Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/573

 WILLIAMS

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WILLIAMSON

liis life were spent in Caml)ridge, Mary- land, and he studied medicine under Dr. Alexander Hamilton Bayly, later gradu- ating from the University of Maryland in March, 1849. He was commissioned assistant surgeon in the United States Army and was stationed at various western posts. At the beginning of the Civil War he resigned from the LTnited States Army antl went to Richmond, where he was appointed surgeon in the Confederate Army. During the war he was medical director and inspector of hospitals in Virginia. He organized the Confederate Medical Corps of l^rigade and division surgeons and under his supervision nearly all of the large hospi- tals in Virginia, outside of Richmond and Petersburg, were established. He held the position of assistant to the surgeon- general of the army at Richmond for some time prior to the close of the war and did effective service. In 1865 he returned to Cambridge and later went to Richmond to practice. He passed the last years of his life in Cambridge, where he died on September 22, 1904. Dr. Williams married Bettie Hooper, daugh- ter of Dr. John H. and Anna C. Hooper, of Cambridge.

Dr. Williams was noted for his hosjji- tality and kindness and no man in the county was more respected for his up- rightness; he had a large circle of friends. He was very active in organizing tlie Cambridge-Maryland Hos|)ital and after his death, the operating room in the hospital was equipped by his wife as a memorial to him.

B. W. 0.

Williams, Obadiah (1752-1799).

This pioneer physician of central Maine was born in Antrim, New Hamp- shire, March 21, 1752, and after studying medicine with some physician of that town, started off as surgeon's mate to the battle of Bunker Hill, and did his share of medical work throughout the Revolution. He seems to have served as a surgeon for some years, but his record is dusky through the mist of a Vol. 11-33

century or more, and traces of him are hard to find, until we first actually meet with him at Sydney, Winslow and Water- ville about 1792. It is, however, possible that Dr. Williams came to Winslow and Waterville on hearing that the death of Dr. John McKechnie had left that settlement without any physician.

At all events, wo hear of his building a log cabin in 1792. Owing to the increas- ing practice he soon put up a one-story frame house, the first in the town, now known as the old Parker House. The next three years brought more business, and he built the first two-story frame house, which later became a hotel. He married Hannah Clifford, and had seven children. Williams was very kind and generous to Dr. Moses Appleton, who settled in the same town as Dr. Williams grew older.

In this same generous spirit, Williams gave a good deal of his land to the town for a park, and for putting up a church and school house. The church was afterwards changed into a Hall, while the school house was often used as a church in which young Dr. Appleton officiated when parsons were scarce.

Dr. Williams was a pioneer in that part of the country, did much work in the out-lying districts, and had an excellent reputation as physician and surgeon, doing his operations with poor instruments and no anesthetics.

The exact date and month of his death are unknown, but he seems to have died suddenly in 1799, leaving a good memory for kindness and for trying to make his patients believe that his successor. Dr. Appleton, would do even better for them than he himself had done.

J. A. S.

Waforvillc Centenary, Dr. F. C. Thayer.

Williamson, Hugh (1735-1819).

In llie year 1730, a clothier, one John Williamson, from Dublin, emigrated to America and settled in Cluvter County, and the next year married an Irish girl, Mary Davison, from Derry, who in coming over as a little child was captured