USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 40
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and governor of Connecticut. Esther Edwards, daughter of the eminent theologian, married Aaron Burr, president of Princeton college, and was the mother of Aaron Burr, vice-president of the United States during Mr. Jeffer- son's first term as president. Mr. Burr possessed much of the clearness of analysis and power of generalization, but was entirely deficient in those moral qualities which distinguished his celebrated ancestor.
Major Joseph Hawley was the son of Lieut. Joseph Hawley, whose wife was Rebecca Stoddard, daughter of the first minister. Joseph Hawley, after his graduation at Yale college, in 1742, at the age of eighteen, devoted some- time to the study of theology, and preached occasionally. He accompanied the expedition for the reduction of Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton, under Gen. Pepperell, as chaplain of one of the regiments, but eventually embraced the profession of the law, in which he became eminent. He was noted as a vigorous and forcible public speaker. In the unhappy troubles in the Northampton church, he took a prominent part, strongly opposing the course of his cousin, Mr. Edward's conduct, for which he afterwards ex- pressed great contrition in an elaborate written apology. Major Hawley was honored for many years with a seat in the general court, and did much to pro- mote and cultivate the patriotic sentiments which culminated in the Revolu- tion. Able, pure nnd incorruptible, he must be classed among Northampton's worthiest sons.
Hon. Caleb Strong, like Major Hawley, was descended from one of the old families of the town, and a graduate of Harvard college, where he re- ceived the highest honors. He read law with Mr. Hawley, was admitted to the bar, and was county attorney for twenty-four years ; was a member of the legislature, house and senate, about fourteen years ; was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of Massachusetts, in 1779, and also of the United States, in 1787; also served in the United States senate two terms. He was elected governor of the commonwealth eleven times in the most exciting period of our early political history as a nation, and narrowly escaped, by his official action, in bringing the state authorites in collision with the general government, by refusing to send any troops beyond the limits of the state in the war of 1812, on the requisition of the president, a precedent which was followed by two or three recusant governors in the war of the Re- bellion. Governor Strong was a man of great ability, bnt opinionated and obstinate. He was a powerful advocate before juries, and was especially dreaded by attorneys all over the state in closing arguments. Lewis Strong, son of the governor, graduated at Harvard college, entered the legal pro- fession and practiced about thirty years, and was regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in the western counties. Some one who knew him well has remarked that he was " an upright, accomplished Christian gentleman, lawyer, citizen, neighbor and friend." Several of his sons entered the different professions.
Rev. Thomas Allen was a native of Northampton, and graduated at Har- vard college in 1762. He was the first minister of Pittsfield, an inflexible
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patriot, and was with General Stark at the battle of Bennington, where as he said, " observing a flash often repeated from a certain bush, that was gener- ally followed by the fall of one of Stark's men, he fired that way and put the flash out." William Allen, son of the preceding, succeeded his father in the Pittsfield pulpit, but was soon chosen professor of Dartmouth college, and afterwards of Bowdoin. Removed to Northampton in 1839. His son Will- iam Allen commenced the practice of law in 1848, having previously gradu- ated at Amherst college and the New Haven law school. He was in partner- ship at different periods with Hon. C. P. Huntington and Messrs. W. & H. H. Bond. Received the appointment of judge of the supreme court in 1872, and in 1881 was transferred to the supreme court of the commonwealth.
Rev. Timothy Dwight, son of Major Timothy Dwight. His mother was Mary, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards. He was a tutor in Vale college six years, chaplain in the Revolutionary army, a teacher in his native town, pastor of the church at Greenfield Hill, Conn., and then president of Yale college. He was an excellent scholar, an eloquent preacher, and his poems, of which he wrote several, were reputable performances. His travels in New England and New York fill several volumes. His father, who was at different times selectman, register of probate and judge of the court of com- mon pleas, possessed, so tradition says, great muscular strength, and once threw a stone across the Connecticut river and thirty rods beyond, seventy rods in all. The Dwights comprised a numerous family, most of whom were conspicious in the various walks of life. One of them, Theodore Dwight, was a member of congress and editor of the New York Commercial Adver- tiser.
