Dogs of Longmeadow

Today's History Note celebrates the real champions of a quarantine lifestyle - dogs!

Any morning and any late afternoon in Longmeadow you are sure to see promenading down the sidewalks and side streets of our town the proud dogs of Longmeadow out for their walks, accompanied by their faithful owners. All shapes, all sizes. Some shaggy, fluffy and straining against leashes to chase a scampering squirrel. Others sleek, dignified and clearly pleased by their own elegance and good training. No matter the weather, out they come! During these many, many months of pandemic living, family dogs have been such a source of comfort and pleasant distraction for adults and children alike.

This week, we’d like to share images of some dogs of Longmeadow from days of yore. It is striking how even more than a hundred years ago, these dogs seem so much a part of the families with which they pose.

Unidentified Man and 2 dogs, Longmeadow Green

Cordis Family Collection

Unidentified Woman and Pug Cordis Family Collection

Kempton Family, 1909

Emerson Collection

"P.M. Taylor Back Piazza" 1910 Emerson Collection

Did you know that dog licensing money was an integral part of the town’s school and library funding for many years? In 1880, $139.50 of “Dog Money” was appropriated by the town for the schools. In 1895, the first year the town supported an official town library (which occupied a modest spare room in the rear of the town office building), the Annual Report mentions the amount appropriated for the library as “$25 + dog money.” That remained the case for decades to follow. Every town meeting warrant featured an article asking voting residents to “decide what use shall be made of the dog money... “. From 1895-1974, it appears that this money was specifically used to supplement whatever the town budgeted for library funding. What a great trade-off - register your dog AND support your town library!

"Mrs. Craig's South Park Avenue, 1915

Emerson Collection

"Carl Withe, 41 Longmeadow Street" undated

Emerson Collection

"P.M. Taylor, girls and front door" 1910 Emerson Collection

All images here are courtesy of the Emerson Collection at the Longmeadow Historical Society and the Cordis Family Collection.

Contributed by Melissa M. Cybulski, Board member, Longmeadow Historical Society

Originally published January 21, 2021

The Truth is in the Teeth

Did you know that two dentists connected to Longmeadow were critical witnesses in one of the most celebrated murder trials of the Nineteenth Century? Their testimony about the dental evidence successfully convicted a murderer. Let’s travel back to 1849 Boston…

On Friday, November 23, 1849, a respected, well-known, and wealthy Boston resident, Dr. George Parkman, disappeared. Over the next week, large rewards were offered for his recovery. City officials searched high and low for him, even dredging rivers, but he could not be found.

On the following Friday, in a grisly turn of events, the janitor at Harvard Medical School found the partial remains of a man in areas of the building controlled by Professor John W. Webster; the head, torso, and other parts of the body had been burned in the furnace of the school.

Harvard Medical School in the 1880's

Evidence led police to suspect that Professor Webster, a chemistry professor at Harvard Medical School, had murdered Dr. Parkman after Dr. Parkman had attempted to collect on a debt. However, they were unable to conclusively identify the body parts as belonging to Dr. Parkman. Without identification of the body, the murderer would escape punishment for the crime.

Prof. John W. Webster

This gruesome crime was a media sensation and the story was carried in newspapers throughout the country, and it is still famous today. Without going into all of the many twists and turns of the story, suffice it to says that its intrigue and gore has been the subject of many articles and books, some of which are listed below.

One of the few pieces of evidence recovered from the furnace was a set of porcelain teeth, and this is where our first hero enters the story. Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep, who had been born and raised in Longmeadow, had been Dr. Parkman’s personal dentist and had created the porcelain teeth and gold plate for Dr. Parkman.

Dental Plate and Teeth for Dr. Parkman

Our second hero, Dr. Lester Noble, was training under Dr. Keep when the false teeth were made and he often repaired them. In "Incidents Connected with the Trial of Professor Webster," Dr. Noble said, “With Dr. Parkman's teeth I had more than a first acquaintance. He was a very nervous man, and occasionally would take out his plates and put them in his coattail pocket, and soon he would forget them, and when he sat down the teeth would suffer considerably, necessitating repairs. I must have repaired those plates at least half a dozen times.”

In 1850, Lester Noble was a student at Baltimore School of Dentistry, but he traveled to Boston in March for the trial. Both men examined the teeth and plates carefully, comparing them to the models that Dr. Keep had used to create the teeth for Dr. Parkman, and concluded without a doubt that these were the teeth and plates which they had made for Dr. Parkman. At the trial of Professor Webster in March, 1850, they both testified as such. Here is a link where you can the trial record and the testimony for both men. The conclusive dental evidence convinced the jury that the remains were indeed the body of Dr. Parkman. Professor Webster was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. This landmark case is considered to be the first time that forensic evidence was successfully used to prosecute a defendant.

After the trial, Lester Noble returned to Baltimore and finished dental school. He moved to Longmeadow in 1860 where he lived until his death in 1905. For more information on Dr. Noble and Dr. Keep, read our earlier History Notes article--> Drs. Lester Noble and Nathan Cooley Keep.

