875 he visited | has always been an active participant in the political Europe, going through many of the prominent hos- affairs of Jersey City and the State, and wields an pitals and public institutions.

In 1881 he was delegated by the American Medical Association to the International Medical Congress, which convened in London, and took an active part in its proceedings.1

During the same year he attended the meeting of the British Medical Association at Ryde, Isle of Wight. England. In 1884 he was again appointed a delegate from the American Medical Association to the International Medical Congress, held at Copen- hagen, Denmark.

Dr. Quimby is and has long been an ardent advo- cate of abstemiousness from alcoholic drinks. He has closely studied the subject from a professional stand- point and from experiments and observations of its effects upon the system. He is firmly convinced of the pernicious influence of alcohol on the human economy. He read a paper, by invitation, before the New Jersey State Temperance Alliance, at Newark, Dec. 5. 1882, on the "Pathological AAction of Alcohol in Health and in Disease," which wasso well received by the society that five thousand copies were ordered to be printed. This pamphlet has received very flat- tering commendations from some of the prominent members of the medical profession, as well as from clergymen and laymen.

On reading the pamphlet, Professor Palmer, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, says, " I therefore hail with pleasure such publications as yours, and hope soon to see more truth and less error on this subject in our standard medical literature."

Dr. Quimby was nominated for Governor by the Prohibition party in 1×83, but, for various reasons, he was obliged to decline that honor. In the Presi- dential canvass of Iss4, he has taken an active part with the Prohibition party, being one of the Presi- dential electors on the Prohibition ticket.

Dr. Quimby has always taken a deep interest in the reform movements of the city, State and nation. The breadth of his humanity is such that he believes in the theory that whatever affects any human being directly or remotely affects him. He believes with the poet that

" Man's inhumanity to man

Makes countless thousands mourn."

He takes for his motto the words of Terence : "Nil humani a me alienum puto."

His earlier political life was developed in the school of Democracy, but when the civil war began, not liking the attitude of his party on the secession ques- tion, he followed his principles out of the Democratic party and joined the Republican ranks. Hle thus showed his strong conviction that the needs and claims of his country were matters of higher and more en- during interest than the claims of party. Dr. Quimby

extended influence. He has never been connected with any corrupting political schemes, but is always an irritating thorn in the side of political schemers, who have grown and flourished to such an alarm- ing extent within the past quarter of a cen- tury. He was president of the first Citizens' Association of Jersey City, in 1870 and the following years, which did much towards breaking up the "Bumstead" ring. He was also one of the originators of the Anti-Monopoly I'nion of Hudson County, which did such good service in checking the inroads of the corrupting influences of railroad cor- porations, which have done much to destroy the growth and prosperity of Jersey City. It was largely due to his untiring industry and zeal that the mon- strous railroad land-grabbing water-front bill known ax Bill 167 was defeated in the Legislature.

Few men in the State are more dreaded by corrupt and corrupting corporations than Dr. Quimby. Hle is uncompromising, fearless, watchful, and never re- linquishes his interest in any cause he seriously espouses.

JAMES WILKINSON was born at Accrington, Eng- land, April 27, 1837. In infancy he was removed to the United States, and reared and educated by an uncle at New Brighton, Staten Island, N. Y. His preliminary education was received principally at the boarding school of Rev. Thomas Towel, at Clifton Staten Island, and at the classical institute of Solo- mon denner, in New York. Thus prepared, he entered the University of the City of New York, and completed the course of study pursued in that institution. Soon after leaving the university he made the four of Europe, and on his return entered, as a student, the office of Prof. Jas. R. Wood, with whom he studied medicine for three years. In 1858 he was graduated M.D., from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and soon afterwards established himself in the practice of his profession at Bergen, N. J.

Jace Transactions International Medical Congress, 1881, vol. iv.

一

1101

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN HUDSON COUNTY.

Unambitious of political preferment, Dr. Wilkinson las confined himself strictly to his voration, and has therein met with a success that is seldom surpassed. In 1875, his health becoming somewhat impaired by overwork, he visited Europe, and on his return re- sumed his labors in Bergen, now a part of Jersey City, where he is at present actively employed.

