David Shepard ( surgeon ) David Shepard ( October 23 , 1744 – December 12 , 1818 ) was an American doctor , a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives , a Minuteman , and surgeon in the Continental Army . He was an early proponent of inoculation to prevent small pox . He was present at several key battles of the American Revolution , usually acting in a medical capacity , as a military surgeon . Early life ( 1744 – 1761 ) . David Shepard was born in Westfield , Massachusetts , to John and Elizabeth ( Noble ) Shepard , their eighth child of nine . Yale college ( 1762 – 1769 ) . David attended Yale at a time when the student body was caught up in the rebellious spirit of the 1760s . The students stopped going to classes and prayers and generally abused the tutors , who resigned . They would frequently speak against the British Parliament in chapel , and petitioned the Corporation with their grievances , insisting on the removal of the disciplinarian president Thomas Clap . Things at the college had become so difficult the Corporation ordered an early spring vacation , and David Shepard was one of the few undergraduates that returned . Despite the reduced student body , things continued this way until the end of the term . Commencements were usually celebrated with copious amounts of alcohol , despite the students resolving to drink no " foreign spiritous Liquors any more . " The diary of one of Shepard ' s classmates records on September 9 , 1766 — the day before commencement — that they were examined for their degrees in the afternoon , but only after getting " Liquer ( sic ) in readiness for Commencement . " Shepard graduated ( B . A . ) that September at what would be Yale president Thomas Clap ' s last commencement before resigning , Friday , September 10 , 1766 . The next year David married Margaret Clap , daughter of Ezra Clap ( Yale , 1740 ) on December 3 , 1767 . In 1769 David is included in a list of Masters ' Degree candidates , his thesis relating to the nature of slow versus acute disease . This is the same year that his wife died , leaving him with one daughter , also named Margaret . Murrayfield , Mass . ( 1770 – 1774 ) . He removed to Murrayfield , Massachusetts ( now called Chester ) and married a second time to Lucinda Mather on January 7 , 1773 . They had six children : Mather , David , Lucinda , Harriet , Fanny and Horace . David Shepard was a Selectman of Murrayfield , serving throughout 1772 – 76 , and for several years through the 1790s . American Revolution ( 1775 – 1783 ) . As Boston ' s conflict with the royal government came to a head in 1773 – 75 , Shepard was appointed to the Chester Committee of Correspondence . And at the battles of Lexington and Concord , April 19 , 1775 , he would serve as a volunteer surgeon . Following the Lexington Alarm , Shepard went to Cambridge as captain of a company of Minutemen in the regiment commanded by Col . Seth Pomeroy . On arrival , April 28 , 1775 , he was appointed Surgeon of Danielson ' s Regiment and remained at the fortifications in Roxbury , Mass . in that capacity through the remainder of that year . He later served with a detachment of the Third Hampshire County Regiment which marched to Ticonderoga to reinforce the army by order of General Schuyler , and was present at the Battle of Bennington , August 16 , 1777 . United States Constitution . At a town meeting on December 13 , 1787 , Shepard was chosen as Chester ' s delegate to the State Convention to meet at Boston in January . And , in January 1788 , Shepard was recorded at Boston , Massachusetts were he served as representative of the town of Chester at a Constitutional Convention to consider a constitution reported in the summer of 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia . On February 6 they formally ratified the U . S . Constitution , proceeding to the Boston State House for a reception . Shepard was reimbursed for his time and travel to a total of £14 . 14 . 0 . Amsterdam , N . Y . ( 1802 – 1818 ) . In 1802 Shepard purchased a farm near Amsterdam , N . Y . , and resided there until his death . This farm later became the Fairview Cemetery ( Amsterdam , New York ) .