Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 42

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 42

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Arthur A. Shaw was born in Etna, Me., in 1864, graduated from the Maine Central Institute in 1887, studied with Dr. T. M. Griffin, of Pittsfield, Me., for one year, and then went to Bowdoin College, gradu- ating in 1891. In August of the same year he began to practice in Clinton.

Herbert F. Shaw graduated in medicine from the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1883, and settled the same year in Mt. Vernon.

Charles P. Small, son of Rev. A. K. P. Small, D. D., was born in 1863, graduated from Colby University in 1886, and three years later from the Maine State Medical School. He spent one year in the Maine General Hospital at Portland, and one year as second assistant surgeon at the National Home at Togus. In September, 1891, he be- gan practice in Waterville, and a year later removed to Chicago.

Issachar Snell was born in Bridgewater, Mass., April 16, 1775. He

Albion P.Snow M. D.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

graduated from Harvard University in 1797, studied medicine with Dr. E. Wales, of Randolph, and surgery with the celebrated Dr. Na- thaniel Miller, of Franklin, and settled in his native town in 1800, where he continued to practice until 1805, when he removed to Augusta. In the spring of the next year he removed to Winthrop. He cultivated a farm in Winthrop, and after his removal to Augusta in 1828, where he engaged in the active practice of his profession, he tilled the soil as a recreation. His specialty was surgery, in which his skill gave him an extended reputation and practice. Doctor Snell was instantly killed by an accidental overturning of his sulky Octo- ber 14, 1847, at the age of seventy-four years.

ALBION PARRIS SNOW, son of Abiezer and Sally (Purinton) Snow, was born in Brunswick, Me., March 14, 1826. His mother died when he was five years old, leaving five children, of whom he has been the only survivor for forty years. His father married a second wife, and they had six children, four of whom were born within one year-a son December 25, 1833, and three more sons December 21, 1834, two of whom lived to manhood, the other dying when he was sixteen days old. With so large a family to be provided for from the products of a small farm, the subject of this sketch, at fourteen years of age, de- termined to leave home and care for himself. By working on a farm in summer, and doing chores in winter, he was able to earn board and clothing, and get one or two terms of schooling a year in a pri- vate academy. At eighteen he was asked to teach a district school, which had the reputation of being difficult to manage. His success in this school made his services sought for in similar schools in other places, so that he never had occasion to seek a situation, although he continued to teach one or two terms a year for several years. As a teacher he was from the first a strong advocate of school discipline, without corporal punishment; and he very seldom resorted to it in his own schools. During the intervals of teaching he attended the academy, but when he had nearly completed the preparatory studies for admission to Bowdoin College, ill health made a change necessary.

After three years of desultory living, having saved a few hundred dollars, he commenced the study of medicine, and was a private pupil of that eminent physician and surgeon, the late Prof. E. R. Peaslee, of New York, studying for three terms in the Medical School of Maine, and two terms in the Dartmouth, N. H., Medical School; graduating from the former in 1854. He received the appointment of demonstrator of anatomy in both schools. He married Matilda B., daughter of Stephen Sewall, of Winthrop, Me., and commenced the practice of medicine in that town in the fall of 1854. After six busy years, Doctor Snow spent a year in attendance at some of the best medical schools and hospitals of this country and Europe. He re- turned home in the fall of 1861, and offered his services to the gov-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

ernor to go into the army, in case he should be needed; but, on account of ill health, did not otherwise desire an appointment. Doctor Snow early joined the Maine Medical Association, and soon became one of its active members; contributing papers on the "Prevailing Diseases of Kennebec County," "Puerperal Convulsions." " Diphtheria," " Medi- cal Education," etc., published in its annual transactions. In 1873 he was president of the association, and in his inaugural address, among other practical subjects, argued in favor of a state board of health; which the legislature has since established, to the great benefit of the commonwealth. He has always taken an interest in the Ken- nebec County Medical Association, of which, at its second annual meeting, in 1869, he was president. He is also a member of the American Medical Association, and has served on important com- mittees in that body.

