Burt Russell Shurly: A Man of Conviction, a Life in Medicine and Education, 1871-1950

By Robert Vanderzee

In Burt Russell Shurly; A Man of Conviction, A Life in Medicine and Education, 18711950, Robert Vanderzee continues the story of the Shurly family, focusing on a physician and educator who, with the help of his mentor, chose medicine over the military life his father had planned for him.

Vanderzee, the oldest grandson of Burt Shurly, relies on his extensive research into family archives, records, and scrapbooks to share memories of a man who married into the wealthy Palms family of Detroit, excelled in his career, and personally saved his alma mater from bankruptcy. Vanderzee chronicles Shurlys life and career, which included serving as a medical officer during the Spanish- American War, commanding a medical unit in France during World War I, and later leading the fight against diphtheria, typhoid, and tuberculosis while establishing the controversial Shurly Hospital.

Interweaving local history, family letters, newspaper articles, and personal anecdotes, Vanderzee provides an intriguing glimpse into the life of a remarkable man who was gifted with intellect, enormous personal energy, and a keen sense of humorand used those attributes to earn success for himself, his family, and his community during an fascinating period in Detroit history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781450275279

Robert Vanderzee

Born in Detroit, Robert Vanderzee grew up in Grosse Ile, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Two Bridges to Sin is Vanderzee’s fifth book and second novel in the Paul Steiger murder mystery series. The Death of Lois Janeway, published in 2016, was the first. His work ranges from two family memoirs to a third that presents a unique concept of the universe that engages with the hotly debated question of Darwin’s evolution versus intelligent design. Whether writing for the historical record, the science versus theist debate, or for pure entertainment, Vanderzee’s work is meant to engage readers with new ways of thinking.

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Copyright © 2011 by Robert Vanderzee

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-7526-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-7527-9 (ebook)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-7528-6 (dj)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010918101

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 4/7/2011

To

Fredericka Shurly Wormer, my mother’s closest sister. This story would not have been written without her recollections of Shurly family life, her documentation of little-known facts concerning the Shurly family, her suggestions as to where much of this information could be found, and, especially, her constant encouragement.

And—of course—Jan.

Contents

Preface

Chapter One Born on the Fourth of July

Chapter Two The Mentor

Chapter Three The Spanish-American War

Chapter Four Family

Chapter Five Burt Shurly’s Career

Chapter Six The Detroit College of Medicine

Chapter Seven World War I

Chapter Eight The Detroit Board of Education

Chapter Nine The Shurly Hospital

Chapter Ten The Chronicles End

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Bibliography

Notes

Preface

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime.

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807–1882,

A Psalm of Life, 1839, st. 7

My first volume about the Shurly family, Encounter with History, tells of the adventures of Edmund Richard Pitman Shurly, who, as a seven-year-old, came from England to the United States with his family. It tells of his involvement in the Civil War and the Indian wars on the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming, the births of his three children (only one of whom lives to adulthood), and his involvement in the Great Chicago Fire. In this volume, I continue the story of the Shurly family, in particular that of Edmund’s son, Burt Russell Shurly.

Burt Russell Shurly was gifted with intellect, enormous personal energy, and a keen sense of humor. What is more, and of particular importance, he had the good judgment to develop and use these attributes to earn success for himself, his family, and his community.

After he located in Detroit from Chicago, photos and articles about him appeared often in area newspapers throughout the first half of the twentieth century. He was an important figure in national medical and educational fields in his day and admired by the people of Detroit. But as a conservative voice in a city drifting to the left during and after the Depression, what he did and said often provoked loud and derisive criticism.

But what do we really know about him? A few of the stories and anecdotes about Burt Shurly have filtered down from father to son and daughter, and a number of photographs of him and his family still exist, but these don’t by any means give us a true measure of the man.

