History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 6

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 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Owing to the death of the late Hon. S. H. Hickok, which occurred about this time, Mr. Taylor, from his connection with him, succeeded to nearly the whole of his practice, jumping; as it were, immediately into medias res, and from that moment his law business has been very great, extending into various other and sometimes distant States, and from the most inferior courts to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1848, Mr. Taylor received the degree of Master of

Arts from Trinity College. In 1850 he was appointed State's attorney of Fairfield County, which office he held for a period of three years. In 1852 he was elected Democratic Presidential elector for the Fourth District of Connecticut, voting for Peirce and King. He was elected Democratic State senator for the Eleventh District of Connecticut, which was the only senatorial district that gave a majority for the Democracy at that election. In 1865 he received the Democratie nomination for Congress in the Fourth District, and, althoughi defeated, ran some hundreds ahead of his ticket. Mr. Taylor has also been elected at various times treasurer of the town of Danbury, including school visitor, and for the past four years has been president of the board of education of that town.

He has also at vari- ous times been en- gaged in different public enterprises, and to his efforts, almost solely, the Pahquioque National Bank owes its origin, and for the most of the time since its cor- poration he has been one of its directors and rendered it most valuable aid. He aided greatly in the creation of the Union Savings-Bank of Dan- bury, and is a charter member of the same.

On the 16th of Sep- tember, 1856, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Isabella Meeker, of Danbury. Their Photo. by J. II. Folsom, Danbury. children are three in number, one son and two daughters. The son, a young man of much promise, is a member of the bar of Fairfield County, and is practicing law with his father.

Mr. Taylor is an Episcopalian, but attends regularly with his wife and family, a portion of every Sunday, tlic Congregational church, of which she is a member.

He is of a strong vital temperament, like that of his father's family. His ancestor Thomas Taylor was the father of eight children whose aggregate ages amounted to eight hundred and fifty-eight, two or three of them attaining to over one hundred years each. From this family was descended the late Dr. Nathaniel Taylor of the Yale Theological School, the father of the wife of President Porter of Yale College, also President Seely of Amherst College. P. T. Barnum is also one of the descendants.

hat

the ad- ads re- he

leir be

h I.

B. 1

R. T. F. D. le- P. J.

at, d-

tê-

MEDICAL HISTORY.

Westport .- Edmund M. Lees, Edward J. Taylor (Green's Farm), Albert Relyea.

Wilton .- George A. Davenport (Cannon's Station), J. Belden Hurlbutt.

The senior members of the bar of this county have many of them made up their records; those still left are soon to follow, and the juniors are to assume their plaees at the bar and on the bench ; to them will soon be committed these great responsible trusts. The perpetuity of our free institutions is committed to the guardianship and keeping of the bar and judiciary of our free country, for the history of the world teaches, and all free governments illustrate, this truth,-treat the subject lightly as you will,-that to the profession of the law civil government is indebted for all the safeguards and intrenchments with which the liber- ties of the people are protected; that legislation is shaped, constitutions enlarged, amended, and adopted by the enlightened administration of the statesmen, both of England and the United States, who have been in both, and are in all free governments, edu- cated for the bar, and, ascending by the inherent force of their disciplined professional life, they become the directors of the destinies of states and nations.

Military chieftains may spring into power ; tyrants may for the hour dazzle, with the glamour of military parade and the pomp of war, an oppressed and fren- zied people; but they turn, as the cannonade dies away, to the statesmanship of the country, and call to the parliaments and congressional halls for final de- bate the arbitraments of the liberties of the people.

From the days of King John to the present hour the bar and the bench have furnished the statesmen who have erected the bulwarks of constitutional law, and extorted from tyrants the Magna Chartas which have secured to the oppressed the guarantees of free institutions.

Imbued with the historical traditions of their pre- decessors, and tracing the paths they have trod, emu- lating their good example, it should become more and more the resolute purpose of the Fairfield County bar to so walk in the light of their professional teachings that when they are called to follow them to that upper court, and file their judgment-roll of the great trial of life with that Supreme Judge from whose bar they can take no appeal,-

"Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night Scourged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

CHAPTER III.

MEDICAL HISTORY .*- THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

MEDICAL HISTORY.

