USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 14
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and the gathering was one calculated to inspire terror in the average healthy mind. There were his three brothers, all physi- cians, - Dr. Abel Bugbee, of Derby Line, Vt., Dr. Frank Bugbee, of Lancaster, and Dr. Lafayette Bugbee, of Willimantic, Conn. ; also, his son, Dr. George R. Bugbee, of Whitefield. And the venerable progenitor of all these doctors, Dr. Ralph Bugbee, Sr., of Waterford, Vt., gazed on his posterity with a heavy heart, participating meanwhile but mechanically in the festivities, and wondering what he should do when he got old and sick." In his sixty-five years of practice he established a reputation which made him as well known in Littleton as in Waterford.
. Dalton and Bethlehem 1 have seldom had resident physicians. At Franconia, Dr. John C. Colby, Dr. Daniel E. Wells, Dr. William B. Moody, Dr. J. A. Morris, Dr. John R. Cogswell, and Dr. H. L. Johnson, the present resident practitioner, have been acceptable physicians at successive periods, covering many years. The physicians of Lisbon and Whitefield, being more remote, have not, until recent years, been so frequently called, or so well known, as those who resided on the river, near the western borders of the town.
The medical school at Hanover has brought many eminent medical men within the call of our patients for consultations and treatment. Muzzy, Peaslee, the Crosbys, Gile, and their associ- ates have often given our people the benefit of their great medical and surgical skill in novel and difficult cases. We now call the first authority in the profession from Boston, by telegram, in less time than Dr. White could have been brought from Newbury to Littleton a hundred years ago.
Pharmacy has come to be a separate department in the medical world. Its importance to our profession is beyond computation. In recent years, those engaged in its duties have recognized the necessity of excluding from the ranks of its employees all who have not been found specially qualified by strict examination. Their general associations have thus met a demand made both by the members of our profession and the more general public. Here the business of vending drugs had a small beginning, some sixty or seventy years ago, in Squire Brackett's store, in which John Farr was a clerk. The drugs and medicines then constituted a small part of the stock of the establishment.
In 1832 Francis Hodgman located in the place, and within a year or two erected a building for his jewelry business, with which he joined that of an apothecary ; to him Mr. Brackett sold
1 Dr. H. A. Hildreth has for some years been in successful practice at Bethlehem.
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his entire stock of drugs and medicines. He carried on this dual business, gradually increasing it and improving its accommo- dations, for more than thirty years. He then, in the time of the War for the Union, retired, and was succeeded by his sons. Upon the death of the younger, the business was sold to Curtis Gates & Co., who were succeeded by Robinson Brothers, they by Herbert E. Kenney, and he by the present proprietor, F. E. Green & Co. The Grafton County drug-store was established in 1853 by George K. Paddleford, in the building now owned by the Odd-Fellows, on Main Street, which was erected for his use in that year. Mr. Paddleford was assisted in the enterprise by Dr. Sabine, who volunteered his services. S. W. Atwood succeeded to the business in 1854. After about two years Hovey & Hall purchased it, and in a short time Eben L. Hall became proprietor. The advertisement of this pharmacy in the columns of the " White Mountain Banner" disappeared in the spring of 1858.
Another drug-store was established in the Union Block, in 1867, by Dr. H. L. Watson. He was succeeded by Albert Parker & Co .; this firm by G. & G. F. Abbott, and they by W. F. Robins, the present proprietor. Fred B. Hatch & Co. estab- lished a successful pharmacy in Opera Block in 1883, and were succeeded in 1894 by Charles F. Davis. These three establish- ments, by healthful competition and progressive methods, are giving the medical profession and the public good service in an important and exacting calling.
An interesting relic of the drug business, as it was in its early stages in our vicinity, was found among the papers of the late Dr. Bugbee, Sr., of Waterford. It is an advertisement clearly printed by White & Clark, of Wells River, Vt., dated probably about 1825. The head lines are as follows : -
" MEDICINE.
LUTHER JEWETT,
At his shop on St. Johnsbury Plain, keeps for sale a general assort- ment of medicines. Physicians and families supplied with genuine articles cheap, especially for ready pay. The following are some of the articles."
