Jamin Hannibal Hamilton (1836-1909)

Portrait from the Physicians and Surgeons of America, 1896.

   For many years a leading physician in Franklin County, Vermont, Jamin Hannibal Hamilton achieved further distinction through government service, being a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1870, a one-term state representative, and secretary of the State Board of Health. A lifelong Vermont resident, Jamin Hannibal Hamilton was born in Berkshire on February 29, 1836, the son of Hannibal and Julia (Thompson) Hamilton. 

  A student at the Franklin and Derby academies, Hamilton began the study of medicine in Enosburg in the mid-1850s and later undertook two medical lectures at the Vermont Academy of Medicine. Hamilton graduated from that institution in the class of 1859 and shortly thereafter began his medical practice in the town of Richford. Jamin H. Hamilton married in Richford on his 24th birthday to Ellen M. Goff, to who he was wed until her death in 1876. This union produced one son, James, who followed his father into medicine. Several months following his wife's death Hamilton remarried to Mary Smalley, who survived him upon his death in 1909. The couple would have four children, Jamin Hannibal Jr. (1881-1958), Estelle, Fannie, and Francis J.

  The succeeding years saw Hamilton have a "wide practice in his section and over the line in Canada". A member of the Franklin County and Vermont State Medical Societies, Hamilton served as vice-president of the latter organization and during the 1885 smallpox epidemic was designated a sanitary inspector for the U.S. Marine Hospital Service. Hamilton would undertake further medical study at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1872 and was later honored with honorary membership in the District of Bedford (Quebec) Medical Society. 

   A local political office holder in Franklin County, Hamilton served nineteen years as Richford's school director and in June 1870 was a delegate from Franklin County to the state constitutional convention held in Montpelier. In 1886 he was appointed to the Vermont State Board of Health, where he served until at least 1900, and for several years served as secretary of that board. During his tenure, Hamilton would have a two-year stint as a professor of Sanitary Science and Hygiene in the medical department of the University of Vermont and was a consulting physician at the St. Albans Hospital.

  In 1895 Jamin H. Hamilton was elected as one of Franklin County's representatives to the Vermont state legislature and during his term (1896-1898) was a member of the committees on Education, and Highways, Ferries, and Bridges. After leaving the legislature Hamilton continued service on the state board of health until at least 1900, and in 1903 was appointed as acting assistant surgeon at duty for Richford. In 1908 he retired from the Richford school board after three decades of service and shortly before his death suffered a fall at his home. Hamilton died one week later from "internal injuries" on March 14, 1909, at age 73. A burial location for both Hamilton and his wife remains unknown at this time and is presumed to be somewhere in the Richford vicinity.

From the Barre Daily Times, March 15, 1909.