Mercer County, New Jersey biographies

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Mercer County Biographies

Anna Manning Comfort
COMFORT, Mrs. Anna Manning, doctor of medicine, born in Trenton, N. J., 19th January, 1845. In her childhood Miss Manning's parents removed to Boston, Mass., where she received her academic education. An early liking for the studies of anatomy and physiology was discovered by her aunt, Mrs. Clemence Lozier, M. D., the founder and for twenty years the dean of the New York Medical College for Women. Miss Manning entered Dr. Lozier's office as a student. Dr. Lozier's large and generous hospitality brought to her house many of the leading reformers of the time, and from intercourse with them Miss Manning drew much of that sympathetic inspiration and breadth of view which marked her personality in later years. She was a member of the first class in the New York Medical College for Women. At the graduating exercises of that class speeches were made by Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond and Hon. S. S. Cox in behalf of enlarging the sphere of woman's activities, and especially on her entering the domain of medicine. At that time the opposition to women students, which almost amounted to persecution, was manifested to the first class of lady students, among other things, by the rude treatment they received from the men students and even from some of the professors while attending the clinics in Bellevue Hospital. After graduation Miss Manning began the practice of her profession in Norwich, Conn., being the first woman graduate in medicine to practice in that State. By her strong personality and her professional success she soon won a large and important patronage in Norwich and eastern Connecticut. She there strongly espoused, in the press and otherwise, the cause of woman suffrage and of woman's equality with men in all moral, social and civil relations. In 1870 she removed to New York City, where she successfully practiced her profession, was appointed lecturer in the college from which she graduated, and was elected a member of the newly founded society of Sorosis. In New York Dr. Manning met the gentleman whom she married in 1871, Prof. G. F. Comfort, L.H.D., the distinguished scholar in linguistics and art criticism, who became the founder and Dean of the College of Fine Arts of the Syracuse University. In 1872 they removed to Syracuse, where Dean Comfort entered upon his work in the newly established university in that city. Dr. Comfort relinquished her medical practice for some years, till her children had grown beyond the need of a mother's constant cares. On resuming practice she confined her work to gynaecology, which had before been her chief department, and in that field she has achieved success and distinction. In 1874 Dr. Comfort wrote "Woman's Education and Woman's Health," in reply to Dr. Clarke's "Sex in Education," in which he attacked the higher education of woman. In 1887 and 18cji she traveled extensively in Europe, where she visited many important hospitals and medical institutions. Her tastes and accomplishments are varied and versatile; she has marked histrionic powers, and could have achieved distinguished success as an artist, musician or actor, or on the lecture platform.
("American Women, Fifteen Hundred Biographies" Vol. 1, by Frances Elizabeth Willard & Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Publ. 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow)

Dorothea L. Dix
DIX, Miss Dorothea L., philanthropist and army nurse, born in Hampden, Me., in 1802, and died in Trenton, N. J., 7th July, 1887. Her father, a Boston merchant, died in 1821, and Dorothea started a school for girls in that city. She became interested in the convicts in State prisons, visited them and worked to secure better treatment for them. Her school work and her philanthropic labors broke down her health in 1833, when she was prostrated by hemorrhages from the lungs. Having inherited a small fortune, she went to Europe for her health. The voyage benefited her, and in 1837 she returned to Boston and renewed her labors for the paupers, lunatics and prisoners, in which she was assisted by Rev. Dr. Channing. The condition of affairs in the East Cambridge almshouse aroused her indignation, and she Set about to secure an improvement in the methods of caring for the insane paupers. She visited every State east of the Rocky Mountains, working with the legislatures to provide for the relief of the wretched inmates of the jails, prisons, almshouses and asylums. In Indiana, Illinois, North Carolina, New York and Pennsylvania she was especially successful in securing legislative action to establish State lunatic asylums. In January, 1843, she addressed to the Legislature of Massachusetts a memorial in behalf of the "insane persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens; chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!" The result was a great improvement. In twenty States she visited asylums, pointed out abuses and suggested reforms. She succeeded in founding thirty-two asylums in the United States, in Canada, Nova Scotia, Guernsey and Rome. She secured the changing of the lunacy laws of Scotland. She went to Europe, and there she visited Paris, Florence, Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Vienna, Moscow and St. Petersburg in search of her wards. Sensitive and refined, she encountered all kinds of men, penetrated into the most loathsome places and faced cruel sights, that she might render effectual service to men and women in whom the loss of reason had not extinguished the human nature, in which her religious soul always saw the work of God. The years between her return from Europe and the outbreak of the Civil War Miss Dix spent in confirming the strength of the asylums that had sprung from her labors. On 19th April, 1861, she went to do duty as a nurse in the Union army. During the war she was chief of the woman nurses, and to her is due the soldiers' monument at Fortress Monroe. She established a life-saving station on Sable Island, and, after the war, took up again her asylums, seeking their enlargement, improvement and maintenance. At eighty years of age a retreat was offered her in the Trenton asylum, which she was wont to call her "first-born" child. There, after five years of suffering, she died. Besides being the author of countless memorials to legislatures on the subject of lunatic asylums, Miss Dix wrote and published anonymously "The Garland of Flora" (Boston, 1829), "Conversations About Common Things," " Alice and Ruth," "Evening Hours" and other books for children, "Prisons and Prison Discipline" (Boston, 1845), and a great number of tracts for prisoners.
("American Women", Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Volume 1 Copyright 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow.)

