History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 80

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896

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Another incident is related of him by the Brewer brothers, druggists, opposite Court-House Square : At a period when Rev. Joseph Lathrop had become well advanced in years, he stepped into Dr. Brewer's office, which was near the ferry, to wait for the boat, then on the other side. The two men were chatting and joking pleasantly, when suddenly Dr. Brewer remarked : " Mr. Lathrop, I have an old grudge against you : you once punished me in your school when I did not deserve it, and I said when I got old enough I would take my re- venge." " Well," said the aged parson, rising and pulling off his coat, " we might as well settle it now as any time." The doctor laughed, and the joke was heartily enjoyed by the bystanders.

Dr. Brewer married Amy White, by whom he had eleven childen. Ilis wife died in 1821, aged seventy-six years. His son, Daniel Chauncey Brewer, was educated for a physician, but did not practice long, giving up the profession to engage in the drug business with Dr. Joshua Frost. The old doctor was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Association, to which he was admitted in 1785.

DR. NATHAN SMITH .- Among the earnest and successful workers who have added lustre to New England's " Roll of Honor" stands the subject of this brief notice, Dr. Nathan Smith, the following mention of whom has been compiled from a memoir published by Professor Nathan R. Smith, of the University of Maryland, a son of the first named, in 1824. The memoir contains an eulogium of Dr. Nathatt Smith, pronounced by his friend and follow-laborer, Pro- fessor J. Knight, of Yale College, from which we have freely drawn :

Dr. Nathan Smith was born in Rehoboth, Mass., Sept. 30, 1762. While he was yet young his parents removed to Ches- ter, Windsor Co., Vt., where they continued to reside until their deaths.

Little is known of his early life, except that he veeupied his time in agricultural pursuits, and in acquiring the scanty education afforded by the common schools of the day.

Previous to his arrival at manhood he served in the Ver- mont militia upon the borders, against the Indians, where he was exposed with his comrades to all the hardships incident to a soldier's life, during which service he contracted a disease which disabled him for several months. Later he taught a distriet school, and evidently made the most of his oppor- tunities.

The turning-point of his life was his almost accidental pres- enee at a surgical operation performed by Dr. Josiah Goodhue, of Putney, Vt., long the most skillful surgeon in that region. The interest awakened at that time determined his future career. He resolved to be a physician. Soon after, he men- tioned his intentions to Dr. Goodhue, and desired permission to enter his office as a student. The doctor advised him to first prepare himself with some responsible teacher to enter the freshman elass of Harvard University, when he would willingly receive him as a student. This sound advice he fol- lowed, and chose as his tutor the Rev. Mr. Whiting, of Rock- ingham, Vt. After a course of studies with him, he entered the office of Dr. Goodhue, and applied himself diligently to his work for a period of three years. He began the active practice of his profession at Cornish, N. H., where he re- mained two or three years. At this time he attended lectures upon medieine, surgery, and natural philosophy at Harvard University.

At the elose of the eollege term he read an inaugural dis- sertation on " The Circulation of the Blood," which received the approbation of the faculty, and was published at their request. Ile returned to Cornish, bearing the degree of Bach- elor of Medicine, and engaged anew in the practice of his pro- fession.

In those days the practice of medicine was at a low ebb, both in New Hampshire and Vermont, and he conceived the idea of establishing a medieal institution for the purpose of remedying the evil. With this object in view he projected and carried to a successful accomplishment the establishment of the medical school sinee connected with Dartmouth Col- lege, at Hanover, N. Il. The initial steps were taken about 1796, and the school put in operation, probably, in the next year. In 1798 he was appointed professor of medieine, and the degree of Master of Arts was also conferred upon him in the same year.

The school was conducted for several years in one of the rooms of Dartmouth Hall, belonging to the college.

In 1797-98 the doctor visited Europe, and spent a year at Edinburgh and London in the schools and hospitals. In 1801 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth College. His salary as Professor of Medicine was at first fifty dollars per annum; but this was subsequently increased, in 1804, to two hundred dollars.

