History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 32

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168

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medicine. He went into it with great enthusiasm, and his subsequent career showed his natural fitness for this profession.

He commenced the study of medicine with Timothy Haines, M. D., of Concord; attended a course of lectures at Woodstock, Vt., and also took the course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, where he graduated in 1842. He commenced the practice of his profession with the late Dr. Chad- bourne, in Concord, in 1842, and there remained for four years, when, desiring greater advantages of per- fecting his medical knowledge, he visited London and Paris, where he became acquainted with many dis- tinguished men in the profession and spent much time in the hospitals of those cities. He also visited Rome and Italy, gaining much information and making a favorable impression upon those with whom he came in contact. After an absence of one year he returned and made Manchester, N. H., his home, and here, with the exception of one year spent in Cali- fornia, he lived until his death.

Dr. Buck sustained an enviable reputation as a physician and surgeon, and possessed the confidence of the community in which he lived, and was early regarded as one of the leading medical men of the State. He reached this high position in his profes- sion without the aid of wealth or social position. His success was due to hard study and close applica- tion to his business, accompanied by a zeal and devo- tion rarely surpassed. He was unmindful of riches, public honor or anything which he thought might interfere with the one great pursuit of his life. Dr. Buck possessed an active mind and the rare gift of a retentive memory, and was a thorough scholar. He seemed to know his own powers, and this gave him great influence over students in medicine. In his in- tercourse with his professional brethren Dr. Buck was always courteous and obliging, religiously regarding the rules of medical etiquette, and in his consultations he always gave the patient the benefit of his best skill and extensive practice. He made it a point of honor to be prompt to his engagements, and never was for one minute behind the appointed time. In his ex- ample and practice he honored the profession to which he had devoted the best years of his life, and did much to dignify and elevate the standard of medical edu- cation.

Dr. Buck was a prominent member of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and was elected its pres- ident in 1866. His papers read before this society were always listened to with marked attention.

While at work here he became interested in the science of music, and was for many succeeding years instructor, conductor and organist in the South Congregational Church, at Concord, and afterwards at For twenty years he had a large experience in teaching medicine, proving himself devoted and faith- ful as an instructor. His office or the dissecting- room were uncomfortable places for lazy students, and the Hanover Street Church, at Manchester. He familiarized himself with standard writers and re- tained through life his love for Handel, Beethoven and Mozart. His attention becoming drawn to the | he had little patience with a young man who would medical profession, he determined to fit himself for its not work his brains. During the winter months his daily recitations were at eight o'clock A.M., and woe to the young man who was not on time. practice, and by teaching music was enabled to de- fray the greater part of the expense of the study of

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Dr. Buek was frequently called as a medical expert in many of the most important civil and criminal cases in the State. A distinguished advocate at the bar in New Hampshire said of Dr. Buck; "By his clearness of description of all important facts to which he was called in legal investigations, he had the con- fidence of courts, the jury and the legal profession to an extent equal to, if not above, that of any physician and surgeon in New England. He made no display of learn- ing, but used plain English, so that a jury might com- prehend."

Bleeding, calomel and antimony, the three most po- tent remedies of the fathers, he rarely used. An experi- ence of thirty years only strengthened his convictions against their use, and he had independence of mind enough to resist a mode of treatment which the med- ical world had made fashionable, if not imperative. In the surgical department of his profession Dr. Buck excelled in his treatment of fractures, and in it his mechanical ingenuity was of great service. He took pride in putting up a fractured limb. The glue bandage, which he described in an address before the society in 1866, was original with him, and a favorite remark of his was that "a man should carry his splints in his head rather than under his arm."

In his success in medicine and surgery very much was undoubtedly due to his conservative treatment. ; with a brighter galaxy of names, distinguished in law, He was never rash or inconsiderate in his praetice, and the community where his busy life was passed owe him a debt of gratitude, not only for his skill, but for his careful use of drugs, and his influence in this particular over his professional brethren will not be forgotten. He was positive and firm in his judgment, and was not readily swayed by those holding different opinions. Yet he was genial, companionable and very fond of society. To those most intimate with him Dr. Buek had endeared himself by strong ties of friendship. In politics he was a Republican. in polities, in science, in theology and in all the fields of literature and art, than he. Dr. Wells had but one brother, the late Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford, Conn., widely and justly celebrated as the author of modern anæesthesia, to whose memory a beautiful statue has been erected in the publie park of that city. He died in the city of New York, on the 24th day of January. 1848, at the early age of thirty-three, while pros- ecuting the introduction of his discovery into general use in surgery, as well as in dentistry, in which he made its first application. His early Dr. Buck lived a consistent Christian life, and had that hope of a happy immortality and that trust in his Saviour which served as an anchor to the soul sure and steadfast. He died January 9, 1872, sud- denly, and in the midst of an active practice. and untimely death, while his wonderful discov- ery was yet a matter of uncertain and undeter- mined importance, deprived him and his family of the fruits which might otherwise have flowed from what is now universally conceded to be the greatest boon conferred upon suffering humanity in all the course of time.

