![\"Dr.](\"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Daniel-Sheldon_lowres.jpg\" "\\"Daniel")
Dr. Daniel Sheldon, Artist Unknown, ca. 1810. Purchased by the Historical Society from the Hartford Medical Society Library<\/p><\/div>\n
The painting was being deaccessioned by the Hartford Medical Society Library in Farmington, CT.\u00a0 The Library is operated by the University of Connecticut and located at their Farmington campus.\u00a0\u00a0 The Historical Society purchased the painting from the Library and both parties were thrilled to return Dr. Sheldon to Litchfield.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sheldon operated a successful medical practice in Litchfield for over fifty years.\u00a0 He was born in Hartford, CT on October 19, 1750.\u00a0 He received his early education at the Hartford Grammer School which supported a reputation as one of the best literary institutions in New England.\u00a0\u00a0 Afterwards, he apprenticed himself to Dr. Seth Bird of Litchfield, who at the time was one of the most prominent medical men in the state.\u00a0 At the age of 21, Sheldon opened his own practice in Woodbury.\u00a0 Shortly afterwards he married Charlotte Judson in 1777\u00a0and they had two children together Charlotte Sheldon and Daniel Sheldon.\u00a0 He moved to Litchfield in 1784, when the current physician of the town Dr. Lemuel Hopkins moved to Hartford creating an opportunity for a new doctor to take his place.<\/p>\n
His practice grew, attained respectability and his reputation far exceeded the boundaries of Litchfield.\u00a0 His wife Charlotte died shortly after his move to Litchfield and Sheldon then married Huldah Stone.\u00a0 The couple had four children together Lucy, Frederick, Henry and William.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sheldon is described in\u00a0the \u00a0American Medical Biography: or, Memoirs of Eminent Physicians <\/em>by Stephen West Williams in 1845,<\/p>\n Dr. Sheldon was endowed by nature with a vigorous and well balanced mind; he was quick to discover and ready to apply all his knowledge in the practice of his profession. He had the tact which led him at once to the indication of disease, and boldness in his prescriptions which only comes properly from a thorough knowledge of the case. He was also a learned man, fond of books, and a thorough, diligent student. He had a faculty of gleaning from authors whatever was valuable in their works by a hasty perusal of their pages. His memory was retentive, he profited greatly by his own experience, and was enabled to have analogies by which that experience was of great value to him. In the treatment of pulmonary consumption he had great and desired celebrity. Many persons affected with symptoms of that disease, flocked to him from a great distance, and his success sustained his reputation, till from age and infirmity he ceased to practice his profession. The writer met him repeatedly in such cases. There was no quackery about his practice, but plain, open, common sense views of what changes might be wrought by perseverance and suitable remedies . . .<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Daniel Sheldon by Anson Dickinson, 1831, Courtesy of the Litchfield Historical Society<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0His remedies were simple, but effective. Substantial diet, narcotic and tonic remedies, and riding on horseback, which he considered superior to all other means of restoration, and quite superior to all other modes of exercise. He was a successful physician in this and other chronic cases, and his counsel was sought by many respectable individuals near and remote. It was my good fortune to meet him occasionally, and at our last interview he spent some days with me at my residence. His conversation was most instructive and his kindness and courtesy made a deep impression on my feelings.<\/em><\/p>\n In addition to his medical practice,\u00a0Sheldon helped to found\u00a0the\u00a0State Medical Society in Connecticut.\u00a0 He was also given an honorary Doctoral degree\u00a0of Medicine by Yale College.\u00a0\u00a0 Throughout most of his life he was also addicted to opium.\u00a0 The daily drug use began after an abscess in his lungs burst and necessitated the administration of a pain reliever.\u00a0 Opium was a common drug in the 18th century and used by many people to medicate pain and discomfort.\u00a0 Late in his life, Sheldon broke his addiction to opium by slowly lessening his use of the drug.\u00a0\u00a0He died on April 10, 1840 at the age of 89.<\/p>\n Sheldon lived on North Street and his home is still standing today.\u00a0 He sent all of his children, sons as well as daughters to the Litchfield Female Academy.\u00a0\u00a0 His son’s Daniel and William also attended the Litchfield Law School.\u00a0\u00a0The Sheldon’s also boarded students who\u00a0traveled to Litchfield to attend one of the schools.\u00a0 \u00a0His daugher Lucy Sheldon Beach (wife of Dr. Theron Beach) continued to live in the Sheldon home until her death in 1889.<\/p>\n The Sheldon family papers are now part of the Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library at the Litchfield Historical Society.\u00a0 They have been cataloged in Archon and the finding aid available online by visiting the museum’s Web site and clicking on the button “Archon: Finding Aids.”\u00a0 The direct link to the Sheldon family papers is:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/archon\/index.php?p=collections\/controlcard&id=652<\/a><\/p>\n Welcome home Dr. Sheldon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This month the Historical Society was happy to welcome Dr. Daniel Sheldon (1750-1840)\u00a0back to Litchfield.\u00a0 Confused?\u00a0 I can understand why.\u00a0 Dr. Sheldon, himself, did not return to Litchfield but a portrait of the well respected doctor did. The painting was being deaccessioned by the Hartford Medical Society Library in Farmington, CT.\u00a0 The Library is operated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dr.](\"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/1908-18-0-Dr.-Daniel-Sheldon.jpg\" "\\"1908-18-0")