USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them pre?minent in their own and many other states. V.6 > Part 29
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ated from West Point, and is now in the Coast Artillery, commanding Fort Preble; Bessie DeWolfe, married Edwin Allen Stebbins, of Rochester; Katherine Mott, at home; Thomas, Jr., midshipman in the United States Navy, of whom further ; John Mott, now with Dr. Fitch, engaged in Red Cross work in France at the hospital at Yvetot; two sons who died in childhood.
Thomas Ward, Jr., was a worthy scion of his family, which has given so many brave men to the world. He was a hand- some young man, of fine military bearing, and would, no doubt, have added still more to the prestige of the family name had his career not been cut short at so early an age while in the brave discharge of his duty. Following are a few extracts and copies of letters telling graphically the story of his tragic death :
From the "Saturday Globe," Utica, New York, April 16, 1904:
The worst catastrophe in the recent history of the American Navy was that at Pensacola, Flor- ida, Wednesday, when five charges of smokeless powder exploded and killed thirty-three men, of whom five were officers, besides injuring five others, two of them fatally. A miracle alone pre- vented this accident in peaceful waters from paralleling the horror of war in Asiatic seas on the same day. Within a few feet of the second explosion was a magazine containing thousands of pounds of high explosives. Had this been ignited, the ship and her crew of six hundred would have gone to the bottom. This fortunate intervention of Providence and the heroic conduct of her commander, Captain William S. Cowles, are the two bright spots in the black record of destruction, though the noble actions of some of the other officers should not be overlooked. The after twelve-inch guns were being fired. Numerous shots had been fired and the left gun was being loaded, one section, two hundred pounds of powder, having been rammed home and the sec- ond section having cleared the hoisting car. At this instant a wind from off shore blew a portion of the flame from the muzzle back into the breech where the charge was being rammed home, This ignited the charge, there was an explosion and
some of the burning stuff dropped into the han- dling room below, whose four charges were ready to be hoisted. These exploded. The flames were soon leaping from every portion of the turret, and the fumes from the powder overcame the men who sought to extinguish them. Meanwhile, terrible scenes were witnessed in the turret and in the handling room. *
* * When the bodies were finally taken from the turret and the room below, they were perfectly nude, every strip of clothing having been burned off. They were hardly recognizable. The flesh hung from their bodies in strips and would drop off when touched. The twenty-five men of the turret were found lying in a heap just under the cxit. Two separate explosions had occurred, which accounts for the position of the men. The first explosion in the turret did not cause any deaths, and every man started for the exit to get fresh air. They had just reached it when the second and more terrible explosion, directly beneath, sent the flames up through the exit through which they were en- deavoring to pass. *
* * Thomas Ward, Jr., one of the officers killed by these explosions, was twenty-one years old, and was appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, from Utica, New York. He was graduated a little more than a year ago, and when the Missouri went into com- mission, was placed on her as one of the officers.
NAVY DEPARTMENT, Bureau of Navigation, Washington, April 14, 1904.
General Thomas Ward, U. S. Army, Oswego, N. Y .:
The President directs me to convey to you his sympathy in your bereavement in the death of your son, while in the faithful discharge of his duty.
Permit me at the same time to express my own sympathy and to assure you that you have that of the entire Navy.
(Signed)
WILLIAM H. MOODY, Secretary.
NAVY DEPARTMENT. Washington, June 9, 1904. To Brigadier General Thomas Ward, United States Army :
Sir: The Department is in receipt of a report from the commanding officer of the Missouri, referring to the accident in the after turret of the vessel on April 13th last, in which it is stated that J. W. McDade, ordinary seaman, the one living witness to the occurrence said in conver- sation with Midshipman Ward's messmates, that
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when the explosion took place he remembers Midshipman Ward rushed over to the door of the twelfth magazine in which he (McDade) was at the time and gave some order about the maga- zine, but what he said he could not hear and con- sequently he made no mention of it before the court.
He further stated that at the instant the flame enveloped all and that young Ward fell and lost his life at the door of the magazine (see note).
Upon further questioning by the commanding officer, McDade stated that while he remembered Midshipman Ward rushing over to the magazine door, he did not hear what he said.
