NEWSLETTER - Columbia University Department of Surgery

Webster and Henry Cooke families on summer vacation on Gibraltar Island
on Lake Erie in 1889. Josephine and Lorin Webster are standing on the right. 6
Reverend Henry E. Cooke’s vacation home. Henry’s financier father,
Jay, promoted bond sales that supported the Union Army and introduced
price stabilization into everyday commerce. 6,7 Their vacationing
pattern became relatively fixed in 1903, when Lorin Webster somehow
found the money to purchase 11 acres with nearly 1200 feet of Little
Asquam Lake shore line, less than 10 miles from Holderness. Camp
Wachusett for boys opened in July of the same year, as the property
came with a large manor house and stables for Lorin’s prized Morgan
Lake at Camp Wachusett, Jerome on far right with boat anchor.
horses. Boys from all over, as well as those from Holderness School
were welcomed for the camp’s nine-week season for $125, payable
in advance. † The site was ideal: a broad sandy shore gradually sloped
down to deep water, with a long dock extending out for diving and tying
up boats. The boys were bugled out of bed at 7:00 am, ate, prayed,
swam, fished, hiked mountain peaks, played baseball or tennis, and in
some instances were tutored (for an extra $2/hr). All lights had to be
out by 9:30 pm. Lorin and Josephine brought Bobbie along with their
boys and stayed at the camp for the full nine weeks.
Harold graduated from Holderness in 1904 and was hired as
a “curator.” His duties were essentially to assist his father. He left in
1917 to be his district’s representative in New Hampshire’s House
Holderness 1903 all school picture, left circle Harold Webster,
HLW=Headmaster Lorin Webster (note PBK key ‡ ), right circle JPW.
and the State’s first commissioner of weights and measures. Bobbie
attended Holderness for two years as well, despite its being a boy’s
school, before going to St. Mary’s school for girls and then to Vassar.
Holderness to Hopkins and Federal Service
Jerome Webster actually participated in Holderness school activities
before enrolling. He shared his father’s love of choral music,
and sang as a soprano in the Chapel of the Holy Cross choir for two
years and as an alto for two more years before becoming a pupil. He
had notable academic success, scoring 90% or higher in Sacred Studies,
English, Math, Botany, French, Latin, and Greek. He continued
to sing in the choir, competed in the 440 yard dash and 880 yard run,
played basketball, baseball and football, achieving first-team status
in all three before graduating in 1906.
He went to his father’s alma
mater, Trinity College in Hartford,
CT., with the intention of
going on to medical school. He
continued his interests in music
and sports and graduated with
a bachelor of arts degree. His
good academic record won him a
place in Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine. Hopkins was a temple
of excellence, exemplified by 1877
P&S alumnus, William Stewart
Halsted’s (1852-1922) surgical
William Stewart Halsted
service. 8,9 Webster graduated in
1914 and served as a surgical in-
tern at Hopkins and as a first year resident under J.M.T. Finney at
what is now Baltimore’s Union Memorial Hospital. 10 He left there in
July 1916 to be a special assistant to the Ambassador posted to the
American Embassy in Berlin. His job was to assist in the Embassy’s
inspections of Germany’s British, Serbian, and Romanian prisonerof-war
camps.
“The British civilian prison camp at Ruhleben was formerly a
race course in Spandau, outside of Berlin. § Between 3,000 and 4,000
†Prices as of 1917. Jerome Webster returned for the Camp’s 15th season after missing a year in Germany, as a councilor in tutoring, natural history and acquatics, but could
only stay until mid August. Camp Wachusett 1917 catalog, Holderness School Archives.
‡Founded in 1776 at The College of William & Mary. By 1881 there were 20 active chapters; all but three in Ohio, were situated east of the Alleghenies including Trinity College.
§ Webster JP.1957 Holderness School Commencement Address.
John Jones Surgical Society Volume 13, Number 2 Winter 2010
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