Outside of his professional work, Doctor Snow has perhaps con- tributed more to the public good, in his school relations, than in any other direction. He was on the school board for the Winthrop vil- lage schools upward of twenty years, more than half that time as chairman. He generally had the cooperation of teachers, parents and scholars, in his efforts to improve the schools, and bring them up to the standard of the best in the state. In 1871 he was a member of the state legislature, and introduced a bill entitled " An Act to regulate the qualifications of practitioners in Medicine and Surgery;" which was referred to the committee on the judiciary, ordered printed, and then re-committed. The bill excited a great deal of attention, both in and out of the state house, and was quite generally commented on by the press of the state, for the most part in favorable terms. After several hearings, the committee, by a vote of five to four, refused it a favorable report to the legislature, and then referred it to the next legislature, where it was killed, and, although several efforts have since been made to secure the passage of a registration law for this state, failure has thus far been the result.

In 1879 Doctor Snow was appointed a trustee of the Maine Insane Hospital, and he has occupied other positions of responsibility and trust, both as a physician and a citizen. For thirty years he has had a large practice, for a country place, extending over a wide field; and during those years he turned his back upon none, serving with the best abilities and attainments he had, rich and poor alike, in sunshine and storm, by day and night. In recent years he has been obliged to relinquish a portion of his work, and sometimes to give it up alto- gether for a time; having spent one whole winter in California, and another in Florida, and shorter periods in other places. But for the most part, he still continues in the active practice of his profession.

Albert Fisk Stanley, fifth child of John and Juliet (Marsh) Stan- ley, was born in Attleboro, Mass., April 28, 1806. He was descended

RESIDENCE OF A. K. P. STROUT, M. D., PLEASANT STREET, GARDINER, ME.

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

from Matthew Stanley, who came to Lynn, Mass., in 1864. When Albert F. was eleven years old his father removed to Readfield, where he bought a farm; and, while doing his share of the farm work, he obtained what education he could at the district schools, and in one term at Kents Hill. He began the study of medicine with Dr. Dexter Baldwin, Mt. Vernon, and obtained a diploma from Bowdoin Medical School in 1829. In 1831 he began practice at Dixfield, Me., and December 1, 1836, married Mahala A. M. Branscomb, of Farm- ington Falls, who was born June 11, 1814, and died at Winthrop, August 29, 1889. Their eldest child, Juliet M., born July 11, 1838, married, in 1886, the late I. P. Warren, D. D., of Portland. Mary Malvina, born February 2, 1843, married John Gower, of Win- throp. In December of the latter year Doctor Stanley removed to Winthrop, where he resided until his death. Three daughters and a son were added to his family here, of whom but two are living: Jane Elizabeth, born January 14, 1845, and John Albert, born Febru- ary 17, 1847, who is the editor and proprietor of the Winthrop Budget. Doctor Stanley built up an extensive practice in Winthrop, and dur- ing the war was one of the large company of volunteer surgeons who entered the service after the second battle of Bull Run. It was in the army that he contracted the disease of which he eventually died, July 10, 1867. He was a member of the Winthrop Congregational church, and an active, practical Christian, supplementing kind words with still kinder deeds. His heart was large, his impulses true, and his sympathies strong. His death was deeply lamented, for he had been the friend, as well as physician, of a wide circle of families.

Daniel Stevens settled in China in 1808, and practiced there until his death, in 1841, at the age of fifty-nine.

David P. Stowell, son of Rev. David and Emily C. Stowell, was born in 1838, at Townsend, Mass. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1857, attended Amherst College one year, taught at Pem- broke (N. H.) Academy one year, and in 1859 began the study of medicine, attending lectures at Dartmouth Medical School. He was graduated from the University of New York in 1862, and served in the regular army one year as an assistant surgeon. In November, 1863, he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 8th New Hamp- shire, and served until June, 1864, in which year he began private practice at Masonsville, N. H. In August, 1871, he removed to Mer- cer, Me., where he practiced until August, 1878, when he came to Waterville. He has been a member of the school board since 1888, and a member of the city council since 1891. His wife is Sarah E. Bachelder.

