THE FOUNDERS 
OF 
Tic Oneida County Medical Society. 
M. M. BAGrGr, M. ID. 
Read before the Society July 12th, 1881, 
AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST. 
UTICA, N. Y. 
PRESS OF CURTISS & CHILDS, 167 GENESEE ST. 
MDCCCLXXXI. THE FOUNDERS 
OF 
Tie Oneida County Medical Society. 
Bv M. M. BAGG, M. D. 
Read before the Society July 12th, 1881, 
AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST. 
UTICA, N. Y. 
PRESS OF CURTISS & CHILDS, 167 GENESEE ST. 
MDCCCLXXXI. The Founders of the Oneida County Medical Society. 
The authority for the organization of this Society is con- 
tained in an Act of the Legislature, passed April 4, 1806, and 
which reads as follows : 
“It shall and may be lawful for the physicians and surgeons 
in the several counties of this State, now authorized by law to 
practice in their several professions, to meet together on the 
first Tuesday of July next, at the place where the last term of 
the Court of Common Pleas next previous to such meeting 
was held in their respective counties; and the several physi- 
cians and surgeons so convened as aforesaid, or any part of 
them, being not less than five in number, shall proceed to the 
choice of a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, 
who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others shall 
be chosen in their places; and whenever the said Societies 
shall be so organized as aforesaid, they are hereby declared to 
be bodies corporate and politic, in fact and in name, by the 
name of the Medical Society of the county where such socie- 
ties shall respectively be formed, &c., &c.” 
In compliance with the authority thus accorded, twenty-nine 
medical gentlemen of Oneida county, met at Rome, July 1, 1806, 
to form a Society ; they elected their officers and adjourned. 
Most of them continued to participate in the doings of subse 
quent meetings, and were more or less indentified with the 
Society’s earlier history. All have since passed awav, and their 
places are now occupied by a generation that knows little of 
the preceding one. A few of them, and especially of those 
who died the most recently, have been brought to the notice of 
members of a later date, and sketches of them read before us 
have been published in the annual volumes issued by the State 
Society. Except as respects these few, the bare list of names 
contained in our pamphlet of By-Laws presents for us no in- 
formation and no interest; we read the list, which does not 
even indicate the place of residence of these parties, as we 
would one of strangers in whom we are not concerned. Yet these were the fathers of our Society, those who gave it shape and 
nurtured its youthful years. If our history is worth preserv- 
ing, so too is the story of the lives of those who made that 
history. Moreover for their individual merit they deserve to 
be kept in memory, and are, some of them, at least, entitled 
to oar warm esteem. To say of them that they were respecta- 
ble practitioners, who, with small educational advantages, as 
compared with those now open to students of medicine, yet 
evinced careful training and achieved much good in the com- 
bat with disease, that they maintained with credit the dignity 
of their calling, and were, besides, worthy and useful citizens, 
is not to say that they were among the magnates of medicine, 
nor to claim for them a record in general Medical Biography. 
But when we consider that they were the pioneers in a new 
and sparsely-settled country, that they performed their duties 
bravely and patiently, under disadvantages and in spite of 
impediments the magnitude of which it is hard to realize, we 
come to feel for them a degree of respect and even of reverence 
as great as that we feel for the most distinguished of the pro- 
fession. Leaders, moreover, in our field of practice, preceptors, 
in some cases, of our preceptors, creators and sustainers of our 
organized association, they have a claim to remembrance that 
cannot be ignored, a claim which justifies the present attempt 
to trace out their lives and characters. 
Dr Matthew Brown, Jr. 
The individual who presided on the occasion of the first 
assemblage of the physicians of Oneida, was Dr. Matthew Brown, 
Jr., of Borne, a gentleman conspicuous in his neighborhood 
and of influence throughout the county. Tall, erect, well-pro- 
portioned and athletic, vigorous.in mind as in body, and abound- 
ing in enterprise, of calm blue eyes, amiable temper and at- 
tractive manner, he was at this time in the very prime of life, 
and yet he had filled with credit important official positions. 
Though adapted by nature and by training for the practice of 
medicine, his public spirit and his taste and capacity for busi- 
ness undertakings were preponderant, and these ere long drew 
him quite aside from the profession he had at first chosen. 
As an enterprising merchant, manufacturer and projector, a 
helpful and much-respected inhabitant both of Borne and of 5 
Rochester, of each of which he -was among the foremost, he 
gained an abiding reputation, and one that has, in a measure, 
overshadowed his earlier repute as an intelligent and trust- 
worthy physician. Of this society the initial meeting was the 
only one which, so far as I can learn, he ever attended. But 
as its chairman, and as one who, while he remained a practi- 
tioner, was an honor to the calling, it is becoming that we should 
trace his history. 
Dr. Brown, was born in Brookfield, Mass., in 1766. 
He received a good English education that was supple- 
mented by some knowledge of the Latin language, and then 
for a time taught the district school in his native place. His 
medical studies he pursued with Dr. Willard of Worcester, 
who was at the head of a hospital which Was also in some sort 
a school of medicine. It had a considerable reputation in its 
day, and was probably as good an institution of its kind as 
could be found in the country outside of the great cities. The 
late Drs. Arba Blair, of Rome, Josiah Trowbridge, of Buffalo, 
and others were among its pupils. While forming his plans 
for the future, Dr. Brown served for a time as Deputy Sheriff, 
and performed his duties to the entire satisfaction of his prin- 
cipal. About the year 1793 he made a prospecting tour 
westward, going on horseback as far as Canandaigua, with a 
view to settling there. But finding that ground occupied, here- 
turned to Massachusetts, and shortly afterward determined to 
settle at Rome. Fixing himself at that place, he was in due 
time joined by his parents and his two younger brothers. His 
home, if not at the outset, yet during the greater part of his 
residence was on a large farm east of the village, known in 
earlier times as the Peter Colt farm, later as Whitall’s and now 
as Greenfield’s. With his brothers, Francis and David, he set up 
a store on the southerly side of Dominick street. Besides 
drugs and medicines the firm kept a general assortment of 
merchandize. Dr. Brown’s personal employments were the 
common lot of all physicians in a new country, long rides, 
exhausting labors, and poor pay. There were one or two 
other physicians in the place, but these were of less account, 
he being most esteemed and his opinion chiefly sought. As 
counsel he was called to advise in the last sickness of Baron 
Steuben, whom he had previously known and occasionally visited at his home in Steuben. He was intimate with Dr. 
White, of Cherry Valley, and had him occasionally at his 
home for purposes of consultation. With characteristic zeal 
he championed the discovery of Jenner, which had not proba- 
bly made much progress in our new settlements. Dr. Arba 
Blair, cousin of Dr. Brown, came from Worcester, about 1803, 
and finished his studies with him, when the two formed a 
partnership as physicians. The public functions which the 
senior partner had ere this assumed, together with the mercan- 
tile and other pursuits in which he embarked, hindered his 
advance in his profession, and as the junior came to do the 
larger share of its duties, the senior one slid gradually out of 
practice. 
Of these public functions the first was the postmastership 
of the village, of which he was the earliest incumbent. He 
was appointed to it as early as 1795 or ’96, and held it until 
1808. In April. 1796, he was elected member of the assembly, 
and re-elected in April, 1797, that month being then the time of 
the annual election. While in the assembly he was a warm sup- 
porter of a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State. 
It met with much opposition, and was finally defeated by a 
resolution which declared that it was not right and proper to 
deprive men of their property in slaves without making them 
compensation, which resolution was carried by means of the 
casting vote of the chairman in committee of the whole. The 
finally successful bill for the abolition of slavery among us 
was passed in March, 1799, when Dr. B. was no longer a mem- 
ber of the House. When Oneida county was organized, in 
March 1798, the doctor was made one of the Justices of Peace 
of the county and continued for some years to act in that capac- 
it}". At the first Oyer and Terminer, in and for the new county, 
held the following June, he was one of the grand jury, and by 
Judge Jones, in his Annals of the County, he is mentioned 
among the men of Rome, who were prominent before 1800. 
As I have intimated, his active mind was busied with impor- 
tant projects of his own, that were quite alien to his profession, 
and which almost enticed him from it at a period not far distant 
from the one in which he acted as presiding officer of our 
forming society. About 1801 the firm of Matthew Brown & 
Co. erected a saw-mill; and about 1809 or TO an axe and scythe factory on Whitall Creek, and this they carried into operation 
with the aid of a Mr. Cobb who was experienced in the manu- 
facture. About the same time he bought a tract of pine lands 
in the town of Lee, and was soon engaged in putting up a fur- 
nace at Taberg for the making of hollow ware. Of this he 
was managing Trustee. In the winter of 1812-13, in company 
with his brothers, he purchased land and water privilege at Roch- 
ester, when the stock of goods were at once removed on ox- 
sleds to that place, and put in charge of Francis. This land lies 
abreast of the middle or great fall in the Genesee. It was im- 
mediately plotted by Mr. Benj. Wright of Rome, and the name 
of Frankfort given to it, for his brother’s Christian name. Dur- 
ing the six years from 1812 to 1818, he and his brothers had 
built at Rochester a saw-mill, a flouring mill and a trip-ham- 
mer shop for the making of edge tools, and with their associates 
had established a cotton factory, which improvements involved 
of necessity much other building. In order to render the 
water power available they constructed a canal, still known as 
Brown’s Race, that was mostly blasted from hard lime stone, 
and was a very expensive work. Some time in 1817 their 
flouring mill was burned, and it was replaced by one of stone 
which is now used as a machine shop. When built it was 
probably as good as any in the State. Another scheme in 
which this stirring man was occupied, while still in the county, 
was the raising of merino sheep. He had a flock of twenty or 
thirty, some of which were obtained at a cost of $200 apiece 
or more. 
The thirty years which followed his removal, in 1818, I do 
not propose to follow in detail. It must suffice to say that as 
he was instrumental in drawing many from his native Brook- 
field to settle in and about the village of Rome, so when he 
moved to Rochester there went with him quite a colony of 
goodly material besides the mechanics in his employment; that 
there as here he was universally respected and useful, serving 
six years as a member of the village council, efficient in the 
measures taken by his townsmen to secure the enlargement of 
the Erie Canal, and cooperating with them in other schemes 
for the common welfare. He continued to be interested in 
medical subjects and was often consulted by his friends and by 
the young Doctors who would drop in to discuss matters per- 
7 8 
taining to their profession. The sanitary condition of the place 
was a subject of his especial solicitude, and he was active in 
the first visitation of the Cholera, in 1832. 
Dr. Brown died at Rochester, in 1851. A portrait of him 
is preserved in the Athenaeum at that place, of which his 
brother Francis was the first President. Another likeness 
exists in the engraved representation of the members of 
Assembly in 1797, which is to be found in a volume of the 
Documentary History of New York. 
Ilis wife, whom he married in 1797, was Lucy, daughter of 
Judge Benj. Huntington of Norwich, Conn., and sister of the 
well known Henry, George and Gurdon Huntington of Rome, 
as well as of Mrs. Wm. G. Tracy of Whitesboro. Mrs. Brown 
was a lady of great intelligence and energy, and given to 
hospitality. Without her efficient cooperation it would have 
been impossible for her husband to have conducted his many 
enterprises with so remarkable a degree of success. 
Their children were Benjamin, George, Henry and Matthew 
Brown, Mrs. Barron Williams, and Mrs. Fletcher Haight of 
Rochester. 
To Matthew Brown, Esq. of Toledo, I am indebted for most 
of the facts above detailed, illustrated as they have further 
been by the pains-taking inquiries of Hon. D. E. Wager of 
Rome. 
Dr. Amos G. Hull. 
The person chosen as first President of the Society was Dr. 
Amos Gould Hull of New Hartford. Dr. Hull, the only child 
of Dr. Amos and Martha (Hitchcock) Hull, was born in Con- 
necticut, but in what part of it and at what time I have been 
unable to learn. Ilis' medical studies, I am informed, were 
conducted under the direction of his uncle, Dr. Titus Hull of 
Bethlehem in that State. Nor do I know precisely the period 
of his migration to Oneida county. Masonic records show 
that he was made a member of the Amicable Lodge in 1796. 
