Subsequently, in 1843, he removed to Lowell, and was employed by the manufacturing companies of that city to purchase the large lakes in New Hampshire whose waters supply the Merrimack river, and secured for the companies one hundred thousand acres of water. Before this service was fully accomplished, he received the appointment of standing justice of the police court of Lowell, upon the resignation of the late Hon. Joseph Locke, who had held the office thirteen years. Judge Crosby was qualified May 19, 1846. This position he still holds. He has rarely failed of holding the civil terms of the court during his entire period of service. In the discharge of the duties of a local magistrate,—a position peculiarly trying, placed, as those duties are, so near the people in all their differences, controversies, temptations, follies, and depravities,—he has been at all times humane, conscientious, incorruptible, and just, aiming to do right.
In all works of philanthropy and reform, no one has a kinder heart, or a more willing or generous hand. His frequent appeals to the public, through the press, upon the temperance issues of the day have been characterized by great power, earnestness, and practical wisdom, and have been widely read and approved. He has never held political office, but has been in the ranks of the Federal, Whig, and Republican parties. He was the first man in the country to give one hundred dollars for the sanitary relief of Union soldiers in the late rebellion, and to form a soldiers' relief association, of which he was president during the war. He was the first college graduate from the town of his birth, and the last of four of his class who received the degree of Doctor of Laws.
His literary productions consist of "Obituary Notices for 1857 and 1858," in two volumes, "First Half Century of Dartmouth College," eulogies upon Judge Wilde and Hon. Tappan Wentworth, "Notices of Distinguished Men of Essex County, Mass.," the last being especially illustrative of Choate, Cushing, and Rantoul, and letters and appeals to the citizens of Lowell upon the temperance issues of 1880 and 1881. He has a nervous, but animated and entertaining style. His "First Half Century of Dartmouth College" is a model in its way, while his "Crosby Family," a genealogical work, is not the dry and uninteresting reading such literature usually is, but is entertaining, even to the general reader, for its reminiscences of individuals, and its pleasant pictures of old times in New Hampshire.
He has always cherished a deep interest in Dartmouth College, and to no slight extent has, by personal effort, brought about events which have been of substantial benefit to that ancient seat of learning.
Judge Crosby has been twice married. His first wife, Rebecca Marquand Moody, was a daughter of Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, by whom he had nine children, of which number five are now living, namely, Frances Coffin, wife of Dr. Henry A. Martin, of Boston; Hon. Stephen Moody Crosby, of Boston; Maria Stocker, wife of the late Maj. Alexander McD. Lyon, of Erie, Penn.; Ellen Grant, wife of N. G. Norcross, Esq., of Lowell, and Susan Coffin, wife of Charles Francis, son of James B. Francis, of Lowell, the distinguished engineer. His daughter, Rebecca Marquand, widow of the late Z. B. Caverly, United States charge d'affaires at Peru, a highly accomplished and widely esteemed lady, was, with her daughter, lost on the "Schiller," a German steamer, off the English coast, in the spring of 1875,—a disaster which, at the time, created profound sorrow throughout the country. He married, May 19, 1870, Matilda, daughter of James Pickens, of Boston, and widow of Dr. J. W. Fearing, of Providence, R. I., who still lives.
Personally, the judge is a fine exemplification of the good results of temperance, self-care, and habitual good humor; and one meeting him for the first time, and noting his firm step and erect carriage, would hardly think him older than a man of sixty.
DIXI CROSBY, M. D.
Dr. Dixi Crosby, fifth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, February 8, 1800, and died at Hanover, September 26, 1873. He married Mary Jane Moody, daughter of Stephen Moody, of Gilmanton, a distinguished lawyer, July 2, 1827. His academical preparation for his profession was quite limited; but being quick to learn, and with uncommon powers of memory, he made rapid progress in the study and practice of his profession and early became a prominent surgeon and physician, practicing in Gilmanton and Laconia till called to fill the chair of surgery in the Dartmouth Medical College, as successor of Professor R. D. Muzzey. He was placed at the head of the Medical College, in 1838, and held the place with great ability and distinction until nearly the time of his death.
His son, Prof. Alpheus B. Crosby, a young man of remarkable distinction, who died August 9, 1877, succeeded him. Another and older son is an eminent physician in Concord, N. H.
"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was in no modern sense a specialist. His professional labors covered the whole range of medicine. His professorship included obstetrics as well as surgery, and his practice in this department was exceptionally large. His surgical diocese extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Of the special operations of Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in detail. It is sufficient to mention that, in 1824, he devised a new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo-phalangeal dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm, scapula, and three-quarters of the clavicle, at a single operation, for the first time in the history of surgery. He was the first to open abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations without ever having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr. Crosby was not what may be called a rapid operator. "An operation, gentlemen," he often said to his clinical students, "is soon enough done when it is well enough done." And with him it was never done otherwise than well.