USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 1 > Part 29
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Aaron King, of Palmer, became a member of the society in 1816, and died in 1861. For many years he was one of the highly respected medical practitioners of the eastern part of the county, and he is also remembered as having been one of the organizers, and at one time president, of the Hampden district society. In the latter part of his life Dr. King investigated Homoeopathy, and is said to have approved of some of its principles and methods.
Samuel Kingsbury was born in Tolland, Conn., in Septem- ber, 1782, and practiced medicine in Springfield from 1810 to '26. He became a member of the state society in 1816.
Seth Lathrop, son of Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop, was born in the second parish of Springfield (West Springfield), in 1762, and is remembered as one of the strongest as well as one of the most thoroughly educated of the old-time physicians of the county. His practice was extensive and successful, and he also had the confidence and respect of the people on the east side of the river. He was made a fellow of the state society in 1817, and continued in membership until his death in 1831.
Jonathan Shearer, of Palmer, was born in 1767, became a member of the society in 1811, and died in 1825. His home and
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office were on the Boston road, between what is now Collins and Palmer stations. He was followed in practice by his son, Marcus Shearer, who joined the district society in 1841, and died in 1854.
George Hooker was born in 1794, and was admitted to fellow- ship in the state society in 1821. He practiced in Longmeadow and is remembered as a physician of good repute and a citizen of undoubted integrity. Dr. Hooker died in 1884, at the ripe age of 90 years.
Joseph W. Brewster, of Blandford, was made a fellow of the state society in 1804. He died in 1849, but of his life and pro- fessional work we have no reliable data.
Leonard Williams, of Chester, united with the society in 1822, and became a retired member in 1827. Of his professional career little is now known.
Bela Barber Jones was made a fellow in 1822, and a score of years later assisted in organizing the district society. He after- ward removed from the state.
William Sheldon became a fellow in 1811, and died in 1817. None of his cotemporaries are living, and there is no record of his place of residence or the extent and character of his practice.
Edward Goodrich Ufford, of West Springfield and Agawam, was born in East Windsor, Conn., in 1801, became a fellow of the society in 1839, and died August 28, 1889. He studied medicine with Dr. Daniel Ufford of Wilbraham and also with Dr. Peters of Bolton, Conn. He received his degree from Yale and then took a post-graduate course in Philadelphia. He practiced for a few years in West Springfield, thence removed to South Hadley, but returned to West Springfield and Agawam, where he gained an enviable standing in the ranks of his profession.
Lucius Wright, once well known in medical circles in at least three towns of Hampden county, and withal an excellent physician of the old school, was born in 1793 and became a mem- ber of the society in 1821. He began his professional career in Willimansett, later practiced in Salem and Montgomery, and finally located in Westfield, where he attained considerable prominence and represented that town in the general court.
John Stone was born in Rutland, Mass., in 1763. He had the advantages of a good elementary as well as medical educa-
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tion, and in his mature life was known as one of the most genteel and scholarly professional men in the community. He read medicine with Dr. John Frink and began his career in Green- field, removing thence to New York, where he remained about two years. Returning to Greenfield, he practiced in that town until 1819, and spent the next ten years in Providence. He then came to Springfield and practiced until his death in 1838. Dr. Stone is remembered as a successful physician and one of the few old- time practitioners to acquire a competency. His membership in the society dates from 1803, and his honorary degree of M. D. was acquired from Williams college in 1824.
John Long was an early practitioner in that part of West Springfield known as Ireland, where now is the industrial city of Holyoke, but as to when and whence he came and of the period of his residence there we have no reliable data. He was made a fellow of the society in 1808.
Levi W. Humphreys, of Southwick, was made a fellow in 1822, and in 1840 was one of the organizers of the district society. He died in 1850, and is remembered as a good country prac- titioner.
Joseph Henshaw Flint, who was made a fellow of the state society in 1822, was born in Leicester, Worcester county, April 20, 1786, and began his professional career in Petersham. Later on he located temporarily in Northampton, and removed thence to Springfield in 1837. Three years later he was one of the organizers of the district society, and for several years after was one of its most prominent members. Dr. Flint died in 1846. He was regarded as one of the most successful physicians of the town during his brief residence here, but his family name after- ward came into especial prominence in the medical world through the remarkable success of his son (by his first marriage), Dr. Austin Flint, of New York, whose writings and lectures on med- ical subjects have since been standard authority with the profes- sion.