After long and persistent efforts he succeeded, in 1809, in getting the Legislature to make an appropriation of three thousand four hundred and fifty dollars toward the erection

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HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTY.

of a suitable building for the accommodation of the school, which was completed somewhere about 1812. The appro- priation was supplemented by the additional sum of twelve hundred and seventeen dollars and fourteen cents, which the doctor raised and applied in its construction ; and he also contributed an acre of land for the site, and his chemical and anatomical apparatus for the use of the institution,-the latter valued at fifteen hundred dollars.

From 1798 to 1810 he supported the school by his own in- defatigable exertions. In 1813 he accepted a chair in the medical institution in connection with Yale College, where he continued until his death, in 1829, at the age of sixty- seven years.

Ile was an able writer upon all subjects pertaining to his profession, and in 1824 published an elaborate and valuable work on "Typhus Fever and its Treatment," which is still authority. He is believed to have been the first to introduce an improved treatment of that disease in this country.

Dr. Smith was a remarkable man. His acquaintance with all classes of society was extensive, probably exceeding that of any man in New England in his day ; and it has been said of him that his influence for the benefit of physic and surgery was greater than that of any other medical man in the New England States.

His biographer says of him : "To him the sick and suffer- ing, whether rich or poor, were equally objects of attention and compassion. He regarded all alike-the rich, the poor, the beggar, and the outcast-when his services were required to relieve their distresses. He acted in accordance with an opinion which I have more than once heard him express, that the great object of intercourse of man with his fellow-men should be to do them good."

He was a most skillful and thorough surgeon, and performed many difficult operations, requiring the greatest knowledge and the most delicate skill ; among others thirty cases of lith- otomy, only three of which proved fatal. " It is believed that he was the first in this country to perform the bold operation of extirpating the ovarian tumor."

DR. JAMES MORVEN SMITH was born in Hanover, N. H., in 1806. He graduated, it is believed, at Yale College, and first became known in this region about 1830, when he settled in Westfield in the practice of his profession, and remained until 1838, well sustaining himself in medicine and surgery, when he removed to Baltimore, Md., for the purpose of assist- ing his older brother, the celebrated Prof. Nathan R. Smith.

He remained in Baltimore about three years, a part of the time taking sole charge of his brother's business while the former was absent in Kentucky delivering lectures on surgery.

While in Baltimore he sustained the surgical traditions of his family by performing successfully the unparalleled opera- tion of amputating both thighs in the upper thirds. His tastes, however, and the relinquishment of his brother's engagement as professor in Kentucky, led him to again seek New England, and he came to Springfield about the year 1841. Here he establisbed his permanent home, and resided until his death in the terrible railway disaster at Norwalk, Conn., in 1853.

He died too early, for, although slow in maturing, he gave promise of a mental stature quite the equal of his brother and father. Hle had strong common sense, and, while eminently conservative, his hardihood when roused by emergencies was fully equal to that of any of the more celebrated professors of his art. His extreme modesty, however, interfered with a full appreciation of his sterling qualities except by those who knew him intimately. There are, however, living, at the pres- ent time, physicians who well remember his extreme coolness in the hour of danger,-how quietly his fingers stopped the gushing artery, and how completely equal to the emergency his courage met every difficulty. He was well and widely known, and perhaps no man better understood or held more sacred the obligations of a physician to his patients. He found

his place so completely in the sick-room that be never aspired to any public position.

Dr. Smith possessed in a very great degree that love of humanity which was the striking characteristic of his father. His patients found in him, not only the skillful physician, but the sympathizing friend, and he was often resorted to for ad- vice in other than strictly professional matters.

If his time and strength had not been so completely monop- olized by the varied cares of country practice, he would un- questionably have made a reputation in surgery second to none in this portion of the country. Ile was singularly free from all outward show.

DR. DAVID PAIGE SMITH was born in Westfield, Mass., Oct. 1, 1830. He graduated at Yale College in 1851, and at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1853. Ilis father dying soon after his graduation, he remained in his office and continued his practice, marrying Miss Eunice Brewer in 1854.

Early in 1860 he left Springfield for Edinburgh, Scotland, and remained at its eclebrated university for a period of six months, going from there to London, and thence to Paris. The firing upon Fort Sumter brought him home with other Americans, and he at once went into the volunteer service as surgeon of the 18th Massachusetts Infantry, and joined the Army of the Potomac. He was soon promoted to be brigade surgeon, and ordered to report to Gen. George H. Thomas, reaching him immediately after the battle of Fishing Creek, Ky.

