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Sunday Morning, May 29, 1887. THE BUFFALO EXPRESS, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 29, 1887. 
BpfALO MOURNING. 
the well-to-do, lout he never neglected the 
poor. When he was first suffering from his 
fatal illness, but during a period of convales- 
cence some fiftee n months ago, a friendly caller 
-observed upon I iis table a rare orchid, and re- 
marked upon its beauty. “ Yes,” said the 
grateful Doctor,. ‘ it was sent from New-York, 
and hundreds 01 flowers have found their ’way 
to my room ever since I have been sick.” And 
only the day be.f ire his death a near neighbor 
was heard to say: “ It is touching to see the 
scores of poor people that go to the door and 
anxiously ask after Dr. Rochester.” 
He was sens ;ive and affectionate. Tears 
sprang to his ey es at the sight or hearing of 
misery and suffering; and he was apt to be- 
tray the same refreshing sign of emotion at the 
manifestation of any unusual or intense inter- 
est in his own welfare. His tender heart was 
a well-spring of loving kindness. He was 
gentle and brave. True as steel in his friend- 
ships ; strong and unyielding in contention for 
the right; but touch his heart, and he was a 
simple child. 
Of a noble presence, appearing handsomely 
on all occasions, he was seen at his best in the 
domestic circle, There never lived a more de- 
voted husband — never a more affectionate 
father. His last intelligible expressions were 
almost voiceless with tears, for he was speak- 
ing to an old friend about the dear ones that 
must be left to mourn. Only those who were 
on the most intimate terms with “ the Roches- 
ter ” could understand and appreciate the 
filial reverence and playfu ndearments with 
which the treated the head of 
the house. He was at once their idol and 
their friend. 
The dear man is dead. In the presence 
of such unspeakable affliction as has fallen 
upon his most estimable widow and chil- 
dren, respect forbids talk. Words have but 
a hollow sound and true sympathy is dumb. 
Their grief is sacred. But this brief tribute is 
mutely tendered in token of the general condo- 
lence— and of a silent sorrow only less acute 
than their own. 
aJ|Teat loss to this community and 
P THE MEDICAL PROFESSION GENERALLY. 
Sketch, of the Late Dr. Thomas F. Koch, 
ester—A Noble Life, Full of Good 
Deeds—A Tribute from the Heart. 
The news of the death of Dr. Thomas F. Rochester, 
on Tuesday morning last, has, ere this, spread through 
the wide community in which he was so beloved by 
all, and has touched with the sense of loss thousands 
of hearts that have blessed him for many benefactions. 
Dr. Rochester’s death is more than a loss to his 
family, friends, neighbors, associates and beneficiaries. 
It is a loss to the medical profession of the country 
which is keenly felt. The Sunday Express finds it 
appropriate to reproduce here, in part, the sketch of his 
life which was published in The Morning Express 
the day after his death, together with a sincere tribute 
to his beloved memory. The accompanying portrait 
will be welcomed by many. It was engraved from a 
photograph taken about five years ago, and well 
shows Dr. Rochester as he was before the wasting 
effects of long illness became apparent. 
The fatal illness is traced back to an accident 
which occurred Feb. 17, 1885, when Dr. Rochester was 
seriously injured by being thrown from his cutter while 
making professional calls. Various troubles appeared 
during the succeeding year ; he continued to attend to 
business, with intervals of illness ; but the best efforts 
of his profession, with trips for health and rest, 
availed little. The last period of his confinement at 
home dates from April 12th. 
His sickness is supposed’to have been a chronic in- 
flammation of the kidneys, closely allied to rheumatic 
or gouty kidney. 
A Sketch of Dr. Rochester’s Life. 
Thomas Fortescue Rochester was descended from 
colonial English settlers of Virginia, eldest son of 
T. H. and P. E. Rochester, and grandson of Col. 
Nathaniel Rochester, Deputy Commissary-General 
in the Continental Army, and for whom the city of 
Rochester is named. 
It was in 1802 that Col. Nathaniel Rochester, Col. 
