USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the city of Nashua, N.H. > Part 39
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"There was a great deal of fault found among the physicians, and the city sent and asked me to come here. My father advised me to come and I did so. We organized a hospital, now known as a pest house. There were two halls, and they put up a partition between them and used one of them
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for men and one for women. They removed all, who had been exposed, to the pest house, where they were immediately vaccinated. Several had varioloid. The pest house was in the building which is now where Mr. Stark's and Mr. Bailey's office is. I remained here from that time continually.
"It also happened that after that set of patients had been moved away and it was supposed that everybody was thoroughly vaccinated there was one old lady who defied the officers and would not be vaccinated, and assured them she would not die till her time had come. That old lady was taken sick and the physicians who attended her either did not know what ailed her, or else they concealed it for it was a very bad case. We moved the family all over to the pest house. The old lady died (her time had come). She was the only one who died except the child, who died before it was found out what the trouble was."
There were quite a few persons afflicted with the small pox at that time, but only two deaths, as has been said. Many cases were of the varioloid type, due, no doubt, to the wholesale vaccination which was forcibly insisted upon by the local health officers. Doctor Spalding did very efficient work in caring for the existing cases and also in the employment of all prophylactic measures which, by his advice, the authorities deemed necessary. At the present writing Doctor Spalding has reached the good age of 82 years, a statement which, however, is not to be construed that he is this old, except in the minor consideration of years .* One rarely if ever, meets a man, and much less a physician, who has undertaken and completed the amount of physical and mental labor that has fallen to his lot, and still retain the freshness and vigor of upright manhood as is expressed in his every appearance.
Doctor Spalding first settled in Nashua as a permanent practitioner in the year 1837, as a partner of Dr. Micah Eldredge, and from the day of his commencement, even up to his eightieth birthday, he has applied himself very closely to the varied duties devolving upon him and never allowed himself any considerable rest or release from their cares. He was forced, by reason of business in the banks and other large corporations, to retire practically from the practice of medicine at an early date, yet never has he lost that peculiar zest and love for the profession that characterizes all true physicians. He always was a careful and close reader of recent medical literature and there is scarcely any new theory or method of any importance of which he is in ignorance.
'The schools, city offices, banks, mills, and large estates, and, last but not least, the churches, all are able and willing to attest to the large benevolence and beneficence of his kind heart, and no one in all the wide domain of our now flourishing and prosperous city can be found to think an unkind thought concerning him. At the age of eighty years he retired from most of the public positions held in trust to a much needed and imperative rest; but never, so long as his physical and mental qualities remain intact will the citizens of Nashua permit him to retreat from public view altogether, nor seek the less to obtain his advice and counsel on all measures which pertain to their welfare and advancement.
In the year 1838 there came to Nashua Dr. Josiah Kittredge, a graduate from the Harvard Medical school and one having five years of previous practice in the city of Boston. Doctor Kittredge had received a rather exceptional education and profited much by it. He served the city in various ways, being city physician for the years 1854 and 1855. Doctor Kittredge was a thoroughly good Christian man and nothing so pleased him as to be continually doing good in our schools and churches. There can be little learned concerning his especial work in the practice of medicine save that he collected about himself, during nearly twenty years' stay in Nashua, a large number of friends and patients and was universally successful in his work. He moved to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1836, there to become the resident physician of the school, and died at the home of his son in Connecticut in the year 1872.
In the decade of years immediately following 1840 there was quite an accession to the ranks of the medical fraternity,-Dr. E. B. Hammond coming in the year 1840; Dr. J. F. Whittle in 1844; Dr. O. A. Woodbury in 1848; and Drs. B. Colby, S. A. Toothaker, H. W. Buxton, W. E. Rider and J. H. Graves.
Concerning the five latter we know very little of any historical worth, save that Dr. J. H. Graves, a young brother of Dr. J. G. Graves, was marked out to be a very promising physician, being peculiarly adapted to winning friends and the trust of the community. His valuable life was
* Since writing the above Dr. Edward Spalding died suddenly of apoplexy at his fishing lodge in Maine, June 22, 1895.
