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                   A B10GRAPH1  AL SKETlH

                                 OF

         DR.  EDWARD   FIELD,

                         OF  WATERBURY.

                      BY P. G. ROCKWELL, M, D.


                         ---------    3.  cz.fr-

   Dr. Edward Field, of Waterbury, Conn., was the son  of Dr.
 Simeon  Field, a respectable  practitioner of medicine, who removed
 from Longmeadow, a town near Springfield, Mass., to Enfield, Conn.,
 where the subject of  this sketch was born.
   Of the childhood and  early youth of Dr. Field  little is known.  At
 the age of 12 he commenced the study of medicine under the tuition
 of the late Dr. Coggswell, of Hartford, Conn.  Having  completed his
 preliminary medical education, he obtained a license to practice his
 profession from a committee acting in behalf of the Hartford County
 Medical Society.  His inclinations and tastes, at that early day, led
 him to seek a situation in the  naval  service of  the country.   He was
 successful in his application and accordingly received the appointment
 of surgeon's mate in the  year  1799.   The commission of appointment,
 which is still in  the possession of his children, bears the broad, bold
 signature of the elder President  Adams.   Soon  after  receiving this
 commission, he was stationed on board the new frigate Congress, which
 was directed to cruise about the East India Islands; but before arriv-
 ing at its destination it experienced a serious storm, which so disabled
 the vessel, that she was obliged to return after a slow  and irksome
 voyage of months.
  The craft was repaired and  ordered to the West Indies.  During
this cruise an affair of more serious nature occurred than that of the
former voyage.   A mutiny broke out in  which the Dr. became  crip-
pled in one of his arms for life.  These discouragements in  succession 
•
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 (doubtless) abated  the ardor of the young surgeon for a life in  the
 navy, for we find him at the end of two years from the time he re-
 ceived  his  commission,  voluntarily  resigning the same.   After this
 experience, Dr. Field decided to practice his profession on land.   He
 accordingly located in the then small town of Waterbury, a town which
 at the time he became a resident therein, was made up  of sparse pop-
 ulation  and not over abundantly able  to compensate a physician  for
 his services.  The region in and  about Waterbury was  rough and
 mountainous, requiring great labor and toil to discharge the duties of
 a practitioner  of medicine; yet  notwithstanding  these disadvantages
 we find him  assiduously devoted to his practical duties  in this locality
 for a period of more than 30 years.  He  was married at the age of
 25 years .to Miss Sarah  Baldwin, (the oldest daughter of Dr.  Bald-
 win, one of the older physicians of the town,) by whom  he had one
 son, whom he educated to the same profession with  himself,  and who
 is a respectable practitioner in the State  of Michigan.   In the year
 1808, but little more than a year from the time of their marriage, Mrs.
 Field died.   He afterward married Miss  Esther Baldwin,  the sister
 of his former wife, who survived him several  years.  By her he had
 five children, two of whom  were sons and three  daughters; all but
 one daughter are still alive.
   Dr. Field was a man of medium height and size, prominent features,
 an open manly  countenance, yet of mild expression.  He was not over
 quick in his appreciative faculties, but cautious and deliberative.  He
 was never bold in his practice; rather careful and discriminating;
 while he aimed at correctness of conclusion in diagnosis and efficiency
 in prescribing for the sick, he studiously avoided over-acting or pre-
 scribing at a venture.   His practice for many years was large, labo^-
 rious and unremunerative; his ride  extended much into the  adjoining
 towns.   As the town of  Waterbury increased in population  his prac-
 tice became large within its limits.  He ranked above mediocrity as
 a medical practitioner of his day.   He was for a long  time a member
 of the Connecticut Medical Society, and took a lively interest in  its
 transactions.  He confined  his practice mostly to  the sphere of medi-
 cine, declining surgical cases, when he reasonably could.   As a citizen
 he was affable,  public spirited, though unobtrusive.  Devoting him-
 self exclusively to his professional duties, he never meddled with po-
litical matters, nor sought any kind  of notoriety except that  of a good
physician and an honest man.   H  e  was  the  friend of gQQcl order,
morality and education.   He  was fc vr ft long time a  member  qf the
Congregational  Church in Waterbun 7^=a consistent, practical  Chris? 
101
tian.  Cheerfully he bore  his share of the burthens of society, ever
making additions to the large stock of respect and esteem with which
he was favored.  Like many medical men  in full practice, as he ad-
vanced  in years, with  an  accumulation of cares, his health  became
so impaired that for the last four  years of his life he was obliged to
circumscribe his practice.   He  unfortunately became depressed, and
in the year  1840, whilst suffering from an unusual fit of melancholy,
which amounted to insanity, he took his own life.  He died, as he had
lived, universally respected by his large and extensive acquaintances,
who mourned his untimely death. 
 
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