Dr. Buek was twice married,-first, to Grace Low, of Concord, who died in 1856. In 1860 he married, sec- ond, Mary W. Nichols, of Manchester, who is now living. He left no children.

DR. CHARLES WELLS.1

The subject of this sketch was born at West- minster, Vt., on the 22d day of June, 1817. His father, Horace Wells, a prosperous, intelligent and highly respected farmer, was born in Windsor, Conn., June 22, 1776. After his marriage to Miss Betsy Heath, of Warehouse Point, Conn., he removed

to Vermont, and died at Bellows Falls, in that State. April 5, 1829. His mother afterwards remarried, and died at Westmoreland, N. H., February 21, 1879.

His grandfather, Captain Hezekiah Wells, was born in Windsor, Conn., June 25, 1736. He served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was a man of much influence and widely esteemed. He died March 8, 1817. The homestead, which he erected nearly a century and a half ago, is still in the posses- sion of his descendants.

His grandmother's maiden-name was Sarah Trum- bull. His more remote ancestors were Lamson Wells, born November 7, 1706; Joshua Wells, born April 10, 1672; and Joshua, Sr., born in 1647. They were all natives of Windsor, and no temptation could ever lure them from their ancestral home. It will thus be seen that Dr. Wells traced his lineage through the best of New England ancestry, and no purer blood has descended from the Pilgrim Fathers to ennoble a people than that which flowed in his veins.

Different branches of the Wells family, in this country and in Europe, have varied the orthography of the name to suit their individual tastes or cireum- stances, and few of the old colonial family names show such varied orthography, but the consanguinity is easily traced, and few men could claim kinship

His only sister, Mary E. W. Cole, widow of the late Captain John Cole, a native of Westmoreland, N. H., but many years a resident of Medway, Mass., now resides in Chicago, Ill., with her only son, Arthur W. Cole, a promising young architect of that city.

Dr. Wells received, in his early youth, all the edu- eational advantages afforded by the public schools at Bellows Falls, Vt .. to which place his father removed during his infancy, and here he died April 5, 1829. After his father's death he received not only the ten- der and watchful care of one of the best of mothers. but also the liberal and intelligent training of a woman as remarkable for her intelligence and large- mindedness as for her domestic and maternal qualities.

1 By Hou. Charles H. Bartlett.

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He further prosecuted his studies under the private tuition of a most excellent teacher, Mr. Ballard, of Hopkinton, N. H., and at the academies in Walpole, N. H., and Amherst, Mass.

After the completion of his academic course he en- tered with enthusiasm upon the study of medicine, a profession for which by nature he was most admirably fitted.

He commenced his professional studies with Dr. Josiah Graves, of Nashua, N. H., January 22, 1837, and graduated at the Jefferson Medical College, in Phila- delphia, March 6, 1840, at the early age of twenty-one. He immediately commenced his professional career at Chili, N. Y., in copartnership with Dr. Lucius Clark ; but the field of practice proving unsatisfactory to him, he removed to Manchester, N. H., in 1842, where he continued his residence till his death.

His professional career was highly honorable and eminently successful. Never a bold and aggressive practitioner, but always content with the share of patronage that fell to his lot, he enjoyed, in a high degree, the confidence and respect of his professional brethren, and never had reason to complain of any want of recognition of his merits by the people among whom he lived, and who early honored him with their confidence and their patronage. Such was his pro- fessional success, and such his rare financial skill and judgment. that while in the prime and vigor of his manhood he found himself so fortunately circum- stanced, financially, as to be relieved of the burden of further professional labor, and several years prior to his decease he quietly withdrew from active practice, and devoted the last years of his life to the manage- ment of his estate, and to those social enjoyments and domestic duties and responsibilities which to him were ever the source of his highest enjoyment and his greatest happiness.

Dr. Wells was married to Miss Mary M. Smith, December 21, 1847,-a union which proved remarkably felicitous to both parties. The widow survives her lamented husband, who made most generous pro- vision for her future wants. No children blessed their union.

For more than forty years Dr. Wells was an earnest and enthusiastic member of the Hillsborough Lodge of Odd-Fellows, being one of the charter members of the lodge and the last survivor of that little band who introduced the order in this State. Ile received all the honors the order could bestow upon him, and ever gave a willing hand and a generous and sym- pathetie heart to its benevolent and charitable work. Utterly devoid of all political ambition, he took but little part in public affairs, never seeking, but always declining, official preferment. His only service in this direction was as a member of the Common Council in 1847-48, and as an alderman in 1848-49. He assisted in making the first city report, and the plan suggested and matured by him has been in use ever since. He was a member of Grace Church

(Episcopal), and many years a vestryman and trea- surer.

Dr. Wells was not an ambitious man. He neither sought nor desired public applause. Self-glorification and aggrandizement were utterly abhorrent to every element of his nature. The ostentatious show of wealth not only had no attractions for him, but for it he had the most supreme contempt, and the seeker after transient notoriety and ephemeral applause found no favor in his sight. Solid merit and worth alone weighed with him, and no man was quicker to discover the true and the genuine or more prompt and earnest in his denunciation of the false, the sham and the counterfeit. As a citizen, no man was esteemed above him. As a neighbor and friend, he filled the measure of every expectation, and it is no extrava- gance to say that no citizen of Manchester ever de- parted this life more universally esteemed or more widely and deeply lamented. A man of fine physique, of strikingly prepossessing personal appearance and bearing, gentle, courtly, dignified, but affable in his demeanor and intercourse with all with whom he came in contact, he gave offense to none, but won the affectionate regard, respect and confidence of all.

Dr. Wells died at his family residence in Manchester, December 28, 1884, very suddenly, of heart-disease. The first intimation received by his friends and the public that he was not in his usual apparent health was the startling announcement of his sudden demise.

JOHN FERGUSON, M.D.

The ancestors of Dr. Ferguson were Scotch, who settled in the North of Ireland, and were gener- ally engaged in the celebrated linen manufacture of that part of the country. His grandfather, David, settled in the South of Ireland, and was a merchant in the town of Rathkeale, County of Limerick, which is watered by the "Lordly Shannon," one of the noblest rivers of the United Kingdom. Here he was married, and here reared his family of five sons and two daughters, giving them good educa- tions. The professions of the law, divinity and medi- cine claimed one each of the boys, only one of whom is at this date living, and he is the judge of the Cir- cuit Court for the Southern District in Ireland. The remaining son, named for his father, chose also his father's business, which he carried on in his native town successfully, and married a daughter of Councilor Fitz-Gerald, of the city of Limerick, known in history as the city of the "broken treaty."

From this union there were eight children, the eldest of whom was John (the subject of this sketch), who was born October 28, 1829, in Rathkeale. He was early placed under the care and instruction of a private tutor, where he remained for several years, and completed his collegiate course with the Jesuits. Immediately after he was placed under the instructions of his uncle, Philip O'Hanlon, M.D., of Rathkeale, who had a large city and country practice. In due time Dr. Ferguson

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

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graduated at the Hall of Apothecaries, in Dublin, and still associated with Dr. O'Hanlon, acquired a practical knowledge of medicine, surgery, pharmacy and dispensatory practice.

His uncle emigrated to America, and soon after- wards became justly celebrated in its metropolis. Dr. Ferguson followed him to America in 1851, and that he might practice his profession here he offered himself for examination to the faculty of the Medical College of Castleton, Vt., and received from them their diploma. The following spring he passed the examination of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of New York City, and received their diploma. At this time he accepted the position of surgeon on a line of mail steamships plying between New York, Liverpool, Bremen and Havre, where for a period of three years he associated with many literary people among the traveling public and made many valuable friends. Leaving the service of the steamship com- pany, Dr. Ferguson was appointed one of the post- mortem examining surgeons for the coroners of New York City, also assistant anatomical demonstrator and assistant clinical examiner at the Medical University, in Fourteenth Street, a college chiefly patronized by the sons of Southern planters, who were a liberal and chivalrous class of gentlemen.

After practicing some years in New York City, he re- moved to Manchester, N. H., in 1861, being the first Irish physician to settle here. Dr. Ferguson, shortly after, was appointed by Governor Berry surgeon of the Tenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, and left for the front, with his regiment, in the fall of 1862. Dr. Ferguson, during his residence in New York, was surgeon on the staff of Colonel Corcoran, of the famous Sixty-Ninth New York State Militia, and saw service in the quarantine riots on Staten Island. This service fitted him all the better to fill the position of brigade surgeon during the Civil War, near the close of which he returned to Manchester, where he has since been successfully engaged in his private practice, which has become large and lucra- tive. Prior to removal to Manchester, Dr. Ferguson married Eleanor, only surviving daughter of Michael and Elenor Hughes, who were of an old and wealthy family of New York City, where she was born June 24, 1838. From this union there have been four children,-Eleanora, Mary C., John D. and Alfred W.

Among his professional brethren Dr. Ferguson is known to be a skillful and thoroughly educated prac- titioner, and in social life is an affable and courteous gentleman.

