USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
307
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
"Dr. Seth Alden, son of Seth, was born probably at Shaftsbury, Vt., in 1749, died at Caldwell (head of Lake George) 30th July, 1809. We have no account of his early life, but that he was a man of some note in his profession is evident from the fact that in 1783 he was requested by Colonel Ethan Allen to visit his daughter in consultation with Doctor Hutton, his family physician, at the distance of some forty miles. From Shaftsbury he removed to Caldwell, N. Y., where he continued to reside until the time of his death." In a letter from Judge Hay I find the following : " I have heard old James Caldwell speak of clearing and laying out the site for the Lake House, Caldwell ; the first occu- pant I knew was Doctor Alden. Before the Lake House was . rected, the old hospital, or long house, had been used for a tavern."
He married first, Priscilla Cole, who died 20th of November, 1798, and second, Keziah Beach on the Ist of March, 1800, who died 10th October, 1810, æt 5 1. His two eldest daughters were married successively to John A. Ferriss, a prom- inent merchant and business man of this place. Doctor Alden was of the fifth generation in direct descent from John Alden of Mayflower memory, and was the grandfather of Hon. O. Ferriss. The late Mr. Ralph Stebbins, of Caldwell, informed me that Doctor Alden removed from Lake George to Fort Edward in 1809, and died the same year or the year following.
Asa Stower was a native of Massachusetts, born as nearly as can be deter- mined in one of the western border towns of the State. His early childhood was passed at or near New Lebanon, N. Y. While yet a small boy his father embraced the Shaker faith and joined the society at that place, removing his family among them. He soon afterward died of small-pox, when the mother, who still retained her religious views (being a Presbyterian), took her children and went back to live on their farm, for which they were still considerably in debt, but, with the help of the boys, after a few years finished paying for their home.
Asa with his elder brother was allowed to attend the district school, and possessing a laudable ambition with a studious turn of mind, acquired a fair . knowledge, not only of the rudimentary branches of learning there taught, but applying himself at leisure hours to the pursuit of the more recondite depart- ments of science, evincing a special aptitude and taste in the direction of bot- any, a study then but little pursued in this country, and still in its infancy. His inclination in this direction doubtless determined the choice of a profession, and at the age of eighteen he commenced the study of medicine, which he steadily prosecuted with such aid as his mother in her straitened circumstances could afford. At the age of twenty-one he had completed his studies, and with a horse, saddle and bridle, and a pair of saddle bags filled with medicine, the parting gift of his mother, he started out to seek his fortune. What led him to Queensbury is not known, but certain it is he came as the pioneer of
308
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the medical profession in Warren county, according to a statement of the late Dr. Bethuel Peck, in the year 1788 or 1789, armed with a judge's certificate of ability to practice. He first made his home with William Robards, esq., who lived in a dwelling subsequently burned, not far from the residence of John M. Haviland near the Ridge. Here he commenced his life work, and here he remained for a number of years, supplying a circle of country, thinly settled but very sickly, many miles in extent. Being economical, plain in his tastes and inexpensive in his habits, he soon acquired a competency. One of his first purchases was the farm at the Ridge now owned and occupied by Joseph Haviland, disposing of which he bought the farm where Anson Staples now lives, where he passed the remainder of his days in works of kindness and usefulness. In those early days, when the facilities for education were not as plentiful or accessible as at present, his office was the resort of medical students, who almost from the commencement of their studies were enabled to pay their way and acquire practical with theoretical knowledge by assisting the doctor in his long and laborious rides. Among the number who thus graduated from his office and supplied the adjacent country in the years following, were Dr. Lemuel C. Paine, Dr. Nathan Tubbs, Dr. Seneca Wing, two brothers and a cousin by the name of Dean, Dr. Durfee and others whose names are forgotten or not readily recalled to inind.
In a communication to the author in 1870, the venerable Dr. Paine speaks of him as follows: "Dr. Asa Stower was held in high repute all over the country. He was a great reader and had a retentive memory, but I think he was more diffuse than profound in his reading, and was far from being a scien- tific man in his profession. He was strictly a physician of the old school, but by reading and observation he had acquired a stock of medical information and experience which made him truly a successful and useful physician. He was a bachelor and a little singular in his manners and habits; by some he would be deemed a little odd, at least not exactly Chesterfieldian in his address and manners, especially among the ladies." He acquired during his long prac- tice a handsome property, owning real estate in various parts of the town. One of the last acts of his life was to order his accounts against the poor to be de- stroyed in order that they might not be distressed to make their payments.
