USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 51
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First. The requirement that the candidate for ad- mission either present a college diploma, or pass a prescribed entrance examination.
Second. The provision of a carefully graded mini- mum course of instruction covering three full scholastic years.
Third. The provision of a four years' course for those who wish to pursue their studies with special thoroughness, and with suitahle leisure for collateral reading, and to obtain professional experience under direction of the faculty.
Fourth. The requirement that every student pass a successful examination upon the work of each year hefore promotion to that of the next.
Fifth. The requirement as a condition of gradu- ation, not merely that the candidate shall have studied medicine at least three full years, hut also that he shall have attended a reputable medical school not less than three years.
Sixth. The restoration of the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, to be attained at the end of the third year by those who take a four years' course.
Seventh. A provision for visiting and examining boards independent of the teaching faculty.
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Eighth. The repudiation of all sex disabilities, either in teaching or learning.
Its requirements have grown stricter, and its method of instruction has steadily improved year by year, and it has sent out over five hundred graduates, many of whom reflect great credit upon the school in which they were cducated. In 1882 an optional four years' course was established, the first course of this kind in the country. So important has this proved that the faculty and trustees have resolved after the present year to make this four years' course compulsory, with the privilege of allowing students to perform thie work of the first year in college, academy, or with instructors outside the medical school, although they must in all cases undergo a rigid examination previous to entering the work of the second year. Already the influence of this school has been felt by the medi- cal schools of this country and the professiou generally. The demand now is that all medical colleges shall pursue a similar course of thoroughness.
Dr. I. T. Talbot, of Boston, has been the dean of its faculty from its inception, and feels a deep interest in its success.
The spread of homoeopathy has been rapid and ex- tensive throughout the country. In 1844 the first National Medical Association wasformed-the Ameri- can Institute of Homeopathy-and it continues to hold its annual sessions in various parts of the coun- try. It includes in its membership more than one thousand of the most prominent liomœopathic physi- cians in the United States. Its bureau of statistics at the last session represented over 12,000 practitioners, 32 State societies, 160 local societies, 30 medical clubs, 32 general hospitals, as many special hospitals, 48 dispensaries, 25 medical journals, and 15 homœopathic colleges.
The progress of this school of medicine has been so rapid and so continuous that there is no prospect of its stopping until it embraces the whole medical profession.
Homeopathy was first practiced in Lowell by Dr. Christian F. Geist in 1843. He was born in Germany in 1805, and came to this country in 1835. He was in Allentown for a considerable time, and was with Dr. William Wesselhoeft in Bostou two years previous to locating in Lowell. He returned to Boston in 1845, where he continued in active practice till his death.
DR. RUFUS SHACKFORD succeeded Dr. Geist in 1845. He remained in Lowell some three years, and then removed to Portland, Me., where he now lives.
DR. DANIEL HOLT was born in Hampton, Conn., July 2, 1810. He was the youngest son of a large family. His father served six years in the Revolu- tionary War, much of the time under Washington. He was a local magistrate, and dying, left the boy Daniel, at fourteen years of age, to assume. charge of the large farm, and attend school in winter. Armed with a common-school education, in 1826 he com- menced his classical studies at the academies of Am-
herst, Mass., and Ashford, Conn. In 1831 he entered the Scientific Department of Yale College, and gradu- ated from the New Haven Medical School in 1835, with the highest honors of his class. Hc conducted a successful practice for ten years in Glastonbury, Conn., and was the author of several valuable essays on medical topics, including a monograph upon scar- latina, which was awarded a prize by the Connecticut State Medical Society.
Dr. Holt spent the year 1844 in New Haven to fur- ther perfect his medical education. While here lie was led to investigate the claims and principles of homœopathy, rather to display its absurdities than to defend its tenets. A rigid test of its claims, coupled with a practical application of its practice at the bed- side, was his cordial adoption of the new method. In 1845 his essay was published under the title of " Views of Homeopathy ; with Reasons for Examin- ing and Admitting it as a Principle in Medical Science." He "had the courage of his convictions," and proceeded to a further study of the materia med- ica and the use of remedies.
