The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 42

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220

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Almshouse, and was its first treasurer. Be- sides attending to these official duties, he joined in the State, county and district con- ventions of the Democratic party, of which he was a member. During all these years of public life he pursued the practice of medi- cine with skill aud success. He took much interest in the Gloucester County Medical and State Medical Societies, being a member of both, and at one time president of the latter. In the year 1876, when seventy-six years old, he retired from business. He died April 11, 1886.

MYLES and MARTIN SYNOTT were broth- ers. Their father was Irish and their mother American. They were natives of Mays Landing. The elder brother, Myles, was born in 1806, and the younger, Martin, April 8, 1812. The former studied with Dr. Ja- cob Fisler, who afterward married the Drs. Synott's mother. He graduated at the Jef- ferson Medical College in 1831 and com- menced the practice of medicine in Chews Lauding in 1833. He remained here until 1841, when he removed to Glassboro', Glou- cester County, where he died February 9, 1867. He was noted for his wit. He was very strict concerning his instructions to his patients, and once blistered a man's feet be- cause he refused to stay in the house when ordered to do so.1 He married Harriet Whitney, of Glassboro', in 1843, and left three children, still living.

Dr. Martin Synott studied medicine with his brother and graduated at the Jefferson Medical College in 1839. He also located at Chews Landing, where he practiced until 1845, when he removed to Blackwood, where he died April 8, 1877. He was a man of tact and skill in his profession. He married Rebecca Jaggard, February 12, 1844. Two daughters survive him.

JOSEPH ANDERSON STOUT, was the son of Benjamin and Grace Stout, of Attleborough

1 Dr. Somers' " Medical History of Atlantic County."

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

(Langhorne), Bucks County, Pa., where lie was born in 1807. He studied medicine under Dr. Boil, and graduated in New York in 1831. Some time afterwards he located in Long-a-Coming (now Berlin), Camden Coun- ty, his practice extending to Winslow, Water- ford and the surrounding country. In 1838 he removed to Tuckahoe, Cape May County. From thence he went to Somers Point, At- lantic County, succeeding Dr. Lewis S. Somers, who had removed to Philadelphia. While in Tuckahoe he married, in 1839, Miss M. S. Godfrey, a sister of Hon. John Godfrey, who, after the death of Dr. Stout, married a Mr. Ogden. Dr. Stout died at Somers Point April 11, 1848, and was buried in Zion Churchyard, at Bargaintown. He was a believer in the faith of universal salvation. He left four sons, but one of whom is living.1

LORENZO F. FISLER was born on a farm in the upper end of Cumberland County, near Fislerville, on the 20th of April, 1797. He was the son of Dr. Benjamin and Catha- rine Fisler. He studied medicine with his father, who then practiced medicine in Port Elizabeth, and as early as 1815 he assisted the latter in his profession. Dr. Fisler at- tended lectures at the University of Penn- sylvania and graduated therefrom in 1819. He had two brothers, physicians,-Samuel, his twin brother, and Jacob who practiced in Mays Landing, Atlantic County. Dr. Lo- renzo F. Fisler began his professional career with his brother Benjamin in the latter place, where, being a good speaker, he occasionally preached in the Methodist Church. He re- mained here only a short time. He removed to Woodstown, in Salem County, and in 1825 he passed his examination before the board of censors of that county. In 1832 he re- turned to Port Elizabeth, and in 1836 he lo- cated in Camden, his office being on Second Street below Market. In this city he soon

1 Dr. Somers' "Medical History of Atlantic County."

secured a good practice, at the same time joining actively in public affairs. He was mayor of the city seven times. Dr. Fisler was a clear and logical writer, and was the author of a pamphlet history of Camden, published in 1858. As a public lecturer he was noted for his pleasing address and hu- morous satire, and he was frequently invited to deliver addresses before associations of a benevolent or charitable character. He never joined either the State or County Medical So- cieties, but he was one of the organizers and a most efficient member of the Camden City Medical Society. Dr. Fisler died in Cam- den, March 31, 1871. He married Anna Maria, daughter of Richard Somers and Rachael Risley, of Woodstown, who, with five children, are still living.

