BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE 
Mdlesex (jounti} jfeiltcal Jj) octet]), 
READ AT THE 
Eighty-Sixth annual meeting, 
A I1 Ii I L, 18 7 7. 
BY 
RUFUS W. MATHEWSON, M. D., Durham. 
From the Proceedings of the Connecticut Medical Society. 
HARTFORD: 
PRESS OF TIIE CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD COMPANY. 
1877. BIGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE 
MIDDLESEX COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY, 
READ AT THE 
EIGHTY-SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING, 
RUFUS W. MATHEWSON, M. D., Durham. 
That we may better understand the professional standing of the 
men who organized this society eighty-five years ago, let us briefly 
review the previous medical history of the territory, which, seven 
years before, had been incorporated into this county. It was here 
that the “Clerical Physicians” instituted the reform in teaching 
and practice, which resulted in the elevation of the profession 
throughout the colony to a proper standard. 
Jared Eliot, the father of the regular practice in this county, 
was a son of the minister of Guilford, and grandson of the apostle, 
John Eliot. lie graduated at Yale College in 1705, while the 
institution was located at Saybrook, which at that time belonged 
to New London County, and spent his whole professional life in 
Clinton, then Killingworth, in the same county. He was assisted 
and succeeded by his pupil and son-in-law, I)r. Benjamin Gale, 
who graduated at Yale in 1733, making that place for three- 
quarters of a century the great resort for medical instruction, 
equal in importance for that period to any of the cities for 
the present day. Drs. Jared Totter and Elihu Tudor were edu- 
cated there. It was there that the first medical treatise was pub- 
lished in the colony in 1750 by Dr. Gale ; and in 1788 “Cases and 
Observations” by the same: all of which were favorably noticed 
in Europe. 138 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
Dr. Eliot had eleven children. The first, a daughter, died young. 
The second, Hannah, married Dr. Gale, and had eight children, most 
of whom died young. The third, Samuel, graduated at Yale, 1735, 
studied medicine, and died on a voyage to Africa for his health in 
1741. The fourth, Aaron, studied medicine, married a daughter of 
Rev. Wm. Worthington of Westbrook, and settled in his native 
place as physician and merchant. He was a Judge, a Colonel, a Dea- 
con, and one of his Majesty’s justices. He was engaged largely in the 
manufacture of steel. In a petition to the Colonial Assembly for 
pecuniary aid to carry on the work to better advantage, it was 
claimed that he supplied the colony and other governments with 
steel. The sum of £500 was voted for three years without inter- 
est ; when due, an extension of two years was granted on account 
of a large loss of steel by fire in Boston. He had three sons who 
studied medicine mostly with their uncle, Dr. Benjamin Gale. 
One of them married a daughter of Dr. John Ely. They all set- 
tled in the new clearings at the West. Dr. Jared Eliot’s fifth child, 
Samuel, (Yale, 1740,) studied medicine, and died at Saybrook in 
1747, unmarried. He had six other sons, neither of whom studied 
medicine or divinity. 
Dr. Gale’s second daughter married Jeremiah Atwater of New 
Haven. Mary, the third, was the second wife of Dr. John Red- 
field of Guilford. Juliana, the fourth, married Leverett, son of 
Dr. Leverett Hubbard of New Haven, and had a son Leverett, 
who was the only grandchild of Dr. Gale who survived him. 
Dr. Eliot was pastor of the church in Clinton for forty years, 
hardly failing to preach a single Sabbath. In his preaching, 
plain and familiar, happy in allusions to Scriptures, and abounding 
in original and laconic expressions. In history, natural philoso- 
phy, botany, and mineralogy, he excelled. He died in 1763, aged 
78 years. 
Dr. Gale built the first story of the stone tavern at Clinton, 
inside of which was another stone house, two stories high, con- 
stituting a house within a house, constructed in a way to with- 
stand the general conflagration. The upper story of the inner 
house, it was supposed, was used for anatomical purposes, and for 
meditation and study of the Scriptures on which he wrote largely. 
After the doctor’s death, the inner house was removed, and 
another story added to the outer walls. He was buried in the 
cemetery north of his house, at right angles with other graves, 
his feet towards the south, so that when he arose, he would face BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
139 
his former home. From his monument we read : “ In memory of 
Dr. Benjamin Gale, who, after a life of usefulness in his profes- 
sion, and a laborious study of the Prophecies, fell asleep May 6th, 
A. D., 1790, Aet. 75, fully expecting to rise again under the 
Messiah, and to reign with him on earth. I know that my Re- 
deemer liveth, and that he stand at the latter day upon the 
earth, and mine eyes shall behrml him.” 
Dr. Gale, it appears, held to the old doctrine of the millenari- 
ans, who believed that the second coming of Christ will precede 
the millenium, and that there will be a literal resurrection of the 
saints, who will reign with Christ on earth a thousand years. He 
expected to rise in 1804. 
Dr. Phineas Fiske was a son of Dr. John Fiske of Milford, one 
of the most noted physicians in the colony. He graduated at 
Yale College, at its third commencement, and two years in 
advance of Dr. Eliot, yet having spent six years as a tutor in that 
institution, he did not commence practice as soon. He was cotem- 
porary with, and equal to Dr. Eliot, but the misfortune was he did 
not live as long. He was settled as a minister at Haddam, then 
in Hartford county, where he died in 1738. Samuel, son of Dr. 
