History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 49

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 49

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4 Trans. " Ninth International Med. Congress," Wasbington, 1887, vol. 3, p. 432.

arken

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LOWELL.

Lightning and other Electrical Currents,"1 "Light- ning."? "Early Cases of the use of Electrolysis for Myomata." 3

Dr. Parker early saw the advantages of the tele- phone and became interested in its introduction as early as 1879. He has been enthusiastic in its ad- vancement and its success, and has been identified in many companies as a director and in the New Eng- land Telegraph and Telephone Company, not only as a director, but as oue of the executive commit- tee for years.

The doctor is unmarried.

JOHN HENRY GILMAN was the son of John and Sarah Coffin (Gilman) Gilman, of Sangerville, Me., where he was born February 24, 1836. He received his education in the Lowell public schools, at Phillips Andover Academy, and at Harvard Medical School, where he was graduated in 1863. In March, 1863, he entered the army as assistant surgeon of the Tenth Massachusetts Regiment, serving until July, 1864. In August, 1864, he re-entered the service as acting assistant surgon of the United States Army, and was in charge of Wards 9 and 10, Mt. Pleasant Hospital, Washington, D. C., until the close of the war. He took part in engagements at Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg.

Dr. Gilman commeuced practice in Lowell in 1866, and remained here until within a few weeks of his death. He gave especial attention to surgery and was a well-read and skillful surgeon. He was city physician in 1869 and '70, and was appointed on the staff of St. John's Hospital in August, 1874, where he served faithfully until his death. In 1871, during the small-pox epidemic, he was chosen one of the consult- ing physicians to the Board of Health. In the sum- mer of 1874 he visited Europe, and spent nearly a year in study and travel. In 1880 he re-visited Europe for a few months. He was a forcible and decided writer and he contributed several articles of high merit to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. He read an essay on "Diphtheria " before the Massachusetts Med- ical Society at the annual meeting in June, 1877. He met with an accident early in the present year (1890), while visiting a patient in Dracut from the effects of which be gradually failed until he was obliged to close his office in the month of May. He went to his sister's home, in East Barrington, N. H., on the

28th of May, and rapidly failing, died on the 11th of June. The doctor was unmarried.

FRANKLIN NICKERSON was boru in Hingham, Mass., Sth September, 1838, and is the son of Anson and Sally Ann (Downs) Nickerson. He was gradu- ated from Harvard College in the class of 1863, and he pursued his medical studies at the Bellevue Hos- pital Medical College and at the Harvard Medical School, receiving his degree of M.D. from the latter institution in 1865.

During the closing months of Mcclellan's Peninsu- lar campaign he was employed by the United States Sanitary Commissiou as physician and surgeon, and in November, 1863, he was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States Navy. He resigned his commis- sion in November, 1864, and in the spring of 1865 he opened an office in Chicago. Here he gave clinical instruction in diseases of the chest, at the United States Marine Hospital, and in company with a com- mittee from the Chicago Academy of Science, in ves- tigated the pork-packing houses of that city, in study- ing the origin of the trichinal disease then prevalent in the West.

Dr. Nickerson came to Lowell in 1866, and has practiced medicine here since that time. He married, 14th November of that year, Mary Wallace Lincoln, of Hingham, Mass. During his residence in Lowell he has held the following offices : Surgeon of Post 42, G. A. R. ; physician to the Lowell Dispensary from 17th January, 1867 to 5th June, 1875; medical exam- iner for the Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York, and several other life insurance companies ; physician to the Lowell jail, nearly all the offices in the Middlesex North District Medical Society, physi- cian to St. John's Hospital since 1889, correspondent of the State Board of Health, a member of the Lowell School Board (1877-79), a trustee of the Lowell Insti- tution for Savings since 6th May, 1879, and chairman of the Committee on Library and Reading-room of the Mechanics' Association since September, 1882. In the year 1874 he was chosen superintendent of the Lowell Hospital, but declined the appointment.

While on the School Board he took a prominent part in the revision of its by-laws, and one of the most important of the changes effected here by him was the addition of the department of hygiene to the province of the committee on school-houses.

Hc has been a member of the Boston Natural His- tory Society for nearly thirty years. He assisted in the preparation of the " Flora of Middlesex County," which was published in 1888, and wrote an elaborate review of that work.4

As chairman of the Library Committee of the Me- chanics' Association he has performed a large amount of labor in the preparation of the catalogne and of anno- tated lists of books. In co-operation with the libra- rian, he has also done other bibliographical work,

I Read before the N. Y. Electrical Club November 15, 1888. Pub. in Club Circular No. 15.