The letter concludes :
Believing the Department should know every detail officially as to how those died who lost their lives at their posts of duty, this incident shows that Midshipman Ward was himself alive to the fact of the very great danger, rushed at once, closed the magazine door and saved the ship.
I communicate this to you with sincere sympa- thy, believing that it will help to relieve your sor- row; to know your son's unhesitating faithful- ness to his duty at the cost of his life.
A copy of this letter will be placed with Mid- shipman Ward's record in the Navy Department, and another copy will be sent to the Commander- in-Chief, North American Fleet, for publication to the fleet, and to be read on the quarter deck of the United States Ship Missouri at muster.
I have the honor to remain,
Your very respectfully, (Signed) WILLIAM H. MOODY, Secretary.
In 1910 the class of 1903 placed in Ban- croft Hall, Annapolis, a tablet inscribed as follows:
IN MEMORIAM To THOMAS WARD and WM. E. T. NEUMANN United States Navy Class of 1903 They died April 13, 1904, as a Result of an Explosion in the after turret of the U. S. S. Missouri during record target practice
while in the performance of duty. ERECTED BY THEIR CLASSMATES.
NOTE .- The door of the magazine was so built as to open outward and downward to the floor, turning upon a hinge at the base. Young Ward undoubtedly threw the door up, as it was reported at the time that the fingers of the man saved in the magazine were injured as the door closed upon him.
MERCER, Alfred, M. D., Physician, Philanthropist.
Alfred Mercer, M. D., late of Syracuse, New York, a son of William Mercer, who died in England in 1851, and his wife, Mary (Dobell) Mercer, who died in Eng- land in 1863, was born in High Halden, Kent, England, November 14, 1820, caine to America with his parents in 1832. and died in his ninety-fourth year, at his resi- dence, No. 324 Montgomery street, Syra- cuse, New York, August 5, 1914. His parents were almost sixty years of age when they came to this country, were imbued with the English social and busi- ness habits, and the change to America proved too great for their comfort or enjoyment. They therefore returned to England the following spring, but believ- ing that this country offered better advantages than England for an am- bitious young man, they left their youngest son, Alfred, in America with an elder brother, who had already resided here several years.
The youth spent two years at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, studied medicine in the office of Dr. John F. Whitbeck, in Lima, Livingston county, and was graduated from the Geneva Medical College in 1845. In 1846 he visited his parents in England, and devoted a few months to the study of medicine and surgery in the hospitals of London and Paris. Returning to Amer- ica in 1847, he opened an office in Mil-
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waukee, Wisconsin, but in 1848 returned to this State and practiced in Livingston and Monroe counties until 1853, when he settled permanently in Syracuse, where he became one of the best known and most trusted physicians and surgeons in the Empire State.
It was one of Dr. Mercer's pleasures to relate, and most entertainingly, his early experiences. He traveled by boat on the Erie canal when Syracuse was only a salt manufacturing locality. He spoke of the hardships which physicians of the early times were called upon to endure. Dr. Mercer was the first phy- sician in Central New York, in about 1860, to recognize the value of, and to use, the microscope as an aid to his pro- fessional work. From 1864 to 1866 he was health officer of Syracuse. Upon the removal of the Geneva Medical College to Syracuse, in 1872, when it became a department of Syracuse University, he was made a member of the faculty, in which he long occupied the chair of Minor and Clinical Surgery. In the faculty he strongly advocated higher standards in medical education. Sub- sequently he was for many years Profes- sor of State Medicine and later Emeritus Professor of State Medicine, of which chair he was the incumbent at the time of his death. From its inception for many years he was acting surgeon, and later up to the time of his death consulting sur- geon, to the Hospital of the House of the Good Shepherd. He was president of the Syracuse Board of Health from 1882 to 1889 and served as New York State Com- missioner of Health from 1884 to 1890. He was a member of both the American and British Medical associations. He was also a member of, and held various official posi- tions, in the New York State Medical Soci- ety, the Central New York Medical Asso- ciation, the Onondaga Medical Society, and the Syracuse Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Mercer was a conscientious, kind and self-sacrificing practitioner and student, cheerfully doing no little of his work without pecuniary reward. He was beloved by a host of patrons. He at- tended his first thousand cases of labor without losing a mother or child. He performed many of the major surgical operations before the days of asepsis with nearly, if not quite, as successful results as are attained to-day. He wrote and spoke often and vigorously and con- vincingly on questions of public health. He contributed his share in the struggle which resulted in bringing to Syracuse one of the best water supplies in the world, that from Skaneateles Lake. He responded with much painstaking to occasional requests to present addresses, historical and scientific, at anniversaries of medical societies or of the college. He also contributed papers to the periodical literature of his profession.
