COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE 
 HEALTH SCIENCES STANDARD 
 
 HX641 05245 
 R285 .St4 The history of medic 
 
 THE 
 
 RECAP 
 
 HISTOEY or MEDICIIE 
 
 AND 
 
 MEDICAL MEN 
 
 OF 
 
 c.iVM:DE:N ooxjisrTY, 
 
 NEW JERSEY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JNO. R. STEVENSON, A. M., M. D 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 L. J. RICHARDS & CO 
 
 1886. 
 
Columbia WiniUt^itf 
 CoUcse of ^fjpsiicianfi anb ^urgeong 
 
 3aef erence Xibrar j> 
 
THE . 
 
 
 HISTOKY OF MEDICINE 
 
 AND 
 
 MEDICAL MEN 
 
 OF 
 
 C^MDEIsT COXJISTTY, 
 
 NEW JERSEY. 
 
 "At the annual meeting of the Camden County Medical Society, held at Gloucester City on 
 May 11, 1886, on motion it was Resolved, that Dr. John R. Stevenson, of Haddonfield, be appointed 
 a Committee of one to prepare a History of Medicine and Medical Men in Camden County and 
 report the same at the next semi-annual meeting in November." 
 
 Two hundred years ago, in 1686, seven 
 years after the first settlement in what is now 
 Camden County, there was not a medical 
 man in it. The few settlers were located 
 along the shore of the Delaware River, and 
 on Coopers, Newton and Little Timber 
 Creeks, where the water formed the only 
 means of easy communication with each other. 
 There were no roads, no bridges to cross the 
 streams, and the trail of the Indian was the 
 only route through the wilderness. A few 
 medicinal herbs brought from home had 
 been transplanted into the gardens. With 
 the virtues of these they were familiar. The 
 new country abounded in native plants, 
 whose healing powers had been for ages 
 tested by the aborigines, and u knowledge of 
 
 whose properties they conveyed to their white 
 neighbors. Each autumn the careful house- 
 wife collected the horehound, boneset, penny- 
 royal, sassafras and other herbs to dry for 
 future use. This custom is still pursued in 
 the remote parts of the county, and to-day a 
 visit to the garrets of many farm-houses will 
 reveal the bunches of dried herbs, a knowl- 
 edge of whose merits has been handed down 
 from generation to generation, — a knowledge 
 that has spread beyond its neighborhood, and 
 has been incorporated in our Pharmacopoeias 
 and Dispensatories. 
 
 In each settlement there was some elderly 
 matron of superior skill and experience in 
 midwifery who kindly volunteered her ser- 
 vice in presiding at the birth of a new cx)lonist. 
 
in the bark canoe around bv the water-way, 
 or seated on a pillion strapped behind the 
 saddle of the patient's messenger, riding double 
 through the woods, this obstetrician would be 
 conveyed from her own home to that of her 
 suifering neighbor. When a wound was 
 received or a bone broken, there was no 
 surgeon to dress the former or set the latter- 
 The wound, bound up as best it might be, 
 was left for the cool water of the brook or 
 spring to allay the pain and inflammation. The 
 broken bone was placed at rest in that posi- 
 tion least painful to the patient, to await the 
 process of nature to make an indiflFerent cure. 
 As soon as Philadelphia had grown suflficient- 
 ly to attract physicians, one was called from 
 there to attend important cases of surgical 
 injuries, and as highways were opened and 
 the settlers increased in wealth, the most 
 thriving of them would send for the city 
 doctor in other serious illness. This practice 
 has continued even to our time. 
 
 AN OLD-TIME DOCTOR. 
 
 Such were the primitive means and 
 methods of medication in Camden County at 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 when John Estaugh, arriving from England, 
 married, in 1702, Elizabeth Haddou, the 
 founder of Haddonlield. Although not a 
 physician, he " had some skill in chemistry 
 and medicine," and made himself useful in 
 his neighborhood, especially by his attend- 
 ance upon the poor. His first residence 
 was upon the south side of Coopers Creek, 
 about four miles from Camden, but in 1713 
 
 he removed to the vicinity of Haddonfield, 
 where he died in 1742. 
 
 The permission to practice medicine was a 
 prerogative that belonged to the crown, under 
 English law, and when a charter was granted 
 in 1664, to the Duke of York for the prov- 
 ince of New Jersey, this prerogative, im- 
 plied or expressed, was granted to him and to 
 his successors in the persons of the Gover- 
 nors. On March 5, 1706, Governor Richard 
 Ingolsby, at Burlington, issued the following 
 license: "To Richard Smith, Gentleman, 
 greeting ; Being well informed of your knowl- 
 edge, skill and judgment in the practice of 
 chirurgery and phesig, T do hereby license and 
 authorize you to practice the said sciences of 
 chirurgery and phesig within this her Majes- 
 ty s province of New Jersey, for and during 
 pleasure." On May 24, 1706, a similar 
 license was granted to Nathaniel Wade. ' 
 In 1772 the New Jersey State Medical 
 Society procured the passage of an act, limit- 
 ed to five years, which provided that all 
 applicants to practice medicine in the State 
 shall be examined by two judges of the 
 Supreme Court (they calling to their assistance 
 any skilled physician or surgeon), to whom 
 they may issue a certificate. This law was 
 re-enacted in 1784, and continued in force 
 luitil 1816, when a new charter granted to 
 the State society transferred the power of 
 licensure to it. 
 
 The first record of a physician in the 
 county is in the "Town-Book" of Newton 
 township, among the minutes of a meeting 
 held on September 29, 1731. The record 
 says, — "and to pay themselves ye sum of 
 four pounds twelve shillings and two pence 
 being due to them from the township upon 
 acct. of the poor, and to pay Doctr. Kei'say 
 for administg physic to sd. Hart. " Tlie 
 person referred to here was one of the Drs. 
 Kearsley, of Philadelphia. The elder. Dr. 
 John Kearsley, was a native of England, and 
 
 1 Hon. John Clement's MSS. 
 
came to this country in 1711. He was the 
 third physician to settle and practice medi- 
 cine in Philadelphia, and was a prominent 
 and able man, both as a practitioner and a 
 citizen. He was a member of the Colonial 
 Assembly and a popular orator. He died in 
 1732. There was a younger Dr. Kearsley, 
 a nephew of the first-named, who succeeded 
 to his uncle's practice. He espoused the 
 cause of the proprietors and ci'own against 
 the rights of colonists, a proceeding that 
 made him very unpopular, and caused him to 
 be subjected to such gross indignities as to 
 induce chronic insanity. As Newton town- 
 ship then embraced the territory bordering 
 on the river-shore opposite to Philadelphia, 
 it is probable that the practice of both these 
 physicians extended across the river into this 
 county. 
 
 The next notice of a physician in Camden 
 County is to be found in the '^ Registry of 
 Wills," at Trenton. Under the date of 1 748 
 is recorded the will of " John Craig, Doctor 
 of Physick, of Haddonfield." He evidently 
 had practiced medicine there, but whence he 
 came or how long he lived there cannot now 
 b€S ascertained. There is no positive record 
 of what were the prevalent diseases in early 
 times in Camden County. Small-pox pre- 
 vailed occasionally, and, after the discovery 
 of inoculation in 1721, was combated by 
 that method of treatment. Inflammatory 
 diseases were common among a population 
 exposed to the vicissitudes of an unaccus- 
 tomed climate. Dysentery occurred in July 
 and August. Although all the houses in 
 early days were built on the streams, there is 
 circumstantial evidence to show that malarial 
 fevers were at first infrec^uent ; nor did they 
 become prevalent until considerable extent 
 of forest had been cleared away, and the 
 soil of much new ground upturned by the 
 plough. The first information on this sub- 
 ject from a professional soun^e is furnished 
 by Peter Kalm, a professor in the University 
 of Arbo, in Sweden, who, by order of the 
 
 Swedish government, visited, among other 
 places, Gloucester County between 1747 and 
 1749. At Raccoon (Swedesboro') he found 
 that fever and ague was more common than 
 other diseases. It showed the same charac- 
 teristics as are found to-day. It was quotid- 
 ian, tertian and quartan, and prevailed in 
 autumn and winter, and in low places more 
 than in high ones ; some years it was preva- 
 lent throughout the county (Camden County 
 was then included in it), while in others 
 there would be but very few cases. The 
 remedies then employed to overcome it were 
 Jesuit's (Peruvian) bark, bark of the yellow 
 poplar and root of the dog-wood. Pleurisy 
 was also very common, and was fatal with 
 old people. Under this name were classed 
 many cases of pneumonia, a disease not then 
 well understood. 
 
 In 1771 Kesiah Tonkins, widow of Joseph, 
 who died in 1765, lived on a farm between 
 Camden and Gloucester City, known as the 
 " Mickle estate." Between that date and 
 1776 she married Dr. Benjamin Vanleer, 
 who lived with her on this place. She was 
 the daughter of Joseph Ellis, of Newton 
 township. It is supposed that Dr. Vanleer 
 practiced in the surrounding country, as he 
 took an active part in the affairs of the peo- 
 ple, being one of a " Committee of Corre- 
 spondence " for Gloucester County in the year 
 1775, in relation to the troubles between 
 the colonies and the mother government. 
 He was a man of fashion, dressed in the 
 Continental style, with knee-breeches, and 
 was proud of his " handsome leg." He did 
 not remain long in New Jersey. A Dr. 
 Benjamin Vanleer residing, in 1783, on 
 AVater Street, between Race and Vine, Phil- 
 adelphia, is supposed to be the same person. 
 
 Although this history is confined to that 
 portion of Gloucester which is now Camden 
 C'ounty, yet Dr. Thomas Hendry, of Wood- 
 bury, ought to be classed among its physi- 
 cians, because his field of practice included 
 this section, and for the reason that his de- 
 
scendauts became practitioners in it. He 
 was born in 1747, in Burlington County, of 
 English parentage, his mother's name being 
 Bowman, from whom her son received his 
 surname. He served in the Revolutionary 
 War, being commissioned superintendent of 
 hospital April 3, 1777; surgeon Third Bat- 
 talion, Gloucester. " Testimonials from Gen- 
 eral Dickinson and General Heard, certifying 
 that Dr. Hendry had served as a surgeon to 
 a brigade of militia, that he had acted as a 
 director and superintendent of a hospital, and 
 recommending that he should be allowed a 
 compensation adequate to such extraordinary 
 services, was read and referred to the hon'- 
 ble Congress." He took an active part in 
 political affairs, and was once clerk of the 
 county. He died September 12, 1822. 
 
 The next physician in Camden County 
 was Dr. Benjamin H. Tallman, who prac- 
 ticed in Haddonfield. He probably located 
 there about 1786, the year in which he was 
 licensed to practice in New Jersey. From 
 the year 1788 to 1793 he was the township 
 physician, as it appears that in each of those 
 years he was paid by it for his services in 
 attending the poor. He was elected a mem- 
 ber of the Friendship Fire Company of 
 Haddonfield, September 6, 1792. On 
 October 4, 1791, he read a paper before the 
 College of Physicians of Philadelphia, on 
 the sudden effects of an effusion of cold 
 water in a case of tetanus. He died about 
 1796. 
 
 Cotemporary with the above-named phy- 
 sician was Dr. Evan Clement. He was the 
 son of Samuel Clement, who married Beulah 
 Evans in 1758. They had two children, 
 Samuel and Evan.^ The latter was born in 
 Haddonfield, but the exact date is not known, 
 neither is there any record of when or where 
 he studied medicine. He married, April 8, 
 1795, Anna, daughter of James and Eliza- 
 beth Wills, and lived in the brick house at 
 
 1 Hon. John Clement' s M^. 
 
 the corner of Main and Ellis Streets, re- 
 cently purchased and taken down by Alfred 
 W. Clement. Dr. Clement was in practice 
 there in 1794, and died in 1798. He was 
 the first native of the county to adopt the 
 profession of medicine and practice it in his 
 native place. 
 
 It is a noteworthy circumstance that for a 
 hundred years after the settlement of the 
 county no one born in it had studied medi- 
 cine. The poorer classes were unable to 
 procure the means for acquiring the requisite 
 education, while the wealthier ones altogether 
 neglected it. It is true that prior to the found- 
 ing of the University of Pennsyl van ia, i n 1 7 6 5, 
 the only means of obtaining a knowledge of 
 medicine was either to pursue a course ol 
 study under some competent physician, where 
 the student was apt to be considered half a 
 servant, or else by attendance at a medical 
 school in England. The prospects of pro- 
 fessional or pecuniary success in the county 
 were not flattering. But in addition to this, 
 there was a sentiment in this community 
 unfriendly to the medical profession as a 
 calling. In sickness the ministrations of 
 friends and relatives, with their teas and 
 potions, and the quack remedies of popular 
 charlatans, who flourished then as well as 
 now, were deemed sufficient. If, after this 
 medication, the patient died, it was attributed 
 to a " wise dispensation of Providence." The 
 midwives were considered to be adequate to 
 manage obstetrical cases. There still lingered 
 among the people the tradition of their 
 English ancestors, that the red and white 
 striped pole was the sign of the combined 
 office of barber and surgeon. These preju- 
 dices found expression in two diametrically 
 opposite opinions. The stout, robust farmer 
 and the active and alert merchant and me- 
 chanic looked with contempt upon a youth 
 who had aspirations for the life of a physi- 
 cian as one who was too lazy to work. The 
 women, whose remembrances of the midnight 
 ride of the doctor through rains and snow 
 
and chilliDg winds, thought the liardships 
 and exposure too great for their brothers and 
 sons. These prejudices passed away but 
 slowly. 
 
 Dr. John Blackwood, who began his pro- 
 fessional career in Haddonfield, became the 
 successor of Dr. Evan Clement, not only by 
 succeeding to his practice, but by marrying 
 his widow in 1799. He was the sou of 
 Joseph and Rebecca Blackwood, and was 
 born at Blackwoodtown, July 28, 1772. His 
 wife was a member of Friends' Meeting, but 
 was disowned for marrying out of it. Dr. 
 Blackwood remained but a short time in 
 Haddonfield. He removed to Mount Holly, 
 where he became prominent in public affairs, 
 serving at one time as postmaster and also as 
 judge of the Court of Common Pleas and 
 Orphans' Court of Burlington County.^ He 
 died in Mount Holly March 16, 1840. 
 
 Up to the close of the eighteenth century 
 Haddonfield may be considered as having 
 been the medical centre of the territory of 
 Camden County. It was not only the oldest 
 town in it, but it was the third oldest in the 
 State. All the physicians who had practiced 
 within the limits of the county had either 
 lived in Haddonfield or Newton township, 
 of which it was the seat of authority. For 
 nearly half a century later it still retained 
 its pre-eminence, until the growth of Cam- 
 den, and its becoming the seat of justice for 
 the county, transferred the supremacy to the 
 latter. 
 
 In more recent times Haddonfield has had 
 the doubtful honor of being the seat of one 
 of the notorious John Buchanan's (of Phila- 
 delphia) bogus medical colleges. Between 
 1870 and 1880 the doctor owned a farm on 
 the Clement's Bridge road, about four miles 
 from the place, upon which he spent a por- 
 tion of his time. During this period diplo- 
 mas of the mythical " University of Medi- 
 cine and Surgery of Haddonfield, N. J.," 
 
 IS. Wickes' History of Medicine in New Jersey. 
 
 were offered for sale by his agents in Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 The period now being considered was a 
 transition one for the nation, which was then 
 being developed from the former colonies, 
 through a confederation of independent 
 States, into a great empire. The science and 
 practice of medicine here participated in this 
 change. At this time there appeared in 
 Camden County a physician, who was des- 
 tined to be its Hippocrates for forty years, 
 and whose memory, though dead for half a 
 century, is still preserved green in the farm- 
 houses and hamlets of this county. This 
 was Dr. Bowman Hendry, son of Dr. Thos. 
 Hendry, of Woodbury. 
 
 Dr. Bowman Hendry was born October 1, 
 1773. He was educated at the Woodbury 
 Academy, pursuing his studies under a Mr. 
 Hunter, a classical scholar and a man of 
 high literary attainments. At the age of 
 seventeen he commenced the study of medi- 
 cine, under the preceptorship of his father, 
 and then attended lectures at the University 
 of Pennsylvania, residing, as a pupil, in the 
 house of Dr, Duffield. When about twenty 
 years of age, and still a student, the Whiskey 
 Insurrection broke out in Pennsylvania, and 
 troops being called out for its suppression, 
 young Hendry joined the ranks as a private 
 soldier, and marched with them to Lancas- 
 ter. The influence of his father, with Pj'o- 
 fessor James, the surgeon of the troops, se- 
 cured his release from the ranks, a prema- 
 ture examination at the University, which he 
 successfully passed, and his appointment as 
 assistant surgeon of the troops. This was a 
 bloodless war, and soon ended. Dr. Hendry 
 now began to look around for a field for 
 practice, finally selecting Haddonfield. He 
 began his active life as a physician in 1794, 
 and upon the death of Doctors Tall man and 
 Clement, and the removal of Dr. Blackwood 
 to Mount Holly, he became the only doctor 
 in the place. His practice now increased 
 very rapidly, and stretched over a large ex- 
 
6 
 
 tent of territory, extending from the Dela- 
 ware River to the sea-shore, a distance of 
 sixty miles. He was a man of indefatigable 
 industry and indomitable perseverance in the 
 pursuit of his calling. Kind-hearted and gen- 
 erous, he possessed that suaviter in re which 
 won the affection of his patrons. Many are 
 the anecdotes that are recorded of him. 
 
 For fifteen years he made his visits on 
 horseback, having no carriage. At length 
 he procured at a vendue an old sulky, which 
 was only an ordinary chair placed upon 
 wooden springs, without a top to protect him 
 from the sun or rain. The price paid for the 
 vehicle and harness was thirty dollars. An 
 old " Friend " witnessing this extravagance, 
 remarked, " Doctor, I fear thee is too fast in 
 making this purchase. Thee will not be 
 able to stand it, and make thy income meet 
 thy expenses." This gives us an idea of the 
 life of a physician in those days, and of the 
 value of his services in the public estima- 
 tion. In his journeys through the " Pines " 
 on the Atlantic slope he would sometimes 
 become lost at night, and be compelled to 
 sleep in the woods, tying his horse to a tree. 
 He was always prompt to answer every call, 
 no matter whether the patient was rich or 
 poor, and being a furious driver, he had been 
 known, in cases of emergency, to break down 
 a good horse in his hurry to quickly reach 
 the bedside, and that, too, in a case where he 
 knew that he would not receive any pay for 
 his services. It has been estimated that, in 
 the course of forty years, he wore out over 
 two hundred horses. He risked his life and 
 gave his services in all cases. A family of 
 negroes, living seven miles from Haddon- 
 tield, were attended by him for typhus fever, 
 and, although warned that they were vaga- 
 bonds, thieves and utterly worthless, yet he 
 not only continued his visits, but gave them 
 medicine and sent them provisions from a 
 neighboring store. 
 
 Notwithstanding the arduous duties of 
 such an extensive private practice, Dr. Hen- 
 
 dry found time to attend to public duties. 
 For many years he had charge of the Glou- 
 cester County Almshouse. He served as 
 surgeon of Captain J. B. Cooper's volunteer 
 cavalry in 1805, formed from the young men 
 of Haddonfield and Woodbury. He took 
 an active part in religious affairs. He was a 
 member and vestryman of St. Mary's Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church, Colestown, until 
 its congregation was drawn away from it by 
 the building of new churches in the growing 
 towns of Moorestown and Camden. Dr. 
 Hendry was one of the originators of St. 
 Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church in Cam- 
 den, and was chairman of the first meeting 
 held in the city hall, in that city, March 12, 
 1830, whereat the organization of this church 
 was completed. At this meeting he was 
 elected one of its vestrymen. 
 
 Dr. Hendry was a physician of great abil- 
 ity, and one who kept pace with the growth 
 of knowledge in his profession. He stood 
 pre-eminent in this county, both as a physi- 
 cian and surgeon, and his services as a con- 
 sultant were in frequent request. He pos- 
 sessed those magnetic personal attributes 
 which endeared him to the people to such an 
 extent, that when his barn, horses and equip- 
 ments were destroyed by an incendiary fire, 
 they raised a subscription for him and 
 quickly rebuilt the building and replaced the 
 destroyed personal property. With these he 
 combined the sterling qualities of the true 
 physician. No doctor in this county has 
 done more to elevate the practice of medicine 
 from a trade to a profession. By his exam- 
 ple he taught this community that there was 
 attached to it a philanthropy and a benevo- 
 lence that widely separates it from other oc- 
 cupations, and, by dying a poor man, when 
 so many opportunities offered to secure gain, 
 he illustrated the fact that the services of 
 such men cannot be measured by money. 
 
 Dr. Hendry married, June 7, 1798, Eliz- 
 abeth, daughter of Dr. Charles Dutfield, of 
 Philadelphia, and had .seven daughters and 
 
two sons, — Charles H. and Bowman Hendry, 
 both physicians in Camden County. 
 
 Cotemporary with the early portion of Dr. 
 Hendry's career, and located at C-olestown, 
 three miles distant from him, was Dr. Sam- 
 uel Bloomfield, who lived in a small hip-roof 
 frame house on the road from Haddonfield 
 to Moorestown, just north of the church. 
 This house was torn down a few years since. 
 Dr. Bloomfield, born in 1756, was the second 
 son of Dr. Moses Bloomfield, of Woodbridge, 
 N. J., and younger brother of Joseph, who 
 became Governor of New Jersey. In 1790 
 the doctor applied for admission to the State 
 Society, but did not press his application, 
 and his name was dropped. It is not known 
 how long he followed his profession here, 
 but his practice must have been limited in 
 consequence of his convivial habits, and the 
 great popularity of his competitor. He died 
 in 1806, and was buried in St. Mary's ' 
 Churchyard, now Colestown Cemetery. 
 Two of his sons who survived him fell in 
 the War of 1812. 
 
