Peter Bent Brigham

Peter Bent Brigham (1807–1877) was an American millionaire businessman, restaurateur, real estate trader, and director of the Fitchburg Railroad. He is best known as a philanthropist for his initial endowment of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Brigham Academy in Bakersfield, Vermont.

Early life and family Peter Bent Brigham was born on 4 February 1807 in Bakersfield, Vermont as the seventh of nine children born to Uriah Brigham (1757–1820) and Elizabeth (Fay) Brigham (1767–1837). Brigham was a direct descendant of Thomas Brigham (1603–1653), an early immigrant to Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as John Bent (1596-1672) a founder of Sudbury, Massachusetts. Brigham had little formal schooling and went to find work in Boston in his early teens, when his father died. He worked on Middlesex Canal boats on his way, and then began his career selling fish and oysters in Boston. which opened in 1913, and became a world-renowned medical research hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School.