Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-26


son was born to them; and that same son,
buried to-day. was DIR. d. Willard Bliss. That
child, born sixty-three years ago, came OF sturdy
stock. The Blisses of Connecticut and New
Hampshire were Puritans Of the most exact
type and jealous of their rights. In the revo-
lutionary days the two branches of the family
supplied the continental army with good deal
OF valuable fighting material, and three
OF the Bliss warriors became promi-
nent. DESTROYS of establishing himself
in the far west, Obadiah Bliss removed
with his family to the western reserve of Ohio,
and here the boy who afterward became famous
grew to young manhood. Medicine was his choice
as profession and he was placed in charge OF
DIR. Ackley, Of Cleveland. then a surgeon of no
mean repute. Young Bliss very early displayed
a taste for surgery, and as his knowledge of an
atomy became more extended he developed a
degree of skill never possessed by his preceptor.
shortly after graduation DIR. Bliss married
Miss Sophia Prentiss. daughter of Baptist
clergyman, at Cleveland. A year or so of pre-
ilmlnary practice In a couple Of small Michigan
towns preceded the Doctors location at Grand
Rapids, and here he began to accrue fame. The
practitioners in Michigan and in neighboring
states recognized in hun a surgeon of uncom-
mon ability and when dangerous operation
had to be performed he was almost invariably
requested to take charge Of it. Here too he be-
ganizer Of "Wideawakes," and doing all that
any one man could do to secure the election Of
Lincoln.
II THE ARMY.
Then the war broke out and when the FIRST
call for three-months troops was sounded over
the land, DR.. Bliss was one of the first in Mich
igan to respond. He was too valuable man
to be allowed to fight; at least that is what the
authorities seemed TO think. He was commits
stoned a major and he went out with the third
Michigan volunteers surgeon. In this ca
oarfx b. A~s L. Dali
bis surgical skill was found to be combined
with marvellous executive ability; even during
battle his ambulance corps was perfectly or
ganized and under control
In 1861 DIR. Bliss left the field service to take
charge OF the Armory Square hospital, posi-
'tion he filled until the close of the war. The
hospital was then the most extensive in the
city, having in il beds for 400 men. Here the
doctor was in his element and here he per-
formed some of the most daring and successful
operations ever attempted by surgeons OF any
time. No one man contributed more largely
than he to the material now on exhibition in
the army medical museum, and no one man
performed so many major operations as did
he. He was systematic in his work and after
battle, when the wounded were brought in.
the Armory hospital secured the most compli-
Gated and dangerous cases. This entailed upon
the surgeon in charge an immense amount of
labor. but he never wearied. Commencing at
O'Clock in the morning, be would work with
probe and scalpel and saw until it was almost
dark.
pRAcT1CISa AT TEE CAPITAL.
When the war ended he was famous and
when he settled down to practice in this city he
soon had more patients than he could attend to-.
His practice gradually became more general.
but the surgeon was always supreme in him.
he was invited to ill chairs in various medical
colleges, but with one brief exception he de-
ciined. He was the trusted friend and medical
adviser of a large number Of prominent public
men, and the house which will know his pres
ence no more is full OF portraits-mementoes
given him by distinguished patients.
DR.. Bliss affection for old soldiers was a
strong feature of his character. There was no
more ready way to his heart than to display a
Grand Army badge. Much Of his time was
taken up in aiding men whom he had met dur
ing the war and who desired pensions or boun-
ties, and one of the last acts OK his life was to
sign certain papers in the pension case Of one
OF those whom he termed my old soldiers"
THE GARFIELD CASE
made the doctor poor man. He had esthetic
tastes, many Of them necessarily expensive, and
the loss Of practice which he suffered through
his unremitting attention to the diving Presi-
dent made his latter days more laborious than
they would otherwise have been.