USA > New Hampshire > State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century > Part 13
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Dr. Moses Nichols, another physician prominent in civil and military life, commenced the practice of medi- cine in Amherst about 1761; served as representative to the general court; took an active interest in the popular cause, and in 1776 was appointed colonel of the Fifth regiment. He commanded the right wing of Stark's army at Bennington. In 1778 he was with General Sul- livan in Rhode Island; two years later was in command of the regiment at West Point at the time of Arnold's treason. At the close of the war he was appointed Brig- adier-General of the Fourth Brigade of the New Hamp- shire nilitia. He held the office of register of deeds for Hillsborough County for several years.
Rev. James Scales, who practised medicine as well as preached, was undoubtedly the first practitioner in the territory now embraced by Merrimack County. He re- sided in Canterbury, but his practice extended to Hop- kinton, Rumford, and other towns.
Dr. Ezra Carter was probably the first physician to
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settle in Concord, locating there in 1740. He was an able physician and a man of fine character, and of great be- nevolence.
The limits of this article will not permit biographical references to many other physicians whose influence was strongly felt in their respective communities during the more trying period in the history of the province and of the state; but enough has been shown already to indicate the immense influence that was exerted for the public good on the part of the medical profession. We must, however, make mere mention of a few others, among which was William Cogswell, of Atkinson, who rendered service as a surgeon during the Revolution.
Benjamin Page, who was born in Kingston in 1742; a heroic surgeon, who was present at Bunker Hill, Ticon- deroga, Bennington, etc. At the Battle of Bennington he took command of a company after its captain was dis- abled, and won especial commendation for his bravery.
William Page practised many years in Charlestown; served as colonel of the Militia; member of the general court and state senator.
Samuel Tenney, who was a brave and accomplished physician of Exeter, and who, when the war broke out, hastened to Bunker Hill and arrived in season to assist the wounded. He served as surgeon in the Revolution, and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne and Corn- wallis. He was a member of the convention for forming the state constitution in 1791; in 1793 was appointed judge of probate for Rockingham county, which posi- tion he held till 1800 when he was elected to congress and served three terms. He was a member of various scientific and literary societies, and contributed valuable articles to the press in favor of the Federal constitution, in 1788.
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George Sparhawk graduated at Harvard in 1777, and settled at Walpole. He was a man recognized for his
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ability in that section of the state. He was twice state councillor.
These, and many others who ought to be named but cannot be here, but reference to whom may be found in some of our local histories, were foremost among the men who defended the sparse settlements of the province against the relentless savages as well as disease, and who largely shaped the destinies of the state. The interest and influence which was exerted by the medical profes- sion in its trying provincial period and early statehood have never abated, nor has the profession lessened its in- terest or its influence in the welfare of the commonwealth, even to the present time. As state builders, the medical profession must, as shown by history, hold a rank second to that of no other. It would be a gigantic task to go over the history of New Hampshire from the Revolution to the present time, and show to what extent members of the medical profession have figured in the events that have transpired. There is no civil or political office, prob- ably, that has not been held by physicians, from a justice of the peace to a United States senator. The State legis- lature always has representatives from the medical pro- fession; numerous physicians have been elected to the United States Congress; three, Josiah Bartlett, David L. Morrill, and Noah Martin, have been governors of the state; many have served their state and country in a mil- itary capacity.
During the provincial period, the great majority of the practitioners of medicine were deficient in professional education, through lack of opportunity, and there was but little general intelligence among the people regarding medical matters, with perhaps a few exceptions, and these indeed were notable. The early practitioner ob- tained his medical knowledge from reading a limited number of medical works, from the standpoint of to-day crude and rudimentary, and a few months' observation of
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disease and its treatment under the tutorship of a prac- tising physician. There were some who did not serve this superficial term of study and observation, but with very limited and doubtful knowledge secured from one or two books, assumed the title of "Dr." with a conscientious belief that they were performing a public duty as well as a humanitarian service. Nevertheless, the doctor was a man of great consequence in the community, second only to the minister. This exalted and dignified position in the estimation of the people probably arose, not so much from his medical attainments as from the fact that he was usually a man of great strength of character, interested in all public affairs, and a natural leader. This is evi- denced by the large number of eminent men of that pe- riod who were from the ranks of the profession. "A man godly and forward to do much good, being much missed after his death," the epitaph which Bradford gave to Dr. Samuel Fuller, the first physician to come to New England, was true of many of the earlier physicians of New Hampshire.