James Holland, who became a fellow in the society in 1822, was one of the prominent early physicians in the western part of what now is Hampden county. He was born in 1762, and ac-
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quired his medical education with Dr. Brewster, of Becket. He practiced for a time in Chester village, now Huntington, and in Worthington and located permanently in Westfield in 1815; and he died in that town in 1840. Dr. Holland is recalled as a phy- sician of far more than ordinary prominence for his time and opportunities ; and that he loved the work of his profession is evidenced in the fact that four of his sons became physicians, and each of them attained an excellent standing in the community in which he lived.
Samuel Mather was one of the pioneers of the state society, having been made a fellow in 1783, and he also was one of the early physicians in our county. The surname Mather always has been associated with the best history of this region, and it is regretted that we have no knowledge of the early life and career of this old-time practitioner.
John Appleton is mentioned in the records of the state so- ciety as a fellow thereof, and also is elsewhere mentioned as one of the organizers of the district society and its first secretary, 1840-42.
It is not claimed in these reminiscences of early practitioners that mention is made of all the physicians of the county for the period indicated, for undoubtedly the actual members of the state society were largely outnumbered by those who were not members of that body. Indeed, many of the leading physicians of the period are known not to have affiliated with the society, not that they were opposed to its principles or purpose, or doubt- ful of its permanency, but rather that they saw no immediate benefit in such membership, hence did not avail themselves of its privileges.
The old society, however, served a useful purpose in promot- ing social intercourse among its fellows, and it was the first legis- lative step in the direction of safeguarding the profession in the state. In 1803 an amendatory act extended the powers of the society and authorized the formation of subordinate societies, the jurisdiction of which should be limited to counties or districts, and which should be conducted as auxiliary to the older organiza- tion. Members of the state society were, and still are, eligible candidates for admission to the district societies.
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For more than a century the Connecticut valley in Massachu- setts has been noted for the strength of its medical profession, but nowhere in the entire region has there developed greater mental and moral worth than within the limits of our own county. From the time of the pioneer doctor in the little hamlet of Springfield on the bank of the Connecticut river to the beginning of the twentieth century, throughout all the changes of two hundred and fifty years, each succeeding generation of the profession has been represented by men of high character, splendid mental at- tainments and commendable ambition. Some of them have at- tained positions of prominence in the medical world, while others have sought and added civil and political honors to their profes- sional achievements. But in glancing backward over the long list of hundreds of physicians who have devoted at least a part of their lives and energies to professional pursuits in the county the number "not approved" by their medical brethren and the gen- eral public has been exceedingly small. To be sure, in a common- wealth whose scheme of government is framed on broad and al- most unlimited principles of freedom of personal action, charla- tans occasionally have found a temporary abiding place in the ranks of the profession, but while the legitimate practice of medi- cine has not always been safe-guarded against the incursions of quacks, a discriminating public has driven them from the field; and now even the remote possibility of a pretender is precluded through the establishment, in 1894, of the state medical board of registration, before whom all candidates must appear before a license to practice will issue. All legitimate schools of medicine now are recognized, and each applicant is subjected to rigid ex- amination before a license is granted.
However, let us again glance back into the early years of the last century and note briefly something of the lives, character and works of those who attained prominence in the ranks of the pro- fession, although none appear to have been affiliated with any medical society.
"The Drs. Holland of Westfield" was for many years a con- cise way in which the profession generally made allusion to sev- eral respected associates who long were prominent characters in
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the history, medical and otherwise, of that part of the county. In an earlier paragraph mention is made of Dr. James Holland, who became a member of the state society in 1822, yet none of the worthy practitioner's sons, four of whom entered the profession, appear to have become fellows in that body. Of these sons Homer Holland was born in Blandford, was educated in Yale and Berkshire Medical schools, located in Westfield and practiced in that town and vicinity from 1842 to 1856. Eugene Holland and William Holland, sons of Homer, likewise entered the profes- sion, and Henry Holland, another son, has been engaged in the drug business in Westfield more than sixty years.
