USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 34
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 34
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392
NATHANIEL GRANT MARSHALL
THE PROFESSIONS
over five hundred pages each, a task which must have taken several years to complete. The town owes him a permanent debt of thanks for this gratuitous service. The author as well as countless others who had occasion to seek information from these restored records have been under obligations to him and his descendants, in whose possession they now are, for their generosity in placing his work at their disposal. His historical labors, as exem- plified in his address at the dedication of the Town Hall in 1874, was characterized by accuracy and intelligent presentation with the material then available to him.
These experiences in public life had prepared him for the kind of work agreeable to his tastes and his advice was sought on all matters involving legal and property rights. In this relationship he was equally successful and the last years of his life were spent as an honored member of the Bar. His portrait, painted for the county, hangs in the Court House at Alfred and is here reproduced as an excellent likeness. He died February 17, 1882. He married in 1841 Sophia Baker, daughter of James and Maria (Baker) Bragdon, who was born March 9, 1820, and died March 16, 1879. The Marshall genealogy will appear in Volume III.
JOHN CONANT STEWART
For over fifty years, up to the time of his death on June 4, 1934, the subject of this sketch was the guiding spirit of York history. He also formulated state laws by which we are still governed. Judges and lawyers from all over the State of Maine came to York to seek his counsel and guidance.
John C. Stewart was born June 19, 1850 at Ryegate, Vermont, the son of Duncan and Margaret (Ritchie) Stewart. He received his early training in the public schools of Topsham and Peacham, Vermont, and gradu- ated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1873. He then took up the study of medicine and in 1876 graduated from the Dartmouth Medical School as valedictorian of his class.
Our town of York then became the base around which his activities centered for the rest of his life. His interest here had begun early in his undergraduate days when he taught at intervals in York schools, and later "read medi-
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HISTORY OF YORK
cine" with Dr. Jasper J. Hazen, whose home he inherited. He practised medicine for eleven years, but he also promptly identified himself with business and political interests. He was essentially a pioneer and a town builder, as the long list of his enterprises would reveal, ranging as they did from schoolmaster to bank vice-president; from operator of a stage coach line through railroad construc- tion contractor to directorship of our former local rail- road; from real estate operator and lumber yard proprietor to manufacturer of bricks. Then in 1886 he took up the study of law under Moses Safford of Kittery, and turned his attention to politics and government. In 1890 he was elected to the State Senate and soon his talents as a maker and an interpreter of laws came to be recognized all over the State of Maine. Up to the time of his last illness, the officials of the town of York, as well as the private citizens, sought his counsel in the conduct of important affairs. Surely if any man can rightly be called a "Town Father" that man was John Conant Stewart.
The legal profession is now represented by Arthur E. Sewall, Ralph W. Hawkes and Lester M. Bragdon.
PRACTICE OF MEDICINE
The means of combatting disease in Colonial times were still shrouded in the superstitions and crude con- ceptions of the origin and nature of morbid processes. There was no developed system of medicine practised by educated graduates of medical institutions. Disease was considered to be dependent on various kinds of "humors" and the blood was the medium in which these several malignant poisons were circulated through the system. Hence the philosophy of blood-letting grew to be the sovereign remedy for all kinds of ailments. It had its value in certain plethoric conditions which are recognized today. Phlebotomy could only be performed by a physi- cian and they were not always available in pioneer days, but it is to be recalled that the circulation of the blood as now known was not discovered by Harvey until after the Pilgrims and Puritans were firmly established on this continent. Internal and external medication were char- acterized by the use of almost unbelievable material. Mercury, which has been the centre of objurgation, was a
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.. ..
THE PROFESSIONS
respectable element in the medical saddlebags compared with some of the disgusting ingredients obtained from unmentionable sources. The weird ingenuity of man, aided by the superstitions of old women, endowed the entrails or brains of toads and bats, dried and prepared with strange herbs and chemicals, with healing qualities. For some unknown reason the more repulsive the source the greater the efficacy. The bones of various animals, pulverized and burnt, were mixed into various forms for dispensing in draughts, clysters, boluses and powders. Suffering humanity in the Colonial period was not only at the mercy of neighborhood experimenters but also had to endure in addition to the discomforts of illness the nauseous concoctions devised in ignorance and super- stition. It may be said that recoveries from such assaults on the human system were due to vis medicatrix naturae developed by the hardy pioneer life. It is to be remem- bered that the first medical school in New England (Dartmouth College), founded in 1798, was the earliest opportunity for a trained medical profession in New England. Certain chronic diseases of either surgical or medical character became the subject of contracts for cure between the patient and practitioner and were duly entered in the county records. The town frequently entered into such obligations in the case of the indigent poor as a means of relieving them of the expense of main- tenance. Clergymen were often consulted and frequently gave advice to those afflicted with disease, as it was sup- posed that, being educated men, they had the ability to cope with disease.