Of an estate, whose final adjustment realized upwards of twenty thousand dollars, not enough was left, by the greed of his heirs at law, to pay for a grave- stone. Among his old neighbors a subscription was taken up sufficient to pay for a plain marble slab, on which is engraved the following simple inscription, a touching memorial of the evanescent character of all earthly things :-
"DR. ASA STOWER, DIED MAY 25, 1848, Aged 79 Years. He lived respected in society."
309
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
Jared Hitchcock, son of Elijah and Sarah Hitchcock, was born in the town of Palmer, Mass., on the 11th of August, 1778. His elementary and profes- sional education were obtained in that State, where, as the writer has been in- formed, he also received the degree of doctor of medicine, and practiced for a number of years. He removed to Glens Falls in the month of November, 1819. The following year his wife was thrown from a wagon near the resi- dence of Truman Hamlin, in the town of Moreau, and killed. By her he had four children. He married for his second wife Caroline Stickney, who bore him six children. In 1821 he removed to Sandy Hill, N. Y., and from thence in 1828 to Galway, Saratoga county. He afterward went to West Troy, and thence in 1840 to Glens Falls, where he died March 26th, 1846. Dr. Hitch- cock was a man of considerable erudition and a good practitioner. He in- vented a remedy which attained considerable local repute and celebrity under the name of Hitchcock's pills. He also left a medical treatise containing an exposition of his peculiar views as to theory and practice, but which never came to print.
Billy J., son of Ithamar and Sarah (Simonds) Clark, was born at North - ampton, Mass., on the fourth of January, 1778.
About the year 1784 his parents removed to Williamstown, Mass., where, for three or four years, he enjoyed the benefits of that public school founded by the munificence of Col. Williams, who fell in action at " the bloody morn- ing scout." At the age of ten he removed with his parents to Pownal, Vt., where his youth, up to the time of his father's death, was passed in the varied avocations of farm boy, clerk and bar-tender. His medical studies were com- menced at the age of seventeen in the office of Dr. Gibbs, of Pownal, where he was soon characterized as a pains-taking, indefatigable student. In 1797 he removed to Easton, Washington county, N. Y., where his studies were con- tinued in the office of Dr. Lemuel Wicker, a practitioner at that time of ex- tensive repute and practice.
Having obtained the requisite testimonials and passed the necessary ex- aminations, he obtained a license from the county judge of Washington county to practice medicine. He commenced his life work in the town of Moreau, Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1799, where, for forty years, he was the only phy- sician, and supplied a radius of country nearly twenty miles in extent, follow- ing the humanities of his calling, achieving a well earned reputation for useful- ness, and that by the popularly appreciated gauge of success, a substantial competency.
Dr. Clark's name will be famous through all time as the originator of the first temperance organization that ever existed. The date of this important event was in the early part of April, 1808. In this field of philanthropy the doctor was an ardent and efficient laborer all his life. He represented his
.
310
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
county in the Assembly in 1820, and was a member of the New York Elec- toral College in 1848. He died in this village on the 20th of Septem- ber, 1866.
Through his energy and perseverance, a special act of legislature was ob- tained, incorporating the Saratoga County Medical Society, the first organiza- tion of the kind in the State.
Dr. John Perrigo, of Queensbury. In Judge Robard's docket, under the date of April 30th, 1803, appears a record of more than forty summonses issued in Dr. Perrigo's favor against parties residing mostly in Queensbury. There is but little authentic information to be obtained concerning him at this late date. It is believed that he came to this place about the year 1800 and resided during his stay here at a humble dwelling, subsequently known as the O'Flan- agan house, the site of which is now registered No. 17 Elm street. He was then in the decline of life, and of somewhat dissipated habits, and his brief stay here was neither a professional or pecuniary success. It has been stated that he was a brother of Robert Perrigo, of Whipple City, later known as Union Village and now called Greenwich, of Washington county, N. Y. Dr. Perrigo at first settled at Kingsbury street in Bradshaw's patent, in the adjoining town of Kingsbury. He was one of the three or four pioneers of the medical pro- fession in this region of country, and at one time bore the reputation of a skillful and successful practitioner. It is said that he was the first to introduce to the attention of the profession and public at large the prophylactic and curative properties of the rattle-snake weed (Prenanthes Serpentaria), and its use as a prompt and efficient antidote to the poison of the Crotalus horridus and its cognate species, with which terrible pests in that early period of our history the swamps, morasses, ledges, cliffs and mountain sides of this region of the country were infested,' and some of the islands and promontories of Lake George are to the present day. This knowledge was in all probability derived
I The Crotalus durissus is the species more commonly encountered nowadays. In regard to this reptile we find the following interesting incident recorded in Anbury's Travels, vol. I, p. 387, (Lieutenant Aubury being an officer in Burgoyne's army) : -
" This island (Diamond) as well as the one that is close to it, formerly was so over-run with rattle- snakes that persons when they passed the lake seldom or never ventured on them.
