History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 19

Author: Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York, Preston
Number of Pages: 1506


USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut > Part 19


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).


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the educational interests of his own town. He was for several years one of the trustees of the State Normal school. He kept pace with medical progress by daily study, and remained a student to the end of his life. He was deeply impressed with the dig- nity of his profession, and of his responsibilities as one of its members. He stood forth prominently among his contempo- raries, and his counsels were always in demand. His sympathies were on the side of humanity and progress, and none could gainsay the honesty of his convictions or the integrity of his pur- pose. He died at the age of sixty-five, June 22d, 1881, thus clos- ing a life of arduous labors and great usefulness.


Doctor Justin Hammond was born about the year 1804. He graduated at Brown University, and studied medicine with Doc- tor Usher Parsons, of Providence, R. I., then graduated at Har- vard Medical College. He practiced medicine in Killingly forty- three years, until his death, in July, 1873, at which time he was sixty-nine years of age. He was widely known for medical skill and great devotion to his patients. He for many years held the office of selectman, and represented the town in the state legis- lature in 1871.


Samuel Hutchins, M. D., son of Doctor Theophilus Hutchins, was born in Seekonk, Mass., June 3d, 1818. After receiving a classical education in Providence, R. I., he read medicine with his father and Doctor L. Willer, of the same city, and attended lectures at the Harvard Medical College, where he graduated in 1841. He commenced practice in Danielsonville in the year following, and continued in that field until the time of his death, with the exception of one year spent in California. After his return from the Pacific coast he married Miss Ellen Weather- head. Four daughters and one son were born to them. The son died, but the four daughters, as well as their mother, still survive. Doctor Hutchins was a skilled practitioner and an en- thusiast in his profession. He became a member of the Con- gregational church in Danielsonville in 1855, and was an active and respected member of the society, often being called to po- sitions of honor and trust among his fellow citizens. He was many years a member of the board of education ; at one time was appointed United States examiner for pensions ; also held at different times the offices of president of the Windham County Medical Society and vice-president of the Connecticut Medical Society, which latter office he held at the time of his


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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.


death, he being then one of the oldest physicians in the county. He died January 16th, 1886, deeply mourned and universally re- spected.


Charles H. Rogers, M. D., son of Charles Rogers, was born in Pomfret in 1818. At the age of twenty years he entered a gram- mar school at Hartford, and in 1840 entered Yale College, whence he graduated in the Arts in 1844, and in Medicine in 1847. He began practice the latter year in Woodstock, and in 1856 he came to Central Village, where he has been established in prac- tice ever since. During the late war he served about two years as assistant surgeon in the Eleventh regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. He held the office of school committee for sixteen years. He married May 28th, 1848, Sarah C., daughter of Doctor Thomas Morse, of West Woodstock. Their three children are Mary P., now Mrs. Calvin H. Lee ; Lillian S., now Mrs. Charles A. Bock ; and E. Clinton Rogers. He is a member of the Con- gregational church at Central Village, a member of Kilburn Post, G. A. R., and of the County Medical Society.


Ernest D. Kimball, M. D., was born in Scotland, Conn., De- cember 17th, 1863, being the son of James D. Kimball. He spent most of his boyhood and youth previous to his seventeenth year on his grandfather's farm, attending the district school when that was in session. After attending a select school for twenty weeks he commenced to read medicine with Doctor D. L. Ross, who was then practicing in Scotland, paying for his board and instruction by taking care of the doctor's horses. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Md., March 15th, 1886. After graduating he returned to his native town and commenced practice, taking the place of his precep- tor. He gives special attention to particular diseases, and prac- tices one day in a week at Willimantic. March 15th, 1887, he married Miss Etta M. Parkhurst, of Scotland, by whom he has had one child, which died in infancy. Doctor Kimball is a mem- ber of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and holds the office of medical examiner for the town of Scotland.


