People: Alonzo Pettit, MD

By the death of Dr. Alonzo Pettit, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, the community lost a distinguished physician, whose connection with the medical profession was one of prominence. Lured by the hope of result, he had carried his investigations beyond those of the average practitioner, and in the field of knowledge had gleaned many valuable truths whose practical utility to the world he had demonstrated in a successful practice.

Dr. Alonzo Pettit was born in Wilson, Niagara county, New York, January 11, 1842, and died at his hoe in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in November, 1908. He was a son of Samuel and Maria (Armstrong) Pettit, the former a farmer and one of the pioneer settlers of Wilson, New York, where he was deacon in the Baptist church. The American progenitor of the Pettit family was Willian Brewster, of "Mayflower" fame. Dr. Pettit attended the Wilson district school, and after suitable preparation, matriculated at the University of Rochester, from which he was graduated in the class of 1867, the degree of Doctor of Medicine being conferred upon him. For a short time he filled the responsible position of house physician at the Buffalo General Hospital, and, in 1867, established himself in the practice of his profession in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The excellent results he achieved in his practice made his rise in this a comparatively rapid one, and at the time of his death he was considered on of the leading physicians of the State. In association with several other physicians he founded the Elizabeth General Hospital, in which he was an an attending surgeon for twenty-seven years, and was chief of the medical staff from 1892 until 1905. He was president of the Union County Medical Society, Elizabeth General Hospital; city physician for Elizabeth; Union county jail physician; and physician to the Central Railroad of New Jersey. While he cast his vote for the candidates of the Republican party, he never took an active part in political affairs, holding the opinion that he was best serving his fellowmen by devoting himself to the duties of his professional life. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and the Elizabeth Town and Country Club. He was a constituent member of the Central Baptist Church, and a deacon in that institution at the time of his death.

Dr. Pettit married, in Elizabeth, August 31, 1869, Ellen Maria Dimock. They had no children. No better estimate can be given of the character of Dr. Pettit than by quoting from what his colleagues and organizations, with which he was connected, said of him at the time of his death. Dr. McLean, who had known and associated with Dr. Pettit for many years, said, among other things: "As a surgeon as well as a physician, Dr. Pettit stood high in his profession. He was a man who made lasting friends of all with whom he came in contact. He was a quiet, unassuming, Christian gentleman, a learned and highly successful physician and surgeon, and a man who, if he could not say a good word regarding a fellow man, would say nothing at all." Dr. Victor Mravlag, who was mayor-elect at the time of the death of Dr. Pettit, said: "His ability as a physician could not be questioned. He was always kind and courteous and personally, in my opinion, was one of the sweetest characters that ever lived. He surely had no superiors. He was a man of principle, and lived up to it. In his death, not only the medical fraternity, but the city, has lost one of its best and most highly prized men." Meetings to take suitable action were held by all the institutions and organizations with which he had been connected, and resolutions passed. Following is an extract from the tribute paid to his memory at the special meeting of the Clinical Society of the Elizabeth General Hospital: "He truly was a man without the slightest selfishness--the very personification of altruism. His sweetness of character, his fortitude in bodily suffering, his patient bearing under the severe dispensation of Providence, which almost deprived him of the companionship of his faithful wife--his purity of mind, his upright life, placed him upon level rarely attained and never surpassed by men." In the resolutions adopted by the Dispensary Staff of the Elizabeth General Hospital we find: "It has been the will of the Almighty to take from us our beloved friend and associate, Dr. Alonzo Pettit, a man of sterling integrity, a skilled physician and an honored colleague; a man who spoke ill of no one; who gave the best of his natural endowments and broad knowledge without sting to the service of his fellowmen." He was one of the charter members of the Union County Medical Society, and this also regarded him as "A quiet, unobtrusive, Christian Gentleman and physician, who was held in the highest esteem by all his professional brethren. His scientific attainments were of a high order, and the patient, conscientious, unselfish service which he has rendered to the people of Elizabeth, endear him to the hearts and homes of a wide circle of those who were so fortunate as to enjoy his professional service."

Transcribed from "History of Union County" by Abraham Van Doren Honeyman (Vol. 3, pp.237-238)

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