History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 29

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 29
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 29

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Dr. Wickes and other writers on medicine in New Jersey date a stimulus in the progress of medical studies from the French war. "The physicians who were commissioned as surgeons and surgeon's mates, being brought into association with the British offi- cers, were led to know their inferiority, and were stimu- lated to improve their opportunities of practice and of intercourse with their more cultivated compeers." This revival of interest was speedily "followed in New Jersey by a measure still more potent in its in- fluence,-tlie organization, in 1766, of a medical so- ciety for the province." This at once elevated the tone and standard of the profession, and has been the conservator of its best interests throughout the State during the one hundred and fifteen years of its exist- ence. By its policy of granting commissions to auxili- ary district medical societies it has virtually its or- ganization and influence in every village and hamlet of the State. Most of the physicians noticed in the following brief memoirs were members of the New Jersey Medical Society, and some of them practiced many years before its organization. They all lived and practiced within the present limits of Union County.

Early Physicians of Union County .- DANIEL DENTON was probably the first physician in East Jersey. He was one of the original petitioners for the patent of Elizabeth Town in 1664, and was the first town clerk. His biographer says of him, " He taught school, practiced medicine, and served as jus- tice of the peace." He wrote a " Brief Description of New York," which was published in London in 1670. Judging from his style as a writer, he was a man of considerable ability, and fair learning for his times.

EDWARD GAY was an early physician. Letters of administration were granted Ang. 3, 1687, to " Edward Gay, of Elizabeth Town, Doctor of Physick," for the estate of John Wren, of Elizabeth Town, deceased.1

1 East Jersey Records, B. 133.

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HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

This is the first mention of him. He frequently ap- pears as a witness to the wills of the early settlers. He obtained a warrant, Aug. 15, 1693, for fifty acres of unappropriated land in Elizabeth Town. He may have been a descendant of John Gay, of Watertown, Mass., 1635, and of Dedham, Mass., 1639.1

WILLIAM ROBINSON was a physician residing in the Rahway neighborhood. He came to the town as early as 1685, purchased land of John Toe, and had surveyed to him, April 1, 1686, a tract of seven hun- dred acres on the north side of the Woodbridge line, and on the branch of the Rahway River called Rob- inson's Branch. He was undoubtedly of the Scotch immigration. He appears to have been a large land- owner both here and in Monmouth County, where he obtained, in 1692, a survey for five hundred and fifty acres, "in full of his share of the first division." In his will, dated May 18, 1693, he is called " William Robinson, Doctor of Physick." He appears to have died soon after, for his estate was appraised June 2, 1693, by Andrew Hampton and John Winans. Ann Winans, a daughter of the latter, married a son of Dr. Robinson.2

WILLIAM BARNET was a native of Elizabeth Town, born in 1723. He was distinguished as a physician and as an active and prominent Whig during the Revolution ; served as a voluntary surgeon in the army ; was one of the volunteers under Elias Dayton, who, in January, 1776, captured the " Blue Mountain Valley," a vessel described by Lord Stirling, in his letter to Congress, as a ship of about one hundred feet from stem to stern above, capable of making a ship-of-war of twenty six-pounders and ten three- pounders. The vessel was brought in safety to Elizabeth Town Point. Subsequent to this Dr. Bar- net was major of Col. Williamson's eastern division of light-horse.

About 1760, Dr. Barnet built a large brick mansion, which after his death was conveyed by Dr. Oliver Barnet, his brother, as executor to Jonathan Hamp- ton, in 1790. The house was subsequently owned and long occupied by Maj .- Gen. Winfield Scott dur- ing his residence in Elizabeth. It is still standing, having been kept in good condition. This is the house which suffered from the depredations of the British in their pluudering expeditions from Staten Island. In describing one of these after the war the doctor relates that " the rascals emptied my feather beds in the streets, and smashed my mirrors and windows. That was bad enough, but, to crown all, they stole from me the most splendid string of red peppers, hanging in my kitchen, that was ever seen in Elizabeth Town."3

In medical science Dr. Barnet was in advance of most physicians of his day. He was probably in in- timate relations with Jenner, the discoverer of vacci-

nation, as le introduced that remedy for smallpox thirty-seven years before its discoverer published it to the world. Dr. Rush states that "in the year 1759 Dr. Barnet was invited from Elizabeth Town, in New Jersey, to Philadelphia to inoculate for small- pox. The practice, though much opposed, soon be- came general." Jenner published his discovery in 1796. The quotation from Dr. Rush shows that he was well known as a promoter of inoculation and a physician of extensive reputation. His will was pro- bated Dec. 30, 1790. He died during that year, at the age of sixty-seven.

