USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 37
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 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
367
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
of Harvard; and now, in 1837, the Massachusetts Medical Soei- ety tardily voted that, like them, they should be entitled to admission as fellows of that body without fee or examination. And thus, after a probation of fourteen years, the Berkshire Col- lege attained, so far as statutes could confer it, perfect equality with its elder sister at Cambridge.
From 1837 to 1850, no event of general interest occurred in the history of the college, except the sad death of one of its ablest and most beloved professors, Dr. David Palmer, of Woodstock, Vt. In the fall of 1840, Doctor Palmer, in addition to his duties in the college, delivered a course of popular lectures upon geology and chemistry.' The course was nearly completed when, on the evening of October 12th, in the presence of a crowded audience, as he was endeavoring to partially fill a glass-tube by suction, the orifice at the lower end having been enlarged by an unob- served fracture, the corrosive fluid rushed into his mouth and throat. He was taken to his room and all that the most unremit- ting exertions of his professional brethren could do to save him, was done : but, after two days of intense suffering, he died.
On the 5th of February, 1850, the building used as a lecture- room, anatomical theater, and cabinet-rooms, was destroyed by fire, with a considerable portion of its contents. The trustees took immediate measures to replace it with a structure more com- mensurate with the demands of the day, and in a more suitable location. A grant of ten thousand dollars was obtained from the legislature, very much through the influence of Hon. Ensign H. Kellogg, who was speaker of the house of representatives, as Hon. William C. Jarvis was, when the first legislative grant to the Institution was made. The citizens of Berkshire contrib- uted five thousand dollars. A most commanding and conspicuous site on South street was selected for the new building, which was immediately erected under the special supervision of Messrs. Gordon McKay, George W. Campbell and M. H. Baldwin, with the assistance of John C. Hoadley. The college, which was exceedingly commodious and well adapted to its purpose, was dedicated August 5, 1851, with prayer by Rev. Doctor Humphrey, and addresses by Doctor Childs, and Rev. Doctor Todd.
The advantage of a boarding-house connected with the college had often been questioned, and in its new site was clearly unnec- essary. In 1852, therefore, the old hotel-building, which had
368
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
been used for that purpose for thirty years, was sold to Hon. Thomas Allen, who demolished it, and reannexed the land to the Allen estate, which, by descent and purchase, had come into his possession, and upon which he was erecting a costly mansion on the site of his grandfather's parsonage.
In April, 1863, Dr. H. H. Childs, at the age of 80, although still manifesting much of the nervous energy which had distin- . guished his youth, and all his early devotion to the college, resigned his professorship, retaining the presidency, although most of the arduous duties which he had so faithfully performed for forty-one years were transferred to younger men.
The trustees passed the following resolution :
Resolved, that the resignation [of Dr. II. H. Childs requires from us more than a passing notice. For more than forty years, he has been the active head of the Berkshire Medical Institution, his usefulness having extended to a period almost unprecedented. During these years by his energy and zeal, he has achieved a wide-spread reputation as a medical man, and, by his kindness of heart and courtesy of manner, a no less deserved name as a Christian gentleman. He has ever main- tained a high standard of medical honor ; and his pupils must forget or ignore his teachings before they can stoop to anything base or ignoble. With quick appreciation of merit, however modest, and ever ready with a timely word of needed encouragement, his pupils learned to love him, and thousands throughout the length and breadth of the land look back to him as to a foster-father. While we regret the infirmities which compel the retirement of our venerable President from the active duties of instruction, we earnestly hope that the interests of the insti- tution which is so identified with his life and name, may not abate, and that he may long be spared to speak words of cheer to the new genera- tion of students, and give the benefit of his advice and counsel to the faculty and trustees.
The hope expressed in the last paragraph of the resolution was not disappointed. Doctor Childs frequently addressed the stu- dents, by their invitation, with paternal counsel and instruction, and also delivered the diplomas at the commencements until 1867. Soon after the close of the lecture-term of that year he went to Boston, where, after passing the winter in the family of his son- in-law, Hon. Elias Merwin, he died on the 22d of March, 1868.
