Article on the Dr. French of Broome County

Excerpt from the Smith's History of Broome County, New York. D. Mason & Co. Publishers, Syracuse, NY 1885 (p509-512)

DR. S. H. FRENCH. -- The ancestors of Dr. French came from England about the year 1700. His immediate ancestor settled at Dunstable, N. H. His son Sampson, the great-grandfather of our subject, was father of Sampson French, jr., who was a soldier in the old French War. He was the father of Clement French, the father of our subject. Clement French was a well-developed man physically, of large stature and weight. His son, Dr. Salphronius Henry French, fifth and youngest son of Clement and Elizabeth French, was born at Zoar, now Charlemont, Mass., August 26th, 1811. In 1814 his parents emigrated to Chenango, Broome county, N. Y. Nothing of note transpired during his childhood.

When quite young he suffered from chronic rheumatism in his feet, and his oldder brothers allege that he was at that age badly troubled with chronic laziness. The rheumatism was more severe in the winter months, and continued for several years. This alleged laziness (if not wholly a myth) passed away with the other diseases of childhood, leaving not the least trace in after life. This condition of health led his father to give him an opportunity to attend school. The instruction given in the public schools at that time was meagre indeed; but a sufficient taste for books and thirst for knowledge was developed to lay the foundation for a future professional career.

At the age of fifteen he entered the select school of Binghamton (then taught in the old Masonic Hall), which was the best school in the county. Here he pursued his studies with great industry for four succeeding summers. His parents being poor, he was obliged to pay for his board and school expenses by working in gardens, etc., in the summer and teaching school in the winter.

When nineteen years old he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Drs. West & Starkey, of Binghamton, October, 1830. In the spring of 1831 Dr. Hawks, of North Adams, Mass.--a maternal uncle--extended to him an invitation to study medicine in his office gratuitously. Being entirely destitute of funds except what could be obtained by teaching school in the winter, he gladly accepted the invitation. In 1832 he attended a course of lectures in the Berkshire Medical Institution of Massachusetts, and the winter following he came to this county for the purpose of teaching a school and replenishing his wardrobe. This was the sixth and last school that he taught. In the spring he "went down the river" two different trips on lumber rafts, and by adding the wages he received for this service to his school-money he was enabled, by strict economy and a little borrowed money, to pursue his studies in the office of Dr. A. Willard, in Greene, Chenango county, and to attend a second course of lectures in the same medical institution mentioned above, where he was graduated in December, 1833.

After receiving his diploma he looked over his funds and discovered that two dollars and fifty cents were wanting to carry him home. He raised this amount by selling a book and a small trunk, and reached his father's house with thirty-one cents in his pocket.

That much prized diploma had cost him a severe struggle with poverty and adverse circumstances, but the lessons of economy and self-reliance, learned during that struggle, were of priceless value in after-life. And then he had the sweet satisfaction of knowing and feeling that his success belonged to himself, and was the natural outcome under Providence of his own successful fight against adversity.

A few days after reaching home he succeeded in effecting a co-partnership with Dr. P. B. Brooks, of Lisle, Broome county, N. Y. At the end of two years this partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, and Dr. French left Lisle for the northern part of Chenango, in the same county. He practiced here for a few months only While in Chenango Dr. Brooks left Lisle and settled in Binghamton.

Dr. French having received an urgent request from the citizens of Lisle to return to their village, he concluded to do so. From that time until disabled by disease, which was gradually from 1868 to 1875, he practiced medicine and surgery in the same place.

While in partnership with Dr. Brooks (October 8th, 1834), Dr. French married Cynthia Harrington, a daughter of Benjamin Harrington, a farmer living in Greene, Chenango county. Benjamin Harrington was born in Bainbridge, N. Y. He was the father of Dr. Harrington, of Chenango Forks, and Geo. N. Harrington who now resides on the old homestead in Greene, Chenango county. His death occurred July 4th, 1865, when seventy-eight years of age. His wife, Mrs. Martha Harrington, died January 12th, 1864, aged seventy-two years. She was a worthy member of the M. E. Church, as was her husband.

The doctor early saw the advantages of associating with his medical brethren, and he joined the County Medical Society in 1834. His great industry and energy soon placed him in the front rank of his medical associates, and he was elected president of the society in 1842 and again in 1850 and 1852. At the meeting of the society in 1851, in place of the annual address which it was customary for the retiring president to deliver, the doctor read a biographical sketch of the medical profession of Broome county, covering the time from the earliest settlement of Binghamton to 1850.

This sketch was published in the form of an octavo pamphlet of sixty-five pages by direction of the society. He was very faithful in attending the meetings of the society, and contributed much to their interest by valuable papers and reports of cases. In 1846 he was elected a delegate to the State Medical Society, and in 1850 that society elected him a permanent member. He attended most of its meetings, which were held in Albany in mid-winter, as long as his health would permit, and took a deep interest in its prosperity. He was also a member of the American Medical Association, and attended its meetings in Washington, St. Louis and elsewhere. The doctor's practice was a very large one, but he so arranged his business as to find time in his active years to not only keep fully up to the times by reading medical journals and books, of which he was a liberal patron, but also to write occasionally for the medical papers, and pursue studies in some of the natural sciences. He was very proficient in botany and geology, which he studied with a great deal of enthusiasm, making a recreation of what others might have considered a laborious task.

In his associations with other physicians he lived up to the letter and spirit of the code of medical ethics so perfectly as to win the esteem of every respectable physician with whom he came in contact. No amount of importunity, threatening or bribery could ever persuade him to countenance or endorse by his presence or advice any system of ignorance or quackery. And at the same time he was ever ready, with a kind and encouraging word, a helping hand, and often with money, to assist poor, worthy young men in getting a medical education and preparing themselves for future usefulness. Near twenty young men received their elementary medical education in his office, several of whom have arisen to distinction in the profession. Although his health did not permit the active exercise necessary for the practice of medicine, he retained a lively interest in his chosen profession and kept well informed of the improvements and discoveries in the medical sciences to the close of his life.

In politics the doctor was a Whig, and was elected to the Legislature in 1846 by that party. After the Whig party ceased to exist he acted with the Democrats. He was always a prominent temperance man, and he held his temperance principles above party dictation, and would never sacrifice them for the supposed good of any candidate for office.

In early life he became convinced of the truths of the Christian religion, and was for the most of his life a faithful, consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His fostering care and unceasing liberality to the Methodist Church in Lisle did much towards establishing and maintaining the church in that place.

In his wife the doctor found a woman who combined all the requisites necessary to make a home happy and attractive, and her cheering and solacing companionship, and her gentle and kindly ministrations, were of infinite value to him during his declining years. After years of intense suffering the doctor died of cancer May 27th, 1877. His wife is still living.