History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 148

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 148

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575

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

after his death the wife of Dr. Henry White, of York- town. Other daughters married Dr. Darius Mcad, of Greenwich, Conn., Dr. David Palmer, of White Plains, and Dr. Bartow F. White, of Somers, son of Dr. Ebenczer White. Dr. Elisha Belcher died in December, 1825, as he was approaching his sixty- ninth year.

Dr. John Iugersoll, born about 1745; the place of his nativity is unknown ; came from the vicinity of Horseneck prior to 1804, and settled three miles uorth of Yonkers, where he died of delirium tremens in August, 1827. Being the first physician about Yonkers, he had a practice which obliged him to ride from King's Bridge to the outskirts of White Plains, and he would encounter the darkest night and the most pitiless storm rather than neglect his duty at the bedside of a patient. Until inebriety conquercd him he was fairly successful as a physician and was espe- cially favored in obstetrical cascs, but his surgery is recorded to have been very bungling-probably be- cause of a lack of training in that department.

Dr. Samuel Adams, a Scotchman by birth and sur- geon in the British army, went upon the medical staff of the American forces during the Revolution, and then bought a farmi near Mount Pleasant, which for nearly fifty years he cultivated while practicing his profession. Uncouth in his manners and abrupt in speech, his surgical skill yet caused him to be em - ployed in difficult cases in all parts of the county, and his services were in constant requisition. His energy and will were indomitable, his perseverance unflinching, and he was a tyrant over his professional associates and his patients. His operations were of the heroic kiud, and their progress emphasized with profuse oaths, the expressions of his passionate tem- per. He seems to have lived and died an avowed atheist. He served a term in the State Legislature, and was over ninety years of age when he died, about 1828.

Dr. Jeremiah Drake Fowler, born December 28, 1785, at Peekskill, studied at the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, New York City, where he re- ceived his degree, and located at Sing Sing. No med- ical man could have been more popular than he was iu his day, aud he earned his eminence legitimately by skill in his profsssion. He was a prominent mem- ber of the Westchester County Medical Society, and several times its delegate to the State Society. In 1817-18-he was elected justice of the peace and was also a practical surveyor. Through going security for friends he nearly ruined himself financially, and died October 28, 1828.

Dr. Samuel Strang, of Peekskill, was a son of Ma- jor Joseph Strang, of Revolutionary fame. The fam- ily name of L'Estrange has been corrupted from the original French form. They were Huguenot emigrés and came to this country in 1686. Dr. Strang was born in Yorktown in 1766, studied with Dr. Ebenezer White, married his daughter and moved to Peeks-

kill, where he died iu December, 1831. He was the preceptor of his son, Dr. Eugene J. Strang, who died at the age of twenty-seven, after practicing one year.

Dr. William F. Arnold, born at Chatham, Rensse- laer County, New York, June 1, 1809, learned the drug business in the store of Drs. Platt and Nclsou, at Rhinebeck, and was aided by friends to attend a course of lectures at Rutgers Medical College. When he located at White Plains, about 1829, he was almost penniless, but his abilities soon procured himu a re- munerative practice. In May, 1832, he married Miss Williams, of Rhinebeck, and shortly afterward removed to New York City on account of his failing health, but within a brief period returned to White Plains, where he and his brother conducted a drug-store in connection with his office practice. In the autumn of 1843 he went to St. Thomas, W. I., for the improve- ment of his health and practiced dentistry there, but his disease gained on him so rapidly that in the course of a year or two he started to return home and died on the voyage.

Dr. Howard Lee, of Sing Sing, practiced there previous to 1838, but made no mark on cotemporary records.

Dr. David Rogers moved from Fairfield, Conn., to Rye, in 1810, where he spent the remainder of his days in retirement. His son, Dr. David Rogers, Jr., settled at Mamaroueck iu 1800, and from 1817 to 1820 was president of the Westchester County Medical So- ciety ; moving to New York City, in 1820, he died there in 1843 or '44, aged nearly seventy. His sons, Dr. David L. and Dr. James Rogers, followed him iu the profession in the city.

