USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 21
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Dr. John Willard was the first physician who settled in Middlebury. He came to this place about the year 1787. When he commenced practice the town was almost wholly a wilderness, and the roads which had been opened were nearly impassable, especially in muddy seasons. But he continued an extensive practice until he was called to the discharge of other duties. He resided first in a house built by Freeman Foot, on the south side of his farm, afterwards owned by Daniel Chipman. In 1791 he purchased of Judge Painter a small lot next north of the tavern lot sold to Simeon Dudley, and built a house just back of the present bank building. Here he lived until 1797, when he sold it to Samuel Mattocks, and purchased of Stillman Foot the lot on which the late Judge Phelps resided. There was on it at the time a small house built by John Foot, and occupied by him as a dwelling house. Here Dr. Willard resided until some years after he built the brick house on the Cornwall road, which constituted the late elegant homestead of Charles Linsley, esq. In 1801, under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, he was appointed marshal of the dis- trict of Vermont. In this office he continued until 1810. After this appoint-
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ment he relinquished principally the practice of his profession. But in the mean time he became distinguished as a politician. He was for several years at the head of the organization of the Republican party as chairman of its cen- tral committee. No man at the time probably had as much influence in con- trolling the measures of the party as he. On the establishment of the Vermont State Bank in 1806 he was appointed one of the directors, and continued in that office until the branch at Middlebury was closed. In 1812 Dr. Willard was appointed and officiated as sheriff of the county. Dr. Willard was born in 1759, at the town then known as East Guilford, now Madison, Conn. His father, Captain John Willard, a ship master, died when he was a child and he was left in the care of his mother, and aided in carrying on her small farm. Not liking the drudgery of a farmer's life, he went to sea. Toward the close
of the Revolutionary War he was taken by the British on board an American privateer and confined in and subjected to the horrors of the Jersey prison- ship lying in Walabout Bay. After he was released and had regained the health and strength which he had lost in prison, he received the appointment of quartermaster in a Connecticut regiment of volunteers. At the close of the war he entered upon the study of medicine under the tuition of Dr. Jonathan Todd, the principal physician in his native place. He had before had the lim- ited advantages for education of only a few months each year, at a district school, in his childhood. But he was fond of study and made the most of the advantages he enjoyed. As an introduction to his medical studies he pursued, to a limited extent, classical studies with the pastor of the parish. After com- pleting his medical studies he settled in the practice as before stated. In Au- gust, 1809, he was married to Miss Emma Hart, then principal of the Female Seminary here, and who has since become distinguished in that department. After she opened her school at their residence he co-operated with her in build- ing it up and sustaining it. Having greater encouragement from friends in the State of New Yerk, they removed their residence and school to Waterford in 1819, and two years afterwards to Troy. Dr. Willard's death took place May 25, 1825, at the age of sixty-six years.1
Dr. Stephen Pearl Lathrop was graduated at Middlebury College in 1849. The year following he spent in teaching, as preceptor of Black River Academy, at Ludlow, in this State. He afterwards pursued the study of medicine at Middlebury, and in the mean time attended the lectures at the Vermont Med- ical College at Woodstock, and received his diploma as Doctor of Medicine at that institution in 1843. He then established himself in the practice in this place, which he continued until 1846. During this short period his practice was not extensive, but he industriously pursued scientific studies, and was re- garded as a distinguished scholar in several departments of science, especially in natural history. In this period he was appointed by the late Professor
1 This sketch of Dr. Willard and several others in this chapter are from Swift's History of Middlebury.
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Charles B. Adams, his assistant in the department of chemistry and natural his- tory and in the geological survey of the State. From 1846 to 1849 he offici- ated under appointment as principal of the Female Seminary in Middlebury. In the latter year he was elected professor of chemistry and natural history in the college at Beloit, Wis., and removed to that place, and continued a teacher in that college until the latter part of the year 1852, when he was elected a professor in the State University at Madison, Wis. In this office he continued until his death, which occurred on the 25th of October, 1854.
