Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Fairfield Medical School and Some Early Oregon Physicians

by O. Larsell

FAIRFIELD MEDICAL SCHOOL AND SOME EARLY OREGON PHYSICIANS

By O. Larsell

Fairfield Academy and the Fairfield Medical School, as it is usually called, are of interest to students of the history of old Oregon because it was there that Marcus Whitman received his medical education. Whitman's fellow worker, H. H. Spalding, also had a brief course in medicine here, but without taking a medical degree. The first native born Oregonian to study medicine, so far as the record indicates, namely, William Cameron McKay, son of Tom McKay, was sent to Fairfield. The name of W. H. Gray is also included in its list of students for the year 1837-38, he having registered in January, 1838, as "W. Henry Gray, Columbia, Oregon.” Neither McKay nor Gray received diplomas from Fairfield. McKay received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from Willamette Medical School many years after he had returnd to Oregon, and Gray apparently never received a medical degree, although he practiced for a time at Clatsop Plains.

Fairfield Academy, located at Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York, about fifteen miles northeast of Utica, was founded in 1802. The westward migration from New England which began at the close of the Revolutionary War resulted in settlements in the Mohawk Valley. The forest was cleared, farms were established and gradually the New England love of learning asserted itself.^[1] In 1801 the Reverend Caleb Alexander was sent by the Massachusetts Missionary Society to preach in Fairfield and Norway, a neighboring settlement. He was well received by the settlers and undertook to establish an academy where something of the learning and culture of New England could be taught. On July 4, 1802, the people of the community held the "raising" of the academy building, which still stands. Caleb Alexander (1757-1832) was the first principal, receiving a

salary of $300 a year. Alexander was a graduate of Yale and

Fig. 1. Fairfield Seminary , about 1869. The central building with the tower is the academy building , still standing in 1935. To its immediate right is the laboratory building. The others are dormitories. All but the academy building have been torn down. Photograph given the author by Mrs. H. Edgar Reese of Fairfield, N. Y.

Fig. 2. The laboratory building before i t was dismantled but after the seminary ceased operations . Photograph J . A . Spalding ' s Dr . Lyman Spalding . served for a time as tutor in his alma mater. In 1785 he published A New Introduction to the Latin Language, and later an Interleaved Virgil. He also served as chaplain in the War of 1812. He built up the academy which he founded to a position of high standing, according to J. A. Spalding. By 1809, clinical and medical lectures were added. The courses in chemistry were given by Dr. Joseph Noyes (1776–1853), a graduate of Dartmouth. A course in anatomy was also given by a Dr. Jacob to between thirty and forty students. The medical school thus had its inception. Dr. Jacob was a practitioner at Canandaigua, New York. It was proposed to enhance the prestige of the school by establishing a regular chair of anatomy. In October, 1810, Dr. Lyman Spalding, afterward noted as the originator of the United States Pharmacopeia, was invited to this professorship.

Dr. Spalding had already been associated with the well known Dr. Nathan Smith in founding the Dartmouth Medical School in 1797. Here he had lectured on chemistry and materia medica from 1797 to 1799. He subsequently practiced at Walpole and at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, continuing his lectures part of each year at Dartmouth. He spent some time in Philadelphia studying anatomy with Dr. Caspar Wistar. Through his early use of vaccination in 1800, and other ways, he had become well known, although practicing in a relatively small community. He accepted the professorship, and later became president of the school also.^[2]

A small laboratory had been added to the rear of the Fairfield Academy building to accommodate the early students of medicine. With the better organization of the medical department, students came in such numbers that larger quarters soon became necessary. A three story stone building, 62 feet by 33 feet, was erected in 1810, and was called the "Laboratory Building" (figure 2). It was, without doubt, in this building that Whitman, H. H. Spalding, Gray and McKay pursued their studies during their respective periods of attendance at Fairfield.

