Dr. Frank G. Atwood, veterinarian and a consulting sanitarian of national reputation, was born February 24, 1875, in Woodbury, Litchfield county, Connecticut, which was also the birthplace of his father, Frank J. Atwood, who was a representative of an old Connecticut family of English descent. The ancestor of the family came to the new world as a passenger on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Later generations of the family settled in what is now Woodbury and some of its members were represented in the Revolutionary war. Frank J. Atwood, father of Frank G. Atwood, became a veterinary [sic] and was also a farmer and stock breeder, conducting very successfully his two lines of business up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 27th of May, 1917, at the age of seventy-three years, as the result of an injury caused by a fractious horse. Mr. Atwood served as selectman in Woodbury and he took a keen and helpful interest in all civic matters. He married Ellen Capewell, who was born in Woodbury and was a daughter of Joseph Capewell, of London, England. Her mother belonged to the Pitt family, a most distinguished family of England. Mrs. Atwood is still living and has become the mother of six children: Frank G.; Edna R., how deceased; Ellsworth J., a veterinary surgeon and farmer who is living in Woodbury; Warren S., also a veterinary surgeon of Woodbury; Margaret, the wife of Arthur Green, of Middlebury, Connecticut; and Grover C., of Thomaston, Connecticut. All of the sons are licensed veterinaries.

  Dr. Frank G. Atwood attended the public schools of Woodbury and later attended the Connecticut Agricultural College and the University of Toronto, department of veterinary medicine and surgery, in Toronto, Canada, from which he was graduated in 1896, doing special work in preparation for consulting sanitary service. Soon afterward he became state veterinary [sic] and practiced under the state cattle commissioners, continuing in that position until the law was changed in 1897. He then entered upon the private practice of his profession in Woodbury and found that he needed a laboratory training. He afterward came to New Haven, where he practiced and took a post-graduate course in the Yale Medical School, while later he took post-graduate work in general medicine and surgery in the Johns Hopkins University, department of medicine. On the completion of his work he became connected with the medical department of the United States Army at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war and thus continued until May, 1899. He was in Cuba looking after the sick and wounded and following the close of the war he returned to Washington, D. C., where he was stationed at the General Hospital in the medical department of the United States army caring for the sick and wounded in the capital city for ten months, when he returned to New Haven and resumed the practice of the veterinary science. He has since continuously and successfully engaged in the profession and is recognized as one of the most capable veterinary surgeons of Connecticut. Dr. Atwood has earned a high place in professional circles and has been the prime factor in the enactment of laws, and the enforcement thereof, safeguarding the public health from causes that would be evident only to one of his unusual professional training. His study and reading have been broad and most thorough. His treatise on the “Prevention of Diseases from Animal to Man” is a standard and was first delivered in 1915 before the Chicago Medical and Live Stock Sanitary Association. He took a course in the Yale Law School in preparation for consulting sanitary work which, in addition to his veterinary and medical training and extensive laboratory facilities, eminently fitted him for this particular line. He has traced many outbreaks of diseases to milk supply and is author of the treatise adopted in 1914 by the Connecticut State Board of Education on “Teaching the Pasteurization of Milk in Public Schools.” He has constantly fought for better laws in the control of animal diseases, has established debates that brought better results, and today Connecticut is on a better standard to cooperate with the federal authorities in the prevention and control of animal diseases. He is also conducting an automobile business under the firm name of the Atwood Auto Sales Company, handling the Oldsmobile and the G. M. C. truck, both of which are units of the General Motors Company. He has an exhaustive agency for these in the city and in a part of New Haven county and already has developed a business of gratifying proportions.

  On the 17th of October, 1900, Dr. Atwood was married in Wilton, Connecticut, to Miss Mae Anna Lockwood, a native of that place and a daughter of Samuel G. and Julia A. (Crawford) Lockwood, members of old Connecticut families. Dr. and Mrs. Atwood have one daughter, Bertha A., born in New Haven, August 3, 1902.

  Dr. Atwood has become quite prominent in political circles but maintains an independent course, fearlessly expressing his honest opinion without regard to party ties. He has had considerable influence over civic affairs and he stands at all times for progress and improvement. He belongs to Trumbull Lodge, A. F. & A. M.; Franklin Chapter, R. A. M.; and Relief Lodge, I. O. O. F. He is a member of the Republican Club, of the Chamber of Commerce, of the New Haven Colony Historical Society and the Trinity Methodist church. Dr. Atwood is a member of the American Public Health Association, the United States Live Stock Sanitary Association and a life member of the Connecticut Dairymen’s Association.