Holbrook

was to suggest the payment of half the state Civil
War expenses by a direct tax, and the issuing of
bonds for the remainder of the indebtedness.
When the opinion was expressed by a state of-
ficial that a bond issue to the amount of $1,500,-
ooo could not be floated at face value, Holbrook
offered to negotiate the sale. The legislature ac-
cepted the financial plan proposed, the Governor
called a Boston banker, who was a personal
friend, to Brattleboro, explained Vermont's abil-
ity to pay the obligations of the commonwealth,
and in two weeks all the bonds were sold at a
premium. In 1862, Holbrook wrote to Presi-
dent Lincoln suggesting that the loyal governors
unite in recommending the calling of 500,000
volunteers. The President responded in a tele-
gram of 1,800 words, and sent General Draper,
provost marshal, to Brattleboro for a conference
with Holbrook, at which a statement was pre-
pared for the signatures of governors of loyal
states. The adoption of this plan resulted in
President Lincoln's call for 300,000 men to serve
for nine months and 300,000 to serve for three
years. Two of Holbrook's three sons entered the
Federal service. He was reflected in 1862.
Visiting Washington in December of that year
to discover some way to reduce the mortality of
Vermont soldiers from the effects of wounds and
disease, he appealed to the United States authori-
ties to establish a military hospital in Vermont
for the care of sick and wounded soldiers. Since
he proposed to utilize the barracks on the Brat-
tleboro camp ground, fitting them up for hospital
patients at the expense of the state, Secretary
Stanton reluctantly consented to try the experi-
ment. Accordingly, the Brattleboro military hos-
pital was ready for use in February 1863. It was
accepted by the United States authorities and by
the end of the summer it was filled with Vermont
soldiers brought from many camps and battle-
fields. From 1,500 to 2,000 men were treated
here at certain periods.

In 1867 a plow for stubble land designed and
demonstrated by Holbrook received a gold medal
from the New York State Agricultural Society.
He was president of the Vermont Savings Bank
of Brattleboro for thirty-nine years, was a trus-
tee of the Brattleboro Retreat (an institution for
the insane) from 1852 until his death, and for
fifty years had charge of the music in the Centre
Congregational Church of Brattleboro. He was
a man of commanding presence and courteous
manner and was held in high esteem by the peo-
ple of Vermont, Retaining his interest in public
affairs to the last, he lived to the age of ninety-
six years, dying at his Brattleboro home.

[Who's Who in America, 1908-09; M. R. Cabot, An-
nals of Brattleboro, vol. II (1922); W. H. Crockett,

Holbrook

Vermont, vols. Ill, IV (1921) ; A. M. Hemenway, Vt.
Hist. Gazetteer, vol. V (1891) ; J. G. Ullery, Men of Vt.
(1894) ; Report on the Trial of Plows, Held at Utica,
by the N. Y. State Agric. Soc. (1867); Burlington
Daily Free Press, Apr. 29, 1909.] W.H.C

HOLBROOK, JOHN EDWARDS (Dec.
30, 1794-Sept 8, 1871), zoologist, son of Silas
and Mary (Edwards) Holbrook, was born at
Beaufort, S. C, the home of his mother's family,
but was soon taken by his parents to the Hol-
brook family home at Wrentham, Mass. There
he received his early education, being prepared
for Brown University, where he graduated in
1815. Selecting medicine for a profession, he
went to Philadelphia and in 1818 received the
degree of M.D. from the University of Penn-
sylvania. The next four years he spent in travel
and graduate study in Europe, largely in Edin-
burgh and Paris. In the latter city he became
attracted to the great museum in the Jardin des
Plantes and there established life-long friend-
ships with several eminent French zoologists,
especially Valenciennes, Dumeril, and Bibron.
Since the chief interest of this group was the
study of reptiles, Holbrook was naturally drawn
to investigations of the same class, and when he
returned to America in 1822, he made the reptiles
of this country the object of his zoological stud-
ies. He settled at Charleston, S. C., and entered
upon his career as a physician. Two years later,
he cooperated with some of the leading doctors of
the city in establishing the Medical College of
South Carolina and was himself chosen to be the
professor of anatomy, a position which he held
for over thirty years. He was soon recognized
as a lecturer and teacher of very unusual talent,
and he inspired his students with profound re-
spect for their chosen profession. As a practising
physician, too, he rapidly gained great popu-
larity, but his tenderness of heart and distaste
for seeing suffering led him to refuse all cases of
childbirth and surgical cases involving serious
operations. In matters outside his profession, he
is reported to have been "a careless man who
never took care of anything," but he was uni-
versally liked and trusted.

Soon after his settlement at Charleston, Hol-
brook determined to undertake the work of pre-
paring a monograph on the reptiles and batra-
chians of the United States, a purpose in which
he was encouraged by his French correspondents.
Having adequate financial means, he engaged an
Italian artist, J. Sera, to make colored figures
from living specimens of all the American rep-
tiles he could procure. These handsome plates
with the necessary text were bound in the order
in which they were completed; the first volume,
with the title North American Herpetology, was

129