Dr. Rufus E. Hagerthy (PEO.37)

Rufus Edwin Hagerthy, MD, country doctor

In 1976 the Sedgwick Bicentennial Committee wrote that,  “Dr. Rufus Hagerthy had his office in his home across the street from the Smith Bros. Store.  He started practice before 1886, having succeeded his brother Dr. Alexander Hagerthy, who practiced in town for a brief time. Dr. Hagerthy covered the town throughout the early years with his horse and buggy, or by sleigh: and carried on until his death in 1937 [sic].” ¹

Doctor Rufus Hagerthy (1859-1933) was born near Toddy Pond in Surry, Maine. His father Daniel Hagerty [sic] was a naturalized citizen (in 1871) who hailed from County Kerry, Ireland² and his mother Mary Carlisle was born, and died, in Surry.

Rufus went to Bowdoin College where he completed his study of medicine in 1884. During his time at Bowdoin his older brother Alexander, a physician, was preceptor to Rufus and to Fred Samuel Herrick another physician in training from Sedgwick. Rufus continued his medical training at the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, New York and graduated in 1885.  His brother had followed a similar physician training program and graduated in 1874.^{3 4}

On Nov. 8, 1892, in Sedgwick, Rufus married (1) Jane (Jennie) Crosby Holden (1862-1896) the daughter of George Henry Holden (1831-1890) and Harriet Maria Currier (1829-1902).  Jennie, the beautiful 21 year old widow of John W. Hitchings had moved from Portland, Maine with her mother and brother to Sedgwick after the death of her husband in 1889.⁵ Jennie died of cerebral menengitis in 1896.⁶

On 24 March 1900 in Sedgwick Rufus married another daughter of the Currier family, (2) Florence Gertrude Parker (1877-1962) the daughter of Captain James Ahira Parker and Francena Dolores Currier.  Rufus and Florence had four children, Cornelius Carlisle Hagerthy (1901-1975), Lawrence Milton Hagerthy (1903-1963) who was in the first, 1918,  graduating class of Sedgwick High School, Muriel Hagerthy (1910- 2004), and Rufus Alexander Hagerthy (1912-2001). The family lived in the center of Sedgwick village right across from the Smith Brother’s Store.

Doctor Hagerthy appears to have been a bit of an entrepreneur in that he created the first sub division in Sedgwick when he bought  92 acres on Byard’s Point from Ida Byard (Book 456/page 387) and divided  the acreage (Book 3/page 45) into smaller saleable lots, thereby creating  Sedgwick’s first sub-division.⁷

The heading on the above map reads, “State of Maine County of Hancock} ss   I, Welland F. Sargent, Civil Engineer and Surveyor, do hereby certify that I have surveyed the Byard’s Point Property located in Sedgwick, Gancock, Co. Maine, being the same property conveyed by Ida Byard to Rufus E. Hagerthy, under Warranty Deed dated January 25^th 1909 and recorded in Book 456, Page 387 of Records of Hancock Co. and described in said deed as follows, to wit, Beginning at an iron bolt set in the ground at or near high water mark near an apple tree on the beach of Roberts Cove, being a part of Eggemoggin Reach; thence north forty-four degrees six minutes west, twenty-one rods and six feet to the highway at or near a spruce tree; thence by the following courses and distances but everywhere following the side of the highway, viz: north thirty-five degrees east twenty-five feet to a spruce; thence north six and one-half degrees east sixteenand one-half rods to a maple; thence north fourteen rods and six feet to a spruce; thence north four degrees east three rods to a spruce; thence north eighteen and one-half degrees east two rods to a cedar; thence south eighty-three degrees east one rod to a copper bolt in a rock on line of Ella C. White; thence northerly but everywhere following the line of Ella C. White to lot number thirty-one of the lots in Sedgwick; thence westerly but everywhere following the southerly line of lot number thirty-one to the waters of Eggemoggin Reach; thence generally southerly and easterly but everywhere following the waters Eggemoggin Reach to a point opposite the point of beginning on a line drawn at right angles at this point across the beach to the point of beginning, and that I have subdivided the same into lots, streets and parkway as __ on the attached plat.  I further certify that the attached plat correctly represents said survey and subdivision, and that each __ of street __ is marked on the ground by a __ stake. All distances are __ in feet and divisions of a foot.

Sedgwick, Maine August 25, __   Welland F. Sargent, Surveyor”

This is a copy of the 1909 deed transferring 92 acres, more or less, from Ida and William Byard to Rufus E. Hagerthy.⁸

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¹ Sedgwick Maine A Record of Business 1762-1976 Compiled by the Sedgwick Bicentennial Committee 1976

²Ancestry.com

³Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine for the year 1880-81, Brunswick, Telegraph Printing Office, 1880, page 42.

⁴ Raymond, Joseph Howard, M.A., M.D., historian. History of the Long Island College Hospital and It’s Graduates, Published by the Association of the Alumni, Brooklyn, New York, pages 168 and 268.

⁵ Hansen, Xana Arango, The Descendants of Richard Currier (1773-1837) of Sedgwick, Maine, Verderso Consulting Group, Inc., Longmont, CO. 1998, pages 23,24, 70,71.

⁶Death Report, Ancestry.com

⁷ Registry of Deeds, Hancock County, Maine, 3/45.

⁸Hancock County Registry of Deeds, Book 456 Page 387/8.