The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 66

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II > Part 66

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Drs. Willard Parker, Jos. M. Smith, James R. Wood, and Alonzo Clark from New York.

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

The vigor of "Young Physic," as homeopathy has been jocosely called, was apparent in the early estab- lishment of a Pharmacy devoted exclusively to the manufacture and sale of its medicines. This was nn- dertaken in 1850, and located in Court street, near the City Hall. At the time there were but eight recog- nized physicians to give it countenance; and seeing that each of these gentlemen dispensed his own medi- cines, it would seem as if Mr. J. T. P. Smith was either very rash to open a store with but eight reliable cus- tomers, or else very "enterprising " in his expectations of the growth of homeopathy. The event proved that he was enterprising; for in four years he found not only permanency, but he was under the necessity of enlarging his quarters to meet the enlarged demand on his services.

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

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

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

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

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

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

HENRY E. MORRILL, M. D., a native of Boston, Mass., born December 29th, 1813; a pupil of Philips' Academy, at Andover, and at Amherst College, Mass. After leaving college, he taught for several years in the south; studied medicine at Cincinnati and in Philadelphia, where he grad- uated in 1840, at the age of twenty-seven.

After practicing for several years in Ohio, he removed in 1847 to Brooklyn, to engage in the drug trade; became in- terested in Homoeopathy; and, in 1858, resumed practice as a thorough-going Homoeopathict. He soon became very popular, and drew around him a large clientage and many friends. In all the relations of life, he was a Christian- unostentatious-distrustful of his own powers-but respected by all, both as man and physician.

DR. JOHN BARKER, of whom it used to be said that he was, " next to Henry Ward Beecher, the most popular man in Brooklyn," was born in Wallingford, Conn., but passed most of his youth in Ohio, where he commenced the study

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

908

of his profession at the age of about twenty-two, under the guidance of Dr. Friend Cook, a relative by marriage. He attended one course of lectures at Cleveland, and one or more at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, being at the time a pupil of Dr. A. L. Sayre. Ill health sent him to Wisconsin before his graduation; and, in 1849, he went to California, from which, after two years he returned with renewed health, and graduated at the New York Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons. Having, while in Cali- fornia, embraced tbe tenets of Homoeopathy, he at once took up its practice, in Brooklyn, in 1853, in partnership with Dr. A. Cooke Hull; but in 1854, severed this connection, and entered upon a career with a success which was uni- form and quite remarkable. Indeed, for several years before his death, he enjoyed a larger and choicer practice than any physician in Brooklyn, of whatever school. He died April 18th, 1868, leaving behind him a memory still green in the hearts of his patients, friends and surviving professional brethren.

A notable and gratifying evidence of the publie ap- preciation of homeopathy requires mention here, if the ehronology of the school is to be maintained. It is to be found in the extensive distribution and sale of homeopathic remedies on the counters of the old-school druggists themselves. As early as 1858, the third year of the society, the secret preparations of DR. F. HUM- PHREYS were advertised and sold under the name of "Homeopathic Specifics." These were followed in 1875 by counter cases of legitimate homopathic medi- cines, put out by BOERICKE & TAFEL, of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, San Francisco and Chicago, the leading homeopathic pharmacists of America. So great is the demand for these goods at the present time, that there is hardly a respectable apothecary of the old school in the country who does not consider them part of his necessary stock in trade. This carrying the war into Africa, naturally gave great umbrage to the old-school physicians, but their remons- trances were met by the reply that "they are in de- mand; and we would just as lief sell them as any other quack (sic) medicines !"

A Homeopathic County Medical Society or- ganized .- The centennial anniversary of Hahnemann's birth occurred in April, 1855, and was commemorated by social gatherings of his admirers all over the country. Those of Brooklyn resulted in the institution of regu- lar meetings for professional discussions, reports, inter- changes, etc., etc. It was a natural outcome of the wants of twenty-nine active and painstaking phy- sicians. Its organization was the simplest possible. No name but "meetings" was allowed; no officer but secretary, who was at the same time treasurer, and, if he chose, reporter. This formless association lived two years, and died in giving birth to the County Homeopathic Medical Society.

