History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 99

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 99

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The practice of Dr. Hunnewell furnished no ex- ception to the general rule and his cellar and larder were largely supplied by means of no other circulat- ing medium than medicine, the tooth-puller and pills. Upon such a practice, however, he thrived, and in such a practice he continued actively at work until he was eighty years of age. He was for many years the only physician in Watertown, and as his reputa- tion widened he became a frequent visitor to the sick- beds of Newton and Cambridge and Waltham. He was a devotee to his profession, permitting himself to take no active part in the public affairs of either town or State. As a Whig in politics he rejoiced in the success of his party ; as a Unitarian in theology he was interested in the welfare of his church; as a Mason he shared the duties as well as the labors of his order. He was a man of nnswerving integrity, of commendable liberality, of cultivated tastes, a kind neighbor, a good friend, a thoroughly respected citizen.

Dr. Hunnewell married, May 12, 1800, Susannah Cook, of Newton, and his children were Jane, born June 23, 1801, who married John A. Underwood, and Horatio Hotlis, born July 27, 1810. The last-named child, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, as a merchant has had an eminently successful career. At the age of fifteen he entered the banking-house of Welles & Co., in Paris, France, and there remained until 1839, when he was twenty-nine years of age. Samuel Welles, the head of the firm of Welles & Co., was born in Natick, Massachusetts, April 22, 1778, and graduated at Harvard in 1796. He married, in London, in 1816, Adeline, daughter of John Fowle, of Water- town, Mass., and died in Paris in August, 1841. Ar- nold Welles, uncle of Samuel, was born in Boston, December 25, 1727, and had a son, John, born in September, 1764, who married, in 1794, Abigail Welles, sister of Samuel. The ninth child of John

Welles, named Isabella Pratt, born September 7, 1812, married, in Paris, December 24, 1835, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, mentioned above. Mrs. llunnewell in- herited the Welles estate, in that part of Natick which is now Wellesley, and Mr. Hunnewell has made large additions by purchase until it now includes about six hundred acres. This estate, occupied during thesum- mer by Mr. Hunnewell and also in separate houses by his married children, lies on both sides of the road leading from the Wellesley Station to Natick. That part of it occupied by Mr. Hunnewell himself lies on the borders of Wellesley Pond, on the other side of which are the grounds of Wellesley College. The mansion built by him stands out of sight from the road, and is reached by an avenue winding through spacious lawns and shaded by ornamental and forest trees, which reminds the visitor of the approaches to some of the best estates in England. Mr. Huunewell inherits from his father a taste for horticulture, which his abundant means enable him to gratify, and as he walks through his almost endless green-houses he points out his rare varieties of fruit and flowers with undisguised enthusiasm and fondles them with the tenderness of a parent in his children's nursery. Dr. Hunnewell, of whom this sketch is written, died in Watertown, October 19, 1855, at the age of eighty- six.

Dr. Hiram Hosmer was born in Walpole, N. H., September 4, 1798. He was one of twelve children of Jonas Hosmer (1758-1840), a farmer ; Jonas was the son of Jonathan, born in 1712, who had a brother who was a noted surveyor, and was the son of Stephen, who was the son of Stephen (1642). who was the son of James (1607-85), who came from Hawkhurst, in Kent, England, about twelve miles from Dover. James was in Concord, Mass., in 1635, took the oath of freeman in Boston, May 17, 1637, and settled on the right bank of the river north of Darby's bridge, on farm lately occupied by Elijah Hosmer. James, the son of this first James, was killed in the Sudbury fight in 1676.

As a boy he worked on his father's farm, occasion- ally for neighbors, at a compensation which seemed to him in better days, ridiculously meagre. He learned the tratle of cabinet-maker, which he after- wards abandoned for medicine. Ilis education was at first at a district school, one term at an academy, and afterwards with the celebrated Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, N. H. He afterwards spent some months under the tuition of Drs. Hale and Watkins, in Troy, N. Y. He attended lectures in Boston and received his degree from Harvard University in 1824. It was in this very year(1824) that he established himself in Water- town, where he remained until his death, April 15, 1862, which was from abdominal disease. Many liv- ing remember the kind face of the old doctor, and say that the portrait recently presented to the Public Library of Watertown, by his nephew, Dr. Hiram Hosmer, is a faithful and life-like picture. Most have an incorrect idea of the cause of his death, for many

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years before, "during a convalescence from typhoid fever, he had an incomplete hemiplegia of the right side. In April, 1856, he had a light attack which slightly benumbed the right arm. In February, 1860, he had a cerebral hæmorrhage, which two of the most eminent of the profession thought must speedily prove fatal. Contrary to all reasonable expectation, he ral- lied, instead of sinking, and early in the summer was able to walk and ride out; and two years and two months afterward he died of abdominal disease."

