Charles Everts Rider, M.D.

Biography

Charles Everts Rider was born on a farm near New Haven, Addison County, Vermont, on May 16, 1839. He studied at Oberlin and Middlebury colleges before attending lectures at the Universität Giessen and the École de Médecine de Paris. On his return from Europe, Rider earned a medical degree from the University of Vermont (1863). Soon after he entered service as an assistant surgeon with a Rochester, N.Y., militia regiment, with which he served at least through 1864.

After military service, Rider went into practice in Rochester, N.Y., with Henry Walter Dean, M.D. (1818-1878), an 1842 graduate of Geneva Medical College and president of the Medical Society of the State of New York in 1866. Rider also joined the medical staff of the Rochester City Hospital, an association maintained from the late 1860s through the end of the century.

Rider was one of Rochester’s earliest specialists in ophthalmology. He was appointed professor of ophthalmology at Geneva Medical College, Geneva, N.Y., from 1870 to 1872, and held the same position at Syracuse University (1872-1880) after the former institution was absorbed by the latter in 1872. Rider was an active member of the American Ophthalmological Society, the American Otological Society, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Medical Society of the County of Monroe, the Rochester City Medical Society, and the Rochester Pathological Society. Several of his addresses were printed and are in the rare book collection of the Miner Library.  

In addition to the practice of medicine, Rider had business interests that included hardwood flooring and other lumber products. He was married twice and had one son by his first wife, Delia Wheelock, whom he married in 1860. Their son, Wheelock Rider (later Edward Wheelock), was an 1885 Syracuse University medical graduate and was for a time in ophthalmic practice with his father. In retirement Charles E. Rider moved to Chappaqua, Westchester County, N.Y., where he died on January 31, 1909.

Charles Everts Rider, M.D.

Container List

• Folder 1: “Catalogue of specimens, books, instruments, etc. Dr. C.E. Rider. January 1873.” (Hand-written inventory of an impressive personal library of medical books and periodicals, equipment used in his ophthalmological practice, and household furniture.)
• Folder 2: Obituary & newspaper clippings
• Folder 3: Professional miscellanea  
• Folder 4: Personal miscellanea  
• Ledger 1: Ledger, disbound (31 x 9 cm.) containing alphabetical lists of names – presumably patient names – that are then arranged chronically from 1876 to 1881.
• Ledger 2: Ledger, disbound (34.5 x 20.5 cm.) lists of names – presumably of patients – arranged first by the name of the town or village in which they resided (Rochester excluded), and then alphabetically by surname. Each name is followed by a date, most of which span the decade 1889-1899.
• Ledger 3: Ledger, bound (32.5 x 20 cm.) inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Dr. C.E. Rider’s Book. 79 State St. Rochester, N.Y.” The names entered in this ledger are arranged under the name of the town or village in which the individual resided (most in the vicinity of Rochester, though the city is excluded). The names are not entered alphabetically under the town or village headings. Entries in this ledger have been made in two hands – one presumably Rider’s, the other unidentified. Interestingly, each list of names is headed by the names of physicians in that town or village. This volume is not typical of physician’s ledgers of the period. There are no dates indicating when patients visited, their conditions & treatment, or amounts charged for consultation.