 There is no record of any physician hav- 
 ing settled in Camden prior to the nineteenth 
 century. Its proximity to Philadelphia 
 seems to have made the village dependent 
 upon its neighbor for its medical attendance. 
 It is probable that some doctor may have 
 attempted to practice there for a short time, 
 but, not succeeding, moved away, leaving no 
 trace behind him, not even as much as did a 
 Dr. Ellis, who, in 1809, had an office on 
 Market Street, above Second. The only fact 
 preserved of him is that in this year he 
 dressed the wounded forearm of a child, but 
 first bled the patient in the other arm before 
 binding up the wound, yet the child recovered. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Harris was the first physician 
 to settle permanently in Camden. As he 
 was the connecting link between the old- 
 fashioned practitioners of the la.st century and 
 the association known as the Camden County 
 
 Medical Society he is worthy of especial 
 consideration. His father was Dr. Isaac 
 Harris, born in 1741, who studied medicine 
 and practiced near <^^uibbletown, Piscataway 
 township, Middlesex County, N. J. From 
 there he removed to Pittsgrove, Salem 
 County, about 1771. Here he pursued his 
 profession successfully for many years, and 
 died in 1808. He possessed a good medical 
 library. While a resident in Middlesex he 
 was one of the pioneers in the organization 
 of the New Jersey State Medical Society, 
 being the sixth signer to the " Instruments 
 of Association," and became its president in 
 1792. In the Revolutionary War he was 
 commissioned surgeon of General New- 
 combe's brigade. His brother, Dr. Jacob 
 Harris, also a surgeon in the same army, 
 dressed the wounds of Count Donop, the 
 Hessian commander, who was defeated and 
 mortally wounded at the battle of Red Bank, 
 and who died in an adjacent farm-house." 
 Another brother. Dr. Benjamin Harris, 
 practiced and died in Pittsgrove. Dr. Isaac 
 Harris had two wives. The first Avas Mar- 
 garet Pierson, of Morris or Essex County ; 
 the second, Anna, daughter of Alexander 
 Moore, of Bridgeton, Cimiberland County. 
 By the first he had four children ; one, Isaac 
 Jr., studied medicine and practiced in Sa- 
 lem County. By the second wife he had nine 
 children, one of whom, Samuel, is now under 
 consideration. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Harris was born January 6, 
 1781. He studied medicine with his father. 
 It is said that he attended medical lectures 
 at the University of Pennsylvania, but his 
 name does not appear in the list of graduates 
 of that institution. He began the practice 
 of medicine in Philadelphia, at the northeast 
 corner of Fourth Street and Williug's Alley, 
 but indorsing for a relative, he lost all his 
 property. He then determined to settle in 
 Camden, and grow up with the place. He 
 
 1 Hon. John Clement's M.Sti. 
 
 - Wicke's History of Medicine in New Jersey. 
 
located in 1811 in the old brick building on 
 Cooper Street, above Front. While he jDrac- 
 ticed medicine in Camden he still retained 
 some of his patients in Philadelphia, and to 
 visit them was compelled to cross the river 
 in a row-boat, the only means of crossing at 
 that time. In 1825 he purchased the large 
 rough-cast house at the southeast corner of 
 Second and Cooper Streets, which had been 
 built by Edward Sharp. Here he kept his 
 office and a small stock of drugs, it being at 
 that time the only place in Camden where 
 medicine could be purchased. Dr. Harris 
 was a polished gentleman and a man of 
 ability, and had a large practice in the town 
 and in the surrounding country. He held 
 to the religious faith of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church, and was one of the founders 
 of St. Paul's Church in 1830, and was a 
 vestryman in it until his death. Dr. Harris 
 married Anna, daughter of John and Keziah 
 Kay, and granddaughter of Captain Joseph 
 Thorne, of the army of the Revolution. 
 He died November 25, 1843, and is buried 
 in Newtown Cemetery. His widow died 
 July 16, 1868. He had no children. He 
 bequeathed his estate, which was large, to his 
 adopted daughter and wife's niece, Miriam 
 Kay Clement (now wife of Dr. Charles D. 
 Maxwell, United States Navy), to niece 
 Harriet (wife of Colonel Robert M. Arm- 
 strong), to niece Anna M. (wife of Richard 
 Wells) and to niece Eliza T. (wife of Rev. 
 Thomas Ammerman). 
 
 In 1812 Dr. Francis Hover settled in 
 Camden, but remained only a short time. 
 He was a native of Salem County and 
 received his license to practice medicine June 
 4, 1794. He began his professional career 
 in his native town ; from thence he removed 
 to near Swedesboro', and then to Camden. 
 From the latter place he returned to Swedes- 
 boro'. In 1821 he changed his residence to 
 Smyrna, Kent County, Del., where he died 
 May 29, 1832.' 
 
 1 6. Wickes' History of .Medicine in New Jersey. 
 
 For a few years Dr. John A. Elkinton was 
 a co-laborer with Dr. Bowman Hendry in 
 Haddonfield. He was a native of Port 
 Elizabeth, Cumberland County, N. J., born 
 October 19, 1801, and was the son of John 
 and Rhoda Elkinton. Selecting the pro- 
 fession of medicine, he attended lectures at 
 the University of Pennsylvania, from which 
 he graduated in 1822. He commenced the 
 practice of medicine in Haddonfield, where 
 he remained until 1828. Being an energetic 
 and active man, this country place did not 
 offer a wide enough field for him, so he 
 removed to Manayunk, a suburb of Philadel- 
 phia, where he resided for a short time. 
 In the same year he moved into the city, 
 where he continued in his profession. In 
 the year 1832 he took an active part in 
 combating the epidemic of cholera. He like- 
 wise became interested in public affairs. For 
 many years he was a member of the Phila- 
 delphia Board of Health. In 1838 he was 
 the projector of the Monument Cemetery in 
 that city, and owned the ground upon which 
 it was laid out. Afterward he was elected 
 an alderman, when he gradually relinquished 
 the practice of medicine. On October 5, 
 1830, he married Ann De Lamater. He died, 
 December 15, 1853. 
 
 Dr. Edward Edwards Gough practiced 
 medicine in Tansboro' between 1826 and 
 1835. He was a native of Shropshire, Eng- 
 land, in which country he acquired some 
 knowledge of medicine. In 1824 he lived in 
 Philadelphia, and there he married his wife, 
 Elizabeth Dick. In 1826 he settled in 
 Tansboro', and commenced the practice of 
 medicine, his visits extending throughout the 
 surroundino: countrv. While living there he 
 attended medical lectures at the Jefferson 
 Medical College, but he never graduated. 
 He died in Tansboro' in 1835. His widow 
 is still living, in Indiana. 
 
 Camden County Medical Society. — 
 Between the years 1844 and A 846 the phy- 
 sicians of Camden Cbunty began to feel tlic 
 
8a 
 
 need of a closer union. Scattered as they 
 were, they but occasionally met ; sometimes 
 they would pass each other on the road ; 
 sometimes, where their practices overlapped, 
 they would meet each other at a patient's 
 house in mutual consultation.' To accom- 
 plish this desired object, a petition was drawn 
 up and signed by the legal practitioners in 
 the county for presentation to the New Jer- 
 sey State Medical Society, asking for author- 
 ity to organize a society. As the law then 
 stood, no one was legally qualified to practice 
 medicine, or capable of joining a medical so- 
 ciety in New Jersey, unless he had passed an 
 examination before a board of censors of the 
 State Society, and received a license signed by 
 the board. 
 
 In the year 1846 the State Society met at 
 New Brunswick. The petition of the phy- 
 sicians in Camden County being laid before 
 it, they issued a commission, dated May 12, 
 1846, authorizing the following legally qual- 
 ified persons to form a society, namely : Drs. 
 Jacob P. Thornton and Charles D. Hendry, 
 of Haddonfield ; Dr. James C. Risley, of 
 Berlin ; and Drs. Richard M. Cooper, Oth- 
 niel H. Taylor and Isaac S. Mulford, of 
 Camden. In accordance with this authority, 
 the above-named gentlemen, with the excep- 
 tion of Dr. Mulford, who was detained by 
 sickness, met at the hotel of Joseph C. 
 Shivers, in Haddonfield, on August 14, 
 1846, and organized a society under the 
 title of " The District Medical Society of the 
 County of Camden, in the State of New 
 Jersey." Dr. James C. Risley was elected 
 president; Dr. Othniel H. Taylor, vice-pres- 
 ident ; Dr. Richard M. Cooper, secretary, and 
 Dr. Jacob P. Thornton, treasurer. A con- 
 stitution and by-laws were adopted similar to 
 those of the State So(Mety. At this meeting 
 Drs. Thornton, Hendry, Taylor and Cooper 
 were elected delegates to the State Society. 
 A notice of the formation of the society was 
 
 iDr. R. M. Cooper's MSS., History of Camden County 
 Society. 
 
 ordered to be published in the county news- 
 papers. 
 
 Haddonfield was thus honored by having 
 the first medical society in the county organ- 
 ized within its limits. The rules of the 
 State Society directed that county societies 
 should hold their meetings at the county-seat, 
 yet Haddonfield was not the seat of justice. 
 The county of Camden had, in 1844, been 
 set off from Gloucester County, and the 
 courts of law were held in Camden, and the 
 public records kept there, but the county- 
 town had not been selected. The Legisla- 
 ture had authorized an election to decide 
 upon a permanent place for the public build- 
 ings. The people were divided upon the 
 subject. A most violent opposition had 
 sprung up in the townships against their 
 location in Camden, the majority of the 
 people of the former desiring them to be 
 built at Long-a-coming (now Berlin). It 
 was during this contest that the society or- 
 ganized, and Drs. Hendry and Risley, who 
 had charge of the petition, had inserted in 
 the commission the name of Haddonfield. 
 The second meeting, which had been left 
 subject to the call of the president, was also 
 held in Haddonfield on March 30, 1847. At 
 this meeting Dr. Mulford raised the question 
 of the legality of the place of meeting, and 
 a committee was thereupon appointed to lay 
 the matter before the State Society, who de- 
 cided that these meetings, although irregular, 
 were not illegal, as the county-seat had not 
 yet been definitely fixed) but directed that 
 hereafter the meetings should be held in Cam- 
 den. 
 
 The third meeting of the society was a 
 special one, called by the president, and was 
 held on June 15, 1847, at English's Hotel, 
 which was situated at the northeast corner of 
 Cooper and Point Streets, a building which 
 has since been torn down and dwellings 
 erected upon the site. At this time it was 
 decided to hold semi-annual meetings: the 
 animal one on the third Tuesday in June, 
 
8 b 
 
 and the serai-annual on the third Tuesday 
 in December. These were always punctually 
 held until 1852, when, upon the motion of 
 Dr. A. D. Woodruff, of Haddonfield, the 
 semi-annual meeting in December was dis-. 
 continued. On June 18, 1867, Dr. R. M. 
 Cooper, chairman of the committee on by- 
 laws, reported that the State Society having 
 changed their day of assembling from Jan- 
 uary to the third Tuesday in May, it would 
 necessitate the election of delegates to that 
 society eleven months before it met. The 
 Camden County Society then changed the 
 time of the annual meeting from June to the 
 second Tuesday in May, and this rule still 
 continues. For twenty years the semi-annual 
 meetings had been discontinued, when, in 
 May, 1873, Dr. N. B. Jennings, of Had- 
 donfield, moved that they should be resumed. 
 This was approved, and the second Tuesday 
 in November named as the time for holding 
 them. As the society increased in numbers 
 and its proceedings became more interesting, 
 the propriety of holding more frequent meet- 
 ings began to be discussed, until, in 1884, 
 Dr. E. L. B. Godfrey, of Camden, proposed 
 a third meeting, on the second Tuesday in 
 February of each year. This was adopted 
 in the succeeding year. 
 
 At this, the third stated meeting of the 
 society, in 1847, a resolution was passed that 
 caused great excitement in the city and coun- 
 ty of Camden. It read as follows : 
 
 " Resolved, That the names of all the regularly 
 licensed practitioners in Camden County be pub- 
 lished in one of the papers of the county, to- 
 gether with the twelfth section of the law incor- 
 porating the Medical Society of New Jersey." 
 
 This law imposed a fine and imprison- 
 ment upon any one practicing medicine in 
 the State without a license from the State 
 Society. The insertion of this in a county 
 paper caused the gravest anxiety among the 
 few irregular practitioners and their patrons, 
 and provoked from Dr. Lorenzo F. Fisler a 
 long communication in the Camden Demo- 
 
 ocrat. Dr. Fisler, who had been practicing 
 medicine in Camden since 1837, had not 
 joined in organizing the County Medical 
 Society, nor had he taken any part in it. He 
 was a man of more than ordinary ability, 
 active in public affairs and was at one time 
 mayor of the city. He was a writer of 
 considerable force. He took umbrage at be-, 
 ing inferential ly placed in the illegal class, 
 claiming that he had passed his examination 
 before the board of censors of Salem County 
 in 1825, and had received their certificate 
 therefor, but had never presented it to the 
 State Society for a license, and that the doc- 
 ument had been mislaid or lost. Upon this 
 the Camden County Society made inquiry of 
 Dr. Charles Hannah, of the board of censors 
 of Salem County. He replied that he had 
 been a member of every board that had ever 
 met in the county, and that Dr. Fisler had 
 never received a license from it. The latter 
 immediately went down to Port Elizabeth, 
 Cumberland County, his native place, and 
 among some old papers of his father's found 
 the missing certificate, with Dr. Hannah's 
 name among the signatures. After the dis- 
 covery of this document the society held a 
 special meeting on September 2, 1847, and 
 prepared an address to the public,. explaining 
 their reasons for falling into the error, and 
 disclaiming any unfriendly feeling towards 
 Dr. Fisler.^ Although the doctor obtained 
 the required license from the State Society, 
 he ever after held aloof from it, and never 
 joined the Camden County Medical Society, 
 In the year 1816 the New Jersey State 
 Medical Society had obtained from the State 
 a new charter, which gave them exclusive 
 jurisdiction over the medical profession in it, 
 with a power of license which alone (qualified 
 a person to legally practice medicine. In ac- 
 cordance with this enactment, the State So- 
 ciety appointed boards of censors for differ- 
 
 iDr. R. M.Cooper's MSS., History Camden County 
 Medical Society. 
 
8e 
 
 ent districts. It was tlie duty of these 
 boards to examine all applications for mem- 
 bership in the society, and also to examine 
 any one desiring a license to practice, as to 
 his professional qnalifications, and if he 
 passed successfully to issue to him a certificate. 
 No one, not even graduates of medical col- 
 leges, was exempt from this examination, un- 
 til the year 1851, when the Legislature 
 passed an amendment to the act of 1816, 
 authorizing the graduates of certain colleges, 
 which were named, to practice medicine in 
 New Jersey by merely exhibiting their 
 diplomas to the president of the State Society, 
 who thereupon was directed to give them a 
 license, which was complete upon its being- 
 recorded in the clerk's office of the county 
 wherein the recipient intended to practice, and 
 upon the payment of a fee of five dollars. Du- 
 ring the period between the organization of 
 the Camden County Medical Society and the 
 passage of this law its board of censors ex- 
 amined thirteen physicians, some of whom 
 were to practice elsewhere in New Jersey. 
 Their names were, — 
 
 Examined. Name. Location. 
 
 1848. Dr. Bowman Heudry, Camden County. 
 
 1848. Dr. A. Dickinson Woodruff, Camden County. 
 1848. Dr. Daniel M. Stout, Camden County. 
 
 1848. Dr. William Elmer, Cumberland County. 
 1848. Dr. T. Barron Potter, Cumberland County. 
 1848. Dr. Theophilus Patterson, Salem County. 
 
 1848. Dr. Edward J. Record, Camden County. 
 
 1849. Dr. Theodore Varrick, Hudson County. 
 1849. Dr. John J. Jessup, Atlantic County. 
 
 1849. Dr. John W. Snowden, Camden County. 
 
 1850. Dr. Thomas F. CuUen, Camden County. 
 1850. Dr. Sylvester Birdsell, Camden County. 
 1850. Dr. Jacob Grigg, Camden County. 
 
 Another amendment was enacted by the 
 Legislature in 1854, which permitted a grad- 
 uate of any medical college to practice medi- 
 cine in the State by merely filing his diplo- 
 ma in the clerk's office of the county in 
 which lie located. Upon the passage of this 
 law the Camden County Society required, as an 
 eligibility to membership, that the applicant 
 should procure a diploma from the State So- 
 
 ciety. This rule continued in force until 
 1866, the centennial aniversary of the latter 
 society, which had the year previous surren- 
 dered its old charter and obtained a new one 
 which relinquished all powers of licensure. 
 Since then and up to the present time any 
 physician, a resident in the county one year, 
 may apply for membership in the Camden 
 County Medical Society. His application is 
 referred to the board of censors, who report 
 at the next meeting. If he is found to be 
 of good moral character and possesses the 
 professional qualifications required by the 
 American Medical Association, he is recom- 
 mended for election. 
 
 The constitution of the society provided 
 that the officers should be elected annually. 
 It was intended to re-elect yearly those who 
 were first placed in office. Dr. Risley was 
 continued as president until a special meet- 
 ing in 1849, when his office was declared va- 
 cant in consequence of a tardiness in settling 
 his financial accounts with the society. Al- 
 though these were afterwards satisfactorily 
 adjusted, he withdrew from it, and Dr. Isaac 
 S. Mulford was elected to fill the vacancy. 
 Dr. O. H. Taylor, who was the first vice- 
 president, and Dr. R. M. Cooper, the first 
 secretary, were continued until 1850. Dr. 
 Jacob P. Thornton was the first treasurer 
 but he does not appear to have attended the 
 meetings regularly, and in 1848 Dr. Cooper 
 was elected to fill his place. At the meeting 
 held in June, 1850, Dr. Bowman Hendry 
 moved that the president and vice-president 
 be eligible for election for only two years in 
 succession and the by-laws were so amended. 
 In June, 1854, the words "two (2) years in 
 succession " were erased and " one- year " 
 substituted. This was done to open the of- 
 fices to new and younger members ; conse- 
 quently, since that date these two officials 
 have held their position for one year, a plan 
 that has proved to be satisfactory and still 
 continues. Dr. Cooper, the first secretary 
 and treasurer, held these offices until 1852, 
 
8d 
 
 when he was succeeded by Dr. Thomas F. 
 Cullen, who occupied them for two years ; 
 then Dr. Richard C. Dean filled them from 
 1855 to 1857; Dr. John V. Schenck, in 1858 ; 
 and Dr. Henry Ackley from the latter date 
 until 1861. At this time the society had be- 
 come a permanent institution. It had never 
 failed to hold a meeting at the appointed 
 time. Valuable medical and historical pa- 
 pers were accumulating and the want of a 
 suitable person who would permanently take 
 care of them was keenly felt. It was there- 
 fore determined that while under the consti- 
 tution the secretary must be elected annually, 
 it would be well to re-elect him so long as 
 he should satisfactorily perform his duties 
 and would accept the office. Dr. H. Genet 
 Taylor, a young graduate in medicine, who 
 had joined the society the year previous, was 
 elected, and has been continuously re-elected, 
 faithfully performing the duties of his office 
 for twenty-five years up to the present time. 
 During the Civil War he was absent serving 
 his country as surgeon in the Army of the 
 Potomac in the years 1862 and 1863, and in 
 1865 he was president of the society, when 
 his duties were performed by a secretary pro 
 tempore. Dr. Taylor was treasurer as well 
 as secretary until 1874, when the two offices 
 were separated and Dr. Isaac B. Mulford 
 was made treasurer. This he held until his 
 death, in 1882, when Dr. Alexander Mecray, 
 the present incumbent, was elected to fill the 
 vacancy. 
 
 In a few years after the formation of the 
 society there arose a need of collecting each 
 year the medical history of the people and 
 the hygienic condition of the county. At a 
 meeting held June 18, 1852, Dr. Edward J. 
 Record made a motion that a committee of 
 three be appointed " to report of the diseases 
 incident in the county and also interesting 
 cases that may come under their notice." 
 The committee were Drs. O. H. Taylor, A. 
 D. Woodruff and E. J. Record. At the 
 next meeting, in 1853, the name of " Stand- 
 
 ing Committee " was given to it and each 
 member was requested to transmit to the 
 chairman of it any interesting cases occurring 
 in his practice. Dr. O. H. Taylor was its 
 first chairman. The members of this com- 
 mittee were frequently changed, its number 
 remaining the same until 1875, when it 
 was increased to five members. In 1878 
 Dr. John W. Snowden was elected chair- 
 man and has been continued until now. 
 
 The Camden County Medical Society is 
 entitled to representation in the State Society 
 by delegates to the number of three at large, 
 and one additional for every ten members. 
 It also sends delegates to the American Med- 
 ical Association and to the neighboring dis- 
 trict societies in this State, 
 
 One of the most interesting proceedings of 
 the early days of the society was the ordering, 
 in 1851, of an enumeration of all the physi- 
 cians practicing in the county. The com- 
 mittee appointed for that purpose reported at 
 the meeting held June 15, 1852, that the 
 total number was twenty-seven. Of these, 
 one was a botanical, or herb doctor, who was 
 not entitled to, nor did he claim, the privi- 
 leges of an educated physician. Two were 
 homoeopaths, one of whom was a graduate of 
 a regular college, and was a licentiate under 
 the law of 1851. The remaining twenty- 
 four were graduates of accepted medical col- 
 leges, twenty-two of them holding licenses 
 from the State Society, although five had ne- 
 glected to register their names in the clerk's 
 office, in accordance with the provisions of 
 the new law. The names of all these doctors 
 have not been preserved. In the year 1872 
 another census of the county was taken by 
 direction of the society. A report made to 
 it at the annual meeting held on the 14th of 
 May, in that year, stated that the total num- 
 ber of practicing physicians was fifty-three. 
 (Jf this number, thirty-three were " regular 
 graduates, practicing as such, one regular, 
 but practicing homoeopathy at times." There 
 were thirteen professed homoeopaths and five 
 
eclectics. The regular physicians were lo- 
 cated as follows : Twenty-one in Camden 
 City, four in Haddoniield, three in Black- 
 wood, three in Gloucester City, one near 
 Waterford and one in Berlin. 
 