Dr. Ralph Gowdey was the son of Mrs. Lucretia Gowdey, a widow, who resided in Middlebury for many years. He graduated at Middlebury College in 1819, and from that time until 1822 was employed as a teacher in the State of Georgia. The climate not being favorable to his health, he returned to Vermont and entered upon the study of medicine. In the year 1825 he re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the Castleton Medical College and immediately began practice in Rutland. In 1828 he removed to Middlebury, and from that time until his death on the 13th of June, 1840, he continued the practice with a growing reputation and the increasing confidence of the people. A written description of him says: "He was unassuming in his disposition and manners, but his talents and learning were of an order to give him a high rank in his profession, and were soon duly appreciated in the community."
Dr. William P. Russell was born in Charlotte, Vt., and received his med- ical education partly with Dr. Jonathan A. Allen and in part at the Berkshire Medical Institution, Pittsfield, from which he received his diploma in 1830. He began practice in Middlebury in 1831, and continued until his death, which occurred June 4, 1873. During a portion of this long period he carried on a drug store. He was appointed postmaster in 1857, and held numerous other positions of trust. He filled the office of surgeon in the Fifth Regiment Ver- mont Volunteers, and for two years was on active duty in the field. In sur- gery Dr. Russell was one of the most eminent men in the county, and his suc- cess in the practice of medicine was scarcely less marked. He was a man of unusual social popularity and all who became acquainted with him soon looked upon him as a friend.
Joel Rice, M. D., was born in Bridport, April 15, 1792. He graduated at Middlebury College in 1819, in the class with Dr. Gowdey, of Middlebury, and Beriah Green, president of Oneida Theological Institute. In 1822 he gradu- ted at the Vermont Academy of Medicine, in Castleton, Vt. He at once set- tled in Bridport in the practice of his profession. He became a member of the Addison County Medical Society in December, 1822, and continued a member as long as he resided in the State. He was also a member of the Vermont Medical Society in 1843-44-45. He represented the town of Bridport in the Legislature, and in 1849-50-5 1 he was elected a member of the State Senate from Addison county. He fulfilled his duties in the Legislature with honor and
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credit to himself and his constituents. Dr. Rice was deservedly popular in the community, for he was a conscientious man, a man of unswerving integrity, reliable in every position in which he was placed. He was an intelligent, care- ful and safe practitioner, and had a good practice in Bridport and the towns surrounding. He possessed in a remarkable degree a religious sentiment, which pervaded and influenced every act of his life and endeared him very much to his patients. When he removed to Madison, Wis., where he died in 1860, his loss was very acutely felt and regretted by the people of Bridport.
Dr. Frederic Ford, sr., was one of the early settlers in Cornwall and occu- pied a conspicuous place in the profession. He came to that town in 1784. In 1795 he purchased of Dr. Campbell his store and goods, real estate and good will. The store was soon given up, as his medical practice extended. Of his subsequent career we find the following in Mr. Matthews's history of the town : "Few medical men in this or adjoining towns have enjoyed a wider or more lucrative range of professional employment. He was often called as a consult- ing physician to Leicester, Orwell and other remote towns. Dr. Ford, early in his career, became distinguished in this region by the adoption of a hydro- pathic system of medical practice peculiarly his own, at least as to the extent of its application. Cold water he used in subduing fever in almost every form. Among his papers are found minute descriptions of its successful em- ployment in numerous and some extremely critical cases of scarlet fever, puerperal fever, bilious fever, typhoid fever and even mumps. The use of the doctor's favorite remedy was often so prompt and sometimes so abundant as to meet the opposition of his medical brethren, and to awaken the fears of his patients and their friends. He tells us, in his written reports of these cases, of wrapping some of his patients in wet sheets frequently renewed, or of pouring upon them pailful after pailful of water; of immersing his patients in casks of cold water ; and even once of laying a child upon a snow bank, wrapped in a wet cloth and there applying the water. Dr. Ford was a man of social turn, and was very fond of society. Few men had more pleasant anecdotes to re- late and none loved better to listen to their recital by others. His laugh - peculiar for its manner and its heartiness - cannot be forgotten by those who were favored with opportunities to witness his intercourse with his neighbors. As a citizen he took an active part in measures affecting the secular interests of the community. In the early part of his residence in Cornwall he often ac- cepted town offices and discharged their duties to acceptance. He continued in the house he purchased of Dr. Campbell until about the year 1816, when, with his son, he built a spacious mansion now occupied by his grandson, Charles R. Ford. Dr. Ford had been accustomed for a considerable period to receive medical students into his family for instruction, and in erecting his house he intended to provide for their accommodation. His death occurred September 17, 1822, at the age of sixty-three. Dr. Ford was connected with
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the army in the Revolutionary War, and belonged to the detachment which, under General Wayne, 'Mad Anthony,' captured Stony Point by storm in July, 1779 - a fit soldier to follow a leader so dauntless and determined."
