Dr. Samuel White

GEDCOM Note

Several local histories mention Dr. Samuel White of Newbury and Haverhill, who began his local practice in 1773, “and for years was the doctor of the Connecticut Valley, his ride extending from Newbury to the Canadian border.” He was dedicated to his practice. He was quoted as saying “he had poor luck with his patients in their last illness.”

White’s diaries mention his fees as follows: “The least charge for a visit is one shilling and the greatest (to Upper Coos) is sixty shillings…medicine was usually one shilling for each potion, occasionally two shillings; bleeding was always one shilling; tooth pulling, one shilling; dressing a wound, one shilling, lancing a sore, one shilling; setting an arm or a leg, six shillings; attendance on your wife in travel [travail] twelve shillings.” The weather, difficulty of the journey, urgency of the call and the financial condition of the patient played a role in the amount charged.

Sleepers Meadow

Sleepers Meadow was named after the first white settler, Samuel Sleeper, to discover it and camp there in 1762. During the American Revolution, the property was purchased by Joseph White. The Whites built the English style barn and Georgian house circa 1785, both of which are now on the Vermont Historic Register. Today the barn remains the largest of its architectural style in the state. White and his family did not occupy the farm for long. They were soon run out of town because of his English loyalties and his involvement in a plot to kidnap a local patriot. White left the property to his brother, Doctor Samuel White. Dr. White was an esteemed surgeon and practitioner of herbal medicine throughout the region, traveling as far as Saratoga to tend to those wounded in battle.

1790 - 1810

Marriage Records

First Congregational Church

Town of Newbury

Orange County, Vermont

White, Samuel Dr. & Anna Tucker, March 26, 1793

Dr. Samuel White Several local histories mention Dr. Samuel White of Newbury and Haverhill, who began his local practice in 1773, “and for years was the doctor of the Connecticut Valley, his ride extending from Newbury to the Canadian border.” He was dedicated to his practice. He was quoted as saying “he had poor luck with his patients in their last illness.” White’s diaries mention his fees as follows: “The least charge for a visit is one shilling and the greatest (to Upper Coos) is sixty shillings…medicine was usually one shilling for each potion, occasionally two shillings; bleeding was always one shilling; tooth pulling, one shilling; dressing a wound, one shilling, lancing a sore, one shilling; setting an arm or a leg, six shillings; attendance on your wife in travel [travail] twelve shillings.” The weather, difficulty of the journey, urgency of the call and the financial condition of the patient played a role in the amount charged. http://larrycoffin.blogspot.ca/2012_07_01_archive.html Dr. Samuel White settled in Newbury as a physician in 1773, and continued in practice till near his death, Jan. 25, 1848, in his 98th year. Dr. White was for many years the principal physician in this region, and had a large number of patients in Ryegate. He lived most of the time, after 1806, on Jefferson Hill, and is buried there. He was a surgeon in the revolutionary war, and had twelve children, none of whom ever married, and the family is extinct. Two of his account books which are owned by Mrs. Z. A. Richardson of St. Johns-bury, begin in 1773, and end in 1782. These give us some idea of the state of medical science during the early days of Ryegate’s settlement. In these two books about one hundred and forty remedial agents are mentioned. Physic stands first, same sort being used over fifteen hundred times. Bleeding was common. Scarcely a dozen surgical operations are mentioned, and these were simple fractures of arms or legs. The oldest people in town remember Dr. White very well. He was a very genial man, inspiring confidence. Some one has said that "more people were cured by their faith in Dr. White’s skill than by the skill itself!" History of Ryegate, Vermont, Chapter XXI, http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ryegate/21.htm Dr. Samuel White. It fortunately happened that all mention of Dr. Samuel White, the first settled physician in the Coos Country, so called, was omitted in Miss Hemmenway's Gazetteer of Vermont. I speak of the incident as fortunate, for it called out a very full biographical account of Dr. White, from his friend, Dr. W. H. Carter, formerly also at Newbury, but now living, at a great age, at Bradford. Dr. Carter was eminently qualified for this duty, as he had from his boyhood known Dr. White, and during the last twenty years of the latter's life was intimately acquainted with him. The lives of these two men cover a long space, and include the whole period of the civilized history of the region in which they practiced their profession. I shall adopt all of Dr. Carter's article that is material to my subject; one item should be added. Dr. White had a large family of children, in which twins were a not infrequent occurrence. Dr. Carter says : " "Dr. Samuel White was born in Plaistow, state of New Hampshire, November 10, 1750. He was the son of Nicholas White, Esq., a respectable farmer of that town. He received his early education at the common school where he lived; and he also obtained a competent knowledge of the Latin language to enter upon the study of medicine with facility. At the earlv age of seventeen, he commenced his medical studies, and continued them four years, under the instruction of Thomas Brickett, M. D., of Haverhill. Mass., who was a man of learning and skill, having enjoyed the advantages of the medical schools and hospitals of Edinburg, in Scotland, and served as surgeon in the British army. The long term of study, under the instruction of an eminent physician and surgeon, was well calculated to fasten in his mind that knowledge which was, afterward, so much needed by him, when, far removed from his professional brethren, and in a new country, he was forced to rely upon his own knowledge and judgment in many difficult cases committed to his charge. At the expiration of his pupilage Dr. White was well recommended by his preceptor, and entered upon the duties of his profession. He practiced one or two years in his native town with good acceptance, in families of the best respectability. But, at that time, the tide of emigration was fast setting to the north. Many families and individuals from the southern portion of New Hampshire, and from Massachusetts, had located themselves upon the fertile meadows of the Coos Country. Noah White, an elder brother of the doctor, had removed to Newbury with his family in 1763; and Col. Jacob Kent, who married his sister, Mary White, emigrated with his family the same year. Some years after this Samuel visited his brother and sister at the " Coos," and carried with him a proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving, which had been duly observed where he resided, but was received and used by Rev. Peter Powers and his parishioners, as related in the "Early History of Coos." In the spring of 1773 Dr. White concluded to try his fortune with the new settlers on the hills and valleys of the wilderness. This, it will be perceived, was ten years after the first settlement of Newbury was begun, and two years before the Revolutionary war. At that time there were some families in Newburv, Haverhill, Bradford, Orford, and Piermont, and it was necessary that a physician should be located among them. Nor was there any physician between Newbury and Canada, on the river, so that Dr. White was the only one to be called upon for a considerable distance round, at the first commencement of his practice. He was sometimes called to the distance of many miles, through dense forests, to visit the sick; and these excursions were sometimes performed on foot and on snow-shoes, while marked trees were the only guide that led him to his destination. The writer of this, has heard Dr. White relate many stories of his nocturnal rambles to visit his patients, when the darkness was so great that he was obliged to feel for a path to avoid wandering into a swamp, or falling headlong from some abrupt precipice.

