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opening that reached out to the Gray's Avenue street line. Finding no funds available for such research, that space too was filled in and the "tunnel" buried.
It was, however, the opinion of practical and experienced men that the tunnel or vault was built for the storage of potatoes or coal or some other domestic commodity rather than fugitive slaves. That belief was based partly on the shape of the vault, which was wider than would have been necessary for passage and partly on the fact that at the street line, where it ended in a brick wall, there was an entrance at the top which had formerly been a manhole, but which had been stopped with cement.
Though the streets no longer echo to the sound of his footsteps, John Brown is not forgotten in New England. His home in Torrington was destroyed by fire in 1918, but many lesser things keep memory green. The Springfield Library holds among its treasures one of the veritable pikes with which his little army so bravely defended itself at Harper's Ferry. His old office desk is also left us,-the same two-story, seven-foot affair over which he and John, Jr., used to discuss slavery by the hour in the counting room in the Chapin Block. His Bible was long used by the Quincy Street Mission.
While he sleeps, his country has adopted the principles for which he fought and died, and the world is a better place because of his having lived.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Early Physicians and Surgeons By Garry De N. Hough, M.D.
A SURVEY of the early history of medicine in Springfield discloses many facts of interest. For example, one finds the recorded title of "Doctor" in connection with medical practice as early as 1711, although one of the authoritative reference books on medical history states that this title was not used in the American Colonies until 1769, or more than half a century later.
While much of the early information is unfortunately fragmen- tary, it is possible to piece together a fairly coherent picture of medical care even back to the earliest days of our civic life.
At first William Pynchon, the pioneer leader and Indian trader, must have kept some supervision of the health of the community, for we find in his earliest account book two significant entries. The first informs us that he received from Jehu Burr for his man, two shillings for "Green Ginger and Sack and Sickness." The second item shows that he received nine-pence for three pills supplied to Mr. Woodford. he received nine-pence for three pills supplied to Mr. Woodford.
After William Pynchon's departure for England, the family tradition of furnishing medical care was continued by his son, John. In his account book one frequently encounters, during the decade from 1650 to 1660, the entry "2 pills and a vomit."
William Pynchon's advice was not only sought by the people of his own community but he was consulted from other places, as is shown by the following most interesting letter. I am indebted to Mr. Harry A. Wright of Springfield for this document, which is a copy of part of a letter written by William Pynchon December 28, 1644, to Governor Edward Hopkins at Hartford, in regard to the wife of Hopkins, Ann Yale, who was insane for fifty years.
The letter:
"As for my advise about your wife my judgement in phisik is but smal. What experience I have I brought with me out of England. I have had no tyme to try any conclusions since I came hither. If it would please God to afford you the advise of such as one better ex- perienced I should be glad, the case is so intricate. I make no question but Mr. Moxon and Gibson mite be ready to do any office of love for
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her that they can, but if I undertake any by her I can direct as much in absence as if I were present with her, if you can prevail with her to stick close to rules of direction. Yet I must tell you that that hot subtel vapor which hath taken possession of her brain is hard to be removed though it may be much helped through God's blessing upon the event. I wish that she may as much as may be observe a plain thin and-(?)-diet. That will make least crudities and so less matter for those subtle vapors. Let her not use to eat milk except it be turned into thin posset drink and if she will she may soak it with sugar wherein a little saffron and-(?)-may be mixed, viz to every ounce of sugar, good 3 grains of saffron made into fine powder and a little scraped hartshorn-(?)-and she may use of this eather in posset drink or in warmed bere. By the use of this and other attenu- ating drink her body will be brought to a sweating temper, which I conceive will be a good help to nature, and a good help to the opera- tion of other phisik.
"And for phisik, I shall cheafly advise to the compleat rest of pills if she will be perswaded to take them orderly and lastly, by gentle nosing in the spring of the year, and in short tyme will open the brain and give some refreshment, provided it be done by gentle means. But nosing tobacco powder and the like are too violent. But if lettuce leaves could be had, nothing is so good as that.
"As for the pills, she may begin with them at the beginning of March next."
