History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 28

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292

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Dr. Stephen Hull Sears, son of Stephen and Henrietta (Hull) Sears, was born in South Yarmouth, July 31, 1854. He studied med- icine with Dr. A. Miller at Needham, Mass., graduated in medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical School, New York, in 1879, and practiced in Newport, R. I., from December 30, 1879, until the summer of 1889, when he removed to Yarmouth, where he is now located. In Decem- ber, 1881, he was appointed A. A. surgeon in the United States marine hospital service which position he held while in Newpprt. He was also four years surgeon of the Newport Artillery Company, by appointment of Governor Wetmore, with the rank of major. Doctor Sears married, August 23, 1881, Marianna B., daughter of Danforth P.W. and Angeline (Bearse) Parker of Barnstable, and has three children.

Dr. Joseph Seabury, second son of Ichabod Seabury, studied med- icine with Doctor Fessenden of Brewster, located in Orleans in 1782, practiced there seventeen years, and died March 27, 1800.

Dr. Benjamin Seabury succeeded his father, Dr. Joseph Seabury, as physician in Orleans and vicinity, practiced there until April, 1837, when he removed to Boston, and subsequently to Charlestown, where he practiced until the time of his death, September 16, 1853.

Benjamin F. Seabury, M.D., son of Dr. Benjamin Seabury, suc- ceeded his father as physician and surgeon in Orleans from 1837 until his death there February 26, 1890. He studied medicine with his father and at the medical school of Harvard University from which he graduated. His only son is Samuel W. Seabury, now in command of a ship from San Francisco to Australia.

Dr. John Seabury, fourth son of Dr. Joseph Seabury, born Febru- ary 4, 1790, practiced in Chatham fifteen years, then removed to South- bridge, Mass., and subsequently to Camden, N. C., where he died.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Dr. George Shove was born in Sandwich, October 14, 1817, where he was at one time a teacher in the school of Paul Wing. He was ed- ucated to the profession in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1846 he became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and of the Barnstable County Society, in which latter he was president. He was eight years surgeon of the United States Marine Hospital at Hyannis. His practice was extensive, reaching from Cotuit Port to Orleans, al- though he resided at Yarmouth, where he married, November 11. 1849, Lucy, daughter of Captain John Eldridge. Dr. Shove's parents were Enoch and Desire (Cobb) Shove of Sandwich. On the occasion of his death the Barnstable District Medical Society recorded resolutions, including this : "The community in which his entire professional life was passed has experienced a loss well nigh irreparable, and will hold his name in grateful remembrance for his public spirit and enterprise, resulting in little pecuniary advantage to himself but in great good to the toiling and destitute."

Marshall E. Simmons, M.D., was born in Wareham, Mass., and graduated from Harvard Medical College about 1861. He entered the army as assistant surgeon of the Twenty-second Regiment, Massa- chusetts Volunteers, July 29, 1862, and was promoted to surgeon of the same regiment December 29, 1862. He resigned his commission the 27th of August, 1863, and practiced medicine in Chatham until February, 1870. when he left to reside in one of the Western states. He was twice married. His last wife, the only daughter of Cap- tain George Eldredge of Chatham, he married August 4, 1869. He subsequently returned to Wareham, Mass., where died in May, 1874.

Dr. Thomas Smith, a physician and surgeon of Sandwich, son of Samuel and Bethiah Smith of that town, was born September 7, 1718, and studied medicine in Hingham. He was eminent in his profes- sion. He visited the sick far and near. He had a family.

Dr. Thomas Starr was among the first comers to Yarmouth. He was not in sympathy with the first settlers, being regarded as rather latitudinarian in his principles, and was once fined for being what was regarded as "a scoffer and jeerer at religion." Justice compels the statement that this simply consisted in preferring another minis- ter to Rev. Mr. Matthews, and giving his reasons therefor. He left town about 1650, there being insufficient practice of his profession for his support.

Dr. Ezra Stephenson practiced medicine at Marston's Mills from 1832 to 1838.

John Stetson, M.D., was born in Abington, Mass., and graduated from Dartmouth Medical College in 1850. In 1851 he commenced the practice of medicine in West Harwich, where he still resides.

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MEDICAL PROFESSION.

William Stone, M.D., was a practicing physician at Wellfleet prior to 1843. His father, whose name he bore, was also a physician at En- field, Mass. In locating at Wellfleet, William Stone succeeded Dr. James Townsend, who had been a physician there for a number of years. Subsequently he married Doctor Townsend's widow and re- moved to Harvard, Mass., where he died.

