History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 10

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" He is said to have been of social habits, and so passionately fond of angling as frequently to resort to the waters of Long Island Sound-a distance of twenty or thirty miles from his place of residence-to indulge his favorite recreation. Of his personal appearance a friend writes: ' Ile was of a grave and venerable appearance, being one of the last who wore the small-clothes and triangular (or Puritan) hat, dressing his tall figure with veatness and elegance. Ile was of a companionablo temperament, and celebrated for telling anecdotes.' He died Feb. 10, 1804, aged sixty- seven years.

" Dr. Gideon Shepard was a practitioner and native of Newtown. I have learned that he studied medicine with Dr. Thomas, a professional predecessor in his native town, who is said to have been a reputable prac- titioner. I suspect that the early acquirements of Dr. Shepard were not extensive; but if such was the fact, he eminently compensated for the defect by an habitual devotion to the science of medicine and its observ- ant application to the diseases which he treated. My carly impressions of the doctor are, that he devoted greater attention to the occurring im- provements in medical science than most of his contemporary brethren.

" Although not endowed with extraordinary intellectual powers, his talents were respectable and of a character calculated for usefulness rather than display or striking originality. If he did not attain eminence as a professional scholar, he was diligent in his efforts to acquire such portions of existing medical literature as were more immediately adapted to the emergencies of practice ordinarily presented to tho notice of physi- eians. To his juniors in tho profession, Dr. Shepard's deportment was ever urbane, and his counsels to them disinterested and parental. His professional coevals in neighboring towns generally conceded to him a precedence as a consulting physician. Tho following vote from tho records of Fairfield Medical Society sufficiently ovinco the estimation in which he was held by his brethren :

"' Voted, That Dr. Gideon Shepard receive the patronago of this society in consumption and chronic cases of disease, and that it bo tho duty of all members of this society to recommend him when counsel is deemed expedient, etc., and that it be his duty to report all cases of that descrip- tion to which he may be called to attend, with their particular symptoms, the particular medicines, and tho constitution of tho several paticuts, to- gether with the predispositions of their ancestry.'

" Although the existing generation of physicians may smilo at such bleuding of professional opinion with popular boliof rogarding excellenco of the skill of individuals in special classes of disease, yet tho fact is un- doubted that such were professional concessions as lato as the eloso of tho last and commencement of the present century. His modo of treatment of consumption, as I learn from his statement of cases left on the records

of the society, was not peenlia", being in general wildly antiphlogisti" and similar to the present treatment of phthisis. To meet occuring symptoms, local bleeding, counter-hritants, with anodyne and demulcent expectorants, were his general prescriptions.

" Dr. Shepard was somewhat eccentric in character, but social, Instruc- tive, and agreeable in his Intercourse with society. In his religious sen- timents he was a zealous Sandemanian, He ever onstained a reputation of great moral pmity ; and while he was highly esteemed by his friends, his enemies or traducers were rarely found. What few physicians can boast, ho was tho father of seventeen children; thereby practically re- futing the possible charge that, while enjoying the profits of a special branch of his profession as a prompt accessory in the accumulation of responsibilities on hisfriends, he was cautious in the assumption of similar burdens on himself.

" He is said to have been of an extremely charitable disposition and indulgent as to his pecuniary claims upon his poorer patients. This dis- position, with the necessary demands for the support of his mmnerous fanily, ever kept him poor, though not indigent, as regarded a respectable living. Dr. Shepard was one of the most prominent of the originators and supporters of the Fairfield County Medical Society, and the records of this convention will show that he was one of its most frequent and active members. IIe died a few years since at IInuter, N. Y., where he resided with one of his daughters, when incapacitated from age for the practice of his profession, at the advanced period of eighty-nine years.

" Dr. Bennett P'erry wus a contemporary practitioner with Dr. Shepard in Newtown. Ile was a son of Dr. Nath. Perry, of Woodbury, a highly respectable physician of that town. The son probably acquired his pro- fession with his father, when he located in Newtown, where he practiced medicine until his death, which occurred in 1821, aged sixty-six years. Ilis reputation is that of a physician possessing superior talents, well developed by education, and an able, respectable, and highly accomplished practitioner and citizen.

