USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Historical sketches of Watertown, Massachusetts > Part 25
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Norumbega, by J. H. Colby, pamphlet.
The Problem of the Northmen, by E. N. Horsford.
The discovery of the ancient City of Norumbega. E. N. Horsford. [Edition privately printed and beautifully illustrated. Special copy belonging to the society.]
PHYSICIANS .- The information respecting the phy- sicians of Watertown in early times, during the first hundred years, is very scanty, and their number very few. We have not discovered that any of the pastors of Watertown practiced the healing art, which was not unusual in early times. James Sherman, of Sud- bury, son of Rev. John Sherman, of Watertown, was a pastor and a physician, and two of his sons, John and Thomas, were physicians, and were said to be sowie time of Watertown; but in 1708 they resided in Springfield.
The earliest notice of any medical practice was March, 1630-31, when "Nicholas Knapp was (by the court) fined £5 for taking upon him to cure the scurvy by a water of no valne, which he sold at a very dear rate." Probably his only medical education had been, like that of his numerous followers, to study the cred- ulity of human nature, and how he might most suc- cessfully dupe it. Mr. Simon Eire, " chirurgeon," was the first physician of Watertown, where he resided about ten years, 1635 to 1645, when he moved to Boston. As there is no evidence that there was any other physician resident of Watertown for many years afterwards, it is not improbable that he sometimes visited it professionally, as he retained his estate there. But if there were no physicians, their place was supplied by some of the goodwives. Grace, wife of John Livermore, was an obstetrician, and she was sometimes summoned to court as a witness in cases where she had acted professionally.
Daniel Mason, youngest son of Capt. Hugh Mason, graduated at Harvard College in 1666, was a physi- cian, living as late as 1679, but it is not known whether he ever practiced medicine in Watertown. He was captured by an Algerine, and is supposed to have died in Algiers. (Bond's MS. notes to his own history.)
In the County Court files is a petition of the select- men of Watertown, dated 1690, in which they say that S. G. came from Cambridge to Watertown, "to the home of Ellis Barron whose wife had skill in matters of surgery."
The next physician after Dr. Eire was Dr. Philip Shattuck, who probably practiced there from about 1670 to 1722. He resided in the northeast part of Waltham.
Dr. Pallgrave Wellington was his contemporary, be- ing only five years younger than Dr. Shattuck. He
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resided on the Cambridge road, on or near the lots of G. Church and W. Woolcot. He died 1715.
Dr. Richard Hooper was a contemporary of Drs. Shattuck and Wellington, and resided at the east of Mt. Auburn. He died early in 1690. His son Henry was a physician of Watertown a few years, and about 1723 he moved to Newport, Rhode Island.
Dr. Josiah Convers, from Woburn, settled in Water- town probably about the time of the decease of Dr. Shattuck and the removal of D. H. Hooper. We have not ascertained where he resided, but perhaps it was the residence afterwards occupied by his nephew, pupil, legatee and executor, Dr. Marshall Spring. Ile died in 1774, after a residence probably of nearly fifty years. (Bond, page 1074.)
The following is the epitaph on the stone resting horizontally upon pillars, over Dr. Corivers' grave in the village burying-ground :
" To the much honored and respected memory of
JOSIAH CONVERS, ESQ ,
who, by divine permission, resigned his valuable life August, 1774, aged
" If real medical abilities, united with every human and social virtue, the most active extensive generosity, universal benevolence and charity, may deserve to outline the Panegyric of a mouldering stone, the envy of the grave and the devouring touth of time, certainly the Virtues and inany excellences which distinguish the character of Dr. Convers ate very eminently entitled to such a peculiar tribute from the grateful Public.
" This honest stone, what few vain marbles can,
May truly say, here lies an honest man."
Dr. Marshall Spring was born in Watertown, Feb. 19, 1741-2, graduated at Harvard College in 1762, and died Jan. 11, 1818, aged seventy-six years. He re- ceived great assistance from his maternal uncle, Dr. .Josiah Convers, with whom he studied medicine, and whose property he afterwards inherited. Francis says, "Dr. Spring became one of the most distinguished physicians in the country ; and perhaps no one can be mentioned in whose judgment and skill a more un- reserved confidenee was placed. His practice was very extensive, and his house was the resort of great numbers of patients from the neighboring and from distant towns."
