Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/474

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STOCKWELL


418


STONE


affable in manner and had a kindly word for everyone with whom he came in con- tact. He was also, as we have said, a good surgeon for those times, and being of a large figure, he inspired the confi- dence of those who were obliged to sub- mit themselves to the knife, as most people generally feel more safe in the hands of someone who is robust, rather than slender. He was rather distant in his ways to strangers and his prejudices were very strong whenever he had been deceived in any way. The health of Stockbridgc began to fail in August, 1870. but he continued practice until Decem- ber, when he was obliged to give up work. His death was due to inflammation of the liver which had troubled him in a slight degree for a number of years. He suffered greatly at the last, and died from asthma, January 20, 1871.

J. A. S. Trans. Maine Med. Assoc.

StockweU, Cyrus M. (1823-1899).

Cyrus M. Stockwell was born in Coles- ville, New York, June 20, 182.3, and had his general education in Oxford, New York, beginning to study medicine at Binghamton, New York, and graduating M. D. at Pittsfield Medical College, Pitts- field, Massachusetts, in 1850. After practising for a couple of years in Penn- sylvania he settled in 1852 in Port Huron, Michigan. At the outbreak of the Civil War he became surgeon of the Twenty- Seventh Michigan Infantry, and for a time after was assistant surgeon at Fort Gratiot, Michigan. In 1863 he resigned from the army and resumed civil practice. He was a founder of the Michigan State Medical Society and its first president, in 1866. From 1865 to 1872 he was regent of Michigan University. Like other pio- neer physicians, his early life was a suc- cession of long rides over bad roads or no road; forty to sixty miles travel his daily task. Dr. Stockwell usually se- lected horses with bad tempers. One was so vicious that he had to shackle its feet when descending a hill, to prevent his dashboard from being kicked to


pieces. The endurance of some of these animals was remarkable. His son, Dr. C. B., relates the following: "One day he and a druggist started for Detroit at 4 A. M. They went to Detroit, transacted their business and reached Port Huron at 12 midnight, making a distance of at least one hundred and twenty miles, yet on the following day the horse was as lively as ever." In making his long rides he drove a sulky with wheels seven feet in diameter. When he came to a tree, fallen across the way, he would unhitch his horse, lead it around the tree, then drag the sulkey over and re-hitch his horse and move on. He married twice and died at Port Huron, December 9, 1899, from arteriosclerosis, leaving a widow, two daughters and one son, Dr. C. B. Stockwell, of Port Huron. Among his papers are:

"Cholera." ("Transactions, Ameri- can Medical Association," vol. viii.)

"Dysentery in Michigan. " (" Transac- tions, American Medical Association," vol. viii.)

"Criminal Abortion." ("Transactions, American Medical Association," vol. xv.)

"Report on Diseases in Northeastern Michigan. " ("Peninsular and Independ- ent Medical Journal," vol. i.) L. C. The History of Mich. Univ., Ann Arbor, 1906.

Stone, Alexander Johnson (1845-1910). Alexander Johnson Stone, gynecolo- gist, was born in Augusta, Maine, Sep- tember 7, 1845. He received his educa- tion in the public schools, then took up the study of medicine and graduated from Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1867. After spending a few months abroad, chiefly in Paris, he returned to Boston, w^here he served as an assistant of Horatio R. Storer for about a a year, during which he received special training in the then rapidly developing specialty of gynecology. Coming to Minnesota some time in 1868, he first settled in Stillwater, where he engaged in general practice. But his cherished ambition to practice his chosen specialty made him remove to St. Paul in 1870.