Epidemic Smallpox continued to exact its toll up to the beginning of the last century. In the Winter of 1794 twenty-five persons came down with it, most of them living in Scituate Row, just north of the First Church, and three of them died. Dr. Josiah Gilman was one of the first victims and was taken to the Pest House but recov- ered. The Banks house, close by, where the two sisters, Martha (Banks) Hunt, wife of William, and Mary (Banks) Bean, widow of Charles, resided, seemed to be the centre of the infection. Their entire families came down with it and Mrs. Bean died. Vaccination had not yet been intro- duced and pockmarked people were a common sight in the streets.
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HISTORY OF YORK
PHYSICIANS
As related in Chapter XII of this volume the practice of medicine was in a crude state of development in the Colonial era. There were no educated or trained practi- tioners then and the settlers had to lean on the uncertain support of the superstitions of housewives in the use of herbal concoctions interiorly and filthy messes of unspeak- able material externally. This reliance on household reme- dies and old women was still in working order in the next century. When Mehitable Haynes died in 1786 "she was supposed to be a good physician." (Sayward, Diary.) Mention has been made of Francis Raynes undertaking medical work and being fined and reprimanded in 1675 by the Court for his presumption. While Captain Raynes brought to his task an intelligent mind, the opportunity of the wandering charlatan was as good as ever. "A black man commonly counted a portingale" (a Portuguese), called Anthony Lame, plied his trade here in 1672 as a peripatetic "doctor," and as a penalty of his incompe- tency John Gooch, son of the early settler of Gorgeana, paid the price with his life. His widow sued him for mal- practice and in his defense he submitted a certificate of character and skill signed by a number of residents of York. As a curiosity it is here inserted:
Easte Yorke!
These are to sertify whome it doth or may conserne that we the under writen being afflicted in our Bodies by the Good hand of God Mr. Anthony Lame being by pvidence cast among us we did make use of his Skill & judgment & must Acknowledg he was An instrument of Good unto us for our Recovery unto which we the under writen have subscribed our names this 20th August 1672 Edmond Cock John Card Seneyour his IC mark
Samuel Dunell
John Card juneyor
Benjamin Whitney
Thomas Hart
(Sup. Jud. Ct. Mss. 1126)
According to a recognized authority on local family history, Isaac Waldron practised here in 1670 (Savage, Gen. Dictionary, iv, 389), but as he lived in Dover it is probable that he was called here in special cases, as doubt- less was Dr. Francis Morgan, then practising in Kittery. In these ways the medical needs of the town were cared for during this century.
1 At that time this town was often called East York, and later Old York, to dis- tinguish it from New York.
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THE PROFESSIONS
The next one to come here was Dr. Jonathan Crosby, son of Dr. Anthony and Prudence (Wade) Crosby of Rowley, Mass., born in 1665, but when he settled here is not definitely known. He probably married here Mary, daughter of John Dill of this town, and some time after 1732 removed to Dover, where he died. His widow re- turned to York.
In 1727 there came to this town a physician who soon endeared himself to the people. This was Alexander Bul- man of Boston, born in 1702, son of a baker of the same name, by his wife Margaret. He had served here as Surgeon under Col. Thomas Westbrook in the expedition of 1724, and was acquainted with the town and its inhabi- tants. The town in 1727 passed this vote granting him an honorarium :
In Consideration of Dr Allexander Bullmans Settlement in this Town there be raised & freely given unto sd Doctor Bullman the Sum of One hundred Pounds: Provided he gives Security for his Continuance in the Town during Life (T. R. ii, 21).
