Dr. Elam Stimson

1792 - 1869  (76 years)

• Name	Elam Stimson
  Prefix	Dr.
  Born	4 Oct 1792	Tolland, Tolland, Connecticut, United States   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1824	Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Epidemic	1834
  	Cholera
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27444202
  Interesting	Epidemic, medical
  Military	War of 1812
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-91298
  Died	31 Jan 1869	St. George, South Dumfries Twp., Brant Co., Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Buried	Pioneer Presbyterian Cemetery, St. George, Brant Co., Ontario   [1]
  Person ID	I91298	Generations
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2025

  
  

  Family	Mary Ann Frances "Ann" Bolles,   b. 30 Aug 1799, Ashford, Windham, Connecticut, United States ,   d. 30 Jul 1832, London, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada  (Age 32 years)
  Last Modified	4 Mar 2025
  Family ID	F10200	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Dr. Elam Stimson image from London Public Library 2013

  
  

• Notes

  Dr. Elam Stimson was born in Tolland Connecticut, and severd in the United States Army during the War of 1812. Although from humble circumstances, he was able to study medicine at Yale College. When Stimson arrived in Upper Canada, he first settled in St. Catharines, moved to Galt in 1824 and then to London in 1831. In London he acted as coroner and physician to the jail, but in 1833, after his wife Ann Bolles and his youngest child had died from cholera, Stimson relocated to St. George. He responded to the cholera epidemic that claimed two hundred people in Galt over a ten-day period in 1834, with his medical publication, The Cholera Beacon. In St. George, where he lived with his second wife, Ann's younger sister Susan he continued to practice medicine until his death in 1869. Stimson's daughter, Rebecca, married Dr. Nathaniel Mainwaring, who was also originally from Connecticut and also established a large medical practice in South Dumfries. See CM. Godfrey, "Elam Stimson" in DCR, Vol. 9 (1861-1870), 748-49; Jean Waldie, Brant County, Vol 1, 132-133. and The History of Brant Ontario (1883), 205. William Wye Smith, Recollections of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Canadian. edited by Scott A. McLean & Michael E. Vance _____________________ The most striking and melancholy example within our knowledge of the generations and effects of the local infection occurred in this vicinity in the summer of 1834. On the 28th of July, 1834, Galt, a village on the Grand River, U. C. was visited by Showmen with a Menagerie. It was exhibited under an awning of canvass, nearly enclosed at the sides, and drawn together in a conical form almost to the top. The day was excessively warm, and the crown suffocating. The exhibition lasted about 3 hours. It is estimated that about 1000 persons were present, and that not less than 200 of them died of Cholera within ten days. The population from which the assembly at the exhibition was composed, in the Township in the vicinity of Galt, it supposed to be about seven thousand. The first case was in one of the Showmen, who sickened on that day, which was Monday. No other case occurred until the following Wednesday morning - on that day not less than thirty were attacked all of whom had been at the show - The greatest number of cases were on the Thursday and Friday following - but new cases occurred for several days. In speaking of an attack, we here allude to the time the patient supposed the attack commenced - the time he was "taken down" . The average length of time the disease lasted after this event was about sixteen hours. Four days previous to the exhibition of animals at Galt, two children of Mr. J. G., on the Governor's Road, 12 miles south east of Galt, were attacked with Cholera, one of which died. On the same day (24th July,) two cases of what we shall call second grade Cholera came under our care, being the first that occurred of that form of the disease within our knowledge that season - About this time also, many were affected with first grand symptoms, - but with the exception of the children alluded to we have not been able to learn that any case of fully developed Cholera occurred in this part of the province previous to the exhibition of animals at Galt, and for several days subsequent to that event, and in which more than two hundred were attacked with Cholera, all had been at that exhibition with only two or three exceptions. From the 6th of August the disease became more general and not confined to such as were at the Menagerie; but this time it appeared at Hamilton and Dundas - situations more low and marshy than Galt, and adjacent to Burlington Bay of the Head of Lake Ontario. From these facts it is evident that a deteriorated state of the atmosphere existed previous to the 28th July, yet the fatal catastrophe following the exhibition at Galt was mainly attributable to the highly vitiated, or imperfectly oxygenated air, produced by the numerous and sweltering crowd under the canvas - the ventilation being altogether inadequate for so numerous and crowded assemblage. It also appears that at Hamilton, Dundas and several other situations the Epidemic influence was the product of the more common causes of general infection, united with a local infection, which last is caused by the action of heat upon putrescent vegetable matter.... Elam Stimson, MD, The Cholera Beacon, being a treatise on the Epidemic Cholera: as it appeared in Upper Canada in 1832-4: ______________________________ "Between the prairie and Galt, I think there were only two houses in sight of the road. I arrived at Galt about the 18th August, 1832. The appearance of the village was very discouraging. So far as I remember, there were only about twenty-six buildings in all, including the flour-mill, saw-mill, distillery, two stores, hotel, schoolhouse, and two blacksmith shops. With regard to the number of houses, I am writing from recollection, and may not, therefore, be altogether correct. But I think I am pretty near the mark." The Doctor came, saw, and remained. In settling in Galt, he found he had a wide field all to himself. Dr. Stimson had practised in the village for a short time, but had gone to London, whence he afterwards removed to St. George. Except Dr. Cattermole, who settled in Guelph about the same time that Dr. Miller came to Galt, there was no medical man nearer than Dundas, Brantford, or Woodstock... Reminiscences of the Early History of Galt and the Settlement of Dumfries in the Province of Ontario, by James Young _______________ STIMSON, ELAM was born at Tolland, Connecticut on October 4, 1792. He was the youngest of a family of 12 children, but of his parents little mention is made apart from the fact that they were natives of New England, and they suffered severe reversed of fortune when the subject was ten years of age. He died of erysipelas on January 1, 1869. He was twice married, at first at Toland to Mary Ann Frances Bolles, on January 10, 1819. Following her death on July 20, 1831, he married her sister Susan Bolles. They had nine children, five sons and four daughters. He enlisted in the American army during the war of 1812, and following his discharge began the study of medicine. He began by reading medicine under a Dr. Thompson, of Tolland. He then attended a course of lectures at Yale College, followed by another course of lectures at Dartmouth, and he graduated on August 18, 1819. He first practised at Tolland, but in 1823 settled in St. Catharines. He was granted a licence to practice on July 7, 1823. In 1824 he moved to Galt, where he was the first physician to practice in Waterloo County. His practice extended over a considerable area, from Elora to Flamboro, and Brantford. In the latter part of 1828 in an effort to avoid the rigors of his Galt practice, he moved to London. Here he was appoirted coroner and was also physician for the jail. After the death of his wife from cholera, he moved to St. George where he made his permanent home. After the cholera epidemic of 1834, he wrote a monograph titled "The Cholera Beacon", a copy of which is preserved in the Library of Congress, Washington. His career is more extensively described in Wm. Caniff's "The Medical Profession in Upper Canada"(Briggs, Toronto, 1894), and in Seaborn's "The March of Medicine in Western Ontario. Dr. Alexander D. Campbell, Doctors in Waterloo County 1852-1925, 1986

  
  

• Sources

  [S3231] Find A Grave, Cemetery, P., America, N., Municipality, B., & Cemetery, P. (2018). Dr Elam Stimson (1792-1869) - Find A Grave.... Findagrave.com. Retrieved 20 January 2018, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27444202.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 4 Oct 1792 - Tolland, Tolland, Connecticut, United States Residence - 1824 - Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 31 Jan 1869 - St. George, South Dumfries Twp., Brant Co., Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth