JOSEPH LEWI, M. D.

Joseph Lewi, M. D., who has been in active practice in Albany since 1848 was'
born in Radnitz, Austria, August 17, 1820. His parents, Elias and Rosa (Resek),
were born in the same place. He was one of a large family of children and while
he attended the preparatory schools at Pilsen, helped to defray the expenses of his
education by teaching. From the Gymnasium or High School in Pilsen he went to
the academy at Prague where he took the higher classical course and began the
study of medicine. In order to be near and have the advantages of the larger
clinics, laboratories and medical museums and of the more thorough school, he went
to the Vienna University where he continued his studies under the guidance of the
great men of that time, among whom were: Rokitanski, Hebra, Schuh, Hyrtl, Op-
polzer. Skoda, Rosas, and other authorities. He was an industrious and conscien-
tious student and a hard worker in the calling of his choice, but not to the exclusion
of literature, music and the classics towards which he always had a leaning, and in
the company of Solomon Mosenthal, Leopold Kompert and Moritz Hartmann, who
were his intimate friends and who all became famous in the world of letters, he
found ample opportunity to cultivate and to develop his literary tastes. After being graduated he returned to his native town where he practiced his profession about
one year, and then at the outbreak tof the March revolution with which he was in
sympathy, but the success of which he doubted, he came to America hoping to find
in the great republic of the West a better and more congenial field for his knowl-
edge, and knowing that in the republic he would not be brought face to face continu-
ally with the despotism and intolerance which were characteristic of the Austria of
that day.

Dr. Lewi came to Albany at once on his arrival in America and has been a resi-
dent of the city ever since. He soon acquired a large practice, a high standing in
the medical profession and the respect of the community, and while his knowledge
as a physician secured for him his large practice and place among his professional brethren, his literary merits made him a delightful companion and his patriotism a
model citizen. Coming from a country in which prejudice and intolerance reigned
and where a spirit of darkness precluded a better state of affairs, he, like all the bet-
ter class of immigrants of that day, was naturally appreciative of the democratic
institutions of the United States. He looked upon slavery as the national shame
and even before he became a citizen he raised his voice in opposition to the institu-
tion. Hejoined the forces which were led by Greeley, Beecher and Garrison, helped
to rock the cradle of the Republican party and cast his first vote in a general elec-
tion for the Fremont and Dayton electors, and he takes much pride now in saying
that he has voted for every Republican candidate from Fremont to McKmley.

When the Civil war broke out the surgeon-general appointed a commission consist-
ing of Drs. Thomas Hun, Alden March and Mason F. Cogswell to examine physicians
for the volunteer service, to which commission Dr. Lewi was made an adjunct mem-
ber, and when in the dark days of the Rebellion the armed enemies in the field ex-
pected aid and assistance from their sympathizers in the North he became one of the
organizers of the United League.

Dr. Lewi is an ex-president of the Albany County Medical Society and the senior
member of the Board of Censors of the State Medical Society. He has devoted much
time to the Albany Hospital on the staff of which he is still consulting physician.
He never aspired to public office but accepted the position of member of the Board
of Public Instructions for a term of three years. He served in the position with
characteristic conscientiousness and was returned as his own successor three times,
and after a service of twelve years declined a nomination.

He was married in New York city in 1849 to Miss Bertha Schwarz of Hesse Cassel,
the daughter of Josepeh Emanuel Schwarz, a theologian and composer of sacred
music. Mrs. Lewi is an ideal woman, a model wife and mother. Fourteen children
blessed the union of Dr. and Mrs. Lewi, of whom nine are married. Of the six
sons, two have followed their father's profession. One, Dr. Maurice J., practices in
New York and is the secretary of the State Board of Medical Examiners, and the
youngjest. Dr. William (»., is in practice in Albany where he is a member of the
Albany Hospital staff and a lecturer in the Medical College. One son, Theodore
J., is a pharmacist; Isidor is a writer on the staff of The New York Tribune, and
Edward J, and Franklin L. are in business. Of the eight daughters the oldest, Wil-
helmine, married Dr. Herman Bentlell, who was a student in Dr. Lewi's office, and
Martha Washington married Dr. Alois Donhauser, who was a graduate of the



Albany Medical College and died in Albany while in charge of the United States
Signal Service in that city.