USA > New York > Erie County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1) > Part 89
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ant-colonel of U. S. Volunteers for faithful and meritorious service. He is now engaged in practice at Buffalo and is editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal.
Sanford B. Hunt was appointed surgeon of U. S. Volunteers in 1862; was assigned to the charge of Convalescent Camp near Alexandria, Va., in 1863; was an active surgeon in the field, and at the close of the war compiled a military history of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. He died April 26, 1884, and was buried at Forest Lawn, Buffalo.
Albert J. Myer was commissioned assistant surgeon U. S. army in 1853; invented a code of military signals, and was placed at the head of the signal bureau with the rank of colonel in 1862; brevet-brigadier general at the end of the war; later estab- lished the weather signal service; died August 24, 1880, and his remains were in- terred at Forest Lawn, Buffalo.
E. P. Gray was appointed surgeon of the 100th N. Y. Regiment but did not take the field with that command. He afterward served as surgeon of the 78th N. Y. Regiment, February 11, 1862, and was discharged from service, September 30, 1864. He died at St. Joseph, Mo., August 9, 1872.
Elias L. Bissell was commissoned assistant surgeon of the 44th Regiment, August 29, 1861, and served with the regiment in the field until November 20, 1862, when he was discharged. Commissioned surgeon 22d N. Y. Regiment, December 5, 1862; mustered out with his regiment June 19, 1863. He is now engaged in medical prac- tice in Buffalo.
James W. Casey was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 105th N. Y. Regiment, April 10, 1862, and was mustered out upon consolidation of the regiment, March 17, 1863.
William H. Butler served first as assistant surgeon of the 16th Regiment Michigan Volunteers, and afterward acting assistant surgeon U. S. Army and assigned to duty at Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D. C., where he died February 5, 1864.
Sylvester Rankin was commissioned assistant surgeon in New Mexico Vols. early in the war, but we have been unable to trace his service.
Heman P. Babcock was appointed assistant surgeon U. S. navy, and after the war was obliged to reside in California on account of his health. He died at Buffalo De- cember 27, 1877.
Chauncey B. Hutchins was commissioned surgeon of the 116th Regiment. Septem- ber 8, 1862, and was mustered out with his regiment June 8, 1865. Uri C. Lynde was commissioned surgeon of the 116th Regiment, September 8, 1862, and resigned October 12, 1863. Dr. Lynde is practising at Buffalo. M. E. Shaw was commissoned assistant surgeon of the 89th N. Y. Infantry December 10, 1862, and resigned October 11, 1868; appointed assistant surgeon of the 116th Regiment, March 12, 1864, and was mustered out of service with his regiment June 8, 1865. He was appointed an assist- ant surgeon U. S. Army and died October 11, 1867, on his way to join his command.
William D. Murray was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 100th Regiment February 7, 1862, and discharged July 6, 1864. He located at Tonawanda where he continued to practice for many years.
Frank Hastings Hamilton was commissioned surgeon of the 31st Regiment, May 25, 1861; was appointed surgeon U. S. Vols., September 1, 1861; and afterward was assigned to duty as medical director of the 4th Army Corps. After the war he taught and practised surgery in New York until his death, August, 1886.
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William H. Gail in 1862 was appointed a medical cadet U. S. Army and served as such in Stanton Hospital at Washington, D. C. He was commissioned assistant surgeon in the 18th Regiment N. Y. Cavalry, February 3. 1864, and resigned Febru- ary 14, 1865. He was then appointed an acting assistant surgeon in the U. S. Army. He is now in active practice at East Aurora.
Carey W. Howe was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 116th N. Y. Regiment. September, 1862, and resigned January 6, 1863. He is engaged in the practice of medicine at Buffalo.
Nehemiah Osburn served in a medical capacity during the Civil war, but we have been unable to ascertain its nature. He died at Buffalo, in March, 1896.
Justin G. Thompson was commissioned surgeon of the 77th Regiment, December 16, 1864, and was mustered out with his command June 27, 1865. He is now prac- tising medicine at Angola.
S. S. Greene served as assistant surgeon in the U. S. Navy during a portion of the war, but in 1875 located at Buffalo where he is still engaged in the practice of his profession.
VI. WOMEN PHYSICIANS.
The history of medical women in Buffalo and Erie county begins properly with the admission of Mary Blair Moody to the Medical De- partment of the University of Buffalo in 1874, this being one of the first medical schools to admit women.
