John Swinburne, MD – Quarantine Pioneer

John Swinburne is mostly forgotten today, except for the Albany park named after him.

But he was medical pioneer whose worked had major impact on our city, New York State and our country.

An 1888 biography, “A Typical American,” made it clear that he was anything but — it calls him an eminent patriot, surgeon and philanthropist, “The Fighting Doctor,” and “one of Nature’s noblemen.”

John Swinburne was born in Lewis County in 1820; his father died when he was but 12. Despite having to work to support his mother and sisters, Swinburne was educated in local public schools and attended Albany Medical College, where he was first in his class (1846) and was appointed “demonstrator” in anatomy after graduation. He even started a private anatomy school, but soon entered private practice.

When the Civil War came he was made a commander in the New York National Guard, and as chief medical officer was put in charge of the sick at the Albany recruiting depot. He offered his services to Gen. McClellan as a volunteer battlefield surgeon, and was soon sent to Savage’s Station in Virginia .

As the Army of the Potomac retreated from that post on June 29, 1862, Swinburne was one of the few surgeons who remained behind to care for the sick and wounded, and he was noted for treating Union and Confederate soldiers alike. It was a month before all the wounded were removed to other hospitals, and Swinburne applied to Confederate General Stonewall Jackson for permission to visit the wounded Federal prisoners. Jackson’s pass made it clear that Swinburne was not to be treated as a prisoner of war.

He returned to New York, and remained in New York City, where his work on use of quarantines in a cholera epidemic brought him to the attention of the Mayor and the Governor. In 1864, he was made health officer of the Port of New York and immediately put to the task of establishing an effective quarantine facility, which he placed on islands, one of which, Swinburne Island, bears his name to this day. (It’s now part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.)

As we find today with other infectious diseases the cholera epidemic was spread through international travel. In 1865 he was credited with stopping a major outbreak in New York City from the ship “Virginia” from Liverpool and on another ship, “The England” through the use of quarantine.

“Doctor Swinburne … visited the steamers and hospitals at quarantine yesterday and reports them in excellent condition. There have been no cases of cholera on the Virginia for the past week. On the England none of the passenger have been attacked. There are ninety-eight in hospital, of which fifty-eight are convalescent”.

He retired from the Port and went to France, just in time for the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. With the support of the American expatriate community, he created the first ambulance corps in Paris to tend to the wounded, and for his efforts he was decorated as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and  worked with the Red Cross of Geneva.

Swinburne returned to Albany, where he re-established his private practice and, in 1876, became Professor of Fractures and Clinical Surgery at Albany Medical College, and became one of the first to provide forensic testimony at trials involving medical evidence. He also found time to be elected Mayor (1880) and then to Congress (1884). While doing that he established the Swinburne Dispensary (clinic), which provided free medical services to as many as 10,000 patients a year.

His anonymous biographer wrote:

“His quiet benevolence, yet bold aggressiveness in fighting error and corruption in high places, both in professional and official stations, has given his life a charm unequaled in the past, and has won for him the admiration of the masses of the people.”

He died in Albany on March 28, 1889, and is buried at Albany Rural Cemetery, Section 30, Lot 11.

Carl Johnson from his blog Hoxsie.org .

Albany Medical Center Hospital Hospital: a Brief History

Albany Med has played a key role in the City for about 170 years. Today, its mission is more critical than ever.

The Hospital was established in 1849. One of the founding physicians was Alden March, a farm boy from Worcester, Mass, who came to Albany after getting his MD from Brown University in 1820.

In 1834 he’s said to have established a first for New York State a practical school of anatomy and surgery, in this city. Several years later the Medical College (the fifth in the U.S.) was founded; it located on Eagle St.

Over time the need for a public hospital became apparent to Dr.March and several other local physicians.

Some histories say the first hospital was established in 1849 on Madison Ave. (then Lydius St.) on the corner of Dove St. (The building is still there.)

First Hospital Building on Madison

By 1851 a new site was located on the corner of Eagle and Howard Streets, in the abandoned county jail. (The previous building became the site of the cholera hospital, a deadly infectious disease.)  The Albany Convention Center is on the Howard St. site today.

Eagle and Howard

Hospital on Eagle and Howard

In the late 1880s and early 1890s it became clear larger facilities were needed. By 1898 Albany Hospital moved to New Scotland Ave., where it has remained for over 120 years.

(That building on Howard St. subsequently housed the American Humane Association, the precursor to the American Humane Society. It originated the “Be kind to animals” slogan.)  The building was finally demolished around 1940.)

The new Hospital was a sprawling complex when it was built, with a nursing school and nurses dormitories. As we know, it dominates the landscape today, and is perhaps the largest employer in the City.

Hospital on New Scotland Rd. – circa 1900

Hospital circa 1930

Hospital circa 1950

So thank to Dr. March, who understood the need to provide medical care to all Albanians, rich and poor, and a space where generations of doctors, (and then nurses), could obtain the needed clinical training.

Copyright 2021 Julie O’Connor

Child’s Hospital

Do you remember the fine old building that stood on the northwest corner of Elk and Hawk Streets from 1890 until 1960? If so, you probably also remember that you (or a sibling) were there to have tonsils removed. For Albany children in the first half of the twentieth century, Child’s Hospital was the place for tonsillectomy. In 1950, Child’s set a tonsil-pulling record: 102 pairs in a single month.

The hospital’s name requires some explanation. You might reasonably think it was called Child’s because most of its clients were children, but that is not the case. Nor was it named for a wealthy Mr. or Mrs. Child who endowed it. No, Child’s Hospital was named for the order of Episcopal nuns who ran it from 1874 until 1949: the Sisterhood of the Holy Child Jesus.