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cut short by an early death and many are to be found even now, living, who prophesied a very brilliant career for him had he not been thus early removed from his field of labor.
Dr. E. B. Hammond, a student of Dr. J. G. Graves, was a graduate of Harvard Medical school in 1840, and commenced practicing the same year in our city. He was a man of force and determination and possessed of great will power and self reliance.
Like Doctor Graves, his preceptor, the hard struggles of his earlier life produced the invariable effect of making his future character one of great depth and strength. During his student life his attention had early been turned to the eye, and at the very outset of his career, he gave it especial study, and for those times made quite a success as a local oculist. He removed, even during the first few years of his practice, several cataracts by the needle method, and the after success of these cases won him not a little distinction among the laity. He treated with more than ordinary ability cases of disease and injury to the eye and orbit, especially those of ulceration of the cornea.
Among children his success was very marked, due, no doubt, to his ardent love for everything young and tender. His physical make up was very robust and his early farm training which he received at his home in the New Hampshire hills stood him in good stead in the hard, uphill and laborious work of his calling. He was of large frame and strongly built, rugged and toughened to all kinds of weather, and always ready to respond to any and all sick calls. At one time for quite a period of years he held the largest obstetrical practice of any physician in Nashua, and was eminently successful in this special branch of the work. He was possessed of a large general practice which he held up to the year 1885, when he retired to private life in order to give his attention to the real estate which he had acquired.
During his professional life he found time to serve the public in numerous ways fostering with fervent care our schools and churches, and in the state and city councils was ever ready to respond to all public measures which he thought conducive to the best interest of the city. During the late Civil War he received the appointment as examining surgeon for exemption from draft, and after the war, for years, he was the only surgeon for the examination for pensions is this part of New Hampshire. Doctor Hammond died from an attack of double pneumonia in the year 1887, mourned by a large family and a larger circle of friends and patients.
Dr. J. F. Whittle, as has been said, came to Nashua in the year 1844, and continued to reside and practice his profession here until within a few years of his death which occurred in the year 1888. He was the first of the school of Hahnemann to come to our town. The public, heretofore, were obliged to be contented with the regular or so called old-school physicians, and in those days the feeling was deeper and more pronounced against the homeopathic practitioner than at any time since, inasmuch as the good that that class of physicians has done to the medical world, as a leavening power, had not as yet been demonstrated. Doctor Whittle was an enthusiastic worker and devotee to his calling, and being possessed of strong and vigorous powers, he was enabled to withstand the hard work which of necessity was an extra element against him in winning patients to his belief. Somewhat gruff in voice and manner and very set in his opinions, yet withal of a kind and compassionate heart. As remembered during the latter years of his life he had somewhat the appearance of a patriarch of old, wearing a long flowing beard and hair longer than is usual, and both snow white. With eyes quite dark and brows to match, he possessed quite a convincing look and that, no doubt, did much to aid him in the magnetic power he seemed to possess over his patients To the advanced student in homœopathy of the present time his ideas were no doubt, crude and even harsh, but it must be remembered that he was one against many, and may, if somewhat fanatical in his work, be more readily forgiven from the very fact of his absolute belief.
Following Doctor Whittle, in the year 1846, came Dr. N. P. Carter who for years kept the well known drug store at the end of Factory street. Doctor Carter, although not a regular graduate from a medical school, obtained a good education both in common school branches as well as those of medicine and surgery from the different preceptors with whom he was associated. He practiced in Nashua until his death in 1868. He was a so-called botanic physician and had quite a considerable practice which, however, was more of a medical than of a surgical nature. Doctor Carter was a very quiet man, of few words and of a most kindly disposition and possessed a very charitable heart, by virtue of which he was well beloved by many friends and patients.
