FEBRUARY 2009

WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER • FOUNDED 1857

RICHARD L. GALANT, PhD Officers Richard L. Galant, PhD President President's Letter Ralph P. Beebe I Vice-President We, at the Washtenaw County immigrated to Washtenaw County and Judith M. Chrisman Historical Society, send you best wishes how they have affected our area. Recording Secretary for the coming year. May the world find This year, we welcome a new Immediate Past President peace. member of the Board of Dir~ctors, Karen Pauline V. Walters The holiday exhibition, Trains in L. Jania, who is an archivist lat the Bentley Corresponding Secretary Toyland, which will run until Sunday, Historical Library and says, '1My interests January 25, has been a great success. include Ann Arbor history, genealogy, Leslie L. Loomans Treasurer Our docent, Tracy Gierada, reported that good music and travel." Karen is taking on the first weekend, on Saturday, we had the place of Sue Kosky, who is becoming Directors 54 visitors and the next day, Sunday, 83 a director-at-Iarge. Rosemarion A. Blake visitors came to see the trains and toys. The Society's February talk by Henry Patricia W. Creal Fabian Beltran, a member of the Dexter Wright, Ph.D., Archeology of 1015 Wall Ann DeFreytas Train Club, has been at the museum each Street and Lower Town, will be at the Tom Freeman weekend demonstrating the trains and Karen L. Jania ~~i~~~~ ~f ~~~~:sn a~~h~grt~USeum at Susan Nenadic how to build a train village. If you have M. Joanne Nesbit time, do stop by the Museum on Main University, at 2 PM, on Sunday, February Jay Snyder Street and visit this exhibition. 15. We will hear interesting trings about Jan E. Tripp The next exhibition, Coming to artifacts found at the original site of our Susan Cee Wineberg Washtenaw County, will be at the museum building. Cynthia Yao museum from March 1 through June 28. The membership mailing was put into Directors-at-Large In conjunction with the Genealogical the post office early in January of 2009. Hon. Julie A. Creal Society of Washtenaw County, on the first We invite you to continue your member­ Mary Florida Sunday of March, April, May and June, ship, join our society and/or

Annual dues: January-December individual, $15; couple/family $25 ; student or senior (60+) $10; senior couple $19; businesslassociation $50; patron $100. Enjoying "Trains in Toyland" WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009

DAVID A. BLOOM, M.D. The University of Michigan Medical School 158 Years and Counting

The University of Michigan Medical School of today consistently of land, they headed west and ranks among the top medical schools in the United States. It is the first in found a favorable oak opening on the United States to own and operate its own hospital, the first to admit the Huron River. The village they women and the first major school to teach science-based medicine. How established there would later the school began and how its birth and achievements have intersected become known as Ann Arbor. This with the history of Michigan, and of the University of Michigan, was the is where the school that had been subject of a November 16th talk by Dr. David Bloom, at the Ann Arbor established by Father Richard and District Library, co-sponsor of the talk. Dr. Bloom is the Jack Lapides Judge Woodward relocated when Professor and Chair, University of Michigan Department of Urology. the cholera epidemics of 1832 and Dr. Bloom began with a question: Why repeat all this? His answer 1834 led to the closing of the was a quotation from R.P. Feynman, who wrote in 1963, "Because there Bates Street location. are new generations born every day. Because there are great ideas "By the time Michigan became developed in the history of man, and these ideas do not last unless they a state in 1837, the village of Ann are passed purposefully and clearly from generation to generation." Arbor had grown to a population of As a prelude, Dr. Bloom took the audience back in time to 1600 AD, 2,000, with two banks, 11 lawyers when the Huron, Miami, Pottawatomie, Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and nine physicians," continued populated Michigan. Then, beginning with the influence of Father Gabriel Dr. Bloom. "Also that year, the Richard and Judge Augustus Woodward, Dr. Bloom traced the story of university's board of regents held the medical school through the impact of the people and the ideas that their first meeting in Ann Arbor shaped its direction and vision. and accepted 40 acres of land, known as the Rumsey plot, from Setting the Stage for Higher Education in Michigan the Ann Arbor Land Company. Three years later there were four Father Gabriel Richard, who had immigrated to the United States professors' homes on campus. from France in 1792, and Judge Augustus Woodward, appointed territorial judge by President Thomas Jefferson, were both in Detroit at the time of the devastating fire that destroyed the city in 1805. The two men played prominent roles in the planning and reconstruction of Detroit, and the birth of the idea for a university in Michigan. Judge Woodward authored the Education Act for the Michigan Territory and drafted a charter for an institution he called the Catholepistemiad, or the University of Michigania, said Dr. Bloom. Signed into law in 1817, the charter included a detailed blueprint for the organization of a university with 13 departments. Although not initiated at that time, a department of medicine was discussed. Father Richard was one of the co-founders of the school, which was located on Bates Street in Detroit, and served as its vice president from 1817 to 1821 , after which he was The first class at Mason Hall was appOinted to the board of trustees. held in 1841. "As the university grew, A Chance Meeting and a Town is Born changes in theories of disease were influencing thinking about "John Allen and Elisa Rumsey played a significant role in the growth the teaching of medicine," said Dr. of the University of Michigan and its medical school," said Dr. Bloom. Bloom. "Until the mid 1800s, "John Allen, from Virginia, and Elisha Rumsey, from New York, were land theories of disease included developers who happened to meet in a Detroit tavern in 1824. In search • Page 2· WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009

