• Died as a result of childbirth

• Nick name was “Neddy”

• In Aug. 21, 1828, many of Salem's most important citizens gathered at the Essex House to pay tribute to one of the town's most beloved citizens, Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The highlight of the event was a toast offered by the honoree to his beloved Massachusetts Medical Society.

• Edward entered the Harvard at the age of 14 and graduated in the class of 1746 with an AM degree

• He briefly taught in Lexington and Roxbury, but then he moved to his mother's hometown of Ipswich to study medicine under the esteemed physician, Col. Thomas Berry. When his two-year apprenticeship ended in 1749, Holyoke settled in Salem and opened a practice.

• After a shaky start - Edward began attracting patients locally and in communities as far away as Methuen and Cape Ann. Over 80 years as a physician, he would cover an estimated one-and-a-half-million miles and make approximately a quarter-of-a-million house calls.

• Edward was essentially a family physician. Although committed to high standards, he did not believe that a college diploma should be required of a student of medicine and held that only a moderate acquaintance with Latin and Greek was necessary. His practice is reputed to have been based on 4 drugs; mercury, antimony, opium and Peruvian bark. , He also prescribed cold baths, and in obstetrical cases he was reluctant to use forceps.

• From 1762 to 1817, 35 physicians apprenticed under him - well-known Massachusetts doctors such as Dr. James Llyod, Dr. John Warren, Dr. Nathaniel Walker Appleton, and Dr. James Jackson.

• Edward remained dedicated to the study of medicine and new medical treatments. For 75 years he kept daily weather records in the hopes of finding scientific connections between local atmospheric conditions and specific diseases. This venture proved unsuccessful, but he made many other contributions to the field of medicine. Holyoke, for example, was one of the first to make the connection between the use of pewter dishes and lead poisoning.

• Edward's open-mindedness made him a pioneer in the treatment and prevention of smallpox. When an epidemic of this deadly disease hit the Salem area in 1777, Holyoke, after first making out his will, allowed himself to be innoculated by Dr. Nathaniel Perkins in Boston. He survived the highly controversial treatment. The success of this treatment made Holyoke a convert / early adaptor of smallpox treatment, and he inoculated 600 of his own patients - losing only two. There are a couple of references attributing Holyoke as either “taking over,” or “opening” a smallpox hospital in Salem (1777) where he was one of the first to commonly practice inoculation and early vaccination and by 1802 was commonly employing that preventive medicine.

• With all of Edward's expertise and experience, it often failed him when it came to treating his own family. His first wife, Judith Pickman, died in childbirth. And of the 12 children Edward had with Mary Vial, only four survived infancy.

• His political leanings caused additional problems for Holyoke's family during the Revolutionary War era. An avowed Loyalist - although he regarded American independence as inevitable, he doubted the people’s capacity for self-government - he had the nerve to socialize with the hated Royal Governor, Thomas Hutchinson. In 1774 he signed a public farewell address to Governor Thomas Hutchinson, which the patriots forced him to recant the following year.

• As the revolution loomed, most of the Holyokes’ social set remained loyal to the Crown. Doctor Holyoke thought the colonies should win independence, only not just yet. As his alarm increased over the threat of armed conflict, he sent his wife and three young daughters to Nantucket for safety. They sailed about three weeks before the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Though many of his friends left for Canada or England, although Holyoke lost much of his standing in heavily patriotic Salem, he remained in Salem while his family lived in Nova Scotia until the war ended in 1783.

• While he chose to stay and care for his patients throughout the war, he took no part in the war and shrank from the revolutionary turmoil and violence. During the course of the conflict Holyoke came to believe in the patriotic cause and in 1790, he supported the Federalists.

• After 1781, Edward was singled out for many honors - he was a founder and the first president of the Massachusetts Medical Society (1782 - 1784), and its offshoot, the Essex South Medical Society, and he was a frequent contributor to its publication, which is now called the New England Journal of Medicine.

• In 1783, he was awarded the first M.D. degree (Hononary) ever given by the Harvard Medical School. In addition, he also received a Doctor of Law degree from Harvard in 1813.

• During a measles epidemic in 1787 he is said to have made over 100 professional calls on each of several days. The records of his practice showed that for more than 75 years HOLYOKE averaged 11 calls a day and delivering 100 babies a year. His fees were low and he never pressed for payment.

• Holyoke made the first connection between the use of pewter dishes and lead poisoning.

