When Dr. Peter J. Zeglio died at age 75 on August 3, l935, the Courier-News remembered Mount Bethel's first physician as a man whose "heart was in his work" who "gave to it the utmost devotion." It was, continued the paper, "good to know him. Not until such men as he are gone do we fully realize how large a niche they filled, how powerful their example, how useful their consistent influence for good." Following a Solemn High Mass of Requiem at St. Joseph's Church, No. Plainfield, Zeglio's body was taken to Mount Bethel Cemetery for burial. There, in the place where his 53-year medical career had begun, he was laid to rest under an imposing granite monument, its two classic columns framing a bas relief portrait of the doctor, above the words, "He Lived for Others." The story of Zeglio's life and career received its fullest treatment in Samuel Wiley's Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Third Congressional District, published in l896, the year after Zeglio left Warren for North Plainfield. "Dr. P. J. Zeglio, one of the most skillful surgeons in the state of New Jersey, and a leading general practitioner at North Plainfield, is also an ex-Coroner of Somerset County. He is a son of John and Josephine (Duchini) Zeglio, and was born at Cranford, Union county, New Jersey, May 31, l860. Before leaving school, however (when then sixteen years old), while receiving treatment for a fractured wrist, which he had received in a fall from a tree, he conceived the idea of medicine for a profession, and pursued his studies with that end in view; not willing to burden his widowed mother with his college expenses, which she could not well afford, he worked and paid his own way. At the age of l8 years he entered the college of physicians and surgeons, the medical department of Columbia college, New York, from which old and time-honored seat of medical learning he graduated a full-fledged physician in l882." "He at once entered upon practice at Mount Bethel, New Jersey, and where, after encountering the usual difficulties that beset a new and young physician, he began his ministrations among those who knew him most intimately as a school boy, but were willing to test his professed medical skill. His peculiar adaptability and natural talent evinced in study only needed an opportunity for the successful demonstration of his ability to apply his knowledge, and his early skill soon became recognized. Here he continued in a rapidly increasing practice until l895, when he came to North Plainfield, where he has in a single year acquired an extensive practice, one of the largest in that section of the state." "While he is devoted to general practice, he enjoys an enviable reputation as a surgeon, and the difficult and important character of some successful operations performed by him entitle him to a front rank among the leading surgeons of the country. One of the most noteworthy of operations performed by him was the following: the amputation of both feet, and all the fingers and thumbs at one operation. He was elected coroner of Somerset county in l884, which fact fully attests his popularity as a citizen." "He is a close student of the profession as to more modern methods of diagnosis and treatment, and keeps well abreast with the wonderful advance of medical knowledge and science. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Somerset County Medical Society, and the Plainfield Medical Association. He is an enthusiastic sportsman and spends all his spare time afield with dog and gun. Personally Dr. Zeglio is of unimpeachable character and spotless reputation, and is as highly esteemed for his many personal qualities of heart and head as he is highly regarded for his superior skill as a physician. He resides in the old mansion house of Dr. Louis Craig, at No. 48 Somerset Street, which he owns...." "John Zeglio [the doctor's father] was one of a family of seven children, all born at Ambri, Canton Tessin, Switzerland, the native home of the Zeglio family. He was born in l818, received a good comprehensive education, and became a tiller of the soil. Inspired by the glowing accounts of the opportunities that prosperous and free America offered, he resolved to try his fortunes, and accordingly made a trip to this country, returning in a few years, and later, in l849, came on a gold pilgrimage to California, where he spent considerable time in quest of his vision of golden lore, and in working in mines. Here he lost his health, whereupon he returned to New York, where he resided for several years, and subsequently located at Cranford, and afterwards, in l862, removed upon a farm at Mount Bethel, where he resided until his death April 15, l865. He was an active democrat in local party councils and held various offices. Religiously he was a member of the Roman Catholic church. His marriage was blessed with the following children: David; Pauline, the wife of A. D. Taylor, deceased; Mary, the wife of John D. Kirch; Joseph; and Dr. P. J. The mother of these children died Feb. 4, l894. She was a noble woman honored and respected by everybody. She was left a widow when the subject was five years of age, and bore nobly the responsibility and care of rearing her family without the help of her husband upon whom she relied so much, and to her precepts Dr. Zeglio chiefly owes his success in life." In June 1935, two months before he died, Zeglio was interviewed by the Courier-News, telling the reporter he remembered vividly "the early days when doctors rode all over the countryside in a horse and buggy." "The roads were bad then," said Zeglio. "Sometimes the mud was up to the hubs of the buggy wheels. I got stuck with an auto, but the horse always pulled me through." Zeglio owned the second automobile among Plainfield doctors of the day, a Haynes-Apperson, which took six weeks to build after he ordered it. "Doctors were quick to take to the gasoline buggy, even though the first were built without any tops. They had no covering at all, and were 'fair weather cars,' as Dr. Zeglio put it. "I had canvas tops put on the first three cars I owned," he said. "Even at that the autos were a blessing to the physicians, for they made trips to Westfield, Dunellen, Metuchen and 'over the mountains.' The life of the physician of that day was hard," remembered Zeglio. "In the early days people were afraid of hospitals -- they did not want to go to them. So we had to carry a portable operating table and portable sterilizers and operate in the patient's home. I would send a nurse ahead a day or two to prepare things. We did a great many operations that way, but gradually the patients became used to the idea of hospitals, and accepted them. When the maternity hospital was first opened it was vacant most of the time...." "Zeglio told of the stares of curiosity which greeted the first automobiles in the outlying districts, and how he had to stop to let horses pass by. This was about l902 or l903, he said. But gradually the cars took the place of the horse and buggy, as salesmen and others took up the new mode of travel." "Cholera infantum, or the variety of the disease which afflicted babies, took a heavy toll in those days, Dr. Zeglio said, adding that cholera morbus, or the adult's disease, also was more prevalent then than today. 'They were caused by germs in milk, also contaminated water and food stuffs. Not many people had ice boxes or refrigerators in those days, like they do now. Handling of food by people with contagious diseases was not regulated by the health laws.... The cesspools also contaminated the water in many cases,' he declared." "Dr. Zeglio never married," added the Courier-News. "A niece lives with him in the large home on Somerset Street, on the ground floor of which his offices are located.... Dignified in appearance, Dr. Zeglio has a close-cropped grey mustache and grey hair. A thin, high-bridged nose, topped by rimless eye glasses, give him the air of a scientist, and a strong, jutting jaw add forcefulness." Buried with Zeglio in Mount Bethel Cemetery are his mother, Josephine D. Zeglio, aged 74 years, and his aunts, Paulini Duchini, aged 74 years, and Mary Duchini, aged 99 years. References: Samuel T. Wiley, Ed., Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Third Congressional District (l896); Smiley's History of Plainfield and North Plainfield; Plainfield Courier-News, June 1935, August 5 and 6, l935. Warren is a popular town name. According to the National Post Office Directory, there are Warrens in l8 states -- Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. |