Biography of Stephen A. Cobb by Ben Donsbach
Stephen Aratas Cobb was born on
December 9, 1887 to parents Stephan Aratas
Cobb Sr. and Harriet Chadwick in Gardiner
Maine. Stephen Cobb Sr. was a steamboatman and
prominent figure among the small towns of
Maine. Stephen A. Cobb Jr. was raised in Gardiner
where he attended Grammar and High
School.1 In 1892, his younger brother Percy
Chadwick Cobb was born. Dr Cobb attended Bates
College in the class of 1909, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree. Cobb then attended Harvard Medical College, graduating in
1914.2 While attending Harvard, Cobb practiced medicine as an intern
at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and Boston City Hospital, both in
Boston Massachusetts.3 His profound skill in the medical field was
commemorated when Governors Milliken and Brewster awarded
Cobb with the title of medical examiner of York County.4 In 1914 after
graduating from Harvard, Cobb opened his own practice in Sanford
Maine and began to put his talent to work. Cobbs practice offered
general medical services as well as industrial surgery. Being the
medical examiner of York County, Cobb was an important and
respected member of the York county medical society.5 Cobb was also
a member of the Maine State Medical society and the American Medical Association.6 On
Christmas day, December 25, 1915, Stephen Cobb married Ruby Varnum Wood in Bowdoinham
Maine.7 The married couple settled down in Sanford Maine which was the location of Dr. Cobbs
practice. In 1917, Dr. Cobb enlisted into the American Army where he became A Medical officer
in World War I.
When Stephen Cobb enlisted in the Army in
1917,8 where he joined the Medical Corps and was
assigned to the Camp Jackson Base Hospital. Camp
Jackson was a famous training camp located in Columbia
South Carolina. Camp Jackson was one of the many
training camps that emerged, as the United States
recognized that they needed to train the mass amount of
soldiers that were flowing into their ranks through the
draft.9 . Stephen Cobb was assigned to the Base Hospital
in Camp Jackson, as he was a member of the Medical Corps. The Base Hospital at Jackson was
opened October 22, 1917 where it had a staff of 30 doctors, 40 nurses, and nearly 440 other
enlisted men.10 The Hospital could hold a limit of one thousand patients, and had a receiving
ward, isolation ward, and psychiatric ward.11 The
camp stayed open throughout the war, and closed
its doors in 1919. The Camp opened again for
WWII, and again for the Korean War, it then
remained opened and is still training soldiers. After
Camp Jackson, Cobb was transferred to American Expeditionary Force Base Hospital No. 54.12
Base Hospital No. 54 was located in Mesves France and was part of the Nievre department.13
The hospital was one of the two hundred and thirty eight hospitals established by the American
Expeditionary Forces in World War One. Base Hospital No. 54 was established in May of 1918
when men were organized in the States after training. They received additional training and were
then shipped to France on August 14, aboard the Patricia. The men arrived in Brest France on
August 25, and proceeded to Mesves, Department of Nievre on September 6. No. 54 was the
fourth medical unit to arrive in Mesve.
The Base Hospital consisted of type A
wooden barracks and a large number of
marquee tents in case of a crisis
expansion. The normal bed capacity at
this hospital was one thousand beds with
a crisis expansion capacity of two
thousand beds. The largest number of
patients that the hospital was able to hold
during the duration of the war was 2,288 patients. On January 20, 1919, No. 54 expanded to take
over patients and hospital property from Base Hospital No. 50. The Medical group departed from
France on May 16, 1919, and were officially demobilized on May 30.14 Doctor Cobb served at
this camp in France for a year where he achieved the rank of first lieutenant.15 After the war
came to an end, Cobb remained involved in military affairs and became a Captain in the Medical
Reserve Corps.16 Cobb then was called to service once again as the second World War came
around. In WWII, Doctor Cobb served as Chief of Surgical
Service with the 67th General Hospital. Cobb was promoted
to Executive Medical Officer, and placed in charge of a
United States Army General Hospital in England where he
served for three years. After the second World War, the doctor
retained the rank of colonel in the Army Medical Corps
Reserve.17
After the war, Cobb returned to Sanford Maine to
continue his practice that had been opened before the wars.
Cobb and his wife had a daughter named Helen Elizabeth
Cobb. Cobb remained in Sanford for the remainder of his life
and became involved in the local football team. A Portland Press Herald article from 1949 details
how the local team would honor him during their game, and host a “testimonial dinner” for the
doctor after the game.18 The article also details how Dr.
Cobb was present at many local sports events and often
assisted many of these athletes who were injured during
the game. On November 11, 1954 the Sanford Football
stadium was dedicated to the doctor and named after
him.19 Several articles from local newspapers detail how
Cobb was constantly active in treating patients around
the community. Another article from the Portland Press
Herald details how two victims of a lab fire were treated
by Cobb in his Sanford office.20 Additionally, Cobb in partnership with Dr Edward Holland, Dr.
Robert Vachon, and Dr. Varl Richards, organized the first community medical clinic for
Stanford.21 Cobb was a member of many organizations around
the community and was constantly involved with his
community. Cobb was a “past president of the Sanford Town
Club, past exalted ruler of the Sanford Lodge of Elks, a charter
member, past commander and life member of the Thomas W.