From the year 1823 to 1835, the average attendance of students upon the lectures was about eighty-five. In 1836 it rose to one hundred and five; but fell off in 1837 to sixty-eight, and the
369
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
average from that year to 1844 was not more than eighty. From 1844 to 1848,-the most prosperous era of the college,-the num- bers for the respective years were 135, 129, 140, 130, 120. The next year, 1849, showed a catalogue of only ninety-five, and thenceforward the decline continued, although not with perfect uniformity, until the term of 1867 attracted barely thirty-five students.
This decadence was not permitted to go on without vigorous and repeated efforts on the part of the trustees and faculty to stay it.
In 1852, Dr. Timothy Childs1 being in Paris pursuing his med- ical studies, the trustees purchased through his agency, a very valuable collection of anatomical models and preparations from nature, surgical apparatus, etc.
In 1854, the faculty-to supply the place of the hospitals in whose wards medical tyros in the cities fledge their "callow exper- ience -instituted a weekly clinique for the free diagnosis and treatment, in the presence of the students, of such ailments as might be submitted to them. This plan was suggested by Dr. T. Childs,-who had just returned from Europe-and it was success- fully initiated under his zealous and energetic management as dean. Patients came in from Pittsfield and a wide circuit of surrounding towns ; and, among a multitude of cases more or less simple, there were found an unexpected number of an obscure or obstinate character, which had defied the penetration and skill of the isolated local practitioner, but often yielded to the combined wisdom and varied experience of the college-faculty, occasionally aided by some of the more distinguished members of the District Medical Society.
Men of brilliant professional reputation, many of them young and full of enthusiastic hope of reviving the fortunes of the col- lege, were from time to time added to the faculty: among them
1 Timothy, son of Dr. H. H. Childs, was born at Pittsfield, December 1, 1822, graduated at Williams College in 1841, and at the Berkshire Medical College in 1844. In 1847 he was appointed surgeon of the regiment of Mas- sachusetts Volunteers in the Mexican war ; and afterwards was professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Medical Surgery in Pittsfield, and of Surgery in the Maine Medical School at Brunswick, and the New York Medical College. For several years lie was also Dean of the Faculty in the Berkshire Med- ical Institution. He died at Norwich, Conn., in 1865, having shortly before removed to that city.
47
370
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
Drs. Pliny Earle, A. B. Palmer, Paul A. Chadbourne, William H. Thayer, Corydon L. Ford, R. Cresson Styles, William Warren Greene and HI. M. Seeley; all of whom gave themselves vigor- ously to their work; but most of them, soon becoming sensible how hopeless was the task, abandoned it for more promising fields. Little, however, as they were able to accomplish for the college, their influence was very strongly and happily felt in the Medical Society of the county. Doctors Thayer and Styles especially contributed to this result, and greatly intensified the local esprit de corps of the profession by the publication, in 1861, of the Berkshire Medical Journal, a handsome magazine of forty-eight pages, in which, besides much general medical and surgical mat- ter of interest, there appeared monthly, the transactions of the society, and articles from the pens of its members. Although the magazine was continued but a single year, its influence was last- ing.
It did not, however, perceptibly check the decline of the col- lege; and in 1867, the faculty represented to the trustees that expensive additions to the building were needed in order to afford proper facilities for instruction in modern chemistry as applied to the science of medicine. The cost of this improvement, and also of some necessary repairs, they suggested, might be defrayed by a loan, the interest of which would be met by increased receipts from tuition. Upon this suggestion it was voted to raise a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, for the purposes named, by a mortgage on the real estate of the institution. Three thousand dollars were actually borrowed in this way, of which one thousand dollars were expended for repairs, and the introduction of gas and water into the college-building. Two thousand dollars were applied to the fitting up of a very perfect chemical laboratory, and the purchase of some costly philosophical apparatus.
The desperate expedient of running in debt for the sake of proximately meeting the requirements which the age makes upon this class of seminaries, did not avail. Only thirty-five students attended the lecture-course of 1867, affording a compensation of but about one hundred and thirty dollars to each professor. Salaries like this of course could not procure learned and capable men of established reputation ; and, although it would have been easy to collect a faculty of young and ambitious physicians, will- ing to try their " 'prentice hands " as preceptors and lectureis, the
.
