USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 34
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integrity was never questioned, and he had the confidence and respect of all. His preparation of his causes for trial was most thorough, and he argued them to the jury and to the court with earnestness and force. His example can be cited to young men entering upon the legal profession as in all respects worthy of imitation.
He died March 19, 1888, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.
Alva Wood was a native of Georgetown, Massachusetts, and was born August 18, 1821. He received his education in the schools of that place and at Pembroke Academy. His law studies he pursued in the office of Bell and Tuck in Exeter, was admitted to practice about 1847, and immediately opened his office in the town. He had the art of making acquaintances easily, and soon became known as an active, working lawyer. His business in- creased as time went on, until few of the practitioners in the county could show so heavy a docket as his. Ile was persistent and spared no pains to carry out his plans, and succeeded in some instances where a less determined person would have failed. He was liberal in his practice, and by his uniform good nature and obliging disposition preserved friendly relations with all, even those who represented the most adverse interests. The legal pro- fession was to him at once his occupation and his pride, and he valued his successes in it above all else. Politics he cared little for in comparison, though he maintained his fealty to his party.
For a year before his death his powers had obviously been failing, but it was not generally suspected that he was near his end, so that the news of his sudden decease February 17, 1878, was a great shock to his townsmen and friends. Enemies he had few or none, for he never allowed the friction of forensic contests to rouse any permanent ill feeling in his breast. His wife was a daughter of John C. Gerrish, and she, with a son and two daughters, survived him.
The life of George C. Peavey, several years of which were passed in Exeter, was a remarkable one. An injury to his spine, caused by an accident, resulted in almost total inability to walk, and such sensitiveness of his eyes to the light, that he was practi- cally almost blind. He was compelled to pass most of his time in a reelining position, with a bandage over his eyes. Most men would have despaired of performing any business under such cir- cumstances. Not so he. He had studied law, and he entered
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vigorously into practice. He found somebody to read to him and to write for him. He lay upon his lounge in the office and in court, but he could talk, and he had the command of all needed faculties.
After remaining ten years or upwards in Exeter he went to Strafford, was married to a devoted wife, who was not only eyes but hands and feet to him ever afterwards. With her aid he carried on not only a large law practice, but four country stores besides, and extensive dealings in lumber. Nearly twenty years afterwards some favorable features in his malady encouraged him again to remove to Exeter, but he found that he could not con- tinue there without a recurrence of his worst symptoms, and he returned to Strafford, where he died May 5, 1876, at the age of sixty-one years.
Other names, besides those mentioned, are found upon the roll of practitioners of the law in Exeter. Joseph Bell purposed making the place his home and staid there a short time in 1812 before he began his successful career in Haverhill. Thomas Rice appears to have been there in 1817 and Abram Smith in 1829, but of them we learn nothing. Gilman Marston came in 1840, and a brief sketch of him will be found in the chapter on the War for the Union. David A. Gregg, who had practised in Derry, came to Exeter in 1842, to take the office of Register of Probate.
