Camden People - Dr. William Howard Iszard

DR. WILLIAM HOWARD ISZARD was born in Clayton, New Jersey on April 27, 1842 to Samuel Iszard and his wife, the former Bathsheba Fleming. He served as a Medical Cadet at a Union Army Hospital in Philadelphia in 1862, and began his medical studies the following year. Although interrupted at times due to ill health, he completed his medical education at Jefferson Medical College, graduating in 1870.

Dr. Iszard, after moving to Camden, became active in Republican politics. He was an early president of the Camden Republican Club. His affiliation with political leaders William Joyce Sewell and David Baird Sr. led to a series of positions with Camdn County and the city of Camden.

A general practitioner, Dr. Iszard worked at different times as the County Physician and as Coroner for Camden County. He also served as the Camden City Food and Drug Inspector in the 1900s. He sat on the Board of Managers of the Camden City Dispensary, on the New Jersey State Board of Health. He was a member and sat as president of the Camden County, Camden City, and Gloucester County Medical Societies. Dr. Isazard also was a member and served at different times as vice president and secretary of the Camden City Medical and Surgical Society. He also was a member of the New Jersey Sanitary Commission.

At the One Hundred and Thirty-first Annual Meeting of the medical Society of New Jersey, held at Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 22 and 23, 1897, Dr. Iszard, in the last part of a paper reviewing the subject of expert testimony, pointed out the desirability of a change in New Jersey law, which seemed likely to occur in New York and some other states, making the medico-legal expert an officer of the court rather than an ex-parte witness for the side of the prosecution or defendant.

Dr. Iszard married Harriet Ireland on April 27, 1865. A son, William Hopkins Iszard, was born in October of 1878.

Dr. Isazrd made his home and office at the northwest corner of North 6th and Penn Streets in the 1880s and early 1890s. By June of 1900 he had moved to 411 North 4th Street in Camden. He died on June 19, 1928 in Camden.

Dr. Iszard's son, William Hopkins Iszard, was a successful realtor in Camden, and active with the Camden Elks Lodge 293. He was elected to the New Jersey State Assembly. He later moved to San Diego, California where he died in 1951.

Camden Post-Telegram * June 20, 1903

Bondsmen Pay Shortage of $2,178 For Derousse
Check Given as Soon as Inspectors Made Their Official Report and Notified the Bondsmen
Postmaster Brought Home And Is Much Improved

The postal inspectors having made an official report of a shortage of $2,718.71 in Postmaster Derousse's accounts, his bondsmen met this morning and arranged for immediate payment of that amount. The bondsmen are Wilson H. Fitzgerald, Frank H. Burdsall, David J. Pancoast,
J. Willard Morgan and Harrison H. Voorhees.

It is understood that the bondsmen divided the amount of the shortage in fifths, each assuming one share, and that Mr. Morgan made the settlement with the government inspectors at the post office.

When State Comptroller Morgan was seen, just before noon, he said: "Settlement has been made in full for the reported deficiency in Postmaster Derousse's accounts. Payment was made by me as attorney for the bondsmen. I now have the receipt in my pocket. That's all there is to say about it."

At the post office one of the government inspectors who was tying up some papers preparatory to leaving, referred the Post-Telegram man to the bondsmen for information as to the settlement. He said that this did not relieve the bondsmen altogether, as they had consented to
Assistant Postmaster Sayrs taking charge of the office and were responsible for the finances of the office until a new postmaster should qualify with new bondsmen. He would not say that Postmaster Derousse would be compelled to resign.

Derousse At Home

Postmaster Derousse arrived at his home, 326 North Sixth street, about quarter past 9 o'clock last night. A small crowd gathered in front of the house as his cab drove up. Former County Physician William H. Iszard, who had been commissioned to go to Baltimore for the missing man, was the first to step out of the vehicle. Dr. Iszard placed his hand in that of Derousse
and the postmaster stepped out of the cab. He looked around for a second, and appeared entirely dazed at the sudden end of his peculiar flight.

