James Edward Moore

Background

James E. Moore was born on March 2, 1852, in Clarksville, Pennsylvania, the son of George W. Moore and Margaret Ziegler. His father was a Methodist minister who supported himself by his trade and preached on the Sabbath.

Education

James attended the public schools of Western Pennsylvania and Poland Union Seminary at Poland, Ohio. His medical studies were begun at the University of Michigan and continued at Bellevue Hospital Medical College from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine degree in 1873 after the customary two years' course of those days.

He went to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to practise, and a year later returned to spend two years in the hospitals of New York City. In 1876 he settled in Emlenton, Pennsylvania, where for six years he followed the rather arduous duties of a country practitioner, making most of his calls on horseback and dispensing drugs carried in his saddle-bags.

In the summer of 1880 he spent four months as an assistant to Paul F. Munde in the dispensary at Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York. By this time he became restless and felt the urge of ambition for a field in which he could develop a career, for he did not under-estimate his own powers even then.

In 1882 he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was in general practice until 1885, when he sailed for Europe to study in Berlin, Paris, and London.

Career

On his return to Minneapolis in 1887 he confined himself to surgery and orthopedics, and after 1897, gave his entire time to surgery. He claimed for himself the distinction of being the first specialist in surgery west of New York. His book, Orthopedic Surgery, one of the first American works on the subject, was published in 1898. Moore was one of the pioneers in medical education in the state, holding the rank of professor of orthopedics in the old Minneapolis College Hospital, and a connection with the St. Paul Medical School.

With the absorption of these two schools into the newly formed medical school of the University of Minnesota in 1888, he continued to hold the chair of professor of orthopedics and in 1894 was appointed professor of orthopedics and adjunct professor of clinical surgery.

In 1897 he resigned the chair of orthopedics but continued as clinical professor of surgery.

In 1904 he was made professor of surgery and in 1908 professor and director of the department of surgery, a position which he held until his death in 1918. He took an active part in the reorganization of the medical school and was one of the original three about whom the new faculty was formed and with whom the selection of its members largely rested.

As chief of staff of the Northwestern Hospital and chief of the surgical division of the University Hospital, he aided materially in the development of both institutions. His numerous medical writings were mostly articles founded upon his clinical experiences. His original contributions treated mainly surgical technique and bone and joint surgery. In addition to his Orthopedic Surgery he wrote a chapter, "General Principles of Surgical Treatment, " in American Practice of Surgery. James Edward Moore died on November 2, 1918, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Achievements

• James Edward Moore was an eclectic surgeon, who was professor of orthopedia and of clinical surgery at the College of Medicine of the University of Minnesota.

Membership

James E. Moore served as first vice-president of the American Surgical Association, 1905; president of the Western Surgical Association, 1902; member of the judicial council of the American Medical Association, and chairman of its surgical section, 1903; fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the board of governors at its founding; president of the Minnesota Academy of Medicine; president of the Hennepin County Medical Society; and delegate from the University of Minnesota to the International Medical Congress at Rome. He was also a frequent visitor to the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society.

Personality

James E. Moore was intuitive, clear-minded, forceful, and a born teacher, excelling in clinical subjects. His courtesy, his earnestness, and his personal charm drew his students to him naturally and surely and made a lasting impression upon them.

Connections

In 1876, James E. Moore married Bessie Applegate, who died in 1882. In 1883, he married Clara Collins, who died in 1884; and in 1887 Moore married Louie Irving, who survived him.

Father:

George W. Moore

Mother:

Margaret Jane Moore (Ziegler)

Sister:

Rose Ella Bernard (Moore)

Wife:

Clara Moore (Collins)

Wife:

Bessie Moore (Applegate)

Wife:

Louie Moore (Irving)