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Physicians of Early St. Louis
 
Note: An * indicates the physician was a faculty member listed on the 1886 Commencement Exercise of Clarissa V. (Pilcher) Moore.
 
CAMPBELL, DR. JAMES A.*
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

In 1869 the Homeopathic College of Missouri graduated a young man destined to become one of the leading specialists of the country. Dr. James A. Campbell, a son of the late Dr. Campbell, a native of Wisconsin, came to St. Louis as a mere lad. He graduated in medicine, the valedictorian of his class. He at first hesitated as to what special branch of medical work to adopt, but soon his interests were turned into an absorbing channel, and in the spring of 1873 he went abroad for the special study of the eye and ear, remaining till the fall of 1874, and devoting his time to the large eye and ear hospitals and specialists at the University of Vienna, and later in London.

Since his return Dr. Campbell has devoted himself to the enthusiastic and exclusive pursuits of his chosen specialty, in which he now stands at the head. Dr. Campbell has given with great generosity of his time and skill to the institutions; has held the chair of ophthalmology and otology in the college for nearly twenty-five years, serving for the same period on the medical staff of the Good Samaritan Hospital, and gives his services in a like capacity to the Girls' Industrial Home, and the St. Louis Children's Free Hospital. He is a hard worker in his profession in the interests of which he has found time to take additional trips abroad, on one of which, besides visiting the hospitals of Europe, he served as delegate from the American lnstitute of Homeopathy to the National Medical Association of France and England.

 
COLLISON, DR. WILLIAM
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. William, Collison is another whose labors have been completed. He came to the practice of the "new mode" from Illinois about 1880. By the help of a strong magnetic personality, with education and experience, he at once succeeded in business, and wielded a large professional influence, but was cut off suddenly by an obstinate surgical disease. He died greatly lamented. He was succeeded in practice by his nephew, Dr. W. John Harris, a graduate of our St. Louis College, who remains in practice, an enterprising professional man, and a member of the present faculty of the college.

 
COMSTOCK, DR. T. GRISWOLD
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. T. Griswold Comstock was a pioneer of the homeopathic school in St. Louis. A lineal descendant of "Mayflower" stock, he came here, a young man, with ancestry of repute in medical and other literature, and studied medicine under Dr J. V. Prather, one of the founders of the St. Louis Medical College, in which he took his first degree of "doctor of medicine." His independence of mind had already led him to consider the merits of the new practice, and soon after his graduation he began a thorough investigation of the subject, under the special direction of Dr. J. T. Temple as his preceptor, which resulted in his adopting homeopathic views.

Going to Philadelphia in 1853, he became a student of the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, where he graduated, after which, returning to St. Louis, he entered successfully into practice. After a short time he went abroad to visit the hospitals of Europe, and finally matriculated in the University of Vienna, where he took the examination in the German language, and was honored with the degree of "master in obstetrics."

Returning to this country, he again commenced practice in St. Louis in 1858. He soon became engaged in college and hospital work, and his name has ever since been close1y connected with the history and progress of homeopathy in St. Louis and the West.

CONDÉ, DR. ANDRÉ AUGUST
Annals of St. Louis in its Early Days Under the French & Spanish Dominations by Billon, Frederic L., St. Louis, 1886.

Doctor André August Condé is the first physician whose name is found in our early archives. A native of Aunis, France, he was a post surgeon in the French service at Fort Chartres prior to the cession to England, and removed over to this side with the few soldiers brought over by St. Ange de Bellerive, after he had placed the British Captain Sterling in possession of the other, on Oct. 20, 1765. Doctor Condé had married Marie Anne Bardet de Laferne, July 16, 1763, whom, with his infant daughter, Marie Anne, he brought over with him to the new post. He received from Governor St. Ange, June 2, 1766, a concession, the fifth recorded in the " Livres Terriens" - the land-grant books - of two adjoining lots in the village, fronting two hundred and forty feet on Second Street, by one hundred and fifty deep, being the east half of the block next south of the Catholic church block (now No. 58). On this lot he built for his residence a house of upright posts, with a barn and other conveniences, where he resided for some ten years, until his death, Nov. 28, 1776.

Doctor Condé was a gentleman of fine education, wrote a beautiful hand, and a prominent man in the village in his day. He had an extensive professional practice, as well on the west as on the east side of the river, being for a time alone in his profession at this point. Having died intestate, the governor appointed his relative, Louis Dubreuil, merchant, guardian to his two minor daughters, the eldest Marianne, mentioned above, the second, Constance, born in St. Louis in 1768. An inventory of his estate, taken a few days after his death, includes the names (numbering two hundred and thirty-three), of all those indebted to him on both sides of the river for professional services rendered, comprising nearly all the inhabitants of the two places, and might almost serve for a directory, had such a thing then been needed. His widow married a second husband, Gaspard Roubieu, also a European, Sept. 19, 1777. They subsequently removed to St. Charles, where they both died.

Doct. Condé’s eldest daughter, Marianne, was married to Charles Sunguinet, Sr., Aug. 1, 1779, and the second, Constance, first to Bonaventura Collell, a Spanish officer, in the year 1788, and secondly to Patricio Lee, in 1797. Each of these ladies left a numerous progeny. The Sanguinets of St. Louis include the Benoists, the wife of Hon. John Hogan, former postmaster and member of Congress, Wm. H. Cozens, etc. - and the Lees of St. Charles, Mrs. Thos. and Stephen Rector, Rousseaus, Benjamin O' Fallen and others.


