American Medical Biographies/Woodward, Theodore
Woodward, Theodore (1788–1840)
Theodore Woodward was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, July 17, 1788, and died in Brattleboro, Vermont, October 10, 1840. He studied medicine under Nathan Smith, his maternal uncle, and completed his study with Dr. Adin Kendrich of Poultney, Vt. At the age of twenty-one he began to practice and remained all his life in Castleton, Vermont. By the aid of his colleague, Dr. Selah Gridley, and some friends of the enterprise, he succeeded in founding and establishing the Vermont Academy of Medicine at Castleton, Vermont, which became associated with Middlebury College. He was a member of the Corporation of the Vermont Academy of Medicine from 1818 to 1840, and professor of surgery and obstetrics there from 1818 to 1824, and the same in 1822, with diseases of women and children added. In 1824 he was registrar of the Academy and made professor of the principles and practice of surgery, obstetrics and the diseases of women and children, continuing this work until 1838, when he became incapacitated by the disease that terminated his life.
He was a laborious student of everything which related to the nature and cure of disease, and blended with unusual symmetry the characters and avocations of the student and the physician.
Woodward was distinguished for quickness of apprehension and acute discrimination when investigating disease, and great shrewdness in the expediency and adaptation of remedies.
During the course of his practice he performed most of the operations of surgery which are regarded as critical and was distinguished for his fortunate selection of the proper time and for his medical treatment.
He married Mary Armington, and had three sons and three daughters. One son, Adrian Theodore Woodward, studied medicine and became a general surgeon.