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1865-6, studied in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, N.Y.
1867, Studied in Paris and Vienna.
1868-75, Practicing Medicine in Green Point, L. I., N.Y.
1872, President of Medical Association of East District, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1875, Delegate from Medical Society of Kings County, and from Medical
Association of East District of Brooklyn to the American Medical Association.
1876-7, Studied in Columbia Law School.
1877, L. L. B. from same; admitted to the New York Bar.
1877-8, Practiced Law in Brooklyn and Newburgh, N.Y.
1879-80, Again practiced Medicine in Green Point, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1880, Again Delegate from Medical Society of Kings County to American Medical
Association.
1880, Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence in Long Island College Hospital.
Died Dec. 12, 1880, in Green Point, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Married, Nov. 29, 1876, Mrs. Miriam Olivia McIntire, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
One child: Bertha, born Dec. 22, 1877. Graduated from Smith
College, Northampton, Mass., in 1897. Deaconess from the Lucy Webb Hayes
Training School, Washington, D.C., now a very successful Evangelist.
Address of widow: Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
"In 1865 he began the study of Medicine in the office of Dr. Baker at
Middletown, Conn., and in the winter of that year attended the lectures of the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and was graduated in 1867 from
the Medical Department of New York University. The following year he spent
in Europe in further preparation for the practice of his profession.
"In 1868 he commenced his practice in Brooklyn. His merits both by
nature and acquirement, were no conspicuous, that he was sought out from the
first, and almost immediately entered upon an active practice. His skill
and genius came rapidly into large requisition, and developed as rapidly as
required. But the demand came upon him while too young. His delicate
and sensitive constitution felt the untimely strain, and in a few years made him
seek relief. At first he endeavored to cut off night practice, and make
selections among patients, but in this he was not wholly successful.
Friends in their extremity would not be turned off, and his kindly nature could
not deny some while serving others.
"In 1876 he solved the difficulty by actually withdrawing from
practice. For two years following, his active mind sought recreation and
found great delight in the study of the law. It was during this period
that he married the daughter of Daniel Boyce, and welcomed his own daughter to
the family circle.
"In 1877 he was admitted to the practice of law, and friends were
congratulating him on his bright prospects, when his plans were unexpectedly
frustrated by financial misfortunes. The necessities of the immediate
future caused him to return to the neighborhood of his former practice and offer
his services to that community again as a physician. New physicians had
taken his place in his absence, but Dr. Van Gieson, whose practice was in this
same locality, says, 'his former patrons had left him through necessity, they
now gladly returned through choice.' His success in regaining business was
instant and complete. Prior to his retirement from practice, he had become
known to many physicians by his lectures before Medical Associations and by his
contributions to medical journals, and his return to practice was welcomed by
his professional brethren as markedly as by his former patients.
"In the fall of 1880 the Long Island College Hospital induced him to
prepare a course of lectures on Medical Jurisprudence. He had delivered
six of these lectures and was preparing others. W. F. Sandford came into
this world rich with gifts from God, and every year brought them to light more
clearly. He had a manliness instinct with self-respect, yet robed in
modesty. He seemed absolutely fearless, yet quick to see the first
approach of danger to others and to ward it off. The only fear he ever
showed in his dangerous vocation was that his faithfulness and attention might
be attributed to selfish motives. Selfishness and meanness he
abhorred. He was in full sympathy with the inquisitive and philanthropic
spirit of our age, and had large faith in the capacity of mankind to grow to
knowledge and wisdom and virtue. He loved his fellows and conscientiously
worked for their welfare, and he had that wholesome influence which only the
intelligent and the pure in heart can exercise.
On the first of December he was called to perform the operation of
laryngotomy upon a child in the last stages of laryngeal diphtheria, and
contracted that fatal disease. He was not the attending physician, but was
called in in the emergency, on account of his eminent surgical skill.
Eleven days subsequently he died. The child recovered, the doctor
died. The martyr spirit, beautifully shining forth in death. He
saved others, himself he could not save."
Wesleyan University Alumni Obituary Record.
Source: History of Class
of 1865 Wesleyan University, Fortieth Reunion, Middletown
Connecticut, June 27, 1905.
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