DR. E. ALEXANDER, pioneer military surgeon in charge of the Marine Hospital department at El Paso, was born in Germany near the Switzerland line, May 2, 1832, his parents being Major and Ida (Picard) Alexander. The father was a wine merchant and gave to his son excellent privileges. Dr. Alexander pursued his abilities in Constance College and in the University of Munich and Vienna, and on the completion of a thorough course in medicine and surgery was graduated in 1854. He came to the United State about the time of the commencement of the war between the north and the south. He did not know the language of the people at that time, but soon afterward he enlisted in the federal army and was advanced rapidly to the position of medical officer. During the period of hostilities he served in different hospitals, being located at various times in Washington, New York, Key West, at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and also at Baton Rouge and Ship Island. He has remained continuously in the government service and in 1870 was transferred to Texas, being post surgeon successively at Fort Griffin, Fort Stockton and Fort Quitman. In 1874 he was located at Fort Bliss at El Paso, and has remained here in the federal service, with the exception of the period from 1876 to 1888 he having resigned because of his wife’s failing health. In the latter year, when El Paso was made a quarantine station, he again entered the service. His official capacity is that of surgeon in charge of the public health and Marine Hospital service at the Port of El Paso under the surgeon general of the Marine Hospital at Washington.
Dr. Alexander is a member of the City and County Medical Associations of El Paso, the American Medical Association, the Public Health Association of the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States who were in the service during the Civil war. He has for the greater portion of forty-four years been continuously in the federal service in connection with its health department and has continuously broadened his knowledge through research and investigation so that he is to-day a man of marked efficiency and comprehensive learning in the line of his chosen profession. He is moreover one of the greatly revered pioneers of El Paso and his mind is stored with an interesting fund of information about Western Texas, especially in connection with its military life.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 468.