The house in North street occupied by Dr. Brown, stands on the site
of a house, which in my youth, was owned and occupied by Stephen
Marcy. The old house was during the revolution kept as an Inn by
Thomas Southworth Howland, and there on December 22, 1769, the Old
Colony Club for the first time celebrated the anniversary of the
landing of the Pilgrims. On that occasion at half-past two a dinner
composed of the following dishes was served: “A large baked Indian
whortleberry pudding, a dish of sauquetach, a dish of clams, a dish
of oysters, and a dish of cod fish, a haunch of venison, a dish of
sea fowl, a dish of frost fish and eels, an apple pie, a course of
cranberry tarts and cheese.”
The pudding alone preceded the meat, and the dessert was as now the
last course. This custom went out before my day, but it was no more
strange than that now in vogue, of beginning a breakfast with fruit
and oatmeal.
I remember the house well with a front door near its westerly end,
and an office door near its easterly end opening into a room which
in its last days was occupied by Dr. Robert Capen. In 1833 Jacob
Covington bought the estate and built the house now standing.
The Covington family was not one of the old Plymouth families. Thomas
Covington came to Plymouth a few years before the revolution, and
married in 1771 Sarah, daughter of Joseph Tribble. Jacob Covington,
son of Thomas, was no doubt a shipmaster in early life. He was
evidently trained in a business school, and was repeatedly placed
in positions of trust by his fellow-citizens. He was the first
President of the Old Colony Insurance Company, and of the Old Colony
Bank, holding both positions until his death. He was among the
first to enter the business of the whale fishery, and was among its
most energetic and competent managers. The enterprise of building
Long Wharf, and putting the steamboat General Lafayette on the
line between Plymouth and Boston, was chiefly due to him and James
Bartlett. He married in 1816, Patty, daughter of Gideon Holbrook, and
had Elam, 1817, who died in California; Mary Holbrook, 1820, who
died in East Orange; Martha Ann, 1822, who died in Plymouth; Edwin,
1825, who died in Boston; Harriet, 1827, who died in Plymouth; Helen,
1830, still living; Jacob, 1832, who died in Providence, and Leonard,
1834, who died in Dorchester.
Mary Holbrook Covington married George H. Bates, a native of
Farmington, Maine, and the wife of Rev. Dr. Mann, the present rector
of Trinity church in Boston, is her granddaughter. Capt. Covington
died May 28, 1835, at the age of forty-four. After the death of Capt.
Covington the house in question came into the occupancy of Josiah
Robbins, who has already been noticed, and later of Thomas Prince,
who occupied it as a boarding house. The next occupant was Peter
Holmes, who was the son of Peter and Sally (Harlow) Holmes, and was
born in 1804. Mr. Holmes was engaged many years in Boston in the cork
manufacture, returning to Plymouth and becoming the owner of the
house under consideration. He died October 14, 1880, and the house
came into the possession of Nathaniel Morton in 1881, who owned and
occupied it until Dr. W. G. Brown not many years since came into its
possession. Mr. Morton moved into a new house which he built on Union
street, and died July 18, 1902, at the age of seventy-one years, one
month and twenty-one days.
The lot next below the Covington house was all through my boyhood,
as late as 1830, an outlying barn yard, belonging to Henry Warren,
who lived on the corner of North street. I remember well the large
barn on the rear of the lot, and the extensive hog sty and hog yard
on its easterly side. In 1830 the widow of Henry Warren sold the
lot to Rev. Frederick Freeman, who built the house now occupied by
Dr. Helen Pierce. Mr. Freeman was descended from early Plymouth
Colony ancestors, who for many generations lived in Sandwich, where
Mr. Freeman’s grandfather was born. His father, George W. Freeman,
settled in North Carolina and married Ann Yates Ghobson, and was for
a time an instructor in Raleigh, where he became rector of Christ
Church, later accepting the position of Rector of Emanuel Church in
Newcastle, Delaware. He received in 1839 the degree of Doctor of
Divinity from the University of North Carolina, and October 26, 1844,
was consecrated Bishop of the southwestern diocese, including Texas,
Arkansas and the Indian Territory. He died at Little Rock, Arkansas,
April 29, 1858.
