USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 63
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Given under my hand, and the public seal of said colony, at Hartford, the 20th day of June, anno domini, 1776.
By his honor's command,
GEORGE WYLLYS, Sec'y.
JON'TH TRUMBULL.
DEA. JOHN WHITING,
Son of Benjamin and Rebecca (Parmelee) Whiting, was born in Wallingford, now Meriden, Nov. 23, 1726, and came to Torrington about 1750. His house stood across the road west of the first meet- ing house in the southwestern part of the town. He was descended from one of the most noted men who came among the number called Pilgrim Fathers to America, the Rev. Samuel Whiting of Boston in
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Lincolnshire, England, and later of Lynn, Mass. His father was the third deacon of the first church in Meriden.
Dea. Whiting was a man of great energy, steadiness of purpose, and of great faithfulness to the Christian church, as is clearly shown by the fragmentary records still preserved. He was elected in 1764, the third deacon of the first church in the town, and continued in that office until his death, fifty-six years. In the time of the great division and trouble in the first church he continued to support the church and gave all his effort to keep the meetings at their regular times; and then aided in building the second church and sustaining the meetings until the whole matter was amicably settled under Mr. Gillett as pastor.
He was the treasurer of the town several years after the decease of Dea. Cook, and was treasurer of the society, and for a number of years attended to the securing of preaching and paying for it, when it seemed almost every year, that the church would be closed.
The deacon was a man of much work and very careful in keeping accounts, and very precise as to every farthing, for or against himself, being as particular to pay every penny as to be paid.
He kept an account with his sons and daughters, the same as though they were strangers, so as to make the final settlement equita- ble between them. On January 10, 1771, he says : "Then de- livered to my daughter Mary, the wife of Levi Thrall, in movables and household furniture at money price, sum total, £49, 19s. IId., If., i. e., it lacked only three farthings of fifty pounds, yet he did not say fifty pounds. When he gave his daughter Rebecca her portion six years after Mary received hers, he says the goods were valued as when Mary had her things ; the high prices of 1778, made no differ- ence in his estimation of goods delivered to his children. This prin- ciple of equity he seems to have carried out in all his dealings.
He had a slave girl Tilly who worked for his daughter Sarah, some months, and he charged Sarah two shillings a week for this help, but afterward credited Sarah with all the work she had done for her father, and the balance was largely in Sarah's favor.
He was a man of rigid character, yet that character had high and noble qualities.
Daniel Grant, one of the wealthiest and finest men as a citizen in the town, wanted to marry his daughter, but the deacon would not give his consent; his reason announced was, "he did not like the blood." He may have prided himself a little on " blood " for there
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was no blood in Torrington that went in a more direct line back through the kings of England and France to William the conqueror, than that of the Whitings.
Dea. Whiting died Feb. 21, 1820, in his 94th year.
DR. SAMUEL WOODWARD,1
Was born in Watertown, Conn., Nov. 8, 1750, and was one of the nine children of Israel and Abigail Woodward, the average of whose ages was eighty-five years. His father was a farmer and educated his children to some useful vocation and enterprise, and Samuel was apprenticed to an elder brother, to the trade of a shoemaker and tanner, until he should be twenty-one years of age ; for in those days it was thought to be no disparagement to a young man's character to be energetically engaged in some employment that would render a good and independent living. When his term of service had expired, the employment being distasteful to his mind, he being studiously in- clined, he abandoned it and entered upon a course of study during the summer and teaching school winters, to fit himself for entering college with a view of becoming a clergyman, agreeably to the wishes of his pious mother. He entered Yale pollege in 1776, and made honorable proficiency in his studies. When the British troops attacked New Haven, and the college was transferred to Glastonbury ; the excitement and distraction became very great, in consequence of which, and in consideration of advanced age, he entirely relinquished his collegiate course. From that time he gave his mind to the study of medicine, and entered the office of Dr. Hastings, of Washington, Conn .; and subsequently of Dr. Daniel Sheldon, of Litchfield, where he completed his studies.
