USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : from 1700 to the present time, Volume I > Part 49
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DR. MARCUS HITCHCOCK, as, for many years he was not only physician and druggist, but was postmaster from 1803 to 1827, and his shop was during that period the chief place for gathering and discussion in the town. In this way Dr. Hitchcock was probably as powerful as any other one citizen in influencing the growth of the community.
At the same time many new doctors were appearing throughout the county, too many to make it possible even to give them mention. Six of them, however, have left their names written too plainly on the scroll of history to allow of their being passed over without at least a few words.
DR. ALEXANDER WHALEY was born in Connecticut in 1780, and after com- pleting his medical studies, at the age of 21 years started out for the "Black River region" to seek a home. An accident to his horse at Verona detained him, and, before he could again start on his way, he was persuaded to remain, teach the district school and practice his profession. Here Dr. Whaley's wanderings ended, and for seventy long years he served his fellowmen of Verona and vicin- ity. His activity, even at the end of his life, is shown by the fact that he made his appearance at the meeting of the Oneida County Medical Society in Rome
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in the year 1871, when 91 years of age. From this visit, however, the old phy- sician never returned, as he died shortly after the meeting at the home of his son, Dr. James S. Whaley of Rome, the last survivor of the original founders of the county society.
DR. ARBA BLAIR, the partner of and successor to Dr. Matthew Brown, Jr., of Rome, also lived to an advanced age, and presided at the semi-centennial meeting of the county society in 1856. He was elected vice president of the county society in 1820, and president in 1836 and again in 1859. He died in 1863.
DR. JOHN FITCH, of Franklin, an arrival of 1802, deserves notice as a man of independence and originality, for when, shortly after his arrival, a severe epidemic of typhus fever prevailed in his neighborhood, having seen the terrible mortality following the accepted treatment of whiskey and quinine, he broke away from custom, and pinning his faith "vis medicatrix naturae" he practiced the expectant mode of treatment and attained great renown, for the reason that his patients showed an astounding tendency to recovery.
DR. LAURENS HULL was a native of Woodbury, Conn., where he was born in 1779. In 1802, having studied medicine in the east, he moved to "the West" and continued his studies with his cousin Amos, then practicing in Augusta. In 1804 he opened an office for himself in Bridgewater. A founder of the county society he served as its president from 1831 to 1833. His interest in public life is shown by his service as member of the assembly in 1813 and 1825, and the year of his leaving the county-1836-for Angelica, Allegany county, as state senator. He was president of the State Medical Society in 1839 and 1840, and his ad- dress on "Quackery" was considered one of the finest papers ever delivered before that body. Dr. Hull was, both in the medical societies and in the legis- lative bodies a constant and strenuous worker for the advance and purity of the medical profession.
Turning our thoughts to the northern section of the county we find that the year 1802 brought to that district two men, who, for many years, were to carry on their shoulders the bulk of the medical work north of Utica and Rome- Dr. Luther Guiteau, Sr., and Dr. Earl Bill.
DR. LUTHER GUITEAU, SR., of Trenton, was born in Lanesboro, Mass., in 1778. Having received his liberal education in Clinton and his medical knowl- edge under Dr. Buell of Sheffield, Mass., Dr. Guiteau came to the region in which his brother, Francis, had already achieved a reputation as a surgeon, and settled in Trenton, or Oldenbarneveld, in 1802. Thus began a professional ca- reer, which, for local pre-eminence, was probably rivaled by that of Alexander Coventry alone. For forty-eight years Dr. Guiteau stood in the first ranks of the medical profession of his day, was beloved by his neighbors, and looked up to by his professional brethren. His reputation was not confined to his own locality, but extended over many counties, where his services were in demand as a consultant. A deep student and enthusiast, Dr. Guiteau was a prominent
DR. EARL BILL, of REMSEN
INSTRUMENTS BELONGING TO DR. ALEXANDER COVENTRY, WHO DIED IN 1828
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figure in the meetings of the county society, of which he served as president in 1825 and 1826. He was postmaster of Oldenbarneveld in 1802, and a member of the legislature in 1819. Though deeply interested in politics these were the only public positions he would ever accept. Before his death in 1850 his son, Dr. Luther Guiteau, Jr., had already become a power in the county, and, as the older man slipped out of harness, the younger one took his place, and, until his death in 1885, ably sustained the prestige already acquired by his talented fam- ily. Dr. Luther, Jr., like his father, was many times elected to the highest office to which his professional neighbors could elevate him, having been president of the county society in 1843, 1863 and 1867.
