AN ANCESTOR OF OHIO MEDICINE:
FAIRFIELD MEDICAL SCHOOL (1812-1840)*
by HOWARD DITTRICK
Over the scenic terrain of northern
Pennsylvania, along the
Allegheny and Susquehanna rivers,
through picturesque Wyalusing
and historic Azilium, we turned
northward toward the Mohawk
Valley of central New York. The purpose
of our pilgrimage was
to visit the historic village of
Fairfield, and so we proceeded through
the Royal Grants along West Canada
Creek as it came tumbling
down from the foothills of the
Adirondacks to pour its black
waters into the Mohawk. Finally we
arrived at Fairfield, high up
on a plateau four miles east and seven
hundred feet above the
village of Middleville. My wife and I
had been invited to participate
in the annual meeting of alumni of
Fairfield Academy.
This school had functioned almost one
hundred years, but we
recalled it as the former seat of a
renowned medical school. Academy
buildings were erected about two sides
of a quadrangle, and trees
were planted by successive classes.
Today there remain the neatly
kept campus and the class trees, but
the only building is the Old
Chapel, now a meeting place for the
local Grange. Academy
alumni tell of laborious stoking of
wood stoves with weather
twenty below zero.
On July 4, 1802, an enthusiastic
Presbyterian minister, the Rev.
Caleb Alexander, and the cooperative
Captain Moses Mather led
Fairfield pioneers in assembling
materials, labor, and capital, and
together they erected the framework of
the Old Chapel.1 The
following year the school was
incorporated, with the Rev. Mr.
Alexander as president at $300 per
year. In 1809 a stone laboratory
was constructed for teaching chemistry
and anatomy.2 This proved
popular among local physicians, and in
1812 a complete medical
*Read before the Committee on Medical
History and Archives of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society at
its annual meeting, held at the Ohio State
Museum, April 5, 1952.
1 Carl Peterson, "Fairfield
Academy," New York History, XXXI (1950), 41-46.
2 Fairfield Alumni Directory (Fairfield, N.Y., 1936).
365
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
course was organized. The medical
department was known as the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of
the Western District of
New York. In 1833 enrollment was 217
students,3 exceeded only
by the medical schools of Philadelphia
and Transylvania. Before
the coming of the railroads and the
building of the Erie Canal,
Fairfield despite its hilltop location
was as favorably located as
many other towns. Unfortunately, with
improved transportation
Fairfield was by-passed by medical
schools at Geneva, Albany, and
later Buffalo, which lay more in the
path of progress. With the
growth of these cities greater
conveniences attracted more students,
and the number at Fairfield decreased
accordingly. In 1840, after
having graduated 555 physicians, the
medical school was closed.
Fairfield Academy, however, continued
to function. Shortly before
this, Presbyterian President Caleb
Alexander had resigned. Trinity
Church offered to up the salary to $750
if an Episcopal clergyman
was named in his stead. Thus for a time
the school was known as a
divinity school. In 1844 "South
College" was occupied as a female
seminary. In 1891 the war department
installed a department of
military training. Progressive changes
were unavailing; free
secondary schools made pay institutions
like Fairfield unnecessary
and in 1901 the academy was closed.
Some Fairfield objects have found their
way to the Howard
Dittrick Museum of Historical Medicine.
Besides pamphlets and
clippings, there is a license to
practice issued by the Medical Society
of the State of New York to Roeliff
Bevier, M.D. (1839), Fairfield.
He practiced in Plymouth, Ohio, for
forty years and was censor
of Wooster Medical College. This
license and a catalog of faculty
and students, dated October 1811, were
donated by F. C. Waite.
A print of the chapel, one of the group
of buildings, and photo-
stats of other Fairfield documents were
gifts of Reba Helligas of
the Herkimer County Historical Society.
In the home of this
society in Herkimer is an entire room
containing Fairfield
memorabilia, catalogs, lecture cards,
diplomas, and photographs.