Rev. Frederick Freeman, son of George Ward and Ann Yates (Ghobson)
Freeman, was born in Raleigh, December 1, 1799, and was there
ordained as an evangelist. He was settled in 1824 over the Third
Church of Plymouth, whose place of worship was on the corner of
Pleasant and Franklin streets, and built the house in question in
1830. In 1830 some disaffection arose in his church, which resulted
in the secession of a considerable number of its members, and the
establishment of the Robinson Congregational church in 1831, and the
erection of its place of worship on the corner of Pleasant street,
and a street which has since been laid out and named Robinson street.
No hint is given so far as I know by any historian as to the cause
of the dissension in the church, but there are reasons to believe
that, brought up in the Episcopal church, he was never a full fledged
Calvinist, and that the secession above referred to and his final
resignation in 1833 were due to this fact. The visit of his father to
Plymouth in 1832, and his holding an Episcopal service for only the
second time in the history of the town, tends to confirm this view of
the case. My impression is very strong that sooner or later after he
left Plymouth he became a member in full standing of the Episcopal
church. He afterwards became a citizen of Sandwich, his ancestral
town, and devoted some years to the preparation and publication
of a history of Cape Cod, which is a valuable contribution to Old
Colony Historical literature. I have a distinct recollection of his
personality, a strongly built man with black hair and a Websterian
type of head and face, who could not pass in a crowd without
observation. He married December 26, 1821, Elizabeth, daughter of
George Nichols of Raleigh, who died in Plymouth March 12, 1833. He
married second, April 20, 1834, Hannah, daughter of Frederick W.
Wolcott of Litchfield, Conn., and third, November, 1841, Isabella,
daughter of Hartwell Williams of Augusta, Maine, but I do not know
the date of his death. A sister of his married Weston R. Gales, mayor
of Raleigh, and hence the name of our late townsman, Weston Gales
Freeman of Summer street.
In 1833 Mr. Freeman sold the house to Daniel Jackson, who has
already been noticed in these memories. After the death of Mr.
Jackson and the removal of his widow to Boston, Dr. Alexander Jackson
became the occupant of the house in 1860, and was succeeded by Dr.
Edgar D. Hill in 1880, whose occupancy last year gave way to that of
Dr. Pierce, the present occupant.
Dr. Alexander Jackson was a descendant in the fifth generation from
John Jackson, who came from England and died in 1731. He was the
son of Isaac and Sarah (Thomas) Jackson, and was born in Winthrop,
Maine, May 18, 1819. His father moved to Boston when he was a boy,
and Alexander was educated at the Boston Latin School, where he
fitted for college. He graduated at Amherst in 1840, and took his
medical degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1843, having been
associated during his three years’ course with the Boston Dispensary,
and the Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary. Not long after receiving his
degree he began the practice of his profession in Chiltonville,
where he remained until October, 1858, when he moved to Main street,
Plymouth, and occupied the house where the Plymouth Savings Bank
now stands. In May, 1860, he moved to the house under consideration
on North street, which he occupied until October, 1880, when he
bought the house on Court street, now occupied by Father Buckley. In
October, 1890, he retired from professional business, and moved to
Boston. He married, June 14, 1849, Cordelia A., daughter of Nathaniel
Reeves of Wayland, and had Isaac, 1850, who married Elizabeth,
daughter of Edward Parrish of Philadelphia; Alexander, 1853, who
married Abby Warren, daughter of William T. Davis of Plymouth; and
Nathaniel Reeves, 1857, who married Hannah M., widow of George W.
Brown, and daughter of Lyman Shaw. Dr. Jackson died in Boston,
December 12, 1901.
