Crispell, Garret Du Bois - Dr.

DR. GARRET DU BOIS CRISPELL. One of our oldest residents and most esteemed citizens is Dr. Garret Du Bois Crispell, who has been engaged in the active practice of the medical profession in Kingston for nearly fifty-six years.

Dr. Crispell was born in the village of Hurley, on Sept. 8, 1801. His parents were John Crispell and Jane Hasbrouck. His paternal grandmother was Garritje Du Bois, a descendant of one of the brothers, Louis and Jacques Du Bois, who formed a part of the original Huguenot settlers of the county of Ulster. His medical studies were prosecuted in the office of his older brother, Dr. Peter Crispell, of Marbletown, from the years 1819 to 1823. During the winter of 1822-23 he attended a course of medical lectures in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, then located in Barclay Street, and was admitted to practice medicine, after an examination by the Ulster County Medical Society, in the spring of 1823. After a brief stay in Hurley, he removed to Kingston in the following year, 1824, where he has ever since resided.

Until the year 1841, Dr. Crispell was a practitioner of the old school of medicine; but at that time, having had occasion to examine the system of homoeopathy, and becoming convinced of the genuineness of its claims, he abandoned the old practice and declared himself a homœopathist. From that day until the present, a period of neatly forty years, he has been a leading practitioner of the homoeopathic school.

Aside from the practice of Dr. Thomas J. Nelson, who was contemporaneous with him in this new practice, Dr. Crispell was the first practitioner of homœopathy in Kingston, and is numbered among the pioneers in this State who have introduced and successfully made a new departure from the regular practice.

The efforts and influence of the subject of our sketch have not been confined, however, to the medical profession. All public enterprises for advancing the interests of the community have received from him hearty and substantial support. As an instance of appreciation of his public spirit and of confidence in his practical wisdom, it may be mentioned that in 1868 he was chosen one of the directors of the Kingston National Bank, a position which he still holds.

Dr. Crispell is a member and vice-president of the Ulster County Homœopathic Medical Society, a member of the State Homœopathic Medical Society of New York, and he is a member of the American Institute.

Early in life Dr. Crispell made a profession of the Christian faith, uniting with the First Reformed Church of Kingston, then under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Gosman, on

Christmas-day, 1825. In 1862 he transferred his connection to the Second Reformed Church, of which he has been and remains one of the most valued members, and whose interests he has several times served in official positions.

After all the changes of more than half a century, Dr. Crispell, by the favor of Providence, still remains in the freshness of a green old age pursuing his chosen calling, and employing his resources of experience as well as skill in behalf of the community that has so long and so fully proved the value of his services. One of the valuable men of a former generation, yet toiling on amid the activities of the present hour, he commands not only the respect due to honorable age, but also that which is inspired by the spectacle of useful toil at the period of life when many would feel that they had earned the right to rest. He is one of those landmarks of the generation which all agree in hoping may not be soon removed.

He married, in 1830, Sarah, daughter of Isaac Post, of Saugerties. She died in 1858, aged fifty-eight. Their only surviving child is Jane Catherine, wife of Reuben Bernard, of Kingston.