History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 126

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 126
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 126

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" Dr. Lewis Johnstone died Nov. 22, 1773, at an advanced age. The announcement of his death is made in the papers of the day, with the remark that he was 'a physician of the highest reputation, and very greatly beloved by all who knew him.' He married Martha, daughter of Caleb Heathcote, of New York. They had two sons and two daughters.2

".Dr. Johnstone seems to have been a large land- owner in this county. In Rivington's Gazette for Jan. 27, 1774, James Parker, John Smith, and Heath- cote Johnstone, executors, give notice to the debtors and creditors of Dr. Johnstone's estate for the settle- ment of unsettled accounts with the same, and on

the 10th of February advertise to be sold the follow- ing tracts of land, being parts of the estate :

" 660 acres adjoining the farine of Nicholas Van Vinkle and John Pue, situated on the west side of and adjoining the Matcheponix River, eleven miles from New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, and four from South river landing, in the neighborhood of two mille and two iron-works, " both ready markets for all kinds of country produce, and has a fine outlet for cattle and hoge.' The place in the possession of John Van Schaack, and improved by a good house, a Dutch barn, and a young bearing orchard. 300 acres are cleared land, 20 of which are good meadow and a great deal more mey be made: is very well watered. The upland well timbered and proper for any kind of grain, and may be Conveniently divided into two or three plantations.

"670 acres, formerly the property of Hugh Taylor, about thirteen miles dietant from New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, and adjoine tbe lande of Jobu Combs, Jacob Sydam, and John Johnston, with a large framed house and framed barn, a young orchard of about 200 apple-trees, 200 acres of cleared land, 30 acres of meadow, with a considerable quan- tity of hog meadow, capable of being made valuable by improvement.

" 550 acres opposite Perth Amboy, adjoining the land of John Stevens, Esq., and the Raritan river ; well timbered and so situated that the timber and firewood can be very easily transported to New York. 60 acres of this tract is described as ' cleared land whereon ie a house and well-built barn, and a young bearing orchard of 200 apple-trees, grafted with the beet fruit.'

" 790 acres ' situated on the west side of South river, and near Manela- pan river, being one-half of a tract remaining unsold and held in com- paDy with the desires of Andrew Johnston, deceased,' surrounding the village of Spotswood; well wooded and timbered, and a great part of it in a fine rich swamp adjoining the mills and iron-works of Messrs. Perry & Hayes, which lay in about the centre of it; the nearest part of it about half a mile and the most distant part about three miles from South river landing.'

"The tracts are offered entire or to be divided to suit. Title clear and indisputable." 3

JOHN LAWRENCE was a practicing physician at Perth Amboy at the breaking out of the Revolution. He was a son of John Lawrence, of Monmouth County, born in 1747, graduated at Princeton, 1764, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1768, being one of the first ten who received literary honors from that institution, and the recipient of the first medical degree in America. He commenced practice in Monmouth County, but removed to Amboy prior to 1776, as in July of that year Maj. Duyckink, who had been sent there by order of Gen. Washington, with the Middlesex militia, for the protection of the town, arrested the doctor, with eight others, and sent them to Elizabethtown. He was ordered by the Provincial Congress to Trenton, as a medical man, on parole.

In April, 1777, he, with others, including his father, was arrainged before the Council of Safety. He finally withdrew from the State to New York, where, and in its vicinity, he practiced medicine, and was also in command of a company of volunteers for the defense of the city. In 1783 he returned to New Jersey, where he spent the remainder of his days.

" That Dr. Lawrence was held in high esteem in Amboy, is evident from the fact that the ladies of that town petitioned the convention which held him under arrest, that the doctor might be permitted to remain there, 'apprehending fatal and melancholy

1 Thie je an error. He was one of the royal commissioners to deter- mine the north etation-point in 1719,-the commission for settling the boundary line.

: Whitehead's Contributions.

3 MSS. Hist, Notes, J. M. Toner.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

consequences to themselves, their families, and the inhabitants in general if they should be deprived of the assistance of Dr. Lawrence.' The following courteous reply was ordered to be sent to Mrs. Frank- lin, one of the petitioners, signed by the president :

"' Madam, I am ordered by Congress to acquaint you, and through you the other ladies of Amhoy, that their petition in favor of Dr. John Law- rence has been received and considered. Could any application have procured a greater indulgence to Dr. Lawrence, you may be assured yours could not have failed of success. But, unhappily, Madam, we are placcd in a situation that motives of commiseration to individuals must give place to the safety of the public. As Dr. Lawrence has fallen under the suspicion of our generals, we are under the necessity of abid- Ing by the steps which are taken, and are Madem, yours, etc.'"