CONDÉ, DR. ANDRÉ AUGUST

St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764-1911 by Walter Barlow Stevens, The S. J. Clarke publishing Co., 1911

Science and humanity have gone hand-in-hand with the medical profession of St. Louis. When the first doctor died, it was found that 232 people owed him for services. The doctor was Andre Auguste Condé. He came to St. Louis from Fort Chartres the year after Laclede founded the settlement. He established a high standard of ethics and the doctors of St. Louis have lived up to it 146 years. Frederic L. Billon, the authority on St. Louis antiquities, concluded, after some investigation, that Condé's list of debtors was almost a directory of the families of St. Louis and Cahokia for the ten years the good doctor lived here.

 
CONZELMAN, DR. JOHN
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Another physician for many years actively engaged in college and other professional work in the city, was Dr. John Conzelman, who also left as his successor a valuable representative of homeopathy in, St. Louis,. in his son, Dr. T. W. Conzelman.

 
CUMMINGS, DR. J.C.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. J. C. Cummings came to St. Louis with an extensive hospital and army experience as a Confederate surgeon gained during the Civil War, and has been a faithful and intelligent practitioner, both in private practice and hospital and college work, being especially effective in his work as a hygienist and clinical professor among the physicians in the St. Louis Children's Free Hospital.

 
EBERZ, DR. HENRY
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

In 1856-7 there came to St. Louis Dr. Henry Eberz, a Polish exile possessing titles of honor. Before leaving his native country he was professor of pathology in the Royal University of Cracow. While a professor in an old-school university he had embraced the principles of Hahnemann, and came to St. Louis with letters of recommendation to the first citizens of our city. He acquired a lucrative practice, although remaining here less than three years. He introduced as his successor Dr. E. A. Fellerer, a German, and an accomplished physician, who, practicing here some ten years, gained a large clientele, and is well remembered by many of our first citizens.

 
EDMONDS, DR. W.A.*
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. W.A. Edmonds, whose name for the past twenty years has been familiar in the city practice and college work, is no longer identified with the profession here, as he has recently retired from practice, and is living in his native State, Kentucky. He has been a contributor to medical literature through various journals, and by a published work on "Diseases of Children," and at the time of leaving the city was associate editor of the "Clinical Reporter," and professor of obstetrics in the college.

FARRAR, DR. BERNARD GAINES
St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764-1911 by Walter Barlow Stevens, The S. J. Clarke publishing Co., 1911

The distinction of being the first American physician and surgeon to establish himself permanently west of the Mississippi belongs to Bernard Gaines Farrar. Born in Virginia and reared in Kentucky, young Dr. Farrar, on the advice of his brother-in-law, Judge Coburn, came to St. Louis to live two years after the American occupation. He was just of age. Dr. Charles Alexander Pope described Farrar as a man of most tender sensibilities, so tender-hearted that he seemed to suffer with his patients. And yet, before he had been in St. Louis three years, Dr. Farrar performed a surgical operation which for a generation was a subject of marvel in the settlements and along the trails of the Mississippi valley. The patient was young Shannon, who had made the journey to the mouth of the Columbia with Lewis and Clark. Going with a second government expedition to find the sources of the Missouri, Shannon was shot by Blackfoot Indians. He was brought down the river to St. Louis, arriving in very bad condition. Dr. Farrar amputated the leg at the thigh. Shannon recovered, went to school, became a highly educated man and served on the bench in Kentucky. He never failed to give Dr. Farrar the credit of saving his life.

The St. Louis surgeon went on performing what in those days were surgical miracles. Older members of the St. Louis profession always believed that Farrar antedated Sansom in the performance of a very delicate operation on the bladder, although Sansom, by reason of making publication first, is given the credit in medical history. Dr. Farrar died of the cholera in the epidemic of 1849. He was the man universally regarded as the dean of the medical profession of St. Louis in that day. It was said of Dr. Farrar that he was the physician and surgeon most devoted to the duties of his profession; that he took very little recreation; that he did not indulge in the sports of fishing and hunting which were common. Dr. Charles A. Pope pronounced before the medical association a eulogy in which he declared that the acts of benevolence and the charity performed by Dr. Farrar at the time when there was no hospital or asylum in the city were "unparalleled."


FARRAR, DR. BERNARD GAINES

Annals of St. Louis in its Territorial Days From 1804 to 1821 by Frederic L. Billon, St. Louis, 1888.

Doctor Bernard Gaines Farrar, son of Joseph Royal Farrar, was born in Gooch land County, Virginia, July 4, 1785. His parents removed to Kentucky in the same year. In the year 1800, at fifteen years of age, he commenced his medical studies in Cincinnati, and afterwards in Lexington, Ky. In 1804, he attended medical lectures at the University in Philadelphia. In 1806, when 21 years of age, he located at Frankfort, Ky., but at the suggestion of his brother-in-law, Judge Coburn, one of the territorial Judges of Missouri, removed to St. Louis the following year, he being the first American Physician who established himself west of the Mississippi River.

His professional card appears in the Gazette, May 16, 1809. In 1812, Jan'y, he was associated for a short time in the Drug and Medicine business with Mr. Joseph Charless, Sr., of the Gazette; and in Aug't, 1812, he formed an association in business with Doct. David V. Walker, who had just come to the place. As these two gentlemen became subsequently brothers-in-law, their wives being daughters of Major Wm. Christy, their co-partnership in business continued until dissolved by the death of Doctor Walker, April 9, 1824, a period of twelve years.