ALBION K. P. STROUT is the son of Hon. Stephen Strout, of Free- dom, Me., and the grandson of Stephen Strout, of Limington, Me., whose father was Lieutenant Isaac Strout, an officer in the revolu-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

tionary army, settled in that town after the war, and filled many of its official positions. Hon. Stephen Strout, of Freedom, was a civil engineer for several years and a commissioner of Waldo county. He had a natural inclination for scientific investigation, was an early student of the uses and possibilities of electricity, spending part of his time giving public lectures on this still wonderful theme, in illus- trating which he used one of the finest pieces of telegraphic apparatus ever then shown to the public. One of his electrical machines was given to Winthrop Academy. He married Julia Gilbert Drake, a school teacher of large experience. Of their seven children, the first two-Albion K. P. and Charles O., now of Boston-are the only sur- vivors. The third child, William G., a lawyer, died in Brooklyn, N. Y., of lockjaw, to which dread disease his grandfather had also fallen a victim. Hannibal C., Frank W., Annie and Arthur were the names of the remaining children.

Albion K. Paris Strout was born in Freedom, October 23, 1848. After leaving the common school he fitted for college in the academy in his native town, and then became a student in the Pittsfield and Westbrook Seminaries, where he advanced his studies to the junior college year. The civil war was then the all absorbing matter of interest, and, in 1864, instead of finishing his college course, he en- listed in Company A, Maine Coast Guard, and was ordered to Wash- ington, where his detachment was stationed until the close of the war.

Returning home, he taught school for a while, at the same time reading medicine, which he had chosen as a profession. Completing his preliminary reading at Brunswick, he attended lectures, first at Bowdoin College and then at Dartmouth, where he was graduated in 1872. From there he went to New York city and further enjoyed the advantages and lectures of Bellevue Hospital, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His first practice was in Albion, Me., in 1873, from thence, during the next year, to his present location in Gardiner, where he is now in partnership with his son, Fred E. Strout, M. D. He has been an examining surgeon for pensions four years; city physician five years; a member of the County Medical Society, and examining physician for various life insurance companies.

Doctor Strout married, in 1872, Myra E. Libbey, of Albion. Their children have been: Maud L., who died in 1874; Arthur W. and a pair of twins, Ray and Ruth.

Charles W. Taggart, born in 1847 in Steuben, Me., is a son of Rev. John Taggart, jun., a Methodist clergyman, and in consequence Doctor Taggart'searly education was received in thirteen different towns. He graduated from Bowdoin Medical School in 1873, and in August of that year began practice in Weld, Me. In April, 1874, he went to

А.С.Ihay's

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

Phillips, and from there, in June, 1876, removed to Winthrop, where he has since practiced. His wife was Nancy M. Meady.

THAYER .- Stephen Thayer, of French Huguenot extraction, was born in Uxbridge, Mass., February 7, 1783. He began the practice of his profession in Vassalboro, where his eldest son, Albert, was born in 1808. Albert was a graduate of Waterville College, and practiced medicine in Skowhegan until his death in 1833. Shortly after the birth of Albert, Doctor Thayer removed to Fairfield, where his second son, Charles H., was born in 1810. Prior to 1836 Doctor Thayer prac- ticed successfully at Fairfield and in all that section, but in that year he removed to Waterville, where he died, May 24, 1852.

Charles H. became a merchant in Fairfield, but removed to Water- ville in 1837, and carried on business there, at the corner of Main and Temple streets for many years. He was a selectman of Waterville for twelve or thirteen years, and was universally esteemed, both in public and private life. In October, 1836, he married Susan E. Tobey, of Fairfield, and their only child, Frederick C., now the acknowledged leader of the medical profession in Waterville, was born at the latter place September 30, 1844.

Frederick C. attended the schools of his native town, and was a member of the class of '65, Waterville College, but did not graduate. Instead, he went to Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., where he re- mained for eighteen months, and then studied medicine with Dr. James E. Pomfret, of Albany, N. Y., where he also attended the lectures of the Albany Medical College from 1865 to 1866. He afterward entered the medical department of Bowdoin College, and was graduated in 1867. In 1884 the honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Colby University.

He began the practice of his profession in Waterville in 1867, since which time he has risen to a celebrity unconfined by local bounds. He has been a pioneer in this community in difficult sur- gical operations, calling for cool, conservative judgment, and requir- ing at the same time the most delicate touch; yet has for the most part been content to follow cautiously where the world's eminent surgeons have successfully led, and in consequence his consultation practice has grown to extensive proportions. He has held many public positions of honor and responsibility. In 1878 he was presi- dent of the Kennebec County Medical Association; in 1884-5 he was president of the Alumni Association of the medical department of Bowdoin College; in 1885-6 he was a member of the legislature, and in the latter year delivered the annual oration before the Maine Medi- cal Association. He was president of the Maine Medical Association in 1887-8; was alderman of Waterville in 1889; and in 1890 was a member of the International Medical Congress held at Berlin, and is a member of the American Medical Association.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

December 2, 1871, Doctor Thayer was united in marriage to Leonora Snell, daughter of Judge William B. Snell noticed at page 332 et seq.