Frank Eugene Guild, M. D., now of Windham, was born in Thompson, August 14th, 1853. He was the son of Reverend James B. Guild, who was at that time pastor of the Brandy Hill Baptist church, where he died in September following. The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Julia A. Griggs, soon after the death of her husband, removed successively to


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West Woodstock, Willington, Killingly and Putnam, where a considerable part of the youthful life of her son Frank was spent, bringing him up to his seventeenth year. After working a year in the shops of the Stanley Rule and Level Company, he entered the Connecticut State Normal School, from which he graduated in the winter of 1874. In August following, he went to Matawan, N. J., where he taught the public schools of that place until the spring of 1882, with the exception of one year spent at Grosvenor Dale, in this county. In the fall of 1882 he entered the Long Island College Hospital, from which he graduated June 3d, 1885. In the autumn of that year he received an appointment as assistant physician to Kings County Hospital, at Flatbush, L. I., where he remained until the 17th of October, 1886. Thence he came directly to Windham and established himself in. his present field of practice. While in college he was assistant dem- onstrator of anatomy, and vice-president of his class. He is a member of the county and state medical societies, and yet un- married.


Chester Hunt, M. D., was born in Columbia, Conn., February 24th, 1789. He was the son of Eldad and Huldah (Benton) Hunt. He studied medicine with Doctor Cyrus Fuller, of Columbia, and practiced in that town from 1812 to 1815, when he removed to Windham, where he continued to practice until his death, which took place August 20th, 1869. He was twice married, but at the time of his death had but one child living, Mrs. Delia Ben- ton, widow of James M. Hebard.


David C. Card, M. D., D. D. S., is a grandson of Joshua Card, who resided in Sterling, Windham county, where his life was devoted to the management of a farm. His wife, formerly a Miss Clark, was the mother of one son, Joshua, and four daughters, Hannah, Tabitha, Sally and Ruth. Their only son, Joshua, was born December 24th, 1776, in Sterling, where his early life was spent as a teacher. Later, he purchased a farm in Charlestown, Washington county, Rhode Island, and was also the landlord of a popular public house. He was a prominent citizen, held the office of justice of the peace, and did much surveying in various portions of the county. He married Sally, daughter of Benjamin Clark, of Sterling. The children of this marriage are : Sally (Mrs. Amos Greene), Mercy (Mrs. Perry Tucker), Anna (Mrs. William Tucker), Joshua B., Lucinda (Mrs. Green Card), Ben- jamin, Welcome, Betsey (Mrs. Simeon Card), Alzada W. (Mrs.


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Clark Reynolds), and David Clark, the subject of this biog- raphy, whose birth occurred on the 2d of March, 1822, in Charles- town, Rhode Island. Here his early youth was spent as a pupil of the district school, after which his studies were completed at the Smithville Seminary, at Scituate, in the same state. Decid- ing to make the practice of medicine his life work, he entered the office of Doctor William H. Hubbard, of Crompton, Rhode Island, and in accordance with the law of that early day, spent three years in study under his preceptor. Then becoming a student of the medical department of the University of New York, he graduated and was granted a diploma by that institu- tion in 1849, Doctor Valentine Mott being his professor in surgery.


Doctor Card began practice in 1850 at Clayville, in the same state, and three years later located at Carolina Mills, in Wash- ington county, Rhode Island. Here he followed his profession successfully for nine years, when Willimantic, in 1861, offered an attractive field for his abilities. In 1864, during the late civil war, he entered the service as surgeon-in-charge of the right wing of the heavy artillery located on the James river in Vir- ginia, under General Butler, and continued until the close of the conflict. Resuming his practice in Willimantic, he has until the present time been busily engaged in its arduous duties throughout the county, and is now among the oldest practition- ers in the borough. In 1866 he was appointed examining sur- geon for his district by the Commissioner of Pensions, and con- tinued thus to act until 1870. In 1871 he spent a year in Balti- more, Maryland, in the study of dental surgery, and on his re- turn added this branch of practice to his former profession. The doctor was formerly a republican in politics, afterward en- tered with spirit into the liberal movement during the Greely campaign, and now votes independently and for the best man, irrespective of party. He is a member and trustee of the Wil- limantic Methodist Episcopal church, and past commander of St. John's Commandery No. 11, of Willimantic. Doctor Card was married March 25th, 1852, to Hannah T., daughter of Nathaniel Thurber, of Foster, Rhode Island. Their children are: Everett D. C., a practicing physician in Willimantic ; Huber D., a student in the Boston School of Technology; and two who are deceased, Annette T. and David H.


WW Preston & CONY


David C. Card. M.D.r.D.S.


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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.


Everett D. C. Card graduated in 1875 from Hillside Seminary, Norwalk, Conn., and then entered the medical department of the . University of the City of New York, from which institution he received a diploma in 1881. He began practice in Willimantic in 1882. He is a member of the Windham County Medical Society.