Dr. Josiah Noyes (1776–1853), as already stated, was instructor in chemistry at Fairfield in 1809, at the time plans were on foot to enlarge the medical faculty. He was appointed to correspond with Dr. Lyman Spalding, whom he had nominated for the professorship of anatomy. In a letter^[3] dated at Fairfield, October 2, 1810, he invited Spalding to come and look over the "Literary Institution," in which the "number of students beside medical students is generally from 90 to 115." He adds that there are: "Three buildings, one of stone, called the Laboratory, containing 14 elegant rooms. Two lecture rooms, one for Anatomy and the other for lectures on Chemistry. These two rooms perhaps are better than any others built for the same purpose in the United States except Philadelphia. Our chemical apparatus is more complete than any in the City of New York, and the Anatomical Museum is equal to Dr. Smith's at Dartmouth." He adds that the number of students in anatomy and chemistry "this year will not be far from fifty, which will be more than they will probably have at both colleges in the City of New York." These were, of course, the enthusiastic words of a young man entering upon a promising constructive program. They must, however, have had some foundation.

Courses in anatomy, chemistry, physiology and surgery were taught. The reputation of the school rapidly increased and students came in such numbers that it was necessary to build a dormitory in 1811. A stone building of three stories, containing 24 rooms, was erected. This was "Old North Building." In 1827 another three story dormitory building was erected and was called "The South Building." It also housed medical students.

In 1812 a charter was issued incorporating the Fairfield school as "The College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York." It continued to be known generally as the Fairfield Medical School. A subsidy of $5000 from the state had been granted in 1809, apparently as a lottery right. This was doubled in 1812, but it is not clear that the school benefited accordingly. There were periods of considerable financial difficulty.

The original faculty of the medical school, after it was definitely established, consisted of four able men, all born in New England. Dr. Westel Willoughby (1769-1844) was professor of obstetrics, and was also president of the faculty from 1827 until the school was discontinued in 1840. Dr. Lyman Spalding (1775-1821) was professor of anatomy and surgery, and later, was the first president of the medical faculty. Dr. Spalding left the school in 1816. He subsequently founded the United States Pharmacopeia, as stated, and is regarded as an important figure in the medical history of the United States. Prior to coming to Fairfield, he had taught chemistry at Dartmouth. Dr. James Hadley (1785-1869) was professor of chemistry. He had graduated from Dartmouth in 1809, and must have studied chemistry there under Spalding. He was the grandfather of Arthur Twining Hadley, for many years president of Yale University. When the Fairfield Medical School was discontinued in 1840, James Hadley became professor of chemistry and pharmocology at Geneva Medical School, Geneva, New York, which has since become the medical school of Syracuse University. The fourth name on the original Fairfield medical faculty is that of Dr. John Stearns (1790-1848) who was professor of the theory and practice of physics. He had studied in Philadelphia under Shippen, Wistar and Rush, the outstanding medical teachers of their day in America, after graduating from Yale. Stearns remained at Fairfield until 1819, when he moved to New York. Subsequently he founded the New York Academy of Medicine, now one of the outstanding medical societies of the world.^[4]

The faculty changed from time to time, and the school attracted students, so that in attendance it excelled even Harvard at times. Many of the names on its faculty list added real luster to the institution which they served. They were men of reputation and ability.

According to the Fairfield catalogues in the New York State Library,^[5] Marcus Whitman registered at Fairfield Medical School in January, 1826. At this time the outstanding member of its faculty appears to have been Dr. Westel Willoughby, who in 1827, succeeded Dr. Joseph White as president of the faculty. In 1827, Dr. John Dalamater (1787-1867) became professor of surgery at Fairfield, remaining there until the school closed its doors in 1840. He then transferred to Geneva as professor of materia medica and general pathology. In 1837 he began to give lectures also in the short-lived Willoughby Medical School, twenty miles east of Cleveland, Ohio, although he returned to Geneva each winter to give his lectures there. In 1843 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he became first dean of a new school there begun, which is the present Western Reserve Medical School. Delamater is described as an inspiring teacher and in thirty-eight years of teaching in no less than nine different medical schools he exercised a very wide influence on the medical education of his time in the United States.

