The Strange Case of Dr. Couney
Page 20
“Expositions are the timekeepers of progress”: This quotation is widely cited. For one source, see “President McKinley’s Last Public Utterance to the People in Buffalo, New York,” September 5, 1901, Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69326.
That evening, McKinley and his wife, unaware of the near-assassination: Captioned images of the president’s two days at the fair can be found at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York) Libraries’ online collection: Pan-American Exposition of 1901, “Images of President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition,” http://library.buffalo.edu/pan-am/exposition/law/mckinley.html.
George B. Courtelyou, thought it a bad idea: A. Wesley Johns, The Man Who Shot McKinley (South Brunswick, NJ: A. S. Barnes, 1970), p. 20.
three thousand inside and another ten thousand outside: Among other sources, this appears in a newspaper clipping from the New York Sun, September 7, 1901, kept in the scrapbook of the surgeon Matthew Mann, Buffalo History Museum Research Library, M82-5, Dr. Matthew D. Mann Scrapbooks.
“Be easy with him, boys”: Among other popular sources, “The Assassination of President William McKinley, 1901,” Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/mckinley.htm. It is also relayed as “Let no one hurt him”; see Marshall Everett, Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition . . . (Chicago: C. W. Stanton, 1901), p. 36; and Nelson W. Wilson, “Details of President McKinley’s Case,” Buffalo Medical Journal 57, no. 3 (October 1901), p. 207. Another account, “Official Report of the Assassination,” The New York Times, September 14, 1901, describes the assassin being pinned but makes no mention of any such words.
the ambulance had to pass directly in front: A map of the exposition shows the only possible route from the Temple of Music; the medical center and the incubator exhibition were so close that one account described them as being next door to each other.
Martin, so close yet so bereft of credentials: Years later, Couney would tell his niece and her husband about his proximity to the emergency medical center, without mentioning his lack of credentials: Ilsa Ephraim, interview with Lawrence Gartner, January 4, 1980.
Inside the medical center, as Buffalo’s physicians: Wilson, “Details of President McKinley’s Case,” pp. 208–215.
“the blood of the Republic”: Ibid., p. 210.
Dr. Mann had five other doctors: Ibid., pp. 210–215.
the first Nobel Prize in Physics: Nobelprize.org, https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/physics/karlsson/index.html.
Dr. Park arrived just as the operation was ending: Wilson, “Details of President McKinley’s Case,” p. 214. It’s unclear who did the actual stitching.
At first, McKinley seemed to rally: Dr. Mann, clearly shaken, kept copies of daily press updates in his scrapbooks. The initial optimism was also recorded in Wilson, “Details of President McKinley’s Case,” pp. 215–216.
“It’s God’s way”: McKinley’s last words were widely reported on the front page of newspapers throughout the country with a few words’ variation. In some versions, he also quotes from the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
“BABIES MAY DIE”: “Babies May Die,” Jackson Citizen Patriot (Michigan), November 11, 1901, p. 1. In re Schenkein et al. implies that both Schenkein and Coney were arrested, but newspapers at the time report only Schenkein’s. Had the popular “Dr. Coney” been detained as well, I believe, the press would have been on it.
Deputy Sheriff Michael Burke was babysitting: “Baby Incubators Seized by Sheriff,” The Charlotte Observer, November 12, 1901, p. 7.
a judge would vacate the order of arrest: Newspaper articles state that it occurred the same day as the arrest, although a ledger held in the National Archives indicates February 3: “In the matter of the petition Samuel Schenkein & Martin Couney, indiv and as co partners,” recorded in United States District Court, Western District of New York, document 763, stamped June 30, 1903.
They were sent home: “Baby Incubators Seized by Sheriff,” p. 7.
Children’s Hospital bought a few machines: Baker, The Machine in the Nursery: Incubator Technology and the Origins of Newborn Intensive Care (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 99.
Welcome to the City of the Dead
Proceed along a long and curving road: I visited Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn on April 15, 2015.
Kirschenbaum’s Westminster Chapel: “Dr. Martin A. Couney Dies; Incubator Baby Pioneer,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 2, 1950, p. 19.
