Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/424

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FORT 402 FOSTER ciety of Boston ; surgeon of the Fifth Regiment for ten years, then medical director of the First Brigade and finally surgeon-general of Massachusetts, resigning from the Board of Registration in June, 1895, to accept this posi- tion. He was treasurer of the Boston Medi- cal Library and treasurer of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Dr. Forster was the author of a "Manual for Medical Officers of the Militia of the United States," New York, 1877; "Mushrooms and Mushroom Poisoning," Boston, 1890 ; "A Sketch of the Medical Profession in Suffolk County," Boston, 1894; "A Catalogue of the Officers, Fellows and Licentiates of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, 1781-1893," Boston, 1894. He married, September 5, 1871, Anita Damon, daughter of Dr. Henry Lyon (Har- vard College, 1835). They had three children, all girls. Dr. Forster died suddenly of cere- bral hemorrhage. May 15, 1896, in New York, on his return from Philadelphia, whither he had gone on official duty as Surgeon General of Massachusetts. Walter L. Burrage. Phy.s. and Surgs. of Amer. I. A. Watson, Con- cord, N. H., 1896. Uist. of Boston City Hosp., 1906. Private Sources. Fort, George Franklin (1809-1872). George Franklin Fort, physician and states- man, was born June 30, 1809, in the "old home- stead," under the crown in the reign of Queen Anne, that had belonged to the family for over two hundred years, and had been the birthplace of the Forts since 1702. It was situated near Pemberton (then called New Mills), in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The father, .Andrew Fort, a farmer, came of a family of Friends, who in the early days of Methodism in America joined that body, and he was a local preacher under Peter Vanest, one of John Wesley's class-leaders; during the American Revolution he had been a minute man. George's mother was Nancy Piatt. Young Fort went to a school in Pemberton kept by John Bull, then studied medicine with Jacob Egbert, who ran a drug-store. On going to the University of Pennsylvania, he graduated M. D. in 1830, with a thesis on "Hydro-Arachnitis Infantum." In 1847 he re- ceived the honorary degree of A. M. from Princeton University. Although practising for many years, first at Imlaystown, and later at New Egypt, New Jersey, his public life began early. In 1832 he was an elector on the ticket for William Wirt ; in 1844 he was elected to the General Assembly from Monmouth County, after hav- ing served on the commission to draft a new constitution for New Jersey; in 1848 he went to the State Senate. Fort was author of the bill creating the State Insane Asylum, and was a director of the institution until his death. In 1851 he was elected governor of New Jersey by the democrats over the whig candi- date by about 8,000 majority, and served until 1854. He was postmaster of Imlaystown and of New Egypt, and was lay judge of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, also delegate to the national convention in Charles- ton in 1860. He wrote fugitive articles of local history of Monmouth, Burlington and Ocean Counties. The books on "Medical Economy of the Middle Ages" and "Early History and An- tiquities of Freemasonry," sometimes credited to him, were written by his nephew and name- sake, George Franklin Fort. In 1831 he married Anna Maria, daughter of the Rev. Stacy Bodine. Their children were Stirling, Anna Maria, George F. and Sallie. His nephews were : F. Franklin Fort, gover- nor of New Jersey (1908-1911) ; William Sex- ton Fort, graduate of the Medical Depart- ment, University of Pennsylvania, 1860, and passed-assistant surgeon in the United States Navy; and John Henry Fort, lawyer, Cam- den, New Jersey. Dr. Fort settled in New Egypt, while it was still in Mommouth County (that part of the County later was cut off and given the name of Ocean), and died there April 22, •1872. Information from Dr. Ewing Jordan. Foster, Burnside (1861-1917). The editor of the St. Paul Medical Journal, professor of dermatology, University of Minnesota, lecturer on the history of medi- cine, and cousultant in dermatology and genito- urinary diseases, Burnside Foster died in his fifty-seventh year at his home in St. Paul on the thirteenth day of June, 1917. He was the son of Dwight Foster and Henriette Perkins Baldwin, and was born on the seventh day of May, 1861, in Worcester, Alassachusetts. His ancestors on both sides were distinguished people. His father was a judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and his maternal grandfather, Sherman Bald- win of New Haven, was a Governor of Con- necticut and United States Senator. The first Fosters came to Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1638. Burnside Foster graduated in arts with the class of 1882 of Yale. He took his medical