NORFOLK (CITY), VIRGINIA - BIOGRAPHIES - FAMOUS NORFOLK DOCTORS Dr. George Balfour Dr. Alexander Whitehead Dr. William Boswell Selden Dr. John T. Barraud Dr. James Taylor Dr. Oliveira Fernandez Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Donna Bluemink http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008395 http://usgwarchives.net/va/norfolkcity/bios/biosdoctors.html A letter from Chancellor Hugh Blair Grigsby of the College of William & Mary to Dr. Robert B. Tunstall of Norfolk, VA Published in the Norfolk Landmark, Thursday morning, May 4th, 1876 Smithville P. O., Charlotte Co., VA, April 21, 1876 My Dear Doctor: Your letter of inquiry about the medical men of Norfolk of the olden time was received by the last mail, and I hasten to reply to it; and, first, the most eminent physician Virginia has seen since the Revolution was Dr. James McCluy, of Richmond. He was born in Hampton, studied at William and Mary College, graduated doctor of medicine in Edinburgh in 1770, practiced in Williamsburg until 1783, when he removed to Richmond, where he was the head of his profession until July 9th, 1825, when he was killed by the accident of his horse running away with his carriage which was dashed to pieces. Even as a student he was skilled in physiology, and in his inaugural thesis on Bile advanced some novel and striking theories which have been verified in the lapse of years. He was critically skilled in literature, wrote verses gracefully, and was so conversant with affairs that he was chosen by Virginia to a seat in the famous General Federal Convention which met in Philadelphia in May, 1787, and which framed the present Federal Constitution. His daughter married the celebrated John Wickham, and was the belle of her generation. But you will find a full sketch of Dr. McCluy in the Richmond Medical Journal of some years back, by Dr. McCaw, which will afford all the information you need. Dr. Cabell might obtain from Dr. McCaw a succinct memoir of the most distinguished medical man Virginia had then produced. DR. GEORGE BALFOUR The Norfolk physicians you mention deserve a prominent notice. Dr. George Balfour was born in Hampton about 1773, and died in Norfolk in 1830. His father was an officer of the customs, a position of distinction in that day, and resided on Little Scotland, near Hampton, a place of some reputation before and since. The family was Scotch. Dr. George attended several courses of lectures in Philadelphia, after having served a regular apprenticeship of seven years, as was the order of the time, in the office of Doctors Taylor and Hansford, the elder. Such was the demand for physicians at that period both for military and naval life, and for private practice, that studentss left the University at the close of the lectures, and few remained to graduate. The doctor entered the army and was with General Anthony Wayne when that hero died in 1796, at Presque Isle. He afterwards entered the navy, and in 1800, having received from the administration of the elder Adams the appointment of surgeon of the Marine Hospital at Norfolk, resigned his naval commission, and settled himself in Norfolk, but he had hardly reached his new home when Mr. Jefferson became President; and the first office of the new administration was to revoke the appointments made in the dying hours of the old. The doctor was succeeded by Dr. Barraud and directed his whole attention to his private practice, which soon became extensive, not only in the town, but in the neighboring country. He was not only engaged in the practice of physic, but had a high reputation as a surgeon, and he was called upon to perform almost exclusively the nicer operations of the art. He was skilled in his dressings for fractures; and his splints which he made himself, and the fitness of his bandages, attracted the admiration of his professional brethren. Though irascible and ready at any moment to settle with an opponent in any way agreeable to him, he was the kindest and most charitable of men. His last years were attended by a long train of suffering from a cancer in his stomach, which reduced to him a skeleton; and though dying at the moderate age fifty-six or seven, he had the appearancxe of eighty. He was not a member of any denomination of the Christians, and had some peculiar religious opinions of his own, but the Bible was his constant study, and it was his usual practice to show the redaction of the doctrines of our Masonic Brethren from every page of that book. He was buried in the old Church-yard in Hampton, where a neat marble monument reared by his son, Dr. E. O. Balfour, and suitably inscribed with the services of the deceased, marks his place of interment. DR. ALEXANDER WHITEHEAD But the physician who in elegant scholarship, and especially in a knowledge of Latin and Greek, and in the mastery of the intellectual departments of medicine stood a head and shoulders above all his cotemporaries in Norfolk, and in the State at large, was Dr. Alexander Whitehead. He was born in Scotland, received his academical education at