USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 36
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The first meeting of the trustees was held January 31, 1823, when Henry C. Brown and Joseph Shearer, were added to the board. Jonathan Allen. and William C. Jarvis of Pittsfield, Levi Lincoln of Worcester, Daniel Noble of Williamstown, Henry
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Shaw of Lanesboro, became members during the same year. Rev. Mr. Humphrey resigned in May. Upon the remaining members, during the earlier years of the school, there devolved a vast amount of labor and anxiety.
The trustees commenced their work with a fund of barely three thousand dollars, mostly in unpaid subscriptions. Measures were immediately taken for the collection of these subscriptions ; and in May, 1823, Doctor Childs received fifteen hundred dollars, and gave a mortgage-deed of the "Institution." In May, 1826, the trustees paid sixteen hundred and fourteen dollars more, and came into full possession of the estate.
In the meantime, the town had shown an interest, although, it must be confessed a not exceedingly liberal one, in the institution. In May, 1822, General Nathan Willis, chairman of a committee appointed to consider the petition of Dr. H. H. Childs "for a site on which to locate a medical chapel,"] reported that they were " highly impressed with the importance of establishing liberal institutions for the diffusion of science and useful knowledge, and particularly such as will tend to the suppression of quackery." But they relied upon "a minute and able exposition in writing by Doctor Childs, of the benefits which might accrue, from the pro- posed establishment, to the cause of medical science, and to the pecuniary advantages of the town; " and they recommended the following resolution :
Resolved, that we highly approve the establishment of a medical college in the town of Pittsfield, and that we feel disposed to render it every facility consistent with the interest and duty of the town.
The committee, however, hinted that the resources of the town were limited, and the claims on its liberality numerous. The meeting adopted the resolution; instructed the selectmen to join in the petition for the college-charter; and granted the trustees the privilege of erecting a fire-proof building, thirty feet by forty in area, on the town-land east of the town-house, and as near it as the selectmen might deem safe.
In March, 1823, more ambitious projects were entertained, and a committee of fifteen citizens of note was appointed to consider a resolution offered by Doctor Childs, "to erect an elegant and commodious building for the Medical College." We hear no more
1 Sic in records.
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of this committee, but in July, 1824, in response to a somewhat humbler request, the town permitted the trustees, in lieu of erect- ing the fire-proof structure required by the vote of 1822, to remove the old hotel-stable to the lot east of the town-house, and remodel it for the purposes of the college, on condition that the town- . house was kept constantly insured against fire communicated from the new building.
The stable was removed and converted into a neat building con- taining cabinet, and anatomical rooms and apartments for other purposes. Some other out-buildings were erected and improve- ments were made in the old hotel-building to fit it for a "commons house ; " ' the entire expense being thirty-three hundred dollars.
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The college had now buildings which compared favorably with those of similar institutions ; but the trustees still experienced extreme perplexity in providing for the necessary outlay, and in meeting the current expenses of the school. In 1823, Doctor Childs and Hon. Henry Hubbard were appointed a committee to petition the legislature for an endowment ; and they succeeded in obtaining a grant of five thousand dollars, payable in five annual installments. But this was soon absorbed by the imperative demands of the new enterprise, and no further assistance was obtained from the commonwealth, although often asked, until an especial emergency arose in 1850.
For twenty-six years the Institution lived and flourished upon a fund - including the legislative grant and all paid subscrip- tions-of certainly not more than ten thousand dollars, all of it invested in the college-buildings, furniture and apparatus. Dur- ing that time it seems never to have been out of debt. Until the last installment of the grant was paid, the amount to be received was anticipated by loans ; when that payment was made, debt had become chronic. In 1835, the outstanding claims were reported at four thousand and thirty-eight dollars, most of them dating back to 1825. The legislature refused the aid which was asked from it, and, so far as the record shows, no further effort to free the Institution from debt was made, until 1843, when the number of students having become large, it was voted to appro- priate one hundred dollars yearly, from the income of the faculty, as a sinking fund.
