History of Rehoboth, (Bristol County) Massachusetts United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Rehoboth, (Bristol County) Massachusetts, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

Nathan Smith, physician and educator, was born at Rehoboth, Mass., Sept. 30, 1762. At an early age he removed with his parents to Chester, Vt., where he attended school in a desultory way, and during the last half of the Revolutionary war was engaged in repulsing the Indian raids on the northern frontier. He studied medicine under Dr. Josiah Goodhue of Putney. Vt., 1784?7; practised in Cornish, N.H., 1787?89; attended medical lectures at Harvard medical school, and was graduated M.D. in 1790. He resumed practice in Cornish, 1790?98; and continued his medical studies in London and Edinburgh in 1796. He went to Dartmouth college in 1798, where he established the chair of anatomy and surgery and occupied it, 1798?1810, and also established the chair of theory and practice of medicine, which he held, 1798?1813, at the same time conducting an extensive private practice. He removed to New Haven in 1813, where he was professor of theory and practice of physic, surgery and obstetrics at Yale, 1813?29, and was largely influential in the establishment of a medical building, library and museum. In 1819 he was consulted by President William Allen of Bowdoin college, in regard to establishing medical instruction in that state, and on June 27, 1820, he was made professor of theory and practice of medicine in Bowdoin, which position be held until 1825. He was also lecturer on medicine and surgery at the University of Vermont, 1822?25. He received from Dartmouth the honorary degree of A.M. in 1798, and that of M.D. in 1801, and from Harvard that of M.D. in 1811. He was the originator of various methods of surgical operation, invented apparatus for the reduction of fractures, and is the author of: Practical Essays on Typhus Fever (1824); and Medical and Surgical Memoirs, edited, with addenda, by his son, Nathan Ryno Smith (1831). He died in New Haven, Conn., July 26, 1829.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John William Davis, governor of Rhode Island, was born in Rehobeth, Mass., March 7, 1826; son of John and Nancy (Davis) Davis; grandson of William and Mary (Peck) Davis, and of Daniel (3d) and Anna (Bullock) Davis; and great-grandson of Daniel Davis, Jr.; of Capt. Stephen Bullock; of Capt. Peleg Peck; and of John Davis, father of William. His first ancestors in America were John Davis, a son of the Rt. Hon. Sir Thomas Davis, Kt., Lord mayor of London, 1676, who settled in Newport, R.I., in 1680, where he was a merchant and store keeper; John Howland of the Mayflower; and James Davis, who came from Marlboro, England, was admitted a freeman of Newbury, Massachusetts Bay, 1636, and was one of the original twelve settlers of Haverhill in 1640. John William Davis acquired a good education, and in 1844 apprenticed himself to learn the trade of mason in Providence, R.I. He worked at his trade and taught school in other states for three years, and then engaged in the grain business in Providence, 1850-90. He resided in Pawtucket, where he was president of the town council, 1882 and 1885; a state senator, 1885-86; customs appraiser by appointment of President Cleveland in 1886; and governor of the state, 1887 and 1888. He introduced many reforms in the state prisons and reformatories, secured the passage of the act giving the right of the elective franchise to all citizens upon uniform qualifications, and ended the bitter quarrel that had divided the people of the state for fifty years. He served as mayor of Pawtucket in 1897; was again a state senator in 1898; was a commissioner in charge of the construction of the new state house, and a member of the advisory beard of the Rhode Island law school.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Harriet Eliza Paine, author, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., May 5, 1845; daughter of the Rev. John Chester and Eliza (Folger) Paine, and granddaughter of Hon. Elijah and ?? (Pomeroy) Paine of Ashfield, Mass., and of Gideon and Eunice (Macy) Folger of Nantucket. She was graduated at Wheaton seminary, Norton, Mass., in 1862, where she was a pupil of Lucy Larcam in literature and composition, and where she taught for several years. She was principal of Robinson seminary, Exeter, N.H., 1875-78, and taught in private schools in Boston, Mass. She is the author of: Bird Songs of New England (1882); Girls and Women (1890); Chats with Girls on Self-Culture (1891), and The Unmarried Woman (1892), the last three being written under the pen name "Eliza Chester."

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor