Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-01-29
IN MEMORI.4M.

Lyndon and Peacham academies,
graduated with highest honors of his
class from the medical department of
Harvard University in 1853, practiced
at Barton, VT, with skill, sacrifice
and success for over forty years,
representative to the Legislature in
1880, noted as a skillful surgeon,
recognized as a genuine man and
honored as an exemplary member of
the church."
These sentences form the mere
biographical outline of DIR. SINNERS
life. A biography includes the auto
biography. The doctors home was
our home for nearly four. years. My
first impressions of this good man
were only deepened as our acquaint
ance ripened into love, each for the
other. The family of the late DIR.
Skinner have kindly asked me to
write a review of my friends life.
To one who did so much for me, the
least return is to respond to this in
yitation and do the best can, over
whelmed as I am by the sense of
personal loss and grief.
Environm ent and heredity account
to some extent fof character. DIR.
Skinner came from good, staunch
Puritan stock. I often heard the old
doctor relate with pride his readiness
to accept the election as deacon of the
Barnet Congregational church and
his willingness to remove the only
objection presented that she be the
husband of one wife," by saying that
he was unmarried but would become
the husband of zone wife'' in a very
few days. This willingness to min
lister that characterized the father fell
as a mantle on the son, the virtues
and sacrifices, noble purity and de-
votion of the mother became an in
heritance wisely used and, respected
by the son. DR.. Skinner possessed
the qualities of brain and heart and
soul that made his parents noted and
notable because of their characters.
My friend was a perfect gentleman;
the neat broadcloth suit never had
stain and the linen was always i'm
maculate. The attire only CORE
sponded with the character. I have
seen the doctor under very trying
circumstances, when irritation would
be excusa able, but I never saw him
irritated or discourteous. The word
gentle just expresses it. Gentle as
son, brother, husband, citizen and
friend; gentle in the very touch of the
surgeons knife or the physicians
hand. Gentle in his thoughtful
recognition of all alike on the street,
gentle in the songs he sung for so
many years, in the church he loved;
gentle in the prayers offered that
brought US near to God A true and
model gentleman whose refined
cultivation left an impression akin to
the fragrance of a beautiful, health
reviving flower, or to the vigor that
comes from a watt OF pure sea air.
DR.. Skinner possessed with bis
professional skill remarkable degree
of calmness and sympathy. Ere
quently the doctor would leave the
supper table and by force of will. re-
spond to the call. The suffering
headache he just endured, and would
pay no he ed to our protests What
meaning to the smile with which he
would reply to my objections and say,
sit is my duty" Or 'I am SO sorry for
the sick ones" Calmly he braved the
storm, calmly made the visit; with
genuine sympathy greeted the anxi-
Gus watcher or restless patient;
calmly returned home, calmly lay
awake all night with a raging head
ache as a result. The whole COM
munity now rise up and call him
blessed because of his calm sympathy
He never made a patient nervous
in entering the home. He never gave
the result of the diagnosis either good
or i'll, in professional manner He
always spoke quietly, calmly, frankly,
and if hopeless case, with tears of
sympathy that spoke volumes.
l was with the doctor in one of the
most trying experiences of his life
One evening the good wife excused
herself. and passing into the kitchen,
looking back gave us all beautiful
smile that has become 80 me. a new
illustration Of immortality. In a
moment the doctor came in carrying
the crippled body OF his wife SO ten
derly to the coach. In that half hour
before the worst was known, DIR.
Skinner was calm and gentle. Tt
seemed to me then and it seems to me
now as if the form of the SON of God
donned the fourth image, as 1 saw