He used to say that his residence in Amboy was the happiest part of his life, for the reason that the officers of the crown resident there formed a social circle superior to that of New York or Philadelphia.1

After his return to New Jersey he resided at Upper Freehold. He never married, but lived with his three sisters. He was quite wealthy, was full of life, and fond of convivial pastimes, fox-hunting being his favorite sport. He died while playing a game of chess in Trenton, April 29, 1830, aged eighty-three years.

NEHEMIAH LUDLUM was an early physician in this county. His ancestors lived on Long Island, whence he probably came to New Jersey. He graduated at Princeton in 1762, and in 1768 became a member of the New Jersey Medical Society, dying, a few months after his election, in early manhood. The following is the inscription on his gravestone at Cranbury :

" HERE LYES THE BODY OF DOCTOR NEHEMIAH LUDLUM, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 2D DAY OF OCT., 1768, AOED 29 YEARS."

NATHANIEL MANNING practiced medicine for a time in Metuchen prior to 1771, in which year lie went to England, and was ordained by the Bishop of London minister for Hampshire Parish, Hampshire Co., Va. In 1775 he was its incumbent. He gradu- ated at the College of New Jersey in 1762, and appears in the catalogue as a clergyman, the profes- sion probably having been entered at a later date. He received his medical education under the tuition of the " Faculty of Philadelphia," and upon testimonials from that body became a member of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1767. He was considered in Metu- chen a most able and excellent physician, and upon leaving the country received a certificate from the so- ciety. He was present for the last time at its meet- ings in 1772.

REV. ROBERT MCKEAN, the first president of the New Jersey Medical Society, was ordained in 1757 to the mission of New Brunswick by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. His mission embraced the towns of Piscataway and Spots- wood. In 1763 he removed permanently to Perth Am-

boy, his health being greatly impaired by his inces- sant labors.

As a physician he evidently ranked high, having been one of the original seventeen who founded the Medical Society in July, 1766, and having received the honor of being chosen its first president. In a letter dated Oct. 12, 1767, Rev. Dr. Chandler, of St. John's Church, Elizabethtown, informed the society that, " wasted away with a tedious disorder, the worthy, the eminently useful and amiable Mr. McKean is judged by his physicians to be at present at the point of death." He adds, "a better man was never in the society's services." He died October 17th. His re- mains rest in the graveyard of St. Peter's Church, Amboy, where a monument has been erected by Hon. Thomas Mckean, an early Governor of Pennsylvania. It bears the following inscription :

"In memory of REV. ROBT. MCKEAN, M.A., Practitioner of Physic, etc., and Missionary from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parte to the city of Perth Amboy, who was born July 13th, 1732, N.S., and died Oct. 17th, 1767. An unshaken Friend, an agreeable Companion, a rational Divine, a skillful Physician, and in svery rela- tion in life a truly benevolent and honest man. Fraternal love bath erected this monument."2

ALEXANDER Ross practiced medicine in New Brunswick. He was originally from Scotland, and later from the Island of Jamaica. While in New Brunswick he resided at Ross Hall, on the east bank of the Raritan, one mile above the city. Dr. Charles A. Howard, who studied medicine with Dr. Ross, after the death of the latter, married his widow, and resided on the Ross property.

Dr. Ross married Sarah, the youngest daughter of Thomas Farmer, of New Brunswick, a lady cele- brated for her beauty. Her father removed from Staten Island to Amhoy in 1711. He was a man of distinction, being second judge and subsequently pre- siding judge of the province. He was also represen- tative of Middlesex County in the Assembly from 1740 to 1743, during Governor Morris' administra- tion. Dr. Ross died at his home at the age of fifty- two, and was buried in Christ churchyard, where his monumental stone bears the inscription :

" In Memory of DA. ALEXANDER Ross, Who Disd the 30th of November, 1775, Aged 52 years."3

MOSES SCOTT was one of the noted early physi- cians of New Brunswick. His tombstone, now some- what defaced, stands in the Presbyterian churchyard, and bears the following inscription :

" In the Full triumph of Christian Faith And the Certain Assurance of a Blessed Immortality MOSES SCOTT, Esquire, ML.D., Repaired to his Mansion Not Made With Hands, Eternal in The Heavens, On the 28th Day of Dec., 1821."

