physician, surgeon, b. New Hartford, Oneida County, N.Y. He attended seminaries in New York, later was a member of the Grinnell Arctic expedition to Greenland (1849), and graduated from the Albany (N.Y.) Medical College (M.D., 1854). In 1856 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Janesville where he practiced medicine. During the Civil War, he served as surgeon of the 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (1861-1862), and was promoted to brigadier surgeon of U.S. Volunteers in 1862, serving in this capacity until leaving the service in 1865. After the war he resumed his practice in Janesville, served for a time as professor of clinical surgery at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago, and from 1880 to 1890 was surgeon-general of Wisconsin. He was also one of the founders of Oakwood Retreat, a private hospital for the insane at Geneva, Wis. Palmer was active in several Janesville businesses, was president of the Merchants and Mechanics Bank (1882-1895), and was twice mayor of Janesville. Biog. Dict.... Wis. . . . (Chicago, 1895); Portrait and Biog. Album of Rock Co. (Chicago, 1889); Janesville Daily Gazette, June 15, 1895.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