When Dr. Lyman Spalding resigned from the faculty in 1816, Dr. Joseph White appears to have succeeded him as professor of anatomy. He apparently also taught surgery, and is described "as the greatest surgeon in this Western District" (of New York). It was evidently under Dr. White's instruction that Whitman and the other Oregonians who attended Fairfield learned anatomy and surgery.

Dr. T. Romeyn Beck was another distinguished member of the Fairfield faculty. He gave his introductory lecture there on December 13, 1824. How long he remained I have been unable to ascertain.

It seems clear then that Marcus Whitman was a student of at least two outstanding members of the Fairfield faculty, Willoughby and Delamater. Gray and H. H. Spalding must have had some courses with the same men. W. C. McKay, only fourteen years old when be entered Fairfield, may have enrolled only in the academic department.

At the time that the medical school was founded in 1809, Fairfield was a village of about 2000 inhabitants. However, it was located on a hill and when the Erie canal was built through the Mohawk Valley the village was left high and dry, away from the main path of progress. Other schools,^[6] especially that at Geneva, became real competitors for both students and faculty, and in 1840, after many vicissitudes, the Fairfield Medical School was discontinued. A stone monument on the old campus bears the following inscription on a bronze tablet, copied by the author in August, 1935:

On this campus Fairfield Academy was founded in 1802, the funds being raised by a committee headed by Captain Moses Mather. In 1803 was incorporated by the regents of the State of New York and in 1812 the College of Physicians and Surgeons was established, continuing until 1839 and graduating 555 physicians.^[7] The Academy was continued and reoragnized as Fairfield Seminary in 1839 for the higher education of both men and women. Conducted as a military academy from 1891 to 1902.

Erected August, 1923 by
Fairfield students.
1802-1902.

Fairfield is described as the only medical school outside of the three large cities, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Students were numerous, one class reaching 217 in attendance, while the largest graduating class was 54. It was situated away from the lines of commerce which developed, and the village of Fairfield was left in an eddy in the currents of contemporary activity. The neighboring towns of Geneva and Albany soon were able to offer better facilities for bedside teaching, so important in medical instruction. Internal friction also increased to such an extent that in 1839 "it went to pieces owing to disputes concerning the division of lecture fees." In 1840 most of the members of the Fairfield faculty moved en masse to the Geneva school, taking many of the students with them. Spalding writes: "Fairfield died a natural death. Its record, however, was splendid."^[8]

It is not clear that W. C. McKay was definitely registered at Fairfield. It will be recalled by students of the history of old Oregon that Billy and his brother were being sent with the Montreal express, in the fall of 1838, to Scotland to study medicine.^[9] Their father, Tom McKay, preceded the express a few days to Fort Walla Walla and paid a visit to Dr. Whitman, with whom he was on most friendly terms. On stating his purpose regarding Billy to Dr. Whitman, Tom McKay was strongly advised to send the boy to Fairfield and "make an American of him." The plans were changed and Billy went to Fairfield. The New York State Library does not have a copy of the 1839-40 catalogue of Fairfield Medical School,^[10] in which McKay's name should be listed. His registration, therefore, cannot be checked at present. In 1841-42 he is listed among the students at the Medical Institute at Geneva College as "William Cameron McKay, Ft. Vancouver, Or. Ter., Hiram Hadley, preceptor." McKay subsequently followed one of his teachers to the new medical school at Willoughby, Ohio, where he apparently remained until his return to Oregon in 1843.

W. H. Gray had only one course of medical lectures, and that during the winter of 1837-38, when he returned from Oregon for reinforcements. Apparently he had very little of the apprenticeship expected of medical students at that time. On his return to Oregon with his bride, he evidently undertook to use such medical knowledge as he had. With proper professional zeal Dr. Whitman writes to David Greene, secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, under date of October 22, 1839, regarding William H. Gray, physician: "I cannot conceive how you have been so much imposed upon as to report him as a Physician. What can a man learn in sixteen weeks of public lectures (which is barely all he can boast) to entitle him to that distinction. It cannot be regarded in any other light in this country than a slur upon the Board & this Mission."^[11]

Gray's willingness to use such medical knowledge as he has is in contrast to the statement of H. H. Spalding, who had obtained about an equivalent amount of instruction in medicine before leaving for his mission post. Spalding writes:^[12]

"I am no physician, but have more or less sickness to look after, sometimes 8 or 10 cases on my hands at once, usually bowel complaints caused by eating bad food or too much of it ... requiring as I suppose, cathartics. These I issue ..." He adds that pulmonary troubles are frequent among the Indians during the winter.

The various biographies of Whitman state that he graduated from the Fairfield Medical School in 1824. This is evidently incorrect. He is not included in the lists of students until the session beginning January, 1826. According to a photostat copy in the New York State Library made from the Fairfield circular of 1839-40, Marcus Whitman graduated with the class of 1832.^[13] This is confirmed by a statement in Drury's recent book on H. H. Spalding, from documents in the possession of Professor F. C. Waite, of Cleveland. It must be recalled that the medical training of a hundred years ago in this country consisted usually of two courses of lectures given, as a rule, during the winter and continued for six weeks or more. Lectures in anatomy, chemistry and the other subjects indicated above, were acompanied by dissection. The students made the rounds, visiting patients, with established physicians during the remainder of the year, or at such times as could be arranged, in a master and apprenticeship system. After completing the second course of lectures, which were largely a repetition of the first, and presenting the proper statements regarding his apprenticeship, the student was entitled to examination and candidacy for the medical degree. Many practiced before receiving their diploma, as was evidently the case with Marcus Whitman. He writes to the Reverend B. B. Wisner, who preceded David Greene as secretary of the American Board, under date of June 3, 1834:^[14] "In my profession I studied and practiced regularly with a good physician and attended the lectures two full courses and graduated at the Medical and Surgical College at Fairfield, N. Y." In another letter to Wisner, dated June 27, 1834,^[15] he writes: "In the fall of 1830 I gave up the practice of my profession and entered upon a course of study ... for the ministry ... I found my health becoming impaired by a pain in the left side which I attributed to an inflammation of the spleen ... Remedies gave full relief, but I resumed study too soon and remedies gave only partial relief." Whitman ascribes his ill health to cessation of an active life for the relative inactivity, physically, of the student. He gave up his plan of preparing for the ministry and states in the same letter that he returned to medical practice. On December 2, 1834, he is able to write regarding his desire to go to Oregon under appointment by the American Board:^[16] "My health is so much restored that I think it will offer no impediment." The pain in his side, however, caused him a good deal of trouble in the early part of his first journey, with Dr. Parker.

It is not clear from Whitman's statements, quoted above, whether he attended the second course of lectures in 1832, just before receiving his degree, or earlier. Presumably it was in 1832, since the only other year in which his name occurs in the lists of students or graduates is 1826, as above stated.

The writer is under obligation to Miss Maude E. Nesbit, medical librarian, New York State Library; to Miss Nellie B. Pipes, librarian of the Oregon Historical Society, and to Mrs. H. Edgar Reese, of Fairfield, New York, for invaluable aid in obtaining material for the present article. Other sources are acknowledged in the references cited.

1. J. A. Spalding, Dr. Lyman Spalding, 1916; H. W. Cushing, "The Pioneer Medical Schools of Central New York," an address at the centenary celebration of the College of Medicine of Syracuse University, June 4, 1934.
2. J. A. Spalding, already cited.
3. J. A. Spalding, already cited.
4. J. A. Spalding, already cited; Cushing, already cited.
5. Personal communication from Miss Maude E. Nesbit, medical librarian, New York State Library.
6. Cushing, already cited.
7. C. Kimm, "Fairfield Seminary," Little Falls, New York, Evening Times, August 14 and 15, 1935.
8. Spalding, already cited.
9. Oregon Pioneer Transactions, 1889, 91.
10. Maude E. Nesbit.
11. Letter 89, volume 138, archives of the American Board, copy in Oregon Historical Society.
12. C. M. Drury, Henry Harmon Spalding, 1936, 173.
13. Maude E. Nesbit.
14. A. B. Hulbert, Oregon Crusade, 259.
15. Same, 263.
16. Whitman to Wisner, in Hulbert, 269.