03/11/2013    

FAMOUS FOOT DOCTORS IN HISTORY

 Gravesite of Lincoln's Foot Doctor Now a Tourist Attraction

He may just be a footnote to history, but Dr. Isachar Zacharie is having a posthumous mini-moment, thanks to the Hollywood-sparked surge of interest in the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Zacharie was buried in London's famed Highgate Cemetery in 1900, but he is only being added to the cemetery guide Friday, joining such notables as communist philosopher Karl Marx, and novelist George Eliot.

Grave of Dr. Isachar Zacharie (Photo: Alastair Grant)

Zacharie's claim to fame? He was Lincoln's foot doctor. And a good one at that, if the president's signed endorsement can be taken at face value. "Dr. Zacharie has operated on my feet with great success, and considerable addition to my comfort," the 16th president of the United States wrote in 1862, when the United States was gripped by civil war.

Source: Gregory Katz, Associated Press [3/7/13]