By Muriel Bristol, January 31, 2021
Everard Goethe Reynolds was born in Milton Mills, in 1852, son of Dr. William B. and Clara E. (Swasey) Reynolds. (His mother was a sister of Henry S. Swasey (1820-1874), Dr. Charles E. Swasey (1829-1907), George A. Swasey (1835-1895), and others).
Henry S. Swasey, a baker, aged forty-nine years (b. NH), headed a Somersworth (“Great Falls”), NH, household at the time of the Ninth (1870) Federal Census. His household included Mary R. Swasey, keeping house, aged forty-three years (b. NH), Belle Swasey, at home, aged twenty-one years (b. NH), Mary F. Swasey, a school teacher, aged eighteen years (b. NH), Eunice M. Swasey, attending school, aged fourteen years (b. NH), Henry H. Swasey, aged five years (b. NH), and Everhard G. Reynolds, apprentice to a dentist, aged seventeen years (b. NH). Henry S. Swasey had real estate valued at $3,000 and personal estate valued at $300.
(Orin J. Shapleigh, aged twenty-nine years (b. ME), and Julius Guttman, aged forty-two years (b. Prussia), were Somersworth dentists of 1870, with whom Reynolds may have been working as apprentice).
Everard G. Reynolds received his D.D.S. degree from the Philadelphia Dental College, at its commencement at the Academy of Music, in Philadelphia, PA, February 27, 1875. His thesis concerned Digestion (White, et al., 1875).
THE PHILADELPHIA DENTAL COLLEGE. The twelfth annual commencement of the Philadelphia Dental College was held on Saturday evening, February 27th, 1875, at the Academy of Music. The Valedictory was read by G.N. Snow, D.D.S., of Connecticut; after which an address was delivered by Prof. J.H. McQuillen, Dean of the Faculty. Number of graduates, 41; number of matriculants, 100. The exercises opened with a musical prelude, enjoyably performed by a large orchestra under the direction of Carl Sentz. At its conclusion Rev. W.Q. Scott made an opening prayer. Rev. Dr. Richard Newton, who presided, then presented the diplomas to the following graduates: Charles S. Jones, William J. Potter, Joseph G. Marple, James Martin, A.B., Jonas D. Peters, and Henry C. Snyder, of Pennsylvania; Edward C. Welch, Allan B. Robinson, and J. Henry Follet, of New York; Simon Eschelmann and W. Theodore Georgen, M.R.C.P., of Canada; Howard Greeley, of Maine; William H. Williamson, M.B.C.M., of Scotland; Arthur Baxter Visick, J. Henry Redman, and Thomas R. Pixten, of England; L.P.V.J. Kjaer and Frederick Arendt, of Denmark; John Quincy Adams, of Illinois; Aloys Bermann, of Prussia; Joshua U. Burnett, M.D., of New Brunswick; William Fletcher Burns, of Nova Scotia; J. Henry Durham, M.D., and Willis W. Barnes, of North Carolina; Henry Chavannes, of Switzerland; J. Walter Drake, Hamilton F. Cunningham, D. Edward Kelly, Homer A. Sampsell, and Eusebius C. Chandler, of Ohio; Frederic H. Lent and Charles D. Carter, of Massachusetts; Matthew C. Snyder, of Michigan; Gustavus N. Snow, of Connecticut; Everard G. Reynolds, of New Hampshire; J. Ralph Owens, of Iowa; William B. Knapp and J.S. Clark, of Indiana; Thomas Gardiner, of California; and John H. Drury, of Washington, D.C. After the degrees had been conferred S.B. Howell, M.D., professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica, delivered an address to the graduating class, congratulating them on the successful termination of their labors. He reminded them of the fact that twelve successive classes of graduates, numbering in the aggregate 340 young men, had passed from this college to all parts of the world. America, England, Scotland, Prussia, France, Russia, Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, South America, and even China and Japan, discharging their duties in the alleviation of suffering, are starting new institutions for professional education (Welchens, 1875).
Everard G. Reynolds married in Wakefield, NH, September 27, 1877, Narcissa T. Davis, he of Wakefield, NH, and she of Newfield, ME. He was a dentist, aged twenty-five years, and she was aged twenty-three years. Rev. Nathaniel Barker performed the ceremony. She was born in Newfield, ME, in 1854, daughter of Joseph B. and Harriet N. (Dam) Davis.
A Rochester, NH, dentist of this period advertised his painless extraction of teeth through use of anesthetics in 1879.
DR. J.M. FOLSOM, DENTIST. Office: Rochester Grange Building, Rochester, New Hampshire. Nitrous Oxide or Laughing Gas administered for the painless extraction of Teeth. Also a chilling or freezing of the gums, and local Anesthetics, which obland sensibility so that Teeth and Roots may be extracted without pain. Work warranted. Prices moderate (Farmington News, April 25, 1879).
A Farmington, NH, dentist, Dr. D.W. Edgerly, advertised his use of nitrous oxide, “when desired.” (Nitrous Oxide was first used experimentally as an anesthetic in 1844, but did not begin to be regularly used until 1863 and after).
Joseph B. Davis, a farmer, aged sixty-nine years (b. ME), headed a Newfield, ME, household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Harriet N. Davis, keeping house, aged sixty-one years (b. ME), his son-in-law, Everard G. Reynolds, a dentist, aged twenty-eight years (b. NH), and his daughter, Narcissa T. Reynolds, keeping house, aged twenty-five years (b. ME).