Fitzhugh, and Maj. Carroll, then leading citizens of 
Hagarstown, Md., bought the “ One Hundred Acre,” 
or “Allen Mill Tract,” on the Genesee River, for 
$17.50 an acre, the site originally given to Ebenezer 
Allen as a bonus for building his mill at “ The 
Falls,” as the present site of Rochester was then 
known. In 1810 Col. Rochester closed his business 
in Maryland, having decided to move his family to 
. Dansville, this State. The departure was regarded as 
a public misfortune. “ When that well-remembered 
cavalcade,” says Jenny Marsh Parker, in her interest- 
ing history of Rochester, “—two family carriages, 
the Colonel and his five boys on horseback, and one 
bf hi - daughters beside, two or three great wagons 
with four heavy horses each, ten slaves,- these the 
members of two entire families including an old 
grandmother or ‘mammy,’ all under the charge of 
experienced teamsters, - when the cavalcade passed 
slowly down the main street of Hagarstown bound 
for the Genesee country, the thoroughfare was lined 
with townspeople and not a few watched it as they 
would a funeral train.” The third of these boys, 
Thomas, afterward Mayor of Rochester, became the 
father of the subject of this sketch. 
Dansville was quite a stirring place even in 1810 
Here Col. Rochester settled. In 1815 he was thriv- 
ing on his land in Bloomfield, a farm still bearing 
the name of “ the Rochester Farm.” In 1816 he was 
a second time Elector of President and Vice Presi- 
dent. In 1818 he removed to “ The Corners,” to 
which he was to give a better name. Not long after 
he built the house on the corner of Spring and North 
Washington streets, where he lived until his death in 
1831. There have been but few changes in this 
house, which is known to the present generation as 
the old Col. Rochester Homestead. 
Among the many stories that might be told about 
Col. Rochester is one illustrating the stormy political 
times of 1826, when DeWitt Clinton and Henry 
Huntington were the Clintonian nominees for Gov- 
ernor and Lieutenant Governor and William B. 
Rochester and Nathaniel Pitcher were the Bucktail 
or Democratic nominees. Betting was lively, and 
Henry E. Rochester, not of age, having just received 
$1,000 for a lot on Spring Street which his father 
had given him, took several bets amounting to $1,000 
upon Pitcher’s election. He won, but when he went 
home with $2,000 in his pocket his father forbade 
him to keep one penny of it. Some three weeks later 
Col. Rochester gave his son Henry E. the deed of an- 
other lot on Spring Street, worth $2,000, which was 
sold afterwards for $6,000. 
And so the Rochesters, root and branch, thrived. 
In April, 1817, the Legislature incorporated the 
growing village at the Falls of the Genesee under the 
name of Rochesterville. With increase of wealth 
and pooulation came new dignity, and the town, like 
a growing tadpole, dropped its caudal sign of juve- 
nility and swam out into prosperity under the hon- 
ored and honor-giving name of Rochester. It is 
perhaps worthy of note that Buffalo claims as citi- 
zens distinguished members of the families whose 
names are given to two of our greatest municipal 
neighbors, Cleveland and Rochester. 
The fifth Mayor of Rochester, Thomas H. Roches- 
ter who held office in 1839, was the father of Thomas 
F.,’ who was born at Rochester on October 8, 1823. 
Incidents of boyhood days are lacking, but we know 
it was a boyhood well spent, for it brought him to 
that alma mater of many noblemen, Geneva College. 
Graduating in 1845 with the degree of Master of 
Arts he turned to medicine, and pursued that study 
at the University of Pennsylvania, taking the degree 
of M. D. in 1848. For the year following he was as- 
sistant physician at Bellevue Hospital, where he en- 
joyed rare opportunities of practicennd study. Then 
came a year and a half abroad, during which time he 
traveled in many countries in Europe, and also con- 
tinued his professional studies. 
