The Morris County Chronicle

MEDICAL
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MORRISTOWN

Interesting Essays at Morristown Medical Club at a Recent Meeting.

DR. F. W. OWEN REMINISCENT

November 6th ultimo, at the home of its founder, Dr. Stephen Pierson, papers were read by Dr. J. B. Griswold on "An unusual case of intestinal obstruction with laparotomy," by Dr. Alfred A. Lewis, being the "President's address before the Tri-County Medical Society," and by Dr. F. W. Owen (who settled here in June, 1870) on "Medical Morristown from 1870 to 1907."

From the latter paper, as being of public interest, we make the following historical quotations:-

"At that time (1870) the writer found in the town traditions of the great ability, as a physician, of 'old Dr. Johnes' deceased in 1869, and of the pronounced talent of Dr. Fisher then elsewhere located, and of Dr. 'Gus Quimby' the surgeon, whose marriage removed him from a very active practice.

"Morristown then boasted of only four or five active physicians, to wit: Dr. W. DeH. Quimby, facile princeps, Dr. P. C. Barker (a close second), Dr. Sanborne (homeopathist), Dr. Frank Sanders just installed and Dr. T. B. Flagler, of High street. True, Dr. Edward Hoffman had an office, corner Boyden street and Macculloch avenue, and had done much work in previous years; also Dr. Stephenson had practiced here, but was retiring. There were others, like Dr. Woodruff, fully competent to adorn the profession, but who had left the arena.

"In 1873, Dr. Stephen Pierson, who had been successfully practicing at Boonton, joined forces with Dr. Quimby in the long wooden, two-story, moss-roofed, end to the street and roofless-porch house, near Day's bakery. It was a remarkably strong team and a leading one.

"In this year, also, from the Women's Medical College, N. Y. City, was graduated Dr. Charlotte Ford.

"At or before this time, Dr. Jas. B. Douglas, the writer's old student, and physician to the Morristown Board of Health, had a drug store between Day's and Dr. Quimby's, in a frame house long since torn down, and our friend and colleague Dr. Gustav A. Becker was studying medicine in this decade with one of our prominent physicians. Both Dr. Douglas and Dr. Becker graduated with honors from the 'N. Y. U.' and 'C. P. and S.' in the year 1880.

"Doctor Sanborne, of Western avenue, dying suddenly, of pulmonary congestion in 1872, Dr. Armin Uebelacker, who graduated from the 'N. Y. H. C.' in 1871, came from Schooley's Mountain, to take up his rapidly extending practice. These were the first avowed Morristown homeopaths within the writer's knowledge.

"Between 1870 and 1880 another homeopathist, Dr. Doolittle, began to do considerable over on Bridge street, but finally removed from town. Within this same period Dr. Macomber, a competent homeopathist and a charming gentleman, had, for two or more years, an office in the Dr. Canfield mansion, about where the Schmidt building is now located, but finally removed to California, when the wittiest member of the Club moved into his offices.

This decade, of 1870 to 1880, was marked by two important medical events: first, the reorganization of the long defunct County Medical Society, with Dr. John S. Stiger as President, Dr. P. O. Barker as Vice-President, Dr. Stephen Pierson as Secretary and Dr. F. W. Owen as Treasurer. Of the then members but few survive.

The second event alluded to was the opening, in 1878, of the New Jersey State Hospital and the organization of the Hospital staff with Dr. Buttolph as Medical Director, preceding Dr. Joseph Smith and Dr. Britton D. Evans.

"Taking up a second decade viz. 1880 to 1890, that member of the Club without whom it could not live, move, and have its being,' agreeably to wit, Dr. Alfred A. Lewis, was then quite an old residenter of this bailiwick. Long may his friendship be ours!"

Dr. H. A. Henriques, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York in 1882, and a pupil of the late Professor Sands, the noted surgeon, after a successful practice in New York State, located on South street in 1882.

The lamented Dr. Harry McCarroll graduating from the same institution one year earlier, after making his mark in New York City, located here about 1886, was Police Surgeon and also a member of the staff of both our Hospitals.

During this period, the elder Dr. O'Reilley, unmistakably a well-equipped physician established himself in Morristown, dying in All Souls' Hospital.

In 1889 Dr. Wilkinson graduated from N. Y. U., and, after hospital appointments in Newark, settled here.

The period between 1890 and 1900 was made memorable to us by the opening for patients of "All Souls' Hospital" in 1892 and "Memorial Hospital" in 1893, the original staff of "All Souls'" being Dr. Stephen Pierson, medical director, Dr. H. A. Henriques, secretary and operative surgeon, Dr. O'Reilley, the elder, Dr. Calvin Anderson, nestor of this Club.

