USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884 Volume II > Part 39
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The society has a Floating Hospital and Seaside Nursery for summer use in giving the sick poor, adults and children, the blessings of a little pure sea air. Twice as many children as adults are the re cipients of this blessing.+
* The officers of the asylum for 1882 were : Clark Bell, president ; Joel Foster, M. D., and William N. Blakeman, M. D., vice-presidents : Henry D. Nicoll, M.D., secretary, and Levi M. Bates, treasurer.
+ The officers of the institution for 1883 are : A. S. Hatch, president : George Shepard1 Page, vice-president : J. F. Wyckoff. secretary, and H. E. Tompkins, treasurer.
* The Seaside Nursery gave its hospitable care in 1852 to 310 children and mother.
773
FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
The St. John's Guild was organized in October, 1866, but was not incorporated until December. 1877. Its home is at No. 8 University Place, where its winter work is done. The value of the fresh-air work for sick children, by the Seaside Nursery and Floating Hospital, cannot be estimated .*
THE GERMAN HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY of the city of New York, the offspring of the German Dispensary, was founded in the year 1869. Like most of the benevolent institutions in the city, it had severe strug- gles for existence and permanent life for several years, and at one time its demise seemed inevitable. Then a tide of prosperity, slow-flowing at first, set in, and it is now one of the flourishing institutions of the metropolis, and the pride of the German population of the city as a " school of German learning and the home of German humanity."
In 1880 a Ladies' Aid Society, as an auxiliary to the hospital, was founded. In this as in much other benevolent work among the Ger- mans of New York, the munificent hand of Mrs. Anna Ottendorfer. the wife of the conductor of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, + was con-
and the Floating Hospital, which is used for excursions, gave infinite and healthful delight to hundreds of children and others. The season of 1852 was its ninth. It had given, in the aggregate, 294 excursions, and carried 223,073 children, with mothers or guardians.
* The officers of the society for 1883 were : the Rev. John W. Kramer, D.D., master ; Delano C. Calvin, warden ; trustees, William H. Wiley, president ; Mark Blumenthal, M.D., vice-president ; John P. Faure, secretary ; Benjamin B. Sherman, treasurer ; Charles Schwacofer, assistant treasurer, and eighteen associates.
{ Oswald Ottendorfer, the editor and proprietor of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, the leading German newspaper in this country, was born at Zwittan, a small Moravian town on the borders of Bohemia. His education was most thorough, and he was fitted for publie employment by legal studies at the University of Prague and elsewhere. It was intended that he should conelnde those studies at Padua, Venice at that time belonging to Austria, but the revolutions in Europe in 1848 caused a general uprising among the German students in favor of liberty. Among these was young Ottendorfer, who joined the students' legion at Vienna and was active in the overthrow of the Metternich admin- istration. He joined a corps sent against Denmark, and in the autumn was sent, with others, into Hangars to oppose Kossuth. But the students sympathized with the latter. Ottendorfer became attached to the battalion under the celebrated Blum, composed largely of members of the press. Escaping arrest, he made his way to Saxony, and went on a mission the next year, with other students, to stir up a revolution in the city of Prague.
All through the stirring scenes in Central Europe at that period young Ottendorfer bore an active and conspicuous part. The record of his hair-breadth escapes from death or imprisonment appears like a chapter of a wild romance. He finally assisted in the resene of one of the leaders from a life imprisonment, escaped with him into Switzer- . land, and after encountering many difficulties came to the city of New York in 1849, and sought literary employment. He was familiar with the Latin, Greek, and several Shiv languages, and had some knowledge of the French and Italian, but had none of English.
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
spicuous. She founded the Woman's Ward of the hospital, which. with the Woman's Pavilion, also erected by her, was dedicated in May, 1882. By the addition of these structures the institution was enabled to nurse, during 1582, 1534 patients. Mrs. Ottendorfer has since caused the erection of a new dispensary building at her own expense .*
The German Hospital and Dispensary is situated on the corner of Seventy-seventh Street and Fourth Avenue. It is provided with an efficient medical corps and skilled nurses. From September 18, 1-69. to December 31, 1882, the whole number of patients admitted was 10,355, of whom an average of more than eighty per cent were cured. The patients in 1882 were from twenty different nationalities.