Eliphalet Huntington, M. D., was born of a prominent family of Windham, March 3d, 1816. He studied medicine under Doc- tor William Webb, of his native town, and received his diploma from Dartmouth College in 1848. He began to practice med- icine at Chicopee, Mass., where he remained five years. He then assisted Doctor F. S. Burgess, of Plainfield, for a time, and re- turned to his native town about 1855, where he died December 30th, 1882.


Surgeon General Charles James Fox, of Willimantic, was born in Wethersfield, December 21st, 1854. He was thoroughly edu- cated in district and private schools, graduated at the Hartford High School, class of 1872, and fitted to enter college at the age of eighteen. He received the degree of M. D., with high hon- ors, at the medical department of the University of New York, in February, 1876. After a thorough training at Bellevue and Charity hospitals of New York, during the time covered by the dates given, he received the appointment of house physician and surgeon from March 1st, 1876, to March 1st, 1877, at the Hartford Hospital. He located at Willimantic in April, 1877, where he has since been in active practice. He is a member and ex-president of the County Medical Society, a member of the State Medical Association, a permanent member of the Ameri- can Medical Association and of the American Health Associa- tion. He has always interested himself in professional rather than political matters. May 18th, 1887, he married Lillian Wins- low, daughter of Reverend Horace Winslow, a former pastor of the Willimantic Congregational church. She died of acute Bright's disease September 28th, 1888, leaving no children. A frequent contributor to the leading medical journals, his writ- ings attracted marked attention. The Journal of the American Medical Association pays him the high compliment of referring to him editorially as "one of the most active and intelligent members of the profession in his state," and declaring that, though still a young man, he "has already attained distinction in his profession."


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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.


Doctor Fox was Fellow from the Windham Medical Society to the Connecticut State Medical Society in 1879, '81 and '84, was chairman of the committee on matters of professional interest to the state in 1885, and has frequently been chosen as the rep- resentative of the state society to other state organizations. He was elected by the American Medical Association to represent that body before the medical organizations of Europe in 1881 and 1882, and has been medical examiner under the new cor- oner's law since July 1st, 1883. He has also been United States examining surgeon for pensioners since December, 1883, and was appointed surgeon general of the state of Connecticut, Jan- uary 6th, 1887, which office he still retains. Not oblivious to the importance of improving the social features of life, General Fox is a member of the Putnam Phalanx of Hartford, and a Knight Templar, serving with high honor in the chairs of the various Masonic bodies. Foreseeing the great advantage of such an institution to Willimantic, he became a charter mem- ber of the Board of Trade of that borough. He is also eminent commander of St. John's Commandery No. 11, Knights Templar, of Willimantic, and an officer of the Grand Commandery of that order in the state.


Doctor Theodore Raymond Parker, a native of Montville, New London county, was born July 19th, 1855. He was the only son of Augustus A. and Harriet R. (Dolbeare) Parker. His early ed- ucation was obtained in the common schools, supplemented by a classical course at Norwich Free Academy, where he graduated in 1876. He then studied one year with Doctor Lewis S. Parker, of Norwich, after which he entered Yale Medical College, where he took three courses of lectures. In 1886 he graduated from the University of New York, and commenced practice in the same year at Columbia, Conn. Remaining there till 1882, he then came to Willimantic, where he still pursues the practice of his profession. He is a member of the county and state medical societies. His wife is the daughter of Edwin A. Buck.


Samuel David, M. D., a native of the Province of Quebec, Canada, where he was born, at Chambly, August 13th, 1822, has practiced medicine at Willimantic since 1882. He was educated at Chambly College and graduated from Montreal Victoria Medi- cal College in 1846. He practiced at St. Ours until he came to Willimantic. He married Catharine Bazin and has had nine children, two of whom died in infancy. The others are : Hermine,


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wife of Doctor Omer La Rue, of Putnam ; Victor Samuel, a lawyer residing in Canada ; Charles H., a practicing physician at Stafford Springs, Conn .; Emma; Adelaid D., born in St. Ours, Canada, May 10th, 1862, educated at Sorel College, and now engaged in the drug business with his father on Main street, Willimantic, under the firm name of A. D. David & Co., and still pursuing medical studies, expecting to finish the course in the fall of 1889; and two other daughters, Angelina and Wilhelmina.


