DR. MARKOE FAMOUS IN HIS PROFESSION
Physician of J. Pierpont Morgan, Who Aided Him in Lying-In Hospital Work.
Dr. James Wright Markoe was rated by his associates in the
medical profession as one of the foremost gynecologists in the country, and for
the last twenty years he had taken an active part in the management of
institutions specializing in that branch of medical science. He was considered
an authority in gynecological surgery and his services as consulting surgeon were sought in hundreds
of cases in the last ten years.
Before he had entered this branch of his profession, Dr. Markoe became one of
the physicians for the family of the late J. Pierpont Morgan, and, although he
had become famous as a specialist in later years, he retained this connection
with the Morgan family. For more than twenty years he was the constant companion
of J. Pierpont Morgan on his vacations, and associates of Dr. Markoe said
yesterday that in some years he had spent as many as six months travelling as
the private physician of the financier. He was not with Mr. Morgan when he died,
however.
J.P. Morgan, the present head of the banking house, became greatly attached to
the private physician of his father and emulated the example of the elder Morgan
by calling upon Dr. Markoe whenever he was threatened with any ailment. The same
intimate relation had been maintained by other members of the family.
When J.P. Morgan was shot by the maniac, Eric Muenter, in the Summer of 1915
after a struggle in the hallway of the Morgan Summer home at Glen Cove, L. I., a
hurry call was sent to this city for Dr. Markoe. He was one of the first
physicians to reach the Morgan home and, after attending the wounds, he remained
with Mr. Morgan until he was out of danger. Muenter, who was known also as Holt,
committed suicide a few days after the shooting by jumping from the roof of his
cell in Nassau County jail at Mineola. He manifested similar maniacal tendencies
shown yesterday in the shooting of Dr. Markoe.
A few months after Mr. Morgan recovered from the wounds of this attack he became
ill with appendicitis, and again Dr. Markoe was summoned. He performed the
operation, with Dr. H. H. McLyle. For some of the Morgan children he had been
the only physician attending them since birth.
His Work in Hospital.
It was with the help of the late J. Pierpont Morgan that Dr.
Markoe and a group of other noted surgeons who were interested in gynecology
expanded the work of the Lying-In Hospital, at Seventeenth Street and Second
Avenue. Dr. Markoe became medical director of the institution, and before his
retirement, about three years ago, it had been made one of the best specialized
institutions of its kind in the world. Course of study were established for
graduate physicians, students of medicine and nurses, and the medical profession
credits many of its advancements in obstretrical science to the efforts of the
staff members of the institution.
Before he had begun to take an active interest in the kind of institution the
Lying-In Hospital has become Dr. Markoe and other young physicians, who have
since become famous, organized the work of the women’s dispensary at 314 Broome
Street. Some of those who were associated with Dr. Markoe in this work were Dr.
Samuel Lambert, who later became Dean of the College of Physicians and Surgeons;
Dr. Austin Flint, the noted alienist and surgeon; Dr. J. Clinton Edgar and Dr.
H. McM. Painter. For a long time before Mr. Morgan became interested in their
work these surgeons carried on the work, all of it without charge to the
patients, by their own efforts and at their own expense.
When Dr. Markoe and his associates took up the work at the Lying-In Hospital
they maintained this so-called midwifery dispensary as one of the sub-stations,
and its work on the east side has been expanded year by year without cost to
needy families. Many of the worthy patients at the dispensary are taken to the
Lying-In Hospital for treatment without cost to them.
Studied in Europe.
After his graduation from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, in 1885, Dr. Markoe went abroad to study in Munich and during his
period of post-graduate work he developed his interest in gynecology and
obstetrics. Upon his return he became the first house surgeon at the Sloane
Hospital for Women, where he remained for several years. He went to the Broome
Street Dispensary about 1890, but for many years maintained his connection with
the Sloane Hospital and the Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, where he
was consulting gynecologist for many years. He was medical director at the
Lying-In Hospital until about 1917, when he decided that he would devote the
greater part of his time to his private practice.
Dr. Markoe came from a family of physicians. His father, Dr. Thomas Masters
Markoe, was one of the noted physicians in this city fifty years ago and for
decades was a member of the staff of the New York Hospital. His brother, Dr.
Frank Markoe, also is a physician. Born in this city on July 19, 1862, Dr.
Markoe was educated in the public schools and at St. Paul’s School at Concord,
N.H. Except for brief periods out of the city in travel or study he had lived
here all his life.
For more than thirty-five years Dr. Markoe had been a communicant and vestryman
at St. George’s Church. It was in this same edifice that his marriage to Annette
B. Wetmore took place on Nov. 22, 1894, and in this edifice also their only
daughter, Annette, now Mrs. William J. Schieffelin, Jr. was baptized and
married.
Dr. Markoe was a lecturer at the City College, Fellow of the Academy of
Medicine, member of the county and State medical associations, and of the
American College of Physicians and Surgeons, Society for the Relief of Widows
and Orphans and several charitable organizations. His clubs were the Metropolitan,
Century, Racquet and Tennis and New York Yacht. His home was at 12 West Fifty-fifth Street.
Herbert L. Satterlee, who had known Dr. Markoe for many years, said yesterday
that, although most of the physician’s friends had forgotten that phase of his
life, he was a good amateur athlete and one of the best amateur middleweight
boxers of the ’80s. In later years Dr. Markoe had been interested in yachting
and cruised frequently with Mr. Morgan.