" A batteanx in sailing up it, went near Diamond Island, and among other things it contained sev- eral hogs, which swam to the shore as did the Canadians who were rowing it up; the latter, in appre- hension of rattle-snakes, climhed up trees for the night, and the next morning observing a hatteaux, they hailed the people in it, who took them in, and conveyed them to Fort George.
" Some time after, the man owning the hogs, being unwilling to lose them, returned down the lake and with some comrades ventured a search. After traversing the island a considerable time, they at last found them, but so prodigiously fat that they could scarcely move, and, in the search, only met with one rattle-snake, which greatly surprised them, as the island was reported to abound with them. Their wonder, however, was not of long duration, for, being short of provisions, they killed one of the hogs, the stomach of which was filled with rattlesnakes."
It may with truth be stated, currente calamo, that to the same cause may be attributed the extinction of the reptile from the quarries and ledges, and rocky cliffs at Glens Falls and neighborhood.
! 1 :
1
3II
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
from the Indians, who, in his day, still lingered around their ancient hunting grounds, and made their summer camps by our rivulets, ponds, lakes and hill- sides.
Dr. Perrigo finally removed to Burlington, Vt., where he died and was buried, as the writer of this sketch has been credibly informed.
Dr. Thomas Pattison was born at Stillwater, Saratoga county, N. Y., on the 24th of November, 1781. He was the son of Thomas Pattison of that place, and a near relative of the Pattison families of Troy and Fort Miller, N. Y. His opportunities for an education were limited to the common schools of that day, when a fair knowledge of arithmetic with the ability to read fluently and write readily were considered sufficient for all practical purposes. His course of medical studies was pursued in the office of Dr. Potter, an eminent and suc- cessful practitioner of that day, who resided at Waterford, N. Y. Having ob- tained his license to practice front a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, he removed in 1803 to the town of Athol, in what was then known as "Thurman's Patent," and commenced the practice of medicine. He boarded in the house of Richardson Thurman, whose daughter Elizabeth he married on the 4th of February, 1810, by whom he had eight children, four sons and four daughters. The following year he removed to Warrensburgh, and settled upon the farm on Schroon River road near the lower borough now owned and occupied by John and James McGann. Here he lived the remainder of his days in the faithful and industrious discharge of his professional duties, his practice extending in every direction, over rough bye-ways and forest paths, through a sparsely settled and heavily wooded country abounding in wild animals and game, and not over-productive in the comforts and necessities of life. In 1820 he was ap- pointed county treasurer by the Board of Supervisors, in the place of Michael Harris, deceased, and continued in the discharge of the duties of that office until 1832.
Dr. Pattison possessed the elements of a strong character." To a sound judg- ment and close observation were added sterling probity, industrious applica- tion and a wonderful self-reliance. In regard to practice he followed in the beaten track of his predecessors, making no hazardous venture; being at all times a safe, prudent, and careful, as well as a successful practitioner. He died of cystitis, at his home, on the 6th of February, 1867.
From an autobiographic sketch furnished by Dr. Lemuel C. Paine some years ago, we condense the following : -
"I am a descendant of a very ancient family in Barnstable county, Mass., and my line of descent is as follows: I am the son of Ichabod S. Paine, who was the son of Dr. Ichabod S. Paine, who was the son of Joshua Paine, who was the son of Thomas Paine, jr., of Eastham, Mass., who was the son of
312
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Thomas Paine, sen., of Eastham, Mass., who was the son of Thomas Paine, of Yarmouth, Mass .; the two latter came from Kent county, England, to Plymouth in New England, in 1621, and the former of the two, of Yarmouth, was the first representative from that town in the General Court of Plymouth Colony, in 1639.
