Monday, October 3, 2022 – A YOUNG DOCTOR WHO LIVED AND WORKED ON BLACKWELL’S ISLAND
FROM THE ARCHIVES
MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2022
THE 797th EDITION
MEET
DR.
ARTHUR H. McFARLAND
Occasionally we hear from descendants of doctors who worked on Blackwell’s Island.
This is part of the story of Dr. Arthur Mc Farland.
Thanks to Laura Mc Kibbin for sharing the photos and story of her grandfather’s connection to our island.
Judith – attached are photos from my grandfather’s photo album.His name was Dr. Arthur H. McFarland, and he attended medical school at Columbia University.
I found him in the 1915 New York Census data and could not make sense of why he was living at the same place as other doctors, students, nurses, prisoners and asylum patients until I learned about Roosevelt Island.
He was an intern there at what he called “New York City Hospital” from June 1915 to June 1917. Some of his photos are labelled with the names of the people if anyone is interested in that information.
Laura McKibbin
Top row: Joe Smith, Pop Snyder, AH McFarland, John Webster, Stanley Boller, Joe Price, Lockrey, A.H. Smith2nd Row: Chief Bender, Price, Weiss, Bert Bastedo, John Lisa, Hayes, Sam Bayer, Brewster Doust, Amry Ellington
1st Row: D.A. Quick, Howe, Fluker, Damraus, Crawford, Donaldson, Cady, Larry Blake
Here are the people in the photos labelled RI 5 f:
Top Row: Bostanian, unknown, Potter, Scoreson, Anderson, Weiss, Hayes, Roth, Greaves
Third Row: Boller, Simpson, Miles, Rosenprang, Smith, Amett, Siebert, Price, Snyder
Fourth Row: Newfield, AH McFarland, Lopez
Bottom Row: Ellington, Bender, Boller Jr., Lisa, V. Weiss
I do not know much about the child in the photo, except that my grandfather labelled him “Boller Jr.,” so I imagine he is the son of the man in the left in the black pants, also labelled “Boller.”
Young doctors who worked at City Hospital
Three photos made into a composite of City Hospital
The former Smallpox Hospital , the Nursing School
Nurses from the New York Training School for Nurses.
Nurses in front of residence
Page from 1915 New York Census listing doctors
Dr. Arthur H. McFarland was born in 1891
As a boy in Merriam Park Neighborhood, St. Paul, MN
Working on the survey crew for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, about 1910
In the Bugle Corps at the University of Minnesota, 1911
If I understand correctly, the hospital in 1915 specialized in treating Tuberculosis? After his internship on Roosevelt Island, my grandfather was stationed in the Army in Jacksonville Florida, 1918-1919. This was at the height of the Spanish Flu in that area, and I have read many of the soldiers returning from WW1 that year were infected. I imagine grandpa treated many with Spanish Flu. He must have had a hearty immune system!
After the war, he moved back to Minnesota and joined the practice of Dr. Louis Nippert in Minneapolis. He was also on staff at Eitel Hospital, Later Abbott Hospital. He was married to Lilian Ferguson McFarland and they raised two children in Minneapolis. They had six grandchildren (I am one of their grandchildren.)
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
WEEKEND PHOTO
NEW FACADE OF SPORTSPARK
LAURA HUSSEY, GLORIA HERMAN AND VICKI FEINMEL GOT IT RIGHT
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
LAURA MC KIBBIN
GRANTS
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE JULE MENIN DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
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rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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