Dr. Rochester returned to America in 1851 and 
established himself in New-York Chy, where he con- 
nue from June, 1*51, *o Juxx, when he came 
to Buffalo to take the chair oi tne Principles and 
Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Medicine in the 
University of Buffalo. He had married, on May 6, 
1852 Margaret Munro, daughter of the Rt. Rev. W. 
H. De Lancey, DD., D.C.L., Oxon., first Bishop of 
the Diocese of Western New-York. 
Holding an important position in the faculty of 
Buffalo University, a position to which his abilities, 
his industry, and devotion to the University have 
lent luster, he at the same time rapidly built up not 
only a wide practice, but a solid reputation for skill 
and success in treatment. As is indicated by the 
chair of instruction in the University, his field has 
been that of the general practitioner ; but in this 
field he has had a great deal to do with diseases of 
the heart and lungs. 
Since 1861 Dr. Rochester had been consulting phy- 
sician to the Buffalo General Hospital ; and from 
1853 to 1883 he was attending or consulting physician 
at the Sisters of Charity Hospital. 
In 1848 he was elected a member of the New-York 
Pathological Society. He was a member of the Erie 
County Medical Society, and was its president in 
1860. He was president of the New-York State Med- 
ical Society in 1875-’76, and its delegate to the Inter, 
national Medical Congress at Philadelphia in 1876. 
He was also a member of the American Medical As 
sociation. _ _ „ , x , 
In the early years of Dr. Rochester’s practice in 
Buffalo he was in partnership with Dr. Austin Flint, 
Sr. Most of the older practitioners of Buffalo with 
whom Dr. Rochester was associated are dead. A 
few remain, an ornament to their profession and an 
honor to their city. It was a worthy place that 
Dr Rochester soon took among such able 
men as Drs. . James P. White, Barnes, Pratt, 
Charles Winne, Loomis, P. H. Strong, 
Samo, James and George Hadley, Sanford B. 
Hunt Charles A. Lee, John C. Dalton, Sanford 
Eastman, William Ring, and others. Especially in 
the State Medical Society were Dr. Rochester’s pro- 
fessional associations agreeable and eminent. Of 
Dr Rochester’s professional publications may be 
mentioned “The Winter Climate of Malaga,” being 
observations made during personal residence ; “ His- 
tory of the Medical Societies of Buffalo”; “The 
Army Surgeon ”; “ The Modern Hygeia”; “ Medical 
Men and Medical Matters of 1776” and many mono- 
graphs on various professional subjects. 
Some of the foregoing are of no little local interest. 
With No. 2 of the first volume of the Buffalo Medical 
and Surgical Journal and Reporter, September. 
1861 Dr Rochester began the publication of a series 
of articles on the “ History of the Origin and Trans- 
actions of the Medical Societies of Buffalo,” which 
was continued through three numbers. These papers 
are probably the best record of the early years of the 
society ever made. He brought the abstract of proceed- 
ings down to April, 1861, beginning with “ the earliest 
record of Medical Association for professional im- 
provement and advancement,” which was entitled 
*• The Constitution and By-laws of the Medical 
Society of the Village of Buffalo, adopted July 
16 1831 ” The first officers of the association 
were • President, Dr. Cyrenius Chapin ; vice 
president, Dr. Judah Bliss; recording secretary, 
Dr Bryant Burwell; corresponding secretary, Dr. 
Josiah Trowbridge ; treasurer, Moses Bristol. The 
by-laws of the society in that early time, as recorded 
by Dr Rochester, are curious. They made polite 
behavior incumbent upon members, forbade “ self- 
laudation or assumption of greater or more 
special skill then any of the other members,” 
and declared “deductions from bills made out 
agreeably to the fee bill, as unfair and unprofes- 
sional, where the parties have the ability to pay 
the full amount.” This association died of inanition 
when less than a year old. It was not until 1845 that 
the Buffalo Medical Association came into being, 
THE LATE DR. THOMAS F. ROCHESTER. 