WILLIAM PARHAM was one of the physi- cians in Camden County who never joined its medical society. He was born. in 1803, in Jerusalem, Va. He studied medicine in Lexington, Ky., and began its practice in Alabama. From there he went to Central America and was a surgeon in a battle in Yucatan. After that he returned to the United States, and remained for a time in Philadelphia. He then selected Tom's River, in Ocean County, N. J., as a field for practice, but in 1836 he removed to Tansboro', in Camden County, from which place his professional visits extended to the adjacent towns of Waterford and Winslow. In a few years Dr. Parham removed to Williamstown, and thence in 1846 to Blackwood. He con- tinued to practice medicine here until his death, which occurred April 2, 1855. He married, at Barnegat, Ocean County, Febru- ary 28, 1833, Juliana, daughter of Dr. Bugbee, who was a native of Vermont. They had no children.

GEORGE BARROWS was an Englishman and received his medical education in his native country. With a wife and one child he landed penniless in New York in 1836. Accidentally meeting in that city with Sooy

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Thompson, of Pleasant Mills, Atlantic County, N. J., he was induced by him to settle in the latter place, where he boarded with Mr. Thompson until he could procure a home for himself. Here he diligently ap- plied himself to the practice of his profession.1 Between the years 1840 and 1844 he re- moved to Tansboro', in Camden County. At a meeting of the Camden County Medical Society held December 21, 1847, a committee was ap- pointed to investigate the credentials of Dr. Barrows. They reported that there was on file in the clerk's office a certified copy of a diploma granted to him in 1836 by Dr. Heury Vanderveer, president of the New Jersey State Medical Society. It does not appear that he ever applied for admission to membership in the County Medical Society. He removed to Philadelphia, where he died in 1852.

RICHARD MATLACK COOPER .- William Cooper, of Coleshill, England, located land at Burlington, N. J., in 1678. On June 12, 1682, he had surveyed to him the land at Pyne, now Coopers Point, Cam- den, to which he then removed. Daniel Cooper, the youngest son of William, mar- ried twice. By the first wife he had one child, William, from whom is descended the family which by inheritance and pur- chase acquired a large part of what is now the city of Camden, much of it still being in their possession.

Of this family was Dr. Richard M. Cooper, the son of Richard M. and Mary Cooper, born in Camden August 30, 1816. His father, who was a man of distinc- tion, gave his son a liberal education. After a course of study at a preparatory school he entered the Department of Arts of the University of Pennsylvania in 1832, and graduated from it in 1836. He at once com- menced the study of medicine with Professor George B. Wood, of the Medical Department

1 Dr. Somers' Medical " History of Atlantic County."

of the same University, and after attending three courses of lectures there, received from it his degree of M.D. in 1839.

At this date the lower part of Camden, called South Camden, was being settled by negroes and poor whites. Among these Dr. Cooper began the practice of his profession, gratuitously dispensing necessary medicines. His colleagues in the profession were Drs. Samuel Harris, Isaac S. Mulford and Loren- zo F. Fisler, all men of ability and exper- ience, with whom he soon took an equal rank as a skilful practitioner.

Dr. Cooper took an active interest in the organization of the Camden County Medical Society in 1846, being one of its corpora- tors, its first secretary and subsequently its treasurer. He was a member of its board of censors from the time of their appointment, in 1847, until 1851, and as such it was his duty to examine into the qualifications of all physicians desiring to practice medicine in the district.

Professionally, Dr. Cooper appears to have attained almost the station of the ideal phy- sician, for he had a broad love for humanity as well as an enthusiasm for the healing art. " He was distinguished," says one who knew him, " for that gentle and cheerful demeanor in a sick-room which not only inspired faith in his patient, but assuaged the pangs . of many an aching heart. Such was the esteem in which he was held, that many seemed to believe that his presence in a sick-room would relieve the sufferer. His skill and constant studious research in his profession, however, gave him a success which inspired this confidence ; and practicing, because he loved to practice, gave him an experience which increased his knowledge. . . . A man cast in such a mold would naturally find pleasure in forwarding works of charity and benevolence. It was so in this case."

One of Doctor Cooper's characteristics was his modesty. He would not permit his name to be proposed for president of the County

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Medical Society until 1871, because he was unwilling to stand in the way of the promo- tion of its younger members. For the same reason he accepted the appointment of dele- gate to the American Medical Association only when its meetings were held at a dis- tance, because he could spare the time occu- pied, and the expense incurred in its attend- ance, better than his fellow-members. In 1871 he read before the Society a history of it from its incorporation, the MSS. of which are preserved in the archives. He was fre- quently chairman of the standing committee, and wrote the medical reports made to the New Jersey State Medical Society, which were marked by a comprehensive knowledge of the diseases of his native county. He be- came president of the latter society in 1856.