Says Thatcher, " His mind was not filled by fashion- able theories of the day any further than they ac- corded with his own views of practice. His natural sagacity or force of judgment led him to deep and critical observations into the causes and nature of diseases, and their remedies. He asked few questions, used his eyes rather than his ears, seemed to gain knowledge of each particular case by intuition. He often effected cures by direeting changes of habit, of diet, of regimen. He used little medicine, always giving nature fair play. Though differing from his neighbors politically, being a decided Tory at the time of the Revolution, he was early on the ground at Lexington, skillfully attending the wounded. It was said that he would have been sent out of the country, had not his services been so valuable, so indispensa- ble to his patients.
In 1789 he was a member of the State Convention which adopted the Constitution of the United States, which he opposed, never having believed in the capacity of the people for self-government. He was for several years a member of the Executive Council of Massachusetts, and discharged his duties with talent and fidelity.
Dr. Spring was in his person rather short, but com- pact and well proportioned; always a fine-looking man ; after the age of fifty, till the time of his death, he was spoken of as one of the handsomest men of his time. His habits of living were a model for others. He used food and drink for nourishment, not for gratification of appetite. His meals were frugal, his board, though hospitable, was never spread with luxuries. He was careful in his investments. It is said that he once remarked that real property had always something to show for one's money, while other property might vanish. He built the Spring Hotel for his friend, Col. Richardson, a famous hotel-keeper, whom he wished to retain in town. He left $200,000 or $300,000 to his son, but nothing to religious or charitable institutions.
He was a wit, keen and quick at repartee. Chief Justice Parsons delighted to measure weapons with him in the keen encounter of wit. The onsets of the chief justice were rapid, keen and overwhelm- ing. The replies of the doctor were moderate, pun- gent, successful. Their meetings sometimes happened in the presence of a large company, who remained silent, delighted to see the giants play."
. Walter Hunnewell, M.D., the subject of this sketch, was probably descended from Roger Hunnewell, who came to New England not long after the settlement of the Massachusetts Colony. In the early records the name was spelled at various times Hunniwell, Hun- nuel, Honywell and Hunnewell. Dr. Hunnewell was born in Cambridge, August 10, 1769, and received his early education in the public schools of that town, Though only six years of age when the Revolutionary War began, he was old enough before its close to re- ceive impressions which enabled him to remember some of its more important events. He graduated at Harvard in 1787, in the elass with John Quiney Adams, William Cranch, Thaddeus Mason Harris James Lloyd and Samuel Putnam. He studied medicine with Dr. Marshall Spring, of Waltham, and settled in Watertown. The medical school of Harvard College had, at that time, scarcely entered on its career and the offices of leading physicians were the schools of instruction for young men preparing for the practice of medicine. The first graduate from the Harvard Medical School was in 1788, and in that and the three succeeding years the graduating class had but one member, and not until 1813 did it con- tain more than four members. The life of Dr. Hun- newell was for the most part the usual one of medical men of his day. The town in which he settled was small and his practice was scattered, covering a terri-
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tory which included some of the neighboring towns . and involving almost incessant rides by day and night and unremitting labor. Like other medical men, too, of his time, his practice included hoth medical and surgical cases, and involved the treatment of cases of much wider range than are found under the care of a single man to-day since the divorce of sur- gery from medicine and the division of general practice into specialties. The consequence was that physicians of the period referred to had a more com- plete medical education than is to be found, especially in the cities and their neighborhood, in our day, and thus Dr. Hunnewell became a thoroughly educated, widely informed and skillful man. In another re- spect, too, the physician's career of his time differed from that of to-day. Not only were medical fees of smaller proportions if paid in money, but many of them in the country towns were satisfied by country pay, eggs and butter and chickens from the farmer, tea and coffee from the grocer, and preaching from the minister.
The practice of Dr. Hunnewell furnished no ex- ception to the general rule and his cellar and larder were largely supplied by means of no other circulat- ing medium than medicine, the tooth-puller and pills. Upon such a practice, however, he thrived, and in such a practice he continued actively at work until he was eighty years of age. He was for many years the only physician in Watertown, and as his reputa- tion widened he became a frequent visitor to the sick- beds of Newton and Cambridge and Waltham. He was a devotee to his profession, permitting himself to take no active part in the public affairs of either town or State. As a Whig in politics he rejoiced in the success of his party ; as a Unitarian in theology he was interested in the welfare of his church; as a Mason he shared the duties as well as the labors of his order. He was a man of unswerving integrity, of commendable liberality, of cultivated tastes, a kind neighbor, a good friend, a thoroughly respected citizen.
