Dr. Sidney P. Phelps

 

Heart Attack Proves Fatal To Dr. S. P. Phelps

 

Dr. Sidney P. Phelps, retired physician, widely known throughout Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties, died Saturday night at his Malone home, 10 First Street, from a heart attack of ….attack of heart failure, from which he had suffered throughout the day and evening. He had not been feeling well for several days and Saturday his condition was much worse. His physician, Dr. H. W. Stoughton, had called three times during the earlier hours of the evening, the last time at 10:45. He was recalled by Mrs. Phelps at 11:30, but Dr. Phelps had expired before the physician reached his bedside.

Dr. and Mrs. Phelps had planned to go to Florida for the winter, and it was their intention to leave Malone early in the present week, as it was hoped the change would prove beneficial to his health, as it had in previous winters spent in Florida.

Dr. Phelps was 61 years of age. He was born in Norwood, July 20, 1873, a son of Sidney R. and Emma C. Phelps. His father was for many years proprietor of the Whitney House at Norwood and was one of the most prominent hotel men in this North Country.

Dr. Phelps' boyhood years were spent in the hotel and his early education was in the Norwood schools. He choose the medical profession as his life work and entered the medical department of the University of Vermont at Burlington from which he was graduated and received his degree in 1898. During the next two years he was an intern in New York City hospitals. At the expiration of that time he returned to Norwood and engaged in medical practice in his home town. He was successful, his professional work extending into many adjacent towns and he was regarded as one of the representative physicians of St. Lawrence County. He retired from active medical practice in 1922. He later removed with his family to Malone and they have been prominent residents here since 1927.

During his years of residence in Norwood Dr. Phelps was connected with several business enterprises. He was mainly instrumental in establishing the Norwood Electric Light and Power company and was its president. He eventually sold his interest in the company to the Utilities, and the Norwood plant is now a unit of the Niagara-Hudson System.

Dr. Phelps was greatly interested in all out-of-door sports, including baseball and football. During the past two years he gave his active support to the Malone baseball team and seldom missed witnessing a league game in which the local team was engaged. He was also an ardent supporter of harness horse racing and at various times owned both trotters and pacers that raced over the Northern New York tracks in the county fair circuit. His string of horses was often trained at the track here in the years before he became a resident of Malone. He sold the last of his racing horses several years ago, but never lost his keen interest in this department of sport, which he took up originally as a diversion and recreation from his professional work as a physician. He was a member of all of the Masonic bodies of Norwood and was also a life member of Media Temple….. on the Mystic Shrine…. He was a member of the Malone Lodge of Elks and served on … committee of the lodge ….years.

He was united in marriage with Anna Maud Ashley, of Norwood, who survives him, with their son, Sidney(?) R. Phelps, who is now associated with the Tidewater Oil Company of Riparius, N.Y. and their daughter, Mrs. Frederic E. Mason of Malone. Mr. And Mrs. Mason were married November 10, and were in Florida on their honeymoon trip. A message was sent to them and they returned this morning.

 

(From the Wednesday, November 21, 1934 edition of the Malone Farmer, page one. Courtesy of the Northern New York Library Network @ news.nnyln.net).

 

(Dr. Phelps is in the Phelps Vault at Riverside Cemetery, Norwood).

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