Thus, at the meeting of the association, September 3, 1857, Dr. Moffat stated that " several homeopathic physicians of unquestioned respectability had been an- noyed by receiving a printed summons to appear before

the Kings County Medical Society (allopathic). They were required to show their diplomas, that the society might have evidence of their right to practice medi- cine; threats were expressed that in case of disregard- ing the warning herewith conveyed, etc., etc., etc. However some of us might choose to disregard these mandates, there were still others, and especially novi- tiates in our ranks, who might be greatly disturbed by them. * *

* We, as Homœopathists, are author- ized to form our own county societies, that would be in all legal respects the peers of those now existing. * * * With a view to bringing the matter in due form before the meeting, Dr. E. T. Richardson, sec- onded by Dr. H. Minton, moved, That it is expedient to form a 'Kings County Homeopathic Medical So- ciety." Thus was initiated the second public demon- stration of the new-school; and so heartily was it seconded and carried into effect, that on the 12th of November of the same year (1857), the present "Ho- MCOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE COUNTY OF KINGS" was legally instituted, DR. ROBERT ROSMAN, the pioneer homeopathic physician of Brooklyn, being its first President. Its membership was at once twenty- nine, and embraced every recognized homeopathic physician in the county.

Thus, in seventeen years, Homeopathy had passed from non-existence to full legal status and recogni- tion. Its adherents felt proud of their achievements; and considered them sure indications of the perma- nence as well as of the acceptance of the school in Brooklyn.

A commendable ambition possessed the minds of the society. All desired the furtherance of the school, and counseled as to the best means of effecting it. Some urged the possession of power and place, and advocated the persistent claiming of appointments in the gift of the city and state authorities as rights. Others, and these were notably the seniors and the graver minds, said, " Our real strength lies in our sick-rooms. Multi- tiply these ; make more cures ; and very likely later, but far more surely, we will be called on to discharge larger and more responsible duties." The wiser coun- sels prevailed, and as a whole the professors of Homœo- pathy pursued their business interests in a quiet and unobtrusive way, that was at once the source and evi- dence of their strength. The meetings of the society were invaluable to its members. It gave them esprit- du-corps and served as an exchange. Novitiates were welcomed, encouraged, supplied with information, and were made to feel the force of brotherhood. Thus seven more years of patient labor passed on, and by 1864 no less than eighty-five Homeopathic physicians had taken up their abodes, for longer or shorter time, in Kings county.

The Homoeopathic Medical Society of Kings County, thus organized, was afterwards incorporated under the general law to further professional inter-

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course, and advance Homeopathy. It first numbered 29 members ; now it has 80. The first officers were : R. Rosman, M.D., Pres .; S. C. Handford, M.D., Vice- Pres .; B. C. Macy, M.D., Rec. Sec .; E. T. Richardson, M.D., Cor. Sec .; J. P. Duffin, M.D., Treas; Drs. P. P. Wells, A. Cooke Hull, S. S. Guy, Censors. The suc- ceeding Presidents were as follows : P. P. Wells, A. C. Hull, A. Wright, E. T. Richardson, W. Wright, R. C. Moffat, J. Barker, A. C. Burke, H. Minton, J. B. Elliot, W. L. R. Perrine, R. C. Moffat, H. E. Morrill, W. S. Searle, W. M. L. Fiske, G. V. Newcome, H. M. Lewis, E. Hasbrouck, Charles S. Bonnell. The present Board is as follows : Drs. Charles S. Bonnell, Pres., W. W. Blackman, Vice-Pres .; John L. Moffat, Rec. Sec .; A. B. Campbell, Cor. Sec .; Hugh H. Smith, R. C. Moffat, Necrologists. Meetings of the Society are held at 44 Court street, on the first Tuesday of the month.

The Gates Avenue Homeopathic Dispen- sary was established and incorporated in 1867, by certain benevolent laymen and physicians, residents of "the Hill," in behalf of the poor, who could not go as far as Court street for help. Rooms were hired, and a dispensary with the title as above established, where Gates avenue diverges from Ful- ton. With a medical staff of nine physicians and surgeons, and a board of seven trustees, as appears by the latest circular issued, the number of patients for the year ending September 30, 1879, was 3,249, and of visits made to homes, 241. Present Officers: R. D. Bene- dict, President (since the organization); Peter Not- man, Treasurer; Volney Aldridge, Secretary; J. L. Keep, M.D., Peter Milne, Jr., Eugene D. Berri, Wm. B. Boorum. Medical Staff (from organization): Drs. Sam'I Talmage, F. E. Robinson, W. S. Terhune, W. H. Vyse, Geo. C. Jeffery, S. H. Keep, D. M. Brown, Wm. E. Wamsley, Ed. Everitt, E. J. Whitney, J. H. Osborn, G. W. Newcomb, H. M. Lewis, S. E. Stiles, Wm. C. Bryant, J. L. Monmonier, A. R. Jarrett. Consulting Staff of Physicians and Surgeons (from organization): Drs. J. L. Keep, J. F. Talmage, M. Bryant, A. E. Sumner, J. B. Elliott, G. H. R. Bennett. Surgeon Dentists (from organization): E. H. Stelle, Edson W. Smith, C. H. Glover, M. E. Elmendorf, J. C. Monroe. Present Medical Director, J. L. Keep, M.D. House Physician, Samuel Talmage, M.D.