DR. EARL BILL-The other pioneer from "up the county," Dr. Earl Bill, though he never attained the widespread reputation of the Guiteaus, was never- theless, a prominent figure in local medicine. Born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1770, he graduated from the Berkshire Medical College and then struck out for "the West." In 1804 he settled near Starr Hill in Steuben, where he prac- ticed until his removal to Remsen in 1814. Dwelling in the wildest part of the county, Dr. Bill held with a firm grip a professional clientele extending over the towns of Remsen, Steuben and Boonville. He was a splendid example of the rugged, honest, conscientious, pioneer physician, who never sought personal advancements or benefits, but devoted a long life calmly and unselfishly to the hard wearing life of the country doctor. The accompanying portrait is a copy of an ambrotype loaned by Dr. Bill's grandson, Mr. Earl B. Putnam of Water- ville.
To the physician of the twentieth century, with his railroads, telegraph, telephones and superb state roads, on which he can travel in his motor car from end to end of the county in hours, almost in minutes, it is not easy to call up a picture of his predecessors in the county at the end of the eighteenth century. In those days the doctor visited his patients on foot, horse back or snow shoes, his circuit covering many miles of almost untrodden wilderness, where he often had to find his way by the moss on the trees or over blazed trails. Where roads existed they were, during the greater part of the year, so nearly impassable, that it "took half a day to travel on horse back from Utica to New Hartford." A story is told of a man having his leg crushed in Sangerfield. A friend rode all night to Whitesboro, and from there to Deerfield, before a physician was found. After many hours of toil Dr. Guiteau reached the patient, found an amputation to be necessary, and was forced to send another messenger to Her- kimer to get Dr. Petrie to help in the operation. All this took days to accom- plish, and, when preparations were at last complete, such a thing as an anasthetic was, of course, unknown. Small wonder that the few pictures we have of these early physicians show grim determination in every feature! Then, again, the inhabitants of the various hamlets were few in number, and were practically all of them in young, vigorous manhood, for the aged and the invalids did not venture into the western wilds. It would, indeed, have been difficult for the physician to earn a living under such conditions, and very few of them were able to live on their practice alone, so that we find nearly every early doctor with some outside means of earning his daily bread. The positions of post-
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master and tavern keeper were frequently held by the village doctor; many kept drug stores, and often added toys, paints, dyes and merchandise of all kinds; while such a prominent man as Dr. Amos Hull advertised mineral waters for sale, and even the erudite and brilliant Dr. Coventry, a graduate of Edin- burgh and Glasgow, was for a short time, according to some authorities, a mer- chant, and to others, a tailor. As to the qualifications necessary to practice medicine a stock of drugs, a pair of saddle bags, a lancet, and perhaps a few leeches were all that were required, for of laws there were none. Here and there was found a Coventry, a Guiteau, a Brown or a Bill, with a regular medical training and a university degree, but the vast majority of the pioneer physi- cians had had but a few months apprenticeship in the office of some country doctor in New England, and many more, it is to be feared, were at best poorly trained druggists or arrant charletans.
ONEIDA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY-The prevalence of untrained physicians, however, throughout New York state, became such a menace to the people, that in 1806 a law was passed by the legislature intended for the regulation of the practice of medicine, in the form for a bill calling for the formation of county medical societies. In pursuance of this law twenty-nine physicians of Oneida county met in Rome July 1, 1806. The meeting was presided over by Dr. Mat- thew Brown, Jr., of Rome, and the Medical Society of the County of Oneida came into being. Those present and the offices to which they were elected were: Dr. Amos G. Hull, president; Dr. Sewal Hopkins, vice president; Dr. Seth Hastings, Jr., treasurer; Dr. David Hasbrouck, secretary; Dr. Caleb Sampson, delegate; Dr. Francis Guiteau, Jr., Dr. Matthew Brown, Jr., Dr. Welcome Sayles of Vernon, Dr. Judd of Paris Hill, and Dr. Sherman Bartholomew, cen- sors; Dr. Marcus Hitchcock, Dr. Isaac Weston of Sauquoit, Dr. Thomas Hart- well of Rome, Dr. Laurens Hull, Dr. Zenas Hutchinson, Dr. Alexander Whaley, Dr. Morris Shannon, Dr. Paul Hutchinson, Jr., of Elmer Hill, Dr. Eliphaz Bissell of Vernon, Dr. Seth Capron of Whitesboro, Dr. Daniel Avery of Bridge- water, Dr. John Fitch, Dr. Enoch Alden of Rome, Dr. Stephen Preston, Dr. Arba Blair, Dr. Norton Porter, Dr. Seth Hastings, Sr., and Dr. Samuel Fris- bie of Vernon.