Thomas N. Stone, M.D., born in 1818, was a son of Dr. William Stone. He was a graduate (1840) of Bowdoin College and Dartmouth Medical School, from which he received his medical degree, October 24, 1843. He practiced in Wellfleet from the time he graduated until 1875, with the exception of two years in Truro. He removed from Wellfleet to Provincetown in 1875, where he died May 15, 1876. He was a very pleasing speaker and writer. He was a member of the school committee of Wellfleet nearly thirty years, repre- sentative in 1873, and state senator in 1874 and 1875. His first marriage was with Hannah D., daughter of William N. Atwood. Their two sons were William N. Stone, M.D., and Thomas N., de- ceased. His second wife was Nancy B., another daughter of William N. Atwood. Their two daughters, one Helen L. (Mrs. F. H. Crowell of Nebraska), and Anabel (widow of E. W. Snow).

William N. Stone, M.D., born in 1845 in Truro, is a son of Thomas N. Stone, M.D., and a grandson of William Stone, M.D. He attended Lawrence Academy two years and Wilbraham Academy one year, then took a four years' course at Harvard Medical College graduating in June, 1869. He began practice in Wellfleet in 1869 with his father, who retired six years later, leaving a large practice to the young doc- tor. He married Adeline Hamblin and has two children-Thomas N. and Adeline H.

Dr. Jeremiah Stone, son of Captain Shubael and Esther (Wildes) Stone, was born November 2, 1798, and was a prominent physician of Provincetown.

Dr. Alfred Swift, son of Thomas, was born in North Rochester, Mass., March 3, 1797: studied medicine with his brother in Vermont; came to Harwich first, and then removed to Dennis, about 1828, where he died July 27, 1875. His wife, Elizabeth Jane Gray of Martha's Vineyard, died September 9, 1871. He had an adopted son, Charles Haskell Swift, who married Mrs. Mary J. Brooks, daughter of Heman Baxter, and now lives in Dennis. Doctor Swift is best remembered for his kindness to the poor.

Dr. James Thacher, was born in Barnstable, February 14, 1754. He studied medicine with Dr. Abner Nersey, and entered the army as surgeon in 1775, serving seven and one-half years. At the close of the war he married Susanna Hayward of Bridgewater, and settled in the practice of medicine in Plymouth, where he died in May, 1844, in his

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

ninety-first year. He published several works, including his journal while in the revolutionary war.

Dr. Charles N. Thayer was born at Attleboro, Mass., in 1828. His childhood was passed in Mansfield, where his early education was received. His father, Simeon Thayer, was a soldier in the war of 1812. His grandfather, Isaac Fuller, served in the revolution, and he was a non-commissioned officer in Company I, Fourth Massachu- setts, during the late rebellion. On the maternal side he traces his ancestry to the Doctor Fuller whose name is enrolled on the Puritans' monument at Plymouth, Mass. He resided for some time in Pem- broke, Mass., where he was engaged in the lumber business, and rep- resented that town in the legislature of 1855. He studied medicine with E. R. Sisson, M.D., of New Bedford, and attended lectures in Boston. In 1869 he opened an office in Falmouth, and established an extensive practice. In 1884, his health becoming impaired, part of his practice was dropped and a store was opened, with the management of which, in connection with his professional duties, he is now en- gaged.

Dr. Townsend was a physician of Orleans at the beginning of the present century. He had two children, Hannah and Julia, baptized at Orleans by Rev. Mr. Bascom, the former in 1801, the latter in 1803.

Henry Tuck, M.D., of Barnstable, was born February 16, 1808, and died June 24, 1845.

Alexander T. Walker, M.D., a practitioner of the alopathic school, was born in Canada, in 1844. He received his early education in Canada, and graduated from Dartmouth College, N. H., in 1869. Be- fore entering Dartmouth he was in New York two years-one year in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and one year in Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Since graduating he has attended lectures six seasons-two courses in Bellevue Medical College (one under Doc- tor Loomis, in the hospital), one course in Vermont University in Burlington, and two courses in the medical department of the Uni- versity of the City of New York. In 1870 he located in Maine, but came to Falmouth in 1883, where he has since practiced.