 The (kmden County Medical Society has 
 always taken an active interest in such pub- 
 lic affairs as legitimately came within its 
 province, and were calculated to be of bene- 
 fit to the county or State, and has never 
 failed to throw its influence in behalf of 
 whatever might conduce to the public wel- 
 fare. As early as 1854 Dr. John W. Sriow- 
 den introduced into the society a resolution 
 " that the delegates of this society are hereby 
 instructed to suggest at the next meeting of 
 the State Society the propriety of an appli- 
 cation to the next Legislature for such mod- 
 ification of the present law as shall enforce 
 the registration of all the marriages, births 
 and deaths occurring in the State." This 
 measure has since that time been acted upon 
 by the Legislature of New Jersey, and an 
 efficient system of recording these data is now 
 in operation. 
 
 The next public event that aroused the 
 society was the breaking out of the great 
 Rebellion in 1861, and the calling for troops 
 by the government. To this call the response 
 was prompt. Of the eighteen physicians 
 whose names were registered on the roll of 
 its members at the close of the Civil War, five 
 had enlisted in the service of their country : 
 Doctors Richard C. Dean and Henry Ackley 
 had entered the navy, Doctors H. Genet 
 Taylor and Bowman Hendry in the army, 
 and Dr. John R. Stevenson, in the Provost 
 Marshal General's Department, all as sur- 
 geons. The two in the navy were still on 
 its rolls, having engaged for a life-service. 
 The three wlio had been in the volunteei' 
 service all had honorable discharges. 
 
 The society keeps a careful guardianship over 
 its county interests. It having been reported, 
 in 1879, that the Board of Chosen Freehold- 
 ers had inadvertently appointed an incompe- 
 
 tent man as resident physician of the County 
 Insane Asylum, at a meeting held May 12th, 
 of that year, Dr. James M. Ridge " moved 
 the appointment of a committee to report 
 what action is, in their opinion, advisable for 
 this society to take in reference to the ap- 
 pointment." Doctors James M. Ridge, 
 Alexander Marcy, N. B. Jennings, D. Ben- 
 jamin, E. B. Woolston, D. R. Pancoast and 
 H. Genet Taylor were appointed. At the 
 next meeting of the society, held November 
 11th, of that year, the committee reported 
 that they had held a meeting upon June 4th, 
 and had appointed a sub-committee, consist- 
 ing of Doctors D. Benjamin and O. B. Gross, 
 to attend the meeting of the committee of the 
 Board of Freeholders at Blackwood, and 
 that the latter had superseded the late medi- 
 cal incumbent, and had appointed Dr. Jona 
 J. Comfort, a former member of the society, 
 as resident physician of the Insane Asylum. 
 It also recommended that a number of phy- 
 sicians, members of the society, be appointed 
 to visit the asylum, in order that it might be 
 more properly under their inspection. A 
 vote of thanks was tendered to Director Isaac 
 Nicholson, of the Board of Freeholders, and 
 to the members connected with him, for their 
 assistance in procuring the desired change. 
 Dr. Henry E. Branin, of Blackwood, at 
 present has charge of the County Asylum 
 and Almshouse. 
 
 A notable feature of the meetings of the 
 Camden County Medical Society is the social 
 gathering which accompanies them. The 
 hour of assembling was, at one time, twelve 
 o'clock, noon, but now it is eleven a.m. After 
 the business is disposed of, a collation is par- 
 taken of, at the expense of the society. It 
 is the custom to invite to tliese a number of 
 distinguished physicians from other places, 
 who have previously joined in the discussions 
 upon scientific and medical subjects, and have 
 given the members the benefit of their knowl- 
 edge and experience. The meetings have 
 always been held at hotels, where suitable ac- 
 
/ 
 
 commodations could be obtained. As was 
 previously stated, the first two were held at 
 the house of Joseph C. Shivers, in Haddon- 
 field. The next meeting was held at the 
 hotel of Israel English, at the foot of Coop- 
 er Street, and when Mr. English became the 
 landlord of the West Jersey Hotel, the so- 
 ciety followed him to it. Between 1855 and 
 1857, inclusive, they were transferred to the 
 hotel of James Elwell, at the foot of Bridge 
 Avenue. This building has been demolished, 
 and the site is now occupied by the offices of 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The 
 annual meeting of June 21, 1859, was held 
 at the hotel at Ellisburg, then kept by Stacy 
 Stockton. Returning to the West Jersey 
 Hotel, this continued to be the favorite place 
 until the retirement of Mr. English as host. 
 Mr. Samuel Archer, who then kept the old 
 house at Cooper's Point, having offered to 
 provide a suitable entertainment, and the 
 Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company 
 proffering the use of their rooms adjoining, 
 for meeting purposes, the society met there 
 from 1873 to 1880. Since then the meetings 
 have been held three times at Gloucester 
 (Buena Vista House and Thompson's Ho- 
 tel), but otherwise at the West Jersey 
 Hotel. 
 
 The expenses incurred by the society were 
 met by an assessment upon each member for 
 a pro-rata share of them, until the death of 
 Dr. R. M. Cooper, in 1874. In his will, 
 which was dated April 28, 1874, and pro- 
 bated June 4th, of the same year, was the 
 following clause, " I give and bequeath to 
 the Camden County District Medical Society, 
 of which I have been a member since its 
 commencement, the sum of three thousand 
 dollars, to be invested by the said Society in 
 the loans of the United States, the State of 
 New Jersey, or the City and County of Cam- 
 den or some other public loan, and the in- 
 terest of said sum to be used by the said So- 
 ciety in the payment of the expenses ordina- 
 rily incurred by the said Society. In case 
 
 my executors should think proper to pay 
 said legacy in any securities belonging to my 
 estate, bearing interest at their market value, 
 I do autliorize and direct them to pay said 
 legacy in such securities instead of cash." 
 To accept of this legacy, the society, at a 
 meeting held May 10, 1875, determined to 
 appoint two trustees, one for one year and 
 one for two years, who, with the treasurer, 
 should constitute a board of finance. These 
 were elected the succeeding year, and were 
 Dr. John V. Schenck for two years, Dr. 
 Thomas F. Cullen for one year, and Dr. 
 Isaac B. Mulford, treasurer. .Dr. Cooper's 
 executors set aside three one thousand dollar 
 seven per cent, bonds of the West Jersey 
 Railroad Company, which were left with, 
 and are still in the possession of, John W. 
 Wright, who is one of them, who pays the 
 interest as it becomes due. 
 
 The New Jersey State Medical Society has 
 three times met as the guests of the Camden 
 County Society. The first time in 1849, when 
 the semi-annual meeting of the former society 
 convened at Elwell's Hotel, on November 
 13th of that year. The annual meeting, in 
 January, 1864, was held in Camden, at Mor- 
 gan's Hall, on the corner of Fourth and Mar- 
 ket Streets. The reception committee were 
 Drs. R. M. Cooper, T. F. Cullen, J. V. 
 Schenck, O. H. Taylor and A. D. Woodruff. 
 They found great difficulty in finding hotel 
 accommodations for members, some of whom 
 had to go to Philadelphia to secure them. 
 The expenses incurred by the committee were 
 paid by Dr. R. M. Cooper out of his private 
 funds. 
 
 In the year 1874 Atlantic City had become 
 a favorite seaside resort, with several hotels 
 each large enough to accommodate the whole 
 State Society. There being no medical soci- 
 ety in Atlantic County, it was determined by 
 the Camden County Society to invite the 
 first-named society to hold their next annual 
 meeting there. A committee, consisting of 
 Drs. J. W. Suowden, J. V. Schenck, J. Or- 
 
lando White, I. B. Heulings, J. R. Stevenson 
 and T. F. CuUen, was appointed to make 
 preparations. The meeting was held May 
 25, 1875. It was memorable for several rea- 
 sons. It was the first time a county society 
 had ever selected a place outside of its own 
 jurisdiction to entertain its parent society. 
 The Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company 
 provided, free of expense, a special train to 
 convey delegates and invited guests both ways, 
 issuing tickets good for three days, on any 
 train. 
 
 As far as is known, this was the first 
 instance in the United States where a railroad 
 had offered such a courtesy to any body of 
 medical men. For several years a few of the 
 members had been accompanied by their 
 wives and daughters to these meetings of the 
 State Society, which hold for tw^o days. As 
 the families of physicians enjoy but few op- 
 
 portunities to join them in a holiday excur- 
 sion, it was determined by the committee to 
 offer the greatest inducements for the ladies 
 to accompany the delegates to Atlantic City. 
 Invitations were issued for them to attend 
 and to partake of a banquet, which the Cam- 
 den County Society had ordered for the eve- 
 ning, and the minutest details of the shortest 
 route to Camden and thence to the seaside 
 were furnished them. The attendance, es- 
 pecially of ladies, was larger than it had ever 
 been at any previous meeting. The State 
 Society, however, passed a resolution prohib- 
 iting any county society from providing any 
 banquet in the future, because of the burden 
 it would entail on poorer societies. The cit- 
 izens of Atlantic City did all in their power 
 to give pleasure to their guests. 
 
 Members of the Camden County Medical 
 Society since its organization, — 
 
 Date of 
 admiBsioD. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Year of 
 graduation. 
 
 College where graduated. 
 
 ■Remarks. 
 
 1846 
 
 .Jacob P. Thornton 
 
 1828 
 1839 
 1844 
 1832 
 1825 
 1822 
 1844 
 1846 
 1847 
 1828 
 1847 
 1848 
 1844 
 1848 
 1849 
 1843 
 1844 
 1848 
 1843 
 1852 
 1853 
 1854 
 1856 
 1854 
 1858 
 1860 
 1858 
 1862 
 1863 
 1861 
 1845 
 1852 
 1859 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Removed West 
 
 1846 
 
 Richard M. Cooper 
 
 Died Mav 24 1874. 
 
 1846 
 
 James C. Rislev 
 
 Died Nov 26, 1866 
 
 1846 
 
 Charles D. Hendry 
 
 Died April 29, 1869. 
 Died Sept. 5, 1869. 
 Died Feb. 17 1873. 
 
 1846 
 
 Othniel H. Taylor 
 
 1846 
 
 Isaac S. Mulford 
 
 1847 
 
 A. D. Woodruff. 
 
 Died Jan 1 881 
 
 1847 
 
 Bowman Hendry 
 
 Died June 8 1868 
 
 1847 
 
 Daniel M. Stout 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 Benj. W. Blackwood 
 
 John V. Schenck 
 
 Died Jan. 19, 1866. 
 Died Julv 25, 1882. 
 
 1848 
 
 Edward J. Record 
 
 Expelled. 
 Present member. 
 
 1849 
 
 John W. Snowden 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 1849 
 
 John J. Jessup 
 
 Died 1S52 
 
 1849 
 1850 
 
 Robt. M. Smallwood 
 
 Jacob Grigg 
 
 University of Pennsylvauia 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Pennsylvania Medical College ... 
 
 .Jefferson Medical College 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 .Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Died Feb. 8,1856. 
 Removed to Burl'n Co. 
 
 1850 
 
 Thos. F. Cullen 
 
 Died Nov. 21, 1878. 
 
 1850 
 
 Sylvester Birdsell 
 
 Died Mav 29, 1S83. 
 
 1851 
 
 Ezekial C. Chew 
 
 Removed West. 
 
 1852 
 
 B. Fullerton Miles 
 
 Removed. 
 
 1854 
 
 G. W.Bartholomew 
 
 Expelled. 
 Honorarv member. 
 
 1854 
 
 Richard C. Dean 
 
 1857 
 
 N. B. Jennings 
 
 Died April 17, 1885. 
 Died Aug. 17, 1858. 
 Died Dec. 1, 1865. 
 
 1857 
 
 W. G. Thomas 
 
 1859 
 
 Henry Ackley 
 
 1860 
 
 H. Genet Taylor 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1860 
 1863 
 
 Henry E. Branin 
 
 J. Gilbert Young 
 
 Present member. 
 Honorarv member. 
 
 1863 
 1864 
 1866 
 
 John R. Stevenson 
 
 Alex. Marcy 
 
 Joseph F. Garrison 
 
 Present member. 
 Present member. 
 Honorary member. 
 
 1866 
 1866 
 
 .Tames M. Ridge 
 
 .Jonathan J. Comfort 
 
 Present member. 
 Removed. 
 
 
 
 
8h 
 
 Date of 
 admission 
 
 Name. 
 
 Year of 
 gradnation. 
 
 College where graduated. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 1867 
 18fi7 
 
 iPeterV. Schenck 
 
 H. A. M. Smith 
 
 Alex. M. Mecrav 
 
 1860 
 1864 
 1863 
 1867 
 1866 
 1858 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 1860 
 1861 
 1859 
 1870 
 1871 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Died March 12, 1885. 
 Preseiit member 
 
 1867 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1867 
 
 iJ. Newton Achuff". 
 
 It. J. Smith 
 
 jJohn M Sullivan 
 
 Died. 
 
 1867 
 1867 
 
 Univei'sity of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Removed in 1868. 
 Removed. 
 
 1868 
 1870 
 
 !j. Orlando White 
 
 I W Hewlings 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 Honorary member. 
 
 1870 
 1871 
 
 iRandall W. Morgan 
 
 jj. W. McCuUough 
 
 John R. Hanev 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Died Oct. 20, 1884. 
 Died March 5, 1881. 
 
 1871 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1871 
 
 D. Parrish Pancoast 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1871 
 
 R. B. Okie 
 
 Removed to Penna. 
 
 1871 
 
 Isaac B. Mulford 
 
 Died Nov. 21, 1882. 
 
 1871 
 
 'Thomas Westcott 
 
 Resigned. 
 Present member. 
 
 1871 
 
 iW. H. Ireland 
 
 1867 
 1863 
 1872 
 1873 
 1875 
 1854 
 1875 
 1876 
 1861 
 1850 
 1874 
 1876 
 1876 
 1877 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 1871 
 
 ■Geo. W. Boughraan 
 
 jEdwin Tomlinson 
 
 ^C H Shivers 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1872 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1873 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1875 
 1875 
 
 'jVIaximilliau West 
 
 ■E B. Woolston. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Rem. to Atlantic City. 
 Present member. 
 
 1876 
 
 E. L. B. Godfrey 
 
 W. P. Melcher.'. 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1876 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Philadelphia College 
 
 Rem. to Burlington Co. 
 Died Oct. 30, 1885. 
 Present member. 
 
 1876 
 1876 
 
 'James A. Armstrong 
 
 Thomas G. Rowand 
 
 ■E. J. Snitcher 
 
 D. W. Blake 
 
 W. 1. Davis 
 
 1876 
 
 Chicaofo Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1876 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1877 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1877 
 
 Dowling Benjamin 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1877 
 
 !John S.Miller 
 
 Removed. 
 
 1878 
 
 !J. F.Walsh 
 
 1876 
 1844 
 1870 
 1878 
 1878 
 1866 
 1879 
 1879 
 1872 
 1870 
 1881 
 1863 
 1882 
 1882 
 1876 
 1877 
 1880 
 1880 
 1884 
 1878 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1878 
 
 Is. B. Irwin 
 
 IW. H. Iszard 
 
 Onan B. Gross 
 
 James H. Wroth 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1879 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1879 
 1879 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 Rem. to Xew Mexico. 
 
 1880 
 
 J. W. Donges 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1881 
 
 C M. Schellinger 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1881 
 
 jH. H. Davis 
 
 C. G Garrison 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1881 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Maryland 
 
 Honorary member. 
 
 1882 
 
 W. A. Hamilton 
 
 H. F. Palm 
 
 E. P. Townsend 
 
 Conrad G. Hoell 
 
 A. T. Dobson, Jr 
 
 P. W. Beale 
 
 Daniel Strock 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1883 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1883 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1884 
 1884 
 1884 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 Present member. 
 Present member. 
 
 1885 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 
 1885 
 1885 
 1886 
 
 i Joseph H. Wills 
 
 Wm. Warnock 
 
 Jesse J. Wills 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Jefferson Medical College 
 
 Present member. 
 Present member. 
 Present member. 
 
 1886 
 
 1 James A. Warasley 
 
 Present member. 
 
 
 
 
 
 PRESinENTS OF CAMDEN COVNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 .James C. Risloy, 1846-47. 
 Isaac S. Milford, 1848-51. 
 Charles D. Hendry, 1852-53. 
 A. Dickinson Woodruff, 1854. 
 .lohn W. Snowden, 1855-75. 
 Othniel H. Taylor, 1856. 
 Thomas F. Cullen, 1857. 
 Sylvester Birdsell, 1858. 
 .lohn V. Sehenck, 1859-73. 
 Bowman Hendry, 1860. 
 Uapoleon B.Jennings, 1861. 
 Henry E. Branin, 1862. 
 
 .Tames M. Kidge, 1867. 
 .Tonathan J. Comfort, 1868. 
 Alexander M. Mecray, 1869. 
 J. Orlando White, 1870. 
 Richard M. Cooper, 1871-74. 
 Isaac W. Heulings, 1872. 
 Edwin Tomlinson, 1877. 
 H. A. M. Smith, 1878. 
 D. Parish Pancoast, 1879. 
 C. H. Shivers, 1880. 
 Isaac B. Slulfurd, 1881. 
 K. L. B. Godfrey, 1882. 
 
 J. Gilbert Young, 1863. 
 John R. Stevenson, 1864. 
 H. Genet Taylor, 1865. 
 Alexander Marcy, 1866-76. 
 
 John R. Haney, 1883. 
 Dowling Benjamin, 1884. 
 E. B. Woolstou, 1885. 
 W. H. Ireland, 1886. 
 
 Diseases and theie Remedies. — There 
 is but little information concerning thedisea.'^es 
 that prevailed in Camden County prior to 
 the formation of its Medical Society. The 
 limited number of physicians who practiced 
 in it between 1 730 and 1S40 had but little 
 
9 
 
 time to write any account of their observa- 
 tions and experience, and still less opportunity 
 to publish them. It is, therefore, from 
 traditions that have been well preserved in 
 this section, compared with the accounts of 
 diseases and epidemics in other parts of this 
 and adjacent colonies, that a knowledge of 
 them can be best obtained. 
 
 There is a widespread belief that the 
 climate of this section has changed, and that 
 diseases now are very different from what 
 they were in early times. A hundred years 
 ago the old were wont to lament the change 
 and deterioration of the seasons, since the 
 days of their youth, in the same strain as their 
 descendants do now. A careful examination 
 of weather notes shows that there has been 
 no climatic variation since the early settle- 
 ment of the county. There were then, as 
 now, cycles of hot and dry summers, alter- 
 nating with cool and moist ones ; cold, bleak 
 winters with warm and wet ones. There was 
 the chilly spring and the mild autumn. With 
 the exception of a few maladies, like cholera, 
 that have been imported from countries with 
 which, in former times, there was only in- 
 frequent and slow communication, there is 
 no evidence that there are any diseases now 
 that did not occur in early days. Their 
 symptoms and courses have been greatly 
 modified by a change in the habits and cus- 
 toms of the people, and by improved medi- 
 cation and sanitation. 
 
 In colonial times the houses were nearly 
 all built of wood, a few were log, but most 
 of them were constructed of rough sawed 
 boards, with board partitions, and 'without 
 plaster. There were no carpets on the floor. 
 The only mode of heating them was by a 
 wood fire in an open fire-place, by which the 
 family sat in the Arctic cold of winter, one 
 side of the body alternately chilled and 
 warmed as it was turned to or from the 
 blazing logs. Their clothing was of ho»me- 
 spun wool ; only on ceremonial displays did 
 the well-to-do wear linen or silk shirts or 
 2 
 
 stockings. Underclothing was not worn 
 until the present century, even after cotton 
 cloth had been substituted for woolen stuffs. 
 Overcoats were a rare luxury, but a few of 
 the wealthier men possessed them. Bangups 
 they were called, made of good imported 
 cloth"; they were reserved for state occasions ; 
 they were expected to last a life-time, and 
 sometimes descended as an heirloom to the 
 son. Rubber over-shoes and clothing were 
 never dreamed of until within the present 
 generation. The only mode of traveling was 
 in the open boat or on horseback exposed to 
 the weather. 
 
 Their diet did not compare any more 
 favorably with that of modern times than 
 did their clothing. Vegetables were plentiful 
 in the summer, but there was no method of 
 preserving the perishable ones through the 
 other nine months of the year. Their bread 
 w^as made from rye, wheat having come into 
 general use only within the last fifty years. 
 The staple meats were salt pork and ham. 
 In the earlier period of the settlement this 
 was relieved by game, but as the country 
 filled up, it became scarce and had a mercan- 
 tile price ; then it was sold. Mutton was but 
 little eaten. Prior to the Revolution sheep 
 were so valuable that in old wills bequests 
 are left to daughters of a ewe-lamb and 
 feather-bed in lieu of any real estate. After 
 the embargo laid upon wool during the war 
 it became unpatriotic and disreputable to eat 
 mutton, and this sentiment continued to pro- 
 hibit its use long after the reason for it had 
 been forgotten. It was only in the winter 
 that they had fresh meat. When they wanted 
 beef they fatted the oldest and most worthless 
 cow on the farm, and when cold weather set 
 in they killed it, and after the meat had been 
 cooked to the indigestibility of leather, they 
 ate it three times a day until jiutrcfaction 
 commenced. It is not surprising that beef 
 was not considered a wholesome food. One 
 superlative article of food they possessed in 
 abundance, whose value as a substitute for 
 
10 
 
 any deficieucy in a diet is unsurpassed, but 
 which has not been appreciated by either 
 the medical profession or the laity, until 
 recently. That was milk. This was not a 
 salable commodity, and that is, perhaps, the 
 reason why it was considered to be a plebeian 
 drink. The dividing line between gentility 
 and common people was milk. To have 
 offered an invited guest at the table 
 a glass of it would have been an un- 
 pardonable offence. The family, including 
 the children, at the first table had their tea 
 and coffee ; the bound boy at the second table 
 had an unstinted supply of milk. The result 
 was that a quarter of a century afterwards 
 the bound boy owned the farm. 
 
 Alcoholic drinks were freely used. Apple- 
 whiskey was in every one's house. Imported 
 wines and brandies purchased by the wealthier 
 people were reserved for special occasions. It 
 was customary to take a drink of spirits be- 
 fore breakfast to counteract the deleterious 
 effects of fog and dampness. If a neighbor 
 was visited, or the visit returned, the de- 
 canter was set out as a mark of hospitality. 
 It was not believed that any excessive labor, 
 like haying and harvesting, could be done 
 without it. The jug was taken to the mea- 
 dow or field along with the water-bucket, and 
 when the men had cut a number of swaths 
 across the grass or grain, a halt was made to 
 take a draught of the liquor. At social 
 gatherings, at weddings, at funerals, and even 
 at child-births the flowing bowl was passed 
 around. 
 
