Not So Hippocratic!

1/16/2026

Hippocrates

A trusted physician fatally shoots a young man in the streets of Adamstown. Well, so much for the Hippocratic Oath. Traditionally, it is thought that the main job of a doctor is to help patients and fellow citizens in any way, or form, possible when called upon. This, of course, is in total opposition to a medical expert intentionally injuring others—hence requiring the assistance of another doctor.

For those not familiar with the oath of ethics historically taken by physicians, I decided to review the encyclopedic background of this widely known Greek medical text attributed to namesake Hippocrates (c.460-c.370 B.C.). Hippocrates was a Greek physician and philosopher of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of prognosis and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, and the (later discredited) formulation of humoral theory. His studies set out the basic ideas of modern-day specialties, including surgery, urology, neurology, acute medicine and orthopedics, and advanced the systematic study of clinical medicine. The cover image of this story is a lithograph of a painting from 1792 by artist Anne-Louis Girodet and titled Hippocrates (c.460-c.377 BC) Refusing the Gifts of Artaxerxes I (d.425 BC).

In its original form, the Hippocratic Oath, “requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. The oath is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the Western world, establishing several principles of medical ethics which remain of paramount significance today. These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence. As the foundational expression of certain principles that continue to guide and inform medical practice, the ancient text is of more than historic and symbolic value. It is enshrined in the legal statutes of various jurisdictions, such that violations of the oath may carry criminal or other liability beyond the oath's symbolic nature.”

In his diary, Frederick’s Jacob Engelbrecht (1798-1878) wrote a lengthy entry regarding a local doctor on trial in Frederick for murder. This was dated March 15th, 1873 and reads as follows:

“The Thomas trial— The trial of Doctor Jacob D. Thomas (son of Levin Thomas) for the shooting and Killing John Belt at Adamstown on the Baltimore & Ohio R.R. in October 1871 was commenced on Friday of last week March 7, 1873. On Friday the jury panel was exhausted by only getting four and they got the full number only on Saturday afternoon. The trial then commenced on Monday morning & continued until Friday night when lawyers finished pleading. And the jury remained in their room until this (Saturday) afternoon when they brought in their verdict “guilty of murder in the third degree” or “Manslaughter.” The counsel for the state Milton G. Urner States Attorney assisted by William J. Maulsby Junior and George H. Peter of Montgomery County. Counsel for prisoner Frederick I. Nelson and James McSherry. The jurors were Randolph G. Barrick, George H. Rizer, David Columbus Kemp, Francis T. Lakin, Benjamin Ogle, George M. Shaw, William H. Glaze, William G. Cole, Daniel Harshman, Thomas A. Smith of T., Gowan B. Philpot, & Thomas I. Maught.”

My first impression upon reading this entry centered on the all-star legal lineup of attorneys on both sides in the trial. This is fitting as I would learn that both the “shooting” victim, and alleged “shooting” defendant, were prominent south county residents from established Carrollton Manor families. The victim was the brother of two noted physicians, and the accused murderer was actually a leading doctor of Adamstown. Go figure!

Just over a month later, on April 25th, Jacob Engelbrecht jotted down an addendum to this particular diary passage saying, “Sentenced 2 years in Penitentiary this morning.”

This verdict was confirmed in our cemetery records as I searched for the burial of Dr. Jacob D. Thomas here at Mount Olivet. I would soon learn that an earlier trial held a year prior (March, 1872) at the Frederick County Court House resulted in a hung jury.

Interestingly, Engelbrecht noted nothing the previous October when this deadly affair took place in Adamstown. In my quest to learn more about the curious physician buried in Mount Olivet’s Area P/Lot 18, I went to the obvious internet sources of findagrave.com, Ancestry.com and various online newspaper archives to which I have subscriptions. I soon found "connections galore" with these two individuals to Frederick history and former stories of mine.

John L. Belt's tombstone in St. Paul's Episcopal Cemetery in Point of Rocks with the following inscription: “Sleep on, brother, thy work is done; The mortal pang is past; Jesus has come, and borne thee home; Beyond the stormy blast. - "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom."