" Dr. John Lester was, I have understood, a native of Massachusetts. He studied medicine with Dr. Nath. Perry, of Woodbury, who it would appear was among the most prominent medical teachers of the period. HIe commeneed practice at the age of twenty-one, about 1789, at IInnting- ton. Dr. Lester was one of the most respectable physicians of the county, and an active and efficient member of its medical society, in the organiza- tion of which he sustained a prominent part. Ilis death occurred in 1802, aged about thirty-five years.

" Dr. William Shelton was a native of Huntington, a graduate of Ynle College in 1788. IIe pursued his medical studies, I am informed, iu part with Dr. Encas Munson, and was for a time under the instruction of Dr. William Agur Tomlinson, of Stratford. He first located and practiced in Trumbull, but on the decease of Dr. Lester he removed to his native town, where he continued its principal physician until his death. Dr. Shelton was a talented, skillful, and most respected physician. Ile was an influential pioneer in the county society organization, and ever con- tinued one of its principal supporters. He was the father of Drs. William Shelton, of Stratford, and James II. Shelton, of Huntington. Ile died in I819, aged fifty-two years.

"Dr. David Hull was a native of the town of Derby. He was the son of - Hull, a resident of that town, and brother of Gen. Hull of Detroit notoriety. IIe was also uncle to Com. Isaac Hull of the navy. Ile graduated at Yale College in 1785, and studied medicine with Dr. Titus HIull, of Bethlehem, a proprietary of the celebrated ' Hull's Physic.' HIe located and practiced his profession in Fairfield, where he continued a highly respectablo and respected physician until his death, a period of nearly half a century. Ho enjoyed an extensive practice not only in Fairfield, but, especially in cases of colic, in the adjacent towns, where he was often called as a consulting physician. Dr. Hull acquired from his preceptor, who I believe was a distant relative, a knowledge of the composition of 'Hull's Physic' in consideration of his name. Tho com- position of this nostrum was a secret which its inventor allowed to be imparted but to those of his name, and to those but with the condition that such only ns enjoyed the family cognomen wero to be admitted as candidates for a reception of the concealod treasure. Such was the posi- tion of Dr. David Hull in relation to this celebrated nostrum, for which he encountered the censor ious remarks of his medical brethren abroad and not unfrequently those of his own county, who wero less familiar with the unostentations modo in which he employed it.

"In justice to tho professional memory of Dr. Hull, and in vindication of a friend whom I much esteemed, I am happy in being able to state, from personal knowledge, that without proclaiming the specific virtues of the pills in tho eure of colic, on which disease its popularity was based, or in any degree adopting the mode of nostrum proprietors in an-

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

nouncing their bantlings for public attention, he unpretendingly em- ployed then in his practice as a favorite laxative in that as well as vari- ous other diseases in which he deemed them appropriate, simply under the denomination of his Aloetic pill. He was from its origin and ever continued a member of the county society, notwithstanding the existence of its stringent by-laws and the known detestation of empiricism wbich actuated its most prominent members. The tolerance which Dr. Hull experienced from his contemporary brethren under such circumstances might be deemed adequate evidence of their estimate of his character as a respected and honorable member of the county society ; but in addition the following vote on the society record exhibits positive proof that he- was recognized as a valued aud esteemed member, whose inflneuce it was deemed desirable to secure and retain for the promotion of the object for which it was organized. Voted, ' that a committee be appointed to call on Dr. David Hull and inform him that by paying his taxes in arrears he will be considered an honorable member of this society without inquiry into the secret of the composition of Hull's Physic.' A committee of three of the most respectable members were, in accordance with the above vote, appointed, and Dr. Hull remained a most esteemed member of the society until his death, which occurred in 1834, aged sixty-eight years.

" I am indebted to the politeness of Professor Knight for the following notice of physicians who practiced in Norwalk, his native town.