 The contrast between these early habits 
 and customs and those of to-day is most 
 marked. Without enumerating them, it will 
 suffice to state that a temperance man in the 
 eighteenth century was one who never got 
 intoxicated ; now he is a total abstainer from 
 alcoholic beverages. Now the well-filled de- 
 canter is not only kept out of sight, but it is 
 banished from the house. One township in 
 this county has for fifteen years prohibited 
 the sale of liquor within its limits. 
 
 As might be expected, inflammatory dis- 
 eases were formerly very frequent, and their 
 symptoms violent. Pleurisy, bronchitis, 
 pneumonia and rheumatism prevailed exten- 
 sively, especially in years in which the 
 thermometric changes favored their develop- 
 ment. They were much oftener fatal than 
 they are now. Cholera-morbus, dysentery 
 and diarrhoea, which are rarely fatal now, 
 then caused the death of many. Scarlet 
 fever, measles and whooping-cough, which 
 are the bane of childhood, exhibited the same 
 infantile violence as the diseases of adult life. 
 Sickness, especially epidemics, as far back as 
 1726, are noted as having been sthenic or 
 asthenic, but there is no record of that 
 popular word typhoid, as applied to depressed 
 forms of illness, having been used in this 
 county until 1855, when Dr. T. F. Cullen 
 reported that malarious diseases had that year 
 assumed a typhoid form. These facts would 
 indicate that the changes in the mode of liv- 
 ing of the people, which had been gradually 
 improving up to the discovery of gold in 
 California in 1848, and very rapidly since 
 then, had produced a moiety of people of 
 weak constitution, who, under the surround- 
 ings of earlier days, invariably died young. 
 
 Intermittent and remittent fevers were 
 common on the Delaware slope of the county. 
 In 1798 there is a record that they were 
 prevalent on the high ground, while yellow 
 bilious fever attacked those along the river- 
 shore. In 1823 Dr. Charles F. Clarke, of 
 Woodbury, in his notes, says that bilious 
 fevers were epidemic, and so numerous were 
 the case's, that as he rode along at night, 
 farmers would keep a light burning as a 
 signal for him that there was sickness in the 
 house. The reports made to the Camden 
 County Medical Society state that malarial 
 fevers prevailed along the streams in 1848. 
 After this little is said about them until 1856, 
 when they again became frequent, and con- 
 tinued to increase until 1862, when they were 
 declared to be epidemic. Then they began 
 
11 
 
 to decline, until in 1867, and for five years 
 afterwards, they had so diminished that the 
 j)hysicians congratulated themselves that these 
 diseases were finally disappearing. In 1873 
 they reappeared, steadily increasing in num- 
 ber and severity until 1877, when they were 
 again pronounced to be epidemic ; since then 
 they have been declining, and at present 
 (1886) are quite infrequent. Professor Kalm, 
 reporting to the Swedish government in 1748, 
 concerning Gloucester (Camden included) 
 County, says fevers and agues were more 
 common than any other disease. In some 
 years they ravaged the whole county, in 
 others " scarcely a single person was taken 
 ill." 
 
 At the time that Kalm wrote, the Atlantic 
 slope of the county, called the " Pines," was 
 not inhabited, except by a few wood-chop- 
 pers. From the earliest times this section 
 has been popularly credited with great ex- 
 emption from pulmonary and miasmatic dis- 
 eases. More recently Dr. John W. Snowden, 
 wdio has practiced medicine in that section 
 for forty years, and who is the able chairman 
 of the Standing Committee and reporter of 
 the Camden County Medical Society, states 
 that he never saw a case of intermittent or 
 remittent fever originate there. He also 
 confirms its reputation for freedom from pul- 
 monary affections. 
 
 Typhoid fever was not known as a distinct 
 disease until it was investigated and de- 
 scribed by Louis, a French physician, in the 
 early part of the present century. There is 
 no doubt but that cases of it occurred here so 
 soon as the concretions from filth were suffi- 
 cient to form a nidus for its growth. The 
 milder forms of it were classed with obsti- 
 nate remittent fever, and helped to swell its 
 mortality list. In the tradition that has 
 come down to us of the dreaded and fatal 
 nervous fever, as it was called, may be found 
 a description of a severe case of typhoid fever 
 where the cerebral symptoms were promi- 
 nent. In the reports of the medical society 
 
 this disease is noted as occurring; more or less 
 throughout the county every year, although 
 in some seasons it is more frequent than in 
 others, especially in Camden. Haddonfield 
 seems to have had great immunity from it, 
 as there is no record of any case happening 
 there that was not contracted elsewhere. 
 
 Typhus fever has been an infrequent dis- 
 ease during the history of the county. 
 There was an epidemic of it in Camden in 
 1812, in which a number lost their lives, but 
 otherwise that city has beeu remarkably free 
 from it. Dr. Bowman Hendry had some 
 cases of it adjacent to the almshouse at 
 Blackwood. At this institution it is occa- 
 sionally introduced by vagrants, and in 1881 
 it became epidemic, there having been one 
 hundred and three cases and thirty-three 
 deaths from it. Dr. McCullough, one of 
 the attending physicians, fell a victim to the 
 disease. 
 
 The proximity of Camden County to the 
 port of Philadelphia has made it liable to be 
 invaded by yellow fever. There is no record 
 of its having become located within the 
 county limits, although the lower end of 
 Gloucester County, from which it was set off, 
 has been charged with having reproduced it 
 along the river-shore in 1747 and 1798. 
 There were epidemics of yellow fever in 
 Philadelphia in 1762; between the years 
 1793 and 1798 ; between 1802 and 1805 ; and 
 in the years 1819 and 1820. At these peri- 
 ods there were isolated cases contracted by 
 visits to infected districts of that city. Dur- 
 ing the epidemic of 1853 there does not ap- 
 pear to have been any deaths from it in 
 Camden County. In 1854 there was one 
 case of yellow fever in Camden in the person 
 of a sailor who, two days previous to his 
 attack, had landed from a steamer sixty hours 
 from Savannah, Ga. 
 
 The insidious and obscure diseases of the 
 kidneys observed and described by Dr. 
 Bright, of England, in 1828, and after whom 
 they are named, were not diagno.sed by phy- 
 
12 
 
 sicians until chemistry and microscopy had 
 advanced to such a state of progress as to 
 offer the only means of detecting them. The 
 first application of these sciences in Camden 
 County for this purpose was made by a mem- 
 ber of its Medical Society in 1865. Since 
 that date Bright's disease is known to be the 
 cause of a limited number of deaths here an- 
 nually. Fatal results from some formerly 
 obscure cases of dropsy are now known to be 
 caused by this disease. There are some fam- 
 ilies who have noticed that for two or three 
 generations a number of their members have 
 died of dropsy. Some of these deaths within 
 the last twenty years have been the sequelae 
 of Bright's disease. The inference is, there- 
 fore, that the dropsy of former generations 
 was produced by the same cause, and that, 
 to a limited extent, Bright's disease is heredi- 
 tary. 
 
 In 1735-36 a terrible epidemic swept over 
 the colonies, called the " throat distemper." 
 In the accounts of it that have come down to 
 us, and in the traditions of a not infrequent 
 disease called, in this county, " putrid sore 
 throat," may be discerned the modern diph- 
 theria. Under the latter name the malady 
 is but little mentioned in the records of the 
 Medical Society until 1862, when Dr. Cullen 
 reported that it had been seen occasionally 
 during the year, but that he did not believe 
 that it had ever been epidemic in Camden 
 City. Since that date it has appeared more 
 or less every year throughout the county, but 
 not to any great extent. 
 
 Small pox was a much dreaded disease in 
 colonial times. The introduction of inocula- 
 tion here, about 1750, robbed it of some of 
 its terrors, and the discovery of vaccination, 
 by Jenner, at the close of the last century, 
 made it still more harmless. Yet it still 
 lingers, and at times becomes epidemic. The 
 Camden County Medical Society reported it 
 to be so in Camden City in 1856, 1864, 1871 
 and 1880. In the latter year there were six 
 hundred and eighty-eight cases and one 
 
 hundred and thirty-four deaths from it. The 
 number of gratuitous vaccinations made to 
 check the disease was about eight thousand. 
 
 Asiatic cholera is an imported disease in- 
 digenous to Southern Asia. Its first appear- 
 ance in Camden County was in 1832. The 
 accounts of its ravages then are very meagre. 
 Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, writing in 1855, says 
 that it was not so violent as were the subse- 
 quent epidemics of 1849 and 1854, all of 
 which he witnessed. He also says that in the 
 first-named year it possessed a sthenic char- 
 acter. Among the papers of the late Dr. 
 Charles F. Clarke, of Woodbury, is one 
 stating that the people were greatly afraid of 
 it, believing it to be contagious, and that he 
 had helped to bury the bodies of the dead, 
 which the people in their terror had thrown 
 upon the river-shore. 
 
 Its second appearance was in 1849, the 
 first case occurring in Camden in the middle 
 of June. At that time the city had a popu- 
 lation of nine thousand people, many of 
 whom fled ; yet between its advent and the 
 commencement of cold weather, when it 
 ceased, there were one hundred and nineteen 
 cases and fifty deaths. In Winslow there 
 were a number of deaths from cholera, but 
 no account of them has been preserved. 
 There were also a few isolated cases in the 
 other townships. Camden was next visited 
 by this disease in 1854, when the first person 
 attacked died from it on June 25th. It did 
 not assume an epidemic form until October, 
 and ceased on November 23d. In this year 
 there were ninety-four cases and fifty-seven 
 deaths. During its continuance the Camden 
 City Medical Society held several special 
 meetings to consult about it, and the mem- 
 bers exerted themselves to the utmost to 
 check its ravages. In Haddonfield there was 
 a single case that had been contracted in 
 Camden. The susceptibility of the latter 
 city to become a cholera centre, the virulence 
 and the fatality of the scourge there, gave it a 
 reputation for unhealthfulness that seriously 
 
13 
 
 checked its growth, so that between 1849 and 
 1866 its population only increased from nine 
 thousand to eighteen thousand. 
 
 When it was reported, in 1865, that 
 cholera was approaching the United States, 
 the Camden City Medical Society, alert to the 
 dangers to be apprehended from another 
 visitation, at their stated meeting held Sep- 
 tember 7th of that year, appointed Drs. John 
 R. Stevenson, Isaac S. Mulford, Alexander 
 Marcy and Thomas F. CuUen a committee 
 to adopt measures to prevent an anticipated 
 invasion of cholera. Their final report states 
 that upon inspection they found Camden to 
 be as filthy as any city of its size in the 
 Union. The drainage was superficial and 
 imperfect; garbage and coal ashes were 
 thrown into the streets, but few of which 
 were paved ; the cesspools, shallow in depth, 
 were in many places overflowing upon the 
 ground, and pig sties had been allowed to be 
 erected in the yards of the poorer classes. 
 The committee consulted with the City 
 Council, who courteously received their sug- 
 gestions, and through their sanitary commit- 
 tee, of which John S. Lee was chairman and 
 Colonel Joseph C. Nichols the efficient execu- 
 tive officer, put in force the ordinances which 
 were plenary. Before the summer of 1866 
 they had cleansed the city and abated all 
 nuisances. In this year the first case of 
 cholera occurred on June 25th, when the 
 city authorities, having previously provided 
 a stock of disinfectants, as recommended by 
 the medical committee, virtually transferred 
 the direction of sanitary measures to the 
 latter, who investigated each case of the dis- 
 ease, and had the premises and clothing of 
 the sick promptly disinfected. There were 
 in this year thirty-nine cases of cholera and 
 thirty deaths. It did not become epidemic* 
 as it only became located in two places, in 
 both of which it was stamped out within 
 thirty-six hours. Just beyond the city limits, 
 in Newton township, there were twenty-seven 
 cases, and twenty-five deaths in a negro 
 
 hamlet. With the exception of one at 
 Winslow, there were no others in Camden 
 County. In the year 1873 there were three 
 reported instances of cholera in Camden 
 City, and in one person it proved fatal. 
 
 The experience of 1866 in Camden and 
 elsewhere demonstrated the po\ver and effi- 
 ciency of well-directed sanitary measures in 
 preventing the spread of infectious and con- 
 tagious diseases, and subsequent observation 
 confirmed it. 
 
 In the year 1880 the Legislature of New 
 Jersey passed an act creating a State Board 
 of Health of nine members, which enact- 
 ment provided that every city, town or 
 borough shall have a Board of Health of not 
 less than five nor more than seven members, 
 of which the recorder of vital statistics, one 
 city physician and the city health inspector 
 shall be members. In each township, the 
 township committee, the assessor and town- 
 ship physician compose the Board of Health. 
 Any city, borough or township which had a 
 local Board of Health at the time of the 
 passage of this act was exempt from its pro- 
 visions. Camden was one of those exempted 
 and did not accept the provisions of the 
 health law until 1885. During the years 
 1884 and 1885, Dr. O. B. Gross acted as 
 special inspector of that city for the State 
 Board of Health.- 
 
 The use of herbs as remedies has already 
 been described. Cider, although a beverage, 
 may be classed as a medicine. In former 
 times it was drank hot at night as a cure for 
 colds. The ground Jesuit's bark was mixed 
 in it to make the dose more palatable, and it 
 had the popular reputation of being "good 
 for the liver." Every large farmer had his 
 cider-mill, where he made his own cider, and 
 which he loaned for the use of his less fortu • 
 nate neiglibors. Scattered at convenient 
 points throughout the district were farmers 
 who added a still to their eider-mill, and who 
 distilled tlie cider of their friends into apple 
 whiskey on shares. At the present time there 
 
14 
 
 are only a few cider-presses, and but two 
 whiskey stills in the county. One still is 
 owned by Joshua Peacock, near Haddonfield ; 
 the other by Hugh Sharp, adjacent toMarlton. 
 An early industry was the distillation of the 
 essential oils of sassafras, pennyroyal, horse- 
 mint, winter-green, spearmint, etc., from 
 indigenous plants that were once very abun- 
 dant. Their product was sold locally for 
 use as liniments and rubefacients, and the 
 surplus sent to the Philadelphia market. 
 These oil-stills gradually fell into the hands 
 of the negroes. Between 1840 and 1850 
 one was operated in Jordantowu by a colored 
 man, Stephen Polk, and by his son Elzey. 
 The last one in the county was owned by a 
 colored man styled '*Dr. Thomas," residing 
 near Marlton. This was abandoned about 
 twenty years ago. 
 
 About the year 1822, Nathan Willets be- 
 gan the cultivation of the castor bean on the 
 farm where he resided, on the Haddonfield 
 and Clements Bridge road, two miles from 
 Haddonfield. He also prepared the oil for 
 market. He continued the business for 
 some twenty years. 
 
 Until the beginning of the present century 
 physicians made their visits on horseback 
 with a saddle-bag attached to it, in which 
 were carried their medicines and the few in- 
 struments they used. They prepared their 
 own pills and potions. Among their prep- 
 arations Avere those of mercury, a very an- 
 cient remedy, which had been always in mod- 
 erate use. Calomel came into repute in 
 1736 as an application for the throat dis- 
 temper, but mercurials were not pushed to 
 salivation until within the present century. 
 This mode of medication continued up to 
 1850. Since then mercury has fallen into 
 disuse by the medical profession, but when 
 the great increase in the consumption of offic- 
 inal and patent pills, most of which contain 
 some compound of this metal, is taken into 
 consideration, it is doubtfid if any less of it 
 is taken by the people now than formerly, 
 
 only the manner of administration has 
 changed. 
 
 Venesection began to be employed about 
 1750 and became so popular with physicians 
 that it was employed in all cases, the lancet 
 being their invariable accompaniment. Now, 
 so completely has it fallen into discredit that 
 but few of the present members of the Cam- 
 den County Medical Society have ever bled 
 a patient. 
 
 Boerhaave, elected professor at Leyden in 
 1701, announced the doctrine that all dis- 
 eases were the result of humors in the blood. 
 This was accepted by physicians everywhere, 
 who, in accordance with it, prohibited the use 
 of cold drinks in sickness, but made their 
 patients drink hot teas, keep the window 
 closed to prevent the ingress of fresh air, 
 and plied them with bed-covers to induce 
 perspiration. There are old residents here 
 who well remember the discomforts and mis- 
 ery of such treatment. 
 
 A few of the best-known old standard 
 drugs and some popular nostrums were early 
 sold by the country merchants. They are at 
 this day to be found in the stock of the 
 cross-roads stores in this section. The first 
 drug store in Camden County was opened 
 by Thomas Redman in November, 1735. 
 He was the son of Dr. Thomas Redman, of 
 Philadelphia, and was born March 31, 1714. 
 He was educated an apothecary, and, having 
 removed to Haddonfield, commenced busi- 
 ness where now stands the dwelling of the 
 late Samuel C. Smith. In addition to drugs 
 he kept other merchandise, but the former 
 was a special department, where prescriptions 
 were compounded. This business and the 
 knowledge of the preparation of medicines 
 was transmitted to his son and grandson, 
 who continued the same occupation in the 
 same place until 1846. Charles S. Braddock, 
 a graduate of the Philadelphia College of 
 Pharmacy in the class of 1851, opened the 
 first store in Haddonfield for the exclusive 
 sale of drugs in the year 1853. This is still 
 
15 
 
 continued by his son. R. Willard is the 
 proprietor of the other store in this town. 
 
 In Camden, Dr. Samuel Harris, in 1811, 
 sold some medicines from his office. Be- 
 tween the years 1812 and 1821, Freedom L. 
 Shinn kept a drug store at the northeast 
 corner of Second and Plum (Arch) Streets. 
 After that there was no place other than at 
 Dr. Harris' office where medicines could be 
 purchased until 1832, when Dr. Sickler 
 opened a drug store on Federal Street near 
 the ferry. According to charges on his 
 books, opium was worth fifty cents an ounce, 
 and seven and one-half ounces of essence of 
 peppermint eighty-seven and one-half cents. 
 He also sold paints and oils. Paint oil was 
 worth one dollar and ten cents per gallon ; 
 putty seven cents a pound, and a light of 
 glass, ten by twelve, cost seven cents. This 
 store was discontinued in 1834. In the lat- 
 ter year Drs. Joseph Kain and David Smith 
 started a store of the same kind at the north- 
 east corner of Third and Plum (Arch) 
 Streets. Early in the year 1835, Dr. Smith 
 retired and moved away. Shortly afterwards, 
 in March of the same year, James Roberts, 
 of Philadelphia, purchased the store from 
 Dr. Smith, and six months subsequently sold 
 it to Joseph C Delacour, who still continues 
 the business, but he has removed his estab- 
 lishment to the southwest corner of the same 
 streets. The medical directory for 1885 
 enumerates thirty-six druggists in Camden. 
 
 About the year 1855, Thomas Hallam 
 added a drug department to his store in 
 Gloucester City, where he compounded phy- 
 sicians' prescriptions. This was the com- 
 mencement of the apothecary business in 
 that place, in which, at present, there are five 
 pharmacies. One was opened in Merchant- 
 ville in 1881 by C. H. Jennings, and another 
 in Blackwood by Dr. J. E. Hurff in 1884. 
 
 Camden City Medical Society. — The 
 Camden City Medical Society was organized 
 in the city of Camden, June 21, 1853, by 
 Drs. L. F. Fisler, I. S. Mulford, O. H.Tay- 
 
 lor, S. Birdsell, T. F. Cullen and J. V. 
 Schenck. At this meeting a committee of 
 three, consisting of Drs. O. H. Taylor, Bird- 
 sell and Fisler, was appointed to draught a 
 suitable constitution and by-laws. This 
 meeting then adjourned to the 16th instant, 
 when a constitution and by-la ws were adopted 
 and an organization effected by the election 
 of Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, president ; Dr. L. F. 
 Fisler, vice-president ; Dr. J. V. Schenck, 
 secretary and treasurer; and a standing com- 
 mittee composed of Drs. Cooper, Birdsell and 
 Cullen. The officers are elected yearly, at 
 the annual meeting in September. 
 
 The society is in effect, although not in 
 fact, a subdivision of the County Society, 
 composed of those members of the latter who 
 practice medicine in the city of Camden. In 
 the list of its members from the organization 
 to the present time there are but seven who 
 were not members of the other society. Their 
 names are, — 
 
 'Dateof Eleo. 
 
 Where gradu- ! Rg,„^,rks. 
 
 ated. I 
 
 Lorenzo F. Fisler 'June 16, 1853 Univ. of PennajDied 1871 
 
 Jesse S. Z. Sellers Sept. 7, 1854:IUniv. of Penna.lDied 
 
 Keyuell Coates Dec. 5, 18G7iUniv. of Penua. Died 188G 
 
 D. N.Mahone (honorary). Sept. 3,186SlUniv. of Peniia. Ues'd 1SG8 
 
 Charles F. Clarke June 3.1S69;ruiv. of Peuna. Died 1875 
 
 William G. Tavlor Mar. 4, 1ST5 Jeff. 3Ied. Col. Died 1877 
 
 Charles A. Baker iMar. 2, 187o'jeff. Med. Col. Removed 
 
 It meets quarterly, in the evening, gener- 
 ally at the house of one its members, but 
 since the establishment of the Dispensary it 
 occasionally meets there. Its meetings have 
 never been discontinued, but sometimes have 
 lapsed for want of a quorum. It has a super- 
 vision over all medical matters that belong 
 exclusively to Camden City, and which are 
 not of special interest to the townships out- 
 side of it. Reports made to it of the health 
 of the city, of epidemics, of medical and other 
 cases of special importance, are brought to the 
 attention of the standing committee of the 
 County Medical Society. Therefore, the 
 transactions of the City Society, as far as re- 
 lates to disease and its treatment, have already 
 been given in the history of the former society. 
 
16 
 
 Formerly a subject of frequent discussion 
 in their meetings was the fee-bill or the rates 
 to be charged for professional visits and cases 
 of surgical injuries, it being desirable that a 
 uniform price should be fixed upon by all its 
 members for similar attendance upon the 
 sick. 
 
