USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 11
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Dr. John P. Mann was born in Attleboro or Rehoboth, Mass., in 1755, and died in Newport September 24th, 1837. He was an early graduate of Brown University, and came to Newport and settled as a physician, in early life, and probably practised somewhat in the earlier part of his career, but not at all in his later years. Doctor Mann married Miss Clarke, daughter of HIon. Joseph Clarke (who had been general treasurer of the colony and state from 1761 to 1792, 31 years) and of Rebecca, daughter of Abraham Redwood. She had for- merly been the wife of Doctor Walter Rodman. He married, second, Ann, widow of William Robinson, and daughter of George and Mary (Ayrault) Scott, who survived him. Doctor Mann will be remembered by many still living as a dignified and stately gentleman of the old school, very much resembling the pictures of General Washington. He lived in the house in Broadway, now Mr. Kimber's, and superintended the cultiva tion of a tract of land of considerable extent, now divided and constituting an important section of the town, and north and east from the house. To the ordinary mind he represented the an- cient aristocratic element, then fast disappearing.
Dr. Curtis E. Maryott, son of Rev. lehabod B.and Almira (Miner) Maryott, was born in the city of New York, May 3d, 1841. He is descended from Rev. Samnel Maryott, a Sabbatarian, who was born in England in 1706, and for many years was minister to the congregation which occupied the old building on Barney street, now occupied by the Newport Historical Society, and who died in Newport in 1802. Doctor Maryott passed his early years in North Stonington, Connecticut. He took his medical degree at the University of New York in 1866, and in December of that year commenced practice at Block Island, where he re- mained until 1872. He then removed to Wakefield, R. 1., where he now lives. He married, November 2d, 1867, Maria Louise, daughter of Asa and Louisiana Inman) Hawkins, of Gloucester, R. I.
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Doctor Benjamin Mason was the son of Benjamin Mason, merchant, of Newport, and Mary (Ayrault) Mason, his wife. He was born in Newport in March, 1762, and married, Noven- ber Sth, 1788, Margaret Champlin, daughter of Col. Christopher and Margaret (Grant) Champlin, of Newport. He died Septem- ber 18th, 1801, aged 40 years. He studied medicine in the office of Doctor Isaac Senter, and completed his medical education in London. His career was short but brilliant, being cut off in the early prime of manhood, and leaving a family of young chil- dren. Of these, Benjamin died in youth. George C., the father of the present George C. Mason, Senior, a long-time clerk of the supreme court of Rhode Island, for Newport county, and after- ward cashier of the Rhode Island Union Bank. being of a frail constitution, died at about the same age as his father. Elizabeth was the wife of the distinguished hero of Lake Erie. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Doctor Mason ontlived his preceptor, Doctor Senter, two years, and succeeded him as director and purveyor-general of the Military Hospital in Rhode Island, and naturally succeeded to a considerable part of his practice. Ile was an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Doctor Parsons says: "He flourished many years before the last century, and was at the head of the profession in Newport."
Doctor Thomas Moffatt was one of the galaxy of medical men of European education who made their home in Newport dur- ing the eighteenth century, and shed lustre on the medical his- tory of that ancient and then flourishing town. Doctor Moffatt was a Scotchman, and had the best advantages of education then attainable. He was reputed to have been an adherent of the Jacobite canse in 1745, and to have come to America about 1746, to escape the penalties of rebellion. In 1750 he was in Rhode Island, and appears to have been in practice in Newport nntil, in 1765, when having become obnoxious to the people from his activity in promoting the exeention of the stamp act, his house was attacked by a mob, his property damaged, his books and papers scattered, himself paraded and hung in elligy, and obliged to take refuge in one of the king's vessels in the harbor, and finally to go to New London, where he was made comptroller of the king's customs. In the beginning of the rev- olutionary troubles his pronounced adhesion to the royal cause again made him obnoxious to popular sentiment, and he return- ed to Newport and resumed his practice, but after the evaen .:
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tion of Rhode Island by the British troops, disappeared and never returned. In 1777 Duncan Stewart, who had been royal collector of customs at New London, had leave to remove to New York, and to take with him the effects of Doctor Thomas Moffatt, which latter was revoked on learning of Doctor Mof- fatt's adhesion to the crown. Miss Calkins says (Hist. N. Lon- don): "In 1778 Rev. Mather Byles conveyed to his friend, Doc- tor Thomas Moffatt, his house in N. London, to secure 240€ due the church, from which he had retired, for certain contingent claims." He was in London in 1779, and signed an address to the king, and no mention is made of him afteward. He made a claim on the colony of Rhode Island for damages sustained in the riots in Newport, which the general assembly agreed to pay, after a liberal scaling down, whenever their account with the British government, for expenses incurred in the French war, was settled, as it never was. A long history of this affair may be found in Bartlett's R. I. Colonial Records. At one time, dur- ing his residence in Newport, Doctor Moffatt was associated with the elder Gilbert Stuart, in the manufacture of snuff, in North Kingstown, at the place now known as Hamilton, R. I.