Derousse walked up the steps of his home with the gait of an invalid. Dr. Iszard had to hold him by the arm and assist him into the house. There his wife, daughter and Assistant Postmaster Sayrs, who had entered the house a few minutes before, were waiting to greet him.

The scene that took place when the postmaster and Mrs. Derousse met for the first time since he went away is reported to have been a most affecting one. Dr. Iszard, who was present, said afterwards that it was all that one could expect from the most loving couple.

Assistant Postmaster Sayrs spent some time with Mr. Derousse after his return last night and when he left the Postmaster had fallen asleep. It was reported this morning that Mr. Derousse was improved physically and seemed to be more contented, now that he was at home. He was kept secluded from all but members of the family and Dr. Iszard, who called to see him shortly before noon. Rest and medical treatment will, it is believed, soon restore him to his normal mental and physical health.

Dr. Iszard's Trip.

As told in yesterday's Post-Telegram, Dr. Iszard went to Baltimore yesterday morning on the 10 a. m. train. He arrived at noon and drove at once to the residence of William A. Swindell, former custodian of the county buildings in Camden, at 422 North Carey street, where Derousse made his unexpected appearance after his flight from Camden.

The visit of his Camden friends had a tendency to cheer Mr. Derousse up in a measure. After a talk with him Dr. Iszard decided that the postmaster was in a condition to be removed to his home.

The doctor brought with him to Baltimore a sealed letter from Mrs. Derousse to her husband, which had been placed in the former's hands by Dr. Frank Neall Robinson, the family physician. The letter was a pathetic plea from the wife for her husband to return home and that everything would be forgiven and forgotten.

It was after reading the letter that Mr. Derousse declared he would not return home. The letter he gave to Dr. Iszard. On the train he asked for it, and pondered over its contents, while tears trickled down his cheeks. Putting the letter in his pocket, he said, "Well, I may go home, after all."

Cheerful Greeting

It was a cheerful greeting which Mr. Derousse extended to Dr. Iszard at Mr. Swindell's hospitable home. He appeared the same "Lew" Derousse that everybody knew in Camden. But almost the next instant he was reverting to his troubles.

"I want to say that I owe my life to Will Swindell," he exclaimed. "Had he not received me as he did I would have killed myself."

"Did you know what I did this very morning," said he. "I stole out of the house at 4 o'clock, went down to the steamship docks and picked out a place where I was about to jump overboard. But I thought of Swindell, my best friend-he my keeper, you might say, Leaving his home
where I have been so well taken care of to commit suicide. I hurried back, and after wandering about the city for a couple of hours I returned to the house about 6 o'clock."

That Derousse had really contemplated suicide is indicated by the fact that when he returned Mr. Swindell found a card in the postmaster's D---- hat on which was written: "Please notify Camden Lodge of Elks, No. 293."

"How did you get to Baltimore?" he was asked. "Do you know I cannot tell," he replied. When I came over the river from Camden on Wednesday I went to a dry good store in the
neighborhood of Sixteenth and Market streets, Philadelphia, where I wrote a letter to Charles Sayrs, assistant postmaster, telling him I had gone away and hoping that he would be appointed postmaster.

Then I found myself out in Fairmount Park. Do you know that more than once I was about to leap into the Schuylkill?"

"Where did you next find yourself?" was asked.

"Oh, yes," was the postmaster's reply, "Now, where was that? Darby, Darby, that was the place. I boarded a trolley car and went to Chester. Arriving there I walked down to the river. There I again thought of ending it all, but there was a Providence that kept me back. How I got to Baltimore I cannot tell. I remember I had $5 with me at Chester. When I arrived in this city I had just fifty cents."

With a knowledge that efforts were being made in Camden by his friends to straighten out the postmaster's tangled financial affairs it suggested that everything would come out all right.

Back To Meet His Friends.

