Acton Town (part 3 of 3)

In choosing a field for practice, several places were in mind. The fruits which abounded in Acton, even at that early date, attracted his notice, and here he determined to locate. Possibly, other attractions may have helped his decision, for, in due time, he found a helpful companion in Miss Abigail Davis, daughter of Eben Davis, a native of Acton. Here he practiced his profession for nearly half a century - nearly the average life of two generations.

As a physician he was faithful and conscientious to all - both rich and poor. With the latter he was attentive and sympathizing, and in his charges lenient. The case of each patient he made an especial study. He was continually gathering up improved methods of practice from medical works and from the experience of friends, not allowing his mind to run in ruts.

As a general practitioner he excelled. Others in the profession may have been his superiors in some special branches, but for the varied work to which he was called, few have been hu equals. As he entered the sick-room he brought a cheerful countenance and a happy style of conversation, inspiring confidence, both in the patient and attendants. He was fond of children, and apt in discovering and treating their ailments.

He was an early member of the Evangelical Church of Acton, and its firm supporter to the end. He was a reformer, zealous in the cause of temperance and anti-slavery.

He was interested in education ; a superintendent of the schools sixteen years, and chairman of the School Committee at the time of his death. He was fond of music, and, however pressing his professional cares, seldom was he missed from the village choir, seldom even from the rehearsal.

He was an ardent patriot. As a specimen of the man at the outbreak of the Rebellion, his letter to Captain Daniel Tuttle, dated May 1, 1861, is here given :

" You can't tell what an anxious night we spent after the telegraph had flashed it up to South Acton that the Sixth Regiment had been attacked in Baltimore. We are proud of you, and, more than that, we are glad the friends of freedom the world over know of your noble bearing.

"If prayers and tears can help you, be assured you have them all. You never saw such a town-meeting as we had last Saturday. We are ready to do anything for the soldiers."

He was one of those few men who never grow old. He was in his seventy-third year during that last winter campaign. His locks were silvery, but his step was elastic, his eyes flashed with the fire of early manhood, and he dashed through the streets, on his way to the sick, whether the call came by day or night, in sunshine or storm.

He died, as he wished, with the harness on. That Centennial Day at old Concord, April 19, 1875, was too much for him. The severity of that raw, chilly day gave him a fatal attack of influenza, from which he died, after a short but painful sickness, May 6th.

More died from the exposures of that day than from the original 19th, a hundred years before, and Dr. Cowdry was one of these patriotic martyrs.

He had two children : Arthur H. Cowdry, a successful physician in Stoneham, Mass.; Mrs. Helen Little, widow of Charles Little, M.D., whose active professional life began in Acton in 1866, and his marriage to Dr. Cowdry's only daughter soon after, and his death at the age of thirty-thiee, after a promising but brief professional career.

Charles Little, M.D. - Dr. Little was born in Boscawen, N. H. ; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1860, and received his medical degree in the same institution in 1863; died November 16, 1869, thirty-two years old. During the same autumn he entered the navy as assistant surgeon, where he remained until the close of the war. Unwilling to enter upon a private practice without a more thorough preparation for his work, he passed the winter of 1865-66 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and at the hospital in New York. He commenced his active professional life at Acton in the spring of 1866, and soon after married the only daughter of Dr. Harris Cowdry, of Acton.

Dr. Little was a good classical scholar, and had an excellent knowledge of the minutia? of his profession. His practical career, though short, was long enough to give him a place in the confidence of the people, and betoken a useful and successful career. He was modest in his manners, but outspoken for the right. In the home circle he was be9t appreciated. He was a genial husband, brother and friend. His end was peaceful and like a summer's cloud.

John M. Miles, M.D. - He was bom in Temple, N. H. His father was a minister in Temple for several years, where he died. He married a daughter of Josiah Taylor, of Temple. He was educated at a medical college. He practiced in Boxboro' and Littleton and settled in Acton in 1843, and practiced here until his death, March 22, 1865, aged sixty-three years and five months.

Isaiah Hutchins, M.D. - He was born in Westford, Middlesex County, Mass., September 23, 1829 ; lived on his father's farm in Groton till eighteen years of age. His education was in the public schools and Lawrence Academy at Groton. He entered the office of Dr. Walter Burnham, of Lowell, as a student in the study of medicine, and graduated from the Worcester Medical Cdllege in 1852, and the same year began the practice of medicine at West Acton, and for most of the time since has continued in it at the same place.

He was in the Union army during the nine months' campaign, acting assistant surgeon most of the time in the same regiment, Sixth Massachusetts, during 100 days' campaign as second lieutenant Company E. He married a daughter of Alden Fuller, West Acton.

Charles Barton Sanders, M.D., born in Lowell, Mass., February 19, 1844. He received his early education in the common school at Berwick, Me., and at Berwick Academy, South Berwick, Me. Enlisted as private August 11, 1862, in Rollingsford, N. H., and served with the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers (being promoted to corporal) until March 1, 1864, when he was discharged by orders of the War Department to receive commission as first lieutenant in the United States colored troops, and was assigned to the Thirtieth Regiment; was through the Wilderness campaign and was taken prisoner July 30, 1864, at the battle of " Crater," front of Petersburg, and was confined in a rebel prison at Columbia, S. C, seven months. Mustered out of service December 10, 1865, having served as adjutant of regiment from 1st of June, 1865. Received medical education at Harvard and Bowdoin

June 1, 1869. His early years of practice were in Lowell. In July, 1875, he located at Acton Centre. September 4, 1878, he married Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Moses Taylor, Esq.

