GED4WEB version 4.41 Spiers Henry H. [Male] b. 04 SEP 1849 Atwater, Portage, Ohio, USA - d. 30 APR 1931 Ravenna, Portage, Ohio, USA
PATHWAYS: ‘Hermit Poet of Atwater’ was doctor, farmer, too
By Roger J. Di Paolo
Record-Courier Editor January 25, 2009
hermit-poet-of-atwater
Dr. Henry H. Spiers was a physician with the soul of a poet.
He practiced medicine in Edinburg and Ravenna for 25 years, became a nationally known authority on tuberculosis and traveled the country selling a medical book he had written on its treatment.
After seven years on the road, he returned home to Portage County, financially secure, ready and able to do what he most enjoyed: Writing poetry on the farm where he was born.
And that’s what he was doing in 1917, when the Ravenna Republican interviewed the doctor some called “The Hermit Poet of Atwater.”
“I plow a field or write a poem as the spirit moves me,” said Dr. Spiers, who pursued his avocation in a one-room dwelling on his property on the Atwater-Deerfield border near the intersection of present-day U.S. 224 and Alliance Road. “My wants are simple and nothing is lacking in the schedule of my daily affairs.”
Born Sept. 4, 1849, in Atwater, Dr. Spiers was the youngest of five sons born to a couple who had settled in Portage County nine years earlier after emigrating from England. The family homestead was located on a 60-acre farm, and there he worked until he was 18 years old.
After teaching school briefly, he enrolled at Mount Union College in Alliance ” making the 12-mile trip from Atwater to the college on foot to save money ” then left Ohio for the Minneapolis area, where he “read medicine” with a doctor. He later attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, then went to Cincinnati, where he graduated from the Ohio Medical College in 1877.
He returned to Portage County to practice medicine, opening his first office in Edinburg, where he remained for 14 years, then moving to Ravenna for 11 years. He then went to Oberlin, where he practiced medicine while writing his treatise on tuberculosis.
He took to the road to sell the book, visiting nearly every state over a seven-year period. Seven editions of his work were printed, leaving him financially well off. After spending time in California, he returned home to Atwater to pursue the life of a poet, philosopher and sometime-farmer.
“The Hermit Poet” gathered his thoughts in his modest dwelling, a glorified shed surrounded by gardens and nature ” in the words of the Republican, “amid fields quiet save for the songs of birds and the low lullabies of nocturnal choirs” where there was “no apparent measurement of time save that of the changing seasons.”
Dr. Spiers wrote prose or poetry, preferring “the music and the measure” of verse, and told the Republican that he was quite content with the life he had chosen. Nearing 70, in addition to writing, he also continued to maintain the family farm, which included a leased coal slope at the rear of the property.
“I count it fortune’s favor to me that when I was tired of the world and the grind of its ruthless struggle, the old farm stood ready to receive me,” he said. “I can imagine no pleasanter situation than the freedom of this outdoor democracy of nature.”
Based on the samples that accompanied the Republican article, Dr. Spiers’ poetry appeared to be light-hearted verse dealing with nature and humanity. Some of his work was published, but there was no indication whether it appeared in book form.
The writer who interviewed Dr. Spiers ” the article had no byline ” didn’t hesitate to wax poetic in describing “The Hermit Poet” and his surroundings, which provided “a restful solitude … to spend the evening of a busy and eventful career.”
The physician-turned-poet was “happy, cheerful and contented,” according to the Republican, and hoped to spend the rest of his life surrounded by nature, painting pictures with words.
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