Dr. Matson Smith, of New Rochelle, was born in 1767, at Lyme, Conn., where he studied medicine with Dr. Samuel Mather, whose daughter became his first wife. In 1787 he came to New Rochelle, and, notwith- standing his youth, quickly established a remarkably large practice, which in time covered most of the southern towns of the county. A memoir of him, pre- pared by his son, Dr. Joseph Mather Smith, says : " Devoted to the practice of physic proper, obstetrics and surgery, it may, perhaps, be said, aside from some of the rarer and more delicate operations of surgery, which he referred to special experts, that he was equally skillful in these departments." He adopted vaccination at a very early date after its introduction into this country, and took great pains to remove the doubts of those whose minds wavered in relation to its value. He was a close student of the modifications of disease induced by atmospheric influences, and of rare and new forms of epidemic maladies. His " Ac- count of a Malignant Epidemic which prevailed in the County of Westchester in the Summer of 1812" was a most important contribution to the history of the scourge of typhoid pneumonia, so fatal about that time in the Northern and Eastern States, and a valu- able aid to the treatment of it. He was for several years president of the Westchester County Medical

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Society, and in 1830 received from the regents of the University of New York the houorary degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. He was a devout Christian and foremost iu educational projects, as well as in advo- cating the temperance cause. He died March 17, 1845.

Dr. Joseph M. Scribner was boru at Bedford, West- chester County, May 11, 1793, and was licensed by the Medical Society of the county in April, 1817, after having studied with Dr. William H. Sackett and at- tended lectures at the New York City Hospital and the Medical Institution of the State of New York. Opening an office two and a half miles southeast of Sing Sing, he remained there a year and spent the next year at Bedford. For the succeeding fifteen years he had his office within a mile and a half of Tar- rytown; theu moviug, in 1835, into that village, he continued his practice up to his death, on December 27, 1847. He died of ship-fever, contracted while at- tending at the almshouse upon emigrants, among whom the disease had broken out at sea.

Dr. Joseph Roe, born near Flushing, L. I., in 1811, graduated at the College of Physicians, New York City, having previously been instructed by Dr. John Graham and Drs. Bedford, Pendleton and Bush. Lo- cating at White Plains, he went into partnership with Dr. David Palmer, then the only physician in the place. He contracted ship-fever at the same time and under the same circumstances as Dr. Scribner; in at- tending upon the latter he sacrificed his own strength, and died January 11, 1848. For many years he availed himself of the practice of the county alms- house as a school of observation, and was exceedingly kind to the forlorn and helpless paupers. He was the inventor of an improvement on Amesbury's splint. His name was coupled with that of Dr. Scribner iu resolutions of regret passed by the County Medical Society, June 6, 1848, for "the death of two of our most worthy and esteemed professional brethren."

Dr. Isaac Gilbert Graham, born at Woodbury, Conu., September 10, 1760, was a son of Dr. Andrew Graham, who fitted him for the profession. At a very early age he was appointed assistant surgeon in the American army, and at West Point came under the personal notice of Washington, who is said to have conceived a warm feeling for him, because of his medical knowledge and his sturdy patriotism. He was granted an annual pension of four hundred and forty dollars by the government for his services. In 1784 he settled at Uuiouville, Westchester County, and practiced for nearly half a century. He was considered very skillful in treating cases of small-pox, or " winter fever," as it was then called, by inocula- tion, and is alleged to have earned fourteen hundred dollars in one season by this branch of practice, although he devoted much time to the poor, from whom he never looked for any recompense. He died September 1, 1848.

Dr. Stephen Allen Hart, born June 11, 1820, at

Shrub Oak, Weschester County, was a student under Dr. John Collett, and in the spring of 1846 obtained his diploma from the University Medical College, in New York City. His career was brief, as he died at Yorktown, where he had practiced, on February 22, 1849.

Dr. Nathaniel Drake, born in Yorktown, August 27, 1763, was a pupil of Dr. Peter Hugeford and Dr. Ebenezer White. He attended medical lectures and dissections in New York City, and was oue of the students obliged to seek safety in flight from the mob which attacked the dissecting departments. Subse- quently to practicing for a short time in the towu of his birth, he changed his location to Peekskill, where he died February 1, 1850. With him perished the name of his family. While in his general practice he always had his fair proportion, it was in the ob- stetrical branch that he especially bore off the palm.