The reference in this letter to Mr. Moxon and his readiness to "do any office of love" indicates that in common with the custom in other New England settlements, the clergy undertook medical care when called upon. The Rev. George Moxon was Springfield's first minister, coming here from Boston in the fall of 1637. He was a graduate of Sidney College, Cambridge, in 1623, and it was entirely probable that he studied some medicine with his divinity, since this was common practice at that time.
At his arrival in Springfield he was short, stout and thirty-five years of age. The citizens built him a house in 1639, and he remained here as pastor until 1652. We have no direct documentary evidence of his medical activity but we are probably justified in assuming that he was called upon to render such "office of love" in many instances. We may trust that his grave might have properly carried the epitaph of a latter clergyman :
"Blessed with good intellectual parts, Well skilled in two important arts Nobly he fill'd the double station, Both of preacher and physician; And strove to make his patients whole Throughout ;- body and in soul."
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Nine years after the departure of Mr. Moxon, the Rev. Pelatiah Glover was called to Springfield, in September, 1661, and succeeded him as spiritual and physical adviser of the village. He is reputed to have been a man of great energy, studious application and tenacity of purpose.
The county records of September, 1685, contain one direct refer- ence to the Reverend Pelatiah's medical activities, as follows :
"It being evident that diverse charges are to be satisfied by ye Rober Mark Gregory, viz 30 shillings to Mr. Pelatiah Glover for the curing of his wounded heade and 2€ 12 s to Fearenot King for sundry things stolen out of his house, this Courte have adjudged sayd Robber Mark Gregory to be sold for 12€."
This single record is supporting evidence of the assumption that in common with the practice of the period, the minister in Springfield cared for both souls and bodies.
Further, Pelatiah Glover was the son of John Glover of Dor- chester, who received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1650, and was a prominent figure in this community, a Deputy to the General Court, and Assistant to the Governor. He was one of the few holders of a medical degree in early New England, and probably taught his son the limited medical knowl- edge of the period.
In 1640 Springfield's first births were recorded and from eight years after the founding of the settlement, there were about fifteen births each year during the city's first twenty years. We do not know what sort of reception these infants had into their difficult environment, but it is not surprising that approximately one out of every five died in early childhood.
Practically two-thirds of the seventy-nine deaths which occurred in Springfield's first quarter-century were among children. The young certainly had a hard time and only those with a fairly rugged con- stitution, apparently, could stand the strain.
With this situation in mind the following letter to John Winthrop is of tremendous interest :
"Honored Sr.
"When I was at Hartford I was at yr house desiring to speake with your Worship about my lame boy, and to have had your advice and help. But you were from home when I brought him to your house and when I cam ye 2nd time you were also from home and so I was prevented of your advice and help which I much desired and there uppon I caryed him to Goodwife Watts and left him with her. Now my humble request to your Worship is that you would please to see him and afford your help and advice.and if you se it needful that he should be purged or take any Phisick that you would give him what plisick you judge needful and I shall account it a greate
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favour and be ready to give you full satisfaction and content. In- treating your pardon for my boldness I humbly take leave and subscribe
"Your Worships servant "MILES MORGAN."
The worthy Miles Morgan, in whose memory a statute now stands in Court Square, lacked, however, an ability which now nearly every one possesses. We know that he was unable to write, and the fore- going letter is in the handwriting of John Pynchon. At the bottom of the letter we find the admonition,-"Verte",-and on the reverse we find the following :
"May 23, 1661. "Sr :
"here is a dutchman came from Fort Aurania (i. e. Albany) in Febr Last who hath continued in Northampton ever since till about a weeke agoe he came to Sp. Towne. he pretends skill in chirrurgery and indeed had done some cures at Northampton as very credible persons doe affirm and since he came hither hath done some things whereby it appeares he hath some skill but how far it would reach know not he hath taken Goodman Dorchesters legg in hand and thinks to cure it. And he says he speaks very confidently thus far that he can bring her legg to rights and straite. And he offers to cure her for 60 and yet withal says he will have nothing for his paines if he do not make a perfect cure that shall be so judged by any able chirrurgeons My selfe and wife are fearful of medling with him being a stranger least he may do her hurt and therefore though he hath ben these 8 days here and I have entertained him at my house yet we have not hithertoe imployed him. But we have thoughts of trying him he seemes to be a sober man, and says he will use noe launching nor noe violent meanes, but bathings rubbings and chafing ye sinews- and that he intends to follow 2 or 3 nights I thought at first he might be needy of mony and his aime might be to get some money but he says I shall not pay him one Penney till I se it be a cure and se her go without crutches or stick.