In personal appearance the old time doctor was con- spicuous. His dress also indicated the importance of his position in the community. He wore a deep, broad- skirted frock coat, long established by custom, and it was generally ornamented with various trimmings, occa- sionally with gold lace; a long waistcoat, deep-pocketed with loose swinging flaps, hung over breeches or small clothes; hose, buckle shoes, frills and cuffs, neck-bands, and ruffled shirt front; a felt hat, generally three-cor- nered, completed the dress.
His cocked hat, full wig, and ever-present cane were awe-inspiring, to say nothing of his saddle bags, stuffed with strange and nauseating drugs which he lavishly dispensed to his patients.
Carriages were almost unknown before the Revolution.
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Travelling was accomplished on horseback, the doctor carrying his medicines in saddle bags.
During the colonial and provincial period, the fees or charges for medical services were exceedingly low, and the physicians were poorly paid, as the early settlers had practically nothing with which to pay their bills except the produce of their farms. The Day Book of the dis- tinguished signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Josiah Bartlett, kept when he was in the practice of medicine, between 1765 and 1768, embracing 312 pages, nearly all in his own handwriting, presents many entries that are interesting, instructive, and very unique from our present standpoint. He received all sorts of produce to pay the small amounts charged for services rendered. Credits of "oats," "merchantable boards," "pig pork," "hog's fat," as well as about all other kinds of farm produce. Sometimes he took a note, seldom cash.
It may be said that, following the Revolution and those trying times in which the public interest was centred al- most solely in civil, political and military affairs, medical men found time and opportunity to turn their attention to the development of the profession itself.
In 1791, through the efforts of Josiah Bartlett, then governor of the state, the New Hampshire Medical So- ciety was chartered, being the fourth state in the union to form a medical society, New Jersey, Delaware, and Massachusetts preceding New Hampshire in making an organization of this kind.
Its charter members consisted of nineteen physicians, noted for their ability and interest in public affairs, most of whom have been mentioned above.
The first meeting of this society was held May 4, 1791, at Exeter. Ten of its charter members were present, among whom may be mentioned John Rogers, of Plym- outh, who made the journey through the forest on horse- back, and which attendance required several days, to say
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nothing about the physical hardship attendant on such a trip.
This society, although its meetings were small in its earlier days, and sometimes there was no quorum pres- ent, through the efforts of a few determined and energetic physicians, it never lost its organization, and has grown to be a large and strong association, the annual transac- tions of which now constitute a volume of nearly 400 pages. Its records are intact and well preserved from the date of its first meeting to the present time. In its ranks have been a great majority of the best educated and most reputable physicians of the state, many of whom have left a proud and enviable record in their profession, as well as in civil life.
The New Hampshire Medical Society, in its devotion to the interests of the profession, organized district so- cieties, two of which, called the "Eastern" and the "West- ern," being organized in 1792. The Centre District Med- ical Society was constituted in 1807; the Strafford Dis- trict Medical Society, in 1811; the Western District Med- ical Society, in 1815; the Southern District Medical So- ciety, in 1816; Grafton County District Medical Society, in 1820; the Eastern District Medical Society reorgan- ized in 1823; the Rockingham County Society organ- ized in 1824; Manchester Medical Society, in 1840; Car- roll County Society, in 1848, and numerous local medical societies from time to time since. The Portsmouth Medical Association was incorporated in 1819; the White Mountains Medical Society in 1821; the Connecticut River Valley Medical Association in 1876.