"Dr. Knight, in reply to a communication on the subject, states, 'The oldest physician whom I knew and the only one of any distinction, when my father settled there, was Thaddeus Betts, M.D. He was, I believe, a native of the town, a graduate of Yale College in 1745, one of the original members of the Connecticut Medical Society, and received from it the degree of M.D. at an early period of its existence. He died in 1807. He was a man of great excellence of character, well informed in his profes- sion, and a judicious practitioner. I think he made no pretensions to surgery. I recollect him as a cheerful, pleasant old gentleman, abound- ing in wit, and instructive in his conversation.

"' My father, Dr. Jonathan Knight, was born in Lisbon, then a part of Norwich, Conn., Jan. 10, 1758. He studied medicine with Dr. Ladd, a physician of that neighborhood. In 1776 or 1777 he entered the army, and was surgeon's mate of the Connecticut Regiment, under the com- mand of Col. Durkee or Durgee. He was with the troops under Gen. Washington at Valley Forge during that most dispiriting period of the war. He left the army in 1780, and settled in Norwalk in 1781-82. For many years he was actively and extensively engaged in practice, princi- pally as a physician, in that and the neighboring towns. He continued in the performance of the active duties of his profession until they were diminished by advancing years and increasing iufirmities. He died March, 1829, in the seventy-second year of his age.'

" I would add to the above statement of Dr. Knight that Dr. T. Betts was the grandfather of Hon. Thaddeus Betts, late of the United States Senate. Dr. Knight, besides the estcemed writer of the above, had an- other son. Dr. James Knight, who located and practiced in Stamford, but died in early life, about the period 1818. Drs. Betts and Knight were among the most prominent and influential members who aided in the establishment and were zealous supporters of the Fairfield County Medi- cal Society.

" Among the most eminent physicians of Fairfield County was Dr. Hosea Ilurlbut, of Greenfield Hill. He was a native of Berlin, Conn., and son of Samuel Hurlbut, of that town. He commenced the study of medicine with his celebrated and eccentric uncle, Dr. James Ilurlbut, of Wethersfield. IIe was for a time a student in the office of Dr. Wolcott, of Litchfield, the elder Governor of that namc. While there he num- bered among his intimate associates Judge Reeve, Aaron Burr, John Allen, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr. Even among such intellectual associates he is said to have sustained a distinguished part, through the exercise of a marked original genius, a ready scintillating wit, and interesting con- versational powers. He subsequently commenced practice in the upper part of Middletown, from which place, after a short residence, he removed to Greenfield, in the town of Fairfield, where he resided until his de- cease, distinguished alike as a physician and man of generally cultivated and rare genins.

" Dr. Hurlbut possessed a liigh sense of the dignity of his profession, and ever abhorred duplicity in all its forms. He despised alike the medi- cal empiric, the legal pettifogger, and the small politician, who seldom failed to receive and sensibly to writhe under the castigation of his pun- gent shafts of witticism, by which, with acute aim, he rarely failed to mark his victim.

"In addition to his familiarity with the medical literature of the day, his attention was so far given to belles-lettres science that, with the aid of a remarkably retentive memory, many of the classic poets, as Milton,

Dryden, Pope, Young, and Johnson, he was accustomed to repeat nearly entire from memory.

"The doctor himself possessed a rare poetic genius, which, however, was more employed in aid of occasions inviting the exercise of lis mas- culine satirical powers than in the ordinary gentle effusions of the Muses. He rarely permitted the publication of his poetic pieces. One, however, entitled ' The Quack,' directed against the charlatanry of a pro- fessional neighbor, he published anonymously, with scathful effect upon its unlucky victim.

"Such was the retentiveness of his memory, however, that most of his poetic compositions he could readily repeat. Several of these I have heard him recite, which in poetic gracefulness even surpassed, while the pungency of their satire was not iuferior to, that of Peter Pindar or McFingal.

" Among the many anecdotes which might be adduced to show tlie doctor's instant wit and ready application of quotation, the following is pertinent. Being in a company of attorneys, one of the number, with the design to rally a repartee, asked the doctor why perpetual unbroth- erly feuds were so characteristic of the members of the medical pro- fession, at the same time boastingly remarking, 'Not so with us lawyers; we ever live in neighborly harmony, quarrels hardly being known to exist among us.' Says the doctor promptly, in the lauguage of Milton,-

""' Devil with devil damned, Film concord holds. Men only disagree, Of creatures rational,' etc.