Oliver Burnet, his brother, who was made executor of his will, was a successful and highly-esteemed physician, residing in New Germantown, Hunterdon Co., N. J. He was a surgeon of the Fourth (Hun- terdon) Regiment, Feb. 14, 1776, and one of the asso- ciate justices of the trial in Westfield of Morgan, the murderer of Rev. James Caldwell, of Elizabethtown.

WILLIAM M. BARNET, son of Dr. William Barnet, of Elizabethtown, became a physician prior to 1772. Dr. Wickes refers to a charge to Dr. William Barnet, Jr., which appears in an account-book now extant, dated 1771. " He was elected a member of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1772. He signed his name to the constitution, making a dash under the 'M,' probably to distinguish himself from his father, who never joined the society. He served as surgeon in the war, First Battalion, First Establishment, Dec. 8, 1775; also First Battalion, Second Establishment, Nov. 28, 1776.

As a large property fell to him from his father, he probably did not practice his profession very exten- sively. Tradition says that he removed to New Ger- mantown and died there. But Dr. Wickes is of the opinion that the William Barnet referred to by Dr. Blane, who began practice in New Germantown in 1812, and died there in 1821, was a son of William M. Barnet, and one of the " grandchildren" alluded to in the will of 1790. If so, the doctor probably died in Elizabethtown.

ICHABOD BURNET was a physician in Elizabeth- town, and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, where he probably took his degrees in medicine. He was born at Southampton, L. I., in 1684, being a son of Daniel and a grandson of Thomas Burnet, who re- moved from Lynn, Mass., to Long Island about 1640. Dr. Burnet came to Elizabethtown about the year 1700. In 1730 he lived and practiced in Lyon's Farms, but afterwards removed to Elizabethtown.

He is spoken of by Dr. Hatfield as one of the dis- tinguished men of the town. He died July 13, 1774. His wife, Hannah, died Feb. 19, 1758, aged fifty-six. They had two sons, William and Ichabod, Jr., both of whom became physicians.

WILLIAM BURNET, the elder of the brothers, was born Dec. 2, 1730 (O.S). He graduated at Princeton College in 1749, studied medicine with Dr. Staals, of New York, and settled in Newark as a physician,

1 Savage, ii., p. 237.

2 Hatfield'e Elizabeth, p. 270.

& Ibid.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

where he distinguished himself as a patriot in the Revolution. He was the father of Judge Jacob Bur- net, of Cincinnati, the author of the well-known "Notes on the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio."

ICHABOD BURNET, JR .- Little is known of him, as he died too young to leave any professional record. He probably graduated at Princeton later than his brother, as his father being a university scholar, with strict notions respecting the profession, would not have sanctioned any preparation for practice short of a collegiate course. Whether he pursued his medical studies with his father or in the city of New York we are not informed. He died March 12, 1756, in his twenty-fourth year.

STEPHEN CAMP was an early physician in Rah- way, where he settled soon after graduating at Prince- ton in 1756. He was a son of Nathaniel Camp, of Newark, and was born in 1739. He married at Rah- way Hester Birt, daughter of a British officer. Dr. Wickes says of him, "He was one of the founders of the New Jersey Medical Society, being present at its first meeting .... The doctor was fond of com- pany, ' full of fun and frolic,' and made many friends. He died in 1775. One son, John, survived him, who though quite young became a Tory and a refugee, and was killed in Georgia during the Revolutionary war. He left also a daughter. Two sisters of Dr. Camp married,-Mary, born in 1731, to Dr. William Burnet, and Elizabeth to Dr. John Griffith, who succeeded to Dr. Camp's practice upon his decease.

" The house in which Dr. Camp died was occupied successively, perhaps not continuously, by Drs. Camp, Griffith, Lewis Morgan, and by the late Dr. Samuel Abernethy, who died in 1874. It is said to be the oldest house in Rahway."

The inscription over his grave shows that Dr. Camp died March 19, 1775, in the thirty-seventh year of his age.

WILLIAM CHANDLER, son of Rev. Dr. Thomas Chandler, rector of St. John's, Elizabethtown, was bred for the profession of medicine, though he prob- ably practiced little, if any, in this country. He graduated at King's College in 1774. His native place was Elizabethtown, whence he fled on account of his own and his father's loyalty in 1776, and served as a captain of a company of New Jersey volunteers (British) stationed on Staten Island. After peace was declared he went to England, where he died Oct. 22, 1784, in his twenty-ninth year.

