History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

228 History of Swansea
divinity course at Harvard, and received the degree of D. D, from that
institution. In 1804 he was made pastor of the Congregational Church at
Templeton, over which he remained fifty years. He died Aug. 3, 1861.
His wife, Anna Smith, whom he married June 29, 1807, was born Aug. 29,
1783, at Halifax, N. S., daughter of Henry Smith, of Boston (born Aug. 7,
1735, died April 8, 1811), and his wife Elizabeth Draver. The pioneer
progenitor of the Smith family in America was William Smith, born Nov.
6, 1675, in Newton, near Hingham ferries, Northampton, England; he
married Martha Turnstall, of Putnev. Mrs. Anna (Smith) Wellington died
April 24, 1830. Mr. Wellington married (second) July 27, 1831, Adelaide
Russell, of Templeton. His children were: Elizabeth Smith, born July 12,
1808, married Leander Leeland, of Templeton, and died Sept. 23, 1882;
Mary Whitney, born Dec. 30, 1810, married Jacob Bachelder, of Lynn, and
died Dec. 31, 1889; Rebecca Smith, bom April 5, 1812, married June 19,
1834, Artemas Z. Brown, M. D., of PhiUipston, and died June 16, 1867;
WiUiam Henry, born Jan. 16, 1814, married Susan Gilpatrick, and died at
St. Louis, Oct. 12, 1843; Anna, born June 9, 1816, married Joseph C.
Bachelder, M. D., and died Sept. 2, 1905; James Lloyd was born Jan. 27,
1818; Ahnira, born Dec. 28, 1819, married Joseph C. Baldwin, and died at
Philipston in January, 1872; Margaret Coffin, born Dec. 10, 1821, married
Leonard Stone, and died in February, 1893; Charles Woodward Wilder,
born May 17, 1825, married Eunice Allen Starr, of Deerfield, and died at
Hyde Park, Aug. 3, 1880; Adelaide, born June 30, 1832, died Feb. 26, 1855.
(VII) James Lloyd WelUngton, Swansea's faithful physician and
honored citizen, obtained his education at New Salem Academy, Templeton
High School, and Harvard University, receiving the degree of A. B. from
the latter institution in 1838. He bears the distinction (1916), of being the
oldest surviving graduate of that University. His was the class noted for
the number of men who became famous, including James Russell Lowell,
William Wetmore Story, Dr. George B. Loring, and Gen. Charles Devens
(at one time Secretary of State). He was in college at the same time as the
late Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and was a classmate of his brother,
Nathan Hale. His freshman year in college he occupied a yard room on the
first floor of HoUis Hall, on the left hand side of the front entrance; his
sophomore year the southwest corner room of the same dormitory; in his
junior year the northwest corner of the same floor. His senior year found
him living on the third floor, west side of the east entrance of Hoiworthy
Hall, in which in those days only seniors were allowed to room.. During his
college course the Doctor was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa
Society for his rank in his studies. For diligence in his studies he was given
a "detur, " two volumes of Burns' poems. At one of the annual class
exhibitions he read an original Latin Oration, and at another a Latin
translation ; and he took a prominent part in the commencement exercises
of his class. While he was a junior he was present the first time that "Fair
Harvard" was sung. This was at the celebration of the two hundredth
anniversary of the founding of the college, in 1836. He was also present at
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 1886 and has attended commencement
whenever he could, being present when his grandson was in
college in 1900.
In 1842 Dr. Wellington graduated from the Harvard Medical School,
where he was a student under Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, In the summer
school of that institution his instructors were Drs. Holmes, Bigelow,
Reynolds, and Storer. During his course in the Medical School he was a
member for two years of the Boston Cadets.
Preferring not to settle in his native town, Dr. WeUington came to
Swansea in 1842, and was associated with Dr. Artemas Z. Brown, whose
wife was Dr. Wellington's sister. At that time there were only six doctors