Dr. Bulman lived where the present home of Herman E. Johnson now stands at York Village, and for eighteen years he served the people. In 1745 the enthusiasm for military glory led him to volunteer for the Louisburg Campaign under the command of his good friend Colonel Pepperrell. There he died of a "fever," sincerely mourned, not only here but elsewhere. In a letter dated September 21, 1745, soon after the news of his death had reached him, Rev. Benjamin Colman, a leading clergyman of Boston, wrote this about him to Pepperrell:
Mr. Jones of this town is arrived this morning & brings us the sorrowful news of the death of Dr. Bulman. His dear & lovely spouse spent the day with us this week & is returned home. Our hearts bleed for her when the evil tydings reach her. My spouse is very sensible of your own great affliction by his bedside & at his funeral. (6 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. x, 373.)
His widow, who was Hannah Swett, sister of Dr. John Swett of this town, married for a second husband Rev. Thomas Prentiss of Arundel and died in 1792. (Sayward, Diary.)
Another physician was colleague of Dr. Bulman during this period, Dr. David Bennett, of Rowley, who came here in 1736, as a young man of twenty-two years and
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HISTORY OF YORK
married Alice, daughter of Col. Nathaniel Donnell. He was practising here in 1748, but how much longer is not known. His sons John and David lived here and Nathaniel settled in Sanford.
Early in 1746 the town voted to give Dr. Henry Burchstead of Lynn " an Invitation to Settle in this Town" (T. R. ii, 209), but there is nothing to indicate that he accepted. The next to come was Samuel White of Glouces- ter, a nephew, by marriage, of Rev. Joseph Moody, who had married his aunt, Lucy White. He was born in 1725 and graduated in the class of 1741 at Harvard. He taught school and practised medicine here for some years, but removed to Saco where he died about 1758 of consump- tion (Folsom).
Dr. John Swett came here about 1747 from Hampton, N. H., the son of Joseph Swett and his wife Hannah Say- ward. He was born in 1719, married Sarah Plaistead of this town November 15, 1747, and for forty-three years practised his profession, until his death. In noticing his decease in his diary, Jonathan Sayward paid this tribute to his friend :
Doctor John Swett, Esq. commonly Called Doctor, being a noted Physician, died of the influenza, aged 70 years Will be greatly missed For many years he hathe been improved as Selectman or representative & Justice of the Peace & Special Judge of the Com- mon Pleas A Good Christian He was reserved consequently not popular.
Dr. John Whitney was located in town from 1749 to 1757, and possibly longer. The name of Dr. Thomas Monroe occurs in the local records 1754 to 1758, but whether settled here is doubtful. In 1759 however occurs the name of Dr. Job Lyman, brought here by the influence of his brother Rev. Isaac, who had been ordained in 1749 as pastor of the First Church. Dr. Job was born in 1736 in Northampton, Mass., was in the class of 1756 at Yale, and doubtless came here soon after graduation. Here he married, raised a dozen children and practised over thirty years. He died in 1791 and his gravestone states that he was "eminent as a physician, beloved and respected as a father and friend." A distinguished progeny, including a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, and descendants in the female line, still living in this town, take worthy pride in honoring his memory.
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THE PROFESSIONS
Dr. William Lyman, son of Dr. Job, born in 1767, followed in his footsteps, after his father's death, and practised here until his death in 1822. "Dr." Samuel Milberry is mentioned in 1763-64 in the local records, but identification is not certain. Samuel Milberry (1696- 1777), an Elder in the church, may have practised medi- cine, or it may have been his son Samuel, born in 1724, but there is nothing to give satisfactory confirmation.
In 1828 Dr. William S. Baker was practising in the town.
Contemporary with him, Dr. Josiah Gilman served the town for many years. He first appears in the census of 1800, but he probably came some years earlier, and was in active professional work till 1830, during which time he enjoyed an extensive practice. His "Day Book," now in the Old Gaol, shows that he answered 17,200 calls from 1803 to 1813, an average of about five a day. Then a country doctor had to work for his living, as his fees were only twenty-five cents for a visit in the village. In obstet- rical cases his accounts show that he charged three dollars for delivering a male child and two dollars for a female, though this differentiation in price has no confirmation in medical experience to favor a lower tariff for girls. He died April 30, 1839, aged seventy-three years.
Later members of the profession to settle here in the last century include Dr. Jeremiah S. Putnam, who came about 1840 from Danvers, Mass., and Dr. Caleb Eastman about 1835 from Conway, N. H. Dr. Eastman's charges are interesting in comparison with Dr. Gilman's sixty years before. In 1868 he charged two dollars for delivering a prominent resident of York, now living, who thinks that amount may represent what he was considered to be worth at the time. In 1870 it cost his parents four dollars for bringing his brother into the world, a jump in price that is not explained by the increased cost of living. Village visits were then fifty cents and a fractured collar bone brought one dollar to the doctor's credit.