Doct. Farrar was twice married. First, in 1811, to Miss Sarah, the oldest daughter of Major Wm. Christy. She died on November 3, 1817, leaving two sons and one daughter, Wm. Clark Farrar and James Leach Farrar, both deceased unmarried, and Martha Farrar, relict of the late Jas. T. Sweringen, deceased.

Doctor Farrar married his second wife, Ann Clark Thruston, in Louisville, Kentucky, Feb'y, 1820, by whom he left at his decease a number of sons and daughters. He died in the summer of 1849, and Mrs. Farrar April, 1878, aged 79.

Note: Notice of the Missouri Gazette read: “DOCTORS FARRAR & WALKER have entered into partnership for the practice of Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery. They have opened a Drug and Medicine store on Main Street, below Major Christy's Tavern, adjoining Dangen's Silversmith Shop.”

FARRAR, DR. BERNARD G..
Centennial History of Missouri: (the Center State), by Walter B. Stevens, St. Louis-Chicago 1921.

The distinction of being the first American physician and surgeon to establish himself permanently west of the Mississippi belongs to Bernard Gaines Farrar. Born in Virginia and reared in Kentucky, young Dr. Farrar, on the advice of his brother-in-law, Judge Coburn, came to St. Louis to live two years after the American occupation. He was just of age. Dr. Charles Alexander Pope described Farrar as a man of most tender sensibilities, so tender-hearted that he seemed to suffer with his patients. And yet, before he had been in St. Louis three years, Dr. Farrar performed a surgical operation which for a generation was a subject of marvel in the settlements and along the trails of the Mississippi valley. The patient was young Shannon, who had made the journey to the mouth of the Columbia with Lewis and Clark. Going with a second government expedition to find the sources of the Missouri, Shannon was shot by Blackfoot Indians. He was brought down the river to St. Louis, arriving in very bad condition. Dr. Farrar amputated the leg at the thigh. Shannon recovered, went to school, became a highly educated man and served on the bench in Kentucky. He never failed to give Dr. Farrar the credit of saving his life. The St. Louis surgeon went on performing what in those days were surgical miracles. Older members of the St. Louis profession always believed that Farrar antedated Sansom in the performance of a very delicate operation on the bladder, although Sansom, by reason of making publication first, is given the credit in medical history.

Dr. Farrar died of the cholera in the epidemic of 1849. He was the man universally regarded as the dean of the medical profession of St. Louis in that day. It was said of Dr. Farrar that he was the physician and surgeon most devoted to the duties of his profession; that he took very little recreation; that he did not indulge in the sports of fishing and hunting which were common, Dr. Charles A. Pope pronounced before the medical association a eulogy in which he declared that the acts of benevolence and the charity performed by Dr. Farrar at the time when there was no hospital or asylum in the city were "unparalleled."

 
FRANKLIN, DR. E.C.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. E. C. Franklin, who came to St. Louis as a homeopath about the time of Dr. Walker's trial, had gone through a similar experience, having himself previously passed from the old school to the homeopathic practice. A man of very decided views and impulsive spirit, he had in earlier years hotly contested in personal disputations the innovation of homeopathy upon old-school methods; but added observations and .finally personal experience convinced his judgment in spite of his prejudice, and at the time of his coming to St. Louis, in 1857, he had been practicing homeopathy for several years at Dubuque, Iowa. Previously he had been spending some time in Panama, where he contracted a stubborn form of fever and was compelled to leave. Returning to New York, he had, after trying ineffectually all the usual medical treatment, been promptly cured by homeopathic remedies. Finally convinced of the efficacy of the treatment, he adopted its principles and entered with enthusiasm upon its practice:

Dr. Franklin was a descendant of the family of Benjamin Franklin. He was a pupil of Professor Valentine Matt, and graduated in medicine from the University of New York in 1846. He was a skilled surgeon, and the author of "Franklin's Surgery." His varied experience, added to his natural energy and ability, gave him a place of usefulness and influence in the profession and in the work of the college just started. Decided and aggressive in his views and strong in his prejudices, Dr. Franklin was a, "good hater," and never shunned a controversy with friend or foe. He was repeatedly engaged in disputes with those of opposing medical views through those early years, one of which carried on through the press with Professor M. L. Linton, of the St. Louis Medical College (allopathic) under the title of “Medical Science and Common Sense," excited much public interest. The breaking out of the war in 1861 interrupted the promising development of homeopathy at this period, affecting it in common with all other public interests. Many physicians entered the army, among them Dr. Franklin, as surgeon of a regiment of Missouri volunteers. On leaving the army he returned to St. Louis, and accepted the chair of surgery in the Homeopathic College. He remained for many years identified with the interests of the profession here, filling with honor, among other positions of prominence, those of president and vice president of the Western Academy of Homeopathy and of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

Several calls to other cities had been declined, but lin 1876 he went to fill the chair of surgery in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. Early in the "eighties" he returned to St. Louis, and remained in active practice till his death, in 1885. He was a firm friend of General Frank P. Blair, and his medical attendant in his last illness.

GIBKINS, DR. BERNARD
A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the Union by Louis Houck, Chicago: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, 1908.