Two years later there was given up to him for purposes of 
dissection the body of the first person convicted for murder in 
this county. This was a woman who shot her husband in the 
town of Augusta ; though she eluded her sentence by hanging 
herself in the jail at Herkimer, she did not escape the scalpel 
of the doctor. He was then living in Augusta. There he was 9 
married, he and his bride going back to Connecticut on horse- 
back for their wedding jaunt; there he buried this young wife 
in Sept. 1798, and there he was the preceptor of two others of 
the founders of this Society. In the fall of 1804 he bought 
land in New Hartford and soon removed thither. In New 
Hartford he continued in active business for twelve years or 
more, having successively as partners Dr. Coe and Dr. Charles 
Babcock. In September 1811, he took up his final abode in 
Utica, remaining here until about 1833-4, when he died while 
on a visit to his native State. His partners in Utica were, at 
first, Dr. Ezra Williams, and afterwards Dr. Theodore Pomeroy, 
who bought his house and his ride some years before his death. 
As a physician and surgeon Dr. Hull was as well known as 
any in the county, for he had a numerous clientage and an ex- 
tensive professional circuit. As an operator he was daring and 
quick, if not remarkably expert; as a physician, kind and 
attentive, but profuse in the administration of drugs, giving 
more of them, as I have been told by a veteran druggist who 
knew of his purchases, than the united doctors of the city now 
do. He was a bustling man in his calling; kept three horses, 
and drove them without mercy ; was prompt at a call, and offi- 
ciously forward to get all he could of them. His pushing pro- 
pensity showed itself in new and unheard of expedients. 
While soda fountains were as yet quite unknown in this 
region, he heralded his coming to Utica by the announcement 
of a shop he had opened for the sale of mineral waters. The 
sale of these waters he continued some years longer at his office 
in Main street, and joined thereto, as an additional novelty, the 
practice of electricity and galvanism. A specialty, that, in 
the end, absorbed much more of his attention, was the manu- 
facture and sale of a hernial truss he had invented. This he 
first advertised in March 1817, and he received, the next year, 
from the faculty of Fairfield Medical College as well as from 
this Society, certificates in its favor. His trusses were also 
commended by several persons of intelligence and standing, 
and came into general use with those requiring such appliances. 
He continued to modify and improve them as long as he 
remained in the place, and it was the care which this exacted 
more than visits and prescribing which filled up the later period- 
of his life. 10 
Personally Dr. Hull was amiable and upright, a methodist in 
religious belief, and an influential member of that body ; beloved 
by his patients and a friend of every child that knew him. 
Rather short of stature, quick and impulsive in movement, neat 
in attire, he was withal a little vain of his appearance, and look- 
ed to it that the knee-buckles which confined his silk stockings 
were each day carefully polished. Among his brothers in the 
profession his manners were conciliating, and his standing with 
the foremost. In this society his popularity is evident from the 
fact that he was four times elected President and twice its Del- 
egate, besides holding at other times the offices of Vice Presi- 
nent and Censor. 
The Doctor’s first wife, who was a daughter of Ira Bartholo- 
mew of Waterville, died, as we have seen, in 1798, at the age of 
19; his second, who was Lydia, daughter of Aaron and Eliza- 
beth Cook, of Wallingford Conn., died in 1812. He afterwards 
married a sister of his partner, Dr. Williams. His sons, Amos 
Gf., Jr. and Cook, became physicians, respectively of New York 
and Brooklyn. His daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Dr. 
John F. Gray, a leading homoepathic physician of New York. 
Dr. Sewall Hopkins. 
Dr. Sewall Hopkins of Clinton, our first Vice President, was 
a native of Great Barrington, Mass., where the family were con- 
spicuous and influential. His uncle, Rev. Samuel Hopkins, who 
was the first minister of the place, officiated there nearly thirty 
years. His father, Col. Mark Hopkins, a graduate of Yale Col- 
lege and a member of the legal profession, was a man of bril- 
liant talents and fine legal acquirements. He occupied a prom- 
inent position in Berkshire county, filled some important civil 
posts, and was acting as Brigade Major in the militia, when, 
in Oct. 1776, he was taken sick and died, at White Plains, N. Y., 
three days before the battle of that place. His mother was 
the daughter of Rev. John Sargeant, the first missionary to the 
Housatonic Indians, and of Abigail AVilliams, half-sister to Col. 
Ephraim Williams, founder of AVilliams College. This Rev. 
John Sargeant,—“ greatly beloved in life for his sweet disposi- 
tion, his superior talents, his engaging manners, and his ardent 
and persevering piety”—was the father of the Rev. John Sar- 
geant, Jr., missionary to the Stockbridge Indians of this county, 11 
and whom we shall find to be connected by marriage with 
another of onr early physicians. Kev. Mark Hopkins,D. D.,Ex- 
President of Williams College, is a nephew of the subject of our 
notice, and lived for a year in his family, while attending 
school at Clinton. 
Sewall did not himself enjoy the advantages of a collegiate 
course, but from the degree of cultivation he showed in after life 
xtis fair to presume that he had been well trained academically. 
His medical education he pursued under the direction of his un- 
cle Hr. Erastus Sargeant of Stockbridge, a leading surgeon of his 
day, who had at various times several students under his care, 
of whom some became eminent and successful practitioners.* 
Not long after he had finished his studies Hr. Hopkins 
removed to Clinton in this county and entered upon practice. 
His quiet and impressive manners, his affectionate disposition, 
his devotion to duty, his capacity for business and his honora- 
ble conduct, tended to secure for him the respect of his neigh- 
bors and acquaintances, while his conversance with his profes- 
sion and the interest he showed in the welfare of his patients 
gained him their confidence and affection. His ride in a 
thinly-inhabited district was of necessity laborious, but within a 
few years he obtained a successful, if not a highly lucrative prac- 
tice. After his marriage he occupied a small farm westward 
from the foot of College Hill, and about half a mile distant from 
College street. To farming he gave, however, less attention 
than he did to his professional avocations, which for twenty 
years or more absorbed him wholly. In his later life he con- 
tented himself with his garden and flowers. As a physician he 
ranked well, and even down to the close of his practice, he was 
much relied on in fevers. As a man of public spirit, expert in 
business and alive to the affairs of his town and neighborhood 
he was truly commendable, while for uprightness of con- 
duct and general integrity, no one of his contemporaries stood 
higher. His concern for the interests of Clinton and his readi- 
ness to take part in its associate undertakings was seen shortly 
after he made the place his home. In the year 1792 he aided 
in the establishment of the Oneida Academy, the parent of 
Hamilton College, contributed to its funds, and when the 
Academy was incorporated, was made one of its trustees. Of 
* Williams’ Medical Biography. 12 
the College that grew out of it he was atrustee from 1814 to 1833. 
In February 1818, he acted as secretary of the meeting of farm- 
ers and others convened at Whitesboro, which formed the first 
agricultural society of the county. Of our own society, after 
having been two years its Tice President, he was made Presi- 
dent in 1808, and again in 1810, but nine years later he de- 
clined the honor of another term. He acted as Censor, as like- 
wise upon several important committees. Its meetings he 
continued to attend down to the year 1830. From general 
practice he withdrew altogether several years before his death, 
which event occurred March 30, 1846, when he was aged 76 
years and 8 months. 
Dr. Hopkins was tall and not very fleshy. He had a thin 
and rather angular contenance with a gray eye and regular fea- 
tures. He was a small though instructive talker, and was of 
sedate and dignified demeanor. 
He first married Miss Norton, sister of Rev. Dr. Asahel Nor- 
ton, long the pastor of the Congregational church in Clinton. 
After her death he was united in marriage with Miss Prudence 
Hart, daughter of Judge Hart of Clinton and sister of Hon. 
Ephraim Hart of Utica. By his first wife he had one daughter, 
Mrs. Cornelia Bristol, who died at early maturity; by his 
second, one son and five daughters, viz : Catharine, wife of the 
late Dr. Almon Beardsley of Clinton, Anne, wife of the Rev. 
A. C. Kendrick, D. D., Professor in the Rochester University, 
and Frances, Mary and Jeannette, who were unmarried. These 
have now all passed away, his wife having died April 27th> 
1854. 
Dr. David IIasbrouck. 
Of Dr. Idasbrouck, the first Secretary of the Society, I can 
add nothing to the sketch which is contained in the “ Pioneers of 
Utica,” and which I will not here reproduce. 
Dr. Seth Hastings, Sr. 
The person elected Treasurer at this first meeting was Dr. 
Seth Hastings, Jr., of Clinton, long favorably known in this 
vicinity. As his father was likewise one of our founders it will 
be convenient to introduce them together and in their relation 
of father and son. The materials for the purpose are drawn in 
part from a sketch of the family written for the N. Y. Evange- list, by the late Rev. H. H. Kellogg, formerly of Clinton, and 
in part from details furnished me by Dr. Panet M. Hastings, a 
family representative of the succeeding generation, who was 
himself once a member of our society. 
Dr. Seth Hastings, Sr., was one of the founders of the Con- 
necticut State Medical Society, being a delegate thereto from 
Litchfield county, in 1796. He was at that date the head of a 
large family, so that it is fair to presume he had then been some 
years in practice. In February of the ensuing year, he removed 
with all his household from Washington, in the above mentioned 
State and county, to the town of Paris, Oneida county, N. Y., 
making the journey hither by means of sleighs and ox sleds. 
He settled two and one-half miles south east of the village of 
Clinton, and there, by the aid of a small farm and a limited 
medical practice, brought up and educated his children. A 
stiff, old fashioned man,with'an old fashioned queue,he lacked the 
easy courtesy of his son, and partook in a measure of the Puri- 
tanical sternness which marked the Connecticut people of the 
olden time. He aimed to keep his children under close parental 
influence and as far as possible from the frivolities which were 
common around them. Certain it is that his family grew up to 
•be one that is well worthy of historical record. Besides the 
doctor, there were among them Thomas Hastings, widely known 
as a teacher, composer and reformer of our Church psalmody ; 
Orlando, an eminent legal counsellor in Rochester ; Eurotas P. 
who, from his clerkship in Utica, through his cashiership in 
Geneva and Detroit, during his presidency of the bank of 
Michigan and his auditorship of that State, is an unbrokon ex- 
ample of honor and usefulness; Charles, once well known as a 
printer and bookseller in this city. Truman, a lawyer of ac- 
knowledged merit, and Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Elnathan Judd of 
Paris Hill. Dr. Hastings had in all seven sons and three 
daughters ; of the former three were albinos. Of the doctor’s 
connection with this society no record appears after that of the 
first meeting. He died in 1830. 
Dr. Setii Hastings, Jr.' 
Seth Hastings, eldest son of the preceding, was born in 
Washington, Conn., Aug. 23, 1780, and was about seventeen 
years of age when the family settled here. In 1802 he moved 
13 14 
into the village of Clinton and began to practice medicine, 
having had no other preparation for it, as it would appear, than 
what he obtained from following the teaching and experience of 
his father. The same year he married Huldah, daughter of 
John Clark, and a native of Colchester. For some forty years 
he conducted a business that was widely spread and successful. 
‘In regard to the professional attainments of Dr. Hastings it may 
with truth be said that they were very respectable, in considera- 
tion of the smallness of the opportunities he enjoyed and the 
fact that he was but one of a numerous family and early forced 
to earn his own livelihood. Dr. Panet Hastings has furnished 
a list of the limited library of his father. It includes only Boer- 
haave’s Lectures, Van Swieten’s Commentaries, Thomas’ Prac- 
tice, Denman’s Midwifery, Bell’s Anatomy and Bell's Surgery, 
Burns on Abortion, Hamilton on Purgatives and Paris’ Pharma- 
cologia, a small stock in sooth, when contrasted with the outfit of 
most recent graduates. But Dr. Hastings was quick in perception 
and acute in judgment. Being also sanguine in temperament, 
cheerful and unusually social and loquacious, active in habits,and 
ready to respond to calls by night or by day, he was his own 
educator and the builder of his own repute. He was much 
esteemed by the medical gentlemen of his neighborhood, and, 
was often in consultation. In the art and practice of midwifery 
he was deemed especially skillful, and the amount he had of it 
was for a country practitioner always large. He has been heard 
to assert that he had waited on 2000 women in such office. One 
of the dissertations he read before the society was upon the 
diseases of the mucous membranes in females. As a member 
of our body he was in constant attendance, never missing a 
single year, and often coming twice a year, down to 1834, when, 
by reason of age and long service, he was excused from further 
attendance,—a now obsolete provision of the by-laws exempting 
a member from the payment of dues after he had reached the 
age of sixty and had substantially retired from practice. Yet 
even at our yearly gatherings of a still later date, I remember to 
have once or twice encountered his ’whitened head and cheery 
face, so familiar with smiling that even in going into church he 
could not, it is said, reduce it to a becoming degree of compo- 
sure. His office of Treasurer he filled with satisfaction for three 
years in succession, and subsequently held the place for three 15 
terms more. In the interim he was three times elected Secre- 
tary and four times Censor. Still later he was twice Yice 
President and twice President; and in the general proceedings 
of the society no one of his lime had a more active share. 
