Dr. Joseph Barratt: Renaissance Man Or Unreliable Genius?

The American Literary, Scientific, & Military Academy (ASL&M) that served as the city’s college offering back in the 1820s, before Wesleyan moved in, left a few indelible marks on Middletown.  The most obvious is the North College at the heart of College Row on High Street.

The second mark the ALS&M left behind was Dr. Joseph Barratt. It is hard to tell if this gift to our community was a good or a bad thing.

Dr. Barratt (1796-1882) was a scientist, historian, geologist, botanist and all ‘round curious guy.

Barratt was born in Derbyshire, England, and attended medical school in London. He practiced a few years and then emigrated to the U.S. In 1824, he was hired by Captain Alden Patridge to teach biology, chemistry, and mineralogy at his school in Norwich, Vt. When the school moved to Middletown in 1826, Barratt was on the faculty. When ASL&M moved in 1829 back to Vermont, Barratt elected to stay in town.

He was one of three physicians living in the city. He may have devoted time to healing, but more time seems to have been spent on his love of plants, birds, and the Native American tribes of the Northeast. He also was fascinated by the footprints found embedded in local brownstone.

Although Barratt never had an official role at Wesleyan University, he was active from the beginning with its Natural History Society, later called the Cuvierian Society. He was elected an honorary member in 1836, and his herbarium became part of their collection.  Later it was donated to the New York Botanical Gardens, where it is today considered one of their most important and vast.

He wrote a handful of books about the culture of Indian tribes in New England. He recorded Algonquian dialects and wrote about the language. He interviewed elderly tribal members to record their history. His speech at the consecration of Indian Hill Cemetery in 1850 focused on his research, referring specifically to a family of native people who had lived on the former Portland reservation. He gathered the information by interviewing an elderly resident of Portland who had heard stories from his grandfather.

Local historians, like myself, have frequently used Barratt's map of Main Street, Middletown, that he completed in 1836. He represented who lived on the street in 1776 and their occupations. The most controversial aspect of the map is the names of slave dealers, and the use of the term itself. It very well could be accurate, but we have no record of the research methods he used or the reliability of his resources. Personally, every time I use the map as a resource, I hesitate.

Particularly, as I learn more about the man who made it.

Stay tuned: More on Dr. Barratt at 5 p.m.