As towns like Cavendish started to be settled in the 18th century, physicians were generally not among the first inhabitants. In Cavendish, it was approximately 26 years after the town was chartered before a doctor arrived.  Who then was responsible for the health care needs of the newly forming communities and how did they practice? 

While women served as doctor, nurse, midwife, pharmacist, and therapist, ministers were also crossed trained and referred to as “minster/physician.” The medicinal and kitchen gardens were one and the same, that women  maintained and used in the care of their families, following “recipes” handed down within families and among friends. 

The Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) will be hosting a talk-18th Century Rural Vermont Healers- on July 21 (Sunday) 2pm at the CHS Museum, off route 131 in Cavendish Village. The talk will include the history of 18th Century healers, treatments, as well as how plants and herbs were used then and now. A brief medicinal plant walk around the Museum will conclude the program. This event is free and open to the public. Donations welcomed.

One of the speakers will be Dr. Charis Boke, a member of the Dartmouth College  faculty in anthropology. She is currently writing Poison, Power, and Possibility: Building Relations with Medicinal which will explore the poetics, politics, and practices of contemporary herbalists in North America, leaning on ethnographic research, botanical histories, and lived experience to examine what it takes to remedy what ails us. Dr. Boke was involved in helping with the Benjamin Rush Medicinal Garden at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. 

For more information, please call 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com