The charges for medical services were in that day extremely 
meagre in comparison with our present rates. “ I think,” says his 
son, “ that at no period of his practice did they exceed $1800 for 
any one year, though possibly during the year 1832 they might 
have gone beyond that sum. Yet he had nine sons and six 
daughters, fourteen of his children reaching maturity. How my 
parents managed to feed, clothe and educate this large family, 
is a problem difficult of solution. Certainly there was never 
any lack of the comforts of life, and four of the sons were sent 
through college. In addition they exercised a large hospitality, 
especially towards clergymen, my father being many years a 
deacon in the Congregational church, and active in matters of 
religion.” 
In 1851, in the midst of vigorous health, he was suddenly dis- 
abled by a shock of paralysis, but lived until March 26, 1861. 
His wife died September 21, 1850. 
Among his sons were the late Hon. George Hastings, M. C., 
from Livingston Co., the late Bev. Seth Hastings of Chittenango, 
Eev. Eurotas P. of the Ceylon Misson of the American Board, 
and now on a visit to his native place, and Dr. Panet M. Hast- 
ings of Hartford Conn. Other sons were prominent in differ- 
ent lines of business. Of his daughters two became wives of 
clergymen and another the wife of a well known citizen of Cin- 
cinnati. 
Dr. Caleb Sampson. 
In addition to the officers required by the terms of the act 
heretofore quoted, the Society elected at its first meeting a 
Delegate and five Censors as at present. These, then, are the 
next to be considered. 
Dr. Caleb Sampson, was the Delegate chosen to represent 
the Society with its federal head at Albany. By tradition he 
is reported to have been a man of capacity and acquirement, 
and he would seem to have enjoyed at this time the confidence 
of his associates, so that I regret my inability to present a com- 
pleter picture of him than I have the means to give. Ho one 
of his contemporaries of Paris Hill, where he began his pro- 16 
fessional life in the county, is now alive to tell his history, and 
scarce any one of New Hartford where he afterward continued 
it. The earliest notice of him I have met with is contained in 
the recorded deeds of the Clerk’s office. A search there has 
shown me that on the 28th of Oct. 1796, Caleb Sampson, of 
Paris, physician, bought of Cornelius Glen and Barent Bleecker, 
merchants of Albany, thirteen acres of land adjoining the 
public square in Paris. From Rogers’ History of the Town of 
Paris, I learn that a year later he was met by an acquaintance 
in the City of New York, purchasing medicines. He had 
come to Paris from the east and had come, as is reported, some- 
what hastily, for he had brought with him a wife who was not a 
legitimate one, the real one having been left behind. There 
he erected the third frame house that was built in the settle- 
ment. Three years later, in 1799, he was in danger of losing 
his land, it having been sold at vendue for default in payment 
on the mortgage he had given in pledge. It was bought in 
by Dr. Elnathan Judd, his successor in the same field of labor, 
who, however, released it to Dr. Sampson, on condition of re- 
ceiving back the sum he had paid for it. About 1803-5, the 
doctor removed to New Hartford and occupied an office near 
the north end of its public square. He remained there until 
the spring of 1812, carrying on a moderate professional business, 
yet was more of a druggist, and was also for some years the village 
postmaster. In 1812 he sold the premises, but as he attended 
one of our meetings in 1819, it may be inferred that he did not 
then leave the place. He is represented to have been a man of 
learning, honest in principle, gentlemanly, though abrupt in man- 
ner, and of excellent judgment. He had a keen penetrating eye, 
was a good judge of character, and seemed to look one through. 
He was a pleasant companion, was fond of story-telling and 
equally fond of a game of checkers; but was possessed of 
strong passions and was imperious in will, expecting that every 
one would yield to him, as it commonly happened that every 
one did do. He was large, fleshy and fine looking. 
In the country much is made of a joke, says Sydney Smith,who 
tells us that he knew of one which lasted seven years. Here is 
one of Doctor Sampson which has lasted a good while longer. 
It illustrates his proclivity to fun as well as the spirit of rivalry 
existing among men of kindred pursuits. There was then in 17 
New Hartford a young Dr. Coe, who was so ardent a lover of fish- 
ing and hunting as occasionally to neglect his duties for the sake 
of his sport. A letter came to the office directed to this Dr. 
Coe, and as he failed for some days to call for it, the post- 
master, or perchance his clerk, inscribed on an upper corner of 
the letter, “Pie’s gone a fishing,7’ and below it pictured a man 
on horseback attired for the woods, carrying a fish-pole over 
his shoulder and riding at full- speed, who is met by a boy 
coming'from the opposite direction, out of whose mouth issues 
the announcement “ you need’nt come new, doctor, fathers’ 
dead.” 
Dr. Sampson was three times a Censor and served on several 
committees, but attended no meeting after 1819. 
His wife, who was of foreign birth, was well educated, neat 
and industrious. Even after she became blind her habit of 
neatness did not forsake her. He had a daughter and three 
sons. 
Elnathan Judd. 
The first of the newly-elected Censors of whom I shall speak 
is Dr. Elnathan Judd, already adverted to. He was born in 
Waterbury, Conn., Dec. 7, 1773. Having lost his father in 
the war of the Revolution, he was forced at the age of 16 to 
assume the care of his mother and to labor for her support as 
well as his own. They decided to remove to Central New 
New York, then the El Dorado of West. In a wagon con- 
taining all their wordly goods they travelled slowly, in part 
through an unbroken wilderness, and fixed themselves on Paris 
Hill. Young Judd studied during the evenings aided by his 
mother, who was a woman of culture and may be assumed to 
have once held a position of influence. By day he worked 
with his hands, earning enough for their maintenance, and 
enough also, as it would seem, to buy, in March 1799, the 
mortgaged premises of Dr. Sampson. At this date he was 
pursuing his medical education under the direction of the elder 
Dr. Hastings. This completed, he married, in 1802, Elizabeth 
daughter of his preceptor, and on the withdrawal of Dr. Samp 
son from Paris, he established himself in his house and his 
ride. Of respectable acquirements in medicine and absorbed 
in its practice, amiable in temper and affable in manners, his 
success was assured. The country was new and rugged, and 18 
the extent of it he traversed was large, reaching to all the small 
villages of the vicinity. In winter his visits were often made 
on snow shoes over the drifts for which that region is famous. 
Coming home exhausted, he was yet ever ready for the next 
call. His daughter’s earliest recollection of his hard work and 
fatigue was, she says, when he was lying, with closed eyes, on 
a wooden settee, and she was summoned to read to him from 
some old medical treatise that Was dull enough for her. But 
■she adds, “I waited patiently for the happy hour when he was 
ready to go to the office, where I assisted him in preparing 
pills, powders and ointments, those hours of instruction which 
were more to me in practical life than all my boarding-school 
■experience.” 
Dr. Judd was social and intelligent. His sympathy and his 
deep Christian character endeared him to his patients ; and these, 
with his affability and sense, made for him as many friends as 
were had by any physician in this region. During quite a por- 
tion of his residence he took a leading part in public affairs, 
without holding any public office, and maintained as absolute 
•a control over the community in which he lived as did any 
man in it. He was prominent in the Congregational Church of 
which both he and his wife were members, and they made their 
house a house of entertainment for ministers and others who were 
temporarily in the place. Among other frequent visitors was 
Dr. White, of Cherry Yalley, with whom Dr. Judd was inti- 
mate in a professional way, and exchanged visits in consulta- 
tion. When he came, they would turn night into day in their 
prolonged discussions about the interests of Fairfield Medical 
College, or about some topic in surgery. To Rome also, and 
Utica he now and then went to consult with the physicians of 
these places. In garb or external appearance he was by no 
means a Brummagem, yet he was neat, and, moreover, made a 
point of exacting neatness in others ; when he visited an untidy 
family, he would not take off his hat or his gloves until the 
housekeeper had made a place clean for him. Another habit 
he had which was startling to those who knew him imperfectly; 
though he had no idea of tune, yet if he had a critical case, he 
would conceal his face with his hands and hum for some min- 
utes, while reflecting, then when decided, would open his med- 
ical case and proceed to prescribe. In person he was tall and 19 
spare, stooping slightly, with blue eyes and light hair, plain 
and grave but intelligent features. 
Of our Society he was at least an annual attendant down to 
the year 1830, and was once present afterward. He was four 
times its Vice President and was three times elected President, 
but the last time he was, at his own request, excused from 
serving ; was three times Censor, read two or three dissertations, 
and acted on several Committees. 
Down to about the year 1830 few men possessed more fully 
the confidence of the people, not only of Paris but of the ad- 
jacent. places, than did Hr. Judd. At this era his influence 
began to decline, and this decline had its origin in dissensions 
within the church. The causes and the course of them, were 
it right or desirable to consider at all, would better become 
ecclesiastical than medical reminiscences of the county. It 
must suffice to say that they became more and more bitter, 
that two distinct parties were formed, one acknowledging the 
minister, and the other Hr. Judd and another deacon, as its 
head; that the former party was predominant, and in order to 
crush its rival, selected the Hoctor as its victim, because of the 
firmness of his stand and because he kept open house for the 
ministerial friends of its opponents. Charges were preferred 
against him not only for semi-heresy of belief, but for certain 
improprieties of conduct in his relations with his patients. The 
charges were investigated, and while adjudged not fully proven, 
the church thought proper to pass a vote of censure against 
him for acts of “great indiscretion.'’ From this action he ap- 
pealed to the Presbytery with which the church was in connec- 
tion. The Presbytery reversed the church’s decision and re- 
proved it for its course; not only this, they required a copy 
of their action to be read by the pastor from the pulpit on 
Sunday. It was so read, and Hr. Judd was present, but for 
the last time, attending service thereafter at New Hartford, 
until his removal from the place. The majority for the vote 
of censure had been obtained by inducing some of his personal 
friends to give it their assent as a matter of compromise, and 
under the belief that by so doing the troubles would be ended 
and the Hoctor not seriously harmed. But he looked upon it 
otherwise, and never recovered from it. Compelled to withdraw 
from the church on which his heart had been fixed, seeing him- 20 
self abased from the high position in the community which he 
had before enjoyed, his success in business undermined, and in 
a measure destroyed by the introduction of a competing physi- 
cian through the influence of those who had been his friends 
but had now joined his enemies, he unfortunately broke down, 
falling to a condition from which he never rallied. 
In 1834—5 he sold his property in Paris and removed to 
Clinton, and from thence went some two or three years later to 
Michigan, and there he died. 
The Doctor had three sons and two daughters—Dr. Garret P. 
Judd, the eldest, once a member of this Society, went more 
than fifty years since to the Sandwich Islands, as a missionary 
physician under the care of the American Board. After serv- 
ing several years in that capacity, so marked was his ability, 
and so well fitted was he thought to be for the highest civil 
service, that he was released from his connection with the 
Board in order to enable him to accept the invitation of the 
King of the Islands to become his Secretary of State, or Prime 
Minister. And during a long and honorable incumbency of 
this office, he was eminently useful in guiding the affairs of 
that infant State. 
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Elizabeth Judd with 
an unmarried daughter, also repaired to the Sandwich Islands, 
and spent the remainder of her days enjoying the prosperity 
of the people to which her son had so largely contributed, and 
sharing in the respect and honors he had so richly merited. 
