By Muriel Bristol | May 4, 2025
NH State Senator Beard Plummer made his last will in Milton, October 5, 1816, and died in Milton, October 7, 1816, aged sixty-two years (NY Post, October 18, 1816; Columbian Centinel (Boston, MA), October 19, 1816).
Dr. Stephen Drew had yet to set up shop as Milton’s first resident physician. Dr. Thomas Lindsay of neighboring Wakefield, NH, likely attended Sen. Plummer in his final illness. He and another physician, Dr. Jabez Dow, of Dover, NH, performed an autopsy on the deceased, and the following account of their findings found its way into the newspapers. They submitted a more detailed version to the Stafford County Medical Society, of which they were both members.
MEDICAL. Statement of facts resulting from a view of the remains, after the dissection of the Hon. BEARD PLUMER, by the attending physicians – and published at their request.
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- In the abdomen, the omentum or cawl, was found in a natural state.
- The right lobe of the liver adhered to the diaphragm or midriff, to a considerable extent.
- The liver weighed six pounds and an half, its body was preternaturally hard, while its surface was extremely loose in its texture, yielding to the slightest touch.
- Its color resembled that of boiled liver, except that the turgescence of its superficial vessels gave it the colour of a reddish grey.
- The gall bladder was found in its natural state, containing the usual quantity of bile.
- The spleen or milt was found in the same enlarged state with the liver.
- The stomach and bowels, and every thing connected with them, and all the contents of the abdomen appeared perfectly natural, except that they were enormously loaded with fat.
- There considerable portion of water in the abdomen.
- In the thorax or chest a like portion of water was found.
- The vessels of the lungs were uncommonly full.
- The margin of the lungs appeared livid to a considerable extent, manifesting signs that this portion of them had ceased to perform their office for some time previous to the general death of the subject. They were otherwise natural in their appearance.
- On opening the pericardium or heart purse, it was nearly filled with water.
- The heart itself weighed three pounds and one ounce.
- Its vessels were uncommonly full.
- It. was uncommonly loaded with fat.
- Its walls not thickened, nor were they preternaturally distended. All its other appearances were natural.
- Its coronary arteries were not ossified.
- The aorta or great artery of the body and its semilunar valves were found in a natural state.
- The valves of the pulmonary artery were found in a state of ossification, as also were several inches of the artery itself.
This last was undoubtedly the primary cause of his death. We have the diseased part in possession. A more particular detail of his case will be communicated to the Strafford District of the N.H. Medical Society.
THOMAS LINDSEY, JABEZ DOW.
[Milt]on. Oct. 9, 1816 (Bangor Register (Bangor, ME), November 9, 1816).
Dr. Thomas Lindsey (1760-1840) was a physician practicing in neighboring Wakefield.
Dr. Thomas Lindsay must have come early [to Wakefield], as he married, in 1787, Polly Nudd, and for his second wife, in 1821, Elizabeth Clark, both of Wakefield. He moved to Lincoln, Maine, in 1832, and died at Chester, Maine, December 10, 1840, at eighty. He was collector of the minister’s tax in 1795-96, which was over one half the town tax. He was a member of the Strafford Medical Society in 1810. He had a long and successful practice. His two sons were in the factory at Union (Merrill, 1889).
Dr. Thomas Linsey headed a Wakefield, NH, household at the time of the Third (1810) Federal Census. His household included one male aged 26-44 years [himself], one female aged 26-44 years [Polly (Nudd) Lindsay], two males aged 10-15 years, one female aged 10-15 years, and one male aged under-10 years. Their household appeared in the enumeration between those of Noah Roberson and Herfield Wile.
Dr. Jabez Dow (1776-1839) was a physician and surgeon in Dover, NH.
DR. JABEZ DOW, son of Nathan Dow of Kensington, N.H., was born 24 Jan. 1776; was educated under Rev. Mr. Shaw of Kensington; entered Dr. Jacob Kittredge’s office, in Dover, as a medical student in 1793; began the practice of medicine, in Kensington, in 1796; married Hannah Waite of Malden, Mass.; and moved to Dover in May, 1802, where he practiced till his death, on 9 Jan. 1839. He was one of the founders of the Strafford District Medical Society in 1808; became a Fellow of the N.H. Medical Society in 1816; and was the best known surgeon in Dover and surrounding towns for more than thirty years. He lived on Silver street, in a house kept as a tavern by Thomas Footman prior to 1800, and in which Henry Dow, his son, now lives (NH Medical Society, 1879).
Jabez Dow headed a Dover, NH, household at the time of the Third (1810) Federal Census. His household included one male aged 26-44 years [himself], one female aged 26-44 years [Hannah (Waite) Dow], one male aged 16-25 years, one female aged 10-15 years, and three males aged under-10 years.
References:
Find a Grave. (2021, November 8). Beard Plumer. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/233852302/beard-plumer
Flanders, Louis W. (1909). The Medical Society and Medical Men of One Hundred Years Ago. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=8hkCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA171
Merrill, Georgia D. (1889). History of Carroll County, New Hampshire. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=xmMKyZxlU5MC&pg=PA518
NH Medical Society. (1879). Transactions of the N.H. Medical Society. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=YeTniIsn2BYC&pg=RA1-PA86
NH Secretary of State. (1891). Manual for the General Court. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=rXo0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA137
Spalding, James A. (1916). Dr. Lyman Spalding. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=efURAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277
Milton Observer 