Then follows a list of one hundred and eighty articles, whose names and virtues are familiar to the old practitioners. This is the list of pills : -
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History of Littleton.
" Relfes Asthmatic
Family Jewett's
66 Aromatic Hooper's Thayer's
Toothache
Anderson's Sias'
Lee's
Morrison's
Blue."
In the old families the terms used by Luther Jewett in his list are household words, and they have very little of the mystery that surrounds the voluminous catalogues of modern pharmacy.
Dentistry has now become a profession independent of our own. It has its distinct State and national organizations and its colleges. We are fortunate in obtaining a sketch of its begin- nings in this town from one of its earliest practitioners, Dr. Silas A. Sabine, of Claremont, who long held high rank as a dental surgeon. In a recent letter he says : -
" When I was in the practice of my profession at Haverhill, N. H., in January, 1845, I was constantly receiving invitations from some of the most prominent citizens of Littleton to visit that place profes- sionally. Accordingly, on the 27th of February, 1845, I took the stage under the guidance of ' Steve ' Hale, who landed me safe at the Granite House, kept by J. L. Gibb and Father - afterwards by numerous pro- prietors - where I continued to make it my home as long as the house was kept as a hotel, afterwards at the White Mountain House, kept by H. L. Thayer, the most popular landlord in the State. My first patient was Cephas Brackett. At the time of my first visit to Littleton, den- tistry was comparatively in its infancy. In a place so remote from cities, work was done in a very rude and bungling manner by itinerant dentists, who were just as likely to be tin-peddlers - meaning no dis- respect to that numerous and honorable body - who had sold out their stock, purchased a box of instruments, and were on their way home, practising upon the teeth of their too willing dupes as a means to pay expenses. The first years of my being at Littleton, the best work com- ing under my observation was from the hands of Dr. C. M. Tuttle, and I think he made no pretensions to artificial work. February 24, 1845, one G. W. Williams advertised to be at Cobleigh's hotel for a few days ; further I know nothing of him, or of any one else prior. In December, 1855, Dr. Cummings, a former partner of mine, with Dr. Smith, opened an office in the Gile building, but did not stay long. About the year 1862 or 1863 A. A. Hazeltine, a student of mine, settled in Littleton ; how long he stayed, I cannot state. The three last named were good dentists, and, I think, include all who practised at Littleton during the time I visited there, viz., from 1845 to 1870. My impression is, now, that I was the first to do artificial work with artificial gums, and the first to use what was then called Letheon."
Dr. E. G. Cummings, of Concord, adds to our information. He says : "Dr. W. M. Smith, of Claremont, and I were located at
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Lancaster, and used to run down and stop at Littleton a few days at a time, but lived at Lancaster. I think this was in 1856, 1857, and 1858. Dr. Silas A. Sabine, of Claremont, is the first man whom I know of as practising at Littleton." Dr. A. A. Hazeltine opened an office in 1861, and was the first permanent resident practitioner among us. He remained until 1867.
Others have had days in town while residing elsewhere, or have located with sojourns of brief duration. We recall, as belonging in this list, Dr. Switzer, Dr. Wood, Dr. Carey, Dr. G. O. Rogers (who has since spent ten years with large success in the practice of dentistry in China), Dr. Robinson, Dr. F. P. Patterson (whose former wife, now Mrs. Eddy, is the leading apostle of the so-called Christian Science, or mind cure). For a time Dr. Patterson had as a partner Dr. Carey, who remained less than a year. He removed to Terre Haute, Ind., in November, 1871. Following these were, in the order named, Dr. Hall, Dr. Bolles, Dr. Cooley, Dr. E. B. Hoskins, Dr. Hickok, and Dr. E. C. Gledhill, a skilful practitioner now in Providence, R. I. Our space does not permit a detailed mention of these.
Dr. Samuel C. Sawyer and Dr. Millard F. Young, who are now the representatives of this profession here, are in the first rank in their calling. Nothing would be gained in going abroad for dental work while we may command the professional services of these gentlemen.
LOCAL BOARDS OF HEALTH.
