USA > New York > Westchester County > Rye > Chronicle of a border town : history of Rye, Westchester county, New York, 1660-1870, including Harrison and the White Plains till 1788 > Part 18
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' A Good Farm in the Town of Rye,' is advertised in the 'New York Weekly Post-Boy' of March 5, 1743. It consists of 'a good house and barn, an orchard of five acres, with nearly three hundred apple-trees : about eighty acres of ploughed land : near fifteen acres of English Meadow, and about fifty acres of land yet untilled.'
We have a graphic description of the farms and the farming in this region, as they appeared in 1789, from the pen of General Washing- ton. Writing at Mrs. Haviland's, in Rye, he speaks of the land he had passed through during the day, as 'strong, well covered with grass and a luxuriant crop of Indian Corn intermixed with Pom- pions (which were yet ungathered 1) in the field. We met four droves of Beef Cattle for the New York Market (about thirty in a drove) some of which were very fine - also a flock of Sheep for the same place. We scarcely passed a farm house that did not abound in Geese. Their Cattle seemed to be of a good quality, and their hogs large, but rather long legged. No dwelling house is seen without a Stone or Brick Chimney, and rarely any without a shingled roof - generally the sides are of shingles also. The farms are very close together, and separated, as one enclosure after another also is, by fences of stone, which are indeed easily made, as the country is immensely stoney.' 2
The stone walls here spoken of had but lately taken the place of the rail fences which prevailed throughout this region before the Revolution. During the war these had all been consumed as fuel, and the whole country at the close of that period lay open and waste. In the great abundance of timber in early times, farmers made little use of stone for walls. The rock that cropped out of the soil in their fields was generally undisturbed, while smaller stones were gathered in cairn-like heaps, out of the plough- man's way.
THE POOR. - Under the Connecticut laws, the poor were 'to be relieved by the townes where they live, every towne providing for theire own poore : and so for impotent persons. There is seldom any want releife, because labour is deare .... and provisions cheap.' 3
1 The date of this entry is October 15th.
2 Diary of Washington, from the first day of October, 1789, to the tenth day of March, 1790. New York, 1858 : pp. 19, 20.
$ Answers to Queries of the Privy Council, July 15, 1680 : Public Records of Con- necticut, vol. iii. p. 300.
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THE TOWN POOR.
The Vestry of Rve, about whom we shall have more to say hereafter, had among other cares the charge of the town poor. This was made their duty by the Act of 1693, 'for Settling a Min- istry ' in the province of New York ; which provided for the main- tenance of the minister, and also of the poor, in each of the parishes constituted by that law. The sum required for both pur- poses was to be raised by a tax on the inhabitants ; the justices and vestrymen being required to lay the tax, which the constable was to collect.
Nothing is said, however, of any appropriation for this purpose at Rye until the year 1725, when the Vestry agreed that there should be raised, besides the money ' for ye Minister,' the sum of eight pounds 'for ye Poor.' This moderate amount appears to have sufficed for several years. But in time the duties of the Vestry accumulate. Bills come in for the boarding of paupers ; for medical attendance ; for funeral expenses, including the usual allowance of ' Rum'; for transporting vagrants to other parishes. These items bring up the sum required to forty or fifty pounds sometimes, and even to ninety or one hundred.
Just before the Revolution, we find introduced in Rye the cus- tom of putting up the poor at auction. Before this, they had been taken in to board with families, whose bills, if approved, were paid by the Vestry. But in 1775, ' the Justices and Vestry agreed that the poor of the parish should be sett at vandue to the Lowest bid- der, and that the Clark of the vestry put public advertizement for the same.' And next year ' pursuant to the advertizement for the sale of the poor of the parish of Rye, the poor was at vandne sold' at the house of John Doughty (lately Van Sicklin's). The four or five paupers thus disposed of were bidden off at various prices, from six to twelve pounds each ; and notice was given that ' who- ever takes them or any of them are to find him, her or them with comfortable Clothes, Meat, Washing and Lodging, and return them as well clothed as they receive them.' This transaction, however, was not as barbarous as it appears. The sale was simply a contract with parties who engaged to support the poor at the least expense to the Vestry, and the sums named represent the amounts they were willing to take for their board.1
The parochial system ceased at the time of the Revolution, and the Vestry of Rye became a defunct institution. After the war, the care of the poor devolved in this county as elsewhere upon the county officers. In 1784, the board of supervisors had 'a 1 Records of the Vestry.