The New Hampshire Homeopathic Society was char- tered in 1852, and the New Hampshire Botanic Society, chartered in 1848, changed to New Hampshire Eclectic Society in 1881, still maintain their organizations.
Prior to the Revolution, there were but two medical schools in this country, the Medical Department of the
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University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1764, and a med- ical school established in New York in 1768, and which was abandoned within a few years.
The Harvard Medical School was established in 1783, following which was the founding of the medical depart- ment of Dartmouth College by Dr. Nathaniel Smith, in 1797, during which year he delivered, unassisted, a course of medical lectures in Dartmouth Hall. The following year he was assisted by Dr. Lyman Spaulding, who lec- tured on chemistry. During the first twelve years of the school's existence, forty-five men received the degree of M. B. At this period the school was without funds, and was supported by the fees paid by the students; but Dr. Smith received from the college for apparatus, chemi- cals, etc., about $600 during that period. In 1803 the legislature appropriated $600 for the same purpose. In 1809, the legislature appropriated $3,450 for the erec- tion of a medical school building, and in 1812 a further sum of about $1,200 to complete the payment of the building. Up to this time the great work of establishing a medical school for the State of New Hampshire de- volved chiefly, in fact almost entirely, upon Dr. Smith, and it was through his constant and laborious efforts in behalf of medical education that this undertaking became a success. So marked was his executive ability in this particular work that, in 1812, he was called to New Haven, Connecticut, to establish a Yale Medical School, and he severed connection from Dartmouth two years later.
Among the earlier instructors in the Dartmouth medi- cal school was Dr. Cyrus Perkins, who became Professor of anatomy and surgery in 1810. He was succeeded by Usher Parsons in 1819. In 1814 Reuben D. Muzzey succeeded Nathan Smith in the chair of theory and prac- tice. Among other earlier instructors was Daniel Oliver,
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John Delamater, Rufus Graves, and James Freeman Dana.
The list of instructors who have held chairs of profes- sorships since the earlier days of the institution, contains names of inany able physicians and surgeons, too many to even mention in this article. It is a matter of history that this school has kept pace with the scientific advance- ment of medicine, and to-day stands as one of the most reputable medical colleges in the country, a fact in which not only the medical profession but the people of New Hampshire should take pride.
Among some who became famous as surgeons we must mention Dr. Nathan Smith, who was born in 1762 and died in 1828. He began practice in 1787 at Cornish; afterwards attended the medical department of Harvard, and received the degree of M. D. in 1790. Four years later he visited some of the European hospitals. His interest in medical education has already been mentioned, in the founding of Dartmouth, Yale and Bowdoin medi- cal schools. Dr. Smith was famous in surgery, in origi- nating new methods in operations. He performed many difficult operations, some of which were to him entirely new.
Reuben D. Muzzey was born in 1780, and died in 1866. He was a pupil of Dr. Nathan Smith. He held a profes- sorship in the Dartmouth medical school for many years, as well as in some other medical schools, while professor- ships were tendered him from several prominent schools of medicine. He founded the Miami medical school of Cincinnati. One surgical operation which gave him great fame both at home and abroad was the successful ligation of both carotid arteries. He was a bold and successful operator, and as such was duly recognized. He received the honorary degree of A. M. from Harvard, and LL. D. from Dartmouth.
Amos Twitchell was another of New Hampshire's
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famous surgeons. He was born in Dublin in 1781, and died in Keene in 1850. He was a man of strong indi- vidual opinions, abhorred intemperance, was abstemious in his diet, and a bold and highly successful surgeon. He performed the operation of tying the right carotid artery successfully in 1807, eight months prior to the celebrated case of Sir Ashley Cooper, who was often, though erro- neously, credited with priority in this operation.
William Perry of Exeter was another prominent New Hampshire surgeon, who was born in 1788 and died in 1887,-almost a centenarian. He may be said, also, to have been the founder of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane.