When he had rounded out his nine- tieth year, a dinner was tendered him by the medical fraternity and citizens of Syracuse, at which they vied with each other to do honor to the man who had done so much for humanity and for the people of Syracuse in particular. Letters and messages came from near and far on this occasion. Appreciation of his work was thus heartily and lovingly shown. When Dr. Mercer died, it appeared as if a personal loss had come to many a resi- dent in the city. The expressions of grief were sincere and heartfelt.
A hint as to the breadth of Dr. Mercer's thought and sympathies in politics and religion and his practical kindness of heart may be gleaned from the following provisions found in his will: "To keep green in memory the heroism of the men who rescued Jerry, men who could not look on a slave, I give six hundred dol- lars to the Onondaga Historical Associ- ation to be known as the Jerry Rescue
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Fund, the interest of which shall be used every five years to procure some person to deliver a Jerry Rescue Oration on October I. * * There is one true charity, providing for helpless children." Following this is a bequest of a house and lot to the Onondaga Orphan's Home. The proceeds of the sale of this property became a nucleus of an endowment fund which has by later additions from others become a very substantial sum. He also left an envelope addressed to his son which contained shares of New York Central Railroad Company stock, with instructions for their division among Catholic orphans, Jewish orphans, and the aged women cared for by the Syra- cuse Home Association. Soon after the death of his son Fremont, the boy's money in the Onondaga County Savings Bank was given to the Onondaga Orphans' Home as a fund, the interest of which now annually buys books for the children.
Dr. Mercer married (first) in 1848, Delia, eldest daughter of Aaron Lam- phier, Esq., of Lima, New York, who died February 14, 1887, leaving a son, Dr. A. Clifford Mercer, mentioned below, and a daughter, Ina, now the wife of Professor Lepine H. Rice, of Syracuse. Dr. Mercer married (second) July 25, 1888, Mrs. Esther A. (Morehouse) Esty, of Ithaca, New York. Dr. Mercer's other children were Eliza, who died in 1855, in her fifth year; Charles Dobell, who died in 1884, in his twenty-sixth year ; Fremont, who died in 1874, in his twelfth year ; and Mary, who died in 1869, in her third year.
We cannot bring this short review of the life of Dr. Mercer to a more fitting conclusion than by quoting from a memorial tribute by Dr. John L. Heffron, which appeared in the "New York State Journal of Medicine," in November, 1914:
Dr. Mercer, of all men I ever knew, best illus- trated the virtues of the middle course in life so exquisitely voiced by Horace. He was of medium height and of medium weight. He had strongly chiseled features, the English clear complexion, kindly blue eyes, lips red as a cherry, and ruddy brown beard and hair, luxuriant and but slightly grey at the time of his death. * *
* He had an inquiring mind, capable of accurate if not rapid observations, and he had perfect intellectual poise. He was rarely enthusiastic, but he had a deep and abiding interest in every subject worthy a man's thought and action. His industry was indefatigable and was always guided by sound judgment. He was by nature temperate in all things, and was never tempted to excess of any kind, excepting perhaps work in younger and middle life. It was but natural that such a man should accumulate a treasure house of knowledge and should mature judgments that were sound and increasingly convincing. * He early * *
learned the withering effects of dogma, and was one of the earnest advocates of intellectual and spiritual liberty of thought. * Dr. Mer- *
cer was not narrow. The interests outside of his chosen profession were many and various, how various only those most intimate with him can judge. * I never came into Dr. Mercer's presence in his office, in his home, in the college, or in medical meetings, but what I was conscious of being near one who radiated truth and justice and fraternal love. * Here is a man whose life is a positive inspiration to everyone of us. He had no extraordinary gifts of either body or of mind, but he had perfect self-control. He ordered his daily life with judgment, not with caprice. He weighed the value of things, and de- veloped the keenest perception of the relative importance of even the minor things in life. He cultivated methods, and might have been one who inspired the present movement for efficiency. He was industrious, and did not allow himself to waste a moment. He cared for his body with in- telligence, by correct habits of eating and by observing a due proportion between work and re- laxation. He looked ahead and kept his knowl- edge up to the minute.
