"Dr. Willard B. Segur came to Enfield, MA, in 1895. He was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, April 7, 1865, the son of Rev. Seth Willard and Ellen (Blossom) Segur. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, at Princeton in the class of 1889, and was graduated from Dartmouth Medical college in 1892. He was an intern at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Boston, for one year, after which he was connected with Boston Emergency hospital, being in charge there for three years. Dr. Segur died at the Deaconess Hospital, Boston, January 27, 1939, at the age of 73. The burial was in Aspen Grove cemetery in Ware, MA. Dr. Segur attended many of the people of Prescott, and was well liked by all."
p. 278 "History of Prescott", L.P.Coolidge, c.1939.
......
Dr. Segur resided in Enfield, MA, with his office in the center of town. He was for 40+ years the physician and surgeon for the people of Enfield and most of the Swift River (Quabbin) Valley.
For 22 years (up to the day of the demise of the towns and villages of the valley) he was selectman of Enfield,schoolboard member, the County Medical Examiner, School Physician, head of the Health Board, and Enfield's Fire Chief (his medical office next door from the Enfield Fire House). He most often served these offices and responsibilities concurrently.
His opinions were sought and respected by many. He was a skilled practitioner and an empathetic counselor with limitless energy and insight and kindness.
Through the money-less years of the Great Depression he often served the hard pressed families of the hardscrabble hillside farms of the valley. He traveled to them at all hour and in all weather; blizzards and flood. He never requested payment, and was frequently compensated for in kind (a live chicken or a goose to be cooked later for a dinner were said to be his favorites).
During his time of practice, and well into the memory of him for many decades to follow, he remained by those who knew him, "… the one man in this world of whom nothing bad could ever be said. He was the true embodiment of 'good'."
Dr. Segur was quoted as calling the Swift River Valley, "a little bit of Eden".
Beginning in about the year 1927, every home and factory and business and farm of the Swift River Valley was systematically removed or destroyed ... all the forests were cleared, the grasslands burned, and every gravesite from the 150-year history of the towns was exhumed and moved ... State authorities of the Boston Metropolitan Water Supply Commission set in motion the enormous engineering task of turning the valley into the 415 billion gallon Quabbin Reservoir.
On the evening of April 27, 1938, in the auditorium on the small second floor of the Enfield Town Hall, Doc Segur and his wife, Laura, lead the somber ceremonial "Grand March and Portland" of the valley's "Farewell Ball".
At the conclusion of the Ball upon the stroke of midnight, and after the final chorus of Auld Lang Syne, … a bugler sounded taps. Thus with that, the formal charters of the towns of the Swift River Valley were officially declared no more ... and home there no longer existed.
Doctor Segur died on January 27, 1939. The submersion of the Swift River Valley officially commenced on August 14th of that same year.
D. Sorel (06/2012)
Addendum: Doc Segur removed himself and his family out of the Enfield and to the next town, Ware, around the year of 1937. According to the surviving Segur family, nearing his death, Doc "refused" to be buried in the cemetery "made by the 'Metropolitan'" (the Quabbin Park Cemetery), and so his interment was in Ware.
Among his few surviving keepsakes from his long life in the Swift River Valley was his silver-plated Fire Chief's badge.
D. Sorel (04/2014)
......
p. 278 "History of Prescott", L.P.Coolidge, c.1939.
......
Dr. Segur resided in Enfield, MA, with his office in the center of town. He was for 40+ years the physician and surgeon for the people of Enfield and most of the Swift River (Quabbin) Valley.
For 22 years (up to the day of the demise of the towns and villages of the valley) he was selectman of Enfield,schoolboard member, the County Medical Examiner, School Physician, head of the Health Board, and Enfield's Fire Chief (his medical office next door from the Enfield Fire House). He most often served these offices and responsibilities concurrently.
His opinions were sought and respected by many. He was a skilled practitioner and an empathetic counselor with limitless energy and insight and kindness.
