USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
29
.434
DOCTORS.
have left Mr. C. as weak as a dish-cloth.' 'Ah! I shouldn't wonder, but it can't very well be helped now,' responded the doctor in his soft drawl, with an appreciative grin."
The practice of Dr. Henry Lincoln and Dr. J. L. S. Thomp- son was comparatively light in this neighborhood, although each of them had some patients.
Dr. Pierson T. Kendall of Sterling also had some practice here, and as he was a considerable factor in the development of Clinton, and in his old age had his home in this community, his biography claims closer consideration.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1812, at the age of nineteen. He received his diploma from the Harvard Medical School in 1816, and in the following year began to practice in Sterling. For forty years he made Sterling his home, although he paid many visits to all the neighboring villages and shared with his rival, Dr. Carter, the patronage of the outlying districts. One who knew him well says, that he always had a lot of practice on hand, and whenever there were no special calls to make he would start out in his old sulky and visit all his chronic cases for miles around. By carefully planning his circuit, he was able to bring in a great many distant families with comparatively little travel, and thus get a considerable number of large fees for his day's work. Like all other country physicians of those ear- lier times, he was often obliged to accept his pay in the pro- duce of the farm, as ready money was a scarce article. On his return from one of these trips, his old sulky was usually loaded with apples, potatoes, turnips, grain, meat or any of the articles that farmers used for barter. He was accus- tomed to take many of his meals in the families of his patients, for it was convenient for him and they were always glad to have him, as he would, in his genial way, bring to them the news of the outside world. We have seen how in 1844-5, he built the Kendall Block in Clintonville where the Bank Building now stands. We have seen, too, the promi- nent part taken in the affairs of the village by his son,
435
GEORGE WASHINGTON SYMONDS.
George H. Kendall. Dr. Kendall built the Kendall cottage to the south of his store building and rented it for some years to one after another of our leading families. He also built and owned several other houses in town. It was owing to this fact that Kendall Court and Kendall Place received their names. From 1845, orders for visits were left for him at the store. In 1857, Dr. Kendall moved here himself and occupied his cottage. He was then a man of sixty-five. He secured some local practice, although his younger rivals main- tained their hold on most of it. He died January 11, 1865.
George Washington Symonds, the first physician settled in Clintonville, was born in Reading, Mass., October 16, 18II. He studied medicine at Hanover, N. H., and received his diploma from Dartmouth in 1841. He began to practice in Shirley, but in the course of a year or so went to Lancas- ter where he became an assistant of Dr. Calvin Carter. He came to Clintonville in 1845, and had an office in Deacon John Burdett's building on High Street, opposite the Metho- dist Church. In the early years of his life here, he had a very fast horse and drove most furiously. He always rode in an open gig, and there are many of our older citizens who remember him as speeding past with the ends of his scarf flying behind. He was a great worker, "indefatigable in the cause of suffering humanity." As he was "a friend of the poor," a careless bookkeeper and a bad collector, al- though he had a large practice, it brought him little wealth. Ile was a man of impulse and of a most generous nature. A friend said of him: "I have known him for twenty-five years and never did I ask a favor at his hands but full meas- ure was given me." At one time, he nearly monopolized the practice among the Irish families in town, and it is said that at his death, August 11, 1873, he was mourned among them as a dear friend. He was twice married and by his first wife, a daughter of Samuel Osgood, had one son, who survived him. He was a man of decided opinions and ex- pressed them freely. He was an ardent worker in the tem-
436
DOCTORS.
perance and anti-slavery movements. He was a Republican in politics, and at one time was the candidate for the Gen- eral Court. He served the town on the board of selectmen. He was a member of the school committee from 1860 to 1863. He was a member of the Baptist Society and acted as its secretary for many years.
In 1857, Dr. Charles Addison Brooks came to Clinton from Keene, N. H. He was born in 1823. He had been a mechanic in his youth, but finally determined to study medi- cine. He graduated from the Hahnemann Medical School at Philadelphia. All our previous physicians had been allo- pathic. Dr. Brooks found enough people in Clinton and the neighboring towns who preferred homeopathy to give him a good practice. At first he had an office at the Clinton House, then at Greene's Block. In later years, he purchased the estate of Mrs. George Bowman on Church Street. This became his family residence and he used the basement for an office. Dr. Brooks was for twelve years a director of the First National Bank and was a member of the investing committee. He was twice married. By his first wife, he had one son who became a physician, but died after a short and successful career in Boston. By his second wife, he had two daughters. During the period which our history covers, he had established a high reputation for professional courtesy and judgment. Most of his life among us belongs to a later period, for he continued in active practice here until his death, June 3, 1889.