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Dr. O. A. Woodbury, practicing in the same belief as Doctor Whittle, came to Nashua in the year 1848. He died in Nashua while in active practice, in the year 1875. Doctor Woodbury was a thorough and strictly conscientious Christian both in his public and private life and work. He was not a robust man, neither was he weakly in his physical appearance; and he managed to draw unto himself a very large number of patients and believers in his kind of practice, to each of whom he endeared himself by his noble self-sacrifice, assiduity and devotion, not only to their physical welfare, but also to their mental wants. He labored hard in church matters and the various societies of which he was a member. He will long be missed by many yet living, who, though perhaps not patients, loved him as an honest God-fearing man.
During the decade immediately following 1850, there were nine physicians who came and practiced in Nashua, seven of whom made this place their home until the end of their lives. One of these is still living and two have removed to other parts. Their names are as follows, mentioned in the order of their arrival : Dr. J. C. Garland, arrived in 1850, Drs. Samuel Ingalls and N. J. Moore in 1852; Dr. Geo. Gray in 1853; Drs. Edwin Colburn and L. P. Sawyer in 1854; Drs. F. B. Ayer and W. A. Tracy in 1856 and Dr. Ezra L. Griffin in 1858. Doctors Ingalls and Griffin removed soon after to other parts but were well known and liked while they resided in Nashua.
Dr. J. C. Garland is still living at present writing. Coming to Nashua in 1850 he has continued to reside here, for the most part, continually from that time. Doctor Garland is a faithful physician and an honest Christian, and, during his long life of practice and other labors, has fought most conscientiously all life's battles and won not a little distinction. Doctor Garland served as surgeon during the late Civil War and since then, at two different periods, has been appointed a member of the examining board of surgeons for pensions. He served the city in a number of ways, being at one time its city physician. In all public measures his opinion has been much sought for and desired. He practiced in a quiet way and proved himself a very profound thinker and sage counsellor. He retired some few years ago to a much needed rest, but even now, though in his eighty-first year of life, we can testify as to the perfect astuteness of his mind and clearness of perception.
Dr. N. J. M. Moore lived and practiced in Nashua from 1852 until his death in 1882, a part of which time, however, was spent in the service of the United States Volunteer army as surgeon. He was a large man, physically and mentally, of quick, generous impulse, and with steady indomitable pluck and perseverance, well skilled in the hospitals of both Ireland and England, and was ably fitted to fill any position in life's work from that of a professorship even to the duties of a simple country practitioner and patient's friend. He had great trust and implicit confidence in his own abilities. Nor were they misplaced. There was never an operation however hazardous, from which he shrunk. He leaned to the surgical side of his work by preference and his war experience gave additional vigor and impulse to this inclination. He more than once successfully performed ovariotomy and hysterectomy and was studious to a most remarkable degree in all things pertaining to advanced science.
Dr. George Gray commenced the practice of medicine in Nashua in 1853 as partner of Doctor Moore, which partnership was dissolved soon after 1860. He was very successful and held at one time probably the largest practice of any physician in town. He was a man of most gracious, pleasing appearance and address, and his ready, courteous demeanor impressed his patients and greatly added to his well deserved popularity. His cordial kindness and interest as an alleviator 'of all ills peculiar to the gentler sex was pre-eminent, and in personal politeness he was propriety itself. His early death cut short a very eventful career as a skillful adviser and surgeon. He died from diphtheria in 1876, which disease was contracted from a patient he was attending.
Dr. Edwin Colburn followed in his father's footsteps and was identified with the interests of Nashua all his life. Doctor Colburn was killed most cruelly by the very animal he most heartily loved, having his skull fractured by the kick of a favorite horse in 1892. Doctor Colburn had practiced over thirty years and was universally successful. He was a man of few words but firm convictions and a good judge of all things in which he took interest. He was very kind hearted yet saving and left a large estate. He had, but a few weeks previous to his death, occupied a beautiful house on his estate on Concord street, and was preparing to enjoy a life of ease and comfort.