A book of botanic specimens collected
by Asa Gray, and the record
3 T. W. Clarke, "The Birth of
Medical Education in Upstate New York," New
York State Journal of Medicine, XLIII, No. 16 (August 15, 1943).
An Ancestor of Ohio Medicine 367
of proceedings of the medical school,
neatly written in long hand,
are two precious volumes.
Popularity of the school was doubtless
due to ability of the
teachers. T. Romeyn Beck, in 1823,
published the first American
book on medical jurisprudence,
including a chapter on infanticide
written by his brother in 1817.4
The book went through four English,
one German, and five American editions.
James Hadley, professor
of chemistry, was a grandfather of
Arthur T. Hadley, president of
Yale. John Stearns, graduate of Yale,
taught theory and practice of
physic. He founded the Medical Society
of the State of New York,
and later was first president of the
New York Academy of Medicine.
A brilliant teacher was the first
professor of surgery, Lyman
Spalding, a graduate of Harvard, and
assistant to Nathan Smith
in founding Dartmouth Medical School.
In New Hampshire he
performed vaccinations and from such
funds he paid Benjamin
Waterhouse twenty-five percent royalty.
Spalding initiated and was
the author of the first U.S.
Pharmacopeia (1820). He was re-
sponsible for bringing to Fairfield the
able G. C. Shattuck of
Boston.
Two teachers were of interest to
Ohioans. John Delamater was
probably the most versatile medical
teacher of his day. He taught
in nine different schools, and his
subjects included pharmacy and
materia medica, midwifery, surgery,
theory and practice of physic,
diseases of women and children, and
pathology. Westel Willoughby
was president of the Fairfield Medical
School and professor of
obstetrics. He was judge of court of
common pleas and a member
of the state assembly in 1807 and of
congress in 1814. In the
village of Chagrin near the mouth of
the Chagrin River a medical
school was founded. The school and
later the village were both
named for him.
Of noted Fairfield students I will
mention only two. John
Gorrie, M.D., 1827, settled in
Columbia, South Carolina. He in-
vented the first ice machine, now in
the Smithsonian. His statue is
in Statuary Hall in Washington. Asa
Gray, M.D., 1831, taught
4 F. L. Kozelka, "Legal Medicine in
the United States," Ciba Symposia, XI, No. 7
(Winter, 1950), 1307.
368
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
botany at Michigan and later at
Harvard. He was recognized as
one of the most eminent botanists of
his time.
Organization was uncomplicated. In the
1811 catalog the subjects
taught were: chemistry, mineralogy, and
materia medica; anatomy
and surgery; institutes of medicine;
and obstetrics. The record book
in the Fairfield Room at Herkimer
reveals some of the requirements
of study. Beginning on the first
Tuesday in November, the pro-
fessor of chemistry gave one daily
lecture throughout the term.
The other professors gave two lectures
a day for a month, at a
time mutually agreed upon.
The record further states that
"young gentlemen" (mark the
young gentlemen) "who have not had
Collegiate education shall
previously to examination give
satisfactory evidence to the President
and Professors that they have an
acquaintance with the latin
language, profess a correct knowledge
of the English Grammar,
natural and experimental philosophy,
and sustain a fair moral
character." It might be noted in
passing that grammar was spelled
with a capital G.
The fee for the course of lectures was
$50.00, each professor
receiving $12.50. "But if any
Gentleman should not choose to
attend all the professors, then he
shall pay $15.00 to every Pro-
fessor he may attend." Each
candidate for the M.D. degree paid
a graduation fee of $20.00, which was
divided between the presi-
dent and professors. "Every
Gentleman who pays for two courses
of lectures shall be entitled to attend
those lectures in future
without any fee."