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OCCUPATIONS: THE POOR.
settlement with the late Church wardens and other persons con- cerned of the late Parisli of Rye, for the arrears due for support- ing the poor, within the same.' They found that the sum of £397 2s. 1d. was due to the said parish. The money for this purpose was ordered to be levied from the several towns and precincts within the bounds of the late parish.1
The care of the poor in olden times involved some preventive measures which have a quaint look to modern eyes. In 1716, Jonathan Haight of Rye informs the Court of Sessions at West- chester, that ' one Thomas Wright, an orphan in that town, hath no certain Place of Abode there, but lives like a Vagabond and at a loose end, and will undoubtedly come to Ruine unless this Court take some speedy and effectual care for ye prevention thereof.' 2 Persons in a destitute condition who belonged to other places were summarily removed thither by the town officers. Worthy John Doughity, constable of Rye just before the Revolution, appears to have been kept busy in this way. The supervisors in 1773 allow his charges 'for transporting of one Deborough Con sundry times, and her child; and also for transporting Christian Fulday alias Christian Torner, £1 5s. 6d.' Some other provisions, which are still carried out under the poor laws of England, were in force here for the prevention of pauperism.
1 Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors, 1869 : Appendix, pp. 33, 46.
2 County Records, White Plains, vol. D. p. 68.
CHAPTER XX.
PHYSICIANS AND LAWYERS.
1724-1870.
R YE appears to have been without a resident physician for the first sixty years. Judging from the accounts we read of the medical profession in those days the loss may not have been very serious. 'During the greater part of the colonial period,' that profession is said to have been ' totally unregulated. Quaeks, said a colonial historian, abound like locusts in Egypt.' 1
Our people probably depended for medical aid, as they did for many other conveniences, on the neighboring town of Stamford. At Stamford there were professors of the healing art as early as the beginning of the last century. Twelve miles were quite a distance to 'send for the doctor,' but the circuits of old-time phy- sieians extended often to even greater lengths. Mrs. Sarah Bates, " a useful and skilful' female practitioner of Stamford, was one of ' several ancient dames of the town, in whose hands,' says Mr. Huntington, 'for the first hundred years, probably, was most of the medical practice known here.'2 A letter of hers, dated July 30, 1690, to a patient in Rye, lies before me.3
Dr. DEVANEY is the first physician whose name is on record here. It occurs in the Vestry Book, under the date of 1724. His charge of £3 19s. for attendance on 'a poor man that dyed
1 Discourse of De Witt Clinton, quoted in The Bland Papers, p. 19, from The Independent Reflector.
2 History of Stamford, Conn., by Rev. E. B. Huntington : pp. 360, 361.
3 This letter is in the possession of Dr. D. J. Sands, Port Chester. We give it as a curiosity : -
' Loveing freind my respects to you : I am sorry for your present sicknes I am not well [enough] to come to you upon your desire which I should be ready to doe if [I] were well : if god please I shall direet as I have sent you a potion of pills : take as soone as ye messenger returns in a litle honey : and if your vomiting still follow you : take about half a gil of brandy if you can git it two spoonfuls of salit oyle two sponfuls of lofe sugar nutmeg : mix it together and drinke it aply mint with rum or brandy to his stomocke : this I know hath been found good in ye like distempr . . . SARAII BATES.
' Stanford : 30th July : 1690.'
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PHYSICIANS AND LAWYERS.
at Joseph Horton's house,' is the only mention made of him or of his services.
Dr. WORDEN is the next on our list. He practised in Rye about the year 1738. The only person of this name then living here, so far as we have learned, was one Valentine Worden, who in 1742 resided on King Street. Dr. Worden appears in the Ves- try records under circumstances which many of his professional brethren can appreciate. One Margaret Stringham, daughter of Peter Stringham, was his patient. She was sick and lame, and was chargeable to the parish. After some months' attendance from him she was removed to Bedford, to ' be placed conveniently where Dr. Ayers, who takes care of her, may readily attend her.' Next year she is carried to Long Island to be put under the care of Dr. Joseph Hinchman, who in due time brings a bill of £30 for his services against the Vestry, and upon their refusal to pay it as 'unreasonable,' sues them and recovers costs and damages. Whether the patient derived any benefit from this change of phy- sicians we do not learn.
Dr. WILLIAM BOWNESS 1 practised here in 1739, and Dr. WILLIAM ALLESON in 1747. Nothing further is known of either.
