Person Page - 572

DR. A. P. SNOW, of Winthrop, who has attained a wide reputation as a physician, is a son of Abiezer Snow. The father had only a small farm from which to supply the necessities of a large family, therefore Albion, when a lad of only fourteen, began to care for himself. He worked on a farm summers and attended school in winter, doing chores to pay his board. He worked along in this way four years, receiving only two terms of schooling at a private academy, and at eighteen he began teaching in a district school. His success in teaching this school, though it was regarded as a difficult one to manage, gave him a good reputation as a teacher, and his services were sought for similar schools in other places. He continued to teach a portion of the time for several years with great success. He would control the most unruly scholars without resorting to corporal punishment, and has always advocated the milder forms of school discipline as far the more preferable.

When not engaged in teaching he would take a term at the academy, and in this way he fitted himself for college, but ill health prevented his entering Bowdoin, as it was his intention of doing. He soon after resolved to be a doctor and began to prepare himself for that profession. He became a pupil of Professor Peaslee, of New York, the celebrated physician and surgeon, taking three courses of lectures in the Medical School of Maine, and two at the Medical School at Dartmouth College. He graduated at the Maine Medical School in 1854.

Doctor Snow was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in both schools, but declined the appointment and entered upon the practice of his profession, locating in the town of Winthrop in the fall of 1854. Here he built up a very large and lucrative practice. After six years of hard work, he resolved to have a little respite from his labors and visit some of the best hospitals and medical schools in this country and Europe. He spent a year very pleasantly and profitably in this way, returning home in the autumn of 1861. He again took up his practice and has continued it until this time with great success, standing to-day at the head of his profession in his section of the State. Of late years, on account of ill health, Doctor Snow has been obliged to relinquish a portion of his practice, confining himself to more important cases and to consultations with other physicians.

Doctor Snow early connected himself with the Maine Medical Association and has since been an active and valued member, and was President in 1873. He has contributed many papers to the discussions of the Association at its annual meetings, all of which have been published in its annual transactions. He has also been an active member of the Kennebec County Medical Association and was its second President. Doctor Snow has been a member of the American Medical Association for several years, and has served on some of its most important committees. He has a love for his profession and for its study, and endeavors to keep up with the advanced thought of the day.
Aside from his professional work, Doctor Snow has found time and effort to advance the public good in various ways. He has always been interested in our public schools and has devoted considerable thought and labor to their advancement. He was on the School Board of his town for twenty years, more than half of the time as chairman, and he was untiring in his efforts to make the schools of Winthrop equal to any in the State. He always had the hearty co-operation of both parents and teachers in his labors to improve the schools. Doctor Snow was one of the early advocates of a State Board of Health, never ceasing his labors in its behalf until it was established by an act of the Legislature.

In 1871 he was a member of the Maine Legislature and introduced a bill to regulate the qualifications of practitioners of medicine and surgery in Maine. This bill had the support of many of the best minds in the State, but it was strongly opposed by certain classes and finally defeated. Repeated efforts have since been made to secure its passage, but without success to the present time. The subject has caused a great deal of discussion in this and other States, and many hearings have been given in subsequent Legislatures on similar bills.

Doctor Snow was appointed by the Governor, in 1879, a Trustee of the Maine Insane Hospital, and he has occupied other responsible positions. He is held in high esteem by the people with whom he has lived for nearly forty years, being genial in manners and generous in his nature. It is said that during thirty years of his practice he never refused, when able, to obey a call, night or day, to minister to and relieve human suffering when in his power, however poor the patient might be, or however much discomfiture it might cause himself. Truly the consciousness of such good deeds performed and of duty so nobly done is more to be prized than great riches.