History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 53

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 53

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By great industry he ere long obtained an extensive patron- age, and his practice eventually extended widely in Vermont, and thence to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. His first capital operation-the amputation of a leg-he performed with- out ever having seen it done before,-was guided solely by knowledge obtained from books. His reputation rapidly in- creased and spread abroad, and he was thronged with students,

* A. R. Owen is named as special commissioner in 1872.

+ Deceased.

# Deceased.

¿ See medical chapter in Franklin County history.

171

HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY.

who came from far and near,-among them the afterward greatly celebrated Dr. Nathan Smith, the founder of the medical department of Dartmouth College.

"In the year 1800, in consequence of his high attainments and respectable standing in the profession, the faculty of Dartmouth College conferred upon him the highest medical honor which can be granted to any physician, viz., the hon- orary degree of doctor of medicine."

In 1803, with a view to extend his sphere of usefulness, he removed to Chester, Vt., where he remained until 1816, fully sustaining his previous reputation, when the approaching in- firmities of age admonished him of the necessity of relaxing somewhat from his arduous duties. He accordingly removed to Hadley, Hampshire Co., Mass., where his duties would be less laborious, on account of the more level character of the country. Here he continued to enjoy an unlimited prac- tice, and maintained his great reputation in the profession until declining health compelled him to abandon active prac- tice.

In 1823 he was appointed by the trustees president of the Berkshire Medical Institution, which position he continued to hold to the time of his death, on the 9th of September, 1829, in his seventy-first year.

Dr. Goodhue was for a great number of years president of the Windham County Medical Society, called the Vermont Second Medical Society. He was also for one term a repre- sentative in the State Legislature.

His practice in operative surgery was very extensive. He performed the operation of trepanning upward of forty times, and operated for strangulated hernia as many more. He be- lieved himself to have been the first man in New England to amputate at the shoulder-joint.

He was extremely temperate and regular in his manner of living, and for many years previous to his death abstained entirely from spirituous liquors, at a time when their use was universal among all classes.

He raised a family of eight children,-four sons and four danghters. Two of his sons adopted the profession of medi- cine, one of whom died in Alabama about 1842, and the other settled in Canada. His eldest surviving daughter married Dr. Twitchell, of Keene, one of the most distinguished sur- geons of New Hampshire.

DR. DAVID HUNT was the son of Ebenezer Hunt, of North- ampton, Mass. He was born at Northampton in 1773. His study of the theory and practice of medicine was mostly in his father's office. His active practice commenced in his native town soon after he became of age, and was continued to the time of his death, in 1837, at the age of sixty-four years.

Although not a college graduate, he was an excellent scholar and respectable practitioner, and was held in such high repute that in 1818 Yale College conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of medicine. He was a member of the Ameri- can Antiquarian Society, the American Geological Society, and of the Physico-Medical Society, of New York.

He devoted considerable time to the study of mineralogy and geology, and collected a very fine and rare cabinet of minerals. He was on terms of intimacy with Dr. Bruce and Professors Sil- Jiman, Cleaveland, and Hitchcock, and other distinguished ge- ologists and mineralogists. He was admitted to the Massachu- setts Medical Association in 1813, and resigned in 1833.

DR. ELISHA MATHER was a native of Northampton, HIamp- shire Co., where he was born in 1792. Both his father and grandfather were also natives of that place, and both were emi- nent physicians. The elder was a contemporary of Dr. Pyn- chon, of Springfield, and Dr. Thomas Williams, of Deerfield, and the three were about the only physicians of note in their day in the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts.

Dr. S. W. Williams says that Dr. Mather was a respectable practitioner, and a member, counselor, and censor of the Mas- sachusetts Medical Society, with which he united in 1824, and

continued his fellowship to the time of his death, on the 24th of April, 1840, at the age of forty-eight years.

From an obituary, which appeared at the time of his decease in the columns of the Hampshire Gazette, we extract the fol- lowing :

" In noticing the death of this good man and physician, it is not our object to analyze particularly his character or descrihe minutely the elements of what it was composed, but generally to bear testimony to his high standing in the profession and the excellency of his character.

"Dr. Mather was undoubtedly more self-taught than most of his professional brethren. He was indebted to his talents, his industry, and his application for the rank which he at- tained. In all the various branches of his profession he was ¿entitled to entire confidence. With the structure and func- tions of the different parts of the human system he was most intimately acquainted, and was seldom surpassed in accuracy of anatomical knowledge.