Virgil Holland, second son of James, was born in 1803, and acquired his early medical instruction from his father. He gave promise of a splendid rise in professional work, but his career was prematurely cut off by death in 1832.
James Holland, jr., was born in 1815, studied medicine with his father, and was a graduate of the medical department of the University of New York. He began practice in Westfield in 1843, and for the next half century there was no more prominent figure than he in professional circles in western Hampden county. He was an earnest worker, a close and careful student, and of course he attained success, not only in professional life, but also in the social and public affairs of the town. Dr. Charles Jenkins Holland, another son of James, senior, was educated for the pro- fession, and practiced in Chester Village, now Huntington; but he died comparatively young, at the age of 36 years.
Jefferson Church was a native of Middlefield, Hampshire county, born in 1802, and in 1825 was graduated at Berkshire Medical college. He practiced one year in Peru, Berkshire county, and then removed to Springfield, where the best years of his life were spent, and where he attained a standing of promi- nence in the ranks of the profession, not alone as a practitioner but as publisher in 1850, in association with Dr. Edgar Seeger, of "Tully's Materia Medica," a work which for a long time was regarded as standard authority. He also took an earnest interest in public affairs and was known as an intense anti-slavery advo- cate. Dr. Church died in Springfield in 1885, aged 83 years.
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Edward Seeger, co-worker with Dr. Church in publishing Dr. Tully's medical manuscripts, was born in Northampton in 1811, and was of German ancestry. He graduated at Jefferson Medical college in 1832, and at once located for practice in Springfield. Thereafter he was a conspicuous figure in local professional and political circles for thirty-four years, until his death in 1866. Politically Dr. Seeger affiliated with the aboli- tionists and free-soilers, and was one of their ablest exponents of party principles. He also was a logical writer on medical and political subjects, and as a practitioner he had few peers in the county seat. Dr. Seeger's first wife was a sister of the late Homer Foot.
W. L. Loring, a graduate of Harvard Medical school, was a practitioner in Springfield something like five years, beginning about 1825; but Dr. Loring, while a man of excellent capacity, unfortunately did not enjoy a lucrative practice, hence to re- plenish his purse he had recourse to an unlawful expedient, "body snatching," disposing of his "subjects" by sale to various medical institutions. For this flagrant violation of law and pro- priety the doctor was arrested and brought to bar, tried, found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of $500. Soon afterward he removed from this locality, and thenceforth the dead in the Springfield graveyards were permitted to rest in peace.
James Swan, a graduate of Harvard and Jefferson Medical colleges, located in Springfield in 1834 and continued in active practice until 1836, when he died. He was a physician of excel- lent repute, a man of fine social qualities and a respected citizen. Outside of professional work he was a firm advocate of temper- ance and also was an ardent Odd Fellow.
Henry Bronson, who practiced a few years in West Spring- field, came to that town directly from his medical course in Yale, having graduated in 1827. Three years later he removed to Al- bany, where he gained celebrity as a writer on scientific and med- ical subjects and relinquished active practice in 1860. In 1872 he was called to a professorship in the medical department of Yale.
Calvin Wheeler was an early practitioner in Feeding Hills parish when that region was a part of West Springfield. He
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served as surgeon in the American army during the second war with Great Britain, and is remembered as a good physician for his time, although his methods at times were crude. He died in 1861.
Chauncey Belden, who practiced in West Springfield and its vicinity for ten years beginning in 1832, was a graduate of Yale Medical school in 1829, and after leaving college he was for a time an assistant in the Hartford retreat for insane persons. In con- nection with professional work Dr. Belden gave special attention to scientific studies and was regarded as a man of wide under- standing in all professional and social circles. He removed to South Hadley in 1842, and died there three years afterward. Herbert C. Belden, who began practice in West Springfield in 1871, and was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of New York, was a son of Chauncey Belden.
