SHADRACH RICKETSON, QUAKER PHYSICIAN by A. Day Bradley
Shadrach Ricketson (1766-1839), Dutchess County physician and steadfast member of the Society of Friends has a place both in the history of medicine and New York Quaker annals. There was Quaker background in the Ricketson family, but his father Jonathan had been disowned by Dartmouth Monthly Meeting in Massachusetts for that transgression of Quaker discipline, marriage to a non-Friend. In 1748 Jonathan married Meribah Wilbur and they moved to Dutchess County in 1749.1- On 9th month 14th, 1789, Oblong Preparative Meeting at Quaker Hill transmitted to Oblong Monthly Meeting the request of Shadrach Ricketson "to come under the care of Friends." This request was duly granted the following month, the usual committee having made a satisfactory report after due inquiry.2 A frank and candid description of the doctor written by his relative Daniel Ricketson of New Bedford is included in the Ricketson Genealogy. I remember his being at my father's on a visit — he was then about sixty — dressed in the light drab of the primitive Quaker — small clothes — round top hat, white or drab. He carried a cane and stepped very quickly and with much vigor, was middle size and erect, sharp gray eyes, rather snubbish nose. My impression is that he was not particularly agreeable to young people, at least at any rate he had the air of self importance, but bore the character of a very worthy man, and I doubt not merited it. He was an inveterate old bachelor, and like most of his family a little bit shy of women.3 In the course of his medical practice Rickerton made numerous moves always transferring his membership to the approximate monthly meeting. In 1791 he transferred from Oblong to Creek, in 1806 to New York, in 1813 to Easton. He became a member of Troy Monthly Meeting when this meeting was set off from Easton. In 1814 he transferred to Oswego, then to Nine Partners in 1818; in 1821 he returned to Oswego, where he was clerk of the monthly meeting in 1828-9.4 Ricketson's medical writings have been the subject of a careful analysis by Fred R. Rogers.5 In 1789 the American Museum or Repository of Ancient and Fugitive Pieces contained an article, Experiments on the Cultivation of the Poppy Plant and Methods of Procuring Opium by Shadrach Ricketson of Dutchess County, New York.6 He made a comparison of the native and Asiatic species and took varying doses of the native grown variety to study its potency. The author made mention of his "friend and former master, Dr. Benjamin Anthony", who had also experimented with opium. Evidently Benjamin Anthony, was the physician with whom Dr. Ricketson had studied. In 1806 Ricketson published the first American book on hygiene and preventive medicine.7 The purpose and scope is indicated by the lengthy title page: Means of Preserving Health and Preventing Disease: Founded principally on Attention to Air and Climate, Drink, 119