Charles A. Cheever, Josiah Crosby, Dixi Crosby, Wil- liam Buck, E. R. Peaslee, Thomas R. Crosby, Alonzo F. Carr, Albert H. Crosby, Alpheus B. Crosby, George A. Crosby and many others might be named who have achieved reputations as surgeons.
For obvious reasons we shall not mention the many able physicians and skilful surgeons which are found in the medical profession in New Hampshire to-day. They are well known and honored in their respective communi- ties. In no profession, science, or art, has there been so great progress made in recent years as in medicine. The old theories of the origin of disease have been displaced by the discovery of the true cause of many maladies that afflict mankind. The germ theory, which has been proven beyond all controversy, has led to the scientific management of such diseases not only for the cure of the patient, but for the protection of the country. We know the particular germ or parasitic fungus which causes consumption, the plague, leprosy, cholera, malaria, diph- theria, typhoid fever, and numerous other diseases; and knowing these facts, the profession, with the aid of the state in the sanitary administration of affairs, is able to cope with many of these diseases so successfully as to
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render such epidemics as frequently decimated entire communities in olden times, impossible.
In the domain of surgery the advancement would seem to be greater, if possible. By reason of modern antisep- tics, the surgeon is able to perform with comparatively little danger to the patient, the most brilliant operations, such as once would not have been tolerated, and would have been in almost every instance fatal. Scientific ap- paratus of the most delicate kind has been devised as an aid in the diagnosis of disease, aside from the marvellous revelations of the microscope, and to surgery is being applied the astonishing revelations of the X ray, as well as the most ingenious mechanical instruments and meth- ods, for the saving of life and limb. The crowning of Edward VII., after his recovery from an operation that once would have been fatal, was the coronation of modern antiseptic surgery.
There is little danger of saying too much to the honor of the medical profession of New Hampshire in any of the functions of life, social, civil, military and profes- sional. It has been tried by severest tests from the re- motest colonial period to the present time, and has ever been found a solid phalanx, with its front in the line of duty, in whatever capacity that may have been; and, as builders of our rugged commonwealth, the profession has a record upon which nothing but praise and honor can be bestowed.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE SAVINGS BANKS
BY JAMES O. LYFORD
Seven years after the first savings bank was chartered in this country two were incorporated in New Hamp- shire. The Portsmouth Savings Bank of Portsmouth and the Savings Bank of the County of Strafford at Dover are the ninth and tenth savings banks in the United States in chronological order of incorporation. They are now in their eightieth year and are among the large and prosperous savings banks of New England. The legislative records contain meagre accounts of their birth and the newspapers of the day were silent on the subject of their organization. As early as 1819 an attempt was made to secure a charter of a savings banks at Ports- mouth, a petition for that purpose being presented to the legislature from the citizens of that town, then the most important town of the state. A bill was later introduced embodying the prayer of the petition, and, while it passed the house of representatives without opposition, it was defeated in the senate. Interest in the subject does not appear to have been very marked, as four years elapsed before another attempt was made to secure a charter. At the session of the legislature in 1823 a second petition for a savings bank at Portsmouth was presented. The bill prepared in response to this petition passed both houses and was signed by the governor without occasion- ing any public discussion. At the same session the Sav- ings Bank of the County of Strafford was chartered upon
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petition of citizens of Dover, Somersworth and other towns.
The same motive which elsewhere early in the nine- teenth century prompted the organization of savings banks stimulated philanthropic and public-spirited citizens of New Hampshire to this worthy undertaking. It was to prevent the spread of pauperism by inducing me- chanics, operatives in factories and others to lay by in time of business prosperity and active employment some part of their earnings for accumulation against a time of adversity. As set forth in one of the early petitions to the New Hampshire legislature, the petitioners say that they "are of opinion that the prevention of pauperism is a duty more incumbent on society than relieving it,-that it is a greater benefit to individuals and to the commu- nity." Being a philanthropic movement, the chartering of savings banks had only to overcome the scepticism of their success to secure legislative action, and little was it dreamed by even the projectors that savings banks were ever to become an important factor in the business world and that from the accumulations of wage earners would come capital for the development of the state and for the promotion of enterprises in the West, then an unknown and uninhabited country.
