Person:Benjamin Cutter (2)

The following is from History of the Cutter Family^[1], p. 137-142. It is a little long, but clearly heartfelt:

He graduated at Harvard College in 1824, and took his medical degree from the same College in 1827, and from Philadelphia in 1S57. Keen in observation, sound in judgment, prompt in action, diligent in study, modest yet self-reliant, with a mind of the highest order, possessing extensive and varied acquirements, he honored his profession in a practice of nearly forty years. As a citizen always reliable, as a Christian always consistent, his death carried sorrow to all who knew him.

Gifted by nature with qualities that go far to make a true man and a good physician, these were sedulously trained and cultivated, which combined to make him a person of rare worth and prominence among his fellow citizens and co[n]temporary practitioners.

His predilection for study was early manifest, and his parents sent him from home at the age of eight years to enjoy better educational advantages than his native town afforded. He was a pupil in the academies at Westford and Andover, Mass., and also at Pelham and Newmarket, N. H. He studied medicine with the celebrated Dr. Francis Kittredge, of Woburn, and succeeded to his practice on the death of that gentleman in 1828. Dr. Cutter's career in college is described in the following communication from his classmate, Rev. A. B. Muzzey, of Cambridge.

"I spent some time with him at Westford Academy in preparing for college, and our pleasant intercourse while there led to an intimacy as classmates, when in 1820 we entered Harvard College. This resulted in our being room-mates during the Sophomore and Junior years.

"He was at that time full of mirth, quick at repartee, and had a large stock of entertaining anecdotes. This made him popular in the class so far as he became known, which owing to his modest and retired habits was not very generally.

"He had by nature unusual ability and quickness of insight as a scholar. His forte was decidedly mathematics, where he might easily have taken a very high rank; but he had no ambition for this sort of distinction. I do not think he enjoyed the ancient classics. He was quite averse to metaphysics. I remember once when good Dr. Hedge pressed him to answer a certain question, he replied, with that spirit which could occasionally be roused within him: 'I have told you, Sir, once—and twice—that I did not know!' This reply called forth the only rebuke I ever knew him to receive from any teacher while in college. His constitutional diffidence made him especially dislike to speak in public. Still he received what was termed 'a part' at one of the College Exhibitions, and another in the exercises of our Commencement.

"But although indifferent to college honors he was fond of general reading, and industrious in his habits of study where his taste was gratified. And with an excellent memory he retained whatever he had read to an uncommon degree.

"He was through our whole college life a predetermined physician. Every branch of our studies, such as chemistry or botany, which looked in that direction, he pursued with avidity; and I would often find him in the little 'study' adjoining our room, trying experiments in chemistry, or perhaps dissecting a frog or some other animal. This decided taste led me to predict for him what he afterwards, I am told, attained, not only prominence in medical skill, but special distinction as a surgeon.

"I will only add, that our acquaintance had heen continued, although with too frequent interruptions, up to the close of his life. We had cooperated, to some extent, in the great cause of Temperance, and in the work of Education, which we both had at heart."

On leaving college he received a certificate from the faculty of his alma mater, stating he sustained a "respectable standing in point of scholarship," and " an unexceptionable moral character," and that he was believed "well qualified for the office of instructor." He taught school in Medford during the winter of 1823, and at Wellfleet, in Barnstable County, in 1824. He also taught in other places at a period when he was so young that the large boys used to think they could master him.

In 1826 he was commissioned surgeon's mate, and in 1829 surgeon of a regiment of militia. He resigned this office in 1834. He was a prominent pioneer in the temperance reform of 1828; the leading spirit of the Woburn Young Men's Society, and the organizer of the Woburn Young Men's Library. This library comprised nearly seven hundred volumes on history, biography, travels and voyages, and scientific and miscellaneous subjects, but no religious works nor novels. The books were mainly of Dr. Cutter's selection, and are creditable to his judgment and his knowledge of general literature. In estimation of his zeal to advance their credit and welfare, the members of the Young Men's Society presented him with a handsome parlor timepiece, still a cherished memento in his family.

He was a member of the School Committee in Woburn from 1845 to 1849. He was Clerk of the First Congregational Church for twenty-one successive years, and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Warren Academy for thirty successive years. He was the founder and first President of the Middlesex East District Medical Society. This association of physicians was organized at his residence in Woburn, October 22, 1850; and besides himself, Drs. Davis and Wakefield from Reading, Youngman from Winchester, Stevens from Stoneham, and Drs. Nelson, Plympton, Clough, Drew, Piper, and Rickard, from Woburn, were present.

