Doctor S. P. Hildreth
and His Home
By ERMAN DEAN SOUTHWICK*
In his chapter on "Ohio's Taste in
Houses" in The Buckeye
Country, Harlan H. Hatcher writes: "Marietta has the
Hildreth
House with the design of its striking
arched and columned doorway
reproduced in the second and third story
windows above it; the
Exchange Hotel with the same feature;
and the Mills House, built
in 1820, with its unique steps and iron
railing."1
Actually, the old Exchange Hotel, its
days of renown long since
gone, was finished off by flood and fire
in 1937, before Dr. Hatcher's
book appeared in print. The Mills House
was in the same year,
more fortunately, given a promising
renaissance as a result of its
acquisition by Marietta College.
Remodeled to serve as the pres-
ident's residence, it presents a
charming scene on its elevated site
across from the campus, continuing to
reflect "Ohio's [good] Taste
in Houses." As for the Hildreth
House, a commercialized structure
in downtown Marietta since early in this
century, it entered into the
uncertain state of involvement in a
property partition suit in the
spring of 1954.2
It is referred to as the Hildreth House
less frequently and by
fewer Mariettans than in former years. A
dry-cleaning business
occupies one side of the ground floor.
The other side has the office
and sales room of an automobile service
establishment, which ex-
tends into a repair garage attached at
the rear of the original build-
ing and covering most of the balance of
the lot. Dental offices are
on the second floor and an apartment on
the third. The central
doorway with sidelights and fanlight,
the side doorway of classical
style and proportions, and the windows
above the non-conforming
* Erman Dean Southwick is a resident of
Marietta, where he is associate editor
of the Marietta Daily Times.
1 Harlan H. Hatcher, The Buckeye
Country: A Pageant of Ohio (rev. ed., New
York, 1947), 222.
2 Washington County Court of Common
Pleas, Nellie B. Swartz v. Howard G.
Buckley, et al., Case No. 23343. (Since the
foregoing was written, the house has
been sold at sheriff's sale to
Washington County. It is tentatively planned to use the
main portion of the building for county
offices.)
30
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 31
plate-glass display windows of the
first-floor front are reminders
that this structure has in its latter
years got out of character. It is a
fact that even prior to the
twentieth-century changes the building
had contained the office of doctors for
more than seventy-five years--
first that of Dr. Samuel Prescott
Hildreth, then of this physician and
his second son, Dr. George Osgood
Hildreth, together, and finally
of the latter alone.3 But
primarily it was a home, and one of
Marietta's finest.
As described in this Quarterly ten
years ago, "It stands, rather
dejectedly plastered with signs today,
beside the courthouse in
Marietta."4 That is an
inescapable impression. In spite of it, the
building also presents something
memorable and personal from
another age. At least some observers
have noted this.
The signs are seen in the illustration
used by Dean Rexford
Newcomb of the college of fine and
applied arts, University of
Illinois, in his volume on architecture
of the Old Northwest Ter-
ritory. Evidently aided by an earlier
photograph, he saw through
the contemporary picture: "A fine
old brick house generally at-
tributed to [Joseph] Barker is the Dr.
Samuel P. Hildreth home
(1824-25), now seriously marred by
alterations made to accommo-
date encroaching business enterprises,
but of which fortunately we
have a photograph showing its original
form. It presents a three-
story, hip-roofed mass at the front,
with a two-story wing at the rear.
The otherwise simple facade is relieved
by three slender blind
arches, which enframe the typical
Federal openings. In its day it
was a sedate and proper house."5
I. T. Frary, who has displayed wide
acquaintance with early Ohio homes in
various published works,
says it "must have been a show
place of early Marietta."6 Thomas
E. O'Donnell, who has contributed much
to our literature of archi-
tectural history, classifies the
Hildreth House as an example of the
3 A photograph of the Hildreth office
interior is included in a display of early
medical miscellany at Campus Martius
Museum, Marietta.
4 A. E. Waller, "Dr. Samuel P.
Hildreth, 1783-1863," Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Quarterly, LIII (1944), 325.
5 Rexford
Newcomb, Architecture of the Old Northwest Territory: A Study of
Early Architecture in Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, & Part of
Minnesota (Chicago, 1950), 66.
6 I. T. Frary, Early Homes of Ohio (Richmond,
1936), 113.
32
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
more pretentious Georgian work,
contrasted to the simpler New
England Colonial. "It is of the
three-story brick type," he says, "in
which the central entrance motif has
been made into a grandiose
feature extending through all three
stories, by superimposing large
elliptical headed windows and panel work
above the otherwise fine
Colonial doorway."7
Mariettans were once reminded in a
newspaper article on "Our
Old Homes" that "within these
walls were written the invaluable
accounts of the early history of Ohio
and the first settlers, which
form the foundation of all later works
upon this subject, and with-
out which the story of the pioneers
would now be little better than
a myth."8 But that
reminder was published seventy years ago. The
man who rescued local pioneer history
from oblivion--and that was
his stated mission in the field of
historical writing--could himself
become little better than a myth in that
lapse of time, regardless of
his pretentious home standing beside the
courthouse. Reference to
that house in current local court news
provides a peg on which to
hang another reminder that Samuel P.
Hildreth, writer of that
history, was in himself a noteworthy
historical fact. He was born
in the year the United States, as a new
sovereign nation, concluded
its treaty of peace with England. He
died in the midst of the nation's
Civil War. He was a resident of Ohio
during all but the first
twenty-three of his eighty years and, in
the words of a younger
associate, Charles Whittlesey, "he
left a deep, clearly cut impress
upon a great state during the first half
century of its growth."9
* * *
Citations of the Hildreth writings are
abundant in historical and
scientific works. If followed back to
their source, these references
lead to a treasury of Ohioana and to a
writer who found the world
too full of fascinating subjects to
restrict his inquiring mind to
narrow specialization.
7 Thomas E. O'Donnell, "The Early
Architecture of Marietta, the Oldest City in
Ohio," Architecture, LI
(1925), 2. On page 3 is a picture of the Hildreth House
doorway.
8 Marietta Register, May 9, 1884.
9 Charles Whittlesey, "Personnel of
the First Geological Survey of Ohio," Mag-
azine of Western History, II (1885), 82.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 33
Dr. Hildreth's first published writing
was in print before his
twenty-fifth birthday. It was an article
prompted by his experience
in fighting an epidemic during his first
year in Ohio and, perhaps,
by his discovery of a medium for such
expression through purchase
of six volumes of America's first
medical journal at a sale of Harman
Blennerhassett's library in July 1807.10
This introductory piece bears
the title: "Remarks on the Weather
and Diseases in Some Parts of
the State of Ohio, During 1805-6-7; with
Topographic Facts on the
Country in the Neighbourhood of
Bellepre." It appeared in the
Medical Repository's issue for February, March, and April, 1808.11
Elated with "the favourable manner
in which my production of last
year was received," the new writer
submitted in 1809 "A Concise
Description of Marietta, in the State of
Ohio; with an Enumeration
of Some Vegetable and Mineral
Productions in Its Neighbourhood,"
which filled several more pages of the Repository.12
By the time his Pioneer History13
appeared, Hildreth was sixty-
five, and a reviewer in the New
England Historical and Genealogical
Register wrote extravagantly that "we really doubt if any
other living
individual can be found who can claim to
have done as much, under
similar circumstances, be his years more
or less. His bare publica-
tions seem to us to be the work of an
age at least, to say nothing of
his professional labors."14 There
were still publications to come.
