Page 8 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 53 Early Spring 2025

Though it predated the luxury super
liners like the Lusitania and Mauritania,
it provided a comfortable crossing be-
tween Boston and Liverpool. [Thirteen
years later the White Star Line’s Titanic
departed Southampton on her fateful
maiden voyage.]

But whether or not she enjoyed a Eu-
ropean getaway after commencement,
we know Carrie began an internship at
Randall’s Island Hospital in New York
around 1898-99. At that time Randall’s Carrie North’s Home on S. Main St.
Island, located in the East River off Man-
hattan, had a children's hospital, a men- Street in a house built in 1860 and still such as the Grange and at the library:
tal institution, an orphanage school, standing today where she could com- “How to Keep Healthy During the Hot
housing for medical staff, and served fortably meet with her patients. Weather”; “The Mental Machine and
New York’s indigent population. It must How to Run It”; “Electrical Treatment
have been difficult and often depress- The local papers often included brief for the Sick”; and “A Well Mind in a Well
ing work. After one or two years, she notices of Carrie’s patients and the Body”. She was a “captain” in a town-
arrived in Wallingford and began caring diseases she was treating: grip (flu), wide fund raising effort for children’s
for Wallingford’s citizens. tonsillitis, typhus, malaria, fever, colic, recreation. She participated in the Va-
stroke, scarlet fever. Though not specifi- cation Club, a sort of summer camp for
Serving cally mentioned, she must have tended town children. A member of the Grange
Wallingford: 1900- many people with Spanish Flu in 1918- Drama Club, she acted in local produc-
1917 1819. Once, she had to identify the tions. Considering her involvement in
Arriving in town body of a young woman who had died the community and devotion to her pa-
at age 26, Carrie of a botched abortion. If hospitaliza- tients, Carrie must have been a beloved
moved herself and tion was required, Carrie could turn to doctor. Possible evidence of this is that
her practice into the the Meriden Hospital, founded in about one of her patients left her a bequest of
Fraray Hale house 1895 though ambulance transport was $100 (almost $4000 today). I infer from
located at 38 South not available in Wallingford until 1920. the titles of her presentations that she
Main Street near tended to both body and soul, treating
our current post of- Stimpson’s Pharmacy “the whole person” as we say today.
fice. Though no lon- The WHPT Archives has a collection
ger standing, this of about 15 Stimpson’s Pharmacy re- Marriage and Family
imposing Victorian cord books with meticulous listings of After about ten years in Wallingford,
with wraparound all medicine they dispensed in the first Carrie met her future husband Elizur
porch lives on in an two decades of the 20th Century. These Seneca Stevens, and they married on
old postcard in the large, leather-bound tomes contain the July 2, 1910 at the Goshen Congrega-
WHPT archives. The date, specific medication and dosage, tional Church near her family home. The
Hale family resided and the name of the prescribing doctor. Record Journal reported that her friends
in the main part of Patient information is omitted. I found in town would be “surprised” to learn of
the house, while instances of Dr. North in the volume cov- this marriage. I wonder why. Seneca (as
Carrie lived in the ering 1913-1914 (I didn’t look further as he preferred to be called) was an older
ell which had a sep- it was too laborious!) She prescribed widower from a well-known Walling-
arate entrance for opium (using the abbreviation opii) and ford family that operated Maltby, Ste-
her patients. 1910 style outfit morphine sulfate, an alternative to the vens, and Curtis Company, a flatware
more addictive opium. There were oth-
manufacturer. The flatware was sold to
Interestingly, at this er pharmacies in town at that time that various silver companies which in turn
time the attic was crawling with hun- she may also have done business with. silver-plated it for retail sales. By his
dreds of silk worms munching on mul- first wife, Harriet Amelia Maltby, he had
berry leaves, weaving silk strands, and In brief articles, The Record-Journal five children, including Evarts Stevens
forming cocoons. Hale’s 13-year-old son mentioned several roadtrip vacations for whom Stevens School was named.
Clarence was experimenting with rais- Carrie took during this time period with I have found almost nothing about Car-
ing silk worms. Clarence Hale went on friends and family, as well as numerous rie North Steven’s family life in Walling-
to have an interesting life which would visits to her parents in Litchfield County. ford. In 1915 she and Seneca had a son,
be worthy of its own article. By all accounts they had a very close re- Howard North Stevens. Certain discrep-
lationship. ancies cause me to wonder if at some
Carrie needed larger accommodations point they agreed to lead separate lives.
and in 1901 placed a want ad in The Re- Community Involvement For example, their baby was born in
cord Journal seeking new office space. Carrie integrated well into the communi- Cornwall even though Carrie was still liv-
Soon she relocated to 462 Center Street ty, and her volunteer work enriched the ing and practicing in Wallingford. They
on the northeast corner of North Elm lives of Wallingford’s citizens. She pre- are not listed as living together from
sented numerous programs to groups 1917 to 1923. He is found in Wallingford

8 Wallingford Magazine - Early Spring 2025