The Victim and Defendant
John Lloyd Belt, Jr. could not be found in Mount Olivet, but is instead buried in a family lot in his home church of St. Paul’s Episcopal in Point of Rocks. Here, he is nestled in proximity of his parents, John Lloyd Belt (1819-1889) and Sarah Eleanor (McGill) Belt (1818-1903), and six of nine known siblings.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery

John’s youngest brother is buried here in St. Paul's, Dr. Edward Oliver Belt (1861-1906). I would learn that he was a prominent eye, nose and throat doctor of Washington, DC in the late 1800s/early 1900s. He was tragically killed in a train crash with two young sons just outside the nation's capital on his way back home from a trip to Frederick to visit family over the Christmas holiday.

Grave of Edward Oliver Belt in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Point of Rocks

An older brother of John L. Belt is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. His name was Dr. Alfred McGill Belt (1847-1918) and he married Ariana Teresa Trail, (1852-1923). We’ve mentioned the former Miss Trail before in this blog as she was a daughter of the builder of Frederick’s Trail House (today’s Keeney-Basford Funeral Home on East Church Street), Col. Charles Edward Trail and wife Ariana (McElfresh) Trail. Col. Trail was a prominent local businessman and one of the 1852 founders of Mount Olivet. Trail’s daughters, Florence and Bertha Trail, were local leaders in the Suffrage movement here in the county in the early 20th century. Getting back to the Belts, Dr. Alfred McGill Belt practiced in Baltimore for many years and would be buried in his wife’s family plot rather than in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Point of Rocks.

John L. Belt, Jr.'s brother, Dr. Alfred Mcgill Belt is buried in Mount Olivet's Area H/Lot 107

Col. Charles E. Trail family plot in Mount Olivet's Area H with recent placement of a Pomeroy Foundation marker for the National Votes for Women Trail

Our shooting victim, John Lloyd Belt, Jr., was born May 28th, 1848 at his family’s property of Rock Hall located just south of Sugarloaf Mountain on the east side of the Monocacy. The magnificent home survives off MD Route 28/Dickerson Road and can be accessed by using Dr. Belt Road, named for our subject’s grandfather, Dr. Alfred Belt (1788-1872). This gentleman (Dr. Belt) married into the Trundle family and, in 1836, moved here from his home of Rock Hill Farm in Loudoun County, VA. Dr. Alfred changed the original name of this property from Mt. Pisgah to Rock Hall.

Belt properties in respect to Monocacy Aqueduct on the 1873 Titus Atlas

I had researched this stately home a few years back in a “Story in Stone” titled “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A.” (March of 2022). Mt. Pisgah had origins going back to Gov. Thomas Johnson Jr.’s brother Roger, an early ironmaster associated with the Bloomsbury Forge that once operated in this vicinity. The home was bought from Roger Johnson’s heirs which included a few more noted physicians of the area that would have been known to the fore-mentioned Dr. Jacob D. Thomas, particularly one Dr. William Hilleary Johnson, as both men born in 1827.

Rock Hall in southeastern Frederick County

1870 US Census showing John L. Belt living with his family in Buckeystown District

I found little information about the life of John L. Belt, Jr. Understandable as he only had 23 years on planet earth. I located him in the 1860 and 1870 census records living in the Buckeystown District with his family. I take it that he enjoyed a good education, and can be found working as a farm laborer in the 1870 US census, likely poised to take over Rock Hall and possibly live the life of "gentleman farmer" as his father had done. This would not be.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jacob Dutrow Thomas was born on January 19th, 1827 in Winchester, VA to father Robert Levin Thomas (1786-1842) and mother Mary E. Duttero (1797-1832). The family appears to have moved to Carrollton Manor and Frederick County, MD, where there were no shortage of Thomas and Dutrow family members populating the vicinity. Jacob later received advance schooling at Virginia’s Marshall College.

Marshall College Directory from 1842

On May 2nd, 1848, Dr. Jacob D. Thomas would marry Anna Mary Wolff of Frederick County. The couple went on to have three known children, daughters Adelaide S. (Thomas) Thomas (1851-1895), Margaret Ellen “Nellie” (Thomas) Padgett (1856-1929), and Flora May (Thomas) Day (1858-1931).