" As a physician, Dr. Hurlbut was doubtless far in advance of the gen- erality of liis contemporaries. His views of the treatment of diseases ap- proximated more to modern practice than the overdrugging which characterized the era in which he practiced his profession. He was op- posed to polypharmacy, and ever directed his treatment with a view to aid the salutary efforts of the economy in its struggles against diseased action, rather than embarrass them by the burdensome influences of a great va- riety and excess of prescription. The chief object which he ever kept in view was a diet and regimen adapted to the condition of his patient, and the exhibition of such medicines as existing symptoms appeared to in- dicate. It was his marked disapprobation of the coutrary practice pur- sued by most of his neighboring brethren, in connection with the point- edly expressed disgust of the petty arts practiced for procuring patients, which drew upon him au excess of their hostility, and caused him to be frequently denounced by them, as a cynic inimical to the interests of the profession.

"Dr. IIurlbut possessed a remarkably fine personal appearance. His form was commanding, dignified, and graceful. In conversation, bis language was chaste and select. Vulgarisms, whether in sentiment or expression, met his frowning rebuke ; and all acts of a mean and dishon- orable character, which were subjects of his observation, ever met the flaying force of lis satirical lash. He was scrupulously neat in his per- son and temperate in liis habits. He was a regular reader and admirer of the Bible, and a firm believer in the truths of Christianity. He died April 25, 1825, aged eighty years, leaving a reputation that will long survive him throughout the community in which he lived.

" Being a neighbor and friend to the doctor in the early period of my' professional life, I had the fortune of attending him in his last illness. An anecdote occurred at that time well illustrative of his character and of the force of the ruling passion in death. The disease which termi- nated his life was a paroxysmal and extremely painful affection of the stomach, of an obscure nature. For several days he retained an un- clouded intellect. During the intermissions of the painful attacks he was as usual social and communicative. Being sensible of his approach- ing end, and having been for a long period on unsocial terms with Dr. Hull, he expressed the commendable wish for an interview for the pur- pose of a recouciliation. Dr. Hull readily reciprocated the feeling, and an amicable adjustment was the result. During the interview, in the abseuce of his painful paroxysm, the doctor's favorite topic of medicine happened to be the subject of conversation ; and 'Hull's Colic Pills,' which the invalid ever held in sneering contempt, became the object of a jocose rally upon his recent friend. Dr. Hull, prudently judging that the reconciliation might be hazarded by attempting defense, suffered the' pleasantry to proceed till the embarrassment of his situation elicited the response, 'Yes, doctor, those pills are a favorite hobby of mine' -- ' whichi thousands have rode to death !' was continuously supplied by the patient.

"Dr. Asahel Fitch was one of the early physicians of Redding, and is remembered in Fairfield County as a worthy man and one of its most respectable practitioners of medicine. He was among the principal pio-' neers in the formation of the County Society, but died soon after its or-

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ganization. His death occurred in 1792, or about that period. I under- stand that he was the grandfather of Professor Knight, of Yale College.

"Among the physicians of Fairfield County who enjoyed a long and successful practice was Dr. Thomas Davis of Redding. He was a native of Washington, Litchifield Co. He commenced the study of medicine at the age of sixteen with Dr. Seth Hustings, of that town, a physician somewhat distinguished, I am informed, as a medical teacher. Dr. Davis, previous to the attainmeut of his majority, was admitted as a partner to the extensive practice of his preceptor. He subsequently removed and practiced medieine for a period in Sherman, in Fairfield County, In 1793, on the deeease of Dr. Fitch, he removed to Redding, where he eon- tinued in the duties of his profession till his death, which oeeurred in 1831.

"Dr. Davis possesses the reputation of being among the first of the physicians of the county who assumed regularly obstetrical duties; and so successful were his labors that he became particularly eminent in that department. It is asserted of him that during the long period of his practice he never lost a parturient patient.

