USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 28
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1878-80 ; Dr. George L. Tobey, 1879-80 ; Dr. Charles Sumner Pratt, for many years from 1880.
Lunenburg's first medical man was Dr. John Taylor; and several of the early Lunenburg physicians have been referred to as of Fitchburg. Dr. John Dunsmoor succeeded Dr. Taylor. Later physicians were: Drs. Abra- ham Haskell, Aaron Bard, Otis Abercrombie, C. C. Topliff, E. C. Merriam, and S. D. King.
Various annalists of the past have been careful to draw attention to the number of physicians in Leicester, and their many-faceted abilities. Rev. Thomas Green, already indicated as minister and doctor, was the earliest of his professions in Leicester and had a medical clientele that extended beyond the bounds of the State. He was also a teacher of physicians. Pliny Lawton, school teacher in 1748-49, was thereafter called doctor to the time of his death in 1761, of smallpox. His estate consisting of "an hour-glass, a pillion, and a medical library, was appraised at £2. 4s. 6d." Dr. John Honeywood, was a well trained surgeon who met his death in the Revolutionary armies ; Dr. Solomon Parsons, school teacher, 1751, is believed to have been an army surgeon, 1761 ; Drs. Isaac Green, Absalom Russell, and perhaps Dr. Austin Flint, were Revolutionary Army surgeons. The names Green and Flint loom large in local medical history ; Austin Flint succeeding Thomas Green as the chief medical man in Leicester. The Flint line of doctors includes three generations of the same name Austin, and Edward, and others of later note. The first Austin is reputed to have attended, prior to 1850, 1,750 cases of childbirth. Other Leicester medical names of the nineteenth century are Edward Rawson, Robert Craige, Thaddeus Brown, Thomas Hersey, Jere- miah Larned. Of later years were Drs. Ames Walbridge, Jacob Holmes, Rev. Isaac Worcester, C. D. Whitcomb, James P. C. Cummings, E. A. Daggett, John P. Scribner, O. O. Warner, Fred G. Gifford, Charles H. Warner, Charles G. Stearns, Leonard Atkinson, the most of the last half dozen being graduates of the Harvard Medical School.
Of Leominster, Dr. David Wilder wrote in 1852 a highly valued history. He tells that a Dr. Howard owned a place in the early settlement which later passed to the first minister, Rev. John Rogers, but acclaims Dr. Jacob Pea- body, who came in 1746, as the first local physician. This good doctor, how- ever, only lived until 1759. Dr. Thomas Gowing succeeded Jacob Peabody, and practiced with great success until 1800. In 1790 Dr. Silas Allen began to practice; he lived in Leominster until his death in 1840. Dr. Ebenezer Learned practiced for a few years, from 1792, and in 1799 Dr. Daniel Adams came, but for the first fifty years after the settlement of Leominster,
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the town could support only one physician. About the year 1817, however, Leominster realized that it had many physicians. There were Drs. Richard Ransom Smith and his son; Abraham Haskell, Sr., Charles W. Wilder, Dr. Silas Allen, Dr. David Wilder, and Dr. Jerome Van Crowningshield, more than sufficient it would seem. Other Leominster physicians in practice up to the year 1850 include Drs. Albert Smith, Thomas R. Boutelle, Caleb C. Field, John Heard, and George W. Pierce. Physicians of a later generation include: Dr. Charles A. Wheeler, who began to practice in Leominster in 1864, after Civil War service; Dr. Henry R. Brown, in homeopathic practice from 1869; Dr. H. P. Hall, from 1876; Dr. C. E. Bigelow, from 1882; Dr. Edward J. Cutter, from 1882. At least one Leominster physician comes very prominently into educational history, Dr. Daniel Adams, who was in medical practice in Leominster from 1799 to 1806. He compiled many school text- books.