ABRAHAM CLARK was a physician at Elizabeth- town. He was a son of Abraham Clark, tbe signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in 1767 in Elizabethtown. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Isaac Hatfield. He is said to have studied medicine with Dr. John Griffith, of Rahway, whose daughter he married in 1791. In the New Jersey Journal, Jan. 4, 1791, is the notice : " Married on Thursday evening last, by Rev. Dr. McWhorter, Dr. Abraham Clark to

Lydia, daughter of Dr. John Griffitlı, of Bridge- town."

Dr. Clark commenced practice at Elizabethtown, where he remained till after 1800, when his name ap- pears in the "New York Directory" as living in the lower part of Broadway. He was there but a few years when he removed to Newark, where he pursued his profession, together with literary and scientific studies, until 1830, when he removed to Kinderhook, on the Hudson, and spent the remainder of his days with his daughter, widow of Dr. Beckman. He died in July, 1854, in his eighty-eighth year.1

JOHN CLARK, born in .Elizabethtown, 1758, and practiced his profession there till his death, April 29, 1794, aged thirty-six. He was a second cousin of the signer, and died in the same year. His wife was a daughter of Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, the first commodore of the United States navy, and a brother of Stephen Hopkins, the signer. Dr. Wickes says, " He made her acquaintance during a visit to Provi- dence for the purpose of observing the characteristics of an epidemic which was prevalent there. His residence and office in Elizabethtown were in an old-fashioned wooden house; his office with a bow window, in which were displayed the bottles and equipments of a drug-shop. The late David S. Craig, of Rahway, was for a time a student in his office."

DAVID CRAIG .- He resided and practiced in Rah- way. He was descended from the Craig family, who settled in Elizabethtown about 1680-85; was born 1753, and died 1781. Dr. Isaac Morse, who spent most of his life in Elizabethtown, succeeded to Dr. Craig's practice. So says Dr. Wickes. David Craig was the father of David S., born 1774, who practiced for a great number of years in Rahway. From an inscription on the monument of the elder Dr. Craig it appears that he died at the age of twenty-eight years and eleven months, March 24, 1781.

REV. JOHN DARBY, though a minister at Connec- ticut Farms, was also a physician. The honorary degree of " Doctor of Medicine" was conferred upon him in 1782 by Dartmouth College. He was a de- scendant of William Darby (Darbie), who was a resi- dent of Elizabethtown in 1688 ; was born 1825 ; grad- uated at Yale in 1784; and was licensed to preach in April, 1749. He spent eight years preaching on Long Island; settled at Connecticut Farms in 1758; three years later removed to Parsippany, Morris Co., where he died December, 1805, aged ninety. As an illustra- tion of his varied attainments it is recorded by his historian that during the last sickness of Gen. Winds, of distinguished Revolutionary fame, he was his phy- sician, his lawyer in writing his will, his minister in affording the consolations of religion, upon his death the preacher at his funeral, and upon the erection of his monument the author of the monumental inscrip- tion. He taught many pupils in medicine from dif- ferent places who sought his instruction.

1 Wickes' Hist. N. J. Med., p. 202.

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JONATHAN DAYTON was a practicing physician for many years in Springfield, having settled there prior to 1766, at which time he was one of the founders of the Medical Society of New Jersey. He was the youngest of nine children of Nathan and Amy (Stratton) Dayton, of East Hampton, L. I., and de- scended from the common ancestor of Gen. Elias Day- ton and Hon. Jonathan Dayton, of Elizabethtown, viz., Ralph Dayton, of Boston, 1637. Dr. Dayton was born in 1731, and removed to Springfield (then a part of Elizabethtown) when a young man. He continued to reside there until his death, his practice as a physician extending into the adjoining settle- ments of Summit and New Providence. He died in the early years of the Revolution, Aug. 26, 1775. The house in which he lived is still standing, one of the three houses which were left when the enemy, in 1780, burnt the town. The house is notable for a hole in its north end made by a cannon-ball on the day of the battle.

Dr. Dayton had a son, William W., who studied medicine and began practice with his father. His career was cut short by an early death. Of his daugh- ters, Mary married William Steele, of New York ; Margaret married Thomas Salter, of Elizabethtown ; and one died young.