Passing now to the house of Arthur Lord on the lower corner of
Rope Walk lane, as it was called, its occupant in my boyhood was
Mrs. William Sturtevant, the widow of William Sturtevant, who
died December 15, 1819. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Jane
(Sturtevant) Warren, and was born in Plymouth in 1769, and died
December 5, 1838. Her husband was the son of William and Jemima
(Shaw) Sturtevant, and was born in that part of Plympton, which is
now Carver, in 1761. I have no means of learning what his business
was, as I am unable to associate him with any enterprise, industry
or profession. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1817,
but I find him in no other office. The inscription on his gravestone
calls him William Sturtevant, Esq., and as it is certain that he
was not a shipmaster or a lawyer, I am inclined to the opinion that
he was a merchant, and like George Watson, who died in 1800, and
William Jackson, who died in 1837, was called Esquire. Mr. Sturtevant
was married in 1791, and had the following children, who survived
infancy: Jane, 1794; Hannah, 1796; Sarah, 1799; Lucy, 1802; Rebecca
W., 1805; and William, 1809. Hannah married Thomas J. Lobdell, a
banker in Boston and died October 3, 1818; William was for a time a
partner with William S. Russell in the dry goods jobbing business
in Central street, Boston, and later a stock broker; Sarah died
July 1, 1833; Lucy died August 7, 1807, and Jane died November 8,
1832. Rebecca W. married in 1831 Rev. Josiah Moore of Duxbury, and
died April 7, 1838. Mrs. Moore makes the tenth Plymouth lady whom I
remember who married husbands who came to the town to teach school.
These were Nathaniel Bradstreet, who married Anna Crombie; Charles
Burton, who married Sarah Stephens; George Washington Hosmer, who
married Hannah Poor Kendall; William H. Lord, who married Persis
Kendall; William Parsons Lunt, who married Ellen Hobart Hedge;
Josiah Moore, who married Rebecca W. Sturtevant; Horace H. Rolfe,
who married Mary T. Marcy; Benjamin Shurtleff, who married Sally
Shaw, Isaac Nelson Stoddard, who married Martha Thomas, and William
Whiting, who married Lydia Cushing Russell. Another might have been
added to the list if a letter of which I was the innocent bearer,
had received a favorable reply. I had no right to know the contents
of the letter, but little pitchers have great ears, and mine were
uncommonly great when I overheard the letter discussed. The marriage
of another teacher, Charles Field to Elizabeth Hayward, was prevented
by his death, August 22, 1838.
In 1839 the house in question was sold to Dr. Timothy Gordon, who
occupied it until his death. Dr. Gordon came to Plymouth in 1837, but
where he lived until he moved into the Sturtevant house, I am not
able to say. His ancestor, Alexander Gordon, a Scotchman, came to New
England in 1651, and settled in New Hampshire. The Doctor was the son
of Timothy and Lydia Whitmore Gordon, and was born in Newbury, N. H.,
March 10, 1795, and made several voyages as supercargo.
In 1823 he entered the office of his brother William in Hingham,
and completed his studies at the Bowdoin College medical school,
where he received a degree in 1825, and first settled in Weymouth.
In 1837 he came to Plymouth, and in 1839 moved into the house in
question. He was bold and successful as a practitioner, and skilful
as a surgeon. For many years he was one of the chief supporters of
the Third Church, and a liberal contributor to its funds, and both he
and his wife made large gifts for the support of foreign missions. He
was a trustee of the Pilgrim Society, and Vice President from 1872
to 1877; a Director of the Plymouth Bank and Plymouth National Bank
from 1845 to 1877, and the recipient of the degree of Master of Arts
from Amherst College in 1868. He married May 12, 1825, Jane Binney,
daughter of Solomon and Sarah Jones, and had two children, Solomon
Jones, September 21, 1826, and Timothy, April 19, 1836, the latter
of whom died young. Dr. Gordon was a shrewd man, and would have made
a good detective, as the following incident shows. He believed that
the methods pursued in New York and Boston in detecting criminals
by the aid of newspaper reporters was like hunting ducks with a
brass band, and acted accordingly. He had a famous peach tree in his
garden laden with luscious fruit, of which one night he was robbed.