The Tappan family one hundred years ago was prominent in Northamp- ton. Benjamin Tappan was an ardent and zealous patriot and fought man- fully at Saratoga. Benjamin Tappan, his oldest son, was bred to the law, and settled at Steubenville, Ohio. He filled the office of judge in his adopt- ed state, and was elected to the senate of the United States. When Mr. Calhoun, as Secretary of State under President Tyler, negotiated his secret treaty for the admission of Texas to the Union without submitting the ques- tion to the people, Senator Tappan, in violation of the conventional rules of the body of which he was a member, gave the text of the treaty to the pub- lic, and succeeded in temporarily defeating the schemes of the conspirators. In politics he was a democrat of the Jeffersonian stripe, pure and incorruptible. Another son, Arthur Tappan, was a noted merchant in New York, and dis- tinguished for his philanthropy. An opponent of slavery, his property suff- ered at the hands of an infuriated mob. Oberlin college was indebted to him for large benefactions.
Samuel Howe was the son of Dr. Estes Howe, of Belchertown. After a thorough course of literary and legal studies, the latter in the celebrated law school of Judge Tapping Reeve at Litchfield, Conn .. he settled at Worthing- ton, where he remained twelve years. Appointed a judge of the court of
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common pleas he removed to Northampton and opened a law school in imita- tion of that of Judge Reeve's. Nearly all the lawyers of the past generation in Western Massachusetts received their legal training at this institution. An able, learned and upright judge, he died at the early age of forty-three.
Hon. Elijah Hunt Mills, a man of eminent ability, resided in Norhampton in the first quarter of the present century. His father was the first minister in Chesterfield, and his mother was Mary Hunt, daughter of Captain Jona- than Hunt. He was adopted by his uncle, Elijah Hunt, and trained for the profession of the law. As an ornate chaste and elegant pleader he was un- surpassed in the commonwealth. He was connected with Judge Howe as an instructor in the Northampton law school, and was elected to the senate of the United States. He died in 1829, at the age of fifty-three.
Isaac Chapman Bates was a native of Granville, and a graduate at Yale college in 1852, read law, settled in Northampton, and at once secured a large and lucrative practice. He was elected to congress in 1817, and was continued a member of that body for eight years ; was a member of the Governor's council two years, and in 1841 was elected to the senate of the United States. As an orator, Mr. Bates was not surpassed by any individ- ual in Western Massachusetts. His manner was graceful and fascinating, and he was a master in the use of language. While in congress he became acquainted with Mr. Clay, who entertained for him a strong and enduring friendship, and when the great Kentuckian came to New England he visited his friend at Northampton. People who remember that event also recollect with pleasure that the speech of Mr. Bates in welcoming his distinguished guest, in felicity of expression and rhetorical beauty, fully equalled the response of Mr. Clay. Both were ardent friends of the protective system.
Charles E Forbes was a native of Bridgewater, and settled as a lawyer in Northampton in 1818. At various times he filled the positions of representa- tive in the legislature, county commissioner, district attorney, judge of the court of common pleas and of the supreme judicial court, and a presidential elector in 1856. By his will he gave the town of Northampton the bulk of his property, amounting to about three hundred thousand dollars, for a free library. Mr. Forbes was an able and pains taking lawyer. He was an admirer of the forensic ability of his contemporary, Mr. Bates, and often re- marked that Mr. Bates would come into court directly from his farm and argue a case in an exhaustive manner, which had taken him several days to master.
Eli P. Ashman was a native of Blandford, read law with Judge Sedgwick, of Stockbridge, and settled in Northampton in 1807. In 1816 he was elected a senator of the United States. His wife was the youngest daughter of Rev. John Hooker. John Hooker Ashman, son of Eli P., was bred to the law, and received the appointment of professor of law at Harvard college. He died at the early age of thirty-three. George Ashman, another son of Sena- tor Ashman, studied in Judge Howe's law school and settled in Springfield. Mr. Ashman served three terms in congress as the representative of the Val-
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ley district, and adhered to the political fortunes of Mr. Webster until the death of that distinguished statesman. He became a Republican on the or- ganization of that party and presided over the National Republican Conven- tion that nominated Abraham Lincoln for president, at Chicago in 1860.
Erastus Hopkins, born in Hadley in 1810, was by profession a clergyman. After preaching in several places he settled in Northampton and engaged in secular pursuits. He was a member of the legislature nine or ten terms, and also president of the Connecticut River railroad. An accomplished scholar and a superb orator.