Dr. Edgar A. McIntire, son of Alexander, was prac- tising here in 1850, but how long he continued is unknown. Following him came Charles Trafton, Christopher P. Gerrish, a native of Lebanon, Maine; Jasper Jared Hazen, a surgeon in the Army during the Civil War and a native of Cabot, Vermont, coming in 1867; Wilson L. Hawkes
399
HISTORY OF YORK
of Windham, Maine, in 1872; John Conant Stewart from Ryegate, Vermont, in 1876; Frank W. Smith from Gray, Maine, in 1889; Edward Chase Cook from Vassalboro, Maine, in 1895; Charles H. Harmon.
HUGH HOLMAN HOUSE (Residence of Dr. Caleb Eastman.)
PUBLIC HEALTH
A town is morally obligated to take measures to pre- vent the spread of contagious diseases, as a matter of self protection, but precious little action was ever taken here in the early centuries. In 1752 the town voted to "provide a Pest House by hiring," or to build one if none could be hired. Probably there was a smallpox scare at the time as that was the only "epidemicall disease" they were concerned with in safeguarding the public in an era when inoculation was succeeded by vaccination as a pre- ventive. Probably there was no house to be rented for the purpose, and there is no record of a further vote to build one. So they continued to hang out a red flag on the house of the victim and leave the other inmates to survive the infection, if they were fortunate. Pockmarked immunes were usually ready to attend to the sufferers as an act of neighborly charity. The dead were buried in some isolated field.
400
THE PROFESSIONS
The progress of knowledge of disease and the prompt- ings of a higher civilization, since those dreary days of ignorance and superstition, have now found expression in providing means for caring for sufferers from all diseases, zymotic or incommunicable, where they can be treated under attractive conditions. The town now has a modern, finely equipped hospital, which opened its doors to the public in 1906, and has been in successful operation ever since. It was incorporated September 17, 1904, under the laws of Maine, by Wilson L. Hawkes, Jasper J. Hazen, Frank W. Smith, Edward C. Cook, Seabury W. Allen, Elijah H. Siter and Louis F. Bishop, all medical prac- titioners, who became its first trustees. Albert M. Bragdon was Clerk of the Corporation.
The late Mrs. Newton Perkins led public interest in providing means for its housing and maintenance, and at a Japanese Garden Fête in 1905 her enterprise drew as distinguished guests and patrons two of that nation's envoys to the Russo-Japanese Peace Conference, then in session at Portsmouth, Baron Komura and Count Taka- hira. Each of them gave his check for five hundred dollars towards the building fund and Count Serge Witte, the Russian Envoy sent two hundred dollars for the same purpose. Six thousand dollars was the result of this profit- able beginning, and with it and other donations the David- son estate was purchased at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars and a nurses' home added to the plant. In addition to income from pay patients the hospital is the recipient of yearly appropriations from the State and town, as well as gifts from private sources. About half its service is free to the public. The late Jeremiah McIntire left twenty thousand dollars to the hospital by his will.
"The Marianna Bryan Lathrop Memorial District Nurse" foundation was established by Mrs. Thomas Nelson Page as a memorial to her mother. The fund is an important adjunct to the hospital, but is not officially connected with it. It is administered by trustees, and the income is used to provide the services of the District Nurse.
CIVIL ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS
In the seventeenth century, among the inhabitants of the town, there were "surveyors of lots" and "lot layers,"
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HISTORY OF YORK
usually elected to fill that important function. From the records of grants by the Selectmen for the first hundred years and in the divisions of the "Commons" it is evident that these persons were usually kept busy. It is not sup- posed that they were trained surveyors, in the modern sense, or that they used the theodolite in their rough surveys of lots. With a compass and chain they staked out land and blazed trees as marks. They were probably innocent of any knowledge of variations of the magnetic needle. We are indebted to them for naming "the stump of an old oak tree" or an "elderberry bush " as the corner bounds of lots.
EDWARD WOLCOTT
This man was not only our first recorded school teacher but also our first surveyor; a plan of his work in 1678 is on file in the town books (T. R. i, 222), signed as "Sur- veyor."
