History of Detroit, a chronicle of its progress, its industries, its institutions, and the people of the fair City of the straits, / by Paul Leake ... [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF DETROIT

1043

States army at Washington, D. C. Stratford Bradish Biddle is a mine
drilling engineer who spent about ten years in South Africa, near Johannesburg, and is now employed in mine drilling in the states of Oregon and Texas. He married Marguerite Heyerman, daughter of Commander 0. F. Heyerman, of the United States navy. Margaret Porter
Biddle married Benjamin Douglas, son of Judge Samuel T. Douglas,
of Detroit. MIr. Douglas, who was a prominent bridge engineer in the
employ of the Michigan Central Railway for twenty years, built the
tunnel for that company under the Detroit river. Andrew Porter
Biddle, M. D., (see sketch below), was the sixth child of his parents.
Captain William S. Biddle was born in Detroit, in 1863, and was graduated with the class of 1885 from the West Point Military Academy.
He served with distinction in the Spanish-American war and during
the campaign in the Philippines. Subsequently he served as United
States military attache at Berlin, Germany, for four years and then
resigned from the army. Ann Eliza married Alexander W. Copeland,
son of A. M. Copeland, who was at one time postmaster of Detroit; she
died in 1911.
Andrew Porter Biddle attended the public schools until 1872, and
in that year was sent abroad to further advance his studies in Geneva,
Switzerland. From 1874 to 1877 he attended public school in Heidelberg, Germany, and in the latter year returned home and attended the
Detroit high school until 1880. In that year he entered the United
States Naval Academy at Annapolis, as a member of the class of 1884.
However, an affliction of the eyes caused him to resign from the naval
academy in 1882, and, returning to Detroit, he entered the Detroit
College of Medicine, from which he was graduated with the class of
1886, receiving the degree of M. D. During his senior college year and
the year subsequent to graduation he was resident physician to Harper
Hospital. In 1887 he entered general practice in Detroit, and in 1890
took special post-graduate work in dermatology in Leipzig, Germany.
He was appointed assistant to the chair of Dermatology in the Detroit
College of Medicine in 1892 and at present is professor of dermatology
in that college. He is consulting dermatologist to the Detroit board of
health, dermatologist and secretary to the medical board of St. Mary's
Hospital and dermatologist to the Children 's Free Hospital and the
Woman's Hospital and Infant Home and consulting dermatologist to
the Protestant Orphan Asylum. Dr. Biddle is a valued member of the
American Dermatological Association, a former member of the American Roentgen Ray Society, and a member of the American Medical
Association. He was general secretary of the Michigan State Medical
Society from 1900 to 1906 and editor of the journal of the society during that time. He is also a member of the Wayne County Medical Society and a fellow of the Detroit Academy of Medicine. From 1893 to
1897 he was a member of the board of the United States pension examining surgeons during President Cleveland's second administration. He
served for many years in the medical department of the Michigan
National Guard, and at the beginning of the Spanish-American war was
appointed by Governor Hazen S. Pingree as major and surgeon of the
Thirty-first Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, serving with that
regiment during the war.
On October 20, 1892, Dr. Biddle was married at Boston, Massachusetts, to Miss Grace Wilkins, and one daughter, Beatrice, was born to
them in 1897.
Dr. Biddle has been distinctively unselfish in his observation of the
professional ethics, and has never been reluctant to give his fellow
practitioners the benefits of his researches and experience, aiding them