Dr. Charles D. Dowse, who had received a regular medi- cal diploma and had practiced in Shirley, had a home and office at the corner of Maine and Water Streets in 1849. He had come here at the desire of his friend, C. W. Worces- ter, and lived in the same double house with him. Later, while his residence remained unchanged, he had an office in the Bancroft building at the corner of High and Union Streets. He stayed in town only a year or two. He moved to the vicinity of Boston where he died many years ago,
437
OUR LEADING PHYSICIANS.
In 1852, Dr. A. W. Dillingham, "a botanic physician," had rooms in G. P. Smith's building. His stay was still shorter than that of Dr. Dowse.
Adoniram J. Greeley, a brother of H. C. Greeley, was a physician in Clinton for a year or so. He was a graduate of Brown University and received the diploma of the Harvard Medical School in 1845. He practised for ten years or so in Scarsport, Me., before coming to Clinton. After a brief stay among us, he went to Providence, R. I., where he prac- tised until his death in September, 1893.
In addition to these men, as Dr. Morse has said: "There was the usual number of itinerant doctors of all kinds and stripes-botanic, Indian, eclectic, electric, magnetic and mesmeric quacks ; but they would only remain a few days, and having reaped their harvests would depart."
The two physicians most closely connected with the his- tory of our town in length and amount of practice and in the influence of their citizenship, are Dr. G. W. Burdett and Dr. G. M. Morse. As there was a remarkable parallelism in the lives of C. G. Stevens and J. T. Dame, our leading lawyers of early times, and in the lives of Rev. C. M. Bowers and Rev. G. M. Bartol, the two clergymen who served long- est in this vicinity, so the lives of these physicians have had much in common. There is but little difference in their age. They attended the same medical schools for the same length of time. They began their practice here the same year. They had the same up-hill work in securing patients among the older families who clung to Dr. Calvin Carter and distrusted younger men. They both won success through their efficiency. For many years, they lived on adjoin- ing lots. Through exchange, they have read the same medi- cal journals, and thus, while retaining what was best in the old, have kept alike informed of every step of progress made in their profession. They have each played a most impor- tant part in the history of our town, a part which cannot be measured, until they have received the credit due for their
438
DOCTORS.
share in the labors of those whose anxieties they have re- lieved, whose strength they have restored, and whose lives they have saved. They have been ardent Republicans. They have each done much service and received many honors as citizens. Both have often been called upon to make public addresses. They have each filled out half a century of unremitting labor in behalf of this community.
Dr. George M. Morse is the son of Ebenezer and Esther (Crafts) Morse. He was born in Walpole, N. H., August 27, 1821. His father was a physician. He passed his child- hood at Walpole, and prepared for college at the Walpole and Keene Academies. After attending the Medical School at Dartmouth one year, he went to the Harvard Medical School, where he graduated in 1843. For the next three years, he practiced medicine at Claremont, N. H. He mar- ried Eleanor C. Chase, the daughter of Bishop Carlton Chase. From this marriage, there is one son, George F., who is now living in Lancaster. Hearing of the develop- ment of Clintonville, the doctor visited here and determined to settle, although H. N. Bigelow advised strongly against it on the ground that there was no room for another physician. Dr. Morse says: "I came to town on one of the first days of March, 1846. I came in a sleigh, in the midst of a snow- storm, in the evening of a cold, dreary March day, inquiring my way over Ballard Hill of the people living on the route, many of whom never heard of Clintonville, but knew that a large cotton factory was being built in the southerly part of Lancaster."
For the first two years, he lived on Main Street near the railroad station. In 1847, he built his present residence at the corner of Walnut and Church Streets. He moved into it in 1848. As far as is known, no other citizen of Clinton is now living in a house which has been continuously occupied by himself for so many years. This house lot was the first that was bought east of High Street. The house of Rev. C. M. Bowers, which has since been burned, was built about
439
DR. GEORGE M. MORSE.
the same time, and that of Deacon James Patterson soon followed. Dr. Morse says: "People expostulated with me for going away out of town. * * At this time, our beauti- * tiful Common was simply a cranberry swamp."