Electrical Review, November 24, 1888, vol. 13, No. 13, p. 9.

Engineering, London, Eng., December 21, 1888, vol. 44, No. 1199, p. 595.

" Summary of Progress," Electrical Review, vol. 13, No. 19, p. 2.

May. Institute of Technology, Proceedings of the Society of Arts, 1888-49, p. 48.

: Read before the Boston Electrical Club, November 6, 1889. Pub. In Modera Light and Heat, Boston, November 29, 1889, vol. 6, No. 12, p. 367.

% " Annals of Gynecology," April, 1830, p. 325.

14-ii

4 Lowell Daily Citizen, August 29, 1888.

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which is recorded in the library reports, of which he has been the author since 1882.

The report of the School Committee for the year 1878 was written by him. In this report the subject of school hygiene is minutely discussed.

'For several years the correspondence on the health of towns was a leading feature in the reports of the State Board of Health. In this correspondence Low- ell appears very prominently. Among the most im. portant subjects investigated by the Lowell correspon- dent were epidemics of diphtheria and cerebro-spinal meningitis, the burial of the dead and cases of poi- soning by arsenic and trichina.

In a summary of the seven years' work of the State Board of Health, published in 1876, by W. L. Rich- ardson, M.D., occur these words : "The report for 1875 contained a paper by Dr. F. Nickerson, of Low- ell, in which the present sanitary condition of that city was treated of at considerable length, and many valuable suggestions were made as to the great advan- tage to be derived from the establishment of local Boards of Health." For these and other services to the State, honoraria were twice conferred.

JOSEPH HAVEN SMITH, son of John and Betsy (Roberts) Smith, was born in Rochester, N. H., Nov. 17, 1805.

He prepared for college at Rochester, but instead of pursuing his studies further he taught school for several years. He began his medical study in the office of Dr. James Farrington, of Rochester, being graduated at Bowdoin in the class of 1829.

For three years he practiced in Rochester, moving to Dover in 1832, where he remained until 1867, when he came to Lowell.

Although he lived here nearly twenty years, his history is, for the most part, associated with New Hampshire, where he received honors which are ac- corded to few.

He represented Dover in the State Legislature in 1837. In 1848 he was chosen one of the Presiden- tial electors, who gave the vote of the State to Lewis Cass for President of the United States.

In 1849 he was president of the New Hampshire State Medical Society, was in the Governor's Council in 1851 and '52, and in the State Senate in 1854 and '55.

He was at one time a trustee of the State (N. H.) Lunatic Asylum, director of a railroad corporation, president of a bank and a member of the Dover School Board. He likewise had the houor of being appointed delegate from the State Society to the Medical College in Hanover, and delivered the all- nual address before the graduating class in 1848.

While in Dover he was editor of the Dover Gazette, and for a number of years after coming to this city he edited the Lowell Times. He was a good writer, clear, concise and to the point. In spite of the demands which his political and editorial duties made upon his time he always had a large general practice, and

he was a well-read and skillful physician. The doctor married twice-first, Meribah Hanson, of Rochester, in 1830, and second, Harriet Spooner Wiggin, of Dover, in 1865. He died in Lowell Feb. 23, 1885. Dr. Hermon J. Smith (g.v.), of this city, is his son.

KIRK HENRY BANCROFT was born in Lowell Sept. 10, 1839. He was the son of Jefferson and Harriet (Bradley) Bancroft, daughter of Dr. Amos Bradley, of Dracut. His preliminary education was received at the Lowell High School and at Westford Academy. He served as a private in the Sixth Massa- chusetts Regiment during the nine months' cam- paign, being detailed to the hospital department. He then studied medicine at the Pittsfield Medical School, and was graduated there in 1864. He at once re-entered the service, being appointed assistant surgeon in the United States Navy, and served on board the U. S. S. S. "Iosco " until the summer of 1865.

Dr. Bancroft settled in Duxbury, Mass., in the fall of 1865, and remained there until 1867, when he came to Lowell. Here he was in the office of Dr. Walter Burnham until his death, which occurred Oct. 16, 1869. He married, Oct. 27, 1868, Jane Porter, daugh- ter of Dr. John Porter, of Duxbury.