James T. Walker, M.D., of Falmouth, born April 25, 1850, at To- ronto, is the youngest of a family of six sons, three of whom are phy- sicians and the others clergymen. He was educated in the Toronto city schools and at eighteen years of age graduated from the Provin- cial Normal School. Four years later he graduated from Queen's Col- lege, Toronto, at the head of the class of '72, and was chosen its val- edictorian. In 1873 he came to Martha's Vineyard where he taught school and studied medicine three years. In 1876-7 he attended the Detroit Medical College and was two seasons at Burlington in the University of Vermont, where he was graduated in June, 1879, and

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was again valedictorian of his class. His first practice was at Mar- tha's Vineyard, whence in March, 1880, he came to Falmouth as suc- cessor to Dr. Lyman H. Luce. Here he married Evangeline G., daughter of I. H. Aiken.

James M. Watson, M.D., of Falmouth, was born at Sangerville, Me., January 16, 1860. He graduated in 1881 from Foxcroft Acad- emy and in 1883 from Maine Central Institute at Pittsfield, Me. In March, 1886, he received his degree from the medical department of the University of the City of New York, also a course in Bellevue Hospital (under Prof. William N. Thompson), and has since practiced in Falmouth. In April, 1890, he graduated from the Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital of New York. He is a registered phar- macist and a member of the state board of pharmacy.

George E. White, M.D., was born in 1849 in Skowhegan, Me., and was educated in the schools of Skowhegan and in the Eaton Family and Day School. From 1868 to 1877 he was in business in Boston. In 1877, he entered the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1880, opening a practice in Sandwich the same year, where he has been since that time. He is a member of Dewitt Clinton Lodge, A. F. and A. M., of which he was master in 1884 and 1885, and again in 1889.

Dr. Jonas Whitman, an early physician of Barnstable, was born in 1749, graduate of Yale in 1772, and died July 30, 1824. His father, Zachariah, was a son of Ebenezer, whose father Thomas, was a son of Deacon John Whitman of Weymouth. He had three sons: John, a graduate of Harvard in 1805 ; Josiah, M.D., at Harvard in 1816; and Cyrus Whitman.

Timothy Wilson, M.D., was born in Shapleigh, Me., July 27, 1811, and died in Orleans, Mass., July 18, 1887. His education was obtained in the public schools of his native town, and at the academy in Al- fred, Me. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Wil- liam Lewis of Shapleigh, afterward attending the medical departments of Dartmouth and Bowdoin Colleges, graduating from the latter in 1840. He settled in Ossipee, N. H., but was forced to leave on account of the long, severe winters, and look for a more congenial climate, the result of which, was his settling in Orleans in the summer of 1848, where he continued in active practice until failing health forced him to abandon it about one year preceding his death. He always took a lively interest in matters pertaining to education. In early life he took an active part in politics, being a strong anti-slavery whig, until the formation of the republican party, with which he ever after acted.

Besides these physicians already mentioned in this chapter, are others concerning whom no information has been obtained save the fact that they at some time practiced medicine in the county. Con-

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cerning some of them, traditions might be given ; but nothing suffi- ciently authentic to merit a place here. The apocryphal names are : James Ayer, N. Barrows, J. W. Baxter, John Batchelder, Jonathan Bemis, Jonathan Berry, John E. Bruce, W. F. S. Brackett, J. W. Clift, J. W. Crocker, Bart. Cushman, N. B. Danforth, D. W. Davis, D. Dim- mock, Daniel Doane, J. B. Everett, Benjamin Fearing, J. B. Forsyth, C. A. Goldsmith, John Harper, J. L. Lothrop, Ivory H. Lucas, J. W. Nickerson, John M. Smith, W. O. G. Springer, Henry Willard, Ben- nett Wing, and Edward Wooster.

By chapter 26 of the Public Statutes of Massachusetts, Barnstable county was divided into three medical districts, in each of which an "able and discreet man learned in the science of medicine shall be appointed, whose term of office shall be seven years." District 1, em- braces the towns of Harwich, Dennis, Yarmouth, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans and Eastham; district 2, Barnstable, Bourne, Sandwich, Mashpee and Falmouth ; district 3, Provincetown, Truro and Well- fleet. The medical examiners now in office are : Drs. George N. Mun- sell of Harwich, Franklin W. Pierce of Barnstable, and Willis W. Gleason of Provincetown.

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CHAPTER XIII.

LITERATURE AND LITERARY PEOPLE.

BY HON. CHARLES F. SWIFT, President of the Barnstable County Historical Society.

Early Writers .- Freeman's History of Cape Cod .- Other Local Works .- Poetry .- Fic- tion .- Occasional Writers .- The Newspapers of Barnstable County.