"If his indeavor should effect such a cure I should wonder at it and have cause to magnifie ye goodness of God to us in so ordering it for us which we deserve not.
"with mine and my wifes Loving respects to your selfe and Mistress Winthrop.
"I am Sr, your assured friend and servant
"JOHN PYNCHON"
This most fascinating letter, which was obtained through the historical research of Mr. Harry A. Wright, has particular significance to us of the present day in view of the position which Springfield has taken in meeting the problem of crippled children throughout New
-
(Photo courtesy The Holyoke Public Library) Holyoke - Northampton Street Showing Fairfield Avenue and Lincoln Street, 1884
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England. This document is not only the earliest recorded visit of a surgeon to Springfield, "The Dutchman from Albany"; it is not only a record of early utilization of massage and manipulation; but it is also a testimonial that in our earliest days the problem of the crippled child was present and important, in spite of the high death rate among the children.
It is of interest to know that John Pynchon's lame daughter Mary grew up and married Joseph Whiting, a man of fortune and position.
Inasmuch as at that period a wife had to be a housewife and a homemaker, it is unreasonable to suppose that he would marry a cripple, in spite of the attractiveness of an alliance with the daughter of a wealthy Pynchon. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the "Dutchman from Fort Aurania (Albany) effected a cure" or that "the Goodness of God acted in some other way in so ordering it."
It is not so easy to identify the afflicted son of Miles Morgan, who had four sons living at the time of the letter quoted above. However, as three of the four married and established homes, and the fourth was killed while Indian scouting at the age of twenty-six years, it would appear that whichever son it was, here again the Dutchman effected at least a reasonably good functional result.
Another early record of medical care in Springfield is found in the County Court records of 1671. In a trial to settle a land claim dispute between Lt. Thomas Cooper and an Indian, the testimony records that during the previous summer said Lieutenant Cooper had treated the Indian for broken bones. There is another reference to Cooper's bone-setting ability, and from his other abilities as auditor, attorney, officer of the law, soldier, farmer, carpenter, and surveyor we may assume that he was a worthy precursor of the natural bone- setters who were famous in later New England medical history.
In fact there is evidence leading one to believe that Dr. Lambert Cooper and Dr. Timothy Cooper who practiced in Springfield in the next century were lineal descendants of Lt. Thomas Cooper.
This was the same Lieutenant Cooper whose dramatic death gave warning of the Indian attack on the village on October 5, 1675.
Instigated by the successors of King Philip, whose campaign was then at its height, the previously friendly Agawam Indians under the leadership of Wequogan were about to attack Springfield. The village was practically defenseless as nearly all the fighting men were engaged in the campaign to the north about Hadley, Deerfield, and Northfield. Lieutenant Cooper, who had a wide acquaintance among the Indians, could not believe the news of an impending attack, and mounting his horse he hastened to the Indian camp. He was met at the edge of the woods by a volley of shot, his horse turned, galloped home, and on coming to a stop in front of the garrisoned Pynchon house, Cooper's dead body fell to the ground. As a result of the warning most of the lives of the inhabitants were saved, but the village was plundered and burned.
The next fragment of medical record which we can find concerns the first public charitable bequest in Springfield. While the total
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amount of the bequest was not large it is an interesting fact that had it been allowed to accumulate at compound interest, the income now would be sufficient to take care of our entire Community Chest cam- paign annually.
In 1711 a traveling Frenchman, John Maillefuild by name, and an itinerant peddler by occupation, "sickened and died" in Spring- field. In return for the care and kindness shown him in his last illness Maillefuild directed that his entire estate be used for the poor of Springfield. This was our first public charitable bequest. The careful inventory of his estate makes very interesting reading, particularly the books he had for sale, one of which was entitled Sighs From Hell. We do not know of what the Frenchman died, but there is a record that Dr. John Sherman was paid one shilling six-pence for the care of John Maillefuild.