Pioneer History was followed in 1852 by a companion volume of
biographies,15 which had been
announced as ready in the "Publishers'
Advertisement" prefacing the
earlier book. Each of these works has
more than 500 pages. A 240-page book of
historical sketches was
published posthumously in 1864.16
10 Hildreth's journal in Genealogical
and Biographical Sketches of the Hildreth
Family from the Year 1652 down to the
Year 1840 (n. p., n. d.), 186;
Hildreth,
Biographical and Historical Memoirs
of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio (Cincin-
nati, 1852), 434; Madge E. Pickard and
R. Carlyle Buley, The Midwest Pioneer--
His Ills, Cures & Doctors (New York, 1946), 155.
11 Medical Repository, 2d ser., V (1808), 345-349.
12 Medical Repository, 2d ser., VI (1809), 358-363.
13 Pioneer History: Being an Account
of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley,
and the Early Settlement of the
Northwest Territory (Cincinnati and
New York,
1848).
14 New England Historical and
Genealogical Register, IV (1850), 95.
15 Biographical and Historical
Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, with
Narratives of Incidents and
Occurrences in 1775 (Cincinnati,
1852).
16 Contributions to the Early History
of the North-West, Including the Moravian
Missions in Ohio (Cincinnati, 1864).
34
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Hildreth's long connection with
Professor Benjamin Silliman's
American Journal of Science and Arts commenced in 1825, when
Caleb Atwater sent the editor a
manuscript comprised of answers
to inquiries which the Circleville
historian had received from the
Marietta doctor some years before.17
Hildreth then started his own
submissions to the Journal and in
succeeding years established a
warm, lasting friendship with the Yale
scientist-editor. A volume of
520 pages could be made of his writings
that appeared in the Journal
from
1826 to 1863, inclusive.18 As the Mariettan mixed history and
travel notes with scientific
observations, there is much of general
interest in these articles. Two of the longer
ones are accounts of
Ohio travels.19
When Editor John S. Williams in 1844
reproduced in book form
the Hildreth contributions to the
short-lived Ohio magazine Amer-
ican Pioneer, the result was a 144-page volume.20
Many other periodicals carried work of
the prolific writer. These
include the American Farmer (Baltimore),
the Medical Counselor
(Columbus), the Ohio Medical and
Surgical Journal (Columbus),
the Hesperian (Columbus), Genius
of the West (Cincinnati), West-
ern Medical and Physical Journal (Cincinnati), Philadelphia Journal
of Medical and Physical Sciences, the American Journal of the Medi-
cal Sciences (Philadelphia), New England Historical and Genea-
logical Register (Boston), and Journal of the Historical and Philo-
sophical Society of Ohio (Columbus).
In addition, some of Hildreth's most
delightful writing did not
appear in print until the publication of
another book with his
17 "Facts Relating to Certain Parts of the State of Ohio," American
Journal of
Science and Arts, X (1826), 1-8, 152-162, 319-331. Footnote, page 1,
contains an
extract from a letter to the editor from
Atwater, dated Circleville, August 4, 1825,
explaining that he had planned to
publish "Notes on Ohio" and had written to the
Marietta doctor for information that
would be useful. "Circumstances beyond my
control prevented" this project,
and after a lapse of years Atwater was submitting a
"small portion" of the
Hildreth information to the Journal.
18 According to a tabulation made by
leafing through each volume, rather than by
merely referring to the general index.
19 "Ten Days in Ohio, from the
Diary of a Naturalist," XXV (1834), 217-257;
"Miscellaneous Observations Made
During a Tour in May, 1835, to the Falls of the
Cuyahoga, near Lake Erie Extracted from
the Diary of a Naturalist," XXXI (1837),
1-84.
20 Original Contributions to the
American Pioneer, by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of
Marietta, Ohio (n. p., n. d.). Thomson says it was published in
Cincinnati in 1844.
Peter G. Thomson, A Bibliography of
the State of Ohio (Cincinnati, 1880), 167.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 35
byline more than fifty years after his
death. This was privately
published by the doctor's
great-grandson, the late B. B. Putnam of
Marietta, from manuscripts which came
into his possession upon the
death of the author's bachelor son
George in 1903. It is a volume
of 334 pages containing sketches of
family history and an auto-
biography to 1840 which includes
journals of Hildreth's journey to
Ohio in 1806 and his eastern trip with
Mrs. Hildreth in 1839.21
Yes, there was a prodigious amount of
writing done within the
walls of the Hildreth House. The volume
of it seems the greater
because it was turned out in the odds
and ends of time during the
busy life of a physician, scientist,
farmer, civic leader, home-
loving parent, and sociable neighbor.
*
* *
S. P. Hildreth was referred to as one
of "Ohio's three great
pioneer physicians" when his
portrait was hung in a display deal-
ing with Ohio medical history in the
Ohio State Museum, Co-
lumbus, in 1945. The others sharing
this recognition were Daniel
Drake of Cincinnati (1785-1852) and
Jared Potter Kirtland of the
Western Reserve (1793-1877).22
One endeavor in Hildreth's medical
pioneering was of a political
nature. Its aim was the promotion of
high standards for his pro-
fession in the new state of Ohio. Just
four years after his arrival in
Ohio he was elected to the state
legislature, becoming at twenty-
seven its youngest member at the time.
He drafted and procured
passage of a bill for regulation of the
practice of medicine and
establishment of medical societies.23
21 Genealogical and Biographical
Sketches of the Hildreth Family from the Year
1652 down to the Year 1840, hereafter cited as Hildreth Family. "Written
by Dr.
Samuel P. Hildreth, Marietta, Ohio,
1840" appears on the title page, but the conclud-
ing piece (pp. 329-334) is the doctor's
"Account of the Sickness and Death" of his
second daughter, Mrs. Rhoda Marie
Hildreth Ross, which occurred in 1854. Later
genealogical data, including one item as
recent as 1911, have been added. Discussion
with the Marietta printer in whose shop
the book was produced has established the
date of publication, to this writer's
satisfaction, as possibly 1915 but probably 1916.
22 Edward S. Thomas, "Early Ohio
Medicine: A Museum Display," Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, LIV (1945), 383.
23 Hildreth Family, 192; S. P. Hildreth, "Biographical
Sketches of the Early Phy-
sicians of Marietta, Ohio," New
England Historical and Genealogical Register, III
(1849), 144.
36
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The law, effective January 14, 1811,
divided the state into districts,
each to have a board of three medical
censors, or examiners.24 The
young author of the legislation was
named as an examiner in his
local district, of which Athens was the
center. A colleague was Dr.