 The City Medical Society has always taken 
 an active interest in all public measures that 
 concerned the health or bodily welfare of the 
 citizens of Camden. In 1857, at the request 
 of the Philadelphia Board of Health, it ap- 
 pointed delegates to meet in that city with 
 those of similar societies on May ISth, for 
 conference in relation to the establishment of 
 a uniform system of quarantine laws. In 
 the succeeding year another delegation was 
 elected to attend a like convention in Balti- 
 more. 
 
 At the meeting held July 3, 1858, a com- 
 mittee composed of Drs. Mulford, O. H. 
 Taylor and Cullen was appointed to investi- 
 gate and report upon the filthy condition of 
 the hydrant water. The paper which they 
 prepared condemned the management of the 
 water -works. It was read at the next meet- 
 ing of the society, and a synopsis of it was 
 sent to the Public Ledger and to the directors 
 of the company who then controlled the 
 water supply of Camden. 
 
 In 1859 a resolution was introduced into 
 the society looking to the establishment of a 
 Dispensary in Camden. This will be more 
 fully described in the history of that institu- 
 tion. In 1865 a committee was appointed to 
 recommend measures for the prevention of 
 an invasion of the city by cholera, an account 
 of whose work is given in the sketch of 
 cholera in Camden. This committee, in ad- 
 dition to the duty assigned to it, was, at a 
 meeting held August 9, 1866, requested to 
 make inquiry as to the mode of registering 
 deaths in Philadelphia, which having been 
 done, the plan was recommended to City 
 Council, with the request that they pass a 
 similar ordinance. 
 
 At the meeting held March 4, 1876, the 
 family of the late Dr. Richard M. Cooper 
 presented his library of medical works to the 
 Camden City Medical Society. A committee 
 was appointed to prepare an appropriate place 
 for it, and to arrange a catalogue of it. The 
 Dispensary was selected as a suitable building 
 in which to deposit it. 
 
 There never had been any coroner's physi- 
 cian for Camden County. In case of sudden 
 death, where the coroner desired an investiga- 
 tion of its cause by a physician, he could call 
 upon any one convenient to the inquest. The 
 doctor's services were paid for in each indi- 
 vidual case. There having arisen some dis- 
 pute between the officials and the members of 
 the Camden County Medical Society as to 
 the value of the services rendered, a fee-bill 
 was drawn up by the society and laid before 
 the proper authorities. At the meeting held 
 December 2, 1869, Dr. Thomas F. Cullen 
 moved, '^ That members of the Camden City 
 Society refuse to make or assist at any post- 
 mortem examination as directed by the cor- 
 oner or coroners of Camden County, or by any 
 court or courts of said county, until the fee- 
 bill as already presented to the Board of 
 Chosen Freeholders, as agreed upon by this 
 society, shall be accepted and agreed upon by 
 them, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders 
 be notified by the secretary of this society of 
 the same." This resolution was adopted and 
 copies were ordered to be sent to the Board 
 of Freeholders and to the managers of the 
 Dispensary. 
 
 By this time it became apparent that the 
 growth of population, with its increasing 
 wants, demanded a physician clothed with the 
 proper authority, and sufficiently remunerated 
 to take charge of the physical interests of the 
 public departments. The society having 
 this object in view, at its meeting in March, 
 1874, adopted a motion, made by Dr. James 
 M, Ridge, that a committee should be ap- 
 pointed to " confer with the relief committee 
 of City Council upon the appointment of a 
 
17 
 
 city physician." The result of these repeated 
 efforts of the profession to arouse the atten- 
 tion of the officials to the needs of the com- 
 munity was the appointment of a county 
 physician. 
 
 The Legislature of New Jersey, by an act 
 approved April 21, 1876, created the office 
 of county physician. The laws thus enacted 
 and in force give the county physician pre- 
 cedence and authority in all coroner's cases 
 until he has given orders for a view or in- 
 quest to a coroner or justice of the peace. 
 He is obliged to assume the responsibility of 
 all coroner's work. Besides this, he furnishes 
 medical attendance and gives medicines to 
 the inmates of the county jail. His salary 
 is eight hundred dollars per annum, in lieu 
 of all fees. 
 
 Dr. Randall W. Morgan was county 
 physician from 1876 to 1881 ; Dr. Wm. H. 
 Ireland, from 1881 to 1884; and Dr. Gross, 
 the present incumbent, since the latter date. 
 
 Pexsiox Board. — In June, 1884, a 
 United States Pension Board of Examining 
 Surgeons was established in Camden. It is 
 one of three assigned to New Jersey, the 
 other two being respectively at Newark and 
 Trenton. It was composed as follows, viz.: 
 Dr. H. Genet Taylor, president ; Dr. James 
 A. Armstrong, treasurer ; Dr. Onan B. 
 Gross, secretary. Upon the change of ad- 
 ministration of the government, the board 
 was reorganized in July, 1885, by the ap- 
 pointment of Dr. James M. Ridge, president ; 
 Dr. John W. Donges, treasurer; and Dr. 
 Onan B. Gross, secretary. The board meets 
 every Wednesday at the Dispensary for the 
 purpose of examining applications for pen- 
 sions. 
 
 Camden City Dispensary. — The first 
 movement towards establishing a Dispensary 
 in Camden was made in 1859. Dr. O. H. 
 Taylor, when a young graduate in medicine, 
 had been a visiting physician for the Phila- 
 delphia Dispensary, and was impressed with 
 the usefulness and the beneficent charity of 
 
 such an institution in a young city. At the 
 meeting of the Camden City Medical Society 
 held March 3d, in that year, he brought to 
 its attention the propriety of petitioning City 
 Council for the establishment of a Dispensary. 
 This was discussed and laid over until the 
 next meeting, on June 2d, when a committee 
 of three, composed of Drs. O. H. Taylor, R. 
 M. Cooper and L. F. Fisler, was appointed 
 " to frame a memorial to the City Council of 
 Camden, in order to co-operate with the City 
 Medical Society in the establishment of a City 
 Dispensary." At the December meeting the 
 committee read a report, and after considera- 
 ble debate in regard to the encouragement 
 likely to be extended by those appealed to for 
 aid, the subject was indefinitely postponed. 
 
 After the call of President Lincoln for 
 three hundred thousand men was made, De- 
 cember 19, 1864, it became evident that 
 another conscription for troops would be en- 
 forced in Camden. A number of men formed an 
 association called " The North Ward Bounty 
 Association," to insure such of its members 
 as might be drafted against enforced mili- 
 tary duty, by paying a bounty to volunteers 
 to fill the places of those whose names might 
 be drawn from the wheel. The drawing 
 had been made in Camden, and part of its 
 quota had been filled, when the surrender of 
 Lee at Appomattox closed the war and 
 stopped recruiting. During this month the 
 members of the North Ward Bounty Associ- 
 ation held a meeting and passed a resolution 
 appropriating the sum left in the hands of 
 Thomas IMcKean, treasurer, amounting to 
 $3956.96, to charitable purposes. After 
 consultation with Dr. Taylor and other 
 members of the City Medical Society, Mr. 
 McKean determined, with the committee 
 of the association, to appropriate it toward 
 the founding of a Dispensary. He and 
 Samuel B. Garrison were selected as a com- 
 mittee to make inquiries as to the manner 
 and practicability of establishing the same. On 
 May 4, 1865, a special meeting of the Med- 
 
18 
 
 ical Society was convened for the purpose of 
 taking " action in reference to a resolution 
 passed at the last meeting of the North Ward 
 Bounty Association, devoting funds on hand 
 to the establishment of a Dispensary in the 
 City of Camden." A committee was then 
 appointed to confer with the above-named 
 gentlemen, consisting of Drs. O. H. Taylor, 
 Fisler, Cooper, Schenck and Cullen. 
 
 Subsequently a minority of the members of 
 the Bounty Fund Association became dissat- 
 isfied with the disposition that had been 
 made of the funds, and they held a meeting 
 on May 24, 1865, and passed a resolution, ad- 
 dressed to Messrs. McKean and Garrison, to 
 distribute the money among the "contributors 
 and drafted men." This action caused some 
 litigation, which was decided by the court in 
 favor of the Dispensary. At a meeting of 
 the society held in December of the same year 
 the committee on Dispensary reported that 
 negotiations were in progress for the purchase 
 of the Perseverance Hose-House, and that a 
 gentleman had purchased twelve cots, which 
 he designed presenting to the institution. At 
 the next meeting, in March, 1866, it was 
 reported that the hose-house on Third Street, 
 below Market, had been purchased, and that 
 a room was being fitted up for the meetings 
 of the society, and that A. Browning, Esq., 
 had offered his services gratuitously for pro- 
 curing a charter for a corporate body. The 
 committee w^ere instructed to organize the 
 Dispensary in conjunction with such citizens 
 as may be appointed to act with them, and 
 the plan of organization drawn up by the 
 society in 1859 was reported and accepted. 
 Subscription books were ordered to be pre- 
 pared for each member, for druggists and 
 other citizens. On March 1 7th the keys of the 
 Dispensary were handed to the society, with 
 the request that it should carry on the insti- 
 tution until a charter could be obtained from 
 the next Legislature authorizing a board of 
 mauasers. On March 21st the following 
 visiting physicians were appointed : North 
 
 Ward, Dr. H. Genet Taylor ; Middle Ward, 
 Dr. John R. Stevenson ; and South AVard, Dr. 
 A. Marcy. O. G. Taylor was elected druggist 
 and superintendent. The consulting physi- 
 cians, who were appointed at the next stated 
 meeting in June, were Drs. R. M. Cooper, L. 
 F. Fisler and Thomas F. Cullen. 
 
 The Dispensary was opened immediately 
 and managed by the medical committee until 
 the procurement of the charter, approved 
 February 5, 1867, in wdiich Drs. Isaac S. 
 Mulford, O. H. Taylor, Richard M. Cooper, 
 Lorenzo F. Fisler, Thomas F. Cullen, John 
 V. Schenck, William S. Bishop, Bowman 
 Hendry, James M. Ridge, H. Genet Taylor 
 and John R. Stevenson were named as cor- 
 porators. Under this charter an organization 
 was effected March 7, 1867, by the election 
 of Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, president ; Dr. L. F. 
 Fisler, vice-president ; Dr. J. R. Stevenson, 
 secretary ; and Dr. R. M. Cooper, treasurer. 
 On the 1 2th . of December of the same year 
 the Perseverance Hose-House was conveyed 
 to the corporation, the consideration being 
 two thousand dollars. The first annual meet- 
 ing of the corporators and contributors, as pro- 
 vided by the constitution and by-laws which 
 had been adopted the 18th of April of the year 
 previous, was held January 14, 1868, at which 
 it was reported that the net amount received 
 from the draft fund had been $3776.94, of 
 which $2128.03 had been expended, leaving 
 a balance on hand of $1648.91. Since the 
 opening of the institution the cash contri- 
 butions were one thousand one hundred and 
 twenty-seven dollars, besides donations of 
 various articles to the value of sixty dol- 
 lars. Of this there was a balance of $3.33 
 on hand. The total number of patients pre- 
 scribed for had been six hundred and eighty- 
 two, and the total number of prescriptions 
 compounded, two tliousand and twenty-three. 
 On the 21st of January the reorganization of 
 the Dispensary under the new charter took 
 place, at which Drs. Thomas F. Cullen was 
 elected president ; John V. Schenck, vice- 
 
19 
 
 president ; R. M. Cooper, secretary and treas- 
 urer. Dr. Culleu served as president until 
 1870, when Thomas A. Wilson was elected. 
 He was succeeded in 1874 by John Morgan, 
 who continued in office until his death, in 
 
 1881. The next president was Thomas Mc- 
 Keen, who died in 1884, when Dr. Alexan- 
 dei" Marcy, the present incumbent, was elected 
 to fill the vacancy. Dr. John V. Schenck 
 continued to be vice-president until his death, 
 in 1883, when Dr. Alexander Marcy became 
 vice-president, who, upon his election to be 
 president in 1884, was succeeded by the pres- 
 ent official, Maurice Browning. Upon the 
 resignation and removal from the city of the 
 secretary. Dr. John R. Stevenson, in 1867, 
 Dr. E,. M. Cooper was appointed to the va- 
 cancy, holding the combined office of secre- 
 tary and treasurer until his death, in 1874, 
 when Dr. H. Genet Taylor was elected secre- 
 tary, a position he still holds, and Joseph B. 
 Cooper became treasurer, but resigned in 
 
 1882. The present treasurer, R. H. Reeve, 
 succeeded him. O. G. Taylor, the druggist 
 and superintendent, elected March 21, 1865, 
 served continuously for nearly twenty years, 
 during which time he never made a mistake. 
 His health failing, so that he was unable to 
 perform his duties, he resigned January 10, 
 1886, and died shortly afterwards in the same 
 year. Dr. H. F. Palm now fills the post. 
 
 In the year 1868 City Council appropri- 
 ated three hundred dollars a year to the Dis- 
 pensary, in consideration of the services it 
 rendered to the poor of the city. This ap- 
 propriation continued until the year 1879, 
 when an ordinance was passed authorizing 
 its sanitary committee to divide the city into 
 three districts and make a contract with the 
 board of managers of the Dispensary to fur- 
 nish medical attendance and medicines to the 
 poor of the city for the sum of sixteen hun- 
 dred dollars per annum. This agreement 
 was ratified on June 1st of that year, and 
 the following physicians were elected by the 
 board of managers, viz.: For the First District, 
 
 Dr. O. B. Gross ; Second District, Dr. C. M^ 
 Schellinger ; Third District, Dr. M. West— 
 with a salary of two hundred dollars a year 
 for each. Prior to this time all the physi- 
 cians who had attended to the Dispensary had 
 given their services gratuitously. The younger 
 members of the society had each, in their 
 turn, filled these positions, serving until a 
 new member — usually a young graduate in 
 medicine — would relieve them from this duty. 
 These physicians had been elected by the City 
 Medical Society and were accountable to it, 
 but when the officers became salaried, then 
 their selection was transferred to the board of 
 managers of the Dispensary. This contract 
 with the city was renewed annually at the 
 same price, until 1885, when the latter opened 
 it to the lowest bidder. The board offi}red to- 
 renew it at sixteen hundred dollars, which 
 was not accepted ; consequently the election 
 of the district physicians was abandoned, and 
 the Medical Society again resumed its free 
 attendance. 
 
 When the Dispensary building was fitted 
 up, the first floor was divided into two rooms, 
 the front one being used as a pharmacy and 
 the rear one as an office in which to examine 
 patients. Meetings were also held here. 
 During the winter of 1866 and 1867 a 
 course of gratuitous medical lectures Avas de- 
 livered here to the students of Rev. T. ]M. 
 Reilly's Theological School. Dr. John R. 
 Stevenson lectured on materia medica and 
 practice of medicine, and Dr. H. Genet Tay- 
 lor on anatomy and surgery to these young 
 men, who M'ere preparing themselves for mis- 
 sionary work in the Territories. In the year 
 1884 an additional room was built in the 
 rear, to be used for holding consultations. 
 At first the second floor was filled with hos- 
 pital cots for the reception of persons who 
 might receive accidental injuries ; but as suffi- 
 cient means could not be raised to provide 
 nurses and open a culinary department, the 
 project Avas abandoned, and the beds were 
 sold in 1869. In 1868 this room was rented 
 
20 
 
 to Dr. Reynell Coates for five dollars a 
 month, who lived in it until 1877. The 
 Microscopical Society occupied it after 1878. 
 The " Board of Pension Examining Sur- 
 geons" rented it in 1885. When unoccupied 
 it is used for holding special meetings of 
 both the City and County Medical Societies. 
 Miss Elizabeth Cooper, who died in 1884, 
 left a bequest to the Dispensary of one thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 of establishing a hospital in West Jersey 
 had been for some time contemplated by 
 the brothers William D. and Dr. Richard 
 M. Cooper, descendants of William Cooper, 
 the first settler at Coopers Point, but dur- 
 ing their lifetime they had taken no active 
 steps in that direction. William D. Cooper, 
 shortly before his death, which occurred in 
 1875, expressed a wish that fifty thousand 
 dollars should be set apart from his estate 
 
 COOPER HOSPITAL. 
 
 During the year 1885 the attending physi- 
 cian had treated one thousand one hundred 
 and forty-seven medical and surgical cases, 
 and four thousand two hundred and ninety- 
 five prescriptions had been compounded. 
 The cost of this was $1335.34, which left a 
 balance of $242.80 out of receipts amounting 
 to $1578.14. 
 
 The Cooper Hospital. — The project 
 
 and used for hospital purposes. The devisees 
 of his estate, who were his sisters Sarah W. 
 and Elizabeth B. Cooper, in accordance with 
 their brother's wish, took the matter into 
 consideration, and deeming fifty thousand 
 dollars insufficient for the erection and main- 
 tenance of such an institution, generously 
 decided to contribute two hundred thousand 
 dollars for that purpose. In addition to this. 
 
21 
 
 they also, with their brother, Alexander Coo- 
 per, conveyed the plot of ground on which 
 the hospital now stands. The ground extends 
 north and south from Mickle to Benson 
 Streets and east and west from Sixth to 
 Seventh Streets, and is valued at about fifty 
 thousand dollars, making the total amount 
 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 
 accordance with the desire of the donors 
 a charter was obtained and the act of in- 
 corporation provided that the corporators 
 should constitute the board of managers, and 
 that they should have exclusive control of 
 the funds as set forth in the act, and in ac- 
 cordance therewith, the two hundred thousand 
 dollars was placed in their hands. 
 
 The act provided for the construction of 
 suitable buildings for hospital purposes on 
 the grounds above mentioned, and also con- 
 tains the following : " The object of said cor- 
 poration shall be to afford gratuitous medical 
 and surgical aid*, advice, remedies and care to 
 such invalid or needy persons as under the 
 rules and by-laws of said corporation shall be 
 entitled to the same." The board of mana- 
 gers commenced work on the erection of the 
 hospital building in the latter part of 1875, 
 but during the progress of the work many 
 improvements not at first contemplated were 
 made, so that when the structure was com- 
 pleted, in 1877, the entire cost including 
 laying out of the grounds had amounted to 
 ninety-five thousand dollars, a much larger 
 sum than was at first estimated would be 
 required. This left a balance of one hun- 
 dred and five thousand dollars for the pur- 
 pose of an endowment fund, which was 
 invested in New Jersey mortgages bearing 
 seven per cent, interest. In 1878 the legal 
 rate of interest was reduced to six per cent., 
 which materially lessened the income to be 
 used in defraying the operating expenses 
 of the hospital, and the board of mana- 
 gers, after taking into consideration the in- 
 come thus unexpectedly reduced, concluded 
 that the amount was not sufficient to main- 
 
 tain the hospital as at first projected, and 
 deemed it advisable to add the yearly income 
 to the endowment fund until a sufficient sum 
 was invested to guarantee the income neces- 
 sary to support the institution. The man- 
 agers believed that the delay in the opening 
 thus caused would result to the benefit of the 
 public in the larger accommodations which 
 the increased fund would permanently secure. 
 The sum now invested (1886) the board of 
 mana-gers consider sufficient to warrant the 
 opening of the institution. 
 
 The building is constructed of Leiperville 
 gray stone, with hollow walls lined with 
 brick, three stories high. The entire depth 
 is two hundred and twenty-four feet by an 
 average width of forty-six feet. The front, 
 or administration building, is fifty-six feet 
 by forty-six feet, and contains rooms for 
 offices, managers, physicians, matrons, apoth- 
 ecary and operating rooms, stores, etc., and 
 is connected with the hospital by a corridor 
 twenty feet by fourteen, on each side of 
 which are linen rooms for the use of the 
 hospital. 
 
 There is a male and female ward, each 
 thirty-one by seventy-seven feet, connecting 
 with sitting-rooms thirty by thirty-one feet. 
 Adjoining and connected Avith these wards, 
 are four small wards, each twelve by twenty- 
 two feet ; there are also four wards in the 
 administration building, each sixteen by 
 eighteen feet ; the cubic air space is about 
 two thousand four hundred feet, and the 
 floor space about one hundred and seventy 
 feet to each patient. The basement of the 
 hospital building contains the dining-rooms 
 and apartments for servants. Particular at- 
 tention has been paid to the sanitary arrange- 
 ments of the hospital. It is heated through- 
 out with steam, besides having open fire- 
 places in most of the wards and rooms ; 
 the ventilation is effected by means of steam 
 coils placed in two large aspirating shafts, 
 connected with which are flues opening into 
 the wards ; fresh air is supplied from aper- 
 
22 
 
 tures in the ceilings leading outside. The 
 boiler and laundry rooms are located in a 
 .separate building connected with the main 
 building by an under-ground passage. The 
 hospital will be opened at first with about 
 fifteen beds. Under the rules contemplated 
 the medical staff will consist of consulting, 
 visiting and resident physicians and surgeons. 
 The board of managers are, — President, Alex- 
 ander Cooper ; Secretary and Treasurer, John 
 W. Wright ; Peter L. Voorhees, Rodolphus 
 Bingham, Joseph B. Cooper, Augustus Reeve, 
 William B. Cooper and Richard H. Reeve.^ 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES OF PHYSICIANS 
 
 Who practiced Medicine in Camden County since the or- 
 ganization of the Camden County Medical Society 
 in 1846, who are deceased or have removed : 
 
 Isaac Skillman Mulpoed was the son 
 of Henry and Sarah Mulford, and was born 
 at Alloway's Creek, Salem County, N. J., on 
 December 31, 1799. Selecting the profes- 
 sion of medicine, he entered the office of Dr. 
 Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia, as a student 
 in 1819, and in the same year he attended 
 medical lectures at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, from which institution he grad- 
 uated in 1822. He served for one year as 
 resident physician in the Pennsylvania Hos- 
 pital and in 1823 began the practice of med- 
 icine in Camden, then a mere village, popu- 
 larly known as the " Ferry," in which, at 
 that date, Dr. Samuel Harris was the only 
 physician. His practice grew as Camden in- 
 creased in population until he became a lead- 
 ing physician, a position he retained for the 
 whole of his career of fifty years of profes- 
 sional labor. He was noted for his skill in 
 the diagnosis of disease, a faculty that seemed 
 to be intuitive with him. 
 