Dr. Levi P. Sawyer, brother of the well known grocer, Reuben M. Sawyer, commenced the practice of medicine in Nashua in the year 1854. He was universally liked from the very start, and
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had no trouble whatever in winning patients. His sterling qualities as a strictly honest and upright man showed themselves clearly throughout his subsequent successful, though rather short career. He was one of the kindest and most sympathetic of men, and the poor had good reason to mourn his loss. He died in the year 1868.
Dr. F. B. Ayer commenced business in Nashua in 1856 as a druggist in company with Dr. W. A. Tracy, both also practicing their profession whenever opportunity offered. He did not remain long, however, in the practice of medicine, and soon entered the firm of Eaton & Ayer as bobbin makers, where he was very successful, and laid up quite a large fortune for his family. He died in 1882.
Dr. W. A. Tracy also came to town in 1856 and died in 1864, a short eight years of professional life, yet enough to show his great patriotism to his country, the more self-sacrificing from the fact that he had a wife and young children to leave. He was one of the most painstaking and careful men in the profession. Strictly honest and over-scrupulous in his dealings with all men, and a close and zealous practitioner, there was not during his life one cloud or spot to lay a finger upon showing a disreputable or dishonest act. He was charity itself, and expected from others what he was ever anxious to accord to them, a fair Christian treatment. He enlisted in the service of the United States early in the history of the late war as surgeon, and after having suffered from sickness and disease, returned home, at the close, to enter a competitive medical and surgical examination for the position of surgeon in the regular army. These examinations were very severe and most critical, occupying a week or more both in theoretical and practical work, they being obliged to demonstrate their work on subjects provided for the purpose. In spite of the fact that there were a large number seeking the place, Dr. Tracy was chosen first of the four successful candidates. He never lived to enjoy his hard earned victory and honors, but died shortly after having received his commission, of quick consumption.
There was also a physician, who, although coming here in the year 1857, did not remain, till a few- years later, to practice medicine; his name was James B. Greeley. With the exception of a short residence in Massachusetts, and the time spent in the Civil War as surgeon, he has ever continued to reside here up to the time of his retirement from public life to his ancestral town of Merrimack. He had a long busy professional career, entering the army a surgeon andin spite of a serious wound in the head, where for seventeen long years he carried a rebel bullet, he managed to do quite a large professional business. His large property claimed much of his attention and he retired somewhat from active work even before the results of the wound in his head demanded complete rest. At present he is living quietly at his homestead at Thornton's Ferry, Merrimack.
Dr. Thomas H. Gibby, a graduate from Harvard Medical school, also came to Nashua somewhere about 1851 or 1852, but immediately entered the drug business and rarely practiced his calling. He carried on the apothecary trade in the old drug store under the Baptist church, and many remember him, not only as a skillful druggist but as a well read physician. He diedin Nashua in the year 1893, aged sixty-six years.
From 1860 until 1870 there came to Nashua Dr. Geo. W. Currier, Dr. Andrew J. Gilson, Dr. E. F. McQuesten, Dr. Geo. F. Wilber and Dr. Geo. H. Noyes.
Dr. Geo. W. Currier settled in Nashua in 1864, and during the following year served as a volunteer surgeon under the call of the governor of the State of New Hampshire. His experience in army life, although not long, was intense and eventful while it lasted, in being at the time when men were hurried forth in enormous numbers to be slaughtered and killed for liberty's sake. His kindly nature made him an excellent nurse as well as surgeon, and many poor wounded fellows have reason to be grateful for having fallen into his hands. After the war he entered into the drug business in connection with his profession, and at present is continuing in this same line. His interest in the management of his large property has compelled him to somewhat limit his work in the practice of medicine, but during the past thirty years he has served the city as city physician, and in numerous other capacities, and has always shown keen judgment and upright dealing in every work.
Dr. Andrew J. Gilson came to Nashua as a practitioner in 1866, but soon removed to Massachusetts, where he remained for some time and then moved to some other part of the United States. His stay was rather brief and little can be learned concerning him.
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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. II.
