History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 62

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 62

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Dr. Cogswell, in common with many of his class- mates, left college to enlist in the service of his country. He served with distinction with the troops enlisted for nine months, in the campaigns of North Carolina.

Augustus Peck Clarke, A.M., M.D., son of the late Seth Darling Clarke and Fanny Peck Clarke, was born in Pawtucket, Providence County, R. I., Sep. tember 24, 1833. His father, Seth Darling Clarke, was of the eighth generation of Joseph Clarke (Joseph1, Joseph2, Joseph3, Joseph4, Joseph5, Icha- bod6, Edward7) and Alice Pepper, who came from Suffolk County, England, to Dedham, Mass., prior to the year 1640. His mother, Fanny Peck, was of the sixth generation of Joseph Peck (Joseph1, Nathaniel2, Nathaniel3, David+, Joel5), who came in the ship " Dil- igence " from Beccles, England, to Hingham, Mass., in the year 1638. Dr. Clarke completed his prepara- tory course in the Grammar School at Providence, R. I., and entered Brown University in September, 1856. Received the degree of A.M. from that University in class of 1860; studied medicine and received the degree of M.D. from Harvard University in class of 1862; entered the army as assistant surgeon of the Sixth New York Cavalry, August, 1861; served in the Peninsular Campaign, conducted by General McClellan, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Savage Station, Va., June 29, 1862, and was after- wards sent to Richmond; promoted to the rank of surgeon of Sixth New York Cavalry, May 5, 1863. At the opening of the campaign made by the Army of the Potomac, under the command of General Grant, in the spring of 1864, Dr. Clarke was appointed surgeon-in -chief of the Second Brigade, First Divi- sion of the Cavalry Corps, whose daring achievements rendered immortal the name of Sheridan. Dr. Clarke was chief medical officer of the brigade until the closing campaign of 1865, when he was appointed surgeon-in-chief of the entire First Division of Cav- alry. These labors he also performed until the divi- sion was disbanded, July 1, 1865. During his four years' service Dr. Clarke participated in upwards of eighty-two battles and engagements with the enemy. October 4, 1865, he was brevetted lieutenant-colo- nel "for gallant and meritorious conduct during his term of service." Immediately after the close of his military service he removed to Cambridge, Mass., where he soon established a reputation in the prac- tice of medicine, in which profession he has since continued his labors. Dr. Clarke was married in Bristol, R. I., October 23, 1861, to Mary H. Gray, daughter of the late Gideon and Hannah Orne Gray.

For 1871-73 Dr. Clarke was elected to the Cam- bridge Common Council, and for 1874 to the Board of Aldermen. He declined further municipal service. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and has been one of its councilors ; is vice-president of the Gynæcological (Medical) Society of Boston, member of the American Academy of Medicine and of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynæcologists, and of the American Public Health Association. He is a member of the Americau Medi- cal Association and of the British Medical Association. He was one of the founders of the Cambridge Medical Society and was its secretary several years; also mem- ber of the Ninth International Medical Congress at Washington. He is a prominent member of the Cambridge Club, and is president of the Cambridge Art Circle. He is a member of the G. A. R. and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He has been a frequent contributor of arti- cles to the public press and to different medical societies and journals. The following are the titles of some of the papers Dr. Clarke has contributed : "Cases of Tracheotomy," Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1868; "Series of Histories of Wounds and Other Injuries," "Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion," 1865; "Cases of Puer- peral Peritonitis," 1868; "Inguinal Hernia," 1870; "Perforating Ulcer of the Duodenum," Boston Medi- cal and Surgical Journal, 1881; "Removal of Intra- Uterine Fibroids," Ibid., 1882; "Cerebral Erysipe- las," Ibid, 1883; " Hemiplegia," Journal American Medical Association, 1884; " Uterine Displacements," Ibid., 1884; "Obstinate Vomiting of Pregnancy," Ibid., 1885 ; " Vascular Growths of the Female Meatus Urinarius," Medical Press and Circular, London, Eng- land, 1887, and Transactions of the Ninth International Medical Congress, 1887 ; "Pathogenic Organisms," Jour- nal of American Medical Association, 1883; “ Rabies and Hydrophobia," Ibid., 1883; " Fracture of the Cervical Vertebræ," Ibid., 1884; " Induced Premature Labor," Ibid., 1885; "Renal Calculi," Ibid., 1885; "Pelvic Cellulitis," Ibid., 1886; " Early and Repeated Tap- ping in Ascites," Ibid., 1886; "Abortion for Uncon- trollable Vomiting of Pregnancy," Ibid., 1888; " Ante- partum Hour-Glass Constriction of the Uterus," Ibid., 1888; "Chronic Cystitis in the Female,". American Journal of Obstetrics, 1889; "Treatment of Certain Cases of' Salpingitis," Transactions of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1888; "Management of the Perineum During Labor," Ibid., 1889; " Rapid Dilatation of the Cervix Uteri," Trans- actions of the Gynccological Society, Boston, Vol. I, 1889; "Faradism in the Practice of Gynæcology," Ibid., 1889; "The Treatment of Placenta Previa," 1890; "On the Importance of Early Recognition of Pyosalpinx as a Cause of Suppurative Pelvic Inflam- mation," 1890.

