1823 Letter from Robert Crooke Wood, Then a Young Physician Wondering Where to Establish His Practice: “I Would Either Settle There, or in the West Indies”
Newport, Rhode Island: August 12, 1823. Autograph letter signed, two pages on a folded sheet, with integral address panel to Charles E. Dudley in Albany and Newport postal marking. 7 ¾ x 9 ½. Old folds, some toning and minor wear. Very good. Item #BK0186 A candid letter from the young Newport physician Robert Crooke Wood, then practicing in Utica, asking advice about where to establish himself more permanently. Wood had graduated from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1821 and practiced in Utica from 1821 to 1825. In May 1825, he entered the United States Army as an assistant surgeon, beginning a forty-year military medical career that eventually brought him the rank of assistant surgeon general and a brevet as brigadier general. At the time of the present letter, however, his future remained unsettled. Wood was considering remaining in New York, moving south to Edgefield, South Carolina, or trying his prospects in the West Indies: “I agree with you entirely in the opinion that for an ambitious young man Edgefield offers considerable advantages, and as I before stated, if all my friends were not so very much opposed to it, particularly my own family, I would either settle there, or in the West Indies, where I think the prospect is more flattering.” He had discussed the question with Newport physician Edmund Thomas Waring, a Charleston native and the son of a South Carolina planter. Waring’s assessment of Southern practice was considerably more guarded: “I have had several conversations with Dr. Waring, whose opinion I highly value respecting the Southern States — he is a South Carolinian, and has several connexions who practice Medicine in his native state — from the expensive manner of living of those with whom a Physician must associate, and from the necessity there is of accommodating yourself to the peculiar habits, and feelings of your employers, he is of opinion that even in a pecuniary point of view, the Southern States do not present such advantages as some other portion of our extended country.” Wood also asks for information concerning prospects in Utica, recognizing that an established northern town offered greater competition but believing that obstacles there might be overcome through “patience and perseverance.” An interesting early letter from a physician whose eventual career took a very different direction, written at the point when he was still weighing the relative professional and financial attractions of New York, South Carolina, and the West Indies.
Price: $250.00