Dr. Hunnewell married, May 12, 1800, Susannah Cook, of Newton, and his children were Jane, born June 23, 1801, who married John A. Underwood, and Horatio Hotlis, born July 27, 1810. The last-named child, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, as a merchant has had an eminently successful career. At the age of fifteen he entered the banking-house of Welles & Co., in Paris, France, and there remained until 1839, when he was twenty-nine years of age. Samuel Welles, the head of the firm of Welles & Co., was born in Natick, Massachusetts, April 22, 1778, and graduated at Harvard in 1796. He married, in London, in 1816, Adeline, daughter of John Fowle, of Water- town, Mass., and died in Paris in August, 1841. Ar- nold Welles, uncle of Samuel, was born in Boston, December 25, 1727, and had a son, John, born in September, 1764, who married, in 1794, Abigail Welles, sister of Samuel. The ninth child of John
Welles, named Isabella Pratt, born September 7, 1812, married, in Paris, December 24, 1835, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, mentioned above. Mrs. Hunnewell in- herited the Welles estate, in that part of Natick which is now Wellesley, and Mr. Hunnewell has made large additions by purchase until it now includes about six hundred acres. This estate, occupied during thesum- mer by Mr. Hunnewell and also in separate houses by his married children, lies on both sides of the road leading from the Wellesley Station to Natick. That part of it occupied by Mr. Hunnewell himself lies on the borders of Wellesley Pond, on the other side of which are the grounds of Wellesley College. The mansion built by him stands out of sight from the road, and is reached by an avenue winding through spacious lawns and shaded by ornamental and forest trees, which reminds the visitor of the approaches to some of the best estates in England. Mr. Hunnewell inherits from his father a taste for horticulture, which his abundant means enable him to gratify, and as he walks through his almost endless green-houses he points out his rare varieties of fruit and flowers with undisguised enthusiasm and fondles them with the tenderness of a parent in his children's nursery. Dr. Hunnewell, of whom this sketch is written, died in Watertown, October 19, 1855, at the age of eighty- six.
Dr. Hiram Hosmer was born in Walpole, N. H., September 4, 1798. He was one of twelve children of Jonas Hosmer (1758-1840), a farmer ; Jonas was the son of Jonathan, born in 1712, who had a brother who was a noted surveyor, and was the son of Stephen, who was the son of Stephen (1642). who was the son of James (1607-85), who came from Hawkhurst, in Kent, England, about twelve miles from Dover. James was in Concord, Mass., in 1635, took the oath of freeman in Boston, May 17, 1637, and settled on the right bank of the river north of Darby's bridge, on farm lately occupied by Elijah Hosmer. James, the son of this first James, was killed in the Sudbury fight in 1676.
As a boy he worked on his father's farm, occasion- ally for neighbors, at a compensation which seemed to him in better days, ridiculously meagre. He learned the trade of cabinet-maker, which he after- wards abandoned for medicine. His education was at first at a district school, one term at an academy, and afterwards with the celebrated Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, N. H. He afterwards spent some months under the tuition of Drs. Hale and Watkins, in Troy, N. Y. He attended lectures in Boston and received his degree from Harvard University in 1824. It was in this very year(1824) that he established himself in Water- town, where he remained until his death, April 15, 1862, which was from abdominal disease. Many liv- ing remember the kind face of the old doctor, and say that the portrait recently presented to the Public Library of Watertown, by his nephew, Dr. Hiram Hosmer, is a faithful and life-like picture. Most have an incorrect idea of the cause of his death, for many
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
years before, "during a convalescence from typhoid fever, he had an incomplete hemiplegia of the right side. In April, 1856, he had a light attack which slightly benumbed the right arm. In February, 1860, he had a cerebral hæmorrhage, which two of the most eminent of the profession thought must speedily prove fatal. Contrary to all reasonable expectation, he ral- lied, instead of sinking, and early in the summer was able to walk and ride out; and two years and two months afterward he died of abdominal disease."
