My Genealogy Hound

DR. GEORGE WASHINGTON McCAFFERTY, of the staff of the male department of the Norristown Hospital for the Insane, is a young man, having been born in Philadelphia, July 13, 1870. He is the son of George Washington and Margaret (Watson) McCafferty, the former a native of Pennsylvania, the latter of the county of Tyrone, Ireland. They had four sons and one daughter, as follows: Harry Somerville, deceased; Elizabeth Somerville, wife of Albert T. Clay, Ph. D., assistant professor to Professor Hilprecht of the archaological department of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. George W. McCafferty, of Norristown; Dr. Robert Watson McCafferty and Jean Somerville McCafferty, of Philadelphia.

Dr. George W. McCafferty was reared in Philadelphia and attended private schools until he entered the grammar school, from which he graduated in the senior class, at the Park Avenue Boys’ Grammar School, when seventeen years of age. He then entered the biological department of the University of Pennsylvania for a two years’ special course and was graduated in 1889. After four more years of study he graduated from the regular medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1893. He held positions in the Howard Hospital, Philadelphia, in St. Joseph’s Hospital at Reading, and later in the Training School for Feeble Minded Children at Elwyn, Delaware county. From that institution he was appointed second assistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane, at Norristown, and on January 1, 1897, he was made first assistant and still holds that position.

He belongs to the Montgomery County Medical Society, the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is a member of Charity Lodge, No. 190, Free and Accepted Masons; of Norristown Chapter, No. 190, Royal Arch Masons; of Hutchinson Commandery, No. 32, Knights Templar; and of the Alpha Mu Pi Omega Medical Fraternity.

Dr. McCafferty has had a very extensive experience in the kind of practice that fits him for the position which he now holds, and he performs the arduous duties it requires in a most successful and satisfactory manner.

In an institution like that with which Dr. McCafferty is connected, with a population of twenty-five hundred persons, including officials, attendants and others, there is a constant demand for attention on the part of the medical staff, and it is all the more so in view of the fact that by far the greater number of the inmates are as weak physically as they are mentally. It is a position which requires skill, tact and patience, with all of which qualities Dr. McCafferty is endowed in a large measure. The care and treatment of the insane is one of the most engrossing and exacting occupations in which any one can engage. Residence at such an institution, among the melancholy and unfortunate victims of dementia, has its disadvantages which all can appreciate. Much depends upon the tastes and inclinations of those in charge of the insane, but custom is everything and persons who propose to make it their life work soon become reconciled to the unpleasantness of contact with the insane. Theirs is not nor ever can be, however, an enviable position according to the general idea of what is desirable.