JONATHAN I. DAYTON, of Elizabethtown, where he practiced medicine during his professional life, was born in that town in 1738; married Mary Ter- rill March 3, 1770, and was a highly esteemed and very popular physician. Although sympathizing strongly with the loyalists at the outbreak of the Revolution, he subsequently took and subscribed the oath of abjuration and allegiance. His death, which occurred Oct. 19, 1794, is thus noticed in the New Jersey Journal :

"Sunday was interred in the Presbyterian burying- ground, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, all that was mortal of Dr. Jonathan I. Dayton, who for many years labored under a paralytic affection which greatly impaired his bodily and mental faculties. As there was no prospect of his emerging from the piti- able situation he was in, his relatives and friends must feel a melancholy pleasure in reflecting that his suf- ferings are terminated. As a physician, he was popu- lar ; as a member of society, useful and enterprising ; as a husband, kind and affectionate; as a parent, tender and indulgent. In short, he possessed many of the social virtues."

skilled in the appreciation of morbid phenomena, and an enlarged knowledge for his time of the principles of cure."

He died in Elizabethtown Oct. 7, 1747, and his remains rest in the Presbyterian Cemetery.

ALEXANDER EDGAR, a native of Rahway, was admitted to membership in the State Medical Society at a meeting held in Princeton in May, 1784. He was a son of William and grandson of Thomas Edgar, who came from Scotland about 1715 or 1720. Dr. Edgar obtained a certificate and recommendation from the medical society at the time of his admission, with the view of practicing in a remote part of the State. This is all that is known of him, except that he never married and died young, and as a stranger, in Albauy, N. Y.

PHILEMON ELMER .- Of the numerous physicians of the Elmer family in New Jersey, the subject of this brief notice resided in Westfield, where he prac- ticed the greater part of his life. He was born Sept. 13, 1752; married (1) Mary Marsh, by whom he had two children, viz .: Sally, wife of Dr. Loring, and Polly, wife of Dr. Joseph Quimby, of Westfield ; married (2) Catharine, only child of Capt. John Sleight (or Slack), of New Brunswick, by whom he had two daughters, Betsey and Catharine. The former married Ellis Potter, of New York; the latter, Aaron Coe, of Westfield, who had children,-Philemon El- mer Coe, an Episcopal minister, who built the first Episcopal Church in Plainfield about 1852, and died of smallpox in 1874, and Catharine, who married Hon. Alfred Mills, of Morristown. Married (3) the widow of Charles Clark.

Dr. Elmer had a large practice, was a man of abil- ity and force of character, and of fine social qualities. He died May 16, 1827, leaving a large property, which has remained among his heirs.

MOSES GALE ELMER was a practitioner of medi- cine during his professional life in New Providence. He was born Sept. 26, 1757, and was consequently nineteen years of age at the breaking out of the war of the Revolution. He entered the service as soon as his attainments in medicine would permit, being com- missioned surgeon's mate, Second Battalion, Second Establishment, Aug. 28, 1778; surgeon's mate, Second Regiment, Sept. 26, 1780; discharged at the close of the war. He married Chloe, daughter of Matthias Meeker, of Morristown, and had four children.

Dr. Eliner had an extensive practice, and was the owner of a fine estate in and adjoining the village of New Providence. Dr. Wickes, who gives a pretty full account of Dr. Elmer's personal characteristics, relates the following anecdote :

REV. JONATHAN DICKINSON .- While a sketch of the life of this eminent author and divine appears in the history of the First Presbyterian Church, of which he was so many years the honored pastor, it may be well to mention here that he was a physician also. " There were in his town a large number of opera- tives connected with the shoe and hat manufactories, whose raids at night upon his watermelon-patch caused him much annoyance. On one occasion he so doc- tored some of the finest melons that they produced in In this latter capacity he acquired a high reputation. Dr. Wickes, speaking of his letter on the throat distemper, published in Cambridge, Mass., in 1740, at the request of several of the most eminent physi- cians of Boston, says it "gives evidence of a mind | those who had taken them symptoms which demanded

CORRA OSBORN.

· EUGENE JOBS.

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treatment. The doctor was summoned. The patients averred that they had 'eaten nothing,' but the admin- istration of an emetic soon caused a disgorgement of the melous and a discovery of their tricks."

The practice of denying water to patients in fevers, so common in the early days, was almost a mania with Dr. Elmer, who was unrelenting in his prohibi- tions. " In one case of fever the sufferer begged the doctor for water. 'Tut, tut, tut ; no, no, no ; not one drop shall you have, sir; if you touch it, it will be at the peril of your life, sir !' But the patient managed to ercep on his hands and knees to a pail of cool, fresh water, drank all he could swallow, returned to his bed, perspired freely, convalesced, and then told the doctor what had eured him. In his later years lie abandoned the frequent use of phlebotomy."1

By act of Congress passed in 1828 the doctor re- ceived a pension for the rest of his life. He died on the 31st of May, 1835, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His wife died June 19, 1833, aged sixty.