T HE intelligence and capacity of the people of the Cape have not, heretofore, been evinced so much in what they have said, as in what they have dared and accomplished. The founders of her towns were not usually men of literary taste or acquirements, except her clergy, who ranked well with those of their class in other parts of the colony. It was some time after they had settled the towns, sub- dued the wild face of nature, and helped to conquer the savage foe, before they turned their attention to scholarship. Then it was that the fisheries on their shores helped to found and maintain the first public grammar school established by the colony. It was, indeed, the chief reliance of that enterprise.

The first of their written compositions which are extant are in the form of sermons, and of these it may be said, that their style was as rugged and forbidding to our present taste, as were the ideas they were intended to convey. In hours of deep affliction the fathers sometimes essayed to woo the muses. The earliest specimen of ele- gaic verse preserved, is found in the lines composed on the death of his accomplished wife, by Governor Thomas Hinckley, of which pro- duction Mr. Palfrey says, " It breathes not, indeed, the most tuneful spirit of song, but the very tenderest soul of affection."

Dr. John Osborn, born in Sandwich in 1713, a son of Rev. Samuel Osborn, minister for some time of the south precinct of Eastham, wrote a Whaling Song, which has obtained celebrity. It is quite an ad- vance, in literary finish, upon anything preceding it which had been produced by a Cape Cod writer. The opening lines are:

" When spring returns with western gales, And gentle breezes sweep

The ruffling seas, we spread our sails, To plough the wat'ry deep."

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Then follow seventeen stanzas. which describe, in spirited style, the pursuit, killing and capture of the monsters of the deep.

Rev. Thomas Prince, the distinguished author of New England's Annals and Chronology, a native of Sandwich and a grandson of Gov- ernor Hinckley, produced a work of exceeding value. In the opinion of Doctor Chauncy, " No one in New England had more learning ex- cept Cotton Mather." He published other works, though the Annals is esteemed the most important.

James Otis, jr., called " the patriot," besides being a peerless ora- tor, was the author of several important political treatises, among which may be mentioned his Rights of the Colonies Vindicated, which was styled "a masterpiece of good writing and argument."

Rev. Dr. Samuel West, a native of Yarmouth, for some time a school- master in Barnstable and Falmouth, was removed for his metaphysical and controversial talents, as well as for his great learning and pro- found scholarship. "He was," said Dr. Timothy Alden, jr., " as re- markable for his mental powers, as Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great biographer and moralist. He was supposed to have much resembled him in personal appearance, and with the same literary advantages, would unquestionably have equalled him for reputation in the learned world." He wrote several important tracts during the revolutionary period.

Rev. Dr. Timothy Alden, jr., a native of Yarmouth and president of Alleghany College, Meadville, Pa., about the middle of the century published the Collection of American Epitaphs, in four volumes, a book which contained a fund of interesting and valuable information. Rev. James Freeman, D.D., minister of the Stone Chapel, Boston, a native of Truro, contributed, soon after this time, a series of most important papers relating to the history of the towns of the county and published in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. These papers are still quoted and relied upon as authority on the subjects to which they are devoted.

With such a record for enterprise, adventure, patriotism and iden- tification with the great movements of the age as the Cape presents, it would be strange if there were not others of her sons who should attempt to do her honor, or at least justice. In 1858, Rev. Freder- ick Freeman, of Sandwich, commenced the publication of a History of Cape Cod. The book was finally completed, in two large volumes, and to all time must be the foundation upon which other works of the kind will be based. The difficulties in Mr. Freeman's way were numerous; he had to begin without any considerable previous aid ; he was justly emulous of the fame of his illustrious ancestors; and being himself a minister of the church of England, it seemed to some that he did tardy and stinted justice to the Pilgrim and Puri-

LITERATURE AND LITERARY PEOPLE. 251

tan elements. Some of the important epochs were not written up with the fullness and elaboration of the others. But despite these drawbacks Mr. Freeman's book will always be quoted, as the first filial attempt of any Cape Cod man to do appropriate honor to the memory of the pioneers and their successors, and as such should be held in high estimation.

