USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume III > Part 30
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He was a man of strong and original mind, and despised super- ficiality. His diagnosis of cases was exhaustive and accurate. He is remembered as having a somewhat rugged exterior, but he was a great favorite with the members of his profession, and those who
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knew him intimately discovered beneath the brusque manner a softness of heart and kindliness of nature that endeared him to his friends. He liberally aided the New Haven hospital and Yale col- lege, and it was owing to a promise of aid from Dr. Bronson that the charter for our own hospital, to which he afterwards gave $10,000, was obtained .*
DR. WILLIAM W. RODMAN.
William Woodbridge Rodman was born in Stonington, April I, 1817. He graduated from Yale college in 1838, and from the Jef- ferson Medical college, Philadelphia, in 1844. The same year, he removed from Stonington to this town, and commenced the prac- tice of medicine. He was the first homeopathic physician who practiced in Waterbury. During his residence here he was for many years an active member of the board of education. In 1860 he removed to New Haven, where he has since resided. He is the author of various essays that have been published on medical and other subjects.
On May 24, 1840, he married Jerusha, eldest daughter of Benja- min Pomeroy. She died December 1, 1871, and on December 26, 1872, he married Anna Grosvenor, her youngest sister. His chil- dren by the first marriage are: Charles Shepard (see page 844); Fanny, wife of the Rev. Charles H. Hamlin; William, born May 20, 1853, and Emily Taylor. The children by the second marriage are: Henry Bulkley and Thomas Wheeler.
DR. P. G. ROCKWELL.
Philo Guiteau Rockwell was born in Norfolk, in 1820. Although Norfolk was his home, several years of his early life were passed in New York and Baltimore. He received a good education, studied medicine and surgery, and graduated in 1845 at the Berk- shire Medical school, Pittsfield, Mass., then one of the leading schools of this country. He commenced practice at Lee, Mass., after which he was for a short time in Farmington, in New Britain and in New York city. In 1852 he removed to Waterbury and was for several years associated with Dr. Gideon L. Platt, under the firm name of Platt & Rockwell. After severing his connection with Dr. Platt he carried on a large and successful practice in Water- bury until the breaking out of the civil war. In July, 1862, he offered his services in the defence of the Union, and was commis-
* A " Sketch of the Life and Writings of the late Professor Henry Bronson, M. D." was read before the New Haven Colony Historical Society on May 27, 1895, by Dr. Stephen G. Hubbard. It was printed in full in the New Haven Journal and Courier of June 3, in which it fills more than a page.
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sioned surgeon of the Fourteenth regiment of Connecticut volun- teers, in which capacity he served with unexcelled ability until his health gave way under the hardships and exposures of army life. He resigned his commission and returned to Connecticut, and was for a time connected with the Knight hospital for soldiers in New Haven. In 1864 he resumed practice in Waterbury, and remained here five years. During his residence in Waterbury he served as surgeon-general of the state. In 1866 he was elected mayor, and it was largely to his efforts that the city was indebted for its first system of water works (see page 94).
In 1869, Dr. Rockwell removed to Aiken, S. C., to carry out a long cherished purpose of establishing a sanitarium for invalids in the south. The place which he selected has since become the site of B. P. Chatfield's Highland Park hotel, and is one of the most widely known resorts in the southern states.
While residing here, he was a devoted member of the First church, but after his removal to Aiken he became a regular attend- ant at the Episcopal church, and in 1873 transferred his member- ship from the one to the other. He was also much interested in Masonry, and was a charter member of Clark commandery of Knights Templar.
He married Elizabeth A. Wadsworth of Farmington. They had three children, all of whom died in childhood. Dr. Rockwell died at Aiken, February 6, 1888.
DR. E. C. KNIGHT.
Elam Clark Knight was born in Winchendon, Mass., March 3, 1820. He studied medicine with Dr. Hiram Corliss of Greenwich, N. Y,, and afterwards graduated from the Berkshire Medical col- lege in 1845. He located first in Slatersville, R. I., and removed from there to Middleborough, Mass. He came to Waterbury in 1860, and as this was the year of Dr. Rodman's removal to New Haven, he was for a time the only homeopathic physician in the city, and his practice was extensive. In November, 1865, he was thrown from a carriage; his ankle was broken, he was confined to the house for nearly two years, and was made a cripple for life. In 1878 he removed to Massachusetts and afterward to New York, but returned to Waterbury and remained here for about two years. At the end of that time he removed to Woodbury, and died there March 21, 1888. Dr. Knight's elder daughter, Jennie Elizabeth, is the wife of E. A. Pendleton (see page 340). His second daughter, Alice, is a student and teacher of English literature and allied sub- jects.
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DR. E. P. GREGORY.
Edward Peck Gregory, eldest child of John and Mary E. (Osborne) Gregory, was born in Fairfield, April 16, 1849. His edu- cation was received at the common schools of his native town and of Derby. After two years spent in drug stores he became a stu- dent of medicine under Dr. A. W. Phillips of Birmingham. He was a student in the University of the City of New York in 1869 and 1870, and then in the Hahnemann Medical college of Philadel- phia. He graduated there March 10, 1873, and the first of April found him established as the pioneer homeopathic physician of Milford, where he practiced successfully for six years. He removed to Waterbury, May 1, 1879, and was in active practice here for more than thirteen years. On September 10, 1879, he married Mary E. (Clark) Brinsmade of Trumbull, and on July 1, 1882, a son, Robert Newell, was born to them. During the small-pox epidemic of 1882 Dr. Gregory was a member of the sub-committee of the board of health, and he subsequently served the town as a school visitor. Warned by the failing health of his wife, he disposed of his practice, November 1, 1892, with a view to locating in a more favorable climate. But Mrs. Gregory's rapid decline compelled a return from the south to Bridgeport, at which place she died, Jan- uary 18, 1893. Dr. Gregory has since remained in Bridgeport, in the practice of his profession.
DR. C. H. FRENCH.
Charles H. French, son of Henry Watson and Anna (Taylor) French, was born in Waterbury January 29, 1859 .. He studied at the Wilbraham academy and Yale Medical college, and graduated at the Bellevue hospital Medical college in 1881. He was house sur- geon at the Charity and Maternity hospital on Blackwell's Island, New York, from 1880 to 1882. In 1882 he opened an office in Water- bury. He was a member of the health committee of the town from 1882 to 1887; city physician from 1882 to 1886, and health officer in 1886. In 1887 he removed to Pawtucket, R. I., where he has since resided. He is a member of the Medical society of Rhode Island, and medical director (with rank of colonel) on the staff of General Kimball. On June 5, 1884, he married Florence Spofford Wells.
DR. MARTHA M. DUNN (MRS. GEORGE H. COREY).
Martha M. Dunn was born in New York city. She lost her parents at an early age and was adopted by the Rev. H. M. Dan- forth of Evans, N. Y., where she spent the early part of her life.
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In 1876 she entered the Woman's Homeopathic college of New York city, and in 1877 the Woman's Medical college of Pennsyl- vania, from which she graduated in 1879. Immediately after this she commenced practice in Utica, N. Y., where she resided for three years. She came to Waterbury in November, 1882. After a success- ful practice here of five years she went abroad, and spent the sum- mer of 1887 in Birmingham, as a pupil of Dr. Lawson Tait, one of England's most successful surgeons. In January, 1888, Dr. Dunn gave up her practice in Waterbury, and in April of the same year was married to George H. Corey.
DR. W. COE HOLMES.
William Coe Holmes, son of Israel and Cornelia (Coe) Holmes, was born in Waterbury, August 25, 1854.
He studied at the Sheffield Scientific school, and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1880. From October, 1879, to May, 1881, he was house surgeon in the Charity hospital of New York. Since that time he has been a practicing physician, first in Branford, from 1881 to 1883, then in Clearville, Penn., and after that in Waterbury until 1891. He is the inventor of a penholder with electrical attachment, patented August 27, 1889 to prevent writer's cramp and paralysis. In 1890 he agitated the subject of the physical education of women, and managed the first classes in modern physical culture in Waterbury, bringing teachers from the schools of New York for that purpose.
DR. N. J. HANLON.
Nicholas John Hanlon, son of Joseph and Margaret (Brennan) Hanlon, was born in Waterbury, May 7, 1865. He received his early education in the public schools of the city, and graduated from St. Michael's college, Toronto, in 1886. He entered the Belle- vue hospital Medical college the same year, and passed from there to Dartmouth Medical college, where he graduated in 1891. He began practicing in Waterbury the following November, but in 1893 removed to Ansonia. During the small-pox epidemic in that place he was the physician in charge, and had great success in the treatment of his patients. In April, 1893, he married Mary Labbie, of Hanover, N. H. The following year his health was so seriously impaired that he went away to the Adirondacks, and then to Han- over, in the hope of improving it. His hope was not fulfilled, and he returned to Waterbury and died here, January 25, 1895.
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DR. ISAAC BRONSON.
Of physicians who were born in Waterbury, but whose entire professional life was spent elsewhere, Dr. Isaac Bronson heads the - list, chronologically, and is otherwise also one of the most prominent.
Isaac Bronson, son of Isaac and Mary (Brocket) Bronson, was born at Breakneck in Waterbury, March 10, 1760. His father was a farmer "of highly respectable character," who frequently repre- sented the town in the legislature. He was not able to give his son a collegiate education, but the community in which the young man was brought up was one in which learning and culture were appre- ciated, and its influences were favorable to his intellectual and moral development.
In his boyhood he decided to pursue the study of medicine, and before he was sixteen years of age became a pupil of his townsman, Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, who was ten years his senior, and who began the practice of his profession in Litchfield about 1776. On Novem- ber 14, 1779, when young Bronson had not yet passed his twentieth year, he entered the army as a junior surgeon. His place was in the Second regiment of light dragoons, under the command of Colonel Elisha Sheldon. The senior surgeon was at this time, because of his age and infirmities, unable to endure the hardships involved in the peculiar service required of the regiment (the pro- tection of the inhabitants of a country lying between the outposts of two contending armies), and Dr. Bronson practically filled his place and performed his duties. For several campaigns he per- formed, in fact, all the medical duties required by all the troops attached to Colonel Sheldon's command.
His practice of medicine, however, did not extend beyond the close of the war. On his return home he decided to give up his profession, and soon after made a voyage to India. He returned about 1789, and became a banker. After two years' residence in Philadelphia he settled in New York in 1794, and in 1796 purchased the President Dwight property on Greenfield Hill as a summer residence.
On May 21, 1807, he opened a bank in Bridgeport. The rules he adopted for its government were very simple and very rigidly applied, and his success was exceptional. He was a man of intel- lectual power, of moral courage, of untiring industry and the most scrupulous integrity. His discernment in whatever related to political economy has seldom been equalled, and the result was prosperity and wealth. His liberality was great but unostentatious. He was respected in the community, consulted by statesmen in regard to important questions, and beloved by his family to an
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unusual degree; and his mental powers preserved their full force and brilliancy to the close of life.
In 1789 he married Anna, daughter of Thomas Olcott of Strat- ford, and had ten children. He died at Greenfield Hill, May 19, 1838 .*
DR. ISAAC G. PORTER.
Isaac Gleason Porter, son of the Rev. Edward and Dorothea (Gleason) Porter, was born in Waterbury, June 29, 1806. His father, a former pastor of the First church, returned to Farming- ton, his native place, to reside, and the son went to college from there, and graduated in 1826. After graduation he was for a year or more principal of a young ladies' high school in New London, and was afterwards associated for two years with Professor E. A. Andrews in the management of a similar school in New Haven. After this he began the study of medicine in the Yale Medical school, and completed his course at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1833. He settled immediately in New Lon- don, and was actively engaged in the practice of his profession in that city until old age. He was greatly honored and beloved in New London and among the physicians of the state. He was presi- dent of the Connecticut Medical society in 1866 and 1867.
On September 12, 1833, he married Williamina Davis of Phila- delphia, by whom he had one son and one daughter. The son (a graduate of Yale in 1857) was killed in the civil war. Dr. Porter died in New London, April 30, 1892.
DR. DAVID PRICHARD.
David Prichard was the fourth son of David Prichard, Jr., and was born on his father's thirty-fifth birthday, October 24, 1810. He was a graduate of the Yale Medical school in the class of 1832, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Madison, where, on December 31, 1833, he married Wealthy Hill, daughter of Curtis and Wealthy (Hill) Wilcox. On the day of his wedding he had a patient who was thought to be dying. The wedding guests awaited his coming for two hours; he then left his patient for a few minutes, the ceremony was performed, and he hastened back and remained on duty, giving up his wedding journey to Waterbury, until the patient was safe from death. Devotion to the duty of the hour was characteristic of his changeful life. Not having the physical strength requisite for a country doctor, whose patients were scat- tered throughout a township, he relinquished his profession after
* For further details, including genealogical data, see Bronson's History, pp. 370-374.
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a few years, and entered upon a business career. It was filled with enterprise and activities, but never crowned with the success he sought. The first spoons of German silver that were made in Water- . bury were manufactured by him, about 1838, at the water-power on Smug brook (now used by the Smith & Griggs company) at Hope- ville.
In February, 1841, he formed, with Julius Hotchkiss, a co-part- nership for the purpose of manufacturing webbing, cotton, etc., under the name of Hotchkiss & Prichard. The men mentioned were the general partners and agents of the concern; the special partners were E. E. Prichard and William Mitchell of Middletown. India rubber as applied to webbing was at that time new, and (as stated on page 418) the narrow filaments were cut from thin circular sheets of rubber by hand, with scissors. This was done in a room in Dr. Prichard's house, the first one built in Cottage place. In 1843 the partnership was dissolved by consent of all parties, but Dr. Prichard and E. E. Prichard carried on the same business at New Haven for a number of years, and until their mill was burned.
After embarking in a number of enterprises, notably in the Wolcottville Knitting company, Dr. Prichard returned (after due preparation) to his profession, which he followed for the last twelve years of his life at Hightstown and Elizabethport, N. J., and after- wards at Norwalk, where he died, October 30, 1868. As a physician, Dr. Prichard was eminently successful, winning in an unusual de- gree the confidence and esteem of his patients.
His widow died at Asbury Park, N. J., July 5, 1881, aged sixty- four years. Of their four children, only the eldest, Martha L., was born in Waterbury. His son David-the fourth David Prichard in lineal descent-was born in New Haven, February 19, 1850, and died at Orange, N. J., August 26, 1883. The fifth David Prichard, son of the above, died at New York, April 19, 1886, aged thirteen years.
DR. ANDREW H. BRONSON.
Andrew H. Bronson, son of Asa Bronson, was born in Waterbury in 1816. He was one of a large family of children, and his boyhood was passed in a house on North Main street (built by his great great-grandfather, Thomas Bronson, for his grandfather, Deacon Daniel Bronson), which afterward became the residence of C. D. Kingsbury .* At the age of eighteen he made his way to Ohio and entered Oberlin college. He afterward studied medicine, and removed to Pontoosuc, Ill., where he practiced his profession for
* It is pictured on page 241.
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several years. He subsequently removed to Keokuk, Ia., and there spent the remainder of his life. In later years he was a dealer in drugs and medicines. He was always interested in church work and during his residence in Pontoosuc served as a home mission- ary. He died March 29, 1881.
DR. EDWARD G. FIELD.
Edward Gustavus Field, the youngest child of Dr. Edward and Esther (Baldwin) Field, was born in Waterbury, December 7, 1822. He was educated in the schools of the town and at the Hartford grammar school. When about fifteen years of age he made a voy- age to Europe in a sailing packet, "before the mast," with some idea of making navigation the business of life. But one voyage was sufficient; he did not find it to his taste. After his father's death he attended medical lectures in New York city, but took his degree at Castleton, Vt., whose Medical school at that time was mainly conducted by professors in the New York schools (a sort of "summer school " of medicine). He settled in New York city, but early in the California excitement-in 1849 or 1850-he went to San Francisco, and after practicing medicine a short time engaged in other pursuits. He returned to New York about 1855, and a little later purchased a seat in the broker's board. He remained in active business until 1872, when he retired and spent some time in Europe. He resides at present in New York. He has never married.
JUNIUS L. FIELD, Dr. Edward Field's eldest son, graduated at the Yale Medical school in 1831, and after practicing for a short time in Wolcott and Cheshire removed in 1835 to Unadilla, Mich., where he pursued his profession until his death. He married Mrs. Maria Briggs Packard, and died in November, 1867.
DR. HARRIET JUDD SARTAIN.
Harriet Judd Sartain is the daughter of Henry Clark and Eliza (Jones) Judd, and was born in that part of Waterbury which is now Naugatuck, February 3, 1830. Her father, born October 9, 1801, was a son of Thomas Judd, a soldier in the war of 1812-15, He spent the later years of his life in Cheshire, and died there March 12, 1884. His brother Daniel, born in Waterbury in 1821, also died in Cheshire, on the 22nd of the same month.
