USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa: a record of settlement., Volume 1 > Part 10
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John E. Burke was one of the early lawyers of this county and secured a good practice for the times. He removed to Chi- cago many years ago and became a promiment lawyer of that
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city. Before moving away, however, he served a term as prose- cuting attorney for this judicial district.
George A. Richmond was a well educated young man, who came west from Pennsylvania in 1854, and located at Butler Center. He first turned his activities toward speculating in land, in the meantime acquiring a smattering of the law. His prac- tice never reached a wide extent. He enlisted for the Civil war, served gallantly in the army and when the internecine struggle between the states was settled by the arbitrament of arms, Rich- mond returned to his native state.
D. J. Marts also located in Greene in the seventies, coming from Pennsylvania. He first located on a farm and taught school. His admission to the bar followed, but he had little practical knowl- edge of law and, as a consequence, reaped but a scant reward from the practice. John Jamison also practiced law at Greene. He was admitted to the bar at Butler Center and after a year's stay at Greene he located in Shell Rock, from whence he removed to Belmond and secured a good practice.
William M. Foote practiced law at this bar for a number of years. He was admitted to the bar at Greenville in 1858 and came to Butler county in 1871, establishing an office at Greene. Being elected justice of the peace in 1872, most of his time was taken up with official duties.
Other early lawyers worthy of mention follow, namely: L. A. Orris, admitted to the Butler county bar in 1858; C. M. Greene, who came to Greene in 1881 and began the practice; R. D. Prescott, at Shell Rock in the seventies; Colonel Woods, in the pioneer days at Butler Center, a town long since extinct; J. H. Boomer and Bur- rell, who at one time practiced at Shell Rock; D. W. Mason, who also practiced law in Butler county and was its first superintend- ent of schools; W. S. Montgomery, who located at Clarksville in 1880, and early acquired a large practice and held offices of trust in the county, now living in Allison; J. F. Ellsworth, who located at Bristow in 1875 and removed to Dakota in 1881; Oscar H. Scott, Allison; N. T. Johnson, W. P. Robertson, Sawyer Haswell, B. L. Richards, at one time in the practice at Parkersburg. Here fol- lows a list of names of the members of the bar now practicing in Butler county: D. Voogd, Aplington; W. C. Shepard, Allison; O. F. Missman, Allison; W. S. Montgomery, Allison; C. G. Burling, Clarksville; M. Hartness, Greene; C. M. Greene, Greene; R. R. Williamson, Parkersburg; W. T. Evans, Parkersburg; George A. McIntyre, Shell Rock; L. G. Arthurholt, Shell Rock.
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CHAPTER XI
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
The pioneers of the healing art in Butler county were the guardians of a widely dispersed population. Aside from their professional duties, they contributed their full share to the ma- terial development of a newly opened country. Some were men of culture, who had gained their medical education in college. Others were of limited educational attainments, whose profes- sional knowledge had been acquired in the offices of established practitioners of more or less ability in the sections from which they emigrated. Of either class almost without exception, they were practical men of great force of character, who gave cheerful and efficacious assistance to the suffering, daily journeying on horseback scores of miles, over a country almost destitute of roads, and encountering swollen unbridged streams, without waterproof garments or other now common protection against the elements. Out of necessity the pioneer physician developed rare quickness of perception and self-reliance. A specialist was then unknown, and the physician was called upon to treat every phase of bodily ailment, serving as physician, surgeon, oculist and den- tist. His books were few and there were no practitioners of more ability than himself with whom he might consult. His medicines were simple and carried on his person, and every preparation of pill or solution was the work of his own hands.
During the summer and autumn of 1854 cases of bilious re- mitting fever occurred, which readily yielded to treatment. The winter following several cases of bilious pneumonia demanded prompt attendance and special vigilance in the observance of changes indicative of greater danger. These were the diseases and the principal ones which called for medical help up to the year 1859. Since that year, or from that period, the summer and autumnal fevers have ceased to be epidemical and pneumonia has become less .
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frequent. It may be well to mention here that the fevers of 1859 after the third and fourth day assumed a typhoid character, the remission hardly observable, and the nervous depression occa- sioning great anxiety.