He died in Derry in 1866. Melburn F. Eldridge had an office in the town two or three years between 1840 and 1850, and then took his departure, it is believed, to Nashua. E. Frank Tucke, a native of Kensington, a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1843, and a man of many winning qualities, began business in the place about three years afterwards, but died in 1857 at the early age of thirty-five years. J. Hamilton Shapley, a native of Portsmouth and for a number of years a lawyer there, filled the offices of Reg- ister of Deeds and Register of Probate, in Exeter, and continued in practice there for a time, but has now retired from the active pursuit of his profession. Nathaniel Gordon, a native of the town and a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1842, practised law for a number of years after 1850, and then quitted it for what he found to be more profitable occupation. Horace C. Bacon studied law with John S. Wells and was his partner from about 1852 to 1856, and then removed to Epping and afterwards to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Nathaniel G. Perry, a native of the town and a graduate of Harvard College, had barely entered into practice
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when a disease of the lungs cut short his career. Charles H. Bell came to the place from Somersworth in 1854, and practised law about fourteen years, ten of which he was solicitor of the county, and then retired. John W. Clark kept an office in Exeter from about 1857 to 1868, and went to Washington, D. C., to accept a position in one of the departments. Moses N. Collins has already been noticed in one of the military chapters. Samuel H. Stevens, who had practised law in Bristol, became cashier of the Granite State Bank in Exeter in 1856, and remained a few years, but afterwards fixed his residence in Concord, where he died in 1876. Samuel M. Wilcox, a former practitioner in Orford and in Fran- cestown, entered into partnership with John S. Wells about 1859, and after his decease continned in practice in the town a few years, and then removed to Washington, D. C. Francis O. French was a partner of Amos Tuck two or three years after 1860, and then became a banker, first in Boston and afterwards in New York. Benjamin F. Ayer removed from Chicago, Illinois, to Exeter in 1862, but after a brief stay returned again. Hendrick D. Batchelder practised law in the town a few years about 1860, and then went to Poughkeepsie, New York. John J. Bell, who had resided in Maine, came to Exeter about 1865, and after prac- tising his profession about ten years and accepting the office of Judge of the Police Conrt, retired. Andrew Wiggin opened an office in the town about 1865 and after a few years removed to Boston. Joseph F. Wiggin, a native of Exeter, entered practice between 1860 and 1870, and for a few years held the office of Judge of Probate. For some time past he has had an office in Boston, but retained a connection with some lawyer in Exeter. S. Dana Wingate was admitted an attorney about 1867, and did a considerable probate and pension business, but died shortly after. Charles U. Bell began practice in Exeter about 1868, and after about five years went to Lawrence, Massachusetts. B. Marvin Fernald was a partner of Joseph F. Wiggin for a time, and is now in Boston. P. Webster Locke, L. G. Hoyt and Fred S. Hatch each passed from one to three or four years in Exeter, and have gone elsewhere.
The present lawyers in practice in the town are Gilman Marston, J. Warren Towle, Thomas Leavitt, Albert C. Buzell, Edwin G. Eastman, Charles H. Knight, Arthur O. Fuller, Henry A. Shute and E. W. Ford.
CHAPTER XIX.
MEDICAL MEN.
THE number of physicians of education in the country two cen- turies ago was very small. Exeter had none that we know of. Walter Barefoote, so far as is recollected, was the only one in the province. But it is not to be supposed that there was an entire absence of practitioners of the healing art. There were always those who had a certain skill in nursing and administering to the relief of the sick, even if they did not claim the ambitious title of doctors. Barbers practised venesection. Clergymen frequently studied medicine in addition to divinity, as did Dr. John Phillips, that they might minister to bodies as well as to minds diseased.
But it was not until one-quarter of the seventeenth century had passed, that a regular physician was established in Exeter. It was, perhaps, an era in the history of the town. The doctor was a man of consequence in the early times, second only to the min- ister. His dress indicated the importance of his profession. His cocked hat and full bottomed wig and his indispensable cane were awe-inspiring, to say nothing of his saddle bags stuffed with strange and nauseating medicaments which he dispensed with profusion to his patients.
The mistakes of the early doctors, if they made any, in prescrib- ing internal remedies, are long buried out of remembrance. But some accounts of the manner of their treatment of external in- juries have been preserved. One of those worthies is said to have replaced and bound on, upside down, a toe which had been cut from a patient's foot, and it grew so. Another put bandages around the hands of a child which had been badly burned, confin- ing the fingers together, so that they adhered to each other and could not be separated.
Exeter's first physician, so far as can be discovered, was Dr. Thomas Deane. He was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, born November 28, 1694, and a son of Thomas Deane. The family
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moved to Hampton while the son was a young man, and this, per- haps, led him to Exeter. There in 1718 he married Deborah, daughter of the Rev. John Clark, and afterwards made his home. Where and to what extent he prepared himself for his profession is not known, but he began practice, without doubt, no long time after his marriage. He lived in Exeter till his death in 1768. He was onee or twice chosen to the office of selectman, but his pref- erence seemed to be for military position. He was a captain and afterwards major in the militia, and upon the books of the town, where every man's rank was scrupulously given him, his profes- sional was usually supplanted by his military title.