"Engrossed, as Dr. Cooper was, by the on- erous duties of an exacting profession, which were discharged with a fidelity, skill and self- abnegation worthy of the man, he found time, amid all these, to intimately acquaint himself with what was passing in the bnsy world around him. There seemed to be no subject, national, state, county or municipal, that escaped his notice, or that he did not ex- ercise his impartial judgment in properly considering and criticising. Those measures which involved the vital concerns of the country, when torn asunder for the time by fratricidal strife, awakened his deepest thought, and when drawn out, he would discuss them with that unconscious ability characteristic of the man. He displayed the same cogent reasoning and methods of thought in reaching satisfactory conclusions when giving expression to his views in regard to the more intimate concerns of his State. Laws affecting its policy or the interests of the people seldom escaped his observation, or failed to provoke his favorable or ad- verse criticism, and no one could listen without being instructed as well as sur- prised at the large fund of general infor- mation always at hand to draw from in illus-

trating a point or in enforcing an argument. But it was in home affairs that Dr. Cooper showed his greatest interest and his thorough acquaintance with everything connected with the public welfare. He scrutinized with the greatest care every action of the local author- ities involving the city's welfare, never withholding his approval where the step to be taken was warranted by the city's finances and demanded for the public good. Dr. Cooper was never indifferent to his responsibility as a citizen, and it was this that led' those who knew him best to seek his advice and counsel when matters of public interest required the mature delibera- tion of one so prudent, unselfish and dis- criminating."

Dr. Cooper was one of the originators of the Camden City Medical Society, and was a most efficient member. He was a corpor- ator of the Camden City Dispensary, and its treasurer from its incorporation until his death.

The Cooper Hospital, described elsewhere, was a project of his, in conjunction with his brother, Wm. D. Cooper, which, although not commenced in the lifetime of the projectors was, after their decease, established and en- dowed by their sisters Sarah W. and Eliza- beth B. Cooper, who with their brother, Alexander Cooper, also conveyed the land upon which the buildings are located. For many years Dr. Cooper was a sufferer from hereditary gout, from the consequences of which, superadded to the labors of a very extensive practice, he died May 24, 1874, while, for a second time, president of his favorite, the Camden County Medical Society, to which he bequeathed, in his will, the sum of three thousand dollars, the interest of which was to be used in defraying its ex- penses. He was a member of the Society of Friends, whose faith had been the religion of his ancestors. He was never married.

EZEKIEL COOPER CHEW commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Bowman Hendry,

Pluriel It, Naylon

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of Haddonfield, and completed his education at the Jefferson Medical College in 1843. He was the son of Nathaniel and Mary Chew, of Greenwich (now Mantua) township, Glouces- ter County, and was born January 17, 1822. He first engaged in the practice of medicine in Blackwood, and joined the Camden County Medical Society in 1851. He had been a member about two years, when he left this county and removed to Iowa, and sub- sequently settled in Indiana, where he was still living three years ago. Dr. Chew was a man of commanding appearance and had a fine physique. He married Miss Caroline Bishop Woolston, of Vincentown, Burlington County, N. J., and had fourteen children, of whom seven sons and three daughters are living, and four sons are dead.

OTHNIEL HART TAYLOR was born in Philadelphia May 4, 1803. His father was William Taylor, Jr., who married Mary E. Gazzam, both of Cambridge, England, whence they removed to Philadelphia, in which city Mr. Taylor was engaged in an ex- tensive mercantile business for more than forty years.

The early life of his son Othniel was occu- pied mainly in attendance upon schools of elementary instruction in Philadelphia and Holmesburg, Pa., and in Baskenridge, N. J. In 1818 he entered the Literary Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1820 he became a medical student in the of- fice of that distinguished physician and sur- geon, Thomas T. Hewson, M.D., at the same time attending a course of medical instruction in the University of Pennsylvania. He com- pleted his studies there in 1826 and grad- uated with the class of that year. After his graduation, Dr. Taylor entered upon the practice of medicine in the city of Philadel- phiia, where he was very soon appointed one of the physicians to the City Dispensary, in which capacity he served many years, and about the same time he was elected out-door physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, a

position he held for eight years. During the year 1832 the Asiatic cholera made its first appearance in this continent, and Dr. Taylor distinguished himself by volunteering to serve in the city hospitals which were estab- lished in the emergency by the municipal au- thorities, while he was at the same time act- ing as one of the Committee of Physicians appointed by the City Councils as consulting physicians to their sanitary board.