Doctor Woodward commenced the practice of medicine in Tor- ringford, in 1779, where he continued twelve years, and then re- moved to his native place. After remaining in Watertown two years he returned to his original field of practice which soon became extensive, arduous and lucrative. He married Polly Griswold, of Torringford, Feb. 10, 1782, by whom he had six sons and three daughters, all of whom are deceased.
Doctor Woodward was possessed of a fine physique, vigorous con- stitution, and great powers of endurance ; so much so that he scarcely
1 Contributed by E. D. Hudson, M.D., of New York city, in memoriam.
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knew a day's illness, until a few years before his decease. He had a well organized and developed brain ; strong intellect, quick per- ceptions, good sense, sound judgment, independent thought and ex- pression. His moral faculties were equally worthy and philanthropic for his day. To temperance, industry, intellectual and moral culture, and practical religion, he rendered homage and in public and private schools, and the academy of Torringford, which have sent forth so many teachers, missionaries, clergymen, lawyers and physicians, the influence of his character was always a quickening power. He drew more young men unto him to learn the healing art, than any other physician in Litchfield county having had over forty students of this kind. He was a self educated man and physician, always seeking for the light of science in the arts. On the lid of an electric machine which he gave me as a token of his regard for my attention to his chronic ailments, a copy of prophecy was pasted ; viz: " Men shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." He was a well read physician and surgeon for his day ; when the ad- vantages for scientific acquirements were very limited, and much of success in the practice of medicine was attained only by critical and attentive observation and experience ; in consequence of which, as it was well known, much of the practice of medicine, with the less critical and unthinking minds, was pretty much a routine. As a characteristic of Doctor Woodward's independence of mind power of analysis, and natural resources for special occasions, it may be men- tioned, that, at the time when malignant typhoid pneumonia, known as spotted fever, prevailed as an epidemic most fearfully and fatally in Torrington and various parts of New England, and which for a time baffled the most skillful physicians, Dr. Woodward quickly perceived the strange, low and virulent type of the disease and immediately abandoned the routine treatment of pneumonia, and all depleting remedies, and resorted to stimulants, and vigorous supporting reme- dial agencies, with such signal success as gave to him deservedly an extended reputation.' In a later period of his practice, he was called to visit a patient in an adjoining town, in consultation with a young and worthy physician, who had enjoyed distinguished privi-
I A woman now living says that Dr. Woodward told in her father's house how he learned to treat this disease. A young girl was attacked with the disease; the mother was much frightened and sent for the doctor, but perceiving the girl was cold in her extremities she began to give her brandy, and make hemlock tea, in the effort to get her into a perspiration. When the doctor came the patient was doing so well that he said, "that learned me how to treat spotted fever."- Ed.
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leges of education, and graduated at one of the modern medical colleges. After consultation Dr. Woodward prescribed so pecu liarly, as to greatly surprise the young doctor, who asked for his authority for such a prescription. The reply was graphic and sum- mary : " the authority of Samuel Woodward." Such decision and self reliance characterized the man as to inspire his patients and every class of men, to repose unlimited confidence in him. On one occa- sion, of a bad case of compound fracture of the leg, an eminent surgeon of a neighboring town was sent for; mean time Doctor Woodward, called for the immediate exigency of the case was greatly indignant that any one should suppose him incompetent for the case, and at once assumed the responsibility and put up the limb with such successful results as was highly creditable to his skill as a surgeon.