" In his deportment he was neither forbidding nor imposing, but affable and accessible to all, so that his younger brethren could always approach him without being apprehensive that they should be overpowered by his feeling of superiority. In his domestic relations he was greatly endeared."

DANIEL THOMPSON, M.D., was born at. Pelham, Jan. 14, 1800. His father and grandfather were farmers of that town during their lives. Ilis paternal grandmother, whose maiden name was Mary Cowan, was of Scotch descent; his mother was Matilda Pierce, of Middleborough, near Boston.

He attended the common schools of his native town, which were then in good repute, and afterward became a member of Amherst Academy, of which Jared H. Hallock was then principal. He pursued medical studies at Northampton and Pittsfield, and attended three full courses of lectures at the Berkshire Medical Institution, at Pittsfield, in the years 1823-25. From Dec. 3, 1825, until Oct. 20, 1837, he pursued the practice of his profession at Pelham, from whence he re- moved to Northampton, at the suggestion of Dr. Flint, who was about to remove to Springfield. In 1827 he married Caroline Augusta, a daughter of Dr. David Hunt, son of Dr. Ebenezer Hunt, who died at Northampton, Jan. 18, 1874.

In 1839 Dr. Thompson formed a copartnership with Dr. Benjamin Barrett, one of his former preceptors in Northamp- ton, which lasted till the latter retired from practice,-a period of nearly seven years. He then took as partner his brother James, the connection lasting until the latter's death, when he admitted to the same relation his nephew, A. W. Thompson, -graduate of the Boston School of Medicine,-whom he had adopted as a son. After a few years this partnership was dissolved, Dr. Thompson ever after pursuing his profession single-handed down to the present time.

Dr. Thompson has risen from comparative poverty to a con- dition of pecuniary independence, notwithstanding the gener- osity with which he has given of his means for wortby objects. With him the fee was never the inspiring motive in the ex- ercise of his profession, but rather the wish to benefit mankind.

EDWARD EVANS DENNISTON, M.D., was born at Cocks- heath, County Donegal, Ireland, July 2, 1803, and received his education at Dublin, and at Edinburgh, in Scotland. He was for six years bound apprentice to the firm of Bernard Rogan & Sons, surgeons and physicians to the hospital and dis- pensaries at Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, and in that institution succeeded Dr. Rogan as surgeon upon the latter's election to the superintendeney of the Ulster Insane Asylum, at Londonderry. In 1833 he settled in Northampton, for three years successfully pursuing his profession in partnership with Dr. Benjamin Barrett, and the succeeding ten years quite as successfully alone. A severe injury which he received at the end of this period unfitting him for the drudgery of ordinary country practice, he entered upon the charge of an establish- ment devoted to the cure of chronic invalidism, and known as

172

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

" Spring Dale," situated near the village of Northampton. After thirty-three years of unremitting service in that insti- tution, he retired therefrom in May, 1879, but continues, at the age of seventy-six, in active practice.

JOSEPH H. FLINT, M.D., was born at Leicester, Worcester Co., Mass. ; removed to Northampton prior to 1830, where, for a number of years, he followed the practice of his chosen profession. IIe subsequently removed to Springfield, where he died. While at Northampton he was associated profes- sionally with Dr. Elisha Mather .*

JAMES DUNLAP, M.D., attended Amherst College from 1843 to 1845, graduated five years afterwards at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York City, and has since been engaged in active practice in Northampton, Mass.

TIMOTHY J. GRIDLEY was a pupil of the elder Dr. Smith in the medical college at New Haven; was celebrated as a surgeon, and was in practice at Amherst, in or near the year 1821.+

THE HAMPSHIRE MISSIONARY SOCIETY AT NORTHAMPTON was incorporated Feb. 21, 1804. Officers of the society were chosen yearly " on the Thursday of the week when the Court of Common Pleas" was held, in the month of August. The following were the officers for the year 1805,-President, his Excellency, Caleb Strong ;} Vice-President, Rev. Samuel Hopkins ; Treasurer, Ruggles Woodbridge, Esq. ; Corre- sponding Secretary, Rev. Enoch Hale; Recording Secretary, Rev. Samuel Taggart; Trustees, Hon. John Hastings, Joseph Lathrop, D.D., Hon. Ebenezer Hunt, Joseph Lyman, D.D., Justin Ely, Esq., Rev. Solomon Williams, Wm. Billings, Esq., David Parsons, D. D., Chas. Phelps, Esq., Rev. Rich'd S. Storrs.

THE HAMPSHIRE BIBLE SOCIETY

was formed July 10, 1816, at a meeting holden at the court- house in Northampton, " for the purpose of securing the dis- tribution of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment." At this meeting Nonh Webster, Esq., was chairman, and Josiah Dwight, secretary.

