Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/885

NAME OLIVER 863 OLIVER sachusetts, November 25, 1819, and died in Boston, December 8, 1892. He was descended from a distinguished line of ancestors, promi- nent in Massacliusetts. Thomas Oliver, the emigrant ancestor, came from London to Bos- ton in 1632, and practised medicine here. His son Peter and grandson Daniel were promi- nent merchants, and the latter was a member of the Governor's Council. Dr. Daniel Oliver, the father of Fitch Edward, was a man of ripe scholarship and wide learning, a profes- sor of philosophy at Dartmouth College for many years and lecturer on chemistry and materia medica in the medical college at Dart- mouth as well. Fitch Edward Oliver received his early edu- cation at the Franklin Academy, at North An- dover, and at Hanover, New Hampshire, en- tering Dartmouth College in the autumn of 1835. He graduated in 1839 and during the winter of 1839-40 he attended a course of lec- tures at the Harvard Medical School. In 1840 he attended a similar course at the Medical School at Dartmouth College, and in the same year he went with his father, then lecturing at the Medical College of Ohio, to Cincinnati, where he took another course. He returned to Boston in 1841, where he studied medicine with John S. Butler (q.v.) and later with Oli- ver Wendell Holmes (q.v.) In 1843 he gradu- ated from Harvard Medical School among the first of his class. He was immediately elected a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and continued in membership until his death. After traveling in Europe for a year, he returned to Boston in 1844, and opened an office, and continued in practice for forty- eight years. Among the positions of impor- tance held in Boston may be mentioned : editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1860-1864; visiting physician at the Boston City Hospital, from its opening in 1864 to 1872, then comsulting physician of this institu- tion ; instructor in materia medica in the Harvard Medical School, from 1860 to 1870 As a physician Dr. Oliver brought to his duties fresh and abundant learning, conscien- tiousness and unsparing devotion. But he was deeply interested in many subjects lying beyond the limits of his profession, especially in the history of Massachusetts, in which his family had borne a conspicuous part. He prepared for the press in 1880 a manuscript diary of current events, covering the social life of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1690 to 1780, illustrated with many valuable notes. He also made an important contribu- tion to our Revolutionary history by publish- ing, in 1884, the journal of Hon. Thomas Hutchinson, Chief Justice and Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay at the breaking out of the Revolution. In 1878 he completed a copy of Rev. William Hubbard's "General History of New England"; the orig- inal work had disappeared, and the only copy in this country was defective, but after much search and labor Dr. Oliver obtained from England the necessary manuscript by which to complete this interesting history from 1620 to 1680. In 1890 he edited and carried through the press a diary left by William Pyncheon of Salem, Massachusetts, which covers the years from 1776 to 1789 and gives a vivid picture of early social life in Salem. His annotations are models of conciseness and faultless Eng- lish. In 1876 Dr. Oliver was elected a resident member of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety, and four years later was appointed its cabinet-keeper. He was an ardent lover of his kindred and owned many family portraits by artists of note, and made a valuable collec- tion of "Oliverana," comprising the publica- tions of those bearing the name, discourses, lectures, engravings and memoirs in manu- script and in print. Dr. Oliver was a member of the ritualistic Church of the Advent in Boston from 1847, three years after its establishment, until the end of his life, a period of forty-five years. He was thoroughly identified with its incep- tion, growth and all its labors. He married Susan Lawrence Mason, grand- daughter of Amos Lawrence, a distinguished merchant of Boston, July 17, 1866. Mrs. Oliver and six children survived him, the second son being a graduate of Harvard Col- lege in 1891 and an instructor in the classical department at Selwyn Hall, Reading, Pa. In social life Dr. Oliver was somewhat ret- icent, but modest, courteous and dignified, and always an interesting and agreeable com- panion. In his later years he retired mostly from the practice of medicine, but not from in- tellectual and literary work. With the in- stincts and habits of a scholar he investigated widely, systematically and thoroughly. On all subjects which he had carefully considered, he was firm in his convictions, forming opin- ions slowly and changing them rarely. Memoir of Fitch Edward Oliver, M. D., by the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, D. D.. member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 1894.