Ile had a successful career ; a large experience, great professional tact, a ready and correct judgment, an appreciation of "Nature in Disease," and a perfect comprehension of, and devotion to the highest inter- ests of medicine, in the best sense of the term.

One writes of him : " He was esteemed wherever he was known. Ile was not a great book-man, but was a diligent student of nature, and ever studied care- fully the diagnosis of his patients, as well as the mode of treatment. He was judicious in the treatment of the sick, not afraid of powerful medicines when such were really needed, but more commonly employed mild remedies."

Dr. Hosmer was married, September 6, 1827, to Saralı Watson Grant, of Walpole, N. H., who died in 1836. Of four children, the youngest only survives all her family, and is now the distinguished sculptress, Har- riet losmer. She was born October 9, 1830; being naturally of a delicate constitution, her treatment and early education well illustrates the good sense and wisdom of her father, and should be mentioned here. lle encouraged her to pursue a course of physical training unusual to her sex. If half the stories cur- rent among the people are true, she must have aston- ished the older people by her daring riding, sometimes standing on her dashing horse as he tore through the street. At an early age she began modeling in clay. Having completed her school education, she took a regular course in anatomical instruction at the Medi- cal College of St. Louis. In the summer of 1851 she returned home, and commenced her bust of " Hesper," which, on its completion in marble in 1852, attracted much attention in Boston ; and her father placed her under the instruction of Gibson, tlie sculptor, in Rome. From here we have her busts of "Daphne," " Medusa," and the statue of " Enone." One of her best works is " Beatrice Cenci," which was made for the St. Louis Public Library. One of her most popular works, which has been copied many times, is " Puck," a charming statue.

She was established for many years as a profession- al sculptor in Rome, reaping a substantial reward in a large income. In 1859 she finished a statue of " Zenobia in Chains," a work on which she labored Ro zealously for two years as to impair her health. A statue of Thomas HI. Benton, now in St. Louis, which in cast in bronze ; " The Sleeping Faun," for the en- trance of an art gallery at Ashbridge Hall, England ; a full-length reclining figure of a young girl for a

funeral monument in the Church of St. Andrea della Fratti in Rome, and a design for a " Lincoln Monu- ment" in Washington, D. C., are among her works. It is hoped that in her return to Rome, to renew her art work, she has already restored, by her father's wise art, the health which will enable her to still fur- ther vindicate the right of woman to strength and usefulness and a most honorable career.

Dr. Samuel Richardson, descended in the sixth gen- eration from Samuel Richardson, who was born in England in 1610, emigrated to America in 1636, and also was one of the founders of Woburn.

The doctor was the only son of Captain Ebenezer and Rhoda (Coolidge) Richardson ; born at Newton, Mass., Jan. 13, 1795; married, 1820, to Mary Kid- der, daughter of Isaac and Mary Kidder, of Town- send, Mass. He studied medicine with Dr. Moses Kidder, of Dublin, N. H., and Dr. Stephen H. Spaulding, of the same place; afterward with Dr. Amos Mitchell. Dr. Richardson practiced medicine at Peterborough, N. H., until 1838, when he removed to Watertown, Mass. His wife, Mary, died in 1861. In June, 1873, he married Sarah Barnard, of Water- town, who still survives him. Dr. Richardson died here, Feb. 12, 1879, leaving a son, Dr. Coolidge Richardson, of Ware, Mass., and a grandson in this town, Mr. Charles B. Gardner, a gentleman of gener- ous culture, who died the last part of July, 1890, leaving an only son, Roy Richardson Gardner, who having passed his examinations for Harvard College, is to spend a year in European travel, partly for his health.