•Throughout his life Edward was interested in science, especially astronomy, meteorology and physical science. He kept careful records of weather and temperatures, appearance of comets, aurora borealis, eclipses, earthquakes, etc. He invented an “American thermometer” that was based on the freezing points of mercury and water.

• November 18th 1755: An earthquake hits the seacoast from Nova Scotia to Chesapeake Bay, causing extensive damage. Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, of Salem, describes it as follows: At 4h. 15m. we were awakened by a greater earthquake than has ever been known in this country. Tops of chimneys and stone walls were thrown down, and clocks stopped by the shake. I thought of nothing less than being buried instantly in the ruins of the house."

• He was so determined to understand diseases that he even performed autopsies on the bodies of his own children, but his interests were not limited to science and medicine. He was a founder of both the Social and Philosphical libraries in Salem, and was a driving force in the merger of these two institutions into the Salem Athenaeum in 1810. He was also an incorporator of the Essex Historical Society, later the Essex Institute, in 1821.

• He was a founder of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as the academy's first president for six years. For the encouragement and dissemination of knowledge, Holyoke joined the likes of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin as a charter member.

• He was a co-founder and first President of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

• In his later years, Edward found himself something of an oracle and an institution.

• Interests beyond his medical practice included underwriting several shipping ventures and membership in the Monday Night Club, a forerunner of the Salem Athenaeum of which he was the first president. He was also the first president of the Essex Historical Society, a member of the Fire Club, an original subscriber in the Salem Iron Mill, the first director of Salem Savings Bank, and a ruling elder of the North Church.

• Most organizations he had founded utilized the tunnels through town. His Salem Bank, Essex Historical Institute, and Salem Athenaeum were connected to the tunnels in multiple locations his organizations resided in. He would also visit his daughter by walking through the tunnels to the Joshua Ward House.

• In 1827 he was visited by President John Q. Adams … Adams was a student of his father, President Edward Holyoke of Harvard.

• Holyoke, a near vegetarian who liked his liquor and tobacco, he claimed his secret for longevity was moderation, avoid pork, eat all fruits in their season and drink not more than a pint a day - a mixture of 2 part parts “good West India rum,” 3 parts cider and nine or ten parts water.

• When health began to fail him during the winter of 1828-1829, Edward recorded his symptoms and reached his own diagnostic conclusion, which disputed his own physician’s diagnosis. After his death and in accordance with his instructions, his colleagues performed a complete post-mortem and found that HOLYOKE’s diagnosis had been correct.

• When he died at the age of 100, all of Salem’s church bells tolled and a great crowd gathered at the North Church to honor him. His pupil, James Jackson a noted physician of Boston, in his thesis, “Remarks on the Brunonian System, 1890” was inscribed to his “Glorious Master,” declared “By you I was taught to pay a sacred regard to experience as source of all medical knowledge and by you I was forbidden to resort to speculative principles as guides to practice except where experience failed.” In that tribute can be found the keynote of HOLYOKE’s teaching.

• Edward left behind 122 daybooks relating to his medical practice and a 120-volume diary.

• The Holyoke Award - named after Edward the eminent 18th century Salem physician, whose professional life had a tremendous impact on the health and well being of his community.

• The Holyoke Mutual Insurance Company was named for Dr. Holyoke. Interestingly, in 2016, Common Ground Enterprises bought the former Holyoke insurance building and asked the city council to rename Holyoke Square as “Common Ground Square.” The company “uncovered a historical reference to Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, one of Salem’s most dedicated physicians,” Capano said. “We have a great respect for him and the historic contributions he made to the community of Salem.” The company planned to “dedicate a good portion in the back of the rear garden, where we have a beautiful garden planned,” he said. “We’ll tell Dr. Holyoke’s story in a way that isn’t being accomplished now with the current street sign.” The council denied the petition, on the grounds that the Holyoke name on the insurance company as well as the street were already established to honor the medical legend. As council memeber stated; “To say you want to take the name of the square away from somebody and give them a spot somewhere inside, where it can’t be seen — I don’t think it’s intentional, but it’s a little disrespectful to the history in this name,” or “As you can tell from the discussion that has already taken place, history is a really, really important part of Salem,” Eppley said. “We have to be part of the past, present and future. You guys are definitely the future — there’s no doubt about that — but we have to honor folks like Dr. Holyoke.

[S:16], [S:23], [S:16], [S:28], [S:28], [S:16], [S:28], [S:28], [S:16], [S:28], [S:28], [S:28], [S:9], [S:24], [S:28], [S:28], [S:28], [S:16]44,45