" My grandfather, Dr. Ichabod S. Paine, was an early settler in Shaftsbury, Bennington county, Vt., and died there when only twenty-nine years of age, in the year 1765. My father was born there about the time of the death of his father, but was brought up in the family of his uncle, Judge Ephraim Paine, in what is now called Amenia, Dutchess county, N. Y. My father on reaching his majority married and settled on some lands left by his father in Shaftsbury, and I was born there November 9, 1787. After living here a short time, and in Orwell and Benson, Rutland county, in the same State, he finally came down into 'York State,' and purchased a tract of land near the 'Round .Pond,' in the vicinity of 'Sugar Loaf Mountain,' in the west part of Westfield, now Fort Ann, Washington county, N. Y., in 1793. * * *
After several removals the practical results of which were unfortunate, Dr. Paine's father located soon after 1800 in Plattsburg, where he died of con- sumption in 1807. A portion of the previous years he had lived in the town of Queensbury. After narrating his experience in securing a fair education by persevering study, " without a master," the autobiography states that Dr. Paine paid a visit to his uncle and aunt, Eli Pierson and his wife, at Fort Ann, and continues :-
" After some consultation it was made up between uncle and aunt Pierson and myself that if equitable arrangements could be made I should com- mence the study of medicine with Dr. Asa Stower, of Queensbury, and com- mence immediately. This arrangement was easily made, with some offers on his part for the future which were deemed at the time highly favorable, but which were never realized. For a time I boarded with Mr. Pierson ; then taught school awhile on the Ridge; and then near Mr. Pierson's in Fort Ann again, and so on during my studies, sometimes teaching and sometimes living and boarding with Dr. Stower. In May, 1811, having finished the legal term of study, I passed examination before the Censors of the Medical Society of Washington county at Cambridge. I formed a partnership with Dr. Stower, first for six months and afterwards for an indefinite period, which con- tinued till the spring of 1816; and afterwards I continued alone in Queens- bury and Kingsbury till about the close of 1817 when I left that part of the country. Thus it will be perceived that in all, first and last, my residence in the town of Queensbury and its vicinity amounted to about eleven years.
" In the autumn of 1811 I married Miss Cornelia Osborn, daughter of Da- vid Osborn, of Kingsbury, and commenced house-keeping in the winter following in a part of Stower's house, on Sandford's Ridge, Queensbury. I
313
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
lived here and hereabouts, a part of the time in Queensbury and a part of the time in Kingsbury, in rather an unsettled state until the close of 1817, when, as intimated above, I closed my business here and sought my fortune elsewhere.
" At the time of my debut as a physician, the physicians in practice in that vicinity were Dr. Asa Stower, of Sandford's Ridge; Dr. Israel P. Baldwin, of Glens Falls; Drs. Zina Hitchcock and Russell Clark, of Sandy Hill; Drs. Adolphus Freeman and - Barnum, of Kingsbury ; Drs. Isaac Sargent and Roderic Roe, of the village of Fort Ann; Dr. Liberty Branch, of West Fort Ann; Dr. Joel Tubbs, of Warrensburgh, and Dr. Reuben C. Gibson, of Bol- ton."
Here follows brief sketches of the physicians named, which we insert only as far as they lived in this county. Of Dr. Asa Stower we have already given a sketch :-
" Of Dr. Israel P. Baldwin (I am not sure I have given his first name cor- rectly, but I believe so) I knew but little. I met with him often and I believe he was a reputable practitioner of medicine. I remember I visited him in his last sickness, which I think was consumption, when he advised me to get out of the country as soon as I could, where I could have a more compact practice and better pay. He said I was doing just as he had done, riding over the mountains, hills and forests of Luzerne and the surrounding country, night and day, summer and winter, wet and dry, with hard fare and poor pay. This was probably an epitome of the experience of Dr. Baldwin.
"Of Dr. Joel Tubbs I remember but little more than his name, though I think I used to meet with him occasionally at Caldwell and in the town of Warrensburgh.
"Dr. Reuben C. Gibson, the last in the list of names which occurs to my memory, resided for a time at what was then called Brown's Landing in the town of Ballston. Dr. Stower and myself used occasionally to ride into that town and it was there that I became acquainted with him, though he afterwards, about the time I left that county, moved to Sandy Hill and went into the druggist or some kind of mercantile business, I believe. We were intimate friends and I respected him very much though I have little knowledge of his medical at- tainments.