She lived to pass her ninetieth birth-day. 
Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, the widow of Asher B. 
Baker, is now a resident of San Francisco. 
Dr. Welcome Sayles. 
A Censor of the first four years of the Society's existence, 
an attendant for nearly twenty years, and an active participant 
in its various labors, was Dr. Welcome Sayles of Vernon. He 
was the eldest child of Thomas Sayles, and was born July 4, 
1776, in Smithfield, R. I., near which place his progenitor, 
John Sayles, who emigrated from England, in 1650, took up 
his residence. The patriotism equally with the gratitude of 
his parents is evinced in the name they gave to a son who was 
born on Independence day. His father commanded a company of minute men during the Revolution, and not long after the close 
of the war removed with his family to Whitestown. The son re- 
ceived his literary education wholly from his mother, a woman of 
strong sense and energy, whose maiden name was Prudence 
Brown. With whom he studied medicine I am not able to 
tell. His course completed, he made a short trial in Utica, 
and, in 1804, began a more continued experience in Vernon. 
Shortly afterward he married Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of 
Rev. John Sargeant, then missionary to the Stockbridge and 
Oneida Indians, and living near the village of Vernon, a man 
of historical note, distinguished for his learning, his simplicity 
of character, and his zealous devotion to duty. Though Dr. 
Sayles never had attended school but a single day, he is said 
to have been during the greater part of his life a diligent reader, 
devoting several hours of the day, even when actively engaged 
in his jwofessional labors, in a systematic course of reading, a 
course, which, besides medicine, embraced history, the sciences 
and general literature. He accumulated in time a large and 
well selected library of works in various departments, with 
all of which he is said to have been more familiar than most 
men whose pursuits bring them into close association with books. 
In his writing and conversation he showed an accurate acquain- 
tance with the niceties of his mother tongue, never using an 
ungrammatical phrase or a slang expression. His native 
endowments, too, were excellent, and of a kind that qualified 
him to gain success in his calling. With clear and discriminat- 
ing perceptions he combined cautious and logical deductions. 
These gave him power in the investigation and management 
of disease, since they rendered him accurate in detecting its 
shades, degrees and tendency, while they imparted wisdom and 
skill to his treatment. His reputation became extended and 
his practice a wide one, its range comprising a district nine 
miles in radius about the village of Vernon, and of this he 
was for years the chief medical adviser. 
Dr. Sayles did not meet with us after the year 1825 and yet 
he lived twenty-five years longer; his death occurring on the 
seventh of December, 1850. 
He was of medium size, weighing about one hundred and 
twenty five or one hundred and thirty pounds, and of delicate 22 
constitution. His wife is reputed to have possessed great 
amiability and purity of character, and was much beloved. 
They had seven children who grew to maturity. Of his 
sons, Dr. Henry S. was a physician at Ithaca, but is now deceas- 
ed; and John has for many years been a practising lawyer at 
Brenham, Texas, and Professor in the law school connected 
with the Baylor University of that State. Of the daughters, 
one married John F. Bichardson, late Professor in Madison 
and in Rochester Universities, and another Charles Kilbourn, 
Esq., lawyer, formerly of Vernon but now living in Iowa. 
Dr. Sherman Bartholomew. 
Another of the Censors now elected was Dr. Sherman Barthol- 
omew of Waterville, whose early promise was shortly closed by 
an honored death gained in his country’s cause. He was a na- 
tive of Wallingford, Conn., and was born March 5th, 1781. 
Removing with his father’s family at first to Salisbury, Her- 
kimer County, and thence to the neighborhood of Waterville, 
in Oneida county, he there read medicine with Dr. Amos G. 
Hull, who had married his oldest sister. The family were set- 
tled a mile and a half west of Waterville,or Sangerfield Huddle, 
as the hamlet was then termed, and here the doctor began prac- 
tice. To him the credit is given by some, of having suggested 
the name by which the place is now called. Certain it is that 
he was one of the half dozen of its citizens who,in 1808, were con- 
gregated about the bar-room fire of the tavern on the old Che- 
nango turnpike, subsequently known as the Munger House, in 
consultation about a more pleasing title for their village than 
the one it then bore, and who then and there adopted the pres- 
ent one. 
As a citizen Dr. Bartholomew was very active, useful and 
popular ; as a physician decidedly the most cultivated of any 
in that part of the county. He was six feet and over in height, 
handsome and impressive; in disposition cheerful, and in 
manners agreeable. By his patients he was beloved, and by 
his family his memory is still revered. . The estimation in 
which he was held in Waterville is evinced by the number of 
children, not connected with him, on whom his name was con- 
ferred in baptism. From the names which he himself bestowed 
upon his sons,—Darwin and Rush,—we may infer his admiration 23 
for the great ones in science, if not his enthusiasm for the stud- 
ies that occupied them and the teaching they imparted. He 
was a total abstinent from intoxicating drinks, and even from 
tea and coffee, a peculiarity of habit which in those days was 
assuredly rare. It was said at the time of the exposure which 
terminated his life, that had he consented to take stimulents 
he might have been saved, but he could not be prevailed 
on to do so. The doctor was an excellent horseman, and 
perhaps a little vain of his skill and his fine equestrian appear- 
ance. When, in the fall of 1814, he was about to start for 
Sacketts Harbor, as surgeon of the regiment of Col. Stone, he 
dressed himself in his best attire, set off by a neat and flowing 
ruffled shirt bosom, mounted his spirited horse, then calling 
all his family around him, he bade them good-bye, saying that 
should he never return he desired that their last impression of 
him should be as he then appeared. That it was their last im- 
pression we gather from the inscription upon his tomb-stone at 
Waterville. This reads as follows : “To the memory of Dr. 
Sherman Bartholomew, who died at Brownville the 29th of 
November 1314, in the zealous discharge of duty as a sur- 
geon in the army of the U. S. He was interred here by his 
brethren, the members of Sanger Lodge, December 19th, in the 
34th year of his age. His bereaved widow for herself ahd their 
children has placed this stone, July 1817.” 
His wife was a sister of Hon. Aaron Hackley of Herkimer 
and of Utica, in which latter place he was recorder of the city. 
His son Darwin was a physician practising in Lewis and after- 
wards in Madison county, where he died at the age of his father. 
Rush and a widowed sister, Mrs. A. H. Owen, are living in Ill- 
inois. 
Dr. Francis Guiteau, Jr. 
The two other Censors elected at this time were Drs. Matthew 
Brown, Jr., and Francis Guiteau, Jr. Of Dr. Brown I have 
already treated. 
Dr. Guiteau, a much trusted surgeon as well as physician, 
who came into the county in 1792, practised nine years in 
Deerfield, eleven in Utica, and nine or ten more at Whitesboro, 
I have sketched at some length, in The Pioneers of Utica, In- 
cidents recorded both in Judge Jones’ Annals of Oneida and in 24 
Mrs. Hammond’s History of Madison County, while they show 
the paucity of surgical operators in the forming days of this re- 
gion, show7 also the dependence that was placed upon Hr.Guiteau, 
and the wide reach of his occasional rides. The cloud, which 
has of late over-shadow7ed the family name, has not, assuredly, in 
the minds of any in this society, darkened the fair fame of our 
associate, Hr. Luther Guiteau of Trenton,nor obscured the mem- 
ory of his illustrious father. Neither should it in any wise di- 
minish our appreciation of this brother of the latter,who,though 
of closer kin to the author of the shame, was in honorable and 
Christian principle, in purity of life and enlightened patriotism, 
quite the equal of any of his compeers. Of his relation to us 
it may be said, that after being three times a Censor, he was 
for two }7ears Vice President, and twro years more the President. 
His last attendance was in 1824, the year of his death. 
Hr. Laurens Hull. 
Next come, in order, two members of early, long-continued 
and most capable service, both here and elsewhere, whose lives 
are already in print, Hrs. Laurens Hull of Bridgewater and 
Arba Blair of Rome. 
Hr. Laurens Hull, wrho for many years represented this soci- 
ety as delegate to its superior at Albany, and wras twdce the 
President of the latter, wdio was twice sent by his neighbors in 
Oneida county to the lower house of State legislation, and 
by the people of Alleghany county to be a member 
of the upper, was too conspicuous a person to remain until 
this time without a biographer. A sketch of him, pre- 
pared for the State Medical Society b}7 Hr. C. M. Crandall 
of Alleghany county, is contained in the volume of its 
Transactions for the year 1867. I remember to have once 
met Hr. Hull, after his removal to Angelica, and when 
he had entered upon the decline of life, and I can still recall 
his tall, imposing figure and the impression of dignity*, intelli- 
gence and wide experience of men and affairs that w7as left up- 
on me by his stately presence and demeanor. He was a cousin 
of Hr. Amos G. Hull, our first President, and had studied 
medicine in the same office, though afterw7ards as a pupil of the 
latter. In our society he was annually present until the year 
1834, wdien he wras excused from further attendance, having 
then just completed his third term as President. 25 
• Dr. Arba Blair. 
Dr. Arba Blair, I have already mentioned as coming to Rome, 
in 1803, from Worcester, Mass., where he had been a student 
in the same hospital-school of Dr. Willard in which Dr. Matthew 
Brown, Jr., had been a pupil. I have said, also, that he finish- 
ed his studies with the latter, and then became his partner and 
his successor. They were united likewise as relatives, the mother 
of Dr. Brown, being a sister of the father of Dr. Blair ; she being, 
moreover, a cousin of the mother of Dr. Blair, they were thus 
doubly joined. Dr. Blair, died in June 1863, and a notice of 
him which was read before this society by Dr. J. V. Cobb, of 
Rome, is contained in the volume of State Transactions for the 
next ensuirfg year. Down to a late period of his life he was 
in the habit of being present at our meetings. Many of us 
remember well his gentle smile and genial ways, the modest, 
guileless simplicity of his character, and the Christian spirit 
which infused his being and beamed in every act. We have 
not forgotten the time when he was called on to preside at the 
observance of our fiftieth anniversary, nor, when he was con- 
ducted to the chair by Drs. McCall and Thomas, how reverent- 
ly we looked on the only representative who was present, and 
almost the last surviving one, of the worthies of 1806. 
As a sample of his pervading Christian temper, I cannot for- 
bear to mention an incident that was related to me by a much 
younger man than Dr. Blair, whom he aided in a difficult case. 
It was one of protracted labor, which, though perilous to both 
mother and child, resulted in the saving of the former at the 
expense of the life of her offspring. The parents were much 
affected by the issue, and the mother, especially, deeply mourn- 
ed her loss. Anxious to comfort them and at the same time 
to direct their thoughts to a proper source of consolation, the 
doctor proposed that the other physician and he should unite 
with the family in prayer. This being assented to, he prayed 
tenderly and fervently for Divine grace to sustain them in their 
disappointment, at the same same time giving utterance to the 
gratitude that was due the great Ruler of events for the salva- 
tion of the mother. Doubless it is no uncommon experience 
in the life of a physician to witness, if not to take part, 
in a similar scene at the bed-side of one who has reached or is approaching the years of adult life, but who of us would view 
so sympathetically and so gravely the grief of a mother over 
the death of an infant that as yet had never breathed. We 
might, it is true, drop a word of regret for the result, yet the 
feeling, if at all profound, would as likely be for our own im- 
perilled reputation as for the loss of the principal sufferer. 
Dr. Cobb, in his sketch of Dr. Blair, has omitted to note the 
deep interest he took in the oppressed victims of slavery and' 
the fact that he was identified in full with the once despised 
party that labored for the abolition of this evil. It remains 
only to add that he was for one term our President and for 
one our Vice President, and that down to the year 1842, he was 
a pattern of regularity in attendance. 
Drs. Marcus Hitchcock, Seth Capron and Eliphaz 
Bissell. 
Physicians who took a partin the organization of theSocietjr, 
were more or less active during the earlier years of its existence, 
but whose connection was of limited duration, were Marcus 
Hitchcock of Utica, Seth Capron of Whitesboro, and Eliphaz 
Bissell, of Vernon. 
A notice of Dr. Hitchcock, as the life-long druggist and 
postmaster of Utica, I have given among the Pioneers of the 
place. He was for three years the Society’s Treasurer, but I 
find no mention of him in our minutes after 1817. 