Sources

1. Incidents Connected with the Trial of Professor Webster by Dr. Lester Noble

2. Report of the Case of John W. Webster

3. Trial Transcripts and Newspaper Reports

4. The Murder of a Wealthy Boston Physician by a Harvard Professor, 1849

5. The Murder of Dr. Parkman

6. Blood & Ivy, by Paul Collins

7. Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations, by Simon Schama

8. The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman, by Robert Sullivan

9. Springfield Republican- Nov. 17, 1896

Contributed by Elizabeth Hoff, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published January 14, 2021

Drs. Lester Noble and Nathan Cooley Keep

Lester Noble, D.D.S.

Have you ever had a tooth extracted without anesthesia? Thanks in part to Dr. Lester Noble and Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep, you may never have to experience that pain.

Lester Noble had always been good with his hands. He first arrived in Longmeadow in 1839 as an apprentice to his uncle, Jacob Colton, and learned how to manufacture spectacles. But, he decided to become a dentist instead, and in 1846 he went to Boston to study dentistry under Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep.

Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep

Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep, who was born and raised in Longmeadow, was one of the pioneers of modern dentistry. Like Lester Noble, he was good with his hands and had apprenticed with a jeweler before graduating from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Keep put his jeweler training to good use by manufacturing porcelain teeth, and he invented new dental tools and created new dental techniques.

Lester Noble studied under Dr. Keep from 1846–1849. During this period, a new anesthetic, ether, was being introduced in surgical practices. Dr. Keep was the first physician to use anesthesia for childbirth, administering ether to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, during the birth of her daughter in 1847. Dr. Keep was also one of the first physicians to use ether in dental procedures and his assistant, Lester Noble, became skilled in its administration. On many occasions, Lester would assist Dr. Keep in dental surgery, administering the ether while Dr. Keep extracted teeth.

Baltimore College of Dental Surgery

To further his studies, in 1849 Lester Noble entered the world's first dental college, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. At that time, the school was not using ether in dental surgery because one of the professors at the school opposed its use. Surprised at this, Dr. Noble asked for and was given permission to administer ether in the college infirmary. His great success in these demonstrations helped this crucial technique to become standard dental practice.

After Dr. Noble graduated in 1850, he opened a dental office in Washington, D.C. and married Mary Woolworth Burbank of Longmeadow. Lester’s younger brother, Henry Bliss Noble, followed in his brother’s footsteps, also practicing dentistry in Washington, D.C. and marrying a woman from Longmeadow (Maria Bliss). In his dental practice, Henry Bliss Noble mentored a young African-American man named Robert Tanner Freeman (we will learn more about Mr. Freeman later in this story).

In 1860, failing eyesight forced Lester to take a break from dental practice. He and his family moved to 655 Longmeadow Street in Longmeadow where they lived for the rest of their lives. By 1869, Lester was able to resume his dental practice; he opened an office on Main Street in Springfield where he practiced until 1896.

655 Longmeadow Street

In 1867, Dr. Keep became the first dean of Harvard School of Dental Medicine. A story from the early years of the school highlights Dr. Keep’s character. Robert Tanner Freeman, the son of former slaves (and former mentee of Henry Bliss Noble), called upon Dr. Keep and asked to be admitted as a student. Perhaps Mr. Freeman brought a recommendation from one of the Noble brothers with him. Upon Dr. Keep’s recommendation and insistence upon “right and justice above expediency”, Mr. Freeman was admitted as one of the school's first six students and, in 1869, Mr. Freeman became the first African-American to graduate from a dental college. The tower, or castle “keep,” that appears on the shield of Harvard School of Dental Medicine honors the leadership of Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep.

Robert Tanner Freeman

Dr. Noble was beloved by his patients and always regaled them with his endless fund of stories and anecdotes. He was also absent-minded, and several stories about him have traveled down through the years.

• One day, Miss Annie Willard was in the chair receiving a new gold filling. Dr. Noble suddenly remembered that he wished to mail a letter, and he left her in the dentist’s chair with a rubber stretched across her open mouth. While he was out, he found someone that he needed to talk with. Forgetting his patient, he was out for 1½ hours before he remembered her and rushed back to his office.

• On another occasion, his horse was stolen. He went out to the barn in the morning to feed the animal and found that it was not there. He carefully examined all tracks, and called in the neighbors to help him find his horse, but they could find no trace of him, so they decided that the horse had been stolen. But, when Dr. Noble walked up to the store, there was his horse hitched to the post – just where he had left him on the previous afternoon.

Dr. Noble died in 1905, but I, for one, will always think of him whenever I visit my dentist. Next week, we will visit Dr. Keep and Dr. Noble again as we learn of another of their "firsts".

Sources

1. 1900 U.S. Federal Census

2. Longmeadow Historical Society Archives

3. Springfield Republican Feb. 22, 1905

4. History of Harvard School of Dental Medicine

5. Wikipedia- Nathan Cooley Keep

6. Wikipedia- Robert Tanner Freeman

7. Black Past- Robert Tanner Freeman

Contributed by Elizabeth Hoff, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published January 7. 2021