Ebenezer Lane, son of Captain Ebenezer Lane, who lived on Bridge street, graduated at Harvard college in 181 1, studied law and settled at Elyria, Ohio. He was first a judge of the court of common pleas, and then chief justice of the supreme court.
Joseph Lyman, a descendant of one of the first settlers, was educated at Y'ale college and studied law; was successively clerk of the courts, judge of the court of common pleas and of probate, president of the old Hampshire Bank, and sheriff of the county. His son, Samuel F. Lyman, graduated at Harvard college, read law with Judge Reeve, at Litchfield, was register of probate nearly thirty years, and then judge of probate.
Oliver Warner was born in 1818, and graduated at Williams college in 1842. He studied theology and was settled at Chesterfield. Afterward was a teacher in Williston seminary, and a member of both branches of the legis- lature. He was secretary of state of Massachusetts for nearly a score of years, and for some time was state librarian and clerk of the board of educa- tion. A genial and accomplished gentleman in all the relations of life.
Aaron Warner was a graduate of Williams college and Andover The- ological seminary. He preached at Charleston, S. C., and at Medford, Mass .; was professor of sacred rhetoric in the Gilmanton Theological seminary, and professor of rhetoric in Amherst college.
' Josiah D. Whitney, son of Josiah D. Whitney at one time president of the Northampton bank. He studied at Yale college and in Europe ; was engaged two years in surveying the western lake region, and has written a valuable work on the metallic resources of the United States as compared with other countries ; has been professor in the Iowa State university, state geologist of California, professor of geology in Harvard college, in the school of metallurgy and practical geology.
William D. Whitney, brother of the preceding, received a collegiate educa- tion, studied Sanskrit, spending three years in Germany. A professor in Yale college. Five years ago the order of merit made vacant by the death of Thomas Carlyle, was bestowed on him by the Emperor of Germany.
Pliny Earle, A. M., M. D., late Superintendent of the State Lunatic Hos- pital at Northampton, was born in Leicester, Mass., December 31, 1809. He is a descendant of Ralph Earle, who, with nineteen others, successfully peti- tioned Charles the First, in 1638, for permission to form themselves into a
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body politic of the island of Rhode Island, and son of Pliny Earle, who made, for Samuel Slater, the cards for the first cotton-carding machine moved by water-power in America.
Dr. Earle received his literary and classical education in the academy at Leicester, Mass., and at the Friends' School, in Providence, R. I. He pur- sued his medical studies in the University of Pennsylvania, whence he graduated in March, 1837. Immediately afterwards he left for Europe, where he remained two years,-one in the medical school and hospitals of Paris, and the other in a tour of both professional and general observation, in which he visited various institutions for the insane, from England to Turkey. Upon his return, in 1839, he opened an office in Philadelphia, Pa., but shortly afterward became resident physician to the Friends' Asylum for the Insane, near Frankford, now a part of the aforesaid city. In 1844 he was appointed medical superintendent of the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane, in New York city. In 1849 he again went to Europe, and visited thirty-four institutions for the insane in England, Belgium, France and Germany; and in 1871 he went a third time, and visited forty-six similar institutions, in Ireland, Austria, Italy and the intervening countries. More than one hundred and forty hospitals and asylums for the care of the insane, in America and Europe, have come under his personal observation. In the course of these several journeys he also visited the schools for idiots in England, Paris and Berlin, and the then celebrated and popular monitorial public schools of London and Edinburgh.
In February, 1853, he was elected as one of the visiting physicians of the New York City Lunatic Asylum, on Blackwell's Island; and on the 2d of July, 1864, the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton ap- pointed him to the office of superintendent of that institution. This latter position he held until October 1, 1885, when he withdrew, in accordance with his resignation tendered some months prior to that date. Relative to his resignation we find the following resolutions recorded in the thirtieth annual report of the trustees of the hospital :-
" Resolved, That, in accepting the resignation of Dr. Pliny Earle, Superin- tendent of this hospital, the Trustees have reluctantly yielded to the con- viction that his advancing years and impaired health demand rest, and relief from the responsibilities and labors of his position.
