George S. Munson
From BrethrenPedia
Dr. George S. Munson is listed in 1936 as a correspondent for the Albany Gospel Hall in New York. He was a physician, having graduated from the Albany Medical College in 1880. It seems his focus may have been in optometry.
He was born around 1856 in Saratoga, New York, to Steven (b. 1818), who made shoes; Mother was either Emma A. (b. 1818) from 1865 census, or Eunice M. (b. 1822) from 1875 census); Parents were born in MA. Appears he had at least four siblings: Emma (b. 1847) Fred (b. 1847 in IN), Louis L. (b. 1858 in Saratoga) and Frank A. (b. 1851 in Saratoga). Frank was listed in 1875 as a physician in Germany.
When he was 7, his parents had two servants from Ireland: Mary Hogan (b. 1839) and Fanny Dunn (b. 1847) 19, his parents had a servant named Emma Waunecke (b. 1855).
His wife's name was May S., about thirteen years his junior. They had a daughter Elizabeth D. "Beth", (b. 1892), who married Fred S. Harris (b. 1893), a lawyer, who in turn birthed Georgina D. Harris (b. 1920) and George Munson Harris (b. 1925).
There was discussion in the Albany Medical Annals in 1899 co-led by Munson on Dr. William H. Happel's paper "Tuberculosis in Children". This same year he was elected a delegate to the State Medical Society.
Albany Bible Institute
The 1940 census indicated a large number of women that were living with George S. Munson's family, including Harriet Christie. Further research suggests it may have been the site location of Albany Bible Institute which was borne out of the first summer camp in America exclusively for girls, Camp Pinnacle, founded by Mrs. Christie. www.camppinnacle.org
Trivia
- He may have had a descendant, Dr. William L. Munson, who also graduated Albany Medical College in 1908, of Granville, NY, who was reported in alumni news in 1918 as transferred as lieutenant from Fort Oglethorpe to the Base hospital at Camp Greene, Charlotte, North Carolina as a member of Medical Reserve Corps.
- There was also a 1917 book listing in the same 1918 alumni news by Brig. Gen. Edward Lyman Munson, titled "Soldier's Foot and the Military Shoe". He was an Army doctor who patented a popular "last" design in 1912 that incorporated a natural toe box that fit the foot's natural shape. His "last" (shoe frame) became "the standard infantry footwear for WW1 and WW2.
He was a professor of Preventative Medicine at the University of California, and professor of military hygiene at the Army Service School in Washington. and received his Doctor of Medicine at Yale. In 1901 he was sent to Washington as an assistant to the Surgeon General, and was one of the surgeons who attended to Pres. William McKinley after he was wounded by an assassin in Buffalo. He is also credited with organizing the "Morale Section" which became the "Army Information Branch".
Not certain he was related, but ironic that George's father also made shoes.
- In the Albany Medical Annals, there is mention of Mrs. Samuel L. Munson, co-vice-pres of the Albany Hospital Bazaar Committee in 1899.
Sources
1936 Light & Liberty assembly address book, Fort Dodge, IA;
* reference to Edward Munson's shoe design