To all the physical and civil interests and aspects of the town, he was ever attentive, and contributed his judgment and leading in fluence. At a time when almost the entire interval of alluvial de posit, of Torrington and Winchester high hills from Wolcottville to Winsted, along the banks of Still river, was an everglade, a fenny, dense bush and miry bog, dangerous for man or beast to enter, Newton Rossiter, then an enterprising and extensive tanner, currier, and shoemaker, being located at what is now Burrville ; and having to transport hides and leather from, and to New Haven, over abrupt and toilsome hills, projected a road through this morass, along the river, from Winsted to Wolcottville, for his own, and the public benefit. The project was deemed impracticable and utopian, by the inhabitants of the town who regarded the lands wholly unreclaimable. The opposition, headed by Dr. Woodward, raged intensely. In town meeting where it was voted down, he heatedly declared it a " fool- hardy idea, and that if it were built, no living creature could or would travel it save snakes, polecats, woodchucks and foxes." The' project was forced and executed by private enterprise ; was useful and appreciated. Since then the Naugatuck railroad has been built in that valley, and " men ride to and fro " upon it ; the signal of the steam whistle reverberates over Torrington hills; the telegraph wires communicate knowledge. If father Mills, and Dr. Wood- ward, could awake froin their sleep, and see, bear and understand these wonderful changes, they would exclaim as Mr. Mills was wont to do : " I am astonished ! I am amazed ! I am confounded ! I am speechless ! "
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To whatever cause Dr. Woodward allied himself, he became a power. His native strength of organization, and acquired abilities shone forth conspicuously with great effect. He was ingenuously and nobly above all intrigue. " In politics, he was a democratic re- publican ; ever zealous of rulers, and an unflinching advocate of the rights of the people." He was one of the exceptional few of Litch- field county, to adopt the principles of what was designated as the " Jeffersonian democracy " immediately after the close of the war with Great Britain, for which he was ever a strong and persistent advocate. In thus doing, and in the face of his numerous patrons and friends, who were unflinching federalists, of the Cromwellian stamp, he exhibited great fearlessness, and an independent mind and character, with distinguished ability. He was equally vigorous, con- cise and graphic in his writings for the press, as in his speeches. Many respected him through fear, for he was no ordinary opponent to confront.
Dr. Woodward was for his day a great man ; a physician beloved, and a philanthropist. Although he was regarded with much doubt by the federal and orthodox Calvinists, and with whisperings of in- fidelity, yet he was a man who feared God, and loved his fellow men. And when in unmeasurable usefulness, and at an advanced age, be- cause of chronic physical disease, he was compelled to retire from the practice of medicine, and eventually to yield up his life, the people mourned for him as a father to the whole community, and could not be comforted, " because he was not ; " and after forty years, his place is vacant, as a house without inhabitant, as a desert without the healing fountain, as a land without its Washington.
He deceased on the twenty-sixth day of January, 1835, aged eighty- four years and two months. He was attended as his physician and surgeon by the writer of this sketch, during the later days of his life ; and who was the subject of Dr. W's, surgery for a fractured leg, while a youth ; and who had intimate opportunities to know him and his character, and who most cheerfully avails himself of this opportunity to make this small contribution to the honor of the phy- sician, surgeon and friend of his youth, and one of the great, the noble, and true MEN.
MARY WOODWARD,
The only daughter of Dr. Samuel and Polly (Griswold) Woodward, was born September 20, 1783. She was possessed of many of the
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strong mental and physical characteristics of her father and had ex- cellent intellectual capacity ; was amiable in disposition and manners, and studious in her habits, and having received a good education, moved in the best society, being in no wise the least of that remark- able household. Many noble families there have been in the town of Torrington, but of all of them, few equaled the one where this young lady was the joy and pride of brothers ; the comfort of parents ; and possessing sterling good sense, great wisdom of thought and pow- er of discrimination, a symetrical and dignified personal appearance, she commanded great respect and consideration and was as perfectly a lady, as her elder brother was a gentleman, and no way inferior in native talents. She remained unmarried until considerably advanced in years, when she married John Gillet, an intelligent, stable and highly respected bachelor, and farmer, with whom she had always been acquainted, he having been reared in her immediate neighbor- hood.
SAMUEL B. WOODWARD, M.D., 1
Was born June 11, 1787, and was the eldest son of Dr. Samuel and Polly (Griswold) Woodward of Torringford, and inherited the physi- cal and mental powers of his father; if anything different, was an improvement in elegance of stature and demeanor. Under the limited facilities for obtaining an education in his own community, his father instructed him principally, and prepared him for the medical profession. He studied medicine, with other young men in the of- fice of his father, three or four years, when he was licensed to prac- tice medicine, thereafter assisted his father for a time in order to acquire some knowledge of clinical medicine.