Dr. Capron, much more of a manufacturer than a physician, 
yet a person of whom our profession have reason to be proud 
for his agency in setting up cotton and woolen mills in this 
county, I have noticed in an article read before the Oneida 
Historical Society, and lately published in a volume of that 
Society’s transactions. As a physician, too, though of short 
duration, Dr. Capron is remembered with affection by his con- 
temporaries. 
Of Dr. Eliphaz Bissell, of Vernon Centre, not much is told 
t® his credit. In March, 1811, he was sold out by the sheriff, 
and went to parts unknown. 
Brief Kesidents. 
Thus have we completed our review of those of the founders 
who were in frequent attendance and intimate union with the 27 
Society from the beginning of its existence until toward the 
close of their own professional career. There remain to be 
noticed some who were hardly present after the first meeting, 
and several more, who, having attended the first one, were not 
present a second time, until after the lapse of many years, and 
especially not until after the rehabilitation of the Society, in 1821, 
when they renewed their connection with it. The reason of 
the difference between the latter and those heretofore sketched 
does not clearly appear ; whether it is to be found in changes 
in the State Laws with relation to such Societies, whether in 
dissatisfaction with the early leaders and a preference for those 
who came into control after the re-organization, or whether we 
are to seek a reason in the individual history of the members 
referred to, is wholly conjectural. Certain it is that among the 
founders there were some estimable men who at first showed 
little concern in the Society’s proceedings, yet did participate 
therein after the above mentioned epoch. Let us first consider 
briefly those who, as it would seem, fell off after the initial 
meeting, either by reason of early removal from the county, 
death or other cause, and of whom our knowledge is but scant. 
Of I)r. Morris Shannon, whose name appears on the list, I 
can learn absolutely nothing. 
Dr. Thomas G. Hooker, settled in a log house in Augusta 
Centre, about 1800, bought a piece of land, built a two storied 
frame house that was a good one for the times and essayed to 
do business, until 1818, when making up his mind that the 
place would not support him and two other practitioners, he 
sold out and moved to Painted Post. He was an amiable but 
a moderate man. 
Dr. Daniel Avery came, in 1793, from Stonington, Conn., to 
Bridgewater, then a part of the town of Sangerfield. Ilis 
house and lot, about 80 rods from Bridgewater Centre, he sold 
to Dr. Laurens Hull, and purchased a farm three-quarters of a 
mile west of his previous residence. There he lived until about 
1814, when he removed to LeRoy, Genesee county. An acquaint- 
ance avers that he was a well educated physician, and that, like 
Dr. Hull, he was an active member of the Congregational Church. 
Dr. Samuel Frisbie is mentioned by Judge Jones, as one of 
the company of immigrants from Connecticut, who settled in the 
westerly and southwesterly parts of the town of Vernon. The 28 
county records declare that in Feb. 1800, Dr. Samuel Frisbie“of 
Westmoreland,” sold 161 acres of land, being a part of the 
Oneida Reservation, which he had bought of • the Surveyor 
General, in 1798. The next year he sold 171 acres. In 1808, 
’4 and ’5, Dr. Samuel Frisbie, “of Vernon,” sold several parcels 
more. From Vernon he moved west at so early a period that a 
gentleman who was brought up on the farm which adjoined his, 
and who is now in his sixty-fifth year, has no personal recollec- 
tion of him. 
Dr. Thomas Hartwell, lived in the year 1800, about three 
miles east of Rome, on the road to Whitesboro, and owned 100 
acres of land. lie died there about 1824-5. He had a son, 
Dr. John P. Hartwell, who practiced near Elmer Hill, which 
is south of Delta, and near the town line between Rome and 
W estern. 
Dr. Enoch Alden, came to Rome as early as 1798. He lived 
on the site now occupied by theTremont House, opposite the 
Willet House. Not far from 1804, says one informant, he went 
to Redfield, Oswego county, remained there a while, then came 
back to Rome and stayed until 1817, when he returned to Red- 
field, where he died. Another correspondent, who character- 
izes him as a physician and surgeon of rare natural ability and 
attainments, speaks of him as living at Elmer Hill before his 
second residence in Rome, and being there an associate of the 
Drs. Hutchinson to be shortly introduced. His wife was an 
Elmer, sister of the father of Mrs. II. IT Pope, of Rome. In 
1817, the lots he held on Dominick St. were sold by the Sheriff, 
and his office was soon occupied by the late Hon. Samuel 
Beardsley. 
Dr. Paul Hutchinson, Jr. 
One of the brothers Hutchinson of Elmer Hill was, like those 
just mentioned, but a short time in the county after he coop- 
erated in forming the society. This was Paul Hutchinson Jr., 
who studied $vith Zenas and became his partner, but soon re- 
moved to Jefferson county. He is mentioned in Hough's His- 
tory of that county, as a member of its medical society in 1809, 
and he was there during the war of 1812. He is represented as 
given to practical jokes, and the following is related as one of 
them. Among his patients, before his removal, he had a woman 29 
of a weak, sensitive nature, with more nerves than cerebral at- 
tachment for them, who often applied to him for the relief of 
some trifling or fancied complaint, and could not be put off 
without a well-considered prescription. She called at one time 
to be relieved of a fish bone, which she was sure was lodged in 
her throat. The doctor, after the most careful examination, was 
unable to discover anything amiss. Presuming it was her im- 
agination that w’as chiefly at fault, or that the bone if really 
there, would detach itself in time, he determined to exorcise the 
peccant part by a hocus pocus which was quite his own. He 
hung a sleigh bell about the waist of the woman and gravely 
enjoined upon her to wear it until the bone should disappear. 
She departed wdth the bell dangling at her hips, and continued 
to wear it until the ridicule of her husband caused its removal, 
but not before she was cured of the bone in her throat. 
Dr. Zenas Hutchinson. 
Dr. Zenas Hutchinson for forty years or more carried on an 
extended professional business in the region of the upper Mo- 
hawk; and by the united attestation of all who knew him was 
a good physician and a worthy and influential man. He was a 
native of New Lebanon Conn., and settled on Elmer Hill as 
early at least as 1797, occupying a farm of some 70 acres. 
Physically as well as mentally he was fitted to carry on so la- 
borious a calling in a rough and new country. For he was pos- 
sessed of a vigorous constitution and great powers of endurance, 
he loved his profession, and shrank from no labor in the dis- 
charge of its duties, surmounting difficulties which would have 
appalled men of less energy and hopefulness. Though he pre- 
ferred a good horse when available, and kept two or more fast 
ones for his daily service, he has been known to travel on snow- 
shoes as far as Red held to set a broken leg, when the drifts were 
too deep for him to reach the patient otherwise. His tempera- 
ment was a buoyant and a happy one. By his cheerful counten- 
ance and playful conversation, his easy and familiar manners, he 
carried sunshine into the darkened chambers of sickness, turned 
away the thoughts of the sick from their sufferings or their pain- 
ful forebodings, and inspired them with hope for themselves 
and confidence in the succor accorded them. The indigent as 
well as those abundant in means shared alike in his attentions. 30 
When, towards the latter period of his life, he was looking over 
his accounts and his papers, he was asked by a bystander 
whether he had received pay for all his hard work. lie replied,— 
taking a roll of bills in his hands,—there are thousands of dollars 
charged for doctoring, and I would be glad to get six cents on 
the dollar for the whole of them. The doctor was a great lover 
of sports and social amusements, though he never for the sake 
of them neglected his appropriate duties. IIunting, singing and 
dancing were his delight, and his wife and eldest daughters took 
part with him in the gay and graceful pleasures of the ball-room, 
until 1825, when the}’ made a profession of religion, and con- 
formed to church rules and practices. Dr Hutchinson united 
with the Presbyterian Church of Westernville and adorned a con- 
sistent Christian life. 
In illustration of his fondness for hunting, I have been favored 
by Judge Anson S. Miller of California, who was brought up 
in the neighborhood of Elmer Hill, with a lively description of 
a party that once met at his father's for a squirrel hunt, and in 
which the judge and his brothers acted as whippers-in and game- 
carriers for their father, the doctor and the Elmers. I carried 
for the doctor, says he, and even now, though it is nearly sixty 
years since that memorable afternoon, I laugh at our sportive 
manoeuvres to capture the squirrels. Some he shot while they 
were running on the fences, others escaped to the tall trees when 
I frightened them around to his side of the tree that he might 
have a crack at them. He was limber and active as a bov, and 
I needed all of my agility to keep pace with him, and of my 
strength, too, since long before night I was loaded with game 
and was glad to get relief from the doctor. In more serious 
matters he was also equally interested, as, for example, not only 
in the general question of public education, but in the mental 
improvement of himself and his neighbors. As early as Dec. 
18th, 1797, he assisted in founding a public library, and in the 
articles of agreement his name appears first on the list of pro- 
prietors. This association, known as Union Library, has been 
kept up until a very recent period, as I learn from its present 
librarian, Miss E. A. Peck of Delta, who has its records and 
most of its books. 
Soon after his settlement Dr. Hutchinson married Miss 
Fanny Smith, and they became the parents of eleven 31 
children, seven daughters and four sons, now widely dis- 
persed. His wife died in 1828. In 1832 he sold his place, and 
a few years later married a Mrs. Beckwith of Western and went 
to live near the village of that name. A few years before his 
death he took up his residence with one of his sons in Hew York 
City, where he died in 1853, his remains being removed to the 
cemetery of Westernville. He was then 84 years of age, yet 
his mind was clear and strong. He was of middle height and 
weighed about 140 pounds. 
I find no further mention of his connection with this Society, 
after the years 1806 and 1808,—on which latter occasion he was 
put by the Society in quest of illegal practioners,—until July 
1823, when he is named as being present, as also in July 1830, 
and July 1832. 
1)rs. Alexander Whaley and Norton Porter. 
Passing directly south from Elmer Hill, the locality of the 
Hutehinsons, we find at Yerona, near the western county line, 
Hr. Alexander Whaley, who was the last survivor of the 
original founders, not dying until about ten years ago ; and, 
eastward of him, Hr. Norton Porter of Westmoreland, who, on 
the other hand, was almost, if not quite, the first of them all 
to enter the county. Both had bent their steps hitherward 
from the East when they had just reached the age of twenty- 
one; both conducted a wide, a prosperous, and a long continu- 
ed professional business, and secured the good opinion of all 
who knew them. Interesting obituaries of both have been 
read before us by Hr. Id. N. Porter, son of the latter, wdiich 
may be found on pp. 112-13 of the volume of the State Trans- 
actions for the year 1872. After the opening meeting of the 
Society, Hr. Whaley was present again in 1823, ’24 and ’31; 
Hr. Porter from 1822 to 1837 almost annually, sometimes twice 
a year. 
Going south again from the circuit of Hr. Porter, and pass- 
ing through the centre of the rides of Hrs. Hopkins and Hast- 
ings of Clinton, we approach the home of another of the late- 
attending founders. We think we see him on our course, as 
we encounter a short, thick-set man, who comes jogging on, 
his kimboed arms dancing in unison with the measured trot, 
trot, trot of his old white horse, and his saddle-bags, assuring ns that he can be none other than a country doctor. Yes, this 
is Dr. John Fitch of Franklin, for forty years its sole practi- 
tioner. The particulars of his life I give as furnished me by 
his son, Dr. John W. Fitch, of Oneida. He was a native of 
Pomfret, Conn., having been born March 7, 1775. Ilis youth- 
ful days were spent in labor upon his father’s farm, during the 
summer, and in attendance upon a district school in winter, 
until he had acquired knowledge and age sufficient to conduct 
the school himself. Docendo discimus, by teaching we learn, 
says the proverb ; yet the compass of acquirement must needs 
be small that is embraced within the curriculum of an old- 
time country school. Such means seemed scarcely adequate 
to satisfy the thirst for information that was felt by our teacher. 
A natural desire to do better, and to engage in some pursuit in 
which this thirst might be gratified, led him into the study of 
medicine. He entered the office of Dr. Jared Warner, of 
Scotland, father of the late J. E. Warner of this city, and a 
physician of more than the ordinary standing. Physically, 
indeed, his standing was gigantic, since he was no less than seven 
feet seven inches in height. As to his moral magnitude, it ig 
thus described on his monumental stone : 
“ Stop ye, my friend, and weep, for Warner’s gone; 
See, here his glass doth cease to run. 