Edmund H. Stevens, born at Stansted, Canada, January 2, 1846, father and mother being from

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

New Hampshire ; entered college at sixteen; left college at end of second year, and began the study of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. After tak- ing one course of lectures, entered the U. S. Navy in April, 1864, as a medical cadet ; was wounded at the battle of Mobile August 5, 1864; was discharged from the navy in December, 1864; after a second course of lectures, entered U. S. Navy as a contract surgeon March, 1865; served three months in Vir- ginia. Graduated in medicine from Harvard Medical School in 1867; from April 1, 1867, to April 1, 1871, was health officer on quarantine, Boston ; settled in Cambridge April 1, 1871 ; was married to Melissa E. Paine, May, 1869; member Massachusetts Medi- cal Society ; member Boston Society for Medical Observation ; member Cambridge Society for Medi- cal Improvement ; member Cambridge School Board from 1876 to 1882; visiting physician Cambridge Hospital.

James Arthur Dow, born in Bath, N. H., December 18, 1844; educated at Newbury (Vermont) Seminary, and at the University of Vermont Medical College ; graduating in June, 1867 ; practiced in Windsor, Vt., until 1870, then located in Cambridge ; is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society ; member of the Cambridge Medical Society ; has been for three years visiting physician at the Cambridge Hospital.

Edward S. Wood, M.D., graduated at Harvard College in 1867, and at the Harvard Medical School in 1871. Fel. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci .; Mem. Am. Pub. Health Assoc. ; Mass. Med .- Leg. Soc .; Bos. Soc. Med. Observ .; Bos. Soc. Med. Sci .; Bos. Soc. Med. Improv .; Mem. Revision Com. U. S. Pharmacop., 1880; Professor Chem. Harv. Univ. ; Chem. Mass. Gen. Hosp .; editor (with Dr. R. Amory) of " Whar- ton & Stille's Medical Jurisprudence, Volume on Poisons," 4th ed. ; author, " Illuminating Gas in its Relation to Health," Rep. and Papers Am. Pub. Health Assoc., iii ; Trans., " Poisoning by the Heavy Metals and their Salts, including Arsenic and Phos- phorus," Ziemssen's Cyclop. xviii ; Contrib., "The Relation which Chemistry bears to Forensic Medi- cine," Trans. Mass. Med .- Leg. Soc. 1.

Frederick W. Taylor, M.D., was born in Cambridge, June 22, 1856 ; graduated from Harvard University, in the class of 1878; received his medical degree from the Medical Department of Harvard College in 1882; was house pupil Massachusetts General Hospital, 1881-82; student of medicine in Germany, 1882-83, since which time he has been in the practice of med- icine in North Cambridge; is a member of the Mas- sachusetts Medical Society, Cambridge Medical Im- provement Society, and is one of the physicians to the Cambridge Hospital.

A biographical sketch of each member of the medi- cal profession to the present would be of much inter- est and value; but the limit of this article prevents the completion of a subject left to some future historian.

The editor deeply regrets the necessary omission

of an outline, at least, of the lives of some of the mem- bers of the profession, both past and present, who have been and are men eminent in letters and science.

CHAPTER X.

CAMBRIDGE (Continued).

MILITARY.

BY COL. WILLIAM A. BANCROFT.

"On yonder hill the lion fell, But here was chipped the eagle's shell."-Holmes.