MERCER, A. Clifford, M. D., F. R. M. S., Physician, Scientist.
A. Clifford Mercer, M. D., F. R. M. S., son of the preceding, was born at Syra- cuse, New York, July 5, 1855. He at-
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tended the public schools of his native city from 1860 to 1875, then matriculated at Syracuse University from which he was graduated in the class of 1878 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was a post-graduate student at St. Thomas' Hospital, London, England, in 1878-79-80.
He was instructor in pathology in the College of Medicine, Syracuse Univer- sity, from 1880 to 1886, and Professor of Pathology from 1886 to 1893. He was a student and held clinical appointments in the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, England, in 1890 and 1891, was Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the College of Medicine, Syracuse University, from 1893 to 1904, and since 1904 has been Professor of Pediatrics. For seventeen years he was a member and secretary of the medical and surgical staff of the Hospital of the House of the Good Shepherd. He is consulting physician at the Children's Clinic of the Syracuse Free Dispensary and to the Babies' Summer Camp of the Visiting Nurses' Association, and physician to the Children's Pavilion of the Syracuse Hos- pital for Women and Children.
He was for years treasurer of the Col- lege of Medicine and of its Alumni Asso- ciation, and of the Medical Association of Central New York. He has served as president of the American Microscopical Society, the Central New York Micro- scopical Club, the Onondaga Medical So- ciety, the Syracuse Medical Association, the Syracuse Academy of Medicine, the Milk Commission of the Onondaga Medical Society (responsible, under New York State law, for the maintenance of national standard requirements in the production and transportation of certified milk) and the board of managers of the Onondaga Sanatorium for Tuberculosis. He has repeatedly served on public health
committees of medical societies and the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the advisory committee of the Syracuse Bureau of Health. He was health officer of Syracuse for three years (1883-85). The selection of an exception- ally beautiful and suitable site for the Onondaga Sanatorium for Tuberculosis, which for a long time met with wide and bitter opposition, was finally brought about largely by the incessant work of Dr. Mercer and his professional co- workers.
He is also a life fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, London, England, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Amer- ican Medical Association, Alpha Omega Alpha (honorary medical society), Na- tional Association for the Study and Pre- vention of Tuberculosis, National Asso- ciation of Medical Milk Commissions, New York State Medical Society, Central New York Medical Association, Thurs- day Night Club (medical), Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse Acad- emy of Science, University Club and Citizens' Club. He is an honorary mem- ber of the Syracuse Botany Club and corresponding member of the Rochester (New York) Academy of Science.
When Dr. Mercer was president of the American Microscopical Society a sketch of his life work by Professor S. H. Gage, of Cornell University, appeared in the "American Monthly Microscopical Jour- nal," February, 1896, from which the fol- lowing are extracts :
* Thus surrounded by the microscopical influences of his father's office, enjoying the ac- quaintance of the famous optician, Charles A. Spencer, and Spencer's Syracuse friend, Willard Twitchell, it was only natural that very early there was awakened in the boy the keenest in- terest in the microscope and its revelations. In the Syracuse high school in 1874 and 1875 an
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added interest in this and in photography de- veloped under the practical teaching of Dr. Wal- ter A. Brownell. From this period may be dated Dr. Mercer's career in photo-micrography, the first apparatus being constructed by Charles A. Spencer after Mercer's drawings. His interest in photo-micrography has never flagged and many members of the American Microscopical Society feel under deep obligation to him for help and suggestions. He has not only used this beau- tiful art for scientific purposes but has made ex- cellent use of it in demonstrating the truth of his conclusions in courts of justice.
