USA > Iowa > Jasper County > Past and present of Jasper County, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 23
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Early in the eighties the state laws were so changed that a "quack" was prohibited from practicing medicine, and this rule of law has made higher and better the standard of doctors throughout the commonwealth. The bitter fights between "old school" and other medical schools, including homeo- pathic, osteopathic, and even Christian Science treatment. has about been abandoned: the rank and file of physicians now see some good in the eclectic school as well as in the "regular," and if patients care to take treatment with any new school the reputable doctor is not offended, and indeed if he himself thinks anything is to be gained by using some of the remedies of other schools he feels at liberty to do so, and calls it perfectly professional. In short, the men engaged in the practice of medicine have been trained at in- stitutions of learning controlled by broad-gauged men, who see some good in all rational methods and have come to seek a cure, rather than carry into practice a pet theory of any school of medicine.
PHYSICIANS OF JASPER COUNTY. (By Dr. Perry Engle.)
The first physician in this county to establish a medical practice was Dr. Henry Rodgers, who came from Pendleton, Indiana, and settled in Newton in 1847. He was the father of John F. Rodgers, of Newton, and an uncle of T. M. Rodgers, of the Neweton Record. Once while riding through the woods he was chased by a wild cat that tried to jump on his horse. He had a very severe spell of sickness and was just convalescent when some of his patients near Grinnell came after him to see someone very sick; no buggies were in the county then and the Doctor was unable to ride a horse, so a bed
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was rigged up in a wagon in which the devoted Doctor made his trip. He came home, took a relapse and died at the age of thirty-seven years. He saved his patient. He died that others might live. When the anxious John in- quired from the seaside prison, "Art thou He that shall come?" Christ sent reply : "The lame walk, the blind see." Is not the saving of the lives of others divine? Doctor Rodgers was buried in the Newton cemetery in 1855.
William Patton was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1818; graduated in medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio. He practiced medicine in Rock Creek town- ship, Jasper county, from 1855 to 1862, when he died from cerebro spinal meningitis, contracted while attending patients in Grinnell afflicted with that fatal malady. He was the father of I. L. Patton. ex-sheriff of Jasper county. He died May 6, 1862, in Rock Creek township.
Andrew Patton was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1808, and practiced in Newton three years before enlisting in the army ; he was a surgeon in a colored regiment. His residence was where the Methodist parsonage now stands : he left Newton in 1865 for Nevada, Iowa, where he died in 1888.
M. W. Richey practiced at Colfax, but for many years has been located in LeMars, Plymouth county, Iowa, where he has built up a large practice.
N. W. Gearhart, another Colfax doctor, is now in Pierre, South Dakota.
Lindley S. Blackledge, who was in Newton in 1883, is now in Orosi, California.
A. T. Ault came to Newton in 1855, and later was elected county treas- urer, served in the Union army as captain in Company C, of an Iowa regi- ment. After the war he moved to Missouri, where he died.
Drs. Neeley and A. L. Gray were active practitioners in Newton in 1854. B. M. Failor was born February 21, 1831, in Bucyrus, Ohio. In 1853 he married Sarah Picking. To them one child was born, Anna, now Mrs. Grandstaff, of Burlington, Iowa. He was a surgeon of the Nineteenth Regi- ment Ohio Volunteers and had a horse shot from under him at the battle of Stone River. He located in Newton in 1865. He was secretary of the Jasper County Medical Society for twenty years. He had charge of a field corps hospital in Mississippi. Garrett Post, Grand Army of the Republic, Woman's Relief Corps and the Jasper Society attended his funeral. In his professional business he was generous to a fault, never refusing a call on the score of pov- erty. He was, while returning from a sick call, waylaid and robbed. He died September 12, 1901.
James M. Brown was born in Newton and was a son of Rev. T. F. Brown; was one of the editors of the Iowa National; was a man of ability and a successful practitioner. He is now practicing in western Nebraska, having left Newton in 1878.
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A. H. Buchanan died in Baxter, Iowa, April 3, 1911. He was born at sea January 1, 1830. For three years he lived at Delina, Alabama. At the age of three years he came with his parents to Richland county. Ohio, and lived on a farm near Hayesville. After preparatory study he was graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine in Bellville, Ohio, for twenty-five years. In 1862 he married Irene Wade, who died in 1876. To them two children were born, one of whom died in infancy, the other being Astella V. Hunter. In 1876 he came to Newton, Iowa, where he lived two years, then moved to Baxter, Iowa. July 9th he married Isabelle Donaldson, and to this marriage one child was born. His wife and two daughters survive him. Ilis life was a success, and he left the world the better for his having lived in it.
