Dr. Alfred H. Graham (1824-1895) - Physician and Civil War Veteran

 

PCA Archives

Alfred Hamilton Graham was born about 1824 in Beattie’s Ford, Lincoln County, North Carolina, to John Davidson Graham and his first wife, Ann Elizabeth Connor. 

Ann Elizabeth died in 1836 after bearing fourteen children. John Davidson Graham remarried but died in 1847. The federal census of 1850 shows Alfred living with his step-mother, Jane Elizabeth Johnston Graham, and three half-siblings. 

In 1853, Graham enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania. Two years later, he received his medical degree. From 1856 to 1857, he was an assistant surgeon at Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia.

It is not known exactly when or why Graham came to be in Texas. However, by 1860 he was accompanying George Wythe Baylor’s Rangers as a field surgeon while the Rangers patrolled the western frontier of Texas to protect settlers from the Comanches.  

Graham was in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, when he married Mary Louise Mason on March 20, 1861. Their first son, Charles, was born in February of the following year.

On March 15, 1862, Graham joined the Confederate Army, enlisting in Company F, 18th Texas Cavalry (Darnell’s Regiment) as ‘acting surgeon’.  His unit was already fighting in the eastern United States as part of the Army of Tennessee when Vicksburg fell in July, 1863.

As the war ground on, recordkeeping in the Confederate Army became rather spotty.  No discharge papers for Graham have been found; however, owing to the fact that Graham’s wife gave birth to a daughter, Mary, on May 31, 1864, it seems likely that Graham was back home in Texas by September, 1863. The Grahams had two more sons in 1865 and 1868.

After the War, Graham resumed his medical practice and also purchased land in Williamson County.  An amateur archaeologist, he excavated and identified some cretaceous-period fossils and sent them to his alma mater in 1874.  He is also said to have written and published a number of accounts and articles about his Civil War experiences.

By 1880, Graham and his wife had also added three more children—Maggie, Mary Louise and James—to the family.  Graham continued to practice medicine in Bagdad and Lampasas, Texas, until about 1890.

Graham was in Phoenix when he died pneumonia on May 3, 1895.  He may have gone there in 1894 for his health.  There is some disagreement over whether he died of consumption, pneumonia, heart failure--or all three.  He was buried in Porter Cemetery under the auspices of the Odd Fellows, the Masons and the Ex-Confederate Association.

Graham’s widow Mary was still living in Houston, Texas in 1919.  She died in Williamson County in September, 1923.

A Graham family photo from 1881 is in the archives of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

Dr. Joshua A. Miller Jr. (1846-1901) - Superintendent of the Insane Asylum

 

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Joshua Abston Miller, Jr., was born in Macon County, Missouri, on May 5, 1846.  His parents were Joshua A. Miller, Sr., and Nancy Jane Turner. 

Joshua attended high school on the other side of the Missouri River in Brownville, Nebraska, with the intention of becoming a physician.  Under the tutelage of Dr. William Arnold, he applied for and was admitted to the University of Michigan medical school in 1868. 

While a medical student in Michigan, Miller met and married Mary Crampton on September 21, 1869.  Upon graduation in 1872, Miller opened a practice in Michigan.

In 1879, Miller traveled to New York to gain additional experience at Belleview Hospital.  He then moved his family to Kansas City in 1882, where he helped establish a medical school at the University of Kansas City.   He was for six years the head of orthopedic surgery there.

Perhaps the deaths of two of their young children had strained Joshua’s and Mary’s marriage to the breaking point.  At any rate, she does not appear to have accompanied Miller when he moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 1888.  On December 16, 1890, Miller married his second wife, Minnie Hume, in Prescott.

In 1892, Gov. N. O. Murphy appointed Miller superintendent of the territorial insane asylum in Phoenix.  When Miller assumed his position, there were 87 inmates, some of whom had originally been sent to asylums in California.  Having them back in Phoenix made it possible for family members to visit and see that they were properly cared for. It appears that Miller took his responsibilities seriously.  He had the asylum grounds landscaped with trees and walkways.  His wife Minnie, who was a nurse, served as matron.

In 1898, Gov. Murphy again appointed Dr. Miller to take over management of the insane asylum from outgoing superintendent Dr. Hamblin.  This time, there were 177 patients. 

 One of Miller’s accomplishments was to help found the Maricopa County Medical Society so that the 12 to 14 medical practitioners in the Salt River Valley could meet regularly to discuss new developments in their profession.

Scientific curiosity led to Miller’s interest in prehistoric societies of the American Southwest.  In 1895, he was elected president of the Arizona Antiquarian Society and in 1901 he conducted the first excavation of Pueblo Grande, a prehistoric site east of Phoenix. 

Dr. Miller was on his way to New Mexico on Saturday, July 19, 1901, to observe the annual Hopi snake dance at Walpi when he fell ill and had to get off the train at Flagstaff.   Taken to a hospital there, he was diagnosed with pneumonia.  He died on the evening of July 22nd.  His body was returned to Phoenix for burial in Rosedale Cemetery.

by Donna L. Carr

 

Dr. Edward Nathan Gerard (1834-1904) - Physician and Surgeon

 

Photograph attached to Gerard’s Find A Grave memorial, #50912700

Edward Nathan Gerard was born in Rensselaer, Ralls County, Missouri, in 1834.   He was the youngest child of William Gerard and his second wife, Elizabeth Ann Ayres.  The Gerards had moved to Missouri around 1814.  By 1850, William was successful farmer, with an estate reportedly worth about $3000.  He went on to be elected to the Missouri State Legislature.