THE records of the Fairfield County Medical So- ciety, as they exist to-day, begin with the year 1825. No mention is made in them of any previous date, excepting that in 1826 it was " Voted, To pay the clerk for advertising medical notice for the last five years and a record-book for said society, amounting to six dollars and twenty-five cents." But the asso- ciations of the several counties in the State were formed at a much earlier period. The New Haven Medical Society was in existence in 1784 as "The As- sociated Faculty of New Haven." The movement which ended in chartering the Connecticut Medical Society was initiated by the New Haven society. The New London County Medical Society was then in existence, for a reply from it on the granting of a charter for the State society bears date "New London, April 20, 1784."

In Fairfield County, however, no medieal society existed previous to the chartering of the Connecticut Medical Society. (See "Historical Account of the Origin of the Connecticut Medical Society," by Henry Bronson, M. P., "Proceedings Connecticut Medical Society," 1873, p. 199, and "Blakeman's Address," 1853.)

To give importance to the movement and weight to the appeal for the charter of the Connecticut society, which inet with opposition from the State Legislature, several distinguished and influential physicians from other counties were admitted to membership in the New Haven County Society. Among these were Amos Mead, of Greenwich, Joseph Trowbridge, of Danbury, and James Clark, of Stratford ("Bronson's Address"). The desired charter was obtained in 1792, and this year may be regarded as the first of the existence of the Fairfield County Medical Society.

Dr. Rufus Blakeman, of Greenfield, president of the Connecticut Medical Society in 1853, made the subject of his address "The Early Physicians of Fairfield County." In this he states that the Fair- field County society united, with a commendable zeal, with those of the other counties in an application to the Legislature for the charter of the State society. Candor and consideration of all the statements found compel the assertion rather that several distinguished physicians of the county were among the petitioners, but not any organized society from this county. Dr. C. W. Chamberlain, of Hartford, secretary of the State Medical Society, has very kindly furnished a copy of the proceedings of the society for the year 1853, so that, fortunately, we are able to produce the interesting address of Dr. Blakeman in full.

* Contributed by N. E. Wordin, M.D., of Bridgeport.

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

The purpose in forming these several societies (for they must in a measure be considered together) was "to adopt such measures for the future regula- tion of our salutary art as shall effectually support and countenance merit and discountenance ignorance and presumption," "the encouragement of an accu- rate study in the theory and practice of physic and surgery," "to collect and preserve useful papers rel- ative to the practice of medicine." It was their purpose then, as it is ours now, to keep our great and sacred ars medendi above the plane of an ordinary business which advertises and solicits trade, to protect and help its own members, and, so far as possible, to educate the public and protect them from charlatan- ism. They recognized the benefits to be derived from association and discussion, the contact of mind with mind. Individual influence is like the tap of a tack- liammer; a united society deals the ponderous blow of a sledge. Everything tended to encourage their coming together. Cousultations could not be very frequent ; libraries were small ; there was no medical college in the State. The first meeting of which we have the records was held at the house of Silas Camp, in Bridgeport, on the third Monday of April, 1825. I can find no trace of the previous records by iuquiry of the former secretaries. The meetings at that time were held annually at different towns in the county indiscriminately,-sometimes at the houses of persons who were not members, sometimes at inns. For in- stance, in 1826 they met at the house of Levi Ed- wards, Esq., in Monroe; in 1827 at the house of Ephraim Knapp, in Bridgeport (Knapp's Inn); in 1836 at the house of Widow Huldah Gregory, in Trumbull. The eastern part of the county had the greatest number of meetings, and Levi Edwards secms to have beeu the most popular host. Between 1826 and 1834 they assembled four times with him. From 1825 to 1859 the following places were favorcd respec- tively with gatherings of these meu : Bridgeport, 14; Monroe, 6; Greenfield, 4; Fairfield, 3; Weston, 2; Norwalk, 2; Danbury, Westport, Redding Ridge, and Trumbull, each 1. In 1859 it was decided that the places for meeting should be confined to Danbury, Bridgeport, and Norwalk in order. This plau con- tinued until, in 1878, Danbury not being considered sufficiently accessible, her name was left out and Bridgeport and Norwalk now divide the honors.

No list of members appears until 1856. A change in the manner of choosing delegates or fellows to rep- resent them at the State Medical Society rendcred necessary the making of a list at that time. Hitherto these delegates had been chosen or elected by the society. In 1856, at the City Hotel, Bridgeport, "Dr. Blakeman moved the following: 'Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to arrange the names of members in such order as they may judge proper, aud that hereafter the names of five preseut at a meeting who stand first in the list be considered nominees or fellows in the year 1857 and the five

subsequent for 1858; and so on, proceeding from year to year.'" Drs. Noyes, Blackman, and Hubbard were appointed, and they reported the uames as here ar- ranged : David H. Nash, John A. McLean, Joseph M. French, George Blackman, Samuel Sands, Lewis Hurlburt, S. P. V. R. Ten Broeck, Moses B. Pardee, Frederic Judson, W. B. Nash, Rufus Blakeman, George Dyer, N. D. Haight, E. P. Bennett, David S. Burr, Robert Hubbard, James Baldwin, H. L. W. Burritt, Ira Gregory, Noah A. Lacey, Samuel S. Noyes, H. N. Bennett, Elijah Middlebrook, Lewis Richards, Samuel Lynes, Justus Sherwood, Amos L. Williams. The same method of appointing fellows is still in vogue.

The by-laws of the Fairfield County Medical So- ciety appear on the records as adopted April 17, 1826. As they indicate the sentiment of the men of that day, their purpose and their thought, it may be of in- tercst to our readers to copy them entire. They are as follows :

" Ist. That no person shall become a member of the Fairfield County Medical Society uuless he receive two-thirds of the votes of the meeting before which he is proposed; except such as the law makes members, of course.

"2d. That the Moderator and Clerk be chosen by ballot ; also the Dele- gates to the Conventiou.

"3d. That there shall be three members designated by vote to read dis- sertations at the succeeding meeting next after being appointed, and being so appointed, and having not declined, shall read a dissertation on penalty of one dollar to be forfeited to our Society and collected by the Clerk." (This was raised to five dollars in 1870, and in 1874 the by-law was repealed in toto.)

"4th. The first business after organizing shall be to hear a dissertation from one of the three appointed for that purpose.

"5th. No member of this Society shall (but by absolute necessity) meet with and consult a practitioner in medicine or surgery unless he is or has been a regular member of our Society and been honorably discharged ; at any rate, in other respects being equal, a member of our Society shall always be preferred.

"6th. That a Standing Committee of three be appointed annually to report upon all crimes and misdemeanors that may be committed by any member of this Society against any article contained in their by-laws, and that the Society act upon it as they may deem expedient.

"7th. That any member shall have the liberty to file his accusation against another member to one or more of the Standing Committee, whose duty it shall be, if two of said Committee think it expedient, to summons the delinquent to appear and to notify the accused to meet the County Meeting, where the subject shall be tried and determined. A copy of said accusation and notification shall be left with the accused, or at his last usual place of abode, at least sixty days prior to the trial. The accuser shall also make, or cause to be made, service and return to the county of said accusation aud notice .*

"8th. That any person in our Society who pretends to or uses any nos- trum or secret medicine, and refuses to give a receipt in full to any mem- ber of this Society when requested, shall be expelled.

"9th. That when a new Clerk of our Society is chosen, it shall be the duty of his predecessor to deliver over to him all the records and papers appertaining to said office.

" Voted, That the foregoing articles be adopted as a code of by-laws for this Society this 17thi day of April, A.D. 1826.

" Attest : " JOHN JUDSON, Chairman.

" ELIJAH MIDDLEBROOK, Clerk."

The society was in part for the protection of its own members. At the mceting iu which the by-laws

* " Violations of the by-laws of the Counecticut Medical Society, or of the rules and regulations passed by the county associations in conformity with the by-laws of the State society," are now tried according to rules of Sec. 7, ch. iv., by-laws of the Connecticut Medical Society.

MEDICAL HISTORY.

were adopted, the following resolves were passed, which seem to have been for that purpose :

" Resolve first .- That any physician who undercharges his neighbor in his neighbor's vicinity with a view to supplant said neighbor or other- wiso to interrupt his business justly deserves to be disrespected by every member of our Society.

" Resolve second .- That opinions on cases of discaso shall, unless other- wise agreed in consultations, be considered as sucred, not to be divulged.