As early as 1799 the General Court authorized the inhabitants of the town of Portsmouth to establish a local board of health. By the act of January 3, 1833, this power was extended for the benefit of all the towns in the State. We are not informed as to how generally this act became operative. This town appointed its first board in 1873, and has maintained it to the present time. It has always contained at least one physician. Its work has been preventive of disease, and it is believed that what has been accom- plished has been of great value in preserving life and health in our community. Prevention receives little praise as compared with what is accorded for conspicuous cures ; but the old maxim, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," embodies the plainest statement of the most important of all the laws of health.
The establishment of a State Board of Health, in 1881, was one of the most wholesome and important pieces of legislation that can be found in our State history. With a code of health ordi- nances essential to the perfection of the system of which the town VOL II .- 9
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boards and ordinances were only branches, a long stride forward was made in the domain of State medicine. The system embodies two ideas, education of the people in hygiene, and enforcement of common-sense rules of health, as embodied in law or sanctioned by public opinion. The State board has made its influence felt in every hamlet and in almost every household. The gospel of clean- liness, as next to godliness, is preached, understood, and heeded as never before. In our own community the physicians and the people are more watchful of the sewage and kindred breeding- places of disease and death. We have been warned of our negli- gence in these matters, and the State board has pointed with the strong hand of authority to the condition of our river beds. and our schoolhouses as they were, and the remedies have been effectually applied.
Among the solid men attracted to Littleton when business was adjusted to conditions of peace and the town commenced upon a new era of prosperity, was Porter B. Watson. This was in 1867. His oldest son, Irving Allison Watson, was a sturdy young man of nineteen years. He obtained his early education at the common schools and at the old Newbury Seminary. He studied medicine with Dr. A. B. Crosby, and with his uncle, Dr. Henry L. Watson. He attended medical lectures at Dartmouth and the University of Vermont, taking his degree of M.D. from the Vermont school in 1871. Immediately he located in practice at Groveton, and mod- estly and laboriously laid the foundation for his future career. He was ten years at Groveton, The observing men in the State and White Mountain medical societies gradually came to know his worth. At length his masterly treatment of a virulent and wide- spread reign of diphtheria in his own vicinity, and his no less mas- terly investigation and discovery of the cause, and his presentation of the history of the case, with his views on the necessity of radi- cal measures in the department of practical and scientific hygiene, brought him before the medical world as a man of ideas, as a man of action, a man with a future.
Upon the establishment of a State Board of Health, his medical brethren looked to him as the one to become the executive mem- ber for the medical profession, and his many personal friends of both political parties urged his appointment.
He became secretary of that board, and a little later (1883) also Secretary of the American Public Health Association. He has left his mark deep in the health organizations of the country and in the literature of the subjects with which those associations have specially to do, and his work is but just begun.
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He was a member of the board of experts recommended by the National Health Association to plan and put in operation a sys- tem of sanitation for the State of Florida. The work of this board in ridding Florida of yellow fever and making it a phe- nomenally healthful commonwealth at all seasons, is one of the triumphs of modern sanitary science.
Dr. Watson is a prominent member of international health as- sociations, and his fame and influence have long since passed beyond the boundaries of his own country.
He has also found time to serve in the Legislature, to assume the duties of many social organizations, to make his mark as a surgeon in the military organizations of the State, by enforcing his views of military hygiene, and to assume the undertaking of a his- tory of the medical profession in the State, and other important historical work. His wife, Lena A. Farr, was of Littleton, and here is still the maternal residence. Here he is always welcomed by a host of friends, who are glad at his success and who believe in his mission.
The White Mountain Medical Society was first organized at White's Inn, at Lancaster, May 17, 1820. Dr. John Willard was made moderator, and Dr. William Burns, of this place, secretary pro tem. The association procured an act of incorporation, June 23, 1821. Dr. Eliphalet Lyman became the first permanent presi- dent. The society has maintained an uninterrupted activity in usefulness to the present time. It has drawn its membership from both sides of the Connecticut River, and has been augmented by the recent union with it of the Caledonia (Vt.) and Moosilauke (N. H.) societies. Several Littleton practitioners have been occu- pants of its presidency. These were : Dr. Burns, 1830 to 1834, 1836, 1842, 1843, 1855, and 1860; Dr. Adams Moore, 1848 and 1849; Dr. T. T. Cushman, 1865 and 1866 ; Dr. C. M. Tuttle, 1875 and 1876, and Dr. McGregor in 1899. Dr. Tuttle was also secre- tary for six years from 1849. Nearly all the other permanent residents of the profession here have labored in the various official positions of the society, in gathering material for its reports, in its discussions, in its social, educational, and remedial work. The meetings are held in the principal towns in the district by rota- tion. The doctors are always welcome guests in the occasional visitations which the society makes at Littleton.
