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 37
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Dr. Penfield Goodsell came to the town of Bolton anterior to the year 1805 from Connecticut. He had a wife, and also a son named after himself, but never brought them to Bolton to live. He was the first physician who settled in the town to practice medicine. He was respectable and highly esteemed, and for a time had a widely extended practice. After a few years he became insane and a wretched, aimless wanderer, up and down, to and fro through the earth for many years. After the establishment of the county poor-house he was removed thither, and was an inmate there for several years. At length, having been restored to reason, he left and returned to a former home in Ver- mont, where he died.
The next physician who settled in Bolton after Dr. Goodsell was Dr. Reuben C. Gibson. He resided and practiced there somewhere between the years 1813 and 1825. In 1814 he was allowed pay by the Board of Supervisors for medical services rendered to paupers. He was one of the physicians who assisted in organizing the County Society in 1813. He subsequently went to Sandy Hill and embarked in the mercantile business. In this he acquired some property, and afterward removed to Michigan, where he died.
During the period indicated in the two preceding paragraphs a Dr. John Stanton settled at Bolton for the practice of medicine. In the winter of
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1814-15 he was attacked by the epidemic (spotted fever) which prevailed that season through the Northern and Eastern States with such fatal virulence, and died. His remains were buried in Bolton.
Dr. Stanton was succeeded by a Dr. Paul More (or Moore, as it is variously written), who settled in Bolton about this time. Of him but little is. known, except that he is recorded as a member of the Warren County Medical Society. In 1827 Dr. Elisha Moore was allowed by the Board of Supervisors an account for professional services rendered to prisoners at the county jail. Could it have been the same man ?
About the same time there came to Bolton a Dr. Samuel Buckbee, or Bugbee, who it is stated was a man of superior ability and attainments. He is also recorded as a member of the County Medical Society. He built up a somewhat extensive business, traveling far and near in the practice of his pro- fession. The supervisors' records show that he was allowed compensation for professional services rendered to prisoners and paupers in the years 1827, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1835 and 1836. In 1830 he was appointed county physician by the Board of Supervisors.
At a very early date Dr. Herman Hoffman settled in practice at War- rensburgh. He represented his town in the Board of Supervisors in the years 1814 and 1815. It appears from a record at hand that he was allowed a claim of ten dollars by the Board of Supervisors of Washington county in 1805. He was also one of the physicians who assisted in organizing the County Medical Society in 1813.
Dr. Nathan North, the only record of whom may be found in the town books, in which it is stated that in February, in the year 1817, he made a present to the overseers of the poor of Queensbury, a bill amounting to $28.40, for professional services.
Dr. Zephaniah Tubbs resided near the Baptist Church in the north part of Caldwell. He was one of the pioneers of the profession in this county, and assisted in the organization of the County Society in 1813. His practice, if we may judge from the records, was extensive and remunerative. He was allowed claims by the Board of Supervisors in the years 1824, 1825 and 1831. He was the father of Dr. Nathan Tubbs, who subsequently practiced medicine in Warrensburgh, Chester and Glens Falls. He finally removed to Pennsyl- vania, where he died. The following obituary notice appears in the Warren County Messenger and Advertiser for Friday, February 6th, 1835 : -
"DIED. - In Caldwell, on the 29th ult., Dr. Zephaniah Tubbs, in the 72d year of his age."
Nathaniel Edson Sheldon was the youngest of ten children, the offspring of Job and Joanna C. (Trippe) Sheldon, who migrated from Cranston, R. I., to
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Barnet, Vt., where the subject of this sketch was born on the 28th of September, 1804. While in early youth, Dr. Sheldon's father removed to Delhi, Delaware county, N. Y. Here he received the advantages of a good common school education, and being baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church, com- menced studying for orders in that communion. We are not advised as to the causes which led to a change of pursuit in life, but shortly after we find him prosecuting the study of medicine with Dr. Lang in the city of New York, in one of whose colleges he graduated about the year 1831. After receiving his diploma, he was appointed ward physician in one of the worst and hardest districts of the city. During the cholera season of 1832 he saw and reported the first case of that terrible scourge in the city. His superiors scouted the idea. The next morning seven more were down with the disease and three dead bodies in the building. A medical commission which had been dispatched to Canada to investigate the disease, on examination confirmed his diagnosis, and he was awarded the credit due to his discrimination and good judgment. At the end of the season he was presented with a massive silver pitcher, which remains as an heir-loom in the family, upon which is engraved the following inscription : -
" Presented by the Board of Health of the city of New York to N. Edson Sheldon, M. D., for professional services gratuitously rendered to the poor of the Second Ward during the prevalence of the cholera, A. D. 1832."
