Thank You so much for sharing this info with me.......
On 3/5/2017 11:47 PM, Elizabeth Hurd wrote:
"Rhode Island Medical Journal"
February, 1922
"In memoriam.
William James Burge, M. D., April 12, 1831 - May 28, 1921
Member of the Providence Medical Association from 1875. A graduate of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, 1853, and in
practice from then until the time of his death. Dr. Burge lived to a
greater age than any other member of the Providence Medical
Association with the exception of Dr. Francis L. Wheaton, who died in
1895, at the age of ninety-one, but he had withdrawn from active
membership in the Association many years before because of the
infirmities of old age, while it will be remembered that Dr. Burge
continued as a quite regular attendant at our meetings to the last
month of his life. Preserved in a remarkable way to a serene and
buoyant old age, he literally 'fell on sleep,' for retiring apparently
in his usual health on May 27, 1921, he was found dead in his bed the
next morning.
He was born in Wickford, Rhode Island, on April 12, 1931, the son of
Rev. Lemuel and Elizabeth Frances (Shaw) Burge, and Dr. Burge used to
say that his mother told him that at his birth he weighed less than
three and a half pounds and was so puny and lifeless that the nurse
set him aside, exclaiming, 'Poor little thing! 'Tis useless to do
anything for him!' Yet he attained a vigorous manhood and lived to be
ninety years old. His father was the rector of St. Paul's Episcopal
Church in Wickford - the next to the oldest Episcopal Church in Rhode
Island, founded in 1707. His father's father was James Birge, a farmer
of Litchfield, Connecticut, a Revolutionary soldier.
The older name of the family, which was of English descent, was Burge,
and that form of the name was assumed by his son. His mother's father
was Dr. William Gorham Shaw of Wickford, an Original Fellow of the
Rhode Island Medical Society, who died in 1864, at the age of
ninety-six. Through his mother's mother, Dr. Burge could trace his
ancestry to the Brentons and to Roger Williams.
Dr. Burge's preliminary education was in Washington Academy, Wickford,
and the Wesleyan Academy of the Providence Conference at East
Greenwich. Before and for a while after attending the latter school he
worked as an apprentice in the apothecary store of Edward T. Clark at
59 North Main Street, Providence, where William B. Blanding, then
hardly twenty, was the clerk, and a few years later took over the
business that has been conducted so successfully ever since by
himself, his son, the late William O. Blanding, and grandson. (Mr.
Edward T. Clark, by the way, was father of the late Dr. Franklin C.
Clark of Providence, a member of this Association.) But having
determined to become a physician rather than an apothecary, and after
two years' further study under the tuition of Rev. Silas A. Crane of
East Greenwich, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in
New York City, and in 1853 received the degree of Doctor of Medicine
from that institution, which was then located on Crosby Street. (In
January, 1856, the new building on Twenty-third Street was opened and
in 1860 the College of Physicians and Surgeons became the Medical
Department of Columbia University.)
Continuing in New York after graduation, he was for a tine connected
with the Surgical Department of the Central Dispensary on Centre
Street, and was also Outdoor Surgeon of the New York Lying-In Asylum.
In 1854 he settled in practice in Salisbury, Litchfield County,
Connecticut, but in 1856 removed to Brooklyn, New York, where for
three years he was associated with his brother, J. H. Hobart Burge, M.
D., University of New York, 1848. This was really a period of
post-graduate study, for his brother was an expert surgeon, of whom it
is said that he anticipated Dr. Gurdon Buck in the discovery and use
of the plan of treating fractures of the femur by what is known as
'Buck's Extension.' or traction by weight and pulley. Our Dr. Burge
then located in Taunton, Massachusetts, where he remained until, in
January, 1863, he enlisted in the Navy, and receiving the appointment
of Acting Assistant Surgeon, served as such until January 14, 1866. He
was the medical officer on the Ino, Albatross, Flag and Florida, on
blockade duty and on the Mississippi. The flagship Hartford ad the
Albatross were the only vessels of the fleet that got past the
batteries at Port Hudson in Farragut's expedition to the aid of
General Grant in the siege of Vicksburg. Dr. Burge had the naval medal
given to participants in distinguished services by the navy.
Upon his discharge from the navy, finding other physicians had taken
his place in Taunton, he went to Atchison, Kansas, where he practiced
until 1873, when he came to Pawtuxet, and, later removing his office
to Edgewood, was actively engaged in general practice until 1916, and
occasionally attended patients after that until the last days of his
life. So that in all he was a physician for sixty-eight years.
In the early eighties, Dr. Burge was for a number of years seriously
ill with what was considered to be cancer of the stomach, and little
hope was had for his recovery; yet he outlived all his attending
physicians, the last of whom was Dr. William J. McCaw, who made use of
lavage of the stomach, and to this in large part Dr. Burge felt that
he owed his recovery.
Dr. Burge took an active interest in the welfare of the community in
which he lived. When Trinity Chapel, now Trinity Episcopal Church, at
Pawtuxet, was organized (largely through the efforts of his sister) he
became Senior Warden, a post which he held until his death. He was
also one of the founders of the Edgewood Free Public Library and
chairman of its Library Committee.