JOHN LESTER KEEP, M. D .- The Keep family has, for the past quarter of a century, been somewhat prominently iden- tified with Homoeopathy in the city of Brooklyn. The father, Dr. Lester Keep, came here in 1860, from Fair Haven, Conn., and soon acquired a very excellent practice; and his two sons, John L. and S. Hopkins, commenced their profes- sional career here.

John Lester Keep, the subject of our sketch, was born at Fair Haven, Conn., March 18th, 1838; received his early edu- cation at the schools of that pleasant town, and later at Thetford Academy (Vermont); and finished with a three years' course at the Collegiate and Commercial Institute of New

Haven, Conn., a semi-military school, conducted by Gen. Wm. H. Russell.

Plans for a college course at Yale were defeated by ill- health; and during the winter of 1856 to '57, Mr. Keep taught school at Branford, in his native State. The summer and autumn of 1857 was spent by him in the Bahama Islands, in attendance upon his father, who was then in poor health; and it was during this time that he commenced reading medicine. During the following winter and spring, he was in Key West, Florida, pursuing his studies and practicing some, as opportunities offered. In the autumn of 1858, he commenced lectures at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, from which he graduated March 2d, 1860. Re- turning immediately to Brooklyn, he entered practice, in partnership with his father, at the corner of Gates and Vanderbilt avenues. In 1862, he served awhile as surgeon on one of the old " Black Ball Line " packets.

In 1865, he attended another course of lectures at the New York Homoeopathic Medical College, and graduated Feb- ruary 28th, 1866. In 1860 he became a member of the Kings County Homoeopathic Medical Society, of which he was subsequently secretary for two years or more, resigning in 1870. He joined the American Institute of Homoeopathy in 1867; and was the chief promoter of the Gates Avenue Homoeopathic Dispensary, established in 1867, taking med- ical charge of it for some years. He is also a member of the medical staff of the Brooklyn Homoeopathic Hospital.

Dr. Keep was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the 13th Regiment, N. G., S. N. Y., December 1st, 1868 (his commis- sion being, we believe, the first ever issued, in this State, to a Homoeopathic physician); was promoted surgeon of the Fifth Brigade, December 14th, 1869, and resigned February 28th, 1872; was re-commissioned surgeon of same brigade, November 8th, 1875; promoted surgeon of Second Di- vision, N. G., S. N. Y., March 18th, 1880, and was honored for " long and faithful service," with the brevet of Colonel, March 14th, 1883. He is still in service, on the staff of Ma- jor-General James Jourdan, commanding Second Division, N. G., S. N. Y.

In 1877, Dr. Keep removed to his present elegant residence, at 460 Clinton avenue, and is in the full enjoyment of a large and successful practice. Alert, genial, and with hosts of friends and patients, his life-work stretches before him, sun- lit with the rays of hope and useful endeavor.

WILLIAM M. L. FISKE, M.D., is descended not only from one of the earliest and most honorable New England families, tracing its pedigree to Symond Fiske, Lord of the Manor of Stradhaugh, parish of Laxfield, county of Suffolk, England, who lived in the reigns of Kings Henry IV. and VI., (from A. D., 1399, to A. D., 1422), but from a line of able and in some cases celebrated physicians extending through several gener- ations. Phineas Fiske, an emigrant from old England to New England, who, with his sons James, John and Thomas, settled at Wenham, Mass., was the pilgrim father of the fam- ily of Fiske in America. Dr. John Fiske, son of John Fiske, son of Phineas Fiske, was a celebrated physician of Wenham, Mass., and New Milford, Conn. The first four graduates of Yale College were his descendants. The renowned scholar and divine, Rev. Phineas Fiske, was his first son. Ebenezer, the an- cestor of Dr. William M. L. Fiske, was his second son, aud John and Benjamin, were his third and fourth sons respec- tively. Ebenezer Fiske was his father's executor and become possessed of the homestead at Milford, and died at the resi- dence of his son Ebenezer, in New Milford, in 1747. Dr. Fiske's great-grandfather, Ichabod Ebenezer Fiske, was born in New Milford the same year. His father removed to Wal -

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 66

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345