History of Pelham, (Hillsborough County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

Josiah Butler, jurist, was born in Pelham, N. H., in 1779. He graduated at Harvard college with honor in 1803, studied law, and was admitted to practice about 1807. In 1809 he was elected a member of the legislature from Deerfield, and became a leading member of the Democratic party. He was appointed sheriff of the county of Rockingham in 1810, and was removed from office in 1813 by the ascendant Federalist party and resumed the practice of his profession. He was clerk of the court of common pleas, and in 1815 was returned a member of the state legislature, and again elected in 1816. He was elected a representative to the 15th Congress in 1816, and was re-elected to the 16th and 17th congresses. In 1825 he was appointed by Governor Morrill associate justice of the State court of common pleas of New Hampshire, remaining on the bench until 1833, when the court was abolished. He died at Deerfield, N. H., Oct. 29, 1854.

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

Reuben Dimond Mussey, surgeon and educator, was born at Pelham, Hillsboro county, N.H., June 23, 1780; son of Dr. John and Beulah (Butler) Mussey. He taught school and worked on a farm to obtain money to complete his education. He was graduated from Dartmouth, A.B., 1803, A.M., 1806, M.D., 1806, and practised in Essex, 1806-09, meanwhile attending a course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated M.D., 1809. He removed to Salem, Mass., where he practised medicine and surgery with Dr. Daniel Oliver, 1809-14. He was professor of theory and practice of medicine at Dartmouth, 1814-20, and professor of anatomy and surgery, 1822-38, meanwhile engaging in general practice in Hanover and lecturing occasionally on materia medica and obstetrics. In 1818 he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry at Middlebury college, Vt., and also lectured on anatomy and surgery at Bowdoin college, 1833-35, and at the medical college at Fairfield, N.Y. He was professor of surgery at the Ohio Medical college, 1838-53, and at Miami Medical college, 1852-58. He resided in Boston, Mass., 1858-66. He was the first to prove that intra-capsular fractures could be united; the first to tie both carotid arteries, and in 1877 removed the entire shoulder-blade and collar-bone of an osteo-sarcoma patient. He was president of the New Hampshire Medical society; a fellow of Philadelphia Medical college: honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was twice married; first to Mary Sewall, and secondly to Hetty, daughter of Dr. Osgood of Salem, Mass. Of his children, William Heberdon (1818-1882) became an eminent surgeon in Cincinnati, Ohio, was professor of operative and chemical surgery at Miami Medical college, 1865-82; surgeon-general of Ohio; manager of the public library of Cincinnati, 1876-81, and founder of the Mussey scientific and medical library there, a memorial to his father. Another son, Gen. Reuben D., was a soldier in the civil war, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and the husband of Ellen Spencer Mussey Dr. Musssey received the honorary degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1809, and that of LL.D. from Dartmouth in 1854. He is the author of Health: Its Friends and Foes (1862). He died in Boston, Mass., June 21, 1866.

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