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History and Biography
Garrit Terhune, physician, was born in 1801 in New Barbados Township, New Jersey, son of Richard and Hannah Terhune. He studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (now the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University) during the 1825-1826 academic year. Due to a dispute over governance and salaries most of the faculty seceded from the College at the end of that school year and formed a new medical school under the auspices of Rutgers College. Terhune followed them to Rutgers from which he received his medical degree in 1827.
After practicing two years in Hackensack, New Jersey, Terhune moved to Acquackanonk Village (now Passaic, New Jersey) in 1829. He remained there for the rest of his life. He was one of the founders of the Passaic County Medical Society and at his death on July 2, 1885, he was the oldest physician in the county.
Sources: Obituary from unidentified newspaper found in the papers and entry in Lisabeth M. Holloway, “Medical obituaries: American physicians' biographical notices in selected medical journals before 1907” (New York: Garland Publishing, 1981).
Organization
The papers consist of an account of Terhune’s expenses while in medical school; a photocopy of an obituary from an unidentified newspaper; and a photocopy of a photograph of Terhune, undated but taken in old age.
The four page account records Terhune’s expenses while a student at College of Physicians and Surgeons (1825-1826) and Rutgers Medical College (1826-1827). Included are costs for admission tickets to courses by named professors; textbooks (often listed by author’s name); medical instruments; boarding; and candles, laundry, and firewood. The total cost for his two years of medical education was $814.84.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of his descendant, Andrew Terhune, 2010, 2018 (accessions #2010.10.22 and #2018.037).