Medical history in Worcester County furnishes an unusual number of instances of families who have supplied medical men to the third and fourth generations, such as the Greens, Flints, Wilders and others. In addition to the Wilders just named in Leominster, it may be noted that one of this family was among the founders of Ashburnham, and that Dr. Abel Wilder practiced in Blackstone prior to his death in 1798. Two sons of Rev. Dr. Thomas Green, M. D., of Leicester, by name Thomas and Daniel, were early physicians of Auburn. Edward Flint has been named as "the most eminent physician of Leicester," together with his son and grandson. John Flint practiced in Petersham to his death in 1809, and was succeeded by Dr. Joseph Henshaw Flint, one of the leading practitioners of the Connecticut Valley, and the father of Dr. Austin Flint, one of the originating professors of the University of Buffalo, and also of the Long Island Hospital, New York, a sometime professor in the Bellevue Hospital College of New York City, and a Fellow, member and high officer in national and international medical associations. The Lindsey family of Dana included several and long-lived medical men. The Chenerys of Holden are worthy of note. The town of Douglas was founded by a physician, William Douglas, whose descendants followed in his footsteps professionally. Hubbardston's first century in medical history is covered in the lives of Dr. Moses Phelps and his son of the same name. The Allens of Princeton, Sturbridge, and other Worcester towns, the Bachellers, Dr. Stephen, the pioneer of Royalston, and Dr. Stephen, Jr., of wider fame, the Whites, Maccarty's, Bigelows, Browns, Knights, Boylstons, Thayers, and probably many more, were from families of which two or more members were sterling physicians in one or several of the Worcester County towns, or left this section for other fields of practice.
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The history of Gardner's former physicians dates to Dr. Joseph Boyden, son-in-law of the redoubtable Seth Heywood, the first doctor in Gardner and practiced until 1791. He was followed by Rev. Jonathan Osgood who was both minister and medical practitioner. He came from Tamworth, in 1791, and was eminently successful until his removal elsewhere thirty years later. The third physician of the town was a Dr. Howard, of short stay. In 1822 Horace Parker, M. D., of Westford, came to Gardner, but because of ill health turned over his practice to his brother, Dr. David Parker, in 1829. Dr. David Parker won a very large clientele and strongly influenced the development of the town for nearly sixty years. The Gardner physicians of the next half-century include Drs. Carpenter, Jewett, Harriman, Warner, Whittier, Sanborn, and Sawyer. Dr. Jonathan Osgood was president of the Worcester District Medical Society in 1814-20. Dr. David Parker practiced in Gardner for almost sixty years. Dr. Nathan S. Lincoln, who was born in Gardner, attained distinction in practice in Washington, District of Columbia, in the years following the Civil War. Dr. Edward J. Sawyer was one of the founders of the Worcester North District Medical Society in 1858.
Although Fitchburg, as a separate, dates only from 1864, according to one of its historians, himself a medical man, one Dr. Thaddeus Maccarty was its first physician. This worthy doctor made history when, in 1776, he opened the first inoculation (smallpox) hospital authorized in Worcester County. It already has been indicated that smallpox epidemics were among the many difficulties which menaced the Revolution. The disease ravaged Boston and the headquarters of Washington's Army about Cambridge. In fleeing the evil, people scattered the disease to all quarters of the Colony. In 1775 Maccarty went to Great Barrington to study the nature of smallpox under Dr. James Latham, Englishman, and also the so-called "Sutton Method" of treating it. In August, 1776, he was authorized by the Court of Sessions to build a hospital at Fitchburg, but it required also the permission of the town meeting before such a place could be erected. In September, 1776, Fitchburg "allowed a hospital for the Anocalation for the Small Pox." Apparently no other town "allowed" similar hospitals at this time. Dr. Maccarty and his colleague, Dr. Israel Atherton, of Lancaster, were eminently successful for the larger part of two years, treating eight hundred patients of whom but five died. Thaddeus Maccarty went to Worcester to practice, in 1781.