" Dr. Earle has been at the head of this institution twenty-one years, and during nearly all of that period has also been its Treasurer. In its manage- ment he has combined the highest professional skill and acquirement with rare executive ability. By his professional knowledge, his long experience, his patient attention to details; by his wisdom and firmness, his absolute fidelity to duty, and devotion to the interests of the hospital, he has rendered invaluable services to the institution, and to the community which it serves.
" The Trustees are deeply sensible of the assistance which he has given them in the discharge of their duties, and follow him, in his retirement, with the assurance of their highest respect and esteem.
" Resolved, That the Trustees indulge the hope that Dr. Earle will con-
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tinue to make his home in this institution, that they may continue to profit by his counsels ; and they will provide that his rooms shall always be open and ready for his use."
Consequently, the doctor remains, for the present, at the hospital, and is succeeded in his official position by Dr. Edward Beecher Nims.
In the winter of 1840-41, while at the Friends' asylum, Dr. Earle delivered before the patients a course of lectures upon natural philosophy, illustrated by experiments in pneumatics and electricity. This was the first known at- tempt to address an audience of the insane in any discourse other than a sermon. The following account of another previously untried experiment, is extracted from the doctor's annual report, for the official year 1866-67, of the Northampton hospital. In describing the lectures which he had given the inmates of the hospital during the winter of that year, he says :-
" No less than six of the discourses were upon diseases of the brain which are accompanied by mental disorder. This is the first time that anaudience of insane persons ever listened to a course of lectures upon their own malady. When we remember how cautiously any allusion to the insanity of a person is generally avoided while in conversation with him ; and, further still, in view of the prevalent fear of the insane in the popular mind, the attempt to entertain a gathering of more than two hundred and fifty mental aliens by discourses upon their disorder, may, by some persons, be regarded as hazardous. It must be confessed that, notwithstanding my long experience with this class of persons, the attempt was approached with some doubts and misgivings. It was considered possible both that offense might be given, and that some of the most excitable patients might become noisy by speech and turbulent in action, and that the tumult might extend until the only recourse would be an adjournment to home quarters.
" The event demonstrated the folly of any fears on those grounds, and triumphantly vindicated any claims which might have been advanced by the patients of being reasonable, if not wholly rational. No public speaker need desire a more quite audience than that at each of the six lectures in question. By the more intelligent of the patients they were considered the most inter - esting lectures of the course ; and, to a large extent, they were the subject of daily discussion among them.
" To what extent the hearers severally applied to themselves that part of the lecture which was properly applicable, cannot well be estimated ; but there is good reason for the belief that many of them applied much that was said, as scandal will have it that men generally apply the pith of sermons,- to their neighbors."
Doctor Earle was one of the original members and founders of the Amer- ican Medical Association, as well as of the Association of Medical Superin- tendents of American Institutions for the Insane, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the New England Psychological Society. Of the association last mentioned he was the first president ; and he now holds that office upon his third term. He was vice-president of the American Association of Med- ical Superintendents during the official year 1883-84; and president of the same association in 1884-85. He was elected a member of the Philadelphia Medical Society in 1837 ; of the New York Medical and Surgical Society in 1845 ; of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1868 ; of the American Phil-
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osophical Society in 1866; fellow of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1846; councilor of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1876, and corresponding member of the Medical Society of Athens, Greece, in 1839. He is also a member of the American Social Science Association, honorary member of the British Medico-Psychological Association, and cor- responding member of the New York Medico-Legal Society. Among his contributions to medical literature which have been published in book or pamphlet form are: " A Visit to Thirteen Asylums for the Insane in Eu- rope," 1841 ; " History, Description and Statisticsof Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane," 1848; " Blood-Letting in Mental Disorders," 1854; "Insti- tutions for the Insane in Prussia, Austria and Germany," 1854 ; " Psycho- logic Medicine, its importance as a part of the Medical Curriculum," 1867 ; " The Psychopathic Hospital of the Future," 1867 ; Prospective Provision for the Insane," 1868; "The Curability of Insanity," 1877; and " A Glance at Insanity and the Management of the Insane in the American States," in 1879. To these may be added five annual reports of the Bloom- ingdale Asylum for the Insane, and twenty two annual reports of the State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton.