Cole Post, American Legion; past president of the
Sanford-Springvale Rotary Club, and past secretary of the
Maine Board of Registration of Medicine”.22 Cobb had
additional affiliations with the Sanford fire department and
was a deputy sheriff. Doctor Cobb was a very active citizen,
and an overall asset to his community.23 Cobb continued to live
in Sanford for the remainder of his life, until he passed away
on December 4, 1968, at the age of eighty. Cobb died having
been a veteran of both World Wars and having practiced
medicine in Sanford for 54 years. Cobb
died in Sanford Maine and is buried
there.
Endnotes
1 Harrie Badger Corrie. “Maine Biographies”. Baltimore, MD.: Clearfield, 2002. 2 Ibid 3 Bates College. General Catalogue of Bates College and Cobb Divinity School, 1863-1915. Place of Publication Not Identified: Nabu Press, 2012. 4 Harrie Badger Corrie. Maine Biographies 5 Ibid 6 Ibid 7 “Maine, Marriage Records, 1713-1937.” Ancestry. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. https://www.ancestryclassroom.com/family-tree/person/tree/3434144/person/24059101234/facts 8 Ancestry.com. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. https://www.ancestryclassroom.com/interactive/6482/005207073_01215/25763327?backurl=https://www.ancestryclassroom.com/family-tree/person/tree/3434144/person/24059101234/facts/citation/100127687662/edit/record 9The Birth of Camp Jackson: A Collection of Photographs, Maps and Papers Documenting the Development of Camp Jackson near Columbia, South Carolina. Including a Discussion of the Need for Training Camps and Soldiers in World War I, the Offer Presented by the City of Columbia to the Army to Help Fill That Need, the Construction of Camp Jackson and the Structures Built There, the Units and People Who Populated the Camp, and the Training That Converted Average American Citizens into the Worlds Greatest Soldiers. Fort Jackson, SC: United States Army Basic Combat Training Museum, 2016. 10 Ibid 11 Ibid 12 Harrie Badger Corrie. Maine Biographies 13 "BASE HOSPITALS of the AEF." The Great War Society: Relevance Archive. Accessed June 12, 2018. http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/basehosp.htm. 14 "Office of Medical History." AMEDD/NCO Enlisted Soldier History. Accessed June 12, 2018. http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/adminamerexp/chapter24.html. 14 Harrie Badger Corrie. “Maine Biographies” 15 Harrie Badger Corrie. “Maine Biographies” 16 "Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s." Newspapers.com. Accessed June 12, 2018. https://basic.newspapers.com/image/9013866/?terms=Stephen Cobb. 17"Dr Stephen Cobb (1887-1968) - Find A Grave..." Find A Grave. Accessed June 9, 2018.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22925380/cob#view-photo=63444709. 18 "Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s." Newspapers.com. Accessed June 12, 2018.
https://basic.newspapers.com/image/9013866/?terms=Stephen Cobb. 19 Ibid 20 Ibid 21 "Dr Stephen Cobb (1887-1968) - Find A Grave..." 22 Ibid 23 Ibid
Bibliography
"BASE HOSPITALS of the AEF." The Great War Society: Relevance Archive. Accessed June 9, 2018. http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/basehosp.htm. Coe, Harrie Badger. Maine Biographies. Baltimore, MD: Clearfield, 2002. College, Bates. “General Catalogue of Bates College and Cobb Divinity School, 1863-1915”. Nabu Press, 2012. Accessed June 9, 2018. https://books.google.com/books?id=VsBBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=Stephen+Aratas+cobb&source=bl&ots=-2bothIQ2z&sig=4TuGXeLPZFhsGAOMfovU8JPWy4w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiItrvu-M7bAhWp7YMKHXvjC8EQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=Stephen%20Aratas%20cobb&f=false "Dr Stephen Cobb (1887-1968) - Find A Grave..." Find A Grave. Accessed June 9, 2018.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22925380/cob#view-photo=63444709. "Dr Stephen Cobb (1887-1968) - Find A Grave..." Find A Grave. Accessed June 9, 2018.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22925380/cob#view-photo=8385288. "Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s." Newspapers.com. Accessed June 12, 2018.
https://basic.newspapers.com/image/9013866/?terms=Stephen Cobb. “Maine, Marriage Records, 1713-1937”. Ancestry. Accessed. June 9, 1018 https://www.ancestryclassroom.com/family-tree/person/tree/3434144/person/24059101234/facts “The Birth of Camp Jackson: A Collection of Photographs, Maps and Papers Documenting the Development of Camp Jackson near Columbia, South Carolina. Including a Discussion of the Need for Training Camps and Soldiers in World War I, the Offer Presented by the City of Columbia to the Army to Help Fill That Need, the Construction of Camp Jackson and the Structures Built There, the Units and People Who Populated the Camp, and the Training That Converted Average American Citizens into the Worlds Greatest Soldiers.” Fort Jackson, SC: United States Army Basic Combat Training Museum, 2016. Accessed June 9, 2018. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Ancestry. Accessed June 9, 2018 https://www.ancestryclassroom.com/interactive/6482/005207073_01215/25763327?backurl=https://www.ancestryclassroom.com/family-tree/person/tree/3434144/person/24059101234/facts/citation/100127687662/edit/record