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

855

unconscious. On October 9th he passed to the land whence no traveler
has returned.
When Dr. Morse Stewart began practice in Detroit, the state of
Michigan and its university were but five years old. Detroit's population
was about ten thousand, eight thousand being French who lived by farming, hunting, fishing and collecting furs. The rest were army people and
their families, with mechanics needed for such a population. To these
must be added a motley swarm of land-lookers, numbers of the suddenly
rich, boomers, speculators, sharpers, merchants, lawyers and doctors.
By decision of the supreme court any person could become a doctor by
assuming the title. As may be inferred from the character of the population, the fees of the doctors were meager, if any, and often had to be
taken in "store pay," which meant a discount of twenty-five or more
per cent. for cash. The practice of medicine was quite unsatisfactory,
both from the popular ignorance of sanitary conditions and the absence
of those aids which characterize modern practice. With the practical
application of the discoveries and inventions which transformed Detroit
from a measly little village to the peerless metropolis of to-day, and the
practice of medicine from a series of guesses to accurate knowledge
based on demonstrated facts, Dr. Stewart kept such close touch that at
the close of sixty-four years of continuous labor in his profession his
actual practice was wholly modern. Time forbids proof of the proposition that the medical profession of Michigan has been a very large factor
in the building of the state. Educated, clean, strong physicians like
Dr. Stewart have ever exercised large influence upon currents of state
life and invariably for their benefit.
In 1852 Dr. Stewart married Miss Isabella Duffield, daughter of the
late Rev. George Duffield, D. D., whose name is held in reverent memory
in Detroit, where numerous descendants have given further honors to
the family name. Mrs. Stewart was summoned to eternal rest in 1888,
and upon his death Dr. Stewart was survived by three sons and two
daughters,-Dr. Morse Stewart Jr., Dr. G. Duffield Stewart, Robert S.
Stewart, Mrs. Charles B. Lothrop and Miss Mary Stewart.
To promote the interests of the charitable institutions of Detroit
was one of the great pleasures of Dr. and Mrs. Stewart. How much
the Detroit Orphan Asylum, the Home of the Friendless and the Thompson Home for Old Ladies owe this couple the public will never know.
Without them Harper Hospital would never have existed. Briefly, the
story of its inception is as follows: One day as Mrs. Stewart was calling
on her father, he remarked that a parishioner of his, Mr. Harper, had
decided to endow the First Presbyterian church with his entire estate.
This was reported to Dr. Stewart, who at once exclaimed, "The First
Presbyterian church needs no endowment, but the Detroit sick poor
need a free hospital." Mrs. Stewart carried this opinion to Dr. Duffield, who persuaded Mr. Harper to leave his estate to found a free hospital. It was a matter of regret to both Dr. and Mrs. Stewart that the
hospital could not have been entirely free to the sick poor, as was the
mind of the donor and his advisers.
The present generation of physicians has rarely seen Dr. Morse
Stewart in medical society meetings, because deafness prevented his
hearing the reading of papers or listening to their discussion. His last
paper was read before the Wayne County Medical Society, in conjunction with papers from the late Dr. George B. Russel and Dr. Herman
Kiefer, all relating to personal recollections of their past medical careers. That paper showed large mental vigor and a philosophical dealing with facts in whose enactment he was an active participant.
Immediately after his arrival in Detroit we find Dr. Stewart a member of the Michigan Medical Society and he also became identified with