Neither he nor his wife mentioned the loss even to their servant,
and no one knew of the robbery besides themselves and the thief. One
day as the Doctor was sweeping his sidewalk a man came along and
entered into conversation. Just as he turned to leave he said, “by
the way, Doctor, did you ever find out who stole your peaches.” “Yes,
you rascal,” the Doctor replied. “You stole them, and if you don’t
pay me five dollars instantly I will have you put in jail.” The man
confessed at once, and paid the money down.
Solomon Jones Gordon, the son of Dr. Gordon, was born in Weymouth,
September 24, 1826, and graduated at Harvard in 1847. He studied
law with Jacob H. Loud in Plymouth, and in the Harvard Law School,
and was admitted to the Suffolk bar October 18, 1850. He soon after
became associated with Orlando B. Potter, who was interested in
sewing machine patents, and removed his office to New York, where he
accumulated a handsome fortune. He married Rebecca, daughter of David
Ames of Springfield, in which city he made his home until his death
in 1890.
After Dr. Gordon, the house under consideration was successively
occupied by Rev. A. H. Sweetser, pastor of the Universalist Society,
and by Dr. Parker, and the last occupant before Mr. Lord, its present
occupant, was Dr. Warren Pierce.
Perhaps I ought to offer an excuse, for the continuance of these
personal reminiscences which may have become wearisome to some of
my readers. There is a legend that myriads of sombre birds have
periodically flown from the Black Sea to the beautiful sea of
Marmora, and after hovering over the cypress shades of the cemetery
at Scutari have retraced their flight without food or drink, never
touching the earth. The Turks are said to believe that they are
condemned souls denied the peaceful quiet of the grave, visiting
the tombs of others. I trust that my wanderings among the scenes of
the past will not be attributed to the restlessness of a condemned
soul, but rather to a love of my native town, and of those in whose
footsteps I am daily walking, and in whose vacant homes I recall
blessed memories.
The house on North street, now owned by John Russell, the occupants
of which have been only incidentally alluded to, was built by Samuel
Jackson soon after the revolution and passed from him to John
Russell, who married his daughter Mary. From John Russell it passed
to his son, John, who owned and occupied it through my boyhood until
his death in 1857, from whom after his widow’s death it passed to
his son, John Jackson Russell, the father of the present owner. John
Russell, whom I remember as the occupant of the house, was the son of
John and Mary (Jackson) Russell, and was born in 1786. In early life
he followed the sea, and soon became master. He sailed some years in
the employ of my grandfather, Wm. Davis, and I have seen many letters
from him in various ports in the North of Europe, which show him to
have been a skilful navigator, and an intelligent, shrewd business
man. He gave up the sea before my day, and jointly with Thomas Davis
of Plymouth, and Wm. Perkins and Sydney Bartlett of Boston, owned
the ships Massasoit, Sydney, Granada and Hampden, of which he was
manager. As far as I know his masters were Robert Cowen, Nathaniel
Spooner, Wm. Sylvester, and Henry Whiting, the latter making a single
voyage to California in the Hampden in 1849. Not long after giving
up the sea he became interested in town affairs, and could always
be relied on to oppose extravagant measures. He was a member of the
Board of Selectmen from 1841 to 1844 inclusive, and in the years
1846, 1851, 1853 and 1854. He was also one of the corporators of the
Plymouth Cordage Company in 1824, and a director I think until his
death. It was during his service as shipmaster that the political
lines began to be drawn between the advocates and opponents of a
protective tariff, the manufacturers asking for protection, and the
ship owners opposing any measures tending to check importations.
His attitude on this question carried him into the ranks of the
Democratic party a constant opponent of a tariff which, drawn chiefly
for protection purposes, he believed to be unconstitutional. In 1844
the ship Hampden was in New Orleans loading cotton for Amsterdam, and
either for the benefit of his health or the relief of Capt. Cowen, he
concluded to take command of her for the voyage. Sending for his son
John, who was teaching school in Barnstable to be his companion, they
joined the ship and made the voyage to Amsterdam and back to Boston
or New York, I think with a load of iron.
