Howard Townsend Swain, M.D. was the much-loved and revered patriarch of my grandmother’s family.

He was called “Buppie” by close kin. That’s at least the way I’ve chosen to spell his nickname.

(A note to younger readers who have never heard it pronounced: I don’t know if it was ever written out. At any rate, it is said with the “u” sounding like “oo” in look, or book. So think, Bookie, and then substitute a p for the k. Buppie. Or if you want to really be technical, /ˈbʊpi/, but I never learned to read “dictionary-speak,” and come to think of it, don’t know anyone who did. Continuing with this minutiae on the subject of names, he appears to have been named, actually named, for a Dr. Howard Townsend, Professor and Chair of Obstetrics at Albany Medical College where his father, William Dexter Swain, M.D., had studied medicine.  Dr. Townsend died in January, 1867, shortly before Howard Townsend Swain’s birth.)

As a young man, Buppie came from a relatively simple rural life, but he rose within the Boston medical establishment to become a widely respected and sought-after physician.

It was said – often – that although he was an ob/gyn, men would nevertheless make appointments with him just to seek his counsel, coming to see him in his home-office at 226 Commonwealth Ave.

My grandmother, Helen Swain Burgin, his daughter, mentioned him in passing at least once every couple of days when we were together, and I think she thought of him even more often. It would not be overkill to say his presence, the fact of having known him, was one of the great anchors or touchstones of her life.

After he died, an unknown Boston newspaper dated Thursday, Dec 10, 1936, took note of his passing with a small two paragraph notice entitled “Affection,” which reads as follows:

“Rarely has such a tribute been paid to a doctor as at the funeral of Dr. Howard T. Swain, the distinguished gynecologist yesterday. In the past 30 years he brought into the world the children of hundreds of Back Bay families. He was more than a physician, he was a devoted friend and counsellor of mothers and children. They came to rely on his advice in many things.

“It is a splendid thing for a man to have earned such wide affection. Those who gathered for the last tribute to him were those who had personal reasons to cherish his memory.”

_____

Continue reading →

At the time of his first marriage, in 1854, William Dexter Swain described himself as a mechanic. Later, in the 1860 Census, he listed himself as a pianoforte maker. But in 1868, at the age of 40, he was graduated from Albany Medical College, and became a physician. It’s an interesting series of transitions.

When a respected professor of obstetrics at Albany Medical College, Dr. Howard Townsend, died in January, 1867, just before the birth of Swain’s second son, he named the baby after his mentor: Howard Townsend Swain. (Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the boy would go on to become a well-known obstetrician in his own right.)

The photographs below are the only images I know of that show what William Dexter Swain looked like. They were taken on two separate occasions near the end of his life, when Howard, now grown, brought his three children, Helen, Margaret, and Howard, Jr., to Copake for a visit. The top picture, in black and white, appears to be earlier than the rest, in sepia.

One thing that has always stood out to me about these pictures, aside from the terrific Civil War-era beard, is the humble nature of the structures. Here was a son, striving to take his place at the top of Boston society, with patients who included the wife of Admiral Byrd, a professorship at Harvard Medical School, raising a family on Commonwealth Ave., and his father’s house is in dire need of basic repair and paint. Had he offered to help, but been rebuffed? Had he not offered to help? What was their relationship like? I suspect that this, too, is something we we will never know.

_______

Left to right: Helen Swain; Margaret Swain; William Dexter Swain; Howard T. Swain, Sr.

Left to right: William Dexter Swain, Howard T. Swain, Sr., and Howard T. Swain, Jr.

Continue reading →