Horace A. Barrows

Horace A. Barrows (Aug. 8, 1809 - June 7, 1852) was a physician who practiced in Western Maine in the early 19th century, made and sold plant-based medicines and prescribed a vegetarian diet. [1]

Biography

He was born in Hebron, Maine. He married Irene Bearce in 1832.[2] The couple had two adopted children. Barrows practiced medicine in Phillips, Maine, Harrison, Maine[1] and Otisfield, Maine[3]. Medicines he made and sold were called Best Family Physic, Syrian Balm of Life, and Political Ointment.[1]

Dr. William Alcott's 1838 book "Vegetable Diet" includes a letter from Barrows describing his positive experiences with a meat-free diet. The letter, part of which was reprinted in a column written by Avery Yale Kamila in the Portland Press Herald in 2020, said:

Dear Sir, – I have a brother-in-law, who owes his life to abstinence from animal food, and strict adherence to the simplest vegetable diet. My own existence is prolonged, only (according to human probabilities) by entire abstinence from flesh-meat of every description, and feeding principally upon the farinacea [an archaic term for grains and vegetables]. Numberless other instances have come under my observation within the last three years, in which a strict adherence to a simple vegetable diet has done for the wretched invalids what the best medical treatment had utterly failed to do.[1][4]

In the 1840s, Barrows invested in the building of the Scribner's Mills sawmill and Scribner Homestead in Bolsters Mills in Harrison.[5]

He died in Harrison in 1852.[2] Barrows' diaries are in the collection of the Maine Historical Society.[1]

References
  1. Kamila, Avery Yale (2020-03-29). "Vegan Kitchen: A meat-free diet in Maine is nothing new". Press Herald. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  2. "Dr Horace A Barrows (1809-1852) - Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  3. OTISFIELD TOWN OFFICE (2020-03-10). "Program: Dr. Horace Barrows". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  4. Alcott, William Andrus (1851). Vegetable diet: as sanctioned by medical men (2d ed.). New York. hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t1wd4hk2k.
  5. "Our History". Scribners Mill. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
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