Dr. Bernard Gibkins, a native of Germany, who afterward lived in Ste. Genevieve where he died in 1784, during the years 1779 and 1780 was also a resident physician of St. Louis.

 
GOODMAN, DR. C. H.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. C.H. Goodman, a physician of prominence, was a pupil of Dr. Helmuth, and a graduate of Hahnemann Medical College, of Philadelphia. Also a graduate of Yale, and a man of literary tastes and habits, he is a college worker (having occupied the chair of theory and practice in the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri for several years), one of the physicians of the Children's Hospital, and secretary of its medical staff. In the prime of life, with promise of a long and successful future, he enjoys a large practice among the best people of the community.

 
GUNDELACH, DR. W.J.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Among others who have long honored the new school practice we may mention Dr. Charles H. Gundelach, who, .after a long and successful practice, still remains and enjoys a special reputation in the treatment of children's diseases. His son, Dr. W. J. Gundelach. is associated with his father, and is one of the professors of the Homeopathic Medical College, of Missouri.

 
HELMUTH, DR. WILLAM TODD
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Another of the physicians who came to St. Louis about the time of the formation of the college, and whom St. Louis will always be proud to number among her citizens and professional men, was William Todd Helmuth, a young man who at the age of twenty-five had won for himself a reputation fast becoming national. Born and educated in Philadelphia, he graduated, at the age of twenty, at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. He early developed a fondness for surgery, and in 1855 he published his work entitled "Surgery and Its Adaptation to Homeopathic Practice."

On coming to St. Louis Dr. Helmuth entered with characteristic energy and zeal into all the public professional interests of the time. He was a member of the first faculty of the new college, filling the chair of anatomy, and afterward that of surgery; surgeon to the Good Samaritan Hospital;. represented St. Louis at the meeting of the American Institute in 1866 at New York, where he delivered the annual address, the following year becoming its president; at the same time being associated in a literary way with the homeopathic journals and the publication of monographs and other literary work; laboring in all this with enthusiasm, and at once carrying on a large and increasing practice with a success that constantly extended his already brilliant reputation. In 1864 he went to Europe to further his surgical observations and experiences. On his return, differences having arisen as to the management of the college, he, with Dr. Comstock, Dr. D. R. Luyties, and others organized a new college, called "The St. Louis College of Homeopathic Physicians and Surgeons," which, however, was short-lived, and after two sessions was amalgamated with the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri. In 1870 Dr. Helmuth accepted a call to the chair of surgery in the Homeopathic Medical College of New York City, where he still remains as dean of the college and an honored citizen.

 
KERSHAW, DR. J. MARTINE*
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. J. Martine Kershaw is another able physician for whom St. Louis is indebted to our own college, where he graduated about 1869. He has marked ability, indomitable energy and industry, and has established a first-class professional position. To his practice he has added occasionally literary work, contributing to the "Medical Journal," and, publishing various monographs, and is at present editor of the "Clinical Reporter."

 
LUYTIES, DR. R.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Another of these names is the late Dr. D. R. Luyties, the founder of Luyties' pharmacy, who was for thirty years honorably associated with the history of homeopathy in this city. After giving over the pharmacy to his brother, H.C. G. Luyties, he devoted himself to the practice of his profession, and acquired a large clientele, which at his death he left to his son, Dr. C. J. Luyties, an able practitioner and member of the faculty of the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri.

 
MARTIN, MEREDITH, M. D.
U.S. Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Missouri, U.S. Biographical Publishing Co., 1878.

Meredith Martin was born in Madison county, Kentucky, December 13, 1805. His father, Tyree Martin, was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, and his mother, Mourning Jones, was born in Greenbrier county, in the same state. Their parents immigrated to Kentucky in 1787 or thereabouts, and located in Madison county, where Tyree Martin and Miss Mourning Jones were married, and where they remained until 1816, when they removed to Missouri and settled in Boone county. The father was a farmer, to which occupation our subject was brought up until nearly grown, when, after receiving a common school education, such as was to be obtained at that early day in a backwoods school, he entered for a short time the office of a country physician, Dr. David Doyle, of Boone, Missouri, as a student of medicine.

He came to St. Louis in 1828 and remained for about three years in the office of Dr. B. G. Farrar. In the latter part of 1830, he went to Philadelphia and entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1832. Immediately after graduating he was appointed by the Hon. Lewis Cass, then Secretary of War, to vaccinate the Indians, and was ordered to the Sioux country, in the neighborhood of what was then called Fort Pierre, a trading post of the American Fur Company. He spent the summer and fall among the Sioux Indians, and returned to St. Louis in November, 1832. Soon after his return to St. Louis, he was taken into partnership by his former preceptor, Dr. B. G. Farrar, and remained with him until he retired from active practice.

Dr. Meredith Martin married Elizabeth M. Gay, daughter of John H. and Sophia M. Gay, of St. Louis, in the year 1838. They had seven children - four sons and three daughters - of whom three sons and two daughters are now living. His wife died in 1862, and in 1864 Dr. Martin married Mrs. Ellen M. Tracey, daughter of the late George Morton - an early resident of St. Louis. Their home life is very pleasant, with this worthy lady to preside over its interests.

Dr. Meredith Martin is now the oldest living physician in St. Louis, and only a few years ago he retired from practice. He was one of the original members of the St. Louis Medical Society, which Society was organized in 1833. He was its president three different terms, and is still a member, though he does not attend its meetings regularly.

