Steigers, Alonzo Frank

See History of Arizona medicine; collections of Orville Harry Brown, M.D. [AHSL Special Collections WZ 70 AA7 H673]: 3:306; 6:181.
Quebbeman, Frances E. Medicine in territorial Arizona. Phoenix : Arizona Historical Foundation, 1966, page 372.
Farish, Thomas Edwin. History of Arizona, Filmer Bros. Electrotype Co., 1918, volume 8, pages 142-143: "January 5th, 1871, Indians made a night attack upon Lieut. Cradlebaugh's command, consisting of the Lieutenant himself, citizens Peck and McCrackin, Surgeon Steigers, and twenty enlisted men, which resulted in the wounding of Dr. Steigers and private Meyers, the killing of twenty-three government horses, and the capture of three. This happened about forty miles east from Prescott."

History of NLM
Chapter XI: Leaders of the Library, 1895-1913, [excerpt]: pp. 194-195:
…FIELDING HUDSON GARRISON, PRINCIPAL ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN, 1912-1930. Fletcher's assistant from 1892 to 1899 was Alonzo Frank Steigers a one-armed former military surgeon (footnote 26 [below]). Steigers had graduated from St Louis MedicalCollege in 1865 and then contracted to work for the Medical Department as an Acting Assistant Surgeon He was stationed at military installations in the South until 1869 when he was transferred to Alcatraz Island California and later to Camp Verde, Arizona Territory. In January 1871 a scouting party from Camp Verde fought a band of Apache Indians. Steigers was hit in the left shoulder by a bullet that tore along his arm and came out of his wrist After the fight the party made its way back to Camp Verde where Steigers' mangled limb had to be amputated. It would seem difficult for a one-armed man to be a practicing surgeon in the Army, yet Steigers wanted to continue his career and the Medical Department retained him. He served at several posts until 1892 when Congress abolished the contract surgeon system. Steigers was then a 27 year veteran,but he had none of the retirement benefits of a regular Army surgeon. He probably would have had difficulty setting up a successful civilian practice as a one-arm physician, but Billings brought him into the Library. Here he remained until he died on April 12, 1899, at the age of 55. Following the death of Steigers, a 29-year-old clerk named Fielding Hudson Garrison applied to Merrill and the Secretary of War for the post of Assistant Librarian...
Footnote 26: As is the case with almost all of its early members, the Library has practically no information about Steigers. Records concerning his military service as a contract surgeon are in the National Archives. Among them is a copy of the Weekly Arizona Miner, Jan 14, 1871, containing an account of the fight in which Steigers was badly wounded. Annual Announcement of the St Louis Medical College, Session 1865-1866, gives Steigers' name as Frank. A brief obituary is in JAMA 32 955 (1899).
Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/manuscripts/miles/miles_11.pdf
[Related[?]: Finding Aid to the Wyndham D. Miles Papers on the History of the National Library of Medicine, 1864-1984]

J Am Med Assoc. 1899;XXXII(17):955-956: Alonzo F. Steigers, M.D., late assistant librarian in the office of the surgeon-general of the army, died April 12. He was 55 years old and unmarried. Dr. Steigers entered the Union Army as a surgeon during the Civil War, and later became a contract surgeon in the regular army. He held this position a number of years and saw service in several Indian outbreaks. He was shot in a conflict with Indians in Nevada and subsequently lost an arm from the wound. He resigned his position in the army about seven years ago to accept the office which he held at the Army Medical Museum at the time of his death.