JOHN WESLEY HENT. The great-great-grand- father of Dr Hunt emigrated from England to one of the New England colonies at an early day llis great-grandfather, William Hunt, was born in Rhode Island, and having married, removed to New Jersey, where his son, John Hunt, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born. He married and removed to Pennsylvania, the native State of Elijah Hunt, his son. The birth of John Wesley, son of the latter, occurred Oct. 10, 1834, in the town of Grove- land, Livingstone to., N. Y. His first opportu- nities of education were afforded at the district school of his native town and later at the tienesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, N. Y., after which he became a student of medicine and graduated from the Medical Department of the University of New York City, in March, 1859.

During the following April he was appoint- ed a member of the house staff of Bellevue Hospital, New York City, and performel the various duties of junior assistant, senior assistant, and house surgeon in turn, and satisfactorily completed his term of service Oct. 1, 1860, when Jersey City became his place of residence, and has since been the scene of his professional labors. He was, in May, 1861, commis- sioned surgeon of the Tenth Regiment New York State Volunteers, which he accompanied to Fortress Mon- roe, remaining with the command until May, 1862. Having then been commissioned brigade surgeon United States Volunteers, he was ordered to the charge of the Mill Creek General Hospital, near For- tress Monroe. While regimental surgeon his success in the treatment of what was subsequently known as "Chickahominy " fever was exceptional, the mor- tality being reduced to the low figure of two to the two hundred or more cases treated. While in charge of the Mill Creek Hospital he demonstrated the fensi- bility of perfectly ventilating a large building crowded with wounded men. In the main building, which was exclusively devoted to surgical cases, with two hundred and fifty patients, nearly all with inju- ries of sufficient gravity to confine them to bed, and most of them with suppurating wounds, the atmos- phere was so free from taint that it was common for visitors to remark upon it and inquire if there were no bad cases in the hospital. To this perfect ventila- tion he attributed in a great measure the slight mor- tality and the rapid convalescence of his patienta. Having, in August, 1862, been attacked with fever, he returned to the North, and for a period retired from the service. In March, 1863, he visited New Orleans As surgeon of a government transport, and returning,

much improved in health and strength, the follow- ing May be resulted practice in Jersey City, having been in 1864 appointed examining surgeon of recruits drafted into the service. Dr Hunt ps an active mem- ber of the District Medical Society of the county of Hudson, of which he was secretary in 1863, vice- president in 1561, president in 186 and treasurer in 1867. He has from time to time read spass and delivered address . before the society, while the Transactions of the New Jersey Medical society have also been enriched by his contributions. He was one of the organizers of the New Jersey Charity Hos- pital in 1869 and the first president of its medical board. He is one of the attending surgeons of the institution, as also attending surgeon to the Hudson County Church Hospital. Dr. Hunt was married, Oct. 10, 1866, to N. Adeline Reynolds, daughter of II. S. Reynolds, of Springfield, Mass. Their children are John Wesley, Jr., and an infant.

JOSIAH HORNBLOWER Was born in Jersey City, N. J., Sept. 15, 1836, and is a descendant of Josith Hornblower, who, in 1753, came to the United States for the purpose of superintending the working of a copper mine in Belleville, N. J. The father and the grandfather of our subject were both physicians, practicing in Hudson County, and elsewhere noticed in this work. Josiah. the younger, received his pre- paratory education in the Bergen Academy, and having studied medicine for some time with his father, entered the Medical Department of the University of New York City, and was graduated therefrom M.D., in 1859. Since that time he has resided and prac- tived his profession in Jersey City, where he is highly respected as a physician and as a citizen. In 1870 he represented his district in the General Assembly of the State. In 1871, 1872 and 1873 he was treasurer of Jersey City, and at the present time is a member of the Board of Education.

FREDERICK FencuL was born in Offenbach, Ger many, Aug. 31, 1×42, and was educated at the gym- nasium at Darmstadt and at the University of Giessen, from which he obtained his degree of M.D .. He began the practice of his profession in his native town. in the hospital of which he was for some time an attendant physician. On removing to the United States, his medical diploma was indorsed by the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and he was also licensed by the New Jersey State Medical Society. In Ists he established himself as a practitioner in Jersey City, and is still actively engaged in his pro- fission in that city.

JAMES CRAIG was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Jan. 22, 1834 His eduration was commenced in that city, and on his removal to America was continued in the University of the City of New York, from the Medical Department of which he was graduated M. D. in March, 1861. In 1563 he became a licentiate of the Medical Society of New Jersey, and is now prac- ticing medicine in Jersey City, where he established

1102

HISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

himself soon after graduating. Dr. Craig is a member of the District Medical Society of Hudson County and of the New York Medico-Legal Society. To medical literature he has contributed various papers, which have been read before the county and State societies. He was attending physician to St. Francis Hospital for some time after its organization.

member of the American Institute of Ilomœopathy and a member of the Faculty of Physicians and Sur- geons of the Jersey City Dispensatory.

