USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 2 > Part 5
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"No Pittsfield man of his generation at least, excelled him in mental power or liberal culture. The variety of the subjects upon which he acquired accurate and practical knowledge was remarkable. His skill in his profession was widely recog- nized although he abandoned it in the prime of life; his thirst for study and experi- ment was ardent. He possessed extreme conscientiousness, displayed not only in business integrity but in all the affairs of life."
Dr. Royal Fowler was born in 1786, and was a native of Pittsfield. He practiced at first in Barrington, afterward in Stockbridge. taking the place of Dr. Jones. He was a peculiarly careful physician and was much confided in by his patients. He was a member of the Berkshire Medical Society and from the records it appears he was highly esteemed and con- fided in by his fellow members, being often placed in positions of respon- sibility. His record as a physician and citizen is irreproachable. He was a Christian and died in great peace, September 20th. 1849, at the age of sixty-three,
Dr. Elihu Lee Allen, of Pittsfield, son of Rev. Thomas Allen, was born in 1783, and died at Pas Christien. Louisiana. September 5th, 1817. falling a victim to his conscientious and zealous performance of duty in attending upon soldiers suffering from yellow fever. He was assistant surgeon of the Twenty-first regiment, and in 1815, when the army was re- duced to a peace basis, was retained as surgeon's mate.
Dr. Selden Jennings, says Mr. Bacon. of Richmond. " removed to town and took the place of Dr. Reed. Dr. Jennings was a native of Dal-
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ton. He studied medicine with Dr. Fewe, of Dalton, and graduated at the Berkshire Medical College. His first practice was in this town. and notwithstanding the temerity of the people in employing a young and in experienced physician his practice had a gradual and healthy growth. His skill was put to a severe test in the summer and autumn of 1840 and 1841 when the Boston and Albany Railroad was graded. The track of the road for quite a distance lay across swamps, and required a great amount of filling which raised a great amount of sphagnum from its bed. and exposed it to the atmosphere. The consequence was malarial typhoid fever. Great sickness and distress prevailed, and Dr. Jennings met with eminent success, " and the way was paved for ultimate medical triumph." "His success brought him much practice from neighboring towns, and placed his popularity as a physician on a firm foundation." "Although a man social in his habits, the idea of his life appeared to be to excel in his profession. He took but little stock in the amusements of life which seem to have attained prominence with many of the faculty. Study was his employment when not engaged in more imperious duties. He stood very high in the estimation of his brethren in the Berkshire Medical So- ciety, and occupied important places in it."
Dr. Henry L. Sabin was born in Williamstown, May 29th, 1801. He was the son of Jesse and Esther B. Sabin. He was educated at Lenox and Williams College, and took lectures at Pittsfield and New York. He taught school at Chatham, N. Y. His first wife was Lucy Whitman, who died after giving birth to his first child which was born dead. His second wife was Abby Benjamin, with whom he passed a long and happy life. He was a trustee of Williams College for 46 years, a deacon in the Con- gregational church for very many years, and was prominent in its work. He was always charitable toward new views, except when he thought they tended to wrong action. He was a very active politician, a member of the liberty, free soil, and republican parties, and at his death was an independent republican. He was strong in his political convictions. and earnest in expressing them. He was a very effective public speaker. and as an earnest advocate of freedom for all made very effective addresses. He had a large practice, was associated for ten years with Dr. S. Smith, afterward with Dr. C. Hubbell. He was very social and genial in his nature, and won hosts of friends, and was extensively known. He was for years one of the trustees of the Northampton Asylum. His influence was always on the side of justice and righteousness, and he wielded a great influence, and Williamstown and Berkshire owe him a great debt of gratitude for his unflinching devotion to the development of a true manhood in her sons. His wife died April 24th, 1883, and from that time he failed, and March 24th, 1884, he died very suddenly. As a mem- ber of the Massachusetts and Berkshire Medical Societies he had always stood very high. He was here considered as the Nestor, and was very much beloved. Fifteen physicians were present at his funeral.
Dr. Clarkson T. Collins was born in Smyrna. N. Y., January 8th,
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1821. He graduated at New York in 1843, settled and established a good practice in New York. In 1845 he established the New York Medical and Surgical Reporter. In 1848 he established an infirmary for women, but was compelled by lung hemorrhage to travel. He spent some time on the continent, and removed to Barrington in 1850. He built his house where the Lee house stood, and was the fourth physician on that spot, which he named " Indiola Place." He was a member of the American Medical Association, New York State Medical Society, and Berkshire Medical Society. He was a large, well-proportioned man, active in his habits, stood very high in his county society, and went to his grave deeply lamented by all.