Dr. Thomas R. Boutelle, graduate of Yale Medical School in 1813, was the next Fitchburg doctor to achieve prominence, but more for his Revolu- tionary War services. Dr. Alfred Hitchcock, graduate of both the Dart- mouth and Jefferson Medical colleges, settled in Ashby, in 1837, and in Fitchburg in 1850, where he practiced to his death in 1874. He is ranked as
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the peer of his time in medicine and surgery of all his colleagues in this sec- tion of Worcester County, a man prominent in public affairs and education, a physician who devoted the best of his energies and knowledge to the treat- ment of wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Atherton P. Mason, A. B., and M. D. (both of Harvard), in his History of Fitchburg lists as the physi- cians of the past century of the town and city : Successors to Dr. Maccarty were: Dr. Jonas Marshall, in the early 1780's, and Dr. Peter Snow who became established medically in 1782 and practiced for forty years. The latter's son, Peter S. Snow, also practiced from 1815 to 1831, but was a resident of Fitchburg until his death in 1884. Dr. Marshall was also a physi- cian for four decades. Aside from Dr. Boutelle and Dr. Alfred Hitchcock, Atherton P. Mason names in order: Dr. Thaddeus Maccarty; Dr. Jonas Marshall; Dr. Peter Snow; Dr. Peter S. Snow, Jr .; Dr. Jonas A. Marshall ; Dr. Thomas R. Boutelle ; Dr. Alfred Hitchcock ; also Dr. Alfred Miller began practice in Ashburton in 1845 and in 1863 he removed to Fitchburg.
Members of the Massachusetts Medical Society : Dr. Levi Pillsbury, who settled here May 1, 1844; Dr. George Jewett practiced in Templeton and Gardner, and came to Fitchburg in 1858. He was surgeon in the army, and from 1864 to 1886 was examining surgeon for pensions. Dr. George D. Colony began practice at Athol and removed to Fitchburg in May, 1861. Dr. Austin W. Sidney began practice as an eclectic physician in Sterling in 1860, came to Fitchburg in 1866. Dr. Charles H. Rice graduate of the Harvard and Dartmouth Medical schools, settled in Fitchburg in 1866. Dr. Frederick H. Thompson settled in Lancaster ; removed to Fitchburg in May, 1874; was city physician in 1877. Dr. Dwight S. Woodworth practiced in Fitchburg from 1876; was city physician 1879-81, and 1884-86; was medical director of the Massachusetts Mutual Aid Society for some years. Dr. Ernest P. Miller, son of Dr. Alfred Miller, graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1876, and practiced in Fitchburg. Dr. Herbert H. Lyons settled in Fitchburg in 1881. Dr. Atherton P. Mason, a native of Fitchburg, graduated at Har- vard College in 1879 and at the Harvard Medical School in 1882; began practice in Fitchburg in March, 1884. Drs. John D. Kielty; Clarence W. Spring ; Eustace L. Fiske ; Emerson A. Ludden; Henry W. Pierson.
The Homeopathic Physicians: Dr. Daniel B. Whittier ; Dr. Hollis K. Bennett; Dr. Ellen L. Eastman; Dr. J. Everett Luscombe; Dr. Oliver L. Bradford ; Dr. Hubbard H. Brigham, eclectic.
Worcester as the shire-town and the largest city of the county, stands out prominently in the annals of medicine of this part of the Commonwealth. Very little research work has been done since Dr. Samuel B. Woodward pub- lished his Medical History in 1888, as a chapter in a larger work. It has
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been the base of practically all chapters on physicians and their activities, since, and here again must be summarized from other compact condensations. It would seem that Worcester had no settled physician until 1718, and Robert Crawford. Dr. Zachariah Harvey was in Worcester as early as 1736, but also was in Shrewsbury in 1740, in Princeton from 1750 on, and may have served several towns, including Worcester over a long period. There was also a Dr. Ebenezer Whitney, who died in 1743; but the name of Dr. Nahum Willard stands out as a resident physician of the town from 1744 to 1774-75. He remained loyal to the British King when revolution broke out in Massa- chusetts, and was listed as one of the public enemies of Massachusetts. He did not become a permanent exile, however, and died in Uxbridge in 1792.