 Dr. Mulford was a pioneer in the organi- 
 2;ation of Camden County and City Medical 
 Societies and City Dispensary, and he served 
 as president of all of them. His keen insight 
 into the needs of the people and his accurate 
 
 1 Transactions New Jersey State Medical Society, 
 1885. 
 
 judgment and precision in all technical de- 
 tails were valuable aids in laying the firm 
 foundations upon which those superstructures 
 were erected. He attained an enviable pre- 
 eminence in the community for the honesty, 
 the firmness and the correctness of his convic- 
 tions, both in professional and secular affairs. 
 Although never an office-seeker, such was 
 the confidence of his fellow-citizens in his 
 patriotism and public spirit that, when meet- 
 ings were held upon any important civic oc- 
 casions, such as the firing upon Fort Sumter 
 at the commencement of the Rebellion, he 
 would be called upon to preside over 
 and to address them. His speeches were 
 delivered with a logical force that was 
 convincing, and with a rhetoric that rose 
 at times into eloquence. He was greatly 
 interested in the establishment of the pub- 
 lic-school system in New Jersey and his ser- 
 vices in its behalf were rewarded by the Ex- 
 ecutive of the State by an appointment after 
 its adoption as a member of the State School 
 Board of Education. He was frequently 
 elected a member of the School Board in 
 Camden. He was also one of the visitors ot 
 the State Insane Asylum. He was an occa- 
 sional lecturer upon medical and scientific 
 subjects and was also the author of a number 
 of papers upon them published in the medi- 
 cal journals. In the year 1848 he issued 
 from the press the " Civil and Political His- 
 tory of New Jersey," a work which has be- 
 come a standard book of reference. 
 
 Dr. Mulford married, in 1830, Rachel, 
 daughter of Isaac and Sarah Mickle, of 
 Gloucester (now Camden) County. Shortly 
 afterwards he joined the Society of Friends 
 and became a prominent member of the New- 
 town Meeting, of which he was an elder un- 
 til his decease. His residence was upon the 
 south side of Federal Street, between Second 
 and Third, in the building now occupied by 
 the Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Com- 
 pany. He died February 10, 1873, and is 
 buried in Newtown Cemetery. He left three 
 
23 
 
 daughters still surviving — Emmaj who mar- 
 ried Henry Palmer ; Mary, the wife of Colonel 
 James M. Scovel; and Anna, wife of Dr. 
 Richard C. Dean, United States Navy. 
 
 Benjamin Whitall Blackwood Avas a 
 descendant of John BJackwood, the founder 
 of the town of Blackwood, in this county. 
 His father, John Blackwood, who atone time 
 w"as associate judge of the Gloucester Coun- 
 ty Court, married Ann Mickle. Dr. Black- 
 wood was born January 1 6, 1 800, on a farm 
 on the north side of Newtown Creek, about 
 a mile from its mouth. He studied medicine 
 under Dr. Samuel Howell, of Woodbury, af- 
 terwards of Princeton, N. J., and graduated 
 from the University of Pennsylvania March 
 27, 1828. He began the practice of medi- 
 cine in Haddonfield in that year, but did not 
 procure his license from the New Jersey 
 State Medical Society until June 12, 1830. 
 He left Haddonfield, and for a short time 
 practiced in Philadelphia, but soon returned 
 to his former residence. He joined the Cam- 
 den County Medical Society in 1847, but re- 
 signed June 18, 1853, in consequence of his 
 affiliation with homoeopathy, w^iich was con- 
 trary to the code of ethics of the society. 
 He married Mary Ann Hopkins, of Had- 
 donfield, November 24, 1824, and died Jan- 
 uary 19, 1866. His widow survived him 
 six years. He had six children, three of 
 whom are living ; two daughters still live 
 in his residence, which he built about 1846. 
 Dr. Blackwood was a member of the Society 
 of Friends and a man of exemplary life. 
 
 Jacob P. Thornton was a native of 
 Bucks County, in Pennsylvania, and his early 
 life was spent on the farm of his parents. In 
 1828 he graduated in the Medical Depart- 
 ment of the University of Pennsylvania and 
 located in Haddonfield, N. J., in the same 
 year. He obtained considerable practice and 
 remained there until 1849. He was one of 
 the corporators of the Medical Society of 
 Camden County in 1846 and acted as the 
 first treasurer for two years. 
 
 At the meeting of the society January 16, 
 1849, he resigned his membership " on ac- 
 count of the expense attending the meetings." 
 
 He soon after removed to the State of 
 Ohio, where he is still living. His practice 
 here covered a large extent of territory and 
 in many instances with indiiferent pay. His 
 attendance on his patients was faithful and 
 conscientious, always discharging that duty 
 to the best of his ability. 
 
 He was cotemporary with Dr. Charles D. 
 Hendry and their professional intercourse was 
 always pleasant, his senior extending to him 
 the assistance and advice arising therefrom. 
 
 Charles D. Hendry^ was the descend- 
 ant of physicians on both the maternal and 
 paternal line, and if particular characteristics 
 be transmitted from father to son, then he 
 had the advantage of two generations on 
 either side to strengthen and qualify him for 
 the healing art. 
 
 He was the son of Dr. Bowman Hendry, 
 pf Haddonfield, who was a son of Dr. 
 Thomas Hendry, of Woodbury, both prac- 
 ticing and successful physicians. His mother 
 was Elizabeth Duffield, a daughter of Dr. 
 
 Charles Duffield, who was a son of Dr. 
 
 Duffield, both of Philadelphia, whose lives 
 were spent in the practice of medicine. ■ 
 
 He was born in Haddonfield May 8, 1809, 
 where his parents then resided and where 
 his father was in active practice. From his 
 earliest recollection he was fiimiliar with his 
 father's laboratory and, no doubt, often kept 
 his father busy answering questions relating 
 to the use and application of medicines. The 
 skeletons there standing had no terror for 
 him as a boy, but he then saw the anatomy 
 of the human system, of so much use to him 
 in after-years. The diagnosis of difficult 
 cases he often heard discussed when studying 
 his lessons for school, and in his youth there 
 was instilled into his mind things that he 
 found advantageous in his profession. 
 
 1 By Hon. John Clement. 
 
24 
 
 To show that his father intended he should 
 follow him, at the age of sixteen he was 
 placed in a drug store in Philadelphia, and 
 graduated in pharmacy in 1830. He then 
 took his place in the classes of the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania and won his diploma in 
 1832. 
 
 He had scarcely attained his majority be- 
 fore his father required him to ride and see 
 his patients, and kept him under his personal 
 supervision for several years. As the prac- 
 tice of medicine was at that time undergoing 
 many changes, the father differed widely 
 from the notions of the son in adopting the 
 new ideas. Many amusing anecdotes were 
 related by Dr. Charles of the the persistency 
 of Dr. Bowman for the old practice. 
 
 On several occasions when Charles was 
 sent to see patients, and had packed his rem- 
 edies in his pocket, his father would put his 
 man on. a horse with the traditional medicine- 
 chest to follow him, supposing he had for- 
 gotten the ever needful attendants of a prac- 
 titioner of the " old school." The old gentle- 
 man would often insist on certain rules being 
 followed as only conducive to success, and 
 assure his son that he would lose his cases 
 and position if he departed from them. With 
 all due respect for his experience, old theories 
 gradually passed away, and at his death 
 (April 23, 1838) Charles had succeeded to 
 the practice with advanced and popular ideas. 
 
 Following the religious views of his fam- 
 ily, he did much toward the building of an 
 Episcopal Church in Haddonfield, and was 
 elected one of the vestrymen April 20, 1843, 
 and so remained until his death. 
 
 Believing that much advantage would be 
 derived from more frequent intercourse among 
 physicians in the county, and after consider- 
 able effort on his part, the Camden County 
 Medical Society was organized August 14, 
 1846. This was mutually beneficial, and 
 soon became very popular in the profession. 
 In 1849 he was selected to represent the 
 society in the American Medical Association, 
 
 which sat at Boston, Mass., showing that his 
 standing as a practitioner was appreciated 
 among his constituents. He acted as presi- 
 dent of the county society in 1852 and 1853, 
 but in 1865 he removed to Philadelphia, 
 and in that year (June 20th) resigned his 
 membership. He practiced medicine in his 
 native town and neighborhood for about 
 thirty-three years, associated with others who 
 settled there as the increase of population 
 warranted it. In the early part of his ser- 
 vice the work was exposing and laborious, 
 presenting to him diseases in every phase 
 and under every condition. Being of an 
 affable and pleasant address, and generally 
 reaching a correct diagnosis of the case 
 before him, he soon became popular, and 
 secured the confidence of the community. 
 His care of and attention to his patients was 
 proverbial, and he seldom allowed stormy 
 weather, bad roads or dark nights to break 
 in upon this rule. His operations in surgery 
 were limited, and in difficult cases he always 
 obtained the assistance of experts. 
 
 He gave considerable attention to climatic 
 changes and miasmatic influences as control- 
 ling the health of the neighborhood, and 
 drawing the attention of his associates to 
 these important, but then little understood, 
 subjects. 
 
 Being the victim of hereditary gout, aggra- 
 vated by his frequent exposure to storms and 
 cold, his health gradually declined, and in 
 1865 he abandoned his practice and removed 
 to Philadelphia. He afterwards returned to 
 Camden, and was often consulted by those 
 who regarded his experience and skill as 
 superior to all others. He died April 25, 
 1869, and lies buried in the cemetery at 
 Colestown, beside the remains of his ances- 
 tors. 
 
 John Rowan Sickler. — There were sev- 
 eral physicians who practiced within the 
 territory of Camden County who never 
 were members of its medical society. One 
 of the most prominent of these was Dr. 
 
25 
 
 John R. Sickler. He was a native of the 
 county, having been born at Chews Land- 
 ing September 20, 1800. He was the son 
 of Christopher and Sarah Sickler. At the 
 age of eighteen he entered the office of Ben- 
 jamin B. Cooper to learn surveying and con- 
 veyancing, an occupation he followed for 
 several years. Having a natural fondness 
 for the profession of medicine, he, when 
 twenty-six years of age, entered the office of 
 Dr. McClellan, father of General Geo. B. 
 McClellan, as a student, and graduated at the 
 Jefferson Medical College March 18, 1829. 
 The next day, at his home in Chews Landing, 
 he paid his first professional visit to James 
 D. Dotterer. He continued in practice here 
 for four years, a place where, according to the 
 doctor's books, the people were remarkable for 
 being good pay. On the 25th of March, 1832, 
 he removed to Camden and opened a drug-store 
 on Federal Street, near the ferry, in which 
 he sold a general assortment of drugs, in- 
 cluding paints and oils. It was the only 
 store of the kind then in that city. Dr. 
 Sickler still retained part of his county prac- 
 tice. After living in Camden a little over 
 two years, and his health failing, he relin- 
 quished his drug business, and on April 14, 
 1834, returned to Chews Landing. On No- 
 vember 13th of the same year he moved 
 to Woodbury. Here he remained until 
 March 25,, 1836, when he located at Car- 
 penters Landing (now Mantua) where he 
 spent the remainder of his days. He took an 
 active part in public affairs. In 1825 he was 
 a justice of the peace for Gloucester township, 
 and between 1828 aud 1865 he was associate 
 judge of the Courts of Common Pleas of Glou- 
 cester County, which, up to 1844, included in 
 it Camden County. In the latter year he 
 was a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of the State. He was a member of the 
 Board of Chosen Freeholders of Gloucester 
 from 1859 to 1871. Several times he was a 
 school trustee. He was one of the building 
 committee that erected the Gloucester County 
 3 
 
 Almshouse, and was its first treasurer. Be- 
 sides attending to these official duties, he 
 joined in the State, county and district con- 
 ventions of the Democratic party, of which 
 he was a member. During all these years of 
 public life he pursued the practice of medi- 
 cine with skill and success. He took much 
 interest in the Gloucester County Medical 
 and State Medical Societies, being a member 
 of both, and at one time president of the 
 latter. In the year 1876, when seventy-six 
 years old, he retired from business. He 
 died April 11, 1886. 
 
 Myles and Martin Synott were broth- 
 ers. Their father was Irish and their mother 
 American. They were natives of Mays 
 Landing. The elder brother, Myles, was 
 born in 1806, and the younger, Martin, April 
 8, 1812. The former studied with Dr. Ja- 
 cob Fisler, who afterward married the Drs. 
 Synott's mother. He graduated at the Jef- 
 ferson Medical College in 1831 and com- 
 menced the practice of medicine in Chews 
 Landing in 1833. He remained here until 
 1841, when he removed to Glassboro', Glou- 
 cester County, where he died February 9, 
 1867. He was noted for his wit. He was 
 very strict concerning his instructions to his 
 patients, and once blistered a man's feet be- 
 cause he refused to stay in the house when 
 ordered to do so.^ He married Harriet 
 Whitney, of Glassboro', in 1843, aud left 
 three children, still living. 
 
 Dr. Martin Synott studied medicine with 
 his brother and graduated at the Jefferson 
 Medical College in 1839. He also located 
 at Chews Landing, where he practiced until 
 1845, when he removed to Blackwood, where 
 he died April 8, 1877. He was a man of 
 tact and skill in his profession. He married 
 Rebecca Jaggard, February 12, 1844. Two 
 daughters survive him. 
 
 Joseph Axdersox Stout, was the son of 
 Benjamin and Grace Stout, of Attleborough 
 
 ^ Dr. Somers' " Medical History of Atlantic County," 
 
26 
 
 (Langhorne), Bucks County, Pa., where he 
 was born in 1807. He studied medicine 
 under Dr. Boil, and graduated in New York 
 in 1831. Some time afterwards he located in 
 Long-a-Coming (now Berlin), Camden Coun- 
 ty, his practice extending to Winslow, Water- 
 ford and the surrounding country. In 1838 
 he removed to Tuckahoe, Cape May County. 
 From thence he went to Somers Point, At- 
 lantic County, succeeding Dr. Lewis S. 
 Somers, who had removed to Philadelphia. 
 While in Tuckahoe he married, in 1839, 
 Miss M. S. Godfrey, a sister of Hon. John 
 Godfrey, who, after the death of Dr. Stout, 
 married a Mr. Ogden. Dr. Stout died at 
 Somers Point April 11, 1848, and was 
 buried in Zion Churchyard, at Bargaintown. 
 He was a believer in the faith of universal 
 salvation. He left four sons, but one of 
 whom is living.^ 
 
 LoREXZO F. FiSLER was born on a farm 
 in the upper end of Cumberland County, 
 near Fislerville, on the 20th of April, 1797. 
 He was the son of Dr. Benjamin and Catha- 
 rine Fisler. He studied medicine with his 
 father, who then practiced medicine in Port 
 Elizabeth, and as early as 1815 he assisted 
 the latter in his profession. Dr. Fisler at- 
 tended lectures at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania and graduated therefrom in 1819. 
 He had two brothers, physicians, — Samuel, 
 his twin brother, and Jacob who practiced in 
 Mays Landing, Atlantic County. Dr. Lo- 
 renzo F. Fisler began his professional career 
 with his brother Benjamin in the latter place, 
 where, being a good speaker, he occasionally 
 preached in the Methodist Church. He re- 
 mained here only a short time. He removed 
 to Woodstown, in Salem County, and in 1825 
 he passed his examination before the board 
 of censors of that county. In 1832 he re- 
 turned to Port Elizabeth, and in 1836 he lo- 
 cated in Camden, his office being on Second 
 Street below Market. In this (iity he- soon 
 
 1 Dr. Somers' "Medical History of Atlantic County." 
 
 secured a good practice, at the same time 
 joining actively in- public affairs. He was 
 mayor of the city seven times. Dr. Fisler 
 was a clear and logical writer, and was the 
 author of a pamphlet history of Camden, 
 published in 1858. As a public lecturer he 
 was noted for his pleasing address and hu- 
 morous satire, and he was frequently invited 
 to deliver addresses before associations of a 
 benevolent or charitable character. He never 
 joined either the State or County Medical So- 
 cieties, but he was one of the organizers and 
 a most efficient member of the Camden City 
 Medical Society. Dr. Fisler died in Cam- 
 den, March 31, 1871. He married Anna 
 Maria, daughter of Richard Somers and 
 Rachael Risley, of Woodstown, who, with 
 five children, are still living. 
 
 William Paeham was one of the physi- 
 cians in Camden County who never joined 
 its medical society. He was born in 1803, 
 in Jerusalem, Va. He studied medicine in 
 Lexington, Ky., and began its practice in 
 Alabama. From there he went to Central 
 America and was a surgeon in a battle in 
 Yucatan. After that he returned to the 
 United States, and remained for a time in 
 Philadelphia. He then selected Tom's River, 
 in Ocean County, JST. J., as a field for 
 practice, but in 1836 he removed to Tansboro'? 
 in Camden County, from which place his 
 professional visits extended to the adjacent 
 towns of Waterford and AVinslow. In a few 
 years Dr. Parham removed to Williamstown, 
 and thence in 1846 to Blackwood. He con- 
 tinued to practice medicine here until his 
 death, which occurred April 2, 1855. He 
 married, at Barnegat, Ocean County, Febru- 
 ary 28, 1833, Juliana, daughter of Dr. 
 Bugbee, who was a native of Vermont. They 
 had no children. 
 
 George Barrows was an Englishman 
 and received his medical education in his 
 native country. With a wife and one child 
 he landed penniless in New York in 1836. 
 Accidentally meeting in that city with Sooy 
 
27 
 
 Thompson, of Pleasant Mills, Atlantic 
 County, N. J., he ^vas induced by him to 
 settle in the latter place, where he boarded 
 with Mr. Thompson until he could procure 
 a home for himself. Here he diligently ap- 
 plied himself to the practice of his profession.^ 
 Between the years 1840 and 1844 he re- 
 moved to Tansboro', in Camden County. At a 
 meeting of the Camden Coimty Medical Society 
 held December 21, 1847, a committee was ap- 
 pointed to investigate the credentials of Dr. 
 Barrows. They reported that there was on 
 file in the clerk's office a certified copy of a 
 diploma granted to him in 1836 by Dr. 
 Henry Vanderveer, president of the New 
 Jersey State Medical Society. It does not 
 appear that he ever applied for admission to 
 membership in the County Medical Society. 
 He removed to Philadelphia, where he died 
 in 1852. 
 
 Richard Matlack Cooper. — William 
 Cooper, of Coleshill, England, located land 
 at Burlington, N. J., in 1678. On June 
 12, 1682, he had surveyed to him the 
 land at Pyne, now Coopers Point, Cam- 
 den, to which he then removed. Daniel 
 Cooper, the youngest son of William, mar- 
 ried twice. By the first wife he had one 
 child, William, from whom is descended 
 the family which by inheritance and pur- 
 chase acquired a large part of what is now 
 the city of Camden, much of it still being 
 in their possession. 
 
 Of this family was Dr. Richard M. 
 Cooper, the son of Richard M. and Mary 
 Cooper, born in Camden August 30, 1816. 
 His father, who was a man of distinc- 
 tion, gave his son a liberal education. After 
 a course of study at a preparatory school 
 he entered the Department of Arts of the 
 University of Pennsylvania in 1832, and 
 graduated from it in 1836. Heat once com- 
 menced the study of medicine with Professor 
 George B.Wood, of the Medical Department 
 
 1 Dr. Somers' Medical " History of Atlantic County. " 
 
 of the same University, and after attending 
 three courses of lectures there, received from 
 it his degree of M.D. in 1839. 
 
 At this date the lower part of Camden, 
 called South Camden, was being settled by 
 negroes and poor whites. Among these Dr. 
 Cooper began the practice of his profession, 
 gratuitously dispensing necessary medicines. 
 His colleagues in the profession were Drs. 
 Samuel Harris, Isaac S. Mulford and Loren- 
 zo F. Fisler, all men of ability and exper- 
 ience, with whom he soon took an equal rank 
 as a skilful practitioner. 
 
 Dr. Cooper took an active interest in the 
 organization of the Camden County Medical 
 Society in 1846, being one of its corpora- 
 tors, its first secretary and subsequently its 
 treasurer. He was a member of its board of 
 censors from the time of their appointment, 
 in 1847, until 1851, and as such it was his 
 duty to examine into the qualifications of all 
 physicians desiring to practice medicine in 
 the district. 
 
 Professionally, Dr. Cooper appears to have 
 attained almost the station of the ideal phy- 
 sician, for he had a broad love for humanity 
 as well as an enthusiasm for the healing art. 
 " He was distinguished," says one who knew 
 him, " for that gentle and cheerful demeanor 
 in a sick-room which not only inspired faith 
 in his patient, but assuaged the pangs of 
 many an aching heart. Such was the esteem 
 in which he was held, that many seemed to 
 believe that his presence in a sick-room 
 would relieve the sufferer. His skill and 
 constant studious research in his profession, 
 however, gave him a success which inspired 
 this confidence ; and practicing, because he 
 loved to practice, gave him an experience 
 which increased his knowledge. ... A man 
 cast in such a mold would naturally find 
 pleasure in forwarding works of charity and 
 benevolence. It was so in this case." 
 