As a result of his essay he was promptly expelled by the New Haven Medical Association. In the autumn of 1845 he removed to Lowell, Mass., and entered upon a practice of medicine which continued until his death.
The severe dysentery epidemics of 1847, '48 and '49 afforded him an opportunity to demonstrate the eminent success of his new treatment, which he fully employed. He joined the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1846, and the American Institute of Hom- œopathy the same year, and was an original member of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society in 1848. He delivered its annual oration in 1858 upon " Medicine as an Art and as a Science," and was president of the society in 1863.
Dr. Holt preserved an active interest in the affairs of the day, and had decided opinions upon subjects of public interest. He always held himself ready to de- fend by argument the faith that was within him. He served one term as Republican Representative in the State Legislature. He died in Lowell April 11, 1883, aged seventy-three years. His bearing was gentle and affable, and he was held in affectionate esteem both in city and State medical circles.
DR. HIRAM PARKER was born in Kittery, Me., about the year 1809. He studied with Dr. Charles Trafton, of South Berwick, Me., and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1833. He graduated from Philadelphia College, at what date is uncertaiu. He afterward tanght school at Salmon Falls, N. H., aud came to Lowell in 1834. He was married iu 1838 to Annie G. Trafton, daughter of Dr. C. Trafton. He was a prominent abolitionist. He was chosen a Board of Health commissiouer in 1871, and vice- president of Mcrchants' Bank. He was a member of Pentucket Lodge of F. A. Masons. He died May 2, 1877, after an illness of four years, of paralysis.
tracker
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He wrote and published " Harmony of Ages," a re- ply to Dr. Beecher's "Conflict of Ages." He was always a hard student, read Greek and Hebrew, and studied Bibles in those languages. He was very char- itable in a secret way, and, after his death, his charity account-books were found, showing generous and well-placed gifts. His favorite work was the study of the Bible, yet he was broad and liberal-minded, enjoying discussion with all denominations. Dr. Parker was famous as an obstetrician, his practice in this branch of his profession far exceeding any of his contemporaries. His books show an aggregate of 7000 cases.
DR. CHARLES WALKER was born at Northampton, Mass., July 30, 1831, and was the son of Dr. Charles and Sarah Dwight (Storrs) Walker, of that town. His father was a widely-known and eminent physician of Northampton, a graduate of Yale College and of the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, and was one of the first of the old-school physicians to adopt the homeopathic theory of practice.
Dr. Walker was educated at Northampton and Am- herst, and was graduated at the Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, in 1850, and the same year began practice in Ware, Mass., where he remained until 1856, when he removed to Lowell, Mass., where he practiced until 1858, when his failing health obliged him to seek a more genial climate. He accordingly removed to Danville, Ky., where he at once secured a large and prosperous practice. His health, however, con- tinued to fail, and he died of consumption at Danville April 15, 1861. He was buried beside his kindred in Northampton.
Dr. Walker was a very bright and amiable man, of polished manner, and easily won friends. He had a very thorough medical training under his accom- plished father, and stood high in his medical college class. He had a very kind, sympathetic and social nature, which endeared him to his patients. His practice in Lowell was very large and successful, and he did much in the way of introducing and popular- izing the new school of practice in that city.
DAVID PACKER, M.D., was born in Newark, Ver- mont, February 20th, 1808. His father, Eleazer Packer, was one of the pioneers of Northern Ver- mont. His mother, Abigail Potter Packer, came from an old New England family, and was a woman of great energy and firmness. Dr. Packer received his early education in the common schools, and after- wards at the academy at Concord, Vt. In 1833 he was married to Miss Angeline Woodruff, of Burke, Vt. Five children were born to him, three of whom died in childhood ; two daughters, both married, are now living. In 1841 he joined the Vermont Method- ist Conference. In 1842, in addition to the cares of his pastorate, he undertook the study of medicine, first with Dr. Asa George, of Calais, and afterward with Dr. George Hinman, of Derby. In 1848 his at- tention was called to homeopathy, and, after a care-
ful investigation of the Hahnemannian law, he en- braced that doctrine, studying with Dr. Darling, of Lyndon. In 1850, after nine years' study in both schools, he began his medical labors as a homœopath- ist in Derby, Vt. For fifteen years he continued his double duties, as a physician and clergyman. Under the stress of these combined labors his health, in 1865, gave way, and a pulmonary difficulty forced hin to relinquish public speaking. He then devoted lıim- self entirely to medicine. In the same year (1865) he attended the Homeopathic Medical College at Philadelphia, graduating the following year among the first of his class. He immediately located in Lowell, Mass., where he remained in practice for three years. In 1869 his health again failed, forcing him to sell his practice and leave Lowell. He re- moved to Chelsea. His reputation still followed him, however, and he was unable to escape practice.