The college records give no account of any action on the part of the faculty concerning the admission of women. They were not denied the privilege by the charter, therefore it was not regarded necessary to take formal action in the matter.
Following her graduation Dr. Moody practised medicine in Buffalo for several years. Subsequently she moved to New Haven, Conn., where she still pursues her profession, known far beyond her immediate circle as a woman interested in all that pertains to the advancement not only of her sex but of the race.
Prior to Dr. Moody there had been but one reputable woman physi- cian in Buffalo, a Dr. Cook, who with her husband practised medicine according to the teachings of the homoeopathic school. These phy- sicians have long since moved from Buffalo, and but little can be learned of Dr. Cook's work here and nothing of her subsequent life.
Dr. Moody had an immediate successor in the college halls, in the person of Mary Berkes, who matriculated in 1877. Miss Berkes was born in Williamsville in 1851, and as she had been a teacher before entering college, her preliminary education was well up to the present standard and was received at Williamsville Academy. In 1SS0 she
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graduated from the university and immediately began the practice of her profession.
During the first year she was the only woman in attendance, but she had the company of others later. She had the good fortune to be in- vited by Dr. White to attend many of his private operations in gyne- cology. In January, 1886, Dr. Berkes married Dr. S. W. Wetmore, her former preceptor.
Since the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo first ad- mitted women fifty-six have received its diploma, many of them with high honors. The complete list of the alumna of the college is as follows:
*Kathryn M. Bailey, Buffalo, '89; Gertrude E. Beebe, Buffalo '91; Ida C. Bender Buffalo, '90; Alice McL. Ross Bennett, Buffalo, '90; Clara E. Bowen, Buffalo, '92; Marie L. Benoit, Montreal, '96; Ava M. Carroll, '88; Evangeline Carroll, Buffalo, '93; Jane Wall Carroll, Buffalo, '91; Martha F. Caul, Buffalo, '91; N. Victoria Chappell, Buf- falo, '92; Isabel A. Church, B. S., New York, '93; Salina P. Colgrove, Ph. G., Sala- manca, N. Y., '88; Amanda M. Congdon, Cuba, N. Y., '92; * Annie B. Culver, Des Moines, Ia., '84; Mary I. Denton, Buffalo, '91; Mary E. Dickinson, Dansville, N. Y., '90; Louise Downer, Buffalo, N. Y., '86; Ella May Doyle, Buffalo, N. Y., '93; Amelia Dresser, Buffalo, '93; Alice B. Foster, (Bryn Mawr), Wakefield, Mass., '91; Maud M. Foy, St. Louis, Mo. ; Jane North Frear, Buffalo, '94; Maud J. Frye, Buf- falo, '92; Anna Wadsworth Hatch, Sauk Cen., Minn., '89; Jeannette Potter Him- melsbach, '90; Mary M. Huntley, Buffalo, '96; Elizabeth Johnson, New York, '87; Sophia B. Jones, Six Lakes, Mich., '83; Rachel J. Kemball, Buffalo, '84: Regina F. Keyes, Buffalo, '96; Elizabeth M. King, Grand Haven, Mich., '93; Ada C. Latham, Buffalo, '92; Cora Billings Lattin, Buffalo, '94; Emma C. LeFevre, Elmira, N. Y., '92; Elizabeth Fear Leffingwell, Summit, N. J., '88; Emma L. McCray, Lovell's Station, Pa., '91; Jennie L. Messerschmidt, Bath, N. Y., '93; Mary Blair-Moody, New Haven, Conn., '76; Helen Kennedy Morehouse, Buffalo, '85; Nellie Edmunds Murray, Tonawanda, N. Y., '92; Sarah H. Perry, Rochester, N. Y., '82; Lillian Craig Randall, Buffalo, '91; Marie Ross, '90; Mary E. Runner-Sanford, Buffalo, '81; Sarah E. Simonet, Croghan, N. Y., '85; Mary Jane Slaight, Rochester, N. Y .. '80; Ellen Roberts Spragge, Buffalo, '88; Elizabeth M. Squier, Albion, N. Y., '93; Isabella H. Stanley, Dunkirk, N. Y., '83; Anna M. Stuart, Elmira, N. Y., '95; Clara B. Talbot Weidman, Rockport, Me., '90; Marian A. Townley, Ithaca, N. Y., '89; Amelia Earle Trant, Buffalo, '94; Bina Potter-Vandenbergh, Dansville, N. Y., '83; Stella Cox Venable, Geneseo, N. Y., '88; * Francis Weidman Wynds, Brooklyn, '91; Mary Berkes Wetmore, Buffalo, '80.
