Gad Hitchcock (April 18, 1788 – November 17, 1837) was a 19th-century American physician. He was a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Gad Hitchcock
Hitchcock around 1830
BornApril 18, 1788
DiedNovember 17, 1837(1837-11-17) (aged 49)
Resting placeOld Baptist Cemetery, Yarmouth, Maine, U.S.
OccupationPhysician
SpouseMary Lincoln Thaxter

Early life and education

edit

Hitchcock was born on April 18, 1788, in Pembroke, Massachusetts,[1] to Gad Hitchcock and Sage Bailey.

He graduated the Medical School of Maine in the class of 1825.[1]

Career

edit

Hitchcock took over the practice of the recently deceased Ammi Ruhamah Mitchell at today's Mitchell House at 333 Main Street in Yarmouth, Maine. He remained there, as the town's only physician,[2] until his own death. He was succeeded by Eleazer Burbank.[3][4]

Personal life

edit

Hitchcock married Mary Lincoln Thaxter (1790–1875), daughter of Gridley Thaxter and granddaughter of Benjamin Lincoln of the Revolutionary Army. They had the following children: Bela (1811), Lavinia (1813), Henry Bailey (1814), Sarah Lincoln (1816), Rufus William (1818), Gad Jr. (1820), Mary Shattuck (1822), Gridley (1824), Benjamin (1826), Harriet Bailey (1828), Susan Harris (1830), Ann Blanchard (1833) and Samuel Sweetser (1835).[5]

Both he and his son, Gad Jr., were elected fellows of the Massachusetts Medical Society.[6] Gad Jr. became a noted painter who added decorative touches on shipmasters' cabins down at Yarmouth's harbor.[7]

Death

edit

Hitchcock died in North Yarmouth on November 17, 1837, aged 49.[1][8] His wife survived him by 38 years.

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, Bowdoin College (1912), p. 320
  2. ^ Genealogy of the Hitchcock Family, Mrs. Edward Hitchcock
  3. ^ "The National Register of Historic Places" – Yarmouth Historical Society
  4. ^ "NRHP nomination for Mitchell House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  5. ^ Old Times: A Magazine Devoted to the Preservation and Publication of Documents Relating to the Early History of North Yarmouth, Maine, Volumes 5-8, Augustus W. Corliss (1881), p. 1155
  6. ^ Medical Communications, Volume 4, Massachusetts Medical Society (1829), p. xiii
  7. ^ Images of America: Yarmouth, Alan M. Hall (Arcadia, 2002), p.22
  8. ^ The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Volume 17 (1837), p. 275