Old Leonard, aka "Dr. Quack"

Colebrook’s most famous (or infamous) character was without a doubt Leonard Gillette, more commonly known as “Old Leonard� by the inhabitants of the town. His father, Levi, begins to show up on the pages of various Colebrook tax and property lists in the 1820s. Leonard married Phebe Hart of Colebrook on April 20, 1840.

The person who wrote most extensively about Leonard was Henry Hart Vining, and it is his account that we will republish here for the reader’s enjoyment.

He named the article simply “Doctor Quack.�

u      u      u

“It is a common and true saying that every country contains the best cures for its own diseases. No other part of the globe can afford stronger proof of all the truth of the remark than this very country of the United States of America, the paradise of freedom in which to dwell. Instead of sending our ships to foreign climates after costly, unnatural medicine, why is it we do not open our eyes on the vegetable kingdom around us as being more natural to our constitutions?

“What then, is the use, in the name of common sense, of importing Peruvian bark from South America, when the common boxwood of our country produces the same effect? Or, of sending to Europe for Spanish flies, when the American potato flies, which may be collected in large quantities, are far better, and will draw a blister without poisoning, which the Spanish fly is very apt to do, you all very well know.

“This was the philosophy of Leonard Gillette, who lived in a little house at the corner of the roads, on top of Beech Hill, in the town of Colebrook, in northwestern Connecticut. [The house no longer exists, but it was the one I was born and raised in. In modern terms, it was at the eastern side of the intersection of Beech Hill Road and Moses Road.]

u      u      u

“‘Old Leonard,’ as he was called by everyone, was tall, loose-jointed, lantern-jawed and painfully cadaverous. His shock of white hair added to his strange appearance and when his sense of humor produced an open smile, his face was positively ghastly. He lived in his little old house beside the road for many years and grew quinces, which he sold for miles around. These quince bushes grew near the road and bore huge crops of wonderfully smelling fruit, which were the envy of all the neighborhood.

“Why did they grow so profusely? Old Leonard would say, ‘Why, you see, they get all the wash from the kitchen sink and all the surplus from my herb medicines; if herbs are good for folks, why not for quinces?’

[Two of those quince bushes still grow and produce a bumper crop every year for my daughter. Quinces are very particular where they will grow; at one site they will flourish, while 100 yards away they will flatly refuse to survive. Whether Old Leonard’s thrived there because of the reasons stated is accurate or not, the fact remains that no better explanation has come to light in the past 175 years.]

u      u      u

“Yes, Dr. Leonard Gillette was an herb doctor and peddled his cures and tonics throughout all the county and over the border into Massachusetts. He also carried essences and Yankee notions. Slung over his shoulder was a pair of saddle bags. In one of these he carried his essences (which were of excellent quality). In the other were ‘Yankee notions’: needles, pins, thread, shoelaces and, as he called them, ‘hanks’ of linen thread. In his right hand he carried a wicker-covered demi-john of alcohol as a solvent for his essences and camphor gum. He had the reputation of being the demi-john’s best customer. He was a keen trader and would haggle over a penny in a sale, but if he could not win it, would give in with a fatalistic smile.

“One cold night he arrived at the home of Rev. Mr. Russell [667 Colebrook Road today]. He was so much under the influence of his potations that Mr. Russell did not dare to refuse him shelter, for fear he would freeze to death. It was a somewhat embarrassing situation, as Mrs. Russell had company, and the old man was sick and noisy most of the night.

The next morning Old Leonard was given a warm breakfast and then Mr. Russell charged him $10 for his night’s lodging. Old Leonard was amazed and distressed to the point of tears, and pleaded to have the charge reduced, but Mr. Russell was insistent and threatened him with arrest for drunkenness unless it was paid. It was pitiful to see the old miser dole out the money, a half dollar at a time, vainly hoping to the last that his enemy would relent. It is needless to say that he never called at the minister’s house again.

[This account was previously recorded by Jane Smith, a resident of the Russell home.  See “Memories of Colebrook, Connecticut — 1868-1877â€� by Jane E. W. Smith.]

u      u      u

“Many and varied were the remedies which Dr. Gillette used on his patients. If a child had whooping cough, he took moosewood bark [also called hobblebush], made a very strong tea, sweetened it well with honey for constant drink. Then he braided a band of the same bark and put it around the neck, keeping the patient from the damp air until cured.

“For deafness — take a black ash sapling 4 feet long and 6 or 8 inches through, put one end in a fire. Save the sap from the other end, let stand till it settles clear, take equal portions of the sap and olive oil and put in a phial, add castile soap, the size of a large pea, shake well together before using. Put two drops into the ear at night and stop with cotton till morning.

“For sour mouth or lips, caused by a cold, select three white flint stones about the size of a common pea, swallow them; this will almost always effect a cure.�

Old Leonard had a book published entitled “The Botanical Physician, a Collection of Useful Prescriptions.� It was a book of 37 pages, filled with remedies, symptoms of diseases and a description of roots, herbs and plants. Many curious remedies appear in this book, some of which we will reprint next time.

Bob Grigg is the town historian in Colebrook.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less