We don’t often hear much about Dr. Dearborn, but he was an outstanding citizen of Parsonsfield. Aside from being a distinguished physician, he was chairman of the 52 member Centennial Committee responsible for planning and ensuring the success of the Parsonsfield centennial celebration on August 9, 1885. He was also largely responsible for producing the “History of Parsonsfield, Maine 1771-1888” published in 1888.
Jeremiah W. Dearborn was born May 2, 1832 one of five children born to John and Sally (Wadleigh) Dearborn. His grandfather, Jeremiah Dearborn of Hampton, NH was the first Dearborn to settle in Parsonsfield in 1794.
Jeremiah had the usual struggles of those days gaining an education. He studied medicine with Drs. Moses and John B. Sweat and graduated March 26.1857 at Michigan University. He began his practice at East Parsonsfield. Two years later he went to Effingham, NH, remaining there 16 years and then to Freedom, NH for one year. Circumstances then brought him back to Parsonsfield where he remained. His residence was in Maplewood at the family home built by his grandfather in 1794. In 1882 he was responsible for planting the maple trees which still line the streets here, giving Maplewood its name.
In 1853 he married Miss Mary Smart, daughter of Gardiner and Sally Smart of Parsonsfield. They had no children. He practiced medicine and surgery, and held various offices of the Town of Parsonsfield. While a resident of New Hampshire he was District Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of NH for 8 years. He was a member of the Maine Senate in 1880, and declined re-nomination for a second term. He was appointed by Maine’s Governor Robie to the Board of Trustees of the Maine General Hospital and then served 3 years as member of the Board of Trustees of the Maine Insane Hospital.
Dr. Dearborn was reluctant to write about himself, but a friend – Judge David H. Hill of Sandwich, NH – submitted a brief write-up about him insisting it be included in the “Parsonsfield History”. It stated that “After 15 or 20 years of successful practice in NH and Parsonsfield, his practice began to extend and his reputation became much more than local. He enjoyed, in a very high degree, the personal friendship of his medical rivals, and in matters of surgery and in the crises of dangerous diseases he has been much employed as a consulting physician and surgeon, meeting his brother physicians in hardly less than thirty towns in York, Oxford, Carroll and Strafford counties. His valuable judgment and experience, as well as his pleasant personal relations with such distinguished physicians as his eminent townsman, Dr. Moses Sweat, Dr. Augustus D. Merrow, of Freedom, Dr. W.H.H. Mason of Moultonborough, Dr. W.H. Bragdon of Conway and Dr. S.O. Clark of Limerick, and the kindly aid rendered to the younger physicians, have necessarily led to this result.”
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Dr. Dearborn died Dec. 8, 1904. His wife died May 12, 1906. They are both buried in Maplewood Cemetery. Dr. Dearborn’s home in Maplewood was continually occupied by the family from the date it was built until their deaths and still exists today. A later owner in the 1980’s restored it to the beautiful estate shown here.
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