A Year in the Life of a Country Doctor
Clementine Liffenwell Hazen, wife of Solomon G, gave birth to a baby boy,
Stephen Decator, on May 24, 1842 in Athens, VT. In 1866, upon completion of his
medical studied in Natick, MA, Stephen moved to East Wallingford to set up his
practice. On July 31, 1871, Dr. Hazen bought the lot that borders the East
Wallingford Baptist Church on the east. The lot was purchased from D. S. and
Hannah Dudley for the sum of $500. Construction of his house began in July 1872
and it was completed by July 1873. Town tax records in 1873 valued the land and
house at $1100.
There is an interesting piece of folklore that goes with the
building of the house by Orvis McKnight, a “boss carpenter.” Birney C.
Batcheller in his book
People of Wallingford relates the following story
about the building of the house. “It is said that he [Orvis McKnight] left only
one hammer mark on all the construction work he ever did. When he was building a
house for Dr. Hazen of East Wallingford, the minister spoke to him from the
street and distracted his attention so that his hammer slipped. ‘I wish,’ he
exclaimed peevishly surveying the shallow dent, ‘that folks wouldn’t talk to me
when I am at work.’” Is the story fact or fiction? I let you decide but it
should be known that the Baptist Church did not have a resident pastor from
October 1872 until May 1876.
During his early years in town, Dr. Hazen met and married
Hattie F. Congdon. Hattie’s parents were William “Harvey” and Harriet E.
Streeter Congdon. Hattie was born on February 7, 1858 and was 18 years old when
she married 35 year-old Stephen Hazen on March 18, 1877. They had one child –
Anna. The Town Clerk's office lists a son Brigham but as a result of my
investigation, I believe it was a mistake in recording the names in the computer
records. It is strange and very unlikely that Anna had a brother with the same
name as her married name. The records should have read "children - Anna
Brigham."
Dr. Hazen served as President, Vice-President and Collector
for the East Wallingford Baptist Meeting House Association and owned two pews in
the East Wallingford Baptist Church. Hattie’s parents were also active in both
organizations. Anna Hazen married Elbert Brigham and moved to the St. Albans
area. Upon their death, they left a trust fund for the East Wallingford Baptist
Church and the Maple Grove Cemetery where her parents were buried. I have no
information regarding their son Brigham.
Dr. Hazen saw his last patient in 1909 and died May 5, 1911
of a cerebral embolism. After his death, Hattie continued to live in town until
her death in 1940.
Recently Pat Morton loaned me 11 handwritten ledgers in which
Dr. Hazen recorded appointments for the years 1887 – 1890, 1894 – 1898 and
1905 –1906, a book of birth certificate stubs for 1897 – 1901, a book of death
certificate stubs for 1897 – 1902, three ledgers listing his patients with dates
of visits, fees and records of how the accounts were paid. The entries in these
last three ledgers cover 1866 to 1909.
After reviewing the ledgers, I decided to investigate Dr.
Hazen’s ledgers for 1895. These ledgers give us a small look at life in East
Wallingford during 1895. As I studied the
ledgers
and
the
daybooks for 1895, I sought answers to
some basic questions. How much did a country doctor make in 1895? The ledgers
show that Dr. Hazen’s income from office visits was $1,628.80 plus another
$108.24 from the sale of medicine. His office fees for a visit and medicine ran
from $.75 to $2.00 per visit. If a patient needed refills, the cost of the
medicine ran from $.25 to $1.50. Dr. Hazen normally charged $5.00 to deliver a
baby. He delivered 16 children in 1895, 8 boys and 8 girls.
An entry dated January 8, 1895 read, “Received from the town
of Wallingford for treating the poor to date - $16.75.” During 1895 he received
from the towns of Wallingford, Mt. Holly and Shrewsbury a total $77.75 for the
treatment of the poor. One series of ledger entries record that a baby boy born
in Mt. Holly needed medical attention. Dr. Hazen’s ledger shows that the family
was charged $.75 for three visits prior to the town of Mt. Holly paying the
bill. The next 11 visits were charged to the town at $1.00 per visit.
He had other sources of revenue. On May 18th, Dr.
Hazen received $3.00 to appraise the Webber estates. Mrs. Webber had died in
January. Then on November 9, he went to Burlington to find out the conditions of
Webber estate for which he received $2.00 plus $3.90 for steam cars and $.05 for
electric car plus $.50 for dinner. He also received $3.00 to get affidavits for
the Hazet estate. Another entry shows that he went to Rutland on December 6th
to deposit a pension check for Betsy Hazet for which he was reimbursed .65 for
the fare and received $1.50 for his time. The trip took “1/2 day.”
What kind of ailments did Dr. Hazen treat? In his daybook,
his normal entry was “visit and medicine” with occasional reference to a twisted
knee, sprained shoulder or the removal of foreign objects from a hand or a leg.
Other interesting entries are:
January 15 – “Dressed Orvis McKnight’s hand by cutting off third finger of left hand - $5.00.”
April 25 – Myron Sanders visit and removing water from abdomen - $5.00” This was followed by a visit on the 28th when he removed “a gallon of water.”
May 10 – “Henry Wilcox, buy three fruit trees ($1.00) sold two said trees to Morton Headle ($1.25) to be paid for in milk at 4cts qt.”
November
27 – “Received of B. W. Aldrich and Co. to pay for visits to help on the
job. One hundred dollars – E. H. and B. W. Aldrich.”
Dr. Hazen also extracted 28 teeth in 1895 for the sum of $.25
per tooth.
What else can we learn about life in East Wallingford in 1895
from his ledgers? We can get some idea of the price of goods in East
Wallingford. Some patients paid their bills with goods. The price of butter
ranged from $.16 - .20 per lb., cabbage sold at $.05 per head, milk at $.04 a
qt., a dozen eggs sold at $.15 dozen, a 100 lbs. of meal for $1.00 and a pail of
maple syrup was worth $1.25. He also accepted a fox skin or a sheepskin for a
$2.00 visit.
When I began to write about Dr. Hazen, I had no idea of his
connection with the East Wallingford Meeting House Association and the East
Wallingford Baptist Church. Nor did I have any idea of the connection of the
Brigham fund, which has been extremely beneficial for the E. W. B. C., and Dr. Hazen’s
daughter, Anna.
If you have any more information on Dr. Hazen and his family,
please
contact us.
