No. 13111 Harry F. MacLeod
Photograph contained in an album at the Dorchester Historical Society of about 150 photos kept by Nathaniel R. Perkins, MD, who examined thousands of men who were going into the war, 1914-1918. Given by Mrs N. R. Perkins in accordance with instructions from her late husband, Dr. Nathaniel P. Perkins of 1122 Adams St, Dorchester. Index catalog has entries for the individuals.
Harry T MacLeod M.D. Capt Born Halifax, N.S. Aug 24, 1871 Graduated St. Dunstan’s College 1891. Med Dept University of Pennsylvania 1894 Practiced medicine in Dorchester from 1894 Ex Physician A.O.U.W. K of C. Knights & Ladies of Honor. Order of Golden Cross Prudential Ins Co, Surgeon Clyde S.S. Enlisted Sept 25, 1918 M.A.R.C. sent to Camp ? GA
Henry Found MacLeod. Written by Camille Arbogast.
Henry Found MacLeod, known as Harry, was born August 24, 1871, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to James, a merchant tailor, and Margaret (Barnes) MacLeod. James had been born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, and Margaret in Ontario. They were married in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in 1869. Margaret was James’s second wife, and they had a large family; Harry had at least thirteen siblings and half siblings. By 1881, the family lived in Charlottetown, where Harry attended Charlottetown Academy. In 1891, he graduated from Saint Dustan’s College (later part of the University of Prince Edward Island).
Henry attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1894 as a Doctor of Medicine. He was naturalized an American citizen in 1898. By that time, he was living in Dorchester at 995 Washington Street, and was a practicing physician. “Here he has achieved a wide reputation as a skillful and successful practitioner, both in medicine and surgery,” claimed a short biography of him written in the early 20th century. In addition to a private practice, he was also a physician for the Prudential Insurance Company and the Clyde Steamship Line, as well as serving as medical examiner for private clubs including Order of Scotch Clans, Ancient Order of United Workingmen, and New England Order of Protection.
On November 7, 1899, he married Annie S. Payne, also from Charlottetown. Prior to her marriage, she was an associate professor at Charlottetown’s Prince of Wales College. Harry and Annie settled at 165-173 Norfolk Street, where both their home and Harry’s practice were located. In 1900, Annie’s brother John, 18, lived with them; by 1910, John had moved out and another brother, James, a 22-year-old mechanical engineer, had moved in. A son, Henry Charles, also known as Harry, was born in 1900.
On January 11, 1909, young Harry accompanied his father on a patient visit. They drove home along Blue Hill Avenue. As they turned and crossed the trolley tracks to go down Lauriat Avenue, they were hit by the Mattapan trolley, which was traveling at a high speed. The loud crash of the initial impact was heard around the neighborhood. The automobile was flung about 50 feet, then hit a trolley pole, crumpling and overturning it. Father and son were thrown from the vehicle and young Harry was trapped underneath it, yet neither were seriously injured. The accident, with a photograph of the wrecked car, was front page news.
In 1918, they moved their home and the practice to 544 Washington Street. That September, Harry was appointed a Medical Captain by the War Department and was sent for training to Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia, near the Chickamauga Civil War battlefield. He probably trained at the Camp Greenleaf section of the fort complex, home to an extensive military medical program. In December, he was transferred to Camp Lee, near Petersburg, Virginia. Harry was discharged on August 21, 1919.
In 1926, Harry and Annie purchased 1275 Brook Road in East Milton, where they lived for thirteen years. He maintained the office at 544 Washington Street in Dorchester, appearing as a physician at this address in Boston city directories through the mid-1930s. Their son, Harry C., had become a priest, having joined the order of the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the “Jesuits,” in 1917. In 1932, he was the superintendent of Winchester House, a leper colony in Kingston, Jamaica. When he became ill with spinal meningitis, Harry and Annie rushed to Jamaica to administer a “special serum” to treat him, taking the Havana Special to Miami. On their way south, Harry was called upon to treat a railroad brakeman whose leg had been severed under the train wheel when he fell from the train. From Miami they flew to Kingston. Harry C. recovered and returned to live in the Boston area. For many years he was an assistant parish priest at Holy Trinity Church on Shawmut Avenue in Boston. During World War II, he followed in his father’s military footsteps when he served as a Naval Chaplain.
In late 1939, Harry and Annie sold their home in East Milton. The next year, Harry appeared on the 1940 census as a resident of the Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables on Cambridge Street in Cambridge (later Youville Hospital and today part of the Spaulding Rehabilitation system). The hospital cared for patients suffering from cancer, tuberculosis, paralysis, heart disease, tumors, rheumatism, and joint and bone disease. In 1942, the Boston directory listed Harry’s residence as 391 Old Colony Avenue, South Boston, though it is likely he was still in the hospital. Annie died of a heart attack in June 1942.
Harry died six months later on December 21, 1942, of cerebral thrombosis, or a blood clot in the brain, and pneumonia at the Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables. A Solemn High Mass of Requiem was celebrated for him at Holy Trinity Church on Shawmut Avenue in Boston. He was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury beside his wife; later, their son was buried there, as well. Harry was a member of the Rose Croix Council of the Knights of Columbus; Norfolk Court Number 145 of the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters; the Massachusetts Medical Association; and the Thomas Roberts Post of the American Legion, Number 179.
Sources
Family Tree; Ancestry.com
1881, 1891 Census of Canada; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, ON; https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census
US Federal Census, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; Ancestry.com
General alumni catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania, 1922; Archive.org
Naturalization Records. National Archives at Boston, Waltham, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
“Harry F. MacLeod, M.D.,” American Series of Popular Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston: Graves and Steinbarger, 1901; Archive.org
“The Order of Scottish Clans, Dr. H. F. MacLeod,” The Caledonian Illustrated Family Magazine, August 1903: 190; Books.Google.com
“Car Wrecks Auto, Occupants Escape,” Boston Globe, 11 Jan 1909: 1; Newspapers.com
“Dorchester Boy to Enter the Society of Jesus,” Boston Globe, 12 Aug 1917: 11; Newspapers.com
“Appointments of New Englanders,” Boston Globe, 27 Sept 1918: 8; Newspapers.com
“Medical Mobilizations,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 5 October 1918 and 21 December 1918; Books.Google.com
Hudson, Paul Stephen and Lora Pond Mirza. “World War I Military Camps,” New Georgia Encyclopedia. Written 5 August 2016, last edited 8 June 2017 <https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/world-war-i-military-camps#Fort-Oglethorpe-Composite-Camps>
United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940; FamilySearch.org
Deed 1275 Brook Road, Milton, MA, Book 1720, Page 388, 1 November 1926, Norfolk County Registry of Deeds; NorfolkResearch.org
“Rev Harry MacLeod Seriously Sick,” Boston Globe, 23 December 1932, “Doctor, Wife Hurry to Ill Son’s Beside,” Miami News, 24 December 1932: 1; Newspapers.com
“From Our Field Editors Notebooks, Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables, Cambridge, Massachusetts,” The Modern Hospital, May 1919: 354; Google.Books.com
“Mrs. H F MacLeod,” Boston Globe, 5 June 1942:10; Newspapers.com
Recent Deaths, Boston Globe, 22 Dec 1942: 30; Newspapers.com
United States Deceased Physician File (AMA), 1864-1968; FamilySearch.org
Harry F. MacLeod, Findagrave.com