371
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
trustees had no desire to protract the existence of the college on such terms.
Permission was therefore obtained from the legislature of 1869, to transfer so much of the cabinet, library apparatus, and other personal property as might be deemed best to the Athenæum then about to be established in Pittsfield; and to sell what might not be so desired, together with the real estate, and, after paying the debts of the college, to pay the receipts to the same corporation.
The building was sold, in 1871, to the town, which remodeled it for the use of its High and Grammar schools. The price paid was eight thousand dollars, of which the Athenaeum received forty-four hundred, the remainder being required for the payment of the debts of the college. The cabinets, library and apparatus had previously been removed to the Athenæum-building.
So many causes combined to break down the Berkshire Medi- cal Institution that the wonder is that it sustained itself so long as it did. The final and chronic difficulty lay in the fact that it never was free from debt, except for a brief interval at the time of the building of the new college, and that, although the trustees in that halcyon period voted to set apart one thousand dollars, as a nucleus for a fund, the institution in fact never had any such foundation, even to that extent. The sole reliance for meeting the current expenses of the college was upon the tuition of students ; a variable and precarious resource, which was sure to fail when most needed.
This was sensibly felt when handsomely endowed and lavishly provided schools sprang up in the western states, retaining at home the students, who before had resorted to Pittsfield in great numbers. The war of the rebellion cut off another region from which the Berkshire school had received many pupils, leaving a very limited section, and that full of rival seminaries, to which it could look for support. And even in this section there was a growing proclivity on the part of young men seeking a medical education, to resort to the great city-schools, which provided facili- ties for study and observation, with which no country-institution could hope to compete ; while, in addition to all this, it was but natural that young men, who upon graduation were for the most part destined to practice in towns and villages more or less retired, should desire to see what they could of metropolitan life in their college-days.
372
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
To all this the Berkshire school could oppose little in the way of economy; for, while its tuition was only about one third that of those in the larger cities, board, in consequence of the out- growth of agriculture by other industries, had come to be as dear in Pittsfield as in New York or Boston, if the students in those cities were content with humble lodgings. While in some of the western schools, like that at Ann Arbor, both tuition and board were cheaper than at Pittsfield.
It was, therefore, wisely determined to abandon an institution which could not be respectably maintained without an outlay, which could be devoted to other purposes with much greater advantage to the interests both of the town and of science.
The Institution thus honorably closed an honorable career. In an existence of forty-four years it had graduated eleven hundred and thirty-eight doctors in medicine, who held a rank in their pro- fession equal to that of those sent out by any college. It had had a large share in the advancement of medical science and the eleva- tion of medical character. It had attracted to Pittsfield in its faculty and others, persons of culture, who had adorned the society of the village while they mingled with it, and left it the better for their presence. And, when it could no longer creditably per- form the work which was entrusted to it, it gracefully yielded the place to those who could.
Of one pleasant feature in the life of the college no mention has been made; the voluntary associations-for mutual literary and professional improvement among the students-in which some men afterwards of mark in the world took part.1
The carly lyceums were ably conducted ; and, in 1844, the per- manent " Association of the Berkshire Medical College "-a soci- ety of alumni-was formed; its object being the promotion of fraternal feeling and unity of action among the students and grad- uates. The members were of two classes : under-graduates, who had a sort of inchoate position, although entitled to full partici- pation in all the privileges of the society so long as they remained connected with the college; and full members who became so by graduating.
The association had a handsome diploma adorned with a por- trait of Doctor Childs, who was ex officio its president; although
1 Among the most eminent were, President Hopkins of Williams College, and Dr. J. G. Holland.
373
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
a class-president officiated at the ordinary meetings of the under- graduate members for mutual improvement. The organization flourished until the last commencement in 1867.