“Re: Martin Couney, M.D.”: Letter from Harold S. Musselwhite, Jr., to Research Librarian, June 27, 1996, Newborn Medicine History Collection, Pediatric History Center, American Academy of Pediatrics.
“My parents and several others were preparing”: Letter from Harold S. Musselwhite, Jr., to L. Joseph Butterfield, M.D., June 6, 1996, Newborn Medicine History Collection, Pediatric History Center, American Academy of Pediatrics.
obituary for Harold Musselwhite, Jr.: The Berkshire Eagle, February 27, 2005, via Legacy.com, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=harold-musselwhite&pid=3220428.
The “incubator twins” from the Century of Progress: Jami Kunzer, “‘Incubator Twins’: Once on Display as ‘Living Babies,’ Sisters Celebrate 80th Birthdays,” Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Illinois), August 23, 2014, http://www.nwherald.com/2014/08/21/incubator-twins-once-on-display-as-living-babies-sisters-celebrate-80th-birthdays/anleac5/.
Jane had the flat midwestern accent of my childhood: Jane Umbarger, interview with the author, November 10, 2014.
both women on the line: Jane Umbarger and Jean Harrison, interview with the author, November 5, 2015.
Two Elephants, a Wedding, and a Bunch of Crying Babies
a crowd of invited guests gathered to witness a public execution: Alas, there are more versions of this story than Topsy had legs. Some claim it was the doing of Thomas Edison, trying to win the “current wars,” but most insist that Edison supplied only the electricity, while Thompson and Dundy supplied the motive. Front-page newspaper stories at the time bear out that theory. “Wicked Topsy Must Die,” read a headline in the New York Sun on January 3, 1903, and then, “Kill Topsy Humanely—Thompson & Dundy Must Not Make a Sideshow of Her Death.” I compiled this account from several sources, most heavily “Coney Island Elephant Killed,” The New York Times, January 3, 1903, p. 1, and “Poisoned and Electrocuted,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), January 5, 1903, p. 1.
Samuel Schenkein was back from the brink: In re Schenkein et al. (District Court, Western District New York, February 7, 1902), No. 763, The Federal Reporter, vol. 113, pp. 421–429, details the legal arguments put forth, while dates of motions and discharge are held by the National Archives, in “In the matter of the petition Samuel Schenkein & Martin Couney, indiv and as co partners,” recorded in United States District Court, Western District of New York, document 763, stamped June 30, 1903. The “petitioner” received payment, but the amount was not recorded. Unfortunately, the complete records of the case were not retained, and parts of the handwritten ledger entries are illegible.
On April 27, who should arrive aboard La Gascogne: Ship manifest of La Gascogne, via Ellis Island Passenger Search (Passenger ID 102638030262). Louise Recht’s immediate destination was Schenkein’s office. Tantalizingly, the manifest states she had been in the United States once before, but I can find no record of that earlier visit. In 1924, her certificate of naturalization (32431) would give her arrival as March 14, 1903; I suspect that was a lapse in memory.
“Come this way, ladies and gentlemen!”: “Hints to Young Parents in Luna Park ‘Qbators,’” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 1903, p. 3.
The middle class unbuttoned: A good description of Coney Island at this time is found in John F. Kasson, Amusing the M
illion: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978), pp. 42–43.
He drew up a cunning second-year contract: For Tilyou’s dealings with Thompson and Dundy, see Edo McCullough, Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental Journey into the Past (1957; New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), pp. 302–303.
“Strangest Place on Earth for Human Tots to Be Fed, Nursed and Cared For”: Subhead of “Hints to Young Parents in Luna Park ‘Qbators.’”
“haranguing the passing throng”: Ibid.
Doubtless he’d have visited, if he hadn’t been three thousand miles away: Alfons made San Francisco news by suing the Market Street Railway Company for injuries sustained in December of 1900. “Street Railway Damage Suits,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 1901, p. 5. From everything I can gather, he remained in San Francisco for the rest of his life.
he dared a fellow member of the San Francisco Olympic Club: Barry Spitz, Dipsea: The Greatest Race (San Anselmo, CA: Potrero Meadow, 1993), p. 1. The race is still run every year.
he and Annabelle Maye signed their marriage license: New York City Marriage Bureau Records, certificate number 19262.
