"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ninety-one, but he had withdrawn from active membership in the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.'