the University of Edinburgh, and in the prime of youth settled in Norfolk, where he opened a select school in which the Latin, Greek and French languages and mathematics were taught with a fullness of illustration, that put his institution on a level with the first colleges of that generation. Among his pupils I need only recall the names of Robert B. Taylor, William Maxwell and the Lees, in law and politics, and those of William Boswell Selden, of John Hodges and Joel Martin in medicine. About the close of the last century he determined to relinquish his school, and to study medicine; and accompanied by two of his promising pupils, the late John Hodges and the late William B. Selden, embarked for Scotland, and all of them attended the medical lectures in Edinburgh, the medical Faculty of which city then presented a brilliant array of genius and worth. Although Dr. Whitehead attended the lectures in Edinburgh, he was led by some financial reasons to take his degree at the University of Glasgow, and immediately returned to Norfolk, where in due time he formed a partnership with his former pupil and recent classmate, Dr. Selden, and practiced his profession with great success. In old age, owing mainly to a severe internal malady which made locomotion painful, he withdrew from practice, and again opened a classical school, which was soon filled to overflowing with the first young men of the town. He was an exalted specimen of the accomplished scholar. He never through life intermitted his Latin and Greek studies, and in his old age he read Xenophon and Homer with the zest of youth; and as he read to his class, when he was enduring no slight pain from his disease, the touching interview of the priest of Apollo with Agamemnon, his breast has been seen to heave, and tears of sympathy for the heart-broken father to flow down his cheeks. He died about the age of seventy, at his residence on Main Street, nearly opposite to the old Town Hall, about 1826 or '27, and was buried in the church-yard of St. Paul's, near its northwest angle, by the side of a lovely daughter who had preceded him to the grave. He left no male descendant. DR. WILLIAM BOSWELL SELDEN Of all the physicians of Norfolk before or since the Revolution of 1776, the career of Dr. William Boswell Selden, whether we regard its continuous length of years, its steadfast devotion to the profession of medicine, or the palpable results of professional and financial success, was the most conspicuous. He was the son of the Rev. Mr. Wm. Selden, of Hampton, and was born in that town on the 31st day of August, 1773, attended the school of Dr. Alexander Whitehead (with whom he was associated for so many years in the practice of physic,) in which he acquired a knowledge of Latin, which he retained through life, and a taste for elegant literature, which not only amused his leisure hours, but impelled him to take an active part in the establishment of the Norfolk Athenaeum, of which he was a manager or President from 1815 to its dissolution in 1842. As an illustration of his ready command of Latin, it may be mentioned that when a medical student to whom he had lent his copy of Gregory's Conspectus, once the text book of medical science and ever memorable for the beauty of the Latinity, consulted him on one or two doubtful passages, he read and explained them in a masterly manner. He served his apprenticeship to his profession in the shop of Drs. Taylor and Hansford (the elder), who were then the leading physicians in Eastern Virginia, and was the contemporary and fellow student of Dr. George Balfour, of whom mention has already been made. It was the custom of both medical and law students before the Revolution and for some subsequent years, to serve a long and fixed term, usually from four to seven years, in the shop of the daily practitioners or in the clerk's office; and the result was that at the end of their term they were so thoroughly drilled in their respective professions that there was hardly an interval between the date of their license or diploma and a full practice. Dr. S. completed his medical course at the University of Edinburgh, but like Balfour, was too impatient for the business of life to waste time and money in the tedious process of taking out a degree at a foreign college. He entered upon the practice in Norfolk, and was soon occupied with business, which soon increased to such an extent that he probably was hardly absent from town half a dozen nights in forty years. He was early threatened with a pulmonary infection and his health was never robust; but such was his system and order of living, that overwhelmed as he was with practice, he never had a serous spell of sickness, and attained to his 77th year. It was the custom of the medical men of Norfolk from the date of the Revolution to as late a date as 1846 to have an office usually in a commercial portion of the town, partly with a view of obtaining the causal practice of the day, and partly for the sale of medicines to our floating population. One good result was that a physician