Rev. John Middleton was a descendant of James Rogers, 2d.
Rev. Charles H. Peck, of Bennington, Vt., is a descendant of James Rogers, 2d. He is the son of Mrs. E. P. Peck, of New London, daughter of our late esteemed fellow-townsman, Daniel Rogers, to whose interest in genealogical researches many besides ourselves are indebted for information concerning early inhabitants of New London.
As to physicians of Rogerene descent, we recall very few at time of this writing. Their ancestors largely discarded medicines, and this sentiment may have been handed down. But we will mention William P. Bolles, M.D., of Boston, brother of Lawyer H. E. Bolles above mentioned, who by his skill in surgery and medical practice, and also by literary work in the same lines, has brought honor to himself and his profession.
The writer will here relate a conversation which was held with a prominent physician of the present day.
“If you had lived,” said we, “two hundred years ago, would you have chosen the attendance of a physician or the good care of friends in sickness?”
“I would have preferred the good care of friends,” was the reply. “The science of medicine was not so well understood then as at the present day.”
A tacit acknowledgment that the Rogerenes were right, although the doctor knew not the purpose for which the question was asked.[asked.] Certain it is that much less medicine is administered now than formerly, and statistics show that longevity has increased.
Mr. McEwen has not failed to ridicule the belief of the Rogerenes concerning the non-use of medicine, and perhaps the best reply is given by Mrs. Caulkins, when she says of John Rogers, 2d, as before quoted, “Notwithstanding his long testimony and his many weary trials and imprisonments, he reared to maturity a family of eighteen children, most of them, like their parents, sturdy Rogerenes.”
And of John Bolles in this connection we have only to say, he had fifteen children, the average age reached by whom was more than seventy-six years. He himself lived to be ninety.
We are not disposed to deny the fact that the Rogerenes held the sentiments ascribed to them on this subject, and, not to spoil a joke for relation’s sake, we will relate an anecdote which was told us by the late Edward Prentice, with much glee on his part.