Fiske, graduated at Yale in 1743, and died while a tutor. 
Dr. Moses Bartlett of Madison (Yale, 1730) studied both pro- 
fessions with Dr. Fiske, married the daughter of his preceptor, 
and settled at East Middletown, now Portland, where he died in 
1766. A monument was erected to his memory near the quarries 
by his parishioners, on which is inscribed : “ He was a sound and 
faithful divine, a physician of soul and body.” 
Dr. Bartlett had three sons—Moses, (Yale, 1763,) Phineas, and 
Elihu (Yale, 1764). The two former studied medicine with 
Dr. Gale. Moses succeeded to his father’s practice in Portland, 
surviving him for forty years; he was a deacon in the church. 
Phineas settled at Ashfield, Mass. Elihu died young, without a 
profession. 
The foregoing includes those clerical physicians of this county 
to whom the profession is so much indebted for its advanced 
standing. All the sons of the clerical physicians who studied a 
profession, took to medicine: not one to the ministry. At the 
time this society was organized, there were but two medical 
colleges on this side of the Atlantic; and those had not fairly 
become established institutions. Not one of these original mem- 
bers had enjoyed advantages of medical college instruction, but 140 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
they were confined to private teaching. Each physician consti- 
tuted a faculty to teach, and an examining and licensing hoard. 
Several of the members of this society made professional teach- 
ing a specialty. Doctors had to be prepared for the new frontier 
settlements. They were like the medicines—hand-made. Steam 
and machinery had not come igio use. The candidate “served 
his time,” as it was then called, miich was divided between the 
books on the shelf, the skeleton in the closet, the pestle and pill- 
slab in the back room, roaming the forests and fields for roots and 
herbs, and following, astride of the colt he was breaking, the horse 
which was honored with the saddle-bags. 
The practice of inoculation was at its height at the time this 
society was organized, and was a source of great income to many 
of the members. The keeping of pock-houses (as they were called) 
was profitable. The location of these can generally be traced by 
the graves of the patients in the fields adjoining. Jenner’s great 
discovery was not made until after this society had been in exist- 
ence several years. 
Dr. Jesse Cole was a physician in Durham at the time this 
society was organized; he was not a member, as Durham belonged 
to New Haven county, till some years afterwards. He was born 
at Kensington, 1739; was a son of Mathew Cole and Ruth Hub- 
bard; settled in Durham in 1765, and did a large and successful 
business till 1793, when he became involved in a suit against his 
son by the town, which he zealously but unsuccessfully defended, 
when he removed to Southington, and, in 1803, to Wolcott. He 
died in 1811, leaving eight children. 
Dr. Cole, it is said, had two pills that he relied on, one of which 
he called the black dog, and the other the white dog. If the black 
dog failed, he would send the white dog into the stomach of the 
patient. 
On the south side of Mount Pisgali, in Durham, he cultivated 
rare plants and herbs, which still bears the name of Dr. Cole’s 
garden. He was engaged at one time in the manufacture of potash, 
on what is now called Potash Brook and Potash Hill. 
Dr. Mathew Cole (Yale, 1783,) and Moses Gaylord were students 
of Dr. Cole. 
Dr. Thayer located in Durham before Dr. Cole left; he, with 
Dr. Gaylord, has been spoken of by Dr. Bronson. (See physicians 
of New Haven county.) BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
141 
Dr. John Osborn was the only one of the forty-seven incorpora- 
tors of the Connecticut Medical Society residing in this county, and 
it devolved on him by the charter to organize the county society. 
He was the first chairman of the county meeting, and the first treas- 
urer of the State society. He was re-elected Fellow each year as 
long as he remained a membjjialso as one of the committee of 
examination for the county. 
The Osborn family furnishes a rare instance of superior talent 
being transmitted from generation to generation for nearly two 
centuries. The Rev. Samuel Osborn was born near Belfast, in the 
north of Ireland, of Scotch parents. He emigrated to Cape Cod 
about the first of the last century, and was pastor of the South 
Church of Christ at Eastham, where he gave dissatisfaction to his 
Antinomian parishioners by the liberality of his preaching. In a 
communication, dated in 1737, from members of his church, who 
style themselves his “aggrieved brethren,” he is accused of doc- 
trinal errors. To these charges he made an able defense, a copy 
of which is still kept by the family as a valued legacy. Rather 
than yield his convictions, he resigned his position and retired from 
the ministry in destitute circumstances, with a large family on his 
hands. 
Dr. John Osborn, the first of the name in Middletown, was born 
in Sandwich, Mass., the town of which our chairman, Dr. Nye, is a 
native. He graduated at Harvard in 1735, when he was offered a 
tutorship, which he declined, with a view, probably, of becoming, 
like his father, a Presbyterian minister. When in college he was 
distinguished for mathematical investigations, and Latin verses, 
which were much admired by the faculty. It was while in college 
he wrote the elegy on the death of a sister, which has been copied 
by Dr. Field in his Middletown centennial address. After leaving 
college he wrote the “ Whaling Song,” a copy of which may be 
found in Barber’s Connecticut Historical Collections. 