Oliver B. Griggs, M. D .- The ancestry of this gentleman came from Scotland, in Europe, between 1650 and 1700, and settled in Roxbury, Mass. Thence two of the name-Joseph and Benja- min-emigrated to New Roxbury, Conn., where they became permanent settlers. Here their descendants have ever since re- sided. The great-grandfather of Doctor Griggs served during the revolutionary war, and Doctor Griggs has in his possession a military commission granted in 1771 to this ancestor by Governor Jonathan Trumbull, the original character to whom the title " Brother Jonathan " was given. Doctor Griggs' maternal grand- father, John Burnham, was engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill and served through the war, while his grandfather on the other side, Captain Elijah Griggs, commanded a company at New Lon- don in the war of 1812. The father of our subject, Elijah Griggs, Jr., soon after his marriage removed from his former home in Pomfret to the town of Homer, Cortland county, N. Y., where Oliver was born, August 31st, 1823. About four years later his parents returned to Pomfret, where they continued to reside while he was growing up, surrounded, meanwhile, by the com- fortable circumstances of a well-to-do farm homestead. After attending the common school in Abington during his boyhood, at the age of seventeen he attended the academy at Lebanon one year and later spent nearly two years in Bacon Academy at Colchester. He taught school during five winters and two sum- mers. At the age of twenty he began to study medicine with Doctor William Witter, a prominent physician and surgeon of Willimantic. After being under his tuition four years he at- tended lectures at the Medical College of the University of the City of New York, where he graduated in March, 1847. During the same spring, being then in his twenty-fifth year, he com- menced the practice of medicine in Windsor, Conn., where he remained until the fall of 1856. After this time he removed to Mansfield, Conn., where he practiced till the spring of 1876. He


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then removed to Willimantic, where he has practiced ever since.


For several years he was a member of the school board at Windsor, and during part of the time was acting school visitor. In 1858 he was elected town clerk and treasurer of Mansfield, and a year later, probate judge, justice of the peace and member of the board of education. Other official honors followed until he held nine different offices, all of which he held continuously until 1873, and some of them as long as he remained in Mans- field. On the 16th of July, 1848, he was married to Ann Eliza Norton, youngest daughter of Theron Norton, Esq., of Sanger- field, Oneida county, N. Y., her parents having, years before, moved to that place from Goshen, Litchfield county, Conn. Of three children born to Doctor Griggs, one died in infancy. The two surviving are Arthur Burnham, born December 21st, 1854, and Theron Norton, born February 27th, 1856.


Dewitt Clinton Lathrop, M. D., the eldest of four children of James and Clarissa (Spicer) Lathrop, was born at Franklin, Conn., June 20th, 1819. His father was a farmer, and he secured a common school education, after which he studied medicine and graduated from Yale Medical College in the class of 1845. After receiving his diploma he practiced medicine with Doctor Ashbel Woodward, of his native town. In 1846 he commenced to practice by himself in Ashford, but in the following year he came to Windham Centre, where he remained till 1859, when he removed to Norwich. On the outbreak of the civil war he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Eighth Connecticut Infantry, and died in the service April 18th, 1862, at Newbern, N. C. A monument to his memory was erected in the cemetery at Wind- ham, by the members of his regiment. His wife was Charlotte Gray, a native of Windham. Their three sons survived him. James is master of athletics at Harvard College, William Webb resides in Bridgeport, Conn., and Henry Clinton is cashier of Windham National Bank, at Willimantic.


Doctor Francis X. Barolet, a native of Riviere Du Loup, in the province of Quebec, Canada, was educated at La Assumption College, and after graduating there took a medical course at the University of Victoria, at Montreal, from which he gradu- ated in 1855. He commenced the practice of medicine at St. Guillaume d'Upton, Quebec, where he continued till 1867, when he came to Baltic, Conn. At the latter place he spent but


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a short time, removing to Putnam, where he practiced about twenty years. In 1887 he sold his practice and returned to St. Guillaume, where he now resides. His wife was Maria Luce Henrietta Chenevert. Of their four children one died in infancy. The other three are Louis Phillip, a dentist at Pawtucket, R. I .; Armand, born at St. Guillaume, July 28th, 1863, graduated from Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, married Rosaline Jasmin, has one child named Valmor, and is now a surgeon dentist in Putnam ; and Antonine, wife of Arthur Jasmin, and resides at St. Guillaume.