Eugene Augustus Goodwin was born April 10, 1831, at Hallowell, Maine, He spent much time teaching. He graduated from the University of Michi- gan in 1871, and from there he entered the Long Island Medical College. from which he also graduated. He first practiced medicine in New Jersey, from where he moved to Newton, Iowa, in 1873. He practiced two years. then located in Baxter, this county, and finally engaged in farming. June 14. 1861, he'enlisted in Company F. Ninety-ninth New York Volunteers ; he was a valiant soklier of the Potomac and witnessed the memorable battle between the "Merrimac" and "Monitor." He was discharged July 2, 1864; died October 18, 1910, and was buried at Baxter.
John S. Hunter came from Carrollton, Ohio, to Newton, Iowa, in 1857. at which time his competitors were Drs. Ault, Neeley. Rodgers, Hammer, Dinwiddie, Gray and others. The Doctor was the father of five children, Dr. Henry E. Hunter being one of them. He was a successful practitioner for years, and died and was buried in Newton.
Henry E. Hunter was born in Carrolltown, Ohio, September 18. 1830. He came to Newton in 1854. He returned to his old home and was married to Sarah A. Wilson February 27, 1855. To this union two children were born, George M. Hunter, and Carrie Hunter, who married C. E. Stubbs ; she died in confinement in Chicago in 1885. Doctor Hunter first kept house in a frame building standing where the "Churchill" now stands. He was sent by the people of this county to care for our soldiers at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He came in a stage from Davenport, Iowa, to Newton and began practice with Dr. A. T. Ault. and at the time of his death he was the oldest practicing physician in the county. In medical ethics, Doctor Hunter was the soul of honor, brave, manly and just ; his religious environment was the strictest cut of Presbyter- ianism, but at his death he was a liberal, a seeker of truth, and an example of
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equity. He died of brain trouble June 20, 1902 : his pall bearers were Dr. S. Druett, of Anamosa, Perry Engle, L. E. S. Turner, C. Boyd, E. F. Besser, C. C. Smead and J. T. Hendershot.
William Bailey was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, on the 14th of March, 1819, and died in Newton, Iowa, on the 25th of July, 1907, aged eighty-eight years. He was a son of Rev. William Bailey, who was one of John Wesley's preachers. When a lad of ten years of age he came with his father to America and settled in New York state. and later moved to Ohio, where he grew to manhood. He earned his money for an education and grad- uated from the Lake Erie University in Columbus, as Doctor of Medicine at the age of twenty-three years. He practiced medicine for twenty-five years in Ohio and two years in Newton, Iowa. When he left his parental home to fight life's battles, he had but two dollars, one of which he gave to his loving mother, the other dollar was his only cash capital, which, with his honesty, energy and industry. made him rich. He bought a horse on credit; the horse died and he was compelled to make his rounds to visit his patients on foot. His patients many of them were poor and his practice large. His big generous heart took in his patients as well as his mother. He gave thousands of dollars in services and medicines gladly to the poor and unfortunate. In giving his life for others, the kind hearted Doctor often suffered from want and hunger. He instructed his family to never turn a tramp away hungry. His sympathies took in animals and birds as well as humanity. He was engaged in general merchandise in Newton for two years and then owned and successfully man- aged a large farm near Baxter. He was twice married and had seven children born. In 1893 he and his faithful daughter. Margaret, made their home in Newton. He was a charter member of the Masonic lodge of Baxter.
I. A. Hammer was born in Tennessee, and came to Newton in 1864. He was a man of marked ability and served as mayor of Newton two terms. In 1872 he moved to Des Moines and was elected city clerk. In 1892 he moved to Chicago, where he practiced medicine until his death, that occurred January I. 1900. He was a Methodist preacher, as well as a doctor, and he could marry a couple, officiate at the birth, and preach the funeral sermon, and do all the work well. He was an uncle of Dr. Marion Hammer.
James Cooper was raised in Jasper county, read medicine with Perry Engle, and is now a prominent practitioner in Rockwell City, Iowa.
J. Ridhout located in Jasper county in the early fifties, practiced a few years in Newton and for many years near Baxter. He died in Newton when nearly ninety years of age.
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Max Miller read medicine with J. R. Gorrell and is now in Newton, Kan- sas.
George Clark was J. R. Gorrell's student, also Charles Erichson, who located in Des Moines, where he died.