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MEDICAL MORRISTOWN
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(a P. and S. man of 1865) and Dr. Owen, as attending physicians, and Dr. P. C. Barker and, later on, Dr. C. Y. Swan, as consulting physicians.
The original staff of "Memorial Hospital" comprised Dr. P. C. Barker, physician and surgeon-in-chief, with Drs. Becker and Lewis as his lieutenants, to whom were later added Drs. Pierson, McCarroll, Douglas, Henriques, Uebelacker, Glazebrook and Haven as attending physicians and surgeons, and Dr. Owen as the first consulting physician, city men of prominence increasing this list.
Graduates in this decade were Dr. F. H. Glazebrook (our Police Surgeon), Cornell, 1900 and of Orange Memorial Hospital before coming to Morristown; Dr. J. B. Griswold, Dartmouth, 1892, who continued his studies abroad and finally located here; Dr. Harry Vaughan, P. and S., Baltimore, 1895, later of West Virginia, now our Club and Hospital confrere; Dr. Harry O'Reilley, Jefferson, 1895; Dr. Clifford Mills, L. I. College Hospital, 1897; Dr. H. C. Lowenstein, orthopedist, Women's College, New York, 1898, and Dr. Grace Flanders Wilson, 1899.
Many of us remember the coming and going of Dr. Howley, and Drs. Wright, Snyder and Bishop, and the death of Dr. Clutterbuck.
Of absent sons, among others, Morristown has furnished to the medical profession Drs. Samuel Pierson, of Stamford, Conn., Isaac Vreeland, of Stony Point, N. Y., Wm. E. Derry, of Dover, Condict W. Cutler, of N. Y. City, Thos. Hastings, of N. Y. City, Fred W. Becker, of Newark, Pierce Bailey, and J. Calvin Mead, a man of great promise, who died in 1869, at Bellevue as interne. Also, Drs. Lawton, Corwin, Cochrane, Erdman, Voorhees, Coultas, Halsted and Jones, all of whom have acquitted themselves creditably.
"The same may be said of the late young homeopathic physicians, Dr. Joseph R. Hoffman and Dr. Herman Newbold, natives of Morristown and Mount Holly, both of whom built up good practices and both of whom were men of sterling character."
"Dr. Loiseau was a "bird of passage," but his successor seems to "Read his title clear."
Dr. Connett, Chicago H. C., 1891, Dr. Allaben, N. Y. H. C. for Women, 1894, and Dr. Willis, N. Y. H. C., 1899, have fine clienteles.
In the seven years since 1900, Dr. S. C. Haven graduated from P. and S. in 1901, and, after being a member of the "Roosevelt" and "Post Graduate" staffs, located here in 1904, and at once took rank as a well trained physician of great promise. All trust that his present invalidism may be temporary and that years of success lie before him.
Dr. Geo. L. Johnson also graduated in 1901 from the Baltimore Medical College, and is much in evidence.
Dr. Wm. A. McMurtrie graduated from Cornell in 1904, was of Orange Memorial Hospital for two years, made a good impression here and is succeeding well in his new field at Mendham.
Dr. John Birckhead, the new-comer, is well spoken of by competent critics.
Dr. H. B. Andrew has removed his office to Newark, and Dr. Mosier, and several of the "osteopathic" fraternity, have offices in Morristown.
Agreeably with the new dispensation, skillful specialists have become immediately available to us. Among these were or are Dr. Fayette Smith for the throat, Dr. Leonard Corning for neurosis, Drs. L. L. Mial and Blair Sutphen for eye, ear, nose and throat affections.
Of all that has happened in "Medical Morristown" since 1870, nothing excels in importance in our view, the organization, on the 27th of April, 1901, of the "Morristown Medical Club" with no officers save its faithful secretary, Dr. Clifford Mills and no property save its book of minutes. This Club is the child and fledgeling of our honored and beloved host, under whose roof-tree this last as well as the first meeting is and was convened.
Inasmuch as this Club has dissipated prejudice, fostered fraternity, encouraged co-operation, promoted sociability and spread light among its members, what do we not all owe to its founder and father, for whom the writer, acting inspiredly, in the name of this whole membership, bespeaks the full rewards that come to the brave man, the valued citizen and the accomplished physician!
FREDERICK WOOSTER OWEN, M. D., Washington, D. C. 1867; Paris, France, 1869.