History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 30

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 30

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was a quiet, unostentatious person. " His life was his best memorial. It was marked by uprightness, strong love for his family and friends, warm hospi- tality to those who visited his home, deep interest in the cause of religion, humble hope in our Divine Lord, and a death whose sorrows never checked his faith, and whose happy submission left to all who loved him the confidence that when he was absent from the body he was present with the Lord."

BENJAMIN LYMAN MORRISON, son of Ira and Sophia (Colby) Morrison, was born in Ripley, Me., March 28, 1828. He received the limited educational advantages of a farmer's boy at the common schools, and when seventeen came to Braintree, and went to work in the yarn-mill of his uncle Alva, and, with the determination to make manufacturing his life- work, remained with him twelve years, thoroughly mastering every branch and all details of the business. During this period, by strict economy, he had laid up a small capital, and after a fruitless tour through the West, in search of a location in which to begin busi- ness, he returned to Massachusetts, purchased a dis- carded set of machinery of his uncle, and established himself in an unpretending way as a manufacturer of woolen yarn in Stoughton, Mass., in company with Asahel Southworth. This partnership continued eight- een months, when Mr. Morrison returned to Brain- tree, and leased a mill at East Braintree. This was about 1860. Remaining there four years, his industry and close personal attention being well rewarded, he was requested by Horace Abercrombie, who owned a flouring-mill not far away, to join him in partnership, and make of his property a manufactory of yarn. Mr. Morrison accepted this proposition. They formed the firm of " Abercrombie & Morrison." Within a year's time Mr. Morrison purchased the interest of Mr. Abercrombie in the mill. and conducted business in his own name until Jan. 1, 1881, when his son Lyman W. became a partner. The firm-name has since been " B. L. Morrison & Son." Since 1878 the machinery has been run by steam- as well as water- power. Mr. Morrison has been satisfied with a sure and safe business. He has personally given his at- tention to each department, manufactured a high grade of goods, and has been prosperous. He married, Nov. 22, 1855, Lydia D., daughter of Nathaniel and Eliza- beth (Hollis) Penniman, who belonged to an old Braintree family. Their children are Lyman W. and Helen M. In politics Mr. Morrison is Republican. He was chosen a representative in 1872. He is a member of Delta Lodge, F. and A. M., of Weymouth, and is a liberal in religion. Mr. Morrison is a man of strict integrity, genial nature, industrious habits,

and one whose honor is unquestioned, and whose word is as good as his bond. He is a man of kind affec- tions and feelings. He has concientiously been faith- ful to his trusts, devoted to his duties, and a sincere, generous, and true friend.

DAVID THAYER, A.M., M.D.

David Thayer, A.M., M.D., of Boston, is a native of Braintree, Mass., where he was born July 19, 1813. His ancestors, who were among the first set- tlers of the town of Braintree, were of Puritan stock, and came from England previous to 1640, in the " Mayflower," with the Pilgrims who landed at Plym- outh in 1620. His father was Deacon Nathaniel Emmons Thayer, and his mother Deliverance, daugh- ter of Deacon Elephaz Thayer, a soldier in the war of the Revolution, who served under Washington at West Point.

Dr. Thayer obtained the rudiments of his education in the common school of his native town, but his active mind sought a wider range of thought. He early showed a love of reading, and lost no opportunity of increasing his knowledge in this way. After work- ing all day on the farm, the late hours of the night often found him absorbed in study. He was by no means a book-worm. He loved out-door amusement, and was always eager to join his comrades in their active sports.

There is a French saying that the time best em- ployed is that which one loses. Its truth was demon- strated in the case of young Thayer, when, in common with every one of his school-fellows, he seemed des- tined to become a shoemaker. Though the experi- ment proved a failure, the time thus lost was well employed, as all idea of his ever becoming an accom- plished artist in this useful branch of industry was happily abandoned, and he was allowed to seek the highest education he so eagerly desired. He became a student at Weymouth Academy, and in 1833 he entered Phillips' Academy at Andover to fit himself for college. It was here that he gave his adherence to the cause he served in later years with unswerving faith and zeal. George Thompson, the noted English anti-slavery orator, lectured in Andover. Young Thayer heard him, became convinced of the crime of slavery, and joined with a number of his fellow-stu- dents who wished to form an anti-slavery society. This the faculty of Phillips' Academy and of the theological seminary forbade. To join the anti slavery society already formed by the citizens, and to discuss the slavery question in the Philomathean Society in

B. L. Moniser

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the Academy, was also forbidden. Then about forty of the students revolted and asked for their creden- tials, and left the Academy in a body. Among them was David Thayer, who was readily given an honor- able discharge. He completed his preparations for college at Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, N. H., and entered Union College in 1836.

