Credited with being the first physician in what would become Delaware, Tymen Stidham crossed the Atlantic in 1640 aboard the Kalmar Nyckel. It was the tall ship’s second sailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, to what was then Fort Christiana, New Sweden. Stidham was one of two barber-surgeons aboard the ship, providing haircuts and shaves as well as dental work and surgery to the crew and passengers.
“Barber-surgeon” seems a strange combination to us now and no one would walk into a barber shop today seeking a trim and an appendectomy. Yet, Swedish barber-surgeons were apparently well trained, with a period of study followed by years of apprenticeship that were perhaps somewhat comparable to today’s internship. Physicians generally looked down on surgery, leaving the field to the barber-surgeon.
Sweden was one of the great European powers in the 1600s and like the others, it wanted a presence in the New World. The Kalmar Nyckel’s voyage was meant to bring enough people to establish a colony. Sweden would send out nine more expeditions with settlers and supplies.
Stidham (also spelled Stiddem and Stidden) remained to treat the settlers until returning to Gothenburg in 1644. By 1649, he was ready to return to New Sweden, this time with a wife and children.
The voyage aboard the Kattan did not go well. The ship, carrying 70 settlers and 30 crew, hit a reef and became grounded. Reaching an island about 80 miles east of present day Puerto Rico, passengers and crew remained for eight days without water until the arrival of a Spanish ship. Imprisoned, tortured and robbed by their Spanish “rescuers,” many of the Swedes died there, including Stidham’s wife and children. Stidham himself eventually was able to return to Gothenburg, but somehow his experience didn’t stop him from making another voyage across the Atlantic.
In 1651, he set sail again, aboard the Örn (Eagle). This time he remained in Delaware, remarried and had nine children. His home stood near the "Rocks" where the Kalmar Nyckel had brought him on his first voyage to New Sweden. In 1662, he was appointed city surgeon of Christiana (Wilmington). Invaluable to Stidham for treating patients was Richard Bancke’s 1525 book, Herball. The book is now part of the collection of the Delaware Historical Society.
Stidham became quite wealthy. At the time of his death in 1686 at the approximate age of 74, he owned about a third of what is now downtown Wilmington.
Nice to learn more about some early Delawareans.