Roads and bridges were but few; rapid streams were to be forded and quagmires to be passed through; while the howl of a wolf, or the growl of a bear, were the only evidence given him that the woods were inhabited. The Dr. would often tell of the uncomfortable situation in which he found his patients; many of them in log houses without chimneys, while the only redeeming chance that they had to be warm, was to fill the fireplace with wood, of which they had a plenty. He said he had seen little drifts of snow where the new born infant was lying with its mother. On one or two occasions the doctor travelled on snow-shoes to Lancaster, N. H., to visit some families settled there, while the log huts on the way were few and far between. Most of the inhabitants, at that time, were able to pay him but little for his services; but there was one thing, he said, to cheer him; they were always glad to see him. At the time of the Revolutionary war, Dr. White had fully entered upon the duties of his profession at his new home. With the new settlers, generally, he was well acquainted, and he had his patients in turn among them all. And whether they were active patriots in the American cause, or favored the idea of submission to British rule, he still pursued the even tenor of his way, seeking their best good as their physician. He was ready, at all times, to serve his country in his professional capacity, as occasion required. He acted as surgeon to the Continental soldiers who were stationed at Newbury, under the command of Gen. Jacob Bailey, and dressed the wound received by a Mr. Gates, when a scout of British and Tories made a foray upon the people at the Oxbow, in quest of Gen. Bailey. When Gen. Burgoyne entered the western part of Vermont, Dr. White attended, as surgeon, such troops as could be spared from Newbury and the vicinity, to arrest the march of the British army, and remained with them until their return from the field of victory. Dr. White was considered a good physician by his employers generally; and the writer of this, remembers of hearing several of his contemporaries speak in high praise of his success in some very serious diseases; and he continued to sustain the reputation of a judicious and skillful practitioner, as the country became more settled. In the various epidemics which appeared at different times, he manifested a good degree of professional knowledge, and evinced a tact and judgment adapted to the embarrassing and uncomfortable situation in which he frequently found his patients. In the treatment of chronic diseases, the powers of his judgment and discerning were conspicuously displayed, and he always adhered to a regular and scientific course, founded upon true principles of Pathology, as developed in his time. In his intercourse with his professional brethren, Dr. White was quite communicative, and liberally contributed from the stores of knowledge, which a long experience had enabled him to lay up. Hence, he was often consulted with confidence by his juniors, after age and infirmities rendered it necessary for him to relinquish, in a great measure, the regular care of patients. As an operative surgeon Dr. White never made any pretension to fame; although at different periods of his practice he performed several of the minor operations with success.