NATHANIEL WENTWORTH CUMNER.1

The ancestors of the Cumner family were of Eng- lish origin. The name is first discovered in the period following the supremacy of the Norman rule,-the return from the dynasty of the Conqueror to the as-

cendency of the English-Saxon line. It was first spelled Comnor, and later Cumnor, meaning "hospi- tality to strangers," or a " place of hospitality," and comes through the Saxon branch. To this period may be referred the formation of many English family names,-often derived from some unimportant cir- cumstance, or suggested by personal characteristics. These became marks of distinction, new_titles to man- hood, and were proudly bequeathed by father to son, -"inherited surnames."

During the century following the loss of Normandy, the Anglo-Saxon, as a written language, having been banished from courts and superseded in all legal papers by the Latin, became dearer to the common people as a spoken language, preserving their cher- ished objects and transmitting leading sentiments. It increased its power and volume by building new terms and means of expression, and particularly by multi- plying its patronymies. In a comparatively short space of time the language had become vernacular, and fairly entitled to be styled English, rich in the idioms and proper names of its own creation and outgrowth.

"The history of words," says Trench, "is the his- tory of ideas," and he might have said of people and nations. They are not only the " vehicle of thought," but they tell anew the story of their times and enrich the great body of history with countless incidents of vale and importance. In studying their genealogy, the English-speaking people find the starting-point of many an illustrious name in the peculiar cirenm- stances of those medieval times,-the natural product of the mingling of different tongues, and the constant struggle between feudalism and servitude.

The famous old manor-house, Cumnor Castle, so celebrated in romance, once enjoyed the rent-fee and service of a large body of retainers, and carried for many a year, by reason of its feudal allotments, a numerous vassalage. Its walls have long since fallen into shapeless ruins, but the lands of its tenantry now embrace the beautiful village of Cumner. The families bearing this name have not been numerous in England, but have maintained their lineage with remarkable directness The earliest trace of these people shows that they belonged to the industrial classes,-the guilds-people, who, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, had attained such prominence as to nearly control the business interests of the great metropolis, and to whom the Lord Mayor of London was pleased to say, on a memorable occasion, " While our gracious nobility are the leaf and flower of the kingdom, ye are the sturdy trunk and branches."

The subject of this sketch belongs to the third gene- ration in America. His grandfather, Robert Francis Cumner, came to this country when about fifteen years of age, under circumstances of a very interesting character. In June, 1774, while walking in the streets of London, he was seized by a " gang of pressmen " from the ship "Somerset," sent ont to recruit his Majesty's marine. He was carried directly on board,

1 By J. W. Fellows.

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

forced to become one of the crew, and do the duty of a common sailor. He was not allowed the privilege of communicating with his friends, and no tidings from him or knowledge of his situation were received during the long cruise of the "Somerset " in distant waters, until she appeared in Boston Harbor and took part in the battle of Bunker Hill. Her position and the service she rendered the British troops on that memorable day are well-known in history. From her decks came the first fatal shot, and under the fire of her guns the broken and retreating ranks of Royalists found protection.

The scenes of that bloody struggle made a deep impression upon the mind of young Cumner, and fixed his determination to take no part in the work of subjugation. Circumstances fortunately soon favored his settled purpose. The " Somerset " not long after the battle "got aground," probably somewhere in the lower part of Massachusetts Bay. During their efforts to get afloat, some of the crew went ashore, among them the Cumner boy, who immediately availed him- self of the opportunity to escape from his unwilling service. While following the highway into which he first came, near the shore where lay the stranded "Somerset," he was overtaken by a Quaker on horse- back, who, learning his situation and purpose to obtain his freedom from the " British yoke," invited our young hero to "get up behind," and, throwing his gray cloak over the lad, soon carried him beyond the King's power.

He settled in Wareham, Mass., learned the tailor's trade and began the permanent business of his life. October 20, 1785, he married Miss Sylvia Sturtevant, whose family connections were very worthy and highly respected. Her father was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, and fell on the battle-field fighting for independence. The Sturtevant people have received honorable mention in the annals of history, and their name is written among those who deserve well of their country. Not long after his marriage he moved to Sandwich, Mass., from that place to Wayne, in the State of Maine, where he resided during the remainder of his life. He was successful in business and became a prominent and highly respected citizen. He was a man of modest and retiring habits and exemplary character, bnt of indomitable will and inflexible ad- herence to what he believed to be right. If his wife were the subject of our sketch, we could fill it with incidents showing his remarkable tenacity of purpose. Robert Francis and Sylvia Cumner had two children, -John, born January 19, 1788, and Polly, a few years younger. He died February 5, 1825, and his wife, March 26, 1826, and their remains were interred in the Evergreen Cemetery, in Wayne.

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 32

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168