He had a successful career ; a large experience, great professional tact, a ready and correct judgment, an appreciation of "Nature in Disease," and a perfect comprehension of, and devotion to the highest inter- ests of medicine, in the best sense of the term.
One writes of him : " He was esteemed wherever he was known. He was not a great book-man, but was a diligent student of nature, and ever studied care- fully the diagnosis of his patients, as well as the mode of treatment. He was judicious in the treatment of the sick, not afraid of powerful medicines when such were really needed, but more commonly employed mild remedies."
Dr. Hosmer was married, September 6, 1827, to Sarah Watson Grant, of Walpole, N. H., who died in 1836. Of four children, the youngest only survives all her family, and is now the distinguished sculptress, Har- riet Hosmer. She was born October 9, 1830; being naturally of a delicate constitution, her treatment and early education well illustrates the good sense and wisdom of her father, and should be mentioned here. He encouraged her to pursue a course of physical training unusual to her sex. If half the stories cur- rent among the people are true, she must have astou- ished the older people by her daring riding, sometimes standing on her dashing horse as he tore through the street. At an early age she began modeling in clay. Having completed her school education, she took a regular course in anatomical instruction at the Medi- cal College of St. Louis. In the summer of 1851 she returned home, and commenced her bust of " Hesper," which, on its completion in marble in 1852, attracted much attention in Boston ; and her father placed her under the instruction of Gibson, the sculptor, in Rome. From here we have her busts of "Daphne," " Medusa," and the statue of " ÆEnone." One of her best works is " Beatrice Cenci," which was made for the St. Louis Public Library. One of her most popular works, which has been copied many times, is " Puck," a charming statue.
She was established for many years as a profession- al sculptor in Rome, reaping a substantial reward in a large income. In 1859 she finished a statue of " Zenobia in Chains," a work on which she labored 80 zealously for two years as to impair her health. A statue of Thomas H. Benton, now in St. Louis, which is cast in bronze ; " The Sleeping Fann," for the en- trance of an art gallery at Ashbridge Hall, England ; a full-length reclining figure of a young girl for a
funeral monument in the Church of St. Andrea della Fratti in Rome, and a design for a " Lincoln Monu- ment" in Washington, D. C., are among her works. It is hoped that in her return to Rome, to renew her art work, she has already restored, by her father's wise art, the health which will enable her to still fur- ther vindicate the right of woman to strength and usefulness and a most honorable career.
Dr. Samuel Richardson, descended in the sixth gen- eration from Samuel Richardson, who was born in England in 1610, emigrated to America in 1636, and also was one of the founders of Woburn.
The doctor was the only son of Captain Ebenezer and Rhoda (Coolidge) Richardson ; born at Newton, Mass., Jan. 13, 1795; married, 1820, to Mary Kid- der, daughter of Isaac and Mary Kidder, of Town- send, Mass. He studied medicine with Dr. Moses Kidder, of Dublin, N. H., and Dr. Stephen H. Spaulding, of the same place; afterward with Dr. Amos Mitchell. Dr. Richardson practiced medicine at Peterborough, N. H., until 1838, when he removed to Watertown, Mass. His wife, Mary, died in 1861. In June, 1873, he married Sarah Barnard, of Water- town, who still survives him. Dr. Richardson died here, Feb. 12, 1879, leaving a son, Dr. Coolidge Richardson, of Ware, Mass., and a grandson in this town, Mr. Charles B. Gardner, a gentleman of gener- ous culture, who died the last part of July, 1890, leaving an only son, Roy Richardson Gardner, who having passed his examinations for Harvard College, is to spend a year in European travel, partly for his health.
Alfred Hosmer, M.D., born at Newton Upper Falls September 11, 1832, has the same name as his father, who was also a graduate of the Harvard Medi- cal School, and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. His grandfather, Jonas, born in Acton, Mass., in October, 1758, had a brother Abner killed in Concord, in the memorable fight at the bridge, April 19, 1775, while resisting, with other members of Captain Isaac Davis' company, of Acton, the advance of the British regulars. This grand- ather married, in December, 1778, Betsy Willard, by whom he had twelve children, and, like many thrifty countrymen of that time, drove, as he had oppor- tunity, a trade, while the rest of his time was spent as a farmer. This trade was that of a mason. His great-great-grandfather, James Hosmer, at the age of twenty-eight, with a wife and two children, left his native Hawkhurst, in Kent, England, for America in 1635, and settled in Concord, Mass., on fields still tilled by descendants of the same name, after these two hundred and fifty years.
