Bennet, Sanford Fillmore (21 June 1836–11 June 1898), physician and writer of popular verses and hymn texts, was born in Eden, New York, the son of Robert Bennet and Sally Kent. After spending his early years in New York, Bennet moved with his family to Lake County, Illinois. By the age of eighteen Bennet was teaching school in Wauconda, Illinois. In 1858 he entered the University of Michigan but did not complete a degree there, deciding instead to accept a position as the head of the Richmond, Illinois school district. After his marriage to Gertrude Crosby Johonnatt, Bennet moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where he became co-owner and editor of the ...
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Bennet, Sanford Fillmore (1836-1898), physician and writer of popular verses and hymn texts
Barbara L. Tischler
Article
Bennett, John Cook (1804-1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur
Michael Quinn
Bennett, John Cook (03 August 1804–05 August 1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur, was born in Fair Haven, Bristol County, Massachusetts, the son of John Bennett, a shipowner, and Abigail Cook. At his father’s death in 1817, he moved with his mother to Ohio to stay with relatives. In 1825, after a three-year apprenticeship with a physician and an oral examination by an Ohio medical society, Bennett received his M.D. and a license to practice. That year he married Mary Barker; they had three children. There is no evidence supporting his claim to have attended Ohio University or McGill College in Montreal; he did, however, become a Freemason in 1826....
Article
Caldwell, David (1725-1824), Presbyterian minister, self-trained physician, and schoolmaster
Robert M. Calhoon
Caldwell, David (22 March 1725–25 August 1824), Presbyterian minister, self-trained physician, and schoolmaster, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Andrew Caldwell and Ann Stewart, farmers. At the age of seventeen Caldwell became a carpenter’s apprentice and four years later a journeyman carpenter. At age twenty-five he experienced a religious conversion and a call to the ministry. He studied at the Reverend ...
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Child, Robert (1613-1654), physician and Remonstrant against Puritan rule in Massachusetts
Carol Sue Humphrey
Child, Robert (1613–1654), physician and Remonstrant against Puritan rule in Massachusetts, was born in Kent, England, the son of John Child, a gentleman farmer (mother’s name unknown). He attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1632 and his M.A. in 1635. He then studied medicine in Europe, first at the University of Leyden and then the University of Padua, from which he received his M.D. on 13 August 1638....
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Dods, John Bovee (1795-1872), amateur physician and popular author and lecturer on mesmerism and Spiritualism
Bret E. Carroll
Dods, John Bovee (26 September 1795–21 March 1872), amateur physician and popular author and lecturer on mesmerism and Spiritualism, was born Johannes Dods Bovee in the town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, the son of Jacob Mathias Bovee, a farmer and merchant, and Jane Dods. After serving in the War of 1812, he took as his surname Dods, probably out of respect for the maternal uncle who cared for him after his father’s untimely death. Little is known about his early education, but his father’s will stipulated that he “be educated in wreading [ ...
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Dooley, Thomas Anthony, III (1927-1961), medical missionary
James Terence Fisher
Dooley, Thomas Anthony, III (17 January 1927–18 January 1961), medical missionary, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Thomas A. Dooley, Jr., a railroad executive, and Agnes Wise. Dooley was raised in a devoutly Catholic, upper middle-class Irish-American family in St. Louis. After enrolling at the University of Notre Dame in 1944, Dooley enlisted in the navy’s corpsman program and served at a naval hospital in New York. In 1946 he returned to Notre Dame and in 1948 entered St. Louis University Medical School, where he was known for impulsive acts of kindness to young hospital patients. A careless student, he was forced to repeat his final year of medical school before graduating near the bottom of his class in 1953. He reenlisted in the navy and served his residency at Camp Pendleton, California, prior to duty at the naval base in Yokusuka, Japan. In August 1954 Dooley was assigned to temporary duty on the USS ...
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Dooley, Thomas Anthony, III (1927-1961)
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Thomas A. Dooley. Examining an ill child in northern Laos. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-109669).
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Fishberg, Maurice (1872-1934), physician, anthropologist, and Jewish community worker
Eric L. Goldstein
Fishberg, Maurice (16 August 1872–30 August 1934), physician, anthropologist, and Jewish community worker, was born in Kamenets-Podolski, Russia, the son of Philip Fishberg and Kate Moverman. Raised in a traditional Jewish household, Fishberg was introduced to modern scientific study in a Russian government school before immigrating to the United States in 1890. He attended the Medical College of New York University, where he received his M.D. in 1897. That same year he married Bertha Cantor; they had two children. Fishberg was initially engaged in private practice on New York’s Lower East Side, later securing a post as chief medical examiner for the city’s United Hebrew Charities. There Fishberg treated immigrant patients who relied on the support of the Jewish community and made recommendations to community leaders on how social conditions and medical care for the Jewish poor could be improved. While at the United Hebrew Charities, Fishberg became concerned with the attempts of immigration restrictionists to paint Jewish immigrants as carriers of disease. His early medical scholarship, therefore, mustered scientific data in an attempt to dispel myths concerning “Jewish pathology,” particularly the common accusation that immigrants were responsible for the spread of tuberculosis. Fishberg demonstrated, in fact, that Jews were more immune to tuberculosis than other immigrants, a fact he attributed to their religious customs and previous exposure to urban life in European towns and cities....
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Gibbons, William (1781-1845), physician and Quaker reformer
H. Larry Ingle
Gibbons, William (10 August 1781–25 July 1845), physician and Quaker reformer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of James Gibbons, a teacher, farmer, and conveyancer, and Eleanor Peters. Descended from some of Pennsylvania’s first settlers, Gibbons was privately educated and then attended the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received an M.D. in 1805, having studied with ...