Captain Russell married in 1816 Deborah, daughter of Nathaniel and
Mary (Holmes) Spooner, and had Mary Spooner, who married James T.
Hodge, John Jackson, Helen, who married Wm. Davis and Wm. H. Whitman,
and Laura. He died February 6, 1857.
John Jackson Russell, son of the above, who became the next occupant
of the house in question, was born July 27, 1823, and graduated at
Harvard in 1843. After teaching school in Barnstable and making a
voyage to Amsterdam with his father in the ship Hampden in 1844, he
studied law with Jacob H. Loud in Plymouth, and Allen Crocker Spooner
in Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1848. Returning to
Plymouth in 1850, after practising law for a time, he was appointed
Assistant Treasurer of the Plymouth Savings Bank, and after the death
of Allen Danforth in 1872 treasurer, which position he held until
his death. He was also a director of the Plymouth National Bank, and
in 1878, a short time its President. He married in 1855 Mary A.,
daughter of Allen Danforth, and had Helen, 1857, John, 1860, and
Lydia, 1863. He died November 10, 1897. The house in question in
my judgment illustrates those admirable qualities in architecture,
symmetry and proportion, which are rarely found in the works of
architects of the present day. It illustrates also the importance of
retaining the original color of a house intended by the architect to
be built of brick in order to preserve its symmetry, for it must be
apparent that since the house was painted red the symmetry has been
restored, which a light color had previously disturbed.
Until within five or six years a house stood on the easterly side of
the Russell house, which during my boyhood was occupied by Daniel
Jackson until 1834, and by Isaac Tribble until 1846, both of whom
have already been noticed. In 1846 it was bought by Anthony Morse,
who occupied it until his death. Mr. Morse was born in Gloucester in
1795, and was the son of Humphrey and Lydia (Parsons) Morse of that
city. He came to Plymouth when a young man, and learned the trade of
rope making, working a number of years in the rope walk extending
from the gardens of the North street houses along the rear of the
Court street lots to Howland street, and afterwards in the works of
the Robbins Cordage Company. At a later time he was an assistant in
the store of Samuel Robbins on Market street, and still later he kept
a grocery store a short time on his own account. He was an ardent
whig, and during political campaigns he rendered valuable service to
his party by setting up a reading room, collecting campaign funds,
and making sure of the appearance of whig voters at the polls.
Colonel John B. Thomas was the general adviser of the party, and no
measures were adopted without his approval. One election morning Col.
Thomas was awaked before daylight by a loud rapping at his door.
Opening the window and asking what was the matter, Morse appeared out
of the darkness and called out, “C-Co-Colonel, rains like h-hell,
shall I engage all the h-horses?” The Colonel said Yes, and went
back to bed. As a reward for his party services he was appointed
Deputy Collector in 1841. Mr. Morse married in 1837 Nancy, widow of
Branch Johnson, and daughter of William Atwood, and had Charles P.,
1830, who kept an apothecary’s shop some years at the corner of Court
and North streets, and later in the house of his father, to which he
succeeded.
Mr. Morse was a man of the strictest integrity, and conscientiousness
was the most marked feature in his character. He possessed a morbid
conscience which kept him in constant fear that he might be suspected
of dishonesty. He was a director of the Plymouth Bank from 1844 to
1858, and he told me once that on one occasion when the cashier left
him during a temporary absence to keep the Bank he found a twenty
dollar bill behind a chair on the floor. I found it impossible to
convince him that it had not been placed there to test his honesty.
The morbid state of his mind intensified with age, and he committed
suicide April 19, 1858.
Passing now to the house standing in the angle of Winslow street,
I am led to speak of its occupants for the purpose of making
appropriate mention of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a distinguished son
of Plymouth, who was there born June 21, 1805. His father, Charles
Jackson, married Lucy, daughter of John Cotton, in 1794, and his
children, whom I remember, were Lucy, born, 1798, who married
Charles Brown, Lydia, 1802, who married Ralph Waldo Emerson, and
Charles Thomas. Mr. Brown, the husband of Lucy, lived many years
in Constantinople, and rendered laborious and self-sacrificing
service to the sick during a visitation of the plague in that city.