1870 US Census showing the Dr. J D Thomas family living in Adamstown

Map inset of Adamstown on the Titus Atlas Map showing the Dr. J.D. Thomas family home (lower right)

5559 Mountville Rd (Adamstown) is the site of the old Dr. Jacob D. Thomas residence.

You will note another property owned by John Lloyd Belt on the west side of the Monocacy on Carrollton Manor. This is marked on the 1873 Titus Atlas sitting roughly a half-mile on the east side of Buckeystown Pike, southeast of the village of Adamstown. I have reason to believe that our subject, John, Jr., could have been residing here at the time of his death.

1873 Titus Atlas map showing the vicinity of Adamstown on Carrollton Manor. Note the "J. L. Belt" land holding (right center) to the east of the Buckeystown Pike.

The Affray
The brief sentence in our cemetery records says that this shooting incident happened at the B&O Railroad, and I am surmising this would be in the vicinity of the B&O Depot in Adamstown, labeled simply as “depot.” I've seen other accounts where the shooting occurred near Dr. Thomas' home a few hundred yards to the south. I believe the latter to be true, but from court testimony it seems that an argument started by the depot as John L. Belt was accompanying his brother, Dr. Alfred Belt, to the station for a departure on the train. Apparently, a young boy at the depot became sick and Dr. Thomas was summoned to offer aid. Words were exchanged between Belt and Dr. Thomas at this time.

Looking south from Mountville Road toward Adamstown. The depot was once located to the left of the tracks (on left). Is this the vicinity where Dr. Thomas shot John Belt?

Two things arose from trial testimony that could have led to the hostility between the men. Apparently, a young, black farmhand had been hired away from John Belt by Dr. Thomas. At the time of the altercation, Belt is said to have told Dr. Thomas that he was going to take him back and away from Dr. Thomas. The other interesting discovery came during the trial testimony of Belt's brother, Dr. Alfred M. Belt. Dr. Belt said that his brother had interest in attending church with one of Dr. Thomas' daughters one week before the incident. Apparently, Dr. Thomas forbade this "date" to happen. Unfortunately, there was not more clarity on both of these topics. However, eyewitnesses at the train station would say in the trial that they expected an altercation to occur when John Belt later passed by Dr. Thomas down the street (in front of the physician's home).

Articles of the incident with Dr. Jacob Thomas appeared in the local newspapers, as well as the Baltimore Sun and others around the state and region.

I will include here two accounts from the Frederick Examiner newspaper, dated Wednesday, October 4th and Wednesday, October 11th, respectively. The shooting “affray,” as it was titled, occurred on Monday, October 2nd. I’d like to set the scene better with additional insight gained by my friend John Ashbury, as he wrote about this in his 1997 book, And All Our Yesterdays.

"On October 2nd, 1871, a three-minute argument on a street in Adamstown led to the death of one of those involved and a conviction of manslaughter charges for the other. Witnesses reported that as John Belt rode toward his home on horseback and leading a second horse, he came upon Dr. Jacob Thomas near Thomas’ home. The two engaged in a conversation for a minute or so before it escalated into an argument over a business transaction. Dr. Thomas, who was elderly, used his walking cane to strike Belt on the shoulder, while he was still mounted. Belt jumped down from his horse and attacked Dr. Thomas. The pair fell to the ground, and Belt was said to have punched Dr. Thomas in the face several times, before Dr. H. B. Gross arrived at the scene and pulled him off the physician."

Frederick Examiner (Oct. 4, 1871)

Frederick Examiner (Oct 11, 1871)

I still find it ironic that the key witness (and referee) in this whole affair was a fellow physician in Dr. Henry Boteler Gross (1848-1925). He's lucky he did not get shot, himself. Dr. Gross would serve as a doctor in Funkstown in his native Washington County, but would spend most of his career and life in Jefferson, Maryland, where he is buried in Jefferson Reformed.

Belt had been brought into an Adamstown store located next to the railroad tracks. Apparently, the victim was bothered by the train noise and smoke that billowed into the structure. He would be carefully taken to his home residence at which place he would die six days later.