Dr. Deane was one of the proprietors of the town of Gilmanton and took an active part in building up the second church and parish in Exeter, which is the more noticeable as his wife was a step- daughter of the Rev. John Odlin, the minister of the old parish. No evidence of his professional skill has come down to us, but he was not without books. One which belonged to him-The Art of Chirurgery-is still preserved, in the possession of John Ward Dean of Boston, a descendant.
Dr. Deane is said to have lived on the east side of the river in a house next to that afterwards occupied by Dr. Nathaniel Peabody. He had three wives and eleven children.
We learn from the diary of the Rev. Nicholas Gilman that on returning from Cambridge to Exeter greatly indisposed, July 10, 1725, he "applied himself" to Dr. Sargent. It is not known that this was an Exeter practitioner. It is probable that he was of Hampton or Salisbury, Massachusetts, where there were families of the name.
The next Exeter physician in the order of time, so far as has been ascertained, was Dr. Josiah Gilman, a son of Judge Nicholas Gilman. He was born in Exeter February 25, 1710, and died January 1, 1793. In 1731 he married Abigail, daughter of Captain Eliphalet Coffin. Where he studied his profession we do not know ; quite probably, however, with Dr. Deane. Dr. Gilman was a medical practitioner in the town for probably half a century, and seems to have satisfied the people. In that time he saw several competitors enter the field, but apparently they did not crowd him out.
He was a man of considerable education, with good business capacity. He subscribed for a copy of Prince's Chronology, shortly after reaching his majority, and was clerk of the Pro-
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prietors of Gilmanton more than thirty years, as well as the draftsman of a plan of that town. He was the father of ten children.
Dudley Odlin was born September 22, 1711, a son of the Rev. John Odlin of Exeter. He was a practitioner of medicine, and so far as is known, was never married. He built the large gambrel roofed house on Front street, afterwards occupied by Colonel Nathaniel Gilman. He died at the age of thirty-six, and by his will gave the house to his nephew Dr. John Odlin.
Robert Gilman was a son of Colonel John, and a brother of Brigadier Peter Gilman. He was born June 2, 1710, and was bred a physician. His wife, by whom he had three children, was Priscilla Bartlett. The most that can be learned of Dr. Robert Gilman is that he volunteered to go as a surgeon in the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, and was wounded in the leg by a piece of shell, on account of which the Assembly of the province made him an allowance. His wife had died in 1743, and it is probable that he did not survive his injury many years.
Dr. Eliphalet Hale appears to be the next Exeter physician in chronological order. He was a son of Nathan Hale of Newbury, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1714. He was in practice in Exeter before 1750, and died at the age of fifty years. His first wife was Elizabeth Jackson, and his son Eliphalet was for a time a manufacturer of paper at the mill in Exeter. His second wife was a daughter of Colonel John Dennet, and after her husband's death she married Dr. John Phillips.
John Giddinge was a native of Exeter, born September 11, 1728, and a son of Zebulon Giddinge. He became a physician, and was also engaged in mercantile business. At the age of twenty-three he married Mehetabel, eldest daughter of Brigadier Peter Gilman. Dr. Giddinge was a man of prominence. He was elected selectman several years, and a representative just before and during the early years of the Revolution. He commanded a company of those who marched from Exeter to Portsmouth to support, if necessary, the party of General Sullivan and Langdon in the raid upon Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth harbor, in December, 1774, and was one of the most active and trusted sup- porters of the patriotic cause in the Legislature. In 1775 he was nominated for the important appointment of delegate to the Conti- nental Congress, but modestly withdrew his name. His death occurred, it is believed, about the year 1785.
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John Odlin was a son of the Rev. Elisha Odlin, and was born in Exeter September 4, 1732. He studied medicine, very proba- bly, with his uncle, Dr. Dudley Odlin, and practised for above twenty years in Exeter. He married Mary, daughter of Joshua Wilson, and had three children. In 1782 he sold his house in Exeter and removed to Concord where he lived afterwards.