THE PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL, on Seventy-sixth Street and Madison Avenue, organized and incorporated in 1568, owes its origin to the benevolent impulses of the late James Lenox. The idea of the hospital
Mr. Ottendorfer finally found employment in the counting-room of the Staats-Zeitung. then owned by Jacob Uhl, who died in 1851. After his death the management of that journal devolved upon Mr. Uhl's widow, who had formerly been active in the business management, and is possessed of great tact and energy. She was materially assisted by Mr .. Ottendorfer, and through that assistance great prosperity followed. In 1859 they were married, and several sons and daughters of Mrs. Ottendorfer found in him a most affectionate father, wish instructor, and abiding friend. No children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Ottendorfer.
In 1859 Mr. Ottendorfer assumed full control of the Staats-Zeitung, and to his great ability, indomitable energy, and practical ideas of journalism, together with his integrity and devotion to certain political principles, to which the great majority of German-Ameri- cans are unalterably attached, are due the wonderful success in every particular which that journal has achieved.
Mr. Ottendorfer is universally regarded as a representative German-American-clear- headed, a thorough student of history, an admirer of American institutions, yet by n' means blind to the dangers which beset them. With a bold spirit of independence he has never failed to rebuke the shortcomings of both political parties since the Civil War. and he stands to-day a prominent figure in our current history as a wise and patriotic citizen of the Republic, and the advocate of every judicious measure for the promotie a of the purity of the ballot and the honest administration of government.
* Mrs. Ottendorfer received through the German embassy at Washington, about the first of November, 1853, the following note and decoration from the Empress of Germany : " To Mrs. ANNA OTTENDORFER, Vw York.
" I have learned with special gratification of your humane works, especially for the benefit of our co'.n- trymen and women in America, and desire to show to you that works of charity done abroad are al-o gratefully remembered in our native country, by sending you herewith a token of merit. AUGU-TA. "HOMBURG VOR DER HOHE, Sept. 16, 18:3."
The decoration, made of silver, is suspended by a white ribbon, and is inclosed in .: blue velvet case. In its centre it shows a cross, which is surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves in blue enamel, and the following inscription : " For Merit." The monograni ot the Empress, surmounted by a crown, is below the cross, and the whole is surmount 1 by the royal crown of Prussia.
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FOURTH DECADE, 1800-1870.
was purely his own conception. He matured the whole plan and arrangement before he communicated the thought to others. Ho selected the gentlemen whom he wished to be associated with him in the enterprise. and addressing a note to each he asked if they would consent to become directors of such an institution, and to signify their assent by meeting him at a given time and place to effect the organiza- tion. When they assembled he unfolded his plan in all its details, and then proposed. in order to start the enterprise, to give the site in Seventy-sixth Street, valued at 8200.000, and to add to this the sum of 8100,000 in money. The organization took place, and work was imme- liately began in the erection of the present spacious hospital build- ings. Mr. Lenox afterward added more than 8300,000 to his original {lonation. * The hospital building consists of three separate structures- the main building. the west pavilion, and the east pavilion. These extend on the block 200 feet from north to south and 400 feet from east to wrest and four stories in height. From the opening of the hospital. October 10; 1872, to the close of 1882, 5505 patients were admitted .*
Near the Presbyterian Hospital is the PRESBYTERIAN HOME FOR AGED WOMEN OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. It is in Seventy-third Street. east of Madison Avenue. It was organized and incorporated in the year 15:6. The name of Mrs. Mary Lenox Sheafe is at the head of the list of incorporators, who were all women. She is the sister of James Lenox. The general purpose of the institution is to provide a home for aged and infirm female members of the Presbyterian Church. It is under the management of thirty-seven women.t
THE ROPEVELT HOSPITAL, on Fifty-ninth Street and Ninth Avenue. is one of the best appointed institutions of the kind in the country. It was founded under the will of the late James Roosevelt, of New York, and by Lim was directed to be employed " for the reception and relief of sick andI diseased persons." The trustees understood his object to have been mainly for the relief of the poor " sick and diseased, " and they accordingly reserved a fund sufficient to support in the hospital such persons, without any expense to themselves, who will ocenpy at least one half of the hospital. There is no limit to this charity except
* The officers of the institution for 1882 were : Robert L. Stuart, president ; Edwin D. Morgan, vice-president : Robert Lenox Belknap, treasurer : Walter Edwards, corre- sponding secretary ; Henry M. Taber, recording secretary. The president and vice- president above named died in 1883.