Rev. Enoch Pratt, in 1842, published his history of Eastham, Well- fleet and Orleans. There is much in it which is interesting, unique and worthy of preservation. Mr. Shebnah Rich, in his Truro, Cape Cod, has embodied in an original form, and attractive rhetoric, a mass of important information respecting one of the most interest- ing towns of the Old Colony. In 1861, Mr. Amos Otis commenced a series of articles in the Barnstable Patriot, respecting the history of the Barnstable Families. Nothing has yet been published which evinces so familiar an acquaintance with the habits, manners, motives and impelling principles of the pioneers of the town as these sketches, by one of their descendants. They will always be referred to as authority on the points which they discuss, and be regarded as a monument to the intelligence, zeal and industry of their author. In 1SS4, Charles F. Swift published a history of Old Yarmouth, including the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis; in one volume, 283 pages. Mr. Swift has also published a Fourth of July oration, 1858, a continua- tion of Barnstable Families, several occasional addresses, and contribu- tions to magazines and newspapers, principally on biographical and historical subjects. The sketches of the History of Falmouth up to 1812, by the late Charles W. Jenkins, were issued in a collected form by the Falmouth Local press in 1889. They were written before so much was known as has since transpired about the early history of the town, and the book is a filial and creditable work. Mr. Josiah Paine of Harwich, who contributes to this work the chapters on the history of Harwich and Brewster, has written with intelligence and discrimination, other important historical papers, for the newspapers and magazines, and has a manuscript collection of great value re- garding old Harwich and its people. Mr. Joshua H. Paine, his brother, has also written an exhaustive unpublished account of the War of 1812 in its relation to Harwich. His contribution on that topic to the present volume appears at page 76.

In other departments of literary effort the natives of the Cape have somewhat distinguished themselves. The early bards of the county have already been alluded to. Several others remain to be noticed. Daniel Barker Ford, son of Dr. Oliver Ford of Hyannis, who was an apprentice in the Yarmouth Register office about 1842-4, evinced much poetic and rhetorical talent. His best known piece, "A Lay of Cape Cod," was modeled in style and treatment from Whittier's Lays of

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Labor, and was a most spirited and stirring production. A few of its inspiring lines are quoted :

"Hurrah ! for old Cape Cod, With its sandy hills and low, Where the waves of ocean thunder, And the winds of heaven blow; Where through summer and through winter, Through sunshine and thro' rain, The hardy Cape man plies his task Upon the heaving main. * * * ** *

"Hurrah ! for the maids and matrons That grace our sandy home, As gentle as the summer breeze, As fair as ocean's foam : Whose glances fall upon the heart, Like sunlight on the waters ; Who're brighter in the festal hall Than France's brightest daughters."

Dr. Thomas N. Stone of Wellfleet, published in 1869, a volume, entitled Cape Cod Rhymes. He possessed the true poetic temperament, was witty, pathetic, and alive to the sights and scenes of nature around him. He also wrote and delivered felicitous occasional orations and addresses. Asa S. Phinney, also a printer in the office of the Yar- mouth Register, in 1845 collected and issued a little pamphlet, Accepted Addresses, etc. There were twenty-four pieces in all, some of which evinced considerable poetic ability. Mr. Phinney was also a frequent and welcome contributor to the Cape newspapers.

Mrs. Francis E. Swift of Falmouth, has written for several years for the current magazines and newspapers, under the nom de plume, "Fanny Fales." She published, in 1853, Voices of the Heart, and has a large number of superior compositions not yet in a collected form. Mrs. Swift is not only an easy and graceful versifier, but has shown a higher poetic fancy and a deeper insight into the emotions and feel- ings of the human heart. We present a single specimen in her reflec- tions upon Longfellow's line " Into each Life some Rain must Fall."

"If this were all, O if this were all, That ' Into each life some rain must fall '- There were fainter sobs in the Poet's rhyme, There were fewer wrecks on the shores of time.

"But tempests of woe pass over the soul, Fierce winds of anguish we cannot control ; And shock after shock we are called to bear, Till the lips are white with the heart's despair.

"O, the shores of time with wrecks are strown, Unto the ear comes ever a moan, Wrecks of hopes that sail with glee, Wrecks of loves sinking silently !

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" Many are hidden from mortal eye, Only God knoweth how deep they lie ; Only God heard when the cry went up ;

' Help me ! take from me this bitter cup !'

" 'Into each life some rain must fall'- If this were all, O, if this were all ! Yet there is a Refuge from storm and blast, We may hide in the Rock till the woe is past.

"Be strong ! be strong ! to my heart I cry, A pearl in the wounded shell doth lie : Days of sunshine are given to all, Though 'Into each life some rain must fall."" .

Prof. Alonzo Tripp, a native of Harwich, wrote in 1853 a book of European travels entitled Crests from the Ocean World, which had a sale of 60,000 copies. Afterward he wrote a local novel, entitled The Fisher Boy, which had a large sale, and many appreciative readers. He has since delivered lectures on European events, in almost every consid- erable place in the country, which have attracted audiences of culture and discrimination. He has now in press a series of Historical Por- traitures, which will take high rank in the contemporaneous literature of the country.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 28

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York : Blake Number of Pages: 1292

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292