Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 66

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y. > Part 66

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Although widely known as one of the leading physicians of Brooklyn, the doctor is still an eager student, acting on his own statement to the young men who look to him for instruction-" The doctor who has ceased to grow is fit to be buried." He is a cool and skilful operator, with an uncom- mon knowledge of the chemistry of medicine, and of the delicate and complex instruments which later years have brought as aids to diagnosis and treatment. Perhaps the chief factors in his professional success have been, not alone erudition and ready wit, but a faculty for generalization and a broad humanity. "His success," as Dr. Holmes said of a more renowned practitioner, " has been won without special aid at starting, by toil, patience, good sense, pure char- acter and pleasing manners; won in a straight, up-hill ascent, without a breathing space."

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

THOMAS LUDINGTON SMITH, M. D., U. S. N. The ancestry of the subject of this biography were of Scotch origin, and settled in Essex county, N. J., about 1680. His father, Jonas Smith, a well-to-do farmer, was a public-spirited man and an earnest Whig, who took an active part in the af- fairs of his township and county. His mother was a daughter of Col. Thomas Ward, who won his military title in the service of his country. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, Jonas Smith and Peninnah Ward were married. Their son Thomas, the subject of this sketch, was born August 3, 1800, at their home in Orange, New Jersey. He received his early education at the Orange Academy and from a private tutor, with a view to engaging in the study of medicine, which was the profession of his early choice: insomuch that, at the age of seventeen, he was regularly entered as a medi- cal student with Dr. Samuel Hayes, of Newark. Three years later, in 1820, he went to New York, studying there with Dr. J. Kearney Rodgers, an eminent physician of that day, one of the founders of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. In the infancy of this institution, Dr. Smith was a student and assistant, and holds its certificate, dated 1823.

He had previously entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which was then in Barclay street, and received the degree of M. D. in 1822. Shortly afterwards, he returned to his home in Orange, practicing his profession there for a time; but, in 1824, he returned to New York and opened an office in Greenwich street, near Murray.

Possessing a constitution which was never very strong, his health became somewhat impaired, so that he sought the ad- vantages to be derived from a sea voyage, and applied to the Navy Department for an appointment as surgeon, which was granted January 3, 1828. Meanwhile he was commissioned Surgeon of the 82d Regiment, S. N. Y., by Governor De Witt Clinton, April 16, 1827. His commission as Surgeon's Mate (now called assistant surgeon) bears date March 25, 1828, and is signed by President John Quincy Adams. He was as- signed to duty on board the frigate Hudson, under Comman- der John Ord Creighton, for the Brazil station. In August, 1830, while on that station, he was appointed Acting Surgeon, and ordered to the sloop Vandalia ; returned to the United States in December, 1831, and was ordered to the receiving ship Franklin, at New York, and continued on duty three years. During this period occurred the visitation of the Asiatie cholera, which disease, hitherto unknown in this country, Dr. Smith was called on to face for nearly three months ; during a portion of the time he was compelled to be on duty night and day. In September, 1831, he was or- dered to the schooner Boxer, fitting for sea at Norfolk. He sailed from that place early in November, encountering a terrific gale off the coast. Although she received some dam- age, the Boxer continued on her ernise to the Pacific station. Dr. Smith was commissioned Surgeon by President Andrew Jackson, February 7, 1837. In December, 1838, he joined the frigato Macedonian, for the West India station. In the sum- mer of 1810, the squadron sailed north, touching at Boston, Portland and Eastport : on the return, the Erie, to which he had been transferred, was put in ordinary at Boston, and the officers detached. In April, 1842, he was ordered to the frigate Congress, and, in July, sailed for the Mediterranean station, where he continued until December, 1813, when the ship was ordered to the Brazils. While there, the Buenos Ayres fleet seized an American merchant vessel which was endeavoring to run the blockade with a cargo of beeves, as a speculation of the famous P. T. Barnum, but the commander of the Congress demanded and securel her release. Dr. Smith returned to the United States in March, 1815. In 1816. was on the receiving ship Pennsylvania, at Norfolk, Va .;