Ferdinand Adolphus Wyman, Esq. - He was born in Waltham, Mass., December 28, 1850. He is a practicing lawyer, resident in Hyde Park, which place he represents for the second term in the Massachusetts Legislature. He was educated in the schools of West Acton. He was assignee of T. Shaw & Brothers, the extensive leather manufacturers, and as assignee or trustee ha9 settled other large estates. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1886. He is a member of the House Committee on Railroads.

A. A. Wyman, Esq. - Mr. Wyman's full name is Alphonso Adelbert Wyman ; he was born in West Acton January 29, 1862. He was educated in the common schools of Acton and Lawrence Academy, Groton ; he entered Phillips Exeter Academy, 1875 ; graduated at the head of his class of thirty in 1879. He was president of the Golden Brand, a literary society founded in 1817. He was managing editor of the Exonian, a school paper, and he was class historian by unanimous choice of his class. In 1879 he entered Harvard College, from which he graduated with honors in 1883. He was one of twenty-five in a class of 200 elected to the Phi Beta Kappa, holding the highest rank in scholarship. In December, 1883, he began the study of law in the office of Henry W. Paine and William Varen Vaughan, 20 Washington Street, Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1885, since which time he has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Boston and West Acton. On July 28, 1886, he was married to Laura Aldrich, and his residence has been in West Acton.

Francis C. Nash, Esq., a native of Maine, graduated at Tufts College, 1863 ; admitted to practice in Maine in 1866, and was in active practice in the Maine courts for several years. He opened an office in Boston (54 Devonshire Street) in 1880, residing at West Acton, at the homestead of Mr. John Hapgood, whose daughter Clara he married. He has been on Board of School Committee as chairman and superintendent of schools in Acton, and held other positions of trust.

Mrs. Clara Hapgood Nash, daughter of John and Clara Hapgood, was admitted to practice before the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, October, 1872. She was the first lady admitted to the practice of the court, in which she was for several years in copartnership with her husband. She was, before her law practice, a teacher in public schools, was for a time an assistant principal of the Danvers High School.

In 1821 there were 140 dwelling-houses, 230 other buildings, 513 acres of tillage land on which were raised 705 bushels of rye, 932 of oats, 5833 of corn, 75 of barley, 140 of beans; 1527 acres of mowing land, producing 956 tons of hay ; 2026 acres of pasturing, keeping 939 cows, 196 oxen ; 2055 acres of wood, 3633 acres of unimproved, and 1311 unimprovable ; 240 used as roads and 500 covered with water.

Miscellanies. - The dark day, so called, was May 19, 1780. Joseph Chaffin died in 1836, eighty-four years of age. Solomon Smith, the father of Luke, died July 25, 1837, aged eighty-four. One hundred and thirty-two dwelling-houses in South Acton in a range of a mile from the centre of the village ; 109 in West Acton ; 60 in the centre. Seventy thousand barrels of apples are shipped from West Acton per year. Between eight and nine thousand barrels are raised within a mile of Acton Centre and of the choicest quality and variety.

Quarry Works in North Acton. - This enterprise has opened under the management of David C. Harris and John Sullivan, with encouraging prospects. They already do an extensive business, sending their granite as far west as Nebraska, and as far south aa Pennsylvania. The granite has a peculiar merit in its tint, fineness of grain and durability, and gives a growing satisfaction to those who have tried it.

The Great Blow - It came Sept. 23, 1815. From "Our First Century," byR. M. Devens, in the article relating to the gale, is the following statement:

" This gale was severe at the Centre, blowing down several of the horse sheds around the meeting-house. It came from east and weut to the west. It was especially severe among the forests on Myers hill opposite the residence of Charles Bobbins, in the east part of the town. It is remembered by several now living, and they have never forgotten the scene of falling forests."

The area of Acton is 12,795 acres. Its valuation in 1886, $1,286,089. Its population by the last State Census in 1885 was 1785 ; dwelling-houses, 413. The number of children between the ages of 5 and 15 in 1889 was 267. In 1885 there were 190 farms, the product of which was $209,533. The product of the dairies, $77,065. Hay, straw and fodder, $50,132. Vegetables, $19,417 ; 29,756 fruit trees, 1467 neat cattle, 240 horses. Aggregate of goods in 1885, $332, 345. Valuation in 1888, $1,310,947. School property, $22,600. Two thousand volumes in the West Acton libraries ; 4000 volumes in William A. Wilde's Memorial Library. The general healihfulness of the climate is well established by the records of the past. Fatal epidemics have been rare. Seldom have the years been marked with prevailing sickness.

The average longevity for the last 26 years including those dying in infancy, has been 44 years and 6 months. This may be taken as an approximate average for the entire history of the town. Longevity has always been a feature of the locality.

During these 26 years the average number of deaths in town has been 30; the total, 789. Those reaching 60 years, 289; those reaching 70 years, 211; those reaching 80 years, 98 ; those reaching 90 years, 14. The highest age reported is that of Mrs. Mehitable Piper, 101 years and 2 months, March 25, 1872. She was the wife of Silas Piper.

From Shattuck's " History " we learn that during the twenty years subsequent to 1800 there were published 208 intentions of marriages, and there occurred 161 marriages, 344 birtli3, 302 deaths, of whom 72 died under one year old, 32 were 80 and upwards, 8 were 90 and upwards and one lived 99J. The average number annually was 15, about one in 70 of the whole population. The mean average age was 35.

Longevity. - The causes explaining this longevity are not obscure. They may be found in the frugal habits of the people. ; in the tonic air of the hills ; in the pure water of the springs ; in the excellent drainage of the low lands, by means of running brooks and larger streams; in the variety of the soil, fertile enough to encourage a diligent culture; in the landscapes ever present and ever shifting to accommodate the moods of the resting or laborious hours ; in the vicinage of the ocean, near enough to enjoy its cooling baths in the heat of summer, and distant enough to escape the extreme chill of the more vigorous months.