" Frederick Ford, jr., M. D., was the only surviving son of the preceding, and the only child who survived infancy, of a family numbering, it is said, twenty-two, all children of the same mother. He was born in 1787 before his father's removal from his first pitch. After leaving the common school he studied Latin to some extent under the instruction of Rev. Mr. Bushnell - pursued the study of medicine under his father's direction, and completed his professional education at the medical school in Hanover, N. H., and there re- ceived his degree. Dr. Ford was married to Miss Sally Reeve in 1810, and commenced professional practice in connection with his father, and adopted his theory in regard to cold affusion in inflammatory diseases. During the con- tinuance of his father's life Dr. Ford devoted himself exclusively to his pro- fession, but after that period devoted his attention more to agricultural pur- suits, preferring, in the enjoyment of a competency, to leave the management of his affairs very much in the hands of his son. He was fond of reading, especially the current intelligence of the day; was an interested and active member of the 'Young Gentlemen's Society,' and was its librarian, I believe, from its establishment to his death. He died in April, 1858."
One of the first physicians of prominence in the town of Salisbury was Henry S. Waterhouse, an adopted son of Eleazer Claghorn. He studied medicine with Dr. John Horton, of the same town, and finally settled in Ma- lone, N. Y. He attained eminence as a surgeon, and in 1825 was called to the professorship of surgery in the University of Vermont at Burlington. His health becoming impaired, he resigned his position in 1827, and went with his son to Florida. Both were drowned soon afterward while sailing off Key West.
Darius Matthews was the first permanently settled physician in Salisbury. He was from Cheshire, Conn., and settled in Salisbury in 1788 or 1789. He is remembered as a successful practitioner ; but he remained in town but a few years when he removed to Middlebury. He was clerk of the Supreme Court in 1798, and made judge of probate in 1801, which office he administered until his death in 1819. In 1809 he removed to Cornwall, which town he repre- sented several years in the Legislature.
Rufus Newton, son of Captain Joel Newton, began practicing medicine in Salisbury in 1805, but removed to St. Lawrence county, N. Y. Late in his life he removed to Illinois, where he died in 1857.
Moses H. Ranney, M. D., was born August 16, 1814, in Stockbridge, Vt. His early life was passed in school, and at fifteen he began studying medicine with Dr. Daniel Huntington, of Rochester, Vt. Later he attended four courses of lectures and graduated from the Berkshire Medical College, Massachusetts,
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at the age of nineteen. He practiced eleven years in Salisbury, and in 1837 married the daughter of Aaron Burrows, one of the prominent citizens of the town. Dr. Ranney secured an extensive and lucrative practice, but gave it up to obtain a still better knowledge of his profession in the hospitals of New York city. He was finally chosen as physician in chief of the New York City Luna- tic Asylum. He died in New York.
William Aaron Hitchcock was born at Great Barrington, Mass., January 13, 1805. After a good common school education he was placed in a cooper's shop to learn the trade, in which he labored for some years. Abandoning a pursuit so uncongenial to his tastes, he entered the Rensselaer Institute at Troy, N. Y., preparatory to the study of medicine, for which he entertained a strong predilection from his very childhood. After leaving Troy he pursued the study of medicine with Earle Cushman, M.D., of Orwell, Vt .; attended lectures at Castleton Medical College, where he graduated with honor in 1829. In the spring of 1830 he settled in the town of Shoreham, and entered zealously into the practice of his profession, giving the whole of his valuable life and energies to the service of the people of that town and vicinity. Dr. Hitchcock had a clear brain, was quick and accurate in his diagnosis, prompt and energetic in his treatment. He was keen and discriminating in his observations; diligent and appreciative in his reading; keeping far in advance of most country prac- titioners ; possessed of a remarkably retentive memory. His sound judgment, indomitable will and perseverance enabled him to work out a successful career in the profession of his choice. Few practitioners secure and retain in so large a degree the confidence and affection of a community, as did Dr. Hitchcock.