The Sisterhood, founded in Albany’s Cathedral of All Saints in 1873, also ran St. Agnes School and St. Margaret’s Home for Babies. All of these institutions were located on the north side of Elk Street, between Hawk and Swan. When it was founded, Child’s Hospital was the only hospital for children between New York, Montreal, Boston and Buffalo. While it was affiliated with the Episcopal diocese, Child’s services were offered without regard to religious affiliation, and many services were offered free of charge. In addition to routine patients, Child’s Hospital also served children who needed long-term care for chronic conditions.

The Sisters’ trio of institutions on the corner of Elk and Hawk began to break up in the 1930s. In 1932, with several of the buildings threatening to slide down into Sheridan Hollow, the diocese offered to sell all three buildings to the State. The State declined that offer, but St. Agnes’ School moved to Loudonville that same year, and St. Margaret’s Home moved to the former Alms House site south of New Scotland Avenue in 1936. The hospital, however, remained on Elk Street until 1959, when the Episcopal diocese again offered to sell the property to the State to build a much-needed parking lot. The State accepted this offered, and the diocese chose to move the hospital near to St. Margaret’s, creating the new Good Samaritan Center off of Hackett Boulevard.

Child’s Hospital closed its Elk Street building in summer 1959, and the building was demolished in August 1960. The new Child’s Hospital, on Hackett Boulevard, received its first patient on October 23, 1961.

Child’s Hospital, from a watercolor by Edwin W. Becker. The section to the left was the Sisters’ residence. [image courtesy Pruyn Collection, Albany Public Library]

Copyright 2021 Julie O’Connor

Labor Day 2017 – the Faces of Albany Labor; We Built This City

If  you want to see more pics, take a deep dive in our Flickr site: AlbanyGroup Archive

 

 

 

Benedict Arnold in the Albany Military Hospital; While Others Nursed his Wounds, He Nursed his Grievances

Today, October 7, 1777 the Battle of Saratoga, which began on September 19th, ended. British General John Burgoyne made a last desperate attack on Bemis Heights. Disobeying a direct order from the commanding general, Horatio Gates, General Benedict Arnold flung himself into the fray, leading patriot troops against pockets of British attackers and exploiting weaknesses in British defenses. One soldier said “he was the very genius of war”.

During one of the last attacks, Arnold was shot in the leg and fell, pinned beneath his horse.

The Americans won the battle, called the “turning point of the Revolution”. Burgoyne retreated, surrendering 10 days later. Benedict Arnold’s fighting days were over. His leg had been shattered by a musket ball. Arnold, along with 1,000 other American, British and German wounded, was sent to the military hospital in Albany. (By tradition, Arnold is reputed to have been transported initially to a house in Kinderhook after the Battle – but he ended up in Albany hospital.)

The hospital was constructed during the French and Indian War in the 1750s. It was located down the hill from Fort Frederick, overlooking the City at what is now the intersection of Lodge and Pine Streets. In 1776 it was refitted as one of 11 major military hospitals during the Revolution.

(Once upon a time there was an historical marker identifying the location; that has disappeared.)

It was a large building, constructed in an H configuration; with 2 stories, and 40 small wards (to enable quarantine from infectious disease) and able to accommodate 500 patients. After the Battle of Saratoga, the hospital was so crowded that provisions were made to locate patients in the Dutch Church at the intersection of State and Broadway. The Albany Committee for Safety also commandeered several private residences. About 60% of the patients were British and German; they were accompanied by their own physicians and surgeons.

 

Arnold was not a “good patient”. Surgeons wanted to amputate his leg to save his life. He refused. Contemporary descriptions from hospital doctors describe him as petulant and peevish. He was encased in the equivalent of wooden box; immobilized. Finally in January 1778 he was sufficiently recuperated to be able to sit up in bed and write letters. He would remain in the hospital until late February or early March.

Those 5 months gave Arnold time to think. From his hospital bed he learned that most of the credit for the victory at Saratoga was going to “Granny” Gates, notorious for his excellent organizational skills, but thought by many to be a man of little personal courage and deficient in battlefield tactical skills.

Arnold’s Revolutionary War career had already been full of ups and down – the capture of Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen (Allen received most of the credit); an extended campaign in Canada, during which he was promoted, shot in the leg (yes, the same leg) to brigadier general, then replaced and finally forced to retreat from his occupation of Montreal; a rout in the Battle of Lake Champlain (that did serve to delay the British drive south to Albany until the following year), and shot again in the leg (yes, that leg) in the Battle of Ridgefield, Ct. He was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress several times and accused of corruption and malfeasance by fellow officer. He finally submitted his resignation which was refused by Washington, who then dispatched him to upstate New York.

As he lay in the Albany Hospital, abusing phycians, orderlies and everyone in sight, we see a really angry man with more than ample time to think about his life. He was 36, a widower with 3 sons. He was a man of action and a natural warrior whose fighting career was over. He had thrown himself into the War and his business had suffered. A doctor who treated him after his initial leg wound in Canada less than two years before noted that Arnold, while in the Albany military hospital, seemed to be a different man – now dissatisfied, disgruntled and truculent. Several visitors note the same; it is quite probable that those long months during a cold and bleak Albany winter provided a time for reflection and set the stage for the perfidy that was to come.

By the time Arnold left Albany for his home in Connecticut, the Albany hospital had few patients. The Marquis de Lafayette had spent the month of February, 1778 in Albany. During that time he made arrangements for the remaining British and German patients and their physicians to be transferred to General Howe in New York City. In early June, the hospital closed. The War in upstate New York was mostly over and the hospital was no longer needed. The last patients and staff were transferred by sloop down the Hudson to another hospital near West Point.

The Hospital itself seems to disappear by the end of the War. We surmise land became too valuable and it was demolished and the land sold .

Copyright 2021 Julie O’Connor