 One of Doctor Cooper's characteristics was 
 his modesty. He would not permit his name 
 to be proposed for president of the County 
 
28 
 
 Medical Society until 1871, because he was 
 unwilling to stand in the way of the promo- 
 tion of its younger members. For the same 
 reason he accepted the appointment of dele- 
 gate to the American Medical Association 
 only when its meetings were held at a dis- 
 tance, because he could spare the time occu- 
 pied, and the expense incurred in its attend- 
 ance, better than his fellow-members. In 
 1871 he read before the Society a history of 
 it from its incorporation, the MSS. of which 
 are preserved in the archives. He was fre- 
 quently chairman of the standing committee, 
 and wrote the medical reports made to the 
 New Jersey State Medical Society, which 
 were marked by a comprehensive knowledge 
 of the diseases of his native county. He be- 
 came president of the latter society in 1856. 
 " Engrossed, as Dr. Cooper was, by the on- 
 erous duties of an exacting profession, which 
 were discharged with' a fidelity, skill and self- 
 abnegation worthy of the man, he found 
 time, amid all these, to intimately acquaint 
 himself with what was passing in the busy 
 world around him. There seemed to be no 
 subject, national, state, county or municipal, 
 that escaped his notice, or that he did not ex- 
 ercise his impartial judgment in properly 
 considering and criticising. Those measures 
 which involved the vital concerns of the 
 country, when torn asunder for the time 
 by fratricidal strife, awakened his deepest 
 thought, and when drawn out, he would 
 discuss them with that unconscious ability 
 characteristic of the man. He displayed 
 the same cogent reasoning and methods of 
 thought in reaching satisfactory conclusions 
 when giving expression to his views in regard 
 to the more intimate concerns of his State. 
 Laws affecting its policy or the interests of 
 the people seldom escaped his observation, 
 or failed to provoke his favorable or ad- 
 verse criticism, and no one could listen 
 without being instructed as well as sur- 
 prised at the large fund of general infor- 
 mation always at hand to draw from in illus- 
 
 trating a point or in enforcing an argument. 
 But it was in home affairs that Dr. Cooper 
 showed his greatest interest and his thorough 
 acquaintance with everything connected with 
 the public welfare. He scrutinized with the 
 greatest care every action of the local author- 
 ities involving the city's welfare, never 
 withholding his approval where the step 
 to be taken was warranted by the city's 
 finances and demanded for the public good. 
 Dr. Cooper was never indifferent to his 
 responsibility as a citizen, and it was 
 this that led those who knew him best to 
 seek his advice and counsel when matters of 
 public interest required the mature delibera- 
 tion of one so prudent, unselfish and dis- 
 criminating." 
 
 Dr. Cooper was one of the originators of 
 the Camden City Medical Society, and was 
 a most efficient member. He was a corpor- 
 ator of the Camden City Dispensary, and its 
 treasurer from its incorporation until his 
 death. 
 
 The Cooper Hospital, described elsewhere, 
 was a project of his, in conjunction with his 
 brother, Wm. D. Cooper, which, although not 
 commenced in the lifetime of the projectors 
 was, after their decease, established and en- 
 dowed by their sisters Sarah W. and Eliza- 
 beth B. Cooper, who with their brother, 
 Alexander Cooper, also conveyed the land 
 upon which the buildings are located. 
 For many years Dr. Cooper was a sufferer 
 from hereditary gout, from the consequences 
 of which, superadded to the labors of a very 
 extensive practice, he died May 24, 1874, 
 while, for a second time, president of his 
 favorite, the Camden County Medical Society, 
 to which he bequeathed, in his will, the sum 
 of three thousand dollars, the interest of 
 which was to be used in defraying its ex- 
 penses. He M^as a member of the Society of 
 Friends, whose faith had been the religion of 
 his ancestors. He was never married. 
 
 EzEKiEL Cooper Che^v commenced the 
 study of medicine with Dr. Bowman Hendry, 
 
29 
 
 of Haddon field, and completed his education 
 at the Jefferson Medical College in 1843. He 
 was the son of Nathaniel and Mary Chew, of 
 Greenwich (now Mantua) township, Glouces- 
 ter County, and was born January 17, 1822. 
 He first engaged in the practice of medicine 
 in Blackwood, and joined the Camden 
 County Medical Society in 1851. He had 
 been a member about two years, when he left 
 this county and removed to Iowa, and sub- 
 sequently settled in Indiana, where he was 
 still living three years ago. Dr. Chew was a 
 man of commanding appearance and had a 
 fine physique. He married Miss Caroline 
 Bishop Woolston, of Vincentown, Burlington 
 County, N. J., and had fourteen children, of 
 whom seven sons and three daughters are 
 living, and four sons are dead. 
 
 Othniel Hart Taylor was born in 
 Philadelphia May 4, 1803. His father was 
 William Taylor, Jr., who married Mary E. 
 Gazzam, both of Cambridge, England, 
 whence they removed to Philadelphia, in 
 which city Mr. Taylor was engaged in an ex- 
 tensive mercantile business for more than 
 forty years. 
 
 The early life of his son Othniel was occu- 
 pied mainly in attendance upon schools of 
 elementary instruction in Philadelphia and 
 Holmesburg, Pa., and in Baskenridge, N. J. 
 In 1818 he entered the Literary Department 
 of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 
 1820 he became a medical student in the of- 
 fice of that distinguished physician and sur- 
 geon, Thomas T. Hewson, M.D,, at the same 
 time attending a course of medical instruction 
 in the University of Pennsylvania. He com- 
 pleted his studies there in 1826 and grad- 
 uated with the class of that year. After his 
 graduation, Dr. Taylor entered upon the 
 practice of medicine in the city of Philadel- 
 phia, where he was very soon appointed one 
 of tlie physicians to the City Dispensary, in 
 which capacity he served many years, and 
 about the same time he was elected out-door 
 physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, a 
 
 position he held for eight years. During the 
 year 1832 the Asiatic cholera made its first 
 appearance in this continent, and Dr. Taylor 
 distinguished himself by volunteering to 
 serve in the city hospitals which were estab- 
 lished in the emergency by the municipal au- 
 thorities, while he was at the same time act- 
 ing as one of the Committee of Physicians 
 appointed by the City Councils as consulting 
 physicians to their sanitary board. 
 
 The hospital which was especially in his 
 charge was known as St. Augustine Hos- 
 pital, in Crown Street, and the number of 
 cholera patients reported by him as under 
 treatment in that hospital was five hundred 
 and twelve. He was also elected as one of 
 a commission of medical men who were sent 
 to Montreal, in Canada, to study the charac- 
 ter and treatment of cholera on its out- 
 break in that city, and before its appearance 
 in our cities ; but being unable to accompany 
 the commission, he declined in favor of Dr. 
 Charles D. Meigs, who, with Drs. Richard 
 Harlan and Samuel Jackson, made the visit 
 and report. Upon the closing of the hospi- 
 tals after the disappearance of the cholera, 
 Dr. Taylor, with seven other physicians who 
 had been in charge of cholera hospitals, re- 
 ceived, by vote of the City Council, a testi- 
 monial of their appreciation of the services 
 which they had rendered to the city, each of 
 thera being presented with a service of silver 
 bearing inscription that it was given " as a 
 token of regard for intrepid and disinterested 
 services." 
 
 In consequence of impaired health. Dr. 
 Taylor, in 1838, relinquished the practice of 
 medicine in Philadelphia and removed to 
 Abington, Pa. ; thence he went, in 1841, to 
 Caldwell, Essex County, N. J., and in 1844 
 he located himself in Camden, continuing 
 actively in the practice of medicine there 
 during the remainder of his life.^ 
 
 Dr. Taylor was one of the three physicians 
 
 1 Transactions New .Jersey State Medical Society, 
 1870. 
 
30 
 
 of Camden City whose names appear in the 
 list of corporators of the Camden County 
 Medical Society in 1846, and he was its first 
 vice-president, holding the office for four 
 years. In 1856 he became its president. 
 For twenty-three years he was one of its 
 most attentive, active and efficient members, 
 his learning and experience rendering his ser- 
 vices invaluable in committee work. He 
 was elected vice-president of the State Medi- 
 cal Society successively in 1849, 1850 and 
 1851, and president of that society in 1852. 
 He was one of the organizers of the City 
 Medical Society and had filled its most im- 
 portant offices ; and he introduced into it the 
 resolution for the founding of a City Dispen- 
 sary, of which, when eventually it was estab- 
 lished, he was orie of the corporators and a 
 manager until ill health compelled his retire- 
 ment. 
 
 Dr. Taylor was the author of quite a num- 
 ber of valuable articles and addresses upon 
 medicine and related subjects which were 
 published in the medical and other journals. 
 In addition to this, he was frequently a lec- 
 turer before lyceums and other societies, and 
 this contributed much to the intellectual de- 
 velopment of Camden. He was a member 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church and in 
 1847 he was elected a warden of St. Paul's 
 Church, Camden, and at the time of his 
 death he was senior warden of that parish. 
 
 In 1832, Dr. Taylor married Evelina C, 
 daughter of Jehu and Anna Burrough, of 
 Gloucester (now Camden County). During 
 his residence in Camden he lived in the house 
 on Market Street, above Third, built by Mrs. 
 Burrough in 1809, where the doctor died of 
 pneumonic phthisis September 5, 1869. His 
 widow survived until September 18, 1878, 
 leaving three sons — Dr. H. Genet Taylor, 
 Marmaduke B. Taylor (a lawyer in Camden) 
 and O. G. Taylor (deceased), who for nearly 
 twenty years was apothecary and superinten- 
 dent of the Camden Dispensary. 
 
 William C. Mulford was a pioneer 
 
 physician in Gloucester City, having re- 
 moved to it from Pittsgrove, Salem County, 
 in 1845, soon after the first mill was erected 
 in the former place. He was the son of 
 William and Ann JVtulford, and was born 
 July 17, 1808, in Salem City. Commencing 
 the study of medicine under Dr. Beasley, he 
 attended medical lectures at the Jefferson 
 Medical College, and graduated in 1830. 
 He practiced medicine in Pittsgrove, Salem 
 County, where he married his wife, Emily 
 Dare, on March 28, 1833. Upon his re- 
 moval to Gloucester City he was appointed 
 its first postmaster, the post-office being in a 
 corner room of the factory. Dr. Mulford 
 continued practicing his profession here 
 until 1862, when he was commissioned an 
 assistant surgeon in the Third New York 
 Cavalry, serving with it for six months, 
 when he was detailed for hospital duty in 
 Rhode Island, and then in Washington. 
 He was on duty at and witnessed the execu- 
 tion of Mrs. Surratt. He was honorably 
 discharged from the service in April, 1866, 
 when he recommenced the practice of medi- 
 cine in Gloucester City, and continued there 
 until 1870. In that year he removed to a 
 farm he had purchased in Charles City 
 County, Va., where he died December 3, 
 1878. He never joined either of the medical 
 societies. 
 
 Reynell Coates moved to Camden in 
 1845, where he attended an occasional pa- 
 tient during the earlier years of his residence 
 in it. He belonged to an old Philadelphia 
 family, and was born in that city j)ecem- 
 ber 10, 1802. His father, Samuel Coates, 
 sent him to the well-known Friends' School 
 at Westtown. Afterwards he attended med- 
 ical lectures at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, where he graduated in 1823. Dr. 
 Coates was a man of the most brilliant and 
 erratic genius, and a poet of considerable 
 reputation. He was a well-known author 
 upon medical, scientific and political sub- 
 jects, and some of his works have been 
 
31 
 
 translated into other languages; a list of them 
 may be found in Allibone's " Dictionary of 
 Authors." He likewise for a time took an 
 active part in politics, and in 1852 was the 
 candidate for Vice President on the Native 
 American ticket. Before he came to Cam- 
 den he had separated from his wife, with 
 whom he had lived but one year. In this 
 city he was very poor at times and depend- 
 ent upon- the assistance of his relatives in 
 Philadelphia. Sometimes he boarded, but 
 frequently he lived entirely alone, doing his 
 own cooking. In 1867 he was elected a 
 member of the Camden City Medical So- 
 ciety. Dr. Coates was the anonymous author 
 of a biography of Dr. Bowman Hendry, of 
 Haddonfield, published in pamphlet form 
 in 1848. He died in Camden April 27, 1886. 
 Aarox Dickinson Woodruff was the 
 first member to join the Camden County 
 Medical Society after its incorporation, which 
 he did in 1847. His grandfather, A. 
 D. Woodruff, was attorney-general of New 
 Jersey from 1800 to 1818. Dr. Woodruff 
 was the son of Elias Decou Woodruif and 
 Abigail Ellis Whitall, and was born in 
 Woodbury, N. J., May 4, 1818. Upon the 
 death of his father, in 1824, his mother re- 
 moved to Georgetown, D. C, and thence, in 
 1829, to Philadelphia. Dr. Woodruff was 
 educated at the academy of Samuel Jones. 
 At sixteen he entered the drug store of 
 Charles Ellis, and graduated at the College 
 of Pharmacy in 1838. In 1840 he went to 
 Woodville, Miss., to take charge of a drug 
 store, but commencing the study of medicine, 
 he returned, in 1842, to Philadelphia, and 
 pursued his studies under Dr. Thomas Mut- 
 ter, professor of surgery in the Jefferson 
 Medical College, from which school he grad- 
 uated in 1844. He spent a few months in 
 the Peimsylvania Hospital, and then com- 
 menced the practice of medicine in Haddon- 
 field, where he soon won the confidence of 
 the people aiid secured an extensive practice. 
 In 1865, in consequence of impaired health 
 
 from overwork. Dr. Woodruff retired from 
 practice and removed to Philadelphia. He 
 resigned from the Medical Society in 1871, 
 upon his removal to his farm in Princess 
 Anne, Md., but was elected an honorary 
 member of it. He died in Philadelphia in 
 January, 1881. He was an elder in the 
 Presbyterian Church. Dr. Woodruff mar- 
 ried Miss Anne Davidson, of Georgetown, 
 D. C, but left no issue. 
 
 James C, Risley was one of the corpor- 
 ators and first president of the Camden 
 County Medical Society, being at that time 
 a practitioner of medicine at Long-a-Coming 
 (Berlin), where he remained until 1849. He 
 was the son of Judge James Risley, of 
 Wood&town, Salem County, born in June, 
 1817. He studied medicine with Dr. J. 
 Hunt, and was licensed by the board of 
 censors of the New Jersey State Medical 
 Society in June, 1838, but he did not attend 
 medical lectures until some years later, finally 
 graduatine in 1844 at the Jefferson Medical 
 College. In the mean time he had practiced 
 medicine at Port Elizabeth until 1842, when 
 he returned to Woodstown. After his gradu- 
 ation he located in Camden County. From 
 here, in 1849, he went to Columbia, Pa., and 
 remained there until 1856, when he removed 
 to Muscatine, Iowa. He returned to Penn- 
 sylvania in 1861, and opened an office at 
 New Brighton, continuing here until 1864, 
 when, his health being impaired, he went back 
 to his home in Woodstown, where he died 
 November 21, 1866.^ Dr. Risley was a man 
 of commanding appearance and pleasing ad- 
 dress, with colloquial powers that won for 
 him a quick appreciation from his patrons. 
 He married Miss Caroline Crompton, of Port 
 Elizabeth, who survived him. 
 
 Bow:man Hendry, Jr., was the son ot 
 Dr. Bowman Hendry, and was born in Hud- 
 donfield May 4, 1820. His father dying 
 when his son was a youth, young Hendry 
 
 1 Transactions New Jersey State Medical Society, 
 1867. 
 
32 
 
 studied medicine with his brother Charles, and 
 graduated from the Jefferson College in 1846. 
 For a few months he practiced medicine in 
 Iladdonfield, and then removed to Gloucester 
 City, a place that had just been started as a 
 manufacturing town. After the outbreak of 
 the Civil War Dr. Hendry entered the army 
 and was appointed assistant surgeon of the 
 Sixth New Jersey Regiment, and continued 
 with it until the regiment was mustered out 
 of service, September 7, 1864. Next he was 
 attached to the Mower Hospital, at German- 
 town, Pa., where he remained until the close 
 of the war. He then located in Camden 
 City, where he practiced medicine until his 
 death, June 8, 1868. Dr. Hendry was a 
 member of the Camden City and Camden 
 County Medical Societies, having joined the 
 latter in 1847, and was its president in 1860. 
 He took an active part in both, and read before 
 the City Society a valuable paper upon the 
 Mower Hospital. He married, February 
 24, 1850, Helen A, Sarchet, of Gloucester 
 City, who, with one daughter, resides in 
 Camden. 
 
 Charles W. Sartoei was born in Tren- 
 ton, N. J., September 6, 1806. His father, 
 John Baptiste Sartori, a native of E,ome, 
 Italy, came to the United States in 1791. 
 He returned to Rome as United States con- 
 sul from 1795 to 1800, when he came back 
 to the United States as consul for the Papal 
 States. Dr. Sartori's mother was Henrietta, 
 daughter of Chevalier De Woopoin, a French 
 officer, who acquired large estates in San 
 Domingo, but was killed in the negro in- 
 surrection in that island. Dr. Sartori was 
 educated at Georgetown, D. C. He studied 
 medicine and graduated at the Jefferson 
 Medical College in 1829. Commencing the 
 practice of medicine in Port Republic, At- 
 lantic County, he remained there until 1839, 
 when he removed to Tuckerton, Burlington 
 County, and practiced there until 1843. Be- 
 tween this date and 1849 he was again in At- 
 lantic County, at Pleasant Mills, Atsion, 
 
 Batsto, and in the latter year located at Black- 
 wood, Camden County, where he stayed only 
 a short time, removing from thence to Cam- 
 den. He never practiced medicine in Cam- 
 den, although it was his residence until his 
 death, on October 4, 1875. On May 10, 
 1861, he was appointed acting assistant sur- 
 geon in the United States Navy, and was 
 assigned to the United States steamer 
 " Flag," his brother, Louis C. Sartori, now 
 commodore on the retired list United States 
 Navy, being commander of that vessel. In 
 1863 he was transferred to the United States 
 steamer " Wyalusing," from which vessel he 
 resigned July 19, 1864. In 1833 Dr. Sartori 
 married Ann L., widow of Captain Robert 
 D. Giberson, of Port Republic. He was 
 never a member of either of the Medical 
 Societies in Camden County. 
 
 John Yooehees Schenck belonged to 
 an old East Jersey family, who have had a 
 number of representatives in the medical 
 profession. He was the son of Dr. Ferdi- 
 nand S. and Leah Voorhees Schenck, and 
 was born in Somerset County, N. J., Novem- 
 ber 17, 1824. The elder Dr. Schenck 
 represented his district in Congress for four 
 years, and between 1845 and 1851 he was 
 one of the judges of the Court of Errors and 
 Appeals. Dr. John V. Schenck received his 
 academical education at Rutgers College, 
 from which he obtained his diploma in 1844. 
 Then he attended medical lectures at the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, where he graduated 
 in 1847. At first he assisted his father in 
 his practice in his native place, but soon re- 
 moved to Monmouth County, where he re- 
 mained but a short time. In 1848 he located 
 in Camden and gradually secured probably 
 the most extensive practice, especially in 
 obstetrics, of any physician who ever prac- 
 ticed there. He was the elevenlth member 
 admitted (1848) to the Camden County Med- 
 ical Society, and became its secretary and 
 treasurer in 1856, and its president in 1859. 
 He was one of the organizers of the Camden 
 
33 
 
 City Medical Society, and a corporator of the 
 Camden City Dispensary, and was secretary 
 of the former from its commencement until 
 1859. He was also a member of the New 
 Jersey State Medical Society and its presi- 
 dent in 1876. His health becoming impaired 
 by overwork, he visited Europe for a few 
 months. Returning somewhat benefited, he 
 resumed the practice of medicine. He died 
 July 25, 1882, while on a short sojourn at 
 Atlantic City. He was a member of the 
 First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Schenck 
 married Martha McLeod, daughter of Henry 
 McKeen, of Philadelphia. He left a widow 
 and two daughters, one of whom is the wife 
 of Major Franklin C. Woolman, of Camden. 
 
 Dr. Peter Voorhees Schenck was a 
 younger brother of Dr. J. V. Schenck and 
 was born May 23, 1838. He was a student 
 at Princeton College, but retired in conse- 
 quence of impaired health. Upon his recov- 
 ery he matriculated in medicine at the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, from which he 
 graduated in 1860. He began the practice 
 of his profession in West Philadelphia, but 
 upon the breaking out of the Civil War, in 
 1861, he entered the regular army and 
 served until the close of the war, when he 
 resigned. In 1867 he joined his brother in 
 Camden and was admitted a member of both 
 of the medical societies. In the succeeding 
 year he removed to St. Louis, Mo., and en- 
 gaged in the practice of medicine. He was 
 at one time the health officer of St. Louis 
 and physician-in-chief of the female depart- 
 ment of the City Hospital. He married Ruth 
 Anna, daughter of John and Ruth Anna 
 McCuue, of St. Louis. He died March 12, 
 1885, leaving a widow and four children. 
 
 Thomas F. Cullex was one of the few 
 members of the Camden County Medical So- 
 ciety who passed an examination before its 
 board of censors, receiving his license June 
 18, 1850. He was elected a member of the 
 society in the following December. He was 
 the son of Captain Thomas Cullen, of the 
 
 Philadelphia merchant marine, and was born 
 in that city September 3, 1822. He received 
 his scholastic education in Mount Holly, N. 
 J., to which place his parents had removed. 
 Dr. Cullen studied medicine with Dr. Heber 
 Chase, a surgeon of Philadelphia, and gradu- 
 ated at the University of Pennsylvania in 
 1844. His first field of practice was in New- 
 ark, Delaware, but in 1849 he removed to 
 Camden. Here his great natural abilities and 
 careful training brought him promihently 
 forward, especially as a surgeon, in which 
 branch of the profession he became so skilled 
 and successful that for the first time in its 
 history Camden became independent of its 
 neighbor across the Delaware for the per- 
 formance of a capital surgical operation. He 
 was an active member of the medical socie- 
 ties, serving as president of the city and county 
 societies, and of the State society in 1869. 
 While a member of the former two, no com- 
 mittee was complete without him. He was 
 one of the corporators of the Camden Dis- 
 pensary and Cooper Hospital. Of the former, 
 he was two years its president, and a director 
 of the latter until his death. He died No- 
 vember 21, 1877. He left no issue. 
 
 Jacob Grigg is of English descent. His 
 grandfather. Rev. Jacob Grigg, was a Baptist 
 missionary, sent from England to Sierra 
 Leone, Africa, but his health failing, he sailed 
 for America. His son, Dr. John R. Grigg, 
 the father of Dr. Jacob Grigg, practiced med- 
 icine at White Marsh, Pennsylvania, where 
 the latter was born, June 23, 1821. Reread 
 medicine with his father, and received his 
 diploma from the University of Pennsylva- 
 nia in 1843. In the same year he married 
 Mary, daughter of John Bruner, of Mont- 
 gomery County, in that State, in the mean- 
 while practicing medicine in conjunction with 
 his fiither. In 1 844 Dr. Jacob Grigg removed 
 to Bucks County, and from thence, in 1849, 
 to Blackwood, in Camden County, New Jer- 
 sey. On June 18, 1849, the board of censors 
 of the Camden County Medical Society re- 
 
34 
 
 ported that Dr. Grigg had passed a successful 
 examination and had received a license to 
 practice in the State. At the serai-annual 
 meeting of the society, held December 19th 
 of that year, he was elected a member. He 
 was burned out in 1852 and removed to 
 Pennsylvania, at which time his name was 
 dropped from the roll of the society. Re- 
 turning in a few months to Camden County, 
 he remained until 1857, when he left this 
 county* and settled in the adjoining one 
 of Burlington. His present residence is Mt. 
 Holly. 
 