Dr. E. F. McQuesten settled in Nashua in the year 1867, having practiced for a year in Massachusetts prior to that time. Doctor McQuesten is still in active practice in our town, standing unquestionably the first among its many practitioners. His quiet, ready warmth in all his friendships, his quick, intuitive sympathy with all his patients; and the happy faculty of knowing just what to do at all times, have won for him great distinction and renown. He controls the largest practice with the greatest ease. As a surgeon he is pre-eminent, having become quite prominent for the abdominal section and the various gynecoligical cases coming under his care. As a citizen his work is acknowledged to be most valuable, having served in various offices, being at one time city physician.
Dr. Geo. F. Wilber first settled in Nashua in 1867. He had before this accepted the position of volunteer surgeon under the call of the governor of New Hampshire, and did good service during the remainder of the War of the Rebellion. He then commenced civil practice, and has continued to build up a good reputation and fortune ever since. His practice throughout the surrounding towns is very considerable, and many a country household claim him for their family physician. He has served the city as the city physician, and is one of the foremost citizens regarding the interest of the town. Doctor Wilber is still in active practice and, although suffering from malaria contracted in the South, has probably still many years of busy life before him.
Dr. Geo. H. Noyes did not settle in this city until 1869, although he had been in practice at other places for quite a period. He served throughout the entire war, an honor not held by many surgeons, and his experience there was of such a nature as to entitle him to be placed in the front ranks of surgeons in any part of the country. He did not enter largely into professional work at Nashua, owing to the fact of his being obliged to manage a large estate belonging to his parents; but during his life with us he took great interest in following out all new ideas and innovations peculiar to the practice of medicine and surgery. He died in this city in the year 1881.
During the ten years from 1870 to 1880 there came to practice in our city the following physicians : Dr. Geo. P. Greeley, Dr. P. E. Dansereau, Dr. Eugene Wason, Dr. J. G. Graves, Dr. S. G. Dearborn, Dr. C. S. Collins, Dr. Henry G. Dearborn, Dr. R. J. Hallaren, and Dr. W. S. Collins.
Dr. George P. Greeley first came to Nashua as a physician in 1872 or 1873, and has called this his home ever after until his death, which occurred in his winter home in Florida in the year 1892. Doctor Greeley was a surgeon in General Halleck's division in the late war, and has a long war record which redounds to his credit. He was a cool, calculating man, always looking calmly on all sides of a case in hand, and, after having formed his opinion, was firm as a rock in it. As a surgeon he had few if any equals in this city. His winter home took him from Nashua for so many months of the year that it broke into his practice, and he at last retired permanently from it a few years before his death. In all his convictions he was a self-made, self-reliant man, and was, in spite of a seemingly cold exterior, ever a warm hearted, devoted, sympathetic friend and physician. He was most loyal to his friends, and his loss to them thus seemed doubly severe.
Dr. P. E. Dansereau enjoys the distinction of being Nashua's first French physician, who made this place his home, coming here in the year 1872, and at the present time is in full enjoyment of sound health and a large practice. He is, besides being very deservedly popular among his own people, well known and honored by the citizens of this place. He never lacked for patients since starting in business, and although never prominent in politics, his opinion is often sought regarding the interest of his own people, and his large, honest heart is always ready to assist them in any way possible. He has been very successful and at the present time is possessed of a fine property, which, as a home-loving man, he enjoys with comfort and pride.
Dr. Eugene Wason first began business in Nashua as a druggist, having bought out Dr. N. P. Carter's drug store on Factory street. However, in 1872 he graduated from the Harvard Medical school and commenced practicing in this city. He soon removed to Londonderry, and later to Massachusetts and then to Milford, where he is at present located.
Dr. J. G. Graves, a nephew of Dr. F. G. Graves, the senior, came here a second time as a practitioner in 1873, and has remained here until present writing. He practiced in Nashua for three or four years immediately following 1857. He has been quite successful and holds a large number of patients. He is at present assisted by his son, Dr. Irving F. Graves. Dr. J. G. Graves is a quiet unassuming man, but one of great force of character, and, although not a politician, is thoroughly interested in all the city affairs. He has probably many years of active work still before him.
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