Reuben D. Mussey

Reuben Dimond Mussey, Sr (1780-1866) was a medical doctor and an early opponant of tobacco. His son Reuben D. Mussey, Jr. was a lawyer and the husband of Ellen Spencer Mussey was the founder of the first law school for females.

Mussey was born in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. He was of French Hugenot descent and his father, John Mussey, was also a medical doctor. Mussey studied at Dartmouth College and then learned medicine under Nathan Smith.

He began the practice of medicine in Essex County, Massachusetts. However he then went to the University of Pennsylvania where he did further medical studies. Among his professors at the University of Pennsylvania was Benjamin Rush.

He then was a professor at the medical school at Darmouth College and also at Middlebury College as well as serving as a medical lecturer at other institutions. In 1838 he went to to Cincinnati where he became a professor at the Medical College of Ohio. In 1850 he served as president of the American Medical Association.

In 1862 Mussey published a book on the dangers of tobacco. [http://medicolegal.tripod.com/mussey1862.htm]

Mussey and his first wife Mary Sewall did not have any children. After her death he married Herry Osgood, and they had nine children. Besides Reuben Jr., there was also William H. Mussey and Francis B. Mussey who both followed their father into the medical profession. Charles F. Mussey became a Presbyterian minister. Mussey's daughter Maria married Lyman Mason and his daughter Catharine married Shattuck Hartwell.

ources

* http://genealogytrails.com/ohio/hamilton/biographies/bios2.html