Samuel Prescott Hildreth ~ Part II

In time to come he was to distinguish himself as one of the outstanding physicians in all the Northwest Territory, but also as the great chronicler of Marietta's pioneer history and of the principal figures in that history. . .David McCullough

Marietta's Sacra Via by Charles Sullivan

Our cousin Samuel Prescott Hildreth (4C6X) moved to Marietta, Ohio where he began a medical practice, married and had children. This post continues the story of his life in Marietta. Most of the information comes from David McCullough's book The Pioneers and Samuel's own memoir.

the Burr conspiracy

A year before Samuel moved to Marietta, an intrigue began involving the richest man in town, Harman Bennerhassett and Aaron Burr, the man who had killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel two years earlier. David McCullough covered the story in his book. He wrote that Burr arrived in town on "as luxurious a flatboat as yet seen on the Ohio River, a 'floating house' as he liked to say. . ." Rumors in the area began spreading that Burr wanted to spur animosity between the United States and Spain in order to "detach New Orleans from the United States and establish a new independent country."

It appears that Burr's reason for stopping in Marietta was to sell Bennerhassett on his scheme and to obtain some financial support. The citizens of Marietta looked on Burr with suspicion and contempt especially since Hamilton had been a major stockholder in the Ohio Company.

After his meeting with Bennerhassett, Burr left town but correspondence between the two continued. By December of 1805, Bennerhasset had signed on to the scheme. He sent a letter to Burr stating that he would be "highly honored in being associated with you, in any contemplated enterprise you would permit me to participate in."

In August, 1806, Burr arrived back in Marietta to make a contract for fifteen flatboats capable of carrying 500 men. Blennerhassett was to cover the cost. It was at this point in his book that McCullough introduces the newly arrived Samuel Hildreth:

It was that same autumn of 1806 when a gifted, but as yet unknown young doctor from Massachusetts, Samuel P. Hildreth, arrived in Marietta for the first time. . .In time to come he was to distinguish himself as one of the outstanding physicians in all the Northwest Territory, but also as the great chronicler of Marietta's pioneer history and of the principal figures in that history, including that of the Blennerhassetts.

Not long after his arrival, Samuel met the Blennerhassetts. He noted that "the husband did not dance" and she was "quite the most attractive figure and active dancer on the floor."

Soon after his arrival, Samuel began hearing talk about Burr and "what he was up to with many of the young men in Marietta and the vicinity." They were being told by Burr that "no injury was intended" to the U.S. with his expedition and that President Jefferson was fully aware of the project. Articles written by Blennerhasset that were published in the Ohio Gazette and the Virginia Herald, however, told a different story.

Blennerhassett chose to write under a pseudonym, "The Querist." The pioneers of the frontier. . .were being unfairly disregarded, overtaxed, and commercially exploited by. . .the federal goverment, he insisted at length. The answer was western independence, a break from the Union.

. . .By November speculations and rumors had turned to a strong sense of alarm nearly everywhere in the country including the White House. . .On Novermber 3, 1806 Jefferson himself wrote, "Burr is unquestionably very actively engaged in the estern preparations to sever that from this part of the Union."

On December 2, the Ohio lawmakers "unanimously authorized the governor to call out the militia. Samuel later wrote about the reaction to the news in Marietta:

When the act of the Ohio Legislature was passed, to suppress all armed assembliages, and take posession of boats with arms and provisions. . .they, almost to a man, refused to embark further in the enterprise.

Samuel also defended his townspeople writing that "[n]ot one of all that number enlisted on the Ohio (enterprise) would have harkened for a moment to a separation of the western from the eastern states."

Blennerhasset, with a warrant out for his arrest made arrangements to skip town, but was later captured. Aaron Burr was arrested on February 18 and, on June 24, indicted for treason. On September 1, Chief Justice Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court took three hours to read his opinion. The upshot was that there was a lack of evidence to prove Burr's actual intension. After two months in the "vermin-infested" Richmond jail, both Burr and Blennerhassett were set free.

life in Belpre

Samuel had been lucky enough to find his life-long love at Mrs. Cook's boarding house and he and Rhoda were married in August of 1806.

Not only had he acquired a partner for life, he had purchased. . .six volumes of the Medical Repository. . .his first exposure to the most important scientific periodical of the time and the one in which he was to publish and distinguish himself throughout his profession with scores of his own contributions. . .

Shortly after the Burr trial got started, Samuel's medical practice took a major uptick with the outbreak of a deadly fever in the Ohio Valley. When the fever hit, the Hildreths  were living in the town of Belpre, about 10 miles down river from Marietta. Samuel, traveling miles on horseback to treat patients, persevered even after a "resulting inflamed hip injury."