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Gulick, Luther Halsey (1828-1891), missionary physician and administrator
David M. Stowe
Gulick, Luther Halsey (10 June 1828–08 April 1891), missionary physician and administrator, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the eldest son of Peter Johnson Gulick and Fanny Hinckley Thomas, missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). After early years in Hawaii, Gulick was sent to the mainland for education. He graduated from Auburn Academy, New York, attended the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and on 9 March 1850 received the M.D. from New York University. While a medical student he engaged in city missionary work and began attending lectures at Union Theological Seminary. On 5 October 1851 he was ordained as a Congregational minister at Broadway Tabernacle, New York City. Two weeks later, on 29 October, he married Louisa Mitchell Lewis, who had been educated at Rutgers Seminary, New York City, had spent two winters in North Carolina teaching, and before her marriage was doing city missionary work in New York. They had seven children....
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Hepburn, James Curtis (1815-1911), medical missionary, oculist, and lexicographer
Sam Alewitz
Hepburn, James Curtis (13 March 1815–21 September 1911), medical missionary, oculist, and lexicographer, was born in Milton, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel Hepburn, a lawyer, and Ann Clay, the daughter of the Reverend Slator Clay. Hepburn received his early education at home and at the Milton Academy. At the age of fourteen he matriculated as a junior in Princeton College, from which he graduated in 1832. He began his medical studies with Dr. Samuel Pollack of Milton, Pennsylvania, and then attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, from which he graduated with an M.D. in 1836. In 1835 he was awarded an A.M. by Princeton College....
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Judd, Gerrit Parmele (1803-1873), physician, medical missionary, and Hawaiian government official and adviser
Lela Goodell
Judd, Gerrit Parmele (23 April 1803–12 July 1873), physician, medical missionary, and Hawaiian government official and adviser, was born in Paris, New York, the son of Elnathan Judd, Jr., a physician, and Betsey Hastings. Being the eldest son of a physician, Judd took an early interest in the medical profession and attended medical school in Fairfield, Herkimer County, where he received his M.D. in 1825. In 1826 Judd dedicated his life to the missionary cause as directed by the Boston-based Congregational American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). At this time the board was recruiting missionaries for the third company to join the Sandwich Islands Mission in Hawaii in the fall of 1827....
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McLean, Mary Hancock (1861-1930), physician and missionary
Elizabeth D. Schafer
McLean, Mary Hancock (28 February 1861–17 May 1930), physician and missionary, was born in Washington, Missouri, the daughter of Elijah McLean, a physician, and Mary Stafford. She enjoyed a privileged childhood. Her father wanted her to succeed academically; he hired a private tutor and provided Mary with an ample allowance throughout her life. At age thirteen she enrolled at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri. In 1878 she transferred to Vassar College, from which she graduated two years later. McLean aspired to be a physician like her father and was accepted at the University of Michigan Medical School, an institution then more receptive than others to female students....
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McLean, Mary Hancock (1861-1930)
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Mary Hancock McLean. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine (B018336).
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Parker, Peter (1804-1888), medical missionary and diplomat
Amalie M. Kass
Parker, Peter (18 June 1804–10 January 1888), medical missionary and diplomat, was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, the son of Nathan Parker and Catherine Murdock, farmers. The member of a family of devout Calvinists, Parker had a series of religious experiences at the age of fourteen or fifteen that reinforced his overwhelming fear of sin but promised salvation through Jesus....
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Quintard, Charles Todd (1824-1898), physician and Protestant Episcopal bishop
Paul Thigpen
Quintard, Charles Todd (22 December 1824–15 February 1898), physician and Protestant Episcopal bishop, was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Isaac Quintard and Clarissa Hoyt Shaw. He attended Columbia College (N.Y.) and the medical college of the University of the City of New York, where he received the M.D. in 1847....
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Randolph, Paschal Beverly (1825-1875), physician, philosopher, and author
C. E. Lindgren
Randolph, Paschal Beverly (08 October 1825–29 July 1875), physician, philosopher, and author, was born in New York City, the son of William Beverly Randolph, a plantation owner, and Flora Beverly, a barmaid. At the age of five or seven Randolph lost his mother to smallpox, and with her the only love he had known. Randolph later stated, “I was born ...
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Savage, Thomas Staughton (1804-1880), Episcopal clergyman, missionary, and physician
Donald S. Armentrout
Savage, Thomas Staughton (07 June 1804–29 December 1880), Episcopal clergyman, missionary, and physician, was born in Middletown (now Cromwell), Connecticut, the son of Josiah Savage, a ship owner and trader, and Mary Roberts. He was raised a Congregationalist in a wealthy family and attended Yale College, from which he graduated in 1825. He received his M.D. from the Yale Medical School in 1833 and then traveled extensively throughout the United States. Savage then entered the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, from which he graduated in 1836. He was ordained deacon on 17 July 1836 and priest on 23 October 1836....
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Scudder, Ida Sophia (1870-1960), medical missionary and founder of the Vellore Medical College
Robert Stuart Jumonville
Scudder, Ida Sophia (09 December 1870–24 May 1960), medical missionary and founder of the Vellore Medical College, was born in Ranipet, India, the daughter of John Scudder II, a medical missionary, and Sophia Weld. Scudder was born into the third generation of a missionary family that would eventually boast more than one thousand years of combined service abroad....
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Scudder, John (1793-1855), first medical missionary from the United States
Gary J. Bekker
Scudder, John (03 September 1793–13 January 1855), first medical missionary from the United States, was born in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, the son of Joseph Scudder, a lawyer, and Maria Johnston. As a child Scudder often roamed the streets of Freehold gathering kindling for poor people. He earned a degree from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1811. In 1813 he married Harriet Waterbury; they had thirteen children, three of whom died while very young....
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