The purposes of this society were manifold. Besides the stimulation of so- cial intercourse and the dissemination of professional knowledge, the county society had the immediate charge of the regulation of the practice of medicine in the county. Its powers then were far greater than they are to-day, as, besides the investigation of illegal practitioners, the censors of each county society had in their hands the licensing of all physicians. According to the law of 1806, a man wishing to practice medicine was obliged to apprentice himself to a prac- ticing physician, study under him for three years, and then present himself before the board of censors of the county society for examination. If the can- didate satisfied his inquisitors of his ability to practice, a license was forthwith issued to him. An act of 1818 stated that after 1821 the period of apprentice- ship should be four years, one year, however, to be deducted, if the candidate had pursued literary studies after the age of sixteen, or had attended a full course of studies in a medical school. The degree of Doctor of Medicine, issued by the
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regents of the University of New York, constituted in itself a license to practice. The privilege of the censors of the county societies to license practitioners was a bitter bone of contention for many years between the local societies and the state authorities, and though during the last few years it was but rarely exer- cised, the power of examination and licensing was not legally withdrawn from the county societies until the year 1880. The last license issued by the Medical Society of the County of Oneida, after examination by the censors, was dated 1878.
After holding seven meetings and adopting by-laws and a fee bill, the en- thusiasm not being sufficient to overcome the physical hardships necessary for attendance, the meetings of the society were temporarily suspended in 1810, and were not resumed until 1813, when a new lease of life was given, which has never died. Little else of interest to posterity, however, is found in the minutes of the first quarter century, except the foundation of a medical library and the registering of several men destined to attain prominence in later life. Those most worthy of mention are Drs. John McCall, Theodore Pomeroy, Samuel Tut- tle and Robert C. Wood of Utica, and Harold H. Pope of Rome
DR. JOHN MCCALL, who was born at Hebron, Washington county, N. Y., in 1787, after graduating from the medical department of Columbia College and serving with distinction as an army surgeon through the War of 1812, set- tled in Utica in 1818, and became a partner of Dr. Alexander Coventry, and, after the latter's death, of his son, Dr. Charles Coventry. Of great intellect and strong opinions, Dr. McCall soon became a power in the community and in the state. In 1828-29 he served as vice president, and in 1830 as president of the Oneida County Medical Society, and in 1846 was elected to the presidency of the Medical Society of the State of New York. Dr. McCall was a man of exceptional ability as a physician, and was in many ways years ahead of his time. Though not a therapeutic nihilist, he was a great believer in nature, in fresh air, and was strongly averse to the then too prevalent use of alcohol and of bleeding. A man of much manner and great self esteem, he was absolutely frank and honest in his dealings with his patients, and for this and his un- questioned ability he was honored by his fellowmen. He died in 1867.
DR. THEODORE POMEROY, a graduate of Yale, also came to Utica in 1818, rapidly built up a good practice, was vice president of the county society in 1836, and president in 1837. After a number of years' practice he withdrew from active medical work and devoted his time to manufacturing.
DR. SAMUEL TUTTLE, who came to Utica in 1819, met an unfortunate fate. His daring, skill and enthusiasm soon built him up an active surgical practice, but proved his undoing, for, in his desire to improve himself in anatomy, he robbed the grave of the body of a negro boy. The robbery was discovered. Dr. Tuttle's house was attacked by an infuriated mob, and the body was found buried in the cellar. The over-zealous surgeon was forced to leave the town. He moved first to Rochester, then to California, and finally settled in Michigan.
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DR. ROBERT C. WOOD became a member of the county society in 1824, but the next year began a long and honorable career as an army surgeon. His record in the surgeon-general's office is as follows: Assistant surgeon, May 28, 1825; major, July 4, 1836; colonel and assistant surgeon general, June 14, 1862. Mus- tered out, October 31, 1865. Died in New York City March 28, 1869.