Abram Sager joined them in December of Ithat year. The following year, Michigan physicians petitioned University of Michigan regents to form the l medical school that had been "called for 30 years ago" with Judge Woodward's Education Act for the rJ, ich igan Territory. Tabling the proposal, the regents jauthorized construction of a second undergraduate classroom building - South Hall. I In 1848, however, Regent Zena Pitche ~ successfully lobbied for a medical building, finally givin!!} birth to the University of Michigan Medical School. Pitcher, an 1822 graduate in medicine from Middlebury coillege in Vermont, had moved to Detroit after servinb as a surgeon in the U.S Army. He became the City's mayor for two separate terms of office, was president of the phrenology (determining American Medical Association and a member of the personality by bumps and fissures Board of Regents of the University of Michigan. I in the head), mesmerism (using The faculty that first year consisted of Abram Sager, dean and the sun , moon and stars to professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and childrerl; Silas diagnose and treat) and homeopathy (see sidebar). These theories were being replaced by Eliza Mosher Leaves Mark at U of M clinimetric medicine, in which scientific data are used to Many of the early female graduates of the University of Michigan ascertain verifiable theories of Medical School distinguished themselves in a variety of ways. One of disease and rules for therapy. The the most famous locally, as well as' nationally, was Eliza Mosher. best evidence for a germ theory of Mosher had always dreamed of being a doctor despite the objections disease came in 1843, when of her family. She began her medical studies at the New England Oliver Wendell Holmes of Boston Hospital for Women and Children and when the University of presented his paper on the Michigan announced its willingness to accept women, Mosher and contagiousness of puerperal four friends promptly applied. fever. " Following graduation, Dr. Mosher established a thriving practice in Poughkeepsie, New York, and two years later became the resident Birth of the physician for the Massachusetts State Reformatory for Women . It was the first of its kind to be operated by and for women and Mosher Medical School distinguished herself there by establishing a nursing school. She then For the next chapter in the studied in London and Paris before returning to Brooklyn, New York, history of the medical school, Dr. to open another practice. After teaching several semesters at Bloom turned to the story of Wellesley and Smith colleges, Dr. Mosher spent a decade as a Moses Gunn. Born in 1822 in professor at Vassar. New York, Gunn studied medicine In 1896, University of Michigan President James Burrill Angell with Corydon Ford at the Geneva offered Dr. Mosher the position of the first dean of women for the 647 Medical College. Hearing rumors female students then enrolled. But when he refused her insistence on about interest in a new medical a position in the medical school, she turned him down. He sweetened school in Ann Arbor, the two men his offer with a full professorship in the School of Literature, Science appropriated a cadaver and, and Arts and when she turned that down as well, he told her about the taking it with them on board, Barbour Gymnasium for Women that was being built on campus. He headed west by train in 1846. must have known that the avant-garde women's physical education They established a medical movement was a pet project of Eliza Mosher's. She accepted and practice and began to teach initiated many advances for women students during her tenure. She anatomy. In August of 1846, never, however, was given the opportunity to teach in the medical Gunn , Ford and Silas Douglas, an school and finally returned to her practice in New York. Mosher Hall for female students was named in her honor in 1930. Ann Arbor physician, formed a I private medical school in Ann Source: A history of women (in progress) at the University of Michigan, by Arbor, charging $40 per year. Susan Nenadic, an Ann Arbor historian : • Page 3 • WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009