He was soon gazetted as medical director of his column, and went with Gen. Thomas through the campaign ending with the occupation of Corinth, doing arduous service at the battle of Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh). Being very ill after the oecu- pation of Corinth, he came East on sick-leave; but, meeting intelligence of the disastrous campaign of MeClellan on the Chickahominy, he at once reported for duty, and was put in charge of Fairfax Seminary Hospital, near Alexandria, Va.

Although at times detached on other duty, he was in charge of this hospital nearly the whole time, and closed it at the end of the war, retiring from the service with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Returning to Springfield, he engaged actively in the prac- tice of his profession until 1872, when he made another voy- age to Europe, accompanied by his wife and boy, his farthest objective point being Vienna. Returning in 1873, he lost his only child, a bereavement which shadowed his whole life .*

In 1873 he accepted the appointment of Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in Yale College, which chair he held until 1877, when he was unanimously transferred to the chair of Surgery, which double appointment, in a remark- able degree, recalled the fact that his grandfather, Nathan Smith, was Professor of Physic in the same institution from 1813 to his death, in 1829.

In 1878 he was, in addition to his other duties, appointed lecturer upon Medical Jurisprudence. He is at the present time vice-president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, post surgeon of the United States Armory in Springfield, president of the board of examiners for pensions, and medical director of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

The most striking natural characteristic of Dr. Smith is a marvelous quickness of comprehension and correctness of diagnosis, joined with an intuitive knowledge of the proba- bilities and possibilities of his case. The absorbed personality, the introspection of the man, at times causes him to think aloud, and his patients and their friends get the benefit of his thoughts, while he may be wholly unconscious of the fact. He is quick in his conclusions and rapid and skillful in his operations, bold in aetion as original in conception, dauntless to the verge of audacity. Ile possesses a firm hand and steady

* This child, an unusually promising boy, was named in honor of Gen. George HI. Thomas, whom Dr. Smith greatly respected.

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HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

nerve, united with great endurance, has the most minute knowledge of the human anatomy, and his eye is never at fault. These remarkable qualities, united in perfect combina- tion, constitute him the eminent physician and surgeon which he is.

Before closing our account of the family, it would be well, for a moment, to advert to the sons of Nathan Smith.

PROFESSOR N. R. SMITH, of Baltimore, Md. This gentle- man early showed the same remarkable traits of character which distinguished his father. Commencing his career in Burlington, Vt., as Professor of Surgery in the State Univer- sity, he soon after moved to Philadelphia, where, for a short period, he occupied the chair of Professor of Anatomy in Jefferson Medical College. After a year or two spent in that city, having been appointed Professor of Surgery in the Uni- versity of Maryland, he removed to Baltimore, where, for about fifty years, he, in a wide and ample field, carried out many of the suggestions and elaborated many of the half- finished procedures of his father. For this period of time he unquestionably occupied the foremost place in the profes- sion of surgery throughout the entire South, visiting, profes- sionally, nearly every Southern State.

It is curious to see that in his many operations for lithot- omy, and in his apparatus for fractures, he appears to have taken up the unfinished work of his father and carried it to the last degree of usefulness.

Wonderfully successful in his operations for stone, in his treatment of fractures, and in his ligations of the large arte- ries, he has left behind him a reputation which will probably never in this country be surpassed.

Another son of Dr. Nathan Smith was JOHN D. SMITH, who studied for the ministry at New Haven and Andover, and graduated at Yale in 1832. He ministered for several years in Charlemont, Franklin Co., and subsequently studied medicine. He represented that town in the Legislature .*

DR. JOSHUA FROST was born in Fryeburg, Maine, in 1767. He came of English stock. His grandfather, Samuel Frost, was one of three brothers who came from England at a very early date and settled, one in Maine, one in New Hampshire, and one in Massachusetts.

He studied at Hanover, N. H., where he probably gradu- afed, though we have been unable to determine this fact. He settled in Longmeadow about 1795, and after a short time removed to Springfield, where he practiced until his death, in 1832. For many years he was also engaged in the drug busi- ness in connection with Dr. Daniel Chauncey Brewer. He was an eminent physician, and held many offices of honor and trust in a civil capacity, among others, that of State Senator.