FRANK NICHOLS, M.D .- Edmund Nichols, the grandfather of Dr. Nichols, though of English de- seent, was a native of Massachusetts, and born at Sturbridge, in that State, where he was a prosperous farmer. He married Miss Sallie Wilder, and had chil- dren-Liberty, Proctor, Mary and Wyman. Liberty, the eldest of these, was born in Sturbridge in 1800, and succeeded to the land of his father, which he cultivat-

WILLIAM HENRY NEWELL was born in the city of New York, Feb. 19, 1837, and is the son of the late Rev. Daniel Newell, a distinguished Presbyterian divine. He received his preliminary education at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and was then | ed. He was, in 1822, married to Miss Polly Rich-

Frank Sichert

graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Soon afterwards he entered the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1859 obtained therefrom the degree of M.D., Instead of settling down at once in the practice of his profession, he spent some time in traveling and visiting various hospitals throughout the country, with a view to becoming more familiar with diseases in their different forms. On the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. Dr. Newell, being in Baltimore, reunited with the Fifth Maryland Guards, of which he had formerly been a member, and went with them to Virginia. Here he was commissioned as surgeon, and served in the Confederate army until the close of the war, when he returned to the North and settled in Jersey City as a medical practitioner. Hle is a

ardson, whose children are Harriet P., (Mrs. William L.Warner) Edmund L., George (a physician in Brook- lyn) and Frank. The last named was born March 20, 1833, in Sturbridge, Mass., and until the age of eighteen remained upon the homestead devoting the winter months to obtaining such advantages of educa- tion as the neighboring school afforded, and aiding during the remainder of the year in the labor of the farm. He then became a pupil of the Wesleyan Academy, at Wilbraham, Mass., and also engaged in teaching until twenty-one, when he entered the State Normal School, at Bridgewater, Mass., and graduated in 1856. He spent the following year as principal of the Reading Institute, at, Reading, Pa., and acting in the same capacity in the grammar school

n. a. Thalkow M.3.

1103

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN HUDSON COUNTY.

at New London, Conn. Having already begun the study of medicine, he entered the Pittsfield Medical College, at Pittsfield, Mass., and later became a student of the Homeopathic Medical Collegeof P'enn- sylvania, at Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1861. Dr. Nichols' first held of labor was at Grafton, Mass., where he remained two years, and whence he removed to Somerville, N. J. After a brief resi- dence at the latter point, he, in the fall of 1864, located in Hoboken, N. J., and speedily established an ex- tended and lucrative practice of a general character, his labors having at times been so arduous as to have

directors of the Hoboken Savings-Bank. Dr. Nichols is in politics a Republican, and although not an aspirant for official honors, has filled the responsible office of tax commissioner of the city of Hoboken.

His religious belief is in harmony with the creed of the Baptist t'hurch. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Hoboken, of which he has been for ten years treasurer and is now a deacon. Dr. Nich- ols was married, in 1857, to Miss Mary A., eldest daughter of J. Hl. Barton, of Worcester, Mass. Their children are four sons,-Frank Barton, Harry Fred- erick, George Lewis and Walter Edmunds.

A. J. Field

rendered cessation from professional employment JACOB T. FIELD, M.D .- The progenitors of the Field family, who were of English extraction, carly set- tled in Bound Brook, N. J. The father of the doctor was Jeremiah Field, who engaged in the labor inci- dent to farm-life at North Branch, Somerset Co., N. . I. Ile was married to Martha Longstreet, whose children were three sons,-Depuy, Aaron and Jacob T. The last named was born Ang. 3, 1839, at North Branch, N. J., where much of his youth was spent. lle became a pupil of the common school year the place of his birth, and later enjoyed private instruc- absolutely imperative. He therefore, in 186x, devoted a period to rest and recuperation, and made a Euro- pean tour, embracing England, Scotland, France and Switzerland. Dr. Nichols is one of the incorporators of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New Jersey, in which he has filled the office of presi- dent. He is also a member and has been the presi- dent of the New Jersey Medical Club, and was in 1867 made a member of the American lustitute of Homeopathy. He has devoted some attention to matter- outside the profession, and is one of the ; tion under Rev. Dr. Blauvelt. He entered the gram-

