Abraham Jacobi (1830 - 1919)

Born 6 May 1830 in Hartum(now a district of Hille), Westphalia, Germany

Husband of Mary Corinna (Putnam) Jacobi — married 22 Jul 1873 in New York City, New York, New York

Died 10 Jul 1919 at age 89 in Bolton Landing, New York, United States

Biography

"Dr. Abraham Jacobi, father of American pediatrics gave his name to the city hospital in the Bronx, New York. He was and remained a life long Forty-Eighter. As a student(he was awarded his degree by Bonn University in 1851), he had fought on the barricades, been imprisoned in Berlin, Bielefeld, and Cologne and escaped from prison in Minden in 1853. Born in Hartum/Westfalia on May 6, 1830, the son of poor Jewish parents, he was a champion of the poor. Upon the suggestion of his friend, Carl Schurz, he opened a pratice in New York City's Howard Street, where he treated patients for 25 cents.

Jacobi specialized in pediatrics, a branch of medicine then new in America, and gained an international reputation through his publications. In 1860, he was appointed to be the first Professor of Pediatrics at the New York Medical College. From 1870 until 1902, he taught as Professor of Pediatrics at the City University of New York and in close cooperation with the charitable German Society of the city of New York, he was a co-founder of the Association of Doctors for the Poor, and of the German Dispensary, which later became Lenox Hill Hospital. There and at Mount Sinai Hospital, Jacobi established the first children's wards.

On July 22, 1873, he married Mary Corina Putnam, also a well known doctor, whose ancestors had been early Puritan settlers.^[1]

In 1894, Jacobi declined an invitation to teach at the University of Berlin.

Despite some protests because of his advocacy of family planning and of laws prohibiting child labor, Jacobi was elected President of the American Medical Association at age 82. No other foreign born doctor had ever been so honored.

The Jacobis owned a summer house on Lake George next to the property of their friend, Carl Schurz. When their house containing some still unpublished manuscripts burned, the 89-year-old Jacobi was unable to recover sufficiently from the shock to attend ceremonies planned for his 90th birthday. He died on July 10,1919, in the New York apartment of Carl Schurz."^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:244T-3WX : 20 March 2015), Abraham Jacobi and Mary C. Putnam, 22 Jul 1873; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,561,969.
2. ↑ Gerard Wilk, Americans from Germany, Second Printing, German Information Center, Second printing 1987(copywrite 1976), page 16

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Jacobi

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3322