Alfred Hosmer, M.D., born at Newton Upper Falls September 11, 1832, has the same name as his father, who was also a graduate of the Harvard Medi- cal School, and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. His grandfather, Jonas, born in Acton, Mass., in October, 1758, had a brother Abner killed in Concord, in the memorable fight at the bridge, April 19, 1775, while resisting, with other members of Captain Isaac Davis' company, of Acton, the advance of the British regulars. This grand- father married, inDecember, 1778, Betsy Willard, by whom he had twelve children, and, like many thrifty countrymen of that time, drove, as he had oppor- tunity, a trade, while the rest of his time was spent as a farmer. This trade was that of a mason. His great-great-grandfather, James Hosmer, at the age of twenty-eight, with a wife and two children, left his native Hawkhurst, in Kent, England, for America in 1635, and settled in Concord, Mass., on fields still tilled by descendants of the same name, after these two hundred and fifty years.

Ilis father, Alfred llosmer, a tenth child, and born at Walpole, N. H., in Nov., 1802, learned the trade of a shoemaker, but with great hope and persever- ance entered upon the study of medicine, and at the age of twenty-three was admitted as a student to the office of Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, N. H. He

Van & Richardson

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attended the usual course of lectures in the Medical School of Harvard University, and received the de- gree of M.D. in 1828. Enfeebled by acute rheuma- tism in early youth, resulting in a serious organic affection of the heart, he died in 1837, at the early age of thirty-five, leaving his three young children to the care of a courageous, energetic, and judicious mother, whom, as Mary Ann Grahme he had married in December, 1831. Her father, who belonged to an old Scotch family, had come to New York when quite a young man, and there had established himself as a merchant.

Alfred Hosmer, the son, having attended the pub- lic schools of Newton until his ninth year, when his mother found it expedient to remove to Walpole, N. H., where he found meagre opportunities for acquir- ing the thorough preliminary training which is neces - sary for the liberal education which he desired, was, nevertheless, admitted, without conditions, to Harv- ard College, and graduated with honor in 1853.

Having early selected, for the work of his life, medicine, which his father pursued, he tenaciously held to his early choice, and, soon after graduating, was admitted to the office of his uncle, Dr. Hiram Hosmer, of Watertown, well known in all this region as a most skilful practitioner, and during the follow- ing two winters attended lectures at the Harvard Medical School, the third year being spent as house- officer in the surgical department of the Massachu- setts General Hospital. In 1856 he received the de- gree of M.D. from his Alma Mater, and spent a large portion of the following year in professional studies in Paris.

It was the autumn of 1857 when he located in Watertown, from which time he has devoted himself industrously to general practice with a success that proves ability and has secured his reputation of being among the best practitioners of the State. In June, 1860, he married Helen Augusta, the youngest daugh- ter of the late Josiah Stickney, and has two children, a daughter and a son.

Dr. Hosmer became a Fellow of the Massachusetts Society in 1856 ; has repeatedly been a member of its council; way its anniversary chairman in 1877, and in 1882 its president, one of the youngest who have been elected to this high office. He was made presi- dent of the Obstetrical Society of Boston, for two years; was president of the Middlesex South District Medical Society ; was medical examiner for the Seventh District of Middlesex County. He took an active part in organizing the Massachusetts Medico- Legal Society, was its first president, holding the office three years ; was for many years post surgeon at the United States Arsenal at Watertown.

In 1879 he was made Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 1881 he was made a member of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity, and became chairman of the Health Committee.

He has contributed to the pages of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, papers of which the titles, in part, are " Diagnostic Importance of Examin- ations of the Urine; " " The Abuse of the Alimentary Canal; " " Life and Disease ; " " Increase of Danger incident to the Puerperal State ; " " A Case of Vaginal Lithotomy ;" Wounds of the Knee-Joint ; " " Intro- ductory Address before the Massachusetts Medico- Legal Society ; " " In what Cases shall the Medical Examiner decline to view a Dead Body ?" " A Pecu- liar Condition of the Cervix Uteri which is found in Certain Cases of Dystocia."

But not alone in professional labors has Dr. Hosmer won distinction. In the best work for the education, religious culture and moral up-building of the people by whom he has been surrounded, and for placing men on their own feet financially, by moder- ating their spending, and stimulating their saving and wisely investing the surplus of health and pros- perity for the days of sickness or adversity, he has been always active and will be long remembered. Dr. Hosmer was a member of the School Committee from 1865 to 1871, of which he was chairman during 1866, '67, '68 to April, 1869.