" The doctor being summoned as an important witness to appcar beforo the court in Fairfield, and not appearing, the sheriff was sent to compel his attendance. Being absent, and learning on his return that the officer was awaiting at a publie-house in the vicinity, he, without notice to the official, rode to Fairfield and appeared before the court. On the question occurring with the court regarding the costs attending the capias, he re- quested one or two of his legal friends to excuse his delinquency. The judge decided, notwithstanding, that the law must be observed and that the doctor must bear the expenses. Dr. Davis then requested a hearing in his own behalf, which being granted, remarked, ' May it please the court, I am a good citizen of the State, and since I was summoned to attend this eourt I have introduced three other good citizens into it.' The court replied that for so good a plea lie would leave the parties to pay the expenses. The doetor received the congratulations of the bar for his snecessful defense.

" The following anecdote, as connected with another subject embraced in these biographical sketches, and also with a historical event oeeurring in this convention, I will take the liberty to relate :

" Dr. James Potter, of New Fairfield, when on his way to our annual convention, at which he was to deliver an address, called and spent a night with his friend Dr. Davis. The orator being elated with his antiei- pated exhibition, and several of his acquaintanecs, among whom was a County Court judge, calling on him in the evening, they united with his host in persuading him to rehearse before them his grandiloquent speech. After the family and domestics, including an African, had been sum- moned, with the view numerically to multiply the audience, the doctor, with oratorical pomp, mounted the rostrum (which being a large armed chair), and delighted himself and auditory by its rehearsal.

"The chair thus reudered memorable has been presented to a member of the medical society. Rev. Thomas F. Davis, one of our most respect- able diviues, is the only male descendant of Dr. Davis.

"The subject to which I have directed your attention has led to a retrospect into the darker eras of our professional history, when both physicians aud the public enjoyed few of the advantages of mental cul- ture that now exist. Credulity and ignorance, fostered by knavery, there appear as the prominent ageuts in misguiding the publie mind in its estimate of medical science and the object and importance of its cul- tivation, as well as to lead it essentially to underestimate the character and object of the profession directing its legitimate administration.

"The uudiminished influeuee which erednlity still exerts over the publie mind, in the preseut comparatively enlightened period, affords no small evidence in favor of the position, that it is an innate propensity, holding a no less important relation to the mind than that of one of its elementary constituents, which will probably manifest its activity in every condition of society, whatever may be the advantages enjoyed for its discipline and cultivation.

"Iu such view of the origin of credulity, it is true that the apprehen- sion ean but be indulged, that in some form of manifestation, it will long continue to counteract the teachings of reason and experience, aud thus ever prove an obstacle that will be likely to obstruct our pro- fessiou, in its efforts for the advancement of the sanative interests of the comninnity.

"The hope, however, may be entertained, that among the many im- provencuts of the age, sueli a system of culture for the mind will ulti- mately be devised, that its several faculties may be taught to act in their appropriate spheres, and a healthy rationality be substituted for the morbid excrescenees of reason which impostors in scienco originate and cherish, with the object of accomplishing their detestable designs, It is

those who, at the present time, no less than formerly, distract the opinion which the public attempt to form regarding the value and In- portanco of medical science, as well as that of theology and general spiritual agency.

" The professions of medicine and theology, as embracing within their confines a larger amount of perplexing and indefinite mysterles, the one of tho organic, the other of tho spiritual world, have ever been the pro- lific source whence impostors in science derive the aliment indispensable for the gerinination and growth of their baleful progeny of errors which distract and mislead publie sentiment in its estimate of their respective merits. The profestions of law and the common arts enjoy a compara- tive exemption for the reason that their principles are based upon sen- sible observation, and therefore are more readily comprehended and defined by the ordinary powers of sense and reason, which most persons possess. It is truo that the offspring of evils which afflict the respective professions of modicine and theology are diversified in their forms, those of each being moulded by the varied aliment which they respectively supply ; yet they are the prodnet of an analogous germ of mental origin, and it is therefore undoubted that through the same remedy, a salutary inculeation of truth to the minds of the affected, the malady of each (if cradicable) is to be suppressed.

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572