Craft Masonry in Albany County, New York - Onondaga and Oswego ...

Personal Sketch of the Late A. B. Huested
by Willis G. Tucker
Dean of the Albany College of Pharmacy
Dr. Alfred Birch Huested was born at Clifton Park, a little hamlet in Saratoga County, on May 15, 1840.
His father died soon after, and the family moved to Amsterdam and there resided until 1852, when they
took up their residence in Albany. Here he entered the Albany Academy where his early education was
obtained, and in 1856 went to work with Dexter & Nellegar, who for many years conducted a large and
well-known drug store at the northeast corner of Pearl and State Streets. This corner was then, as now, a
very central point.
But he was both ambitious and far-seeing, and after a time perceived that if he was to make the most of
his opportunities he needed a more thorough educational training, and so he left the store and in 1859
returned to the Albany Academy which had long been, what it is now, one of the best private academies
in the State. Here he took high rank in one of the upper classes, being older and more mature than most
of his classmates, and when he was graduated from the school in 1861 he stood fifth in a class of fifteen.
He was one of the class orators at the commencement exercises, his subject being "The Tread of Time."
He was at this time twenty-one years of age, and it is to his credit that, seeing the need of a better preliminary education, he was
willing to go back to his books at this time in his life.
In 1859, and prior to his graduation from the Albany Academy, Dr. Huested entered the office of Dr. James H. Armsby as a student
of medicine. Dr. Armsby, who was one of the founders of the Albany Medical College in which he was at that time the professor of
anatomy, was a distinguished surgeon, and with him was associated Dr. James E. Pomfret, a graduate of the medical college in the
class of 1858, who had been pastor of the Universalist Church in Haverhill, Mass., before taking up the study of medicine and
moving to Albany with his family. With these preceptors Dr. Huested continued his study of medicine, attending lectures at the
medical college and serving as medical cadet at the hospital connected with the Soldiers' Home which, during the war and for some
years after its close, occupied a large building standing where the Albany Hospital is now located.
HE ENTERED THE ARMY.
When the 113th Regiment, N. Y. Infantry, was organized he joined that regiment, of which Dr. Pomfret was surgeon, as hospital
steward. This regiment was later, while at Washington, changed to the Seventh Heavy Artillery of N. Y. Volunteers, and young
Huested was given a leave of absence which enabled him to return to Albany to complete his medical course, pass his examination,
receive his degree as doctor of medicine with the class of '63, and pass his examination before to his regiment he was
commissioned Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., and detailed to the Twenty first N. Y. Cavalry, then operating in the Shenandoah Valley.
Here he saw active service with his regiment until the close of the war, when he was ordered west with his regiment to guard the
overland stage route on the plains, and he was finally mustered out of the service at Denver in 1866. Returning to the east the
journey from Denver to Atchison, Kansas, was made by stage, taking five days and nights, as the method of traveling in this part of
the country then was.
Soon after his return to Albany in 1866 Dr. Huested was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Albany Medical College and
served as such for a time. But he soon abandoned the idea of engaging in practice and decided to return to the drug business. In
1868 he opened a store at the corner of Eagle Street and Hudson Avenue, and here he remained until 18S8, when he moved to the
corner of Eagle and State Street and established the firm of A. B. Huested & Co., from which he retired in 1900.
Dr. Huested was a charter member of the New York State Pharmaceutical Association and took an active part in the organization of
the society in 1S79. He served as president of the association in 1881 at the Buffalo meeting, and in 1882 in Albany, and he
attended the annual meetings regularly and took a prominent part in them.
A MEMBER OF THE BOARD.
The Albany College of Pharmacy was organized as the Department of Pharmacy of Union University in 1881, and Dr. Huested was
made a member of the original board of trustees and continued as such until 1898. On the death of Dr. Jacob S. Mosher in 1883 he
was appointed professor of botany and materia medica in the college to fill the vacancy, and the duties of this position he continued
to discharge until incapacitated by his final illness. From 1884 to 1894 he was secretary of the faculty, and as such also secretary of
the board of trustees, and this position he resumed in 1912 and occupied until his death.
His interest in the college was very great and his high standing in pharmacy, and extended reputation, was a valuable asset to the
school and added weight to its faculty. During the latter years of his life, having retired from active business, he was able to give a
large part of his time to the work of the school, both as secretary and teacher, and he labored assiduously to advance its interests in
all ways and promote its prosperity. As a teacher he was thorough and conscientious, painstaking and systematic, interesting and
stimulating, and as adviser, counsellor and friend to his students he was encouraging and in all ways helpful. In his own person he
constantly set before them a good example in the conscientious and intelligent discharge of the daily round of duties, and so living
he incited them to emulate the virtues which he unaffectedly displayed. His sincere and kindly interest in his students ended only
with his life, and when he died none mourned him more truly than those who had profited by his instruction, and been comforted in
sorrow, and counselled when in doubt or trouble, by his kindly and ever-ready aid.
APPOINTED BY CLEVELAND.
The New York State Board of Pharmacy was created by act of the Legislature in 1884 to regulate the practice of pharmacy, and Dr.
Huested was appointed by Governor Cleveland one of the five original members of the board. When the board organized in
September he was made president, which office he held for sixteen years, and until the establishment of die all-State board in 1900.
In 1910 he was again appointed a member of the board, serving as such until his death, and again as president in 1913-14. He
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