The son, whose views were in accordance with his father’s, was 
induced to give up the ministry, and turn his attention to medi- 
cine. The misfortune of the Osborns seems to have been that 
they were a century in advance of the times in their religious 
belief, and their sentiments of toleration. 
It is to these differences with the sons of the pilgrims, that the 
medi cal profession is indebted for five generations of able members, 
and the Episcopal church for large accessions of true churchmen. 142 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
Dr. Osborn, about 1739, removed to Middletown, where he soon 
felt the cold shoulder of the pastor of the only church then in 
Middletown, the Rev. 'William Russell, who did not show favor to 
the new physician. In a letter, dated at Middletown, in 1741, the 
doctor says: “It is true, as you have heard, that I am a favourer 
of the principles of the church England, which I believe has 
hindered me of some money, forNfle people here have more faith 
in their teacher than ever the Jews had in Moses, and he has had 
a jealousy of me, and has laid me under great obligations by kind- 
ness to me in the backward way.” Whether the conduct of the 
pastor was a cause or a consequence of Dr. Osborn’s going over to 
Episcopacy, is not apparent at this late day. 
The doctor at that time had under consideration the purpose of 
going to England to receive holy orders, from which he was pro- 
bably diverted by the state of his health, and by his pecuniary 
circumstances. He was one of the fathers of Episcopacy in Mid- 
dletown, and can be said to have been present at its birth, and lent 
a helping hand. He lived to see Christ Church, the first Episcopal 
church in this county, consecrated, and was one of its first board 
of officers. He died of consumption, in 1753, aged 40 years. 
Dr. Osborn shared the practice of Middletown with Dr. John 
Arnold, who, with his brother Joshua, of Middle Haddam, were 
students of Dr. Fiske, the former died in 1754, having had two 
wives and fifteen children, and with Dr. Abijah Moores, who died 
of small-pox in 1759, having been the father of twelve children, 
succeeded by Dr. John Dickinson, who left the profession for 
public life. Dr. Eliot Rawson, a descendant of the noted secretary 
of Massachusetts, removed from East Haddam to Middletown 
about the time Dr. Osborn’s health began to fail. 
John Osborn, the second of that name, was about thirteen years 
old at the time of his father’s death. We do not learn that he 
possessed any extra advantages for a classical education. He early 
entered the office of the celebrated Norman Morrison, in Hartford, 
to study medicine. Dr. Morrison was educated at the University 
of Edinburgh, and was one of the first professional teachers in the 
colony who had possessed thfe advantages of a medical college 
education. John Osborn and Alexander Wolcott, son of the Gov- 
ernor, were considered the most distinguished of all his students. 
In 1758. before the former had attained his majority, he went 
with the army that attacked Ticonderoga, in the second French 
war, and in a subordinate capacity was in the medical department 
of the provincial troops. RIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
143 
The Osborns were hereditarily haters of France, and lovers of 
England. If Dr. Osborn ever worshiped the likeness of anything 
in the earth beneath, it was the British crown. It was for this 
reason that his valuable services were not made available during 
tho Revolutionary War. About 1763 he commenced practice in 
Middletown, where he followed the profession more than sixty 
years. In 1764 he married Ruth, daughter of Dea. Isaac White, 
of Middletown Upper Houses, now Cromwell, first cousin of Hugh 
White, who settled Whitestown, N. Y. With her he lived for 
half a century, and had seven children. He was a man of exten- 
sive reading, and for some time possessed the best medical library 
in the State. His knowledge of materia medica was extensive and 
accurate; he excelled in chemistry; he exerted himself to remove 
the prejudices against inoculation for the small-pox, and to 
improve the treatment of that distressing disease. About twelve 
hundred persons were inoculated in Middletown during the win- 
ters of 1777 and ’78. He was a very thorough teacher of medicine, 
and the character of such physicians as Moses F. Coggswell, his 
sons Prof. John C. and Dr. Samuel, as also Dr. Thomas Minor, 
attest the thoroughness of his training. “As a practitioner he was 
eminent. He appreciated the worth of well-bred and faithful phy- 
sicians, but held quackery in the utmost abhorrence. He had great 
sensibility, quick apprehension, and strong passions; he spoke his 
mind fearlessly, when and where he pleased, and it was not safe 
for any to attack him in words, for none better understood the 
retort keen." He inherited none of the courtesy or poetry of his 
father. These ornamental qualities seemed to have passed around 
him, to re appear in full force in his four sons. His success, which 
depended on his great ability and strict integrity, was a compli- 
ment to the people of his day. His presence was a terror to the 
young, and the aged now speak of their feelings at his approach 
with a shrug of the shoulders. He was emphatically a man of few 
words, and meddlesome talk and inquiries brought out from him 
sharp answers. 