It seems likely that Dr. Reynolds maintained always his principal residence in Newfield, ME, while making regular visits to or maintaining a satellite office in Milton Mills.
NEWFIELD. Sixteen miles N.W. of Alfred. On stage lines from East Wakefield, N.H., and South Waterborough. Depots. Surveyed and settled, 1778; Rev. John Adams settled, 1781, when there were but five families. Josiah Towle first representative, 1806. Incor. Feb. 26, 1794. Previously plantation of Washington. Area, 14,543 acres. Population, 1840 – 1354; 1850 – 1418; 1860 – 1349; 1870 – 1193; 1880 – 995. Valuation, 1860 – Polls, 287, Estates, 252,839; 1870 – Polls, 275, Estates, 298,895; 1880 – Polls, 283, Estates, 264,577.
E.G. Reynolds appeared in the Milton directories of 1880, 1881, 1882, 1884, 1887, and 1889, as a Milton Mills dentist.
E.G. Reynolds appeared in the Maine Register of 1882, as both Town Clerk of Newfield, ME, and a dentist at West Newfield, ME. Daughter Clara Kathryn Reynolds was born in Newfield, ME, in 1882.
E.G. Reynolds was superintendent of the Congregational Church Sunday school at West Newfield, ME, in 1887 (Congregational Conference, 1887).
E.G. Reynolds appeared in the Milton directories of 1892, 1894, and 1898, as a Milton Mills dentist.
Everard G. Reynolds, of West Newfield, ME, donated $5 for a Russian Relief Fund, and $25 to the Baptist Missionary Magazine, in August 1892 (Boston Globe, March 26, 1892; American Baptist Missionary Union, 1892). Everard G. Reynolds appeared in Polk’s Dental Registry of 1893, as a dentist at both Milton, NH, and West Newfield, ME (Polk, 1893).
The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company made a $500 payment to Everard G. Reynolds of Newfield, ME, in 1896. (Uncle George A. Swasey died December 27, 1895).
Everard G. Reynolds, a dentist, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Newfield, ME, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of twenty-two years), Narcissa Reynolds, aged forty-five years (b. ME). Everard G. Reynolds owned their house. Narcissa Reynolds was the mother of one child, of whom one was still living.
E.G. Reynolds appeared in the Milton directories of 1901, 1904, and 1905-06, as a Milton Mills dentist. E.G. Reynolds appeared in the Maine Register of 1902, as a dentist at West Newfield, ME. (F.W. Smith appeared as a dentist at Newfield, ME).
Everard Goethe Reynolds died of “suicidal suffocation by hanging,” in Newfield, ME, May 10, 1905, aged fifty-two years, seven months, and seventeen days.
Dentist Hangs Himself. Cornish, Me., May 11 – The body of Dr. E.G. Reynolds, the West Newfield dentist, who disappeared yesterday was f0und to-day, hanging from a halter attached to a tree a mile from his home. Dr. Reynolds had been seriously ill for three months with a nervous attack. He was born at Milton, N.H., 51 years ago (Fall River Daily Evening News (Fall River, MA, May 11, 1905).
Daughter Clara Kathryn Reynolds died of tuberculosis at 33 Yale Avenue in Wakefield, MA, March 14, 1908, aged twenty-five years, three months, and nine days. (Her maternal uncle, S.K. Hamilton of Wakefield, Mass., provided the information on the death certificate).
Narcissa D. Reynolds appeared in the Wakefield, MA, directory of 1911, as the widow of Edward [Everard] G., boarding at 33 Yale avenue. (Samuel K. Hamilton, a lawyer (at Hamilton & Eaton, 31 Milk street, Boston, MA), had his house there).
Samuel K. Hamilton, a lawyer (law office), aged eighty-two years (b. ME), headed a Wakefield, MA, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Annie E. Hamilton, aged seventy-five years (b. ME), and his sister-in-law, Narcissa D. Reynolds, aged sixty-five years. Samuel K. Hamilton owned their house at 33 Yale Avenue, free-and-clear (b. ME).
Narcissa D. Reynolds, a widow, aged seventy-five years (b. ME), headed a Newfield, ME, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. Narcissa D. Reynolds owned her house, which was valued at $1,000.
Narcissa D. Reynolds, appeared in the Lakeland, FL, directory of 1934, as the widow of Everard, resided at 200 ([Apt.] 201) E. Charles street.
HELP WANTED – FEMALE. REFINED woman wanted as housekeeper-companion for widow in Lakeland for winter. Mrs. Narcissa Reynolds, West Newfield, Maine (Tampa Tribune, September 21, 1944).
Narcissa T. (Davis) Reynolds died in 1951.
References:
American Baptist Missionary Union. (1892). Baptist Missionary Magazine. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=TWYxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA444
Congregational Conference. (1887). General Conference of the Congregational Churches in Maine. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=MrPRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA61
Polk, R.L. (1893). R.L. Polk & Co.’s Dental Register of the United States. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=MLROAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA308
Welchens, Samuel. (1875). The Pennsylvania Journal of Dental Science. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=Mbg1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA157
White, J. D., McQuillen, John H., Ziegler, George J., White, James W., Kirk, Edward C., and Anthony, Lovick P. (1875). The Dental Cosmos. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=uRcxAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA208
Milton Observer 