My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE F. THOMSON, M.D., a well-known physician of Belchertown and a veteran of the Civil War, was born in Belchertown, Mass., January 9, 1833. His father,. Dr. Horatio Thomson, was born at Tolland, Conn., October 6, 1804; and his grandfather, Gideon Thomson, also a physician, was born at Mansfield, Conn.

Dr. Gideon Thomson was a well-known physician and surgeon at Tolland, where he practised until his decease. The maiden name of his wife, Dr. Thomson’s grandmother, was Elizabeth Steele. Dr. Horatio Thomson turned his attention to the study of medicine at a very early age. Subsequent to following the occupation of an educator for a time, he commenced his preparations for professional life by studying with his father. Later he attended lectures at Yale College. He graduated from the medical department of that university in the year 1827, and settled in Belchertown, Mass., where he continued in active practice until his decease. This event occurred in his fifty-sixth year on the anniversary of his birth. His first wife, who died at the age of twenty-nine years, was before marriage Cordelia Chapman, of Tolland, daughter of Eliakim and Nancy Willes Chapman. She had two sons, namely: Charles H.; and George F., of this article. Charles H. became an attorney, and died at Corning, N.Y. The second wife was Lucy Maria Doolittle, daughter of the Hon. Mark Doolittle, of Belchertown. She bore him four children, all of whom died in infancy.

George F. Thomson, M.D., received a liberal education in the academies at New Salem, Easthampton, Hadley, and Monson. After teaching for some time in the schools at Monson and Brimfield, he commenced the study of medicine at the age of eighteen years, first with his father and later with Dr. Palmer, of Woodstock, Vt. He graduated from the University of New York in 1855, and soon after was appointed surgeon of the emigrant ship “New World,” plying between New York and Liverpool. After holding this position for three years, he established himself at Belchertown. In 1862 he received the appointment of Assistant Surgeon of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and for more than two years served in the Department of the Gulf, under Major-general N. P. Banks. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of Surgeon, and assigned to the Eighteenth Massachusetts Volunteers; but ill health prevented him from undertaking the duties of that post. Early in the month of January, 1865, he was appointed by Governor Andrew and commissioned by Governor Fenton as Surgeon of the Twenty-sixth New York Volunteer Cavalry, which was stationed upon the Canadian frontier until July of that year. He was then honorably discharged, and returned to Belchertown. In the following January, having recovered his health, he resumed his practice, and has continued it without interruption to the present day. During this time Dr. Thomson has had practice in three different counties; but at one time he attended a large number of patients in seventeen different towns. At present he has an extensive practice in a section which includes eight towns.

In 1865 he wedded Miss Sophia M. Brown, daughter of Asa Brown, Esq., of Hadley. They have two children, Edmund S. and Lucy D. The former, a graduate of Harvard University and the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, is now practising at New Haven, Conn. Lucy D. is a graduate of Smith College, and will graduate in 1896 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Thomson is a member of Bethel Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and a comrade of E. J. Griggs Post, No. 97, Grand Army of the Republic.