Holyoke, Thomas C., M.D.

HOLYOKE, CLARK

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 1/15/2013 at 07:55:16

The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa
Des Moines: Union Hist. Co., 1880.

HOLYOKE, THOMAS C., M.D. - Grinnell Twp - pg 904-5. Thomas Chamberlain Holyoke, a pioneer settler and physician in Poweshiek county, Iowa, was born and raised in the town of Brewer, opposite Bangor, Maine, dating his birth on the 16th of March, 1818. He was educated at the Bangor Seminary; read medicine and attended lectures in the medical department of Harvard University there graduating in 1847; practiced two years at Surry and five at Searsport, Maine, and in March, 1854, found his way to the wild prairie on which the city of Grinnell now stands. At that date there was not shanty, not even a wigwam, on the site of the place. He came in company with Hon. J.B. Grinnell, H.M. Hamilton and three or four others, to found a Congregational town, the parties purchasing next month several thousand acres, including all the business part of the present city. There was a small grove west of town, and Dr. Holyoke felled the first tree for a rude cabin, which was erected in great haste as a shelter from the March winds, so searching in a prairie country, a sketch of which appears in another place. He was soon made county surveyor, and laid out the town and fixed the boundaries of the farms. His hand was in every important work until the population had so largely increased as to demand his whole time in his profession. Up to the day of his death, which occurred on the 10th day of February, 1877, he was very busy in his regular calling. His rides were often long and tedious, the families in the country having been accustomed to test his skill being unwilling to exchange for a younger man than their old family physician. He found comfort in obliging them, though the exposure to which he was sometimes subjected was not unlikely deleterious to his health. He was stricken with paralysis of the left side, just after rising one morning, and died before midnight. Physicians attributed the immediate cause of his death to cerebral hemorrhage. The usefulness of Dr. Holyoke as a citizen as well as a physician, and his solid character and influence, can best be told by those who knew him best, and whose sad duty it was to pay the last rite to his mortal remains. He was a director in the State Agricultural College, trustee of Iowa College, member of State Legislature and held other offices of honor and trust. On the 2d of October, 1849, Miss Nancy C. Clark, of Searsport, Maine, became the wife of Dr. Holyoke, and they had four children, all sons, three surviving him: Frederick S. (died in early infancy), William Pond (is a successful business man in Chicago), Edgar Loomis (is a student at law in Grinnell) and Robert Ames (is at the State Agricultural College). Mrs. Holyoke resides at the elegant home planned and built by her lamented husband.