A. B. Thornell was located in Newton in the sixties, but moved to Knox- ville, where he died.
Drs. Wolf and Willey practiced in Newton about fifty years ago.
J. Lindley read medicine with J. R. Gorrell, located and died while a young man at Maringo, Iowa.
The following is a miscellaneous list of doctors who have practiced in Jasper county, and who have removed to other lands or are dead. The pres- ent whereabouts are given when known to the writer :
C. C. Graham, of Baxter. now located at Des Moines, traveling salesman for antitoxin.
H. C. Potter, formerly of Prairie City, is now located in Des Moines.
J. W. Beck, of Kellogg, moved to Des Moines, where he served several terms as coroner, and where he died.
S. F. Miller, once located at Colfax, Prairie City and Baxter, died at Baxter.
H. C. Eschbaugh was located in Monroe and moved to Albia, where he has a lucrative practice.
J. L. Pifer left Newton for Chicago.
W. R. Trotter, once of Newton, is now in Des Moines.
J. T. Robbins left Newton in 1897 for Des Moines, where he is still located.
A. C. Simonton was in partnership with Henry E. Hunter, but is now located in the far West.
C. J. Lukins read medicine with Perry Engle, moved to Oskaloosa, and from there to Oklahoma.
J. T. Hendershot practiced in Monroe, where he died of phthisis.
H. C. Finch left Lynnville and is now in Oklahoma.
E. H. Robb, of Newton, is now in Meenah, Wisconsin.
D. W. Smouse left Monroe for Des Moines.
Theodore Engle left Newton for State Center, where he is running a large sanitarium.
J. C. McNutt left Reasoner and his residence is unknown.
W. W. Goodrich, once in Ira. this county, is now on the Pacific coast. engaged in other business.
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A. Moxley, of Kellogg, removed to parts unknown.
W. H. E. Booth, of Newton, is now practicing in Lebanon, Oregon.
E. M. French died in Newton.
A. W. Adair, who practiced in Kellogg for more than forty years, moved to Des Moines, where he died.
E. H. Mershon practiced in Newton and vicinity for forty years and died in Newton.
J. R. Smith was a successful practitioner of Kellogg, where he died.
J. B. Coor, of Monroe, removed and residence is not known.
E. M. Holland, of Colfax, died in that city.
E. D. Allen, of Monroe, died there.
J. R. Ryan, of Colfax, served humanity there more than forty years and moved to Des Moines, where he followed his profession ten years and died of cancer of the stomach.
George Franzee, of Greencastle, this county, moved to Shelby county. where he died.
J. G. Bidwell and W. T. Geary, of Prairie City, removed to parts un- known to the writer.
Joseph Cowgill read medicine with Perry Engle and practiced medicine in Newton and is now located in Colorado Springs. Colorado.
Bailey Thomas was a son of Prof. Thomas, founder of Hazel Dell Academy, Newton, and read medicine with Perry Engle, and is now a leading physician at Carthage, Missouri.
Frank Hunter also read with Perry Engle, located and died at Newton. Howard Gray left Newton, and is now located in Des Moines.
E. E. Lusk left Newton, but his residence is unknown.
O. N. Jones left Colfax and, we believe, is deceased.
J. W. Martain, of Colfax, left, but we know not of his residence.
Harlan Wells was associated with J. R. Gorrell for a year and then moved to Wisconsin.
John Thomas Hendershot was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, December 2. 1842: he died in Monroe. April 5. 1903. of consumption. He came to Monroe from Otley in 1883: in 1877 he married Lucy A. Dunn, who, with one son, survives him.
W. F. Stouder was born in Ohio July 12, 1850; came to Newton from Des Moines and died November 9. 1908. He was the Socialist candidate for Congress from Des Moines, and polled a large vote.
Frank Carpenter has moved from Sully to Pella, Iowa, recently.
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PRESENT PRACTICING PHYSICIANS.
At Newton-J. R. Gorrell, Perry Engle, Harry P. Engle, E. F. Besser, Charles E. Boyd, M. R. Hammer. C. C. Smead. H. V. Byers, J. C. Hill. L. O. Rodgers, M. R. Harding. H. F. Landis.
At Colfax-A. B. S. Turner. I. E. C. Turner, Florence Browif Sherbon. John Bayard Sherbon. F. E. Boyd. J. C. Corselius, William W. Hawk, Numa T. Weston. Royal Anspach. Frank W. Stewart.
At Lynnville-C. E. Quire. Austin R. Quire.
At Baxter-Paul Keoper, C. C. Graham. Herbert W. Canfield.