+ The officers in 1542 were : Mrs. Mary Lenox Sheafe, first directress ; Mrs. Mary P. Taber, secos & Greetrows : Mrs. Laura P. Halstead, treasurer ; Mrs. S. V. Wright, secre- tary, and M.ss I .... Lel I .. Kennedy, financial secretary.
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
in the extent of its funds. All sick and diseased persons, without di -- tinction of race, or country, or religion, will always be received to th .. extent of the ability of the hospital.
The Roosevelt Hospital was incorporated in 1864, when a board of trustees was organized, but owing to certain legal obstacles the con- struction of the buildings was delayed. Before these were completed the hospital was formally opened, November 2, 1871."
On the first of May, 1868, a most beneficent institution was incorpo. rated, under the title of the ORTHOPEDIC DISPENSARY AND HOSPITAL O! THE CITY OF NEW YORK, + the object of which was to provide treat- ment for the poor for diseases and deformities of the spine and hip joint, and others of the more serious diseases of the bones and joint- requiring surgical and mechanical treatment, and for giving instruction in the same. The sufferings of all classes, for want of scientific knowl- edge and proper mechanical appliances in the treatment of such dis- eases, had been very great. The " prone couch"-a bed on which the sufferer was treated for spinal disease-was an instrument of torture. The patient lay face downward, in order to relieve the spine from strain or pressure. A hole was provided through which the sufferer might breathe or gaze upon the floor. In such a position they some- times lay for months, and even years. The treatment for hip disease
* The officers for 1882 were : Adrian H. Muller, president ; Royal Phelps, vice-presi- dent : James A. Roosevelt, secretary, and Merritt Trimble, treasurer. The trustees were Robert Lenox Kennedy, Alonzo Clark, M.D., Royal Phelps, Charles Tracy, Augustus Schell, John M. Knox, Adrian H. Muller, James A. Roosevelt, and John H. Abeel. Horatio Paine is superintendent.
James H. Roosevelt, the founder, was born in the city of New York on November 10, 1800, and died there suddenly on the 30th of November, 1863. His father, James ". Roosevelt, died in 1840, and his mother (Catharine Byvanck) died in 1854. The ancestor of the Roosevelts in New York who came to New Amsterdam was Nicholas Martensen Van Roosevelt, a place in Holland called Roosevelt being the home of the Martensens.
Mr. Roosevelt was graduated at Columbia College in 1819, studied law, but never devoted himself to its full practice. In his earlier years a severe attack of rheumatism caused a permanent lameness. His father was a member of the consistory of the Collegi- ate Reformed Dutch Church, but Mr. Roosevelt never united in membership as a com- munieant with any religious body. Neither did he ever marry. He kept house with his mother until her death. and afterward with trustworthy servants. He inherited a com !. petence, which was largely increased by his simplicity of living and frugal habits. For years he contemplated the institution which he founded, and by his will, after making some bequests to relatives, he devised the remainder of his estate to trustees for the lios- pital which bears his name.
+ The corporators named in the charter were : James Brown, S. W. Coe, William E .. Dodge, Alexander Frear. James Boorman Johnston, Robert Lenox Kennedy, U. .!. Murdock, Robert S. Newton, Howard Potter. Theodore Roosevelt, Charles F. Taylor. V .. Edward Vermilye, Otto Fullgraff, C. G. Halpine, David N. Williams, and Morgan Snyder.
FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
was scarcely more tender. Now, with improved appliances and scien- tific knowledge dispensed by this institution, all injurious strain and pressure may be removed from the spine and the diseased joints, while the patient is allowed to go about as usual and continue to earn a living.
During the year which ended on September 30, 1852, 1318 patients were treated in the Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital. This insti- tution is situated in East Fifty-ninth Street, between Fourth and Lex- ington avenues .*
The New York Eve and Ear Infirmary, founded in 1820, has been noticed. An institution with similar aims, known as the MANHATTAN EYE AND EAR HOSPITAL, was chartered on May 5, 1869. The number of corporators was eighty-two. It began its work on October 15, 1869. at No. 233 East Thirty-fourth Street, by opening a daily clinic for the gratuitous treatment of the poor, and providing thirteen beds in suit- able wards for such cases as might require surgical operations or other careful in-door treatment.
