George Parkman (February 19, 1790–November 23, 1849), a Boston Brahmin and a member of one of Boston's richest families, was a prominent physician, businessman, and philanthropist, as well the victim in the sensationally gruesome Parkman–Webster murder case, which shook Boston in 1849–1850.
Family
House of Samuel Parkman (father of George Parkman), Bowdoin Square, Boston, 1912.
Samuel Parkman (August 22, 1751–June 11, 1824) and Sarah Rogers had five children: Elizabeth (1785), Francis (1788), George (1790), Samuel (1791), and Daniel (1794). Samuel Parkman had also had six children by his previous marriage to Sarah Shaw.[2] Samuel Parkman, George's father and family patriarch, had bought up low-lying lands and income properties in Boston's West End.[3] He also founded and was part owner of the towns of Parkman, Ohio and Parkman, Maine.[4][5] His sons from his first marriage oversaw the Ohio properties, while his second set of boys were responsible for the Maine parcel. Samuel's daughters inherited wealth as well. The most notable was George's sister Elizabeth Willard Parkman, whose spouse Robert Gould Shaw (1776–1853), grandfather of Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837–July 18, 1863, Union Army colonel during the American Civil War), grew his wife's share of the fortune to become the senior partner in the most powerful commercial house in a city glutted with the proceeds of the China Trade.[6]
The eleven Parkman scions united in marriage with the Beacon Hill families of Blake, Cabot, Mason, Sturgis, Tilden, and Tuckerman. Of his eleven offspring, Samuel chose George as the one to administer the Parkman estate.[7]
George Parkman's poor health as a youngster led him to want to study medicine. He entered the freshman class of Harvard University when he was 15 years old, and delivered the "Salutory Oration" in 1809. Despite his assured wealth, a lecture by Benjamin Rush inspired him to take an interest in the terrible state of asylums for the mentally ill. He spent two years at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland obtaining his medical degree.[8] After returning to Boston, he traveled aboard the USSConstitution to Europe and was under the charge of a former Bostonian, Benjamin Thompson, who introduced him to the Minister to France, Joel Barlow. Barlow introduced him to many doctors in Paris. While there, he observed the pioneering and humane treatment methods of two famous French psychiatrists, Philippe Pinel and Étienne Esquirol. He studied at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital for his graduate work. "My first knowledge of the Salpêtrière, was with the high privilege of the guidance of its great physician, Pinel, and of his new illustrious associate, Esquirol. Pinel received me kindly, and inquired with much interest after Benjamin Rush, who had lately written his book on Diseases of the Mind," Parkman wrote from Paris.[9] That same interest helped to cement the relationship between Parkman and Pinel. The 70-year-old Pinel's ideas impressed Parkman. Under teachers like Pinel and Esquirol, Parkman practiced at the Parisian Asylum, and learned the history and treatment of mental "diseases." At this time Parkman developed his own path of his career. He spent time in England studying with men of Science, as well.[10]
Parkman returned to the U.S. in 1813. The War of 1812 called for the service of young men and Parkman “received a commission as a surgeon in a regiment of the third brigade belonging to the first division of the Massachusetts militia.” He began in South Boston and simultaneously served as a physician to the poor with a desire to replicate the practices of Pinel and Esquirol.[11]
Parkman believed that psychiatric institutions should reflect a residence-like setting, where patients could enjoy hobbies and socializing and participating in household chores, as permitted. Parkman thought Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital was a good model and talked to the faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital about having a lunatic hospital connected to it. In 1817, he wrote two papers, Remarks on Insanity and The Management of Lunatics in an effort to convince the trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital that he could supervise an asylum they were considering opening. That same year he offered to raise $16,000 for the construction of a full-size institution. Unfortunately, the trustees interpreted the offer as a proposal to fully endow the project. Later, the McLean Asylum for the Insane was established, but the trustees feared the taint of corruption if Parkman had held an appointment he had endowed. Rufus Wyman, the father of Jeffries Wyman and Morrill Wyman, who both were involved in the Parkman–Webster murder case, was appointed. Parkman retired, but continued his interest in medicine and insanity. He would visit and entertain them,[who?] he bought them an organ, and opened up his own mansions during cholera and smallpox epidemics for the treatment of patients.[12]
In 1837 he revisited Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, and he sent a letter and some sketches to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, describing some Parisian hospitals.[15]
Parkman was a well-known figure in the streets of Boston, which he walked daily, collecting his rents (a thrifty man, he did not own a horse). He was tall and lean, had a protruding chin, and wore a top hat. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. said that "he abstained while others indulged, he walked while others rode, he worked while others slept."[16] Frances "Fanny" Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow (1817–1861), wife of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), called him "the lean doctor... the good-natured Don-Quixote."[citation needed] He was reported to have a net worth of $500,000 in 1846,[14] roughly $12,500,000 in 2012 money.