He was eminent for his antiquarian taste, and his extensive acquaintance with the localities and ancient affairs of the towns in the vicinity where he dwelt. Aside from the arduous duties of his profession, he found time to accumulate a rich fund of local topographical and genealogical history, which he had collected in great measure from his aged patients, and which was marked for its variety, completeness and accuracy. The admirable History of Woburn, from the careful pen of the late reverend and venerable Samuel Sewall, was at first undertaken at his suggestion, and continued under the influence of his friendly, persevering persuasion, counsel, help and encouragement. Like the esteemed author of this interesting work, he did not, however, live to see and examine its pages. As a genealogist his researches were extensive and minute. Names of long standing in the communities where he was particularly intimate, received no small share of his attention, and families to whom he was related by consanguinity, or from which he was lineally descended, he spared no pains to provide with correct genealogies and with choice historic facts. Many of these valuable pedigrees were carried down several generations, and are still in manuscript, and as he left them. His compilations in behalf of his maternal ancestors and their kindred were largely used in the preparation of the well-known Book of the Lockes, and various other works of a similar character are likewise indebted to him for advantageous assistance.

Some thirty or forty years ago ho commenced those researches which have culminated in the present history of the Cutter Family of New England. No genealogical investigation afforded him equal interest, and on none did he bestow more labor. The small hours of the night were often spent in its accomplishment. The pressure of business, ill health, and finally death, prevented its completion. Beginning with the emigrants who came to this country nearly two hundred and thirty years since, he carried his work to such a degree of completeness, that almost without exception he had gathered the entire pedigree of five generations, and in some instances carried it down to the sixth and seventh; which generations include the greater portion of the family now living. Indeed, he expressed his whole motive, when to a correspondent he said, "I have for some years been collecting information in relation to the Cutter family, and hope that the result of my labors may not be wholly useless to the race, but enable them to satisfy a laudable curiosity that almost every one feels concerning his kindred."

July 24, 1848, in answer to the queries of a kinsman, he writes:— "I should be pleased to give you such information as I have, after considerable research, been able to procure. This tracing out the genealogy of a family is a work of some magnitude, and can be only consummated by the united efforts of several individuals who may feel interested in such matters. It requires much time to search the records of churches and towns, of registers of deeds and probate, to trace with any degree of accuracy or certainty the connection between families and generations long numbered with the dead. Still there is a satisfaction in the pursuit, and for one I cannot see why we should not as well desire to trace our own lineage as to spend our time in learning that of a race of foreign potentates. It is a remark of Mr. John Farmer, that 'Posterity a few centuries hence will experience as much pleasure in tracing back their ancestry to the New England colonists, as some of the English feel in being able to deduce their descent from the Normans.'"

In a letter to a correspondent in New York, dated May 12, 1863, he says :—" It is some time since I gave up my researches into the genealogy of Richard Cutter's family. I have had returning desires to trace out his descendants, and have debated with myself the propriety of devoting the remaining years of my life to the work. Ill health and professional business have been the reasons for my suspension of genealogical inquiry. I have ascertained pretty completely the list of the earlier generations of the Cutters in this country, so that if a Cutter can tell me who his grandparents are, I can tell the family to which he belongs. * * * I have felt a great interest in the subject more years ago than at present. I have been for some time rather of an invalid, and had all my time taken up, that could be taken, in the occupation of my business. I could wish that some one had leisure, means and taste enough to devote ten years to this research."

His devotion to his profession was entire. Ever ready at the call of pain and suffering, cool, calm and untiring, always studying to ascertain the hidden causes of disease, he was fortunate in living one of the most useful and active professional lives. He was a model for a financier, and left a handsome competency, acquired mainly by his profession. His death was deeply felt in the community of which he had been so long a prominent member, and was widely noticed by the public journals. He had been feeble for a considerable time before his death, but his last illness was of short duration. His naturally robust constitution undoubtedly succumbed to undue application to business and study. His final disease was contracted by exposure on a surgical consultation visit.

The Medical Society of which he was the founder did him honor by attending his funeral in a body, and by unanimously adopting the following testimonial:

Founder and first President of the Middlesex East District Medical Society, died at Woburn, March 9, 1864, aged 60 years, 9 months and 5 days, of pneumonia and cardiac disease. His death was deemed a public calamity.

Resolved, That by the death of Dr. Benjamin Cutter, late of Woburn, this Society feels impelled in a special manner to bear testimony to the great loss which has been sustained. A large community has been deprived of an experienced, able and conscientious physician, a friend long and thoroughly proved, and a citizen of eminent usefulness — ever seeking earnestly the best good of the public, and exerting through his whole life an exemplary and hallowed influence.

Resolved, That to his agency more than any other we recognize our indebtedness for the origin of the Middlesex East District Medical Society, and to his wise and persistent efforts, its shape, permanence and prosperity. In our personal intercourse we have ever found him eminently courteous, kind and conciliating, and we have all had abundant evidence to judge him both skilful and able, and to accord to him a high position in our profession. Ever quiet and unobtrusive in his deportment, his influence has been the greater.

Resolved, That while we deeply mourn our own loss, we do also tender our heart-felt sympathy to the bereaved family and relatives, to the community at large, and to our profession.

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing be transmitted to the family of the deceased, also to the newspapers in Woburn, and to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, for publication; and that they be copied into the Records of our Society.