Douglas, professor of chemistry; Samuel Denton, professor of medicine and pathology; Moses Gunn , professor of anatomy and surgery; and John Allen Jr., professor of physiology, materia medica and therapeutics. What is Homeopathy? On October 3, 1850, Dean Sager delivered the opening lecture to a class The term homeopathy of 92 students. "To graduate, they had to attend a duplicate set of comes from the Greek words lectures held over two years, complete a preceptorship and earn the vote homeo, meaning similar, and of the faculty," said Dr. Bloom. pathos, meaning suffering or Because of the problematic blend of didactic instruction and clinical disease. It developed in practice in a town the size of Ann Arbor, Moses Gunn, in 1852, moved his Germany and has been practice and home to Detroit and campaigned to relocate the medical practiced in the United States school there, said Dr. Bloom. However, the regents refused and Corydon since the early 19th century. Ford became the anatomy and surgery professor. Homeopathic practitioners are commonly called homeopaths. Continuing a Decade of Change and Growth Homeopathy is an alternative medical system built upon "By 1855, many complete systems of theory changes were occurring and practice. Homeopathy at the university and in takes a different approach the country," said Dr. from conventional medicine Bloom. "The (practiced by medical or observatory was osteopathic doctors) in completed and the diagnosing, classifying and University of Michigan treating medical problems. issued its first Bachelor Key concepts of of Science degree, homeopathy include: replacing the former • Homeopathy seeks to degree in classical stimulate the body's defense studies. In 1856, Silas mechanisms and processes Douglas persuaded the so as to prevent or treat regents to build the illness. chemical building near the medical school. It • Treatment involves giving was the fi rst university very small doses of building in the United substances called remedies States dedicated to that, according to chemistry. " homeopathy, would produce In the meantime, the same or similar North-South tensions symptoms of illness in were escalating and the healthy people if they were Underground Railroad given in larger doses. became active Treatment in homeopathy is throughout Michigan. In UIM medical class of 1865 individualized (tailored to 1861 , Moses Gunn each person). interrupted his medical • Homeopathic practitioners school teaching to join .select remedies according to the Fifth Michigan a total picture of the patient, Volunteer Infantry including not only symptoms Regiment. Gunn but also lifestyle, emotional returned to Ann Arbor in and mental states, and other 1862 and remained until factors. joining the faculty at Source: NCCAM (National Rush Medical College in Center for Complementary and Chicago in 1867. Alternative Medicine) Research At that time, U of Report at NCCAMnih.gov M's enrollment had grown to 1,255; the • Page 4· WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009 medical school had 525 students tear them down in five and 32 professors. Because of years. At t~ i s point, growing interest in the field of homeopatHic and homeopathy, the state legislature allopathic ~tudentst asked the university to add a began to t"lke basic school for this specialty. The science courses request, however, was turned together and emerging down amidst much controversy. In theories on 1868, Professor Alonzo Palmer, bacteriology were being chair of the American Medical introduced into the Association Committee on university and medical Medical Education and University school curficula. of Michigan Medical School dean "In 1876 a I ' from 1875 to 1879 and 1880 to chemistry student from t 1888, lobbied for higher admission Missouri, ~ictor standards for all medical schools. Vaughan, rrceived one "He called for a three- to four­ of the two first doctoral year program, hospital clinical degrees at the instruction and strict University of Michigan," examinations," said Dr. Bloom. said Dr. B160m. "In "Also that year, Michigan became 1877, Vaugjhan began the first university to own and teaching p ~ ysiological operate a hospital. One of the chemistry to medical original professor's houses was refitted as a hospital for surgery :~~~~~t~~~~:s~~d~~al patients in 1869." microscopd1s, bringing In 1871, there were 18 women the total to 17. At that enrolled in the medical school. time, threats to relocate Except for urology, they attended the medical school to lectures with male students. Detroit resJrfaced and Amanda Sanford, who wrote her were resist~d by t thesis on childbed fever, was the University fresident first woman to graduate from the James Burrill Angell University of Michigan Medical and Victor Vaughan. School. Alice Hamilton, an 1893 Upon the dbath of Dean graduate who later became the Alonzo Pal f er in 1888, first woman faculty member at Corydon Ford