WALTER HENRY LEIGHTON, son of Andrew and Mary Ann (Langley) Leighton, was born in Lowell Sept. 14, 1842. He was educated in the Lowell pub- lic schools, at the Newbury (Vt.) Collegiate Institute, and at Jefferson Medical School, where he received his degree of M.D. in 1864. He entered the army as assistant surgeon in 1864, and was mustered out in 1866. ,

He commenced practice in Lowell in 1867, where he remained until 1886. He was city physician in 1871 and '72, and in 1885 was elected a member of the School Board for two years. He has filled nearly every office in the Middlesex North District Medical Society, and was elected president in the spring of 1886. In this year he left Lowell to fill the position of surgeon to the Soldiers' National Home, at Togus, Me. In 1888 he was transferred to the National Home at Milwaukee, Wis., where he is now serving as surgeon.

Dr. Leighton visited Europe in 1876 for purposes of medical study, and while there was elected a Fellow of the London Medical Society and the London Obstet- rical Society.

He has been prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1888 was an aid-de- camp of the National Commander's Staff.

The doctor has been twice married. He married, first, Fannie Maria French, at Lowell, and second, Sarah Stephenson, at Togus, Me., Feb. 22, 1887.

ALFRED WILLIS LA VIGNE, son of Dosithe and Marie (Morin) La Vigne, was born at St. Sesaire, Canada, 9th March, 1839. He left Canada for the States in 1858. He served as a private in the war about four months in 1865, and after that commenced

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his medical education. He received his degree of M.D. from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1869. He commenced practice in Nashua, N. H. but remained there only a few months, coming to Lowell in December, 1869. His practice, which is quite extensive, is mainly among the French resi- dents. For the past four years he has been a coun- cilor of the Middlesex North District Medical Soci- ety. The doctor married Mary Elizabeth Conant, 3d July, 1877.

GEORGE HARLIN PILLSBURY, son of Dr. Harlin (2. t.) and Sophia Bigelow (Pratt) Pillsbury, was born in Lowell, Sth June, 1843. He attended the Lowell High School and Dartmouth College, receiving his degree of A.B. from Dartmonth in the class of 1866. He was graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1869. Immediately after his graduation he went to Europe, where he remained one year, most of the time in the hospitals in Paris. He entered upon the prac- tice of his profession in Lowell in June, 1870, where he now remains.

He married, 5th June, 1872, Mary Augusta Boyden, of Lowell. The doctor has given no attention to politics, although he has served five years on the Lowell School Board. He has served on the staff of St. John's Hospital siuce 1873, and was president of the Middlesex North District Medical Society in 1878 and 1879.

Dr. Pillsbury is a thoroughly educated man, a good writer and a finished speaker. He has devoted his life nevertheless to the assiduons duties of a hard- working family physician, with a large practice, and is to-day perhaps the best representative of the gen- eral practitioner in the city.

HERMON JOSEPH SMITH, son of Joseph Haven (q. r.) and Meribah (Hanson) Smith, was born at Dover, N. H., Nov. 15, 1836. He prepared for col- lege at the Lowell High School, being graduated at Tufts in 1858, the first class that was graduated at that college. For four or five years he taught school, first at Dover and later at Woodstock, Vt. He studied medicine at Harvard and at Dartmouth, receiving his degree from the latter college in 1866.

While a medical student he entered the army, and served as assistant surgeon from October, 1864, until the spring of 1866, in the Western Department under General Brisbin.

Dr. Smith commenced practice in New York City, and remained there until 1871, when he came to Low- ell, where he still resides.

In 1874 he was appointed superintendent of the Corporation Hospital, a position he filled acceptably for eight years, serving afterwards four years on the staff of this hospital. He was city physician in 1873, '74, '75, '76 and '77.

Dr. Smith has been a member of the board of pension examiners from the date of its organization, October 1, 1883. He was a member of the School Committee in 1883 and '84.

Iu 1885 and 1886 he was Master of Kilwinning Lodge, F. and A. M. He is the present president of the Middlesex North District Medical Society.

He was inarried, Oct. 26, 1865, at Woodstock, Vt., while on a furlough, to Isabella Sarah Anderson, of Woodstock.

ABNER WHEELER BUTTRICK, son of John Adams and Martha (Parkhurst) Buttrick, was born in Lowell August 28, 1842. He was educated at Phillips An- dover Academy and at Williams College, where he was gradnated in the class of 1865. He received his medical education at Harvard, taking his degree of M.D. in the class of 1869. While a medical student he served in company with Dr. George H. Pillsbury (q. v.), nine months as interne in the Marine Hospital in Chelsea, during the superiutendeucy of Dr. John W. Graves.