From the first the institution refrained from asking or receiving pecuniary aid from the State. Its medical officers have generously given their services gratuitously, and its income has been derived from free gifts from the benevolent and from such in-door patients as could pay in part or in whole for the cost of their maintenance. In the course of a few years a larger and more commodious building became a pressing necessity. The managers owned a lot on the corner of Park Avenue and Forty-first Street. A successful appeal was made to the wealthy and benevolent citizens for funds. Governor Morgan had already given 825,000 to clear the lot from debt ; he now gave as much more on certain conditions. The funds were secured, and its present beautiful and spacious home, four stories in height with the basement, was constructed, and first occupied in 1880. In 1872 a department for the treatment of diseases of the throat was added to the hospital.
The first board of surgeons were : Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew,+ E. G.
* The officers for 1883 were : Howard Potter, president ; Benoni Lockwood and Melville Brown, vice-presidents ; Temple Prime, secretary : James K. Gracie, treasurer. There is a board of trustees, consisting of thirty prominent citizens.
| Among physicians who make the treatment of the eye and ear a specialty, Dr. Corne- 'lins Rea Agnew appears pre-eminent. He was born in the city of New York on An- gust 8, 1830. He is of Huguenot and Scotch-Irish descent. His father, William Agnew, was for many years a leading merchant in New York : his mother was Elizabeth Thom- son, of an old Scotch family, her father being an extensive farmer in Pennsylvania.
Young Agnew entered Columbia College as a student when he was fifteen years of age.
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Loring, Jr., and D. B. St. John Roosa. The first house surgeon was Dr. S. B. St. John. Since the opening of the hospital about forty-four thousand patients have been received. The number of new patients in the year ending October 15, 1882, was 5660 .*
At the close of the third decade the NEW YORK HOMEOPATHIC MEDI- CAL COLLEGE, of which Salem II. Wales t is president, was established.
and was graduated in 1849. He studied medicine under the eminent Dr. J. Kearney Rodgers, who was for many years surgeon to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. He pursued his studies in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and in the New York Hus- pital. For two years he was a student in the chemical laboratory of the late John Torrey. In 1852 he received the degree of M.D., and was soon afterward appoint. 1 honse surgeon of the hospital. For the benefit of his health he spent about a year in the Lake Superior region, and on his return to New York he received the appointment of surgeon to the Eye and Ear Infirmary. Then he went to Europe to perfect his studies in the healing art, and on his return, in 1855, he established himself as a regular practi- tioner in the city of New York. The next year he married Miss Mary Nash, daughter of a prominent New York merchant. Their union has been blessed with a large number of children. In 1858 Governor Morgan appointed him surgeon-general of the State of New York, and at the beginning of the Civil War medical director of the State Volunteer Hospital. He was one of the originators of the United States Sanitary Commission. to the service of which he devoted nearly his whole time during the war. All of these labors were performed without the least pecuniary reward. To the skill, sound jul _- ment, and untiring energy of Dr. Agnew is largely due the success of the Sanitary Com .- mission.
Dr. Agnew was one of the four gentlemen who originated the Union League Club of the city of New York. In 1866 he established ophthalmnia clinies in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was afterward made clinical professor of the diseases of the eye and ear, a position he yet holds. He originated the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital, and al- > the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. In 1865 he was appointed one of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum at Poughkeepsie, and has held, from the inception of the un- dertaking, the secretaryship of the executive committee. He is also governor of ti: Woman's Hospital, New York. He assisted in the organization of the School of Mines of Columbia College, and was elected one of the trustees of the college in 1874. 1 !! measures tending to the intellectual, physical, and social elevation of the citizens of N. .. York have Dr. Agnew's active sympathies. He was secretary of the first society offili- ized in New York City for sanitary reform, and was at one time president of the State Medical Society. He is a member of several learned societies.