In politics, Dr. Martin has always been an "Old Line Whig," but since the dissolution of that party has voted with the Democrats. Personally, he is a man of rare qualities; courteous and affable in manners, generous and benevolent in disposition, he is yet prompt and decided in all his dealings, and by an upright, honorable life, has not failed to leave upon all with whom he has had, to do the impress of his own manhood.

 
MERCIER, DR. CLAUDIO
Annals of St. Louis in its Early Days Under the French & Spanish Dominations by Billon, Frederic L., St. Louis, 1886.

Dr. Claudio Mercier came up to St. Louis from New Orleans early in 1786. His native place was Lavisiere, Dauphiny, France, where he was born in the year 1726. He had resided for a time in New Orleans, where he had acquired some property, and left a will there when he came up to St. Louis, which he had executed in 1784. He added a codicil to this will at St. Louis, dated May 17, 1786, in which he reaffirms his first will, emancipates his negro woman Francoise, gives one hundred dollars to the poor of St. Louis, and appoints John B. Sarpy his executor.

He died unmarried at St. Louis, on Jan. 20, 1787, aged sixty-one years. It does not appear that he practiced here.

 
MORGAN, DR. W.B.*
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

W. B. Morgan, A. M., M. D., came to St. Louis from Wisconsin in 1876, attended the I Homeopathic Medical College here, graduating in 1878. Soon after his graduation he became connected with his alma mater, holding the chair of anatomy for ten years, until he took that of surgery, which he still holds. Able and faithful in professional work, and giving freely of his time and services, he has always been identified with the interests of the profession, and has repeatedly served as president of the local medical society, and once as president of the Missouri Institute of Homeopathy.

 
MORRELL, DR. G.B.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. G. B. Morrell has been a prominent factor in matters medical, and was a professor in the Homeopathic Medical College, but an illness in his family drew him away froln the city for a long time. Recently he has returned, and now with a good bank account resides in quiet elegance with his amiable daughter. The doctor is again in active practice with a good clientele.

 
PARSONS, DR. SCOTT B.*
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

St. Louis has from the first been specially rich in its surgical talent. Few of the cities of the country have been able to boast of an equal number of surgeons of eminence. Some time before Dr. Helmuth left, Dr. Scott B. Parsons had come to St. Louis, a young practitioner, and had already attracted attention as a brilliant and successful lecturer and demonstrator of anatomy and surgery, a reputation which rapidly increased as he entered upon the practice of surgery as a specialty.

Dr. Parsons practically began his professional career in St. Louis. Born in Maine, he had graduated in medicine at an early age from the Hahnemann Medical College, of Chicago. Going abroad, he availed himself of the opportunity for medical study in Europe, spending a year in London, where he saw and heard the eminent English surgeon, Sir William Ferguson. Returning to America he settled in St. Louis, and at once became active in dispensary and college work, holding the chair of anatomy, and afterward for many years that of surgery. Through the past twenty-five years homeopathy in the college and city has had an able and strong supporter in Dr. Parsons, a representative to whom it can refer with pride and confidence. As a surgeon he works rapidly with a steadiness and assurance that is never disturbed, and opportunity for witnessing his operations has long been a privilege sought and valued by the profession. He is still in active practice, but his impaired health prevents his now engaging in special college work. His son, Dr. Scott E. Parsons, has recently graduated from our St. Louis College, and is following his father's specia1ty.

 
PHELAN, DR. R.A.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. R. A. Phelan has in years past given valuable assistance in public professional work and still continues in active practice.

REYNAL, DR. ANTOINE
Annals of St. Louis in its Early Days Under the French & Spanish Dominations by Billon, Frederic L., St. Louis, 1886.

Appears, from the archives, to have been the third surgeon in St. Louis, from about the year 1776. In the year 1777, he purchased from one Jean Huge, the west half of the block (now No. 60), on the east side of Third Street, from Market to Chestnut Streets, with a house of posts at the south end, fronting oil Market Street, opposite the Catholic graveyard. The north end of this lot at the southeast corner of Chestnut and Third Streets, is now occupied by the Missouri Republican building.

Reynal lived here for over twenty-three years, and then sold it to Eugenio Alvarez in November, 1799, removing to St. Charles, where he ended his days.

 
RICHARDSON, DR. WILLIAM C.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Another who has made a reputation in gynecological surgery and practice is Dr. William C. Richardson, and the Homeopathic Medical College in St. Louis is proud to number him among her graduates. He took his degree in 1868, and since that time has been constant in his interests and efforts on her behalf, and to him, perhaps, more than to any other one, she owes her present name and rank as an institution. At the time of her crisis in her history he will be remembered as coming to her rescue, and by his influence and activity doing much to secure for her friends and supporters.

At an early age he enlisted in the cavalry of the Union Army, remaining there until the close of the war, when he came to St. Louis, and made it his home; after his graduation he entered immediately upon the professional work here, which rapidly increased to a large practice. In 1872 he published his work on obstetrics. He has constantly filled positions in the college faculty, and at present, besides his professorship, holds the office of dean. Well known in city affairs, he is a member of various organizations, and has just entered upon his second term as public administrator of the city. Dr. Comstock is proud to say that Dr. Richardson commended the study of medicine in his office.