" Hawkins' Missions of the Church of England. Barber and Howe's Coll.

3 Wickee' New Jersey Medicine, pp. 376-77.

1 Whitehead's Contributions, etc.

517

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

He was a son of John Scott, of Neshaminy, Bucks Co., Pa., born in I738. At seventeen years of age he accompanied the unfortunate expedition under Gen. Braddock, and shared the privations incident to that memorable campaign. At the capture of Fort Du Quesne, three years afterwards, he had risen to be a commissioned officer, but he soon resigned his posi- tion, and by the advice of friends entered upon the study of medicine. He seems to have first settled at Brandywine, whence he removed to New Brunswick about 1774, having already acquired some distinction as a practitioner. On Feb. 14, 1776, he was com- missioned surgeon of the Second Middlesex Regi- ment, and was subsequently made surgeon in general hospital of the Continental army. He was liberal in making provisions for his outfit, procuring a supply of medicine and surgical instruments from Europe, chiefly upon his own credit ; but almost before they could be used they fell into the hands of the enemy, who suddenly invaded New Brunswick. He had barely time to save himself from capture, being obliged to desert his dinner upon the table and escape, leaving his house and its entire contents in the pos- session of the British soldiers. The doctor's cases of medicines were emptied into the streets by the cau- tious officers, a Tory neighbor having reported the story that the doctor had poisoned them on purpose to destroy the British troops.

In 1777, Congress took the entire direction of the medical staff, and Dr. Scott was commissioned as senior physician and surgeon of the hospitals and assistant director-general. He was present at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Ger- mantown. At Princeton he was near Gen. Mercer when he fell.

On the restoration of peace he resumed the duties of his profession at New Brunswick, where he con- tinued to reside until his death. He became a mem- ber of the Medical Society of New Jersey in 1782, and was chosen its president in 1789. His reputation drew to his office young men from all parts of the State for instruction in medicine. In 1814 he was made a fellow of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, New York.

Dr. Scott during his life was an earnest Christian and a pillar in the Presbyterian Church of New Brunswick. He was an efficient elder and treasurer of the board of trustees. His death occurred Dec. 28, 1821, at the age of eighty-three. His wife's maiden name was Anna Johnson. She died Aug. 7, 1833, aged eighty-eight. Their children were Han- nah, unmarried; Mary, married Dr. Charles Smith ; Jane, married Abraham Blauvelt; Joseph Warren Scott, who became an eminent lawyer, died in New Brunswick, aged ninety-four; Anna, married Dr. Eph- raim Smith, a practitioner in New Brunswick, who was mayor of the city and president of the State board ; Margaret, unmarried ; and Eliza, married Rev. Mr. Rousse.

CHARLES SMITH, physician of New Brunswick, was born near Princeton in 1768. By his own exer- tions he procured the means of acquiring a classical and professional education. He graduated at Prince- ton College in 1786, and studied medicine with Dr. Moses Scott, of New Brunswick, receiving his degree of M.D. from Queen's (Rutgers) College, in the first class which obtained its honors from that institution in 1792. He formed a partnership with his preceptor, and married hi- daughter, Mary Dickinson Scott. He was a surgeon in the State troops in the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794; was elected a trustee of Rut- gers College in 1804.

Dr. Smith was a skillful and successful practitioner, and was considered the most scientific and accom- plished physician of his day in the county of his resi- dence. In 1814 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. He not only rose to eminence in his profession, but acquired an ample fortune. In his person he was large and of fine presence, genial in his manners, and without egotism.

He died without issue, leaving an estate valued at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The most of his property was left to ex-Governor Olden, who was a son of his sister. His death occurred May 7, 1848, aged seventy-eight years.