"Yes," he exclaimed, "but I am going back and face my friends in a city where I have striven for thirty years to establish an honorable reputation. How am I going to meet my friends who have placed me in high positions? Oh, if those postal inspectors had not appeared just when they did. Why, I could have gone out and gotten thousands of dollars to make up any deficiency. Yes, they say there is a shortage of $2,000. I could have gotten ten times the amount in a very short time.

"They say I have led a dual life," Derousse continued. "My home life has not been pleasant. If my wife had not written that letter to her attorney there would have been no such stories circulated as you hear to-day. If I did not give an account of my every action there was trouble."

Here the poor man broke down and sobbed.

"I have had plenty of chances to make money. When I was Speaker of the House I could have made a fortune, simply by holding up bills. In the three years that I served in the Legislature at Trenton I could have made thousand of dollars. But my hands were clean. Why, do you know, I have had chances to make money in Philadelphia and elsewhere in some big transactions. I had a big deal on only a short time ago with a Philadelphian who is now dead. When he died the enterprise failed and the money was lost.

"I defy any one to show me a postoffice better conducted than that in Camden. I have more than once been complimented by the postal authorities at Washington on the standard maintained by the Camden post office. I had loyal support in the office, but I was a strict disciplinarian, possibly too strict. I don't know."

Says He Will Not Resign.

"Will you resign the postmastership?" a friend asked Mr. Derousse.

"I will not," was the emphatic reply, which is somewhat at variance with his letter to Assistant Postmaster Sayrs, to whom he had written saying he hoped Mr. Sayrs would be appointed postmaster.

When Mr. Derousse was about to take the train for Philadelphia he was very much agitated. "Do you not feel better now that you are going home?" asked a newspaper correspondent.

"No: I cannot say that I do. Give me my library and I will seek a boarding house."

Then again the suicidal mania manifested itself. "These rivers down here!" he exclaimed. "How I wish I had gone to the bottom of one of them. Do you know that coming down here Wednesday I was going to leap off the train into a stream. But, believing the conductor was watching me, I hesitated. A man who commits suicide is not a coward."

Talk With Physician.

Derousse's benefactor, Mr. Swindell, and his physician, Dr. Wegefarth, were at the depot when the postmaster left for Philadelphia. Dr. Wegefarth and Dr. Iszard held a consultation at the Swindell home regarding Mr.Derousse's condition. Just before the departure of the train Dr. Wegefarth said:

"Mr. Derousse was in a serious condition yesterday, but to-day he is much improved. His mind still wanders, but his mental condition does not seem to be as bad as it was. He has slept fairly well since he has been in Baltimore. In fact, he told me that Wednesday night he had the best night's sleep in weeks. I believe that if he is able to keep quiet and get plenty of sleep he will be all right in a few days."

Camden Courier-Post - October 2 6, 1931

Four Prominent Physicians
Reminiscences of Drs. Godfrey, Iszard, Davis and Gross,
All Leaders of Their Profession in South Jersey

(Another in a series of articles on
Camden affairs and personalities of yesteryear)

By BEN COURTER

SINCE these annals of medical men in Camden county have appeared, other residents have occasionally asserted this or that physician, their family doctor half a century ago, has been forgotten,

"What's the matter with Doc So-and-So?" they have asked, and they have usually added, "He was the best doctor in typhoid" or whatever ailment was probably cured in their own particular household. The particular physician's victory over a malady which prolonged the life of some kin has evidently been handed down through the years as such an outstanding accomplishment that if monuments were in order it is unquestioned Camden would be liberally sprinkled with them, It likewise is certain that when family physicians were more the order of the day in lieu of the present tendency to develop specialists, the medical man's clientele stuck to him through two or three generations and usually placed him on a figurative pedestal at least.

Doctor of 50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago one of the city's leading physicians was Dr. E. L. B. Godfrey, whose office then was at 621 North Second Street. He was born in Cape May, February 2, 1850. After graduating at the Hightstown Institute, he took up the study of medicine with Dr. E. L. B. Wales, at Cape May.