The hospital which was especially in his charge was known as St. Augustine Hos- pital, in Crown Street, and the number of cholera patients reported by him as under treatment in that hospital was five hundred and twelve. He was also elected as one of a commission of medical men who were sent to Montreal, in Canada, to study the charac- ter and treatment of cholera on its out- break in that city, and before its appearance in our cities ; but being unable to accompany the commission, he declined in favor of Dr. Charles D. Meigs, who, with Drs. Richard Harlan and Sanmel Jackson, made the visit and report. Upon the closing of the hospi- tals after the disappearance of the cholera, Dr. Taylor, with seven other physicians who had been in charge of cholera hospitals, re- ceived, by vote of the City Council, a testi- monial of their appreciation of the services which they had rendered to the city, each of them being presented with a service of silver bearing inscription that it was given “as a token of regard for intrepid and disinterested services."

In consequence of impaired health, Dr. Taylor, in 1838, relinquished the practice of medicine in Philadelphia and removed to Abington, Pa. ; thence he went, in 1841, to Caldwell, Essex County, N. J., and in 1844 he located himself in Camden, continuing actively in the practice of medicine there during the remainder of his life.1

Dr. Taylor was one of the three physicians

1 Transactions New Jersey State Medical Society, 1870.

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

of Camden City whose names appear in the list of corporators of the Camden County Medical Society in 1846, and he was its first vice-president, holding the office for four years. In 1856 he became its president. For twenty-three years he was one of its most attentive, active and efficient members, his learning and experience rendering his ser- vices invaluable in committee work. He was elected vice-president of the State Medi- cal Society successively in 1849, 1850 and 1851, and president of that society in 1852. He was one of the organizers of the City Medical Society and had filled its most im- portant offices ; and he introduced into it the resolution for the founding of a City Dispen- sary, of which, when eventually it was estab- lished, he was one of the corporators and a manager nntil ill health compelled his retire- ment.

Dr. Taylor was the author of quite a num- ber of valuable articles and addresses upon medicine and related subjects which were published in the medical and other journals. In addition to this, he was frequently a lec- turer before lyceums and other societies, and this contributed much to the intellectual de- velopment of Camden. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and in 1847 he was elected a warden of St. Paul's Church, Camden, and at the time of his death he was senior warden of that parish.

In 1832, Dr. Taylor married Evelina C., daughter of Jehu and Anna Burrough, of Gloucester (now Camden County). During his residence in Camden he lived in the house on Market Street, above Third, built by Mrs. Burrough in 1809, where the doctor died of pneumonic phthisis September 5, 1869. His widow survived until September 18, 1878, leaving three sons-Dr. H. Genet Taylor, Marmaduke B. Taylor (a lawyer in Camden) and O. G. Taylor (deceased), who for nearly twenty years was apothecary and superinten- dent of the Camden Dispensary.

WILLIAM C. MULFORD was a pioneer

physician in Gloucester City, having re- moved to it from Pittsgrove, Salem County, in 1845, soon after the first mill was erected in the former place. He was the son of William and Ann Mulford, and was born July 17, 1808, in Salem City. Commencing the study of medicine under Dr. Beasley, he attended medical lectures at the Jefferson Medical College, and graduated in 1830. He practiced medicine in Pittsgrove, Salem County, where he married his wife, Emily Dare, on March 28, 1833. Upon his re- moval to Gloucester City he was appointed its first postmaster, the post-office being in a corner room of the factory. Dr. Mulford continued practicing his profession here until 1862, when he was commissioned an assistant surgeon in the Third New York Cavalry, serving with it for six months, when he was detailed for hospital duty in Rhode Island, and then in Washington. He was on duty at and witnessed the execu- tion of Mrs. Surratt. He was honorably discharged from the service in April, 1866, when he recommenced the practice of medi- cine in Gloucester City, and continued there until 1870. In that year he removed to a farm he had purchased in Charles City County, Va., where he died December 3, 1878. He never joined either of the medical societies.