On October 1, his change of name was finalized: I found a copy of this signed documentation, with an official seal, on file with Hildegarde Couney’s 1956 will, file 4847, at the Kings County Surrogate Court Archive. It is accompanied by a confirmation from the German consulate, numbered 7691.
Kiss the Baby
The child was named Beth Bernstein: Beth (Bernstein) Allen, interview with the author, October 25, 2014. All of Beth Allen’s quotations in this chapter are from that interview.
“A lot of people expressed horror”: Terry Silverman, undated interview with Elinoar Astrinsky for the Coney Island History Project, http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive/terry-silverman.
“She was the star of the show”: Ibid.
“The Crime of the Decade”
Dreamland was intended as the lifted-pinkie answer: Edo McCullough, Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental Journey into the Past (1957; New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), pp. 192–196. The Coney Island Museum has an excellent trove of images.
On August 1, he ripped a page from Alexandre Lion’s playbook: The event was widely publicized throughout the United States; one example is “Incubator Babies Hold a Reunion,” Tampa Tribune, August 3, 1904 (dateline New York, August 2).
“New York Excited over the Smallest Living Body”: The story of Baby Lillian ran in papers across the country. This headline was in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Weekly Advocate, August 11, 1904, p. 1.
“The case of Lillian is, of course, the most wonderful”: Ibid.
another in Minneapolis (for which he would “train” the personnel): “The Incubator Babies at Wonderland Park,” The Minneapolis Journal, May 20, 1905, p. 10; “Dr. Schenkein Tells of the Reasons for Exhibiting the Infant Incubators,” The Minneapolis Journal, May 29, 1905, p. 4.
Sam had been invited to make their pitch: Minutes of the Committee on Concessions, October 3, 1901, Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company Records, Chouteau-Papin Collection, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
they were shopping around: Minutes of the Committee on Concessions, September 5, 1902.
“I don’t see why it is that you have any objection”: This entire conversation is from the Minutes of the Committee on Concessions, December 4, 1902. Published by permission of the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
“a little difficulty”: Ibid.
On January 22, 1903, Sam made another desperate pitch: Minutes of the Committee on Concessions, January 22, 1903.
Mrs. Hattie McCall Travis: Untitled clipping from the Plainwell, Michigan, News, March 20, 1903, Louisiana Purchase Exposition Scrapbook, vol. 163, Chouteau-Papin Collection, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis. Her bid shows up in the committee’s records as well; she was subsequently awarded a Spanish concession.
Emmett McConnell himself: Minutes of the Committee on Concessions, August 19, 1903.
By August, Sam blinked: Ibid.
But Bayliss, the man with a hand inside: Ibid.
turn it over to Hardy: Hardy (the partner cited in the World’s Fair minutes) is also named as the physician in charge in the World’s Fair Bulletin, April 1904, p. 20, Chouteau-Papin Collection, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, as well as in numerous newspapers.
Bayliss, to his credit, purchased Lion-type machines: John Zahorsky, Baby Incubators: A Clinical Study of the Premature Infant, with Especial Reference to Incubator Institutions Conducted for Show Purposes (St. Louis: Courier of Medicine, 1905), p. 12.
doctors were turning against them: The precipitous decline of incubators in the early twentieth century is well summed up in Gerald Oppenheimer, “Prematurity as a Public Health Problem: US Policy from the 1920s to the 1960s,” American Journal of Public Health 86, no. 6 (June 1996), pp. 870–878; also Jeffrey P. Baker, “The Incubator Controversy: Pediatricians and the Origins of Premature Infant Technology in the United States, 1890 to 1910,” Pediatrics 87, no. 5 (May 1991).
mothers and fathers started calling: “Babies Sent to the Incubator from All Parts of the Country,” The St. Louis Republic, July 17, 1904, p. 13; Zahorsky, Baby Incubators, pp. 38–39. It was Dr. Zahorsky who noted that most of those coming by train died en route.