A constitution was adopted at the same meeting, the second article of which provides that the "towns in the vicinity of the county of Hampshire containing a member or meinbers of the society shall enjoy all the benefits and privileges of towns within the county."

The constitution provided that any surplus funds not needed for use within the limits of the society shall be forwarded to the American Bible Society, established in New York, " to which this society shall so far be considered auxiliary."

A president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and a board of trustees are chosen annually. The president and vice-presi- dent are trustees ex-officio. The treasurer is the only paid officer. The following were the first officers chosen : Presi- dent, Hon. Caleb Strong ; Vice-President, Rev. Nathan Per- kins ; Treasurer, Ebenezer Hunt, Jr., Esq .; Secretary, Isaac C. Bates ;¿ Trustees, Hon. Joseph Lyman, Rev. Henry Lord, Dr. William Porter, of Amherst, Rev. Nathan Pease, Noah Webster, Esq.

The following have served as presidents : Caleb Strong, 1816; Nathan Perkins, 1817 to 1839; Hon. Mark Doolittle, 1840 to 1855; Rev. Gordon Hall, 1856 to 1879. As vice-presi- dents: Nathan Perkins, 1816; Joseph Lyman, 1817 to 1823 ; Isaac C. Bates, 1824 to 1830 ; Hon. Mark Doolittle, 1832 || to 1839; Rev. Charles Wiley, 1840 to 1844; lIon. David Mack, 1845 to 1853; Luke Sweetzer, 1854 to 1871; Rev. Ephraim Lyman, 1872 to 1873; Rev. Samuel T. Seelye, 1876 | to 1879. As treasurers : Ebenezer Hunt, Jr., 1816 to 1823; Samuel Wells, Jr., Esq., 1824 to 1830; Eliphalet Williams, 1832|| to 1873; J. L. Warriner, 1876| to 1879. As secretaries, Isaac C. Bates, 1816 to 1823; Eliphalet Williams, 1824 to 1830; William H. Stoddard, 1832 to 1879.

Present Officers .- Rev. Gordon llall, D.D., President; Rev. , Samuel T. Seelye, D.D., Vice-President; William H. Stod- dard, Secretary ; J. L. Warriner, Treasurer ; John Whittle- sey, Auditor ; Revs. W. S. Leavitt, E. G. Cobb, A. M. Colton, E. S. Dwight, and A. J. Lincoln, Directors.

HISTORY OF THE TOWNS OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY.

NORTHAMPTON.

As the fertility of the soil, beauty of location, and pictur- esque scenery of the " great river," as Cotton Mather called the Connecticut, attracted the attention of the overcrowded settlements at the Bay in 1635, so in 1653 the fertile meadows of NonotnekT were regarded as the most inviting locality for a new plantation by the settlers at Windsor, Hartford, and Springfield, and on the 20th day of May in that year a peti- tion was presented to the General Court by inhabitants of the above towns for leave to plant a settlement at Nonotuck. There is, however, no doubt that the real projectors and those through whose energy and influence the scheme was sustained and fostered were John Pynchon, son of William Pynchon,

the founder of Roxbury and Springfield, Elizur Holyoke, son-in-law of John Pynchon, and Samuel Chapin.

The following is a copy of the original petition :

" To the Right Worshypful Governor, and the Worshypful Magistrates, Assist- ants, and Deputies of this much-honored Conrt,-Your humble petitioners wish increase of all felicity. Your humble Petitioners being fully persuaded by your former promptness and pions endeavors to begiu and settle Plantations in such plares as appeared convenient within the liberty of your Jurisprudence and Patent, for the further enlarging of the territories of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the common utility of the Common Weal, are therefore em- boldened to present these few lines to your Judicious consideration, and their request therein that you would be pleased to give and grant Liberty to your Petitioners whose names are subscribed, and such as so join with them, accord- ing to your wonted clemency, power, right, and authority, from, by, and under you to plant, possess, and inhabit the place, being on Conetiquot River, above Springfield, called Nonotuck, as their own inheritance, according to their divisions by estate, and to carry on the affairs of the place by erecting a town there, to be governed according to the laws, directions, and instructions they shall receive from you. Your Petitioners having some knowledge of the place by reason of the propinquity of our hubitation, to be a place desirable to erect &

* See chapter on the medical profession of Hampden County.

+ For additional items upon the medical profession of Hampshire County, see histories of the various towns.

# Er-officio trustee of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, Instituted at Bos- ton, May 28, 1799; also United States Senator.