" I cannot say but Dr. Rugg, of Glens Falls, was in practice a short time before I left, and I think I signed his diploma as secretary of Warren County Medical Society. Dr. Peck, I think, was licensed afterward.
"In the professional line the few living who know me, or knew me, must speak for me. I only say that while I remained I had as much practice as I could do. My greatest fault was, my ambition in other matters was greater than my means, and my inexperience led me into pecuniary embarrassments which the hard times for money in that county just after the close of the War of 1812, completed my overthrow and made it necessary for me, if I would pay
314
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
my debts, to remove to another place. I did so and saved myself and my cred- itors too; I have since been more fortunate. In politics I was always act- ive and as such I was somewhat distinguished when I was young."
Here follows an extended account of the various political offices held by Dr. Paine, which we need not reproduce ; the list embraces the offices of clerk of elections (1809), town clerk of Queensbury (1812), justice of the peace, mas- ter in chancery, etc. The autobiography then concludes as follows : -
" In the spring of 1813, in consequence of the death of my father-in-law, David Osborn, I moved from the Ridge to his place, just beyond the town and county line into Kingsbury, and remained here till the spring of 1815, when I moved back to the Ridge again and remained about one year and then back to Kingsbury again. I cannot say with certainty that the Medical Society of the county of Warren was organized in this time, but I think it was. I recol- lect well of attending a meeting, I think about the beginning of 1816, at the Lake George Coffee House. Dr. Stower read an article on the great epidemic of 1813-14 at this meeting, and I was elected secretary, and I believe a censor of the society.
" Having moved back into Kingsbury again, as above stated, I was again appointed a justice of the peace, and a master in chancery, an office in those days corresponding with a commissioner of deeds in later times, which I held till I moved from the county in December, 1817."
Dr. Paine died in Albion, N. Y., about the year 1875.
Bethuel Peck was born at Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, N. Y., on the 16th of June, 1788. His father, Daniel Peck, who was originally from New Hampshire, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. His mother was Me- hitabel Harvey, of Marlborough, N. H. His grandfather, Ichabod Peck, of Cumberland, R. I., was a lieutenant-colonel in the War of the Revolution. He was wounded in action, and died in consequence of his wounds. His wife was Lydia Walcott, of the same place. His father and grandfather both also bore the name of Ichabod. The latter was the son of Jathniel, the son of Joseph, jr., who was born in England and baptized there August 23d, 1623, came over to the new world with his father in the ship Diligent, of Ipswich, John Martin master, and settled at Hingham, Mass., in 1638, from which place they both removed, about seven years later, to Seekonk, now Rehoboth, Mass. - Peck Genealogy.
It is not known with certainty what causes led the subject of this sketch to Glens Falls, but it is believed that he was brought along by some of the return gangs of raftsmen who, in the early days of the settlement here, rafted their lumber to market down the Hudson River. He at first found employment as a stable boy at the old Glens Falls Hotel. Subsequently he secured a position as an office boy for Dr. Levi Rugg, with whom he commeneed the study of
315
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
medicine, paying his way with his own earnings from a practice which he rap- idly picked up and afterwards retained. He subsequently attended medical lectures at the Medical College of Fairfield, N. Y., from which institution he at a later period received his diploma. He married Jerusha Winston, by whom he had one child that died in infancy. She survived him a few years and died at Chicago, Ill., whence her remains were removed and deposited by the side of her husband in the village cemetery. As will be seen by a reference to the civil list, he was elected for a term of four years to the State Senate. He was a partner for a number of years with the late Billy J. Clark in a drug and med- icine establishment on the site now covered by Vermillia's market After his return from the Senate he erected the brick building to which he gave the name of the Glens Falls Druggist, on Glen street. Here, in conjunction with Dr. M. R. Peck, he carried on the drug business for a number of years. As a medical man Dr. Bethuel Peck was a close observer and good diagnostician, following in the broad beaten pathway of the schools, he was a safe and suc- cessful practitioner. His air in the sick-room was well calculated to inspire trust and confidence, for besides his genial and sympathetic manner, he always contrived to leave the impression that what he didn't know about the case was hardly worth knowing. He acquired in the practice of his profession and the the judicious investment of his resources what was considered in those days a handsome fortune. He was for many years a leading and influential politician of the place. He died on the 11th of July, 1862.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.