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
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.