Born October 8th, 182J. Died May 24th, 1887. 
formed as a City Medical Society by members of the 
Erie County Medical Faculty. The organizers were 
Drs. J. Trowbridge, Moses Bristol, A. S. Sprague, 
George N. Burwell, John S. Trowbridge, Charles 
Winne, Josiah Barnes, F. L. Harris, H. N. Loomis, 
H. M. Congar, F. H. Hamilton, and Austin Flint. 
Dr. Josiah Trowbridge was the first president. This 
history was compiled with great care by Dr. Roch- 
ester and is an interesting record even to the non- 
professional mind, particularly as regards the cholera 
cases of 1849 and 1854. 
On February 24, 1863, Dr. Rochester delivered an 
address to the graduates of the Medical Department 
of the University of Buffalo on “The Army Sur- 
geon,” which attracted wide attention and was pub- 
lished in the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal 
for March, 1863. It was virtually a memorial to Dr. 
Charles H. Wilcox, Volunteer Brigade Surgeon in 
Gen. Patrick’s Brigade, and afterwards Surgeon of 
the 21st Regiment, New-York State Volunteers. Dr. 
Wilcox died in Buffalo shortly after returning from 
service, broken down by toil, anxiety, and exposure. 
For many years the Buffalo Medical Journal con- 
tained frequent contributions from Dr. Rochester. 
Notable among these were papers on cholera, in 
which are recorded many interesting facts relating to 
the epidemic O 1854, with observations on cases at 
Suspension Bridge, .Niagara Falls, and Buffalo. 
Dr. Rochestei was identified with various public 
institutions. Be was president of the Buffalo Fine 
Arts Academy, and a practical patron and promoter 
of art. He was also a life member of the Young 
Men’s Association and a member of Trinity Episcopal 
Church. 
As an instructor he was direct in style, always 
clear and forcible, aiming to teach, to inculcate a 
truth, rather than to appear learned in the eyes of 
his hearers. As a speaker he had often been heard 
in public. His annual remarks to the graduating 
classes from the nurses’ training school in connection 
with the General Hospital are well remembered as 
models of kindly, advisory address. 
Besides the widow, he leaves six children to grieve 
at the loss of a kind father and a considerate friend— 
Mr. Nathaniel Rochester, cashier of the Third Na- 
tional Bank; Dr. Delancey Rochester, who has 
been associated with his father in the practice of 
medicine for some time; and Miss Elizabeth, Miss 
Margaret, and Miss Emily Rochester, and Mrs. 
Charles B. Wheeler. 
Tributes to Worth. 
At a meeting of the Council of the Buffalo Uni- 
versity, held on Wednesday, the following memorial 
was adopted and ordered placed on the records : 
The associates of the late Dr. Rochester in the Buf- 
falo University share the general sorrow in view of 
his death. He was the last of the group of distin- 
guished physicians who founded or were early associ- 
ated with the Medical Department. The names of 
Flint, Hamilto'o. White, Miner, Rochester, have not 
only given houorable renown to our university, but they 
rank with the foremost of those who have advanced 
the science of their profession. The professional breth- 
ren of our lamented colleague will speak elsewhere 
more particularly of his professional career ; we would 
linger for a few moments over the memory of the man 
and the citizen. He was a man of great purity of 
character and of broad human sympathies. His emi- 
nence gave him a large clientele among the rich, but 
the tributes of affection and gratitude given him by the 
poor during his long illness, whom he gratuitously 
served, are the enduring testimonials of his tender 
heart and his unselfish nature. 
He was a man of positive opinions. In church, in 
state, in every sphere of his activities, he had earnest 
convictions and uncompromising action. His convic- 
tions rested on principles interwoven with his moral 
nature, and what to some might seem a narrow parti- 
sanship was in fact a loyal consecration to what he be- 
lieved to be duty. He kept his heart pure and ever 
obeyed its high instincts. 