In the spring of 1892, upon recommendation of the medical faculty, the trustees of Niagara University voted to admit women to the med- ical department of that institution. Anna Earl Hutchinson of North Evans was the first woman to avail herself of the privilege. She en-
*Deceased,
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tered college in the fall of 1892, graduating therefrom in 1895. Dr. Hutchinson has been appointed as woman physician on the medical staff of the Manhattan State Hospital, New York city. Mary O'Malley, of Barkers, N. Y., graduated at Niagara University in the class of 1896.
In connection with the history of medical women in Buffalo, the work of the Women's Union in securing the appointment of women physicans to State hospitals deserves mention, At the monthly meet- ing of the protective committee of the Union held in September, 1889, the president, Mrs. Harriet A Townsend, first proposed their employment in the State hospitals for the insane. On September 4, 1889, letters were sent to fifty-seven superintendents of insane hospitals, asking whether they employed women physicians, and whether they would approve of women physicians being put in charge of their own sex. Forty-six answers, from thirty-two different states, were received, and of these, thirty-three were favorable, five opposed, five non-committal and three not prejudiced. Armed with such approval the directors of the Union on January 7, 1890, authorized Mrs. Townsend to prepare a bill.
It was presented in the Assembly by Hon. William F. Sheehan and in the Senate by Hon. John Laughlin, January 14. Although in com- mittee the bill had a stormy time, it passed the Assembly March 27, with only two negative votes and on April 6 the Senate, with a majority of twenty-six to three. April 27, 1890, the bill received the signature of the governor and became a law.
The first physican to be appointed under the law was Dr. Eleanor McAllister, a graduate of Syracuse University, who was placed on the medical staff of the Buffalo State Hospital by Dr. J. B. Andrews. Owing to ill health, Dr. McAllister resigned in October, 1892, and re- moved to Southern California where she has since resided.
Dr. Helene Kuhlman succeeded Dr. McAllister, and is the present incumbent. Dr. Kuhlman was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1869 and received her preliminary education in the schools of that city and in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1887 she came to New York and entered the Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, graduating therefrom in May, 1890. She has served as resident physician or in- terne in the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Staten Island, in the Babies' Hospital at New York, and was engaged in private practice for a short time at Cleveland, O.
There are now in Buffalo engaged in the active practice of medicine
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between twenty and thirty women. Death has removed from the ranks some who have located here. Some have married while several follow the profession of teaching, two at least with eminent distinction, Dr. Amelia Earle Trant of the High School, and Dr Ida C. Bender, supervisor of primary grades. Some of these women have acquired such local fame. that mention of their work seems justifiable. This historical sketch, indeed, would be incomplete without something con- cerning them beyond the mere mention of their names.
Electa B. Whipple, daughter of Daniel and Charlotte (Alverson) Whipple, was born at Gowanda, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., and received her early education in the common schools and the Gowanda High School. Subsequently she started upon a preparatory classical course for college in Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, N. Y., and after completing the same with honors entered Genesee College, located at the same place. After two years spent in Genesee College she entered Syracuse University, from which she graduated in 1874, receiving the degree of A. B., and in 1877 the degree of A. M. from the same university. From the Medical College of Syracuse University she graduated in 1884, receiving the degree of M. D. and at once entered upon the practice of medicine. On May 1, 1888, she formed a copartnership with Dr. Anna Fiske Crowell, who was her classmate in the medical college and they then located at Buffalo, N. Y. This relation continued until the death of Dr. Crowell September 2, 1888. Since then she has continued the practice of medicine at Buffalo. She has been a contributor to the Buffalo Medical Journal and was a member of the editorial staff of the woman's edition of that journal published in June, 1896. She is a member of the Alpha Phi Society, of the Buffalo Microscopical Society, of the Physicians' League, of the Medical Society of the County of Erie, and of that of the State of New York, and a Fellow of the Buffalo Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Jessie Shepard. perhaps the leading woman of the homoeopathic school now practising in Buffalo, was born in 1861. Her mother's family was one of the pioneer families of Buffalo. She was educated at the High School, at that time known as the Central School. In 1884 she entered the office of the late Dr. A. C. Hoxsie as a student of medicine. In 1888 she graduated from the Boston University School of Medicine, serving during her senior term as interne (resident surgeon) of the Massa- chusetts Homeopathic Hospital. After five years of practice in Buffalo, Dr. Shep- ard spent the year 1894 in Europe, chiefly in Schauta's Clinic in Vienna in the study of gynecology and obstetrics. She is now in active practice in Buffalo. Dr. Shep- ard is assistant obstetrician to the Buffalo Homoeopathic Hospital, and a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, the Homoeopathic Society of the State of New York, the Western New York Homoeopathic Medical Society, and the Erie County Homoeopathic Medical Society. She is also corresponding secretary and treasurer of the Buffalo Microscopical Society.