It was probably Dr. Rush of Philadelphia,-a great name up to about 1825-who said the lancet was a "sheet anchor" in all imflammatory diseases, so it might have been said of quinine, as used in remittent and intermittent fevers, in both the Missis- sippi and Missouri valleys from 1830 up to 1850. During that period 120,000 square miles west of the Mississippi and north of St. Louis became populated and all of it was more or less malari- ous. In some of these years the demand for quinine was so great that the supply in the American market became exhausted. "Sappington's pills" were indirectly the power which worked steamboats up the river from 1835 to 1843. They were verily the "sheet anchor," not only aboard boats but in many households. Dr. Sappington was a regular allopathic physician of considerable ability, residing up the Missouri river, who thought it would be a benefaction to the new civilization of the west to prepare quinine ready to be taken in the form of pills. Boxes of his pills contained four dozen each and the pellets two grains each. The direction on the box was to take from two to twenty as the urgency of the case seemed to require, without reference to the stage of the paroxysm.
In the early days the doctor had a "hard road to travel" in Butler county. Everything was in a primitive stage. There were no roads, bridges, or other means of travel than by "foot or horse- back." He made his own pills, or pellets, compounded needed nostrums and when in doubt in a critical case, had only his own na- tive wit and ability to consult. Drug stores were unknown in the region, hence drugs and surgical instruments and appliances were scarce, and only to be obtained by a long and tedious journey to "the city," wherever that may have happened to be. The settle- ments were scattering and far apart, but no matter the distance, let the weather be ever so inclement or the going so bad, the pioneer doctor strapped his saddlebags to his "critter" and mounting the faithful brute, took the trail and kept it to his jour- ney's end, which often would be a lone log cabin, tenanted by a settler without a dollar in the world.
The pioneer physician was indeed a martyr to his profession and ambition. He was in every way, save and except a moiety of skill and unbounded faith and determination, poorly equipped
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for his work; but he managed to meet the demands upon his abili- ties and energies and was generally loved and venerated for his many personal qualities as a ministering angel, a neighbor and a man.
The charlatan was not wanting in the community, even in the days of its incubation. There were quacks and herb doctors, who plied their trade to a greater or less extent and, as a matter of fact, the first to take up the practice of the healing art in the commun- ity were not "regular" practitioners; that is to say, they were not qualified as graduates of a medical institution to diagnose a case or prescribe medicine. However, there were persons of the latter character who attended the sick and ailing, who will long be re- membered for the good they accomplished.
To illustrate and accentuate what already has been said of the hardships and dangers which were the hourly menace of the pio- neer physician, the following excerpts from a reminiscent sketch, written by Dr. John Scoby, of Shell Rock, for the History of But- ler county, published in 1883, are reproduced. The worthy phy- sician relates:
"By the solicitation of friends and former acquaintances I visited Shell Rock in the spring of 1856. The village then num- bered from fifteen to twenty families. There were two clergymen and a justice of the peace. There was one small dry-goods store, one sawmill, and a flouring mill being erected. I viewed the Shell Rock river at this place, and thought then, as I do now, that it was the finest stream of pure water I had ever seen. Its hydraulic power at this point was sufficient to drive a great amount of machinery. Its waters were stored with vast numbers of fine fish; its banks crowned with fine timber, and frequently skirted with waving groves of small timber. After viewing the local ad- vantages here, I harnessed my trusty mare, Fanny, and started southwest to take a view of the prairie. Fanny ferried me over the Shell Rock, there being no bridge. It was the last of May; the undulating plains were dressed in Nature's gay attire of living green. There were but few, if any, laid-out or worked roads or bridges in the county. I traveled on, as best I could, avoiding the sloughs, which were very miry. Log cabins were occasionally to be seen; but the most of these rich alluvial prairies were then per- forming their diurnal and revolutionary movements, without a human inhabitant.
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"After meandering over the country, visiting the different localities, where villages were being started, I returned to Shell Rock and located here as a physician. I purchased several town lots, which, like most of the other lots, were in their wild condition, covered with hazel bushes, limbs of trees, decaying logs and mudholes. The next summer I erected my present cot- tage house, which is enclosed with two-inch plank spiked into sills eight inches square. This cottage stands the test of moving time, with but few signs of decay. Within a few years I built on my lots two more dwelling houses, which have been occupied by families for several years. In the meantime I purchased fifty acres of land lying contiguous to the town plat, which has been cleared of its timber and underbrush, and for years has yielded splendid harvests of wheat and corn.