The first child to die had been sick: Zahorsky, Baby Incubators, p. 29.
Another baby followed, and another, and another: The individual components of the debacle are detailed and sourced later in this chapter.
“I have never at any time had reason”: Letter from A. N. Curtis, M.D., August 12, 1904, Executive Committee Minutes, Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company Records, Chouteau-Papin Collection, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
“serious objections . . . garbage boxes filled with filth”: Letter from H. J. Scherck, M.D., August 11, 1904, Executive Committee Minutes.
“The feeding of the babies betrayed the grossest ignorance”: Letter signed “City of St. Louis, Health Department,” August 13, 1904, Executive Committee Minutes.
“Dear Sir, The Humane Society has been investigating”: Letter from Rozier G. Meigs to David R. Francis, September 17, 1904, from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company Executive Committee Minutes, September 20, 1904. Published by permission of the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
“who is unable to take time” . . . “come as a complete surprise”: Letter written on behalf of President Francis, September 19, 1904, from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company Executive Committee Minutes, September 20, 1904.
“It is horrible to think of these delicate babies”: While this originally appeared in the New York Evening Journal, I was able to find it reprinted as “Incubators of Death,” The Denver Post, September 15, 1904, p. 4.
“Dear Sir, The crime of the decade”: Ibid.
Eager not only to save the day but also to win: Zahorsky had been rejected for membership in the elite American Pediatric Society in 1900 and experienced ongoing frustration, according to Jeffrey P. Baker, The Machine in the Nursery: Incubator Technology and the Origins of Newborn Care (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 102.
pouring ice water into the coils of the machines: Zahorsky, Baby Incubators, p. 27.
published, to his disappointment, locally: Baker, The Machine in the Nursery, p. 102. It’s not clear whether the book was actually a self-published compilation of Zahorsky’s published writings.
Rotch, unlike Budin, believed: Zahorsky, Baby Incubators, p. 54.
“obnoxious effluvia” . . . “the nurses were constantly annoyed”: Ibid., p. 17.
he found nasal feeding . . . “modified” cow’s milk: Ibid., pp. 57, 68.
Despite acknowledging the overheating machines: Ibid., pp. 29, 68.
“Certain ‘specialists’” . . . he claimed the mortality rate . . . “C
onsequently”: Ibid., pp. 15, 14.
“The feeling of the medical profession” . . . “effort should be made”: Ibid., pp. 12–13.
“the catastrophe of hospitalism”: Ibid., p. 116.
“It was hospitalism that made the mortality”: Ibid., p. 29.
He concluded that unless a baby’s parents were indigent: Ibid., p. 133.
Fear of hospitalism: As will be noted in later chapters, doctors began to replace incubators with “warm rooms,” the idea being that an open flow of air was preferable. A discussion of doctors’ fear of infection, and the promotion of warm rooms, can be found in John Lovett Morse, “The Care and Feeding of Premature Infants,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children 4 (1905), pp. 589–599, and Jennings C. Letzinberg, “The Care of Premature Infants with Special Reference to the Use of Home-Made Incubators,” Journal of the Minnesota State Medical Association 28, no. 5 (March 1, 1908), pp. 87–91, both cited in Katie Proctor, “Transferring the Incubator: Fairs and Freak Shows as Agents of Change,” unpublished paper, 2004, www.neonatology.org/pdf/proctor.pdf.
Little Miss Couney Arrives
“to develop into a healthy Miss Couney”: “Invention Saved His Baby,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 2, 1907, p. 2.
no one would file a birth certificate for Hildegarde: Certificate and Record of Birth dated September 7, 1926, stamped 10294, New York City Department of Health. Martin listed his profession as “inventor, scientific instruments.” While a very late filing wasn’t entirely unheard-of with a home birth, it’s a bit unusual—and nineteen years after the fact, you could pretty much say whatever you wanted.
“What Took You So Long?”
Annabelle Maye Couney was the one who had purchased: Annabelle Maye Couney’s will, 1936, file 1668, Kings County Surrogate Court Archive.