Eliphas Perkins, whose memory has been
made green in 1954 by
presentation of him as the central
character in the historical play fea-
tured in Ohio University's
sesquicentennial program.25 These two
doctors also became associated about
this time in the affairs of the
newly established school in Athens, as
Hildreth, by appointment
during his second and last term in the
legislature, became a trustee
of the university, a position which he
held until 1819.26
The Hildreth act of 1811 was repealed,
reenacted, amended, and
enlarged upon by succeeding legislatures
prior to 1833, when repeal
action ended the efforts to regulate
medical practice in Ohio by
legislation for a period that was to
last until 1868.27 The last in
this early series of regulatory acts,
passed in 1824, was entitled "An
Act to Incorporate Medical Societies for
the Purpose of Regulating
the Practice of Physic and Surgery in
This State."28 Hildreth in
his autobiography mentions the district
society's meetings in
Athens, and says they "were
generally well attended," but does not
disclose that he had served as district
president.29 Attesting to his
serving in this office is the
publication of his presidential address
of 1829 in the American Journal of
the Medical Sciences.30
Two years after the societies based on
state law went out of
existence, doctors organized the Medical
Convention of Ohio on a
24 Robert G. Paterson, "The Role of
the 'District' as a Unit in Organized Medicine
in Ohio," Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLIX (1940), 369.
Paterson says, "Examination of the
membership of these five district boards reveals
some illustrious names in the annals of
medical history in Ohio." For District 3,
he lists Leonard Jewit, Eliphas Perkins,
and Hildreth.
25 Charles Allen Smart, The Green
Adventure (Athens, 1954). In his acknowledg-
ments, Smart includes the
"biographical collections of Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth"
among his "most important"
source materials.
26 Hildreth Family, 198.
27 Paterson, loc. cit., 369-371.
28 Ibid., 370.
29 Hildreth Family, 193. It is
only a casual mention that he gives to his presidency
of the state medical body ten years
later (p. 219).
30 "On the Climate and Diseases of
Washington County, Ohio. Read Before the
Twelfth Medical Society of Ohio, at
Their Semi-Annual Meeting in Athens, Novem-
ber 3d, 1829. By S. P. Hildreth, M. D.,
President of the Society," American Journal
of the Medical Sciences, V (1830), 321-330.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 37
voluntary basis, with membership open
to all regular physicians of
the state.31 According to
Robert G. Paterson, "the present Ohio
State Medical Association rightly
traces its origin to this date
[1835]. The convention continued to
1851 when it was merged
with the Ohio State Medical Society
organized in 1846."32 Hildreth
was elected president of the convention
at its second session in
Columbus, January 1, 1838, and he
presided at the opening of the
third session in Cleveland, May 14,
1839, until relieved by Dr.
Kirtland of Trumbull County, elected as
his successor.33 Referring
to the address made by the Mariettan in
Cleveland to fellow
doctors,34 Professor A. E.
Waller of Ohio State University says:
"This address of Hildreth's and
his work with the members of
the Medical Convention was Hildreth at
his best. Transferring his
boundless enthusiasm to others he
started work which would carry
far beyond his own powers and would
last for many years."35
Dr. Hildreth did not contribute notable
discoveries to the general
advancement of medical science. His
accomplishments in all his
fields of interest were marked more by
perseverance than by bril-
liance. But he was continually opening
areas of inquiry with the
thought that others might find useful
the stepping stones he had
laid down. His real pioneering as a
physician was localized in a
pioneer community, and consisted in
part of introducing the new
ideas that, in some cases, had to be
resolutely defended in trials be-
fore the court of public prejudice.
During his fifty-six years of
active practice--over before medical
knowledge had been enriched
by the significant findings of Joseph
Lister, Louis Pasteur, and
Robert Koch--he brought to his
community the best in healing pro-
cedures which could be mustered by a
"country physician" of that
period through continuing study,
available contacts, and hard work.
He spared himself neither physically
nor mentally. When epidemic
struck, he dosed himself with strong
medicine and kept going six-
31 Paterson, loc. cit., 371.
32 Ibid., 368.
33 Journal of the Proceedings of the Medical Convention
of Ohio at Its Third
Session, Began [sic] and Held in the
City of Cleveland, on the 14th and 15th days
of May, 1839 (Cleveland, 1839) 3-4.
34 Ibid., 4-35.
35 Waller, "Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth, 1783-1863," 338.
38
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
teen or eighteen hours daily on his
rounds in town and country.36
Then, just as soon as time allowed, he
recorded his observations of
all the factors he thought could be
involved and tried to find answers
to the questions posed by these
visitations of virulent sickness.37 He
shared, through his writings and talks,
those personal experiences
which he believed might prove useful or
interesting to other inquir-
ing minds in his profession. In this
way, he did make what for a
general practitioner in an isolated
community far from any medical
school or center of research must be
considered a noteworthy, even
if remote, contribution to the fostering
of medical investigation. Not
localized was his pioneering effort in
the organizing of Ohio's
reliable men of medicine for the mutual
benefit of practitioners and
public.
* * *
At the same time that he was practicing
medicine, Hildreth was
helping to pioneer the natural sciences
in Ohio and promoting their
application to the commercial
development of this state's natural
resources. He should be recognized as
the father of the Geological
Survey of Ohio, even though an outsider
was called in to head the
first survey organization in 1837.
Hildreth was chairman of the committee
authorized by the Ohio
legislature in March 1836 to investigate
possibilities of a state
geological survey, and author of a
fourteen-page report on the
matter which Governor Robert Lucas
appended to his annual mes-
sage to the general assembly December 6,
1836.38 Committee as-
sociates of the Mariettan were Dr. John
Locke, J. L. Riddell, and
I. A. Lapham. J. S. Newberry,
outstanding Ohio geologist of the
succeeding generation, wrote that it was
from the report of this
committee that citizens of Ohio derived
their first information "in
36 Hildreth, "Biographical Sketches
of the Early Physicians of Marietta, Ohio," 144.
37 "Notes on the Epidemic Fever, As
It Appeared at Marietta, in the State of
Ohio, and Its Vicinity, in the Years
1822 and 1823," Philadelphia Journal of the
Medical and Physical Sciences, IX (1824), 105-116. His first publication, noted
above, immediately followed his
experience in Belpre with the Ohio Valley epidemic
of 1807.
38 Report of the Special Committee
Appointed by the Last Legislature to Report on
the Best Method of Obtaining a
Complete Geological Survey of the State of Ohio
(Columbus, 1836); also in Ohio
Executive Documents, 1836, I, 65-79.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 39
regard to the geological structure and
mineral resources" of their
state.39 When Professor
Silliman had the opportunity to read it he
commented in his Journal of Science:
This report is the result of a
reconnaissance of the State of Ohio, under
the direction of Dr. Hildreth, whose
eminent qualifications for the dis-
charge of this duty have been often made
apparent in the pages of this
Journal. The prevailing argument with popular
legislators, namely, that
of utility, in the sense of pecuniary
advantage, is fully sustained in this
preliminary report. . . . We cannot
doubt that the legislature of Ohio will
provide, on a liberal scale, for the
expense of the survey, which, however,
we must presume, will exceed the
estimate of $12,000.40
The legislature did provide for a start
of such a survey under act
of March 27, 1837, and W. W. Mather, a
West Point graduate then
an assistant on the geological survey of
New York, was appointed
to superintend the work.41 As
first assistant geologist and palaeon-
tologist, Hildreth contributed a major
part of the first survey publi-
cation.42 References to his
findings contained therein have been
made by many later workers in the same
field. That portion of his
report dealing with salt springs and the
early history of salt manu-
facture in Ohio was reprinted less than
ten years ago in a mineral
resources series published by Ohio State
University's Engineering
Experiment Station.43 When
two of the outstanding Ohio geologists
of our time, Wilber Stout, former state
geologist, and G. F. Lamb,
professor emeritus, Mount Union College,
were reworking some of
his territory, they referred to
"that great scientist and master mind,
Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta,"
before making use of a lengthy
quotation from another section of his
work in the survey volume.44
39 J. S. Newberry, Chief Geologist, in Report
of the Geological Survey of Ohio
(Columbus, 1873), I, Part I, 1.
40 American Journal of Science and Arts, XXXII (1837), 190.
41 Newberry, Geological Survey, I, 2; Whittlesey, "Personnel of
the First Geological
Survey," 75.
42 W. W. Mather, First Annual Report
on the Geological Survey of the State of
Ohio (Columbus, 1838). The report of the "First
Assistant Geologist, and
Palaeontologist," covers pages
25-63.
43 Samuel
P. Hildreth and W. R. Harris and E. J. Corell, Ohio's Mineral Resources.
III. Salt (Ohio State University
Studies, Engineering Series, XIV, July 1945, Engin-
eering Experiment Station Circular
No. 47), Part I, 1-12.
44 Wilber Stout and G. F. Lamb,
"Physiographic Features of Southeastern Ohio,"
Ohio Journal of Science, XXXVIII (1938), as issued in Reprint Series No. 1,
Geological Survey of Ohio (Columbus,
1939), 12.
40
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Dr. Stout furnishes a nice compendium of
Hildreth's diversified
interests and talents in the first
paragraph of his Foreword to the
salt reprint:
Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth of Marietta was
an outstanding naturalist of his
day and his writings have proved
interesting and useful. By profession he
was a doctor of medicine but by general
training he was a keen geologist
and physiographer, was well versed in
botany and zoology, and knew much
about soils and agriculture. The phenomenon
of weather was another of his
interests and his observations, carried
on for many years, were the earliest
trustworthy reports of this character in
Ohio. His report on the geology of
the Ohio Valley in 1836 was pioneer work
of merit and was well received
not only in America but also in foreign
countries. He was an able scientist
who ranked equally high as a writer. His
language flows smoothly and
rapidly and his descriptions are
definitive and distinctive.45
Evidence of the broad scope of his
activities and associations as
a naturalist was seen in a natural
history exhibit arranged by Pro-
fessor Russell Lee Walp in conjunction
with a larger library display
at Marietta College set up during the
June 1953 commencement
period as a contribution by this school
to the observance of the
sesquicentennial of Ohio's statehood.
Included among the thirty-
five items in the exhibit were a
portfolio containing forty-two hand-
colored plates by Hildreth showing
flowers, fruits, clams, human
anatomy, reptiles, amphibians, and
twenty-three life cycles of in-
sects; the manuscript of his
meteorological journal for 1831-37; his
article in the American Journal of
Science and Arts (XIV, 1828) in
which he describes two new species of
clams; a specimen from the
Hildreth Cabinet of the clam which Isaac
Lea named in his honor;
letters to Hildreth from Joseph Henry,
first secretary of the Smith-
sonian Institution, John L. Riddell,
Thomas Say, Louis Agassiz,
Charles Whittlesey, and Leo Lesquereux;
and the manuscript copy
of the resolution from the trustees of
Marietta College acknowledg-
ing the receipt of the Hildreth Cabinets
dated July 26, 1850.46
Any readers of the American Farmer in
1824 who knew some-
45 See footnote reference 43 above,
p.iv.
46 The
items are cataloged in The Ohio Country: An Exhibition of Manuscript and
Other Materials in the Library (Marietta College, 1953), 39-44.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 41
thing of Hildreth's many other pursuits
could readily accept without
scorn his admission, "I am not a
regular farmer, having only four
acres under cultivation." Others,
after reading the brief account of
his practices and productions on this
small acreage, must have ap-
preciated that here was a professional
man who could talk on
familiar terms with farmers.47 He
devoted more attention to his
home garden, however, than to his
"farm"--and over a longer
period of time. He still was rising at 5
o'clock and working in the
garden until breakfast at 6:30 five
weeks before his death.48 John
Eaton (president of Marietta College,
1885-91) says:
His fondness for the study of botany
stimulated his attention to the culti-
vation of plants and flowers, both
domestic and exotic, and his garden be-
came known as the best in Southeastern
Ohio. There he studied not only the
nature and characteristics of plants,
but of the insects which preyed upon
them.49
If a man continues gardening before
breakfast until he is almost
eighty, it can be argued conversely that
his great interest in growing
things may have stimulated attention to
botany and entomology.
Professor Silliman said "he loved
nature with the simple enthusiasm
of a child."50 There are
many indications in his writings that an
insatiable curiosity plus pure enjoyment
of what nature had pro-
vided kept him interested in natural
phenomena. In Hildreth's
opinion, nature even compensated him
richly for the long rides he
had to make in his professional
practice, along poor roads, through
woodlands, across fields, across
streams. "If the country physician
has many trials and privations, he has
also numerous sources of
enjoyment. In his solitary rides, he is
not alone, but the voice and
the smiling face of nature salute him on
every side." And he found
changing enjoyments as one season
followed another.51
47 S. P. Hildreth, "Ohio,
Interesting Facts, in Connection with Its Climate, Soil,
and Productions," American
Farmer, V (1824), 11-12.
48 According to a letter of Hildreth's, June 17, 1863, quoted in New
England
Historical and Genealogical Register,
XVIII (1864), 102.
49 John Eaton, "Samuel
Prescott Hildreth, M. D.," Memorial Biographies of the
New England Historic Genealogical
Society, V (Boston, 1894), 262.
50 American
Journal of Science and Arts, 2d ser.,
XXXVI (1863), 313.