 Robert M. Smallivood belonged to an 
 old Gloucester County family. He was the 
 son of John C. and Mary Smallwood, of 
 Woodbury, and was born August 20, 1827. 
 Adopting the profession of medicine, he en- 
 tered the University of Pennsylvania, where 
 he graduated in 1849. He at once located in 
 Chews Landing and continued in practice there 
 fortwo years. He joined the Camden County 
 Medical Society June 19, 1849. In the 
 year 1851 he entered the United States Navy, 
 and in 1852 was assigned to duty upon the 
 ship " Levant" and sailed for the Mediterra- 
 nean. While upon this cruise his health 
 failed him, and returning home, he died of 
 phthisis, February 8, 1856. He married Mrs. 
 Mary A. F. Gest in 1850, and had four 
 children. 
 
 John I. Jessup. — At a meeting of the 
 Camden County Medical Society held at 
 Camden, June 19, 1849, the society adjourned 
 for a few hours to give the " board of censors 
 an opportunity to examine candidates for a 
 license to practice medicine in the State." At 
 half-past two o'clock Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, 
 president of the board, reported that after a 
 satisfactory examination they had granted 
 licenses to " Dr. Theodore H. Varick, of 
 Hudson County ; Dr. John I. Jessup, of At- 
 lantic County ; and Dr. John W. Snowden, 
 of Camden County." At the semi-annual 
 meeting, held on December 18th, of this 
 year. Dr. Jessup was elected a member of the 
 
 society. He was a grandson of Josiah Albert- 
 son, who kept the old hotel in Blue Anchor 
 from 1812 until the Camden and Atlantic 
 Railroad was built, in 1852. 
 
 Dr. Jessup graduated at the Jeiferson Med- 
 ical College in 1848, and seems to have prac- 
 ticed for a short time in Camden County. 
 Soon after joining its society he removed to 
 Somers Point, in Atlantic County. In 1852 
 he became prostrated by phthisis, which 
 caused him to return to Blue Anchor, where 
 he soon afterwards died.^ 
 
 Sylvester Birdsell's parentage was of 
 Pennsylvania origin. His father, James 
 Birdsell, married Mary Pyle, both of Ches- 
 ter County, in that State. Their son Syl- 
 vester was, however, born in Baltimore, JNId., 
 August 21, 1824. He was of a studious 
 turn of mind, and taught school while at- 
 tending medical lectures at the Jefferson 
 Medical College, from which he graduated 
 in 1848. Dr. Birdsell commenced the prac- 
 tice of medicine at Point Pleasant, Bucks 
 County, Pa. In 1850 he moved to what was 
 then known as South Camden, N. J., where 
 he opened a drug store and began practicing 
 medicine. In the same year he joined the 
 County Medical Society, becoming its presi- 
 dent in 1858. He was one of the organizers 
 of the city society. His knowledge aiid 
 ability secured for him a professorship in the 
 "Woman's Medical College " of Philadel- 
 phia, a position he held for some time. Dr. 
 Birdsell married Jane B. Laird, whose death 
 preceded by several years his own, which oc- 
 curred May 29, 1883. He was buried in 
 Evergreen Cemetery. He left two daugh- 
 ters and one son, Rudolph W. Birdsell, who 
 for a long time has been connected with the 
 Camden Fii"e Insurance Association. 
 
 William G. Thomas was born in Phila- 
 delphia, January 16, 1826. He was the son 
 of Stephen and Sallie Thomas. He com- 
 menced the study of medicine in Columbia, 
 
 1 Somers' " Medical History of Atlantic County." 
 
35 
 
 Lancaster County, Pa,, under Dr. Filbert, of 
 that place, and attended medical lectures at 
 the Pennsylvania Medical College, in Phila- 
 delphia, from which he graduated in 1854. 
 Although the law did not then require it, he 
 passed an examination before the board of 
 censors of the New Jersey State Medical 
 Society, at Trenton, on May 14, 1854, and 
 then began the practice of medicine in Cam- 
 den, He became a member of the Camden 
 County Medical Society in 1857. He had 
 joined the city society upon his location in 
 Camden and had taken an active interest in its 
 proceedings. Dr. Thomas died of dysen- 
 tery August 17, 1858. He had a hard strug- 
 gle during his short professional career in 
 Camden and after his death the city society 
 paid his funeral expenses. He married, 
 February 7, 1854, Margaret Cramsie, of Phil- 
 adelphia, and left one child. 
 
 The three following physicians all practiced 
 in Blackwood, but none of them were ever 
 connected with either the Camden County 
 or City Medical Societies. Dr. WillIam 
 Holmes located there between 1845 and 
 1847. Although he is said to have graduated 
 at the University of Pennsylvania, his name 
 is not in the list of graduates of that institution. 
 He removed to Greenwich, IST. J. Dr. F. 
 RiDGELEY Graham was a physician in the 
 same town between 1850 and 1858. He was 
 a native of Chillicothe, O., where he began 
 the study of medicine, completing his education 
 at the Jefferson Medical College, from which 
 he graduated in 1850. He removed to Ches- 
 ter, Pa. The third one was Dr. Alex- 
 ander J. McKelway, son of Dr. John 
 McKelway, of Trenton, N. J., who was born 
 in Scotland December 6, 1813. He graduat- 
 ed at the Jeiferson Medical College in 1834. 
 Between the years 1858 and 1861 he pursued 
 his profession in Blackwood. On September 
 14th of the latter year he entered the volun- 
 teer service as surgeon of the Eighth New 
 Jersey Regiment and continued with it until 
 April 7, 1864, when he. resigned. He died 
 
 at Williamstown, Gloucester County, X. J., 
 November 8, 1885. 
 
 Within the same decade Dr. Jesse S. Zane 
 Sellers, son of Jesse and Rebecca Sellers, of 
 Philadelphia, opened an office in Camden. 
 He had received his medical education at the 
 University of Pennsylvania, from which 
 institution he graduated in 1852. He be- 
 came a member of the Camden City Medical 
 Society in September, 1854, and faithfully 
 served through the cholera epidemic of that 
 autumn. Soon afterward he removed to 
 Minnesota and engaged in mining. He lived 
 only a few years after his removal to the 
 West. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte Jennings was 
 twenty-eight years a member of the Camden 
 County Medical Society and was its president 
 in 1861. He died of phthisis at Haddon- 
 field, April 17, 1885. The doctor was the 
 son of Stacy and Sarah Jennings, and was 
 born at Manahawkin, N. J., April 22, 1831. 
 He was educated at the Woodstock Academy, 
 Connecticut, and then entered the office of 
 Dr. Budd, of Medford, N. J,, to pursue the 
 study of medicine, and graduated at the Jef- 
 ferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, in 
 1856. He immediately entered upon the 
 practice of medicine in Haddonfield, where 
 he soon gained the confidence of the com- 
 munity by his professional attainments and 
 his excellent social qualities. He was pos- 
 sessed of a singularly genial nature, which 
 overflowed in kindness to all and gained for 
 him the universal good will of the communi- 
 ty in which he lived and practiced for nearly 
 thirty years, and attained for him one of the 
 largest practices ever secured by a physician 
 in West Jersey. 
 
 He married Mary, daughter of Joshua P. 
 and Amelia Browning, of Haddonfield, who 
 survives him with a family of seven children. 
 He was a consistent member of the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church. 
 
 Henry Ackley virtually belonged to 
 Camden, although born in Philadelphia, Jan- 
 
36 
 
 uaiy 29, 1837. His grandfather, Thomas 
 Ackley, as early as 1800, kept the old store 
 at the foot of Federal Street, which was 
 demolished a few years ago. His mother, nee 
 Barclay, the widow of Lieutenant-Comman- 
 der McCauley, United States Navy, married 
 Thomas Ackley, cashier of the State Bank 
 at Camden. Dr. Ackley received a liberal 
 education, and studied medicine with Pro- 
 fessors E. Wallace and William Keating, of 
 Philadelphia, and graduated at the Jefferson 
 Medical College in 1858. He began prac- 
 tice in Camden and joined the county and 
 city societies, and was secretary of the former 
 in 1859 and 1860. At the commencement 
 of the Civil War he entered the United States 
 Navy, as surgeon, on July 20, 1861, and 
 was assigned to duty in the Philadelphia 
 Navy- Yard. Towards the close of the year 
 he was ordered to the United States ship 
 "Wissahickon," of the East Gulf Blockad- 
 ing Squadron, and served under Admiral 
 Porter in the capture of New Orleans and 
 in the campaign against Vicksburg. In 
 1863 he was transferred to the flag-ship 
 " San Jacinto," and was acting surgeon-in- 
 chief of the squadron. While on this vessel 
 he was attacked with yellow fever, which so 
 impaired his naturally feeble constitution 
 that he was ordered to the United States 
 receiving ship " Vermont," at New York, 
 in 1864. He died in Camden, of phthisis, 
 December 1, 1865. The year previous he 
 married Sallie, daughter of Hon. Richard 
 Wilkins, of Camden. He left one son, who 
 died in infancy. 
 
 William S. Bishop, surgeon of the 
 United States Navy, an honorary member of 
 the Camden County Medical Society, died De- 
 cember 28, 1868. Dr. Bishop was connected 
 with the navy from an early period of his 
 professional life. He had seen service in 
 most parts of the globe. Several years ago, 
 while on duty with the squadron on the 
 coast of Africa, he suffered from a severe at- 
 tack of coast fever, from the effects of which 
 
 he never entirely recovered. He was pro 
 nounced by a medical commission unfit for 
 further sea service, but was employed on 
 shore duty at the various naval stations. At 
 the breaking out of the Rebellion Dr. Bishop 
 was on duty at the navy -yard at Pensacola, 
 Fla., where, in common with the other naval 
 officers, he was obliged to give his parole not 
 to engage in service against the Confederacy 
 before he was permitted to return North. 
 When not employed in service, he resided in 
 Camden for a number of years previous to 
 his death. Shortly after his return to the 
 latter place he was ordered to the navy-yard 
 at Mare Island, in California, where he re- 
 mained during the whole period of the war. 
 He came home much impaired in health, but 
 was employed again on naval medical com- 
 missions of great responsibility ; he was 
 finally ordered to the United States Naval 
 Asylum, at Philadelphia, as chief surgeon, at 
 which post he died on December 28, 1868, of 
 a complication of diseases, ending in general 
 dropsy.^ Dr. Bishop was a member of the 
 Camden City Society as well as the County 
 Society. 
 
 Thomas J. Smith became a member of 
 the Camden County Medical Society on June 
 18, 1867. He was born in Salem, N. J., 
 April 21, 1841, and is the son of Peter and 
 Elizabeth Smith. He was educated at 
 Williams College, Massachusetts, graduating 
 in 1862. He attended medical lectures in the 
 University of Pennsylvania, and received his 
 degree of M.D. in March, 1866. He began 
 the practice of medicine in Camden. He 
 joined the Camden City Medical Society in 
 March, 1867, and became its secretary the 
 same year, continuing in office until his re- 
 moval to Bridgeton, early in the year 1868. 
 Dr. Smith is a member of the New Jersey 
 State Medical Society and is chairman of its 
 standing committee. He married, March 28, 
 1871, Mary L., daughter of Rev. Elisha V. 
 
 1 Transactions of New Jersey State Medical Society, 
 1869. 
 
37 
 
 and Matilda B. Glover, of Haddonfield. Dr. 
 Smith is a prominent practitioner in Bridge- 
 ton. 
 
 Joseph W. McCullough fell a victim 
 to the severest epidemic of typhus fever that 
 ever attacked the almshouse in Blackwood, 
 Camden County, literally dying at his post 
 of duty, of that disease, March 15, 1881, 
 after a service of nine years as attending 
 physician at that institution. He was the 
 son of Andrew and Eunice McCullough, and 
 was born in Wilmington, Del., August 12, 
 1837. He studied medicine with Dr. Chand- 
 ler, of that city, and graduated at the Jeffer- 
 son Medical College in 1860. When the 
 Civil War broke out, in 1861, he was one of 
 the first to offer his services to the govern- 
 ment, and was appointed surgeon of the First 
 Delaware Regiment. After the close of the 
 war he joined the regular army, and was 
 sent to New Orleans, and thence to Alabama. 
 In consequence of impaired health he resign- 
 ed, and in 1866 located as a practitioner of 
 medicine at Blackwood. In 1880 he and Dr. 
 Brannin, his co-laborer, were appointed phy- 
 sicians to the County Insane Asylum. Dr. 
 McCullough joined the Camden County 
 Medical Society in 1871. He married, 
 March 9, 1876, Sarah E., only daughter of 
 Richard C. Stevenson, of Blackwood. His 
 widow and two children survive him. 
 
 Charles F. Clarke practiced medicine 
 for over forty years in Gloucester County. 
 He retired in 1868 and moved to Camden, 
 becoming an honorary member of the City 
 Societv in 1869 and continuing: his connec- 
 tion with it until his death, in 1875. He was 
 born near Paulsboro', Gloucester County, 
 N. J., August 12, 1800. He was educated 
 at Woodbury and at Burlington, and then 
 entered the counting-room of Mr. Hollings- 
 head, in Philadelphia. In the year 1820, 
 being in poor health, he went as supercargo 
 to the West Indies : returning, he commenced 
 the study of medicine and graduated at the 
 University of Pennsylvania in 1823. In 
 
 connection with his cousin, Dr. John Y. 
 Clarke, of Philadelphia, he opened a drug 
 store at the corner of Fifth and Race Streets, 
 in that city. This he soon abandoned, and 
 then began the practice of medicine in 
 Clarksboro', Gloucester County, N. J., thence 
 he went to Paulsboro', and in 1835 to Wood- 
 bury, in the same county, where he lived for 
 thirty-two years and attended to the largest 
 practice in that section of the county. Dr. 
 Clarke accumulated a considerable fortune. 
 One of his daughters, Eva C, married Dr. 
 Randall W. Morgan, His son, Dr. Henry 
 C. Clarke, succeeded to his father's practice 
 and is one of the leading physicians in 
 Gloucester County. 
 
 Randal W. Morgan was born near 
 Black woodtown, Camden County, June 5, 
 1848, and was a son of Randal E. and Mary 
 (Willard) Morgan. He attended the West 
 Jersey Academy, at Bridgeton, and later the 
 University of Lewisburgh, Pa. In 1864 he 
 was appointed midshipman at the Naval 
 Academy at Annapolis, which position he 
 was obliged to resign because of an attack of 
 typhoid fever, from which he never fully re- 
 covered. Shortly afterward he commenced 
 his medical studies under Dr. Brannin, of 
 Blackwood town, continuing them at the 
 University of Pennsylvania, and graduating 
 from that institution in 1870. Two years 
 later he took the degree of Doctor of Phil- 
 osophy. In 1877 he was elected county 
 physician, an office he held for five years. 
 During the small-pox epidemic, in 1872, he 
 had charge of the small-pox hospital, and 
 labored unselfishly among the victims of that 
 disease. In 1881, much broken in health, 
 he sailed for Europe, and was much benefited 
 by his sojourn there ; but upon returning to 
 practice soon succumbed again to ill health, 
 and in August, 1883, was obliged to re- 
 linquish the duties of his profession. He 
 sailed again for Europe in 1884, intending, 
 while there, to visit some of the hospitals in 
 the cholera-infested portions of France and 
 
38 
 
 Italy, but, owing to aggravation of his mala- 
 dies, abandoned the project, and sailing for 
 home, died when three days out from Liver- 
 pool, October 20, 1884. 
 
 Dr. Morgan was a very active man, dili- 
 gent in the practice of his profession, 
 studious and quite successful. Speaking of his 
 skillful management of the small-pox hos- 
 pital, heretofore alluded to, Dr. R. M. 
 Cooper, in his report to the Xew Jersey State 
 Medical Society, said : " We have obtained 
 (from Dr. Morgan) some valuable statistics 
 in regard to the disease and its mode of 
 treatment ; and it is but just to him to State 
 tiiat the ratio of mortality of the cases under 
 his care compare very favorably with other 
 small-pox hospitals." 
 
 He carried on for several years a drug- 
 store, and was a member of both the Camden 
 County and Camden City Medical Societies. 
 
 He was married January 15, 1876, to Eva, 
 daughter of Dr. Charles F. Clarke, late of 
 Camden, who survives him. 
 
 James A. Aemstroxg was born in Phila- 
 delphia, June 12, 1835, and was the son of 
 James and Mary Armstrong. He was edu- 
 cated in the public schools, and graduated 
 from the Philadelphia High School. He 
 eno;aged in the drug business and obtained a 
 diploma from the Philadelphia College of 
 Pharmacy in 1855, and then purchased a 
 drug store at the corner of Fourth and 
 Thompson Streets, in his native city. Subse- 
 quently he studied medicine, graduating from 
 the University of Pennsylvania in 1861. In 
 September of the latter year Dr. Armstrong 
 was appointed assistant surgeon in a Penn- 
 sylvania regiment, and was assigned to the 
 Army of the Potomac, in Virginia. After 
 three years of military duty in the field he 
 returned home, and was attached to the 
 Satterlee Hospital until the close of the war. 
 He then removed to Camden, and purchased 
 a drug store on Federal Street, above Third, 
 which he afterwards moved to Market, above 
 the same street. In a few years he relin- 
 
 quished the drug business, began the practice 
 of medicine and joined the Camden County 
 Medical Society in 1876. He was surgical 
 examiner for pensions in Camden since the 
 close of the war, and when the United States 
 Board of Pensions was established in that 
 city, in 1884, he was appointed one of its 
 three members. In 1871 he was coroner of 
 Camden City. Dr. Armstrong was an elder 
 in the Presbyterian Church. He died of 
 apoplexy on October 30, 1885, leaving a 
 widow and three daughters. 
 
 J. Xewtox Achuff was a native of 
 Germantown, Pa. He commenced his medi- 
 cal education with Dr. Lemuel J. Deal, of 
 Philadelphia, and completed it at the Jeffer- 
 son Medical College, graduating in 1867. 
 He at once commenced the practice of his 
 profession in South Camden, and in the same 
 year (1867) joined both the Camden City and 
 County Societies. He was at once appointed 
 a visiting physician of the Camden City Dis- 
 pensary. In the year 1869 he left Camden 
 and entered the service of the government as 
 a contract surgeon, and was assigned to duty 
 in Alaska, and subsequently in California, in 
 which State he died about 1872. 
 
 James H. Wroth is the son of the late 
 James W. Wroth, of Camden, whose widow 
 and her family have removed from the city. 
 Dr. Wroth obtained his medical education at 
 the University of Pennsylvania, where he 
 graduated in 1878. He commenced the 
 practice of medicine in Camden, and in 
 1879 attached himself to both the Camden 
 City and County Societies. While an interne 
 of the Camden City Dispensary the small- 
 pox epidemic of 1880 occurred in that city, 
 during which Dr. Wroth distinguished liim- 
 self by his attendance upon the sick (poor) 
 with that disease. He is now a resident of 
 Xew Mexico. 
 
 Isaac B. Mulford belonged to an old 
 and influential family in South Jersey. He 
 was born in Millville, X. J., in 1843. He 
 was educated at the West Jersey Academy, 
 
39 
 
 at Bridgeton, at Monticello Seminary, New 
 York, and at Princeton College, from which 
 he graduated with honor in the class of 1865. 
 He studied medicine with Dr. William Hunt, 
 of Philadelphia, and attended lectures at the 
 University of Pennsylvania. His studies 
 being interrupted by severe illness, he could 
 not receive his degree of Doctor of Medicine 
 until 1871. He began the practice of medi- 
 cine ill Camden, and became a member of 
 both the Camden County and Camden City 
 Medical Societies, and was elected treasurer of 
 the former in 1874, and president in 1881. 
 For several years prior to his death he was 
 surgeon of the Sixth Regiment National 
 Guards of New Jersey. He was also phy- 
 sician of the West Jersey Orphanage, a mem- 
 ber of the New Jersey Sanitary Association 
 and the Camden Microscopical Society.^ 
 Dr. IMulford and the Rev. Joseph F. Garri- 
 .sou, honorary member of the Camden County 
 Society, were the only resident physicians in 
 the coimty who were ever graduates of the 
 College of New Jersey. Dr. Mulford died 
 in Camden, November 21, 1882. He left a 
 fine library of medical works to the Camden 
 City Dispensary. 
 
 1 Transactions New Jersey State Medical Society, 
 1883. 
 
 William G. Taylor, a former mem- 
 ber of the Camden City Medical Society, 
 was the son of Dr. R. G. and Eleonora Tay- 
 lor, of Camden. He was born in Philadel- 
 phia, July 20, 1851, and was educated in the 
 public schools in Camden. At the age of 
 seventeen he entered the drug-store of Jo- 
 seph Riley and attended two courses of lec- 
 tures at the Philadelphia College of Phar- 
 macy. He then commenced the study of 
 medicine and graduated at the Jefferson 
 Medical College in 1873. For a short time 
 he was one of the visiting physicians for the 
 Dispensary, but he had been preparing for 
 the work of a missionary under the auspices 
 of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions. On June 11, 1873, he sailed from 
 New York for Africa. His station was Ga- 
 boon, on the west coast, and his duty was to 
 visit monthly, or oftener if called upon, the 
 stations between it and Benita, a point one 
 hundred miles north. The mode of travel- 
 ling was by sea in an open boat, five and 
 one-half feet wide by twenty-six feet long. 
 This exposed life and repeated attacks of Af- 
 rican fever broke down his health, and after 
 two years' labor there he returned home, and 
 died April 8, 1877. He was buried in Ever- 
 green Cemetery.