Dr. JOHN SMITH was a practising physician at Rye in 1747. This was the Rev. John Smith, for nearly thirty years pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Rye and the White Plains. He was settled here in 1742, and died in 1771. According to some of his descendants, Dr. Smith was distinguished for his medical skill, particularly in the treatment of the insane. His recipes are said to have been kept in the family and followed with great success long after his death. The records of the Vestry of Rye contain the following notices of his practice : -
' January 12, 1747. To Mr. John Smith for Doctering Widdow Merritt in ye long [lung] feavour £1. 0. 0.'
'January 9, 1749. The Justices and Vestrymen present do order the Church wardens to pay out of the Money now raised for the Poor, . . . . to Dr. John Smith for Doctering Francis Parker £5. 0. 0 if Cured by the first day of May nexte : if then not cured then to have but £3. 10. 0.'
'January 15, 1750-51. The Justices' order payment ' to Dr. John Smith for Doctoring a sick woman at Benjamin Brown £1. 2. 0.'
Dr. WILLIAM HOOKER SMITH is mentioned frequently from 1753 to 1771. He was the oldest son of Dr. John Smith, and
1 ' March the 23d 1763, Allowed to the Executors of Dr. William Bowness, etc., £8 0.0.' (Vestry Book, p. 155.)
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BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
appears to have practised with his father, and to have succeeded him at Rye. Dr. William H. Smith entered the American army as surgeon at the outbreak of the Revolution, and remained in the service until the close of the war. He appears to have discharged the duties of his office with credit, serving for several years as the only officer of the medical staff at the post to which he was assigned.
Dr. PETER HUGEFORD practised in Rye as early as the year 1753, and continued until near the commencement of the Revolu- tion. He is last mentioned in 1772. He resided in the town of Courtland, and was probably, says Dr. Fisher, ' the first regular physician in the northwestern portion of Westchester County. He was an Englishman by birth and education, and was unques- tionably an accomplished medical practitioner. He was certainly a gentleman of the decided English stamp, as can be seen by his full-length portrait which now hangs in an ancient parlor of his granddaughter, Mrs. Betsey Field, a widow of over eighty years, residing near the village of Peekskill. Dr. Hugeford had many students of medicine. Being a royalist, he retired to the British army when war was declared. His fine farm of two hundred acres was confiscated, and subsequently given by government to John Paulding, for his services as one of the three distinguished captors of Major Andre, the British spy. Dr. Hugeford was probably the most accomplished physician of his day in this country.' 1
Dr. NICHOLAS BAILEY practised medicine in Rye for a number of years previous to the Revolution. He is first mentioned in 1758. He lived about a mile above the village of New Rochelle, where his house, which is indicated on the map of 1779, was still standing a few years ago. He had an extensive practice, as I learn from Dr. Albert Smith, at the time that his father, Dr. Matson Smith, came to New Rochelle in 1777 ; he died two or three years after. Dr. Bailey was of French Huguenot extrac- tion. The name was originally Besley.
Dr. DAVID DATON practised medicine here about the year 1768. He was a resident of Newcastle, however, and his name occurs for several years previous to the Revolution as supervisor of that town. Once it is written Dayton, which is probably the more correct spelling.
1 Biographical Sketches of the Distinguished Physicians of Westchester County, N. Y., being the Annual Address before the Westchester County Medical Society, June 1, 1858. By George J. Fisher, A. M., M. D. New York, 1861 : p. 52.
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PHYSICIANS AND LAWYERS.
Dr. ROBERT GRAHAM praetised here in 1771 and in 1775.
Dr. WILLET was a practising physician in Harrison's Purchase, where he resided about the time of the Revolution.
Dr. JOHN AUGUSTUS GRAHAM resided at the same period in the village of the White Plains, and was a leading patriot. His name appears very often in the records of the Committee of Safety for Westchester County.