51 Medical Convention of Ohio, Proceedings, 1839, 35.
42
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
During nearly half of his life Hildreth
kept a daily journal of
weather observations. The principal
reason must have been that he
wanted to, but the result was another
contribution to the store of
information that he compiled for general
use. At the end of a
year he made an abstract, which together
with interesting com-
mentary he submitted to the Journal
of Science. In a footnote to
what was to be his last annual report
the editors commented:
Dr. Hildreth's first Abstract of
Meteorological Observations (for 1828
[1826]) was published in the 16th [12th]
volume of the 1st series of this
Journal (1829 [1827]). The series has
been uninterrupted to the present
time, and this is therefore the 35th
[37th] contribution. . . . Our oldest
readers will rejoice that the life of
our venerable correspondent has been
continued to complete another of his
annual contributions.52
Much of Hildreth's weather information
has been preserved also in
a Smithsonian publication.53
The report on the geology of the Ohio
Valley to which Dr. Stout
refers in the excerpt from his Foreword
to the salt reprint, is in
the form of a long magazine article and
is Hildreth's greatest con-
tribution to the literature of geology.
Extensive field investigation
had to precede the sizeable job of
organizing and writing this report,
which, with a six-page appendix, leaves
room for nothing else ex-
cept some brief "miscellanies"
in one issue of Silliman's Journal.54
That this work quickly spread
recognition of its author far from
Ohio is shown by the following
introductory statement of a review
published in England shortly after the
article's appearance:
This is, perhaps, the most important
geological memoir that has been
52 American Journal of Science and
Arts, 2d ser., XXXV (1863), 181.
53 Charles A. Schott, "Results of
Meteorological Observations Made at Marietta,
Ohio, Between 1826 and 1859, Inclusive,
by S. P. Hildreth, to Which Are Added
Results of Observations Taken at
Marietta by Mr. Joseph Wood, Between 1817 and
1823," in Smithsonian
Contributions to Knowledge, XVI (1870), Article IV.
54 "Observations on the Bituminous
Coal Deposits of the Valley of the Ohio, and
the Accompanying Rock Strata; with
Notices of the Fossil Organic Remains and the
Relics of Vegetable and Animal Bodies,
Illustrated by a Geological Map, by Numerous
Drawings of Plants and Shells, and by
Views of Interesting Scenery," American
Journal of Science and Arts, XXIX (1836), 1-148. The Appendix (pp. 149-154)
by Samuel George Morton, M. D., is
entitled "Being a Notice and Description of the
Organic Remains Embraced in the
Preceding Paper."
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 43
recently published, if we take into
account the amount and extent of the
mineral treasures which it develops, and
their immense value to the rapidly
increasing population of the United
States on the western side of the
ranges of the Alleghany Mountains.55
Charles Lyell, one of the great
personalities of the period when
geology was gaining its place in the
circle of generally recognized
scientific studies,56 found
the observations of Hildreth in that article
useful to him during the pertinent part
of his American tour in
1841-42.57 His travels led him down the Ohio Valley, thus afford-
ing him the opportunity to examine
"with Dr. Hildreth, some of the
upper-most beds of the
coal-measures."58 During his Marietta stop-
over of a day or two, the distinguished
English geologist was a
guest in the home beside the courthouse.59
Hildreth's apparent eagerness for
getting next to nature in the
field to examine her offerings makes
more notable the self-discipline
which resulted in his voluminous
production of writing. His zest
for unbounded inquiry was matched by a
diligence for recording
his findings. His interest, as geologist
and historian, in past actions
of both nature and man was supplemented
by a belief that the
knowledge there to be uncovered and
recorded had inherent value
for the future. This belief is what he
is stressing to governor and
legislators in his report on the
possibilities of a complete geological
and archaeological survey of Ohio. His
introductions to Pioneer
History and Lives of the Early Pioneer Settlers reveal a
sense of
mission for handing down to posterity an
appreciation of its heritage
and for preserving facts he feels will
be useful to later historians.
Hildreth generally was looking ahead,
his vision at times extend-
ing far beyond the range of
contemporaries. An illustration of this
has been noted by Dr. Hatcher:
55 Review signed "B" in the Magazine
of Natural History and Journal of Zoology,
Botany, Mineralogy, Geology and
Meterology, LVIII (London, 1836), 111.
56 See Sir Archibald Geikie, The Founders of Geology (London,
1897), 281-282.
57 Charles Lyell, Travels in North
America, in the Years 1841-2; with Geological
Observations on the United States,
Canada, and Nova Scotia (2 vols., New
York,
1845), II, 208-209.
58 Ibid., 35.
59 Marietta Intelligencer, May 26, 1842.
44
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
One of the many great men on the Ohio
frontier who, in our day, would
have been notable scientists was Doctor
Hildreth of Marietta. He had ob-
served as early as 1819 the oil and gas
which annoyed the producers of salt
in the Ohio salt wells. . . . Hildreth
saw that this oil, when properly
burned, made a clear light that was far
superior to candles and lard and
more economical. He predicted that the
day would come when it would
even light the streets of cities in
Ohio. No one paid serious attention.60
This prediction of petroleum's future
usefulness, made forty years
before the drilling of the historic
Drake well at Titusville, Pennsyl-
vania, was published by Silliman in 1826
from a manuscript dated
in 1819.61 Hildreth had mentioned the
production of "Seneca oil,
a kind of petroleum," even earlier.
His article concerning Marietta
and vicinity in the Medical
Repository in 1809 says the oil was ob-
tained from creek beds where it bubbled
up when the water was
low.62
Very early he suggested large-scale
production of wine from native
grapes as a promising venture for
Washington County and reported
that "half grapes and half cider,
with the addition of some spirit,"
afforded "a very palatable
liquor."63 Whether any contemporary
paid serious attention to this
commercial opportunity is a matter
lying in a field not so fully explored
as the early local history of oil
operations.
In his Athens and Cleveland addresses,
Hildreth proposed studies
which the medical profession might take
up to advance its progress.
Waller credits him with setting people
thinking about forestry.64
After visiting Niagara Falls on his trip
back East with Mrs.
Hildreth in 1839, his comment, as set
down in his journal, char-
acteristically pointed to future
possibilities but was tinged with
pessimism. He wrote:
60 Harlan H. Hatcher, The Western
Reserve: The Story of New Connecticut in
Ohio (Indianapolis, 1949), 248.
61 American Journal of Science and
Arts, X (1826), 5. An explanatory note by
the editor at the beginning of the
article says, "Although the communications of Dr.
Hildreth to Mr. Atwater are dated in
1819, the information appears to be valuable
and interesting."
62 Medical Repository, 2d ser., VI (1809), 363.
63 "Observations on the Climate and Productions of Washington County,
Ohio,"
American Journal of Science and Arts,
XII (1827), 209.
64 Waller,
"Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth, 1783-1863," 328.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 45
The rapids above will furnish an immense
amount of water power with-
out much injuring the grandeur of the
falls; but I expect the time will come
when the plodding Yankee will get
possession here and divert the whole
of the stream for the purpose of
manufactures, and spoil the beauty of these
grandest of all grand water falls, as
they have diverted and ruined the falls
of my own dear little native Spickett,
in Methuen.65
Hildreth's contributions to his home
community, through civic,
educational, business, and philanthropic
activities, along with his
professional services, were numerous--as
a perusal of a half-cen-
tury file of local newspapers will show.
In connection with a ref-
erence to some of his work, Editor R. M.