He was the opposite of Dr. Tracy in deportment. The two once 
met in consultation at the house of Deacon Lyman, in Middlefield, 
when it devolved on Dr. Tracy to announce the decision, which he 
began to do with his usual exuberance of smooth words. Dr. Os- 
born immediately left the room, remarking as he went, “ a sick 
room is no place for compliments.” He once called on his friend, 
the noted Josh. Stowe, at a time when Mrs. Stowe was suffering 144 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
from a severe headache. On her applying to the doctor for relief 
he replied, “comb it.” He soon left, when Mrs. Stowe attacked 
her husband for thinking so much of a man who would give such 
a rude answer. The judge replied, “You have no right to con- 
demn a prescription without trying it.” She immediately followed 
the advice, and the headache disappeared in the operation. He 
was once called to prescribe for an enemy of his, who was very 
sick, whom he assured that professionally he should do all he 
could to save him, while personally he would not care if he was in 
hell already. He was summoned to Durham early one morning, 
when a good lady remarked, “ you are not looking very well, doc- 
tor.” He replied “ God Almighty never intended I should, madam; 
get me some breakfast.” He had constitutionally a predisposition 
to consumption, of which his father and son died about the age of 
forty, and he himself was subject to haemoptysis. Yet, by his 
regular habits, early rising and retiring, regular exercise, temper- 
ance in eating and drinking, and his rigid observance of all the 
laws of health, he was enabled to live longer than their united 
ages. He continued through life to wear short breeches, with 
large knee and shoe buckles, his hair powdered, braided in a cue, 
and tied with a black ribbon. He was a strong churchman—his 
inventory contained two pews in the Episcopal church, prized at 
$100, and prayer books at $4.50 each. He built and last occupied 
the frame-house on Main street, opposite the Episcopal church. He 
died in 1825, aged nearly 85 years, and a plain brown stone in the 
Mortimer cemetery marks the last resting place of one who was so 
long a prominent citizen, and a physician who spent his whole life 
in Middletown. 
The records of our society show that Drs. Osborn and Tracy 
obtained dismission at a time when Dr. Hall was loaded with 
offices by the society, and when, as Dr. J. P. Kirtland says, “ A 
most virulent medical warfare was waged between Drs. Osborn 
and Hall, (no blood was shed,) but such dreadful implements and 
explosive words, equal to modern bombshells, as quack, ignora- 
mus, impostor, etc., etc.” “Dr. Potter entertained a favorable 
opinion of Dr. Hall’s attainments and qualifications, but thought 
some of his attacks on Dr. Osborn were not duly respectful to one 
of the age and high standing as a physician and citizen which the 
last named sustained.” 
Dr. John Osborn had two sons who entered the profession. 
Prof. John C. Osborn, who settled in North Carolina, and, after BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
145 
achieving considerable distinction, removed to New York, was 
appointed Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Materia 
Medica in Columbia College Medical School in 1808, and of Obste- 
trics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1813, when the 
schools were united. He was distinguished for character and 
attainments, and was especially interested in the medical botany of 
this country. He was the most distinguished of the name, and 
received many well-deserved honors. 
Dr. Samuel Osborn, a younger son, settled in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
in 1810 removed to the city of New York, was active and honored 
in the medical affairs of the State and city, and proved his devotion 
to duty during the fearful scourge of yellow fever. He left two 
sons, both of whom are in practice in New York. 
Dr. "Wm. Brenton Hall was the son of Brenton Hall, Esq., a 
respectable farmer of Meriden, and grandson of Rev. Samuel Hall, 
of Cheshire. Both places were societies in Wallingford at that time. 
Dr. Hall was born in 1764, and graduated at Yale College in 1786, 
and probably studied medicine in New Haven—perhaps while pur- 
suing his college course. It was claimed for him that he enjoyed 
special advantages from medical lectures, which he had attended 
somewhere. We are unable to find his name in either of the two 
colleges of that day. He might have attended the private lectiires 
of Dr. Romayne, of New York, which was the only school there at 
that time. He commenced practice in Middletown in 1790. He 
married, in 1796, Mehitable, the sixth daughter of Major-General 
Samuel Holden Parsons, of revolutionary fame, who was one of 
the judges at the trial of Major Andre. Dr. Hall had four chil- 
dren, two daughters, who died young, the last son died recently, 
at Binghamton, N. Y., where he had been a very successful mer- 
chant. Dr. Hall made surgery a specialty, and had the most of 
that branch of practice. In August, ’96, he gained notoriety by 
his heroic professional conduct in attending the cases of yellow fever 
at Knowles Landing, or Middle Haddam. Dr. Tully, in his letter to 
Dr. Ilosack, and in his work on fevers, gave the following account 
of that occurrence: “The brig Polly arrived from Cape St. Nicho- 
las Mole; on her homeward passage, one of her crew, by the name 
of Tupper, died, on board, of the yellow fever; the clothes which 
he wore while sick were thrown overboard, though a sail, on 
which he lay when he died, was retained. 
“On the arrival of the brig at this landing, Hurd and Ranney 146 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
were employed to assist in clearing her out. They were known to 
handle the sail on which Tupper died. At the same time Sarah 
Exton and Elizabeth Cook were employed in washing some of the 
sailors’ clothes. A few days after, these persons were attacked 
with yellow fever. In about five days Hurd died, and within 
twelve hours Ranney and Sarah Exton. The alarm in the village 
was already so great that Sarah Exton was left alone in the night, 
and was found dead in the morning, with her infant child at her 
breast. The whole village was panic-struck. After the three first 
deaths, Dr. Bradford, an old physician resident of the place, and 
Drs. Hollister and Thatcher, two young men, departed precipitately, 
and did not return till all traces of the disease had disappeared. 
About two hundred of their employers followed their example. 