His first wife was Sarah Lombard, of Springfieldl. After her death he married Mrs. Watson, a widow, of Hartford, Conn. His residence stood on ground now occupied by the opera-house.

DR. GEORGE FROST, son of the preceding, was born in Longmeadow in 1800. Ile read medicine with Dr. Nathan Smith for seven years, and accompanied that noted practi- tioner on his lecturing tours. He attended lectures at Yale College, and commenced practice in Springfield in 1823. He became an excellent surgeon, and practiced his profession until a short time previous to his death, which occurred in 1846.

He was a capable and faithful student, and his close appli- cation to his studies resulted unfavorably to a constitution never remarkable for vigor, and eventually developed pulmonary difficulties which terminated his life in the prime of his man- hood. He was a member of the Unitarian Church in Spring- field. His widow, Caroline A., daughter of Col. Roswell Lee, is living in Springfield, the last of her family.

Their son, George L. Frost, removed some years since to Madison, Wis., where he became prominent in the legal pro-

fession, and was a member of both houses of the State Legis- lature. He died in February, 1879, at the age of forty-eight years.

In this connection it may not be improper to speak briefly of Col. Roswell Lee, the father of Mrs. Frost.

Col. Lee was born in Canaan, Columbia Co., N. Y., in 1777. He early developed remarkable military taste and talent, and was for some time during the war of 1812-15 in command of Fort Griswold, at New London, Conn. He was also stationed at Sacket's Harbor, on Lake Ontario, for a short time. He held the office of major in the militia before that war. In 1815 he was placed in charge of the Springfield Arsenal, where he remained until his death, in 1834, at the age of fifty-seven years.

Mrs. Frost remembers her father as a man of magnificent physique,-every inch a soldier .; His son, Henry Washing- ton Lee, was first Episcopal bishop of Iowa, which office he held at the time of his death, in 1875. Col. Lee was a prom- inent member of the Masonie fraternity. Roswell Lee Lodge, in Springfield, was named in his honor. The family is con- nected with the Virginia family of the same name.

DR. SAMUEL KINGSBURY was born in Tolland, Conn., in 1782. He attended medical lectures, but did not have the ad- vantages of a collegiate course. His father was in ordinary circumstances, and he was obliged to depend upon his own exertions. He came to Springfield when quite young and engaged in practice, rising rapidly in his profession. His practice, which eventually grew to important proportions, extended over a period of some fifteen years or more, from about 1810 to 1828.

Ile married Mrs. Jemima Chapin, widow of Charles P. Lyman, who survived her husband until Jan. 20, 1846. Dr. Kingsbury died in June, 1828, at the early age of forty-six years, leaving a wife and seven children to mourn his loss. His children consisted of four sons and three daughters. During his residence in Springfield he lived in State Street.

DR. JOSEPHI HENSHAW FLINT was born in Leicester, Worcester Co., Mass., April 20, 1786, and died at his father's house in Leicester, Nov. 11, 1846. He was the son of Austin Flint, who was also a physician, and graduated at Harvard.

Ile commenced practice in Petersham, where he married his first wife. After a few years he removed to Northampton, where he remained until about 1837, when he removed to Springfield and continued the practice of his profession until a short time before his death. Ile bore the reputation of a skillful surgeon and physician, and was a member of the Mas- sachusetts Medical Association. He married for his second wife Amelia Dwight, of Northampton. Dr. Austin Flint, now of New York, is a son by his first wife.

Dr. Flint had a very extensive individual practice in North- ampton, and an important consulting practice throughout the country. For some years Dr. Bela Jones was associated with him as a partner. He was by far the ablest physician of the name before or since his time.

Dr. Flint was one of the original or charter members of the Hampden Distriet Medical Society.

DR. JEFFERSON CHURCH was born in Middlefield, Hamp- shire Co., Mass., in 1802. He was the son of Green II. Church. Ilis 'knowledge of medicine was obtained at the Berkshire Medical Institution, from which he graduated in 1825.

His first experience as a practitioner was in the town of Peru, Berkshire Co., where he remained something more than a year, when he removed to Springfield, Mass., where he has since resided. Dr. Church married for his first wife, in 1823, Betsey, daughter of Joseph Little, of Middlefield. She died in 1826. In 1850 he married Eliza Houpt, daughter of Sam- uel Houpt, a farmer of Herkimer Co., N. Y. In company with Dr. Seeger he edited and published " Tully's Materia Med-

t See notice of the United States Armory in history of Springfield.