William Tully, whose portrait accompanies this brief sketch, was one of the most distinguished medical practitioners and scholars who ever honored the profession with a presence and residence in this county. Yet he was little understood and still less appreciated, for he lived, practiced and taught at least half a century in advance of his time. Later on, in comparatively re- cent years, many of the principles he advanced during the first half of the past century have come to be recognized truths with the world at large, and "Tully's powders" even now are regard- ed as a sovereign remedy with certain persons. Having been given the advantages of an excellent elementary education, Will- iam Tully began the study of medicine in 1807 under the instruc- tion of Dr. Coggswell, of Hartford, and in the following year he attended lectures in the medical department of Dartmouth. Later on his attention was chiefly devoted to increasing his un- derstanding of elementary medicine, after which he was licensed to practice by the president and fellows of the Connecticut Medi- cal society. In 1819 he received the honorary Yale degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1811 he began practice in Enfield, the next year removed to Milford, and thence in 1816 to Middletown. In 1820 he published an article on the "Ergot of Rye," and in 1823, in association with Dr. Thomas Miner, he issued a volume entitled "Essays on Fevers and other Medical Subjects." This
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William Tully, M. D.
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publication called forth much comment on the part of the profes- sion, but afterward the teachings of his work received the indorse- ment of his medical brethren. In 1826 he removed to Albany, N. Y., where he practiced with marked success, and at the same time he delivered lectures in the medical school at Castleton, Ver- mont. While in Albany he published a prize essay on "Sanguin- aria Canadensis," a scientific and scholarly paper on indigenous materia medica, and thereby added laurels to his wreath of fame. In 1829 he removed to New Haven and succeeded Dr. Ives in the chair of materia medica in Yale, at the same time continuing his lectures in Castleton, but as his income from these sources was quite small he published, in 1832, an exhaustive paper on "Nar- cotine, and Sulphate of Morphine," which attracted much atten- tion in medical circles.
Dr. Tully came to Springfield in 1851, and from that time to his death in 1859 he was a prominent figure, devoting himself to active practice and also to the authorship of various works on medical subjects. Drs. Church and Seeger published in two large volumes his work on "Materia Medica," and "Pharma- cology and Therapeutics," and while his manuscripts were not fully completed, the work was regarded as standard authority. His knowledge of botany was extensive and also was very correct, and he was an expert, almost without a rival, in organic and phar- maceutical chemistry. With physiology and pathology he was fully familiar, and thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek were his special acquisitions. Dr. Noah Webster and Prof. Goodrich depended upon his assistance in furnishing definitions in anat- omy, physiology, medicine and botany for their dictionary publi- cations of the period. As a man his character was superlatively positive, often unfortunately so, for his mind was so far above that of ordinary persons that he could not please the public, hence he was not a popular physician with the masses. Dr. Bronson once said of him: "Sum up all his imperfections and deduct them from his merits and there is enough left to make a man-a whole man and a great man."
Among the other old-time medical practitioners of the coun- ty previous to the incorporation of the district medical society,
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and none of whom were members of that body nor of the state society, there may be remembered the names of Dr. Caswell, of Ludlow, who enjoyed an excellent reputation as a country doc- tor; Dr. Marcus Cady, of South Wilbraham, and his brother, Henry Cady, of Monson, both physicians of good repute ; Dr. Mc- Kinstry, of Monson ; Dr. Johnson, of Granville ; Ezra Osborne, of Springfield, who practiced from 1815 to 1830; Dr. Swan, who lived and practiced on "Springfield hill," as that locality then was known; Samuel Belden, who was here about 1840; Dr. Spar- hawk, whose period of practice was about 1820; Ebenezer Jones, of West Springfield, who removed to the eastern part of the state; Timothy Horton, a most excellent man, but who, being wealthy, practiced for very small fees, much to the discourage- ment of his professional associates ; Dr. Dunham, of West Spring- field, of whom little is now known ; Edward McCrea, who settled in Agawam in 1832, and died in 1859; Sumner Ives, who was born in the "Ireland parish" as the north part of West Spring- field was once known, and who practiced in that locality from 1826 to 1831, when he removed to Suffield; Solomon Chapman, who succeeded Dr. Ives in 1832, and who, in turn, was succeeded in 1850 by Dr. Lawson Long.