Stimson wrote in the
Marietta Register within a year after the doctor's death that he
"was
perhaps, the most useful citizen
Marietta ever has had."66 With all
his many interests and in spite of the
fact that he is remembered
mostly for spare-time accomplishments,
it was his work as a physi-
cian, which he continued faithfully
until seventy-eight years of age,
that was Hildreth's great love. This
becomes clear with a reading
of the concluding portion of his address
to the 1839 medical con-
vention.67 Even here, though,
it will be noted that an added at-
traction of the profession for him was
its compatibility in his day
with a working interest in natural
science. The seed of this interest
was sown in a New England boyhood and
then, like his medical
practice, was transplanted at an early
age into Ohio, where its fruits
were produced.
* * *
This pioneer doctor of Ohio was born
September 30, 1783, on a
farm in the Town of Methuen,
Massachusetts. He was named for
his father, Dr. Samuel Hildreth, and a
paternal great-grandmother
who was a Prescott.68 The
elder Dr. Samuel was a surgeon of militia
early in the Revolution and was present
at the surrender of Burgoyne
65 Hildreth Family, 221.
66 Marietta
Register, January 15, 1864.
67 What he said at that time must
have continued to sound all right to him, for he
reworked the same sentiments in an article
after he had passed seventy: "The
Pleasures and Privations of
Physicians," Medical Counselor, II (1856), 217-221.
68 Hildreth Family, 40.
46
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
at Saratoga.69 Later, after
serving as a ship's surgeon, he spent two
and a half years as a British prisoner
of war in Canada.70
Among the many things of nature which
interested the New Eng-
land farm boy were the crystals in the
granitic boulders used for
fences. Commenting in middle age, he
wrote:
At that time mineralogy was unknown as a
science in America, but since
my acquaintance with minerals has been
more enlarged, I have often thought
that many of those which I then so much
admired might have been valuable
specimens for a cabinet. At this early
period was the seed sown in my
youthful mind, which has since produced
that love of natural science which
has followed me all my days, and been a
never failing source of enjoyment
admidst the perplexities of life.71
After receiving the common school
education afforded in Methuen,
young Hildreth at the age of fifteen
entered Phillips Academy at
Andover, Massachusetts. Altogether, he
had four terms of academy
life at Andover and Franklin academies.
He taught school before
the end of his academy training and also
during the period of his
medical studies.72 After studying medicine, first under
his father
and then under Dr. Kittredge of Andover,
and serving an appren-
ticeship, he rounded out his
professional training with an eight-
weeks course of lectures at Harvard
Medical School. In February
1805 he was examined by the censors of
the Massachusetts Medical
Society and awarded a diploma
proclaiming him to be qualified to
practice "physic and surgery."73
The young doctor hung out his
"shingle" in Hampstead, New
Hampshire, not many miles from the
parental home, the following
May. He boarded with the family of John
True, whose brother
Jabez was a doctor who had gone out to
the Marietta settlement in
the Ohio Country in the summer of 1788.74
Hildreth knew about
69 Ibid., 20.
70 Ibid., 37.
71 Ibid., 99.
72 Ibid., 129, et seq.; Hildreth, "Biographical
Sketches of the Early Physicians of
Marietta, Ohio," 143.
73 Hildreth Family, 154-155; Eaton, "Samuel Prescott Hildreth,
M.D.," 256.
74 Hildreth, "Biographical Sketches
of the Early Physicians of Marietta, Ohio,"
48, 143; Eaton, "Samuel Prescott Hildreth,
M.D.," 256.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 47
Ohio. His father owned shares in the
Ohio Company of Associates
and sometimes had talked of selling out
in New England and mov-
ing to that new country--only to be
persuaded by Mrs. Hildreth to
lay aside such an idea.75 The
news which came in Dr. True's com-
munications interested the young man and
whetted a desire which
his father's talk had initiated.
Eventually there came from Dr. True
an invitation for Hildreth to come to
Marietta and an offer of as-
sistance toward his getting started in a
practice there. In August of
1806 his mind was made up. He collected
what accounts he could
from his sixteen months of practice in
Hampstead, bade his family
and friends farewell, and, on September
9, headed for Ohio on
horseback with his possessions packed in
a portmanteau.76
When the twenty-three-year-old doctor
crossed the Ohio River
forty miles below Wheeling and entered
the new state of Ohio
October 2, 1806, he was acquainted with
none of the 80,000 or so
inhabitants scattered over its more than
40,000 square miles. On his
arrival in Marietta Saturday afternoon,
October 4, he found lodg-
ings at a tavern and then looked up the
one person in Ohio with
whom he had established contact. Dr.
True took him to the Con-
gregational meetinghouse next day and
the young man discovered
he really was not among strangers after
all. Most Mariettans were
transplanted New Englanders like
himself. He found that he even
shared mutual acquaintances with some of
them.77
The new doctor had been in town only
four days when he re-
ceived an invitation to move twelve
miles farther down the valley
to Belpre, then destitute of medical
service. Nine weeks later,
with the invitation from Belpre citizens
pressed further, he moved
to the smaller settlement.78
In Belpre, during 1807, Hildreth fought
an epidemic of "ma-
larious fever" and got married. His
bride was the twenty-one-year-
old Rhoda Cook, also an emigrant from
Massachusetts, who had
75 Hildreth Family, 56-59. Following his wife's death, the elder
Dr. Hildreth did
make the journey to Marietta in the
spring of 1823. In August of that year he suc-
cumbed to the epidemic fever in the Ohio
Valley. His is the oldest in the row of
Hildreth family graves in Mound
Cemetery, Marietta.
76 Hildreth Family, 160-162.
77 Ibid., 178-182.
78 Ibid., 181, 184.
48
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
come to Ohio two years before he had.79 Samuel and Rhoda
Hildreth began married life in the home
of the latter's widowed
mother in Belpre. In considering a
permanent home of their own,
they talked of going to Cincinnati,
but--says Hildreth in the journal
published posthumously--"Mother
Cook was opposed to it, and we
finally concluded to settle in
Marietta." In March 1808 they loaded
their goods into a keelboat and made the
move.80 They resided in
Marietta the remainder of their lives.
Mariettans read the following card in
the Ohio Gazette of April
13, 1808:
Physician and Surgeon.
SAMUEL P. HILDRETH
Respectfully 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 with as little
expense as pos-
sible. He may be found at any hour by
calling at the
mansion of the late Col. Sproat.81
The house which was the first Marietta
home of the Hildreths
was built by Colonel Ebenezer Sproat,
first sheriff of Washington
County, sometime during the Indian Wars,
1790-95. Commodore
and Mrs. Abraham Whipple, parents of
Mrs. Sproat, shared the
home for a while. Colonel Sproat died in
1805 and his widow went
to live with the Whipples, who had moved
to a farm outside the
town. The house thereafter was occupied
by various tenants prior
to its occupancy by the Hildreths.82
Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., then
a judge on the Ohio Supreme Court, was a
near neighbor. Between
their homes stood the Congregational
church. Across the road was
the common bordering the Muskingum
River. (The Sproat house
no longer stands; the Meigs house still
is a private residence in
1955.) It was in the Sproat house, which
the Hildreths rented for
$70 per year, that the first of the six
children of Samuel and Rhoda
79 Ibid., 185, 297.
80 Ibid., 186-187.
81 As reprinted in the Marietta
Register, May 29, 1863, in No. II of a series based
on "Old Marietta Papers."
