Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

y a large number of men whose ability
and high ideals continue to realize the tra-
ditions of the past and make them leaders
in all branches of medical science and
practice. They are men who are at the
head of the profession in research, and
apply skillfully, new methods to the prac-
tical problems with which they are constantly
obliged to cope. Among the men
who have made their names well known
in this group of capable physicians no one
is more generally respected and trusted
than Arthur Davis Variell. He is not
only a most profound student of his subject,
medicine, but he is also a keen and
sympathetic observer of human nature, a
scholar, and a traveler. These attributes
help to make him peculiarly competent,
and he is recognized as one of the most
able diagnosticians of the city.
Dr. Variell is not a native of Water-
bury, but was born in the city of Gardiner,
Maine, August 26, 1868. The name
Variell is one of the many variations in
the spelling of the original surname Ver-
rill, an English name. In the town of
Lewes, England, which is the county seat
of East Sussex, live several branches of
the family. At one period the Verrill
family had conferred a baronetcy upon a
deserving member for services rendered
to the Crown. This title has never been
without heir, the present incumbent being
Sir William Verrill.
The first period of settlement in this
country was 1670, and the New Hampshire
coast was the locality. Descendants
of this early branch still reside in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire, while various
other descendants continued the line in
Massachusetts and in Maine. The Verrills
served their country in the Revolution in
the persons of Joseph and Samuel. Little
is known of the former, but Samuel was
born April 20, 1734, in Gloucester, Mas-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
5i
sachusetts. As fifer in Captain John
Lane's regiment, his martial strains led
many a gallant charge, and it was said
of him that he fought even better than he
played. Later he served in Colonel Ger-
rish's regiment in 1778. Samuel Verrill
married Eunice Bray. He died at Port-
land, Maine, 1797.
Dr. Variell's grandfather, Albert Variell,
married Josephine Call. Their six children—Moses,
Daniel, John, Albert, Carrie
and Nathan—are now all deceased. John
Smith Variell was the father of Dr. Ar-
thur Davis Variell, and was born at
Minot, Maine. The greater part of his
life was passed in Gardiner, Maine, how-
ever, where he was engaged in business
until his death at the age of seventy. His
wife, who was Miss Julia Hammond, of
Auburn, Maine, also died at Gardiner in
the year 1900, at the age of sixty-four.
Besides Arthur they had but one child, a
son Frederick, who died in infancy.
Dr. Variell passed the greater part of
his youth in the city of his birth, where
he received in the public schools the pre-
paratory part of his education. From the
high school he entered the Maine Wesleyan
Seminary and College at Kent's
Hill. In 1890 he matriculated as a student
of medicine in the Medical Department of
Bowdoin College, now the University of
Maine, at Brunswick. From this college
he obtained his degree in 1894. His hos-
pital work was done in the Portland City
Hospital, in the Post Graduate Hospital
of New York City, and also in the hospi-
tals of London and Paris. He located first
in Watertown, Connecticut, where he
practiced medicine until 1907. He then
came to Waterbury, where he still con-
tinues in practice.
Dr. Variell has been married twice.
His first wife was Miss Julia Curtiss, of
Woodbury, Connecticut, a daughter of