One must refer once more to the famous Dr. Thomas Green, first minister and doctor of Leicester. Dr. John Green, had a son, John Green, Jr., born in 1763, who started practicing medicine in Worcester in 1781, and continued for twenty-seven years. His son, John, also started his medical career in Worcester. From 1807 he was prominent as a practitioner and public- spirited citizen for almost half a century. The "Green Reference Library" keeps his name remembered even by those who have forgotten that he was "the leading Worcester County physician of his time." Dr. Joseph Lyne and Dr. Elijah Dix, his brother-in-law, were medical partners from 1775 to the year of the establishment of the United States. Dr. Thaddeus Maccarty, already named in connection with Fitchburg practiced in Worcester from 1781 to 1789.
Dr. Samuel Breck, a Harvard graduate, was in medical practice in Worcester from 1745 to 1747. Dr. William Crawford, a native of Worces- ter, born in 1726, was successively a school teacher, chaplain, and army sur- geon. He may have practiced in Worcester from about 1760 to 1770. Dr. John Green, son of Dr. Thomas Green, who was the pioneer minister and physician of Leicester, took up residence on the Green Hill estate in Worces- ter in 1757. Dr. John Green died in Worcester in 1799. Dr. Elijah Dix, a student under Dr. Green, practiced from 1770 to 1795. He was a druggist as well. He was a member on the first board of councillors of the County Medical Society ; he was the first to plant elms on Main Street. Dr. William Paine (Harvard, 1768), came to Worcester to practice in 1772, and in that year opened a drug store, the first in the county. Although a native of Worcester, he was banished from his own town and county as a Royalist. He returned to England, and in November, 1775, received appointment as surgeon in the British Army. In this capacity he again came to America, and by 1782 had risen to the status of Surgeon-General of the King's Forces in America. The act of banishment being rescinded in 1787, he at once
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returned to Massachusetts, and lived with his father in Salem until the death of the latter in 1793, when he took possession of the parental estate, "The Oaks," on Lincoln Street, Worcester, which property is now owned by the Col. Timothy Bigelow Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion. Dr. Paine practiced for forty years in Worcester. He died in Worces- ter in 1833, where he was one of the founders of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, and was its vice-president from 1813 to 1816.
Dr. Samuel Prentiss, an army surgeon, began to practice in Worcester in 1783, but moved to Northfield in 1786. Dr. Oliver Fiske was born in Brook- field in 1762, and took up the study of medicine under Dr. Atherton, of Lancaster. In 1790 he began to practice in Worcester, retiring in 1822. He was one of the founders of the Worcester Medical Society in 1794, and also of the succeeding society, the Worcester District Medical Society in 1804, being elected the first president of the latter. Dr. Fiske was at one time in partnership with Dr. Elijah Dix, who kept a drug store; its range was evi- dently wide, for, under Dr. Fiske's name, grass seed was advertised in the Aegis of April 14, 1802.
Among other early physicians of Worcester were: Drs. Charles Wheeler ; John Fisk, who died in Worcester in 1756; Thomas Nichols, who died in Worcester in 1794, after twenty-six years of practice in the town; Joseph Walker, who died in 1781 ; George H. Hall, who died in 1807. Dr. Benja- min Chapin, born in Worcester in 1781, began medical practice in Marl- borough, but came to Worcester in 1808, and practiced there until his death in 1835. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Heywood, son of Judge Benjamin Hey- wood, was born in Worcester in 1792, graduated in medicine at Yale in 1815, and was a partner of Dr. John Green for twenty years. He practiced for fifty years and died in 1869. Dr. O. H. Blood, of Sterling, practiced as a physician for a few years, but from 1831 to 1858 he was a dentist. Dr. John S. Butler began to practice in Worcester in 1829, and early began to spe- cialize in mental diseases. For nearly thirty years, 1843-73, he was superin- tendent of the Hartford Retreat, and for some years was president of the Association of Superintendents of American Insane Asylums. Dr. George Chandler came to Worcester in 1831 and in 1833 became assistant to Dr. S. B. Woodward at the Lunatic Hospital. In 1846 he became superintendent of Worcester Hospital, and held the post for ten years. Dr. John Park lived in Worcester for twenty-one years, 1831-52. He had been for ten years a ship surgeon, and for twenty years had managed a school for girls in Boston. Dr. Samuel B. Woodward was in practice in Connecticut for twenty-four years before coming to Worcester, in 1833, as superintendent of the lunatic asylum opened in that year. He held the post for fourteen years, then resigned
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because of sickness. He was one of the leading American authorities on the treatment of the insane; was the founder of the Association of Insane Asylum Superintendents and its first president.