For his second wife, he married Mary F. Stearns, daughter of Deacon William Stearns, by whom he has had two daugh- ters. The family has attended the Unitarian Church.
Dr. Morse took an active part in the movement for the separation of Clintonville from Lancaster. He was a mem- ber of the board of overseers of District No. 10. He was on the school committee of Lancaster in 1848-9. He was chosen on the school committee of the new town from 1854-1857. He also served as an assessor and was a fire engineer. In later years, he was one of the building committee of the Town Hall. He has been a director of the Bigelow Free Public Library for many years, and is now chairman of that board. He was "surgeon to the draft" during the Civil War. He went to the South after the bat- tle of Antietam to care for our fellow-citizens who had suf- fered in that battle. He has been examining surgeon to the Pension Office for about thirty years. He was for fourteen years the medical examiner for Worcester County. In later years, he has been especially connected with the organization and development of the Clinton Hospital.
The Burdett family have been closely connected with nearly every phase of local history for almost a century. We have seen Nathan Burdett as one of the early comb- makers, as the teamster of the first cotton factory, as an ac- tive member of School District No. 10, and as a selectman of Lancaster, representing Clintonville in its period of most rapid growth. We have seen John Burdett, the brother of Nathan, as a pioneer in Baptist worship, and as the first of our older citizens to aid in the commercial development of the community by the construction of worthy buildings for stores. We have seen the nephews of Nathan and John, Augustus P., Horatio S., and Albert T. Burdett among the
440
DOCTORS.
most progressive of our early merchants, and another nephew, Jerome S., in charge of the Clinton House. We have also had occasion before to notice the services rendered to the community by the sons of Nathan Burdett.
George Washington Burdett, the fifth son, was born Feb- ruary 17, 1819. He has never been long absent from this, his native place, and has therefore spent more years in this com- munity than any other citizen now living in it. He passed his childhood at home with the alternations of work, play and study usual among the boys of those days. After mastering all the branches taught in the school of District No. 10, he spent a year at Bride's School in Berlin. After another year of work and private study in Northboro, he became a teacher in Albany, New York, where he remained for a year. We have seen him as a successful teacher in District No. 10 in the winter of 1842-3. He next entered the Dartmouth Med- ical School, where he spent one year. The following winter, he was teaching again at home. From 1844, he was in the Harvard Medical School, where he graduated after two years of study, in the spring of 1846. He was a member of the private medical classes of Dr. Winslow Lewis and Prof. Sam- uel Cabot, M. D., for two years, in addition to the University studies.
He had already determined to settle in Clintonville, and at once took an office in the Bancroft building. November 24, 1846, Dr. Burdett married Elizabeth J. Valentine, daugh- ter of Elmer Valentine of Northboro. They have had seven children, four sons and three daughters. In 1849, Dr. Bur- dett completed a house on Union Street, below A. P. Bur- dett's Block. Here, he had his home and office until 1867, when he purchased his present residence on Church Street. His Union Street house was afterwards sold to A. A. Bur- ditt. Since 1852, he has been a half owner of Burdett Block and has had control of other real estate. He has been a trustee of the Clinton Savings Bank since its organi- zation, and with the exception of C. G. Stevens, is the only
44I
DR. GEORGE W. BURDETT.
one of the original board now in office. He has been first vice-president since the death of Col. G. M. Palmer in ISS5, and has presided at all the meetings in the absence of the president. He was a member of the board of overseers in District No. 10 for two years, and a member of the general school commitice of Lancaster in IS48-9.
During the first three years after the incorporation of the town, he served on the school committee and helped organize the new school system. He was for many years a member of the board of directors for the Bigelow Free Public Library. He has been master of the Trinity Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. The greatest work outside of his profession that Dr. Burdett has done for the community has been in connection with the Baptist Church. We shall see that he was the chief agent in its organization and that he served as its clerk for some forty years or more. From the beginning, his name was on every important committee ap- pointed by the church or society. He was ever among the foremost in the business of the society, on the subscription lists, in the charitable work, in the social functions, in the Sunday school, in the prayer meetings and in every phase of church life.