Ira Thing, son of Dr. Samuel Thing, was born in Mt. Vernon in 1809. He was in trade in Hallowell for several years, then went to Cincinnati, studied medicine, received his degree and returned to Mt. Vernon, where he practiced until his death in 1865.

William L. Thompson was born in Newbury, Vt., in 1823. He was educated at Francistown Academy, N. H., and taught four years at Newburyport. He took medical lectures at Dartmouth, and was graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1857. He located at Dover, N. H., and in December, 1865, began in Augusta what is now the longest consecutive practice of any Homeop- athist ever in that city. He was a charter member of the State Homeopathic Medical Society, and has been its president.

Will S. Thompson, son of William L. Thompson, of Augusta, was born in 1853 at Newburyport, Mass. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1875. He attended medical lectures at Dartmouth, and in 1879 graduated from the Homeopathic College at Cleveland, O .; prac- ticing since then in Hallowell and Gardiner.

Benjamin L. Tibbetts was born in Parsonsfield, Me., in 1836. He prepared for college at Limington, Me., and while there began, in 1859, the study of medicine under Dr. Samuel Bradbury. He took a medical course at Dartmouth in 1860, another at Bowdoin in 1861, and in the latter year graduated from Dartmouth and began a practice course in the Boston Hospital in 1862. The following year he came to China, succeeding Dr. George E. Brickett, and in 1876 located at North Vassalboro, associating with him Dr. Charles Mabry, a gradu- ate of Bowdoin College, in 1879. Doctor Tibbetts died in September, 1892.

Benjamin Vaughan is noticed at page 191.

Michael Walcott, from Attleboro, Mass., was the first regular phy- sician in Winthrop. Before, and after his stay of less than three years, there was no physician nearer than the Kennebec river, Dr. Daniel Cony, of Augusta being the best known.

Mrs. Ward, a remarkable woman, physically and mentally, who possessed medical skill and great powers of endurance, performed the duties of a physician and midwife in China prior to 1808, in which year the first regular doctor settled in the town.

John O. Webster read medicine with George E. Brickett, took one course of lectures at Bowdoin, and in 1868 graduated from Harvard University Medical College. He practiced at Lynn, Mass., at Augusta, and in 1892 removed to California.

STEPHEN WHITMORE, late of Gardiner, brother of Nathaniel M. [see page 341], was born May 9, 1814, and when a young man began

Stephen Mulinon

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

reading medicine with Doctor Tinker, next with Doctor McKeen, of Brunswick, and lastly with Doctor Hubbard, of Hallowell. Before his graduation, which was from the medical department of Bowdoin College at Brunswick, Stephen enjoyed the advantages of spending some time with the eminent Doctor Jackson, of Boston, and for a sea- son the opportunities for medical students for which Philadelphia has so long been celebrated. His first professional practice was in Jeffer- son, Me., from whence he came to Gardiner in 1837. Here he found a field for the practical use of the knowledge he had gained by so many years of laborious preparation. Hard work and undue exposure reduced his vital powers to the point where a severe fever set in. Be- fore his recovery warranted an exposure an importunate request from an old friend tempted him to visit a patient. A severe cold and a re- lapse ensued that made him a chronic invalid for eleven years, and a sufferer for life. Prolonged weakness followed, making the slightest exertion perilous, and ultimate recovery a question of the gravest doubt. In this dilemma he retired in 1841 to his father's farm in Bowdoinham and began a fight for existence that lasted one-sixth of all the years of his life. Nothing but undaunted courage and the daily use of good judgment and an unconquerable will carried him through.

