Today’s life expectancy in the United Sates is around 80 years of age. In the late 1700’s it was close to 35. Yet the founding couples of Cavendish, all managed to equal or exceed 21st century life expectancy, with the one exception of Capt. John Coffeen, who died at 75. His wife Susanna died at 94, while Salmon Dutton was 80, his wife Sarah was 83 and the Proctors were 93, Leonard, and 84 respectively. There wasn’t a doctor available in town until 1787, which was 18 years after the Coffeens arrived in Cavendish, health matters were primarily handled by the women. Considering that medicine of that era was based on the “four humors” and blood letting was common practice, not having a doctor may have been a good thing.
On Sunday, July 15, the Cavendish Historical Society will have a presentation “Lotions, Potions and Notions, “which explores not only health cures of the late 1700’s through the Civil War era, but also other possible reasons that could have contributed to the long lives of our founding couples. The program begins at 2 pm at the Museum. The speaker is Margo Caulfield, coordinator of CHS and co-director of Chronic Conditions Information Network. She has recently written an article “Healthy Communities Promote Longer Lives: One explanation for Life Expectancy Among Early Settlers,” which is available on-line.
Be advised that the Rutland Herald, in their article on Phineas Gage, gave the wrong date for that program. That will be on August 12 (Sunday), 2 pm at the CHS Museum.
FMI: margoc@tds.net or 802-226-7807
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