Dr. Jackson studied medicine with Dr. James Jackson and Dr. Walter
Channing of Boston, and graduated at the Harvard Medical school in
1829. In the same year he went to Europe, where he remained three
years studying in Paris, and returned in 1832. For his scientific
labors and researches he was made a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences.
In 1836 he was appointed geologist of Maine, and was also appointed
by Massachusetts to survey her Maine lands. In 1839 he was appointed
geologist of Rhode Island, and in 1840 of New Hampshire. In 1844
and 1845, explored the southern shores of Lake Superior, and opened
mines of copper. In 1847 he superintended for a time a survey of
mineral lands of the United States in Michigan. When Professor S.
F. B. Morse secured a patent for the telegraph in 1840, Dr. Jackson
claimed that on board the ship Sully in 1832, in which he and Morse
were passengers, he suggested the possibility of correspondence
by means of electricity, and explained to Mr. Morse the method of
applying electricity to telegraphic use. It is in my power to furnish
to a certain extent a confirmation of Dr. Jackson’s claim, which,
as far as I know, has not found its way into the literature of the
telegraph. In 1846 I was a passenger from New York to Liverpool in
the ship Liverpool, in which a man by the name of Blithen was mate,
who was also mate of the ship Sully, in which Jackson and Morse
were passengers in 1832. He told me that he remembered well when
Dr. Jackson made the suggestion of the possibility of an electric
telegraph, at the dinner table, and the interest with which Mr.
Morse listened, and his questionings concerning a possible use of
electricity in the manner proposed. Mr. Blithen said that it was
evident that the subject was a new one to Mr. Morse, bearing on
matters entirely outside of the profession of painter to which he
belonged. The controversy upon the respective claims of Morse and
Jackson never reached a definite settlement, except _sub-silentia_ by
public opinion in favor of Morse.
Dr. Jackson made another claim, resting on a more substantial basis,
on which both scientific and general opinion have been and probably
always will be divided. The question whether he or Dr. W. T. G.
Morton was the real discoverer of anasthesia, will never be settled,
and perhaps the only solution it will reach is that which gives both
jointly the credit of the great discovery. A memorial was presented
to Congress in 1852, signed by one hundred and forty-three physicians
of Boston and vicinity, ascribing the discovery exclusively to Dr.
Jackson. The French Academy of Science decreed a Montyon prize of
2,500 francs to Jackson for the discovery of etherization, and one
of the same amount to Morton for the application of the discovery to
surgical operations. Dr. Jackson received orders and decorations from
the governments of France, Sweden, Prussia, Turkey and Sardinia, but
what the final verdict of history, the court of last resort, will be,
it is too early to say.
Dr. Jackson was a man of broad and deep scientific learning, and in
exploring the mysteries lying in the field of science he found so
much that his frank and open nature would not permit him to conceal,
that those who knew him were not surprised at the disputed claims
which marked his career. He knew too much, and too many things for
him to develop, and by his own labors to apply to practical use. His
mind was like a garden so crowded with vegetation of his own planting
that none or few reached perfect bloom and seed. But the passerby
attracted by one or another, though ignorant of botany, would pluck
a slip or a root, and setting it in his own grounds, by unremitting
care nurse it into vigorous growth and a perfected life. Without the
garden which the gardener had planted, the passerby would never have
found the plant, and without the act of the passerby the plant would
have died and the labors of the gardener would have been in vain.
Thus it is true that one soweth another reapeth. Dr. Jackson married
Susan Bridge of Charlestown, and died in 1880.
