Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
OMSTOCK,
ALBERT LEE, M. D., of Mount Kisco, West Chester county, N. Y., was
born in the town of Butternuts, Otsego county, in that State, December
12th, 1802. His father was a farmer, one of the pioneers of the eastern
part of the State, having emigrated thither from Lynn, Conn., in 1801.
He was the third of what was afterwards a large family. In his boyhood,
he attended school during the winter, and worked upon the farm in the
summer. Deciding early upon a professional life, and knowing that he
could not depend wholly upon his father for aid in the necessary
preparation, he resolved to attain his object by his own exertions.
Entering the village academy, for several months he walked a distance of
six miles every day, and then boarded himself in order to secure the
more time to his studies. At eighteen he chose the medical profession,
for which, on his father’s side, there seemed to be a strong natural
taste ; having two uncles physicians : Dr. John Comstock, of
Hartford, Conn., widely known as the author of works on Chemistry and
Natural Philosophy ; and Dr. Joseph Comstock, of Rhode Island, also
author of works on scientific subjects. Two brothers -one older and one
younger- also studied and practiced medicine. In his twenty-first year,
he graduated at the Geneva Medical School, then located at Fairfield,
Herkimer county, N. Y. and began practice in Delaware county. He married
when twenty-four, and in 1827 removed to Bath, Steuben county. After ten
years of most successful practice, he established himself as a wholesale
druggist in New York city. Becoming interested in the system of
Hahnemann, he watched its dawn in this country with close attention, and
after careful observation of, and research into, its principles and
workings, entered upon its practice in 1857, in Buffalo, N. Y. In 1864,
he removed to Mount Kisco, West Chester county. At the advanced age of
seventy he is actively and successfully engaged in all the duties of his
profession.Dr. Comstock is an
elder in the Presbyterian Church, of which his father was a deacon for
thirty-five years-. He was a staunch Whig during the existence of that
party ; a strong anti-slavery advocate ; one of the first to
join in the organization of the Republican party ; and is an
advocate of progress in every department of life, and interested in all
that can benefit his country and his race.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave