FOX 316
FOX
fore. He was a great friend of John
Fiske, the learned historian and psy-
chologist and encouraged him to read
in Portland his remarkable lectures on
American history. Like Fiske, he be-
lieved that death is the end of all, and
that there was nothing afterwards.
Dr. Foster was married three times and had seven children, two of his sons, Barzillai Beau and Charles Wilder, be- came doctors.
A man highly thought of by every- one in the profession, he was often chos- en a delagate to the meetings of their medical associations as a representa- tive. He was rather short and spare, walked with a quick step, had a sandy head of hair, and beard trimmed short.
The bent of his mind is best shown by the subjects chosen by himself for prize essays to be written by the mem- bers of the association: "Physiology of Habit;" "Habits Which Endanger Health;" "Hygiene of country towns and villages;" "Hereditary Causes of Disease."
He had a very firm belief in the in- fluence of mind upon the body, as dem- onstrated in the dealings which he had, with the lives of many families and prac- titioners.
After a long illness, he died sudden- ly from chronic Bright's disease Nov- ember 27, 1S96, ending a life which all could recall with pleasure.
J. A. S.
Trans, Maine Med. Assoc. Personal Rememberances.
Fox, William Herrimon (1814-18S3).
He was born September 14, 1814, in Moate-a-Granough, in the County of West Meath, Ireland, but at the age of nineteen came to the United States with six brothers and three of his four sisters. Upon arrival he entered at once upon the study of medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, under Dr. Robert Johnstone of that place.
After finishing these studies young Fox entered Willoughby Medical Col- lege, near Cleveland, Ohio, from which |
he graduated February 21, 1839, after
which he went at once to Lima, La
Grange County, Indiana, where he be-
gan to practise. On December 24,
1841, he married Cornelia Raymond
Averill, daughter of Mills Averill, and
great grand-daughter of Col. Benjamin
Simonds of Williamstown, Massachu-
setts, one of the heroes of the Revo-
lution.
Impelled by a desire to move fur- ther west, in the spring of 1843 he went to Wisconsin, settling on lands which afterwards became a part of the township of Fitchburg in Dane County, about ten miles south of Madi- son. Here in 1843 he began the erection of a log cabin which, though composed of but two rooms, became famous throughout the region for its splendid hospitality, it being said that no wayfarer ever knocked at the doctor's door without receiving a generous welcome. In 1844 the doctor moved his family and belongings by prairie schooner to their new Wisconsin home. He was accustomed to say that wolves gave him the most trouble and the great- est fear; that he was seldom molested by highwaymen, never by Indians, with whom he was always fast friends and their much revered "medicine man."
Four daughters and one son composed his family. The second daughter, Ade- line, died unmarried at twenty-one; the others were Catherine, Anna, Lucia and Arthur O.
His experience as a pioneer settler and physician covers nearly the entire annals of both territory and state, and he has left an honorable record as a noble and good man. He died upon his farm at Oregon, Dane County, Wisconsin, Oc- tober, 1883, and according to his wishes was buried in the Oregon cemetery, which overlooks the spot he selected for his pioneer Wisconin home and is al- most within sight of the log cabin which he built in 1S43.
Among the archives of the family in the Tower of London is the story of how the Fox family of Ireland originally had