Doctor Alexander Pope Moore practised in Newport about 10 years, and died here. April 22d. 1836, of smallpox. He mar- ried Mary, daughter of Nicholas Easton, of Newport, and left one son.
Doctor Thomas Paine Moore, brother of Doctor Alexander P., of Newport, came here after his brother's death, from Warren, R. I., where he had previously practised, and was appointed surgeon to the Marine Hospital in Newport. About 1841 he re- turned to Warren, and practised there until his death.
Doctor Frankland Morton died in Newport July 25th, 1720, aged 33 years. Nothing further can be learned of him.
Doctor Moyes, probably an itinerant, advertised ten lectures on natural science at the court house, Newport, in 1785.
Miss Annie News, M. D., a native of the state of New York, was graduated in medicine at Ann Arbor, Michigan. She came to Newport about 1873, and practised successfully here until 1885, when she went to Europe and studied for two years in the schools there. On her return she established herself in the city of New York, where she now practises.
Doctor George Mountain Odell was born in Frederickton, New Brunswick, Dominion of Canada, in 1818. He received the
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degree of A.B. at King's College, at Frederickton, in 1836. In 1841 he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1842 he received the diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. From 1842 to 1876 he practised his profession in Frederickton, his place of nativity, and in the latter year came to Newport, where he has since prosecuted the practice of his profession. Doctor Odell is a gentleman of fine accomplishments and high tone, and has established an enviable position.
Doctor David Olyphant was born in Scotland, in 1720, at " Pitheaoles," the house where his ancestors had lived for many generations. The house, or castle, as it is called, is about one and one-half miles from the railway station at Perth, and is still owned by one of the descendants of the family in the female line. In common with nearly all the branches of his race, he warmly espoused the cause of the Stuarts. After the battle of Culloden, in which he took an active part, his life was in danger, but he succeeded in escaping from Scotland, and coming to this country landed at Charleston, South Carolina, where he lived for many years, practising his profession and rising in it to the highest eminence. Here, too, as was natural from his early training, he took a leading part in the political discussions of the time. In General Moultrie's "Memoirs of the Revolution" we find his name among the list of members of the provincial congress held at Charleston. He was also a member of the legislative council of February, 1776, of which that revered patriot, the Hon. John Routledge, was president, and, at a later date, in a letter to General Moultrie, the Hon. Charles Pinckney says: "The senate, I hope, will act wisely, though it is to be lamented they are obliged to act now without the assistance of yourself, Olyphant and others, whose aid would give a lustre to their proceedings." On the breaking ont of the revolution he at once offered his services to the gor- ernment, and on the 4th of July, 1776, received his commission as director-general of the southern hospitals, the duties of which he discharged with the highest honor, integrity and abil- ity, until the surrender of Charleston, when he became a prisoner of war and, perhaps because of his Scotch birth and early history, was subjected to treatment that called forth a protest from General Moultrie to the English commanding officer. In addition to other offices, he was repeatedly elected
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to the senate of South Carolina as representative of St. George. Dorchester. His health failing, in the year 1785 he removed to Newport, R. I., the climate of which, more like that of his native land, proved a complete restorative, and decided him to remain there permanently. In the year 1786 he married Miss Ann Vernon, granddaughter of Governor Ward, of Rhode Is- land, one of the belles and brightest wits of her time. She was Doctor Olyphant's third wife. He had a son by a previons marriage, who was accidentally killed. He lived in Newport, continuing there the practice of medicine until his death, in 1804, at the age of 84 years. One who knew his history well thus wrote on hearing of his death: "Still will he continue to live in the remembrance of those who knew him, and the annals of our country will teach succeeding generations to stamp a high value upon his character. In private life he was an easy, polite and well-bred gentleman; an agreeable and instructive compa- nion, he was always sure to command the esteem and regard of society according to the proportion of their acquaintance with him, and those who knew him best valued him most." He left one son and one danghter. In the naming of his son he showed the same loyalty of nature that led to his banishment from Scotland. On the rolls of the Society of Cincinnati, of which Doctor Olyphant was one of the original members, it stands printed in full, David Washington Cincinnatns Oly- phant, the first a family name, then that of the friend whom he considered the noblest of earth's heroes, and then that name which enrolled under its banner those friends who were the dearest, and nearer to him because of the trials and struggles through which they had passed together. While anxiety may be felt for a child weighted with such a name, we can sympa- thize with the feelings that prompted it, and rejoice that in this case it was carried without stain or blemish through long years of an honored life as an eminent merchant of New York, and the founder of American missions to China. The name, as indicated above, was but a sign of love and loyalty, the dis- tinctive traits of the old Scotch family, and which led its histo- rian to write: "but even the sternest foe of the Olyphant politics (in Scotland) will not grudge, I hope, some meed of praise to that unflinching steadfastness which was ever ready to give life and lands, home and health, in behalf of a race of doomed kings." The subject of this sketch was true and
