JOHN STRAYER McGREW

John Strayer McGrew was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on December 23, 1825. He moved at an early age with his family to Cincinnati where his father, Robert McGrew, founded the "Cincinnati Enquirer". He attended the public schools of Cincinnati until he was 15 and then went to Oxford College from which he graduated. His M.D. was received from Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in 1847.

During the Civil War, Dr. McGrew was among the first to volunteer. He served as a surgeon with the 83rd Ohio Regiment and was later promoted to staff surgeon of the U.S. Volunteers. He held the rank of lieutenant colonel under Generals McClellan, Sherman, and Grant. One of his appointments as army surgeon bore the signature of Abraham Lincoln.

At the close of the war, Dr. McGrew married Pauline Gillet at Washington, D.C. This was a second marriage for both parties. Mrs. McGrew had a son, Henri Goulden, whom Dr. McGrew adopted and who later became a doctor and practiced in Honolulu. The doctor also had a son, Louis K., by his first wife. Later Dr. and Mrs. McGrew became the parents of Katharine Christie (Mrs. Charles B. Cooper) and John Tarn McGrew.

Following their marriage the McGrews started on a world tour which brought them to Hawaii on March 6, 1867, aboard the "A. A. Eldrich". Enchanted with the Islands, Dr. McGrew abandoned his tour and settled in Honolulu. By April he had established an office over Dr. Edward Hoffmann's drug store at the corner of Kaahumanu and Merchant streets. In 1869 he was appointed by the U.S. Consul medical officer of the U.S. Marine Hospital, a position he held for a number of years. The doctor was a member of the commission which worked with Generals Alexander and Schofield in making a survey in 1873 for an American naval base at Pearl Harbor, as provided for by the Reciprocity Treaty. Dr. McGrew joined Dr. Charles T. Rodgers and others in the medical profession in 1878 to protest the policy at the Queen's Hospital which placed any patients in the hospital solely under the care of the staff physicians who were appointed by the Board of Trustees at Queen's. While the policy remained unchanged, it was the first concerted effort in opposition to the policy and eventually changes were made. From 1880-1881 Dr. McGrew was a member of the Board of Health. An honor came the doctor's way in 1887 when he was elected a vice-president of the International Medical Congress.

Although the Hawaiian Medical Society was founded in 1856, it apparently became defunct after a period of three years. In 1890 a group of doctors began to meet informally in Dr. McGrew's office, and in May, 1892, the group, seemingly unaware of the existence of the previous Medical Society, drew up a constitution and by-laws and was duly organized. Dr. McGrew became the first president, a position he held for the next five years. In the fall of 1893 the doctor was elected vice-president of the Pan American Medical Congress for Hawaii and read a paper when the Congress met in Washington, D.C.

Intensely interested in politics, the doctor is believed to have been the first advocate of annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States. Long before annexation became an established fact in 1898, Dr. McGrew was a staunch and fearless supporter of that proposition. He was a member of the Annexation Club and was dubbed "Annexation McGrew" by King Kalakaua, who, although naturally opposed to the doctor's political views, often expressed his admiration for his sincerity and honesty of purpose. Immediately after the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalini in 1893, the "Hawaiian Star", a newspaper backed by members of the Annexation Club, began publication with Dr. McGrew as editor-in-chief. In June of that year he resigned and Walter G. Smith was appointed acting editor. On July 7, 1898, annexation finally became a reality, and Dr. McGrew was hailed as "the Father of Annexation".

The doctor was a member and served as a trustee (1869) of the American Club, was president of the Board of Trustees of the Musical Hall Association when it was founded in 1879, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Kapiolani Park Association, serving as vice-president in 1885, and was a member and served as surgeon of the George W. DeLong Post Number 45 of the G.A.R. He was also examining physician for the Knights of Pythias. His business interests which were many included leasing the Hawaiian Hotel for a time, being a shareholder in the Mutual Telephone Company, and serving as vice-president of the People's Ice and Refrigeration Company. In 1900 he limited his medical practice so that he could devote more time to his extensive real estate holdings.

Dr. and Mrs. McGrew were widely known for their hospitality and entertained distinguished guests from all parts of the world. It was estimated that it cost Dr. McGrew $10,000 a year to keep open house for his guests. His home, which was originally built by Dr. Robert Wood in 1840, stood on the site of the Alexander Young Hotel on Bishop and Hotel streets and was a Honolulu landmark.

On October 9, 1911, Dr. McGrew fell and fractured his right hip and on November 17 he died at the age of 86.

In his years of practice the doctor had many unusual experiences but a story that he delighted to tell concerns the time when he treated Princess Ruth, who was one of the largest women in the kingdom, and had her hair cut while she was unconscious. When he came to see her again and was standing by her bedside, she opened her eyes and, on recognizing him, knocked him across the room. The doctor beat a hasty retreat, but later was forgiven.

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