Dr. NATHANIEL DOWNING resided here in 1763. His name oeeurs in connection with a subject which was just then agitating our community in common with others, that of Inoculation. This method of preventing the contagion of small-pox - by introducing into the system a minute portion of the virus, and thus eommuni- cating the disease in a mild and comparatively harmless form - was extensively used a hundred years ago. It awakened, however, the liveliest fears of the ignorant everywhere ; and in some places inoculation was absolutely forbidden, and physicians performing it were rendered liable to severe penalties. In Rye, it appears to have been permitted under certain regulations, which betray the same prejudices and misapprehensions that prevailed elsewhere. April 4, 1763, James Wetmore, in Rye, on the post-road, 'acquaints all persons that are disposed to be inoculated, that they may be well accommodated' at his house, 'where constant attend- ance will be given by Doctor Nathaniel Downing (as he boards at said house) who has inoculated a Number of persons there that have had the Small Pox uncommonly light.' 1 September 23, 1763, ' The pleasant situated house at Rye Ferry, where inoeulation was carried on last fall and Winter with great success,' is advertised as ' now provided with genteel accommodations, for all those who are inclined to be inoculated for the Small Pox the ensuing season at a very moderate price : and as the greatest care and attention will be given by the Doctors and Nurses, provided for the patients ; it is hoped that the usual success and encouragement will be con- tinued.' 2
But the inhabitants watched these proceedings with an evil eye. Their alarm and displeasure found vent before long 'at a lawful town meeting ' which was held at the school-house in Rye, April 2, 1765. They think it -
.Nesecery that wharas sum persons have in said town in their own houses tacken percons from other places into their familes and sum of the Inhabitents of said town and their hath ben anocelated with the Small pox whereby it hath put maney of the Inhabitents in fear of 1 New York Gazette. 2 New York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy.
169
INOCULATION.
cetching of the same whereby the said town's people as well as straglers could not pass about their lawfull accasions, to do their Buisness for Remedy whereof it is anacted by a vote in said town meting that no person or persons shall after the day of the date hereof tacke into their houses or family any person or suffer them to be inocleted in their said houses or nurse the same unless it shall be in such houses as any two of his maiestyes Justices of the peace and the Supervisor of said town shall thinck it a Convenant place and from a publick Road and not nigh to naighbours under the penelty of five pound Each person or persons as shall be inocalated and that in Case any docter or phision or other person or percons Shall assume to Inocalate unless at such places as said justiees and Supervisor of said town shall premitt such docter phercion or other person so offending shall pay the sum of forty shil- lings for each percon or persons they shall Inocalate with the Smoall Pox and the fines and forfitures arising here from shall be Recovered in a Summorey way Before aney one of his maiestyes justices peace who upon proof to awoard Execution there on the one half to the Com- playnor that shall sue for the same and the other half to the poor of said town. The above was this day unamously voted at said meeting as law for the year Ensuing.' 1
Dr. EBENEZER HAVILAND was living at Rye in 1766, and ap- pears to have had an extensive practice. He entered the army upon the outbreak of the Revolution, and served through the greater part of the war as a surgeon. He died at Wallingford, Conn., abont the close of the war.
The Journal of the Provincial Congress of New York contains the following : ' August 4, 1775, A Certificate of Dr John Jones and D' Bard was read and filed. Those gentlemen thereby cer- tify that they have examined D' Ebenezer Haviland, respecting his knowledge of Physick and Surgery, and that they find him very competently qualified to act as Surgeon of a Regiment.' Upon this recommendation, he was appointed 'Surgeon to the Fourth Regiment of the Troops raised in this Colony.' 2
Since the Revolution, Rye has been favored with the services of a number of able and successful physicians. For the following account of them I am chiefly indebted to my esteemed friend Dr. J. D. Sands, now the oldest practitioner in this town.
Dr. CLARK SANFORD, a native of Vermont, commenced the practice of medicine in the town of Greenwich, near the Connecti- cut State line, about the year 1790. As a large part of his practice
1 Town Records.
2 American Archives, fourth series, vol. ii. p. 1817.
170
PHYSICIANS AND LAWYERS.
was in the town of Rye, he may be properly mentioned as one of the physicians of this place. Dr. Sanford was noted for his skill in the treatment of a fearful epidemic known as the 'Winter Fever,' which prevailed extensively from 1812 to 1815. He was widely known to the profession as one of the first who manufac- tured pulverized Peruvian bark. This preparation was sold under the name of 'Sanford's Bark.' He had a mill at Glenville for grinding drugs, one of the first establishments of the kind in the country. Dr. Sanford was an eccentric man and a great smoker, usually to be seen with his pipe in his mouth. He died about the year 1820, aged over sixty years, leaving three sons, - Josephus, John, and Henry, - and two daughters.
Dr. BENJAMIN ROCKWELL commenced practice in Saw Pit, now Port Chester, about the year 1809. He was born in Lewisboro or South Salem, N. Y., about the year 1786, and was a son of Judge Nathan Rockwell of that place. Dr. Rockwell practised medieine here for twelve or fifteen years, and was regarded as a very skilful physician. He removed to the city of New York, and died there a few years ago. He had a son William, who was also a physician.