DR. HAROLD H. POPE was born in Rutland, Vt., in 1801, and graduated from the Fairfield Medical College and the University of Vermont. Immediately after graduation he began practice in Rome, and remained in that city until his death in 1869. Dr. Pope was for many years the leading physician and one of the leading citizens of Rome. He was at one time president of the village.
The second quarter of the century is noted for several events of some im- portance to the medical profession of the county. In 1828 an effort was made to found a medical school in Utica, as a department of Hamilton College, and in 1829 a local medical journal was proposed, but both propositions were abandoned.
ASIATIC CHOLERA-The black year of 1832 was a sad one for the city of Utica, for July 12, the terrible scourge, which was devastating the country that year, reached the city, and the first inhabitant died of Asiatic cholera. Panic at once reigned, and at least one-third of the city's 9,000 inhabitants fled the city. An- ticipating the approach of the epidemic, preventive measures had been taken in the organization on June 20 of a board of health, consisting of Drs. Goodsell, Peckham, Coventry and McCraith and Messrs. Kirkland, Mann and Ostrom, and the appointing of Dr. McCall as health officer. Quarantine had been established on the canal, chloride of lime procured, and for some days it had been considered that the city was safe. When, however, the disease once got a foothold, it spread with terrible rapidity. Ignorant both of the cause of the disease and its mode of contagion, the most strenuous efforts on the part of the physicians failed to hold it in check. A pall hung over the city, for it was in very truth a city of the dead, where the only occupation was the care of the sick and the disposal of the dead. By the time of the abatement of the epidemic, in the middle of Sep- tember, there had been 206 cases of the disease and 65 deaths. During the height of the epidemic several temporary hospitals were opened, the last one in the academy being closed again on September 10.
DR. ERASTUS HUMPHREY-Another event of this period worthy of mention was the brief residence in Utica of Dr. Erastus Humphrey. In 1840, this gentle- man, then nearly sixty years of age, while serving as a surgeon in the Auburn penitentiary, had suddenly become converted to the teachings of Hahnemann and immediately, armed with a book and a supply of pellets, started a migratory career. In 1842 he went to Syracuse, in 1843 he came to Utica, and in 1847 he moved on to New York. Dr. Humphrey's stay in Utica was in itself too short to have been of great influence, and his presence would be passed over without comment, if it were not that his arrival marks the first introduction of the new school of the homeopathist into Oneida county.
The event which, in importance, outclassed all others of the second quarter
Dr. Luther Guiteau, Jr., Trenton
Dr. Nichol H. Dering, Utica
Dr. Harold H. Pope, Rome
Dr. Alonzo Churchill. Utica
Dr. Moses M. Bagg, Utica
Dr. Isaac H. Douglass, Utica
PROMINENT ONEIDA COUNTY PHYSICIANS
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century, as far as the medical profession is concerned, was the founding of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, or as it is now called, the Utica State Hospital.
UTICA STATE HOSPITAL-During the first decades of the nineteenth century the condition of the insane poor of New York state was lamentable, indeed. The only institution in the state for the care of the insane was the Bloomingdale Asylum in New York City-a branch of the New York Hospital. This institu- tion, though useful in its own sphere, was a private organization, and took in chiefly those who were able to pay for their care. The pauper insane and, from the nature of the disease, the great majority of insane individuals, if left to themselves, soon become destitute, were incarcerated in the jails and the poor- houses, locked in dungeons and strong rooms, manacled and chained to the floor, often tied hand and foot in the filthiest places, covered with vermin and a prey to rats. In other places they were kept in steel cages, in full view of the popu- lace, the objects of ridicule and of jest.