Dr. Rochester was an ideal citizen. We recognize the 
wide distinction between a negative and an affirmative 
good citizenship. He was not content to be a builder 
of only his private fortunes. He felt and met the higher 
responsibility of citizenship. But for his large sympa- 
thy with the humanities which are the best exponents 
of our civilization he might have accumulated a private 
fortune that would 1-ank with the fortunes of trade and 
commerce. But Dr. Rochester was, as has been well 
said, of the “ select few” who make the sacrifices which 
build and sustain the institutions which are the true 
glory of cities and States. Other men’s gif is were never 
made the standard for his own. His generosity out- 
stripped his prudence, and he took the lead in labors 
and sacrifices for the public weal where he might justly 
have followed. Vs his associates ui tbe.CounciJ we are 
proud of his professional distinction, but we are still 
more proud of those civic virtues which have left so 
beneficent results and so illustrious example. 
His last months revealed his heroic character. Life 
was sweet to him, and whde he brought to the Divine 
Will the resignation of a Christian, his struggle against 
his fatal disease was truly heroic. With what patience 
he submitted to the painful ordeal that alone gave hope 
of restoration ! With what energy he resumed his pro- 
fessional labors after his recent return from a gentler 
clime than ours, and while death was on his track 1 
And how like a warrior fallen in battle he yie'ded at 
last only when life was fast ebbing away. 
Truly our friend lived “ the beloved physician ” and 
the noble citizen. He died a Christian hero. 
“Every physician in Buffalo, it seemed, was present 
at a meeting of the Erie County Medical Society held 
on Wednesday evening. Dr. John D. Hill, who pre- 
sided, said, with much feeling : 
Gentlemen of the Erie County Medical Association. 
You are all aware of the sad event which has called us 
together. Death has again entered our ranks, and has 
taken from our galaxy a bright and shining light—may' 
I not say the savant of our profession ? 
It is fitting on such an occasion that we should meet 
to pay the tribute and respect due a member who has 
devoted the energies of a life in advancing the best in- 
terests not alone of his chosen avocation, but of the 
community in which he lived. No member of this 
society was better known or more highly esteemed 
than was Dr. Thomas F. Rochester. We do credit to 
ourselves by honoring his memory. 
Other tributes were paid to the memory of the de- 
parted by Dr. F. W. Abbott and Dr. Lucien Howe, 
who spoke, pending the preparation of the following 
memoral: 
After an illness patiently borne for nearly two years, 
an illness which was heroically but unsuccessfully com- 
batted, Dr. Thomas F. Rochester has been removed 
from our center by death. His professional achieve- 
ments, his absolute integrity, his sound judgment, his 
profound erudition, his purity of character, and his 
widespread generosity have endeared him to us all and 
raised him to the very summit of distinction in this 
community; his many virtues have been the means 
whereby he has attained his brilliant success, and have 
gained for him the almost unprecedented regard and 
love of his fellow men, while by the radiance of his char- 
acter he has invited emulation. 
We recognize that by the death of Dr. Rochester the 
Erie County Medical Society, the profession, our char- 
ities, arts, and sciences, have lost a friend and sup- 
porter who cannot be replaced; that this society 
particularly will mourn the loss of one of its oldest, 
most zealous and able members, whose high attain- 
ments have given prominence to this society in the 
State: that the profession loses an endeared friend 
from whose source of ever-flowing knowledge we have 
long been accustomed to draw; our charities have lost 
a too liberal contributor and a wise adviser, ana soci- 
ety an intellectual, courteous, and respected member, 
whose example of cheerfulness and Christianity will 
outlive his generation. 
Resolved, That this memorial be entered upon our 
minutes and that a copy be t ansmitted to his be- 
reaved famil/, who are not alone in their mourning, 
b it whose terrible grief is shared by this society. 
Dr. M. D. Mann, in moving the adoption of the 
resolution, and Dr. W. W. Potter, in seconding it, 
each made feeling remarks. The memorial was un 
animously adopted1 
Dr. George N. Burwell, who attended Dr. Roches- 
ter in his last illness, was unable from emotion to 
read the tribute he had prepared, and the secretary 
read for him the following ; 
I come to-night, my friends and brethren, to mourn 
with you the loss of our friend, associate, and ex- 
emplar, Dr. Rochester, as well as to add to your tribute 
of high and most merited praise the humble assurance 
of my affection and admiration. During all of his pro- 
fessional life in Buffalo we have worked side by side; 
always, I am most happy to say, in good understand- 
ing. and, therefere, always in peace and the most per- 
fect harmony. He was the younger of the two, and 
perhaps the more ambitious; certainly the better 
worker and the more of the man of affairs. 