In the summer of 1869 Dr. Buttrick visited Europe for the purpose of study, and he spent two years in the hospitals of Dublin, Edinburgh and Paris. On returning he found Lowell in a state of excitement, owing to the small-pox epidemic, and he offered his services as physician to the pest-house. He served here with skill and heroism, not giving up his posi- tion even when, in the discharge of his duties, he was attacked with varioloid.

For about ten years he was in active practice, and in that time attained a good patronage, besides at- tending to an immense amount of charity work. Dur- ing nearly the whole of this period he was a meui- ber of St. John's Hospital staff, physician to St. Peter's Orphan Asylum, and physician to the Low- ell Dispensary. In 1872-75 he was secretary of the Middlesex North District Medical Society. In 1880 his health failed and he was obliged to relinquish his practice. He died, unmarried, March 27, 1882, of consumption.

CYRUS MENTOR FISK, son of Ephraim and Mar- garet (Dow) Fisk, was born in Chichester, N. H., January 9, 1825. His early life was spent in Hop- kinton, N. H., and in April, 1847, he begau practice in Contoocookville, Hopkinton.

In the fall of 1848 he moved to Bradford, N. H., where he remained in active practice until the spring of 1872. While in Contoocookville he was superintendent of schools, and he held a similar of- fice for several years in Bradford.

November 4, 1862, he enlisted as private in the Sixteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, and was given his commission as assistant surgeon of that regiment. For nine months he served in the Department of the Gulf under General Banks. He was in many engagements, the most important being the siege of Port Hudson. At Butte a La Rose he was post surgeon, and on the 13th of June, 1863, he was commissioned surgeon. Of the four surgeons connected with the regiment, Dr. Fisk was the only one in service for several months prior to August 20, 1863, when he was mustered out of the service.

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In April, 1872, he settled in Lowell, entering into partnership with Dr. C. A. Savory, and remaining with him for twelve years. Since then he has been in practice by himself.

He has been a member of the staff of St. John's Hospital since 1880, and was on the Lowell School Board in 1877-78.

He was appointed pension examiner October 1, 1883, and is a member of the board to-day. He is a trustee of the Lowell Institution for Savings, and vice-president of the Middlesex North District Med- ical Society. He married Amanda Melvina Putnam at Hopkinton, December 8, 1848.

WILLIAM MICHAEL HOAR, son of Michael and Catharine Cecilia (Ford) Hoar, was born in Lowell 22d November, 1849. He spent one year at the Jesuit College in Georgetown, D. C., and then went to Holy Cross College, Worcester, where he was graduated in the class of 1870. He studied medicine at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, N. Y., receiving his degree in 1873.

Dr. Hoar at once settled in Lowell, where he re- mained until his death. He was fond of politics and served as chairman of the Democratic City Commit- tee and represented his district in the Legislature for one year, and in 1876, '77, '78 and '79 was a member of the Lowell School Committee. In the summer of 1885 he was appointed pension examiner by Presi- dent Cleveland, a position which he held until the fall of 1889.

He married, 29th October, 1875, Mary Augusta Welch, of Lowell.

His death occurred suddenly on the 9th of Janu- ary in the present year (1890).

JOHN CARROLL IRISH, son of Cyrus and Catha- rinc (Davis) Irish, was born at Buckfield, Me., 30th September, 1843.

He received his degree of A.B. at Dartmouth in the class of 1868, and his medical degree at the Belle- vue Hospital Medical College in 1872.

He commenced practice in Buckfield, remaining there until November, 1874, when he came to Lowell. While in Maine he was a member of the Board of Examining Surgeons of Pensions.

He has been in Lowell since 1874, and has prac- ticed surgery almost exclusively, giving especial atten- tion to ovariotomy. Up to this date (June, 1890) hc has made ninety-six abdominal sections, principally ovariotomies and hysterectomies.

He has read and published papers as follows : " Reasons for the Early Removal of Ovarian Tum- ors," 1 "A Discussion of the Statistics of Ovarioto- my,"2 "Two and one-half Years' Experience in Ab- dominal Surgery,"3 "Laparotomy for Pus in the Abdominal Cavity and for Peritonitis,"4 "Treat-

ment of Uterine Myo-Fibromata by Abdominal Hys- terectomy." 5

He was appointed medical examiner for this dis- trict in 1877 by Governor Rice, and at the expiration of his terin of seven years, in 1884, was re-appoint- ed by Governor Robinson, and, by virtue of that ap- pointment, is still in office.

He married, 17th July, 1872, Annie March Frye, daughter of Major William R. Frye, of Lewiston, Maine.