An unusual provision was instituted at
Fairfield whereby $10
was paid for the analysis of every
mineral substance (not ex-
ceeding five) found in the state of New
York. In addition to the
two terms of lectures, the candidate
for the M.D. degree was re-
quired to spend three years with an
approved preceptor. At the
time of graduation the student
presented and defended a thesis.
In a catalog for the session 1818-19, a
trend is noted that has
never been stopped. "The whole
amount of tuition, at the above
institution is sixty-two dollars fifty
cents," an increase of twenty-five
percent. This was offset by the good
news that "board in the village
An Ancestor of Ohio Medicine 369
can be obtained from one dollar fifty
cents to two dollars per
week." This session likewise began
on the first Tuesday in November
and continued twelve weeks.
The list of students who attended this
medical college is prefaced
as follows: "The following are the
young gentlemen who attended
the Lectures." Never in my day was
such polite language addressed
to medical students. Our status was
either slightly above or below
that of the janitor; I am not sure
which is true.
Of such was the ancestral teaching at
Fairfield. Was there any
connection with Ohio schools? In
northern Ohio we are very con-
scious of this influence; in central
Ohio a direct line is traced; and
in southern Ohio the influence is less
pronounced.
Willoughby University of Lake Erie was
incorporated in Chagrin
in 1834.5 Many earlier
settlers had come from central New York
and were familiar with the Fairfield
school and its president, Westel
Willoughby. Either to confer prestige
or possibly to elicit bene-
factions from this elderly bachelor the
university was named for
him. Four incorporating physicians had
been his students; a majority
of the members of the faculty from 1834
to 1843 had been teachers
or students at Fairfield and that
school formed a model for
Willoughby University. Amasa
Trowbridge, John Delamater, and
J. L. Cassels (a graduate of Fairfield)
taught at both schools.
F. W. Walsh and 0. S. St. John,
graduates of Fairfield, taught at
Willoughby. Other graduates, S. W. Card
and J. M. Henderson,
practiced in Willoughby. Horace Ackley,
a teacher of surgery at
Willoughby, and George Jones, a local
practitioner, had attended
some lectures at Fairfield.
At the end of the 1846-47 session the
medical department of
Willoughby University of Lake Erie was
closed and its apparatus
moved to Columbus. In 1848 the
provision in the charter per-
mitting medical teaching was annulled,
and under a new charter
Starling Medical College replaced the
transported institution. By
direct legal succession Starling
Medical College went on to become
the college of medicine of Ohio State
University.
5 Frederick
C. Waite, Western Reserve University Centennial History of the School
of Medicine (Cleveland, 1946), 42-49.
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Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
The medical department of Western
Reserve College exhibited
an influence of Fairfield similar to
that seen in Willoughby. Among
members of the first faculty in 1843,
John Delamater and J. L.
Cassels taught at Fairfield, as has
been noted above. Horace Ackley
and Jacob Delamater, who also had
attended some Fairfield lectures,
were likewise teachers there.
Experiences in Fairfield doubtless in-
spired these men in launching a new
school on a century of
progress.
The schools of southern Ohio were less
affected by Fairfield.
These schools looked for their
stimulation more toward Virginia
and Maryland. One of the outstanding
teachers at Cincinnati, how-
ever, was Reuben D. Mussey, who taught
at Fairfield in 1837 before
coming to the Medical College of Ohio.6
From this study it is evident that
progress of medical education
followed along paths by which
settlement of the country developed.
Migration affected also personalities
and methods in medical
teaching. In northern Ohio pioneers
from New England came
across New York state by boat and by
oxcart. In southern Ohio
they came over the mountains and
settled along the Ohio River.
The Fairfield school was caught in the
wake of New England
peoples about to settle in Ohio. This
would account for the much
greater influence of this school upon
the medicine of Cleveland
than upon other medical centers of the
state.
Perhaps some may detect a moral in this
analysis. A medical
school must remain on the path of progress
in order to survive.
6 Otto Juettner, Daniel Drake and His
Followers (Cincinnati, 1909), 162-170.