was attached to the Navy Yard, New York, from 1847 to 1849, and on the board for the examination of candidates for promotion and admission into the medical corps of the navy. In August, 1850, he joined the sloop Saratoga and sailed for the coast of China. Commodore Perry arriving and taking command, the Saratoga was made one of the Japan expedi- tion. Surgeon Smith was appointed Fleet Surgeon and or- dered to the flagship Susquehanna, where he continued until March, 1854, when he was detached to joined the Saratoga to return to the United States, where he arrived the first of the following September. He was immediately ordered to the Navy Yard, New York, and continued there on duty until May 1, 1858. On the 9th of April, 1859, he received orders for the Constellation, as Fleet Surgeon of the African squad- ron under Commodore Inman, and sailed in July for Ma- deira and the west coast of Africa; returned from that squadron-invalided on account of his eyes-to the United States, August 28, 1861; took charge of the Naval Hospital, New York, from January, 1862, until December, 1865; was placed on leave until May 20, 1869, when he was put on duty at the Navy Yard, New York, where he continued until 1970, when, with other retired officers, he was put off duty. In March, 1871, he was commissioned as Medical Director in the Navy, with a relative rank of Commodore.

Since his retirement from active service in the Navy, Dr. Smith has enjoyed his otium cum dignitate in his pleasant home in Brooklyn. Always a persevering, diligent student, the high position which he occupied in his profession for so many years was only the fitting reward of his attainments. His acquirements outside of his profession are varied and ex- tensive, as evidenced by a choice collection of rare and standard authors. Thus, possessed of a well-stored mind, broadened by travel and keen observation, the Doctor is a most interesting companion, and his home abounds in sou- venirs of his world-wide travels. Naturally modest and re- tiring in disposition, his gifts and graces, his many good qualities as a man, are little known outside his immediate circle of friends, which includes, however, many of the best people of the city. His marriage with Frances Bowen Lathrop was celebrated in April, 1833; her death occurred in March, 1842. In 1846, he married Harriett Bacon, daughter of the late Robert Bacon, of Winchester, Mass., the issue of which marriage was one daughter, Eleanor F., who died in March, 1877, aged 29 years.

The Doctor and his excellent wife are attendants at Grace Church, on the Heights, and are given to good works and charitable deeds. Though now retired from active hfe. the Doctor takes a quiet but deep interest in naval, municipal and national affairs. Valuing his privilege as a citizen to assist in securing good government for city and nation, he uses his influence and his ballot in behalf of administrative reform and purity.

FERDINAND W. OSTRANDER, M. D.

FERDINAND W. OSTRANDER, M. D., of No. 95 Clark street Brooklyn, was born on Cherry street, New York city, June 1. 1801. His father, Dr. Ezekiel O, Ostrander, and niother, Sarah, were then living there, his mother dying during his infancy. When but three years of age, he was taken to live with his maternal grand-parents, William and Sarah Creed, of Jamaica, 1. 1 , with whom he stayed for seven years, return. ing at the end of that time to his father, then resi lle at Newtown, L. I. He then attended Walsh's Grammar School, Pearl street, New York city, for one and onehalf years; returned to Jamaica, and, for a period of tive yers we find the young man a pupil in the academy of Profer Eightenburgh. After finishing his course at the academy.

The J. Smith

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

he pursued for two years the studies preparatory for admis- sion to a medical college; and, on reaching his twentieth year, entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, remaining there three years; and then, by the aid of friends, secured his diploma from the New York State Medi- cal Association. The young physician, in the year 1828, started in the work of his profession, locating on Cranberry street, corner of Willow, where he continued his practice until 1847, when he removed to his present home, 95 Clark street.

Dr. Ostrander was married to Sarah A. Wright, in October, 1833, the issue of their marriage being five children, three daughters and two sons, four of whom are now living. One son, John W., is associated with him in the practice of medi- cine, and the other, Charles, is engaged in business in New York city.

Before the incorporation of Brooklyn as a city, Dr. Ostran- der, for a year or more, was Health Physician of the village. In the unusually long duration of Dr. Ostrander's practice- fifty-six years-he has witnessed many changes in the prac- tice of physic and surgery, and the growth of his city. When he began his life's work, Brooklyn was but a village of 8,000 inhabitants, and the only paved street was Fulton, from the Ferry up to Main. Where the City Hall now stands was a tavern, kept by one Duflon, which was the centre for all

merry-makings. Though a student of the celebrated College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he listened to the teach- ings of the great Alexander Stephens, he has not been bound with iron bands in the treatment of disease. Whatever ex- perience has taught him was wisest and best, he has fol- lowed; and to this exercise of common sense, more than all else, can his success as a healer of disease be ascribed. In his long life as a physician-the longest of any other consecutive practitioner in the county-he has seen most of his eotempo- raries laid in their graves, among which might be mentioned Drs. Ball, Wendell, Vandeveer, Dubois, Edmunds, Cole, Fanning, Garrison and Joseph G. T. Hunt; William G. Hunt, of this city, being the only cotemporary now living.

Dr. Ostrander, when young, fell from a horse, receiving an injury to his right arm, which, in a measure, interfered with the practice of surgery. From this fact, to which may be added a natural bent, he early confined himself to physic and obstetrics. In politics Dr. Ostrander is a Republican, and is a member of Grace Episcopal Church.

Dr. Ostrander is truly a representative of the old school of gentlemen-courteous, affable and dignified, with the neces- sary and invaluable faculty of inspiring the confidence of his patients; and his success, professionally and pecuniarily, is the just result of a life fitly spent.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE IN KINGS COUNTY.

BY RO moffatm®.

The wonderful growth of the new school of medicine in the United States has no better exemplification than its history in the county of Kings. Its advocates look with laudable pride upon its achievements in forty years; and gladly note the number and standing of its repre- sentative men, the wealth and intelligence of its sup- porters, and the nature, number and variety of its public and semi-public institutions, as compared with the like features of its old and more venerable sister, the old school.

In the year 1825, homeopathie medicine came to America in the person of DOCTOR HANS B. GRAM, who settled in New York. In 1833 the first attempts were made to translate its text-books into English, but not until 1836 and 1838 was this done so as to attract pro- fessional attention to their merits ; whence it is fair to recognize 1840 as the commencement of its almost universal extension.

In that year (1840), Dr. ROBERT ROSMAN, from Hud- son, N. Y., and, a few months later, Dr. DAVID BAKER, from New York city, recent converts and hearty ad- vocates of the new art, located themselves in promi- nent positions in the city of Brooklyn, and commenced

their labor of hope. They were typical men, each well adapted to the rank he selected in the social scale- Rosman on the Heights, and Baker in Myrtle Avenue, where each drew around him much of the best elements of the class he addressed.

In the following year (1841), Dr. GEORGE COXE, of Williamsburgh (then not incorporated with Brooklyn), a physician of eighteen years' standing, avowed his convictions of the "better way," and boldly faced the consequences, as they might come, from his professional associates and from his patients. They came : hate, contempt and ridicule from the former, of course-it is the lot of all who proclaim and sustain newly dis- covered truth-and fear, then hope, love, admiration and increased confidence, as time went on, from the latter.

In two years more (1843), Drs. Rosman and Baker, in Brooklyn, were joined successively by Drs. A. COOKE HULL and P. P. WELLS, the former in partner- ship with Rosman, the latter preferring to stand alone. To the patient and successful labors of these five gen- tlemen, homeopathy owes much, very much, of the ex- cellent consideration it has since enjoyed ; for, by them

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

were formed the first impressions of the public respect- ing the new mode of treatment ; and of course, in some measure the acceptance of the physicians who followed.

Prosperity, but not peace, was the lot of the pioneers. Their successes were such as could not fail to draw upon them the attention, and soon the envy and jealousy, of some who were quick to see that homeopathie ex- tension meant allopathie decadence.

The law, then as now, required every physician to be a member of the County Medical Society where he resided ; but it also allowed the society to reject by ballot unworthy applicants. Just here the antagonistic physicians saw their opportunity. Dr. Rosman had been admitted at onee. The danger of the heresy had not manifested itself when he applied ; but three years' experience and two additional capable physicians were not to be brooked. Drs. Hull and Wells were summoned, as the law required, to apply for membership of the County Medical Society. They complied, and were promptly rejected, because they were homeopathists. Dr. Wells took it coolly, and turned his back on the entire society. Dr. Hull preferred testing the right of the so- ciety to reject him, knowing that he had complied with every legal requirement, and began, on principle, a suit at law for his rights. He won. The society appealed through sixteen successive years till the highest court was reached. The doors were then reluctantly but court- eously thrown open to him. Too late ! Ho deelined the honor that he contemned, and soon took his seat as President of the Homeopathic County Medical Society, which more enlightened legislation had, by this time, called into being.