He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Free Public Library from 1868 to 1878, was secretary from 1868 to 1870, and chairman 1871, 1873 to 1877. He was elected one of the trustees of the Watertown Savings Bank, April 11, 1876; was presi- dent from 1874 to 1890; was instrumental in framing the code of by-laws adopted in 1885.

He was one of the originators of the Historical Society of Watertown, and did much to make the formation of the society possible, by arousing an interest in local history, and has been its first and only president.

In the First Parish, familiarly known as the Unitarian Society, he has for many years been moderator of its annual meetings, has always kept up an interest in its doing», has contributed liberally to its support, was greatly interested in the erection of the Unitarian Building for Sunday-school, for society and social uses, for which he solicited and obtained considerable contributions, and to the erec- tion and planning of which he gave most thorough and constant attention.

Dr. David T. Huckins was born the 24th of Feb., 1819, at Meredith, N. 11. He did not pass through the regular undergraduate course at college, but is a graduate of the Medical Department of Dartmouth, at Hanover, N. H. He has practiced to some ex- tent as a regular physician, but has been better known for the many years of his residence in this town as a dentist. He has filled several important public offices. He was a member of the School Committee of the town in 1850, 1851 and in 1852-the year when it was decided to abolish the old district school system and establish a High School,-1853, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1865, 1866, 1867 and 1868. He was a member of the

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first Board of Trustees of Public Library in 1868, and its treasurer.

He is known in scientific circles for his large and fine collection of shells.

Dr. Luther B. Morse was born in Rochester, Vt., in 1820, August 4th. He taught public school for six years in his native State, prepared for college at semi- naries in Castleton, Brandon and Montpelier, Vt. On account of poor health in early manhood, did not pursue a college course, but attended medical lec- tures at Dartmouth College, at the Vermont Medical College at Woodstock, and at the New York Univer- sity. Ile graduated in his native State at Vermont Medical College in 1845, and established himself in his profession at Lowell, Mass. During his residence here he was city physician for two or three years, a director of the City Public Library, a member of the School Committee, and represented the city in the Legislature in the years 1853 and 1854.

He came to Watertown in 1862 and has had exten- sive practice during his residence in town. He was a member of the School Committee in 1864-67 and in 1878, was town physician for a number of years, and a member of the Board of Health for one year. In 1863, after the second disaster at Bull Run, he, with thirty-three other Massachusetts surgeons and physi- cians, responded within thirty-six hours and reported themselves ready for duty at Washington for that special service.

While in Lowell and in Watertown he has been an active member of the Orthodox Church, holding the office of deacon for thirty-eight years.

Dr. Julian A. Mead was born in West Acton, Mass., in 1856 ; was fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Ezeter, N. Il .; graduated at Harvard College in 1878, and from Harvard Medical School in 1881, and spent two years in Europe at the Universities of Leipsic, Vienna and Paris in fitting himself for his profession.

fle came to Watertown in November, 1883, to assist Dr. Alfred Hosmer, whose practice in this and the neighboring towns had become too extensive for one man ; and since the illness of Dr. Hosmer in Decem- ber, 1888, he has succeeded to a large part of his prac- tice.

The present Board of Health was originated by him, and he was its first presiding officer, and, with Law- yer Sullivan, framed the rules and regulations which govern the board. In 1883 he was appointed by Gov- rruor Robinson a medical examiner for Middlesex County, which office he still holds. He was for three years assistant surgeon, and for two years surgeon of the Fifth Regiment, under Col. Bancroft.

and a member of the standing committee of the His- torical Society of Watertown.

Other physicians in town at present are Michael J. Kelley, Geo. A. Tower, E. True Aldrich, Charles S. Emerson, S. Adelaide Hall and W. S. Beaumont.

OLD RESIDENTS .- Mr. Samuel Walker was born in Langdon, New Hampshire, February 9, 1818. His father, Mr. Gilson Walker, a farmer of five or six hundred acres, raising large numbers of sheep with other stock, hay and grain, found time to serve his town for over thirty years as town treasurer. He was a son of Abel Walker, of Shirley, Massachusetts, whose father, Samuel, one of the eighty who responded to the Lexington alarm on the 19th of April, 1775, an enterprising citizen, treasurer of Shirley for a dozen years, was the great-grandson of Samuel Walker, sr., of Woburn, who was born in England in 1615, came with his father, Captain Richard Walker, to find a home in Lynn, in 1630.