Through the money-less years of the Great Depression he often served the hard pressed families of the hardscrabble hillside farms of the valley. He traveled to them at all hour and in all weather; blizzards and flood. He never requested payment, and was frequently compensated for in kind (a live chicken or a goose to be cooked later for a dinner were said to be his favorites).
During his time of practice, and well into the memory of him for many decades to follow, he remained by those who knew him, "… the one man in this world of whom nothing bad could ever be said. He was the true embodiment of 'good'."
Dr. Segur was quoted as calling the Swift River Valley, "a little bit of Eden".
Beginning in about the year 1927, every home and factory and business and farm of the Swift River Valley was systematically removed or destroyed ... all the forests were cleared, the grasslands burned, and every gravesite from the 150-year history of the towns was exhumed and moved ... State authorities of the Boston Metropolitan Water Supply Commission set in motion the enormous engineering task of turning the valley into the 415 billion gallon Quabbin Reservoir.
On the evening of April 27, 1938, in the auditorium on the small second floor of the Enfield Town Hall, Doc Segur and his wife, Laura, lead the somber ceremonial "Grand March and Portland" of the valley's "Farewell Ball".
At the conclusion of the Ball upon the stroke of midnight, and after the final chorus of Auld Lang Syne, … a bugler sounded taps. Thus with that, the formal charters of the towns of the Swift River Valley were officially declared no more ... and home there no longer existed.
Doctor Segur died on January 27, 1939. The submersion of the Swift River Valley officially commenced on August 14th of that same year.
D. Sorel (06/2012)
Addendum: Doc Segur removed himself and his family out of the Enfield and to the next town, Ware, around the year of 1937. According to the surviving Segur family, nearing his death, Doc "refused" to be buried in the cemetery "made by the 'Metropolitan'" (the Quabbin Park Cemetery), and so his interment was in Ware.
Among his few surviving keepsakes from his long life in the Swift River Valley was his silver-plated Fire Chief's badge.
D. Sorel (04/2014)
......
"Dr. Willard B. Segur came to Enfield, MA, in 1895. He was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, April 7, 1865, the son of Rev. Seth Willard and Ellen (Blossom) Segur. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, at Princeton in the class of 1889, and was graduated from Dartmouth Medical college in 1892. He was an intern at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Boston, for one year, after which he was connected with Boston Emergency hospital, being in charge there for three years. Dr. Segur died at the Deaconess Hospital, Boston, January 27, 1939, at the age of 73. The burial was in Aspen Grove cemetery in Ware, MA. Dr. Segur attended many of the people of Prescott, and was well liked by all."
p. 278 "History of Prescott", L.P.Coolidge, c.1939.
......
Dr. Segur resided in Enfield, MA, with his office in the center of town. He was for 40+ years the physician and surgeon for the people of Enfield and most of the Swift River (Quabbin) Valley.
For 22 years (up to the day of the demise of the towns and villages of the valley) he was selectman of Enfield,schoolboard member, the County Medical Examiner, School Physician, head of the Health Board, and Enfield's Fire Chief (his medical office next door from the Enfield Fire House). He most often served these offices and responsibilities concurrently.
His opinions were sought and respected by many. He was a skilled practitioner and an empathetic counselor with limitless energy and insight and kindness.
Through the money-less years of the Great Depression he often served the hard pressed families of the hardscrabble hillside farms of the valley. He traveled to them at all hour and in all weather; blizzards and flood. He never requested payment, and was frequently compensated for in kind (a live chicken or a goose to be cooked later for a dinner were said to be his favorites).
During his time of practice, and well into the memory of him for many decades to follow, he remained by those who knew him, "… the one man in this world of whom nothing bad could ever be said. He was the true embodiment of 'good'."
Dr. Segur was quoted as calling the Swift River Valley, "a little bit of Eden".