In the year 1808, he settled in Wethersfield, Hartford county ; and soon became popular as a man, and a physician, and gained an extensive and lucrative practice. He had the honor of the degree of doctor of medicine, conferred by the State Medical Society, before the present medical department of Yale college was instituted.
Dr. Woodward's physical conformation, stalwart frame, physiog- nomy, dignity of carriage, great urbanity of manners, and benevo- lence, were very imposing, and prepossessing, and secured for him popular favor, while his studious, thoughtful and analytical qualities of mind, inspired general and unqualified respect and confidence in him as a beloved physician. He was by nature a noble gentleman.
1 Manuscript of Dr. E. D. Hudson, of New York, 1875.
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He early associated with the choicest, most talented, and scientific physicians of the valley of the Connecticut, and of the state ; and be- came an honored cotemporary with them in their scientific pursuits and practice of medicine.
With such men as Eli Todd, Mason F. Cogswell, Thomas Miner, William Tully, and Eli Ives, he was in moral, philanthropic and medical rapport, though many of them were greatly his seniors in years. It was their custom to hold stated monthly meetings of what was denominated as the Hopkins' Medical Society, every mem- ber becoming such, by a unanimous ballot ; to read essays, discuss the character, types, and causes of any prevailing or local disease ; also the properties, powers and availability of various remedial agencies. Pharmacy received a good share of their attention, which by their analytical studies and personal experiments was scientifically advanced ; the improvement, in the present practice of medicine re- flects their wisdom and philanthropy. Dr. Todd had an immediate and special concern for the insane ; and made nervous and brain affections the subject of weighty consideration, and untiring research. In that important study and humane desire, Dr. Woodward con- tributed his warmest sympathy and mental efforts. They intro- duced the subject to the State Medical Society, and urged the prac- tical advantage and necessity of a public institution for the special study and treatment of insanity.
Their appeals were cordially accepted and adopted, and both were appointed on a committee to devise the ways and means to accom- plish the worthy object. The Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, and its immeasurable good and scientific re- sults, testify to the wisdom and beneficent works of these men.
In 1832, Dr. Woodward left Wethersfield, abandoned his general practice of medicine, accepted the honorable appointment of super- intendent and physician-in-chief, of the Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, at Worcester ; wherein he devoted his great talents exclu- sively to the treatment and well being of the insane. His annual reports of the cases in that institution, his medical and moral treat- ment of its inmates were very creditable to his head and heart, and were valuable auxiliaries to medical science.
He also manifested great interest, and exercised commendable zeal and influence on behalf of inebriates and idiots, for their treat- ment, and evolution by legitimate means ; and to establish an asylum for the one class of unfortunates, and a school for the other.
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As a testimonial of the regard which was entertained for his profes- sional and moral worth, the " old Bay state " has deposited a marble bust of the man in the lunatic asylum. In 1846, he retired from professional duties, because of impaired health, and made his resi- dence at Northampton, where he deceased in 1850, aged sixty-three years.
In religion, Dr. Woodward was a Christian democrat ; a philan- thropist of a most worthy pattern; not regardful of sectarism, yet respectful to all lived faiths, manifested in love to God and good will to men. His life being almost exclusively devoted to science and philanthropy, gave him very little time to bestow upon politics and parties. Yet on one or two occasions he was elected to the state senate, when as usual he magnified his office for the public good.
Such in brief was the character and life of Dr. Samuel B. Wood- ward, one of the sons of the town of Torrington ; a son in whom all other of her sons may justly feel a pride.
DR. ELIJAH WOODWARD, M.D., 1
Was born April 25, 1789, and was the second son of Dr. Samuel and Polly (Griswold) Woodward. He inherited a constitutional tendency to lung affection, from some source, which disease made sad havoc for many of the members of Dr. Woodward's family. He was possessed of a fine intellect, and was an accomplished young man ; a student with his father, in medicine, and was very promising. He received a license to practice medicine, and assisted his father to some extent, though his health was precarious and threatening.
In 1817, when he was twenty-eight years of age, he was violently attacked with hæmoptysis, and tubercular ulceration of his lungs, which proved fatal. It was a sorrowful event to his father, and family, and his numerous, sympathising friends in Torringford.
