A Bit of Hudson History

Lately, Gossips has been spending time with newspapers from 1870—150 years ago. Yesterday I came upon this advertisement for Hudson Hospital, which appeared in the Hudson Evening Register for January 6, 1870.

This piqued my curiosity because Hudson Hospital, which evolved into what we now know as Columbia Memorial Hospital, wasn't established until 1887. Its original location was not on Warren Street, but in the house on the northeast corner of North Fifth and Washington streets. In 1900, the hospital moved to its first building on Prospect Avenue. So what was this Hudson Hospital?

Investigating where the Hudson Hospital advertised in 1870 was located, I discovered, in the trusty Hudson Water Tap Book, that 213 Warren Street became 413 Warren Street in 1888, when the building numbers were changed to create 100 blocks. Unfortunately, 413 Warren Street no longer exists, but it was one of the buildings at the center of the historic picture below. It may have been the three-story brick building just to the right of center, with two-story buildings on either side. Gossips has so far been unable to discover the fate of the building.

Research into Dr. A. McK. Whitbeck, the principal of Hudson Hospital, was more fruitful. I discovered that his first name was Ansel, and he was one of Dr. Volkert Whitbeck's eight children. In 1868, he was appointed Jail Physician by the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, a position he held for several years. He was also the producer of an elixir called Red Cordial, the benefits of which were touted in this item that appeared in the Hudson Daily Register on July 20, 1870.

The ad that inspired this post speaks of "Private Diseases." Some insight into what was meant by "Private Diseases" may come from the discovery that in May 1875 Dr. A. McK. Whitbeck performed an abortion on a woman from Stottville. The abortion become public knowledge when, three days later, the woman died. The entire story is told in the following account of the coroner's inquest, which appeared in the Hudson Daily Star on June 7, 1875.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although at the coroner's inquest it was determined that Lorinda Post died as a consequence of an illegal abortion performed by Dr. A. McK. Whitbeck, the newspapers do not provide any information about what the outcome was for Whitbeck. There is evidence, however, that he continued to practice medicine. His obituary, which appeared in the Times Union, indicates that he left Hudson to practice in Albany, although it doesn't indicate when he made the move. In 1902, he moved his practice to Brooklyn, where he died on December 11, 1917, at the age of 82.
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