Parkman was murdered on Friday, November 23, 1849. After an extensive search by Derastus Clapp and other police officers from Francis Tukey's newly formed Boston police force,[17][18] Parkman's dismembered and partly burned body was discovered on November 30 by Ephraim Littlefield, a janitor at Harvard Medical School. Parkman's funeral was held on December 6, an event for which thousands of people lined the streets of Boston.[citation needed]John White Webster (May 20, 1793–August 30, 1850), a professor of chemistry and geology at Harvard Medical School, was convicted of killing Parkman in a sensational trial.
Legacy
The murder of George Parkman, and the subsequent publicity surrounding Webster's trial and eventual execution was deeply disturbing to Parkman's widow and children. They became virtual recluses in their home at 33 Beacon Street, and neither of Parkman's two children (George Francis and Harriet) ever married. When their mother died in 1877, they inherited the entire estate. After his sister Harriet's death in 1885, George Francis remained the sole heir to this considerable fortune. At the time of George Francis' death on September 16, 1908, the estate was valued at nearly $5.5 million. Nearly all of this estate was left to the City of Boston, one of the largest bequests ever made to it. George Parkman's house still stands at 8 Walnut Street in Beacon Hill.[19]
↑ Both towns are included in Roger Storm’s 1969 University of Maine thesis History of Parkman, Maine and in the Dec. 6, 1814 Parkman, Maine, A Frontier Settlement by Victor McKusick---in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.
↑ According to the Descendants of the Rev. Daniel Rogers of Littleton, Mass. New England Historic and Genealogical Society Register. Vol. 39. David Clapp and Son, 1885, Robert Gould Shaw’s father and Sarah Shaw, Samuel Parkman’s first wife, were brother and sister. Therefore Elizabeth Parkman Shaw’s half-siblings were direct cousins to her husband.
↑ The 1850 pretrial deposition given by Charles Kingsley, business manager for George Parkman, to John Andrews would convey this picture of his boss’s personality.
↑ Sullivan, 31; American Experience/Murder at Harvard/ People & Events (c. 790-1849); Holmes, 17-18.
↑ "Some Historical Account of the Progress of Medical Science during the Last Year". The New England Journal of Medicine, Surgery and Collateral Branches of Science. 3: 5–11. 1814. doi:10.1056/NEJM181401010030101.
Philippe Pinel was a French physician, precursor of psychiatry and incidentally a zoologist. He was instrumental in the development of a more humane psychological approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients, referred to today as moral therapy. He worked for the abolition of the shackling of mental patients by chains and, more generally, for the humanisation of their treatment. He also made notable contributions to the classification of mental disorders and has been described by some as "the father of modern psychiatry".
The Boston Brahmins, or Boston elite, are members of Boston's historic upper class. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional British-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was also an important medical reformer. In addition to his work as an author and poet, Holmes also served as a physician, professor, lecturer, and inventor.
Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital is a charitable hospital in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the AP-HP Sorbonne University Hospital Group and a teaching hospital of Sorbonne University.
Lemuel Shaw was an American jurist who served as chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1830–1860). Prior to his appointment he also served for several years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as a state senator. In 1847, Shaw became the father-in-law of author Herman Melville. He ruled on prominent cases involving slavery, segregation, and religion.
Southworth & Hawes was an early photographic firm in Boston, 1843–1863. Its partners, Albert Sands Southworth (1811–1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (1808–1901), have been hailed as the first great American masters of photography, whose work elevated photographic portraits to the level of fine art. Their images are prominent in every major book and collection of early American photography.
Nathan Cooley Keep (1800–1875) was a pioneer in the field of dentistry, and the founding Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
John Henry Clifford was an American lawyer and politician from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He served as the state's attorney general for much of the 1850s, retaining the office during administrations dominated by three different political parties. A Whig, he was elected the state's 21st governor, serving a single term from 1853 to 1854. He was the first governor of Massachusetts not born in the state.
Jeffries Wyman was an American anatomist, curator, and professor. He was the first curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and taught anatomy at Harvard Medical School from 1847 to 1874.
Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol was a French psychiatrist.
After Boston businessman George Parkman disappeared in November 1849, his dismembered and partially burned body was found in the laboratory of John Webster, a lecturer at Harvard Medical College; Webster was convicted of Parkman's murder and hanged. Highly publicized because of its gruesome nature and the high social status of Parkman and Webster, the case was one of the earliest in which forensic evidence was used to identify a body.
John White Webster was an American professor of chemistry and geology at Harvard Medical College. In 1850, he was convicted of murder in the Parkman–Webster murder case and hanged.
Derastus Clapp was head of the first city detective bureau in the United States, located in Boston, Massachusetts. He was appointed to the office of constable by the elderly Mayor Josiah Quincy in 1828, and was reappointed every succeeding year to 1874. In 1848, he was promoted to be one of the first detectives in the city. Clapp is most noted for his role in the arrest and prosecution of John White Webster for the murder of George Parkman.
James Henry Blake was the City Marshal of Boston from 1840 to 1845. He was a son of Edward Blake and Sarah (Parkman) Blake and nephew of George Parkman. The Parkmans and Blakes were two prominent families of the Boston Brahmins who were well respected merchants.
Edward Dexter Sohier (1810–1888) was an American lawyer who defended John White Webster in a murder trial in 1850.
George Bemis was an American lawyer and legal scholar. He was involved with many unique cases and was an advocate of international law and the reform of the treatment of criminals.
Pliny T. Merrick was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts. He served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Samuel Dunn Parker (1781–1873) was an American attorney who served as District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts.
George R. Shaw (1848–1937) was an American architect in practice in Boston from 1874 to 1902. In retirement, he was noted as a botanist.
Henry Parkman was an American politician who was a member of the Boston Common Council and both chambers of the Massachusetts General Court.
References
Bemis, George (1850). Report of the Case of John W. Webster. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. p.2. George Bemis, Report of the Case of John W. Webster.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1850). The Benefactors of the Harvard Medical School: with a Biographical Sketch of the Late Dr. George Parkman. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.
Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 19, pp.592–3. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.
King, Vandall T., 2006, Mineralogy and Chemistry at Harvard 1800-1865: In Search of John White Webster - an Innocent Man, Journal of the Geoliterary Society, volume 21 (#2): pp.5–24
Simon Schama, 1991, Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, p.333.
James W. Stone, The Trial of Prof. John White Webster. Boston: Phillip Sampson & Co, 1850.
Robert Sullivan, The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1971.
Thomson, Helen, 1971, Murder at Harvard, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, p.318.
Webster, John W. and The Boston Journal, The Trial of Prof. John W. Webster Indicted for the Murder of Dr. George Parkman, Boston: Redding & Company, 1850.
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