No more his liberal hand shall feed the poor, 
Relieve distress and scatter joy no more. 
While he from death did others seek to save, 
Death threw a dart and plunged him in the grave.” 
In the office of Dr. Warner, and with the privilege of a 
countrv practice, young Fitch remained until he thought that 
he could successfully embark in business for himself. And of 
his opportunities he made so good a use that when, in 1802, 
he settled himself with his blooming bride in this western 
world, he was probably as well prepared to treat the sick as a 
great proportion of his compeers. Soon after his settlement, 
there prevailed in the towns of Paris, Sangerfield and Augusta, 
as well as in some other parts of the county, an extensive and 
fatal epidemic of typhus fever. No less than four of the 
members of our Society were appointed in January 1808, to 
write dissertations upon it, of whom, however, but one res- 
ponded. The practice of physicians generally was a stimulat- 
ing one, consisting in the administration of bark and wine. To pursue that course thought Dr. F., is to see the greater number 
of my patients go down to an untimely grave ; I will fol- 
low a different one. “ He was ever'’ says his son, “ an 
admirer of the Cullenian doctrine of ‘ vis medicatrix 
naturae,’ and as such carried out his practice in the 
treatment of this epidemic. He watched carefully for 
local determinations and guarded against them as far as pos- 
sible, corrected the secretions, gave mild laxatives, the effer- 
vescent draught, soda, etc., and relied on the expectant treat- 
ment generally. The consequence was his success was unpar- 
allelled, and his practice so great and calls so many that he 
could answer but a small proportion of them. It secured him 
many friends and patrons who remained such throughout his 
long professional life.” The son further adds : ‘ he admired 
and was devoted to his profession, was an accurate observer, 
ever studying the idiosyncracies and temperaments of his pa- 
tients, judicious and correct in diagnosis, wise and careful in 
treatment and noted for his surety of prognosis, so that I oc- 
casionally meet persons at this day, who say that when he said 
their friend could not live, they considered his recovery impos- 
sible. ” As before mentioned his whole professional life was 
spent in Franklin and thereabout, and his practice continued 
until a few years before his death, which occurred Oct. 23d., 
1841. His wife was the daughter of Rev. Thomas Brockway, 
of Lebanon, Conn. Besides Dr. J. W., he had a son, the late 
Thomas Fitch, of Syracuse. We find Dr. F. to -have been 
present in the Society in July 1806, January 1809, in 1823, 
'27, ’31. 
Dr. Isaac Weston. 
A few miles farther south on the same stream there lived, 
practised and died, at Sauquoit, Dr. Isaac Weston, an unas- 
suming, well-informed man, of whose connection with our 
Society I can note only his presence in 1806, again in 1831, 
and again in 1832, two years before his decease. His family 
removed to Michigan. 
Dr. Stephen Preston. 
The last whom 1 shall mention of those who were present 
at this first meeting, is another Connecticut immigrant, whose 
home was near the extreme southern confines of the cou nty. 34 
In the account given of Sangerfield, in Judge Jones' Annals, 
he thus discourses of him: “ In the month of Sep- 
tember, 1795, Dr. Stephen Preston became a resident of 
the town. He was the first regular physician within its limits, 
and for more than thirty years enjoyed an extensive practice 
in his profession. He used to that when he first came into 
this section the inquiry was: “where shall I get a doctor ?r 
but after a few years it was : “ what doctor shall I get ?” He 
was somewhat eccentric, but was, notwithstanding, a man of 
sterling sense and judgment. He held the office of Justice of 
the Peace for many years.” 
To the foregoing I am able to subjoin the following particu- 
lars : Dr. Preston was born in Ashford, Conn., December 29th. 
1767, and studied medicine with Dr. Palmer, in his native 
place. He made the journey up the Mohawk on horseback, 
his wife riding another horse and carrying before her a bov of 
two years. The boy who came in time to be himself the head 
of a family, was the late Dr. Medina Preston of Sangerfield, 
father of the present Doctor of the same name and place. At 
Old Fort Schuyler they saw only four log houses. They were 
half a day in getting to New Hartford, such was the wretched 
condition of the roads. At Sangerfield, which then included 
Bridgewater also, finding himself without a competitor, the 
doctor was soon sufficiently busied. His perceptions being 
quick and his judgment sound, being, moreover, intelligent, 
friendly anil public spirited, he at once obtained a standing 
which he continued throughout his life to maintain. It is said 
that in the epidemic before mentioned he, too, was successful, 
as likewise in the bilious fevers and agues so common in newly- 
settled districts; and it is also claimed for him that in other 
respects he was a first class practitioner. His residence was 
about a mile from the Centre, but he was called on to journey 
at times, as far off as Oneida Castle and Vernon. Of the 
Brothertown Indians he became the medical adviser, and en- 
jo}md the friendship of Thomas Dean, their Agent. This car- 
ried him northward toward Paris. 
As a neighbor and citizen his position was prominent and the 
part a conspicuous one which he bore in the affairs of the village. 
Politically he was democratic, and when, in the course of the 
administration of President Madison, he delivered at Bridge- 
1 O water, by request of its people, an address on the topics of the 
day, he incurred the denunciations of his rival in practice, Dr. 
Laurens Hull, the staunch upholder of the opposite party. 
As a Justice of the Peace he heard many suits, and it is said 
that none of his decisions were ever reversed, though able 
counsel often appeared in the cases. A man named Hubbard 
was at one time complained of for forgery. He was held for 
trial at the circuit court, and was there convicted. Justice 
Preston was so impressed with the belief of the innocence of 
Hubbard, that, taking a genuine note and the presumed forgery, 
he went down to Albany, seeking a pardon from Martin Van- 
Buren, then Governor of the State. The Governor presently 
granted it, being assured that if one was genuine the other was 
also. 
Of the eccentricities of Dr. Preston many stories are told, 
though most of them show as much of his lack of refinement 
as they do of his social inclinations and humor. His own ac- 
count of the use he made of an accident which befell his med- 
icines in coming from Utica, where he had been to buy them, 
is amusing at least, if not worthy of copying. Some of the 
bottles getting broken and their contents so mixed as not to be 
easily separated, he added his whisky to the mass and kept the 
tincture thus made for cases in which he was puzzled how best to 
prescribe. Such as failed to yield to compounds otherwise chosen, 
were sure, as he said, to give way to this one. The doctor acquir- 
ed a good deal of land, and he did it by means in which his exam- 
ple might be wiser to follow. Having laid by a small sum in cash, 
he would contract for a farm, and then set out to collect addi- 
tional money to pay for it, dunning his debtors with the plea that 
his receipts from them were indispensable to help him makeup 
his purchase. And thus by closer collections than country 
doctors usually practice he went on augmenting his landed es- 
tate. He believed in ghostly appearances, and once, when he was 
on a visit to a sick woman in Vernon, her apparition presented 
itself beside him ; he was so impressed with the circumstance 
that he noted the time by his watch, and on arriving at the 
house of the woman he learned that she had died at the very 
moment she appeared to him. In person he was plain and his 
face for the most part disfigured by two divergent streams of 
tobacco. As a member of our society I cannot find the proof 36 
of liis attending more than two meetings prior to 1S23, and two 
afterwards. He died Feburary 28th, 1835. His sons were Me- 
dina, Henry L. and Stephen II. The latter now lives in Mar- 
shall, Michigan. 
Attendance at Second Meeting. 
The foregoing twenty-nine are all who were in attendance at 
the initial meeting. Nine more presented themselves and 
were received at a meeting held in October following, before 
the By-Laws had been adopted, and the machinery of the society 
set in operation. These, it would seem, should as justly be 
classed anong the founders as those already introduced. 
Of these nine two or three only will occupy much of our at- 
tention. Dr. Solomon Wolcott, a leading inhabitant of Utica, I 
have discoursed upon at length among its Pioneers, and to that 
source would refer such as may seek for information. Some were 
brief residents, and our obscure knowledge of them maybe 
summed up in a few words. Thus, of one, I learn from the 
proceedings of the State Medical Society that Lucius Kellogg 
of Queens county received from that body the honorary degree 
of M. D., in 1832, and I surmise that he is the same Lucius 
Kellogg whose name appears on our list of 1806, and whom an 
elderly lady of Bridgewater remembers to have once lived in 
that place. A nephew of Dr. Isaac Goodsell has an impression 
that Dr. Goodsell once practised in Oneida county, but knows 
that he went back to Connecticut and settled in Woodbridge. 
Drs. Nathaniel Rose and Sylvester Nash. 
Drs. Nathaniel Rose and Sylvester Nash were the doctors 
at Augusta Centre, contemporaries with Dr. Hooker, the former 
being the leading one, though more of a physician than a sur- 
geon. He died September 5th, 1836 aged 69, leaving a widow 
two sons and five daughters. Two of the daughters married 
physicians ; Dr. Eli Botsford, a county society member of a later 
period, was one of them. Dr* Nash lived in Augusta from 1800 
to 1828 or "30, and then moved to Otselic. There he died in 
1847, August 29th, at the age of 76. He was a pretty good 
practitioner of medicine, but more fond of the practice of farm- 
ing. He belied the poet’s declaration anent such deficiencies 
as were his, for he was. a jovial and well disposed person, though he “had no music in his soul.” Thunder he would rather 
heai”, as he used to say, than the most skillful band of human 
performers. 
Dr. Fenn Deming. 
# 
Fenn Deming, or Enos Deming as our list incorrectly has it, 
sold his lot in Whitesboro in 1807. Further particulars of 
him I find in an article in the State Transactions for 1865 de- 
scriptive of the founding and the founders of the Medical Soci- 
ety of Chautauqua county. It is there stated that Dr. Deming 
was born in Berlin, Connecticut, read medicine in his native 
town, and was licensed by the Connecticut Medical Society. 
He was a surgeon in the army in the war of 1812, was at the 
attack on Little York, and present at the death of Gen. Pike; 
subsequently he was taken prisoner, and confined at Montreal, 
but was finally paroled. He removed to Westfield in the fall of 
1815, and commenced practice. In 1818 he was appointed 
Secretary of the County society, organized in that year. He 
was the first postmaster in Westfield, and soon after was made 
Justice of the Peace. Finding practice laborious and distasteful, 
he occupied himself with his offices and the management of a 
small drug store. It is stated that he was an intelligent gentle- 
man, and pretty well read in his profession. His death took 
place October 11th, 1834, at the age of 49. 
Drs. Joshua Ransom and Joel Rathbone. 
Dr Joshua Ransom had his home in Camden and, Dr. Joel 
Rathbone about two miles beyond, on the road to Williamstovvn, 
in what was known as Seventlitown. They came from Spring- 
field, Otsego county, nearly at the same time, and not far from the 
date of our first meeting. Both secured a wide compass of 
business and an excellent name as physicians and as citizens. 
The former possessed the more sympathetic nature, the latter 
the more nerve and will, and was the most in request as a sur- 
geon. Dr. Ransom died March 13th, 1830 aged 52; Dr. Rath- 
bone Aug. 23d, 1820 aged 41. Their descendants were respected 
and prosperous. The late Dr. H. G. Torbert, a former member 
of this Society, was the husband of a daughter of Dr. Ransom. 
Three more names appear on our printed catalogue. Two of 
these names, the last in order, appear there wrongly, since they were not received as members of the society, but are recorded 
as having by authority of the Society been licensed to practice. 
Dr. Earl Bill. 
« 
One onty of the quasi-founders is left to be spoken of. This 
is Dr. Earl Bill of Steuben and Remsen. 