Among his papers published in medical journals are : " Climate, Popula- tion, and Diseases of Malta ;" " Medical Institutions, Diseases, &c., at Ath- ens and Constantinople;" "The Royal College of Surgeons in London ;" " The Inability to distinguish Colors ;" "Experiments to Discover the Psy- chological Effects of Conium Maculatum ;" " The pulse of the Insane ;" " Paralysis Peculiar to the Insane ;" " Insanity in its Coincidence with Age ;" " A Description of Gheel," the Belgian Colony of the Insane; " European Institutions for Idiots ;" and " The Lunatic Hospital at Havanna, Cuba."
In 1863 Dr. Earle was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Psy- chology in the Berkshire Medical Institute at Pittsfield, Mass .; but in conse- quence of his appointment, in 1864, to the Superintendence of the hospital at Northampton, his lectures at that college were limited to the course for 1864. He was for several years a member of the Board of Health for Northampton. The doctor has never married.
Edward Beecher Nims, A. M., M. D., the present superintendent of the State Lunatic Hospital in Northampton, was born in Sullivan, Cheshire County, N. H., April 20, 1838. He is a descendant of Godfrey Nims, who, according to the oldest records of the family now extant, was married in Northampton, Mass., on November 28, 1677. Ebenezer Nims, a son of Godfrey, removed to Deerfield a short time previous to 1702, and when that town was destroyed by the Indians on February 29, 1703-04, O. S., he and Sarah Hoit were taken captives and removed, with others, to Canada, where they were detained as prisoners ten years. In the course of this captivity an Indian chief proposed to take Sarah in marriage ; but she declined the alli- ance, promising, however, to marry one of her fellow captives. She subse- quently became the wife of Ebenezer Nims.
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David Nims, one of the five sons who sprung from this union, was the first town clerk and treasurer of Keene, N. H., to which offices he was elected May 2, 1753. Dr. Edward .B. Nims, in the line of descent, is his great-great- grandson.
Dr. Nims studied at Kimball Union Academy, in Meriden, N. H., and graduated in 1862, at Williams College, Mass., which afterwards, in 1882, conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. His professional studies were in the Medical Department of the University of Vermont, from which he received the degree of M D., in the spring of 1864. He then immedi- ately entered the army as assistant surgeon in the first regiment of Vermont cavalry, a post which he held until the close of the civil war.
During the medical terin of 1865-66, he prosecuted his professional studies at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, and in the latter year was appointed assistant physician at the Vermont Insane Asylum, at Brattleboro. After an experience of nearly three years in that institution, he was appointed assistant physician to the State Lunatic Asylum at Northamp- ton. He entered upon his duties here on December 14, 1868, and, having performed them satisfactorily nearly seventeen years, until the resignation of Dr. Earle, he was promoted to the office of superintendent on the Ist of Octo- ber, 1885. Prior to that date, and principally for the purpose of learning the recent improvements in European institutions, he went abroad, extending his journey to Rome, but passing most of the time in Great Britain, where he visited twenty asylums for the insane.
Dr. Nims is a member of the Massachusetts State Medical Society, of the New England Psychological Society, and of the Association of Medical Super- intendents of American Institutions for the Insane. He is, also, one of the corporators of the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes, in Northampton.
Dr. Nims married Elizabeth E. Delano, of Ticonderoga, N. Y., on Sep- tember 5, 1867.
Samuel Lapham Hill was born in Smithfield, R. I., July 30, 1806. His parents were Friends or Quakers. He learned the carpenter's trade and for several years worked at the bench. After a limited experience as teacher, he became superintendent and general manager of a cotton cloth factory in Williamantic. In the spring of 1841 he removed to Northampton and assisted in the organization of an attempt at co operation known as the Northampton Association for Education and Industry. He was the treasurer and one of the directors af this association until its dissolution in 1845. Soon after, with Samuel L. Hinckley, of Northampton, he formed the partnership of Hill & Hinckley, for the manufacture of sewing-silk and for other industrial purposes. He was also a prominent partner in the following manufacturing and mercan- tile enterprises : H. Wells & Co., manufacturers of saw-mills, pumps and wrenches ; Wells & Littlefield, and Florence Sewing Machine Co., manufac- turers of sewing machines ; I. S. Parsons & Co., general merchants ; Little- field, Parsons & Co., manufacturers of buttons and daguerreotype cases ; Flor-
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