As the headquarters of Washington, and as the camp of a large portion of the American army dur- ing the siege of Boston, Cambridge possesses more than a local prominence in the military history of the country ; but if the stirring scenes of 1775-76 which were enacted within her borders shall be deemed as to her mere chance events, still as the town which, out of her small population, furnished 450 men for the War of the Revolution, and as the city which sent the first company of citizen volunteers raised to support the national government at the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, and followed them with an enrollment of men equaling one-sixth of her entire population, there can be no doubt of the patriotic military spirit of her citizens.

While there were exempt from active participation in the training and service of the militia the leading magistrates and clergy, and while old age and infirm- ity furnished grounds for excusing others, yet, sub- stantially, every male person of arms-bearing age, in the little groups of people which formed the early settlements of the colony, was required to perform ac- tive service in the militia.

At first, as military commanders, the leading spir- its selected one or two men in each plantation -- men usually who had either seen actual service in war in the old country or had acquired some knowledge and experience in military matters by serving with regu- lar troops. Plymouth had the doughty Myles Stand- ish and Cambridge had Daniel Patrick. Later, as the population increased, and something like a mili- tary organization was effected, when companies were formed into regiments, and regiments which were composed of the militia of a given number of settle- ments became a part of a larger body, more officers were required, and the method of selection by elec- tion, applied to every other office, was resorted to. This method has been followed ever since, and is en- grafted in the Constitution of the Commonwealth, although some have thought that the principle of the original selection was the better. But, be that as it may, a plentiful supply of officers was made. In Cambridge alone, from the first settlement to the

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Revolution -from Captain Patrick to Major-General Brattle-the number of military titles bestowed was not small. In fact, it is not improbable that they ex- cecded in frequency those met with at the present day in some of the Southern and Western States.

Some one has said that the four corner-stones upon which the structure of New England society was built were the church, the public school, the town- meeting and the militia. For generations, certainly, in the old colony days, these institutions existed side by side, and the influences which they have exerted and still exert are potent. Although the militia in time became necessarily, under the changed condi- tions of the country, comparatively unimportant, and, as originally constituted and made use of, long ago ceased to exist, leaving but a form of language upon the statute-book, still, as the first of the succes- sive stages through which onr "force of last resort" has passed, it will be interesting as a part of the fol- lowing sketch to get some glimpses of the institution as it existed in Cambridge.

It is said that Daniel Patrick, the first Cambridge captain, was induced by Winthrop and his companions to leave Holland, where he served as a common soldier in the sovereign's gnard, to accompany them in their venture, and to become for them a military adviser and commander. Rapid promotion it must have seemed to Private Patrick to rise from the ranks at one step to the position of commander of the forces, although in a somewhat less numerous and well- appointed army than that of Holland. Judging from his name, Holland was not the birth-place of this early Cantabrigian man of war, but this circum- stance should not detract at all from his military prowess, if, as is probable, he was one of that race whose exploits in the armies both of Europe and of America have proved it to be, on many a hard-fought field, and with many a deed of desperate valor, pre- eminently a race of soldiers. Captain Patrick came to Cambridge, probably from Watertown, in 1632, although it may have been earlier, for he was in Charlestown in 1630, where it is probable that he was, in whole or in part, supported at the public ex- pense, that he might the better devote his energies to the purpose for which he had migrated from Europe. During his residence in Cambridge he received from the authorities a grant of land, which has perpetuated to the present day his title, if not his name. What Cambridge lad, or Harvard student of aquatic bent, but knows of that gra-sy, pine-capped knoll on the bank of the Charles River just sonth of the foot of Magazine Street, whose surronndling marsh at the highest tides is still completely covered with water, leaving it the "Captain's Island," as it is, and as it has been, called for over two and a half centuries ? What more endaring memorial could have been given him ?

In the Pequot War Cambridge is said to have fur- nished twelve soldiers, presnmedly nnder Patrick's

leadership, but it is also recorded that in this expedi- tion he had command of forty men. His military talents, no doubt, led the commander in-chief to con- solidate the Cambridge troops with those from other plantations, and place the whole, who, geographically at least, must have corresponded to a regiment, under Patrick as regimental commander. He continned to reside in Cambridge in the pursuit of his chosen pro- fession until November, 1637, when he removed to Ipswich. Afterwards he went to Stamford, Connec- ticut, where, in 1643, renewing, as it were, his earlier associations, he met his death at the hands of a Dutchman.