HEZEKIAH STILES practiced as a physician at Cranbury. He was descended from John Stiles, one of the original emigrants to New England, who afterwards migrated to Hempstead, L. I., and be- came one of the first grantees of that township. He lived to the extraordinary age of one hundred and twenty-two or one hundred and twenty-three years, and when upwards of one hundred was able to walk forty miles a day. His grandson, William, settled at Springfield among the first inhabitants, where his son John also resided, who was the father of Hezekiah. The latter was born in 1726, and, as we have said, practiced in Cranbury, in this county. He became a member of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1767, and was chosen its president in 1775. He married the daughter of James Patten. Upon the erection of the Presbyterian Church in Cranbury in 1785, he gave the congregation a bell. His remains rest in its graveyard, and by the inscription it appears that he died Nov. 17, 1790, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and that his wife died April 14, 1794, in her fifty- seventh year.

AUGUSTUS R. TAYLOR was born in New Bruns- wick, N. J., in May, 1782. He received the rudi- ments of his education partly under the paternal roof and partly at Queen's College, in which his father was the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Phi- losophy. He removed to Schenectady, his father having been appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Union College, of which the celebrated Dr. Nott was then president, and gradu- ated in 1800 with the highest honors of his class.

518

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

Having determined to pursue the profession of medi- cine and surgery, he returned to New Brunswick and entered the office of Dr. Moses Scott. In the follow- ing winter he attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming a student of the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush, and received his degree in the spring of 1803, the subject of his thesis being "In- sanity." At their parting interview Dr. Rush pre- sented him with a pocket-case of lancets, and im- pressed upon him the necessity of bleeding in all cases, which advice he faithfully followed as long as he lived.

He returned to New Brunswick and immediately commenced the practice of medicine and surgery. He became a member of the Medical Society of the State of New Jersey upon its reorganization in 1816, and was chosen one of the first board of directors under section second of the charter adopted that year, with Drs. Lewis Dunham, John Van Cleve, Jacob Dunham, Nicholas Belleville, William McKissack, Nathaniel Manning, Enoch Wilson, Charles Smith, Peter I. Stryker, Matthias Freeman, Ralph P. Lott, Moses Scott, Charles Pierson, and Ephraim Smith as associates.1

At this meeting committees were appointed to form district medical societies in the counties of Middle- sex, Somerset, Monmouth, Essex, and Morris, agree- ably to the third section of the act of incorporation. Dr. Taylor, living on the north side of Albany Street, was a resident of New Brunswick, and at the same time in Somerset County, and was appointed a mem- ber of the committee to form the Somerset District Medical Society. The entire committe consisted of Peter I. Stryker, Ferdinand Schenck, William Mc- Kissack, Augustus R. Taylor, Ephraim Smith, Moses Scott, and Henry Schenck. The committee to form the Middlesex District Society were Lewis Dunham, Jacob Dunham, Enoch Wilson, Matthias Freeman, Charles Smith, Nathaniel Manning, Ralph R. Scott, and John Van Cleve .?

At the annual meeting of the State Society in 1816, Dr. Taylor was appointed chairman of the committee to revise, correct, and amend the act of incorporation of that society, and in April, 1830, he procured the passage of an act by the Legislature amending the charter of the Medical Society of New Jersey, under which he was elected first president.

He married, in 1804, Catherine Schuyler Neilson, daughter of Col. John Neilson, of the city of New Brunswick. They had eight children,-six sons and two daughters. One son died in infancy; the other five are filling responsible positions in different parts of the country. The two daughters married clergy- men of the Reformed Church.

Dr. Taylor's political friends sent him to the Legis- lature in 1839, and in consequence of the sudden

change from active to sedentary habits the disease was brought on which caused his death the following August. He was an excellent and successful physi- cian, and an eminently useful citizen, possessing in a high degree the esteem and affection of his patients and the confidence of his professional brethren. A friend of his paid him a proud but just compliment when he remarked that "Dr. Taylor never rose by depressing another." Those who desire to possess further information respecting his traits of character are referred to the tribute paid him by Dr. Pool, of South River, Middlesex Co. Dr. Taylor was emi- uently distinguished for science, beloved for the sim- plicity of his manners and the benevolence of his heart, respected for his inflexible integrity and his pure and unaffected piety. In all the relations of his professional life he was sagacious, candid, diligent, and humane. Few men ever united professional and personal worth in a higher or happier manner than did Dr. Augustus R. Taylor. He died at New Bruns- wick Aug. 19, 1840, and was placed in the family vault in the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church.