At Prairie City-J. F. Harp. W. D. McCannaughey, J. N. Porter. W. B. Chase.
At Monroe-W. H. Shaw, J. L. Taylor, G. W. Loar. C. J. Aplin, James A. Shrader. G. L. Smith, J. L. Taylor. Daniel W. Wheelwright.
At Sully-O. O. Carpenter. J. C. Smith.
At Mingo-D. C. Garner.
At Kellogg-B. Liesman, J. F. Hackett, Dr. Woods.
At Vandalia-A. M. Norris.
At Reasoner-Frank Carpenter
COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETIES.
Jasper county's first medical society was organized in May, 1858. Doctor Hunter was elected chairman and Doctor Hunter. Jr., secretary. Drs. Harris and Gray were selected to frame a constitution and by-laws. Drs. Dinwiddie and Hunter. Jr., were to draw up a fee bill. The society com- pleted its organization May 24. 1858, and it had five members. Dr. E. H. Mershon was called the "odd man." This society was short-lived, and Jasper county had no medical society until June, 1874. when another was organized with the following officers: J. W. Shooley, of Monroe, president : J. W. Adams, of Prairie City, vice-president: B. M. Failor, of Newton, secretary ; J. R. Gorrell, of Newton, as treasurer: H. E. Hunter, of Newton. I. A. Hammer, of Colfax. W. H. Shaw, of Monroe, censors.
The present society is composed of twenty-five members and the follow- ing are its officers : Harry Perry Engle. president : L. E. C. Turner, vice- president : Frank E. Boyd, secretary: Perry Engle. C. C. Boyd and John Sherbon, censors.
CHAPTER XVII.
BANKS AND BANKING OF THE COUNTY.
Banking, while not the first business demanded in any given community, is, after the settlement has advanced a few years, a very important adjunct to civilization and commerce. The pioneer had but little if indeed any money to deposit, and he had, as a general rule, but little property to put up as se- curity for money should he want to borrow, hence the bankers did not appear on the scenes of pioneer life very early, and then only in a very small way did they profess to carry on banking business, as it is now understood. Today. the farmer is as much of a bank depositor and is engaged in large trans- actions in stock and realty, by which he needs the assistance of a bank. fully as much as the business men of city and town. The citizens of Jasper county, who came in early and remained here, or their children and grandchildren who came after them, have, by reason of decades of hard work in tilling the fertile soil. and by the advance in land values, become wealthy and prosperous. They ride in carriages and automobiles; they use the modern phone and rural mail service and have to do with the great busy world about them to a large degree, hence they have come to need the banker. Once the bank only loaned short time loans to the farmer, to tide him over a pinched period. till he could thresh or sell his stock, but now the farmer has a plenty and to spare, hence deposits, loans to others and takes certificates of deposits, running six and twelve months in many cases.
PROSPEROUS TIMES OF THE FIFTIES.
From 1852 on for a number of years-until the crash of 1857-the West was in a prosperous condition, financially, at least for those days in the history of our country. Immigrants by the tens of thousands had found their way across the Mississippi river, in quest of new homes on the rich prairies of Iowa. Times were flourishing in the Eastern states, and many well-to-do farmers there, having tired of stony, stumpy fields, sold. and with the cash received, ventured out into this section of the West. Usually they had sold their farms in the East for one-third down, and agreed to wait for the other two-thirds a term of years. Country towns Indian agent Beach of Fort Des Moines. who notified the Indians that un- in Indiana and Illinois reaped a harvest from the lengthy trains of teams
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with covered wagons, known as "prairie schooners," which crossed the great river over into the land "beautiful." of which they had heard so much.
No sooner had these pioncers made a selection of land and erected a claim cabin on the same, than it was up to them to purchase machinery. cattle, swine and horses with which to stock and improve their newly bought places. This took much money. Grain had to come from the farmer al- ready in advance of him; plows with which to turn over the virgin soil had to come from the maker and dealer in such implements; lumber had to be sawed from native forests, and this cost money. But fortunately, many received money on deferred payments on farms once owned in some one of older Eastern states, which came due and followed on here to Jasper county in 1855 and 1856, hence everybody seemed for the time to be "well off." As is ever the case when money is plenty, speculation goes rampant and men get in the habit of indulging in luxuries not thought of in more stringent times. It was then towns were laid out and schools and colleges founded. But with these times came the higher rate of interest, and finally it was no uncommon thing to ask and receive twenty-five per cent. per an- num for the use of cash with which to go into some wild-cat scheme-a paper townsite, a milling project or a college. But really, the more fortu- nate of all was the stout man whose good, paid-for team would bring him in three dollars a day at breaking prairie, or hauling freight from the market places. Again, another would pay for a threshing machine in one year's threshing season and be ready for the next year all out of debt. But ten years later, the man who owned a machine was the most unfortunate man man in the county, for sometimes they lost their all by purchasing a high- priced machine and then trying to thresh in a season when grain did not yield.
So gay and glorious did things look to the newcomer that he went wild over speculation. Frequently, he could make a hundred per cent. in one week on a single transaction, such as buying a corner town lot and selling it before Saturday night came around at twice what he had given. Labor did not make the first fortunes in Iowa and Jasper county. but specu- lation was at the back of those early-day fortunes.
SPECIE PAYMENT IN THE COUNTY.
The first specie payment in Jasper county was unquestionably in the autumn of 1844, when forty thousand dollars was sent in silver coin to less they called for it immediately he would have to send it back, as he feared robbery. He meant to send this money due the tribe back to Agency
(17)
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City. The untutored savages looked as earnestly for pay day as does the workman of today for his pay day to come. They frequently held a council for a month before time to be able to not make any errors or to give any chance for the money to be sent back to Washington. In one instance a forty-thousand-dollar lot of money was guarded day and night at the cabin home of the first settler, Adam Tool, who, it will be remembered, kept a sort of an inn at Tool's Point, near Monroe of today. The specie arrived at the forks of the river, but the Indians, as usual, were not yet ready to receive it, as they had gotten into a dispute over whether it should be paid to the heads of the families, to the chiefs or to the traders from whom goods had been purchased. After a day or two parleying about the mat- ter, Beach was as good as his word and started the silver back to Agency City, and again stopped over night at Tool's tavern. The Indians feared they might miss the cash entirely if they did not quickly decide, so they notified Beach to have the money turned over to the trader at once, who took out what was coming to him and allowed the balance to be retained by the Indians, so that in all this mix up, the forty thousand dollars laid several nights at Tool's place.
This was probably the first large amount of money kept at any one place within Jasper county, either for public or private use.
THE PANIC OF 1857.
Nearly every one is familiar with the facts, in general, about the great crash of 1857, which almost wrecked the entire country financially. But perhaps not all know of some of the local happenings in this county, in common with other points in Iowa.
It was in the month of August, 1857. when the Ohio Life and Trust Company, a corporation doing business as bankers and life insurance ac- tivities, produced a panic on Wall street, New York City. A score of banks suspended payment, and a couple of weeks later bank failures became com- mon from Maine to the South and West. So inflated had been the financial condition of the country that speculators had been allowed to check on banks and give security only on lands yet undiscovered beyond the waters of the Missouri river, in what is now Nebraska and Kansas. When this crash came, gold and silver (as is ever the case) hid itself away, and soon followed the choicest of bank bills of Massachusetts, New York and Ohio, leaving nothing but the "wild-cat" bills, "red dog" money, etc., of the West- ern states whose banking systems had not been noted for their regularity
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in payment at par. Then came the tumble of prices in land, town property, live stock and general merchandise. It is said that upon an average these commodities fell fully fifty per cent.
The farmer could not, and did not, pay his taxes and in many cases lost his land, the same having been sold for taxes. The sheriff of Jasper county was the biggest real estate dealer here. He had good, but unpleas- ant, deals on hand every day in the week and every month in those never- to-be-forgotten years, remembered best by the fathers and grandfathers of those now owning and occupying the lands of Jasper county. Those were the harvest days for those who had kept their cash well in hand and had the money at the right time, to bid on tax titles.
The limit of time for redemption was short then as compared with the three year limit of today. . So bad was the case in lowa, that the Legisla- ture had to step in and relieve actual settlers from execution, by extending the day of redemption on taxes unpaid by land owners. .
The granaries of Jasper county were indeed full to the overflowing. The fertile soil had kept on producing well and the amount of wheat, oats and corn in crib and granary was something wonderful to behold. Good horses stood in the stables and sheds, fat steers and hogs in their wonted places, but there was no cash to be seen or had "for love or high interest," as one pioneer put it. The storekeeper would take such commodities in exchange for his wares-at his own price, however. For many weary, anxious months the transactions were all accomplished on this barter plan. Notes were given for so many bushels of wheat or corn, or again for so many pounds of pork. When a farmer wanted a sled or wagon, new or repaired, he first had to consult the mechanic or dealer as to what sort of "truck" he would take and how much he would allow for the same, for such and such articles, or work to be performed.
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