GRISWOLD WOODWARD, 1
Was born in Torringford, February 3, 1791, and was the son of Dr. Samuel and Polly (Griswold) Woodward.
He received a good English education, and being inclined to agricultural pursuits, was allowed to devote himself to the farm and
I Manuscript of Dr. E. D. Hudson of New York, 1875.
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the farming interests of the family home. He became a good and reputable farmer of the town. During the winter seasons he fre- quently taught school, and always manifested much interest in the promotion of education, both in the common school and the aca- demy, for which latter Torringford became quite noted.
He was much respected, and was elected to various ecclesiastical, civil, military, and political positions which he filled with honor. At the commencement of the temperance reform he was one of the foremost advocates ; making public addresses ; attending meetings in different parts of the county, and was the first man in his community to abandon the practice of furnishing liquors during harvest time, paying his men additional wages in the place of the cost of the liquor, showing that it was not a matter of money but of beneficence to humanity. His name is mentioned with much respect throughout the town.
RUFUS WOODWARD, A.M.,1
Was born in Torringford July 16, 1793, and was the son of Dr. Samuel and Polly (Griswold) Woodward.
He gave early promise of more than ordinary intellect, and of be- coming the ornament to the paternal household. His father, with great appreciation and pride of so bright a son, gave to his education greater attention and effort than to any of the other sons, and secure d to him a collegiate education at Yale, where he was graduated in 1816 with the principal honors of that institution. He was appointed tutor in the college in 1818, which position he filled with great credit until 1822, when on account of his failing health he was compelled to resign.
He was an apt scholar, of rare attainments and great moral worth ; and was on the way to distinguished preferment, when the insidious foe of his house indicated that he was a marked victim. For the purpose of regaining his health and escaping if possible the fell de- stroyer, and progressing in his literary pursuits, he made a voyage across the Atlantic, spent a season of travel in Europe, England and Scotland. He there became prostrated and died among strangers ; though not without numerous sympathizing friends, in Edinburgh ; in the autumn of 1823, in the thirtieth year of his age ; " when the genius of Columbia sped over the ocean wave, to meet, and weep with Scotia's bard in McFingal's cave." His remains were respect-
I Manuscript of Dr. E. D. Hudson of New York, 1875.
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fully deposited in the cemetery of the protestant kirk of Edinburgh, where rests the dust of John Knox, and where a marble slab com- memorates the short but brilliant life granted to him.
In St. Cuthbert's church yard in Edinburgh on a tablet set in the wall close by DeQuincy's grave is the following inscription. " In memory of RUFUS WOODWARD, born at Torringford, Connecticut, 16th of July, 1793 ; graduated at Yale college 1816 ; visited Europe to pursue his studies and restore his health, 1823. Died at Edin- burgh 24th Nov. 1823. His friends here who cheered his last hours and committed his remains to this grave knew and recognized him as the amiable American stranger."I
The early fall of this man was a great loss to the world. Society, literature, science, philanthropy, and the good of men suffered greatly when he departed this life. There was great sorrow and heaviness of heart in the old home on Torringford hill when it was known that the son Rufus, would return no more to that sacred hearthstone.
The several essays and reviews which he contributed to the Christian Spectator, together with his other literary productions, characterize his intellectual powers as those of critical philosophical analysis, vivid, entertaining and instructive description, and great love of literary research. He was of the college class of 1816 ; of which William C. Fowler, LL.D., was one, and of whom he published a sketch in the Christian Spectator.
DR. HENRY WOODWARD 2
Was born in Torringford May 26, 1795, and was the son of Dr. Samuel and Polly (Griswold) Woodward.
When a youth he exhibited unusual mental abilities and personal qualities. At sixteen years of age he was induced to enter a store to assist in trade, which soon proved irksome and repulsive to his mind. He left the store and commenced the study of medicine un- der his father's instruction; and after a time continued the same under his brother, Dr. S. B. Woodward of Wethersfield, until he received his degree of doctor of medicine at Yale college. He after- ward entered into a co-partnership of medical practice with his brother during a limited period, when he removed to Middletown, as a suc- cessor to Dr. William Tully, who was about to leave that city.
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