 On June 18, 1857, Edward married Priscilla Drane in Marion, Missouri.

Determined to go into the medical profession, Edward studied first with Dr. J. B. Hayes, a local physician.  Then he moved to Keokuk, Iowa, to study at the University of Iowa Medical School.   His wife Priscilla seems to have remained in Rensselaer, as their three oldest children were all born in Missouri.  After Edward graduated in 1861, the Gerards settled on a farm near Monroe City, Missouri.  To date, no evidence has been found of Edward serving during the Civil War.

In June, 1864, the Gerards moved to the town of Shelbina, where Dr. Gerard opened an office.  He took Dr. Jacob D. Smith into his practice in 1873, a partnership that lasted until 1876.   Gerard was said to be an able surgeon, and he was active in local medical societies.

Dr. Gerard practiced medicine in Missouri until 1895.  Then, their children grown, the Gerards moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Gerard continued to see patients at his office on Washington Street, in the Irvine Block.

In 1900, Dr. Gerard returned to Missouri and brought back with him his son William Wilson Gerard, a schoolmaster who had contracted tuberculosis.  At this point, the Gerard family relocated to Mesa.  Unfortunately, William did not recover; he died on November 9, 1903, and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.

Dr. Gerard’s health was deteriorating, too.  He died in Mesa of chronic cystitis on March 18, 1904.  The funeral took place at Trinity Episcopal Church in Phoenix, followed by interment in the family plot in Rosedale. 

After Gerard’s widow Priscilla died February 20, 1913, in Oakland, California, her remains were brought back to Phoenix for burial.  In 1920, family members had all three burials removed to Greenwood Cemetery.

 -by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Dr. Carl Wormser (1856 - 1905) - A Trip for Naught

Dr. Wormser
 PCA Archives

Dr. Carl P. Wormser was born August 21, 1856, in Nijverdal, Overijse'll, the Netherlands. He was the son of Hendrik Wormser and M. Arends. He arrived in the United States September 9, 1874, whereupon he became a resident of Michigan. Although two of his half-brothers entered the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church, Carl Wormser attended Columbia College’s School of Medicine, graduating with the class of 1878-1879. Following graduation, he returned to Michigan, where he married Helena Hoedemaker on March 8, 1881. Dr. Wormser then returned to New York to practice medicine.

Around 1883 he removed to Orange City, Iowa, and set up practice. There was a significant Dutch community in Orange City and other members of the Wormser family had come to the area several years prior to his arrival. Dr. Wormser’s practice proved prosperous, and he invested some of the proceeds in real estate.

Dr. Wormser was an avid fisherman and, like a true Dutchman, enjoyed being near water. In 1892, he and three other businessmen from Orange City pooled their resources to purchase a summer cottage on Miller’s Bay, where they and their families could vacation.

According to a local newspaper, by 1903 Dr. Wormser was suffering from Bright’s disease. Having disposed of his real estate holdings in Iowa, he hired a private rail car and left for Phoenix on November 25, 1903, in hopes that a warmer climate might prolong his life. The rental of the private rail car alone cost $1195. Because his condition was so grave, he was accompanied by his wife, his three daughters, and two of his colleagues, Dr. De Lespinasse and Professor Soulen. Unfortunately, the trip was for naught as Wormser died in Phoenix of asthma on December 24th. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.

His widow and daughters moved on to California, where Mrs. Helena Wormser died May 28, 1904. Her remains were returned to Phoenix for burial next to her husband.

By Patty G.

Dr. Scott Helm (1862-1897) - Surgeon-General of Arizona

 

Arizona Memory Project

We are running bios this month on physicians.  This is a repost of Dr. Helm, who is still a notable Phoenix figure even today!

A native of Kentucky, Dr. Helm was a graduate of Princeton College, Rush Medical College in Chicago and Heidelberg University in Germany. He was undoubtedly one of the best educated and respected physicians in Arizona. In 1891, he joined the National Guard of Arizona.  

He was appointed surgeon-general, serving in that post for six years. During that time, he tirelessly promoted Arizona in medical journals as an ideal destination for sufferers of tuberculosis, arthritis and other ailments. He was also an active member of several fraternal organizations.

In 1889, he met Miss Norma Jackson, a Southern belle who had come to Arizona for her health. They were married 12 February 1890. Unfortunately, even his expert ministrations could not cure Norma, for she died on 30 April 1891 at the age of 28.

In July 1891, Dr. Helm was accused by two other physicians of having performed an abortion on Alice White, granddaughter of Ira Stroud of Phoenix. The case went to trial and, in March 1892, Dr. Helm was acquitted of any wrongdoing. Later in 1892, Dr. Helm married Miss Jane Beeler.

Helm loved horses, but he told friends that he would probably meet his death in a horse-related accident. His premonition came true on 8 October 1897. He was at the train station in downtown Phoenix when his fractious horse, Montrose, reared and fell, throwing Dr. Helm to the pavement. Dr. Helm died two hours later of intracranial bleeding. An impressive obelisk of polished red granite marks his grave, which is on the walking tour of Porter Cemetery. 

By Donna Carr

PCA Archives