During his college course he showed a preference for modern languages, which he acquired with facility, and for the natural sciences, and he took up the study of medicine under Prof. B. F. Joslin, M.D., LL.D. At this time his inclination was for a life of travel and exploration, and a knowledge of languages and of medicine would, he thought, be valuable aids. He graduated in 1840, then started out on his travels, going to the South and West. He remained in Ken- tucky a year or two, teaching and continuing his studies. The illness of his father recalled him to Braintree in 1842.

While at home he continued the study of medicine, and after the death of his father he entered the med- ical department of Harvard College, but without any intention of ever becoming a practitioner of med- icine.

It was in compliance with the earnest desire of his mother, after the death of his father in the same year, that he abandoned the idea of foreign travel, and de- cided to enter the profession. He took his medical degree in 1843 at the Berkshire Medical Institute, Pittsfield, Mass.

to the new school of practice. He joined the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1847, and twenty-three years later he was elected its president.

In 1854, Dr. Thayer, in order to apply a crucial test to the claims of homeopathy, selected several dis- eases over which allopathic treatment has little or no power to cure. These diseases were gall-stone disease, rachitis (or the distortion of the spine, incurvation of the long bones, deformed chests, etc.), calculi of the kidney, and organic disease of the heart. The result of these observations and tests was so satisfactory as to convince every unprejudiced mind of the efficacy of homeopathic medicines in these grave diseases.

In December, 1854, he made the discovery which has brought him enviable fame,-the discovery of the homeopathic specific for gall-stone colic. A patient who had suffered periodically for years from severe attacks of gall-stone colic came under Dr. Thayer's observation. Allopathic treatment could not cure the disease, and could only alleviate the suffering in part by opiates and hypodermic injections. The doctor carefully noted and studied the symptoms of the case ; then he set to work to search the homœopathic materia medica for drugs whose provings corresponded with these symptoms. Several were selected which cor- responded with the totality of the symptoms, but these failed to give relief. Finally cinchona, which has periodicity for one of its characteristics, was tried in the third decimal attenuation, and proved success- ful. Months, years passed, and the patient had no return of the pain. The cure was radical. Dr. Thayer thousand cases of gall-stone colic with equal success. His remarkable cures of gall-stone colic became known and talked about, and were reported to medical socie- ties. These reports were published, and physicians all over the country availed themselves of his discov- ery. Recently a noted French physician in Paris wrote to Dr. Thayer a letter of congratulation on making one of the greatest discoveries in therapeu- tics, and translated his paper on '. Gall-Stone Colic and its Remedy" into the French language, and published it in the Bulletin de la Société Medicale Homco- pathique de France.

Dr. Thayer began the practice of his profession in Boston, and in 1844, with J. E. Murdock, the | continued to study the disease, and has treated near a eminent elocutionist, he established the Boston Gym- nastic Institute, a school for physical education and the culture of the voice. It soon became popular, and was well patronized by the best people of Boston. It was at this period that Dr. Thayer began his in- vestigations of homoeopathy. He had read of the new method of practice, and he now began to experi- ment with homeopathic remedies. Therapeutics had ever been his favorite field in medical science, and tracing out the secret relations between diseases and their remedies possesses for him a peculiar fascination. In 1845 he began to treat cases of diarrhoea with a drug homoeopathically prepared. The result was a cure in all the thirty-five cases. The success of this experiment incited him to further investigation.

Dr. Thayer early became an Abolitionist, and iden- tified himself with Garrison and his party. His house was an asylum for fugitive slaves for many years be- fore the civil war, and his heart and hand were ever prompt in aiding the distressed. John Brown visited him, and received generous contributions of money in aid of his project of freeing the slaves in Missouri.