The following year he removed to Glens Falls and embarked in practice, and notwithstanding a sharp and sometimes acrimonious competition, he soon succeeded in acquiring a fair proportion of the patronage; the population of the village and town being less than one-fourth what it is to-day. For nearly twenty years, and until his voluntary retirement from professional cares, he held the position of a first-class practitioner, and the reputation of more than ordinary success. Even later his professional brethren, in token of respect, elected him president of the County Medical Society.
While pursuing his medical studies, a young English lady, named Eliza- beth Goodwin Olive, stopped for a few days' visit at his preceptor's while on her way with an uncle, a clergyman of the church of England, to Canada. A romantic attachment sprung up between them, and in May, 1834, they were married. She died on the 30th of December, 1840. On the 3d of October, 1842, he was again married to Abigal T., daughter of the late John A. Ferriss, esq. Soon after, he engaged in the drug and medicine trade, and by strict attention and assiduity he built up a large and remunerative business. For a large proportion of his life, Dr. Sheldon was known as an active and influen- tial politician. Originally a Democrat, he with many others came out in 1838 in opposition to that party, and for many years his office was the rallying place and centre where politicians arranged the local affairs of both the Whig and Republican parties. In the exciting and important campaign of 1860,
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whose events culminated in our late civil war, he was chosen one of the elec- tors of the Empire State, and cast his vote for the first term of service of the martyred and lamented Lincoln.
In 1866 he was appointed by the governor one of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Institution for the Blind at Batavia. In the ex- citing campaign of 1872 he was nominated and elected county treasurer, a position which his failing health compelled him to resign early in the succeed- ing year.
Dr. Sheldon was public-spirited, and always contributed to the develop- ment and advancement of the place. He was from the first a stockholder and director in the Glens Falls and Lake George Plank Road Company, and for many years its secretary. He was also for a long time one of the trustees of the Glens Falls Academy. Conspicuous, however, above all other traits of character, was his sterling honor and integrity. In the language of one who knew him intimately and well, "He would not have done an unjust, dishonest or fraudulent act to save his life." He died suddenly at his residence in Glens Falls, on the 3d of July, 1873.
Dr. Eliakim W. Howard, was born the 2d of January 1808, at Fort Ann, Washington county, N. Y., being the son of Eliakim and Anna (Williams) Howard, and received his preparatory education at the common and graded schools of that vicinity. He began the study of medicine in the month of April, 1830, with Dr. Nelson Porter of Fort Ann. In the winter of 1832 he taught school at Doe's Corners, and continued his studies with Dr. H. Reynolds. Beginning with the fall of 1830, he attended three courses of medical lectures at the Vermont Medical College at Castleton, and graduated from that institu- tion, December, 1833. In the summer of 1832, and the following winter his studies were profitably pursued in the office of Dr. Fletcher Ransom, a physi- cian of growing repute, of Glens Falls. Immediately after graduating he com- menced practice in a settlement known as "the Oneida," a hamlet in the north part of Queensbury, N. Y., five miles north of Glens Falls, at that time board- ing at a public house kept by Harvey Low. In April, 1837, he removed to Warrensburgh. He resided the first year in a house on the south side of the Schroon River, on the road to the town of Thurman. The following year he moved to the upper borough and lived for thirty years in the house now occu- pied by Captain F. A. Farlin. At the end of that time he removed to his present residence on the north side of the main street, and about midway of the two villages.
On the 22d of September, 1835, he married Rebecca Brown, of Queens- bury, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters; a son and daughter now living. She died in 1869. On the 31st of . July, 1871, he married his second and present wife, then Mrs. Adelia (nce Cameron) Fenton.
