CHARLES S. STERN, A. B., M. D., a successful
physician and surgeon of Hartford, was born July 25, 1868, in Springfield,
Mass., of German ancestry.
The Doctor's great-grandfather, Solomon Stern,
born in 1764, settled in Hartford about 1840, with his son Moses, and died
there in 1860, at the age of ninety-six. Although a weaver by trade, he
did not engage in active business after his arrival, as he was already
well advanced in years. By his first wife, Julia, he had the following
children: Ascher, Aaron, Moses, Myer (a merchant of Hartford, and a member
of the common council of the city in 1864), and Brina. By his second wife,
Yetta, he had Levi, a jeweler and merchant; a daughter, Bienschen; and
Abraham, a prominent merchant of Hartford, who died in 1885
Moses Stern was born April 16, 1810, in Hesse,
Germany, and died Feb. 7, 1886. By occupation he was a weaver, and he also
carried on a small farm. He married Tanbschen Bloch, and had nine children:
Jacob is mentioned below; Threasa married Bernard Goodkind; Julia married
Abram Strasburger: Hannah married Solomon T.orsch: Jennie married Abram
Danzig: Bertha died, aged seventeen or eighteen: Daniel M. is a wholesale
liquor dealer in New York City; Max D. was a successful business man of
New York, and died July 3, 1898; and Ella married Abram Adler, of
Rochester, New York.
Jacob Stern, our subject's father, was born
in 1838, in Hanover, Germany, and came to this country in childhood. When
a young man he engaged in the dry-goods business in Springfield, and about
1880 he became a traveling salesman for his brothers in New York City,
then enjoying a large and prosperous business. His route covered many sections
of New England, and he also had a large trade in New York City and its
adjacent towns. During his long connection with the firm, lasting until
his death, on Feb. 9, 1897, his fidelity and integrity were of the highest
standard. In politics he was a Democrat, and he took an active interest
in military affairs as a member of the first company, Governor's Foot Guard,
being a veteran member at the time of his death. He married Miss Rosa Mayer,
who was born in Landau, Bavaria, Germany, daughter of Isaac Mayer, and
granddaughter of Mayer Halevy. The family was from the province of Alsace-Lorraine,
and before coming to the United States Isaac Mayer was a wealthy and prominent
banker in that section; but the revolution in Germany, in 1848, caused
him to emigrate to this country. Isaac Mayer married Bella Mass, from Frankfort-on-the-Main,
a member of one of the aristocratic or noble families of that section,
and the great banker, Chevalier Adolph Bingen, who was knighted by the
King of Italy, was her nephew. After coming to this country Isaac Mayer,
who was very learned, and a scholar of exceptionally brilliant attainments
in philosophy and the Hebrew law, became a rabbi. He first had a congregation
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and while there, with the assistance of Dr. Wise,
inaugurated the modern reform in the Jewish worship. Later he officiated
as rabbi in Rochester, N. Y., and Hartford, Conn., where he was much sought
for by scholars of all religions, who appreciated his deep and accurate
knowledge of matters which could not be found in book's. His later years
were spent in New York, where he died Dec 31, 1897, at the age of eighty-nine
years.
Jacob Stern and his wife had six children:
Clotilda married Julius Lewy, of New York; Monroe died aged fourteen years:
Charles Seymour is mentioned below; Ethel B. married Arnold Le Witter,
of New York; Nathan M. is in business in New York City; and Winfred M.
is a student.
Dr. Charles S. Stern attended the public schools
of Hartford in boyhood, graduating from the West Middle School in 1881.
at the age of twelve years and nine months. In 1883, at the end of his
second year in the high school, he went to New York with his parents. The
following year he entered the College of the City of New York, where the
degree of A. B. was conferred upon him in 1888. In this course he had given
special attention to studies which would assist him in his chosen pro fession,
and in the fall of 1888 he entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, of
New York City. As an undergraduate he did much practical work in the Charity
Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital, and after graduation was connected with
the staff of the Gouveneur Hospital and the German Hospital of New York
City, in 1893 he engaged in general practice in the city, where for some
time he was an inspector in the health department, having passed the civil
service examination. Early in 1894 he opened an office in Hartford, where
he has built up an extensive practice, his specialty be genita-urinary
diseases; he has charge of the genito-urinary department at the Hartford
Dispensary. From 1896 to 1898 he was city physician under appointment of
the commissioners of charity; he is one of the police surgeons of the city,
is medical inspector for the Board of Health, and he is an active member
of the City, County and State Medical Societies. During the war with Spain
he was an officer in the Medical Department, United States Army, and was
ordered to Chickamaugua Park with the 1st Corps, where he did duty as executive
officer of the 1st Division hospital, and later as acting assistant quarter-master
of the 3d Division Hospital. From there he was ordered to Porto Rico, but
an illness—typhoid fever, contracted at Chickamaugua—of two months prevented
him from going until December. He spent four months as post surgeon at
San German, Porto Rico, and after a six-months stay on the island left
the service, July 10, 1899, resuming his practice in Hartford in September
of that year. The Doctor is fond of athletics and music, and is prominent
socially as a member of the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra; of St. John's
Lodge, No. 4, F. & A. M.; Hartford Lodge, No. 88, I. O. O. F.; and
Midian Encampment, No. 7. In politics he is an independent. He is an active
member of the First Company, Governor's Foot Guard, and a member of the
Veteran Association of Company K, 1st Conn. V. I., of the Spanish-American
war.
Commemorative
Biographical Record
of
Hartford County,
Connecticut
Illustrated
Chicago
J. H. Beers & Co.
1901
pgs 47 - 48
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