Dr. Samuel Duncan was born in Williamstown, February 1st, 1820. He studied medicine with Dr. Samuel Smith, and graduated at Berkshire Medical College. He commenced practice in Williamstown, where he married Miss Frances Sanders, and had two children. During the war he was examining surgeon. He acquired considerable property in his busi- ness, but he suffered from heart disease of which he died February 24th, 1882.
Dr. Henry Pratt, Lanesboro, son of Micah Pratt, was born in 1820. He graduated from Berkshire Medical College. He practiced some time in Becket, and went from there to Ohio. He returned in 1858 and fol- lowed his profession with a very large and increasing practice, till he fell and received an injury which resulted in death, in 1877.
Dr. Ebenezer Emmons was the successor of Dr. Boies, of Chester. After a residence there of some years he removed to South Williamstown. After remaining there a time he removed to the north part of the town and became professor of natural history and geology in Williams College. Afterward he was in the employ of the State of New York, and resided in Albany. He held various geological commissions, and was in this sci- ence considered expert. He died in Albany.
" Dr. John V. Newman of West Stockbridge, died on shipboard with- in a day's sail from the port of New York on his return from California. of Chagres Fever, in 1851, at the age of thirty-three years. He was a very exemplary man, esteemed in his profession, and a regular communi- cant in the Methodist Church. He was induced, with the rushing thou- sands to the land of gold, to try his fortune also, and was abundantly successful. He was on his return to friends and home with a valuable treasure from the wonderful El Dorado, but the more valuable treasure of health slipped from him. After his death his fellow passengers, to whom he had much endeared himself, passed a series of highly compli- mentary resolutions, purchased on reaching New York an expensive coffin, and forwarded his remains and effects to his friends in West Stock- bridge. Over his grave the society of Odd Fellows have erected an elegant marble shaft. Dr. Newman left a widow deeply mourning her bereavement.
. Dr. Truman M. Sherman of Sheffield, died December 5th, 1851,
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aged twenty-nine. He graduated three years previously at the Vermont Medical College, spent a year in a medical institution in New York, and commenced practice in Sheffield, Mass. About eighteen months previous to his early removal, he began to show symptoms of pulmonary disease ; but still, by night and by day, vigorously prosecuted his business. Com- pelled however, at length to desist, by the advice of Dr. Collins who had just returned from a European tour from which he had himself derived essential benefit, Dr. Sherman undertook a foreign voyage. He sailed up the Mediterranean, visited localities and objects of much interest to the intelligent traveller, and wrote home a series of letters, which were pub- lished and widely read. His health was so far restored that, returning to France, he determined to remain for a season and pursue study in Paris. During his stay there, and while in attendance upon the hospitals, an epidemic influenza made its appearance, to which he fell a victim, reex- citing and greatly aggravating his former pulmonary difficulties. He hastened immediately home, reached Sheffield in the summer of 1851, and died in the following December, leaving a wife and one child. His opening career in medical life was full of promise. He was esteemed very highly in the community as a man, and was an open and consistent professor of the Christian religion, being a communicant in the Methodist Church.
" Dr. Asa Welch of Lee, died of an abdominal abscess, in 1852, aged sixty. Dr. Welch had a long and extensive practice, and was peculiarly prosperous in the pecuniary avails of it, having amassed an estimated property of some $20,000. He was a man of great decision of character, and esteemed in his profession. By the choice of his district he was sent to the Massachusetts Senate, where, as in various positions of honor and usefulness, he acquitted himself to public acceptance. But before this medical society there is neither time nor necessity that I should dwell upon one who has fallen from their ranks after so long and well known service.
" Dr. William Werden, a native of Richmond, died in Salisbury, Conn., in the summer of 1853, aged thirty-four. He studied with Dr. Jennings of Richmond, attended lectures at the Berkshire Medical Col lege, practiced awhile in Stockbridge, and subsequently removed to Salis. bury.
" Dr. Corydon Guiteau of Lee, died of cholera morbus, July 26th, 1854, aged fifty. Dr. Guiteau was a native of Lee, studied with Dr. Asa Welch, and afterward practiced in the same town. He was for years secretary of the Berkshire District Medical Society, and one of the ex aminers of the medical college. He worked his way upward and onward by an untiring devotion to professional duties. As a man he was intelli- gent, genial, always the true gentleman, widely known and sincerely be- beloved as a physician and as a citizen. He was, among his medical brethren, a general favorite ; always bringing a heart of true and warm benevolence, rejoicing to see and ready to the utmost to make everybody
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happy. Dr. Guiteau was an esteemed member of the Congregational church in Lee, and witnessed a good confession. He leaves an affectionate wife, deeply sorrowing at his sudden removal.