This Dr. John Sherman came to Springfield in 1709, as the schoolmaster for the Longmeadow district at an annual salary of £40.
Further, in 1717, £2 2s, 4d was granted at town meeting to Doctor Sherman for what he did to Thomas Crowfoot. It would indeed be interesting to know what he did do to Thomas.
Concerning Springfield's first really medically trained physician, we actually know very little more than his gravestone in the Agawam Village Cemetery tells us. This bears the inscription :
"In Memory of John Leonard, M. D. Who died Nov. 28, 1744 in the 69tlı year of his age He sought after Wisdom and found her, Dwelling with Honesty."
While much might be surmised concerning the type of man for whom such an epitaph would be written, this enters the realm of speculation. Our actual knowledge is limited to the following facts. He was a lineal descendant of the early settler, Jolin Leonard, who was killed by the Indians. He was born in 1676. In 1728 the town voted him twelve shillings for his attendance on Sarah Stevenson, and in 1738 his name is included among the taxpayers located on the West Side. I have been unable to ascertain how, or when, or where he obtained his medical degree.
Another physician of this period was Dr. Joseph Pynchon, wlio was born in 1705. He was the son of Colonel John, and great-grandson of Major John. He graduated from Harvard in 1726, and studied both divinity and medicine. He both preached and practiced but eventually gave up the former and devoted himself to the practice of medicine. He located in Longmeadow, and was listed there in the tax list of 1738. The Records of the Pynchon Family by Dr. Joseph C. Pynchon (1885), states however that he came to Longmeadow on October 13, 1748. He undoubtedly upheld the honor of the family name, and served at one time as Representative to the General Court.
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He subsequently removed to Boston. His younger half-brother Dr. Charles Pynchon, was one of the outstanding figures of the next medical generation.
The Revolutionary period, with its postwar depression, was an exciting and difficult time in Springfield, which in combination with West Springfield has a population of 5,244 in 1790.
When the "embattled farmers fired the shot heard round the world," April 19, 1775, the sound reached Springfield and vicinity promptly on April twentieth, a local troop left for the eastern part of the state. On the same day, a company from Suffield passed through Springfield, and on the following day a company left from Longmeadow.
Following the excitement of the moving troops and the fighting, came the inevitable discord and economic distress. Violence was approached in 1782 when an armed mob rescued Reverend Mr. Ely of Somers, from the Springfield jail where he had been committed after interference with the Court of Northampton. Actual bloodshed however did not occur until the culmination of Shays' Rebellion in 1786.
The doctors of Springfield, of whom we have been able to find record, in addition to those previously mentioned were: Edward Chapin, Timothy Cooper, Joshua Day, John Dickinson, Timothy Horton, Joel Marble, Charles Pynchon, John Van Horn, Dr. Whitney, and Chauncey Brewer.
We would like to know much more about these men than we actually do, particularly in regard to their medical education. Packard, in his History of Medicine of the United States, tells us that at the onset of the Revolution there were about 3,500 doctors in the colonies, of whom not more than four hundred had medical degrees. It is also known that of the sixty-three Americans who graduated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1758 to 1788, only one came from New England. Yale had two medical graduates in 1793, John A. Graham and Winthrop Saltonstall, but Welch estimated that there were two hundred twenty-four Yale graduates practicing medicine in the eighteenth century. The medical school, as such, was not organized until 1810, twenty-eight years later than that of Harvard.
Of Edward Chapin, I know nothing except that he was Selectman in 1780.
Timothy Cooper, probably another descendant of Lieutenant Thomas and Lieutenant Lamber, M.D., is buried here and his grave- stone records that he died Jan. 21, 1782. He is also listed "among the doctors" in 1761 in Green's History of Springfield.
In the Feeding Hills Cemetery there stands a stone inscribed :
In Memory of Dr. Joshua Day Who died Oct. 26th 1815 Aged 40 years
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He was, therefore, one of the young medical men of this period, extending into the next.
John Dickinson was summoned from Middletown, Connecticut, for the purpose of building and operating a "pest house" for small- pox. He apparently did not stay in Springfield very long, but it is interesting that he was compelled to collect his bill from the town for over one hundred pounds by due process of law.