In 1852 he returned to Gardiner and began a career of professional usefulness and efficiency that triumphed over all previous drawbacks and resulted in all the attainments of a most successful life. The growth and extent of his practice were remarkable. It seemed as though business had been waiting for him through all those eleven weary years. People appeared to reason that a spirit that had con- quered disease in its own body must have some strange power over the diseases of others. His own patients covered a scope of territory equaled perhaps by that of none of his contemporaries, with the pos- sible exception of his brother, Chadbourn, while his reputation sum- moned him in consultation to all parts of the Kennebec valley. The marvel is that so frail a body could, for over a quarter of a century, respond to the exacting requirements of such a tireless mind and im- perious will.

He married Maria Haskell, of Topsham. They had two children: Warren S. Whitmore, the lawyer, and Alice Maria, wife of W. T. Windram, of Boston. Doctor Whitmore was a devout member and a warden of Christ church in Gardiner. He died February 9, 1880, from an attack of pneumonia, and his tired body was laid peacefully at rest in Oak Grove Cemetery.

CHADBOURN W. WHITMORE, a brother of Nathaniel M. [page 341], was born in 1819 on the old family homestead in Bowdoinham. The influences that environed his early life were all of the character pecu- liar to a quiet agricultural community. He was an active boy at home, bright at school, but never of a demonstrative nature-quiet, consid-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

erate and reflective. After a few terms at Monmouth Academy his choice of a profession settled on the medical. He read with Dr. John Hubbard, of Hallowell, and Prof. James McKean, of Brunswick, where he attended lectures and graduated in the medical department of Bowdoin College in the class of 1839.

With an exalted idea of the qualifications a physician should pos- sess, he supplemented his college course with special observation and study in the hospitals of Philadelphia, and settled as a practitioner in Richmond, where he attained a large business. Gardiner, but ten miles away, brought him so many professional calls that he thought best to avail himself of its greater opportunities by making that his home, which he did in 1846.

From this time to his death he gave himself to his profession with an earnest devotion characteristic of the man. He was fully six feet tall, of fine proportions, and always possessed a full share of the energy and ambition for which the Whitmore family were rightly noted. Night and day he responded to the engrossing demands of a constantly widening field of labor.

January 1, 1850, he married Harriet E., daughter of Captain Thomas and Harriet B. (Currier) Sampson, of West Gardiner. When the late war had grown to be the absorbing business of the nation, he joined the medical force and was sent to New Orleans, where he had large experience in the hospitals to which so many soldiers were driven by that exhausting climate. By order of General Butler he had charge of enforcing vaccination throughout the city. The doctor used to say this was the best professional job he ever had-his fees amounting to several thousand dollars.

After returning to Gardiner he resumed his practice, and was also United States examining surgeon. But the labors and exposures of his past life began to sensibly diminish his endurance. He tried work at the old rapid pace, but had to give it up. Gradually he gave up general practice, attending only special old friends and an occasional consultation. The inevitable event occurred March 24, 1884, in Washington, D. C., whither he had gone with his wife for a change of climate and for medical advice. Mrs. Whitmore, who survived him, died November 22, 1891.

Obadiah Williams was the first physician of Waterville. He was a chief citizen of old Ticonic village until his death in 1799.

Richard Williams began practice in Clinton about 1857; Pitt M. Whitten was in practice there in 1880; and G. F. Webber, who came in 1888, still follows his profession there.

George H. Wilson, son of Nehemiah Wilson, of New Hampshire, was born in Litchfield in 1828, educated at Monmouth and Litchfield Academies, graduated from Bowdoin in May, 1856, studied with Dr.

6. Tr. Whitmore

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

G. S. Palmer, of Gardiner, and began practicing in Bath. After spend- ing six months in Harpswell and two years in Palermo, he removed in 1859 to Albion, where he has since practiced. His wife, Mary S. Parsons, of Litchfield, died in 1889. His children are: Georgia, who married Carroll W. Abbott, M.D., and Charles E. Wilson, of Boston.

Anna (Huston) Winslow, wife of James Winslow, lived in what is now Randolph, and from their settlement there, in 1763, she practiced medicine and midwifery. She was widely known as " Granny Wins- low," and practiced from Bath to Augusta.

Fred E. Withee, son of Elmarien Withee, of Benton, was born at Vanceboro in 1865. He was educated in the public schools and grad- uated from Dirigo Business College, Augusta. He studied medicine with Dr. M. S. Goodrich, and in March, 1892, received his degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore. He is a part- ner of Doctor Goodrich at Waterville.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 42

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790