An incident which occurred some years since at Boonville, on 
occasion of the opening of the first section of the Utica and 
Black River Railroad, first awakened me to an interest in the 
character of this physician. Being in conversation with a 
couple of residents of the place, one of them mentioned the 
name of Dr. Bill. It was instantly caught at by a gentlemanly- 
looking bystander, who, as he told us, was a native of that 
region but had been many years absent from it, and was now 
drawn thither to attend the celebration. Joining the party, he 
inquired eagerly after Dr. Bill, said that he had been the family 
physician in the boyhood of the speaker, and was the accouch- 
eur at his birth, and expressed himself warmly in admiration of 
the doctor’s kind and loveable qualities. The interest aroused 
by the encomiums of this unknown admirer, has been increased 
by the perusal of two communications furnished me by the 
family, one by the son and one by the daughter of Dr. Bill, both 
of whom cherish a very tender regard for his memory. It is 
chiefly from these communications that I gather the following 
particulars and characteristics of his life. 
The eldest son of Oliver and Martha (Skinner) Bill, he was 
born in Lebanon, Conn., November 5th, 1770. Having accom- 
plished himself in the common branches of an English educa- 
tion, he engaged in the study of medicine, attended lectures at 
Berkshire Medical College and was graduated therefrom. About 
1804 he began practice near Starr Hill in the town of Steuben. 
It was a new and little cultivated district, and the habits of the 
people rude and independent. For the young physician to 
have cast his lot among them gives evidence of enterprise and 
courage as well as of humble devotion to his benevolent calling. 
In 1814 he removed to the village of Remsen. His practice 
embraced the towns of Steuben and Remsen and a large share 
of Boonville ; and as he was for many years the only physician 
of this neighborhood, it must have been a laborious one. It 
was here that he spent the greater part of his life, enjoying the 39 
confidence and respect of his fellow citizens and the sincere 
affection of his patients, with whom his intercourse was marked 
by uniform kindness, patience and sympathy. His sphere of 
practice was not characterized by the possession of much wealth. 
It was the poor who most needed and enjoyed his services. 
They remunerated him in scanty measure and were never pressed 
•for payment. About the year 1836, his children being now 
mostly grown up and established elsewhere in business, he left 
Kemsen, and after a short residence in Houseville, Lewis Co., 
and another short one in Vernon, where, however, he did not 
attempt to practice, he settled in Holland Patent and resumed 
his old occupation. But at the solicitation of some of his for- 
mer friends and employers, he soon moved again to Remsen, 
locating himself in its northern part at the new settlement of 
Forestport. Here, when he had reached the age of eighty-three, 
he has been known to walk by night three miles and back through 
the woods in order to visit a sick person. It was not until he 
had attained the age of eighty-six, that he was able to refuse the 
importunities of his patrons and entirely relinquish a profession 
in which he had endeared himself to at least two generations by 
his kindness, self-denial and skill. 
Plis closing years were spent among his children in Ohio, 
He died at the residence of his son Horace, in Cleveland, May 
1864, and was buried with masonic honors at Sandusky. 
“With pretty strong mental characteristics and fairly success- 
ful as a practitioner,” to quote the words of his neighbor, Dr. 
Luther Guiteau, Dr. Bill was yet eminent rather in moral 
than in mental endowments. LLiselfish, calm, equable, forgiv- 
ing, and of the strictest integrity, he patiently and cheerfully 
exercised the gifts that were his, aspired to no more honored 
reward than the consciousness of doing good to his fellows, 
yielded with resignation to me Divine will in all things, and 
knew no man as his enemy. In practice as in profession he 
was a true Christian. As a father he was indulgent, winning 
rather than compelling the obedience of his children, with whose 
pleasures and trials he responded in sympathy, and in whose 
education he was ever solicitous. One grievous trial which 
befell him, was the loss, undermost painful circumstances, of a 
son who had just completed his studies in medicine, and to 
whom he was looking as a sharer in his duties and his eventual 40 
successor. He was aged sixty when called to relinquish these 
bright hopes and pursue his toilsome way alone. This affliction 
was followed by the death of his eldest son, two years later. 
As illustrative of the forgiving spirit of Dr. Bill I copy from 
the notes of his son the following anecdote : “I have said that 
it was almost true that he had no enemy. Only one exception 
was ever known to me. This was a neighbor against whom 
his family never heard him utter an unkind or disparaging 
word, but at whose hands he suffered much that was hard to 
bear. In the course of events a bright and promising son of 
this person sustained an injury to one of his ankles, necessitat- 
ing surgical assistance. Although Dr. Bill was the only sur- 
geon of the town, he was passed by, and one from a neighbor- 
ing town was called in, who decided that amputation was indis- 
pensable. On hearing this, Dr. Bill went unbidden to see the 
sufferer, at the risk of a scene with his father. Having from a 
careful examination reached the conclusion that both limb and 
life might be saved, he strongly, persistently and successfully 
urged a delay of the operation, then almost ready to begin, 
until the next morning, when his brother surgeon yielded the 
point, the limb was saved and is ‘doing service to this day. 
Thus he did good to one who despitefully used him. In per- 
son the doctor was tall and spare, and had a genial and pleas- 
ing manner. He was fond of reading, possessed a ready fund 
of anecdote and a quiet, refined humor, as acceptable in the 
sick room as it was in the circle of his friends. He despised 
quackery and against it his jokes were often levelled. 
His first wife, and the mother of seven of his children, was 
Sarah Jackson, daughter of a Revolutionary officer. His 
second, a wddowT, lived but two years. In 1824, three years 
afterward, he married Susan Johnson, by whom he had two 
daughters, and who died a few months before him. 
His surviving children are Cyrus, of Turin, Earl, clerk of 
the Northern District of Ohio, and Mrs. Gfeorge Putman of 
Watervilie. Horace N., who died in 1878, was a Gfeneral in 
the northern army during the late war. 
Nearly all of those we have reviewed were natives of the 
New England States. They carried on their studies in the 
offices of physicians living near them, and all but three, so far 41 
as we know, without opportunity to attend a public course of 
medical instruction. Medical as well as theological and law 
schools were rare in the country when they were students, and 
ministers as well as doctors and lawyers were forced to content 
themselves with the tuition of their home preceptors. Books, 
too, were much scarcer than at present, and much dependence 
was of necessity placed on the teaching and the practice of those 
whom they looked on as their patterns. If the tendency was 
to make these pupils close followers of the example of their 
masters, and to start them as mere routinists in practice, the 
isolated condition in which they found themselves afterward 
when once engaged in business, and the absence of help from 
without, caused them to observe and judge, and forced them to 
a course of self training that was vastly more useful, because 
self sustained, than the teaching of books and Each 
case they met with was deeply pondered, and its issue, whether 
fortunate or otherwise was carefully laid up for future appli- 
ance. They thus became acute and careful practitioners, if 
not as accomplished anatomists, as skilled diagnosticians and 
as well versed in the literature of their profession as the doctors 
who have succeeded them. With less learning, they had quite 
as much sagacity and penetration, and if not taught it by books, 
theirs was in reality the true “tactus eruditus.” 
It will have been observed that in my sketches of them I 
have enlarged chiefly upon their good traits and have made 
little mention of their failings. It is not that I would depict 
them as faultless, or deny that some of them had qualities by 
no means commendable. One fault only I will speak of, as it 
wTas true of more than one of them. It was a vice that was 
common to the men of their time, and is far less excusable 
now. I allude to the too free indulgence in intoxicating 
liquors. When the custom of offering a drink to every visitor 
was so universal that its neglect would have been looked on 
as a breach of the courtesy of social life, the doctor especially 
was in danger, from his constant habit of visitation, df acquir- 
ing a taste for the proffered refreshment, which too frequent 
renewal changed in time to a necessity. The fatigues and 
exposures he daily encountered seemed, besides, to justify a 
daily recourse to artificial support. Unfortunately it proved 
in too many instances the reed which pierced through to the 
side and wrought his destruction. How great were the hardships incident to the practice of a 
physician in Oneida county seventy or eighty years ago, we of 
the present day can scarcely imagine; yet without a concep- 
tion of them we are illy prepared to appreciate his self denying 
and benevolent spirit. His patients ten to twenty or even 
thirty miles apart, and these often in so critical a condition as 
to need daily visits; traversing roads through forests and 
swamps, rough, miry and impassable for carriages, or tracts 
miles in extent without a human habitation, or uncertain paths 
and Indian trails, perplexing by day and dangerous by night; 
added thereto, the occurrence of drenching rains, drifted snows 
and unbridged streams: his entire armament in his saddle 
bags beside him, lacking many conveniences and hygienic re- 
quirements deemed essential to success, and dependent solely 
on such*aid as his own invention could supply ; separated for 
days, it may be, from his family and lodging wherever his 
business might carry him,—with difficulties and privations such 
as these the doctor constantly contended. And what was the 
reward for all his toil ? The small returns of settlers who had 
little to give, and were themselves struggling to clear and to 
pay for the land on which they lived. The doctor they too 
often deferred for the sake of more imperious creditors, or, 
destitute of money, tendered him of the products of their ag- 
ricultural labor. Surely men who, under such discouragements 
and for such compensation, spent their lives in care for the 
physical well being of their fellows, exhibited the true spirit 
of heroism. We admire and praise the heroes of war whose 
mission it is to destroy life, how much more should we admire 
these heroes of peace who endure such trials in order to save 
it! APPENDIX. 
DR. LAURENS HULL.* 
BY C. M. CRANDALL, M. D. 
Laurens Hull, M. D., was born in Woodbury, Conn.. June 6th, 1779. His 
father was Dr. Titus Hull of that town. The attention of young Laurens 
was directed early to medical subjects, from the fact that during his minor- 
ity, his health was extremely delicate, and even so late as his thirty-second 
year, he had frequent attacks of haemoptysis, ft was on this account, that 
he determined to make the science of medicine his study and his occupation. 
His early education was limited, but he made the best possible use of the 
ordinary advantages of a common school, to which was added some twenty- 
one days under a private tutor, which completed his preparatory instruction. 
At the age of nineteen, he entered the office of Dr. David Hull, of Fairfield, 
Conn., remaining there about two years. He received his diploma as a 
Doctor of Medicine in 1802, and soon removed to Augusta, Oneida county, 
N. Y., where he entered the office of Dr. Amos G. Hull, and continued his 
medical studies. In 1808, he was married to Dorcas Ambler, of Bethlehem, 
Conn., bv Rev. Azel Backus. In September 1804, he removed to Bridge- 
water, Oneida county, and commenced the practice of medicine on his own 
account. In 1806. he took part in the organization of the Oneida County 
Medical Society. Of the members present at that organization, Dr. H. was 
the only survivor in 1864. In 1817, he was a delegate from Oneida county 
to the State Medical Society. In 1824, he was elected a permanent member 
of this Society. In 1826 he was elected Fellow of the University, and in 1827 
received the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Regents. 
During the same year, and also the year following, he was Vice-President of 
the State Medical Society. 
Dr. Hull was President of the State Medical Society in the years 1889 
find 1840. His annual address in the former year was on the subject of 
“ Quackery,” and it may be boldly asserted that there are few papers in the 
published Transactions of the Society showing a more logical mind and a 
clearer view of the subject treated of. Those members of the Society who 
have the volume of the Transactions for 1889, will find themselves well re- 
paid by perusing it. His subject the following year was “ Improvement 
in Medicine,” an eminently sensible, practical and ably written paper, prov- 
ing clearly that Dr. H. was no anti-progressive clog upon the wheels of ad- 
vancing science, but one who believed fully in the doctrine of progress. 
Although the subject of this memoir achieved much in the noble profes- 
sion to which he devoted the best part of his active life, accomplishing 
enough to satisfy a moderate ambition, he also won triumphs in civil and 
political life. In 1813, and again in 1825, he was elected a member of As- 
sembly from Oneida county, filling the position with credit to himself,*and 
to the satisfaction of his constituents. In 1816, he was a delegate to the first 
State Convention held in this State to nominate a governor and lieutenant 
* From Trans. Med. Soc of State of New York, 1864. 44 
governor. In the year 1836, he removed to Angelica, Alleghany county, 
and became interested in manufacturing pursuits, pretty much abandoning 
the practice of medicine. In 1837, he was elected State Senator from the 
Sixth District, then comprising nine counties. This position he filled with 
great credit. Those who were associated with him in senatorial duties 
and in the court for the correction of errors, of which Senators were then, ex 
officio, members, bear testimony to the zeal and fidelity with which he dis 
charged every public duty, carrying with him in the responsible position he 
had been called to fill, the same sturdy virtue and unbending integrity that 
had ever characterized his private life. 