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Dr. Howard for many years has had a laborious and extensive ride reaching from Cedar River, in Hamilton county, to the southern extremity of Warren. Notwithstanding his advanced years he is still hale, active and vigorous, and attends to his professional calls with the same alacrity, zeal and interest that he did forty and fifty years ago, and gives promise of many years of usefulness yet to come. He was appointed an examining surgeon for the pension office before the close of the war, and has acted in that capacity ever since.
Dr. James Cromwell was born at Carlisle, Schoharie county, N. Y., on the 27th of September, 1811. He was a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell, so famous in English history as the stern puritan, regicide and ruler of the English commonwealth.
His early educational advantages were restricted, with the exception of a single year's academic instruction at Schenectady, N. Y., to the scanty and often interrupted opportunities afforded at the district school of his neighbor- hood. Nevertheless, by great diligence and application, he succeeded in ac- quiring a thorough knowledge of the ordinary English branches, and also a fair understanding of the rudiments of Latin and chemistry.
When he had attained the age of eighteen he commenced the study of medicine with a young, and subsequently eminent, practitioner, then residing in his native place. For two years or more his studies were thus pursued with advantage and satisfaction, when the removal of his preceptor broke up his plans and barred his further progress. At this time, also, it became necessary to seek the means of self-support in the acquirement of a trade. This was fol- lowed for four years and upwards, when an opportunity was gladly improved to resume his studies. He succeeded in obtaining a position as a prescription clerk in the city of New York, which familiarized him with the character, com- position and properties of drugs and medicines, and their recent method of combination, preparation and administration. A position afterward obtained in the old City Hospital during the year 1835 gave him ample field for obser- vation and practical experience in both surgery and medicine. During the terms of 1837-38, 1838-39, he attended full courses of lectures at the Medical College at Fairfield, N. Y., pursuing his studies meanwhile at the office of a prominent firm of medical practitioners at Albany.
On the 10th of February, 1839, he was married to Miss Sarah C. Brad- shaw, of Mechanicsville, Saratoga county, N. Y., a union which for a lifetime has proved of perfect harmony and accord.
An eligible opportunity presenting for embarking in practice, he removed in the month of June following to Mantua, Portage county, Ohio, where for six years he found in a wide and constantly extending field of patronage, am- ple employment for himself and an assistant. He then returned to the east, and, with a view to graduating, attended an. additional course of lectures at
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the Albany Medical College, pursuing his practice during the interim at Me- chanicsville, N. Y. Four years after receiving his diploma he removed to the settlement known as " The Oneida," in the northern part of the town of Queens- bury, where he practiced his profession for several years. Here his attention was first called to the then new system of practice, which was beginning to find scattering adherents here and there throughout the country. Pursuing his investigations carefully, he at length became a believer in its efficacy, a convert to its law of cure and adopted it as his mode of practice. He soon after (in May, 1848) removed to the village of Caldwell, at the head of Lake George, so long and favorably known to the traveling public as an attractive resort, and fashionable watering-place. Here Dr. Cromwell's eminent abilities and marked success speedily placed him in the possession of an exclusive and wide-spread practice. Here, surrounded by influential patrons, and an ever increasing circle of trusting friends, the doctor completed his life-work and ended his days. During his career he was scrupulous and respectful in his re- lations to the profession, and invariably recognized the claims of suffering hu- manity upon his ability and skill, whenever opportunity offered. He associa- ted himself in the various organizations of the faculty, serving as president of the Warren and Washington County Homoeopathic Medical Society, and also of the Society of Northern New York. He was also a member of the State Homoeopathic Medical Society.
At the fall election preceding his demise he was elected one of the coro- ners of Warren county by a gratifying majority. Like most men of marked character, Doctor Cromwell's friends were fast, zealous and warm ; his enemies bitter and unforgiving. His death, which occurred on the 7th of December, 1875, has proved a serious loss to the community in which he lived, and where he was held in universal esteem. The following testimonial forms a fitting close to a long career of usefulness.