Nathaniel Gilman was a son of Colonel Daniel Gilman and was born in Exeter about the year 1740. He was a practising physician. His wife was a Treadwell of Portsmouth. They had three children, one of whom, Nathaniel Waldron Gilman, was a merchant in the town, and died in 1854. Dr. Gilman was in practice before the Revolution and probably died about 1782.
Caleb G. Adams was born in Exeter January 8, 1752. He became a physician, and practised in the town. He married, December 8, 1774, Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Folsom of Ports- mouth, and granddaughter of General Nathaniel Folsom of Exe- ter. In 1775 he was appointed surgeon of Colonel Enoch Poor's third New Hampshire regiment, but did not remain in the service beyond that year. He died probably in 1783, leaving a widow and two children. His widow married Governor John T. Gilman.
John Lamson was a native of Exeter, and born about 1736. Ile received a medical education, and was at the age of twenty- one appointed surgeon's mate in the New Hampshire regiment raised for actual service under the command of Colonel Nathaniel Meserve. Two hundred men of the regiment were ordered to Fort William Henry at Lake George, under the command of Lieu- tenant Colonel John Goffe, and Dr. Lamson accompanied them. His adventures after the surrender of the garrison to Montcalm, have been described on page 236 of this history. After his return home, though he served in another military expedition, he spent most of the residue of his life in the practice of medicine and surgery in Exeter. He died in November, 1774.
It seems that during his captivity in Canada he manifested qualities that won the regard of the savages among whom he lived. The year after his decease a party of them visited Exeter and made inquiry for him, supposing he was still living. On being informed of his death, they all sat down and maintained profound silence for a season, that being their mode of manifesting their respect and sorrow for the departed.
Dr. Joseph Tilton was born at Hampton Falls September 26, 1744. He received his early education in the town schools there,
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and it was necessarily somewhat scanty. At sixteen years of age he began the study of medicine and surgery with Dr. Ammi R. Cutter of Portsmouth, a physician of note, and remained with him for five years. Being then fitted to commence practice he married the daughter of John Shackford of Portsmouth, and in 1767 settled in Exeter. There were then three other physicians in the place, and the opening was not a promising one. But he perse- vered, and as the fashion of the time was, opened an apothecary's shop, and offered his services as a physician and surgeon. His industry and fidelity were in a few years rewarded by a good share of practice, which extended into no less than thirteen towns, and was exceedingly laborious, as he had no means of travelling except on horseback.
During the Revolutionary War he was absent from home as the surgeon of a privateer for one or two cruises. With this excep- tion he continued his practice in Exeter for above sixty years. In early life his constitution was slender, but he strengthened it by his active habits, his temperance in eating and abstinence from ardent spirits, so that in his later years he enjoyed uninterrupted health.
IIe lived for sixty-eight years in the house still standing on the north side of Water street, nearly opposite the foot of Spring street, and died in January, 1838. He left no male descendants.
Dr. Samuel Tenney was a native of Byfield, Massachusetts, born November 27, 1748. He was educated under Master Moody at Dummer Academy, and at Harvard College, in the class of 1772. He studied medicine with Dr. Kittredge of Andover. He came to Exeter early in 1775 to settle, but on the breaking out of the Revolution determined to enter the army. He mounted his horse and rode to the vicinity of Boston, arriving just in season to assist in relieving the wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. IIe served through the war as surgeon ; one year as assistant to Dr. Eustis in a Massachusetts regiment, and afterwards in the Rhode Island line. He was present at the surrender of Burgoyne and of Cornwallis. IIe volunteered for the defence of Red Bank on the Delaware, himself using a musket in emergency ; and dressed the wounds of Count Donop who was mortally hurt in the assault upon that work. The Count delivered to him his pocket-book for safe keeping, -remarking that he looked like an honest man.
At the close of the war Dr. Tenney returned to Exeter where he married and resided for the residue of his life, though he did
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not resume professional practice. The tradition is that he had some trouble about a case of dislocation of the shoulder which he undertook to reduce, and abandoned the profession in disgust.
Ile was fond of scientific studies, and had a strong inclination towards political life. He was a member of the convention for forming the Constitution of New Hampshire in 1791; in 1793 he received the appointment of Judge of Probate for Rockingham county, which he held until 1800 when he was elected a member of Congress. He served there for three terms. His death occurred in 1816.