David Olyphant
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steadfast to what he believed to be the best for his native land, and then for the land of his adoption. There may be a doubt, perhaps, which was the deepest feeling of his heart, love of freedom, or hatred of the "Georges." Perhaps the two were unified to him, but the Jacobite tradition was with him, wonder at it as we may, an abiding one. It seems proper, in closing this sketch. to state that Doctor Olyphant apparently thought himself the proper heir to the title of Lord Olyphant, after the death of his uncle in 1770-the last who bore the title -and he had many papers in his possession that seemed to vin- dicate his belief. In his will, Lord Olyphant bequeathed to him the family plate, and then, providing that the residue of his estate should be invested for Lady Olyphant during her life, directs that at her death it should be transferred to his nephew, Doctor David Olyphant, of Charleston, South Carolina. The doctor, however, never entered his claim, perhaps thinking that the events which led to his leaving Scotland would be used as a bar to his success. Ile doubtless hoped that his son would secure it. That son, however, had other and higher purposes marked out for his life's work. Let his descendants emulate his example, and never waste wealth, if possessed of it, in the pursuit of a title, however noble; but rather, which is far nobler. endeavor so to live as to be worthy of it.
Doctor Horatio Palmer was born in Boston, Mass., in 1815, gradnated at Dartmouth College, and received his medical ed- ucation in Boston. He married and established himself in Little Compton, R. L., about 1834, and died there, in 1848, aged 34 years, having prosecuted the practice of medicine in Little Compton fifteen years.
Doctor James D. Peckham was a native of Little Compton, belonged to a Quaker family, and was born in 1799. He studied medicine with Doctor William Wilbour, of Hopkinton, R. I., and attended lectures in New York city. He commenced prac- tice in Little Compton. R. L., in 1821, and was a successful and popular practitioner in that place for 28 years. He died in Lit- tle Compton December 23d, 1849, aged 50 years.
Doctor William Thornton Parker, son of William Thornton Parker, A. M., M. D., of Boston, Mass., grandson of Benjamin Parker. A. M., M. D., of Bradford, Mass., and of Virginia, and great-grandson of William Jackson, M. D., of London and of Boston, was born in Boston December 24th. 1849. He attended
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Mr. Vinson's academy at Jamaica Plains, Mass., afterward four years at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, and three years at the Highland Military Academy at Worcester, Mass. While a private pupil of Professor Dixi Crosby of Han- over, New Hampshire, Doctor Parker entered the medical de- partment of Dartmouth University in 1868, and in 1870, the medical department of the University of Vienna, Austria, where he studied upward of two years, and graduated with honors at the Royal University of Munich in 1873. He afterward took a post-graduate course in the medical schools of Paris, France, and was for some time Interne in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. In 1874 he was appointed surgeon of the steamers " Hammonia " and " Cimbria" of the Hamburg line. He mar- ried in 1875, Miss Elizabeth R., daughter of IIon. John B. Steb- bins, president of the Institution for Savings, Springfield, Mass. He again went to Europe in 1875, to study in the hospitals of Paris and London. Returning, he practised for nearly three years in Lenox, Mass. In 1880 he was appointed government surgeon at White Earth Indian reservation, and surgeon in charge of Bishop Whipple's Hospital for Indians, and in 1882, was appointed acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, serving in Texas, New Mexico, Indian Territory and Colorado. In 1885 he was appointed by Secretary Manning in charge of the na- tional quarantine against cholera at Fisherman's island, Vir- ginia. In 1885 Doctor Parker settled in Newport, R. I. for practice in civil life. In 1887 he was appointed by Governor Davis medical examiner for third district, Newport county, R. 1. During the international congress he was vice-president of the section of anatomy and member of the council of the sec- tion of climatology. At one time, since his residence in New- port, he was associated with Horatio R. Storer, M. D., in prac_ tice, and at all times has shown himself an active and energetic man. He is captain of a company in the military establishment of the state of Rhode Island.