As I did in my first volume, I have detailed the world events in which Burt Shurly found himself in order to put the facts and data describing his life into context. The Spanish-American War, World War I, and the challenge to defeat diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, and tuberculosis had a great impact on this gifted son of Edmund Shurly. I’ve described the events in which he was involved as Shurly would have seen and experienced them—from his point of view. Also, as the reader will see soon after delving into these chronicles, wherever I felt it would more clearly illuminate the Shurly story, I’ve generously included passages from letters, newspaper articles, and other writings about these events, produced by authors far better equipped than I to describe them. In some, I’ve made spelling corrections and other minor changes to smooth the flow of thought but never to change intent. Finally, personal recollections of life with Burt Shurly by his son, Burt Jr.; his daughter, Fredericka; and me, his oldest grandson, are included to complete this picture of Burt Shurly and his family. Brief biographical sketches of others who affected his life are also in the story to round it out.

I hope serious students of the Shurly family story will find this work useful. Those inspired to look further by the information collected here are encouraged to visit the Burton Historical Library in Detroit and especially the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University, also in Detroit, where much more information is available about members of the Shurly family and about the Francis Palms family into which Burt Shurly married.

I tell the story of the Shurly family so that succeeding generations of the Shurly clan will become familiar with and appreciate their heritage. For the rest of my readers, I believe that you will find this work an enjoyable read and something of an education about the history of Detroit and how politics can weave its way through such pursuits as medical practice and education of the young.

This book, like my previous volume, is a challenge to each of the Shurly descendants—to all readers, in fact—to excel in his or her life’s endeavors and strive to leave a legacy at least as rich as that of the Shurlys, whose story continues here. As with my previous book about the Shurlys, those readers who trace their heritage to this family will find it difficult—but hopefully an obligation—to live up to the standard their forebears established.

You will see, as you peruse the pages of this book, that this challenge imposes a heavy burden on the Shurly descendants.

—Robert Vanderzee

Time is so old and love so brief,

Love is pure gold and time a thief.

We’re late darling, we’re late,

The curtain descends, ev’rything ends,

Too soon, too soon …

—Ogden Nash, from his lyrics in Speak Low,

in his collaboration with Kurt Weill

for the great Broadway show

One Touch of Venus¹

Chapter One

Born on the Fourth of July

If a man has a very decided character, has a strongly accentuated career, it is normally the case of course that he makes

ardent friends and bitter enemies.

—Theodore Roosevelt

As the young doctor and Viola, his wife of seven years, stepped out of Detroit’s First Unitarian Church on Cass Avenue on that bright spring day in 1913, the funeral services of his uncle, Ernest Lorenzo Shurly, had just ended. The young doctor’s mind was swirling. He had, of all things, just purchased his troubled alma mater, the Detroit School of Medicine, in an auction. And so, at the relatively young age of forty-one, he was the first and only man in America to own outright his own medical school. Adding to his burdens, he and his late uncle, a doctor of international repute, had been in the midst of converting the medical office building they shared on Detroit’s West Adams Avenue into a badly needed hospital. Now his revered mentor and partner was gone.

This young doctor was Burt Russell Shurly, a man who would excel in the professions of both medicine and education. He was born auspiciously on July 4, 1871, in Chicago, to Augusta and Edmund Shurly, who had been transferred there from Buffalo by the US Army during the Civil War. After mustering out of the army, Burt’s father decided the family would remain in Chicago for much the same reason that people today move to places like Phoenix, Orlando, or Silicon Valley: Chicago was a major growth center in the United States, probably growing faster than any other city had before or since.

Burt was just three months old when the Great Chicago Fire consumed the family home, his father’s new business, and over half of the entire city. More than two hundred fifty people perished in the twenty-four hours it took the fire to devastate Chicago. Years later, Burt explained it all quite succinctly in a short autobiographical sketch: I was born one Fourth of July, 1871, and never got over it.

Burt’s family was financially ruined by this Great Fire and was forced, along with so many others, to seek temporary shelter in Highland Park, just north of Chicago, in what must have been squalid conditions. Nine years before all this happened, Edmund and Augusta had lost their three-year-old daughter, Edna, to diphtheria, and now, after a year in Highland Park, the dreaded illness struck the family again. Burt’s brother, Arthur, age eight, succumbed to the disease. So now, with only an infant son left to comfort them, their daily lives were filled with a fear that Burt, too, would be taken from them by the disease. Burt, however, was spared, and his future accomplishments would substantially balance the ledger.

