Ammi Ruhamah Mitchell
Mitchell built this house, on Yarmouth's Center Street, around 1785
BornMay 8, 1762
North Yarmouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay
DiedMay 14, 1824(1824-05-14) (aged 62)
North Yarmouth, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting placeOld Baptist Cemetery, Yarmouth, Maine, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPhysician
SpousePhebe Cutter Mitchell (1785–1824; his death)

Ammi Ruhamah Mitchell (May 8, 1762 – May 14, 1824)[1] was an 18th- and 19th-century American physician. He also served ten years in the Massachusetts Legislature.[2]

Early life and education

Mitchell was born on May 8, 1762, in North Yarmouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay (today's North Yarmouth, Maine), to Judge David Mitchell[3] and Lucretia Loring. His father was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Cumberland for nineteen years.[4]

He studied medicine in Portsmouth, Province of New Hampshire.[3] While in Portsmouth, at the end of the Revolutionary War, Mitchell accompanied French surgeon Dr. Meaubec aboard a 74-gun ship that was sent as a gift to Louis XVI in Brest, France.[3] Meaubec and Mitchell became close friends,[5] with Mitchell later naming his second son David Meaubec Mitchell in his honor.[6]

Career

Mitchell's medical practice was at today's 333 Main Street in Yarmouth

Mitchell was the original owner of 333 Main Street, built around 1800, in today's Yarmouth, Maine.[7] He set up his practice there, where he worked until his death.[2] He previously lived at today's 33 Center Street.[8]

Personal life

Mitchell's headstone, with (according to sources) an incorrect year of death, in Yarmouth's Old Baptist Cemetery

On August 25, 1785, Mitchell married Phebe Cutter (1764–1829),[9][2] daughter of Captain William Cutter[9] and Mehitable Gray.[6] They had twelve children: Charles C., David Meaubec, William C., Gardner, Elizabeth G., Jacob, Tristram G., Phebe, Sarah J., Narcissa B., Lucretia Loring and Francis B.[9]

He was an important part of the 1796 construction of Union Wharf at what became the busy shipbuilding harbor in today's Yarmouth.[2] He was also the largest of the original donors to North Yarmouth Academy, and was one of its two largest stockholders. He later became the president of NYA's board.[2]

In 1803, he was elected a deacon at the Old Ledge Meetinghouse, where Tristram Gilman was 34 years into his 40-year tenure as fourth pastor. His grandfather, Nicholas Loring, had been the second pastor of the church.[10][11][12] He died just over a year after Mitchell's birth. Mitchell remained a deacon for 21 years.[13]

He was on the board of overseers of Bowdoin College, and was one of the trustees of the Maine Charity School.[14]

Mitchell served ten years in the Massachusetts Legislature, before becoming a senator in 1808.[9]

Death

Mitchell died on May 14, 1824, aged 62.[2] He was thrown from (or fell out of)[14] his carriage, less than a mile from his home, after visiting a patient.[9][14] He was buried in Yarmouth's Old Baptist Cemetery.

His practice was taken over by Dr. Gad Hitchcock. After Hitchcock's death in 1837, the town sought out Eleazer Burbank, who had been practicing in Poland, Maine, for around two decades, to fill the vacancy. Burbank remained there for the next 29 years, until his death in 1867.[2]

References

  1. ↑ General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794–1912, Bowdoin College (1912), p. 16
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "NRHP nomination for Mitchell House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  3. 1 2 3 History of Bowdoin College: With Biographical Sketches of Its Graduates, from 1806 to 1879, Inclusive, Nehemiah Cleaveland (1882), p. 75
  4. ↑ American Medical Biography Or Memoirs of Eminent Physicians who Have Flourished in America: to which is Prefixed a Succinct History of Medical Science in the United States from the First Settlement of the Country, James Thacher (1828), p. 393
  5. ↑ American Medical Biography Or Memoirs of Eminent Physicians who Have Flourished in America: to which is Prefixed a Succinct History of Medical Science in the United States from the First Settlement of the Country, James Thacher (1828), p. 394
  6. 1 2 Dexter, Francis Bowditch (1912). Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History: September 1805-September 1815. H. Holt. p. 396.
  7. ↑ "The National Register of Historic Places" – Yarmouth Historical Society
  8. ↑ Architectural Survey Yarmouth, ME (Phase One, September, 2018 - Yarmouth's town website)
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 The Mitchell family of North Yarmouth, Maine, William Mitchell Sargent (1878), p. 4
  10. ↑ "North Yarmouth, Maine. First Church" – Congregational Library & Archives
  11. ↑ "Skyline Farm - Making and Preserving History" – Cumberland & North Yarmouth: A Neighboring History of Two Towns"
  12. ↑ The Mitchell family of North Yarmouth, Maine, William Mitchell Sargent (1878), p. 3
  13. ↑ American Medical Biography Or Memoirs of Eminent Physicians who Have Flourished in America: to which is Prefixed a Succinct History of Medical Science in the United States from the First Settlement of the Country, James Thacher (1828), p. 395
  14. 1 2 3 American Medical Biography Or Memoirs of Eminent Physicians who Have Flourished in America: to which is Prefixed a Succinct History of Medical Science in the United States from the First Settlement of the Country, James Thacher (1828), p. 396
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