The first step towards remedying this state of affairs was taken in 1830, when Governor Throop, in his message, stated that there were over six hundred insane paupers in the state, either in jail or at large. The subject was taken up in the assembly and referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. A. C. Paige, Eli Savage and Peter Gansevoort. For several years this committee offered reports, but no legislation followed. In 1836 Dr. Charles B. Coventry of Utica presented to the legislature a petition from the Medical Society of the County of Oneida, and the same year Dr. John McCall, also of Utica, presented a memorial from the Medical Society of the State of New York requesting the immediate estab- lishment of an asylum, the result of which was the passage on March 30, 1836, of "An act to authorize the establishment of the New York State Lunatic Asylum." A commission was appointed, with the authority to expend $10,000 on site, and to contract for the erection of the asylum at a cost of not more than $50,000. In 1837 the present site, including 130 acres, at the western boundaries of Utica was purchased for $16,300, the $6,300 not provided for by the state having been raised by the citizens of Utica. The erection of the buildings was put into the hands of Captain William Clark, Elam Lynds and Francis E. Spin- ner. The original plans called for four large buildings, each 550 feet long, ar- ranged at right angles to each other, with their ends connected by lattice work, the whole surrounding an octagonal area of 13 acres. By the end of 1838 $46,000 of the $50,000 had been expended upon the foundations of these four buildings. It was then decided that such an enormous institution was greater than the im- mediate needs demanded, and $75,000 was appropriated to continue the work on the northerly of the four, the foundations of the other three to be roofed over for protection. Work progressed steadily, and on January 6, 1842, the com- mittee reported the building nearly ready for occupancy. The total cost had been $285,000 up to this time. In 1841 Messrs. David Russell, W. H. Shear- man, Nicholas Devereux, Theodore S. Faxton and Dr. Charles B. Coventry were appointed trustees, and on April 7, 1842, Messrs. Devereux, Jacob Sutherland, Charles A. Mann, Alfred Munson, Abraham V. Williams, Thomas H. Hubbard, David Buel and Drs. Coventry and T. Romeyn Beck were made managers.
Vol. 1-26
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Among their first acts were the appointments of Edmund A. Wetmore, treasurer, and Dr. Amariah Brigham, physician and superintendent.
Dr. Amariah Brigham was born in New Marlboro, Mass., December 26, 1798, the son of a farmer. The father having died when Amariah was still a child, the latter was taken into the home of an uncle, a physician of Schoharie, N. Y., to be educated as a doctor. The uncle, however, died the next year, and left the lad destitute. After many hardships he took up the study of medicine in the offices of Dr. E. C. Peet of New Marlboro, Mass., and Dr. Plumb of New Canaan, Conn., and began practice in the town of Enfield, Mass. After two years he moved to Greenfield, where he practiced for seven years. At the end of that period he sold out his practice, and in 1828 sailed for Europe, where he spent a year in travel. On his return he again opened an office in Greenfield, but in 1831, looking for a broader field, he went to Hartford, Conn. In 1837 he accepted the position of professor of anatomy and surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, but after a year and a half tired of New York and returned to Hartford. In 1840 he was appointed physician and superintendent of the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford, where he was so eminently success- ful, and his ideas on the care of the insane were so original, that in 1842 he was called to Utica to organize the new state asylum.
On January 16, 1843, the asylum, though still hardly completed, was thrown open for the admission of patients, and during the year 276 were received. In 1844 it became evident that enlargements were necessary, and, the original plan for four separate buildings being abandoned, two wings, each 240 by 38 feet in size, were built, projecting back of the main building at right angles thereto. In 1847 these wings were completed, bringing the total cost of the asylum up to $448,980. During his incumbency as superintendent, Dr. Brigham had all the labor of organization upon his shoulders. That he was not content with simply building an institution for the incarceration of the lunatic, but wished to have it really a hospital for cure of the insane, is shown by his frequent re-iteration of the fact that insanity is really a disease, and that the patient required treat- ment as much as any other invalid. A great believer in the therapeutic value of labor, Dr. Brigham set the patients at work on the grounds and farm, and caused to be constructed carpenter, shoemaker, cabinet maker, tailor, blacksmith and "whittling" shops. A printing office was established, and in 1844 the American Journal of Insanity, the first journal devoted to the subject of insanity in the world, was published with Dr. Brigham as editor. "The Opal" also was begun at this time, edited and published by the patients. The tremendous strain un- der which he had labored soon began to tell upon Dr. Brigham's strength, and in 1849 his health gave out. On September 8, 1849, he breathed his last within the walls of the institution which his energy, foresight, wisdom and ability had converted from an empty shell to a flourishing home for the insane, and a seat of scientific research which was already attracting the attention of the medical world.
On November 3, 1849, Dr. Nathan D. Benedict of Blockley Hospital, Phila- delphia, was appointed superintendent. He held the position for four and a half years, when failing health necessitated his resignation. The most im- portant events of this period were the installation of a heating and ventilating
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