Dr. Stanton, MD named Meteu of Owasippe Lodge #7 by Stanley R. Miller – December 1939

Samuel Cecil Stanton was born on June 28, 1856 in Newtonville, MA to Samuel Stanton (b. 10/01/1821) and Ann Louise Blodgett (b. 11/01/1828).  Dr. Stanton’s father worked as a druggist and his grandfather Nicholas as a stonemason.  He lived as a child in Manchester, New Hampshire with his parents and grandparents.  At age 7 he met President Abraham Lincoln via an introduction through his cousin, Edwin M. Stanton, then Attorney General of Ohio, and later Secretary of War during the Civil War.  In his adolescent years he continued his education at the City of London School when abroad with his parents in England, the elder Samuel then being employed as a commission broker and steamship agent for the North Atlantic Steam Traffic Conference (shipping line).

Dr. Stanton entered the University of Illinois in 1872, but needed to return to London for several years because of poor health.  He eventually received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1879 from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana where he excelled academically as the President of the Philomathean Society.  From 1880-1882 he served in the Illinois National Guard and in 1882-1883 as a hospital steward where he had his first exposure to the medical profession.  Given his fluency in French he translated medical articles for the Chicago Medical Gazette monthly magazine.  In 1882 he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a travelling agent for the North Atlantic Steam Traffic Conference and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (a.k.a. The Milwaukee Road).  He held these positions until 1887, when he matriculated into the Northwestern University School of Medicine.

Dr. Stanton received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University in 1892.  Later in life he went on to receive a Master of Science degree from the University of Illinois in 1919.  After medical school graduation he became the Superintendent of the Post-Graduate Hospital of Chicago as a consulting gynecologist and served as an Attending Physician and House Officer of the U.S. Army Headquarters – Department of the Lakes, serving from 1893-1897.  He was promoted to full Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon of the Medical Corps in 1897, to Captain in 1904, to full surgeon and Major in 1907, and to Secretary to the Surgeon General in 1910.  He retired from the Illinois National Guard Medical Corps as a brigadier general.  Throughout this time period he maintained an active private practice of medicine and surgery on the northside of Chicago, living in the North Town area of Chicago at 9 Cedar St. at the turn of the century (i.e., 1900).

Professionally, he served as the Assistant Editor of the Chicago Medical Gazette and Chicago Medical Review from 1880-1882, the Editor of the Medical Standard from 1896-1899, the Assistant Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Society in 1900.  Doc Stanton then served as the Assistant Secretary of the Mississippi Valley Medical Association in 1904 and the Treasurer for over ten years, a post he held in 1921 – during this period his office was located at the Masonic Temple in Chicago.  After retirement from active practice in 1913, he taught First Aid for the American Red Cross during World War I.  Dr. Stanton served on the boards of several insurance companies as a Medical Director, working in that capacity for a period in Kansas City in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.

Outside of medicine he was avid philatelist and continued his interest in stamps into his late 80’s.  He also founded the Chicago Chapter of the National Sojourners, a Masonic Lodge for Military Personnel who frequently were transferred throughout the country to various duty stations.

Dr. Stanton married Harriet Louisa Cornwell (b. 06/22/1862 New York City – d. 10/27/1943 Downers Grove, IL) on February 12, 1885 in New York City’s Trinity Chapel.  Louise, as she was known, received her A.B. from Vassar College in 1884.  Together they had three children – George Cornwell Stanton (02/17/1889 – 10/08/1896), Dorothy Stanton (06/29/1890 – 12/08/1895), and John Bloomfield Stanton (03/28/1897 – 10/01/1969).  After Louise’s death he married Erna E. Koellner.

Dr. Stanton as Physician-in-Chief of Owasippe Scout Camp – 1941

Dr. Stanton began serving as the physician-in-chief at Owasippe in 1930.  It is not clear who approached him about the position.  Scouts from the 1930’s remember him as a kind man always with a story of life to be told who was there every summer smoking his usual cigars.  They also remember his faithful companion and wife – lovingly known as “Aunt Louise” to the campers – who would lend a sympathetic ear to a homesick camper and keep the boys healthy for a summer of fun.  For his many years of service to the camp and youth of Chicago he was elected as the Owasippe Lodge #7 Meteu in 1939, and eventually as the Lodge Chief in 1944 at age 88.

Dr. Stanton died quietly on Wednesday January 26, 1949 at the Goodair Retirement Home in Hinsdale at the age of 92 having served in two wars as a medical officer in the Illinois National Guard as well as the first and longest serving medical officer of the Owasippe Scout Camp.

Samuel C. Stanton – 1940 (photo taken by Fred Brems at the O/A National Conference – Camp Twin Echo – Ligonier, PA – September 1940