As young Dr. Samuel Hildreth was to observe, most were bilious fever, or influenza. The symptons included "pain in the head. . .bad taste in the mouth, pain in the back. . .followed by fever, attended with more or less deliruim." In Belpre, where he was the only doctor in residence, Hildreth suddenly found himself responsible for no fewer than 100 cases.

The Marietta death toll was such as had nver been known. Scarcely a family had not been struck by the fever. . .Somewhere between fifty and sixty men, women, and children died.

Of the 100 cases under young Hildreth's care at Belpre, only two or three were to die, and his reputation soared. He earned an unimaginable $1,400 in fees.

As tragic as the epidemic turned out to be, it cemented Samuel's reputation as a rising star in the medical profession. In his History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, Seymour Hathaway wrote that the “[t]he epidemic of 1807 furnished him the subject for a paper in the 10th volume of the New York Medical Repository. From this time, he became known as an acute, discerning investigator and faithful writer on scientific and historic subjects.”

Even though life in Belpre was going well, Samuel and Rhoda did, for a time, consider moving "downriver to Cincinnati." When Rhoda's mother Mrs. Cook raised objections, they instead opted to move upriver to the larger town of Marietta. Part of the reason for Marietta's growing prosperity had been the shipbuilding operations that sprang up along the Ohio River. The town, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, eventually became known as "Riverboat Town."

Marietta, like all towns, saw its share of ups and downs. The year that Samuel and Rhoda married, President Jefferson put through an Embargo Act "in the hope of strangling English commerce at sea." The Act, part of Jefferson's attempt avoid all out war, put a halt to shipbuilding on the Ohio.

Marietta was extremley hard hit. Town property, as well as farm land, sank in value. . .As Samuel Hildreth was to write, Marietta "retrograded." Cincinnati was now seen as the future "Queen City" of the west.

But if Hildreth and his wife, Rhoda, then or later, had any second thoughts about having chosen Marietta over Cincinnati as their home, there is no evidence of it. Their love for the town and attachment to its surroundings only increased and there he would achieve an outstanding role as a dedicated local physician and loyal citizen, but was also to become a ranking trailblazer in the field of natural history, as well as one of the pioneer American scientists of the time.

prospering in Marietta

Now financially secure, Samuel and Rhoda were able to rent the late Colonel Ebenezer Sproat's "large, comfortable" house for $70 a year. In April of 1808, hoping to expand his business, Samuel took out a front page ad in Marietta's two newspapers:

Physician and Surgeon -- Samuel P. Hildreth -- respectfuly informs the inhabitants of Marietta and the vicinity, that he practices in the above branches. The strictest attention will be paid to all who may favor him with their commands and as little expense as possible. he may be found at any hour by calling at the mansion of the late Col. Sproat.

A month after taking out his ad, a daughter, Mary Ann (5C5X) was born to the Hildreths. Samuel wrote that the birth of his child "strengthened the bond of union between me and my wife, making it still more tender and enduring."

Samuel took time to write about his new hometown:

Marietta, at present, contains about 180 dwelling houses, and nearly 1500 inhabitants. . .Many of the houses are large and elegant, and neatly half of them are brick. . .The public buildings are a court house, jail, academy and two meeting houses; one of wood, large and very elegant; the other of brick, not finished. . .A bank, the capital which is $100,000 was established in 1807.

Samuel also wrote about the climate, crops, weather, and medicinal plants in the area. He even described the the minerals, clays and variety of stones he found. McCullough says that "his curiosity about nearly everything was boundless."

A sad event happened in the lives of the Hildreth family in 1807. In his memoir, Samuel wrote about a college buddy who had become engaged to his sister Mary (4C5X).

Samuel Frye was another of nature's noblemen, in mind and person. He followed me out to Ohio, after reading law, in 1807, spent a few months with me in Belpre, and then went down to Port Gibson, on the Mississippi. He soon aquired a fine practice. . .But he fell in a duel, which he expoused for a friend to whom he was a second. The man to whom he carried the challenge, said he would not fight the principal, as he was a scoundrel, but he would fight the second, Mr. Frye. He like a foolish man, expoused a quarrel in which he had no interest and fell at the first fire. He was engaged to be married to my sister Mary, and was much esteemed by our family.

Note, Mary's life ended rather tragically as well. In 1814, at the age of 27, she married. She had one son and died two years later, in 1817, possibly giving birth to her daughter.

By 1809, Samuel's practice had advanced to the point where he was able to purchase "a small two story brick and a one story frame house. . .near the court house and in a central part of town." The property cost $600 and Samuel put $400 more in improvements, some of which he did himself. He was "much rejoiced to have a home of my own."

practicing medicine

By 1810, there were five doctors, including Samuel, in the town of Marietta.

Even so, despite the competition, he developed in no time an extremely busy and lucrative practice as a frontier physician. He was constantly in demand, rarely still, treating diseases of all kinds, tending wounds of every size, origin, and seriousness, broken bones, burns, snake and insect bits, infections and never-ending childbirths.

