History of the Berks Medical Society
Organized on Saturday evening, the 7th of August, 1824, in the Statehouse in Reading, the Berks County Medical Society was the first organization of its kind in Pennsylvania, with the exception of the College of Physicians and Medical Society of Philadelphia. Doctor Isaac Hiester served as the first President of the Society from 1824 to 1849. The Society was originally called the Medical Faculty of Berks County. The initial reason for forming the organization was to bring physicians together on a monthly basis to report on the diseases and deaths that occurred in their respective neighborhoods and also to give an account of the general health of the county. No records exist of transactions of the Faculty between the date of organization in 1824 and the year 1848, although from traditional report, we have reason to believe that meetings were occasionally held during the period.
On March 31st, 1848, a meeting was held at the Mansion House to revive the Medical Faculty of Berks County. At that meeting, three delegates were elected to the first State Medical Convention held at Lancaster. The following year, 1848, the second annual State Medical Convention was held in Reading.
On February 23rd, 1850, the Medical Faculty of Berks County met to reorganize and changed the organization's name to "The Medical Society of the City of Reading and County of Berks". The stated purpose of the organization was: "to cultivate the science of medicine in all its collateral branches; to elevate and sustain medical character; to encourage a system of professional etiquette; and to promote mutual improvement, social intercourse, and good feeling among the members of the medical profession". The membership was limited to graduates of recognized medical colleges.
At a meeting held on January 16th, 1866, a "Fee Bill" of the Society was adopted and remained in subsequent use, without change or revision, up to 1894. (Please see the attached Table of Fees list.)
Also in April of 1866, the name of the Society was changed to the Berks County Medical Society. However, the organization disbanded on November 2nd, 1870 and a new Society was effected under the name and title of the Medical Society of the County of Berks.
On January 3rd, 1871, this new Society adopted a constitution and bylaws. It was then decided that meetings would be held bimonthly and that meetings for the discussion of medical topics would regularly alternate with those called for the transaction of business.
The Society made its first annual visit to the County Almshouse in March, 1871.
The subject of vaccination received the official endorsement of the Society during the year 1872. And also in 1872, a Committee was appointed to solicit contributions among the members toward the Chicago Relief Fund For Medical Men. A total of $73 was collected and duly forward. (1872 was the year of the great Chicago Fire.)
In 1880, the Society endorsed "an effect to improve the health of the youth of the city by offering them a mode of exercise which is at once light, healthful, and absolutely free from danger".
Also in 1880, the Society began to invite medical practitioners from a distance to lecture upon special topics. On September 7th, 1880, Dr. E. H. Coover of Harrisburg, delivered the first lecture upon his method of applying silicate of soda jackets for spinal curvature.
On March 8th, the Society changed its place of meeting from Dr. Brooke's office to the Reading Library Building at Fifth and Franklin Streets.
In 1887, the Society appointed a Committee on Lunacy, on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Pennsylvania State Committee on Lunacy, for the purpose of visiting, at least once annually, insane asylums, the County Poor House, and other institutions or places in which insane persons are treated. These visits were to observe whether the hygienic conditions and methods of treatment therein existed and pursued in accord with the requirements of modern medical science.
In 1890, a series of pleasant outings was inaugurated with the first being spent at Kutztown on April 8th as guests of Dr. J. S. Trexler. A number of distinguished gentlemen from a distance were present, and a most delightful meeting was held in this quaint old town.
On June, 1891, the Berks Medical Society of the County of Berks hosted the 41st annual session of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania in Reading, PA. A total of $847 was contributed by the members to cover the costs of holding this annual meeting. Entertainments were comprised of visits to Reading and St. Joseph Hospitals; a banquet followed by a musical presentation by the Ringgold Orchestra; rides over the Mt. Penn Gravity Railroad; receptions given by the Mayor of Reading and Ex-Congressman Daniel Ermentrout; a train ride over the Neversink Mountain; and a dinner dance at the Highland House. And Dr. Samuel Kurtz, a Reading physician and Chairman of the Committee to host the annual session, was elected to the Presidency of the State Society.
The years 1890 to 1900 saw many successful changes within the organization, the most outstanding of which were the provisions for a scientific committee to select topics on different scientific subjects to be presented at the monthly meetings, a committee on publications to compile and publish all the scientific transactions of the Society during the calendar year for which they were appointed, the encouragement of the use of asphaltum in place of bricks for the paving of city streets as a sanitary precaution, and the establishment of a Medical Library in 1901.
From 1824 until 1915, meetings of the Medical Society were held at various locations. These locations included the Reading Library, Reading City Hall, and above Raser's Drug Store. Then in 1915, the Society acquired the Horst mansion at 429 Walnut Street. This was a beautiful old Victorian brick residence with a mansard roof.
When the United States entered the Great War, as World War I was called, physician members responded to the call to serve their country. In fact, thirty members of the Society, a significant portion of the membership, assisted in the great struggle to make their own country and the world at large safe for Democracy!
A formal written history of the Society has not been published to cover the years from the end of World War I to the present day. It is hoped that this large void of unrecorded events will be filled by a complete history being written of the Society on the occasion of our 175th Anniversary next year (1824 to 1999). This will be one of the major tasks undertaken by the committee that will be formed to celebrate this momentous occasion.
In closing this partial attempt to record the history of the Society, I would be remiss if I did not mention the construction of the "New Medical Hall" at 429 Walnut Street in 1957.
A decision was made by the membership in 1955 that the Horst Mansion no longer met the needs of the Society and a solicitation of funding was made to raise the needed capital to construct a new building. Members were asked to contribute $100 a year for four consecutive years for the building fund and on October 30th, 1957 a dedication service was held for the newly constructed Medical Hall.
The Society then occupied this building from 1957 until April of 1992, at which time the building was sold to Berks AIDS Network. The neighborhood had deteriorated and there was no dedicated parking for members coming to Medical Hall for meetings. In addition, the Society's mission had changed drastically over the years and the decision was made to rent office space for the Society headquarters, rather than to continue to maintain a large building which was no longer fully utilized.
The Society subsequently rented office space at the Rockland Professional Center on the corner of Thirteenth and Rockland Streets from April, 1992, until April, 1997, at which time the Society moved to its present headquarters in the Berks Visiting Nurse Association Building at 1170 Berkshire Boulevard, Wyomissing.