Usher
Parsons, M.D.
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Usher Parsons, the
youngest of nine children of William and Abigail Frost (Blunt) Parsons,
was born at Alfred, Me., August 18,1788. He had little early education
and till he was twenty- one he was a clerk in several stores. He then
determined to study medicine, and by diligent attention secured a
knowledge of Greek and of Latin, and studying with various physicians,
was admitted to the practice of medicine by the Massachusetts Medical
Society in February, 1812. After some delay he secured, through the aid
of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, M.C., the position of surgeon's mate in the
navy. Ordered to New York to join the corvette Jokn Adams, he
volunteered for service on Lake Erie. That winter he was in charge of
the hospital at Black Rock, near Buffalo, and during the next summer,
owing to the sickness of others, he was the only physician In Perry's
fleet, During the battle and after the victory, September 10, he had
charge of the wounded on the Lawrence, and spent the whole day of the
nth operating on them. On the 11th he did the same for the wounded on
the other vessels, having about 200 patients under his care. He had
charge of the hospital at Erie, Pa., for nine months, and received a
silver medal from Congress, and a share of the prize money, with which
he paid his debts.
He became surgeon,
April 15, 1814, and in December was transferred to the Jura at the
special request of Perry, who was in command. He sailed for the
Mediterranean, but, returning In 1817, he attended medical lectures at
the Harvard Medical School where he received the degree of M.D. in
March, 1818. In the following July he sailed for Russia and the
Mediterranean on the Guerriere, but, leaving the ship at Gibraltar, he
made a tour of Europe and returned to America in 1820, in which year he
received the appointment at Dartmouth. He gave but one course of
lectures, in 1821. The next year he was elected professor of anatomy and
surgery at Brown University. The connection with the University lasted
four years, but he remained in Providence forty-six years, till his
death, December 19,1868.
He married Mary
Jackson Holmes, a sister of Oliver Wendell Holmes, September 23,1822. He
had an active mind, was a great traveler, Interested in seeing the work
of his profession in many places, but he was fond of controversy, and
"could handle the caustic pen as well as the scalpel or saw." Life of
Usher Parsons by his son, Charles W. Parsons, 1870.
(The personal edited research
notes of Michael Echols, the source of which may or
may not be completely documented)
