Shadrach Ricketson, Quaker Physician

SHADRACH RICKETSON, QUAKER PHYSICIAN

by A. Day Bradley

Shadrach Ricketson (1766-1839), Dutchess County physician and steadfast member of the Society of Friends has a place both in the history of medicine and New York Quaker annals. There was Quaker background in the Ricketson family, but his father Jonathan had been disowned by Dartmouth Monthly Meeting in Massachusetts for that transgression of Quaker discipline, marriage to a non-Friend. In 1748 Jonathan married Meribah Wilbur and they moved to Dutchess County in 1749.1- On 9th month 14th, 1789, Oblong Preparative Meeting at Quaker Hill transmitted to Oblong Monthly Meeting the request of Shadrach Ricketson "to come under the care of Friends." This request was duly granted the following month, the usual committee having made a satisfactory report after due inquiry.2 A frank and candid description of the doctor written by his relative Daniel Ricketson of New Bedford is included in the Ricketson Genealogy. I remember his being at my father's on a visit — he was then about sixty — dressed in the light drab of the primitive Quaker — small clothes — round top hat, white or drab. He carried a cane and stepped very quickly and with much vigor, was middle size and erect, sharp gray eyes, rather snubbish nose. My impression is that he was not particularly agreeable to young people, at least at any rate he had the air of self importance, but bore the character of a very worthy man, and I doubt not merited it. He was an inveterate old bachelor, and like most of his family a little bit shy of women.3

In the course of his medical practice Rickerton made numerous moves always transferring his membership to the approximate monthly meeting. In 1791 he transferred from Oblong to Creek, in 1806 to New York, in 1813 to Easton. He became a member of Troy Monthly Meeting when this meeting was set off from Easton. In 1814 he transferred to Oswego, then to Nine Partners in 1818; in 1821 he returned to Oswego, where he was clerk of the monthly meeting in 1828-9.4

Ricketson's medical writings have been the subject of a careful analysis by Fred R. Rogers.5 In 1789 the American Museum or Repository of Ancient and Fugitive Pieces contained an article, Experiments on the Cultivation of the Poppy Plant and Methods of Procuring Opium by Shadrach Ricketson of Dutchess County, New York.6 He made a comparison of the native and Asiatic species and took varying doses of the native grown variety to study its potency. The author made mention of his "friend and former master, Dr. Benjamin Anthony", who had also experimented with opium. Evidently Benjamin Anthony, was the physician with whom Dr. Ricketson had studied. In 1806 Ricketson published the first American book on hygiene and preventive medicine.7 The purpose and scope is indicated by the lengthy title page:

Means of Preserving Health and Preventing Disease: Founded principally on Attention to Air and Climate, Drink,

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Food, Sleep, Exercise, Clothing, Passions of the Mind, the Retentions and Excretions. With an Appendix, containing Observations on Bathing, Cleanliness, Ventilation, and Medical Electricity; and on the Abuse of Medicine. Enriched with opposite Extracts from the best Authors. Designed not merely for the Physicians, but for the Information of Others. To which is annexed a Glossary of Technical Terms contained in the Work. By Shadrach Ricketson Physician in New York New York Printed by Collins, Perkins and Co. Sold by them, S. Stansbury, T. and J. Sword, S. Wood, I. Riley, New York. Kimber and Conrad, J. Crukshank, Philadelphia. Craig and Engles, Baltimore. D. West, Boston. 0. & D. Cooke, Hartford. A. Sherman, New Bedford. Webster & Skinner, Albany. 0. Pennyman, Troy. 1806 Dr. Rogers notes that this pioneer effort had a wide lay and medical audience and was listed in a bibliography as late as 1892.

Dr. Shadrach's History of the Influenza in New York in 1807 is a factual description, but contains two strikingly modern notes. He states that "medical publications are now extended to an enormous size and expense, by which means their diffusion and usefulness are greatly lessened among many even of the faculty (medical profession)." He invites correspondence from other physicians in order to compare observations and remedies. Ricketson was President of the Dutchess County Medical Society in 1823 and 1824. In 1817 this Society bought two sets of trephaning and amputa,ting instruments for the use of the members, one was to be kept by the treasurer of the Society, and the other at Dr. Ricketson's at Beekman.8 As shown by his statement in the Poughkeepsie Journal and Constitutional Republican of July 26, 1815, he was a staunch advocate of vaccination aga,inst smallpox but cautioned against "improper vaccination by inexperienced and inaccurate practioners."