 
ROBINSON, DR. JOHN HAMILTON
Communicated by A. J. Morrison. 
Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, 1922

John Hamilton Robinson, son of David Robinson and Miriam Hamilton, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, Jan. 24, 1782. He was bred a physician and came to St. Louis shortly after the transfer of Louisiana to the United States. In 1806 and 1807 he was attached to Capt. Pike's celebrated party that went to Santa Fe and Chihuahau.

Captain Pike set down plainly what he thought of Dr. Robinson: "He has had the benefit of a liberal education, without having spent his time as too many of our gentlemen do in colleges, in skimming on the surfaces of sciences, without ever endeavoring to make themselves masters of the solid foundations. Robinson studied and reasoned; with these qualifications he possessed a liberality of mind too great even to reject an hypothesis because it was not agreeable to the dogmas of the schools; or adopt it because it had all the éclat of novelty.

"His soul could conceive great actions, and his hand was ready to achieve them,—in short, it may truly be said that nothing was above his genius, nor anything so minute that be considered it entirely unworthy of consideration. As a gentleman and companion in dangers, difficulties and hardships, I, in particular and the expedition generally owe much to his exertions." That statement was in print before the end of 1810.

Dr. Robinson at Santa Fe and in the Chihuahua neighborhood, temp. 1807, became very much interested in the fortunes of Mexico and in the outlook for a self-determining Mexico. In 1810 he persuaded Secretary Monroe to send him to Chihuahua on State business. Dr. Robinson made his reports during 1810 and 1811. Mr. Monroe was not ready to commit the United States to a militant sort of co-adjutorship in the affairs of the republicans of Mexico, and Dr. Robinson by the year 1813 was quite ready to be a filibuster.

In 1815 he cast in his lot with the revolutionists in Mexico, and ranked as general of brigade in their army as it was constituted from 1815 to 1819. And along with Gutierrez and Toledo, Dr. Robinson had been one of the first accredited representatives in the United States from the republicans of Mexico.

In 1816 William Davis Robinson of Georgetown, District of Columbia, went to Mexico to supply General Mina's army with muskets "at $2'0 the musket." He fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and was long held a prisoner in Mexico and in, Spain. The Spaniards at first thought he was Dr. Robinson, and throughout his troubles William Davis Robinson suffered the more because of his name. Both the Robinsons were men of brains and republican principles, and the Spanish authorities had reason to look out for them.

John Hamilton Robinson was early dissatisfied with the incidence of the Southwestern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1819 he published at Philadelphia a remarkable "Map of Mexico, Louisiana, and the Missouri Territory, including also the 'State of Mississippi, Alabama Territory, East and West Florida &c." This was a large-scale map, and Dr. Robinson desired in this way to draw the attention of the United States (and the attention of Secretary Adams) to Texas especially.

Niles' Register (XIV, 359), under the caption Small Difference! remarked at the time: "Dr. John H. Robinson's new map of Louisiana and Mexico is noticed in a Natchez newspaper. The boundary lines of the territorial claims of the United States and Spain are marked on this map." Niles then figured out the enormous acreage lying between the lines so marked. Niles was no annexationist and was not much interested in the map.

Natchez was the gateway to Texas from much of the United States for some years. Dr. Robinson, during his service in Mexico, 'had settled his family there. He had married at St. Louis Sophie Marie Michau. Several of their children died of yellow fever at Natchez during 1818, and the next year, Sept. 19, Dr. Robinson died there of the fever. His wife survived him many years. Their son, Antoine Saugrain Robinson, was living in St. Louis in 1888, at the age of seventy-nine. He was for many years cashier of the old Bank of Missouri.

Some day perhaps, Professor Joslin Cox of Northwestern University, will write a Life of Dr. Robinson. These notes have been thrown together because the subject is undoubtedly interesting and to emphasize the importance of gathering up for the biographical dictionary of the Virginia region a good many important western names. John Hamilton Robinson, as a subject for biography, is immensely interesting.

Consider the times, and the plans of Blount, Hamilton, Burr, Miranda, and how many others. It was not logical for the United States to stay fenced off from the Great South Sea. But the logic of the expansion was that America before and with the Revolution had bred the expansionists.

 
SAUGRAIN, DR. ANTOINE FRANCOIS
St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764-1911 by Walter Barlow Stevens, The S. J. Clarke publishing Co., 1911
See also - Brief Sketch of Antoine Saugrain by P. Davidson-Peters ©2009

To St. Louis, in 1800, came a physician and scientist who was to leave his impression on the community. Dr. Antoine Francois Saugrain may be called the father of the medical profession of St. Louis and the profession may feel honored thereby. He came to the United States on the advice of Benjamin Franklin when the latter was minister to France.

The young Frenchman, born in Versailles, highly educated and with developed taste for scientific investigation impressed Mr. Franklin as the kind of a man to make a valuable American. His first experience in this country was rather disheartening. After living nine years with the unfortunate French colony of Gallipolis on the Ohio river, Dr. Saugrain floated down the Ohio and made his way to St. Louis four years before the American occupation. With the Saugrains came the Michauds of Gallipolis.

Dr. Saugrain had married Genevieve Rosalie Michaud, eldest of the daughters of John Michaud. Two little girls, Rosalie and Eliza Saugrain, made the journey. They became the wives of Henry Von Phul and James Kennerly, the merchants. Other daughters of Dr. Saugrain married Major Thomas O'Neil, of the United States army, and John W. Reel, the St. Louis merchant. Descendants of the Saugrains and Michauds are numerous in this generation of St. Louisans.

