Franklin District Medical Society

      Dr. Pardon Haynes.—This gentleman was born in New London, Conn., Feb. 2, 1762. When he was fifteen years old his father removed to Hoosac. During the Revolutionary war he served a short enlistment in the American army.
      He studied medicine with an elder brother, and commenced practice in Hebron, Washington Co., N. Y.; but, not feeling satisfied with his situation, he soon removed to the town of Rowe, Franklin Co., Mass. In that town he lived and practiced for a period of forty-five years, building up a most excellent reputation and accumulating a competence: He possessed a robust constitution, and had that quality of determination which invariably wins in the business of life.
      The region around Rowe was at the time he settled rough and wild, and his experience was in keeping with the condition of the country. His traveling was mostly on horseback, and his perils and escapes by night and by day were something wonderful to men of the present day. Sometimes, when the snows covered the earth to a great depth, he was compelled to make his visits on the Indian "raquette," or snow-shoe, and the regular recompense was one New England shilling per mile.
      In those days bridges were scarce over the larger streams, and the doctor was often obliged to ford the Deerfield River on horseback at the imminent peril of his life and that of his horse.
      He was more particularly distinguished as a practitioner of midwifery, in which department he was probably unexcelled in the region. He was regular in his habits and always punctual to his appointments. He was prominent in other directions as well as in the practice of medicine. Under commissions issued by Governors John Hancock and Samuel Adams he commanded a military company in Rowe when the position was a most honorable one, and won the then proud distinction from Gen. Mattoon of having the best-disciplined company in his regiment. Dr. Haynes died on the 29th of December, 1833, at the age of seventy-one years. He was a member of the Unitarian Church.

      Dr. Joseph Allen was born on Long Island in 1764. His parents removed to Hardwick, Mass., when be was two years of age, where they remained until their son grew to manhood. He studied medicine with Dr. Wm. Kittredge, of Conway, in this county, who was considered in his day a very eminent surgeon. Dr. Allen commenced practice in the town of Coleraine, and continued for about one year, when he removed to Buckland, where he remained in practice until his death, in 1823, at the age of fifty-nine years. He built up a very extensive business and accumulated a respectable property. He was in feeble health for many years previous to his death, being troubled with dyspeptic complaints; but by a rigid system of dieting and a careful husbanding of his resources he bore up under his difficulties, and performed a great amount of professional labor in a rough and hilly country. He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Association from 1812 to 1818, and was greatly esteemed by the profession.

      Dr. John Lee.—This accomplished gentleman, who died too early for the good of his profession, was born in the classic town of Amherst, Hampshire Co., Mass., about the year 1786. Of his early years very little is now known, except the fact that until his twentieth year he devoted himself almost wholly to the pursuit of agriculture, for which he had an especial fondness. While engaged in that labor he was attacked by hemorrhage of the lungs, which threatened to terminate in pulmonary consumption, to which he was hereditarily disposed. His physicians advised a removal to the sea-board, where he rapidly recovered his health, and soon returned to Hampshire County. Not long after, he entered the office of Dr. William Stoddard Williams, at Deerfield, Franklin Co., along with Drs. Saxton and Stephen W. Williams, where he gave himself wholly to the study of his chosen profession, and after due course established himself in practice in the town of Ashfield, Franklin Co. His business increased, and he had every prospect before him of a most useful career; but in the midst of his duties, while actively engaged in trying to stay the ravages of a dreaded disease which had broken out in this region, he was himself taken down, and died within a few days, in the month of April, 1813, when only twenty-seven years of age. He was greatly respected by his professional brethren and the community generally, and had he lived would no doubt have been an honor to his profession, which he pursued with an ardor which nothing but the conquering hand of death could daunt.



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