The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-12-11
MISCELLANY.
sK1rcH or DIR. JOHN HoLooxBE


SRLTCH or DIR. JOHN HoLCoMBE
friend has handed us the following obit
nary sketch of Or. John Holcombe, great
grandson of the first John Holcombe that set
tied in Hunterdon County and from whom
the Holcombe family in this county have de-
scended. The sketch is from the american
Medical Recorder
GENTLEMEN lin conformity with your
request, have exerted myself to become &C.
qnainted with the early history of DR.. Hol-
combe.
So far as | have been able to learn, he ex-
hibited none of those traits of intellectual SUI
perioriiy in lis childhood which shone SO con-
spicuously in his after life, and which render
ed him one of the most useful members of So
ciety while it impaired a charm to his con-
versation that bound the attention of all who
heard him captive to its SPELL +" He was born
of respectable parents in Lambertville New
Jersey, in March, 1885," AT the age of six
teen he entered Princeton College, and receiv-
ed the baccalaureate three years afterwards
While a student i'll that institution, he sus
tanned the character of a superior scholar, aud
occasionally exhibited datteriug specimens of
that exclusive fancy, ard correct aud delicate
TASTE which characterized, in peculiar man
ner, his subsequent poeiical edusions
Having completed his academic course, he
selected the profession which see ned to com.
port best with his humane and benevolent
feelings, and entered the office of Dr. Bell
vile, of Trenton, as a student of medicine
With that gentleman he remained the usual
PERIOD and on leaving his Office, took IL
cense from the medical society of his native
State. He did not graduate in medicine but
with his reasons for not doing So am unac-
quainted The medical college of Baltimore,
however, impressed with just sense of his
professional superiority, in the Spring of 1896,
conferred on him the honorary degree of M.
D.
In February, 1903, he accidentally became
acquainted with DIR. Thomas Montgomery, of
this village, who had long enjoyed the respect
and patronage of one of the most populous
and extensive districts in the State but was
now incapactated, by declining health, any
longer to sustain the hardships of "a country
pfdCtiCos ANU do bC udu O6boEutlueu W remove
to the city of New York, invited Dr. Hol-
combe to occupy his place, and take charge of
the business which he had SO long aud SO re-
specially held. Early in the following month
the subject of this sketch removed to Allen
town, and was introduced at once, through
the influence of DR.. Montgomery, to very
respectable practice, both as regarded the
number of his employers, and their standing
in society. The success which attended his
prescriptions, united to his urbane and feeling
department in the discharge of his profession
al duties, served to reconcile the public to the
loss of their old physician, and convinced
them hat he had been actuated solely by
regard for their welfare, in recommending
Dir. Holcombe to their notice. Extensively
engaged in the practice of his profession, he
continued to dispense the blessings of medi-
cine until the Fall of 1915, when he was call.
ed upon to represent the county Of Monmouth
in the State Assembly, and was elected
member of that honorable body, in which he
continued two years, when, believing that he
could be more extensively useful in his pro-
fessiona character, he resigned his seat in the
Legislature. It's now ueVOJcu ulI1ScI cnLIT6-
ly to the discharge of those tender duties
which are incumbent on the physician, and,
by the benevolence of his heart, and the
soothing mildness of his manner and express
sion, in many instances rendering disease less
painful to the subject of it, than to his own
feelings. His business, from this period, was
! limited, only by his inability 10 attend to it,,
.r A. 7
that more general and implicit confidence
never was reposed in the skill of any physi-
clan.
In the profession of medicine, it is by no
means uncommon for an iudivilntf to obtain
distinction in some one of iis departments /;
but it was the fortune of our friend, in most
of them, to soar high above mediocrity fhaf
department Of the science which has for It's
object the investigation prevention, distipc.
| ton, and treatment Of those diseases which
originate in deranged function or malconior-
nation Of organs. Is copfessedly the one which
calls for the most vigorous exercise Of the
highest faculties of the mind aud from what
has been already said of the intellectual pow
ers of DIR. Holcombe, 1t may be at once infer
red that here he would be pre-emiDentIy dis
tingushed and such was the fact. Chained
to the dogmas of no sect, and bound to nc
authority but reason and experience, he firm.
", though respectfully, opposed his opinions
to those Of he highest in the profession
whichever 4 different view of the case submit
ted 10 then judgment. led him to a different
conclusion respecting its nature and wher'
the disease was remsdDsss, post mortem sx