He was of a calm and easy disposition, benevolence greatly predominating, so that he might truly be said to " Lay his own advantage by To seek his neighbor's good." He was not a close collector of debts due to him, and a great part of his earnings were never paid. In his daily intercourse with his employers. Dr. White was of a cheery and facetious turn of mind, and, where danger was not apprehended, his funny remarks and capital stories, would often act as a cordial in cases where there was a depression of the mind from extreme "" nervousness," or an unfounded apprehension of danger. He had a peculiar way of relating his anecdotes and short stories, well calculated to diffuse a spirit of mirth and pleasantry among his audience, and cause them for a time to forget their troubles. Many of his capital stories will long be remembered and rehearsed; but his manner of telling them cannot be fully imitated.* About four years previous to his death. Dr. White united with the First Congregational Church in Newbury-. But the sun of his life was fast declining, and his mind and memory soon exhibited but a wreck of what it had once been powers of life gradually receded from the worn out body, and on the twenty-sixth day of February, 1847, quietly fell asleep, aged ninety-seven years." It was Dr. White who remarked, that he always had poor luck with his patients in their last sickness. DR. White's BOOKS OF ACCOUNT The worn and time stained books of Dr. White, present to us a most interesting view of the practice of a country doctor one hundred years ago. Two books, of some 360 manuscript pages, are preserved, which seem to have dated from the beginning of his Newbury practice. In them, are the itemized accounts, written in a hand like copper-plate, of the journeys he took, the drugs he exhibited, the teeth he pulled, and the sums he charged, but often did not collect. There are entries from 1773 to 1790, not always chronologically arranged, and probably not covering the whole of his practice during that period, but presenting doubtless, a good average specimen. He visited in Corinth, Bath, Haverhill, Mooretown, Barnet, Upper Coos, Piermont, Lyman, Peacham, Ryegate, Topsham, Gunthwaite, Landaft, Morristown, Apthorp, Wentworth, Coventry, Rumney, Groton, Bradford, River Lamoile and Newbury. The visit, and each item of treatment, were accounted separately. For instance, we find, at the last of a series of visits to Mr. Abial Chamberlain, the charge made as follows: "Sept. l0th, 1784. To visit 2s. Phsic is. Emet. is. Bleeding . Sal. Nitre 1.9. " 65." The minimum charge for a visit was one shilling; the maximum was 60 shillings " to Upper Coos. While there was usually a regular schedule of charges, there are occasionally great variations, for reasons which do not appear, but the weather and the difficulty of the journey and the urgency of the call, were doubtless taken into consideration; and a very low price may have arisen from other visits to the same place, as well as from the poverty of the patient. To Corinth, it was all the way from one to twenty shillings; to Haverhill, two to six; to Apthorp, two, three and twenty-seven shillings. Medicine was usually one shilling, sometimes, two; bleeding, always one shilling; tooth pulling, one shilling; dressing a wound, one shilling; lancing a sore, one shilling; setting an arm or leg, six shillings. "Attendance on your wife's Travel [sic]" was twelve shillings. …These two books show accounts approximating £2500 ; a large proportion of them have no credit entries, and probably were not paid, as he seems to have entered carefully all payments. Many a large account ran six, eight or ten years, and when settlement is made, it is more frequently by note of hand than by cash. The good doctor used a wide range in his materia medica. One hundred and fifty-two remedial agents are mentioned in his books; thirty-six of these are used once only, ten twice, and eleven three times. When his patients wanted medicine, they had it. In 4,271 recorded visits only 181 were plain; in all the others something happened, and as we have a record of 8471 doses or operations, frequently much took place. His main reliance was upon comparatively few remedies…

http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Chiswick_1764_Apthorp_1...

N. H. Littleton, Chiswick, 1764. Apthorp, 1770. Littleton, 1784: Exercises at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Littleton, July 4th, 1884, N.H. Democratic Press Company, 1887

Surgeon in the Revolutionary War (from History of Newbury VT) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80148624/samuel-white