"My family arrived here from Ohio in September, 1856. They had never seen wild uncultivated prairies before. Why were they brought to such an awful looking place? There was not a well worked street. The town was full of stumps, logs, bushes, underbrush and mudholes. The schoolhouse was but a rude log shanty, and the meeting house but little better. Soon they dis- covered squads of Indians rambling up and down the river. Their fears were excited. The torch fire, the war club, the hatchet and the scalping knife would be raised. They would return to friends in Ohio. They would not stay here to be murdered by Indians, or to be torn to pieces by wild beasts. This prairie country was only fitted for Indians, bears, wolves and ferocious wild beasts. The Indians were peaceable and friendly, and our family fears subsided into friendly donations.
"During the first summer and fall my medical rides extended over a large part of this county and into the adjoining counties. My long rides were fatiguing. Chills and fever were frequent, and most of the cabins were increasing their family numbers. In the month of November a dangerous type of typhoid fever began to rage, which proved fatal in some localities, and continued its ravages during the winter.
"Here in Shell Rock how changed are the rides and labors of practicing physicians. There has long been three or four prac- ticing physicians located here, all of whom do not travel over more territory in their medical rides than one did between the years 1820 and 1830, when there was not a good road or a safe bridge in the county. Now they can dance their spring buggies
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or sleighs over smooth roads by day or night. No sloughs in which to mire; no wolves to growl; no prairie fires to dread or to flee from; no deep rivers to wade through in the darkness of the night; no drifted sloughs on the lonely, wild prairie, to wallow through in the depth of winter. In this incorporated town, for the last ten years, there has been but few if any thistle or thorn beds, or wiry brush beds filled with wild, stinging nettles and burdock burrs to tear the clothes and scratch and bleed the doctor's hands, and no filthy mudholes in which to soil his boots and pants. He winds his way by night or day over well graded streets and well finished sidewalks, calling, as required, at fine brick, stone or wood residences, without opening a log cabin door."
The first physician to locate in Butler county was James .E. Walker, who selected Clarksville as a place of residence in the year 1854. He was well versed in the theory and practice of his profession and endeared himself to the settlers of the early days by his warmth of heart and the skill displayed in combating the ailments that came under his observation and ministrations. In 1857, Dr. Walker was elected clerk of the courts, serving one term. A few years later he returned to Maine, his native home. Other early physicians at Clarksville, the first town in the county, were Drs. Jeremiah Wilcox and J. F. Logan. Later physicians were Drs. A. F. Tichenor, D. S. Byers, M. C. Camp and H. W. Dicken- son.
Dr. John Scoby, who is quoted at length in the beginning of this chapter, was the pioneer physician of Shell Rock, locating there in May, 1856. He was born in New Hampshire, received academic training and attended lectures and clinics at Dartmouth Medical College in the year 1824, graduating as a physician and surgeon in 1826. For some years Dr. Scoby was in the practice in eastern cities and spent twenty years in his profession at Jack- son, Ohio. He came to Shell Rock in 1856 and of his early experi- ences in Butler county mention has already been made. An ex- cellent physician and skilled surgeon were the professional attri- butes of Dr. Scoby, who continued in the practice at Shell Rock until 1875, and then retired upon well earned laurels and a com- petency.
Dr. M. I. Powers came to Parkersburg in 1867 and was the first physician to locate there. He was not only an able and con- scientious practitioner but also progressive and enterprising. He at once became one of the leaders in building up Parkersburg and
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his name is frequently mentioned in the history of that splendid little city.
Dr. A. O. Strout, a native of Portland, Maine, found his way to Chicago in 1867 and there taught school five years; in the mean- time he read medicine and graduated from the Chicago Medical College with the class of 1875. Dr. Strout located in Parkersburg in 1879 and soon was recognized as a leader in his profession.
In speaking of the early physicians at Parkersburg the names of Drs. E. B. Ensign and John Wyatt are deserving of a place here. They were of the homeopathic school.
Dr. E. Leroy Turner began the practice of medicine at Bristow in 1874. He came with his father from Illinois to Shell Rock in 1856, read medicine in the office of Dr. Boys, at Waverly, and graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1871. Dr. Turner then practiced at Shell Rock a short time and finally lo- cated at Bristow, succeeding Dr. Charles McCormack. He built up a lucrative practice and became a leading citizen of the little town.
Dr. H. S. Strickland preceded Dr. Turner at Bristow in point of time. Both he and Dr. McCormack remained in the village some years and then left for other scenes of professional activity.