At a special meeting of the vestry of St. James's Church, Lake George, N. Y., held at the rectory on Saturday evening, December 11th, 1875, the fol- lowing minute was unanimously adopted :
Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, in his infinite wisdom, to re- move from his labors in the church militant, our beloved associate and Senior Warden, James Cromwell, M. D., we, the rector, surviving warden and vestry- men of St. James's Church, do hereby express our high appreciation of his faithful services as warden of this church for twenty years past, since its or- ganization in 1855, and of his uniform bearing as a Christian gentleman, con- sistent churchman and devoted servant of the Lord. And we record, with sincere feeling, our affectionate remembrance of his companionship, and of the kindly disposition which endeared him to all, and secured the respect of the entire community.
And we further desire most feelingly to tender to his widow and children
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our sympathy and sincere condolence in this the time of their sorrow, com- mending them to Him, the dear Lord, who comforteth those that are cast down.
And it is hereby ordered that a copy of the foregoing be presented to the family of the deceased, entered on the parish record, and its publication asked in the Glens Falls papers. CHARLES H. LANCASTER, Rector.
S. R. ARCHIBALD, Clerk.
Samuel Jenkins, M. D., of Queensbury. Dr. Jenkins was born in the town of Queensbury on the 19th of October, 1815. He was a descendant of one of the earliest settlers of the town, and the family of which he was a conspicuous and honored member was one of the most prominent and respected in that portion of the town in which he was raised. His early education was such as could be derived from the better class of our public schools; later on, his ad- vantages being of a superior order, he graduated at the Clinton Liberal Insti- tute in 1840, and was for a considerable period professor of languages at that institution.
In 1842 he was, after a course of preparatory study, ordained a minister of the Universalist Church. On the 12th of September, 1843, he was united in marriage with Almaria, daughter of Rufus and Sarah Anderson, who, with two sons, viz. : Lyman and Palmer B., still survive. The same year he was called to and accepted the charge of the Universalist Church at New Market, N. H. In 1844 he commenced the study of eclectic medicine, under the tutelage of Mark Anthony Cushing, M. D., of Glens Falls, N. Y., and from the period of his graduation forward, continued the practice of medicine (except at Hunting- don, L. I.), in connection with his ministerial duties.
In 1844 he was called to the pastorate of the Universalist Church at Utica, N. Y., at Lee Center, N. Y., in 1845-46, at East Medway, Mass., in 1847-48, at Rochester, N. Y., in 1850, at which place on the 10th of February, 1851, he received his degree of M. D. from the Rochester Medical College. For the six years following, namely, until 1857, he was in charge of the Universalist Church at Schenectady, N. Y. From 1857 to 1860 he was pastor of the Uni- versalist Church at Huntingdon, L. I., and again in 1860 at Schenectady. From the later city he removed to his birthplace at the north part of Queens- bury, where he remained in the successful practice of medicine, supplying an extended radius of rich farming country with his professional services, until the time of his death, which occurred on the 20th of December, 1873.
Joseph L. Stodard was born in the town of Moreau, Saratoga county, N. Y., in the year 1817. His education was acquired in the common schools of his native place, the circumstances and condition of his parents being such as to preclude the opportunities for a higher grade of education. In youth, how- 2I
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ever, he foreshadowed some of those qualities which in after life contributed largely to a career of usefulness. In character he was diffident, retiring, sedate, candid and industrious. But small portions of his time, even in boy- hood, were passed in the sports and pastimes, fun and frolic usually character- izing that active and formative period of life. Assiduous and attentive to his studies, and improving to the utmost the scanty opportunities, he laid broad and deep the foundations of future character and intellectual culture yet to be achieved by his own personal endeavors.
While yet a lad of immature age he was apprenticed to learn the trade of cabinet-making, in the village of Palmyra, Wayne county, N. Y., in which pur- suit he, in the course of his apprenticeship, became a skilled and accomplished workman. At the age of eighteen years he was assailed by a chronic gastric disease, which, for a time, crippled his energies, and from which he never fairly recovered. For two years he was under medical treatment, and during this period commenced the investigation and study of topics relating to med- ical science.