Only five persons had firmness and humanity sufficient to remain 
to take care of the sick and bury the dead. The physicians who 
attended the latter cases were Dr. Win. Brenton Hall, of Middle- 
town, and Dr. John Richmond of a neighboring parish. From 
this single vessel there originated eleven cases of yellow fever in 
the town of Chatham, nine of which proved fatal. It is sad to 
reflect that a majority of those who so nobly risked their lives at 
this post of danger, and of those who so cowardly fled, should have 
missed the opportunity to become noble martyrs to professional 
duty, and should have fallen victims to alcohol. Dr. Eli Ives used 
to express to us his wonder that so many physicians of that period 
escaped becoming drunkards; that he had been urged to drink 
fifty times in a day, and many times at places where he could not 
procure a mouthful of food for himself or his hungry horse.” 
Dr. Hall was an active member of the medical society, was 
treasurer of the State Society from 1799 to the year of his death; 
was elected Fellow from 1797 to 1809; was. five years on the 
examining committee. He was largely engaged in teaching 
medicine. Dr. Osborn used to say he turned otf doctors as fast as 
a rake-maker could rakes. 
In 1792, the town of Wallingford voted permission to Dr. Hall 
to open a house for inoculation for small-pox on his father’s farm, 
in the northeast part of Meriden, near the Middletown line, Dr. 
Hall becoming bound to pay forty shillings or more for each case 
of small-pox in the town, spreading from the persons inoculated. 
Several other physicians in Wallingford, encouraged by the suc- 
cess of Dr. Hall, subsequently obtained permission, and opened 
houses for inoculation in other parts of the town. BIOGRAPHICAE SKETCHES. 
147 
In 1801, a few months after the first vaccination on this conti- 
nent, Dr. Hall associated with Dr. Ensign Hough, of Meriden, 
(father of Dr. Isaac) to introduce vaccination. A Mr. Paddock, 
of Meriden, and Mr. Bradley, of Middletown, were induced to 
become subjects for experiment, and, in view of the uncertainty 
of the results, as it was then considered, the physicians agreed to 
attend the men, each on the alternate days, for three weeks. They 
were confined at a house near Dr. Hall’s pock-house, and each vac- 
cinated three times, when inoculation gave place to vaccination. 
Among the students of Dr. Hall were Dr. Isaac Smith, of Port- 
land; Dr. Isaac J. Hough, of Meriden; Dr. Worthington, of Lenox, 
Mass., all of good standing, both in and out of the profession. 
They all seemed to entertain a high regard for the talents and 
medical attainments of their preceptor, as did also Dr. Jared Potter, 
Dr. Hall’s particular friend and counsellor, whose opinion at that 
time was conclusive. Dr. Hall was noted for hospitality; his 
house was a great center for the profession in the neighboring 
towns. His side-board was especially free. On his last attempt 
to visit a patient he fell from his horse before leaving his yard; 
he was taken to his bed, which he was not after able to leave, and 
died in 1809, aged 45. Dr. Hall built and occupied the house 
next south of the Mutual Assurance building, on the west side of 
Main street. 
Dr. Ebenezer Tracy was born in Norwich Town in 1762, and 
was cousin to the late Dr. Tracy of the same place. He studied 
medicine with Dr. Philip Turner, who was Surgeon-General of the 
Northern States during the Revolutionary war. 
Dr. Tracy settled in Middletown in 1785, where he practiced 
more than sixty years, or as long as Dr. Osborn. He married 
Maria, daughter of Major-General Artemas Ward, of Shrewsbury, 
Mass., in 1790, by whom he had ten children; two were sons, both 
merchants, in New York and Peru.* 
Dr. Tracy, through his whole life, visited his patients on horse- 
back, as did the Tracys and Turners of his native place. He was 
a gentleman of great smoothness of manners, and his practice 
was in accordance with his character—mild and expectant. 
He was elected Fellow in 1794 and ’98, after which he seems to 
have ceased his connection with the society. He was one of the 
* Henry.D. Tracy was drowned in Peru in 1853, and Samuel F, died in New 
York in 1863. 148 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
examining committee as long as he remained a member. He 
built and occupied the house next east of the North Church. 
Died in 1856. 
Dr. John Ely, one of the first Fellows elected by this Society, 
was born in Lyme, 1737. He commenced the practice of medicine 
in Westbrook, where he married the daughter of Rev. William 
Worthington, of that place. He soon attained eminence in his pro- 
fession, was especially successful in treating small-pox, and was 
interested in introducing inoculation. He entered the army at the 
very beginning of the Revolutionary war, raising a company of 
militia, and later, raising, and, to a great extent, equipping, the 
regiment of which he was colonel. He won distinction as a sur- 
geon as well, and was sent to the army of the North on account of 
an epidemic of small-pox then raging. He was tall and erect of 
form, of decided character, and commanding presence. 
His military career is succinctly told in the report of the Com- 
mittee on Revolutionary Claims in the House of Representatives. 
