Author: Gridley, Selah
Biography:
GRIDLEY, Selah (1770-1826: ANBO)
Although the title-page to his posthumously-published collection of poems refers to the author as MD, it is significant that he almost certainly did not himself attend any medical school, but was responsible for giving hundreds of others that opportunity. Selah Gridley was the son of Timothy and Rhoda (Woodruff) Gridley, and was born in Farmington CT. In 1791 he began studying medicine with a Hartford doctor; in 1794 the Connecticut State Medical Society certified him as a physician. In 1795, he married Beulah Langdon, with whom he would have six children, and he established a medical practice in Castleton VT. In 1813, he joined a small group of Vermont practitioners in setting up a professional organization to examine and certify doctors in the state, and went on to serve as its president in 1815 and 1816. In 1818, with two colleagues, he founded the first medical school in Vermont, the Castleton Medical Academy, and became its first president. In 1822, however, his wife divorced him and he was forced to leave the county, resigning from his teaching position. Mental illness is suspected. He went to live with his brother Timothy in Exeter NH. He must have prepared his poems for publication although he did not live to see them in print; in the preface, dated 1824, he refers to himself as "the aged author, perceiving the lamp of life to be dying in its socket." (ANBO 12 Jan. 2019) HJ