Always healthy, he rarely declined a sick call on account of fatigue, and often performed an amount of labor which would have hopelessly broken down a less robust system. In the last two or three years, however, he had several attacks of pericarditis, leaving him the victim of uncomfortable symptoms. A severe attack during the summer of 1867, complicated with pneumonia, made a more decided impression upon his constitution. From this he never entirely recovered, although still able to do considerable business through the autumn. Early in the winter, after fatigue and exposure in the prosecution of his pro- fessional labors, there happened a recurrence of the pericardial trouble, attended by considerable effusion and consequent dyspnœa. Remedies failed to give relief. He lingered on with progressive œdema of the lower extremities, and the usual accompaniments of this distressing disease, until his death on the morning of the 25th of February, 1868. His private character was ever strongly marked by his early training and education. His habits were always most temperate. He never indulged in dissipation of any kind, and wholly eschewed tobacco and spirituous liquors.
George S. Gale, M.D., was born in Cornwall, April II, 1814. He was the youngest of nine children. His father, General Somers Gale, was among the
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first settlers of Cornwall, and commanded a battalion at the battle of Platts- burgh. He received good academic education, and commenced the study of medicine with an older brother, Dr. Nathan Gale, in Orwell, in May, 1834. He attended lectures at the Castleton Medical College, and graduated at that institution in 1837. He commenced the practice of medicine in Franklin, Vt., but subsequently removed to Rouse's Point, N. Y. Later he settled in Brid- port. In February, 1848, Dr. Gale became a member of the Addison County Medical Society. After a rigid competitive examination he was commissioned, by the governor, surgeon of the First Regiment of Vermont Cavalry in 1861, and served through the war. At times he was detached from his regiment to act as brigade surgeon and as division surgeon. For a considerable time dur- ing the last part of the war he was detailed to the Cavalry Corps Hospital at City Point, where he was surgeon-in-chief. In October, 1862, he had a very severe course of malarial fever which lasted several weeks. During the con- valescence from the fever he had a leave of absence. Aside from this, with the exception of a few weeks in the summer of 1863, when he was suffering with rheumatism, he was on active duty, and the greater part of the time on duty of the most arduous kind, throughout the whole four years of the war. At the termination of the war he settled in the city of New York in the practice of his profession. He at once received the appointment of pension examining surgeon. After practicing six or eight years in the city of New York he removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he continued the active duties of his profession until he was stricken with paralysis. From this he never fully recovered, but lin- gered along about three years. He died in Brooklyn, March 22, 1877. Dr. Gale was of about medium height, thick set, light complexion and hair, and blue eyes. He was genial and companionable in social life. In professional life he was very much respected and loved by his brother physicians, among whom he ranked above the average. He was the strongest kind of a Republican.
Earle Cushman, M.D., of Orwell, received a diploma conferring upon him the degree of M. D. from the Addison County Medical Society, June 5, 1822, after having passed a satisfactory examination, and being approved by the board of censors. He became a member of the society in August, 1845, and was its president during several years. He read some valuable and interesting papers before the society, one of which in particular will be remembered as forming the basis of a long and instructive discussion. Dr. Cushman was a gentleman of culture and education. He was cautious, careful and diligent in his profession, always on the alert to learn anything which might be for the advancement of his science or art. He was ever ready to seize a new idea and develop it. From first to last he was a diligent student, and the students who studied with him, along with the principles of medicine, did not fail to acquire a zeal and devotion to the profession.
There have been other physicians in Addison county who should be in-
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cluded in the foregoing sketches, but all efforts to obtain the required data have resulted in failure.