DR. A. COOKE HULL, born in Utica, N. Y., August 2d, 1818, was the son of a distinguished surgeon, Dr. Amos G. Hull ; was educated at Union College, and graduated in 1840, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York city. Removing to Brooklyn in the following year, he commenced practice as a Homeopathist, and was, at various periods, partner with Drs. John F. Gray (his brother-in-law), the late Robert Rosman, the late John Barker, Dr. J. F. Talmadge, and, at the time of his death, with Dr. A. E. Sumner. His qualities both of heart and intellect soon won for him a signal success in securing the confidence and patronage of our most cultured and accomplished citizens in all professions and all the walks of life. It is our province, however, to speak more particularly of his varied labors in extra-pro- fessional spheres, of the suggestive brain, the helping hand, the guiding taste, which assisted at the inception, progress, and ultimate success of nearly every institution and public enterprise which, within the past quarter of a century, has crowned the city of Brooklyn with beneficent and far- reaching influences. Upon his monument, as upon that of the architect of St. Paul's, at London, buried under the matchless dome of his own creation, might well be inseribed, Circumspice te, "Look around thee." Dr. Hull's public memorial will be found in the history of the _tthendrum, the Philharmonic Society, the Art .tasociution, the Kings County Homeopathic Society, the Historical Society, the Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Club, all of which efforts were inaugu- rated by him and his intimate friends. He performed his

professional duties to the best of his skill and science; and then, often, when he should have sought rest for the morrow, he gave his time and energies to the public enterprises of the city. This was his recreation, in preference to parties and the usual social amusements. He died, July 3d, 1868, at Cats- kill, N. Y., honored as a man, beloved and useful as n phy- sician, and respected as a public-spirited, far-seeing citizen.

But to return. After the advent of Dr. Wells, no name of prominence appears in the annals till we come to that of CARROLL DUNHAM, whose various attain- ments and high scholarship have won for him a Euro- pean, as well as American reputation. Though his great achievements were effected after leaving the county of Kings, yet Brooklyn is proud to have claimed him from 1849 to 1856, when his health obliged him to move to Newburgh-on-the-Hudson.

By 1850, Brooklyn and Williamsburgh boasted four- teen homeopathie physicians ; all respectable ; all regularly educated; all in good social positions; all daily proving, by their successes, their intelligence and ability to cope with the sicknesses of the day. They were quite the peers of corresponding men in the old school, yet they were ignored where they could be ignored, and ostracised whenever ostracism could be made to reach them. In its collective capacity, the Medical Society refused permission to consult with, or in any other way to countenance them. No one dared (there is hardly an exception known) to confer with them even informally, lest the offender be reported to the society and be censured. It is marvelous at this day, when the relations between the schools are so different, that such bitterness and such folly should have obtained. Of personal comment, detraction, and vituperation, it is not fitting to speak ; but of public aets, let a single instance be cited, to show the animus of the day.

In 1854, a notable effort was made to injure homde- pathy by proving malpractice against one of its physi- cians. In that year the child of a wealthy merchant in Brooklyn died in the hands of a homeopathie physician, under circumstances that could be explained in differ- ent ways. The afflicted relatives were persuaded to ask for a legal investigation, and the coroner of the day, a bitter partizan of the old school, conducted the en- quiry. A formidable array of Brooklyn and New York's* most prominent physicians endeavored to es. tablish that the child died from neglected intermittent fever and congestion thence resulting. The defence presented the history of the case; showed that the chill had subsided steadily till it was a mere nothing, when the mmmmps was contracted from the mother and presented the premonitory symptoms. Then instead of the paro- tids swelling as usual, the disease struck npon the brain, causing congestion, convulsions, hemorrhage and death. The Coroner, leading the prosecution, denied the possi bility of such retrocession of the mumps, when the de- · Drs. Willard Parker, Jos. M. Smith, James R. Wood, and Alon > Clark from New York.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

ence read from their own old school anthorities, ichænlein and Rokitansky, that such retrocession was possible ; and proved themselves very probably right, nd far better read in the profession than any who had been called to confront them. The jury imputed no anlt to the attending physician, and the old school vas baffled.

