1.—DR. ERASTUS SERGEANT, SENIOR, OF STOCKBRIDGE.
The following Notice of a distinguished physician and worthy man is copied, with little alteration, from a letter addressed to myself by Dr. Oliver Partridge, in December, 1841, when he was over ninety years of age.
Dr. Erastus Sergeant was born at Stockbridge, August 7, 1742, and died November 14, 1814, aged 72.
He was the son of Rev. John Sergeant, the first missionary to the Indians on the Housatonic River, who was born in Newark, N. J., in 1710; graduated at Yale College in 1729; was there a Tutor four years, and, having a great desire to be a missionary to the Aborigines, went to Litchfield, in 1733, where some English people had settled; procured a guide and went on foot forty miles further through the wilderness, to the Indians, where he met a cordial reception. He then returned to New Haven, resigned his Tutorship, and, having made the necessary preparations, went back in 1734, and commenced his mission.
In 1735 Gov. Dudley appointed a meeting of the Indians on business at Deerfield, where the Rev. John Sergeant was ordained as their minister, and he with Mr. Timothy Woodbridge as schoolmaster, (afterwards Hon. Timothy W.,) went to spend their lives with the Indians.
The Rev. Mr. Sergeant married Abigail, the daughter of Col. Ephraim Williams, of Newton, near Boston, one of the chosen six who had farms allotted them across our pleasant hill, to be society for the two missionaries.
Mr. Sergeant died in 1749, in the midst of his usefulness, a most amiable man and greatly lamented. He left three children: Erastus, the subject of this memoir; Electa, who married Col. Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington, and was grandmother to the two brothers, Mark and Albert Hopkins, the former the President and the latter a Professor at Williams College; and John, the fourth missionary to the said Indians, who removed with them in 1788, then being about four hundred and fifty in number, to Oneida County, N. Y., and there died.
Their mother married for her second husband, Gen. Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington, who then had five children, and by her he had two more, from whom our Dwights and Sedgwicks are descended,—and their mother became again a widow.
Notwithstanding the difficulties of the war with the French and Indians of Canada, and the residing on the frontier with the care of his, hers, and their children, by the influence and assistance of their friends, Erastus was prepared for college, and spent two years at Princeton, N. J., before the circumstances of the family required his return.
In 1761 he went to live with his uncle, Dr. Thomas Williams of Deerfield, and was there about three years in the study and practice of medicine. In January, 1765, he commenced the practice of physic in Stockbridge. The towns in the vicinity were then but partially settled, and not supplied with physicians, so that he soon had much business. Several severe cases of comminuted fracture, successfully treated by him, served to extend his fame, and, in a short time his advice was much sought, and in surgical cases he became the principal operator within a circle of thirty miles diameter; and his usefulness was continued until Dr. Jones and others succeeded him in business.
He was endowed with sound judgment and skill in his profession; was sedate, kind, very charitable and benevolent, with a large share of the Christian graces, and truly was the "beloved physician." More than twenty young men studied medicine under his direction.
It was said of him, that no one ever spoke ill of him from his youth up. He was an important member and deacon in the Rev. Dr. West's church. He received a Master's degree at Yale College in 1784; was elected a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1785; was a Justice of the Peace, and a Major in the South Regiment of the County; and was obliged to keep garrison with the Regiment at Lake Champlain, from December, 1776, to April, 1777, and to perform other services in troublesome times, until Burgoyne's surrender.
Some years before his death he was afflicted with symptoms of pulmonary disease, which were much aggravated by his incessant attention to his daughter, who died of consumption. In September of 1814 he visited the "springs," in company with Dr. Partridge, without benefit, indeed, to his injury; for it was with difficulty that he returned, on account of his increasing weakness. The day before his death, he had so far recruited that he rode to Lee on horseback, visited his son's family, and returned, not complaining of fatigue. The day he died, he was abroad in the morning. Dr. Partridge adds, "Two friends called on us from New York, and as we sat at dinner, in social conversation, Dr. Sergeant suddenly rose, and a stream of blood issued from his mouth. I instantly sprang to him, and he fell lifeless into my arms, without a gasp. Thus expired my dear friend, under whose roof I had resided from my twentieth year, then forty three and a half years, and more than forty of them harmoniously visiting each other's patients, as necessary to their satisfaction and our accommodation."
Dr. P. adds, "natus fui, April 15, 1751."