82 Part II of "Our Old Homes,"
in Marietta Register, May 23, 1884.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 49
was born, May 13, 1808. This was Mary
Ann, who twenty-three
years later became the wife of Douglas
Putnam, a great-grandson of
General Israel Putnam.83
In 1809 the rented property was
purchased by Captain Daniel
Greene (cousin of General Nathanael),
and the Hildreths moved
again, this time into a home of their
own.84 In the spring of that
year the doctor had purchased a small
house, not quite finished, that
was located almost across the street
from the courthouse and ad-
joining the property given by the late
Colonel Sproat to the county
which was to be the site of the second
and third (present) court-
houses, built in 1822 and 1901,
respectively.85
This new home was a two-story brick
structure with a one-story
frame addition. It had been started for
Timothy Gates, from whom
Hildreth purchased it. The brick
construction was the work of
Nathan McIntosh, who had received in
payment from Mr. Gates
one hundred acres of land near Beverly,
another settlement in Wash-
ington County up the Muskingum Valley.
Hildreth acquired the
property for $600, which he was able to
pay from his earnings in
Belpre plus the aid of $50 from his
father. In his leisure hours
Hildreth did much of the work of
finishing the house, himself. By
the time it was completed it had cost
him $1,000.86
This was to be home for Samuel and Rhoda
Hildreth the rest of
their years--although the house, like
the Hildreth family, was to
become considerably larger. The
two-story brick structure built so
early in the nineteenth century, with
classical doorway opening
toward the courthouse, is the rear,
lower-ceilinged part of the
Hildreth House as it stands today at
211-213 Putnam Street.
Hildreth's brief mention in his
autobiography of the more imposing
front part gives only the following
information: "In 1824, I com-
83 Hildreth Family, 187, 313.
84 Marietta Register, May 23, 1884; Wilson Waters, The History of St. Luke's
Church, Marietta, Ohio (Marietta, 1884), 244.
85 Hildreth Family, 190; Public Forum letter signed "G.M.W." in Marietta
Register, October 27, 1898; folder dated November 15, 1902,
issued in connection with
formal opening of new Washington County
courthouse.
86 Hildreth Family, 190; Marietta Register, May 9, 1884; Wilson Waters, Para-
graphs, Portraits and Pictures
Supplementary to the History of St. Luke's Church,
Marietta, Ohio (n.p., 1911), 4.
50
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
menced building a new dwelling house. It
was of brick and three
stories. I was led to this from the need
of more room for my en-
larged family, now amounting to five
children, and from the
numerous debts due to me from mechanics.
It was completed in
the year 1825."87
* * *
Anyone looking at the old Hildreth House
today from Marietta's
courthouse corner will have to exert
full power of imagination to
visualize the setting it once dominated.
Concrete extends from the
parking-meter-studded curb to the
gray-painted front wall. There
is no trace of the garden that
"became known as the best in South-
eastern Ohio." The exertion will be
rewarding if it can bring a
mental picture even remotely resembling
the description recorded
by a young lady teacher shortly after
her arrival in Marietta from the
East--122 years ago:
Last night I returned Dr. and Mrs.
Hildreth's call. They live in an
elegant brick house opposite the
Institute, surrounded by trees; after sit-
ting some time, we were invited into
their spacious garden, where we
passed nearly an hour; it is filled with
peach, quince, pear and apple trees
loaded with fruit, a great profusion of
grapes, of ten different kinds,
flowers of indigenous and exotic origin,
comprising a variety of two hundred,
and under the shade of the grape vines,
a number of bee hives. Loaded with
flowers and invitations to come again
and attended with their second son
[George], we bade them good night, very
much pleased with our call.88
This, it will be noted, was a place of
neighborliness. Wrote the
Rev. Dr. J. T. Wheat, who lived in
Marietta from 1833 to 1836 as
first rector of St. Luke's Episcopal
Church:
Dr. Hildreth, my family physician, who
gave us the lot for the church,
was the best neighbor I ever knew, not
only giving his eminent professional
services gratuitously, but constantly
supplying my table with the finest fruits
87 Hildreth Family, 208-209.
88 Excerpt from a letter of Miss Deborah
T. Wells (later Mrs. D. P. Bosworth)
dated August 5, 1832, to her mother in
Portland, Maine, as reproduced by Waters in
History of St. Luke's Church, 33.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 51
and vegetables, besides having us
frequently to tea, when he had an unusual
display of rare flowers.89
And it was a place of happy family
living--a home in which three
sons and three daughters were reared.
Wrote the elderly Professor
Silliman in his eulogy to his departed
friend, "In his family, we have
seen a beautiful example of domestic
happiness and warm hearted
hospitality."90
With these excerpts from statements of contemporaries,
it becomes
easier to see the Hildreth House,
together with its garden, as a
setting for gracious living and
stimulating conversations. There
were the discussions between Hildreth
and visiting scientists. Much
besides physical ailments must have been
talked over in the doctor's
office when callers included local men
with whom he was associated
in developing an institution of higher
learning, or establishing a
county agricultural society, or trying
to bring a railroad to Marietta.
There must have been some interesting
sessions as the three sons
grew to adulthood. The first two
followed in their father's profes-
sion, Dr. Charles Cook Hildreth
(1811-1889) practicing in Zanes-
ville, and George, a year younger than
Charles, becoming associated
with his father in 1835. The third,
Samuel Prescott, Jr. (1819-
1875), was pastor of the Presbyterian
church in Dresden, Ohio.91
It was the kind of home the late Rufus
Cutler Dawes was talking
about in his speech at the dedication of
the Betsey Mills Club build-
ing in Marietta, which incorporates the
house in which were born
his aunt, Mrs. Betsey Gates Mills, in
1853, and his elder brother,
Charles Gates Dawes, in 1865. Said Rufus
Dawes on that occasion
in June 1927:
Beautiful homes were built [in early
Marietta], more costly and more
tasteful than any that have been erected
since; broad streets were laid out
and planted with the elms so dear to all
New Englanders; ample spaces and
89 From
a letter written sometime between 1875 and 1882 by Wheat "in response
to a request for some recollections of
his ministry in Marietta, and printed originally
in St. Luke's Chronicle." Waters,
History of St. Luke's Church, 95. Hildreth, him-
self, was a member of the Congregational
Church. See obituary in the Marietta
Register, July 31, 1863.