Dr. George C. Finch was born April 6, 1817, at Croton Falls, Westchester County, and had for his first preceptor in medicine Dr. Seth Shove. Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, granted him his degree as Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1841. He employed the next term in the Medical Depart- ment of the University of the City of New York, and, after being associated with Dr. Shove, went to his native place to practice. So stroug was his oppo- sition to the followers of Hahnemaun, that when invited to meet a distinguished member of that school in consultation, he replied : "I would be pleased to meet with Dr. J. as an old friend and preceptor, but not as a physician." For six years he was supervisor of North Salem ; in 1853 represented his district in the Legislature, and at the time of his death, May 28, 1856, was one of the committee for erecting new public buildings for the county.

Steven Archer was the son of John Archer, of Tar- rytown, where lie was born September 9, 1803. He married Emeline Ascough, and after her death was married to Deborah Underhill. His children were Sarah, wife of William Macy, of New York ; Isaac; and Euuna, wife of Dr. Joseph Hasbrouck. He died December 16, 1877.

Dr. Joshua W. Bowron, born at Washington, Dutchess County, in April, 1788, a pupil of Dr. Stephen Fowler, graduated at the Barclay Street College of Mediciue, New York City. He began practice near Sing Sing, but soon removed to New Castle to occupy the field vacated by the death of Dr. Fowler, which he, filled for nearly forty years. In 1848 and 1849 he was president of the Westchester County Medical Society. His labors were so enormous that when about sixty- two years old he broke down under an apoplectic stroke, aud died February 20, 1857.

Dr. Benjamin Bassett, born at Derby, Conn., De- cember 6, 1784, was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, practiced at Yorktown from 1826 to 1829, and then settled at Peekskill, where he died March 21, 1858. He was president of the Westches-

577

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

ter County Medical Society in 1846 and 1847, and in the latter year delivered an address "On the laws of epidemics as exhibited in those that liad prevailed in the county the preceding twenty years." In 1831 lie wrote a valuable treatise on "Epidemic Dysentery and Intermittent Fever," published in the New York Medical Journal for May of that year. Abont the same time he prepared several articles on the effect of sulphate of quinine, but it is not known when they were published. He honored his profession except in placing too low an estimate on the value of his services ; "his charges were so small that he was un- able to live in the manner suitable to a man of his ability, skill and position."

Dr. James Fountain was spoken of in the biograph- ical sketch prepared by Dr. James Hart Curry, at the request of the Westchester County Medical Society, as "one of the most remarkable men of his time, in the region ronnd-about him." Born at Bed- ford, January 30, 1790, he began the study of medicine under Dr. Sackett, and was one of the first, if not the very first, student from Westchester County to matric- ulate in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, where he graduated March 16, 1812. Beginning practice in his native connty, in a year he moved to Staten Island, but, at the solicitation of his father, soon returned to Jefferson Valley. He had become a member of the Westchester County Medi- cal Society a year before his gradnation, and when, fifty years afterward, he resigned, lie said, in his ehar- acteristic letter :-

"I witnessed its (the Society's) gradnal rise to distinction until, in the acme of its usefulness and glory it was crippled by an act of our ignorant legislature. To court popularity and to support a mistaken Democracy, they, in their zeal to level all distinctions among men, passed a law de- claring the ignorant quack and the most learned physician on a perfect lovel and equally entitled to protection. Since then our authority to keep down qnackery has ceased, so that now a large portion of our best practice is enjoyed hy ignorant quacks under the cloak of homeopathy. The consequences to our society are almost ruinons. Shorn of its power, its members have become discouraged, and a few only of the most faith- ful are found attending its meetings. All our struggles must be laborious so long as ignorance of physiology prevails among the people, and that must coutinue a long time.

"I am now iu ury seventieth year. I cousider myself professionally dead. It is my last prayer that you may persevere until the rays of knowledge shall illumine the eyes of the people and indnce them to value the realities of knowledge over ignorance and regard onr profession in its true light."