HENRY G. ELMER, son of the above, studied medicine, and was regarded as a very promising young physician, but intemperate habits overcame him and he fell a victim to it in early life. He was born in 1799; married Pamelia, daughter of Gabriel Johnson ; died Feb. 11, 1824, aged twenty-five years and eleven months.

JOHN GRIFFITH, of Rahway, was one of the found- ers of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1766. He was born Nov. 19, 1736; married Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel, and sister of Dr. Stephen Camp, to whose house and business he succeeded. He was highly es- teemed as a physician and citizen. He is described as a "stout, stirring man, pleasant and jolly." Of his four sons and two danghters we find the following mention : " Dr. Thomas; William, Esq., of Burling- ton, a distinguished lawyer and author of ' Griffith's Law Register, 1822;' John, a merchant of New York ; and Nathaniel, who entered into partnership with John. One of his daughters, Lydia, married Dr. Abraham Clark."

THOMAS GRIFFITH, son of the foregoing, was born in 1765, and died at Elizabethtown, December, 1799, aged thirty-four. The Sentinel of Freedom, Newark, contains the following notice of his death :

" The death of Dr. Griffith is sincerely and univer- sally lamented, being a great loss to his family, the town, and to society. Hc possessed a considerable degree of literature; was eminent as a surgeon and physician, and his liberality to his patients of poverty will long be remembered. In his deportment he was modest, manners agreeable, conduct through life amiable, his morals unblemished, an honor to his profession, and left an example worthy of imita- tion."

He became a member of the State Medical Society in 1787.

ROBERT HALSTED, a descendant of Timothy, one of the original Associates, was the son of Caleb Hal- sted of Elizabethtown, and was born there in 1746. His mother was Rebecca, a daughter of Robert Ogden. He was twice married, first to Mary Wiley, who died soon after the close of the Revolution; second to Mary Mills, who died in 1845, in her seventy-ninth year. Nothing is recorded respecting the education of Dr. Halsted, or where he received his medical degree. He was, however, held in high esteem as a physician, was bold and energetic, somewhat stern and brusque in his manner, though uniting with his strength and energy great magnanimity and kindness of heart. He was a strict observer of the Sabbath and a regular church-goer, always in his seat at the hour of worship. Being patriotie and outspoken at the beginning of the war, he rendered himself ob- noxious to the loyalists, from whom he suffered not a little, being arrested and confined in the old sugar- house iu New York. He died Nov. 17, 1825, aged seventy-nine. A fine marble monument marks his grave in the churchyard at Elizabeth.

CALEB HALSTED, a brother of Robert, was a phy- sieian at Connecticut Farms, where he practiced until seventy-four years of age, dying Aug. 18, 1827. He married Abigail Lyon, and had four children who grew to mature life, viz. : Mary, wife of Gen. Isaac Andruss ; Phebe Roberts, wife of Luther Goble; Jo- seph Lyon, who married Ellen Turk; and Caleb Stockton, who married Margaret Roome. The doctor is remembered as a fine figure, portly in person, and popular with all classes. He was well up in his pro- fession, both theoretically and practically, and in public and private life distinguished for his philan- thropy and benevolence.

MATTHIAS DE HART .- The family of which Dr. De Hart was a member emigrated originally from France to Holland. They first appear in this country at New Amsterdam in 1658, where in the old records the name is De Hardt. One of the brothers was a phy- sieian,-Dr. Daniel De Hardt. Belthazer, a wealthy merchant of New Amsterdam, was the progenitor of the family in Elizabethtown, his son, Capt. Matthias De Hart, being the first settler of that name, about the close of the seventeenth century. He was the grandfather of the subject of this notice. At what time he began practice is not known, although from an advertisement in the Weekly Post-Boy, November, 1752, it appears that he was a doctor prior to that date. He was the eldest son of Col. Jacob De Hart, and died at the age of forty-three in 1766.

" Towards the close of his life," says Dr. Wiekes, "he became blind, and had an African servant to at- tend upon him. This attendant made himself useful to his master with his needle in repairing and bind- ing on the lace-work of his coat according to the fashion of his times. The doctor married into the family of the Kingslands, of Second River. He had , several children. Three of his sons were in the Rev-

1 Wickes' Hist. N. J. Med., p. 256.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 29

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