And in the same year he opened a dispensary in Boylston Hall, for the free medical treatment of the poor in connection with Dr. C. F. Hoffendahl, a homœopathic physician of long experience. This wider field of observation confirmed the results of | The doctor was also an active worker for the cause of former experiments, and Dr. Thayer became a convert Abolition in politics, and was associated with the

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prominent men of the party. He was elected a mem- ber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives five times. While in the Legislature he was largely influential in securing the charters of the Massachu- setts Homoeopathic Medical Society, the Dispensary, the College, and the Homoeopathic Hospital, in Boston.

At a period of the civil war when there was great need of medical aid in our army, Dr. Thayer offered himself to Governor Andrew for any service where he could be useful. The Governor forwarded the letter, with a cordial recommendation of the writer, to Sur- geon-General Dale. In answer, Dr. Thayer received this brief reply, " When your services are needed you will be notified." It is perhaps needless to add that had this offer come from an allopathic practitioner of like ability and standing it would have been accepted.

Dr. Thayer was one of the eight homœopathic phy- sicians, also members of the Massachusetts Medical Society (allopathic), who were summoned for trial before a committee of that society in 1873 for " con- duct unworthy and unbecoming an honorable physi- cian and member of the society," viz .: for practicing homœopathy. Though educated an allopathic physi- cian, Dr. Thayer had practiced homœopathy since 1847, and had been allowed to continue a member of | this society while guilty of such alleged conduct for twenty-six years! The trial resulted in the expulsion of these physicians. Dr. Thayer's speech in his own behalf and of one of his colleagues was a forcible, clear, and logical defense, and was also a powerful argument in favor of homoeopathy. The facts he stated could not be disputed, his conclusions could not be denied. It was published in a pamphlet and widely read, gain- ing for him many friends outside of Boston.

When the Boston University was established, Dr. T'hayer was very active in organizing the Homoeopathic College as its medical department. He received the first nomination as candidate for dean of the college, of professor of Practice and that of Institutes of Medicine in Boston University for eight years. He was for twenty-five years surgeon of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

health, and returned enriched with the results of many original observations and reflections. While visiting the hospitals of Europe his sympathies were aroused by witnessing the cruelties inflicted on the poor people who resort to these institutions for medical and sur- | gical aid ; nor was he blind to the manifest tyranny of the governments, as shown by the sad, bitter lot of their toiling peasantry, crushed by taxation, and the degraded condition of women ; and the general aspect of all the nations of Central Europe forced him to the conclusion, so epigrammatically stated by his friend Wendell Phillips, that under such sore and cruel op- pression " Dynamite and the dagger are the proper substitutes for Faneuil Hall and the Daily Advertiser."

Dr. Thayer has given special study to malarial fever and kindred zymotic diseases. His paper on " Miasm" was published in full in the "Publications of the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society" in 1879. In the " Transactions of the American Insti- tute of Homoeopathy" for 1883 is published his " History of Malarial Fevers." In the former of these papers Dr. Thayer brought accumulated evidence to show that there is some ground for the belief that miasm becomes infectious by attenuation,-by being diffused through a great extent of atmospheric air,- and that this law finds analogy in that principle re- cognized in the homœopathic school of medicine, viz. : that specific medicine is powerful to cure just in pro- portion to its attenuation within limits not yet dis- tinctly defined, and in that well-known fact, that the toxic effect of certain drugs is also increased by being attenuated and minutely subdivided. He also brings evidence to show that some of the miasmata in their crude and unattenuated state are not only non-in- fectious, but seem sometimes to act as prophylactics against the diseases which the miasmata in an at- tenuated state have the power to produce.

Dr. Thayer's eminent success as a physician is due in no small measure to his great industry. The late but declined the honor. He has occupied the chair | Dr. Carroll Dunham, whom all good homoeopaths reverenced, once wrote to a patient : " It is impos- sible for the physician to do his best in any case unless the patient submit himself without reserve or qualification to such inquest as the physician may In 1878, when the yellow fever was scourging New Orleans, the death-rate enormous, and the infection at its height, Dr. Thayer, learning that homoeopathic treatment was wanted there, wrote to the president of the Relief Association offering his services. The fearlessness and generosity of this offer were charac- teristic. from time to time deem necessary, throwing himself as much as possible into the state of passive follow- your-leadism which a lawyer requires in a discreet client. The physician must say, as the lawyer does, select counsel in whom you can place full confidence, place all the facts before him without reserve, give access to all sources of knowledge, then let him con- Five years later, when he had passed his seventieth duct the examination and the case according to his birthday, he visited Europe for the benefit of his untrammeled judgment." It is just this power of

Attrice.