was Harvard, had this to say about her apPointed dean and University of Michigan experience: Victor Vaudhan became "The training I received gave chief executive officer. me an understanding of what "In 1889, the state scientific inquiry really means and an ideal of thoroughness, ~~ ~~~h~r~~ra~110~~~e~ty objectivity of outlook, accuracy funds for ar ew hospi- and intellectual integrity which have been of inestimable service ~~~:~i~~ ~~e;~eagC~nts ,,, continued \Dr. Bloom. to me in my working life." I "In 1875, the legislature forced "In 1890, V1ictor the university to set up a Vaughan extended the homeopathic medical department curriculum to a four­ when new twin pavilion hospitals year program that opened," said Dr. Bloom. "The included laboratory City of Ann Arbor helped with the instruction :and clinical cost. Because of anticipated clerkship. \Vaughan became deian in 1891 contamination, the plan was to U of M Hospital in 1926 • Page 5' WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009 as a new combined allopathic and homeopathic building on Catherine developed the Kahn test for Street replaced the old pavilion hospitals. In this new hospital the depart­ syphilis. In 1930 'in the interest of ment of medicine, under the leadership of George Dock and Charles B.G. greater harmony,' the regents fired de Nancrede, who had been recruited to Ann Arbor by Vaughan, occupied Hugh Cabot." the East Wing . The homeopathy department was in the West Wing." Cabot went on to take a As the century drew to a close, Elizabeth Bates received $133,000 position with Will Mayo, an 1883 for the first endowed professorship at the University of Michigan, George graduate of the University of Dock introduced a clinical clerkship and clinical teaching program, the Michigan Medical School, at the first interns arrived and John J. Able established the first pharmacology Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minne­ lab and department in the world. sota. From 1930 to 1933, an interim executive committee led the medical school and Cabot's fulltime faculty reimbursement plan was replaced by a part-time plan. The specifics of this plan were changed in 1950, 1955, 1973 and 1978. Throughout the following decades the university and medical school continued to flourish. According to Dr. Bloom, 1953 saw the addition of the outpatient building, the dedication of the Veterans Administration Hospital, Med Sci I and the initiation of 24-hour emergency service. With an enrollment of 760 students in 1954, the University of Dedicated anatomy students Michigan boasted the largest medical school in North America. The 19005 In 1955, Thomas Francis and Jonas Salk announced the suc­ "Walter Hewlett, who replaced Dock as professor of internal medicine cess of their polio vaccine to a in 1908, advocated lab tests and EKG for the early diagnosis of heart grateful world. James V. Neel, in disease," said Dr. Bloom. "In 1910 the medical school had a budget of 1956, chaired the first department $83,000 and the hospital, of $70,000. All clinical instructors were salaried of human genetics in the United and ow~d their first duty to the medical school. But all was not perfect. States. Also that year, the medical The Catherine Street Hospitals were outdated and the full time salary school had 300 research projects system constrained faculty development. underway and Dean Albert "The old medical building was destroyed by fire in 1910, and five . Furstenberg argued, "The nation years later the regents adopted a new organizational nomenclature," needs more physicians practicing continued Dr. Bloom. "Graduates of the colleges received undergraduate in specialties." degrees and graduates of the schools received professional degrees. In William N. Hubbard Jr. addition, the department of medicine and surgery became the medical became the first full time dean in school. The department of diseases of the mind and nervous system was 1959. President Lyndon Johnson's divided into the department of neurology and the department of psychia­ Great Society programs in the try. In 1920, Elizabeth Crosby joined the faculty and Frank Wilson '60s led to many significant returned to the University of Michigan to become the 'world's best changes in the practice of medi­ electrocardiographer. ' cine. In 1969, C.S. Mott Children'S "Under the leadership of Surgery Chair Hugh Cabot, a surgeon and Hospital, Med SCI II and the medical reformer, students in the homeopathic and allopathic schools Towsley Center became part of were combined into one school," said Dr. Bloom. "Staffed by a fulltime the medical school campus. From multi-specialty faculty practice, a new 1,000-bed, 2.4 million dollar 1999 to 2007 Dean Allen Lichter hospital opened. In 1928, Alexander Fleming identified penicillin and in aligned the medical school and Ann Arbor, Ruben Kahn organized hospital clinical laboratories and the health system. The current