At the time the controversy between Jackson and Morton was going
on, Horace Wells, a dentist in Hartford, made a claim that prior to
the use of ether he had used in his profession nitrous oxide gas to
prevent pain. In the autumn of 1846 he went to Europe to lay his
discovery before the medical profession in Paris, and in March, 1847,
on his return, he was my fellow passenger on board the steamship
Hibernia, and shared my stateroom. He was a landsman, unfamiliar with
the sea, and easily frightened by the noises of the ship. He was
especially frightened on a dark night in a northwest gale surrounded
by broken ice off the Flemish cap, the northeast edge of the grand
banks. As we entered the field ice Capt. Harrison deemed it prudent
to stand to the southward and escape it. We were constantly feeling
the huge blocks of ice, thumping against us, and with the windows of
the dining saloon which was on the main deck, well shuttered, it was
about as dismal a prospect as passengers not yet fully satisfied of
the seaworthiness of sidewheel ocean steamships had ever experienced.
In those days the trumpet was used by the officers on the deck in
giving orders at night or in a storm to the men at the wheel, and
about ten o’clock the few of us who were not sick, sitting in the
saloon, heard the order, “hard a port.” Of course we ran to the
door, but before reaching it heard the order, “hard a starboard.” I
saw on the port side perhaps a quarter of a mile distant the glisten
of an iceberg, and those on the starboard side saw the glisten of
another about the same distance away, and as we went wallowing along
in the trough of the sea we sailed between them. We turned in soon
after, but there was not much sleep for the poor Doctor after the
fright he had received.
About midnight we were awakened by the crash on our decks of a
gigantic wave, which enveloped the ship, filling the dining saloon
sill deep, and pouring down into the cabin, endangering the lives
of several passengers whose stateroom doors were broken open, and
who were washed out of their berths. The Doctor was out and off in
an instant, returning in about ten minutes telling me to get up as
the ship was sinking. As I never was easily rattled, I remained in
my berth, either taking no stock in his outcry, or thinking that a
speedy death in my stateroom would be better than a lingering one
among floating cakes of ice. In the morning we were clear of the
ice, and once more on our course. The troubles to which Dr. Wells
was subjected in endeavoring to substantiate his claim, affected his
brain, and he committed suicide in New York, January 24, 1848. A
statue has been erected to his memory in the park at Hartford, his
native city.
Another distinguished Plymouthean was a resident on North street.
Dr. James Thacher lived from 1817 to 1827 in what is now called the
old part of the Samoset House, which he named Lagrange in honor of
Lafayette, and moved from there into the Winslow house on North
street, which he occupied until he built the house until recently
occupied by Dr. Thomas B. Drew in or about 1832. I remember him in
the Winslow house, but it was chiefly in the house built by him which
he occupied until his death that I knew him intimately. His family
and my mother were close friends, and I made frequent visits to his
house to talk with him and learn from him tales and incidents of
the past. I always found him sitting at his desk in the northwest
corner of the westerly parlor ready to talk with a young man who was
sufficiently interested in early days to visit an old man. He was as
long ago as I knew him very deaf, and sometimes, though not always,
I talked with him through an ear trumpet. Like all deaf persons,
his hearing depended much on the tone in which he was addressed, not
necessarily a loud one, but distinct, clear cut, and from the throat
rather than the lips. His wife, whose voice was low and soft, but
clear, conversed with him with ease. He was a short man, stoutly
built, though not fleshy, and always as long as I knew him, walked
with a cane. He was a jovial man, ready to laugh at a good story,
or at a joke on a friend or on himself. He was an ardent friend of
temperance, full of religious sentiment, but owing to his deafness he
was while I knew him, a rare attendant on church worship. Before my
day he had abandoned the practice of his profession, and was devoted
to literary pursuits.
Dr. Thacher was born in Barnstable, February 14, 1754, and was the
son of John and Content (Norton) Thacher of that town. He attended
the public schools until he was eighteen years of age, when he was
apprenticed to Dr. Abner Hersey for the study of medicine, completing
his apprenticeship at the age of twenty-one soon after the battle of
Bunker Hill. He at once presented himself for examination for medical
service in the army, and being accepted was appointed surgeon’s mate
in the hospital at Cambridge, under Dr. John Warren. In February,
1776, after another examination, he was assigned to Col. Asa
Whitcomb’s regiment as mate to Dr. David Townsend, and went with his
regiment on the expedition to Ticonderoga. In November, 1778, he was
appointed surgeon of the First Virginia State Regiment, and in 1779
he exchanged into the First Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Col.