1 " Conmons " in this instance included lodging, as well as board.
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In January, 1825, the too sanguine hopes of the fathers of the college having been somewhat chilled by the coldness of some from whom they expected better things, it was voted, that, " whereas the trustees are without disposable funds for the pay- ment of the salaries of the professors and lecturers, and the con- tingencies that do not relate to fixtures and apparatus, therefore, the said professors and lecturers must look for their compensation, and for the defrayment of incidental expenses, to the tuition of students ;" the fees to be divided among the faculty, in such proportion as they might agree upon, with the right to appeal to the trustees in case of dissatisfaction.
It may well be imagined that the compensation thus derived was often meager ; and the more so, that the fees were not unfre- quently paid in notes of the students running for indefinite terms ; the specification indeed often being, "when the said student shall be able to pay." These notes were duly distributed to the faculty, and many of them, which were left to await payment, were found at the dissolution of the Institution in the deserted office of the dean.
But small and uncertain as the income of the faculty was, it was several times subjected to a sort of forced loan guaranteed to be paid " when the trustees should be in funds for that purpose." Sixteen hundred dollars of this class of debts appeared in the report of 1835, of which four hundred and forty-four dollars were due to Doctor Batchelder, who was dismissed from his pro- fessorship in 1828 ; three hundred and four to Doctor Childs, and two hundred and fifty-eight to Professor Dewey. It does not appear when the trustees came to be in funds to liquidate these claims.
Such in brief is the story of the pecuniary management of the Berkshire Medical College during the first twenty years of its existence. Let us now see what its success was as a scientific school.
On the first of July, 1823, the trustees issued a pamphlet-cir- cular in which they announced the following lecture-course to commence on the second Wednesday of September :
General Anatomy and Physiology, Dr. Jerome V. C. Smith of Bos- ton.1
1 Afterwards well-known as the mayor of that city, and as an author. He married Miss Eliza, daughter of Major Henry C. Brown.
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Surgery and Anatomy, and Physiology as subservient to the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Surgery, Dr. J. P. Batchelder.
Theory and Practice of Medicine, Dr. II. H. Childs.
Obstetrics, Dr. Asa Burbank.
Materia Medica and Pharmacy, Dr. John DeLa Mater, of Sheffield.
Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy, Natural and Experimental Philoso- phy, Prof. Chester Dewey.
Medical Jurisprudence, by a lecturer to be named.
Reading terms were also promised, in which the same branches were to be taught with the exception of those in Professor Dewey's depart- ment.
The following table of fees was fixed: For all the lectures, $40; yearly tuition, exclusive of lectures, $50; graduation, $12; for Professor Dewey's lectures on the natural sciences, $6.
Students " destined for missionary labors" were admitted with- out charge.
Students were promised "access to an extensive library, a cab- inet of minerals consisting of about one thousand specimens, and a museum of valuable anatomical preparations."
One drawback there was to the satisfaction with which the citizens of the town saw a medical college established among them, and especially on the very edge of their principal grave- yard. It was the dread of the resurrecting propensities of the students. Those who live when wise and humane legislation has provided unobjectionable means for obtaining an abundant sup- ply of anatomical subjects, can hardly realize the feeling which pervaded the community when the student found it almost, or entirely, impossible to become even moderately familiar with the structure of the human frame unless he resorted to the nocturnal robbery of neighboring graves.