Possibly the reason that the medical profession had attracted so little attention up to the coming of the Saugrains was because of the good health which the community enjoyed. The eldest daughter of the doctor remembered that when the family first came to St. Louis there were few cases of sickness. When Dr. Saugrain came, he discovered that the habitants were accustomed to go to Father Didier, the priest, when they felt bad. Father Didier would fix up teas from herbs and give simple remedies, without professing to be educated in medicine. Dr. Saugrain was a botanist. He depended largely upon vegetable compounds and upon brews from herbs which he grew in a wonderful garden that surrounded his house, or gathered in the wild state.

The first case of smallpox appeared in St. Louis the year after Dr. Saugrain came. With it came a problem that appealed to the scientific mind. The virtue of vaccination was accepted by Dr. Saugrain. As soon as he could supply himself with the material, Dr. Saugrain began a campaign of education. He published cards in the Gazette explaining the preventive. He informed "such physicians and other intelligent persons as reside beyond the limits of his accustomed practice that he will with much pleasure upon application furnish them with vaccine infection." But especially noteworthy, and characteristic of the medical profession in St. Louis in all its history, was the philanthropic position taken by Dr. Saugrain toward those so unfortunate as to be unable to protect themselves. "Persons in indigent circumstances," he wrote to the Gazette, "paupers and Indians will be vaccinated and attended gratis."

Note: Notice of Missouri Gazette dated 26 Mar 1809 reads: "Doctor Saugrain gives notice of the first vaccine matter brought to St. Louis. Indigent persons vaccinated gratuitously."


SAUGRAIN, DR. ANTOINE F.
A History of Missouri: from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the Union by Louis Houck, Chicago: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, 1908.

The most eminent of the early physicians was Dr. Antoine Saugrain, who came to St. Louis in 1800. He was a native of Paris, France, and removed to the United States in 1787. Dr. Saugrain was a man of great scientific attainment and a personal friend of Benjamin Franklin, at whose instance he emigrated to the United States. He first resided at Gallipolis, but moved to upper Louisiana, no doubt induced by the liberal land policy of the Spaniards. As to the general health of the country, Trudeau, in 1791, wrote that the "mortality has been heavy, and came only from colds in the chests," the only "dangerous illness" of the country; that in general work-people have been victims "because of the badly founded preconceptions of some against bleeding, and the lack of a blood-letter for others."

Dr. Saugrain was born in 1763, he married Genevieve Rosalie Michau, also born in Paris July 23, I776, in Kanawha county, Virginia, opposite Gallipolis, March 20, 1793. He first came to the United States with M. Piquet, a botanist, and M. Raquet, in I787; he then prepared to establish himself in Kentucky. Jefferson recommended him as well as Mr. Piquet warmly to General George Rogers Clark in a letter. (16 Draper's Notes, Trip 1860.) In the same year he went to Pittsburg, from Philadelphia, and on a flat boat descended the Ohio, where near the Falls of the Ohio the boat was attacked by the Indians. M. Piquet was wounded and drowned in the river, and M. Raquet killed and scalped by the Indians. Saugrain was captured, but in the night escaped with a man by the name of Pierce. After this experience Dr. Saugrain returned to France, but in 1790 returned and became one of the founders of Gallipolis, and in 1799 moved to Portage des Sioux between Missouri and Mississippi, and from there to St. Louis in 1800, where he received a large grant of land from DeLassus; was also at Carondelet. He died May 19, I820, his wife survived him forty years and died at the age of eighty-four, July 13, 1860.

 
SCHOTT, DR. A.H. *
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. A. H. Schott, an able physician and accurate prescriber, besides carrying on an increasing practice, has long served the college as professor of theory and practice.

SIMPSON, DR. ROBERT
Annals of St. Louis in its Territorial Days From 1804 to 1821 by Frederic L. Billon, St. Louis, 1888.

Doctor Robert Simpson was born in Charles County, Maryland, Nov. 1, 1785; when young he studied medicine at Philadelphia, and graduated at the College. In 1809 he was appointed Ass't Surgeon in the United States Army, and was ordered to St. Louis. In 1810 he accompanied the troops that established Fort Madison, Upper Mississippi, and remained one year, and then returned to St. Louis.

1811, June 27, Doctor Simpson was married to Miss Brecia Smith, from Massachusetts, sister of Mrs. Col. Rufus Easton. 1812, opened a Drug Store and appointed Postmaster to succeed Col. Easton. 1823, appointed Collector of St. Louis County. 1826, elected Sheriff of the County, and in 1828 re-elected the same, 1840 to 1846, served seven years as City Comptroller, and as Cashier of the Boatmen's Savings Institution.

Doctor Simpson died May 2, 1873, in his 88th year, his wife having preceded him. They had several sons, the last of whom, Symmes, died at Davenport, Iowa, Aug't 4, 1885, aged 72 years. Their only daughter, the wife of Gen. A. J. Smith, yet survives.

Note: Notice of Missouri Gazette reads: “DOCT. SIMPSON will practice Medicine and Surgery in the town and vicinity of St. Louis. Office lately occupied by Fergus Moorhead, in Manuel Lisa's house. July 25, 1812."