So to a certain extent, we have worked on different 
lines ; but never, on any occasion, to cross purposes. 
His push and energy have always claimed and have 
had warm admiration ; and his prosperity and great 
reputation and renown have been always to me, as a 
citizen of Buffalo, objects of honest pride. I therefore 
do most sincerely mourn his death as a public loss to 
ou ■ city ; and to the gentlemen associated with him in 
many and various associations it must be almost a 
calamity. 
To myself, let me say, it is an irreparable loss for 
it takes from me the one most dear to me, and alas ! 
almost the last one of the associates of my early medi- 
cal life. His place, his esteem and friendship, which I 
have ever so highly valued, can never be made good toil 
me and I mourn him as one who is without hope. 
Tributes of a similar character were offered d; 
letter by Dr. J. H. Pryor, and in impressive word: 
by Drs. R. S. Strong, Roswell Park, James Samo, 
James Putnam, F. W. Bartlett, C. C. Wyckoff, J. 
C. Greene, Dr. Stoddard of Rochester, John Cronyn, 
and Samuel A. Wetmore. The burden of all the re- 
marks was expressed by Dr. Bartlett: 
Green be the turf above thee, 
Friend of my better days; 
None knew thee but to love thee. 
Nor named thee but to praise. 
The-local board of managers of |the Staf ,r< ■ ■/ 
School, the Monroe County Medical S pety, and the 
directors'of the Buffalo General Hospital, are among 
the organizations which have taken appropriate action 
on Dr Rochester’s death. 
The Funeral.;; 
Rarely indeed has such a throng of mourners 
gathered in this city, as met at the funeral of Dr. 
Rochester, which was held at half past three o’clock 
on Thursday afternoon, from Trinity Church. The 
Erie County Medical Society attended in a body. Very 
many leading citizens of all lines of business and the 
professions, were there ; while many a humble friend 
or'Leneficiary joined in the final tributes "to the be- 
loved dead. The services were conducted by the Rev. 
Francis Lobdell, rector of Trinity, assisted by the Rev. 
Dr. Van Bokkelen. Tne bearers were : Drs. M. D. 
Mann, Charles Carv, Bernard Bartow, Roswell Park, 
and E. V. Stoddard of Rochester, and Mr. Geo. L. 
Williams. The honorary bearers were Messrs. C. A. 
Sweet, E. C. Sprague, H. M. Kent, L. G. Sellstedt, 
J. N. Matthews, and Dr. P. H. Strong. 
Interment was at Forest Lawn. 
From The Morning Express, May 25th. 
DEATH OF DR. ROCHESTER. 
This is a sad though not unexpected a. 
nouncement. The news of Dr. Rochester’s 
illness has spread far and wide. From day to 
day his condition has been reported through 
the local newspapers, and day by day it has been 
seen that the fatal hour was drawing nearer 
and nearer. The town has hung upon the 
hope that always lasts while there is life, but 
for some time the hope has been hopeless. 
The good physician — the friend beloved by 
more people than any other man in Buffalo — 
died at five o'clock yesterday morning, after 
forty-eight hours of unconscious relief from 
pain and suffering. 
It is almost invidious to say so, but the 
simple truth to us seems that no other death 
in this city could be so widely and deeply 
mourned as this will be. Dr. Rochester bad 
not an enemy. He was known individually 
and intimately more than any other man 
among us, and to know him in that way was to 
love him. Rarely was he ever spoken of ex- 
cept in terms of p a.se. 
The story of his life and labors and the cir- 
cumstances of his long illness, are told in 
another part of this paper. Here it is only in- 
tended to speak of the lovely character of this 
dear and precious friend and associate of 
many stirring years. A keen personal sorrow 
finds utterance here, and the kindly reader will 
not rudely question the propriety of allowing 
a profound sense of an irreparable personal 
loss to unsteady the editorial pen. 