Dr. Jacob Krebbs located in Bristow in 1881. He spent a year at Notre Dame University, read medicine, graduated from the medical department of the Iowa State University and located in the practice of his profession at Geneva, Illinois. Upon the re- moval of Dr. Strickland he succeeded to that physician's practice.
In the year 1871 Dr. Nichols opened an office at Greene and was the first person to take up the practice of medicine in the place. He was of the old school of medics and secured a remuner -. ative practice. However, he finally removed to Rockford.
Dr. V. C. Birney settled at Greene in 1872. His father was a physician, who gave the lad good schooling and then sent him to Rush Medical College, and the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, Keokuk. He graduated from the latter institute in 1873.
Dr. C. C. Huckins came to Greene in 1873 and opened an office. . He was a native of Maine; served in the Civil war; attended lec- tures at the Maine Medical School; and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He came west thoroughly equipped for the prac- tice and made a success of his undertaking at Greene.
Miss H. D. Cramer came to Greene from Wisconsin in the; seventies and opened an office as a regular, practicing physician.
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She met with a fair measure of success in her chosen profession. She removed to Mason City and there resumed her practice.
Dr. William Young was in the practice at Greene but a short time when death called him in 1878. He was a graduate and had the ability to win a place among his fellows, but the fates decided against him.
A. K. Johnson was a homeopathic physician who located in Greene in 1880. Doctor Johnson graduated from Hahnemann Medical College in 1878. Another early physician here was Dr. John Nevins, who enjoyed a measurably good practice.
Dr. D. M. Wick located at New Hartford in 1875. He attended public schools of Illinois, Mount Morris Seminary and Cornell Col- lege, Iowa. One year was spent in the medical department of Ann Arbor University and two years at the Chicago Medical College, from which he graduated with the class of 1874. He was a mem- ber of the Iowa State Medical Association and a charter member of the Butler County Medical Society.
Dr. William H. H. Hagey became prominent in business and social circles of New Hartford in the early days. He was a Penn- sylvanian by birth; gained a common school education in Illinois; served his country in the Civil war; graduated from Rush Medical College in 1868; practiced for a while in Whiteside county, Illi- nois and Chicago, and in July, 1881, came to New Hartford, where he built up a large and remunerative practice.
Dr. E. L. Thorp first saw the light of day at Bedford, Mass., in 1836; removed with his parents to Kenosha and there attended the public schools and afterwards entered Beloit College. He studied medicine and attended lectures and clinics at Rush Medi- . cal College; began the practice of his profession at Shell Rock in 1865; took a post-graduate course at Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati; became prominent as a physician and surgeon and together with his practice maintained a drug store twelve years at Shell Rock.
Dr. E. H. Dudley came to Shell Rock in the formative days of that lively trading point and opened an office. He was well prepared for the vocation chosen, having secured a classical edu- cation at Evansville Seminary in Wisconsin from which he gradu- ated in 1868. At the age of sixteen, he was a Union soldier in a Wisconsin regiment, graduated from Rush Medical College in the winter of 1873-4, and spent a few months in the practice at Broad- head, Wis. He came to Shell Rock in 1875 and became an efficient
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and successful physician. Doctor Dudley was a member of the State and Butler County Medical Societies and in 1880, was appointed United States medical examiner for pensions.
Another physician who located at Shell Rock in the '70s was Dr. W. H. Smith, who was born at Sheboygan, Wis., in 1851. He was well educated, attended Wayland Academy, at Beaver Dam, Wis., studied medicine in Milwaukee and graduated from Rush Medical College in 1878. He practiced medicine at Sheboygan a few months and then located at Shell Rock. Doctor Smith was a member of the State and Butler County Medical Societies. Dr. E. E. Sill established an office and practiced here as a "homeo- path" in 1881 and secured a large clientele.
Dr. E. L. Blackmore was one of the pioneer physicians at Aplington. He was well fortified for his professional duties, hav- ing attended a course of lectures at the St. Louis Medical College, of which he is a graduate. In 1868 the doctor located at Butler Center, from which place he removed to Aplington in 1873. Doctor Blackmore was one of the prosperous and influential citizens of this place and at one time was owner of the Aplington Mills.