Timothy Horton, again, is known only by his grave which shows the date of his death as October 3, 1795.
Joel Marble, like many of his eminent contemporaries, ran a drug store, which in 1783 was one door south of the Court House. One counter was devoted to books and sundries. Payments for purchases were made in wheat, corn, rye, and beeswax. In 1784 he was elected Town Constable but declined to serve. He bought the southwest corner of Main and Court streets, subsequently occupied by the Chicopee National Bank, from Moses Bliss soon after the Revolution. He met an untimely end by drowning himself in a well back of Parson's Tavern while insane. His property was purchased by a Dr. Dix of Worcester.
The sole reference which I can find to Dr. Whitney is that he was taken prisoner by Luke Day and his forces in 1786 during the active warfare of Shays' Rebellion.
Dr. John Van Horn was born June 8, 1726, and graduated from Yale College in 1749. He died in 1895, aged seventy-nine years. He became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1785. It is recorded that he enjoyed a good reputation not only as a physician, but also as a literary man and a good citizen.
Apparently the most prominent physician of this period was the representative of Springfield's original first family, Dr. Charles Pynchon, under whom he probably studied.
He was born January 31, 1719, and was the fifth generation of Springfield Pynchons. According to the Records of the Pynchon Family he was a thoroughly educated physician and surgeon. In the case of his brother and great-uncle this meant graduating from Harvard, but in the case of Dr. Charles the source of his training is not mentioned.
In 1745, at the age of twenty-six years, and again ten years later, he served as an army surgeon in the French and Indian Wars. He served with Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College, with whom he formed a close and intimate friendship.
Dr. Pynchon must have advocated the practice of inoculation for smallpox which was introduced into this country by Zabdiel Boylston of Boston in 1721, for in 1758 the town meeting voted to direct the selectmen to desire him to cease this practice. He was prominent in political activity before the Revolution, being Selectman in 1773; one of the nine members of the Committee of Revolution Resolution at the Town Meeting of July 12, 1774; one of the three delegates to the County Congress of September 20, 1774; and one of the five members
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of the Committee of Correspondence. He was also a Representative to the General Court.
Dr. Pynchon was the only Springfield physician, so far as I can find who took active medical part in the Revolutionary War. He served as Surgeon under General Gates in 1777. He could not have continued in active service for a very long period, however, for we have some interesting evidence from the records of the investigation of the Spring- field Armory in 1778. This investigation was for the purpose of ascertaining the truth of rumored misappropriation and misuse of
Farren Memorial Hospital, Turners Falls
funds. Among the formal reports may be found one called :- "An Accompt of Sundry Tinn Ware Made and Delivered to Sundry Officers in This Department by Col. Mason's Orders at Sundry times." In this report is this item,-"Jany the 15-Delivered to Doctr. Pinchon for the Hospital-
1 Saspan
1% Doz. Porrengars
2 Coffe Pots
1 Close stool Pann"
1 funell for Rum
We thus know that there was a hospital in Springfield in 1778.
Dr. Pynchon lived on the south side of what is now Cypress Street, then called Ferry Lane. He owned an office and drug store on the southeast corner of Main and Cypress streets. For the last two years of his life he lived in the Colton Place on State Street, which he secured after a law suit with Mr. Colton. He died August 17, or 19, 1783, aged sixty-four years.
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Second only to Dr. Charles Pynchon, under whom he studied medicine, was Dr. Chauncey Brewer, the son of Nathaniel Brewer, a stone-cutter, and grandson of Rev. Daniel Brewer, the third real minister of Springfield. Dr. Brewer was born in 1743, and graduated from Yale in 1762. After his period of study with Dr. Pynchon he began his practice in West Springfield. He soon moved to the east side of the river, and for many years lived on the south side of Ferry Lane (now Cypress Street). He also had a wooden building on Main Street in which many years later his grandsons, Henry and Joseph, maintained a drug store. This building was destroyed in the severe fire of October 13, 1844. Dr. Brewer built another house beside the present site of the South Congregational Church, which was subse- quently occupied by his son Henry. This building was demolished April 5, 1892, but a picture of it may be found on page seventy-eight of Chapin's Sketches of Old Inhabitants.
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