The following list gives the names of all the physicians who have ever prac- ticed in Middlebury and the periods of their practice :1 John Willard, 1787 to 1801 ; Joseph Clark, 1793 to 1795 ; William Bass, 1797 to 1849; Edward Tudor, 1804 to 1856; Zacheus Bass, 1815 to 1881; Jonathan A. Allen, 1825 to 1848; Oliver B. Norton, 1826 to 1831; Ralph Gowdey, 1830 to 1840; William P. Russell, 1831 to 1871; John Marshall, 1836 to 1842 ; Gerry Ross, 1840 to 1855 ; D. C. Goodale, 1840; Edwin H. Sprague, 1841 to 1843 ; S. Pearl Lathrop, 1844 to 1849; Charles L. Allen, 1847 to 1862 ; Joseph Bil- lings, 1847 to 1864; Charles C. P. Clarke, 1848 to 1850; John G. Wellington, 1848 to 1849; William M. Bass, 1848 to 1865; Norman D. Ross, 1850 and now; Hiram Meeker, 1854 to 1860; J. M. Jennings, 1857 to 1858; Joseph N. Steele, 1860 to 1863; Marcus O. Porter, 1861 to 1863 ; Smith T. Rowley, 1861 to 1876; Homer Bostwick, 1866; Merritt H. Eddy, 1866 and now; Christopher B. Currier, 1866 to 1878; Edward P. Russell, 1867 and now; Edward O. Porter, 1867 to 1884; Oliver E. Ross, 1868 to 1870; Miss Emma Callender, 1873 to 1878 ; Benjamin F. Sutton, 1873 and now; William M. Day, 1874 to 1875 ; Edward S. Craft, 1874 to 1875; Frederick W. Halsey, 1876 to 1884; Edward O. Porter, 1878 and now; William H. Sheldon, 1880. Melvin D. Smith, 1883 and now. Two or three others practiced here a few months only.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PRESS OF ADDISON COUNTY.2
The Printing Business in Early Days - Remarkable Changes - The First Newspaper in Middlebury -The Power of the Press-List of Papers Published in the County - Biographic Memoranda - Papers of Vergennes and Bristol - Other Publications.
" The world's a printing house ; Our words, our thoughts, Our deeds, are characters of several sizes ; Each soul is a compositor Of whose faults the Levites are correctors ; Heaven revises : Death is the common press, From whence being driven, We're gathered sheet by sheet, And bound for Heaven."
T' HE printing business, like all other mechanical industries, was in its infancy in the early days of Vermont history, when, in 1801, the first newspaper was published in Middlebury. The implements used in that period to carry on
1 Compiled by Henry L. Sheldon.
2 Contributed to this work by Justus Cobb, of Middlebury.
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the practical part of the business was rude and clumsy ; the presses of the old style and worked entirely by hand; this was the case throughout the country. The types when adjusted upon the press were inked by a man or boy who stood in the rear of the press beside a small table upon which a thin coating of ink was spread. The man held in each hand a large leather-covered ball to which was attached a handle, and with these would apply the ink to the types, after rolling the balls together and upon the inky table to properly distribute the ink. On the old hand-lever presses it was considered rapid work for two men to print two hundred and forty sheets an hour on one side only. Now, in the good year 1886, the printing presses of latest manufacture, printing both sides of the sheet almost simultaneously from a continuous web of paper, moistened before reaching the type forms, which are curved upon rapidly revolving cylin- ders, turn out in an hour fifty thousand or more newspapers, cut and folded ready for delivery. The enormous advancement in this art during the period under consideration, as summed up in the above statements, covering, as it does, thousands of patented improvements which have employed the best inventive minds of the country, is almost past human comprehension ; but it has been secured through the slow and gradual growth of the many years, like most other great improvements.
To-day the power of the press is as that of society. It reaches to the throne; it is enclosed in the cottage. It pulls down injustice, however lofty; it raises lowliness, however deep. It castigates crime, which the law can only punish without repressing. Wherever eye can see or hand can write, extends the power of the press. It penetrates every nook and corner of society, and carries heal- ing and intelligence in its glowing beams. It nips rising abuses ; and it stops the tide of tyranny when at full flood. This vast power it derives from the very principles of its being. Seeking out truth and presenting reason, it con- centrates upon one point the whole moral power of society and persuades and governs without violence. As the light of the sun, it " shines for all," and its effects are visible throughout society.
Taking up in its order the press of Middlebury, we shall necessarily be obliged to rely largely upon the statements of Dr. Merrill and Judge Swift, who were prominent and active citizens in this town in its early days, and upon our antiquarian, Henry L. Sheldon.
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