Ammi Ruhamah Cutter

Ammi Ruhamah Cutter (March 15, 1735 – December 8, 1820) was an American physician. He served as a surgeon during the French and Indian War of 1754–1763, and was also the Physician General of the medical department of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783.

Early life Cutter was born in 1735, in North Yarmouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay (now Yarmouth, Maine), the son of Ammi Ruhamah Cutter Sr. and Dorothy Bradbury. His father was the first pastor of Yarmouth's First Parish Congregational Church, established at the Old Ledge Meetinghouse in November 1730. He and his family lived at the parsonage at today's 60 Gilman Road, around twenty yards to the east of where the church formerly stood, which was garrisoned during the Indian wars.

In 1747, he was sent to be educated by a clergyman in Cambridge, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He made the ride on horseback through "thick wilderness", enduring several "hair-breath 'scapes" (likely with Indians) on the way.

Career Cutter studied medicine under the tuition of Dr. Clement Jackson, of Portsmouth, Province of New Hampshire. His admission was swift, for he was appointed surgeon of a body of rangers, under British Army officer Robert Rogers, who formed part of the army on the frontiers in the Indian war in 1755. He was later stationed at Fort Edward in New York.

After his marriage in 1758, Cutter "immediately entered upon the sober duties of life". The following year, Robert Rogers tried to convince him to resume his station in the service, but he politely declined. Between this point and the onset of the American Revolutionary War, Cutter lived a simple life, and began to grow his family.

It was voted, in March 1770, that the mill stream and privilege on Smith River in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, be forfeited and reverted to Cutter and David Sewall. The privilege was to forever remain, on the condition that they have "a good grist-mill" built and maintained in good order and repair.

In 1777, the Second Continental Congress opted to reorganize the medical department, and Cutter was called upon. He was offered the role of Physician General of the eastern department, with his station being Fishkill, New York, on the North River.

Personal life Cutter married Hannah Treadwell (1735–1832) on November 2, 1758.

The couple had ten known children between 1759 and 1776. Their eldest son, Charles, drowned on October 22, 1779, in Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 16. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground, near Harvard Square in Cambridge. His headstone epitaph is carved in Latin.

Cutter was, for many years, the president of the New Hampshire Medical Society.

He received an honorary degree of M.D. from Harvard College, and was chosen an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and Massachusetts Humane Society.

Death Cutter died in 1820, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was 85. He is buried in the city's Old North Cemetery with his wife, who survived him by twelve years.