He was frequently a delegate to the New York State Medical Society, and at the session of 1846 was made a permanent member. His numerons contri- butions to the medical journals, as full a list of which as can be made is embodied in the foregoing schedule of professional writings by Westchester physicians, bear witness to his profound research as well as to his pngnacions disposition. Having been thrown in his early practice greatly upon his own resources for medieal agents, no drug-stores being near him, he became, of necessity, conversant with our indigenous medical botany, and applied it with marked results, and often with great success. He boldly and contin-

nally, and without the aid of the chemist, preseribed such potences as lobelia, scutellaria, actia sanguin- aria, ergot, juglans, Indian hemp and many of the vegetable acids. But he was by no means restricted to any set of drugs or stereotyped forms of practice. If heroic practice means anything, Dr. Fonntain was a hero of the boldest stamp. Arsenic, strychnine, mercury, tartar emctic, the laneet and the blister were the great weapons of his warfare, and he was not afraid to use them. In his treatment there was no half and half-he gave disease no quarter-and it must be confessed that often, in drawing ont the enemy, he sliook the citadel terribly, but when he had slain the foe, if the patient survived, like a discrimi- nating general, he was qnick to take advantage of cir- cumstances, stopping medication when he thought the case would warrant, or modifying it as the symp- toms might demand. In his treatment of old dis- eases, especially those of the lungs, as in asthma of

JAMES FOUNTAIN, M.D.

the aged, hydrothorax and bronchorrhœa, notwith- standing (or rather by the aid of) blood-letting, an- timony, ptyalism and blistering, he was remarkably successful, often holding the disease in abeyanee for many years after it had become apparently incur- able.

Neither in auscultation or percussion, nor, in fact, in any of the more modern modes of physical explo- rations, did he ever make much proficiency, and he professed but little faith in them, believing, until his death, that the rational signs of disease would gen- erally lead the rational practitioner to a correct diag- nosis.

In surgery he was not a brilliant operator, although his isolated position and immense practice continn- ally forced him to nse the knife. It was his boast, and true, that during a practice of fifty years no irregular practitioner had been able to make any head in all his field of practice, and it must be added that during his prime it was a risky matter for any phy-

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

sician, regular or otherwise, to infringe upon his domain. His cultivated mind and vastly superior medical attainments made him the natural antagonist of empiricism, and his indomitable will, his con- sciousness of his own superiority, raised the hands of others against his. "In fact," his son, Hosea Foun- tain, wrote, "he was in hot water the most of the time. Of course such a man had bitter enemies and strong, warm-hearted friends." His field of labor extended from Fishkill to Tarrytown, and from the Hudson River to beyond the Connecticut line. " He kept the best horses and rode constantly in the saddle ; he was very active, was up and away before we were up. Would ride all day, and then in hot weather I have known him to strip to the skin and help his man draw hay off by moonlight ; then off in the morning again as usual." In 1862 he removed to Waverly, N. Y., to spend the remainder of his days with his son. He died May 19, 1869, during a visit to his old home in Jefferson Valley, and was buried in the Presbyterian grave-yard at Crompond.

Dr. Seth Stephen Lounsbery 1 was born at Bedford, Westchester County, September 11, 1837, and in 1861 received his diploma from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, having previously studied medicine under the direction of his uncle, Dr. William Minos. After a year of city practice he accepted, September 15, 1862, a commission as assist- ant surgeon of the One Hundred and Seventieth Regi- ment New York Volunteers, and on December 22, 1864, was promoted to the rank of surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regiment. In these com- mands, notwithstanding his feeble constitution, he served in the field almost continuously until the close of the war. At Cold Harbor he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner, and he witnessed most of the movements of the army of the Potomac around Rich- mond and at the Weldon Railroad. In October, 1865, he was associated with Dr. William S. Stanley in his practice at Mamaroneck, where he continued for the remainder of his life. He died, April 25, 1872, at his father's home in Bedford. In 1866 he joined the Westchester County Medical Society, and was usually present at its meetings.

Dr. Caleb W. Haight 2 was born in New York City February 20, 1820 ; came with his family to Bedford when he was a very young child. In the spring of 1842 he entered the office of Dr. Shove as a student, and in March, 1846, graduated at the University of the City of New York, beginning practice in September at Chappaqua. Eighteen months, subsequently, he removed to Pleasantville, where he died March 5, 1873. In 1848 he became a member of the West- chester Medical Society, in which from time to time, he acceptably filled all its important offices. He was a constant attendant at its meetings, and contributed

liberally to its transactions. In 1860 he was elected a member of the American Medical Association, and in 1861 of the New York State Medical Society.