THE BUTLER COUNTY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
The Butler County Medical Association was organized April 2, 1878, with the following members: F. H. Boucher, H. L. Isher- wood, Clarksville; J. H. Brower, Butler Center; E. H. Dudley, Shell Rock; M. I. Powers, Parkersburg; I. R. Spooner, D. M. Wick, New Hartford; E. Leroy Turner, Bristow.
The first officers were I. R. Spooner, president; E. L. Turner, vice president; F. H. Boucher, secretary ; H. L. Isherwood, treas- urer; M. I. Powers, J. H. Brower, E. H. Dudley, censors.
The object of the society is based on and is in conjunction with the tenets of the Iowa State Medical Association. No one not a graduate of an accredited medical college is eligible to member- ship. The first meeting was held at Butler Center and interest in the society has been maintained up to the present time, although called meetings in some of the years were few and far between.
The present officers of the society are: P. R. Burroughs, of Allison, president; J. L. Scripture, Clarksville, secretary and treasurer.
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NAMES OF PAST AND PRESENT BUTLER COUNTY PHYSICIANS
The Twenty-first General Assembly, which met in 1886, passed a law requiring all persons desiring to practice medicine in any county of the state to have his certificate recorded in the office of the county recorder. Since the passage of this law, the following physicians who have since removed from the county have regis- tered their certificates with the Butler county recorder :
Allison, T. B. Askew, S. E. Burroughs, Jerome Burbank, P. R. Burroughs, E. A. Hazlet, James S. Riggs, D. N. Reeve, Norman M. Smith, Willis J. Vaupell.
Aplington, E. L. Blackmore, Harriet N. Blackmore, John W. Cunningham, Thomas A. Hobson, John A. Rolfs, Charles W. Vroom.
Aredale, E. J. Thierman, H. J. Wickman.
Bristow, G. W. Appleby, E. H. Best, H. E. Day, A. J. Hob- son, A. E. Rodgers, R. E. Robinson.
Clarksville, D. S. Byers, J. N. Clemmer, W. F. Gannon, T. D. Haner, W. H. William, J. F. Logan, W. E. Patterson, H. C. Smith, J. L. Scripture, C. C. Smith.
Dumont, W. E. Day, M. St. Peter.
Greene, W. R. Arthur, Varillas Birney, L. S. Boyce, A. H. Bruce, V. C. Birney, A. E. Cainey, M. B. Call, H. M. De War, C. C. Huckins, John Nevins.
New Hartford, C. W. Childs, John G. Evans, E. T. Jaynes, A. E. Kauffman, I. M. McBride, D. H. Pelletier, Duncan Reed, C. P. Soper, D. M. Wick.
Parkersburg, E. I. Bradley, J. J. Fisher, H. C. Hunter, Leo- pold Louis, M. A. Marty, Hugh Mullarky, Jr., W. E. Noble, M. I. Powers, W. W. Parker, A. O. Strout.
Shell Rock, J. F. Auner, E. H. Dudley, Bruce Ensley, J. R. W. Kirton, F. N. Mead, W. H. Smith, E. L. Sheldon, E. L. Thorp.
In addition, the following have practiced for brief intervals in the county :
O. P. Thompson, Allison; T. A. Dumont, Dumont; E. A. Can- tonwine, Parkersburg; W. C. Lathrop, Clarksville; M. A. Taylor, Clarksville; D. W. Battin, Shell Rock; - -Classen, Shell Rock.
The addresses given above are those where the physicians were located at the time of the first registration of their certificates in Butler county. Since that time in the case of several their loca- tions have changed and they are practicing at the present time in other towns of the county.
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CHAPTER XII
`THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS
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The press of a community reflects the tone, character and sen- timent of its people. It is justly considered among the most important institutions of every city, town and village. The peo- ple regard their particular newspaper as of peculiar value, not merely on account of the facts already alluded to, but because the paper is the repository wherein is stored fact and events, the deeds and the sayings that go to make up the local history. One by one these things are gathered and placed in type; one by one the papers are issued; one by one these papers are gathered together and bound, and another volume of local, general and individual history is laid away, imperishable. The volumes thus collected are the sources of research for the historian and are often referred to by the editor himself. The local press, as a rule, reflects the business enterprise of a place, and judging from this standard, the enterprise of the citizens of Butler county is indeed commendable. Its papers are well filled though not overcrowded, with advertisements of home merchants and of its business affairs. No paper can exist without these advertisements and no commu- nity can flourish as it should that does not use the advertising col- umns of its local papers.
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