About 1856-7, Dr. Hull retired from active business, hoping to spend the 
remainder of his days in the quiet walks of domestic life. In May, 1858, he 
was greatly afflicted by the death of his estimable wife, after a union of 
nearly fifty-five years. In August, 1862, he met with a severe accident, by 
which he fractured the neck of the femur within the capsular ligament, thus 
rendering him permanently disabled, sadly interfering with his previously 
active habits, and dooming him to the use of crutches. Though a severe 
trial to one of his disposition to activity, he bore his affliction with a patience 
and fortitude alike remarkable and commendable. 
During the years 1864-5. the Doctor’s health began to decline more rapid- 
ly, and he was finally confined to his room. With the failure of his physi- 
cal energies, his mental faculties gradually grew weak, his mind frequently 
wandering, dwelling much upon friends and scenes in the long past. On 
his eighty-sixth birth-day, however, he conversed rationally and clearly for 
some hours with his family and friends, listened attentively to the reading 
of a letter from Dr. McCall, of Utica, an old and valued friend, and soon 
after sank into delirium which continued till an hour or two previous to 
his death, which occurred June 27th, 1865. 
Dr Hull was a firm believer in the truths of Christianity, and was ever 
able to give “a reason for the hope that was in him.” He united with the 
Congregational Church soon after his marriage, and ever continued a faith- 
ful member. At the time of his death, and for several year’s previous, he 
was president of the Alleghany County Bible Society. He was always a 
friend and a contributor to the various benevolent operations of the time. 
Politically, he was first a Federalist, then a Whig, and lastly a Republican. 
He was gratified in the often expressed and cherished desire of his heart, to 
live long enough to see the great rebellion crushed, and the Federal Union 
preserved The interest he took in the State Medical Society is known to all 
the older members, wrho will bear testimony to the fidelity and zeal with 
which he labored in the Society and in the Senate to promote its interests. 
Dr. Hull was in every proper sense a self made man—the architect of his 
own fortunes and position. He possessed a remarkably retentive memory, 
great perseverance and energy. What he did, he *' did with his whole 
might.” His industry was untiring, his faith unswerving, his integrity 
unyielding. As a physician, he performed every duty his position imposed; 
as a politician in public life, he was animated by the same high purposes; 
in private life, his virtues shone conspicuous; as a Christian, he was devoted 
and faithful, dying with all its hopes of a blessed immortality. Few men, 
starting out upon the journey of life with the same limited advantages, have 
filled so many positions of honor and trust, and finished up so perfect a life. 
May we all, while honoring his virtues, emulate his example. 45 
DR. ARBA BLAIR* 
BY J. V. COBB M. D. 
Dr, Blair’s ancestors were from Scotland. His great grandfather removed 
from Scotland to Ireland, during the early part of Cromwell's rule, and 
settled upon that part of the Island nearest Scotland. They with others of 
their countrymen, appear to have formed a colony, retaining the peculiar 
religious and political views of their own country. In 1720, he, with a 
family of twelve children, arrived at Boston, and the same year settled at 
Worcester, which became their home. Dr. Blair’s grandfather was one of 
those twelve children, coming to America when ten years of "age. He died 
at Worcester in 1796, aged eighty-six. Samuel Blair, the father of Dr. 
Blair, was a farmer at Warren, Massachusetts, at which place Dr. Blair was 
born, July 9th, 1781. 
We know very little of him before he was twenty-one years of age, but 
at that time we find him teaching a grammar school in his native town, and 
reading medicine with his family physician. Dr. Willard. He came to Rome 
in 1808. when that village numbered scarcely four hundred inhabitants. He 
there entered the office of his cousin, Dr. Mathew Brown, as a student, and 
after about two years study and one course of medical lectures at Columbia 
College, he was licensed to practice, and became, in 1805, a partner with Dr. 
Mathew Brown, the principal physician then at Rome. The country then, 
at least its northern part, was almost a wilderness. The early settlers were few, 
and located at points remote from each other, so that as a natural conse- 
quence, the practice of medicine was arduous, tedious and wearisome, far 
beyond what the practitioners of more modern times have any conception of. 
By his skill and kindness, industrious habits, and prompt attention to busi- 
ness, he soon won the confidence of the public, and this confidence he con- 
tinued to enjoy in all his after life, being a period of almost sixty years. 
He was our presiding officer at the semi-centennial celebration, in 1856. 
After being conducted to the chair, by Drs. McCall and Coventry, he alluded 
to the fact that Dr. Alexander Whaley and himself, were the only surviving 
members who took part in the organization of our society. He seldom 
failed to attend our annual and semi-annual meetings. He has, at different 
times, held all the offices in the gift of this society. By our recommonda 
tion, the Regents of the University conferred upon him. in 1849, the degree 
of Doctor of Medicine. He has, at different times, also, been a delegate to 
the State Medical Society, and was elected a permanent member in 1854. 
We find his name registered as our delegate at New Haven, at the last 
meeting of the United States Medical Association held there. In every 
situation and place he has been true to his trust. We admire his character. 
We venerate his name. 
His sense of professional honor was keen, and while he advocated liberal 
and scientific progress, he abhorred with his whole soul, all dissimulation 
and quackery. To the young men of the profession, he gave, not only words 
of encouragement, but acts of kindness and assistance. As a counselor 
with the younger members of the profession, he had the happy faculty of 
putting them upon the right track, if they were wrong, without destroying 
the confidence of the patient in, or injuring the feelings of, the prescribing 
* Trane. Med. Soc. of State of New York, 1867 46 
physician. In the sick-room he was kind ancj affectionate. The soft foot- 
steps and kind words with which he approached the bed-side were admirable, 
and at once secured confidence. He kept himself well informed in the 
progress of medical science. He made no great pretensions in surgery, still 
he did much in his early practice, and was well read in that branch of his 
profession. As a safe and wise practitioner, I hazard nothing in saying, 
that no physician among us was better prepared to meet the responsibilities 
of his profession, under all circumstances, than was the subject of these 
remarks. It is no disparagement to others to say, that in obstetrics, no 
one in our county was his superior. He stood preeminent in that section 
where he resided. He was an ardent patriot, and entered with all his soul 
into the struggle which is now convulsing the nation, expressing a strong 
desire that he might live to witness the close of the contest. 
Although more than eighty years of age, still, till within the past few 
months, he has retained his firm step and erect position, never exhibiting 
the decrepit old man in appearance, or in loss of intellect, but entered into 
conversation with all the energy of his youthful days. Let the example of 
such men—the fathers of our profession—as they pass away, be ever cher- 
ished. Until within a few months, Dr. Blair, notwithstanding the accumu- 
lation upon him of upwards of four score years, was not only elastic in step, 
but enjoyed good health. His disease was rather obscure, but besides old 
age, he evidently had some valvular disease of the heart. 
The writer was present at his death bed, which was surrounded by his 
family and Christian friends. Up to Saturday morning, June 20th, he had 
altered but little, except daily growing weaker. About three o’clock he 
sank rapidly, and all present felt that his time was numbered by minutes. 
About fifteen minutes past five, the dark portal was passed, without a 
struggle or a groan, and his spirit winged its way to the God who gave it. 
He was an active and leading member of the Presbyterian Church, and for a 
number of years one of its ruling elders. His funeral was attended by a 
large number of the members of the Oneida County Medical Society in a 
body. 
An appropriate and interesting discourse was delivered by his friend and 
pastor, from these words, 2d of Kings, 2d-12th: “My father, my father, 
the Chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof and he added, “a hoary 
head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” In 
touching terms, he paid a well deserved tribute to his memory, before a 
densely crowded audience, composed of citizens and persons from the sur- 
rounding country, who had known him while living, and who were anxious 
to show their respect and esteem for the memory of their departed friend. 
In the town of Home, where he was so long and favorably known, the name 
of Dr. Blair can never be mentioned but with the most profound feeling of 
respect and esteem. DRS. ALEXANDER WHALEY AND NORTON PORTER * 
BY H. N. PORTER, M. D. 
Alexander Whaley was born in Colchester, Connecticut, March 24, 1780. 
In due time, when he came to choose an occupation for life, he selected the 
profession of medicine. He pursued his medical studies with Dr. Turner, 
of Norwich, at that time a physician of some note in that State. When 
twenty-one years of age, Dr. Whaley left his native State with a view to 
settle in what was then termed the ‘‘Black River country.” His proposed 
destination was Watertown. As he was proceeding thither on horseback, 
late in the fall of 1801, his horse was taken lame at Clark’s settlement, in 
the town of Verona, in the county of Oneida, so that he was obliged to 
delay his journey for a few days. The people of the settlement persuaded 
him to remain with them that winter and teach the district school, giving 
him at the same time the privilege of practicing medicine. While teaching 
he obtained considerable practice, and the next spring purchased a farm of 
250 acres at what is now Verona village, and continued to reside there until 
the time of his death. 
In his work as a physician, Dr. Whaley’s life was an eminently useful one. 
His ride and practice were extensive. For some six or eight years after his 
location he was the only physician in Verona, and his visits extended into 
adjoining and surrounding towns. At that early day, the country was new 
and sparsely peopled; ancf the people, who were making every exertion to 
pay for their farms, had but little means to spare to pay for the services of 
the physician. It has been noted, to the credit of Dr. Whaley’s benevolence, 
that for one year, during the prevalence of a lake fever, he expended more 
money for the single article of quinine (then a comparatively new 
remedy) than he received for his professional services during the same time. 
This was, of course, an exceptional year, but it seems worthy of note as 
throwing some light upon what may be termed the practical working 
phase of the fee bill in those early days. His health was good, and his 
mind clear and active up to within a few months of the close of his life. 
He died May 18, 1871, at the advanced age of ninety-one years, one month 
and three days. 
The following notice of another of the original twenty-nine, Dr. Norton 
Porter, who died at New York Mills in this county, November 18, 1852, is 
taken from the funeral discourse delivered by his pastor, Rev. R. Richard 
Kirk: 
Dr. Porter was born in the year 1771, in the town of Abington, Mass. 
Resolute in spirit, and determined in purpose, to make life answer its great 
design, he emigrated to what is now called Westmoreland, in the year 1791. 
This was then the far west, and what is now Oneida county was covered 
with primeval forest. Then, as now, the Star of Empire was moving west- 
ward, and in its progress the axe of the pioneer was heard in the forest, 
openings began to be made, and the smoke of newly kindled fires, from 
rudely constructed hearthstones, rolled above the leaves. Settlements were 
commenced at Utica, Whitesborough, New Hartford, Rome, Clinton, and 
what is now called Westmoreland. To this new settlement Dr. Porter bent 
* Trane. Med Soc. of State of New York. 1872. 48 
his steps, while yet a youth, and at the age of about twenty one years com- 
menced the practice of medicine. As a pioneer in a new settlement, he 
was very active and enterprising in laying the foundations of society, or- 
ganizing schools and projecting all needful improvements as the population 
increased. 
He acted a conspicuous part in securing for his new home the institutions 
of the gospel and the organization of the religious society there. God 
looked upon him with favor, prosperity attended his steps. He was con- 
verted about fifty-one years ago; and true to his convictions of duty, he 
made a public profession of religion, and united with the Congregational 
Church, of which he continued an active and useful member for a long 
number of years, contributing his part in every enterprise to build up 
society upon a moral and religious basis. And to him the religious society, 
in the town of his adoption, is largely indebted for his long continued 
labors and wise counsels. 
It is supposed that he was the second physician that came into Oneida 
county. He was well educated for the times in which he lived, having pur- 
sued his studies with Dr. John Pomeroy, since Professor in the Vermont 
Medical College. And the teacher had reason to be proud of his pupil. Dr. 
Porter, for the long space of forty years, was one of the most eminent 
physicians in the county. He had a very large and extensive practice, ex- 
tending all over the county, and' not unfrequently into the neighboring 
counties. It was no uncommon thing for him to ride forty miles on his 
professional visits—forty miles away from home. * * * But his work 
is done. A few weeks ago he sickened, and. sweetly as an infant falls to 
sleep, without a struggle or a groan, he departed this life, Wednesday 
evening, at the midnight hour, at the age of eighty-one years, a venerable 
old man and well stricken in years.