" There is a tradition that one English family came to this place in 1652, and lived here during the next winter on land which lies east of what is called Haw- ley Street (Williams).

¿ Subsequently United States Senator.

Į No election of officers in 1831, 1874, and 1875.

CENTRAL PART OF NORTHAMPTON, MASS., IN 1839,

SHOWING THE COURT-HOUSE, FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ETC., AS SEEN FROM THE ROAD IN A NORTHEASTERN DIRECTION.

HATS CAPS FURS

City Hall. . Public Library.

First Congregational Church.

Court-House.

CENTRAL PART OF NORTHAMPTON, MASS., IN 1879.

173

HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY.

town in for the furtherance of the public weal, by providing corn and raising cattle, not only for their own but likewise for the guoil of others,-the propaga- ting of the gospel,-the place promising in an ordinary way of God's Providence a comfortable subsistence, whereby people may live, and attend upon God in his holy ordinances without distraction. So, committing you to the Guidance of the mighty Counsellor, we rest your humble Petitioners.

" Edward Elmore, Richard Smith, John Gilbert, Wm. Miller, John Allen, Richard Wekley, Thomas Burnham, Matthias Foot, Thomas Root, Wmn. Clark, Joseph Smith, Jobn Stedman, Jonathan Smith, Wm. Holton, Robt. Bartlett, John Cole, Nicholas Ackley, John Webb, Thomas Sterbnan, Thomas Bird, Wm. Janes, John North, Joseph Bird, and James Bird."

This petition for the planting of Non-o-tuck was supplemented by a petition signed by John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke, and Samuel Chapin, praying that the prayers of the above petition- ers might be granted, and they state that twenty-five families at least were desirous of forming a new settlement, "many of them," to nse their own words, " of considerable quality for es- tates and fit matter for a church when it shall please God to give opportunity that way ;" and further on it is stated that " the inducement to us in these desires is not any sinister re- speet of our own, but that we, being so alone, by this means may have some more neighborhood and your jurisdiction."

The petition was finally granted by the General Court, May 18, 1653, and Messrs. Pynchon, Holyoke, and Chapin were chosen as commissioners to lay out the plantation of Non-o-tuck.

The next move to be made in the grand scheme which Mr. Pynchon had projected was the purchase of the lands from the Indians, and in this he followed in the footsteps of his illus- trious and humane father in dealing honestly and fairly with the children of the forest. The following is a copy of the in- strument that conveyed the lands of Non-o-tuck to John Pyn- chon and others :

" Be it known by these presents that Chick wallop, alias Wawhillowa, Nenassa- halant, Nassisohee, Kinnks, Paqnaharlant, Assellaquompas, & Awonnsk, the wife of Wulluther, all Nonotuck, who are the chief and proper owners of all the lamuls on the west side of Connecticut River at Nonotnek, on the one, do give, grant, bargain, and sell unto John Pynchon, of Springfield, on the other party, to him, his heirs, and assigns, all the Grounds and Meadows, Woods and Ponds & W lying on the west side of Quonettient River, beginning the small river (helow Munham) called Sankrohonk, & So up by Quonettient River to the little meadow called Capawonk, namely, to the little brook or Gutter on this side Cap- awonk, which little brook is called Masquatupe, and the Grounds lying West- ward from Connecticut River (within the compass aforesaid) for nine miles out into the woods, viz. : as far as Manskoonish is from Springfield,-for so it was ex- pressed to the Indians,-all that Tract of Grounds from Sankronk river, Quonaik- guck, called Munham, Pochneck, Pelowwag, Aspowounk, Luckcommuk, Assat- tayyagg, Hayyagg, Nayyoumhegg, Masqump, and by whatsoever other names the said Grounds are called, & all out into the woods from the great river for 9 miles within this compass. The aforesaid Indians, and in Particular Wawhollowa, Nenessahalant, & Nassachohee, being the Sachems of Nonotuck, do for them- selves, & with the consent of the other Indians and owners of the Said Grounds, Sell, Give, and Grant unto John Pynchon, of Springfield, and to his assigns, for and in consideration of one hundred fathom of Wampam by Sale & for Ten coats (beside some small gifts) in hand paid to the said Sachems & owners, all the land aforesuid as* these presents have bargained, Granted & Sold to the said Pynchon all and singular the said lands free from all Incumbrances of Indians, provided the Said Pynchon Shall plow up, or canse to be plowed up, for the said Indians Sixteen acres of land on the Easterly side of Quonetticut river, which is to be done sometime next Summer, 1654; and in the meantime, viz., the next spring 1654, the Indians have liberty to plant their present cornfieldls, but after that time they are wholly to leave that west side of the river, & not to plant, or mo- lest the English there.