There are many thrilling traditions originating in the popular excitement upon this subject, which in the cities and larger towns often led to fearful riots. In Berkshire there was hardly a vil- lage in which one or more graves had not been robbed.1
1 Mr. Timothy Hall-afterwards for many years a police-officer of Pitts- field, noted for courage, determination and coolness in danger-once, when a boy of sixteen years, passing a lonely grave-yard in a neighboring town, saw what appeared to be a white figure bowing to him. His first thought was to
. fly, but his better judgment told him that to do so was to become a gliost- coward for life ; and, with such boldness as he could summon, he approached he mysterious object, which proved to be a shroud that some resurrectionists
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In 1820-only two years before the foundation of the Medical College, Pittsfield was thrown into the most violent commotion by the discovery that the body of George Butler, Jr., a respectable young man, with numerous relatives, had been stolen from its grave. Young Butler died in November, 1819, and, during the ensuing winter, his mother constantly dreamed that his grave was empty ; which may, perhaps, be accounted for by the fact that suspicion had been roused in the fall by the appearance of the sod, and the finding of a shroud-sleeve in the burial-ground, although we do not know that she was informed of these circum- stances. But, however that may be, when, at her solicitation, one of her surviving sons, early in May, opened his brother's grave, and found that the body had been removed by the usual rude method, the mother's dream conspired with other circumstances to deepen the public horror. Almost every person in Pittsfield- men, women and children -as well as many from neighboring towns, went to gaze, shuddering, into the gaping grave, which was purposely left open all summer, exposing its shattered and tenantless coffin, to remind the spectator of the most shocking circumstances of its desecration.
A town-meeting was called on the 7th of June to consider the case, and to see what method should be taken to prevent in future " the horrid and savage practice " of body-stealing. At this meeting a committee-consisting of Henry C. Brown, Josiah Bis- sell, William C. Jarvis, Nathan Willis, and Dr. Timothy Childs- reported that, while they " viewed with abhorrence, the violations of the right of sepulcher," they could find no statute of the com- monwealth regarding such an offense, and that, in their opinion, the town had no power to raise a tax for the purpose of offering a reward for the detection of the perpetrators. They might, however, be indicted for a misdemeanor at the common law, if
had torn from a recently disinterred body. In this case the coffin had been' only partially uncovered and the corpse rudely dragged through a narrow aperture. This indeed was the common practice of the "body-snatchers," who were provided with an iron-hook, which, inserted under the chin of the corpse, enabled them with little trouble to draw from the coffin its tenant,- especially if, as was oftenest the case, he was emaciated by disease. This brutal treatment of the stolen subjects, even before the application of the dis- secting knife, added greatly to the exasperation of the people, who were accus- tomed to look upon the dead with the most profound awe, and upon the remains of their friends and neighbors with the most tender reverence.
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they could be detected by the activity and vigilance of private citizens. Somewhat astounded by this exposition of the law, the town instructed the selectmen to "lay the facts before the gov- ernor and council, and request them to take such order thereon as they might deem proper ; " but, if they did so, it had no effect, for the first Massachusetts statute for the protection of the repose of the dead was not passed until 1830.
The town further appointed a committee of twelve to collect subscriptions, in order to offer a reward for the detection of any person who had violated or might violate any grave in the town ; and also directed Josiah Bissell, whose store adjoined the central burial-ground, to view it occasionally to see whether there were any indications that it had been disturbed.
These occurrences are still vivid in the memory of the elder citizens of Pittsfield ; and, as late as 1870, Mr. James Butler, in a debate regarding the removal of the remains of the dead from the First street burial-ground to the new cemetery, alluded with the deepest feeling to the painful memories regarding his brother, which had, for fifty years, haunted him and other relatives.
In 1822, the facts we have stated, were fresh in the minds of the whole community, and it was with good reason that the trus- tees of the Medical College, in their first circular, strove to allay the apprehensions naturally excited by the location of their insti- tution. " That the repose of the dead had been disturbed " they did not deny ; but such outrages had arisen from lack of a semi- nary where students could pursue anatomical researches chiefly. Compelled by law to obtain a competent knowledge of anatomy, and unable to meet the expense of city-schools, they were driven to expedients as repugnant to their own feelings as they were odious to the public. The new school, therefore, increased rather than diminished the security of the grave-yards.
