John M. Bigelow, M.
D., Ph. D.
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Name: John Milton
Bigelow
Death date: Aug 25, 1913
Place of death: Albany, NY
Birth date: 1846
Type of practice: Allopath
Practice specialities:OTO Otolaryngology
Places and dates of practices:Albany, NY
Hospital affiliations: Albany Hospital, St. Peter's
Hospital, Albany
Medical school(s): Albany Medical College of Union
University, Albany, 1870, (G)
Professorship: Albany Medical College of Union University,
Albany, materia medica, therapeutics, diseases of throat,
nose
Journal of the American Medical Association Citation:
61:977; (M) |
John M. Bigelow, M.D., Ph.D.,
was born in Albany on the 32d day of August,
1S47, and descends from one of the oldest and most respected
families in American
colonial history. His ancestors migrated from Braintree, Essex
county, England,
and settled near Boston, Mass., soon after the landing of the
Pilgrims in 1620. From
that time until the present they have been conspicuous in
professional, commercial,
civil, military and social affairs, many of them holding high
official posts in the array,
the State and the nation. They were especially prominent in
developing the early
history of New England and in shaping the destinies of the
Massachusetts colony.
Among Dr. Bigelow's ancestors are Dr. Jacob Bigelow and Dr. Henry J.
Bigelow,
D.C.L., of Boston; Hon. John Bigelow, secretary of state; Harriet
Beecher Stowe,
the famous authoress ; and Hon. Alpheus Bigelow, justice of the
Supreme Court ; and
many who were active as soldiers, officers or civiUans during the
war of the Revolution. On his mother's side he is of pure German stock, being a
descendant of Jacob
von Zimmer, a general in the army of Frederick the Great, who
settled in America
in 1732. Another famous ancestor was Frederick Basslaer, a professor
in the University of Berne, Switzerland, who came to the United States in 1740.
The late T. S.
Doolittle, D.D., LL.D., vice-president of Rutgers College, was also
connected with
the family.
Dr. Bigelow's great-great-grandfather. Dr. Josiah Bigelow, of
Weston, Mass., was
born in 1730 and died in 1810, and was a prominent physician, as was
also his son.
Dr. Uriah Bigelow, of Worcester, N. Y., who was born in 1765 and
died in 1842.
His grandfather, Dr. Uriah Gregory Bigelow, sr., of Worcester, and
son of Dr. Uriah,
was born in 1794, married Miss Henrietta Barnes in 1816, became a
member of the
New York State Medical Society, and died in 1850. Dr. Bigelow's
father, Dr. Uriah
Gregory Bigelow, jr., was born in Worcester, N. Y., in 1821, married
Lovina von
Zimmer in 1843. settled in Albany in May, 1844. and died here in
February, 1872; he
was at one time president of the Albany County Medical Society,
curator of the
Albany Medical College, member of the New York State Medical
Society, and was
one of the leading physicians of the city.
Dr John M. Bigelow inherited the sturdy characteristics and rare
mental endowments of this splendid ancestry, and ably represents the fifth of
five generations of
talented physicians and surgeons. From early youth he has worked
assiduouslv,
first, to secure an education, and afterward to practice those
principles which hard And continued study enabled him to master. He was graduated from the
Albany
Boys' Academy with full diploma in 1863 and won several prizes,
among them the
Van Rensselaer classical medal. In 1864 he entered the junior class
of Williams
College, where he made rapid progress in his studies, and from which
he was graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1866. Soon afterward he began the
study of medicine at the Albany Medical College and later entered the College of
Physicians and
Surgeons of New York city, and received the degree of M.D. from each
institution
in 1870. He became a practicing physician in Albany, by license in
1869.
Dr. Bigelow was among the first physicians in the United States to
make a specialty
of diseases of the throat and nose, in the treatment of which he has
had a wide and
valuable experience. There are few practitioners in the State who
are better known
or enjoy a higher reputation. His work in colleges and hospitals has
been varied.
He was professor of materia medica and therapeutics and of diseases
of the throat
and nose in the Albany Medical College from 1870 to 1896, when he
resigned the
former chair to devote his attention to the latter. He has been
attending physician
to the Albany City and St. Peter's Hospitals since 1870, and the Old
Men's Home
•since 1874, and is now attending physician and surgeon for the
diseases of the throat
and nose to each of these institutions. In therapeutics he is a
recognized authority in this country. His lectures, which are mainly
extempore, embody the most advanced and tenable thoughts and facts of the science and art of
medicine of the
present age, and the remark is often made that they have the finish
of a book. They
are certainly combined with and illustrated by a long and successful
practice, and
are remarkable for their command of language and clear, concise
presentation of the
subject. His connection with the Albany Medical College has been of
inestimable
value to that institution and to the hundreds of students who have
pursued their
professional education under his able and conscientious teachings.
Ur. Bigelow was county physician in 1871, has been president, and
for twenty-seven
years a member of the Albany County Medical Society, and is a member
of the New
York State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He
has been a
member of the International Medical Congress, was one of the
honorary presidents
of the Pan-American Congress, and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa
and Alpha
Delta Phi college fraternities, and of Masters Lodge No. 5, F. & A.
M., of Albany.
He is a life member and ex-president of the Young Merl's
Association, an honorary member of the Albany Burgesses Corps, a
charter member of the Albany Club, an associate member of the Albany
Press Club, a member of the Unconditional Republican Club, and an
honorary member of several other organizations. In March, 1893,
Rutgers College conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D.
On February 14, 1874, Dr. Bigelow was married to Miss Sara A.,
daughter of the
late Thomas P. and Amelia T. Crook, of Albany, where she was born
January 11,
1848. She died September 21, 1879. Their only son and child, Albert
Stewart Bigelow, died November 26, 1876.
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