Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/804

NAME MERCER 782 MERCER tice he was a hard worker. He was thrifty. Old age found him with a surplus, some of which he gave away in life. He had a tender spot for orphans" resulting from the early separation from his parents. Among the bequests in his will were three for Protestant, Catholic and Jewish orphans, respectively. Another bequest was a sum to the Onondaga Historical Association to provide an income for a periodic oration "To keep green in memory the heroism of the men who rescued Jerry — men who could not look on a slave." He was liberal in thought. As early as 1783 he advocated the recognition of, and con- sultation with, all practitioners of medicine, if of good moral character, well grounded in the fundamental branches of medical science and practising under the simple designation of Doctor of Medicine. He was a Unitarian and a parishioner of Rev. Samuel J. May, the abolitionist. On first coming to Syracuse, Doctor Mercer be- came the partner of Doctor Hyram J. Hoyt, in whose office a few years before was planned by Mr. May, Garrett Smith and others the rescue of a fugitive slave. The plan succeeded and went into history as the "Jerry Rescue." During the last years of his life, groups of professional brethren called on him in honor of each recurring anniversary of his birth. The Onondaga Medical Society honored him with a banquet at the end of his fiftieth year in practice and another in celebration of his ninetieth birthday. Doctor Mercer was in his usual good health for his age up to within a week of his death. He was of medium height and of medium weight. He had strongly chiseled features, the English clear complexion, kindly blue eyes, lips red as a cherry and ruddy brown hair and beard, slightly gray at the time of his death. Doctor Mercer published "Letters from Lon- don," Buffalo Medical Journal, 1846; "Partial Dislocations and Consecutive and Muscular Affections of the Shoulder Joint," Ibid., 1859; "The Relations of General (scientific medicine) to Special and Specific Modes of Medication," Ibid., 1873; "Claims of the Medical Depart- ment of the Syracuse University," an address read before a council in the interests of Syra- cuse University, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1879; "Alumni Address delivered be- fore the Alumni Association of the College of Medicine, Syracuse University, June 14, 1883," pamphlet, 1883, and other papers and addresses published in the New York Medical Journal, New York Medical Times, New York Medical Record, and Transactions of the New York State Medical Society. Doctor Mercer's first wife, Delia Lamphier of Lima, New York, was truly a helpmate in every way, particularly during all the early life struggle, from the date of her marriage in November, 1848, until her death, February 14, 1887. She had six children. Much of the happiness of his later years was due to his second wife, Mrs. Esther A. Esty of Ithaca, New York, whom he married July 25, 1888. She survived him. A. Clifford Mercer. Mercer, Hugh (1725-1777) An eminent physician, captain in Braddock's war and general in the Revolution, Mercer was born in Aberdeen in Scotland, son of a min- ister of the Church of Scotland. He studied at the University of Aberdeen and entered the Medical School of Marschall College in 1740, graduating in 1744. He espoused the cause of Prince Charles Edward the Pretender and was with his army at Culloden, but escaping the fate of so many of his comrades, he sailed from Leith in the fall of 1746 for America. Landing at Phila- delphia, he soon set out for the western border of Pennsylvania and settled near Mercersburg, then known as Greencastle. Dr. J. M. Toner (q. V.) says that he founded Mercersburg. Here, until the beginning of the French and Indian war, he practised, living the life of a country doctor in a wild, sparsely settled region. Possessing the natural instincts of a soldier, he joined Braddock's army as captain of a company and took part in the ill-fated expedition against Fort Du Quesne. In the assault he was wounded and left behind, but after a perilous journey through the wilder- ness, he succeeded in joining his comrades. In 1756 he was commissioned captain of one of the companies raised to protect the residents against the Indians and their French allies, his company being stationed at McDowell's Fort, now Bridgeport. Here he also acted as surgeon to the garrison and practised among the people. In one of the numerous fights with the Indians he was again wounded and abandoned, and again made his way over one hundred miles through the forest and joined his command at Fort Cumberland. On this weary tramp he was forced to live on roots and herbs, and the carcass of a rattlesnake, and so closely was he pursued by his foes that he once had to take refuge in the hollow trunk of a tree, around which the Indians rested. Mercer was again wounded while command- ing one of the companies which captured an Indian settlement at Kittanning in 1756. For