" Dr. Nathaniel Leacitt, of West Stockbridge, died in October. 1854, of inflammation of the lungs, resulting in mortification, aged 57. He was a laborious, faithful, and successful practitioner ; respected as a man, and a professor of religion in the Methodist church. In his care for oth- ers he sacrificed himself, dying through exposure and over-exertion in a season of unusual sickness. His memory will be cherished by the people among whom he lived and labored, and his good deeds will live after him.
" Dr. Elias Hollenbeck died in Great Barrington of pneumonia, April 19th, 1854, aged 68. He studied medicine with Dr. Rogers, now of Med- ford : graduated in his twenty-eighth year at Pittsfield ; went thence to New York where he passed some ten or twelve years, then returned and practiced in Great Barrington to the time of his death. Dr. Hollenbeck was well known to the profession through all this vicinity, and he was in his own town a highly esteemed and successful practitioner. He was more ready to help others than to provide for himself those comforts, conveniences, and even aids in his professional duties, to which he might be justly considered entitled. Dr. Hollenbeck was for years a regular communicant in St. James' Episcopal Church in Great Barrington, and at his death left a legacy to its funds, from the earnings of his profes- sional industry. He left a wife-no children.
" Dr. Joseph M. Bassett, of Egremont, died February 1, 1856, aged 32, of malignant scarlatina. He studied medicine at Winsted, Conn., in the year 1847. In 1850 he commenced practice in North Egremont. His death was sudden, and in just one week after occurred the death of his only little boy, of the same malady. He left a wife, and had buried three children.
" Dr. John P. Perkins, of Great Barrington, died in Joliet, Ill., of typhoid fever, June 17th, 1856, aged 36. He was prosecuting a journey through the western country, and on arriving among friends in Illinois. was seized with fever, upon which, when near its crisis, erysipelas su - pervened. He predicted a fatal termination to his sickness, but a cher- ished faith in the Divine Redeemer removed the fear of death. Dr. Per- kins was a native of Blandford. His medical studies were pursued with Dr. Humphrey, of Southwick, at the Medical Institute at Albany, and completed at Boston, where he received his degree in the winter of 1845. In the following May he commenced practice in New Marlborough (Southfield), and continued in the town, doing business in the south and north parishes, till the summer of 1854, when he removed to Great Bar- rington. Here he was from the first decidedly prosperous. His medical brethren in the town received him very kindly, and his business increased from month to month in extent and value. He left a wife- no children.
" Dr. Vassal White, of Stockbridge (Curtisville), died July 27th, 1856,
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aged 54. of pleuro-pneumonia. He entered his name as a medical student after pursuing a preparatory course of study with great diligence, in the the town of Greenbush, N. Y., in 1816. He afterward studied in Burling- ton, Vt., and in 1819 attended a course of lectures in Fairfield. During his last lecture term in 1820, by too close application, he brought on an affection of the heart, from which his life was for some time despaired of. Two years after, having recovered sufficient health to ride, he commenced practice in the town of Washington, where he continued until 1829, when. at the request of the inhabitants of Becket, he removed to that town, and remained until 1837. when he removed to Stockbridge. Here he pur- sued the labors of his profession until about three weeks before his death. His health was never good from the period of his alarming attack while a student in 1820. It was often with great difficulty and peril that he performed the duties of his profession, while he was entirely pre- vented from taking that stand in public life for which his abilities amply fitted him. As evidence of the estimation in which Dr. White was held by medical brethren, I learn that for a season he was called to the presi- dency of this Medical Society."
Dr. Simeon Parker Dresser was born in Londonderry, Vt., January 16th, 1845, and was educated in his town and Leland & Gray's seminary, Townsend, Vt. He received his medical education at Harvard and Dart- mouth, where he graduated in October, 1869. He began practice in Savoy in March, 1870, and removed to Hinsdale in 1873. He was representative in 1872. He was married in June, 1871, to Mary S. Cobb, of Westmoreland, N. H. He was a very active man and was very successful as a practi- tioner. While driving to a patient in great haste on the morning of No- vember 15th, 1883, he drove over a log placed in the road where the bridge was being repaired, and was thrown from his buggy and instantly killed. He was a member of the State and county medical societies, and was very highly esteemed.