Dr. DAVID ROGERS, after practising for many years in Fairfield, Conn., removed to the town of Rye about the year 1808. He remained here until the time of his death.
He was the father of Dr. David Rogers, junior, who commenced practice in Mamaroneck before the year 1800, and removed about 1820 to the city of New York, where he died about the year 1844, aged nearly seventy. Dr. David Rogers, junior, had two sons, also physicians - Drs. David L. and James Rogers, - of New York.1
Dr. CHARLES McDONALD settled in the village of Saw Pit in 1808. He was already past the meridian of life. In his younger days he had served in his professional capacity in the army of the Revolution, and was a warm and devoted patriot. His professional career in this town covered a period of about a third of a century, and was highly creditable for its skill and success. He was a portly man, weighing not less than two hundred and fifty pounds. His countenance always wore a genial smile, and he was the par- ticular favorite of the juvenile portion of the community. Dr. MeDonald died, respected and beloved by a large eirele of friends, September 12, 1841, aged eighty-two years.
These old men, observes Dr. Sands, have all passed away with- out leaving any written memorial of their early history, education, 1 Biographical Sketches, etc., by Dr. Fisher.
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LATER PRACTITIONERS.
or professional career ; a fact generally true of country practition- ers ; the fatigue incident to their profession, together with other inevitable duties, leaving them little time to record the progress or the results of their experience. Hence what they learn, and what they learn to discard, is lost when they cease from their labors.
Dr. ELISHA BELCHER, a native of Preston, now Lebanon, Conn., joined the Continental Army, and was stationed as surgeon at Greenwich, where he continued to practise medicine until within a year of his death. He died, December 1825, in his sixty-ninth year. He was eminent in his profession. Most of his practice was in this county. He had two sons, both physicians, one of whom -
Dr. ELISHA R. BELCHER, settled in Saw Pit in 1816, and en- gaged partly in the exercise of his profession and partly in mer- cantile pursuits. He remained here about four years, and then removed to New York, where he practised medicine up to the time of his death, which occurred some four or five years ago.
Dr. JAMES WILLSON was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York. He practised in the city for some years, and removed to Rye about the year 1825. He was a man of fine professional education, marked and decided in char- acter, and successful in practice. He died in 1862.
Dr. THOMAS CLOSE was a native of Greenwich, Conn. He commenced the practice of medicine in Port Chester about the year 1830. He was much esteemed as a physician. He removed to Brooklyn in 1862.
Dr. WILLIAM STILLMAN STANLEY is a graduate of Brown Uni- versity, Providence, R. I., and received the degree of M. D. from that institution in 1828. He became a resident of Mamaroneck in that year, and in 1837 removed to Rye Neck, where he has since resided.
Dr. D. JEROME SANDS graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York in 1840. Soon after he came to Port Chester, and has practised here ever since.
Dr. JOHN H. T. COCKEY is a native of Maryland, and gradu- ated at the University of Maryland in 1832. He engaged in the practice of medicine first in Frederick County, Md., then in Litch- field County, Conn. ; and after practising in New York for four years, came to Rye in May, 1855.
Dr. SETH STEPHEN LOUNSBERY graduated in 1861 at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York. He
172
PHYSICIANS AND LAWYERS.
commenced practice in the city, and in 1862 entered the army as Assistant-Surgeon of the 170th Regiment N. Y. Volunteers. He / was promoted to be Surgeon of the 156th N. Y. V., remained till the close of the war, and was mustered out of service in August, 1865. He commeneed practice in October, 1865, in connection with Dr. Wm. S. Stanley, at Rye Neck.
Dr. EDWARD F. MATHEWS graduated at the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, and commenced practice in Port Chester, his present location, in 1856.
Dr. NORTON J. SANDS graduated at the same institution in 1868, and is now engaged in the practice of his profession in Port Chester.
Dr. GRANVILLE C. BROWN, homeopathic physician, is a gradu- ate of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College, 1862 ; he commenced practice in Port Chester in 1866.
Dr. MATTHEW MCCOLLUM, a practitioner of the same school of medicine, graduated at the same institution in 1863, and came to Port Chester in 1869.
The legal profession was not largely represented in early times in the town of Rye. The single name of TIMOTHY WETMORE appears as that of an attorney-at-law living in this place before the Revolution. Mr. Wetmore was licensed April 26, 1770.1 He was the son of the Rev. James Wetmore, and held a position of commanding influence in this community.
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