1104

HISTORY OF HUDSON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

mar school of Rutgers College in 1853, and became a student of the college in 1855, from which he gradu- ated in 1859. Having determined upon medicine as a profession, he began his studies in the office of Dr. William Johnson, of Whitehouse, N. J., and received his diploma from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of New York in 1861. The same year he en- tered the United States navy as assistant surgeon, and was assigned to active dut in the Gulf and Missis- sippi squadrons. He su quently assumed charge of the hospital-ship " Raven," in the Missis- sippi squadron, and retiring from the service in 1865, became a resident of Bayonne, N. J., where he has since been engaged in the pursuit of his profession. Here he enjoys an extended practice, not less as the result of his surgical skill than for the knowledge displayed in diagnosis.

Dr. Field is married to Miss Mary E. Minifie, of Baltimore, Md., and has one daughter, Frank. The doctor is a member of the Hudson County Medical Society, and active in the promotion of its interests.

B. A. WATSON, A.M., M.D .- Dr. Watson, the sub- jeet of this sketch, is a great-grandson of Perry Wat- son, a native of Rhode Island, a Revolutionary patriot, who participated in the battle of Bunker Hill. The father of the doctor, Perry Watson, a son of Beriah and grandson of this continental soldier, was born in the same State where his father and grandfather had first seen light on this mundane sphere; but in early life he moved to Greenwich, Washington Co., N. Y .. and became a farmer, which occupation he followed here and in the adjacent county of Warren. Hle mar- ried, while living at Greenwich, Maria Place, but their third son, Beriah .1., was born at Lake George, Warren Co., N. Y., on the 26th of March, 1836. Here the sub- ject of this biography was carly made acquainted with farm labor, but was allowed to encourage hi- taste for study, and enjoyed more than the ordinary advantages accorded to the sons of farmers. He carly became a member of the family of Jonathan Streeter, an intelli- gent Quaker of that locality, where superior opportuni- ties for mental discipline were afforded, and that orderly and systematic pursuit of knowledge acquired which laid the foundation for future success as a student and medical writer. After two years spent with the Quaker family he taught school with a view to acquiring sufficient means to prosecute his studies. At the age of twenty-one he entered the office of the late Dr. James Reiley, at Succasunna, Morris Co., N. J., where he studied medicine, and in the autumn of 1859 became a student of the Medical Department of the I'niversity of New York, where he took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1861. After graduation he located at White House, N. J., and in the fall of 1862 entered the United States service as a contract surgeon, after having passed a ereditable examination before a board of examiners appointed by the Surgeon-General of the United States, of which Dr. Valentine Mott was president. He reported for

duty at Newark on the Ist of September, and was en- gaged in hospital service until March 26, 1863.

He then reported to the commander of the Fourth New Jersey Regiment, to which he had been com- missioned by Governor Parker as assistant surgeon, but was soon detached from that command, and ordered to report to Dr. Asch, medical director of the Artil- lery Reserve, and by him directed to take charge of the artillery brigade then located at Falmouth, Va. After the battle of Gettysburg he was ordered to return to his regiment (Fourth New Jersey), of which he was commissioned surgeon, with the rank of major, on the 4th of November. Shortly after he was de- tailed as one of the operating surgeons to the First Brigade, First Division, of the Sixth Army Corps, at this time stationed in front of Petersburg. After a few months' service in this capacity, he was ordered to take charge of the First Division, Sixth Army Corps Ilospital, and also was made acting medical purveyor of the corps. He retained these positions and dis- charged the duties until the close of the war, re- tiring front the service July 10, 1865. Return- ing to civil life, he chose Jersey City as his future residence, and resumed the practice of medicine. Amid the arduous labors of his profession he still finds leisure for study and literary work. The pas- sage of the act legalizing the dissection of human cadavers in this State was secured principally through his efforts and those of his friend, Dr. J. D. McGill, and the same may be said in regard to the formation of the New Jersey Academy of Medicine. Dr. Wat- son is fellow of the New Jersey Academy of Medi- cine, the American Surgical Association, permanent member of the American Medical Association, mem- her of the New York Neurological Society, New York Pathological Society, New Jersey Microscopical So- cirty, and also of the Jersey ('ity Pathological Society. He has been president of the New Jersey Academy of Medicine and also of the District Medical Society for the county of Hudson, N. J.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 106

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 830

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830