DR. E. ALEXANDER
DR. E. ALEXANDER, pioneer military surgeon in charge of the
Marine Hospital department at El Paso, was born in Germany near
the Switzerland line, May 2, 1832, his parents being Major
and Ida (Picard) Alexander. The father was a wine merchant
and gave to his son excellent privileges. Dr. Alexander pursued
his abilities in Constance College and in the University of
Munich and Vienna, and on the completion of a thorough course in
medicine and surgery was graduated in 1854. He came to the United
State about the time of the commencement of the war between the
north and the south. He did not know the language of the people
at that time, but soon afterward he enlisted in the federal army
and was advanced rapidly to the position of medical officer.
During the period of hostilities he served in different
hospitals, being located at various times in Washington, New
York, Key West, at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and also at
Baton Rouge and Ship Island. He has remained continuously in the
government service and in 1870 was transferred to Texas, being
post surgeon successively at Fort Griffin, Fort Stockton and Fort
Quitman. In 1874 he was located at Fort Bliss at El Paso, and has
remained here in the federal service, with the exception of the
period from 1876 to 1888 he having resigned because of his wife's
failing health. In the latter year, when El Paso was made a
quarantine station, he again entered the service. His official
capacity is that of surgeon in charge of the public health and
Marine Hospital service at the Port of El Paso under the surgeon
general of the Marine Hospital at Washington.
Dr. Alexander is a member of the City and County Medical
Associations of El Paso, the American Medical Association, the
Public Health Association of the United States, Canada and
Mexico, and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United
States who were in the service during the Civil war. He has for
the greater portion of forty-four years been continuously in the
federal service in connection with its health department and has
continuously broadened his knowledge through research and
investigation so that he is to-day a man of marked efficiency and
comprehensive learning in the line of his chosen profession. He
is moreover one of the greatly revered pioneers of El Paso and
his mind is stored with an interesting fund of information about
Western Texas, especially in connection with its military life.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago:
Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 468.
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