When the regimental organizations were perfected in 1636 Cambridge, besides its company officers, fur- nished the lieutenant- colonel of the regiment to which it was assigned in the person of Thomas Dudley, who had already been Governor, and who was afterwards elected major-general of all the militia. Later, either in the same or in another regiment, Cambridge for- nished a colonel, John Haynes, who also had been Governor, and who was afterwards Governor of Con- necticut, and a lientenant-colonel, Roger Harlaken- den. Among the earlier officers was George Cooke, chosen a captain of Cambridge militia about 1637, who was, perhaps, an original member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and who certainly was its captain in 1643. Cooke returned to England in 1645, where he fought nnder Cromwell in the Commonwealth's army, became a colonel and finally lost his life in one of the battles in Ireland. When he was a Cambridge captain he had as his ensign one Samuel Shepard. The latter went to England with his captain, became a major, very likely in Cooke's regiment, and, like Cooke, saw service in Ireland, where it is probable that he too departed this life, though not in battle. Cromwell's campaigns in Ire- land were arduons and full of hardship. Did the exigencies of their service permit, it is easy to thiuk of these two soldiers, ere they were separated by death, turning back in memory and in conversation to the little hamlet on the banks of the peaceful Charles, where, as militia officers, they had trained together and unconsciously had prepared themselves for the sternest duties of military life.

Without much doubt the successor of George Cooke as captain of the Cambridge company, or train band, was Daniel Gookin, who came to be a person of considerable importance in the colony. In accordance with the custom of the time, although he received high military promotion, he retained, probably as a kind of honorary captain, the position of commander of the Cambridge company for forty years. By the General Court he was chosen, May 5, 1676, sergeant-major of the Middlesex regiment, a position which has no exact counterpart in a modern military organization, but appears to have been that of a field officer with executive powers, subordinate, no doubt, to those of a regimental commander. Be-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

fore this appointment, however, Captain Gookin had performed the duties of this office, aud in "King Phillip's War" he appears to have been in command of all the Middlesex County militia, and to have issued orders in accordance therewith. His instruc- tions to Captain Joseph Sill, also a Cambridge man, to put himself in command of the men from Charles- town, Watertown and Cambridge, are characteristic of the man and of the time. They close as follows: "So, desiring the ever-living God to accompany you and your company with his gracious conduct and presence, and that he will for Christ's sake appear in all the mounts of difficulty, and cover all your heads in the day of battle, and deliver the blood- thirsty and cruel enemy of God and his people into your hands, and make you executioners of his just indignation upon them, and return you victorious unto us, I commit you and your company unto God, and remain your very loving friend, Daniel Gookiu, Senior."

It was in the spring of this year (1676), right in the midst of their planting season, that the danger from the Indians became so imminent that the authorities began to build a stockade around the more thickly- settled portion of the town. As it was a military measure, the militia officers were necessarily con- cerned, and they, with the selectmen, were empowered to direct the construction of the defences. Before the completion of the stockade the danger subsided, and much of the timber which had been got out was used in the repair of the bridge to Boston, or the "Great Bridge," as it was then called, which crossed the Charles at the foot of the present Boylston Street, where now is the North Harvard Street Bridge, of Brighton.

Five years after he was chosen sergeant-major, at the general election held May 11, 1681. Gookin was elected major-general of all the militia of the colony, and this office he kept until he was seventy-four years of age, or as long as the colony charter lasted. General Gookin was a man of much force of character, and this, together with his prominence in the affairs of the colony (he held civil office for quite as many years as he did military), no doubt attracted the attention of Oliver Cromwell, who selected him to assist in the promotion of a scheme for colonizing Jamaica with people from New England. Gookin was a selectman, a representative to the General Court, in which, dur- ing one year of his service, he was Speaker of the House, and held the office of Assistant, correspond- ing to that of Councilor, from 1652 to 1686, with the exception of the year 1676. Of strong convictions was this Daniel Gookin, and to them, no doubt, he owed his defeat for office in that year, for, having be- friended the Praying Indians, the feeling against him became so great, that his election was thereby pre- vente l. Of stern, soldierly qualities, this Cambridge militia officer was uncompromising also in religious matters, and, although an assistant of John Eliot in

the conversion of the Indians, when the Quakers proposed to follow their peculiar doctrines in the colony, they found little consideration at his hands. HIe made two visits to England, and upon his last re- turn to the colony, brought with him to Cambridge the two regicides, Generals Goffe and Whalley. For this he was denonnced by the royalists in the colony, but during the differences which followed the ascen- sion of Charles II. to the throne, he stood stoutly for the chartered right of the colonists. Verily, in those days they made militia officers out of the right stuff 1

