Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 7
ton. He died eai'ly, tradition 8a3's, at 22, leaviDg no issue.
Dr. Abuer Hersey, sou of James and Mary Hersey, born in
Hingliam in 1721, was employed till 18 in husbandry with his
father. He had few opportunities for acquiring an education,
and is represented as a rude and illiterate young man. He came
to -Barnstable in 1740 to study medicine with his brother James.
The late Dr. James Thacher, of Plymouth, says that Dr. Abner
studied medicine with his brother James of Barnstable, a physician
of reputation aud extensive practice, enjoying entire confidence
and popular favor wherever known. He studied one year,
and at nineteen succeeded to his brother's practice. He was
young and suffering under the disadvantages of a penurious education,
when he began his career, and afterwards pursued it with
a zeal and fidelity in the highest degree honorable to his character.
For many years he commanded without a rival the whole
practice of Cape Cod, then containing seven or eight thousand inhabitants.
Sound judgment and correct observation supplied de-
fects of education. As a physician he was indefatigable, faith-
ful, punctual and successful. As a surgeon, judicious, and siiil-
f ul ; but he performed no capital operations. He was honest.
No one suffered injustice by him. He was a strict observer of the
Sabbath, never absenting himself from public services. He was
moderate in his charges, and punctual in making his annual demands.
Dr. Hersey was subject to hypochrondiac affections, and in
his domestic character he was eccentric in the extreme— a mere
compound of caprice and whim. Domestic happiness and social
intercourse were strangers to his family.
He never had the small pox, and that disease was a great terror
to him. He once visited a patient who had the symptoms of
the disease—he was soreij' frightened and shut himself for a week
in his house, firmly believing that his last day was near at hand.
He was abstemious, eating no animal food, and di inking no
ardent spirits or wine. His diet consisted chiefly of milk and
vegetables. His garments were cut after a fashion of his own,
large, loose and lined with baize. His bed was the same summer
and winter. It is said that the Chinese estimate the degrees of
cold by ja-ckets. Dr. Hersey adopted a similar rule. He had on
his bed a dozen all-wool, fulled blankets. In the summer he
turned down one or two. When the weather became cool in autumn,
he turned down three or four, and during the coldest
weather in winter he buried himself under the whole. With him
the weather was from one to ten blankets cold.
Such is the character given to him by one who was his pupil
five years. Its truthfulness I have no reason to doubt. I have
conversed with many who knew him intimately, and they all confirm
the statement that he was "a mere compound of caprice and