Asa lecturer Dr. Agnew is inent in speech and eminently practical in all his trach- ings. For a quarter of a century he has devoted himself specially to diseases of the ey. and ear. His contributions to the medical literature of the country, as well as to other matters of human concern, have been many and important.
* The officers in 1582 were : John Sinclair, president ; Charles Lanier, treasurer, and Cornelius R. Agnew, secretary. These were among the corporators. There is a bour I of directors, twenty-four in number.
+ Salem Howe Wales was born. October 4, 1825, in the town of Wales, Mass., and is descended from one of the English Puritans who came to America with Richard Math r. His father, Captain Oliver Wales, was a woollen mannfacturer whose business suffer ! from the financial troubles of 1837, when the subject of this sketch was com. I.
John Rogers
FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1S70.
and is one of the best appointed, most efficient, and prosperous of the medical institutions of the metropolis. It was organized and put into operation in 1859. Its course of instruction is similar to that of all other medical colleges of high character. As a rule, when one is described. all others have thereby been practically described. As such descriptions have been given in former pages, it may suffice here to say that the instruction in this college is broad and rigid, and covers every
to rely upon his own resources in the battle of life before him. He went to New York at the age of twenty-one and became a clerk in an importing house, where he remained nearly two years. He subsequently associated himself with Mr. Munn in the publi- cation of the Scientific American. He was a member of the firm twenty-three years, retiring from business in 1871. During that period he devoted himself with great zeal andI industry to the advancement of the industrial power and resources of the country. In 1855 Mr. Wales was selected by Governor Seymour a commissioner for the State of New York to the French Exposition, and spent several months in Paris in the dis- charge of his official duties. When the Civil War broke out he took an active and lead - itry part in support of the government, contributing liberally of his time and means to that end. He was an active member of the executive committee of the United States Christian Commission, and was honored by the special confidence of Secretary Stanton. In 1867 Governor Buckingham, his personal friend, sent to Mr. Wales a commission as representative of the State of Connecticut at the great French Exposition that year, but the National Government took the matter in hand, and Mr. Wales went to Europe as a private citizen. He remained abroad more than a year, visiting Great Britain, France, Spain. Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Holland. He published a series of descriptive letters in the Scientific American.
In 1473 Mr. Wales was appointed a Commissioner of Public . Parks, and was elected president of the department in August that year. He resigned his office in the spring of 1874, and again visited Europe. Returning in the fall, he was nominated by the unani- mons vote of the Republican convention for the office of mayor of New York. Upon the death of ex-Mayor Havemeyer Mr. Wales was appointed commissioner of the Department of Docks by acting-Mayor Vance, and was chosen president of the same. During his ad- ministration the expenditures of the department were largely curtailed. He was presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Hahnemann Hospital, and was largely instrumen- tal in establishing that institution. He now (1883) holds the office of Commissioner of Polis Parks, to which he was appointed by Mayor Cooper. He is a director of the Me- tr auditan Museum of Art, president of the Homeopathic Medical College (succeeding W. C. Bryant, and is a member of the Union League Club, in which he has been ever active. At one time he was its vice-president, also chairman of the executive com- mittee. , He was selected to lead the movement in the purchase of the site for and the erection of the club-house where it now has its home. As a testimony of their appre- ciation of his services, his associates requested him to sit for his portrait, which was paint d by Eastman Johnson. It graces the large library-room. Mr. Wales devotes con- siderable attention to charitable and benevolent institutions.
In 1×51 Mr. Wales married the only daughter of the late James D. Johnson, of Bridge- port. Connectiont. He has two children -- a danghter, who is the wife of United States Distri .: Attorney (Southern District of New York) Elihu Root, and Edward II. Wales, a Inaler of the New York Stock Exchange.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
topic usually discussed and taught in medical schools, homoeopathic therapeutics being the most prominent.
The college is situated at the corner of Third Avenue and Twenty- third Street. Its college dispensary has been in operation over twenty years. The largest eye, ear, and throat clinic in America is held daily in its Ophthalmic Hospital, and every facility for improvement is given the students. The rooms of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, two blocks from the college, are open to the students free of charge, where they are allowed the use of a fine gymnasium. The affairs of the college are managed by a board of fifteen trustees .* It has a full and efficient faculty, of which F. E. Doughty, M.D., is president. and T. F. Allen, M.D., dean.
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