Burt was named after a good friend of his father, with whom his father had served while on active duty with the army at Fort C. F. Smith in the Montana Territory: Captain Andrew Sheridan Burt.² A journal³ written by Captain Burt’s wife, Elizabeth, tells a great deal about life at the fort in those days and often mentions her husband’s friendship with Lieutenant Shurly.⁴ Burt Shurly’s middle name was taken from Fort D. A. Russell,⁵ located near Cheyenne, Wyoming, where in 1868 his father finally reunited with Augusta after his harrowing adventures on the Bozeman Trail and his bloody battles with the Sioux.

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Burt was born when the Shurly family lived in Chicago on Madison Street, in the house that would be destroyed by the fire. By the time Burt entered school, the family had returned to Chicago from Highland Park and was living at 3220 South Calumet Avenue. In those days, Calumet Avenue was the center of an excellent neighborhood. Burt was, as he put it in his brief autobiographical sketch, part of a fine bunch of boyhood friends who enjoyed snowball fights, baseball, and the usual childhood mischief: breaking windows, smoking cigarettes, and stealing pigeons. Burt went on to write that when some of these nefarious deeds were discovered, his mother, rather than applying a good spanking, put him to bed with nothing to read but the Episcopal Catechism. When his father came home after these sessions, he would talk with Burt late into the evening.

Burt thoroughly enjoyed his school days. He attended the Douglas School,⁶ and it was there that he first exhibited the extraordinary energy and personal popularity that would distinguish him for the rest of his life. He developed a wide range of interests, from butterfly and stamp collecting to baseball, pitching every Sunday for the Douglas School baseball team. He took piano lessons for one year but gave them up because the lessons interfered with outdoor sports. During his later years at Douglas, he organized the Douglas School Cadets and, as captain, learned the rudiments of infantry drill.

In 1882, when Burt was eleven, his father founded the Shurly Watch and Jewelry Manufacturing Company at 77 State Street. At that time, it was fashionable to give young ladies silver or gold thimbles as Christmas or engagement presents. During school vacations, Burt helped his father selling these and other articles of jewelry.

All this extracurricular activity, however, did not interfere with Burt’s studies. He was a brilliant student, second in his class when he graduated from high school in 1888. Moreover, he liked his teachers, especially Miss Christian and the school’s principal, Mr. Orville T. Bright, who were romantically involved. They apparently liked and trusted Burt, for they chose him to carry notes back and forth to each other during their courtship. Mr. Bright later became superintendent of Cook County schools and was sufficiently impressed with Burt’s academic record to offer him a teaching position at Blue Island School after graduation, for the then-impressive salary of seventy-five dollars per month. Burt intended to go on to college, and he declined the offer.

During his high-school days, Burt developed a strong love for baseball and used his profits from cutting and watering neighborhood lawns to watch the Chicago White Stockings (later to become the Chicago Cubs). Years later, he still could name the players of the team he watched: Flint and $10,000 Kelly⁷ were the catchers, Corcoren and Galpin were pitchers, Captain Anderson was first base, Guest was second base, Wilkinson was shortstop, Bums played third base, Dalrimple was left field, Gore played center field, and Sunday was right field. Burt particularly remembered some exciting games between Buffalo and the Detroit Wolverines (renamed the Tigers in 1895) and the fact that the crowd threw seat cushions at the umpire when they disagreed with his decisions.

Burt’s mother suffered from asthma and arthritis, and when Burt was in his teens, the family decided that a trip to New Orleans would help relieve her discomfort. Burt went along on the extended visit, and this may have been his introduction to the wiles of the opposite sex. He wrote in his autobiographical sketch that in New Orleans, he took French lessons from the three delightful De Pauncho daughters and failed to learn much more than ‘Ah, la jolie poulet!’ Knowing his thirst for knowledge and his sense of humor, one must suspect that, for this incident to have been mentioned in his memoirs, he learned a great deal more from these delightful girls than just the French language. Perhaps his conscience was eased a bit by his attendance in Sunday school at a New Orleans Episcopal church, which was headed by the popular but controversial Reverend Holland, who had been a rector in Chicago’s Trinity Episcopal Church years