The Woodsman's Journal Online: The Peculiar Tale of Dr. Blank, Part One ©

Author’s note – for more on Dr. Blank’s adventure, read “A Ranger’s Story, 1756 ©”, HERE.

Recently I read “The Rangers Adventure” in March 1845’s The Knickerbocker, which was about an adventure that a “Dr. Blank” had in his youth during the French & Indian War. Many of the details in the story are consistent with the practices of the Roger’s Rangers and others who scouted the Lake George frontier during 1755-1759. Also, the author, “New Contributor”, left us several clues that might provide us with the information we need to identify who “Dr. Blank” really was.

Clues in the story

“...the refreshing tumble of the river Agawam...”

“...when I was a Freshman in college, a classmate took me off one summer to his home in the west of Massachusetts...”

“This taste of war was enough for the doctor's martial zeal. He did not take the field again till twenty years afterward, when he came to WASHINGTON'S camp at Cambridge, armed with probe and balsam, instead of musket and powder.”

“At nineteen years of age, he joined the army of the provinces, that in 1755 essayed to take Crown Point from the French. He marched to the lakes with Colonel Ephraim Williams... The doctor fought under his command at Lake George, on the memorable eighth of September...”

The next year he joined Rogers' company of Rangers, and was stationed with a party of them at Fort Ann, not far from where Whitehall now stands.

So, do we have enough information to solve this 178 year old mystery and identify just who the mysterious and enigmatic “Dr Blank” was? Let’s look and see if we can solve this mystery.

Who was Dr. Blank?

The “New Contributor” was careful to hide the Doctor’s true name behind a pseudonym; however, he left us three clues to “Dr. Blank’s” identity. He said that “Dr. Blank” lived in “west” Massachusetts, near the river “Agawam”, and that he didn’t “take the field again till twenty years afterward, when he came to WASHINGTON'S camp at Cambridge, armed with probe and balsam”.

Hmmm...so where do these clues lead us?

First, the “New Contributor” stated that Doctor Blank lived near a river called “Agawam”. The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, 1923, states that “near the mouth of the Merrimack river may be seen depicted the river Agawam with the town of Ipswich at its mouth, and just above”. This is confirmed by Access Genealogy which noted that “Agawam...was at Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts”.

The problem is that today, the river which runs through Ipswich is the Ipswich, not the Agawam! Also, Ipswich is found along the coast, not in the “west” of Massachusetts as the “New Contributor” wrote.

According to Historic Ipswich, “Agawam”, or “Agawom”, means “Beyond the marsh” in the Western Abenaki Pawtucket dialect, and was the Native American name for both the fishing village found at the mouth of the river and the name of the river itself. The English colonists initially kept this name when they settled on the site in 1633. However, by 1634 when the town was incorporated as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the name of the town was changed to Ipswich, and at some point, before 1795, the name of the river was also changed to Ipswich. So, the hint that “Doctor Blank” lived near a river named “Agawam”, was a vital hidden clue, that just needed to be deciphered, but once this clue was unlocked, a search could be started.

However, the clue that “Doctor Blank” lived in the “west of Massachusetts” was a red herring drawn across our trail to obscure the fact that the good Doctor actually lived near the coast.

We need to find a doctor who lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, who would have been nineteen in 1755, and who “...came to WASHINGTON'S camp at Cambridge, armed with probe and balsam, instead of musket and powder”, twenty years later in 1775.

But what took place near Cambridge Massachusetts in 1775? The battles of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, and the beginning of the American Revolution! But, after which of these battles did a doctor from Ipswich volunteer to treat the wounded?

The battle of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, left 39 wounded Americans and 173 wounded British soldiers needing care.

And according to an account by his grandson, Joseph Bolles Manning, published in 1902, Dr. John Manning attended the wounded after the battle of Lexington and Concord. He arranged for the American and British wounded to be moved to Cambridge Massachusetts where he continued caring for them for six weeks, or until the early days of June, just in time for the Battle of Bunker Hill.

On June 17, 1775, the erroneously named Battle of Bunker Hill, a battle which actually took place on Breed’s Hill, happened. Unfortunately, this battle left 305 wounded Americans and 828 wounded British soldiers in its wake needing medical care. And within two weeks of the battle, General George Washington assumed command of the American Forces encamped at Cambridge, Massachusetts¹.

However, the oldest reference I could find, stated that Doctor John Manning of Ipswich, assisted in caring for the wounded at Cambridge, after the Battle of Bunker Hill

It is likely that both accounts are correct, and that he cared for the wounded after both battles, but more importantly now we know that Doctor John Manning is the mysterious “Doctor Blank”!

Doctor John Manning was born on November 12, 1737, making him eighteen in 1755. This is close to the age that the “New Contributor” recorded in the “Rangers Adventure”; “At nineteen years of age, he joined the army of the provinces”. Dr. Manning began his medical practice in 1759, in Newmarket, New Hampshire and in 1760 moved to Ipswich to continue his practice. He went to England to further his medical career in 1771, returning in 1772. He died either in November or on October 24^th or 25^th, of 1824, depending on which source you consult, “having nearly completed his 87^th year”². Unfortunately, according to Historic Ipswich, there are no known pictures of Dr. John Manning.

Now that we now know who our mysterious doctor was, can we be certain that he served with the Massachusetts levies in 1755 and then later with Roger’s Rangers? Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Peculiar Tale of Dr. Blank, Part Two ©”, where we will further investigate this peculiar historical whodunit!

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ Cambridge, Massachusetts, served as his headquarters from July 1775 to April 1776, throughout the Siege of Boston.

² American Medical Biography, by James Thatcher, M.D.

Sources

Holmes, Abiel, D. D.; American Annals, [Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1813], page 229, https://books.google.com/books?id=c9sRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA222&dq=%22Abiel+Holmes%22+%22American+Annals%22+1813+agawam&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj59qPl0J3-AhUQD1kFHQzoBs4Q6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Abiel%20Holmes%22%20%22American%20Annals%22%201813%20agawam&f=false, accessed April 9, 2023

Lepionka, Mary Ellen; “Who Were the Agawam Indians, Really?”, [Historic Ipswich, ©2023 Gordon Harris], https://historicipswich.org/2021/04/21/who-were-the-agawam-indians-really/, accessed April 7, 2023

Manning, William Henry, The Genealogical and Biographical History of the Manning families of New England and Descendants, [The Salem Press, Salem, Massachusetts, 1902], page 716-719, https://archive.org/details/genealogicalbiog00mann, accessed April 7, 2023