Later he entered Jefferson College, graduating in 1875, serving his term as intern at the Rhode Island Hospital, Providence. He reached here the next year and immediately became one of the most active men of his profession, being on the surgical staff when Cooper Hospital was opened in 1887. He also was lecturer on fractures at the Medico-Chi Hospital in Philadelphia was major and surgeon of the Sixth Regiment, National Guard served as president of both the city and county societies and contributed authoritative papers to medical journals.

One of the early county physicians of Camden was Dr. William H. Iszard, a native of Gloucester County, where he was born in 1842. In 1862 he entered the service of the government as a medical cadet, being stationed at the hospital on Broad Street, Philadelphia, entering Jefferson College the following year. He was considerably hampered through ill health, but after much interruption graduated in 1870. He first located at Elmer, but soon afterward came here and opened an office at 411 North Fourth Street, where he practiced for many years. He was active in political work, being one of the first presidents of the Camden Republican Club, which long had its headquarters on Cooper Street above Third, and where many of the national figures in the party were occasional guests. He not only was welcome to any sick room but popular about town because of his affability and general all-around good fellowship. William H. Iszard, the realty man and prominent Elk, is a surviving son. Dr. Iszard died a couple of years ago in his eighties, mourned by many an old-timer.

Dr. H. H. Davis

Contemporary with him was Dr. Henry H. Davis, whose name is still identified with all that means health protection for Camden's school children. For a generation he was either identified with the Board of Health as its president or the schools as chief medical officer. It was he who was largely responsible for rules guarding young pupils in public schools.

Prior to his activities not much attention was paid to ailing youngsters. If they had poor eyesight they were just as liable to be seated far from the blackboard. if their record put them in that position. Not much attention was paid to the cause of their backwardness and if they couldn't see the figures the teacher placed on the board failure was laid to natural dumbness. Not much attention was paid to chronic sore throats, bad teeth or other imperfections, but when Dr. Davis was placed in full charge of the schools he changed all that and children who have passed through the classes in the past quarter of a century owe much to this veteran medical man whom fate ordained should be killed by an auto in his eightieth year. It was through his efforts clinics were established where poor eyesight might be corrected and other deficiencies looked after by the hospitals or dental men.

Dr. Davis was born at Crosswicks, August 16, 1848, and became a student of pharmacy in the office of Dr. Alexander Mecray in 1867, entering Jefferson College in the fall of that year. He graduated two years later, courses then being half of the present requirements, and began practice here. For many years he had his office at Third Street and Kaighn Avenue. Two young men whose preceptor he was, Dr. Harry Jarrett and Dr. Rowland I. Haines, afterwards ranked among Camden's leading physicians. Dr. Davis was active in the county society, was a former coroner and for many years identified with many of the city's activities.

Dr. Onan B. Gross

Arch Street at one time was among Camden's leading residential thoroughfares, although in these days, with most of the old dwellings either gone or in a state of dilapidation that perhaps would be difficult to believe. Half a century ago some of the city's best known professional men resided there, among them Dr. Onan B. Gross, who had his office at 407 Arch Street. In later years he was located at Seventh and Federal Streets.

Dr. Gross was a native of Ephrata, Pa., where he was born February 19, 1851. He entered Ephrata Academy but when he was 17 he was thrown on his own resources and apprenticed as a carpenter. He served his time and worked as a journeyman, but he sought a medical career. Through hard work and rigid economy he saved enough to enter the University of Pennsylvania in 1875, graduating three years later. His ability was recognized even then for he was assistant demonstrator in anatomy in the last two years of his course, the first time such an honor had been given one not yet a graduate. In the year of his graduation he received a prize for skill in dissection work.

Dr. Gross was county physician three years, president of the county society, a surgeon at Cooper Hospital, member of the board of managers of the City Dispensary and identified with the various medical groups of the period.