Jan. 23, 1833. After reciting his earlier services, the report 
proceeds as follows, viz : 
On the 9th of December, 1877, he was captured by the en- 
emy, and became a prisoner of war, and was paroled at Flatbush, 
on Long Island, where were also prisoners several hundred Amer- 
ican officers. Among these officers a distressing sickness prevailed, 
and Col. Ely, from the humanioy that belonged to his character, 
from the day of his captivity to the day of his exchange, faith- 
fully and exclusively devoted his time and attention to them as a 
physician. “ In discharging this duty, he encountered great hard- 
ship and much expense, as the residences of the sick officers were 
scattered over a considerable space of country, many of them be- 
ing as much as twenty miles apart. Col. Ely, when unable from 
'bodily infirmity, or the state of the weather, to perform his long 
tours on foot, hired a horse at an extravagant price, and paid the 
cost out of his own private means; he was also frequently compelled 
to purchase medicine for the sick at his own cost.” “ Soon after 
he became a prisoner, his son, Captain, afterwards Dr. Worthing- 
ton Ely, in conjunction with other friends, fitted out at their own 
expense a vessel, and manned her, for the purpose of surprising 
and capturing a British force, with which to effect the exchange 
of Col. Ely. 
“ The object of the expedition succeeded, so far as regarded the BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
149 
surprise and capture of the enemy, and the prisoners were deliv- 
ered to the proper authorities, to be exchanged for Col. Ely. This, 
however, was not done, by reason of the earnest entreaties of the 
sick American officers, who considered their lives as greatly de- 
pending upon the continued attendance and skill of Col. Ely. 
He was induced to forego his right to an exchange, and consented 
to remain for the comfort and safety of his brother officers. 
■“ It appeared from a certificate of Samuel Huntington, President 
of Congress, that still subsequent to the time when his exchange 
might have been effected through the valor of his son and friends, 
and when he became entitled to an exchange by the regular rule, 
that a deputation of exchanged officers, who had been his fellow- 
prisoners, were appointed to wait on Congress by the sick officers 
who remained in captivity, and to urge the continuance of Col. Ely 
as their physician and surgeon.” 
“ At the head of this deputation, was Col. Matthews (since a 
member of Congress, and Governor of Georgia), and Col. Ram- 
say, of the Maryland line. Col. Ely was, in consequence of this 
representation, not exchanged, although entitled to an exchange. 
He remained and acted as physician and surgeon till the 25th of 
December, 1780, when he was released —a period of three years.” 
On his return, in 1781, with impaired health and constitution, 
he found his affairs in a ruinous condition, and a burden of debt 
accumulated. He courageously commenced work, and to some 
extent retrieved his misfortunes, but his health failing, and just 
compensation for his services being denied in the Senate, after he 
had every expectation of favorable action, having received recom- 
mendation from the war department and the passage of his claim 
through the House, he became discouraged at the injustice, 
made no further efforts, and died soon after, in 1800. Although 
compensation had been promised by letters from Washington him- 
self, the influence of Oliver Ellsworth, then prominent in the Senate, 
who was opposed to the payment of all claims m the interest of the 
treasury, secured the rejection of this. Tears later, his sons re- 
ceived a grant of five thousand dollars, many original papers having 
been lost. 
Dr. Ely won the love, respect, and admiration of all with whom 
he became intimately associated, and was idolized by the soldiers. 
He excelled as a conversationalist, and in the practice of his pro- 
fession was characterised by zeal and humanity. The amiable 
traits of his character, his generosity, and self-sacrificing devotion 150 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
to his country and humanity—sadly enough—were the cause of 
shortening his life, and embittering his last days. He left* two 
sons and three sons in-law in the profession. Dr. Worthington Ely, 
the elder son, who attempted a rescue of his father, settled in 
New Baltimore, N. Y. Dr. John Ely, Jr., settled in Coxsackie, 
N. Y., was a Member of Congress, and one of the incorporators of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y. 
Dr. Richard Ely was born in North Bristol, Guilford, now North 
Madison, in 1765, where his father of the same name was the settled 
minister. He graduated at Yale in 1785, studied medicine with 
Dr. John Noyes of Lyme, who certified as follows :— 
“ To all people to whom these lines shall come—Greeting. 
Whereas, Dr. Richard Ely, of Saybrook, hath been liberally 
educated, and been a student with me in the theory and practice 
of medicines and surgery, and, whereas, said Ely hath made great 
improvement in the ai’t of physics and surgery, he is well quali- 
fied for a practitioner in said arts. I do, therefore, recommend 
him as a safe, judicious, and able physician, and well qualified for 
the practice. 
Lyme, June 9th, 1786. John Noyes.” 
Dr. Ely commenced practice in what is now Killingworth, where 
he remained four years, when he removed to Wilbraham, Mass., 
where he had previously married Eunice Bliss in 1791. He 
remained there about a year, when he returned to Pautapaug, now 
Centerbrook, where his father was then settled. He remained 
there till 1805, when he removed to Chester. His father, who had 
become a widower, and infirm, went with him and shared his home 
till his death in 1814, the same year Dr. Ely received the honorary 
degree of M. D., from Yale College. Dr. Ely died in 1816 from a 
fever brought on by overwork and exposure. He had been treas- 
urer of the State Medical Society three years, at the time of his 
death, he had been elected a Fellow sixteen times in twenty-four 
years, and was an active member of the society. He shared the 
confidence and respect of the profession, and the public in a large 
degree. He was the friend and teacher of the late Dr. Webb of 
Madison. 