Dr. Burge was a member of the American Medical Association, and served
as a delegate from the Rhode Island Medical Society on three of the
annual meetings of the National Society. He was elected a Fellow of
the Rhode Island Medical Society in June, 1874, and became a member of
the Providence Medical Society in 1875, and seldom was absent from
their meetings.
As a comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic he was connected with
Slocum Post, No. 10, in the Department of Rhode Island, and was
Surgeon of Slocum Post continuously from 1911.
He attended not only the annual encampments of the Department in Rhode
Island but also attended all the recent National Encampments of the
order, the last being that of Indianapolis in 1920; when through
eighty-nine he went on alone to Minneapolis to visit his daughter. He
was also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and one of
the few, of late years, who could remember talking with a grandfather
who fought in the Revolution. In politics he was always a Republican,
and he cast his first vote for John C. Fremont at the presidential
election in 1856.
Dr. Burge was twice married. His first wife was Frances Burling Vose
of Westerly, step-daughter of Rev. Thomas Vail, who afterwards became
Bishop of Kansas. They were married September 7, 1854, and she died in
1876. Four children were born: Edward and Frances, who died in
infancy; Mary Chandler, wife of the late John T. Jeter of Dallas,
Pennsylvania, and Bessie Vail, wife of Rev. George Buzzelle of St.
Andrew's Episcopal Church, Minneapolis.
On October 16, 1883, he married Mary (Doolittle) Arnold, daughter of
the late United States Senator James E. Doolittle of Wisconsin. She
died in 1913. They had two daughters: Dorothy Brenton, wife of Charles
R. Stark, Jr., of Brookline, Massachusetts, and Sara, wife of Karl
Rittman, with whom Dr. Burge made his home at 180 Albert Avenue,
Edgewood, since 1916.
Dr. Burge was devoted to his family and his home, and he was proud of
his children's children and his great-grandchildren. Would that he
could have gathered his entire family about him for a group picture!
It would have included not only those already mentioned but thirty now
living of the seventeen grandchildren and fifteen of the
great-grandchildren that had been born before he died.
He was a good physician, bringing cheer and help to his patients, and
inspiring them with courage. He was also of an inventive bent, and
many practical appliances may be credited to his ingenuity - among
them a sure-cut scissors, a wire (removable) basket to fit the inside
of a wash-boiler, a folding trellis for plants of vines, and an
appliance such as is now used for clearing mist from the front of an
auto wind-shield, though his idea was that it should be used on the
street cars. But most important was an emery wheel to be used by
manufacturing jewelers, who previously had been using wheels made of
emery paper or other fabric fastened to wooden disks. He neglected
making application for a patent, as he was then about to join the
navy, and when he returned fro the war another person had obtained a
patent for it.
Our Dr. Burge also had a poetic gift. His verses dedicated to the
memory of Dr. J. W. C. Ely, who died soon after the long to be
remembered dinner given in 1906 in commemoration of his having
completed sixty years of practice, were well conceived and well
completed. Less familiar is the briefer tribute to the memory of Dr.
Capron, who died in 1882 at the age of eighty-two.
'Dr. George Capron.
'Dead; didst thou say? Such men can never die!
His work has wearied him, so let him lie,
And take the sweet God-given rest
Prepared for those whose deeds are blest.
Long has he toiled, and earnestly as long,
To heal the sick and make the feeble strong.
His task is nobly done; so let him sleep
Till he awakens, his reward to reap.'
The lines may well be inscribed to the memory of Dr. William J. Burge.
He toiled long and well, and 'laid him down to sleep.'
Thus in review have been placed the milestones, as it were, in the
life-history of Dr. Burge, but by those of us who knew him how much
must be read between those biographic lines, of the fullness of the
four score years and ten of his eventful life, for it was surely an
active, useful life, a life of service to his kindred, his neighbor,
his church, his country. And, best of all, his life of service
continued to the end.
How gladly we remember his constant attendance on our meetings and how
he came among us, our oldest member, our 'grand old man,' as we often
called him, and still as young as the youngest in his alert, genial,
friendly manner, his interest, his pleasure in the lunch, the smoke,
the chat, his readiness with story and reminiscence.
And at the meeting's close we not still see him rise quickly, stand
erect and with all courtesy and evident enjoyment move adjournment?
Let us cherish the memory and example of such a man whose long life
was an open book, who loved and served his fellow-men, whose faith in
God and a future life was impregnable.
Some of us knew Dr. Burge in his home life in recent years, and saw a
beautiful example of the love and trust sometimes existing between the
very old and the very young, and we are glad that his last years were
happy ones, that he was tenderly cared for by his own, that he was
bright and active to the end and knew no period of illness and pain,
but rather fell asleep, like as a child, to awake to the morning of
another life.
With respect and affection let us, his brothers, rejoice that in the
words of the service he loved so well, it was vouchsafed unto him 'in
health and prosperity long to live' and that the unheralded transition
found him prepared.
By request of the President, submitted jointly by
Charles H. Leonard, M.D.
William R. White, M.D.'
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