REYNELL COATES moved to Camden in 1845, where he attended an occasional pa- tient during the earlier years of his residence in it. He belonged to an old Philadelphia family, and was born in that city ))ecem- ber 10, 1802. His father, Samnel Coates, sent him to the well-known Friends' School at Westtown. Afterwards he attended med- ical lectures at the University of Penn- sylvania, where he graduated in 1823. Dr. Coates was a man of the most brilliant and erratic genius, and a poet of considerable reputation. He was a well-known author upon medical, scientific and political sub- jects, and some of his works have been

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translated into other languages; a list of them may be found in Allibone's " Dictionary of Authors." He likewise for a time took an active part in politics, and in 1852 was the candidate for Vice President on the Native American ticket. Before he came to Cam- den he had separated from his wife, with whom he had lived but one year. In this city he was very poor at times and depend- ent upon the assistance of his relatives in Philadelphia. Sometimes he boarded, but frequently he lived entirely alone, doing his own cooking. In 1867 he was elected a member of the Camden City Medical So- ciety. Dr. Coates was the anonymous author of a biography of Dr. Bowman Hendry, of Haddonfield, published in pamphlet form in 1848. He died in Camden April 27, 1886.

AARON DICKINSON WOODRUFF was the first member to join the Camden County Medical Society after its incorporation, which he did in 1847. His grandfather, A. D. Woodruff, was attorney-general of New Jersey from 1800 to 1818. Dr. Woodruff was the son of Elias Decou Woodruff and Abigail Ellis Whitall, and was born in Woodbury, N. J., May 4, 1818. Upon the death of his father, in 1824, his mother re- moved to Georgetown, D. C., and thence, in 1829, to Philadelphia. Dr. Woodruff was educated at the academy of Samuel Jones. At sixteen he entered the drug store of Charles Ellis, and graduated at the College of Pharmacy in 1838. In 1840 he went to Woodville, Miss., to take charge of a drug store, but commencing the study of medicine, he returned, in 1842, to Philadelphia, and - pursued his studies under Dr. Thomas Mut- ter, professor of surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, from which school he grad- uated in 1844. He spent a few months in. the Pennsylvania Hospital, and then com- menced the practice of medicine in Haddon- field, where he soon won the confidence of the people and secured an extensive practice. In 1865, in consequence of impaired health

from overwork, Dr. Woodruff retired from practice and removed to Philadelphia. He resigned from the Medical Society in 1871, upon his removal to his farin in Princess Anne, Md., but was elected an honorary member of it. He died in Philadelphia in January, 1881. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Woodruff mar- ried Miss Anne Davidson, of Georgetown, D. C., but left no issue.

JAMES C. RISLEY was one of the corpor- ators and first president of the Camden County Medical Society, being at that time a practitioner of medicine at Long-a-Coming (Berlin), where he remained until 1849. He was the son of Judge James Risley, of Woodstown, Salem County, born in June, 1817. He studied medicine with Dr. J. Hunt, and was licensed by the board of censors of the New Jersey State Medical Society in June, 1838, but he did not attend medical lectures until some years later, finally graduating in 1844 at the Jefferson Medical College. In the mean time he had practiced medicine at Port Elizabeth until 1842, when he returned to Woodstown. After his gradu- ation he located in Camden County. From here, in 1849, he went to Columbia, Pa., and remained there until 1856, when he removed to Muscatine, Iowa. He returned to Penn- sylvania in 1861, and opened an office at New Brighton, continuing here until 1864, when, his health being impaired, he went back to his home in Woodstown, where he died November 21, 1866.1 Dr. Risley was a man of commanding appearance and pleasing ad- dress, with colloquial powers that won for him a quick appreciation from his patrons. He married Miss Caroline Crompton, of Port Elizabeth, who survived him.

BOWMAN HENDRY, JR., was the son of Dr. Bowman Hendry, and was born in Had- donfield May 4, 1820. His father dying when his son was a youth, young Hendry 1 Transactions New Jersey State Medical Society, 1867.

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studied medicine with his brother Charles, and graduated from the Jefferson College in 1846. For a few months he practiced medicine in Haddonfield, and then removed to Gloucester City, a place that had just been started as a manufacturing town. After the outbreak of the Civil War Dr. Hendry entered the army and was appointed assistant surgeon of the Sixth New Jersey Regiment, and continued with it until the regiment was mustered out of service, September 7, 1864. Next he was attached to the Mower Hospital, at German- town, Pa., where he remained until the close of the war. He then located in Camden City, where he practiced medicine until his death, June 8, 1868. Dr. Hendry was a member of the Camden City and Camden County Medical Societies, having joined the latter in 1847, and was its president in 1860. He took an active part in both, and read before the City Society a valuable paper upon the Mower Hospital. He married, February 24, 1850, Helen A. Sarchct, of Gloucester City, who, with one daughter, resides in Camden.

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 42

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220