"Whoever pursues the healing art. . .is no longer master of his own time, nor of his own person, but his time and himself are at the call of onother," Hildreth would write.

His house calls, so called, often required going by horseback twenty miles or more into the dense forest and often at night. One of the first of many of these calls was to visit a patient across the Ohio River in the wilds of Virginia thirty-two miles from Marietta, most of the journey made after dark with the help of a guide. When they arrived at last at a miserable cabin about midnight, the man in distress died only minutes later.

On another occasion he had to ride sixteen miles no fewer than three times to help deliver a child, all because of the expectant mother's false tally on her "notching stick," her way of keeping count of the months of her pregnancy.

trips out of town

Samuel was one of the few city dwellers who was able to see the primitive lives being lived outside the town limits and one of the fewer that wrote about it. He described a visit to a woman "on the headwaters of Duck Creek," thirty four miles from Marietta.

"The settlement was quite new, clusters of log huts occupied primarily by people from the backwoods of Virginia, most of whom had the same family name." Samuel crossed streams and traveled on roads that were "deep and muddy." These roads eventually dwindled to a "mere bridle path, marked out by blazes on the trees."

Samuel had come to treat a young woman, about 16, who was "much emaciated" from a large ulcer on her pelvis. She had been suffering with the wound, the result of an accident, for several months. Samuel had not as much to say about how he treated her as the crowd that had gathered to watch.

Soon after my arrival, quite a number of the settlers, living within three or four miles of the cabin, assembled to see the strange doctor and. . .to get advice, as I was the first who had visited the settlement.

The men and women were wearing either "homespun linsey-woolsey" or deer skins with moccasins on their feet. Every man had a large knife with a buckhorn handle hanging from his belt. The men also wore Davy Crocket type caps made of of racoon or fox skins with the "tail attached behind."

Samuel described the room:

Two or three rough wooden stools supplied the place of chairs, and as the neighbors came in the men took seats on the floor, Indian fashion, with their back to the wall, all around the sides of the room; while I was making my prescriptions, and answering the inquiries of these simple minded people, the good woman of the cabin was preparing the evening meal. It was quite instructive to see how few comforts and little furniture a family could live and the business of housekeeping be conducted.

The good woman prepared venison, salt pork and pone bread. Samuel wrote:

There were no plates but each one had a fork on his hunting knife, with which he speared up pieces of meat from the platter, conveying them to his mouth, with occasional bits of nice pone bread, in the most natural and easy manner.

Continuing with the hospitality, the family with the injured daughter invited all the neighbors who had come from afar, along with Samuel, to spend the night in their home.

Samuel was to write about his many sleepless nighttime forays out to save lives that "the blessed means of rescuing a father, mother, or a child, of some distressed family, from the grasp of death," was the "richest compensation to be prized far above gold."

a man of many talents

Samuel's natural curiosity and love of nature also stood him in good stead on his solitary rides out to see patients.

During the spring, as he traverses the woodlands and prairies, he can collect for his herbarium the choicest gifts of flora. . .In the summer, endless species of insects, offering the most charming specimens for his entomological collection. Many of the most rare and beautiful in my cabinet were collected in my country rides. . .while the frosty nights of winter, in the sparkling stars and heavenly constellations, afford the sublimest views for his contemplation.

McCullough wrote that there "seemed no end to his interests, or the reach of his appeal among the many with whom he came in contact and the respect they had for him." One of Samuel's friends noted that "[h]e observed and noticed everything that came within the range of a capacious mind."

Such was the respect that his fellow townspeople felt for him that, in the fall of 1810, they put Samuel's name on the ticket as representative for the state legislature. At the tender age of 27, he became youngest member of the Ohio House of Representatives.

Samuel, who admitted that he "never had any talent for oratory," was voted out of office after two sessions. In that time, however, he had drafted and passed a bill for the regulation of the practice of medicine. Better yet, he was able to return to the practice of medicine with no regrets, "fully satisfied with my trial to become a noted public character." With so many talents waiting to be utilized, Samuel had no time for regrets.

Along with everything else, he somehow found time to draw and paint and with stunning results. . .with his exquisite watercolors of speckled caterpillars morphing into dazzling butterflies. He had been fascinated with butterflies since a boy. "I have not language to express the delight afforded to me from the sight of rich colors. . .I never tire of looking at them."

Below is an example of Samuel's work:

But then he never seemed to tire of looking at almost any form of nature. The love of natural science, as he said, had followed him all his days, and served as "a never failing souce of enjoyment amidst the perplexities of life."

Asked how it was that he could do so much and accomplish so much, he said, "I've learned to use every one of all the odds and ends of the time."

Samuel's story will continue in our next post.