" Resolve third .- That an uniformi rate of charging be desirable, to which when established by vote of our Society, every member shull adhere, on penalty of being adjudged by tho Standing Committee as to them shall be deemed just and proper."

They preserved thie diseipline laid down, expelling such members as they considered unworthy.

Dr. Blakeman, in his address of 1853, spoke of a repugnance to taxation at that time as somewhat characteristic, and as having been a development of their professional progenitors. It gave dissatisfaction in 1793, it was the eanse for expulsion of members in the middle of the century, it is a magnum oppro- brium in 1880.

At the meeting in Greenfield, April 18, 1849, it was

" Voted, That members of the Fairfield County Medical Society who have refused, and persist in refusing, to pay their taxes and attendance on medical meetings are disregarding the true interests of the profes- sion, are unworthy of membership, and this Society would instruct the Fellows to make application to the State Convention to be holden in Hart- ford in May next for their discharge from this Society.

" Resolved, That if such discharge is procured for any such delinquent members, the Clerk be directed to notify each one so discharged, stating the cause of expulsion, and also that the Clerk transmit to each default- ing member a copy of the above resolutions.

" SAMUEL BEACH, Clerk."

In 1851 a list of the names of ten "non-paying members" was presented, and they were expelled, some of them being prominent in the society.

Their opinion of a newer sect-those who had elimbed up some other way-is tersely expressed, April 10, 1850 :

"Voted, That Homoeopathy be regarded as Qnackery.

"Voted, That the Clerk publish proceedings in several papers of this County."

Some of the members strayed from the fold and went over to the opposition. At the same meeting in which the ten "unworthy" members were proposed for discharge (April 10, 1851) it was

" Voted, That Drs. Dennison, Ayres, and Northrop, reported to have practiced Homoeopathy, if on investigation be so found to transgress the rules of tho Medical Society by such irregular practice, be by the above committee [tlie Standing Committee] cited to appear at tho next annual meeting of this Society and auswer to s1 irregularity in practice."

At the next annual meeting the several eases were carefully considered. It was "unanimously voted that their names be, each of theni, erased from the books of Fairfield County Mcdical Society and dis- missed from the said Society."

At this meeting in 1851 there seems to have been much discipline to enforce. Besides non-payment of fines and irregular practice, there was undercharg- ing. It was

" Voted, That whereas; complaint having been mado of undercharges by physicians practicing in neighborhood of other physicians with the apparent design to sapplaut their neighbors, therefore

" Voted, That to the price commonly charged for a single vleft be adde 1 for each visit twelve and one-half cents per mile for travel for each inile traveled after the first mile."

But discipline was only a casual thing forced on them by neglect of the laws which governed the body.

What was done at the gatherings of these men ? The following " Rules of Order" were adopted April 14, 1853, from report of the committee appointed for that purpose :

" lat. The Meeting shall be called to order by the Clerk, and Imme- diately thereafter the Chairman shall be chosen by ballot.

" 2d. Election of Clerk.

"3d. Reading the Minutes of the last Seselon.

" 4th. Admission of New Members.

"5th. Election of Fellows to the State Convention.

" Gtlı. Election of Delegates to the American Medical Association.

"7th. Appointment of Committees.

"8th. Reading of Dissertations.

"9th. Unfinished Business.

" 10th. Reports of Committees, which shall be male in the Orler of Appointment.

" 11th. New Business.

"12th. Appointment of Dissertator.

" 13th. Appointment designating the Place of Adjournment for next Mecting."

Dissertations had been required from an early period in the history of the society (sce By-Laws, Sec. 3). At the first meeting of which any record is extant Dr. Elijah Middlebrook, of Trumbull, read " A Case of Tetanus which proceeded from a Wound of a Nail, which was successfully treated by Opium and Wine." Dr. L. Sceley, of Weston, read a disser- tation on "Hemorrhage in Typhus Fever." And so at every meeting for ycars one or more essays were read, to the profit and entertainment of the members. The subjeets were sometimes assigned, sometimes left to the option of the writer. At the first meeting it was

" Voted, That Drs. Parruck, Simons, and Goulding read Dissertations on any subject they choose.

" Voted, That Dr. Blakeman read a Dissertation on Constitutional Peculiarity."

