RALPH SCHUYLER GOODWIN, M.D.,

THOMASTON.

Dr. Goodwin was a descendant of one of the original settlers of the state, Ozias Goodwin, a pioneer with Rev. Thomas Hooker of Hartford.

The subject of our sketch was a son of Charles and Jane (Guilford) Goodwin of Litchfield. He was born in that town June 24, 1839. He received his education at the Academies of Watertown and Waterbury in this state, Binghamton, N. Y., and the New York State Normal School, from which he graduated in 1863. The two following years he taught in the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. He began studying medicine with Dr. Burr of Binghampton, it being customary in those days to have a precepto. In 1866 he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y.

In February, 1867, he married Miss Jeanie Edith Irwin, a native of New York City, and settled in what was then known as Plymouth Hollow. The Hartford turnpike passing the Congregational Church descends for nearly a mile into a deep valley extending from north to south, about a mile and a half. This was called Plymouth Hollow, a flourishing little village containing fifty years ago, a cotton mill and three clock factories. The clock factories belonging to Messrs. Terry and Thomas, were extensive and with Mr. Terry originated, it is believed, the manufacture of small wooden clocks. This manufacture has been largely extended and has caused the village to grow into a thriving and prosperous town, named from Seth Thomas.

There was at that time but one resident physician in the locality, but Dr. Goodwin has seen sixteen doctors

come and go since he established himself.

He came to have a strong hold upon the people of his town. In season and out of season, for pay and simply from the higher motive of love, in exposure and risk, for years he ministered unto them. He grew to be the leading physician in his county. And not only this, but he was known throughout the state. In 1884 Dr. C. A. Lindsley was elected Secretary of the State Board of Health in place of Dr. Chamberlain, who died. Dr. Lindsley was a regular member of the Board and a vacancy thus arising, Dr. Goodwin was chosen to fill it. This position he held until failing health induced him to retire at the expiration of his term in 1903. He became also a member of the American Public Health Association, a body of distinguished sanitarians, whose meetings were always a notable event in the cities where they were held. Dr. Goodwin always attended these and besides keeping in touch with the leading questions in sanitation, gained much experience in travel. The annual reports of the State Board contain his résumé of those meetings.

In 1897 he was elected President of the Connecticut Medical Society. Dr. Orlando Brown of Washington, was the only living member in the County who had attained to that honor conferred by the Fellow Physicians of his own state. His work in that Society from the time of his joining it has been collated by the Secretary in his annual report and is on page 96 of this issue of the Proceedings.

Nor was his life limited to his profession, broad as it might thus have been. For ten years he was school visitor of the town. As member of the Board of Educa tion, he kept his finger on the educational pulse. He had scholarly tastes and intellectual gifts, a kindly sympathetic nature, prudence and skill in the management of his own affairs, performing the ordinary duties of the

citizen with faithfulness and intelligence.

He had

traveled extensively and gave to others the benefits of his observation and experience in letters which he wrote to the local press.

He had two children; one a physician, a worthy member of this Society has succeeded to his father's practice and has assumed charge of the home. The other, a daughter, graduated from Vassar, was married and in seventeen months thereafter died. Her father's heart went into the grave with her for he was very fond of her, and it probably hastened his death.

Four weeks before the final call came the premonition. During that time he lay upon his bed and talked as calmly of approaching death as though he were contemplating a journey to Europe. He has left for us this record of his thought, this testimony of his soul which seems to us as if it came from the life beyond.

"For thirty-seven years I have walked the streets of Thomaston, and driven over these hills. I have answered the call of distress. I have tried to relieve suffering, to prolong life and soothe the dying. I have attended more than 1,500 births, have seen more than 1,000 persons pass out of life. I have tried to do good in my own way. I am not going to do it any more. I am tired now and I must rest. Disease is upon me and the end is probably not far off. I pray the prayer of the Psalmist, "O spare me a little that I may recover my strength, before I go hence," but I hardly expect it, and I would rather go now, while in the full possession of my faculties, than to linger in suffering or to lapse into unconsciousness. Give this as my parting message to the people of Thomaston. I die sustained and cheered by the faith of the Christian. I may have had my doubts and questionings, but I put them all aside. There are some things difficult to understand. I do not understand them yet, but I believe. In yonder cemetery upon the