Gardner L. Miller, M. D .- Augustus Miller, the grandfather of Doctor Miller, resided in the town of Wales, Mass. Among his ten children was a son George W., who removed to Spring -. field, in the same state, where he was connected with the Springfield armory. By his union with Eliza, daughter of Jasper and Sophia Hyde, of Stafford, were born Francis H. and Ella S., both deceased, and Gardner L., the subject of this biog- raphy, whose birth occurred June 13th, 1857, in Stafford. At the age of five he removed with his parents to Springfield, and on attaining his eleventh year again made Stafford his home. Here he attended the public schools and completed his academic edu- cation at the Monson Academy. He began the study of medicine- with Doctor C. S. Sprague, of Stafford, now deceased, and in 1877 entered the New York Homeopathic Medical College from which his diploma was received in 1880. He then located in Putnam and practiced for three years with success, when, de- siring further opportunities for a thorough knowledge of his profession, he went abroad and spent six months in the Univer- sity and hospitals of Vienna. Doctor Miller on his return re- sumed practice in Putnam and has since been thoroughly en- grossed with the labors incident to his profession. His field has constantly increased in dimensions, which may be regarded as a fair measure of the success he has attained.


The doctor is a member of the State Homeopathic Medical Society and of the Worcester County Medical Society of Wor- cester, Mass. He is a director of the Electric Light Company of Putnam, and has been somewhat active in local republican movements, having served as member and chairman of the town committee, etc. No citizen has perhaps in so great a degree promoted the development of the town by the erection of build- ings and the improvement of property. He was the prime mover


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in the co-operative building association, and has lent a willing hand to all public spirited enterprises. He is a member of Quinebaug Lodge, No. 106, of Free and Accepted Masons of Put- nam and of Putnam Chapter. Doctor Miller married, in 1880, Alice Holmes, of Ware, Mass. They have two children, a daughter, Florence H., and a son, George L., aged respectively eight and six years.


Doctor Frederic A. Morrell is a native of the village of Strong, Franklin county, Maine, where he was born October 26th, 1857. He was the second son of James and Hannah (Hull) Morrell. After the usual common school experiences, he finished his gen- eral education at the Waterville Classical Institute. After study- ing medicine with Doctor P. Dyer, of Farmington, Me., he spent three years in the Long Island College Hospital, at Brooklyn, N. Y., and graduated there in 1885. He then spent a year in the Brooklyn City Hospital, after which, in the fall of 1886, he com- menced practice in Putnam, in company with Doctor J. B. Kent. He is a member of the state and county medical societies. He married Edith I. Body, and they have one son, to whom they have given the name of the father.


Omer La Rue, M. D., was born at St. Dennis, in the province of Quebec, March 14th, 1849. He was the second son and fifth child of Levi and Ann (Laptte) La Rue. From the age of eleven to nineteen years he was at the College of St. Hyacinthe, and graduated from the University of Victoria at Montreal in 1872. He removed to Putnam during the same year, and has since re- sided there, engaged in the practice of medicine. Here he held the office of chairman of the board of selectmen for 1887 and 1888, and clerk of that body for 1888-89. He married Hermine, daughter of Doctor Samuel David. They have six children: Antonia, Arthur, Eudore, Bella, Aline and Maude. He is a mem- ber of the county and state medical societies. He is also pres- ident of the St. John Baptist Society of Putnam, and was pres- ident of the first convention of a benevolent society of French Canadians held in Connecticut, which took place in Willimantic in 1886 ; also an officer in a subsequent convention of the same society, and was delegate from Putnam to the national conven- tion of the same organization, which was held in Nashville, Tenn., in 1888.


Daniel Bacon Plimpton, M. D., the second son of Chauncy and Calista (Bacon) Plimpton, was born at Worcester, Mass., March


W.W.Preston & CO N.Y.


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4th, 1821. He received an academical education at Monson's Academy, at Monson, Mass., and graduated from the medical college at Woodstock, Vt., in 1841. He afterward attended a course of medical lectures at Boston. In 1846 he commenced the practice of medicine at North Oxford, Mass., where he re- mained about one year and a half, and then spent four months in Charlton, Mass. In the fall of 1847 he came to Putnam, and prac- ticed here until his death, in April, 1884, with the exception of a year and a half spent in business in Springfield, Mass. His wife was Tamar Davis, daughter of Asa Cutler, a native of Killingly .. They had two sons, Frederick Clinton and James Manning, both of whom are engaged in the Plimpton Manufacturing Company, of Hartford.




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