The Country Doctors

 

Journal Opinion     October 8, 2025

 ” The quiet country doctors of many a country town.  Whose lives are spent to service bent, with scant hope of renown.  Those sturdy country doctors, that walk the healer’s way. At beck and call of one and all, that pain be smoothed way”  

“Country Doctors”  C. J. Dennis 1876-1938

                                         Dr.  Franklin P. Dwinell  1892-1978

                                        Dr. William F. Putnam 1909-1988

                                         Dr, Harry M Rowe 1912-2012

This is the fourth column I have written on medical practitioners in the area. It covers the service of three rural physicians and their dedication to the area. They are Drs. Franklin Dwinell, William Putnam, and Harry Rowe.

The three previous columns include “What Ails You” covering early medical practices, and a two-part series “Women In Medicine” honoring the local careers of two nurses and three groundbreaking doctors.  These columns can be found using the search feature on my blog at larrycoffin.blogspot.com or by accessing the internet achieves of the Journal Opinion.

Dr. Franklin P. Dwinell served the area from his Bradford office for over four decades.  He was born in East Calais in 1892, graduated from Montpelier Seminary before entering UVM’s five-year pre-medical program.

When World War I began, he enlisted in the Navy and served at the Naval Hospital in Boston. In 1919, he married Elizabeth Smith. During their 58 years of marriage and the raising of four children, “Betty” served as the Doctor’s wife “almost as much a part of his public image as the Doc’s own quietly preserving personality.”

He opened his general practice in Bradford in Oct 1920. For the next 44 years, he gave exemplary medical service to the residents of the area from his office above Main Street. His office hours often extended to all hours of the night and into weekends.

One of the outstanding features of that practice was maternity care. Night-long vigils were not uncommon, and during hard times, they would be rewarded with one dollar and sometimes nothing at all.

I was one of over 1100 babies he delivered. In October 1942, my mother was in labor and had no ride as my dad was away.  Dwinell came to Fairlee, picked us up and delivered us to Woodsville, where I was born.

His patients wrote letters of appreciation citing him for his “sympathetic and tireless care.”

In a letter to the Journal Opinion in 2009, West Topsham’s lawyer Bud Otterman recalled that Dwinell had not sent a bill for his services to one of Otterman’s clients. 

When asked, Dwinell recalled that he had been called to the home of a dying man. As nothing could be done, he sat with the wife until the man passed away at 1 a.m.

Dr. Dwinell reasoned that “he had performed no medical services and was therefore not entitled to a fee.”

Dwinell’s son, Dr. Stanley Dwinell, joined the practice after returning from World War II. The younger Dwinell family lived in the neighboring Low Mansion in Bradford. The two doctors took turns treating patients.

That partnership came to a tragic end when, on the morning of Dec 11, 1952, the car bearing Stanley Dwinell and his three sons collided with a southbound train at the crossing south of Newbury Village. The elder Dwinell carried on the practice alone.

 Dwinell participated in community immunization clinics, free physical examinations, and blood drives. For the latter, he received a special citation from the Red Cross.

Much of his practice involved Woodsville’s Cottage Hospital, and he devoted a significant effort to its operation as trustee and fundraiser.  To recognize his contribution, the hospital established the Dwinell Fund, with money collected from the area. 

In addition to his medical practice, Dwinell was deeply involved in the Bradford community. He served as a trustee of Bradford Academy, on the Selective Service Board during World War II, and as town health officer. He was active in the Masonic order and the Bradford Community Club.

 A member of the Bradford Congregational Church, he served as moderator, trustee, and as chair of the finance committee. For his many years as a deacon, he received the title of deacon emeritus.

When Dwinell retired in 1964, the community honored him for his 44 years of service. The UVM Medical Alumni presented a citation for his “exemplary medical practice and outstanding community service.”

He and his wife Betty continued to be a presence in the community until his death in 1978. Betty passed away in 1986.

If Dwinell was a country doctor so was Dr. William F.Putnam. In an interview for the Valley News in 1968, Putam is quoted: “I still think that rural general practice is the best possible mode of life, and I continue to be fascinated and challenged by the tremendous variety of problems that confront me.” 

Putnam was born in Vergennes in 1909, graduated from Dartmouth in 1926 and after graduating from Philadelphia’s Jefferson Medical School, he interned at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital.

 He married Margaret Best in 1933. He opened a practice in Lyme and saw his first patient on New Year’s Eve, 1935. 

Putnam met the needs of his patients within a wide area of the two states and was available around the clock. Home visits were normal and it was not unusual for him to drive 700 miles each week. 

Lyme’s Charlotte LaMott recalled “He’d go on skies or snowshoes if he couldn’t get there any other way.” One time a patient called to cancel an appointment because of impassable roads, but then asked if the doctor could make a house call.

When the flood of 1936 took out the bridge to Thetford, Putnam maintained an office at Thetford Academy and a car on each side of the Connecticut River while the bridge was being rebuilt.

 He also opened an office in Fairlee in t945 and, until 1966, one in Strafford to meet the needs of both the copper mine employees and the general public. He was the camp doctor for hundreds of summer campers.