The trustees even paid great regard to the feeling of "those many individuals of excellent minds who entertained prejudices against the dissection of the human frame " at all, and suggested for their relief that "the great number of anatomical prepara- tions in the museum lessened the necessity for extensive dissec- tion." They even went so far as to add that "comparative anatomy, or the dissection of brute-animals, furnished a substi- tute for the use of the human body, which would neither be overlooked nor neglected ; " which looks very much as though the
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venerable fathers in medicine were attempting to soothe their fellow-citizens with opiates of very questionable orthodoxy. All the dissection of dumb animals which was ever done or contem- plated in the institution-except with distinct reference to com- parative anatomy-might, we suspect, have been witnessed in no more solemn ampitheatre than Commons hall. The trustees, how- ever, declared that, the state having imposed upon them the duty of providing the means of instruction in every department, they would faithfully perform that duty, although " with a most sacred regard to private feeling as well as to public sensibility."
And, while thus addressing the public, they showed their good faith by stringent provisions in the college-statutes requiring the faculty to procure their subjects for dissection only from the largest cities ; that no student should be concerned in obtaining them ; that no private dissection by students should be permitted, and that any who might infringe this rule should be publicly exposed. These by-laws did not perfectly accomplish their pur- poses.
It is probable that the grave-yards in the immediate vicinity of the college were safer for its establishment, and, perhaps, as a larger number of anatomical students could avail themselves of the same subjects, and as some of these were bought by the fac- ulty in the large cities, there were not so many illegally obtained . as before. But there were frequent and generally credited reports of the desecration of burial-grounds in towns at some distance from Pittsfield, by students of the Berkshire Medical College.
Finally, one party was followed from eastern Hampden, and a body which had been stolen by them was recovered at Westfield. In the early part of March, 1830, the bodies of two persons who had just been buried at Montague and Conway, in the county of Franklin, were found to have been disinterred, and were traced to two students of the college, who were arrested. The bodies were recovered without mutilation and restored to their friends. The pursuers found the warmest sympathy among the people of Pittsfield, who, in the height of their indignation, before legal measures proved effective, threatened to take the law into their own hands ; Major Butler Goodrich offering to head a party to demolish the college-buildings unless the ghastly prey of the students was given up. A full town-meeting was held on the 7th of March, in which the citizens expressed their " sentiments of
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unmingled indignation and horror," and pledged the town's best endeavors to aid in the discovery of persons residing among or near us who had been charged with this foul offense ; and to place a social ban upon those who were known to be guilty, but who from the difficulty of obtaining direct evidence might escape legal punishment. Acknowledging the necessity of dissection, they held all medical institutions to a strict responsibility in regard to the manner of obtaining subjects, and declared that those permit- ting students to provide subjects for themselves or the college, ought to be discountenanced and held up to " public censure and public shame." Jonathan Allen, a trustee of the Medical College, was moderator of the meeting which passed these resolutions.
In another case preserved by tradition-but whether occurring before or after that of 1830, is not stated,-the result of the pur- suit was not so satisfactory. The officers and the friends of the deceased were permitted to search the college-buildings ; but were accompanied by a tall student who concealed, under one of the long camlet cloaks then in fashion, the body of the subject-a slight girl emaciated by long illness.
This last grim story of course rests on not the most unimpeach- able testimony; but it is likely enough to have been true, and even if false, its very invention illustrates the popular feeling.
On still another occasion a person employed in Pomeroy's fac- tory, having died, was buried in the north-east corner of the old grave-yard, and when friends from a distance came to disinter and remove it, it was found that the grave had been robbed. This affair created the usual excitement, which was intensified by a horribly ludicrous incident. One of the mourning friends resort- ing too often to the tavern for consolation, became intoxicated and fell into the open grave, whereupon a student of wicked wit pro- posed to leave him to fill the vacancy which he had discovered. The wag, however, came very near being rewarded for his indec- orous pleasantry, by being himself consigned to the yawning tomb ; the spectators, as may be imagined, being in no humor for joking of that kind.