BURNHAM ROSWELL BENNER, son of Burnham Clark and Frances Maria (Talpey) Benner, was born in Pittston, Me., 19th April, 1847. After a full course at the Roxbury (Mass.) High School he taught for several years at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. He at- tended lectures at the Harvard Medical School and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y., re- ceiving his degree from the latter school in 1875.

He practiced medicine one year in Lowell, when he removed to Concord, N. H., to accept an appoint- ment as assistant physician in the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane. This position he held for nine years, and in 1885 he returned to Lowell, where he is now in practice, giving special attention to dis- eases of the nervous system and the brain. For the past two years he has had charge of the clinic for this class of diseases at the Out-Patient Department of St. John's Hospital. In 1889 Dr. Benner was appointed by the Governor one of the trustees of the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipso-maniacs and Ineb- riates.

He married, 6th February, 1879, Carrie, daughter of Dr. J. P. Bancroft, former superintendent of the Concord Asylum.

FRANCIS WATTS CHADBOURNE, son of Francis Watts and Eliza (Bacon) Chadbourne, was born in Kennebunk, Me., 23d of October, 1843. He entered Bowdoin College in 1863, and at the end of his sopho- more year was obliged to relinquish his academical studies on account of ill health.

He studied medicine at the Portland School for Medical Instruction, and at Bowdoin, receiving his degree from the latter school in 1869. He then spent one year in Boston, attending private courses at the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chadbourne commenced practice in Orono, Me., remaining there until 1876, when he settled in Lowell. He has devoted himself strictly to the prac- tice of his profession and has never sought public honors. He has been on the staff of the Corporation Hospital the past nine years and is now chairman of the staff. He married, June 24, 1874, Ella Maria Whitney, of Brookline, Mass.

JOHN JAY COLTON, son of Quintus Curtius and Abigail (Jocelyn) Colton, of Georgia, Vt., where he was born May 12, 1830, was graduated at Amherst College in 1855. For a number of years he taught

1 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, April 10, 1884.

2 Jbid., August 19, 1886.

8 Ibid., December 27, 1888.

4 Road before Mass. Med. Society in Boston, June 7, 1887.

6 Read before the Mass. Medical Society in Boston, June 10, 1890.

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school, being instructor in natural sciences in the Lowell High School eight years.

He studied medicine in Philadelphia, graduating at the University of Pennsylvania in 1869. He lived in Philadelphia until 1872, devoting his attention to the administering of nitrous oxide gas. After this he was in Boston three years in the drug business. He com- menced practice in Lowell in 1876, and has continued in practice there up to the present time.

Dr. Colton was city physician of Lowell in 1880- 81-82, and a member of the Lowell School Board in 1876-77-80-81.

He was married, December 23, 1856, to Czarina Currier Varnum, of Dracut. Has had two children, both of whom are living. He published a paper on the "Physiological Action of Nitrous-Oxide Gas" (1871).

He went into the army in the spring of 1864 as paymaster's clerk, and was appointed paymaster in February, 1865 ; was mustered out in September, 1865.

WILLIAM HENRY LATHROP, son of William Mc- Cracken and Charlotte Elizabeth (Belcher) Lathrop, was born in Enfield, Mass., March 11, 1840. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and at Harvard College, being graduated from the latter institution in the class of 1863. He studied medicine in Phila- delphia, receiving his degree of M.D. from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1865. He settled in De- troit, Michigan, where he remained ten years. While there he was Professor of Physiology in the Detroit Medical College and editor of the Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharmacy (now the Detroit Lancet) from 1868 to 1873. He was physician to the Detroit Re- treat for the Insane four years and physician to the County Insane Asylum, near Detroit, two years.

In 1875 he was appointed physician to the State Almshouse at Tewksbury and remained there eight years. Doctor Lathrop came to Lowell in 1883 and has been in practice here since that time.

In the late war he was private in the Forty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, and assistant surgeon in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, also acting assistant surgeon in the United States Army with the Army of the Potomac. He married May Safford, of Detroit, September 6, 1871.

CORPORATION HOSPITAL .- In 1839 the Lowell Corporations agreed "to establish and maintain a Hospital for the convenience and comfort of the per- sons employed by them when sick or needing medical or surgical treatment," and "to contribute funds necessary for that purpose."

There was no hospital of any kind in Lowell at that time. Articles were drawn up and executed in legal form, under which the Lowell Hospital Association has existed for fifty years.

The Kirk Boott House-at that time the best house in Lowell-pleasantly situated at the corner of Merri- mack and Pawtucket Streets, on high land overlook- ing the Merrimack River, was purchased for this pur-

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 49

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226