Then and Now
Dr. Davis Webb Hodgkins

This is a photograph of the medical officers of the US Army hospital steamer “Ben Deford”. The gentleman standing in the center became East Brookfield’s first physician, Dr. David Webb Hodgkins. Dr. Hodgkins is perhaps best known as the benefactor of the Hodgkins School, later Lashaway Junior High and presently The Hodgkins Building.

Born in Jefferson, Maine, on July 31, 1834, the oldest of the seven children of David and Catherine Webb Hodgkins. After education at several academies in his native state, he moved to New York City in 1858 to teach at the Rutgers Female Seminary. He commenced his medical studies privately with Dr. William Newman in New York about 1859 and later attended the College of Physicians & Surgeons from which he received his medical degree in 1863.

Hodgkins was a U.S. Army surgeon in 1864-1865, serving most of his time on a US Army hospital transport steamer ship "Ben Deford". In 1866, he married his second wife, Martha A. Browning. They lived briefly in Waldoboro, Maine, before moving to East Brookfield, Mass., where Hodgkins served our community well for three decades as a skillful physician and a very dedicated and generous citizen.

Hodgkins was one of the medical examiners for Worcester County, Mass., 1877-1898, and served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1882-1883. He held many other local offices and was a deacon in the Baptist church. He died on April 19, 1898.

Did you know that the Hodgkins School cost $6297.53 to construct in 1883?
(from Columbia University, Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, 701W. 168th St. NY, New York 10032)
http://library.cpmc.columbia.edu/hsl/archives/findingaids/hodgkins.html
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