From overwork he had an apoplectic attack in Feb- ruary, 1873, from which he never fully recovered. He died in Chelsea, Mass., Dec. 1, 1875.
EDMUND H. PACKER, M.D., of Lowell, Massachu- setts, was born in Newark, Vermont. His parents were Dr. J. Q. A. and Lovina N. Packer, of Marsh- field, Vermont. He received a common-school edu- cation in his native town and also attended the select school of Edwin Burns. He was fitted for college by his uncle, Rev. David Packer, M.D., who was at that time a minister and practitioner of medicine. In August, 1864, he enlisted as a soldier, and served in the Third Vermont Light Battery in front of Peters- burg until the surrender of General Lee, and was mustered out of service at Burlington, Vermont, in June, 1865. He then entered the office of his uncle, Dr. David Packer, and began the study of medicine.
Matriculation tickets to the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, bear the date 1865-66, and 1866-67. In 1867 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and came to Lowell, where he again entered the office of his uncle and remained in active practice with him one year. He then opencd an office for himself, and continued in practice until 1870-71, when he took a post-graduate course at liis old Alma Mater, since which time he has continued in practice in Lowell. He was elected a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy on the 8th day of June, 1869, and is a member of the " Massa- chusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society," and "Lowell Hahnemann Club." He has been eminently suc- cessful in his career, as his large practice abundantly testifies, being particularly good in diagnosis and in the treatment of chronic diseases.
DR. AUGUSTINE THOMPSON, of Union, Maine, studied medicine with Dr. Batchelder, of that place. He graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1867; came to Lowell the same year, and for about eighteen years had a very large practice there. He retired from active practice to give his attention to other branches of business. Dr.
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Thompson was captain of a company in a Maine reg- iment in the late war, and is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
ALBERT BUSWELL, M. D., was born in Hartland, Windsor County, Vermont, on the 15th day of August, 1821. He graduated from Norwich University in 1847, at Norwich, Vermont. The following autumn he commenced the study of incdicinc with Dr. Mitchell M. Davis, of Norwich, Vermont, and in the winter of 1849-50 he attended a private course of lectures at Woodstock, Vermont, given by Dr. Rush Palmer, and subsequently two public courses, graduating at Castle- ton, Vermont, in November, 1851. For seventeen years he practiced as an allopathic physician in Ver- mont and New Hampshire.
In the winter of 1868-69, having been previously led to see some of the advantages of the homœo- pathic practice, he took a course of lectures at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania. He then settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he engaged in active practice for about ten years, and then by reason of illness he gave up the practice of medicine.
HORATIO M. HUNTER, M.D., located in Lowell, Mass., in 1870, removing from St. Johnsbury, Ver- mont, where he had been in practice for a number of years, until he was compelled to seek a less arduous field.
He received an academic cducation, and read med- icine in the office of the late C. B. Darling, M.D., of Lyndon, Vermont, a pioneer of homeopathy in that part of the State ; graduating from the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in the class of 1857.
He is practicing his profession at Lowell at the present time, doing a large and lucrative business.
He is a member of the American Institute of Hom- œopathy, Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical So- ciety, Massachusetts Surgical and Gynæcological So- ciety, Vermont Homoeopathic Medical Society, Lowell Hahnemann Club, Essex County Homoeopathic Medical Society, Boston Halinemanu Club, &c., &c.
DR FRED'K A. WARNER, now located at 42 Kirk Street, Lowell, Massachusetts, is a native of the West- ern Reserve, Ohio. His father and mother, Lyman and Amanda Warner, migrated from Western Connec- ticut and settled in the Western Reserve, Ohio, which was then known as a part of Connecticut. On Au- gust 18, 1831, the subject of this paper was born to them in Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio.