Up to the time of the abrogation of the colony charter, military service was required of substan- tially all able-bodied males of sixteen years of age and upwards. Occasionally, upon application to the Court, individuals were exempted from service as private soldiers, chiefly on account of their advanced age; but those who held commissions as officers evinced no disposition to retire for any such reason. On the contrary, there are many instances of service among officers at an advanced age. One is that of Samuel Green, of whom it was said in an obituary that "this Captain Green was a commission officer of the military company of Cambridge, who chose him for above sixty years together; and he died there January 1, 1701-2, æ. 87, highly esteemed and be- loved both for piety aud a martial genius. He took such great delight in the military exercise, that the arrival of their training-days would always raise his joy and spirit ; and when he was grown so aged that he could not walk, he would be carried out in his chair into the field, to view and order his company."

Was the saying, " Few die and none resign," cur- rent then, as now ?

In the forces raised in the first half of the 18th century to operate against the French and Indians, Cambridge was represented by both officers and men. Among the former was John Leverett, afterwards president of Harvard College, and there also appear the names of Captain Samuel Gookin, son, and Lien- tenant Samuel Gookin, grandson of General Daniel Gookin. The former was High Sheriff, or " Marshal- General " of the colony, and, after the abolition of this office, was High Sheriff of Suffolk and afterwards of Middlesex. His son, at the age of nineteen, he appointed a deputy ; and this office the lieutenant re- tained for sixty-four years. Surely, if there was a spoils system then, this official was spared.

In the expedition against Port Royal (1710), Ed- mund Goffe, a lieutenant-colonel, was the Cambridge officer of the highest rank. It appears that he was af- terwards commissioned "Colonel of all the forces in the western frontiers of Middlesex and Essex, to- gether with the town of Brookfield." He, too, was High Sheriff of Middlesex.

Another Cambridge captain was Ammi Ruhamah Cutter. He graduated from Harvard College in 1725, entered the ministry, and was ordained at North Yar-

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mouth, but five years later he was dismissed from his charge on account of his Arminian tendencies. He then adopted the profession of a physician, which he followed for a number of years. He was, no doubt, an active member of the militia in Cambridge. After several years in the service of the country, he appears among the forces before Louisbourg, with the rank of captain, and while engaged there he died.

During the French and Indian War Cambridge was well represented in the army, although by no officer of high rank, sending altogether several companies of soldiers. On one occasion, towards the close of the war, a Cambridge officer, Captain William Angier, showed himself equal to an emergency which threat- ened serious disaster. The regiment to which his company belonged formed the garrison of Fort Cum- berland, in Nova Scotia. Before they were relieved by other troops, the regiment's term of service expired, and it became evident that the enlisted men were preparing to ahandon the fort and to return home. Had this desertion been accomplished the fort, no doubt, would have fallen into the hands of the enemy. To avert such a consequence, the commanding officer gave orders to disarm the men. This order was to be executed by the company commanders, and the first company to be paraded for the purpose was Captain Angier's. The first man, upon the captain's order, handed over his piece, but the second not only refused to obey the order, but, when Captain Angier seized the piece to disarm the man, the latter resisted vigor- ously, and several other men leveled their pieces at the captain's head. It was a critical moment, but, without hesitation, Captain Angier drew his sword and made a pass at the mutineer, with such effect that his fingers were cut, and the captain was able to wrest the piece from him. Overawed by Angier's behavior, the other men quietly surrendered their pieces, and the crisis was passed. This was not the end of the affair, however, and the captain became exposed to still further risk as the result of this performance of duty. What followed suggests, also, something in the nature of a precedent for the recent alleged bestowal of pensions by the United States authorities upon deserters. When the troops returned to their homes, Jackson, the man whose fingers had been cut, brought suit against Captain Angier for his injuries, and obtained a verdict of six pounds and costs, amounting altogether to fifteen ponnds, and this sum the captain was obliged to pay. This was, indeed, subordinating the military to the civil authority, but the principle is a familiar one, and, as was right, npon Captain Angier's petition to the General Conrt, he was reimbursed out of the public treasury for his pecuniary loss, and thus was reconciled military dis- cipline, the regard for law, and the public spirit of the community. Such was the custom of our ancestors ! About half a century after this another Jackson, and he, too, a soldier, was a party in a legal proceeding not unlike the above. The later Jackson's name was

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 62

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034