No safeguards were thrown around these institutions, the provisions of the charters being very general in their character. The management was left untrammeled to the trustees, who were expected to care for the funds placed in their charge without compensation as a duty they owed to their less experienced fellow-citizens. It was years afterwards before intelligent supervision was exercised over savings banks, and for nearly three-quarters of a century little restriction was placed upon the character of their investments. It was nearly forty years after these first New Hampshire savings banks were chartered be- fore the total deposits of the savings banks of the state
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equalled the present deposits of the Strafford County Savings Bank. The increase in these institutions and their growth in deposits were slow for half a century, and it was after the Civil War before their value was fully ap- preciated by the people. In 1850 there were but twelve savings banks in the state and one million six hundred thousand dollars in deposits distributed among thirteen thousand depositors, or one depositor to about every twenty-five inhabitants. To-day the ratio of depositors to inhabitants is about one in three, and the total de- posits in all savings institutions of the state is $54,621,- 362.40.
The first savings banks were mutual savings banks in which the depositors alone shared in whatever profits were made from the investments of their funds. The in- corporators annually chose a board of trustees, to whom was committed the management of the bank. The first charters were perpetual. After ten years some charters were limited to twenty years, to be renewed upon expira- tion by the legislature, but the practice was not uniform, and in 1883 the legislature made all charters of savings banks perpetual. In 1871 a new class of savings banks known as "guaranty savings banks" began to be char- tered. These provided for a permanent guaranty fund which was owned by the guaranty fund holders who were the stockholders of the bank. This guaranty fund must always equal 10 per cent of the deposits, and, if at any time it became impaired by losses, must be made up by the stockholders or the bank closed. The management of these guaranty savings banks was in the hands of the stockholders, who chose the trustees and who divided among themselves all profits above a rate of interest guar- anteed to the depositors. This rate of interest to be paid to the depositors was fixed in the charters. In the mutual savings banks there is no guaranteed rate of interest, the trustees determining the annual or semi-annual dividends
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and voting extra dividends occasionally from any accu- mulated surplus. In 1885 a charter was granted for the New Hampshire Trust Company, the beginning of a series of charters for similar institutions called trust com- panies, banking companies, loan and banking companies, etc., the general character of whose provisions was broad and indefinite. A claim was successfully made that these charters authorize the transaction of a savings bank busi- ness in connection with the other business of the com- pany. In 1891 they were given recognition as savings institutions by the legislature enacting a law requiring them to create a separate department of their savings de- posits and making that department amenable to the sav- ings bank laws.
Thus the state of New Hampshire has at the present time mutual savings banks, guaranty savings banks, and the savings bank departments of trust companies. There are forty-five mutual savings banks, nine guaranty sav- ings banks and seven trust companies with savings bank departments. The deposits of this last class are $2,650,- 915.07.
The history of the growth of the savings banks of New Hampshire is richer in experience than that of savings banks in some other New England States, owing to the fact that for years there was little restraint placed upon the trustees, and until well into the eighties the state supervision was but little more than the moral influence exerted by the bank commissioners. As regards the integrity of savings bank officials, New Hampshire will compare most favorably with any other state, the defalcations of trusted officers being very rare. The troubles of the savings banks have arisen mainly from unfortunate investments and lack of intelligent manage- ment. The third savings bank chartered in the state, that at Exeter, was the first to get into difficulty. It was chartered in 1828, and thirteen years later, owing to its
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embarrassments, the legislature undertook to intervene and authorize the governor to appoint trustees to take possession of the bank and close up its affairs, but the court interfered and left the corporate trustees to dispose of the property of the bank and pay the proceeds to the depositors.
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