• Page 6' WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009

dean is James Woolliscroft, an internationally recognized medical th educator. Dr. Bloom ended his talk, as he had begun, paying tribute to 19 Century Leaders the importance of studying and learning from history. in Bacteriology Robert Koch was a German physician and one of the founders of bacteriology. He discovered the anthrax disease cycle in 1876, and the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis in 1882 and cholera in 1883. He received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1905. Joseph Lister was an English surgeon who brought to surgery the principle of antisepsis, an outgrowth of Pasteur's theory that bacteria cause infection. In 1865, Lister proved the effectiveness of his methods, thus founding University of Michigan Medical Center today modern antiseptic surgery. Using carbolic acid as the SUSAN WINEBERG • FROM LETTERS IN THE ZIEGLER PAPERS antiseptic agent, he devised techniques of applying it that, when used in conjunction with Way Back When his heat sterilization of WCHS Continues Search for a Home instruments, brought about The president of the dramatic decreases in Washtenaw Historical postoperative fatality. Society, Carl E. Guthe, Louis Pasteur was a wrote to Miss O.F. French chemist and Seeley, 809 Hill St, on microbiologist whose April 21, 1930, than~ng contributions were among the her for her note of March most valuable in the history of 31 indicating that the science and industry. He First Church of Christ proved that microorganisms Scientist (409 S. Division cause fermentation and St.) was interested in disease and pioneered the use selling its property to 409 S. Division of vaccines for rabies, anthrax them. and chicken cholera. He "Mr. Taylor (Howell Taylor, architect and board member) and I have originated the process known talked the matter over several times and have worked out a tentative as pasteurization. schedule. [This building is discussed in Reade and Wineberg's Ann Arbor Historic Buildings, 1998, page 46, which is available for sale in the Source: encyclopedia. com Museum on Main Street Gift Shop]. Another letter from Dr. Guthe to Mr. Taylor, also dated April 21, 1930, notes that the possible cost of the building would be $22,000 with an additional $8,000 needed for reconstruction. To make a down payment it You! would be necessary to raise $20,000 the first year and $6,000 annually Thank thereafter. "In other words, if we could raise $20,000 the first year, we would to The Ann Arbor News then be able to live on the income from an endowment of $100,000. This for donating seven seems like a large sum of money. ... I still cling to the hope that some months' civic-minded individual may give the Society a home." worth of paper Of course, this purchase never panned out. The church was sold to for our newsletter. another church and today serves as the home and office of realtor Jeffrey Gallatin . • Page 7' WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009