Frederick Examiner (Oct. 26, 1871)

Maryland Union (Feb 15, 1872)

In late October, the Frederick Examiner ran an Administrator’s Notice regarding John L. Belt, Jr.’s death as his father served as executor. Meanwhile, "the wheels of justice" began turning, albeit a slow journey. At hand was the State convincing the jury that Dr. Thomas murdered Belt in cold blood. The defense would argue that Dr. Thomas fired in self defense. Dr. Thomas would say under oath that he was too old to take a beating of this kind, and had no choice but to protect himself.

The trial began in March, 1872, a month after Belt's belongings were sold at auction. I will include some clippings of the coverage of this at the end of the story, but want to go back to John Ashbury’s concise account of multiple trials of this crime.

“Dr. Thomas, who had surrendered immediately after the shooting and was released on bail, was rearrested, and his bail increased. A trial was held during the February 1872 term of the Circuit Court, but the jury became deadlocked, and a mistrial was declared. Thomas’ bail was continued until the September term of the court, when a second trial was postponed due to the illness of one of Thomas’ lawyers. On Friday, March 7, 1873, Dr. Thomas’ trial began again. It took two days to empanel a jury, because so many in the county had already formed an opinion in the case. Testimony didn’t begin until Monday, March 10. Throughout that week the evidence presented was the same as in the first trial a year earlier. This time, however the jury was able to reach a verdict of guilty of manslaughter, despite Dr. Thomas’ claims of self-defense. Newspaper reports at the time indicated that when the jury first retired, the vote was five for first degree murder, three for second degree murder, one for manslaughter, and three for acquittal. On April 23, Judge John A. Lynch sentenced Dr. Thomas to two years in prison, and on April 28, he was taken to the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore to serve his sentence.”

Frederick Examiner (April 30, 1873)

Early Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore

I could find little in the papers regarding Dr. Thomas and time spent in prison and his release after serving his two-year term. This would have been in the spring of 1875. I did however find a brief article from a Carroll County newspaper which showed that Dr. Thomas was pardoned by the Maryland governor after serving just 10 months of his sentence.

Westminster Democratic Advocate (Feb 14, 1874)

Statements in the case were made that Dr. Thomas' family would be destitute if he was sentenced to prison. Five years after his release, I found him living at home in Adamstown in the 1880 census. I presume Dr. Thomas had his medical license revoked because of the whole Belt affair. I have no idea what he did for money upon his release. Apparently, Dr. Thomas remained heavily involved in his church and politics. He was one of the original trustees of Adamstown’s Trinity Evangelical and Reformed Church which opened in 1868. The last newspaper reference I would see before his death mentioned him as a county magistrate for Adamstown and the Buckeystown area.

1880 US Census showing Jacob W. Thomas in Adamstown

Adamstown’s Trinity Evangelical and Reformed Church

In the local paper, I spotted this article that seemed to help the family through the lean times, thanks to Mrs. Thomas' brother.

Frederick News (March 24, 1887)

Dr. Jacob D. Thomas would die on November 22nd, 1894 at the age of 67. This was 23 years and 51 days after the fateful showdown which would take the life of fellow resident John L. Belt, while changing his in the process. His obituary appeared in the Frederick News. He would be buried in Area P/Lot 18 where an infant grandchild had been interred in 1891. Two more grandchildren would follow over the next two years.

Frederick News (Nov 23, 1894)

Dr. Thomas's gravestone has an inscription on its face that is a little hard to make out. After closer inspection, I found it to be the opening verse of H. A. Cesar Malan's "It Is Not Death to Die."

"It is not death to die,
To leave this weary road,
And 'mid the brotherhood on high
To be at home with God."

I'm sure John L. Belt may have felt differently.

Dr. Thomas’ wife Anna Mary would die in 1913, and buried beside him. She lived to be 92 years of age. I guess it was good to have a physician as a husband.

Baltimore Sun (Dec 29, 1913)

His daughter Flora and husband Richard R. Day would be buried in this plot in the 1930s, along with three fore-mentioned children, and another in 1950 named James I. Day. Interestingly, this latter grandson of Dr. Thomas would be moved to Arlington National Cemetery on June 4th, 1957. He was a veteran of World War I.