Jeremiah Fiske, who was born at Temple, N. H., Febru- ary 10, 1824, came to Clintonville in the fall of 1849. He had passed his childhood and youth on his father's farm. In addition to his studies at the district school, he had spent one term at the Hancock Academy. He studied dentistry with Dr. Palmer of Fitchburg.
On coming to Clintonville, he began business on the second floor of A. P. Burdett's Block. Dr. W. N. Snow, whose office was in the Bancroft building, had already moved to Worcester, as C. D. Cook, his predecessor, had had done before, although each of them still retained some Clintonville business. Near the end of 1850, Dr. Fiske moved to Dr. Burdett's new building on Union Street and C.
442
DENTISTS.
F. Horne soon after took the office in Burdett's Block. Early in 1852, Amos A. Pevey, who had been a student with Dr. Fiske, was taken into partnership. During this year, C. F. Horne moved to the Kendall Block and Fiske & Pevey took the rooms in the Burdett Block. Dr. Horne subse- quently removed to an office over W. C. Carter's store, and then to the Library Building. In 1855, he went away from town. Daniel B. Ingalls and Gustavus A. Gerry began to study dentistry with Fiske & Pevey in 1855. Dr. Gerry went to Lowell, where he became one of the leading men of the city. Early in 1856, the firm of Fiske & Pevey dissolved. Dr. Fiske remained at the old stand and soon took in Dr. D. B. Ingalls as his partner.
Dr. Pevey went into partnership with his brother, Frank M. Pevey, who had previously studied with Fiske & Pevey. This new firm took rooms at first in Kendall's Block, but as soon as Greene's Block was completed, in 1858, moved thither. The Pevey brothers remained in Clinton until 1867, and did a large business. Two younger brothers, B. M. and C. K. Pevey, learned dentistry of them. Dr. Amos A. Pevey bought the house next west of the present Courant Block and the family lived there for years. He was especially prominent in Masonic circles. After leaving Clinton, he practised den- tistry in Worcester and in Woonsocket, R. I. He died March 6, 1889, at the age of sixty-one. Frank M. Pevey is now living at East Wilton, N. H.
In 1867, Dr. D. B. Ingalls withdrew from the firm of Fiske & Ingalls, and in partnership with A. T. Bigelow, bought out the Pevey brothers and took their rooms in Greene's Block. Dr. Bigelow went to Boston in 1873, and Dr. Ingalls continued business alone. Dr. Fiske went on at the old rooms. He was alone two years, and H. C. Kendrick was his partner one year. In 1870, the firm became Fiske & Bastian. After 1876, Dr. Fiske retired from the local busi- ness, but kept up some of his practice in outlying towns. Dr. Fiske has been a large owner of real estate in town.
443
DANIEL B. INGALLS.
In company with Dr. G. W. Burdett, he bought Burdett Block. He has owned a group of stores and tenements on High Street, near the foot of Prospect. He built a private residence on Walnut Street. Ilere, he has lived for over forty years. He married Caroline E. Bailey, February 17, 1853. They have two daughters. Dr. Fiske has been con- nected with the Congregational Society and has been es- pecially active in temperance work.
Daniel B. Ingalls was born at Sutton, Vt., May 25, 1829. He was the son of James and Mary (Cass) Ingalls. Ile began to learn the machinist's trade at the age of seventeen, in Norwich, Ct. He came to Clintonville to work in the machine shop of the Clinton Company in 1847. At the age of twenty-one he married Rebecca N. Randall. He went to California in October, 1851, and became a miner. In Jan- uary, 1853. he returned to Clinton. Of the future life of Dr. Ingalls, it is not our province to speak. The future historian will tell of his graduation from the Boston Dental College in 1874; of the addresses he has delivered before the Massachusetts Dental Association and various other organi- zations; of his devotion to the Baptist Church, of which he has been a deacon ; of his labors as a member of the invest- ing committee of the Clinton Savings Bank, a director of the Lancaster National Bank, and the president of the Clinton Co-operative Bank ; of his services to the town as a member of various committees and a director of the Bigelow Free Public Library, and of his work for the state in the General Court, in the House of 1880 and in the Senate of 1881 and '82.
-
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE FIRST EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF CLINTON.