Dr. Peter Moulton,3 at his death the oldest member of the Westchester County Medical Society, and prob- ably the oldest physician in active practice in the county, was born at Oxford, N. H., October 7, 1794. In May, 1816, he began to study medicine with Dr. Cyril Carpenter, of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., and, as a student was successively under Dr. Daniel Ayers, of Openheim, N. Y., and Dr. Nathaniel Drake, of Peekskill. He completed his studies as the private pupil of Dr. Cyrus Perkins, professor of anatomy and surgery in Dartmouth College, where he attended lec- tures and fulfilled all requirements necessary for his degree as doctor of medicine, but could not obtain it because two conflicting boards of trustees claimed to control the affairs of the institution. He, however, on November 8, 1819, passed an examination before the censors of the medical society of the county of New York, who granted him a license to practice, which for the greater part of his professional life, was his only diploma. But on March 27, 1860, the regents of the State University, at the instance of the State Medical Society, conferred on him the honorary de- gree of doctor of medicine, and in 1864 he was elected a permanent member of the State Society. In Novem- ber, 1819, he established himself in East Chester, and his reputation for learning and skill soon spread throughout that part of Westchester County. His practice extended into the towns of White Plains, Scarsdale, Yonkers, Greenburgh, New Rochelle, Pel- ham, Mamaroneck and Rye. In 1835 or '36 he trans- ferred his location to New Rochelle, where he prac- ticed for nearly forty years.

About two years before his death, while walking upon the track of the New Haven Railroad, a short distance above New Rochelle, he was struck by an engine and he and his medicine chest thrown thirty feet forward and down an embankment twenty feet deep. Refusing to go into the train, he walked home with his precious chest under his arm. "On my en- trance," says Dr. Pryer, "he called out, 'doctor, I have a broken arm.' Proceeding to examine the arm very tenderly, fearful of giving pain, I said, 'are you sure it is broken ?' 'Oh, yes,' said he, ' see here,' and he shook the elbow to and fro again and again, until the broken bones grated against one another in a manner that produces a shudder to this day when the sensation comes back to me. The doctor's scientific interest in proving the fracture was so great that it overcame entirely all sense of pain."

As a surgeon Dr. Moulton was bold and skilful, but it was as an obstetrician that he most excelled, and he is said to have assisted at the birth of more children than any other physician in the county. He

1 Biographical sketch by William S. Stanley, M.D., Mamaroneck.

2 Biographical sketch by Seth Shove, M.D.

3 Biographical sketch read before the Westchester County Medical Society, February 17, 1874, by Dr. William C. Pryer.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

was an accomplished botanist and drew many of his medicines from native plants gathered in his daily walks. It is not known at what date he beeame a member of the Westchester Counter County Medical Society, but since 1831 he held the following offices :

Elected in 1831, censor; 1833-34, treasurer; 1838, vice president ; 1836-37, president ; 1838, censor ; 1841, essayist for fall meeting; 1842, committee to draft rate bill, serving with Drs. Livingstone Roe and Gates ; 1851, reported a case of puerperal peritonitis, treated by " opium alone;" 1852, censor ; 1853, vice-president and committee to report on "Ship Fever ;" 1854, vice-president ; 1855, committee on surgery ; 1857, essayist, also committee on Indigenous Medical Botany and served on this committee six years ; 1858, delegate to American Medical Association ; 1863, vice-president and delegate to American Medical As- sociation ; 1866, delegate to American Medical Association.

On December 1, 1873, Dr. Moulton rose early, vis- ited various patients, traveled to New York City and back on professional business, and in the evening made visits to the sick in East Chester, Cooper's Cor- ners, Mamaroneek and Scarsdale, in the teeth of an easterly storm. When he reached home he was too feeble to ascend to his bed-room and remained in his office all night iu his wet clothing. Pneumonia su- pervened and he died on December 7th. On the 9tlı a meeting of the citizens of New Rochelle, at the Town Hall, passed resolutions of respect to his mem- ory, and similar action was taken by the Board of Education and the Huguenot Lyceum, of both of which he had been a member. He had been made an honorary member of the Westchester County Medical Society at its annual meeting in 1869, and at the meet- ing in 1872, at White Plains, he met his brother mem- bers for the last time. On the day of his funeral, busi- ness was suspended in New Rochelle, flags hung at half-mast from the public and many private buildings, the church, school and engine-house bells were tolled, the schools were dismissed and the scholars stood barc- headed in the street as the cortege passed. No sueh honors had ever been paid to any private citizen of the town.

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 148

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354