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winning confidence, inducing the patient " to place all the facts before him without reserve," that gives a physician the surest means of forming a correct diag- nosis, and Dr. Thayer possesses it in an enviable degree. His nature is peculiarly sympathetic, and acts as a magnet upon those who approach him in professional as well as social relations, while his downright honesty inspires absolute trust and reliance. "There isn't a bit of humbug about him; he tells the truth without fear or favor," one patient was heard to say to another as both sat in his waiting- room. His uncompromising honesty and absolute fearlessness command the respect of all, even his enemies,-for so positive a character is sure to have enemies,-who have reason to know that he is " a good fighter." An eminent divine, in commenting upon the notorious trial and the expulsion of the homoeopathic physicians from the Massachusetts Medical Society, spoke of the homœopath defiantly shaking his little bottle of pellets in the faces of his judges, referring to Dr. Thayer. His attitude upon this, as upon all occasions when aroused to defense, shows the courage and self-reliance which are his dominant traits. Convinced that he is right, he would maintain his ground unshaken, and defy the whole world were it arrayed against him. How richly this granite strength of character is marbled with golden veins of tenderness and charity his many friends, who know and love him well, can testify. This tenderness was beautifully shown in his life-long devotion to his mother, who lived to the age of ninety-two years. It was in loyalty to her wishes that he relinquished the cherished plans of his youth, and entered the profession whose honors and rewards now crown his ability and untiring industry. For years before her death, no matter what the pressure of professional work or his own fatigue, through heat of summer and winter storms, he left the city every week to visit her retired home, and found in her loved presence the charm that banished weariness and pain. Such filial love is as rare as it is worthy of emulation. His charity, both of spirit and of deed, is one of his noblest, most endearing traits. Towards human error and imperfection he is ever lenient, and if his tongue cannot speak good, it speaks no evil. As he has risen by dint of his own unaided efforts, he knows how to sympathize with those who are struggling, and the poor and the oppressed have always found in him a true friend. When he finds a fellow-creature in distress, his ever-ready sympathy is excited, perhaps too easily, and he has often parted with large sums of money to help persons who seemed to need it more than himself. The oppressed always

found in him a true friend, and the oppressor an un- relenting enemy. The exacting duties of his profes- sion and the constant demands of a large practice have left him no leisure for the scholarly pursuits in which he delights ; but even now, as in youth, after a hard day's work, the midnight hour often finds him enjoy- ing the sounding lines of Homer or the eloquence of Demosthenes. He is an independent thinker, having his own views upon all subjects he investigates. His tendencies are liberal and progressive to a degree that has sometimes exposed him to criticism. He believes that no candid or scientific mind will turn aside from the investigation of what may prove to be a hidden truth, and may enlarge the resources which the phy- sician brings to the aid of suffering humanity. Be- lieving that "that life is most acceptable to the Almighty which is most useful to His creatures," he has honestly striven to serve his fellow-men, doing good wherever he found opportunity, and verily such shall have their reward.

NAAMAN L. WHITE.

The White family of which we write is largely repre- sented in colonial New England. They were extensive land-owners and generally successful agriculturists. It may be truly said of them, in summing up their general characteristics, that they abstained from the allure- ments of the vices of the day in which they lived. They were remarkable for their temperance, integrity, and perseverance, and with sincerity practiced the virtues of the genuine type of New England charac- ter, and in whatever condition of life they have been placed their descendants have honored their position and name. By searching old records we find Thomas (1) White, probably brother or cousin of William White (father of Peregrine), admitted freeman of Massachusetts colony March 3, 1635, being an inhab- itant of Weymouth, of which he was one of the first settlers, and whose earliest records bear his name. He was a man of ability and determination, was for many years selectman of Weymouth, representative to the General Court in 1637, 1640, 1657, 1671, and was commander of a military company, at that time a post of distinguished honor and responsibility. Thomas (2), son of the first Thomas, of Weymouth, was born in Weymouth, and married Mary Pratt ; settled in Braintree, and was admitted freeman in 1681. He was a man of education, distinction, and worth, and held a high social position in the town of | his adoption. His children were Thomas, Mary, Samuel, Joseph, and Ebenezer (3). His death oc- curred in April, 1706.

