Henry Dexter Chadwick (1872 - 1969)

Born 2 Jan 1872 in Boscawen, Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Edith Nichols (Clark) Chadwick — married 24 May 1898 in Waltham, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA

Descendants

Died 15 Mar 1969 at age 97 in Waltham, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA

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Biography

This profile is part of the Chadwick Name Study.

Henry Dexter Chadwick was born on January 2, 1872 in the town of Boscawen, New Hampshire.^[1] His father was a farmer and sometime newspaper editor in nearby Concord, NH. His mother was the second of two wives, considerably younger than his father, who was 60 when Henry was born. Henry's father died when Henry was still a young boy, but his mother kept up the farm with Henry's elder half-brother Asa, and his elder brother George. Henry admired the family doctor and decided as a young boy that he would become a doctor himself.^[2] After he graduated from high school, in Boscawen, he worked for a drug store, first in Concord, NH, and later in Boston. He studied on his own for the entrance examination for Harvard Medical School and became one of the last students to enter medical school without attending college. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1895.^[3]

He began to practice medicine in Waltham, MA, where he met his wife, Edith Nichols Clark, who was the daughter of one of his patients. He soon contracted tuberculosis and, while recovering, he decided to devote his career to curing TB. He became the superintendent of the tuberculosis sanatorium in Westfield, MA.^[4] Later, his career took him to become the Public Health Superintendent in Detroit, MI and the Commissioner of Public Health in Massachusetts. He built a house in Waltham, MA and lived there until his death in 1969 at the age of 97.^[5]

Sources

• Personal recollections of Henry Chadwick his grandson.

• Memorial to Henry D. Chadwick, M.D.

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Birth Records, 1659-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations. Inc., 2013.
2. ↑ Letter to his great grandsons
3. ↑ Harvard Commencement Program 1895
4. ↑ Biography of Dr. Henry Chadwick 1929
5. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5Y5-2Z8 : 7 January 2021), Henry D Chadwick, 15 Mar 1969; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).