The Doctor's interest in the Society of Friends lead him to publish in 1821 a Map of the Meetings constituting New-York Yearly Meeting of Friends, an indispensable aid for the student of Quaker history. The map, not dissimilar to the ancient itinerary, distinguished indulged, preparative, monthly and quarterly meetings by appropriate symbols and gave the distances between neighboring meetings. The latter information was to enable the traveling minister to include the maximum number of meetings in his journeys. Not so well known as the map is the comparatively rare, Account of the Times and Places of Holding the Meetings constituting New-York Yearly Meeting, printed by Paraclete Potter in Poughkeepsie. This again was of value to the traveling minister and a help to the historian.

In his will Dr. Ricketson made bequests of $1000.00 each to the "Monthly Meetings of Oswego, Nine Partners and Oblong (not called Orthodox)" as an education fund with the stipulation that the interest

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should be used to aid students. The phrase, "not called Orthodox", is a reference to the unfortunate separation in 1828, which resulted in two separate branches of Friends, the so-called Hicksite and Orthodox. Shadrach Ricketson wished to make a clear distinction between the two branches, but as a member of the so-called Hicksite branch he would not use that term. Of the three meetings mentioned, only Oswego has continued to the present time, and the Ricketson Education Fund in this meeting still fulfills the original purposes of aiding students. Further bequests were examples of two "testimonies" of the Society of Friends, the equality of the sexes and aid to the poor. Legacies to his nieces were to be paid directly to them, not to their husbands, and his executors were to excuse those of his debtors who would find it a hardship to pay.9 Dr. Ricketson is buried in Appoughquague (Poughquag) Friends Burial Ground on Gardiner Hollow Road. 1 Edes, Grace W., William Ricketson and His Descendants, Vol. 2, 11. 2 Manuscript minutes of Oblong Monthly Meeting in the Haviland Record Room of

New York Yearly Meeting, New York City. 3 Ede, Grace W., op. cit. Vol 2, 67. 4 Manuscript Quakerism records of these meetings in the City of New York are in the Haviland Record Room. by John Cox, Jr., New York, 1930, See also 149. 5 Rogers, Fred. R., Shadrach Ricketson, Quaker Hygienist, Journal of the History of

Medicine, Vol. 20 (1965), 140-150. The account of Shadrach Ricketson's medical work given here is based on Dr. Roger's article. 6 A list of Ricketson's writings with library locations follows. 7 Ryan, Fred B., Some Landmarks in Preventive Medicine, Journal of the Albert Einstein Medical Center, Vol. 10 (1962), 129. 8 Bayley, G. C., An Historical Address . . . with Records of the Medical Profession of Dutchess County from 1740 to 1906. Poughkeepsie, 1906, 83, 16. 9 Dutchess County Wills, Liber K, 610-12.

PUBLICATIONS OF SHADRACH RICICETSON Experiments on the Cultivation i of the Poppy Plant and Method of Procuring Opium by Shadrach Ricketson of Dutchess County, New York. The American Museum or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces & c, Prose and Poetical. Vol. 6 (1789), 55-57 New York Academy of Medicine, Boston Public Library, Library of Congress. Means of Preserving Health and Preventing Disease, . . . New York, 1306, X -I- 298 pps. 11 x.17 cm. Dutchess County Historical Society, Univ. of Cal. at Los Angeles, Stanford Univ., Library of Congress, Columbia Univ., New York Academy of Medicine. A Brief History of the Influenza which Prevailed in New York in 1807. By Shadrach Ricketson, Physician in New York. New York 4th mo. 1808, 11pp, 20 x 12 cm. New York Historical Society, Pa. Hospital Medical Library, New York Academy of Medicine, American Antiquarian Society. Map of the Meetings constituting New-York Yearly Meeting of Friends. By S. Ricketson, 1821. (no place or publisher given). 27 x 32 cm. Haviland Record Room, New York Public Library An Account of the Times and Places of Holding the Meetings constituting New-York Yearly Meeting of Friends. With the Inferior constituting the Superior Meetings. by S. Ricketson. Poughkeepsie: Printed by Paraclete Potter, 1821. 1 1pp. 11 x 17 cm. Haviland Record Room, Library of Congress, Huntington Library

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