90 American Journal of Science and Arts, 2d ser., XXXVI (1863), 313.
91 Eaton, "Samuel Prescott Hildreth, M.D.," 257-258.
52
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
gardens surrounded these old homes and
in them there existed an atmos-
phere of dignity and charm, of solid
discussion and of sprightly conversa-
tion that will live forever in the
memories of those who were fortunate
enough to have had any part in it, as
being at once the most stimulating
experience in all their human contacts.92
The Hildreth House has survived into the
present time as an ex-
pression of the high standards of
civilized living which the builders
of Ohio were determined to establish for
their heirs. Maybe on-the-
spot visual evidence is no longer
sufficient in 1955 to bear this out,
but a review of what was recorded in
that early period and remem-
bered by one or two succeeding
generations surely brings out the
validity of this for us.
It was more than ninety years ago that
the pioneer physician,
scientist, and cultivated man of many
interests who made this home
died in it. Dr. Hildreth had been
showing his usual good health
and happy frame of mind. He attended the
Congregational church,
as he regularly did, Sunday morning,
July 5, 1863, but was unable
to go back for the Sunday evening
service. His brief illness ended
in death July 24--in the eightieth year
of life and his fifty-seventh
year as a valuable citizen of Ohio.93
Rhoda Cook Hildreth, to whom also must
go much credit for the
character of the old home, died Sunday
morning, June 21, 1868.94
The bachelor son of Samuel and Rhoda
continued to live in the
home thirty-five years longer and for
most of that period continued
to practice medicine in the office which
he had shared so many years
with his father. It was another Sunday
morning, May 3, 1903, that
George, the last of three generations of
Dr. Hildreths and the last
in his grandfather's line to bear the
family name, died in the home.95
George, born in the early home beside
the old courthouse, was
92 Address of dedication at Betsey Mills
Club, evening of June 13, 1927, as
printed in the Marietta Daily Times, June
14, 1927.
93 Marietta Register, July 31, 1863.
94 Ibid., June 25, 1868.
95 Daily Register (Marietta), May 4, 1903; Marietta Daily Times,
May 4, 1903.
George's elder brother, Charles, had no
issue; his younger brother, Samuel P., Jr.,
had no sons; his father's one brother,
Dr. Charles T. Hildreth of Boston, left no
children. See Hildreth Family, 302,
314, 317.
S. P. HILDRETH AND HIS HOME 53
twelve years old when the large
three-story addition was being built.
After graduating from Ohio University
(1829) and Transylvania
University at Lexington, Kentucky
(1835), he entered medical prac-
tice in Marietta and continued there
with the exception of four years
spent in California, during an exciting
period of California his-
tory--1849-53.96 In addition
to the medical practice, he carried on
some of the other interests of the
elder Dr. Hildreth, including the
meteorological record. In the 1873
volume of the second Geolog-
ical Survey of Ohio, Newberry says that
among those to whom
"we are under special obligations
for favors of unusual value, and
such as will not be fully acknowledged
elsewhere" is Dr. G. O.
Hildreth of Marietta.97 Tables
of temperature and rainfall at
Marietta for the years 1860-71
furnished by him are included in the
volume.98 While still
working with his father, George served on
the faculty of Marietta College as
lecturer on natural science, 1840-
43.99 And he kept up the unusual garden
which had engaged so
much of his father's attention. There
are Mariettans today who recall
watching the elderly man at work on the
premises. A letter received
by this writer and his wife in 1949
from a former resident who since
has died at an advanced age contains
these recollections:
He was a tall old-fashioned gentleman
with a kindly face, and was very
fond of children. He had a hobby of
developing types of flowers by
chemical treatment of the soil,
especially peonies of all colors. They really
became famous. Even passersby and
children were often seen peeking
through the old wrought iron fence to
watch the old gentleman pruning
and digging. He would call the children
in and give them cookies.
Dr. George Hildreth, in his
ninety-first year, died intestate, leav-
ing twelve nieces and nephews, a great
nephew, and a great niece
as his heirs at law. His personal goods
and various assets, appraised
at $30,078.94 before last expenses,
were distributed under the
administration of Samuel H. Putnam of
Marietta, one of the
96 See obituaries in Times and Register,
May 4, 1903.
97 Newberry, Geological Survey, I, 14.
98 Ibid, 654-655.
99 George J. Blazier, Marietta
College Biographical Record of the Officers and
Alumni (Including Non-graduates) (Marietta, 1928), 19.
54
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
nephews.100 The old homestead
was disposed of separately. There
was a petition for partition of the
property among the heirs, just as
there was to be fifty-one years later
when it again became involved
in the settlement of an estate. On
October 31, 1903, in public
auction at the door of the courthouse,
from where bidders could
view the property, the home was sold by
Sheriff J. C. Morrow to
Jerry Buckley of Marietta, "highest
and best bidder," at $14,200,
"said sum being more than
two-thirds of the appraised value" of
$17,000.101 After that, the venerable
Hildreth House began its new
career as a downtown commercial
building.
100 Washington County Probate Court,
Inventory Record, XXI, 305 et seq.; Record
of Accounts, XXII, 390 et seq.
101 Washington County Court of Common
Pleas, Elizabeth E. Putnam v. Samuel H.
Putnam, et al., Case No. 10343, filed June 19,
1903, Final Record, XCIII, 154-166.
Doctor S. P. Hildreth
and His Home
By ERMAN DEAN SOUTHWICK*
In his chapter on "Ohio's Taste in
Houses" in The Buckeye
Country, Harlan H. Hatcher writes: "Marietta has the
Hildreth
House with the design of its striking
arched and columned doorway
reproduced in the second and third story
windows above it; the
Exchange Hotel with the same feature;
and the Mills House, built
in 1820, with its unique steps and iron
railing."1
Actually, the old Exchange Hotel, its
days of renown long since
gone, was finished off by flood and fire
in 1937, before Dr. Hatcher's
book appeared in print. The Mills House
was in the same year,
more fortunately, given a promising
renaissance as a result of its
acquisition by Marietta College.
Remodeled to serve as the pres-
ident's residence, it presents a
charming scene on its elevated site
across from the campus, continuing to
reflect "Ohio's [good] Taste
in Houses." As for the Hildreth
House, a commercialized structure
in downtown Marietta since early in this
century, it entered into the
uncertain state of involvement in a
property partition suit in the
spring of 1954.2
It is referred to as the Hildreth House
less frequently and by
fewer Mariettans than in former years. A
dry-cleaning business
occupies one side of the ground floor.
The other side has the office
and sales room of an automobile service
establishment, which ex-
tends into a repair garage attached at
the rear of the original build-
ing and covering most of the balance of
the lot. Dental offices are
on the second floor and an apartment on
the third. The central
doorway with sidelights and fanlight,
the side doorway of classical
style and proportions, and the windows
above the non-conforming
* Erman Dean Southwick is a resident of
Marietta, where he is associate editor
of the Marietta Daily Times.
1 Harlan H. Hatcher, The Buckeye
Country: A Pageant of Ohio (rev. ed., New
York, 1947), 222.
2 Washington County Court of Common
Pleas, Nellie B. Swartz v. Howard G.
Buckley, et al., Case No. 23343. (Since the
foregoing was written, the house has
been sold at sheriff's sale to
Washington County. It is tentatively planned to use the
main portion of the building for county
offices.)
30