was always at hand in the case of accidents; and another was that as all the ointments, tinctures and other medical preparations were made in the shop, the students acquired a knowledge of pharmacy that was very valuable in their subsequent practice; and such was the regularity of Dr. Selden's habits that long after he had acquired a handsome fortune, and had become advanced in years, he might be found at his office on Main street, when not absent on professional engagements, as late as eight o'clock at night in Winter, and nine in Summer. He was a successful practitioner, and enjoyed in an unlimited degree the confidence of his patient's. He was especially skilled in the treatment of diseases prevalent in Eastern Virginia; for having studied with Taylor and Hansford, who had themselves been trained by native physicians, he was alive to the peculiarity of geography and climate in the management of his cases. He was rather tall and lean in person, with a tendency to stoop somewhat in his latter years, was of a grave temperament and inspired respect and even awe when he appeared among the people. His pressing practical duties, the examination of his students of whom he always had several in his office, his determination to keep abreast of the medical and general literature of the times, and in some degree his distinctive idiosyncrasy, separated him almost wholly from general society; and it is probable, as his numerous patients included his most intimate friends, that he never made a formal visit in the course of his life. He was blessed with all the comforts and consolations that attend old age. The wife of his youth was living and survived him many years; and an interesting and intellectual family of sons and daughters soothed and cheered his latter days. He saw two of his sons, who had been educated in the first medical institutions of our own and of foreign countries, take his place in his profession by his side, and receive the respect and confidence of the people in a degree rarely accorded to such young practitioners. The decease of this eminent physician to us in one respect fortunate in as much as it occurred before the death of his younger son and colleague Dr. Henry Selden, who, in the early dawn of a distinguished career, fell a martyr to the pestilence which sought his native city in the summer of 1855, and whose untimely death would have brought upon the aged father a weight of affliction which even the brilliant fame of his elder brother would not have lifted from his aching heart. He was buried in the Cemetery of the Cedars, where a marble obelisk marks his grave. DR. JOHN T. BARRAUD The late Dr. John Taylor Barraud passed away at so early an age that his reputation was reared more upon the expectations of the future than the present, although, until he was laid up by a chronic disease, he had gained great distinction in general practice, and as the chief medical director of the large army that was encamped in and about Norfolk during the war of 1812. He was the eldest son of Dr. Phillip Barraud, whom we have already mentioned as the successor of Dr. George Balfour in the Marine Hospital, and who was a prominent physician in Norfolk from 1779 to the date of his death in 1833 or '34. In very early youth he was, we believe, a pupil of Dr. Alexander Whitehead, attended the College of William and Mary where he took a degree, studied medicine with his father, and having received the honors of the medical schools of Philadelphia and Edinburgh became associated with his father in the practice of his profession. He soon obtained the confidence of the public, and in the double capacity of physician and surgeon, was highly esteemed by his medical brethren. But his course was destined to be short. While he was in the full tide of prosperity, he was stricken by a constitutional disease, which baffled the skill of his contemporaries, and which brought him in the full flush of manhood, and by slow and painful stages to the grave. More than fifty years ago he might have been seen on a bright sunny morning driving in a gig, his palled face and shriveled form too plainly telling that his end was near. He was undoubtedly regarded as the most promising young physician that had then appeared in the medical world of Norfolk, and this reputation his prominent though temporary position in the army tended to confirm. As it was, he left behind him rather the shadow than the substance of a great man. DR. JAMES TAYLOR The oldest practitioner of medicine who was contemporaneous with the Revolution, and who was prominent at the beginning of the present century in Norfolk, was Dr. James Taylor. He was the son of Dr. James Taylor, who was descended from an ancestor who had come over early to the Colony of Virginia, who was successful in his affairs and whose posterity now embraces some of the most refined and reputable people of your modern city. Young Taylor studied at Edinburgh, for at that date no medical school existed on this side of the Atlantic, and began the practice in Norfolk, where either alone, or