" All the said premises the said Pynchon & his assigns Shall have & enjoy al- solutely & clearly forever,t all Incumbrances from any Indians or their Corn- fields. Witness of this these presents the said Indians have subscribed their marks this twenty-fourth day of September, 1653.

" The mark of CHICK WALLOP,

" The mark of

NASSICOHEE.

" The mark of

NENESSAIALANT.

alias WAWHILLOWA. " The mark ~~~ of PAQUAHALANT."

* Omissions in deed.

t This grant was witnessed by Eliznr Holyoke, Henry Burt, Thomas Cooper, Thos. Stebbins, and two Indians.

The two great steps had now already been taken, and on Oct. 3, 1653, not two weeks after the purchase was made, the proprietors met at Springfield to confer concerning the future plantation and the regulation thereof. Among other things, it was agreed that of the petitioners all should be " resident there, and dwell, themselves and their families, there by the spring next ensuing the date hereof." It was also agreed that any person failing to do this should " lose his money paid for the purchase, with the charges." At this meeting it seems the whole number of petitioners did not appear, and ten new per- sons were substituted.

It is evident that the object of the above meeting was to permanently secure the settlement of the place in the following year, and at a meeting of the proprietors, held at Springfield, Nov. 15, 1653, it was announced that the petition had been granted, and the following order was made :

" It is ordered and agreed that all such persons as shall go up to Nalwottoge the next spring ensuing the date hereof, there to dwell the next winter, for the furthering and promoting the planting of the said place, it is agreed that every single man shall receive four acres of meadow besides the rest of his division, and every head of a family shall receive five acres beside the rest of their division."

In that early day it was considered an "inalienable right" of the " good men" of the town to designate who should be admitted into the plantation. At a meeting of the progenitors of the settlement, held at Springfield in 1653, a committee of five was appointed "to receive in such inhabitants as they shall judge fit for the carrying on the designs of the company, and to accommodate them according to the former rule, which is a quarter to twenty families, being in estimation eight hun- dred acres,"-that is, that the first twenty families were to have forty acres each.

Among the early regulations of the plantations were these: that there must be a residence of four years before any settler should have a right to either sell or let his lands, and in case he should remove from the town before the expiration of four years his lands should be declared forfeited.

In the spring of 1654, Pynchon, Holyoke, and Chapin, in furtherance of this plan, proceeded to lay out the plantation of Non-v-tuck, as shown by the following record in the old town-book of Northampton :

" A true copy of the bounds of the plantation which the Committee appointed by the Honored General Court laid out to the Planters of Nonotuck.

" Whereas, we whose names are underwritten were appointed by the General Court of the Massachusetts to lay out the land at Nonotack for two plantations, for the present we have only appointed the bounds of one of them, to which we allow the great Meadow on the west side of Conecticote River, as also a little meadow, called by the Indians (Capawonke), which lieth about two miles above the great Meadow, the bounds of which plantation is to extend from the (south side) of the little meadow, called Capawonke, to the great falls, to Springfield ward; and westward is to extend nine miles into the woods, from the river of Conecticote, lying . . . east the foresaid meadows; and (the same) to belong to the planters and such as shall come to plant with them, who, according (to the) liberty granted from the Court, have made choice thereof for themselves and their successors, not molesting the Indians (nor) depriving them of their just right and property without allowance to their satisfaction.

" By 118, " JOHN PYNCHON, " ELEZUR HOLYOKE,

" SAMUEL CHAPIN.

" SPRINGFIELD, 9th May, 1654."

In this connection the following record also appears, under date of Oct. 18, 1654:

" NONOTUCK PLANTATION.

" To the Honored General Court of the Massachusetts: We whose names are underwritten being appointed to divide the lands at Nonotuck into two planta- tions, we accordingly have granted to them that now first appear to remove thither to plant themselves on the west side of the River Conecticott, as thay desired, and have laid out their bonnds, viz., from the little meadow ahove tbire plantation-wbich meadlow is called Capawonke or Mattomett-down to the head of the falls which are below them, reserving the lands on the east side of said river for another Plantation, when God, by his Providence, shall so dispose thereof, and still remain your humble servants,

" JOHN PYNCHON,

" ELIZUR HOLYOKE,

" SAMUEL CHAPIN.

" The Court approves of this return."

We have now presented to the reader in detail the various

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 53

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700