His father, Alfred Hosmer, a tenth child, and born at Walpole, N. H., in Nov., 1802, learned the trade of a shoemaker, but with great hope and persever- ance entered upon the study of medicine, and at the age of twenty-three was admitted as a student to the office of Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, N. H. He
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attended the usual course of lectures in the Medical School of Harvard University, and received the de- gree of M.D. in 1828. Enfeebled by acute rheuma- tism in early youth, resulting in a serious organic affection of the heart, he died in 1837, at the early age of thirty-five, leaving his three young children to the care of a courageous, energetic, and judicious mother, whom, as Mary Ann Grahme he had married in December, 1831. Her father, who belonged to an old Scotch family, had come to New York when quite a young man, and there had established himself as a merchant.
Alfred Hosmer, the son, having attended the pub- lic schools of Newton until his ninth year, when his mother found it expedient to remove to Walpole, N. H., where he found meagre opportunities for acquir- ing the thorough preliminary training which is neces sary for the liberal education which he desired, was, nevertheless, admitted, without conditions, to Harv- ard College, and graduated with honor in 1853.
Having early selected, for the work of his life, medicine, which his father pursued, he tenaciously held to his early choice, and, soon after graduating, was admitted to the office of his uncle, Dr. Hiram Hosmer, of Watertown, well known in all this region as a most skilful practitioner, and during the follow- ing two winters attended lectures at the Harvard Medical School, the third year being spent as house- officer in the surgical department of the Massachu- setts General Hospital. In 1856 he received the de- gree of M.D. from his Alma Mater, and spent a large portion of the following year in professional studies in Paris.
It was the autumn of 1857 when he located in Watertown, from which time he has devoted himself industrously to general practice with a success that proves ability and has secured his reputation of being among the best practitioners of the State. In June, 1860, he married Helen Augusta, the youngest dangh- ter of the late Josiah Stickney, and has two children, a daughter and a son.
Dr. Hosmer became a Fellow of the Massachusetts Society in 1856 ; has repeatedly been a member of its council; way its anniversary chairman in 1877, and in 1882 its president, one of the youngest who have been elected to this high office. He was made presi- dent of the Obstetrical Society of Boston, for two years; was president of the Middlesex South District Medical Society ; was medical examiner for the Seventh District of Middlesex Connty. He took an active part in organizing the Massachusetts Medico- Legal Society, was its first president, holding the office three years ; was for many years post surgeon at the United States Arsenal at Watertown.
In 1879 he was made Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 1881 he was made a member of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity, and became chairman of the Health Committee.
He has contributed to the pages of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, papers of which the titles, in part, are " Diagnostic Importance of Examin- ations of the Urine ; " " The Abuse of the Alimentary Canal;" " Life and Disease ; " " Increase of Danger incident to the Puerperal State ; " " A Case of Vaginal Lithotomy ; " Wounds of the Knee-Joint ; " " Intro- ductory Address before the Massachusetts Medico- Legal Society ; " " In what Cases shall the Medical Examiner decline to view a Dead Body ?" " A Pecu- liar Condition of the Cervix Uteri which is found in Certain Cases of Dystocia."
But not alone in professional labors has Dr. Hosmer won distinction. In the best work for the education, religious culture and moral up-building of the people by whom he has been surrounded, and for placing men on their own feet financially, by moder- ating their spending, and stimulating their saving and wisely investing the surplus of health and pros- perity for the days of sickness or adversity, he has been always active and will be long remembered. Dr. Hosmer was a member of the School Committee from 1865 to 1871, of which he was chairman during 1866, '67, '68 to April, 1869.
He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Free Public Library from 1868 to 1878, was secretary from 1868 to 1870, and chairman 1871, 1873 to 1877. He was elected one of the trustees of the Watertown Savings Bank, April 11, 1876; was presi- dent from 1874 to 1890; was instrumental in framing the code of by-laws adopted in 1885.
He was one of the originators of the Historical Society of Watertowu, and did much to make the formation of the society possible, by arousing an interest in local history, and has been its first and only president.
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