We have dwelt more at length upon this practice of surrepti- tiously procuring subjects for the dissecting-knife, as it was one which seriously affected the tranquillity of the community, and was by no means the least of many discomforts of which society has been relieved by wise legislation.
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By the old law, judges in capital cases had the power to direct the bodies of criminals, executed by their sentence, to be delivered to the surgeons for dissection ; but the supply of subjects from this source was too limited and uncertain to supply the wants of students in anatomy ; and they were, by courtesy, supposed to procure them "from the largest cities." But even in those cities in 1823, the dead of the criminal and friendless classes were not in such superabundant numbers as now, and the cost of procur- ing and transporting subjects was beyond the means of country students and physicians. Resort was therefore, almost necessa- rily, had to the neighboring grave-yards ; the practice being almost countenanced by the law permitting physicians to have in their possession dead bodies for the purposes of anatomy, without accounting for the mode in which they obtained them. In 1830, however, simultaneously with the law for the better protection of burial-grounds, an act was passed directing that the bodies of per- sons dying under certain circumstances should be delivered to surgeons and medical schools for dissection; and this, together with the increasing supply from the cities, has rendered subjects so cheap that for years there has been little temptation to resort to the odious midnight-prowlings of the resurrectionists.
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The first president of the college was Dr. Jonah Goodhue, of Hadley ; one of the most eminent of those New England physi- cians, who, with few advantages for early professional education, won high position by dint of strong native talent, close observa- tion of nature, and a very diligent study of books when they became able to obtain them.
His selection as president of the new college was in all respects fortunate. The Institution prospered, the first term opening with eighty students, and the number increasing from year to year.
By their charter the trustces were authorized to promote, not only medical science, but others kindred to it; and for that pur- pose to organize a lyceum of natural history, with such members as they might deem best. In furtherance of this object, the cir- cular of July announced that the branches of instruction in Professor Dewey's department would be taught in strict reference to the arts of life, and as sources of rational amusement and moral improvement. "The advantages to be derived from an institution like this by a community of mechanics, artisans and practical agriculturists," they say, "cannot be calculated or fore-
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seen. In this respect an importance appertains to the Berkshire Medical Institution which cannot be attached to any seminary of the kind situated in a populous city."
Tickets to Professor Dewey's lectures were, therefore, sold sep- arately, and the general public were expected to attend them. At first a considerable number of persons did so; but it was found less easy than had been expected to create a popular interest in those studies whose advantage to the public it was not at all diffi- cult to demonstrate; an experience very far from exceptional.
The attempt was, however, vigorously made. The lyceum of natural history was organized on the first day of the first term of the college ; and the event was distinguished by an address from Rev. Edward Hitchcock, afterwards the eminent geologist, and president of Amherst College, in which he sketched the theory which he afterwards rendered famous, as a mode of reconciling the teachings of geology and revelation. The leading spirit in the lyceum was Professor Dewey.
In 1829, President Goodhue died, and was succeeded by Dr. Zadock Howe of Billerica, who continued in office until 1837, when he resigned, and Dr. H. H. Childs was elected his successor.
Up to this time the Institution had struggled with some vexa- tious disadvantages, although in spite of all obstacles it had achieved a very gratifying success. Among these impediments, in addition to the financial difficulties which had been mentioned, the chief were the non-residence of the presidents, the dependent connection with Williams College, and the fact that the State Medical Society, in admitting members, discriminated in favor of the graduates of Harvard.
By the election of Doctor Childs, the faculty, always pre-emi- nently a working body, had its hardest worker at its head, and resident in Pittsfield. In the same year, the legislature dissolved the connection with Williams, and constituted the school at Pitts- field an independent medical college. There was no longer any doubt of the orthodoxy of its teachings, nor of its sound discre- tion in conferring honors ; nor was there any need to borrow prestige from any other academical name to add dignity to its diplomas : its graduates had carried the fame of its own all over the Union.
In 1823, the legislature had conferred upon graduates of the Berkshire Medical Institution the same rights enjoyed by those
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