Beginning in about the year 1927, every home and factory and business and farm of the Swift River Valley was systematically removed or destroyed ... all the forests were cleared, the grasslands burned, and every gravesite from the 150-year history of the towns was exhumed and moved ... State authorities of the Boston Metropolitan Water Supply Commission set in motion the enormous engineering task of turning the valley into the 415 billion gallon Quabbin Reservoir.
On the evening of April 27, 1938, in the auditorium on the small second floor of the Enfield Town Hall, Doc Segur and his wife, Laura, lead the somber ceremonial "Grand March and Portland" of the valley's "Farewell Ball".
At the conclusion of the Ball upon the stroke of midnight, and after the final chorus of Auld Lang Syne, … a bugler sounded taps. Thus with that, the formal charters of the towns of the Swift River Valley were officially declared no more ... and home there no longer existed.
Doctor Segur died on January 27, 1939. The submersion of the Swift River Valley officially commenced on August 14th of that same year.
D. Sorel (06/2012)
Addendum: Doc Segur removed himself and his family out of the Enfield and to the next town, Ware, around the year of 1937. According to the surviving Segur family, nearing his death, Doc "refused" to be buried in the cemetery "made by the 'Metropolitan'" (the Quabbin Park Cemetery), and so his interment was in Ware.
Among his few surviving keepsakes from his long life in the Swift River Valley was his silver-plated Fire Chief's badge.
D. Sorel (04/2014)
......
p. 278 "History of Prescott", L.P.Coolidge, c.1939.
......
Dr. Segur resided in Enfield, MA, with his office in the center of town. He was for 40+ years the physician and surgeon for the people of Enfield and most of the Swift River (Quabbin) Valley.
For 22 years (up to the day of the demise of the towns and villages of the valley) he was selectman of Enfield,schoolboard member, the County Medical Examiner, School Physician, head of the Health Board, and Enfield's Fire Chief (his medical office next door from the Enfield Fire House). He most often served these offices and responsibilities concurrently.
His opinions were sought and respected by many. He was a skilled practitioner and an empathetic counselor with limitless energy and insight and kindness.
Through the money-less years of the Great Depression he often served the hard pressed families of the hardscrabble hillside farms of the valley. He traveled to them at all hour and in all weather; blizzards and flood. He never requested payment, and was frequently compensated for in kind (a live chicken or a goose to be cooked later for a dinner were said to be his favorites).
During his time of practice, and well into the memory of him for many decades to follow, he remained by those who knew him, "… the one man in this world of whom nothing bad could ever be said. He was the true embodiment of 'good'."
Dr. Segur was quoted as calling the Swift River Valley, "a little bit of Eden".
Beginning in about the year 1927, every home and factory and business and farm of the Swift River Valley was systematically removed or destroyed ... all the forests were cleared, the grasslands burned, and every gravesite from the 150-year history of the towns was exhumed and moved ... State authorities of the Boston Metropolitan Water Supply Commission set in motion the enormous engineering task of turning the valley into the 415 billion gallon Quabbin Reservoir.
On the evening of April 27, 1938, in the auditorium on the small second floor of the Enfield Town Hall, Doc Segur and his wife, Laura, lead the somber ceremonial "Grand March and Portland" of the valley's "Farewell Ball".
At the conclusion of the Ball upon the stroke of midnight, and after the final chorus of Auld Lang Syne, … a bugler sounded taps. Thus with that, the formal charters of the towns of the Swift River Valley were officially declared no more ... and home there no longer existed.
Doctor Segur died on January 27, 1939. The submersion of the Swift River Valley officially commenced on August 14th of that same year.
D. Sorel (06/2012)
Addendum: Doc Segur removed himself and his family out of the Enfield and to the next town, Ware, around the year of 1937. According to the surviving Segur family, nearing his death, Doc "refused" to be buried in the cemetery "made by the 'Metropolitan'" (the Quabbin Park Cemetery), and so his interment was in Ware.
Among his few surviving keepsakes from his long life in the Swift River Valley was his silver-plated Fire Chief's badge.
D. Sorel (04/2014)
......
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