Charles Burleigh Purvis very successful at Howard, and was credited with keeping the medical department running during the financial panic of 1873. He attended President Garfield after he was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881. This made him the first black physician to attend to a sitting president. Later in 1881 he was appointed by President Chester Arthur to Surgeon-in-Charge at the Freedmen's hospital. Purvis was surgeon-in-charge at the Freedmen's Hospital from October 1, 1881, to 1894, and in that role was the first black person to head a hospital under civilian authority. In a letter from 1908, Purvis stated he
Charles J. Albright He served as member of the State board of charities in 1875. He served as president of the board of school examiners of the Cambridge Union School 1881-1883. He died in Cambridge, Ohio, October 21, 1883. He was interred in South Cemetery. Charles J. Albright Charles Jefferson Albright (May 9, 1816 – October 21, 1883) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio. Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Albright moved with his parents in 1824 to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He received a limited schooling. He was employed in a harness shop and as a clerk in a rural store. Apprenticed as a printer.