Dr. Ely had a large consultation business in the adjoining towns: 
his rides were very extensive, and he did a large business east of 
the Connecticut river. Dr. Samuel Carter said of him, “he never BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
151 
knew a physician who could get at a correct diagnosis as soon as 
Dr. Ely.” One of his cases in East Haddam was a Miss Green, 
only daughter of a prominent citizen. She had spotted fever 
twice, tetanus set in, and all articles had to he given through a 
vacancy from an extracted tooth ; she recovered all hut a scar as 
large as a silver dollar on her cheek. His death was considered 
a great loss to the public and the profession. 
William Ely, (Yale, ] 785,) brother of Richard, studied medi- 
cine under Dr. John Noyes, but did not follow the profession. 
Dr. Elisha Ely was born in Lyme, in 1748, and like the former 
Elys, was a descendant of the original Richard Ely, who came from 
Plymouth, England, and settled in Lyme. He was half brother to 
Dr. John Ely, with whom he is supposed to have studied his pro- 
fession. He married Susannah Bloomer, by whom he had nine chil- 
dren. He practiced at Old Saybrook; was largely engaged in small- 
pox inoculation. His reception house was on the present Fenwick 
grounds. He purchased a large tract of land in Pennsylvania, 
on which Wellsboro, the shire-town of Tioga county, is now located. 
In 1797, he removed his family to Owego, N. Y., to remain till his 
new town was ready. He soon after lost all his property by the 
failure of the “Penn title,” on which his own depended. The 
surrounding country was then a wilderness, without roads or 
bridges. He died in 1800 from toil, exposure, and misfortune. 
William A., one of his six sons, was a leading man and a suc- 
cessful merchant in Owego, where he left two sons, now in the 
drug business. 
Dr. Ely was much respected as a man and a physician. He was 
a leading Mason, and buried by the fraternity. 
Dr. Benjamin Hill was the youngest, except one, of a family of 
twelve children. His parents were James Hill, of Guilford, who 
removed to Killingworth, where he married Hannah Nettleton. 
Benjamin and his brother Joseph, twins, were born April 15th, 
1765. Dr. Hill it is supposed studied medicine with Dr. Gale: he 
married about 1795, Jemima Stannard, of Westbrook, by whom 
he had six children. In early life he purchased a considerable 
tract of wild land in the State of New York, where LeRoy is now 
located, and as each of his five sons grew up to manhood, they 
went out to occupy and improve the land. 
After practicing medicine in North Killingworth with accept- 152 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
ance and great success for about forty years, he met with finan- 
cial embarrassments in his native town, from becoming security 
for men who were either unfortunate or dishonest; and about 
1832, he having lost his hard earnings among the rocks and hills 
of Killingworth, removed to his purchase in LeRoy. where he 
died in 1849, at the age of 74. His residence in Killingworth was 
a mile north of the center. 
Dr. Samuel Redfield, son of Dr. John Redfield, of Guilford, 
and Amanda Russell, of North Guilford, was born in Guilford, 
Sept. 12, 1762; served as a fifer during the Revolutionary War, 
after which he studied medicine with his father, and with Dr. Ben- 
jamin Gale of Killingworth, and commenced practice as a physician 
in Guilford, where the eldest of his two children was born. He 
married, May 21, 1782, Nancy, daughter of Asher Fairfield and 
Thankful Hubbard, of Guilford. After practicing for about twelve 
years in Clinton, then Killingworth, he removed first to Fairfield, 
Herkimer county, N. Y., and subsequently to Perrysburgh, Cata- 
raugus county, N. Y., where he died in 1837, aged 75 years. 
Dr. Hezekiah Brainerd, the oldest son of Hezekiah and Mary 
(Piske) Brainerd, was graduated at Yale College in 1763, and 
studied medicine in part, if not wholly, with Dr. Benjamin Gale, 
of Killingworth, now Clinton, and commenced practice in his native 
place, where he was the principal physician for many years, and 
where, particularly as an inoculator for the small pox, he was emi- 
nent, many resorting to him from Haddam and towns around for 
inoculation, as a protection against that disease, so dreadful when 
taken in the natural way. In 1787 he built a pock house (as it was 
called), under the direction of the town, which voted him the exclu- 
sive right to the business of inoculation and treatment, for the term 
of four years, paying him “ten shillings a head ” for each resident 
inoculated, and receiving from him “eighteen pence a head,” for 
each non-resident. The thinness of the milk which constituted 
the bill of fare at the house is still proverbial. Upon the formation 
of Middlesex County, 1785, he was one of the number selected as a 
judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and discharged the duties 
of that office until afflicted with paralysis in 1795, when he died, 
aged 63. 
Dr. Smith Clark was born at Maromas, Middletown, graduated 
at Yale in 1786, where he was a class-mate of Dr. Hall. He resided BIOGRAPHICAL sketches. 
153 
in Haddam for more than twenty years in the family of Dr. Brain- 
ard, whom he succeeded in practice. He died in 1813. 
He was the first clerk of this Society, and continued in office 
for ten years, and was one of the examining board for this county 
for about the same length of time. He was elected a Fellow for 
six years. Prof. John D. Higgins, formerly of Geneva College, 
studied with him in 1810. 