as the partner of Dr. Hansford the elder, he soon obtained full employment, and where he spent his entire life. He was at the head of his profession; and it may be affirmed that the reputation acquired by his pupils is no mean remembrancer of his worth. He died on the 13th day of November, [1814], age 77, and was buried in the yard of St. Paul's, nearly opposite to the east gate, south of the church, where massy stone tablets, carefully wrought in England, and adorned with the heraldic emblazonments of his race, record the life and death of father and son. He left a son who was the clerk of the Norfolk court, and who died about forty years ago, leaving in his turn a son, the late Tazewell Taylor whose recent death is still lamented in your city. DR. OLIVEIRA FERNANDEZ There was something of dramatic interest in the history of this distinguished man, who had made a figure in one of the celebrated courts of Europe, and who might have been seen during the first twenty years of this century riding from house to house in Norfolk on a small bright bay pony, and feeling the pulses of your fellow-citizens of the Latin race. Though born in Portugal he was probably descended from Diego Fernandez, who was both a hero and historian, who embarked for Peru in 1545, and whose history of that country has been pronounced the best contemporary work on the subject. He studied at the University of Coimbra, where he displayed a high order of talents, and was soon promoted to a medical office at the Court of Portugal. But Cupid who has no more respect for the votaries of Esculapius than those of Themis, launched an arrow at the bosom of the young gentleman and without further details was must state that the result was his banishment from Court and his emigration to America. Landing in Virginia he chose Norfolk as his home. Your town then had a large foreign population, of which there was a large number connected with France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Of all such and of some others also who were born abroad, Dr. Fernandez soon became the family physician, and such was his skill in his profession and so various were his social and mental qualifications that he gained the confidence and love of his patients, which he retained to the last. He too had his shop, as it was then called, and in addition to the practice of physic sought to increase his income by mercantile adventures. With this view he sent over to Lisbon for a skillful pharmaceutist, and in this way we are also indebted for the presence among us of that worthy citizen who for so many years prosecuted the drug business in Norfolk, and who, though now deceased, lives in his worthy and enterprising descendants. I allude to Manuel Ados Santos. Meantime after a long residence in your city Dr. Fernandez received favorable tidings from Portugal. All had been forgiven, and the confiscation of his property revoked; and about the year 1822 he bade adieu to his Norfolk friends, who deeply lamented his departure, and was again employed in the services of the reigning family of his native land. He lived several years after his return to Portugal, but has now been dead more than a third of a century. He was about the middle height, of a pleasing countenance and of polished manners. Though eminently learned in medical science, he was not averse from simple remedies, and the student of Materia Medica could find in his shop alone the long and graceful and sweet-tasted pod of the Cassia Fistula of Liunaeus. It was under the eye of Dr. Fernandez that a young Norfolk boy, who was destined to make a name for himself and to reach a higher rank in medical science than his learned preceptor, to whose practice he succeeded, received his early training in the profession of medicine; and the history of Oliveira Fernandez and of Thomas F. Andrews, the last of whom we rejoice to say still lives, will be incomplete unless their names make a part of the common record. I have thus given you a rapid sketch of the gentlemen whose names are mentioned in your letter. With the exception of Dr. Taylor, who died in my early childhood, I knew all of them personally or by seeing them daily on the street. Dr. A. Whitehead was my preceptor, and I yet retain a handsome volume which he gave me, with his name and a beautiful Latin inscription, fifty-five years ago; and I was attended by Dr. Balfour fifty years ago when suffering from a gun-shot wound in my left hand, which his skill probably saved from amputation. With Dr. William B. Selden I was associated for many years as a manager of the Norfolk Athenaeum; have often seen him in the chair of the medical society, and have been instructed in conversation by his large and invaluable experience of men and things. I was too young to have formed an intimate acquaintance with Dr. Fernandez, but I recall his person as freshly as if I had seen him but yesterday; and his history and his sterling qualities compose one of the interesting traditions of your city. (Signed) Hugh Blair Grigsby To Dr. Robert B. Tunstall, Norfolk, Virginia