Rev. Joseph C. Bodwell, D.D., his pastor, now Professor in the Theological Institution at Hartford, Conn., delivered an eulogium at his funeral. The same gentleman, in his "Farewell to his Flock" — a Sermon preached in the First Congregational Church, Woburn, August 5, 1866 — conferred upon him this beautifully touching tribute:

"I am sure you will remember to-day, and many among you with the renewal of a sorrow which time thus far has only softened, another occasion, when such an assembly was gathered here, for numbers, respectability and intelligence, as this house has very seldom contained. The noble form which lay unconscious in its coffin in front of this pulpit, was the form of Dr. Benjamin Cutter. The presence of that vast concourse, on a week day, from every class in the community, was a spontaneous outburst of grief for a man whose death awakened deep sorrow in all the region round about. Richly and variously endowed by nature, eminently skilful as a physician, familiar, by constant study, with every discovery and advance in his profession, whether in the United States or in Europe, he was the acknowledged Mentor of that Medical Society of which he was the father and founder, and in constant request in difficult cases of consultation in a large circuit of towns. Assuredly this was enough for one man's life. Yet the intelligent stranger who had accompanied him in a pleasant drive among the hills and valleys of this exceedingly picturesque town, would have been very much impressed with his broad and varied intelligence; his accurate acquaintance with the history of the town, which to him was chronicled, as in a book, in its roads and streams, and ancient, moss-covered houses, and many an indentation where houses long ago had been; his ready knowledge of every tree, and shrub, and plant, and the facility with which he read the lessons of the rocks, written on the huge boulders, or in the curious layers of the perpendicular gravel banks. Such a stranger might have set him down for a man of literary leisure, but would never have guessed that his heart and hands were constantly full of the labors and responsibilities of a most anxious and exhausting profession: nay, I very much doubt whether he would even have guessed that he was a member of a profession at all, unless, perchance, he had called on a patient by the way.

"Was there any public or social interest of the town which had not his warm sympathy, and his active cooperation? That beautiful marble monument, erected by personal love, and admiration, and sorrow, over his grave, will tell to the generations to come of the influence which Dr. Benjamin Cutter exerted on those who are to-day the fathers of the town, stimulating and guiding them in every lofty aim and pursuit, when he was a young man with them. Was there any class in the community who would not listen to his counsel, and was not that counsel always well considered, and judicious, and safe? In his professional life how well he won the appellation bestowed on the companion and fellow-traveller of Paul, 'the beloved physician!' He carried every where a heart full and overflowing with a tender sympathy, as some of you could testify, who remember the words ho spoke to you so kindly in the time of your affliction.

"But his character shone brightest of all as a Christian man, and a faithful and beloved member of this church of God How beautiful was the humility which covered him as a garment! All his endowments were consecrated to Christ. He was a contrite man and a believer. Daily he confessed, with a penitent heart, his personal guilt, and daily sought forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb. I almost fear lest I should seem to intrude on what is private and sacred, if I venture to refer to the sweet solace which, under the heavy pressure of his professional labors, he daily sought at his much loved family altar; in its Scripture reading and sweet hymns, with music to which his ear and soul were so nicely attuned, and its fervent prayers. His attendance here was constant and devout. With a modesty and humility which instinctively shrunk from observation, he was a strong and beautiful pillar in this church. For the long period of twenty-one years, he was your Clerk, making all your records with a scrupulous accuracy, and with a singular neatness and elegance, and resigned his office only with his life. Do you not see him still, and catch the sound of his clear, sweet voice, as he stood up in his accustomed place with us for the last time, and sung, out of the fulness of his heart—

"Smitten down in the full strength of his powers, and at the point of his highest influence and usefulness, he saw the approach of death without the very slightest symptom of fear, made all his arrangements as calmly as if it had been for a pleasant journey, bade an affectionate farewell to his family, and died as he had lived, in a serene and unfaltering trust in the atoning blood of Christ."

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Cutter, Benjamin, and William Richard Cutter. A history of the Cutter family of New England. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1973)
   137.

   Benjamin Cutter, s/o Ephraim Cutter and Deborah Locke, b. 4 Jun 1803, d. Woburn 9 Mar 1864, m. 26 Sep 1824 Mary Whittemore.
   [This source was based on notes collected by Benjamin, who was it titular author, though it was "revised and enlarged" by his son William, and it was published about 6 years after Benjamin's death.]

2. ↑ "Genealogical Register", in Cutter, Benjamin, and William Richard Cutter. History of the town of Arlington, Massachusetts: formerly the second precinct in Cambridge or district of Menotomy, afterward the town of West Cambridge, 1635-1879, with a genealogical register of the inhabitants of the precinct. (Boston)
   218.

   Children of Ephraim Cutter and Deborah Lock: Benjamin (second son of this name), bp. 12 Jun 1803.
   [This work was co-authored by Benjamin and his son William and published about 15 years after his death.]

3. ↑ Johnson, Edward F. Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages . (Woburn, Massachusetts: Andrews, Cutler & Co., 1890-1919)
   2:49.

   Cutter, Dr. Benjamin, s. of Ephraim and Deborah (b. in West Cambridge), of pneumonia, March 9, 1864: 60 y. 9 m. 4 d.