Henry Jackson, and was present at the execution of Andre. In July,
1781, he was appointed surgeon in the Regiment, commanded by Col.
Alexander Scammel, and was present at the siege of Yorktown, and the
surrender of Cornwallis. Retiring from service in January, 1783, he
settled in the following March in Plymouth, where he resided until
his death. His large experience in the army, and his well known skill
as a surgeon, gave him a large and lucrative practice, from which he
would have acquired a handsome property, had not his investments and
ventures been disastrous. He established with his brother-in-law, Dr.
Nathan Hayward in 1796, the first stage line between Plymouth and
Boston, which with other enterprises, no more successful, wasted the
savings from his practice. While carrying on his practice he had in
his office a number of students, among whom were Dr. Perry of Keene,
N. H., Dr. Nathaniel Bradstreet of Newburyport, and Dr. Benjamin
Shurtleff of Carver and Boston. In many things he was always a little
in advance of his generation, and was inclined to adopt new ideas
before they were sufficiently tried, though in others he was the
successful pioneer. He introduced the tomato into Plymouth, and with
my mother, was the first to set up a coal grate, and use anthracite
coal for domestic purpose.
In 1810 Dr. Thacher published “The American Dispensatory,” and
in 1812 “Observations on Hydrophobia.” In 1817 he published “The
Modern Practice of Physic,” in 1822 the “American Orchardist,” and
in 1823 “A Military Journal during the Revolutionary War,” in 1828
“American Medical Biography,” in 1829, “A Practical Treatise on
the Management of Bees,” in 1831, “An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts,
Apparitions and Popular Superstitions,” and in 1832 a “History of the
Town of Plymouth.” Of some of these books second editions have been
published; some are standard works, and all are rare. The suggestion
I have made that he was in advance of his time is confirmed by his
work on hydrophobia, in which more than a hint is given that methods
of prevention or cure might be successfully adopted, such as Pasteur
has in recent years advocated. In that work the following passage may
be found:
“Experiments made upon the canine poison in brutes might be
considered as an arduous and hazardous undertaking, but it is not to
be deemed altogether impracticable, and I will suggest the following
project for the purpose. In the first place dogs when affected with
madness, instead of being killed, should be confined and secured that
the disease may run its course, and for the ascertainment of many
useful facts connected with its several stages. If experiments on
dogs should be deemed too hazardous let other animals of little value
be selected, provided a sufficient number can be procured. Having
provided for their security in some proper enclosure, let them be
inoculated with the saliva of the mad dog. With some the inoculated
part might be cut out at different stages to ascertain the latest
period at which it may be done successfully. To others, various
counter poisons and specific remedies might be applied to the
wound and administered internally. In fact it would be difficult to
determine _a priori_, the extent of the advantages of this novel plan
if judiciously conducted. You may smile at my project, but however
chimerical and visionary it may appear, I would rejoice to be the
Jenner of the proposed institution; though I might fail in realizing
my thousands I could pride myself in being the candidate for the
honor, and the author of an attempt to mitigate the horrors attending
one of the greatest of all human calamities.”
Dr. Thacher received from Harvard the honorary degrees of Master
of Arts and Doctor of Medicine in 1810, and from Dartmouth in the
same year, and was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. He married Susanna, daughter of Nathan Hayward of
Bridgewater, and sister of Dr. Nathan Hayward of Plymouth, and had
Betsey Hayward, 1785, who married Daniel Robert Elliott of Savannah,
Georgia, and Michael Hodge of Newburyport; Susan, 1788, who died
in infancy; James, 1790, who also died in infancy; James Hersey,
1792, who died in 1793; Susan, 1794, who married Wm. Bartlett, and
Catherine, 1797, who died in 1800. Dr. Thacher died May 26, 1844, and
his wife died May 17, 1842.