In the period covered by the sketches of most of these physicans the science of medicine was in a rudimentary condition. These physicians had neither stethoscope, microscope, nor chemical thermometer. Laennec had not taught them the value of auscultation or percussion. Urinary analysis was hidden. The indications for the use of opium were contra- dictory. There were none of the elegant pharmaceutical preparations of the present day. They collected, prepared, pounded, and dispensed their own preparations.
Still they were men, broad in manhood, generous in sympathy, mindful .
of the poor, because they possessed love of humanity, "pure, generous. and heroic." The howling winds and pitiless storms, when wild winter had wrapped these Berkshire hills in a snowy shroud, or the stars in the deep blue vault looking down in guidance upon them in their long tedi- ous rides, or the sick in their rude log cabin whose souls as well as bodies were gladdened by their ministrations, would testify to their heroism. But these men were not only physicians making the best use
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of what they had, but they were, in the fullest and best sense of the word, citizens. They were in the war of 1755. Seven took a part in the war of Independence. Three were in the war of 1812. Most of them were either town clerks, selectmen, or justices of the peace. Two were judges of the Court of Common Pleas. Many of them were representatives and sena- tors. It is a noticeable fact that all these men were deeply interested in the cause of education, and this county will always owe a debt of grati- tude to its physician educators.
And the early physicians through this county wielded great influence in moulding public affairs. In respect to temperance and slavery they went forward as the pioneer corps, ushering in the true and the best. Over these early physicians and citizens was thrown the radiant mantle of Christianity. There was the hiding of their power. The profession of medicine is Christlike. Some of these physicians have been spoken of as going about doing good. The great majority were professing Chris- tians and many of them deacons.
Now, in view of what these men were as scholars, active in mind and body, eagerly seeking for opportunities to do good, as physicians with extensive practice, touching the mass of the people in the tenderest places of humanity, with zeal according to knowledge, as citizens taking a large share in the matters of civil government, deeply interested in education, knowing that it was the vitality of the commonwealth, maintainers of the the sanctity of the Sabbath and public worship, zealous for the Bible and thorough readers of it, and in their lives exemplifying its teachings, what must their inevitable influence and power have been in the normal devel- opment of Berkshire county !
The following are the physicians now in Berkshire county :
Regular practitioners .- Charles W. Burton, Henry G. Girard, Horace Holmes, Patrick Keefe, Thomas Riley, Adams ; Richard Beebe, Alford ; Leander W. Combs, Becket ; Henry S. Ballou, Lansing Cole. Henry T. Phillips. Daniel E. Thayer, Cheshire ; William L. Paddock, Walter W. Schofield, Dalton ; Harry P. Atherton, Samuel Camp. Amos Dowd, Theo- dore Giddings, Alfred Large, William H. Parks, Francis Whittlesey, Great Barrington ; Edgar C. Collins, Mrs. Mary L. Dresser, Edward M. Frissell, Hinsdale ; Edward L. Pratt, Henry R. Van Rensselaer, Lanes- boro ; Charles E. Heath, Charles C. Holcomb, David M. Wilcox, Elipha- let Wright, Lee ; Richard C. Greenleaf, jr., Edward P. Hale, Lenox : Seth K. Pease, James W. Robbins, New Marlboro : Orland J. Brown, Homer D. Bushnell, Walter G. Carr, Charles J. Curran, Joseph H. A. Matte. Henry J. Millard, Albert J. Rice, Henry M. Stafford. North Adams ; William M. Pease, Otis ; J. F. Alleyne Adams, Edward L. Bailey, George Bedard, John M. Brewster, Stephen C. Burton, Henry HI. Cadwell, Henry Colt, jr., Henry W. Dewey, George F. Foster. Charles M. Frye, William B. Hall, William M. Mercer, Frank K. Paddock, Samuel M. Reynolds. Oscar S. Roberts, Christian Schilling, Abner M. Smith. Charles H. T. Treptow, W. Edward Vermilye, Walter H. Wentworth, James H.
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Wheeler, Morgan L. Woodruff, Pittsfield ; Charles R. Starkweather, Savoy ; Charles E. Bushnell, Sandisfield ; J. Leland Miller. Isaac R. San- ford, F. L. Smith, Henry H. Smith, Sheffield : Frank J. Blodgett, New- ton E. Heath, Lewis Miller, Stockbridge ; William W. Leavitt, Gorton H. Race, West Stockbridge : Charles L. Hubbell, Edward E. Mather, Andrew M. Smith, Williamstown.
Botanic .- Ira N. Mason, Cheshire ; S. D. Merriam, Sheffield.