In 1946, he established Lyme Medical Associates to bring other doctors into the practice. He also mentored more than 100 medical students. He had a significant impact on the young doctors who joined him.

 In addition to raising their six children, Margaret played a role in the operation of the office.  

Often, his car was his office and lunch room. He had a portable dictating machine and an electrocardiograph powered by the car’s electrical system.

In a series for the Valley News, Putnam’s daughter Constance wrote that it was not unusual for him to see dozens of patients in a day. “He took his busyness pretty much for granted.”

He delivered more than 2,000 babies, with many of them being born at home. He was the doctor for my wife Carolyn’s family and delivered siblings Gene and Kathy at their Martin farm in Fairlee.  

 After we were married in 1968, he became our family doctor. As he was on the staff of Alice Peck Day Hospital, delivered both our daughters there.

He was active in state medical groups, as atrustee of Alice Peck Day Hospital, a regional medical examiner in both New Hampshire and Vermont, and as the health officer for at least four local communities.

In Lyme, he was at one time or another a member of the fire department, town budget committee, and recreational council.

He was active in the Lyme Congregational Church as trustee and treasurer. He was also a member of the board and president of the state conference of Congregational churches.

For a while, he even found time to teach Greek at Thetford Academy during his lunch time. He had majored in Greek at Dartmouth as an undergraduate.

Parkinson’s disease began to impact his practice. LaMott wrote that his hands shook, “but when it came to stitching up a cut he was just as steady as ever.”

Dr. Putnam retired in 1977 and died in 1988, having been predeceased in death by his wife in 1985.

Dr. Harry M. Rowe was born on October 4, 1912 in Peacham. He graduated from Peacham Academy in 1929. He enrolled in UVM, but the lack of funds meant that he had to work to pay his way. He graduated in 1936 and took a position as a school principal before entering UVM College of Medicine from which he graduated in 1943.

During his time at UVM, he met Mary Whitney and they were married in 1940. During World War II, Rowe served as a captain in a U.S. Army medical unit and earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service.

During his 15 months overseas, he and Mary wrote letters to each other daily. After her death, the recovered letters inspired him to write, with the help of a local author, a memoir entitled “The Grass Grows Greener.” 

In 1946, the couple moved to Wells River, where they raised their six children. Rowe established a medical practice in the family home on Main Street and continued to serve patients for the next six decades.

Those decades were filled with innumerable house calls, the delivery of over 1,400 babies, and a dedication to the residents of the Grafton County Nursing Home.

In 1962, Rowe established the Wells River Clinic. Dr. Elizabeth Berry, the first female doctor in that area, joined him until her retirement in 1986. In the 1970s, Rowe’s son, Dr. John Rowe joined the practice.

Over the years, he brought other physicians into the practice, He also was a preceptor for military physician assistants. Mary Rowe participated by keeping the books.

As with Dwinell and Putnam, Dr. Rowe held many childhood immunization clinics and served as regional medical examiner in both New Hampshire and Vermont.

Dr. Rowe dedicated his life to more than the practice of medicine. He believed in the contributions of public schools and in 1948, became a trustee of the Well River school district.

Recognizing the limitations of small schools, he advocated for  the consolidation of local districts.  For two decades he served on committee that led to the construction of the new District 21 K-12 regional school.

In 1969 he became the chair of the board for what became known as Blue Mountain Union School. He continued to take an active interest in Blue Mountain’s student sports, activities and graduations.

When he retired, he had served on school boards for 61 years, certainly setting a record for Vermont.  He received several honors for his contributions to public education, including one from the Vermont School Board Association. 

He was an active member of Rotary International and of the Wells River Congregational Church. In addition to holding leadership positions in the latter, he sang in the choir. 

A review of newspaper articles frequently mentioned Rowe’s other musical interests. He sang in the North Country Chorus for 64 years and played an important supporting role to Mary for the 50 years she directed the chorus.

His dedication to the practice of medicine was widely recognized. He received professional awards from the UVM College of Medicine and its alumni organization. He had served as president of the Vermont Medical Society and was an active member of the American Academy of General Practice. He received distinguished service awards from both organizations.

He was also recognized by both Cottage Hospital and the Grafton County Nursing Home for decades of outstanding support and service.

While these honors were significant, he especially valued the personal comments from appreciative patients.

Mary passed away in 2002, and Dr. Rowe died in 2012, just two months short of his 100th birthday.

In 2006, Little Rivers Health had taken over the Wells River Clinic and, in 2022, renamed it the Whitney-Rowe Clinic.  In 2015 Cottage Hospital named its new facility on Swiftwater Road as the Rowe Health Center to recognize his role in “recruiting and stabilizing health care for the Cottage Hospital service area.”

Drs. Dwinell, Putnam, and Rowe served the area for a combined century and a half. All three started out as solo independent practitioners. Changes in medical practices, economic considerations and lifestyle demands have made their mode of medical care unsustainable.

Other physicians have served our local area with dedication, but few have been are able to reach the bar set by these three.

That being said, my next article will focus on childhood diseases and pediatrician Dr. Mark Harris, who met that bar from his clinic in Bradford for 38 years.