Doctor George B. Penrose was a surgeon in the British army at the time of its occupation of Newport. While here he was attracted by the charms of Miss Mary, daughter of Joseph and Mary Dunbar Cowley and married her. Soon afterward he was ordered home on some business arising from the vicissitudes of the service and died on the passage. His widow remained in Newport and lived to extreme old age, drawing a pension
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from the British government until she died in 18-18, sixty years. Mrs. Penrose lived and died in an old fashioned man- sion standing next but one to the foot of Church street on the spot now occupied by the residence of Col. John Seabury. Dur- ing the British occupation this house was known as the "Crown Coffee House," as is shown by numerous notices in the news- papers of the time, inviting officers and gentlemen to partici- pate in the delights of Mrs. Cowley's genteel and elegant danc- ing assemblies at the "Crown Coffee House." Mrs. Cowley herself familiarly dubbed it " Dunbarton Castle." Later, and until its destruction, it was always known as " Penrose Hall," Mrs. Penrose having continued those charming reunions for a long time after her mother, and given her attention to teaching several generations of the lads and misses of Newport how to " trip the light fantastic toe." Mrs. Penrose died in Newport October 10th, 1848, aged 93 years.
Doctor Christopher Grant Perry, son of Commodore Oliver II. and Elizabeth (Mason) Perry, was born in Newport, April 2d, 1812. After graduating at Brown University in 1830, he made a voyage to the East Indies in 1834, and on his return en- tered the office of Hon. William Hunter as a student of law, and was admitted to the Bar of Rhode Island in 1836. With- ont taking up the practice of that profession he entered upon the study of medicine in the office of Doctor T. C. Dunn in Newport, attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and took his medical degree there in 1837. He then settled in his native town and commenced the practice of medicine, which he continued for several years, but finding medicine not con- genial with his tastes, or perhaps with his physical condition, which was not very vigorous, he returned to his first love, and went into the practice of the law, which he prosecuted with diligence and success, nntil disabled by ill health, dying of con- sumption. April 7th, 1857. He took an active part in sustain- ing the state government in the Dorr troubles in 1842, and af- terward succeeded Col. William B. Swan as commander of the Newport artillery company, which position he filled for nine years and until his decease, and in which he enjoyed the full confidence and most enthusiastic affection of his men, which feeling of affection was met on his part by the most devoted loyalty to his command, and the most generous friendship for its individnal members. Doctor Perry's especial traits were
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a most rigid conscientiousness and high sense of honor. Al- though sternly governed by the sense of right, he was unob- trusive and retiring, and was characterized by a gentleness and snavity of manner, almost feminine. He was a most worthy and exemplary man in all his relations, and although, possibly for lack of occasion, he did not develop any remark- ably heroic traits, was a worthy scion of a noble stock. He was married May 31st, 1838, to Miss Frances, daughter of Hon. Thomas Sargeant of Philadelphia, and had two sons and two daughters, one of whom is the wife of William Pepper, M. D., provost, and professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. The other daughter married John La Farge, Esq.
