II.—DR. HORATIO JONES OF STOCKBRIDGE.
This able and distinguished physician, the pupil and associate of Dr. Sergeant, (No. I.,) was the son of Capt. Josiah Jones, and grandson of Mr. Josiah Jones, who, in 1737, emigrated from Weston with Col. Ephraim Williams of Newton, and settled with their families in Stockbridge. This sacrifice they cheerfully made, with the benevolent intention of aiding the mission, then recently commenced among the Housatonic Indians.
Dr. Jones was born at Stockbridge, in 1770. In early youth he manifested the same energy and decision of character for which he was so much distinguished in riper years. Having commenced his collegiate education at Yale College with flattering prospects; and, perhaps, in his ambition to excel, pursuing his studies with an intensity of application disproportionate to his power of endurance, his health became impaired, and he was attacked with a disease in his eyes, which threatened a total loss of sight. In these circumstances, in accordance with the recommendation of his medical advisers, he for a time entirely relinquished his literary pursuits.
Instead of yielding to hopeless despondency, however, he determined to pursue an active life; and substituting a knapsack for his classics, he went with a company of surveyors to the Genesee country, New York, to assist in laying out lands. He was thus exposed to all the hardships incident to that mode of life, camping out in the wilderness, living upon the coarsest fare, and not unfrequently making a hollow log his lodging place for the night.
In due time he recovered his health and sight, and once more resumed his studies, but not at college. Placing himself under the instruction of Dr. Sergeant in his native town, he completed the usual term of medical pupilage. At a subsequent period he attended a course of medical lectures at Philadelphia.
He first commenced the practice of his profession at Pittsfield, where he was much respected. But at length finding, as he expressed it, that there were more physicians than business in that place, he determined to remove. His decision being known to Dr. Sergeant, then advancing in life, who was desirous of finding some suitable person to take his place as an operating surgeon, he with his friend Dr. Partridge earnestly solicited Dr. Jones to settle in Stockbridge. With this invitation he eventually complied, and while he lived, the medical intercourse of the three physicians was most harmonious.
Under these auspices he was soon introduced into a wide circle of business, not only in Stockbridge, but in all the neighboring towns. His reputation was not ephemeral, but constantly increased, as he advanced in life; and his advice was much sought and highly appreciated by his medical brethren. In 1804 he was elected a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and in 1810 received from Williams College the honorary degree of M. A.
Such was Dr. Jones,—a man possessed of rare endowments, and eminent in his profession. In the language of Dr. Partridge, from whom most of the facts relating to him have been obtained, "he was a good operator in surgery, active, pleasant, social, very popular, and indefatigable by night and by day to give relief in cases of distress and danger."
In the winter of 1812-13, an alarming and fatal epidemic prevailed extensively in New England. During its prevalence, Dr. Jones was incessantly occupied in attendance upon the sick. At length the fears of his friends respecting him were realized. He was suddenly prostrated, and, after an illness of only eight days, he died, April 26, 1813, aged 43 years.
His funeral was attended by a great concourse of persons from Stockbridge and the adjoining towns. The Rev. Dr. Hyde of Lee, who preached his funeral sermon, from Job xix: 21, speaks of his death as a public calamity. "Rarely," says he, "has the town, or even the county, experienced a greater shock in the death of a citizen. His removal in the midst of his usefulness is an unspeakable loss to the community."
His death is represented to have been eminently peaceful. Although he had not made a public profession of his faith, he experienced a great change in his religious feelings during the winter preceding his death. He gave to those who best knew him, satisfactory evidence of piety.
In his intercourse with his medical brethren, he was courteous and unassuming. All the duties of domestic and social life he discharged with fidelity and acceptance. His mind was well balanced and highly cultivated. He sympathized in the most unaffected manner with the sick who sought his aid, and by his kindness and gentleness alleviated the sufferings and won the affections of his patients, even in those cases where medical and surgical skill could afford only a temporary and partial relief.
Extracts from the sermon of Dr. Hyde were published in the tenth volume of the Panoplist; also, an interesting notice of his death and character, by Rev. Jared Curtis, in the Farmer's Herald. See also a memoir recently prepared and published by Dr. S. S. Williams, in his Medical Biography, a work which cannot fail to interest the medical reader, and is an able sequel to the volumes of the late Dr. Thatcher on the same subject.