JUDY CHRISMAN Record Numbers Attend Upcoming Holiday Exhibit Events GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY The current holiday ::.;.-- -_ .. exhibit, Trains in Toyland, .-- - OF WASHTENAW COUNTY has brought record CIVIL WAR LECTURE AND numbers of visitors to The CLASS Museum on Main Street. Included in the exhibit are DATE: Sunday, January 25, 2009 model trains and train TIME: 1 :30 p.m. accessories, along with Free and open to the public toys from our collection, Visitors Welcome and the big Colburg LECTURE: Dollhouse, made and Winslow Homer and the donated by Lewis Hodges. American Civil War Holiday visitors particularly Professor Richard Rubenfeld, enjoyed watching the a professor of art history at trains run around the track Enjoying hands-on activities Eastern Michigan University, will while learning how they remind us of our Civil War worked. Firefly the Clown, with her magic bag of tricks, also was a big success. Hands-on activities included a relatives who fought on both the play table with a wooden train, blocks Confederate and Union sides, as and books, and the opportunity to make he presents Winslow Homer's paper chains to adorn the exhibit. Trains significant body of graphic and in Toyland will be open until Sunday, painted works about the war. January 25. Professor Rubenfeld will give us The exhibition committee thanks the an inside perspective of Homer's following people who helped make the portraits of the key players and exhibit fun and exciting for all : Fabian graphic descriptions of some of Beltran, for providing and setting up the the historical battles. Professor model trains and demonstrating them; Rubenfeld has been the recipient Lois Zimmerman, as Firefly the Clown, of many awards and has published for spending the afternoon performing numerous works in the area of art magic tricks; Robert Yuhasz, for putting and art history. up the banner, picking up the table top, CLASS: fixing the leg of the big table, helping to Tracing Two Michigan bring the big doll house from storage and Brothers in the Civil War Checking things out loaning us the model train belonging to Carolyn Griffin will discuss his late son , Lauren; Dan Del Zoppo, for getting two brothers from Michigan who most of the lights in the served in the Union army. She will doll house working; Linda use a range of historical records, Eye and her daughter, including military and pension Maureen Krause, for the records. loan of the small table and Ed Binkley, a Civil War re­ chairs for the children's enactor, will portray Irvin hands-on activities; Waterman Benson, a Civil War Edward and Marilyn soldier. He and his fellow re­ Couture for decorating the enactors will answer questions Christmas tree; and Royce about life in the army during the Disbrow, for putting our A Civil War. Frame out in front of the Clay Gallery on Midnight Madness weekend. Firefly and friends • Page 8 • Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Ann Arbor, MI Permit No. 96

WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Post Office Box 3336 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-3336

SUNDAY· FEBRUARY 15 • 2 PM WCHS GENERAL MEETING MEMBER 2008 ARCHEOLOGY OF 1015 WALL STREET JAN ETRIPP & LOWER TOWN 3260 BLUED RD ANN ARBOR MI48105 UNIV. OF MICHIGAN EXHIBIT MUSEUM 1109 GEDDES, CORNER OF '-----_. ----- N. UNIVERSIIT AVENUE

INFORMATION • 734.662.9092 www.WashtenawHistory.org

WASHTENAW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY IMPRESSIONS FEBRUARY 2009 Make Note- Dates to Remember Mission 2009 General Meeting Schedule • 2:00 PM Statement

Sun. Feb. 15 Archeology of 1015 Wall Street & Lower Town The purpose of the Washtenaw University of Michigan Exhibit Museum County Historical Society 1109 Geddes Avenue, corner of North University Avenue is to foster interest in For information, call 734.662.9092, or go to and to elucidate the history of Washtenaw County www.WashtenawHistory.org from the time of the original Sun. Mar. 15 Transportation History Collection inhabitants to the present. Its mission shall be Kathleen Dow/Special Collections Library to carry out the mandate as 7th Floor, Hatcher, 48109 stated through the preservation and presentation of artifacts and Sun. Apr. 19 The Toledo War information by exhibit, assembly, Don Faber/McKune Memorial Library and publication. And to teach, 221 S. Main, Chelsea, 48118 especially our youth, the facts, value and the uses of Washtenaw Sun. May 20 Annual Meeting: Location to be announced County history through exhibits in museums and classrooms, classes, tours to historical places, and other educational activities.