| Notes |
- ALFRED ALEXANDER WOODHULL, (M. D.), seventh generation from Richard Wodhull I., Patentee of Brookhaven, Long Island, was the youngest son of the Rev. George Spofford Woodhull and Gertrude Neilson. He was born at Cranbury, New Jersey, March 25, 1810.
He was graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University,) A. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH XXVII.
B., 1828, and received his degree of A. M. in 1831. He was graduated in medicine (M. D.), from the University of Pennsylvania in 1831.
After a year of hospital practice in Philadelphia, he began the practice of medicine at Marietta, Lancaster Co., Penna., in 1832.
Dr. Woodhull removed to Princeton in 1835, and died there October 5, 1836. Up to the time of his death he was actively engaged in his medical practice.
By his contemporaries Dr. A. A. Woodhull was described as a young man of attractive figure, handsome features, and most winning manners. He was public-spirited, taking an active part in town affairs (but not holding office) and especially interested in the promotion of temperance reform.
He was elected a trustee of the Princeton Presbyterian Church in 1835. His professional reputation was that of an intelligent, popular, and successful physician.
He had a happy faculty of writing verse, some of which has marked poetical merit. Earlier editions of the Presbyterian hymnbook contained several of his hymns. During his last illness, when assured that recovery was hopeless, he dictated the following beautiful lines:
Traveler dost thou hear the tidings
Borne unto thy weary ear,
Soft as angel's gentlest whisper
Breathing from the upper sphere,
Sweetly telling
Thy redemption now is near.
In the desert's gloomy terrors,
'Mid the tempest's booming roar,
Hark! the still small voice of mercy
Breaking from yon fearful shore,
Sweetly telling
All thy toil will soon be o'er.
Mourner, when the tear of sorrow
Wells from up thy stricken breast,
Raise thy streaming eyes to mansions
Where the weary are at rest,
Sweetly telling
Here thou'lt be a welcome guest.
Page 331
Mortal, when death's viewless arrow
Quivers in thy fluttering heart,
Lift thy lapsing thoughts to Jesus,
Who disarms the fatal dart,
Sweetly telling
I to thee my peace impart.
These verses were originally published in the New York Observer, (probably in the autumn of 1836.) The poem and a sketch of the author, may be found in "The Poets of the Church," by Edwin F. Hatfield, D. D.
Anna Maria Salomons, who was married to Dr. Woodhull, was born at Princeton, March 30, 1811. They were married, February 26, 1833.
Her father was Dr. Dirck G. Salomons, of St. Eustacia, of the Dutch West Indies, who had been a student at Princeton, but did not graduate there, although he received the honorary degree of A. M., perhaps with his class, from that institution in 1812.
He was graduated in Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (now Columbia), New York, in 1812, and returned with his family to his father's estate in the West Indies, where he died a few years afterward at an early age.
Dr. Salomons' widow then returned with her two daughters to her father, President Smith, of Princeton.
Mrs. Woodhull's mother was Susan, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D., and Ann, daughter of the Rev. John Witherspoon, D. D., both Presidents of Princeton College.
Through the Witherspoon line she was a descendant of John Knox the Scottish Reformer, or as the noblemen and freemen of Kyle and Cunningham called him, "the first Planter and Chief Waterer of God's Church."
John Witherspoon and Elizabeth Montgomerie married September 20, 1748; she was the daughter of Robert Montgomerie, of Craighouse Ayrshire, Scotland.
Their daughter Ann Witherspoon, born July 23, 1749, married Samuel Stanhope Smith, in June, 1775.
Their daughter Susan, born June 23, 1785, married Dirck G. Salomons (about the year 1810), records lost. She died at Princeton, in June, 1849.
Their daughter Anna Maria, born March 30, 1811, married Dr. A. A. Woodhull, of Marietta, Pa., February 26, 1833. After two years' residence at Marietta, they returned in 1835 to Princeton, where she was left a widow October 5, 1836. Her only child, a posthumous son, was born April 13, 1837.
(See Genealogy, No. 309.)
She was married in Philadelphia, November 18, 1850, to William R. McCay, of Lewistown, Pa., at which place she died, August 20, 1862.
|
1810 - 1836 (26 years)
d. 25 Dec 1834 (Age 61 years) 