His health being partially restored, and lacking the means to further pur- sue his medical studies, he in 1838 removed to Glens Falls and opened a cab- inet ware-room. Renewed application to his trade soon brought on a return of his disease, and thus being crippled in health and ability to work, he speedily became embarrassed in his pecuniary condition and circumstances; and soon his business venture proved a failure.
This was indeed a dark and gloomy period of his life. To add to his trials, a prolonged fit of illness ensued which greatly prostrated his system and sapped the vital forces. This was in the year 1847.
During his convalescence he began the regular course of study, adopting the Hahnemannian system, of which he had already acquired a partial knowledge. He soon after embarked in practice, and notwithstanding the hos- tility and opposition of the other school of medicine, he built up a substantial and paying practice among an intelligent and appreciative portion of the com- munity in which he lived. For twelve years and more he maintained his posi- tion, constantly increasing in the confidence of the community, until he was again assailed by the disease, whose insidious approaches gradually sapped the fountains of life, and he died on the 9th of April, 1860.
Marvin Russell Peck, son of Joel and Hannah (Baldwin) Peck, was born at Sand Lake (or rather that portion of it which has since been set off under the name of Poestenkill, in Rensselaer county, N. Y.), on the sixteenth of July, 1822. His early education was received at the common schools of the neigh- borhood where his father resided, working on his father's farm summers, and going to school, as opportunity offered, winters. As a somewhat character- istic incident, illustrating his tenacity of purpose, he followed a teacher (whose
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superior acquirements and ability rendered his instruction desirable) to Wy- nantskill, a distance of six miles, and during a winter of considerable severity made his way on foot morning and night to and from the school whatever the weather, and whatever the traveling, as long as the school continued. After this he had the advantage of a select school one season. He came to Glens Falls on the last day of the year 1842, literally to seek his fortune. That win- ter and the summer following he attended the Glens Falls Academy. In the September succeeding he was taken in as office boy and clerk in the drug and medicine business. Here he acquired the repute of being one of the steadiest young men of the place. Two years later he was admitted as an equal part- ner in the same business. At about the same period he commenced his med- ical studies, which were prosecuted under peculiar embarrassments and diffi- culties, at such scanty intervals as could be snatched from the cares and anx- ieties of business. He had in the interval of student life the advantage of a large practice. He entered the Albany Medical College in the winter of 1848- 49 and graduated, after attending three courses of lectures, with great credit in the class of 1851. After this he remained three or four years in partnership with his uncle, assisting him in his practice, and then sold out to him. He was married on the 9th of September, 1853, to Miss Marcia L., daughter of Thomas H. and Eliza (Miller) Bemis, of New York city. He settled down to the prac- tice of his profession, commanding a fair share of the public patronage and es- teem. Two years later he bought out the old doctor, as his uncle was often called, and resumed the drug business in connection with his practice. Sub- sequent to the death of his uncle he bought of the executors the building used as his store and office. Was burned out in the great fire of 1864. Rebuilt the same year, materially enlarging the size of the building. He closed out the drug business in 1869 to Messrs. Pettit & Fennel, after which time he devoted his attention exclusively to the practice of his profession.
Dr. Peck was a physician of more than ordinary acumen and discrimina- tion ; as a surgeon he had few, if any, superiors outside of the cities. He per- formed several capital and important operations, and a more than average amount of success attested his judgment and skill. He died on Friday the 4th day of April, 1884.
Uberto Crandell, of Warrensburgh, studied with his uncle at Scipio, N. Y .; entered Union College, sophomore class, and graduated at the age of eighteen ; studied medicine with Dr. William U. Edgerton two years; attended one course of medical lectures at Geneva, N. Y., and died about 1846, as supposed from blood poisoning, the result of a dissecting wound.
Buel Goodset Streeter was born 25th July, 1832, at Warsaw, Wyoming county, N. Y. His father's name was Joab Streeter. His mother's name was
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Sophia Wheat. His father was a Methodist preacher. He was one of Bishop Philip Embury's first class of converts in Hampton, Washington county. He began preaching when he was about twenty years of age; first at home as a local preacher, from which he moved to the tract called "The Holland Purchase, " about the year 1828, and filled the position of traveling preacher until the time of his death which occurred in 1868, at Carlton, Orleans county, N. Y., aged seventy-two years.
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