By BOB CUDMORE
A man born in the Montgomery County town of Root went on to become a doctor and then the dean of Albany Medical College.
According to research done by archivist Jessica Watson at Albany Medical Center, Albert Vander Veer was born in Root in 1841.
Watson wrote, “He was educated in the Canajoharie public schools and worked in a pharmacy as a boy.”
Albert’s parents were Abraham and Sarah Martin Vander Veer of Root. Albert attended the Canajoharie public schools, Union Free School of Palatine and Canajoharie Academy.
He began studying medicine with Dr. Simeon Snow in Currytown, a hamlet in the town of Root. He later married Dr. Snow’s daughter, Margaret, in 1867.
Vander Veer was studying medicine at Albany Medical College in 1861 when he volunteered to join other students and physicians at a military hospital treating the wounded from Civil War battles near Richmond, Virginia.
He enlisted in the Union Army the next year and held the rank of major. He was a surgeon with the 66th regiment of the New York Volunteers, taking part in most of their major engagements.
Watson wrote that at war’s end in 1865, Vander Veer was present at Appomattox, Virginia for Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
Vander Veer attended lectures at Albany Medical College but received his medical degree from Columbian College in the District of Columbia, now George Washington University.
Watson wrote, “In 1869 he became professor of anatomy at Albany Medical College, professor of surgery in 1876 and dean of the college in 1896.”
He served as college dean from 1896 to 1904. His obituary called him the dean of Albany’s physicians and an early pioneer of surgery.
Additionally, he was surgeon in chief and senior consulting surgeon at the Albany Hospital.
Vander Veer was president of the American Surgical Association in 1895 and president of the American Medical Association in 1916.
His obituary stated he may have been the first surgeon to successfully remove a thyroid gland. He wrote professional articles primarily on the topic of abdominal surgery. He also was the first physician to use a plaster of Paris jacket to treat curvature of the spine.
His wife Margaret died in 1914 at their winter home in the state of Florida. Their Albany residence was on State Street. The Vander Veers had six children. Three of their sons and at least one grandson became physicians.
Vander Veer served the state for 31 years as a member of the education department’s Board of Regents. He was Regents’ vice chancellor starting in 1915, the year he resigned his post as a surgery professor at Albany Medical College.
He was named Regents’ chancellor in 1921 but resigned the next year because of poor hearing. When he retired altogether from the Regents in 1927, he was praised for advocating high standards in college education, especially medicine.
Vander Veer died at age 88 in December, 1929 and was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.
ROOT’S HAMLETS
In her book “Montgomery County,” county historian Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar wrote that Root is named for Erastus Root, a political leader in Delaware County.
Currytown is the oldest hamlet in Root.
The hamlet was named for William Corry, one of several people who were granted a patent of 25,000 acres of land in 1737.
The Currytown Massacre took place in 1781 during the Revolutionary War when residents were killed and properties destroyed.
Yatesville, today called Randall, and Sprakers were stops on the Erie Canal in Root.
Other hamlets include Flat Creek, Lyker’s Corners, Brown’s Hollow and Rural Grove, previously Leatherville.