In the same manner also may be mentioned the names of Edward Strong, graduate of Harvard Medical school in 1838, who retired from active professional work in 1845 and became associ- ated with the department of vital statistics in Boston ; Nathaniel Downs, who settled in West Springfield in 1857 and soon after- ward removed to the eastern part of the state; George Filer, of Westfield, one of the early physicians of that town, who is said to have settled there about 1666, but who subsequently joined the Quaker colony on Long Island; Israel Ashley, of Westfield, descendant of one of the colonists of Springfield, a graduate of Yale in 1730, and one of the best physicians of his day ; William Atwater, son of Rev. Noah Atwater of Westfield, a graduate of Yale and a practitioner in the town previous to 1830; Samuel Mather, of Westfield, who practiced about the time of the revolu- tion ; Joshua Sumner, of Westfield, who came about the time of the revolution and was noted for his skill in surgery; Lucius
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Wright, one of Westfield's most scholarly old-time physicians, a native of what now is Chicopee, and who died at the age of more than ninety years.
Westfield, like Springfield, was noted as the abiding-place of many old-time physicians, and in addition to those previously mentioned we may recall the names of Dr. M. L. Robinson, one of the few men of medicine who was born and educated in New York state and subsequently came to practice in the locality ; Simeon Shurtleff, a native of Blandford, a pupil of Dr. Cooley's famous school in Granville, and a graduate of Amherst; William Orton Bell, a native of Chester and a graduate of the Berkshire Medical school ; Ellery C. Clarke, a graduate of the University of Vermont, and a surgeon in the army during the war of 1861-5.
In Southwick we find the names of Isaac Coit, who is said to have been the first physician here, and a patriot of the revolu- tion ; Drs. Jonathan Bill, J. W. Rockwell and a Dr. Norton ; also Levi W. Humphreys, the latter a charter member of the district society and one of its most earnest advocates. In Granville we find the names of Drs. Vincent Holcomb, and his son, Hubert Holcomb, the latter an army surgeon and afterward in practice in Blandford; Calvin King, who succeeded Dr. Holcomb; Dr. Barlow who removed to New York and became a convert to Homoe- opathy ; Dr. Dwight, who died about twenty-five years ago; Dr. Johnson, who succeeded Dr. Dwight; Dr. Jesse Bigelow, who is said to have been the pioneer physician here. The names of Drs. C. W. Bartlett, Edward P. Mountain and Herbert G. Rockwell are associated with Granville history.
Up in the mountainous regions of the western part of the county, in Chester, the profession was represented many years ago by such men as Dr. David Shepard, who was here previous to the revolution ; William Holland and Martin Phelps, the latter the successor of the former and a prominent figure in church and democratic political circles ; Anson Boies, a native of Blandford; Dr. Ballard, successor to Dr. Boies, and who was in turn succeed- ed by Dr. DeWolf; Ebenezer Emmons, physician and geologist, and later professor of chemistry in Williams college ; Asahel Par- menter, son of Deacon Parmenter and who afterward removed to
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Pennsylvania ; Joseph C. Abbott, who died comparatively young ; Dr. Crossett; Dr. Noah S. Bartlett; H. S. Lucas, a physician of more than ordinary reputation, and who combined knowledge of geology with that of medicine; and also Drs. Hall, Wright and Taylor, each of whom once was in practice in that town. In Blandford one of the very first physicians was Dr. Ashley, as early as 1745, and after him came Joseph W. Brewster, Silas P. Wright and William B. Miller, the latter having removed to Springfield about 1870.
In Wilbraham we learn from authentic sources that the phy- sicians in earlier times were Drs. John Stearns, Gordon Percival, Samuel F. Merrick (a revolutionary patriot), Judah Bliss (about . 1800), Abiah Southworth, Converse Butler, Luther Brewer, Jacob Lyman, Elisha Ladd, Gideon Kibbe, Jesse W. Rice (a much respected and influential citizen as well as an excellent physi- cian), Edwin Thayer, Charles Bowker, Stebbins Foskit, Marcus Cady (in South Wilbraham), Abiel Bottom, William B. Carpen- ter, John Goodale, Daniel Ufford, Edwin McCray. In Wales the succession is about as follows : James Lawrence, 1746-78; Dud- ley Wade, 1779-83; Abel Sherman, 1783-86; Jeremiah Round, 1787-89 ; David Young, 1790-1802; Ferdinand Lethbridge, 1805- 11; Thaddeus Fairbanks, 1812-15; Daniel Tiffany, 1812-22; Aaron Shaw, 1813-45; John Smith, 1815-65.
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