Doctor Francis Huntington Rankin was born at Fishkill-on- the-Hudson, New York, September 25th, 1845. His grandfather, Henry Rankin, was a Scotch merchant, who came to this country in early manhood, and became a successful and promi- nent merchant in New York city. He was a man of stern in- tegrity and strong religious devotion, traits of character for which the family were distinguished. His son, Robert Gosman Rankin, the father of Doctor Rankin, was born in New York city in 1806, graduated at Yale College, and studied law in the office of Chancellor Kent, and after his admission began prac- tice in New York city. He there married Laura Wolcott, a dangliter of Hon. Frederick Wolcott, a man noted for his intel- lectnal gifts and high moral character. Mr. Rankin was an ardent student of natural science, fond of literary and scientific pursuits, a great promoter of educational enterprises, public spirited, generous and active in every philanthropic and reli- gions work, a man of culture, fine sensibilities and extensive reading. For thirty years he was a regent of the University of New York, and was also connected with several of the promi- nent railroads and scientific enterprises of the day. Doctor Rankin's mother belonged to a family distinguished in the colonial and revolutionary history of the country, and con- nected with many families of distinction throughout New Eng- land. Iler grandfather, Oliver Wolcott, was one of the signers of the declaration of independence, and his son, Oliver, was secretary of the treasury during Washington's administration. Her mother was a daughter of Col. Joshua Huntington, of Norwich, Connecticut, whose family was also represented among
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the signers in the person of Samuel Huntington. Both families took a conspicuous part in the military and political history of New England, and live of Mrs. Rankin's ancestors were gov- ernors of Connecticut. Doctor Francis Huntington Rankin is one of a large family of sons and daughters. In early manhood he manifested a decided preference for the profession which he has since adopted. He pursued his classical studies at the Col- lege of the City of New York, and took his diploma as doctor of medicine at the medical department of the New York Uni- versity in the spring of 1869. Shortly afterward he went abroad, and spent a year in the hospitals of Vienna. Soon after the breaking out of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 he went to Berlin, and received an appointment as acting assistant sur- geon in the Prussian army, being stationed in the large military hospital in the suburbs of Berlin. After serving thus for a short time he became acting full surgeon. On his return to America he received the "steel medal of thanks" from the Prussian government. Ile began the practice of medicine in New York city in the summer of 1871, and during the first year held the position of assistant inspector on the New York board of health. He was subsequently connected with the New York Hospital for diseases of the nervous system, the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, the Demilt, Children's Northeast Dispen- saries, and several other institutions. He wns also tutor and assistant to the chair of materia medica in the medical depart- ment of the University of New York. In the summer of 1876 Doctor Rankin removed to Newport and entered into partner- ship with Doctor Austin L. Sands, who died the following year. since which time he has continued alone in practice. Ile is a fellow of the Rhode Island State Medical Society, and was, in 1882, instrumental in forming the Newport Medical Society, of which he is president. He has manifested great interest in the sanitary condition of the city of his residence, is a member of the Newport Sanitary Association, and was, from its first in- ception, one of the council. He is also one of the attending physicians of the Newport Hospital. The doctor is connected with the Business Men's Association, is a member of the New- port Historical Society, and of the Natural History Society. He was, in 1879, a member of the advisory board of health of Newport. He has frequently contributed to the medical litera- ture of the day through the pages of the leading journals and
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periodicals. On the 11th of November, 1879, he married Grace, daughter of Jacob Voorhis, Jr., of New York, a descendant of one of the early Knickerbocker settlers. The doctor is, in his religious associations, a Congregationalist, and a member of the church of that denomination in Newport.
Doctor William Richardson was born in Boston, Mass., March 13th, 1788, and died in .Johnston, R. I., September 30th, 1864. He was twice married, first to Mary, daughter of Job and Sarah (Lawton) Almy, of Newport, May 4th, 1815. His second wife was Jane, daughter of Isaac Lawton, of Portsmouth. They were married September 5th, 1827. His first wife had seven chil- dren, and the second five. Doctor Richardson, for many years, during his residence in Portsmonth, combined the two avoca- tions of farmer and physician, which was then more common than now. In the latter part of his residence in Portsmouth he occupied what was then called the Gelston place, formerly Samuel Thurston's farm, but after Doctor Richardson, it was owned and occupied by David Almy. It stood a short distance north from Glen road, and is still distinguished by an ancient and enormous black walnut tree, larger than any other tree now existing on the island. Doctor Richardson removed, in his ad- vanced years, to Johnston, R. I., and died there. He was some- what eccentric and angular in appearance and manner, but was a very worthy, honorable and estimable man. He was fitted for college at Groton Academy, under the instruction of William M. Richardson and Caleb Butler. He graduated at Bowdoin College, as A.B., in 1809, studied medicine from 1809 to 1813 in the office of Doctor James P. Chaplin, and graduated in medicine at Harvard College in 1813. He first practised at Slatersville for four years, then removed to Portsmouth, R. I., where he remained 21 years, to 1838, when he removed to John- ston, at which place he died, having practised there for 26 years. He was an efficient and valuable member of the school committee, both in Portsmouth and Johnston, for many years. He was a member of the R. 1. Medical Society.
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