GENERAL JOSEPH KARGÉ
Professor Kargé led an eventful life. He was born near the city of Posen, in the Grand Duchy of that name, a Polish dependency of Prussia, on July 3, 1823. His father, an accomplished soldier, had served as a colonel of cavalry under Napoleon. At an early age Professor Kargé entered the gymnasium at Posen, preparatory to beginning his university studies. In 1842 he entered the University of Breslau, where he was distinguished for his attainments in both languages and history. In 1845 he went to Paris, and attended a full course of lectures on Slavic literature in the College de France. He went to Berlin in the following year, and there further prosecuted his studies, discharging at the same time his military obligations to the State. Being an enthusiastic Republican, he engaged in the movement in 1848 which had for its object the independence of Poland.
For his participation in that movement he was condemned to death by the Prussian authorities. He succeeded in escaping from the country, and, after seeking refuge in France and England, he finally embarked for the United States, landing in New York city in 1851.
From that time until the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he was engaged in teaching, and was at the head of a classical school in that city when President Lincoln's proclamation of April 15, 1861, called into service 75,000 men. He offered his services to the National Government, and in February 1862, he received a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Regiment of New Jersey Cavalry. As early as August 1862, he was already discharging the duties of colonel. While covering the retreat in August, 1862, of the Army of Virginia under General Pope from the Rapidan to the Rappahannock he was wounded near Rappahannock Bridge. In less than four weeks, however, he was again with his command, although his wound had not yet healed. On December 13, 1892, he took part in the battle of Fredericksburg ; but his disabilities were such that on December 22 of that year he was compelled to resign from his command. In the spring of 1863 he received authority from the War Department to raise the 2d Regiment of New Jersey Cavalry.
In June, however, Governor Parker, in response to an appeal from Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, and Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, for a force to aid in repelling the army of General Lee, called upon the militia of New Jersey to furnish a division consisting of ten regiments of infantry and two regiments of cavalry, to serve in Pennsylvania for thirty days. General Kargé was made chief of cavalry with the rank of colonel, and took steps on June 18, 1863, to raise the necessary troops. On July 4, however, the emergency for which they were intended had passed, the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought, and Lee's army was retreating toward Virginia. In the month of October, 1863, the 2d Regiment of New Jersey Cavalry proceeded from Trenton to Washington, and on November 9 left Washington for Eastport, Miss., having been assigned to the Sixteenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee. In April 1864, the General commanded the Fourth Brigade, Cavalry Division, in that army. He was in constant service in the field until the close of the war, operating in conjunction with General Sherman in his march from Chattanooga to Atlanta. On March 13, 1865, General Kargé was nominated by President Lincoln Brigadier-General by brevet for gallant and meritorious services during the war. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate April 9, 1865. He was mustered out of the service of the United States in November, 1865.
General Kargé was considered one of the most skilful cavalrymen in the war. General Bayard, before he fell at Fredericksburg, called him one of the ablest cavalry officers in the service. In 1867 he accepted a commission in the Regular Army, and for several years commanded two important military reservations in Navada [sic] then occupied by hostile Indians.
In 1870 the War Department gave him a short leave of absence. The Chair of Continental Languages and Literature at Princeton College was offered to him at that time and was accepted. This position he continued to hold up to the time of his death. In private life Professor Kargé was a most delightful companion. He was married in 1851, and his widow and two sons survive him. [Read rest of obituary]
Princeton Press, Sat., Dec 31, 1892
Submitted by John Riggs