Mr. Samuel Walker, the subject of our sketch, thus preceded by an honorable and trusted ancestry, some of whom distinguished themselves as pioneers in the settlement of New Hampshire, notably of Charles- town and Langdon, came to Boston in 1843, when he was twenty-five years old, and to Watertown for a home in 1854. He was at first engaged in the sale of country produce, say till 1859, since which time he has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of coal-oils. He was the second to import coal from Scotland-Downer was the first-for the manufacture of oil, before the discovery of the oil fields of Western Pennsylvania, which quickly supplied the market with crude petroleum. This had to be distilled and purified and prepared for use, a work for which the previous manufacture had led the way, but it soon came to revolutionize the artificial means of illumin- ating our homes and our shops, our factories and our streets, and in time, as it already cooks our food, will come to be the source of heat for steam-boilers and locomotives, as in Russia, and will probably drive our dynamos for all electrical work.

Walker's high-test white oil, like Pratt's astral oil, is one of the best for illuminating purposes.

Mr. Walker has served the town of his adoption as selectman in 1877, 1878 and 1879; has represented the towns of Watertown and Belmont in the Great and General Court in 1881 and 1882. He was one of the benefactors of the Free Public Library in 1883, giving the sum of $4,500 towards the new building while disclaiming any patriotic or charitable motives, giving it, as he said, as "an investment in improve- ments to his own home." This fronts on the beau- separated by a dense line of trees, a street and the railway. He can see this lawn in summer, as any one in town can see it, by going around to the street in front of it.

Outside of his profession he has taken quite a promi- | tiful lawn surrounding the library building, but is nent position, having served on the School Committee of the town for six years, for the last five of which he has been chairman. Hle is a member of the parish committee of the First Parish, and for two years has been the president of the Unitarian Club of this Robbins and Curtis Family.1 -- " Mr. James Robbins town. lle is the member of the Wednesday Club,

1 Compiled by Miss Martha Robbins.

Dame Ha Cher

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was a prominent and much respected citizen of Wa- tertown, who carried on various branches of manu- facturing, and was also interested in a country store. He died in 1810. He left a widow and a numerous family of children, with but a small estate, for in the later years of his life he was not very prosperous."

"He owned and lived in a large, old- fashioned house which stood on the bank of the river near the 'Square,' and just at the entrance of 'Watertown Bridge,'-an ancient bridge that led toward Newton."

He was a son of Mr. Solomon Robbins, who lived in Brighton.

Mr. James Robbins had three wives. His first wife's name was Warren, his second, Capen ; his third Lois White, sister of Jonas White. By his first mar- riage there were two children-Sarah and Ann Rob- bins. Sarah married Israel Cook. Ann married Francis Faulkner, who had a chocolate-mill that stood on the Island in Watertown. Then he removed to Billerica and established woolen-mills, which his de- scendants still own and carry on.

The children by the second marriage were Josiah, Lydia and Jonathan Robbins. Josiah was a man of considerable information, through travel and study acquiring different languages. A good part of his life was spent in Trinidad, where he married the daughter of an English officer. In the declining years of his life he lived in Carrollton, Kentucky, where he and, his wife died. From Mr. James Robbins' last marriage there were nine children. Lois Robbins, Martha, James, George and Isaac Robbins, were the only ones who grew to womanhood and manhood. Of these, Lois Robbins, the eldest of the nine chil- dren, married Captain Benjamin Curtis, the son of Dr. Curtis, of Boston. "Of this marriage there were two children, -Benjamin Robbins Curtis (see portrait on opposite page), born Nov. 4, 1809, and George Ticknor Curtis, born Nov. 28, 1812." Capt. Curtis died while his children were in their infancy. To their mother were they indebted for all they attained. Un- tiring in her devotion, counting upon their success, if by persistent effort and self-denial it could be attained, she had the reward in her old age of seeing all her hopes realized, both sons going through college with honors and excelling as lawyers - Benjamin being made judge of the Supreme Court; George distin- guished in law and literature. In the celebrated Dred Scott case, Judge Curtis will ever be associated as deciding that the negro was not a " chattel ;" but a citizen.

"The dissenting opinion of Judge Curtis, in the Dred Scott case, was greatly praised throughout the Northern States for the clear, learned and able man- ner in which it maintained the capacity of free per- sons of color to be 'citizens' within the meaning of the Judiciary Act, and for the power with which he asserted the authority of Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories."

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 99

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278