Dr. Rose Wilder was born at Akron, Erie county, N. Y., in 1857. She received a high and normal school education, and in 1881 entered the Homoeopathic College of Michigan University, graduating therefrom in 1884. She served two years as resi- dent physician in the Industrial Home for Girls at Adrian, Michigan. Dr. Wilder practised for two years in Akron, and then entered Boston University School of
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Medicine for post-graduate work. In 1889 she began the practice of medicine in Buffalo where she has since been located. She is assistant obstetrician to the Buffalo Homoeopathic Hospital and a member of the Western New York Homoeo- pathic Medical Society and of the Erie County Homoeopathic Medical Society.
Dr. Jane Wall Carroll was born at Paterson, N. J., February 20. 1848. She re- ceived her early education at Mount St. Vincent Academy on the Hudson, leaving that institution in 1864. She married Peter V. Carroll of New York, May 13, 1867, and came to Buffalo in 1878. She entered the medical department of the University of Buffalo, graduating therefrom in 1891. Following this she took post-graduate work at the Polyclinic in New York, Dr. Carroll was one of the pioneers in the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, being for five years a vice-president and director. During the early years of her residence in Buffalo she was leading soprano in St. Joseph's cathedral. Dr. Carroll is president of the Physicians' League, a mem- ber of the Medical Society of the County of Erie, and a fellow of the Buffalo Acad- emy of Medicine.
Dr. Carroll is the mother of ten children, the eldest of whom, Evangeline Carroll, graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo in 1893. Her eldest son. William Carroll, is a graduate of the Buffalo Law School. Her husband, Peter V. Carroll, died in April, 1896.
Maud Josephine Frye, was born in Concord, Erie county, N. Y., December 31, 1866. Her early education was obtained in the district schools of her native town. In 1885 she graduated from Griffith Institute, Springville, N. Y. In the autumn of 1889 she matriculated in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, having previous to this studied medicine with Dr. W. A. McFarlane of Springville, for one year. In 1892 she graduated from the university with highest honor, being the first woman to attain the distinction in this school. Until May, 1893, Dr. Frye served as interne in the Woman's Hospital in Detroit. Since that time she has practised medicine in Buffalo. She is visiting physician to the babies' ward of the Erie County Hospital, a member of the Physicians' League, of the Erie County Medical Society, and a fellow of the Buffalo Academy of Medicine, and has held the position of clinical instructor in diseases of children in the University of Buffalo.
HISTORY OF THE HOMOEOPATHIC PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN ERIE COUNTY.1
Nearly three scores years ago, among the settlers that were rapidly filling the thriving village of Buffalo, and establishing its supremacy over its progressive and prominent rival, Black Rock, was a young physician who, filled with professional enthusiasm and encouraged by the prospects of the little town, determined that here should be his future home. He brought with him a good general equipment for the responsible work in which he was about to engage, having taken his degree in the Medical Department of Yale University ; but he could not have guessed as he passed through the quiet streets of the village that
! This section was kindly supplied by Dr. F. Park Lewis.
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he was to be the leader in it of a system of medical practice then only . just becoming known, or that the little country town was to be one of the great cities of the world.
Dr. N. H. Warner, although not the first in Buffalo to employ homoeo- pathic methods, as Dr. Stephens had preceded him by several years, was yet entitled to be considered the pioneer by reason of his long and important work here, and the prominent position which he achieved. He was a quiet, dignified man, reserved in his confidences, but true and loyal to his friends. He had a rarely magnetic presence, a quick in- sight, together with a firmness and self-reliance that gave evidence of conscious power. It was not remarkable, therefore, that he rose rapidly in the confidence and in the esteem of his fellow citizens. He already had made for himself an enviable position in the community, being at this time physician in charge of the Marine Hospital, when he became interested in the new practice which some German phy- sicians had brought from Hahnemann, who was then in the height of his fame in Paris. It soon became evident to him as his studies pro- gressed, that a great natural law had been opened up, and believing the apostolic injunction, "prove all things and hold fast that which is good," he began immediately to make application of his newly acquired knowledge. It was not until 1844, however, eight years after having settled in Buffalo, that we find in his diary, under date of February, the following note: "This day I have made my first purely homoeo- pathic prescription." And then followed a period of "storm and stress." He was expelled from the County Medical Society of which he had been a member; professional differences were engendered, with bitter controversies extending even into the personalities of life; liberty of thought and of action were threatened, and then, with all the pain and suffering that nature seems to have designed as an in- evitable accompaniment of such fulfillments, was born in Buffalo the Homoeopathic School.