* See history of Charlemont, in this work.

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HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTY.

ica" for some time. Dr. Church is a man of great resources, and possesses an extensive knowledge of medicine. At the advanced age of seventy-seven he has given up the practice of his profession, after an experience of fifty years.

DR. EDWIN SEEGER was born at Northampton, Mass., in 1811. His father was a native of Germany, and also a physi- cian, who settled early in the present century. Dr. Seeger graduated from the Jefferson Medical School, of Philadel- phia, in 1832, and began practice the same year in Spring- field, where he remained until his death, September 26th, at the age of fifty-five years.

The following paragraphs are taken from a notice written by Samuel Bowles at the time of his death, and no doubt truthfully express the estimation in which he was held by the community where he lived :

" Ile had many noble qualities as a man and a physician,-simplicity, truth, and duty seemed as natural to him as breathing; there was no guile, no false- ness, no qualification in him or his acts. He prescribed for the patient, not for the family or friends. Not knowing how to placate as an art, without brilliant popular gifts, only simple and true to himself and to his knowledge, he never had a large practice ; bnt all respected him, and those who knew him best revered and loved him.

"In all things he was as in his profession,-he saw simply and clearly, reas oned directly, and acted faithfully. He was one of the earliest of our citizens to act with the Abolition and Free-Soil parties, but he was never dogmatie and illiberal in expressing his convictions, though none held to them more firmly or would sacri- fice more to sustain them. His religious life was equally positive and equally unobtrusive,-a submission as firm and restful as his devotion to truth and duty was its characteristic,-and carried him through a very painful and trying illness to a peaceful, welcome close .* His disease was an aggravated cancerous affec- tion of the throat, closing its avenues, extending to all the neighboring tissues, and causing terrible sufferings, under which a firm life slowly wasted away. Dr. Seeger was twice married; his first wife was the sister of Mr. Homer Foot, of this city, and his second and surviving one the daughter of John H. White, of Lancaster, N. H., for many years in public life in that State.

" Springfield was but a village when he came to it ; for thirty-four years he has lived and ministered among us in the tenderest and most sacred relations, an illus- tration and an example of intelligent patience, fidelity, truth, duty, and submis- sion such as is rare to find in any community, such as we may all feel prond to have had with us, and such as we should preserve in grateful and honored memory."

Dr. Seeger was a very able man, both as a medical practi- titioner and writer, and, together with Dr. Jefferson Church, edited and published for some time " Tully's Materia Medica." Ile is well spoken of by the profession.

DR. C. C. CHAFFEE was born in Saratoga, Saratoga Co., N. Y., on the 28th of August, 1811. His father was a farmer. Ile studied medicine with Dr. William Atcheson, of Saxton's River, Windham Co., Vt. ; who dying at the end of the first year, he went to Utica, N. Y., and finished his preliminary studies with Dr. Patrick McCraith. He graduated at the Vermont Medical College, at Woodstock, Windsor Co., in 1835.

He began the practice of his profession at the little village of Oriskany, in Oneida Co., N. Y., where he remained about one year, and removed to Allegany Co., N. Y., and practiced for ten years. In 1847 he settled in Springfield, Mass., where he has since resided.

In 1854 and 1856 he was elected to the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses, where he served with fidelity and ability.

In 1836 he married Clara S., daughter of Daniel Nourse, of Rockingham, Vt., who died in 1848. In 1850 he married Irene, daughter of Alexander Sanford, of Missouri, a Vir- ginia family.

Of Dr. Chaffee, a brother in the profession makes the fol- lowing remarks :

" Dr. Chaffee came to this city in 1847, and at once made for himself naine and place. Having been for years demonstrator of anatomy in a medical college, and for a long time in the constant practice of surgery, he came to this place terer atque rotundlas.

"Of eminent mental gifts, ready for any emergency, he at once took a com- manding position in the profession, divided the practice of surgery with Dr. J. M. Smith, and at his death assumed it all, nntil, feeling cramped and dwarfed by

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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. II, Part 80

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 896

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896