The son of Shubael and Phoebe Converse was born at Randolph, Vt., September 7, 1805. He studied his profession with Doctor R. D. Mussey of Hanover, N. H., and at Dartmouth College, graduating at that institution in 1828.
Soon after he settled in Strafford, where he resided in the practice of medicine until 1837, when he purchased the business and homestead of Doctor Horace Hatch at the southern border of Norwich village, and removing there was engaged in the active pursuit of his professional duties for a period of thirty years, until his sudden decease August 6, 1867. Doctor Converse possessed in a high degree the respect and confidence of the community, both as a citizen and a physician. A man of enlightened views and much public spirit, he was especially interested in the cause of popular education. He was superintendent of schools in Norwich from 1846 to 1854, and again in 1855 and 1856. After the removal of Norwich University to Northfield in 1866, he was prominent in establishing the Norwich Classical and English Boarding School the following year. He represented the town in the legislature in 1845 and 1846 and was chosen a Senator from Windsor County in 1855 and 1856. Among other young men who pursued medical studies with Doctor Converse at Norwich were Doctor Henry Baxter of Highgate and Doctor Charles D. Lewis of Kentucky.
Doctor Converse married in 1841, Louvia E. Morrill, daughter of David and Margery Morrill, of Strafford, Vt., to whom were born two sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Charles B. Converse, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1863, and is now a practicing physician in Jersey City, N. J. He received the degree of M. D., at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1871.
Doctor Converse was a cousin of Governor Julius Converse of Woodstock, also a native of Randolph, where the Converse family appears to have been an influential and numerous family from an early period.