Address to "The Commissioners of Health, New York, care of Mr. Roonie". "I have been negotiating with the Mr. Humphreys…and the most favorable terms I can obtain from them for doing the work we require is $800. For that sum they will engage to make a substantive stone wall along the beach and fill it in to High water nearly, and also to regulate the ground and road adjacent, and cover the Quarantine wharf with a sufficient coat of earth. The new wharf along the line fence is not included in this estimate, they say it will cost $100 more to have that covered… The other work is indispensable and they say it cannot be done for less. They wish to have an answer on Monday next…you should let me know by one of the first boats on the morning of Monday, or else perhaps you may find it convenient to come down in person on Monday and decide on the matter here, which I should prefer." Two years after Dr. Benjamin DeWitt wrote this letter, New York high society was shocked to learn that he had died in the course of his official duties as the second Health Officer of the Port of New York, having accepted that un-coveted post after serving as Surgeon to Army regiments guarding New York City against the British during the War of 1812. Before that, he had been Private Secretary to his relative, New York Governor George Clinton, later Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson. The Doctor himself was socially prominent and politically active in the Tammany Society. Also founding editor of the New York Medical Journal and Professor at the State University of New York, his professional credentials were impeccable. So it was out of pure public spirit that Dewitt accepted his burdensome work on that section of Staten Island set aside to quarantine newly-arrived ship’s passengers diagnosed with deadly diseases like cholera, typhoid and yellow fever – which ultimately led to his own death.