Dr. Rochester came of honorable stock, and 
was justly—not foolishly — proud of it. He 
believed in good blood and was not ashamed 
of his faith. His descendants will count him 
among the worthiest of their ancestors. He 
will be remembered as one of the foremost phy- 
sicians of his day and generation, for his fame 
extended far outside that small part of the 
world, the city of Buffalo, in which his profes- 
sional life was spent. He was a Doctor of 
Medicine nearly forty years, and won the dis- 
tinction of a Professorship at the age of thirty. 
Had he not been so entirely devoted to his 
vocation, so singularly faithful to self-assumed 
obligations in behalf of friends and patients, 
his course®would not have been finished before 
the end of his sixty-fourth year. 
He was generous beyond prudence. Few 
if any of his fellow-citizens ever gave so large 
a share of their means as he habitually gave 
of his to works of charity and public benefi- 
cence. His hand was free as his heart was 
warm. Enjoying for many years a splendid 
income from his practice, when called upon for 
subscriptions he rarely stopped to think that 
this was not the same as an income from real 
property. He gave too liberally. He was the 
least selfish of men and one of the most con- 
siderate. If indeed the Lord loveth a cheerful 
giver, Thomas Fortescue Rochester must have 
been, all his matured life, one or the Lord’s 
best beloved. 
He was a leader in good works. He went 
ahead with enterprises of great public import- 
ance, which required the stimulus of self- 
sacrificing benevolence, when he might better 
have been content to stay well in the rear. 
But he could only ask others to do when he 
had himself done his utmost. He was fore- 
most in establishing charities, in founding hos- 
pitals, in building churches,, in promoting a 
general love of science find the arts, — always 
striving for the welfare of the community in 
which he lived, for the benefit of the indigent 
and the wealthy alike. In a word, he was the 
fellow-citizen. 
His practice among the rich'and A WEEK OF DEA THS. 
W Rarely has it been our duty to record in a 
rsingle week so many prominent departures from 
this life as have occurred during the week just 
past, to the great affliction of well-known Buf- 
falo people. In other weeks, very likely during 
last week itself, many more deaths than those 
in mind have been recorded, of persons equally 
worthy and bringing sorrow as deep if not as 
widespread as that which has been more in the 
public sight. Private grief is no less poignant 
because the cause of it is not well known ; but 
the newspaper only takes notice of that which 
greatly concerns the public, and the proverb 
that “ Death loves a shining mark ” was veri- 
fied to an unusual extent here last week. 
First and foremost came the expected death 
of “ the beloved physician ” Dr. Rochester. 
Only last Sunday our readers were informed of 
the discouraging state of his health. “ Most 
sincerely do we wish that a favorable report 
could truthfully be given,” we said in all sin- , 
cerity; “ but it is not so. Dr. Rochester is , 
very ill indeed, having suffered another relapse • 
more prostrating than any of the several 
changes for the worse that have preceded it. , 
There is still hope,” we added, “but we fear-it ] 
is almost hoping against hope.” , 
And so, unhappily, it proved. He died in j 
the early morning of Tuesday, and the daily 
papers have been crowded with the many | 
touching tributes that have been paid to his t 
ever-to-be-green memory by personal friends, j 
by professional brethren, and by the charitable j 
associations and beneficent institutions with , 
which his life and labors were identified. We , 
doubt whether so many good and at the same ( 
time true things have ever before been sincerely ( 
uttered with respect to any Buffalo citizen. All . 
the newspapers said their best. Every physi- 
cian who had opportunity testified his love and , 
admiration of the man. One spoke of his , 
soothing gentleness in the sick chamber; 
another of his great professional knowledge 
and skill; another of his gracious interest in 
the struggling younger members of the pro- 
fession ; another of his thoroughness as a 
teacher; another of the splendid generosity 
with which he gave of his means and his valu- 
able time in the service of the sick poor and the 
advancement of the healing art. And so on. 