Dr. Warner received his academic education at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, afterward entering the office of Professor W. J. Scott, then Kenyon's phy- sician, during 1851, and studying medicine under his supervision. His medical education was continued in the Medical Department of the Western Reserve University, from which school he graduated during the session of 1854-55. Part of the years of 1854-55 was spent in the office of Dr. Andrews Merriman, in Madison, Lake County, Ohio, in study and practice.
The winter of 1856 found him located at Farming- ton, Illinois. In November, 1859, he was nnited in marriage to Miss Adelia B. Merriman, a daughter of Dr. Andrews Merriman.
As the years rolled by Dr. Warner found himself engaged in a very active and extensive practicc.
In 1872, while on his summer vacation in New Eng- land, yiclding to the strong desire to live in a non- malarious climate, and to the earnest solicitation of his friends, it was decided that Lowell should be his future home and field of practice.
The freedom which he has had from all malarious disturbances, and the marked success which he has obtained in building up a lucrative practice, justifies the wisdom of the doctor's decision.
The members of the various medical societies with which Dr. Warner has been connected will testify as to the active interest he has always maintained in them.
At the time of his leaving Illinois he was a member of the following societies, viz. : The Illinois Medical Society, the Fulton County and Peoria County Medical Societies. In the year 1872 he was chosen president of the last-mentioned society.
At that time, and for two years previous, he had been endeavoring to test the truth of the alleged law of cure "Similia Similibus Curantur," by research, by the bed-side and in office practice. This method of investigation was continued in his Lowell practice. Not being ready to declare himself an adherent of this method of practice, he affiliated himself with the old- school practitioners, and joined the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Later on, having become convinced of the great value of the homeopathic law of cure, he boldly adopted that method of practice. Soon after this he united with the Essex County Medical Society, and in the course of three or four years was elected as one of its presidents. Since then he has been an active member of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, the Massachusetts Surgical and Gynæcolog- ical Society, the Boston Gynæcological Club, and the Hahnemann Club of Lowell. Obstetricsis his specialty.
As a citizen, the doctor's great ambition has been to be known as a true neighbor, and one loyal and patriotic enough to always cast his vote whenever there was an election, no matter how small the office to be filled.
Dr. Warner is a member of St. Anne's Parish, and has served for several years as one of the wardens of the church.
DR. C. H. LELAND was born in Winchendon, Mass., on the 9th of September, 1848. His father, Leander Lcland, was a carpenter by trade, and has lived most of his life since his majority in this town. The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of the town, the usual summer and winter terms, and also High School, until the age of about thirteen, when he went to work in the manufacturing shops, and after this attended school about three months a
ForceUK A. Warner-
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rear. By studying evenings, after his day's work, he fitted himself for a teacher, and taught several terms, and also supplied as assistant in the High School of his native town. Afterwards he attended the Vermont Conference Seminary, at Montpelier, Vt., teaching in the winter at East Montpelier, Vt. He studied medi- cine with his uncle, Silas Cummings, M.D., of Fitzwil- liam, N. H., an allopathic physician of some repute.
His medical lectures were received at the Hahne- mann Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn., where he attended four terms, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1873. He came to Lowell the same year, and is in active practice at the present time, having, by his own efforts from boyhood, without other assistance than his own labor, provided for himself, and is now in possession of a good prac- tice, and is considered successful in his profession. Dr. Leland is a member of the Massachusetts Homo- opathic Medical Society, and president of the Hahne- mann Club, of Lowell.
EDWARD BROWN HOLT, M.D., was born October 3, 1843, at Glastonbury, Connecticut. He is the son of the late Daniel Holt, M.D., and Abby Sarah Hoit.
His father was born July 2, 1810; graduated at Yale Medical College in 1833, and embraced home- opathy "as a principle in medicine" in 1845. He removed to Lowell in 1846, where he practiced his profession until a few years before his death, which occurred in April, 1883. For nearly twenty years he was the sole representative of homoeopathy in Lowell. In 1883 there were twelve.