The most active students in forming the society were Dr. J. G. Holland, and Dr. Charles Bailey, who wrote the constitution and delivered the first two commencement-orations. After gradua- tion, these gentlemen were associated in practice at Springfield ; but Doctor Holland soon abandoned his profession, for that of literature, and Doctor Bailey adopted the Homeopathic, or perhaps Eclectic, practice, and became the leading physician of that school in Pittsfield and Berkshire.
MEDICAL SOCIETIES.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, incorporated in 1781, appointed in 1785, a committee in each county of the common wealth, "for the purpose of encouraging the communication of all important or extraordinary cases that might occur in the practice of the medical art; and, for this purpose, to meet, cor- respond, and communicate with any individuals, or any associa- tion of physicians in their respective counties, and make report of their doings."
Drs. Erastus Sargent, and Oliver Partridge, both of Stock- bridge, were elected for Berkshire, and the secretary, informing them of their appointment, expressed confidence that they would soon be able to form an association that would redound to the honor of the county.
In June, 1787, fifteen physicians, all from towns south of Pitts- field, met at Stockbridge for the purpose of forming such a soci- ety ; but the " tumults of the times " [the Shays rebellion] pre- vented any further action, except the choice of officers, until the 12th of June, when articles of association and rules were drawn up and signed by fourteen physicians ; among them Dr. Timothy Childs. One of the rules was the following :
No member shall introduce his pupils into the practice of medicine, unless they be first examined by the censors, and recommended by them to the Association, for a certificate of their qualifications, which certifi- cate shall be signed by the president and countersigned by the secre- tary.
These censors were Drs. Timothy Childs, Erastus Sargent and Eldad Lewis; and at the next meeting of the society, which was
374
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
held at Pittsfield, in January, 1788, three young men who had been approved by them received the required certificate. Their names were Elijah Catlin, Reuben Backman and Jacob Hoyt ; and their diplomas in medicine were the first ever conferred in Berkshire by any authority higher than that of an individual preceptor.
The association adjourned to meet at Stockbridge in June ; but it never again assembled : the records closing with the follow- ing minute :
But the rebellion in this Commonwealth, raised by Daniel Shays and his associates, proceeding with such rapidity to a crisis, a final period was put to the above-mentioned Association.
There is something not quite clear in this statement. The Shays rebellion in Berkshire county was entirely suppressed dur- ing the summer of 1787. Probably the reference is to the bitter feuds which resulted from it. Doctor Whiting, the president of the society was imprisoned and heavily fined for participation in the rebellion, and other members may have been implicated. It was certainly an era not favorable to the fraternal association of any profession.
In November, 1794, a second Berkshire Medical Association was formed, but contained no member from Pittsfield or any town north of it. It continued only two years.
In February, 1818, the legislature granted a charter for the Berkshire District Medical Society, and, in July, 1819, the Fel- lows of the State Society resident in Berkshire, were called together at Lenox to consider its acceptance. The charter was not accepted at that time ; but a committee of which Dr. H. H. Childs was one, was directed to report a fee-table of some kind. The charter was finally accepted in 1820, at a full meeting of the Fellows; and the following officers were chosen : president, Dr. Timothy Childs ; vice-president, Dr. Hugo Burghardt ; secretary, Alfred Perry ; treasurer, librarian and cabinet keeper, Dr. Charles Worthington.
The first business after the organization, was to discharge the old committee upon the all-important matter of a fee-table, and appoint a new one consisting of the president, the vice-president and Dr. Daniel Collins, who reported the following table in June, 1821 :
375
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
FEE-TABLE 1821.
Visit and advice within one mile (medicine not included), - - $1 50
Rate of mileage, - - 25
Consultation, exclusive of mileage,
- 1 00
Reducing dislocations and fractures,
$1 00 to 3 00
Venereal cases, -
-
5 00 to 10 00
Amputation,
- 20 00 to 25 00
Trepanning,
- 15 00 to 20 00
Operation for strangulated Hernia,
- 20 00
Extracting and depressing cataract, - - 10 00
Venesection, or extracting tooth,
25
Emetic or cathartic, -
25
Closing harelip,
- 10 00
Obstetrical cases, mileage after three miles, and a reasonable compensation for long detention, - -
4 00
-
Dr. Timothy Childs died February 25, 1821, at the age of seventy-three years, having been in the active practice of his pro- fession until within one week of his death.