But the sons gradually departed from the customs of their fathers. An exchange of good wishes all around, a general discussion of medical topics, the ap- pointment of delegates and committees, the reading of papers voluntarily proffered, the discussion and dis- posal of questions of discipline, occupy now the hours, while a concluding dinner at the hotel sends each one home better acquainted with his neighboring brother and stronger for another year of service.

The fellows are the delegates sent to the State so- ciety as representatives. In Fairfield County these were at first chosen by ballot. In 1825 the men se- lected were Samuel Simons, of Bridgeport ; William T. Shelton, of Stratford ; Cyrenius H. Booth, of New- town; and John Tomlinson, of Huntington. In 1792 they were James Potter, Thaddeus Betts, Hosea Hurlburt, James Clark, Amos Mead. A list of the fellows from Fairfield County from 1792 to our day may be found in the "Proceedings of the Connec- ticut Medical Society" for 1875, p. exxxii.

it's TS

KE-

fear jere

So-

hat in- are

& of

ved.

the

or ad;

iva

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

In 1847 the county society sent a delegate to the American Medical Association, or, as the records have it, the National Convention. The choice fell upon Dr. Elijah Middlebrook, and the association met that year in Philadelphia in May. Appointments have been regularly made since. Delegates are appointed also to thic society meetings of other States,-New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, five to the Ameri- can Medical Association. The Connecticut Medical Society meets yearly, alternately in Hartford and New Haven.

The records of the society have always been well kept since the year 1825. In 1845 a vote was passed to publish the proceedings in the several papers printed in the county, but there is no evidence as to how long this custom was continued, or even whether it was ever in vogue.

A copy of the essays presented was always re- quested to be lodged with the clerk, to be placed on file. They would be interesting reading to-day, doubt- less ; but, unfortunately, not one of them can be found.

One is forced to smile at the absurdly small fees which these men received, and the nicety into which they divided the different departments of their busi- ness. Yet the table was one of their own making, and must have been in some degree satisfactory. It affords a pithy lesson of the progress of the times. At the annual meeting holden at the house of Levi Edwards, Esq., of Monroe, April 20, 1829, it was

" Voted, That the following services and medicines shall not be ren- dered nor furnished for less sums than are designated,-viz. : Bleeding, 20 cts .; Cathartic, 12 cts. : Emetic, 10 cts .; Visit, 17 cts .; Travel, per Mile, 17 cts. ; Obstetric Case, $2.50,-Iustrumental, $4.00; Extracting Tooth, 12 cts."

The society has now no fee-table, the difference in the size of the towns having rendered such a plan very impracticable.

In the cities the local societies, which are entirely independent of the county organization, adopt such lists of prices, and in the more rural districts every man is a law unto himself.

They denounced all irregularities in practice. On the temperance question they gave a no less certain sound. At the Washington Hotel, in Bridgeport, on April 21, 1828, it was

"Voted, That the following preamble aud resolutions be adopted,- viz .:

"Whereas, in our opinion, intemperance is the most base, general, dan- gerous, and demoralizing evil in our country and its suppression the most to be desired ; therefore,

" Resolved, Ist. That we highly approvo of the active and humane cx- ertions of the Americau Temperance Society, made and now making, to effect the same.

" Resolved, 2d. That in our opinion the use of ardent spirit does not prevent the imbibing contagious diseases, but generally the system more susceptible to their influence.

. " Resolved, 3d. That in our opinion the use of ardent spirit does not invigorate the system and qualify it to endure hardship or resist the evils of the extremes of heat and cold, as is too generally believed.

" Resolved, 4th. That in our opinion the prescriptions of physicians containing bitters in ardeut spirit is a fruitful source of intemperance,

seldom necessary in practico, and when not so should be studiously avoided.

" Resolved, 5th. That in our opinion water is the most natural and healthy drink for man, and always salutary when discreetly used.

" Resolved, 6th. That ardent spirit at all our future meetings be dis- continued.

" Resolved, 7th. That the Clerk of this meeting be requested to trans- mit to the Secretary of the Americau Temperance Society the foregoing resolutions, with the assurance that we will cheerfully co-operate withi him in the promotion of temperance."

Humanity and philanthropy combined in favoring the founding of a hospital in a neighboring county. In 1829 it was

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 6

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