Eclectic .- Seth N. Briggs, John M. Clark, North Adams; John W. Morse, Otis; Charles H. Marshall, Pittsfield.
Electric and Magnetic .-- Mrs. Mary A. Phillips, Pittsfield ; Edwin R. Reynolds, Richmond.
Homopathic .--- George R. Spooner, Adams ; Mrs. Louisa S. Millard, Egremont : Charles Hubbard, Harlow A. Van Deusen. Great Barrington ; Charles W. Stratton. Lee: Thomas J. Putnam, George F. Simpson, North Adams ; Alonzo H. Dennett, Peru ; Charles Barley, Lorenzo Waite, Pittsfield ; Thomas J. Warner, Stockbridge; Joseph Jones, Tyringham.
Indian .-- David Butterfield, Pittsfield.
Specialists. - William Brown and Wallace E. Brown, North Adams ; Elbridge S. Pixley, Pittsfield.
Thompsonian .- Henry Porter, Williamstown.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE (continued).
The Medical College and Medical Societies. BERKSHIRE MEDICAL COLLEGE.
A T the time of the establishment of the Berkshire Medical Institution there were in New England seven medical schools of high repute. There had, however, long been a desire for a similar institution in West- ern Massachusetts, and in 1821 the first effectual effort was made for its establishment. In that year Oliver S. Root, on his return from a course of lectures at Castleton, Vt., brought a message from Dr. J. Batchelder, a professor in that institution, who had become dissatisfied with it, to Dr. H. H. Childs that the favorable moment had arrived to establish a new school at Pittsfield. Dr. Childs seized the hint with avidity, and imme- diately took steps to avail himself of it. Public spirited, devoted to his profession, and eager for distinction in it, this movement was one to en- list his warmest sympathies. Prompt, practical, and energetic, he pushed it vigorously and without pause, never for a moment suffering the public interest in it to flag. He first pressed his plans on the newly organized Berkshire District Medical Society, which appointed Drs. Asa Burbank, of Lanesboro, and Daniel Collins, of Lenox, together with himself, a committee to petition the Legislature for a charter and endow- ment for a medical college at Pittsfield. This petition was presented at the session of June, 1822. It placed in a clear and strong light both the argument for the proposed measure and the answers to anticipated ob jections. It set forth the necessity of such an institution for the educa- tion of students of moderate pecuniary means. claimed Berkshire county as the proper location for it on the ground of its central position relative to other institutions of the kind, and hinted that this county had cheer. fully done its share toward the assistance that had been extended to other institutions.
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This petition was referred to the fall session, and ordered to be printed in the Boston Sentinel and Pittsfield Sun. When it came up for
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consideration it met with no little opposition from the friends of the school connected with Harvard University, and from other gentlemen in the eastern part of the State, who as yet were too little willing to admit the intellectual equality of the professional men of the two sections, and who also dreaded innovation from the teachings of a younger seminary.
The location proposed, and the most active leader in the new enter- prise did not tend to reassure them. The radicalism of Berkshire, and especially of Pittsfield, was proverbial at Boston; and Dr. Childs was known to be ardently attached to the most ultra school of democratic politicians. Only two years previous to the petition this feeling had been revived by the doctor's course in the Constitutional Convention. The petition was, however, ably and zealously supported in the Senate by Hon. Jonathan Allen, and in the House by Hon. William C. Jarvis. Dr. Childs also was at Boston, urging the claims of Western Massachusetts with his usual ardor. The charter was finally granted, and was signed by Governor Brooks. January 4th, 1823, but the people of Berkshire were generously permitted to endow their own college.
The act named as trustees Rev. Heman Humphrey, Dr. J. P. Batch- elder, Henry Hubbard, Samuel M. Mckay, and Henry H. Childs, to gether with such others as they might associate with themselves, the number not to be less than seven nor more than fifteen. Without waiting the result of their application to the Legislature the friends of the col- lege, on the 16th of August, chose a " board of management " to super- intend its affairs. This board, which consisted of the same gentlemen named in the charter as trustees, announced in the Sun of August 22d a course of lectures to commence on the 11th of September with the follow- ing professors: Theory and practice of medicine. Dr. H. H. Childs: anatomy, surgery and physiology, Dr. J. P. Batchelder: materia medica. Dr. Asa Burbank; chemistry, botany and mineralogy, Professor Chester Dewey, of Williams College; obstetrics by a lecturer not named. The tuition for the course was fixed at 840, and board at $1.75 per week, in- cluding washing, room rent, and lodging in the institution.
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