Only five of our local practitioners of the regular school have been members of the State society. "I suppose," says Dr. Watson, "the reason that so few Littleton physicians have become members of the society was the difficulty in attending the meetings, espe-
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History of Littleton.
cially prior to the railroad reaching Littleton. It is often very difficult for a physician to leave his patients for three or four days at a time, as would be required of members living so far away from Concord as Littleton." Dr. Sanger has been promi- nent in the State society of his school, having held the presidency several terms.
Our people are regularly called upon to contribute to the sup- port of that numerous class of practitioners who come among us claiming special gifts, such as no one who is educated for the pro- fession by the best preceptors, and by the best schools which the country affords, and such as no one but a stranger from afar is supposed to possess. These itinerants, not to say tramps, find patronage for a time ; but, as the novelty of an original advertise- ment wears off, and the public slowly recognize the old humbug in a new guise, they are gone to greener fields, and a new fraud comes upon the scene. The mystery of the human system is so great, the hope of cure for the incurable is so universal, the multitude of imaginary ills is so vast, that quackery in medicine will doubtless prey upon credulity, until ignorance and superstition are banished from men's minds, and wisdom bears the universal sceptre. We ought to know, without a hesitating doubt, that he who has the great art of healing will never need to hawk his gifts from hamlet to hamlet. His fame will bring the sick to him, or they will call him to them, regardless of distance or of price. Such a physician will not be a tramp or a mountebank. He will stand up in com- munities as a conspicuous figure. He will be a monument of his profession in some permanent location. He will face the conse- quences of his acts, and will abide the verdict of his life-work among the people who have known him as a man as well as a physician. The tramp doctor, on the other hand, is gone when disaster results to the simple one who trusted him. In his suc- cessive places, the lesson of his previous deceptions is lost, for what those like him have done is forgotten in the glare of novelty, and the hope of an impending miracle. The miracle is always paid for, but never delivered. We do not hesitate to say that the mischief of believing that the violation of nature's law can obtain immunity by medical, physical, or spiritual magic is incalculable. There is no wisdom here that does not recognize the law of cause and effect in the workings of the physical system. When science and skill, disciplined together in experience, have done their best for humanity, it is folly to seek in this enlightened age for a sus- pension of the physical laws of life or health.
The relations of the clerical and medical professions in Littleton
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have generally been harmonious. Their representatives have often been called to minister at the same bedside, and have joined in the effort to alleviate human suffering and comfort human sorrow. Each came in the town's infancy, equipped in accordance with the requirements of the times, for the prosecution of a humane mission. Each now beliolds a marvellous change and undoubted progress.
Dr. Worcester was compelled, by the state of his health, to abandon his theological studies and reinforce the profession of medicine. His contemporary and townsman, the Rev. Harry Brickett, then a resident of Littleton, after graduating at Dart- mouth in 1840, prosecuted a medical course in the medical school at Hanover until he was substantially fitted for the practice, but afterwards became a minister of the Congregationalist order. These cases may be set off against each other.
A more recent pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. George Beebe, was a graduate of the New York University Medical School in the class of 1864. He was a warrant surgeon in the United States service in the last years of the war of the rebellion. He entered the ministry in 1867, and his sermons were frequently tinctured with the lore and experience of his former profession. The "White Mountain Echo " of August 30, 1879, contains an abstract of a pointed sermon by Mr. Beebe, at Bethle- hem, on the allied gospels of health and prosperity, under the title of " A Prophetic Discourse."