After receiving the degree of M. D. from Syra- cuse University in 1878, he spent about two and one-half years in St. Thomas Hospital and Medi- cal School in London, England, where he was a pupil in pathology of Dr. W. S. Greenfield, now professor of pathology in the University of Edinburgh. After becoming assistant to Dr. Greenfield in the Brown Institution, Dr. Mercer cut and mounted the first sections of tuberculous joints studied in England and furnished the ma- terial described by Mr. John Croft in Vol. xxxii (1881) of the transactions of the Pathological Society of London.
While in London he became acquainted with Dr. Lionel S. Beale, and revised for him "Part V., On Taking Photographs of Microscopic Objects" of his well-known book, "How to Work With the Microscope." On Dr. Beale's nomina- tion he was made a fellow of the Royal Micro- scopical Society. He found a warm personal friend in the late Dr. John Matthews, editor of the second edition of the "Preparation and Mounting of Microscopical Objects," by Thomas Davis, and always recalls with gratitude the demonstration which Mr. John E. Ingpen gave him of the Abbe diffraction theory of microscopic vision. This was before the theory had become generally known to the microscopical world.
During this period and a subsequent visit to London for professional study, Dr. Mercer had the good fortune to be brought in friendly rela- tions with Dr. R. L. Maddox, Mr. E. M. Nelson and Mr. Andrew Pringle, England's most skill- ful photo-micrographers. With a mind prepared and open as was Dr. Mercer's the association with these masters of the photo-micrographic art could only be productive of good, and our own country has been the gainer thereby, for Dr. Mercer is most generous in freely giving. To Dr. Maddox, the discoverer of the present dry plate process in photography, he is indebted for a share of the suggestive, helpful and generous correspondence with which that Nestor of photo-
micrography has, for many years, favored his fellow workers on both sides of the Atlantic- with its warmth of friendship and stimulus to progressive work.
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*
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He has been active in the practice of his pro- fession and has prepared papers which find an honored place in the medical literature of the country. He has served in various positions of honor and trust in medical societies thus showing that he possesses the esteem and confidence of his professional brethren. While he fills an honored place in the medical profession and his main energy and work lie in that direction his interests are very broad, and he has a keen appre- ciation of the ultimate gain to medicine of the pursuit of pure science, although the connection may seem remote to those who cannot see the invisible threads that bind all truth into a har- monious whole. He has also a keen love of na- ture for her own sake, and while studying for his degree in medicine took up the miscroscopical study of the mosses as a part of the work of the Syracuse Botanical Club, and later was elected an honorary member of that club.
* * * * * * * *
He became a member of the American Micro- scopical Society under its earlier name (American Society of Microscopists) in 1882. He has attended the majority of the annual meetings since then, often as the writer well knows at considerable inconvenience. He has furnished articles to the "Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society" and to photographic journals, and in nearly every volume of the proceedings of the society of which he is now president may be found one or more articles from his pen. The article in the proceed- ings for 1886 "Photo-micrograph versus Micro- photograph," furnished the information on which the definitions of the words in the Century Dic- tionary and in Dr. G. M. Gould's Illustrated Dic- tionary of Medicine are founded. The Syracuse solid watch glass for microscopical purposes de- signed by him finally solved the problem of a watch glass for the microscopist and there is hardly a histological or microscopical laboratory in the country that does not count these watch glasses as an indispensable part of its equipment.
Dr. Mercer has also designed several pieces of apparatus which have been used in microscopical, photographic and x-ray work. He has also devoted considerable time to experimental work in photo- micrography and roentgenology and is
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the author of "An Experimental Study of Aperture as a Factor in Microscopic Vision," an expansion of his presidential address before the American Microscop- ical Society in 1896. In recent years his chief interest has been in pediatrics, diseases of infants and children, to which he has given most of his time and thought in college, hospital, dispensary and private practice.
SKINNER, Charles Rufus, Journalist, Legislator, Educator.
Charles Rufus Skinner was born at Union Square, Oswego county, New York, August 4, 1844, son of Avery and Charlotte Prior (Stebbins) Skinner, and a descendant of worthy New England ancestry. Avery Skinner was a native of New Hampshire, a farmer by occupation, settled in Watertown, New York, in 1816, from whence he removed to Oswego county, New York, in 1826. He was postmaster at Union Square, which place he settled and name, for fifty years, hav- ing been appointed by John Quincy Adams.
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