Dr. Clark was a kind and faithful physician, beloved by the 
public, and respected by the profession. His otherwise pure 
record and stained by an act which resulted in the birth of an ille- 
gitimate son, to whom he honorably gave his name and his property. 
His friend Dr. Richard Ely was appointed guardian, and the 
son was educated at Yale, 1817, and become an able lawyer in his 
native town of Haddam, where he died, in 1876, aged 81 years. 
Dr. Thomas Moseley, son of Abner Moseley, of Glastonbury, was 
born 1731, graduated at Yale College 1751, and settled in East Had- 
dam. He married for Ills first wife Phebe, daughter of Jonathan 
Ogden, Governor of New Jersey, in 1759. He afterwards married 
the widow of Gov. Throop, who was a daughter of Gov. Matthew 
Griswold. He left but one child, by his first wife, Jonathan Ogden 
Moseley, who followed the profession of law, and was a member of 
Congress from this district for about twenty years. Dr. Moseley 
was one of the first feilows electeu try this society, and re-elected 
every year till his death. He was the fourth president and vice- 
president of the State Society, and the first elected to either office 
from this county. He received the honorary degree of M. D. from 
the Connecticut Medical Society in 1795. He died in 1811, aged 
80 years, leaving his medicial library to his friend, Dr. Richard Ely. 
Dr. Jeremiah Bradford practiced in Middle Haddam from 1754 
to 1814, dying at the age of 80. Dr. D. B. Hollister, of Haddam, 
Dr. Elisha Phelps, of Portland, who removed to New Hampshire 
in 1805, where he died in 1819, Dr. Christopher Holmes, born in 
Hadlyme, 1762, where he practiced until his death in 1812, Drs. 
John Richmond, of East Hampton, and Jehiel Hoadley, (Yale, 
1768,) of Middlefield, who were largely engaged in teaching 
medicine, were among the earlier members of this society. Dr. 
Robert Usher was a native of Millington, in East Haddam, and a 
student of Doctor Huntington, of Windham, located in practice 
in the southeast part of Chatham, on the east side of Salmon 154 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
River, near the Lyman Viaduct. Upon the breaking out of 
the Revolution, he went as a volunteer to the vicinity of Boston, 
and in January, 1776, was appointed surgeon for Wadsworth’s 
regiment, in the recruits then raised for Cambridge, and served 
some time in that capacity. Dr. Elias Norton, son of Rev. John 
Norton, who served his time with Dr. Thomas Moseley, of East 
Haddam, was appointed mate of Dr. Usher. Dr. Usher returned 
from the war to his old home where he died in 1820, aged 77. 
Dr. Norton settled in Machias, Maine, where he practiced many 
years. 
Dr. Elisha Mather was son and student of Dr. Eleazer Mather, 
of Lyme, (Yale, 1738,)and brotherof Dr. Samuel, his father’s succes- 
sor in business, and of Dr. Augustus who practiced in East Haddam. 
He married Elizabeth Selden, of Lyme, and located at Pautapaug* 
now Center Brook, where he spent his whole professional life, and 
died in 1836, aged 81. He had seven children, four were sons, 
and all studied medicine. 
The first, Samuel R. S., studied with his father and afterwards 
became a sea-captain, and was lost at Turk’s Island, in the great 
September gale of 1815. 
The second child, Elizabeth, was mother of ex-Senator Lyman 
Trumbull of Illinois. The third, Elisha, studied with his 
father, and removed to Sodus, New York, where he died 
recently. The fourth, Ezra S., studied with his uncle Samuel, 
and located at Essex, where he still lives, aged 89 years. His 
seventh child, Ulysses W., graduated at Yale Medical Institution, 
in 1823, with great promise. He succeeded to his father’s prac- 
tice, died in 1832, with consumption, aged 30 years. 
Dr. Mather was engaged largely in teaching medicine, and his stu- 
dents for many years added life to the village in which he lived. 
It is said an unpleasantness always existed between the rich 
young men of the town, and the medical students; the former gave 
the latter the cut at every opportunity. At one time, they got the stu- 
dents excluded from the favorite seats in the church. The Sabbath 
following, the young nobility dressed in their thin summer pants, 
marched in a body to the preferred seats, which they did not enjoy 
long, before they felt an irritation in the rear; before prayer was 
concluded, there was a stampede for the door. Dr. Mather was 
called, and found cow-itch had been dusted on the seats. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
155 
Dr. Cone, of Westbrook, was a student of Dr. Mather. Prof. 
Joseph Mather Smith, of New York, is said to have been a cousin 
and student of Dr. Samuel Mather. 
Dr. Amos Skeels, a native of Woodbury, was a soldier in the 
revolutionary war; and in the battle of White Plains was wounded 
in the right arm while pursuing the English in their retreat from 
Danbury; being in consequence unfitted for labor he turned his 
attention to the study of medicine. For a time he studied in 
Litchfield, but the most of the time at Bethlem with Dr. Hastings. 
While there he became a devoted Christian, which shaped his 
conduct through life. He commenced practice in Hampton, Conn., 
in 1783, removed to Middle Iladdam, near the line of East Hamp- 
ton, in 1787, and again to Somers in 1795, and afterwards to 
Chicopee, Mass., where he became a deacon in the church. 
He died in 17-13, aged 93.