| |
|
|
James F. Shober 1853-1889
Market Street at Eighth Street, Wilmington,
NC,
USA
Latitude & Longitude:
34° 14' 9.888",
-77° 56' 21.6888"
|
|
 |
| |
| |
| |
|
North Carolina State
Historical Marker |
Marker Text: "1st known black physician with an M.D. degree in N.C. Practiced 1878-89. Home and office stood one block north." James Francis Shober was the first black physician with a medical degree to set up a practice in North Carolina. He was not the first licensed black physician in the state, due to the “grandfather clause” in the 1885 regulations of the North Carolina Medical Board that allowed those who graduated prior to 1880 from accredited medical schools to forego licensing. In establishing his initial practice, Shober chose to return to his native state, albeit a new town. He arrived in Wilmington in 1878 following his graduation that year from Howard Medical School in Washington, D.C.
Throughout his career as the only black physician in the state’s most populous town, Shober worked out of his home at 713 Princess Street. His life was short, as he died in January 1889 at the age of thirty-six. Some have stipulated that Shober worked himself to death, faithfully administering to the needs of the black community in Wilmington, numbering over 10,500 citizens.
There is speculation as to the identity of James Shober’s father even though his New Hanover County marriage license to Anna Maria Taylor lists David Shober. His mother, Betsy Ann Waugh of Salem, did not marry David Shober until after James Francis was born. When Betsy Ann died in 1859, the young boy is believed to have been sent to live with his grandmother, Betsy. Despite the separation of supposed father and child at this point, James Francis Shober’s education remains the primary reason for doubting that David Shober was the lad’s father. Someone paid for Shober to attend college and medical school. It is this expensive private schooling that caused nets to be cast for a white father. Circumstantial evidence points to Francis Edwin Shober, also of Salem. Regardless of his parentage, however, James Francis Shober’s brief career was a remarkable one.
References:
William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, V, 340-341—sketch by William S. Powell
Journal of the Old North State Medical Society (March 1954)
Hubert A. Eaton, “N.C.’s First Black Doctor is Not Forgotten,” Wilmington Star-News, February 14, 1982
The Lonely Road: A History of the Physicks and Physicians of the Lower Cape Fear, 1735-1976 (1977?)
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
James F. Shober 1853-1889 Historical Marker Location Map, Wilmington, North Carolina
|
|
|