THE early religious history of the section of Lancaster which became Clinton is inseparable from that of the rest of the town. The Prescotts and their neighbors worshiped un- der the ministration of Thomas Rowlandson, John Whiting, Andrew Gardner and John Prentice in the old meeting-house on the site of what is now known as "The Middle Cemetery" of Lancaster, opposite the Thayer estate. The first house was destroyed in 1676, the second in 1705. From this time until 1742, our people went to divine service with the rest of the inhabitants of Lancaster, in a new meeting-house located on Bride Cake Plain, opposite the burial ground, a mile to the east of the old location. John Prentice was their minis- ter during the whole of this period. From 1742 to 1817, the house of worship was nearer the center of the town, in front of the present residence of Solon Wilder. This building was fitted up with pews six feet by five for the more wealthy members of the society, while the poorer people occupied seats along the central aisle or in the gallery. The men sat on one side of the aisle, the women on the other. Special seats were reserved for negroes. This meeting-house was built during the forty-three years' pastorate of John Prentice, who lived until 1748. He was succeeded by Timothy Har- rington. Nathaniel Thayer was ordained the colleague of Mr. Harrington in 1793. January 1, 1817, the "New Brick Church," which is now standing, was first occupied.
At this time, the majority of the church members of Lan-
445
HILLSIDE CHURCH.
caster sympathized with the movement which was sweeping away so many of the congregations of New England from the old evangelical standards. Those who were more con- servative in their views felt that they were not receiving the proper spiritual food, hence there was an increasing tendency to unite with evangelical churches in other towns, or to form new organizations. As the religious society at Lancaster was supported by taxation, and all the tax-payers in town, who did not have a certificate of membership in religious societies elsewhere were obliged to contribute to "the stand- ing order," the building of this new church edifice naturally inclined some to ally themselves with organizations where the expenses were less. Thus, we find some even who con- tinued to attend the services in the " Brick Church" became members of other societies. The majority of the people of this district who attended meeting anywhere sat under the preaching of Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, until he died in 1840. Many kept on attending at the old meeting-house through the pastorate of Rev. Edmund H. Sears, who served the church from 1840-1847. Some few, who were decidedly Unitarian in their belief, worshiped under Rev. George M. Bartol until the Unitarian Society of Clinton was organized.
Preliminary steps for building the "Hillside Church " of Bolton, on the western slope of Wataquadock Hill, were taken March 4, 1828. Sampson V. S. Wilder was the orig- inator of this church and its most liberal supporter, although many people of every evangelical denomination represented in Lancaster, Sterling, Bolton and Stow attended service there. Several of the families of the Factory Village, the Lowes among others, worshiped there. It is said that the church was capable of seating seven hundred people. The basement was fitted up with a reading room and an extensive set of cupboards for the benefit of those who came from a distance and brought their dinners, as most of the congrega- tion did. In 1830, Rev. Joseph W. Chickering began to
446
FIRST EVANGELICAL CHURCH.
preach there. After the retirement of Mr. Chickering, the pulpit was occupied successively by Revs. Peabody, Daven- port and Adams. The starting of the evangelical church in Lancaster Center in 1839 and the evangelical church in Clin- tonville in 1844, removed the need of a church at such a dis- tance from either village, and so the services there were given up .*
The First Evangelical Congregational Church in Lancas- ter, which was organized in February, 1839, had in 1844 twenty-six members from Clintonville, and the number of those attending service from here must have been much larger. Among these were the Bigelows and many other of the most prominent citizens. The first meetings of this congregation were at the house of Rev. Asa Packard, a re- tired minister then living in Lancaster. Rev. Charles Pack- ard was ordained January 1, 1840. The dedication of the meeting-house occurred December 1, 1849. In the early forties, John P. Houghton carried an omnibus load of people from Clintonville to Lancaster Center every Sunday morning to attend the Congregational and Unitarian services there.
As early as 1840, a Sabbath School was gathered for weekly study of the Bible by the Evangelical Congregation- alists of Clintonville. The meetings were held in the brick school-house on Main Street, the use of which was obtained after much opposition. The first contribution taken up was for a library. It amounted to thirty dollars. H. N. Bigelow was the first superintendent; Henry Lewis, assistant super- intendent; James S. Lawrence, secretary and treasurer, and Amos Holbrook, librarian. Carter Wilder, John Lowe, The- odore Jewett and Joseph B. Parker were also prominently connected with its organization. The latter was a superin- tendent from 1842. Congregationalists, Baptists and Meth- odists attended the school. The "Union Question Book" was used. There was also a preaching service held here at
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.