Miss Judd's interest in the study of medicine began early in life, and she eventually became a pioneer in breaking down the barriers of the prejudice against the practice of medicine by women. Her early education was received in the schools of her native town. In 1843 she removed with her family to Michigan, where she finished
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her seminary education. After a few years she entered the Woman's Medical college in Philadelphia, and later the Eclectic Medical col- lege in Cincinnati, from which she graduated in 1854.
She began the practice of medicine in Waterbury the same year, "and attracted much congratulatory attention from the local papers for her advanced position." On December 11, 1854, she became the wife of Samuel Sartain (eldest son of John Sartain, the widely known engraver), and removed with him to Philadelphia, where she has since resided. She continued in practice in that city for thirty-eight years, making a specialty of the diseases of women, and from the beginning using the homeopathic "materia medica." She was the first woman to become a member of the county Medi- cal society (homeopathic)-having been unanimously elected to that body in 1870-and thus, by her perseverance and success, opened the way for the admission of other women. In 1871 she was elected to the state Homeopathic society, and in June of the same year became a member of the American Institute of Homeo- pathy. The election to this body of Dr. Sartain and her two col- leagues, one of whom was her pupil, was the termination of a pro- longed and notable contest on the advisability of admitting women as members of the institute.
In addition to her regular professional duties, Dr. Sartain has frequently prepared and read before the societies with which she is connected valuable and interesting papers relating to her spe- cialty. She was one of the founders of the Women's Homeopathic Medical club of Philadelphia, and has been its presiding officer since its organization, although she retired from active practice in 1892. Dr. Sartain's three children are Edwin Judd Sartain, deceased; Paul Judd Sartain, M. D .; and Amy Sartain.
YOUNGER PHYSICIANS OF WATERBURY BIRTH.
WILLIAM HENRY ANDREWS was born in Waterbury in 1847. He practiced medicine for about seventeen years in the town of Mil- ford. He died in Milford, January, 1890.
MARTHA CORNELIA HOLMES, daughter of Israel and Cornelia (Coe) Holmes, graduated from the Woman's Medical college of Pennsylvania in 1886 and served in the Woman's hospital at Phila- delphia for one year. The next year she spent studying in Europe, and on her return to this country began practice in New York city, where she now follows her profession.
ROBERT LOUIS MINTIE, son of James Mintie, was born at Thomp- sonville, February 26, 1850, and came to this city with his parents in his childhood. In February, 1864, while residing temporarily in
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Hebron, he enlisted in the Fifth regiment of Connecticut volunteers to serve in the war for the Union. He served until the close of the war as a drummer boy, and after returning to his home decided to enter college. He entered Yale in the class of '75, but graduated in 1876.
He studied medicine for a year at the Yale Medical school and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city. He continued his studies at Buffalo, N. Y., and removing to Chicago graduated from the Bennett college of Eclectic Medicine and Sur- gery in 1880. He continued in practice in Chicago until his death, which occurred May 21, 1895.
SOLOMON CARRINGTON MINOR, son of Solomon B. and Cynthia A. Minor (see page 243), was born June 4, 1850. He graduated from Yale college in 1873, and taught in public schools from that time until 1889. He then took up the study of medicine, and graduated from the medical department of the University of the City of New York in 1892. He served on the surgical staff of Bellevue hospital for eighteen months, and then opened an office in the northern part of New York city.
WALTER BREWSTER PLATT, son of Dr. Gideon L. and Caroline T. Platt, was born December 20, 1853. He graduated from the Sheffield Scientific school in 1874, and was afterwards assistant to Professor Francis Bacon of Yale, at the same time studying in the Yale Medical school. He graduated from the Harvard Medical school in 1879, and afterward studied medicine at the universities of Berlin, Vienna and Heidelberg. He took the degree of M. R. C. S. in - London in 1880, and of F. R. C. S. in 1883. In 1879 and 1880 he was assistant to the superintendent of the Boston City hospital and house surgeon in the same institution. Since 1881, with the excep- tion of a year and a half, Dr. Platt has practiced in Baltimore. He is demonstrator of surgery to the University of Maryland; surgeon to the Bay-view hospital ; physician to the Grace church Free dis- pensary, and physician to the Garrett sanitarium for children. On December 4, 1889, he married Mary, daughter of Glen Perrine of Baltimore.
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