The new practice was destined soon to be tried as by fire. In 1849 cholera came. Dr. Warner's practice had by this time grown to be very large, and during that fateful summer the demands upon his time and strength became too great even for his splendid constitution. His labor was almost incessant day and night, and when finally the scourge had passed, it left him exhausted and broken; but his practice was vin- dicated and the future of homoeopathy established. By this time, however, Dr. Warner was no longer obliged to defend the new faith
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single-handed and alone. Others were led to investigate the homoeo- pathic system through the success which had followed its adoption wherever faithfully tried, and one of the earliest practitioners following Dr. Warner was Dr. George W. Lewis, who in 1849 came with the de- gree of the University of New York. Dr. Dio Lewis also established himself here, and soon became known throughout the country, through his lectures and writings on hygienic subjects. Dr. P. W. Gray also followed about this time, and then came Dr. G. H. Blanchard and Dr. S. Z. Havens, both of whom settled permanently in the then well- grown town.
In 1853 Dr. A. H. Beers, who in many respects was a most remark- able man, came to Buffalo and formed a partnership with Dr. Warner. Dr. Beers was a man liberally educated in the arts as in medicine. He was a graduate of Yale College and of the University of New York. To the culture of a gentleman he added the skill of a trained physician, and the new method of practice, which by this time had a large body of adherents among the most thoroughly representative people of the town, became still more popular. This partnership continued for two years when Dr. Beers opened a separate office. In 1853 came again an epidemic of cholera, and this time, although the number of homoeo- pathic physicians had increased, the labor which each performed was stupendous.
On the 11th of May, 1856, Dr. A. S. Hinckley began his practice in Buffalo. During that same year Dr. L. M. Kenyon, of Westfield, be- came Dr. Warner's partner, and in 1859 Dr. A. R. Wright, a former student, became also an associate in the same office.
During these years the Doctors Ehrmann, German physicians of unusual skill, established themselves in Buffalo, and soon had a large and loyal following. They subsequently removed to Cincinnati, where they achieved a national reputation.
By this time a sufficient number of medical men had adopted the newer practice to give the movement a strength that was not inconsid- erable and an action was taken which was of critical import in its bear- ing upon the subsequent medical history of the city.
On December 14, 1859, fifteen members of the homoeopathic practice met and formed a society which was to be known henceforth as the Erie County Homoeopathic Medical Society. It had for its object "mutual benefit and the advancement of medical science in general."
The first officers chosen for its management were Simon Z. Haven.
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president; Charles E. Schuch, vice-president; Lorenzo M. Kenyon, secretary; Alvin Shattuch, treasurer. Censors: N. H. Warner; Charles E. Schuch, George W. Lewis, Alfred H. Beers and A. S. Hinckley.
The following year, uniting with other similar societies and with representative men from other counties, the New York State Homoeo- pathic Medical Society was organized.
The development of the homoeopathic practice from this time on was very rapid. In the early sixties events followed each other in quick succession. The excitement with which the war was ushered in was followed by a suspense like that between the lightning flash and the crash of thunder. Into these intervals came the bulletins from the the seat of war, with now and then a call to action. The sentiment of loyalty to the flag, which absorbed personal ambitions, and even stronger interests in the hearts of many of the bravest men in the country, did not fail to secure its recruits from the medical profession, and among those who early hastened to the front was Dr. Nehemiah Osborne. He returned with honor when the war was over, and for twenty years more continued to fight disease and death in our city, until he was himself vanquished by the last great conqueror.
In 1862 Rollin R. Gregg, M. D., began his practice in Buffalo. Dr. Gregg was a man of intensely strong convictions, and one of the most consistent representatives of pure homoeopathic methods in America. He believed in the accurately selected similimum, the single remedy, and the attenuated or potentized dose. He rarely used adjuvants, and was exceedingly careful in his sanitary regulations. He had a dis- tinctive but large and representative practice, his clientèle extending over the entire country, and he exercised a marked and lasting influ- ence upon the practice in Buffalo.
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