Taken altogether the good words of his col- 
leagues and brethren described the ideal phys- 
ician in this truly noble man. 
The Council of the University of Buffalo, of 
which Dr. Rochester was the Vice-Chancellor, 
recorded an appropriate and eloquent Minute in 
which his eminence and worth were fitly de- 
scribed. Room could not be spared for print- 
ing what the Erie County Medical Society 
said, by the mouths of a great many members, 
in loving honor of their late most distinguished 
colleague and mentor and friend. “ The Buf- 
falo General Hospital mourns the loss of its 
truest and staunchest friend.” The Board of 
Managers of the State Normal School testified 
to the “devoted and unremitting attention ” of 
one who had been its presiding officer. And 
there are other public institutions with which 
Dr. Rochester was prominently identified yet . 
to be heard from. His funeral was an after- ■ 
death ovation. His grave was lined and be- j 
strewn and piled high with a wealth of sweet ■ 
and simple and costly flowers, more than could , 
be counted, the fragrant tributes of affection ( 
and respect. Never was man more beloved ( 
in life or more lamented in death. t 
On the same day of Dr. Rochester’s death ( 
came the cabled news of Mr. George J. Letch- f 
worth’s sudden death in England. He, too, j 
was widely and justly beloved. A wise and , 
modest man, just in all his ways, and of great 
goodness. A representative business-man, the , 
managing partner in one of the largest manu- ; 
facturing and importing houses in Buffalo, i 
and the friend of every person concerned in it . 
from the senior partner down to the humblest . 
of its many workmen, his death is a public and 
social loss. 
On the same fateful day came the deplorable 
and unaccountable accident which caused the 
instantaneous death of Mrs. John C. Jewett, 
one of the most estimable among the many 
good Christian women in Buffalo and a lady in 
every ( which of course includes the best) sense 
of the word. Her husband and sons are the 
proprietors of one of the largest factories in 
Buffalo,— perhaps the leading concern of its 
kind in the world,— and thus her tragical 
taking off will become widely known and 
deeply lamented. 
While the solemn service for the burial of the 
dead was in progress over the remains of Dr. 
Rochester, while the funeral cortege was re- , 
turning from the burial of Mrs. Jewett, the 
gentle soul of Mrs. Pascal P. Pratt took flight, 
and another large and most respected family 
was unovm lr*G'd£ST> nzcurnrg for the loss of 
one who had always been the good angel of its 
household —j a devoted wife and most affection- 
ate mother —a truly charitable lady with a 
singularly retiring disposition. 
And only yesterday the venerable Widow of 
the late Augustus C. Moore died,— a woman 
remarkable in many good ways, but chiefly for , 
the unostentatious benevolence with which she , 
added to her husband’s splendid gifts to some 
of the worthiest of Buffalo public institutions,— . 
a “ Mother in Israel.” 
Last week was indeed a week of lamented ■ 
i 
One of the late Dr. Rochester’s many friends ' 
wonders why some specific illustrations of his 
generosity were not related in the tributes to his 
memory when there were so many well-known 
instances to select from. It is not a wonder. 
The task of selection was not easy. But a single 
case may be narrated because of its extraordinary 
goodness. One of his professional brethren re- 
ferred to the venerated Doctor’s uniform kind- 
ness to the younger members. Perhaps the 
speaker had in mind the case of a young 
physician, one of Dr. Rochester’s students, 
who went away from Buffalo, where he was born, 
to seek a practice, and breaking down in health 
after some years came home discouraged — to die. 
His disease was mortal. His family friends were 
gone, too. A hospital was the only refuge he 
could think of. But Dr. Rochester wouldn’t hear 
of it. He took the sick man into his own large 
but Crowded house, and gave him one of its best 
rooms, and attended to him as tenderly as if he 
had been one of his own beloved children. And 
when the poor fellow died he was buried from that 
hospitable house. There could be no earthly re- 
ward for such Christian charity as this, but who 
doubts that Dr. Rochester was and is blessed