ABRAHAM3 PREBLE
One of the first of these "surveyors," who can be iden- tified as working with some degree of intelligence, was drawn from a family which has served York in many capacities with general acceptance. Abraham Preble (1673-1723) inherited the mechanical vocation of his ancestors in the use of tools of the carpenter's trade and thus was easily able to apply his skill in adapting it to measurements and the drawing of plans from the terms of land grants.
SAMUEL SEWALL, SR.
He came to York about 1712 and is called a "Sur- veyor" in 1723.
SAMUEL SEWALL, JR.
It is probable that this locally famous builder of the historic pile bridge (born 1724) was our first civil engineer according to the requirements of the modern profession. He was a mechanical genius and while there are no records to substantiate this inference it seems reasonable that surveying was a part of his professional work. Personal details of his career have appeared in the chapter on "Ferries and Bridges" to which the reader is referred.
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THE PROFESSIONS
JEREMIAH MOULTON
This famous citizen (1688-1765) was engaged in sur- veying work as early as 1719, and continued it until he began his long official career, a few years later.
ALEXANDER MCINTIRE
He was born in 1709, is called a surveyor in 1737 and is on record as such in 1748, but probably continued in this work much longer.
DANIEL SEWALL
He was the son of Henry and Abigail (Titcomb) Sewall, born March 28, 1755, in York, and served in a number of official capacities in the County. He was Register of Probate 1783 to 1820; Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, 1792, and Clerk of the Supreme Court to 1820. He was also Postmaster of York from 1792 to 1806 and in 1815 he removed to Kennebunk where he died. He held town office.
Evidence of his fine professional work may be seen in the beautiful map of the town prepared in 1794 for the Selectmen, in compliance with an order of the General Court requiring accurate surveys and maps of each town in the Commonwealth to be filed with the Secretary of State. It is partly in color and has many residences and other points of local interest marked. Among others is the name "Gallow's Neck" applied to the present location of the Marshall House. Mr. Sewall continued his work until his death.
SAMUEL W. JUNKINS
He was the son of Washington and Catherine (Brag- don) Junkins, born in 1841 in this town. With his brother, Charles H., he conducted a grocery store at York Corner and established the post-office there. By 1878 he had become an extensive owner of real estate and one of the foremost promoters of York as a summer resort. These interests led him into the vocation of surveying and con- veyancing and also into extensive practice connected with the probate court. It is in connection with these later interests that he will best be remembered by our oldest citizens. A public servant and a family counsellor in inti- mate business affairs.
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HISTORY OF YORK
ANGEVINE W. GOWEN
It seems unnecessary to introduce formally the best known modern representative of the engineering profes- sion. He is a descendant of a branch of the Kittery family of Gowens which did not settle here until the middle of the eighteenth century when Abel Moulton of Cider Hill married the widow of Lemuel Gowen, December 22, 1748, and brought her Gowen children to York. One of these children was the ancestor of the subject of this sketch.
Angevine W. Gowen was born in 1869, in the house on Gorges Neck which has been his home and workshop all his life. His parents died when he was a boy and he was brought up by his mother's sister, Miss Julia M. Gowen, with whom he resided until her death in 1930, as well as with his Uncle Joseph Gowen. His birthplace was on the home lot of his maternal ancestor, Thomas Moulton, and the house was built by Joseph Moulton, grandson of the emigrant. It still stands a monument to the workmanship of the period and is almost in its original state.
He learned his profession under the instruction of Samuel W. Junkins, beginning as a rod and chain man and engaged in business for himself in 1890 after attaining his majority. Probably he has surveyed "every inch" of
YORK'S CIVIL ENGINEER AT WORK (Bald Head Cliff)
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THE PROFESSIONS
the town in the course of forty years. In the pursuit of his tasks he has acquired a wide and deep knowledge of the civil and family history of York which has been generously placed at the disposal of the author of this work. Formal acknowledgment of this debt of the author is elsewhere made. The citizens also owe him special acknowledgment for the plans of the home lots of the settlers which are a special feature of this history.
AUTHORS
York has been a favorite subject of many writers of prose and poetry in the past, not natives of the town, but it has not been the birthplace of any literary light of the first magnitude. The bibliography of this town is rather complimentary in its extent, showing the attach- ment of its friends who have become its admirers as a secondary home in the restful months of Summer.
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