Our townsman, the Rev. Charles W. Millen, was the orator recently at the Commencement of the New York Eclectic Medical College. His address, which was published, indicates that he might well have squared accounts with Dr. Beebe, as did Dr. Worcester with the Rev. Mr. Brickett, in maintaining the equi- librium of the professions. Whatever may be said of these exchanges of the personnel of the two professions, there is no question that a mutual benefit must accrue from a liberal interchange of ideas.
Epidemics and contagious diseases have been of rare occurrence in our history. As the town had been quite sparsely settled until very near 1798, the year in which Jenner announced his discovery, the ravages of small-pox among the inhabitants, presumably, would not be so general or serious as to make its local features a subject of record. The State had taken such legislative action as was usual at that period, requiring isolation, providing quarantine, authorizing hospitals, and punishing for wilful communication of the infection. It does not appear that there was ever any notable
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spread of small-pox in this town. In 1807, however, it prevailed to some extent, and a pest-house was established near Leavitt's pond, on the Charlton place, and another at the house of Joshua Lewis, not far from the Waterford bridge. The site of the house is a part of the land of Levi B. Dodge. The buildings are gone. Dr. Ainsworth was one of those who were attacked. One of the isolated patients demonstrated the futility of that method, so far as he was personally concerned, by leaving his place of confine- ment and posting himself on the bridge in the way of all passers. Another person was incarcerated as a small-pox victim, but his symptoms developed into nothing more epidemic than the itch. Vaccination had become so general that our people never knew much of small-pox in its ancient virulence. Indeed, statistics now show that its fatality is not one per cent of that from diphtheria and scarlatina. The peculiar dread of small-pox that still exists is based upon conditions which prevailed before vaccination was practised ; but there is no longer any reasonable foundation for it.
Spotted fever (cerebro-spinal meningitis) was first observed in this country, in 1806, in Medfield, Mass., although it had been known in Europe in 1505, where it prevailed to an alarming extent. In April, 1807, it appeared in Connecticut, and con- tinued to prevail in different towns in the State, through the years 1808 and 1809. It is said to have appeared in Deerfield, N. H., as early as 1807, but did not prevail as an epidemic throughout the State until two or three years later, and remained as late as 1815 or 1816. In 1809, 1810, and 1811 it prevailed quite generally throughout Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada. Its march was very erratic, as may be seen from the fact that the disease prevailed in Bath in 1811, in Walpole, Bethlehem, and Littleton in 1812, in Gilman- ton and Croydon in 1813, in Boscawen in 1814, while Warren was not reached till 1815, when it prevailed in that place with fearful malignancy. During the period named, it prevailed in the State in other localities than the towns above mentioned, but these instances are given to show the peculiarities of its progress.
Scarlatina is a malady that is never inactive. In 1832 and 1842 it prevailed with very serious fatality. It has reappeared at inter- vals in the entire period of the history of the town. A consider- able mortality resulted from it in the winter and spring of 1874. Since then we have seen but little of it. It is a noteworthy fact that at no one of the periods of its severest visitation in our midst was it as violent or fatal as in other towns of the vicinity.
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Whether this amelioration of the effects of this affliction was owing to methods of treatment for which our local practitioners should have credit, or to more favorable local conditions, we cannot say. Perhaps it was attributable in a measure to each of these influences. The disease is apparently under better control than formerly. Nevertheless, it has, and deserves, the most serious attention of the best intellect and acquirement of the profession, for we have abundant reason to view its approach with alarm.
A woman who returned here from a visit abroad in 1863 had contracted diphtheria. In greeting her friends she communicated the disease, and it raged with fatal effect for several months. Many deaths resulted, and it gave the medical profession the most serious test they had encountered since the advent of spotted fever in 1812. Its character was very malignant. Young and old were victims. It recurred in 1869, but with less fatality. The activity of sanitary reforms of recent years is undoubtedly making itself effective in undermining the strongholds of these so-called epidemic disorders. The putrid sore throat of former times is closely allied to diphtheria. The accounts of its ravages, as given by Belknap, the historian, and our own experience, would best be forgotten, were it not that they are the whip and spur that must drive on the sanitary reform, which is as yet only in the first stages of development, and which science and philanthropy alike demand.
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