Dr. Tenney was a member of several literary, historical and seientific societies and contributed articles to their publications. For the American Academy of Arts and Sciences he wrote an account of the mineral waters of Saratoga, and a theory of pris- matic colors ; for the Massachusetts Historical Society a historical and topographical account of Exeter, and a notice of the dark day, May 19, 1780 ; and for the Massachusetts Agricultural Society a much approved treatise on oreharding. He also prepared valu- able political essays for the newspapers, particularly in favor of the Federal Constitution, in 1788.
He was a man of fine presence, and of much dignity. His domestic and social relations were of the happiest character. Ile was universally esteemed and respected, and in his death, his townsmen felt that they had met with no ordinary loss.
Dr. Tenney's wife was Tabitha, daughter of Samuel Gilman, a highly accomplished lady. She was the author of two or more published works, the chief of which was Female Quixotism which had mueh popularity in its time, and went through several editions.
Dr. Nathaniel Peabody was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts, March 1, 1741. He never attended school a day but derived his early education from his father who was an eminent physician. He studied and practised medicine with him from twelve to eighteen years of age and till his father's death. When he was twenty he settled in Plaistow, now Atkinson, and obtained an extensive practice as a physician. At thirty years of age he was commis- sioned by the royal governor, a justice of the peace and quorum. In 1774 he was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the militia. He espoused with ardor the cause of his country, and took part in the raid upon Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth harbor in December of that year.
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In the earlier years of the Revolution he was a leading member of the Legislature, and of the Committee of Safety. In 1778 he was appointed adjutant general of the militia of the State, and served as such that year in Rhode Island. In 1779 he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. After his return home he was for several years a member of the State Legislature, and major general of the militia.
He was one of the chief founders of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and received from Dartmouth College the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Doctor or, as he was commonly styled, General Peabody was fond of display, and probably injured his property by indulging in it, and in the later years of his life his affairs became deranged, and he was arrested by his creditors for debt, and committed to jail in Exeter. Thus it happened that he became a resident of the town for about twenty years. He enjoyed the privilege of the prison limits, and was not actually confined, but lived in a house on the eastern side of the river, not far from the Great bridge. But he was restricted to certain bounds, which he could not pass without involving his sureties in heavy liability. The limits, however, allowed him the freedom of the greater part of the village.
He continued to practise his profession, to some extent, through life, and was esteemed a physician of skill and learning.
Dr. Peabody in his best days had the confidence and respect of the prominent men among whom he moved. But pecuniary embarrassments exposed him to the charge of dishonorable deal- ings, and his manners were not such as to render him an agreeable companion. He was cynical in his notions, and having himself great powers of endurance, he had little patience with others who complained. IIe had probably acquired the rough habits and expressions of the camp, also, and employed them without much discrimination. He is said to have been a man of wit, and to have had his softer side ; but, apparently, he did not often present it to others.
He was undoubtedly a man of much ability, and if he had paid less attention to public affairs and more to his own, might have acquired fortune and a life of ease. His patriotism and services for his country entitle him to our gratitude, and his foibles may well be consigned to oblivion. He died in Exeter, June 27, 1823.
William Parker, Jr., is supposed to have been a son of Judge William Parker of Exeter, and was born near the middle of the
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last century. Little is learned of his early history, but he was in November, 1776, sufficiently versed in the knowledge of his pro- fession to be considered worthy of the responsible appointment of surgeon in the second regiment of the New Hampshire line in the Revolutionary army. He served through the following year, and was at Ticonderoga when that post was evacuated upon being invested by General Burgoyne, and at the affair of Hubbardton, where his regiment lost so heavily. His service in the field ended apparently with that campaign. He then resumed his medical practice in Exeter. He must have been a physician of some standing, for he was called to prescribe for a lady visiting in the family of Benjamin Abbot, the principal of the academy, about 1796, the lady being very ill with an unknown disease. It proved to be the yellow fever. Dr. Parker contracted it from his patient and died of it.
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