 
TEMPLE, DR. JOHN T.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

To Dr. John T. Temple, coming to St. Louis in 1844, is accorded the honor, as has been stated, of first introducing homeopathy in St. Louis. He was a native of Virginia, a pupil of the celebrated Dr. George Mc. Clelland of Philadelphia, and a graduate of the University of Maryland. After practicing for a time in Washington, he, in 1833, removed .to Chicago, where he adopted the homeopathic practice, and came to St. Louis in 1844. Here he enjoyed an extensive practice, and his clientele was among the first and most influential of our citizens. Shortly after Dr. Temple arrived in St. Louis, one of the professors of the St. Louis Medical College made an attack upon homeopathy through the medium of the public press. Dr. Temple made a forcible and exhaustive reply, but such was the state of hostility to the new practice that neither of the two medical journals nor any of the city papers could be induced to give it publication. Dr. Temple, however, immediately published it in pamphlet form for gratuitous circulation, and his statements and arguments found great favor with the public, gaining many friends for the new system among the lay people of the city. In 1848 he established the "Southwestern Homeopathic Journal," which was the first journal of the kind published west of the Mississippi. In 1849 he met with marked success in the management of epidemic cholera, as did also Drs. Spalding, Steinrestel, Vail and Granger, who had located in St. Louis .in 1846-7.

Dr. Temple later occupied the chair of professor of practice in the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri. A man of erudition and of genial disposition, he worked and labored most successfully for his loved profession, and when called hence he had already seen it established upon a firm basis in the city of his adoption.

 
VALENTINE, DR. PHILO G.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

In the necrological report of the transactions of the American Institute of Homeopathy for 1885, which met in St. Louis that year, is found the record of one who for, the preceding decade had made St. Louis his home, and who died the preceding December. Philo G. Valentine, A.M., M. D., a graduate of Ann Arbor University, and surgeon in the Confederate Army, came to St. Louis from Tennessee, and until a short time before his death had been well known in the medical fraternity. For many years he served as professor and registrar of the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri; he was founder and editor of the "St. Louis Clinical Review," and also a member of the State board of health, where he acquitted himself with honor, having been appointed by Governor Crittenden.

 
VALLEAU, JEAN BAPTISTE
St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764-1911 by Walter Barlow Stevens, The S. J. Clarke publishing Co., 1911

The second doctor that came to St. Louis was Jean Baptiste Valleau. He was French but was in the Spanish service, being surgeon of the force which Ulloa sent to build forts at the mouth of the Missouri in 1768. Dr. Valleau, evidently, intended to stay; he applied to St. Ange to assign him a lot and entered into a contract for the building of a house. The site given him was on Second and Pine streets where the Gay building was erected long afterwards. Dr. Valleau furnished the iron and nails. Tousignau, the carpenter, agreed to supply the posts and do all of the work on a house eighteen feet long by fourteen feet wide for $60. In the performance of his professional duties Valleau made frequent trips to Bellefontaine on the Missouri where the Spaniards were building the forts. Exposure to the hot sun brought on sickness.

Within a year after his coming, Dr. Valleau made his will and died. One of the principal assets of his estate was a box of playing cards, a gross of packs. Martin Duralde, the executor, had considerable trouble in disposing of the cards. The number of packs depressed the market. He waited two or three years and held an auction. In the history of St. Louis Dr. Valleau's will is the first recorded. The village was four and a half years old when he died.

 
 
VASTINE, DR.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. Vastine, a physician of education and ability, had come to St. Louis in 1848 from Pennsylvania, and for many years honored the profession by a successful career until his death. He was succeeded by his son, Dr. Charles Vastine, who practiced for twenty years, and who has now retired on account of ill health.

 
WALKER, DR. G.S.
Homeopathic Medicine by T. Griswold Comstock, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, ed. Hyde & Conrad, Southern History Co., NY, 1899.

Dr. G. S. Walker, who had been practicing in St. Louis since 1852, was recognized as a physician of ability, a man of. scientific tastes, and of honest and decided opinions. He was a native of Pennsylvania, received his medical education at Jefferson College, Philadelphia, and commenced practice in Pittsburgh in 1849. After spending three years in California he located in St. Louis. He became a member of the St. Louis Medical Society, but for a number of years he spent considerable time investigating the claims of homeopathy, and in 1860 he saw fit to change his practice entirely from allopathy to homeopathy. For this reason he was tried by the St. Louis Medical Society for his heresy, and was expelled from it by his former friends and associates. This, like other attacks prompted by ignorance and prejudice, especially when directed at a man of Dr. Walker's reputation for honesty and intelligence, could only serve to make him better known and lead to a more general understanding of homeopathic principles and practice.

The controversy seems to have excited general public interest outside as well as in medical circles. In all the various individual controversies into which Dr. Walker was called with his former colleagues, he had the advantage of the gentlemanly and liberal, as well as keen and scholarly spirit in which he justified his course and brought to public attention the weaknesses of the old, and the advantages of the new system.

In 1861 Dr. Walker entered the Union Army as surgeon of a regiment of Missouri Volunteers. Returning to the city in 1863, he again devoted himself to private practice, and was an influential factor in the medical life of the two succeeding decades. In 1888 he again went to California, where he remained until his death, which occurred at Los Angeles in 1895.

 
 
Medicine of Early St. Louis
Old Medical Terms & Their Definitions
Doctor Mrs. C.V. Moore Shingle & Letter of James A. Campbell
Clarissa (Pilcher) Moore's Medical College Commencement Exercise - March 4, 1886, Pickwick Hall.
Brief Sketches of Notable Dentists of St. Louis
 
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