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Ebenezer (3), youngest son of Thomas (2) and -as a general rule, to not more than one. Mr. Mary (Pratt) White, of Braintree, was born in 1683, White was elected into and became an active mem- ber of all three. Of the last-named society he was the president, and at one of its anniversaries he was chosen the orator. married Lydia -, and lived in East Braintree. They had seven children,-Lydia, Elizabeth, Eben- ezer, William (died in infancy), William, Anne, and Thomas (4). Ebenezer was a farmer, quiet, unpre- tending, devoting himself entirely to agriculture. Thomas (4), son of Ebenezer and Lydia

White, married Deborah Nash, Aug. 23, 1753. He was a man of decided energy and pluck, was captain of a military company ordered to Dorchester Neck (South Boston), March, 1776. His children were Thomas, Deborah, Alexander, Silence, Solomon, and Elihu (5).

Elihu (5) married Sarah, daughter of Ellet and Sarah (Pratt) Loud. He was by birth and education a farmer, but afterward engaged in commerce, made foreign voyages, and acquired a competency. He was a captain in the militia, deputy fish commissioner of the State for many years. He had nine children, of whom all attained maturity,-Sarah (deceased) ; El- liott L. (deceased), remained at home, and filled im- portant offices in the town; Elihu (deceased), was a graduate of Brown University, and physician in Bos- ton ; Harvey (deceased), who engaged in commercial business ; Harriet A. (deceased) ; Sarah, married An- drew Glover, of Glover's Corner, Dorchester ; Deborah Prince; Catharine S. (deceased) ; and Naaman L. (6), whose ancestral line is Thomas (1), Thomas (2), Ebenezer (3), Thomas (4), Elihu (5), Naaman L. (6).

It has been said that nowhere is the character and ability of a man more accurately weighed and gauged than in the close contact, the constant and intimate association, and the sharp competitions of college life. However this may be, the appreciation in which Mr. White was held by his associates is perhaps some- what indicated by the number of literary societies into which he was chosen during the college course. There were at that time three leading literary so- cieties in the college, conducted by the undergrad- uates,-the Harvard Union, devoted principally to public debate, the Institute of '76, and the " Hasty- Pudding Club." It was usual for each member of every class to belong to some one of these societies,

During two years of the college course he was ap- pointed by the faculty a class-monitor,-an office of truth and responsibility, in which weekly reports to the president were required, and for which a small salary was allowed. He also competed with the best scholars of his class for many of the prizes offered by the University for literary excellence, and at one time he was awarded the first prize for the best-written essay on a subject given out by the college, and also the first Boylston prize for declamation ; so that his prize-money and salary were sufficient not only to pay all college bills for that term, but left a liberal supply for pocket-money besides.

He was a fine belles-lettres scholar, and particu- larly good in the ancient classics and in the modern languages and literature. At the same time he was so far proficient in mathematics and the severer studies connected therewith as to receive at one of the exhibitions of the junior year a mathematical part,-an appointment which required of the recipient of it to propose some original proposition or problem in the higher mathematics, and to write out, in de- tail, a full demonstration of it, which papers were to be deposited in the college library. At the close of the junior year he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. It was also during this Naaman L. White, son of Elihu and Sarah (Loud) White, was born on the place where he now resides in Braintree, June 24, 1814. He was fitted for college at Amherst and Phillips' Andover Academy. He entered Harvard University in 1831, in a class which year that the Harvardiana, a literary periodical, was started by members of his class, and during the re- mainder of the college course he was a frequent contributor to its pages. He was graduated with high honor in 1835. The subject of the com- has furnished its full proportion of men who have | mencement part assigned him was the " Character since distinguished themselves in the various walks of life.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 30

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534