Lt. Col. Frederick Myers Dearborn
Image source: Sylvain Cazelet

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Myers Dearborn M. D. (13 July 1876 – 25 January 1960) was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy. Dearborn was a lecturer on dermatology in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and in the New York College and Hospital for Women. He was also consulting dermatologist to Jamaica Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital and to the New York College and Hospital for Women, and attending dermatologist to the out-patient department of Flower Hospital, the Hospital of the Five Points House of Industry and to the Laura Franklin Free Hospital for Children.

Frederick Myers Dearborn’s father, Henry Martin Dearborn M.D., was also an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy.

Frederick Myers Dearborn was born in Boston, Massachusetts, July 13, 1876, son of Henry M. and Sadie (Smith) Dearborn. He is of old Puritan stock of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and a descendant of Godfrey Dearborn, who came to this country about 1638.

He is the forty-sixth doctor in his family, having a father, two uncles, an aunt and two cousins practicing now or within the last few years.

He was educated in public school No. 69, New York city, and in the preparatory department of the College of the City of New York. In 1897 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the College of the City of New York.

He entered the Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1900.

After his graduation he formed a partnership with his father, the late Dr. Henry M. Dearborn, and has been pursuing his special work, diseases of the skin, ever since.

He is lecturer on dermatology in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, and in the New York College and Hospital for Women; consulting dermatologist to Jamaica Hospital (Jamaica, New York), to St. Mary’s Hospital (Passaic, New Jersey), and to the New York College and Hospital for Women; attending dermatologist to the out-patient department of Flower Hospital, to the Hospital of the Five Points House of Industry, and to the Laura Franklin Free Hospital for Children ; and assistant attending dermatologist to Flower Hospital.

He served as first lieutenant of the 171st regiment, New York Infantry, 1898; hospital steward of the 7th regiment, National Guard of New York, 1901-05; and medical examiner for the Prudential Life Insurance Company, 1901 to 1904.

Dr. Dearborn is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, the Homeopathic Medical Society of the County of New York, the Academy of Pathological Science, the New York Homeopathic Materia Medica Society, Helmuth Club, and Delta Kappa Epsilon Association of New York city.

He married, January 29, 1902, Alice Romaine Gulick (1880 – 1905) of New York City.

Dearborn’s wife, Alice, died in August 1905, aged just 25. He married a second time, to Anne Gayle Norvell Dearborn (1889 – 1941), in 1923.

F. M. Dearborn served in the Spanish-American War, and in France during WWI, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. On his return from military service, Dearborn was appointed as professor of dermatology at his alma mater, the New York Homeopathic Medical College, from where he had graduated in 1900. He lectured widely on his specialty at several other homeopathic medical colleges, and was on the staff of many of the New York City area hospitals.

In 1919, Frederick Myers Dearborn was President of American Institute of Homeopathy. He was appointed as a committee of one to record the service of American homeopaths during the First World War. Dearborn subsequently added Doctors Wesley Terrence Lee (1872 – 1962) of Boston and Gilbert FitzPatrick (1873 – 1936) of Chicago to his committee. The final published manuscript, published in 1923 and titled American Homeopathy in the World War, contained an ambiguous dedication by, and photograph of, homeopathic supporter, President Warren G. Harding.

Dearborn was also a member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States:

The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States grew out of the Association of Military Surgeons of the National Guard of the United States.

Conceived by U.S. military surgeon Nicholas Senn (1844 – 1908), it was formed at a meeting of 50 U.S. National Guard surgeons in Chicago on September 17, 1891.

The association’s stated purpose was:

“for the advancement of military and accidental surgery and all things pertaining to the health and welfare of the civilian soldier.”

Dearborn’s son, Frederick Myers Dearborn Jr., later rose to a high level in the U.S. government, serving as a special assistant to President Eisenhower for security operations coordination.

Frederick M. Dearbon also sought out new remedies, for example Pyrarara, which is a fish from the Amazon river.

Frederick Myers Dearborn wrote widely on Homeopathy and the Civil War, and his extensive collection on military and political Americana is now housed at the Harvard University Library. Dearborn also contributed to the journals Homeopathic Pamphlets and Transactions of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York.

Select Publications:

Of Interest:

Henry Martin Dearborn M.D. (1846 – 1904), father of Frederick Myers Dearborn, was:

born in Epsom, New Hampshire, November 19, 1846, son of Edwin and Letitia (Stanyan) Dearborn, and is a descendant of fine old Puritan stock. He was prepared for college at both Canaan and Blanchard academies in New Hampshire, and then entered upon his medical course at Harvard University Medical College, continuing the same at Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated in 1869.

He practiced medicine for three years in New Hampshire, for seven years in Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1880 came to New York, where he soon became well known as a prominent specialist in dermatology.

In 1883 he was appointed visiting physician and dermatologist to the Metropolitan Hospital ; for thirteen years he held the chair of principles and practice of medicine in the New York College and Hospital for Women ; and for several years was professor of principles of medicine and clinical professor of dermatology in the same institution.

In 1893 he was appointed professor of dermatology in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. For several years he conducted a large dermatological clinic at the Metropolitan Post-Graduate School ; from 1883 to 1891 was associate editor of the “North American Journal of Homeopathy”.

In 1886 he was made attending physician for diseases of the skin to the Laura Franklin Free Hospital for Children ; in 1885 he became consulting physician to the Women’s College Hospital ; in 1897 was appointed consulting dermatologist to the Flower Hospital ; in 1898 he filled a similar position in St. Mary’s Hospital, Passaic, New Jersey, and for several years was consulting physician to the Memorial Hospital for Women and Children, Brooklyn.

He was a former president of the New York County Homeopathic Medical Society, and a member of the Medical Council of the State of New York, the American Institute of Homeopathy, the New York State and County Homeopathic Medical Societies, the Jahr Club, the New York Medical Club, the New York Homeopathic Materia Medica Society, the New York Pathological Society, the Academy of Pathological Science, the National Society of Electro-Therapeutists, the Maine and New Hampshire societies and of the Colonial Club.

He contributed many articles to the medical journals, and in 1903 published a text-book of nine hundred pages, entitled “Diseases of the Skin.” He died February 16, 1904.

Henry Martin Dearborn was also an:

Author, teacher and physician. He soon developed an enormous reputation as a clinician and served on many clinical posts: visiting physician to the metropolitan Hospital (formerly Ward’s Island Homeopathic Hospital 1881), State Examiner in lunacy (1882), etc. He was professor of the theory and practice of Medicine to the New York Medical College and Hospital etc. He was Associate Editor of the North American Journal of Homeopathy, wrote many papers and belonged to many Homeopathic Societies.