Dr. Hugo Burghardt of Richmond, was chosen his successor as president of the Medical Society and Dr. H. H. Childs was elected vice-president.
After the incorporation of the college, the semi-annual meet- ings of the society were held at Pittsfield on commencement-day ; the annual convening, as before, at Lenox. From 1820 to 1834, the meetings appear to have been kept up with considerable spirit ; although in the earlier years of that period there was often no quorum.
From 1834 to 1837-owing to a difference with the parent soci- ety, which refused to admit graduates of the Berkshire Medical College on the same terms with those of the institution connected with Harvard University-there were no meetings. But in Sep- tember of the latter year, the State Society having yielded that point, the Fellows of the District Society and other physicians of the county, met at Lenox and revived the old organization. There is no record of any further meetings until March, 1842, when, in response to a call in the county-newspapers, they again met at Lenox, chose the usual officers, and resumed their regular meetings, which have not since been interrupted.
At the semi-annual meeting in November, 1858, it was deter- mined to hold the regular monthly meetings at Pittsfield ; and in
376
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
1862, the annual meetings were transferred from Lenox to the same place.
In 1871, the Pittsfield Medical Society was formed, its object being the encouragement of social intercourse among the mem- bers of the profession and the promotion of scientific culture. The Pittsfield Society entertains the members of the County Society at its monthly meetings ; thus, in some measure, equaliz- ing the cost of attendance, they being free, by their location, from traveling expenses.
Since the last-named arrangements have become permanent, the meetings of both societies have been maintained with spirit.
CHAPTER XVII. DETACHED SUBJECTS,
[1820-1840.]
Population - Business-changes - Agricultural bank - Fires and first fire- engine-First mutual insurance company - Stock-insurance company - Berkshire Mutual Fire-Insurance Company-First grading and planting the park-Abel West-Visit of General Lafayette-The temperance-reforma- mation-Explosion of a powder-magazine.
TT might be supposed that a considerable number of new resi- dents would have been drawn to Pittsfield during the war of 1812, by the business-activity caused by the Cantonment and the office of the superintendent of army-supplies; but the effect of the war in increasing the permanent population of the town seems to have been exceedingly slight, even if it did not actually retard its progress ; since the number of inhabitants was only advanced from twenty-six hundred and sixty-five in 1810 to twenty-seven hundred and sixty-eight in 1820.1
From 1820 to 1840, when the route of the Western railroad was decided in its favor, the growth of the town was still very slow, although it was more rapid than that of most New England towns not situated upon navigable waters, in those days of exces- sive western emigration; the census of 1830 showing a popula- tion of three thousand five hundred and forty-three, and that of 1840 increasing it to four thousand and sixty. During this period the Pomeroy, Pontoosuc, Stearnsville and Barkersville woolen-factories, and the Pittsfield cotton-factory had been suc- cessfully established. The Pomeroy machine-works continued in successful operation, the diminished production of muskets being more than counterbalanced by the introduction of other articles of manufacture. Clapp's carriage-factory constantly
1 In 1800, the population was twenty-two hundred and sixty-one.
48
378
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
increased the quantity and quality of its work. Several minor manufactures had sprung up; but the town had met with losses as well as gains. In 1840 the Housatonic Woolen Company had ceased to struggle against fate and flowage. The Duck factory and the rope-walk had ceased operations; and, since 1832, there had been no fulling-mill ; there were few household-looms weav- ing either woolen or linen in cloths; the cultivation of flax had ceased, and the oil-mills had perished for lack of food. Only a single tannery remained, and there was not a single iron-forge or a potashery left. The cutting of nails, manufacture of looms, spinning-jennies, cards, comb-plates, and spindles, the distilling of essential oils, the making of combs and other small articles, had ended long before. And, whether it was to be counted loss or gain, the temperance-reformation had put out the fires of the distillery and the brewery. As there are gains for all our losses ; so there are losses for all our gains.
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.