His father, Nehemiah Holt, served some six years in the Revolutionary War, from the age of eighteen to twenty-four, participating in the battles of Long Island, Harlem Heights, Princeton, Trenton, York- town, etc. He was a sergeant in Colonel Durkee's company, Second Regiment, and received in his arms Lieut .- Col. Knowlton, of his regiment, as he fell from his horse mortally wounded at the battle of Harlem Heights. His great-grandfather served two years in the French and Indian War, and was a great-grand- son of Nicholas Holt, who came from England in 1646.
On his mother's side, his great-grandfather, How- ell Woodbridge, was a lieutenant in the Sixth Con- necticut Regiment at the outbreak of the Revolution- ary War. He served during that whole period, and was commissioned captain, major and lieutenant- colonel.
During the last two years of the war he ranked as colonel of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment.
His daughter married Pardon Brown, of Glaston- bury, Conn., a merchant of Hartford, and a graduate of Yale in the year 1793. He suffered financial loss from the seizure of a vessel in which he was one-third owner, by the French in 1798. He reared ten child- ren, one of whom, Abby Sarah Brown, was the mo- ther of the subject of the present sketch.
In 1846 Dr. Holt came with his parents to Lowell, and soon after came very near perishing in the de- struction by fire of the house where the family
boarded, at corner of Central and Market Streets, where Mansur Block now stauds.
His mother died in February, 1852, of phtliisis, and two sisters, aged one and two and oue-half years, died in 1850, of dysentery.
Dr. Holt steadily pursued the studies of the Low- ell schools, and graduated from the High School in 1861. In the fall of 1862 lie enlisted in the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, Company G, and served for nine months with the regiment as private in all the incidents of camp and field.
He returned to Lowell in June, 1863, and spent several months in the study of Latin, Greek and French under private tutors, and in the summer of 1864 agaiu enlisted in the same company and regi- ment and served one hundred days at Arlington Heights aud Fort Delaware. At the latter place he contracted the fever and chills, which seriously un- dermined his health for several years, aud of which he is occasionally reminded at the present time.
After much earnest thought and deliberation he determined to enter the medical profession, and after studying a year and a half in his father's office he at- teuded two courses of lectures and one session of the summer school at Harvard Medical College, also one course of lectures in the Long Island College Hospital at Brooklyn, N. Y., where he took a special course on diseases of the heart and lungs, under the late Prof. Austin Flint, going over to Bellevue Hospital, New York, for the purpose. On returning to Boston he graduated at the Harvard Medical College iu July, 1868. On returning to Lowell he again entered upon a student's life for the purpose of investigating and studying the homeopathic or specific mode of treat- ing disease. He had a good chance for so doing, as his father was in full and successful practice. The ad- vantages of the new over the old or allopathic meth- od were soon made apparent by his father's skill in treating the sick.
In the winter of 1869 and '70 he attended the lec- tures at the Hahnemann Medical College, at Philadel- phia, and watched with a keen interest the treatment of disease by the ablest representatives of the allo- pathic and homoeopathic schools in the hospitals and clinics of the city of brotherly love. He returned to Lowell in April, 1870, and continued in practice with his father until March, 1871, when he entered into partnership with Dr. Daniel A. Johnson, of Chelsea, Mass., also a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and a convert to homoeopathy. This partner- ship, extending over some seven years, gave Dr. Holt a large opportunity of treating almost every disease to which flesh is heir in this climate, including a severe epidemic of small-pox, in which the new school method was of decided advantage over the old. In April, 1878, Dr. Holt removed to Brookline, Mass., where he remained until March, 1881. During this time he acted as assistant to the chair of Obstetrics in the Boston University Medical School, but was com-
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
pelled to resign on account of ill health, and return- ed to Lowell, his former home. He has now been a resident of the "Spindle City " over nine years, and although at times suffering severely from his old cn- emy, fever and agne, contracted during his service in the war, he has scen his practice as a physician and obstetrician steadily grow.
Dr. Holt does not attempt to do surgery, but con- fines his attention to the two former branches of the profession. He has never sought or held political office. He belongs to Post 120, G. A. R., and was for four years its medical officer. He is medical exam- iner for the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, and for several fraternal orders.
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