Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 2 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 28

Dr. Samuel W. French, founder of the Emergency Hospital and Nurses Training School of Milwaukee and long recognized as one of the distinguished representatives of the medical profession in this city, was born in Bennington, Vermont, in 1850, a son of Samuel and Sophia B. French, who were likewise natives of the Green Mountain state. The parents early removed with their family to Boston, Massachusetts, there taking up their abode in 1851, and in that city Dr. French acquired his early education. He attended Nobles private school in Boston and afterward prepared for his profession by matriculating in the medical department of Harvard University when a youth of nineteen years. He there remained a student for four years, closely applying himself to the mastery of the course, and was graduated in 1873. The following year was spent in the study of medicine abroad and he gained much valuable knowledge along professional lines in the old world. He also traveled through various sections of Europe and learned much concerning the past history and the modern conditions of the countries which he visited. With his return to his native land he became a Harvard student and in 1877 he was appointed house surgeon of the Boston City Hospital. It was the following year that he was graduated from the medical department of Harvard University, his professional degree being conferred upon him on the 26th of June, 1878. He continued with the Boston City Hospital for two years, the second year as house physician in charge of nervous and renal diseases.

Subsequently Dr. French came to the west, settling in Milwaukee in November, 1879. Through the period of his professional connection with this city he devoted his attention largely to surgery, although he continued in general practice and had many patients. He belonged to the Massachusetts State Medical Society and always kept in touch with the trend of modern professional thought and investigation through the proceedings of that body. He long ranked among the most prominent physicians of Milwaukee, where he practiced to the time of his death, and he deserved special mention as the founder of the Emergency Hospital and the Nurses Training School of this city.

In 1880 Dr. French was united in marriage to Miss Minnie I. Bordman, a daughter of Israel and Caroline Bordman, natives of Danvers, Massachusetts. Three children were born of this marriage: Louis, a patent attorney, who was graduated from the Massachusetts School of Technology at Boston and is now a resident of Milwaukee; Inez, the wife of Louis Quarles, of Milwaukee; and Samuel L., who is a graduate of Harvard University and is now engaged in the leather business in Chicago. He was a lieutenant in the Aviation Corps during the World war.

Dr. French was ever a republican, giving stalwart allegiance to that party from the time he attained his majority. He belonged to A. M. P. O., a medical order, and he had membership with the Masons and St. James Episcopal church — connections that indicated well the nature that governed his interests and ruled his conduct. He died June 30, 1917, respected and honored by all who knew him and most largely by those who knew him best, indicating that his life was ever honorable and upright and that his entire course was such as would bear the closest investigation and scrutiny.