Back to School at Castleton Medical College Two Hundred Years Ago

 

Castleton Medical College

This blog is for a prompt from genealogist Amy Johnson Crow’s "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" genealogy workshop.   This week’s prompt is “Back to School.”

 

Two hundred years ago in September, medical students would have been returning to school and starting classes at Castleton Medical College in Vermont.   Theodore Woodward (1788-1840), my third great grandfather, was a co-founder of this college and the school had a decisive impact not only on medical education in early 19^th century New England but on my Woodward family.   

 

 Portrait of Theodore Woodward at Castleton University, 2007. 

 

Castleton Medical College was chartered by the Vermont General Assembly in 1818.  At that time, only nine medical colleges existed in the US, according to “Castleton Looking Back,” published by the Castleton Historical Society in 1998.   Shortly after, the name of the college was changed to Vermont Academy of Medicine in 1822.  Several firsts accrue to the college.  It was the first medical college in Vermont and the first private degree-granting medical school in the US.    What prepared Theodore Woodward for such a challenge?

 

Early Life

Theodore was born in July 1788 the second son of Jonathan Woodward (1762-1843) and Rebecca Smith (1764-1824) in Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire.   Hanover is home to Dartmouth College which was founded in 1769 and one of only nine colleges chartered before the American Revolution.   Jonathan served in the Revolution as a member of the famed “Green Mountain Boys” and was a chemist and geologist, probably imparting a penchant for scientific thinking to his offspring.   At age 22, young Theodore enrolled in Dartmouth Medical School in 1810, but was not graduated for unknown reasons.  After two apprenticeships with well known doctors in the area, Theodore began medical practice in Castleton, Rutland County, Vermont in 1812, licensed by the county medical society.   Hanover is in western New Hampshire and Castleton is only about 60 miles to the west, across the Connecticut River along today’s Route 4. 

 

 The route from Hanover, NH west to Castleton VT along today's Route 4. 

 

Partnerships Shape the College

Two of Dr. Woodward’s partnerships were key to founding the college.  The first partnership was with Dr. Selah Gridley, who was a doctor with an established practice in Castleton, and almost two decades older than Theodore.  Dr. Gridley had a busy practice and welcomed a new, young doctor.  The partnership was also complementary because Dr. Gridley did not enjoy surgical aspects whereas Dr. Woodward preferred surgery.  

          The original Medical College building is now called "Old Chapel" at Castleton University.  

 A second important partnership was between both doctors and a prominent Castleton citizen by the name of Carlos Sherman.  Sherman purchased land for the college, with the Medical College Building, now called the “Old Chapel,” built in 1821 and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

 

The "Old Chapel" is on the National Register of Historic Places.

 Success

The medical college attracted many students, with 24 students enrolled in 1819.  In those days, students did not need to have a college degree to enter the medical college, the main requirement for admission being payment of tuition.  The curriculum included lectures and observation of dissection of cadavers in the “anatomical theater,” which presumably was Dr. Woodward’s class.    By all accounts, the college educated a high number of men, with 1400 receiving medical degrees by the time the college closed in 1862.  

The medical college closed in the era when larger, university-based medical colleges were opening, such as Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, founded in 1876.   However, the associated Castleton Seminary school remained and is now known as Castleton University, a public college. 

                                  One of the modern buildings on the current Castleton University campus, 2007. 

 

Family Legacies

Although Theodore Woodward died young, at age 52 probably from a brain tumor, his medical legacy remained strong in the Woodward family.   Out of Theodore’s 7 children, Edwin Carlos Woodward became a pharmacist in Castleton and Adrian Theodore Woodward became a surgeon and was the operating surgeon with the 14^th Regiment, Vermont Volunteers, at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. 

 

Theodore's son, Adrian Theodore Woodward, sas the operating surgeon with the 14th Regiment, Vermont Volunteers, at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. 

 

The sudden appearance of the name Carlos into the Woodward family is explained by the close partnership Theodore developed early on with Carlos Sherman, who purchased land for the college.   Not only did Theodore’s son Edwin bear Carlos as a middle name but nephews Rollin Carlos Woodward and Carlos Smith Sherman demonstrated the family affinity in their names as well.  

Theodore’s success with the medical college, or good review of Castleton as a hometown, must have lured his siblings to move from Hanover as well.  Two brothers and a sister relocated to Castleton and thus began a Woodward presence in Rutland County that lasted at least three generations.