Physicians who began to practice in Worcester in the 'thirties of the last century include : Drs. Aaron G. Babcock, William Workman, Joan A. Andrews, and Chandler Smith. Dr. Babcock developed a very good drug store business. Dr. Workman came to Worcester in 1835 and practiced steadily until 1869. Although sixty-four years old when the need arose, he went to the front during the Civil War. Dr. Andrews, who opened an office in Worcester in 1836, practiced in the city for more than fifty years. Dr. Smith was in Princeton for ten years, from 1825, afterwards coming to Worcester, where he died in 1843. He was town physician for four years. Worcester physicians of the 'forties include Drs. Joseph Sargent, Calvin Newton, Benjamin Heywood, Rufus Woodward, Samuel F. Green, Samuel Flagg, R. L. Hawes, Armet B. Deland, Henry Sargent, Pierre B. Migault, and Merrick Bemis. Dr. Joseph Sargent began to practice in Worcester in 1840. He was president of the Worcester District Medical Society in 1864- 1866, and founded the Worcester Medical Improvement Society. Dr. New- ton, who began to practice in Worcester in 1840, died in 1853, "worn out in the attempt to raise the standard of practice of eclectic or botanic physicians. He did much writing, edited some professional journals, was professor of pathology and president of the Worcester Medical Institution, and in 1852 was president of the National Eclectic Medical Society." Dr. Heywood, a native of Worcester, practiced from 1845 to 1860. Dr. Rufus Woodward came to Worcester with his father, Dr. Samuel B., in 1833. He was gradu- ated in 1845 from Harvard Medical School and decided to specialize in mental diseases, but the death of his father in 1850 changed his plans, and he began general practice in Worcester. Dr. Samuel F. Green, a grandson of the first Dr. John Green, was born in Worcester in 1822. For twenty years he was a medical missionary in Ceylon, and he translated from the English into the Tamil language a complete set of standard western works on medi- cine. In all, his labors produced 3,600 pages, many of the works becoming standard in India. The British Government financially assisted in the com- pilation. Dr. Green died in Worcester in 1884. Dr. George A. Bates, a native of Barre, practiced in Worcester for thirty-five years between 1845 and 1885. Dr. Samuel Flagg was in Worcester practice for the period 1845-61, when he went into military service. Dr. Deland, of Brookfield, practiced in Worcester for forty-three years from 1846. Dr. Migault, born in Canada, after graduating from Harvard Medical School, began to practice in Boston in 1846. Two years later he settled in Worcester, where he became
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widely known as the "French Doctor." He returned to Canada in 1871. For almost twenty-five years from 1848 Dr. Merrick Bemis was connected with the Lunatic Hospital in Worcester, and was superintendent from 1856 to 1871. Dr. Oramel Martin was in Worcester practice for about forty years, from 1850; earlier he was of North Brookfield and New Braintree. Dr. Dean Towne was in Worcester practice for perhaps twenty years, from 1850. Dr. Henry Clarke, from 1851, was one of the brilliant physicians of Worcester.