AUGUSTUS FITZ RANDOLPH TAYLOR, son of Dr. Augustus R. and Catharine Schuyler (Neilson) Tay- lor, was born in Schenectady, N. Y., Oct. 1, 1809. He attended Capt. Partridge's Military School at Mid- dletown, Conn., two years, during 1825 and 1826, at the expiration of which time he entered the Sopho- more Class of Rutgers College, from which he gradu- ated in 1829. He immediately entered his father's office at New Brunswick as a student of medicine, and continued there till the winter of 1831-32, when he became a student in the office of Dr. Alexander H. Ste- vens, in the city of New York, and at the same time at- tended lectures at the College of Physicians and Sur- geons. In the spring he returned to his father's office, intending to resume his studies and lectures in New York in the fall ; but, on account of the breaking out of Asiatic cholera in New Brunswick in July, 1832, he was detained in practice in that city. The fatal dis- ease had made its appearance simultaneously on the 16th day of July in Quebec, New York, and New Brunswick, and according to observations taken at that time the wind had blown steadily from the east for eleven consecutive days. New Brunswick was filled with laborers on the Delaware and Raritan Canal then in construction, among whom cholera began to make its deadly ravages. The contractors organized a hospital and placed Dr. Taylor in charge of it, although he had not yet been licensed to practice. He was also placed in charge of the hospital devised by the citizens, and fought heroically against the ravages of the fearful epidemic till autumn.

In the fall of 1832 he received a license to practice from the Medical Society of New Jersey, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was subse- quently conferred upon him by the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of the City of New York. Dr.

1 Those in italics belonged to Middlesex County.

2 Those in dalics living in New Brunswick.

519

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

Taylor has practiced medicine in New Brunswick for half a century, and is still consulted professionally, although he has suffered the loss of sight for many years, having been totally blind since 1866. He is a gentleman well up in his profession and in general information.

In 1839, as chairman of the committee of the Med- ical Society of New Jersey to whom was referred that portion of the president's address at the last annual meeting relating to a State Lunatic Asylum, he made an able and elaborate report on that subject, recom- mending that a petition be presented by the society to the Legislature. This was agreed to, and Dr. Taylor was appointed to get the memorial printed and place it on the desks of the members of the Council and Assembly at Trenton, which he did. The Legislature thereupon appointed a commission consisting of five persons, viz. : Hon. Lewis Condict, of Morris ; L. Q. C. Elmer, Esq., of Cumberland ; Dr. L. A. Smith, of Es- sex ; Dr. Charles G. McChesney, of Mercer ; and Dr. Augustus F. Taylor, of Somerset, to ascertain the number, age, sex, and condition of the Innatics and idiots of this State. The commission met and organ- ized for action, distributing the territory among the members as follows: to Dr. Condict, Morris, Sus- sex, and Warren Counties ; to Dr. Smith, Essex, Ber- gen, and Passaic ; to Dr. Taylor, Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon, and Gloucester ; to Dr. McChesney, Mer- cer, Burlington, and Monmouth ; to Mr. Elmer, Cum- berland, Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean Counties.

The report of this commission and the valuable information furnished by it to the Legislature were the means of inaugurating the measures which re- sulted in meeting the long-felt want of thoughtful and benevolent men throughout the State in the founding and establishment of the Lunatic Asylum at Trenton. In the work of founding this institution Dr. Taylor took a prominent part, and his friends may well be proud of the fact that it will stand in some sense as a monument to his memory, and that of his co-workers, long after he shall have passed from the scene of his earthly labors.

Dr. Taylor married, in 1833, Cornelia A. Holcomb, daughter of Samuel Holcomb, Esq., of New Bruns- wick. She died April 30, 1872. Two daughters sur- vive.

" NINETIETH ANNIVERSARY."-Under this head- ing the Lebanon (Ohio) Gazette, dated February 23d, comments as follows on the ninetieth anniversary of the birthday of Dr. John Van Harlingen, who grad- uated from Rutgers College in 1809 :

"Oo Sunday last, February 19th, Dr. John Vao Harlingen, well koowo to most people throughout this country, was ninety years of age. It has been & usual custom for his children, grandchildren, and great-grand- children to celebrate these occasions by gathering at one of their many cheerful firesides and enjoy the hospitalities that were ever ready and waiting for one and all. Oo this anniversary the day for celebrating was deferred till Monday, and the place selected was at the beautiful cottage home of his daughter Mary, the wife of the Rev. J. J. Hill. All the relatives save the doctor were notified of the event, but some were so far distant that it was impossible to be present. There were present

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 126

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224