Exploring the Life of a Country Doctor at the Remick Museum
In the doctor’s office at the Remick Museum.
Story & Photos by Kathi Caldwell-Hopper
If you did not know the Doctors Remick — and it is unlikely you did, given they died many years ago — you can still get to know them through the place they lived and worked. Further, you can step back in time and experience a notable slice of small-town Americana at the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm.
Dr. Edwin Remick (1866–1935) and his son, Dr. Edwin C. Remick (1903–1993), aka “Doc”, lived in Tamworth on the family farm and served the community for most of their adult lives.
A visit to the Remick Museum, located at 58 Cleveland Hill Rd. in Tamworth, tells the story of the father and son doctors and life in their time through words, artifacts, and buildings. For the best introduction to the life of a country doctor in the early 1900s, take a guided tour or simply browse the exhibits on your own.
Your visit begins in the museum store, where a Remick staff member will greet you before you begin a tour or gather information on what you will see during the visit.
If you are taking a program or tour, a modest fee is charged, or simply walk through and browse the exhibits for free (donations gratefully accepted).
On a self-guided tour, you will see first-floor exhibits with a timeline of the Remick family. Old photos line the walls and draw the viewer into the era of the Doctors Remick.
You will learn that Dr. Edwin Remick attended medical school and graduated from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in 1894, and returned to Tamworth to serve the community as their doctor. In 1904, Edwin and his wife, Emily Crafts Remick (1861-1911), moved into the Captain Enoch Remick House (on the National Register of Historic Places), which is named after Dr. Remick’s great-uncle, who lived there in the mid-19th century.
A dental chair at the Remick Museum. The senior Doctor Remick treated patients’ dental needs as well as working as a doctor.
Dr. Remick lived on the second floor of the house with his wife and son, Edwin C., while his medical office and pharmacy were located on the ground floor. Emily died quite young, leaving behind a grieving husband and small son, Edwin C. Remick. The young boy was raised by his father, with the help of a nurse who lived on the property.
Edwin C. Crafts Remick attended Tufts College Medical School and graduated in 1929. He married Marion Ella Miles (1906–1980) and returned to Tamworth to join his father’s practice. The two doctors worked together until the elder doctor’s death in 1935.
Says Remick Museum program manager James Cruickshank, “We refer to the younger Doctor Remick as Edwin C. or Doc, which makes it easier to distinguish him from his father. When Edwin C. graduated and married, his father bought him a home next door to the farm as a wedding/graduation gift. The doctors worked together and tended to the sick. Edwin C. was well-versed in the medical needs of the Tamworth area, having grown up in the town.
As you move through the exhibit buildings, various rooms show the equipment used to treat patients, and you can imagine the daily life of a country doctor who braved all kinds of weather to make house calls. The Doctors Remick delivered babies, utilized their offices when needed as an emergency room, called upon the sick all over the area, and held office hours.
In the old-fashioned triage room, a dentist’s chair is on display. James explains that in a rural town at that time, dentists were scarce, so Dr. Remick acted as the dentist as well as the town’s doctor. Small tables displaying medical equipment may seem antiquated by today’s standards, but these objects were typical in their day.
Patients sat in a modest-sized waiting room until it was their turn to see the doctor. The chairs were situated close together, and there was likely little privacy. A handwritten sign on the door informed that the office hours were 9 am to noon and 7:30 to 9 pm, by appointment only. That detail adds to the sense of the doctor’s busy routine.
The medical treatment rooms are fascinating, and one room contains the doctor’s desk and medical equipment. Standing in this space, one is transported back into a world when the doctor took the time to listen to each patient, believing in treating the whole person and that the head influenced the body.
Apothecary where the Doctors Remick mixed medicinals.
In a large room in the doctor’s offices was the apothecary. Unlike a modern pharmacy, it was a place where the doctors made up their own medicines. The shelves are lined with large bottles and medicines that are little used in the modern-day world, but in their time, they were part of a typical medical regime.
Throughout the exhibits and displays are letters from former patients, thanking the doctors for their care. These letters provide a touching reminder of the high esteem locals had for the doctors and how Edwin and Edwin C. dedicated their lives’ work to healing.
Edwin C. also turned to farming and ran a successful dairy business. One reason for keeping cows was to provide milk for the Civilian Conservation Corps working in the area. That choice also connected the farm to the needs of the community.
Says Dawne Gilpatrick, marketing coordinator at the Remick Museum, “Dr. Edwin C. had a pasteurization machine and also a milk delivery service. Four or five laborers lived on the property to work on the farm.”
Edwin C. embraced horse racing and dairy farming. According to information at www.remickmuseum.org, “Holsteins and horses were beloved by Dr. Remick. This is most evident in the collections of ‘Doc’ C. Remick and his personal history with dairy farming and harness racing.” The museum uses this history to show another side of Edwin C.’s life.
Doc’s wife, Marion, was interested in harness racing as well. The equipment used for the races and caring for the horses is on display in a barn, and it gives a glimpse of how diverse the Remicks were in their interests.
A glimpse into the rooms where Edwin C. and Marion lived is a charming part of the tour. Each room is decorated as it was in their time, with a kitchen full of cooking equipment that Marion probably used daily.
Other rooms, such as a bedroom and a living room, show how the Remicks lived in a modest but comfortable way. The den in the apartment is especially charming, where Edwin C. and Marion shared their passion for horse racing. The walls are covered with framed pictures of horses, and easy chairs offered a cozy place where the doctor and his wife could sit, relax, and discuss horses and racing. Together, these rooms round out the portrait of their home life.
There is so much to see at the museum that the visitor should allow time to stop, browse, read information, and soak in what life was like for a country doctor in a small town many years ago.
The Doctors Remick were tireless in their work and are remembered as two of the most respected men in Tamworth. From working every day to heal the sick to running a successful dairy farm, to the horse racing hobby, they gave much back to the community. Their legacy carries naturally into the museum visit.
Plan to spend time at the museum and get to know the Remick family, their staff, and the nurses who helped run their practice. It is strongly advised to register for a tour, and you can choose from Medical History Tours at the Enoch Remick House, Historic Mural Art Tour, Doc’s Dairy & Harness Horse History Tour, and, in the autumn, the Fall Maple Tour and Haunted History with the Drs. Remick.
For information on the museum and programs, visit www.remickmuseum.org or call 603-323-7591.
The museum, farm grounds, and store are open Tues. – Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. The Binsack Trail on the property is open daily from dawn to dusk for foot traffic and service dogs only.