Dr. Seth Rogers was a hydropathist, and was in general practice for a short time from 1857. Dr. F. H. Keeley, Mayor of Worcester in 1879-80, was in Worcester practice from 1852 to 1883. Dr. John E. Hathaway prac- ticed for eight years or so from 1852; he died in 1861. Dr. J. Marcus Rice, a native of Milford, began his long practice in Worcester in 1854. He held city or State appointments almost continuously for thirty years. Dr. Frank H. Rice was in Worcester from 1855 to 1871. Dr. Joseph N. Bates, after twenty-five years of practice in Barre, came to Worcester in 1856, and prac- ticed until his death in 1883. Dr. Thomas Hovey Gage (Harvard, 1852), in 1856 became assistant physician at the State Lunatic Hospital in Worcester, and the next year he entered into private practice at the county seat, continu- ing within a few years of his death in 1909. One biographer stated that Dr. Gage "was among the foremost surgeons and physicians of the State." He belonged to several leading professional bodies, and in 1886-88 was president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Earlier (1872-74), he had been presi- dent of the Worcester District Medical Society. For twenty-eight years he was a trustee of the State Insane Hospital; for sixteen years he was on the visiting and consulting staffs of the Worcester City Hospital, and he held like capacity for many years at the Memorial Hospital; he was a trustee of both hospitals for many years, and had important part in establishing the Memo- rial. Dr. Anson Hobart, came to Worcester in 1858 from Southborough. Dr. Samuel F. Haven was a Worcester physician for a few years before entering upon military service in 1861. Dr. Peter E. Hubon, Irish-born, was the first of that nationality to enter medical practice in Worcester. He opened office in 1859, and was city physician in 1861. From 1865 until his death in 1880, he practiced in Worcester. Dr. Albert Wood began his practice at the close of the Civil War, and settled in Worcester, where he practiced for the remainder of his life. Dr. George E. Francis, a Civil War surgeon, came to Worcester in 1865. Dr. Emerson Warner practiced in Shrewsbury for three years before coming to Worcester in 1886. He was surgeon of the City Hospital for two decades, and took a leading part in civic and political work. Dr. John G. Park, an assistant surgeon during the Civil War, settled in
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Worcester in 1867. He specialized in the treatment of the insane, and was identified with several institutions for the insane.
At the present writing there are more than six hundred physicians and surgeons in Worcester County, of whom about a third are located in the county seat. Nearly seventy per cent. of these medical men are members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and an even larger proportion are mem- bers of some medical organization. The Massachusetts Medical Society, incorporated in 1781, is the oldest State organization of its kind having an unbroken record. It was founded to "safeguard the inhabitants of the State from untrained and ignorant practitioners and quacks," and its membership was limited, during the first two decades, to seventy fellows. Several Worces- ter County doctors have already been mentioned as among this select group. In 1803 the charter of the society was made more democratic, and any repu- table physician since then has been eligible to membership. In this same year, the society voted to divide the Commonwealth, as regards its membership, into four districts, Middle, Southern, Eastern and Western. The Western District consisted of Worcester, Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin and Berk- shire counties. Such was the occasion of the rise of district medical societies as branches or affiliates of the State organization.
Dr. Thomas Hovey Gage of Worcester was the first medical man from the county to become president of the State Society. He served in office during 1886-88. Dr. Edwin Bayard Harvey of Westborough was president, 1898-1900; Dr. George Ebenezer Francis of Worcester, 1902-04, and Dr. Samuel Bayard Woodward of Worcester are three other county men who have held this high place. Dr. Abraham Haskell of Leominster was the first from the county to be elected a Massachusetts Medical Society official, he being chosen vice-president, serving from 1825-27. Drs. Stephen Bacheller of Royalston, 1840-42 ; Edward Flint of Leicester, 1846-48; Joseph Stone of Hardwick, 1848-49; Thomas Richardson Boutelle of Fitchburg, 1857-59; John George Metcalf of Mendon, 1859-62; Joseph Sargent of Worcester, 1874-76; Thomas Hovey Gage of Worcester, 1881-82; Ira Russell of Winchendon, 1883-84; George Jewett of Fitchburg, 1888-89; George Dan- forth Colony of Fitchburg, 1890-91 ; Albert Wood, of Worcester, 1896-97; Frederick Henry Thompson of Fitchburg, 1905-06; Leonard Wheeler of Worcester, 1906-07; Samuel Baird Woodward of Worcester, 1914-15; are others from the county who have been vice-presidents. The other officers of the Massachusetts Medical Society, serve in clerical capacities and come chiefly from Boston.
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