The vigor of "Young Physie," as homœopathy has een joeosely called, was apparent in the early estab- ishment of a Pharmacy devoted exclusively to the nannfacture and sale of its medieines. This was un- lertaken in 1850, and located in Court street, near the City Hall. At the time there were but eight recog- lized physicians to give it countenance; and seeing hat each of these gentlemen dispensed his own medi- ines, it would seem as if Mr. J. T. P. Smith was either very rash to open a store with but eight reliable ens- omers, or else very " enterprising " in his expectations of the growth of homeopathy. The event proved that Ie was enterprising; for in four years he found not only permaneney, but he was under the necessity of enlarging his quarters to meet the enlarged demand on is services.

Between 1850 and 1855, thirty new homeopathic physicians took up their residences in the two distriets, wow consolidated as one city; and it was during this ustrum that the first "new departure" for homco- athy was instituted. By it the new school was to as- sert its elaims in publie, as it had heretofore done in private; and the poor, like the rich, should know of its excellences.

Under the guardianship of MR. EDWARD W. (the Father of Dr. CARROLL) DUNHAM, President ; JOHN N. TAYLOR, Vice-President ; ALFRED S. BARNES, Treas- urer; THEODORE VIETOR; EDWARD CORNING, and others of equal standing, was incorporated, in 1852, "THE BROOKLYN HOMEOPATHIC DISPENSARY," Mr. J. T. P. SMITH, proprietor of the pharmacy, furnishing its rooms and acting as its Secretary. The history of this nstitution is especially interesting by reason of its marked success, and of the important sequences grow- ng ont of one portion of its life. Located in Court street, near the City Hall, it was accessible only to the physicians of the Western District, who with an unpre- edented unanimity gave their services to its mainte- lance. The records of the first six months show the attendance, in pairs, of Doctors A. C. HULL and G. V. NEWCOMB; ROBERT ROSMAN and R. C. MOFFAT; S. S. GUY and CARROLL DUNHAM; O. R. KING and J. BRYANT; JOHN BARKER and B. C. MACY. The next year shows twenty, viz .: the above, with J. P. DINS- MORE, - ZIMMERMAN, JNO. TURNER, H. MAY, F. G. JOHNSON, A. C. BURKE, E. A. LODGE, S. B. DOTY, J. DUFFIN and HENRY MINTON, all the then recognized physicians in the district but one. It was maintained wholly by private contributions, the city withholding ts aid till a later season. Its success, shown by the

appreciation and confidence of the sick poor, may be inferred from the number of patients treated. Each year from 1853 to 1861 showed an increase of more than 25 per cent. over the preceding: the first year, 304; the last named, 3,218 ! A remarkable progress, when the difficulties of its incipieney are considered. In four years (1857) enlarged accommodations became necessary, and the institution was moved to the corner of Court street and State, Dr. FRANK BOND becoming Resident Physician.

DR. JOEL BRYANT, was born in Northport, L. I., Novem- ber 10, 1813; spent the first few years of his professional life in his native village, and came to Brooklyn in October, 1850. Here he was actively engaged in practice-although under almost insuperable conditions of physical infirmity-until his death, Nov. 20th, 1868.

He was a graduate of the Pennsylvania Medical College, and the author of several treatises on Homoeopathy, among which was the excellent work on the practice of this school, known as " Bryant's Pocket Manual."

DANIEL D. SMITH, M. D., born in Portsmouth, N. H., Dec. 16, 1807; died in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 17th, 1878. Under the tuition of his father, who was a clergyman, and also a practitioner of the Thompsonian school, extensively known and respected throughout the New England States, young Daniel began to visit the sick and practice the healing art at the early age of eighteen. He afterwards attended lectures at the Massachusetts Medical College, in Boston, from which he graduated, and practiced several years in Gloucester and Boston. About 1841, he was attracted by, and finally adopted, the Hahnemanian theory of cure, and in 1848 re- moved to New York State. For nine years he occupied the chair of Chemistry, Physiology and Obstetrics in the Homœo- pathic Medical College of New York, and proved a most successful teacher. Ill health finally obliged him to remove to Spring Valley, Rockland county, N. Y,, where he prac- ticed for ten years, and was instrumental in organizing the Homoeopathic Medical Society of that county. Then finding that he could no longer bear the exposure of a country prac- tice, he removed to Brooklyn, where he subsequently died. He was a member of Plymouth church; an excellent physi- cian, a ready and eloquent speaker, a fine musician, a me- chanical genius, and a pure-hearted man.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 66

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360