USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 31
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period of time undergone a sublime transition. If the doctor of forty years ago could awaken today to the technical advancement of medicine and surgery he would feel much as a Rip Van Winkle victimized by the slumbering of a thousand years. The science and art of obstetrics have kept pace in progress with the other branches of medicine. No longer do we look with mysterious ignorance upon a parturient patient distressed with high fever and abdominal tenderness and bloating that was thought to be due to "taking cold" or some- thing "mysteriously wrong within." But we know now that this is an infec- tion from without, that has been introduced within by the patient, her attend- ants or her physician. And if there is a man in O'Brien county today prac- ticing medicine who does not know enough to prepare his hands clean enough to use in an appendix operation, he is a disgrace to the medical profession and to the age in which he is living and ought to be compelled to retire from the practice of obstetrics. Cleanliness, especially in obstetrics, is next to godliness and the physician who lacks in this regard is an enemy to progress and human happiness. The skilful handling of instrumental cases of par- turition together with modern management of profuse hemorrhage have robbed parturition of nearly all of its former horrors. The management of the patient during the ten days following is also a marked improvement worthy as a part of the evolution of the times. Surgery, since 1873, has niade a marvelous advancement and to those who are wide awake to its possibilities, it seems much in advance of other branches of medicine. Yet internal medicine is forging rapidly to the front. The methods of general management of the sick, the attention given to the selection of proper diet, and efficient nourishment and assisting nature in the process of eliminating the toxines of the body which are always present in the diseased system, together with other hygienics are important phases of treating the sick that make the physicians of today superior to those who have labored in the past. Microscopical examinations of the tissues and bodily excretions and secre- tion; and more improved chemical analysis of the same agents, the great value of the X-ray and modern instruments of precision were not known by the earlier physicians of O'Brien county. Neither had they learned of the value of antitoxic serums that are used with great success today in the treat- ment of many of the infectious diseases.
The idea of hospitals for the treatment of the sick has been growing in O'Brien county, but not so rapidly as it should grow. Four enterprising and ambitious physicians of O'Brien county have ventured each with a hospital. Hence there are five hospitals in O'Brien county at the present time. One
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in Calumet, two in Sheldon and two in Hartley. However, they are small institutions. not of general or public significance, but merely of individual and personal moment. It is a reflection upon civil government, local, county, state and national, that any physician should feel compelled to construct or prepare a building for hospital purposes, for this is a burden of large pro- portions that should be shouldered by the proper agency, and that agency is the general public. It would be pitiably dramatic to see an educator con- structing a school building in which to educate the young, a minister of the gospel to build his own church in which to deliver his own sermons, or the attorney erecting a court house in which to try his own jury cases. And vet this is about the procedure that has been undertaken by the physician. But if the private hospital is excusable or defensible just to that extent will it point the public to its duty in housing and attending the sick and defenseless and those in need of charitable protection. O'Brien county at the present time is the garden spot of the world and is fairly teeming with wealth and pros- perity and there is no good reason why O'Brien county should not erect and equip a suitable hospital in Sheldon, one in Sanborn, one in Hartley, one in . Primghar, one in Sutherland and one in Paullina, where all the sick and help- less of the county could be housed and attended under the most favorable con- ditions and where every physician would have equal opportunities in attending the sick and not being either vexed mentally or financially by the management of a hospital or deprived of the advantages that a public hospital affords. A great many operations in the past and many operations at present are done in the patient's home. Some of these operations are decidedly major and of a serious nature and in fact they were beyond surgical skill and knowledge of a quarter century ago, and yet the results of these operations at home are equally as good as those obtained in many of the hospitals of the country.
During 1914 the following physicians and surgeons at Sheldon united in establishing a second hospital at Sheldon and have already procured a suit- able hospital building, which was opened for service September 1, 1914: Dr. W. R. Brock, Dr. W. H. Myers, Dr. Frank Myers. Dr. Roy Myers and Dr. H. J. Brackney. They have placed the same under the management of the Seventh-Day Adventists or Battle Creek system of hospital service. The new hospital at Primghar donated by George Ward has likewise been taken over by the same management. O'Brien county now has five hospitals. namely : Dr. Cram's hospital at Sheldon: Dr. Hand's hospital at Hartley ; Dr. C. L. Seiver's hospital at Calumet and the two hospitals already named.
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The first successful attempt to organize a medical association in O'Brien county was in the year 1903 at Primghar. This society is known as The O'Brien County Medical Society. This society, because of the conditions upon which it was formed, became a component part of the Iowa State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. Without becoming first a member of the county society a physician cannot become a member of either the Iowa State Medical Association or the American Medical Association. The charter members of the O'Brien County Medical Society numbered twelve and one half of these are practicing now in the county. The charter members of this society are as follows: Dr. A. L. Bushby, Dr. F. E. Brown, Dr. W. R. Brock, Dr. F. W. Cram, Dr. E. Dudley, Dr. Little. Dr. B. S. Louthan, Dr. W. H. Mevers, Dr. C. B. Rentz. Dr. H. C. Rogers, Dr. H. Scott and Dr. Stewart. This society meets three or four times a year and has developed into a very good organization and is very active in its society work.
Those who have registered at the county seat to practice medicine in O'Brien county are as follows :
Avery. Milo, graduate Rush Medical, registered in 1887.
Avery, Harold, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, registered 1910.
Brackney, H. J., Iowa University, registered 1905.
Beebe. A. J., school not given. registered 1889.
Bonham, John, school not given, registered 1886.
Brewer. L. S., school not given, registered 1896.
Brock. W. R., Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons, registered 1895.
Briggs, F. J., school not given, registered 1880.
Burstien, Louis L., Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons, registered 1908.
Barnhizer. J. G., college not given, registered 1898.
Bushby. A. L .. college not given, registered 1899.
Conway, John W., Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1886.
Cushman, R. A., Dartmouth College. registered 1888.
Childs. Mary E., college not given, registered 1891.
Canter. S. J .. college not given, registered 1892. Cram, F. W., Rush Medical, registered 1888.
Crider. J. J., college not given, registered 1897.
Coleman, F. J., Sioux City College of Medicine, registered 1910 Collet, C. C., college not given, registered 1902.
Dudley, E., college not given, registered 1886.
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Dougherty, Wm., college not given, registered 1887. Daily Milton, Hammond University, registered 1896. Elliott, Thos. B., college not given. registered 1894. Engle, Carl, school not given, registered 1889. Eddy. A. H., college not given. registered 1897. English, Belle, school not given, registered 1890. Eger, Christian, college not given, registered 1901. Ehlers, F. S., Northwestern University, registered 1905. Esser, Wm .. school not given, registered 1891. Egent, Philip M., school not given, registered 1887. Field. I. S., school not given, registered 1901. Fletcher, D. A., school not given, registered 1902. Gannon, W. T., school not given, registered 1890. Gleystein, R. J., Rush Medical, registered 1907. Gilliland. C. E., University of Kansas, 1913. Horton, W. H., school not given, registered 1893. Harrison, Geo. E., school not given, registered 1891. Horton, F. W .. Towa University, registered 189-1. Harrison. J. C., school not given, registered 1891. Hume, J. H., school not given, registered 1887. Hamilton, W. A., school not given, registered 1899. Hand, W. C., college not given, registered 1906. Hollenbeck. Frank B., Rush Medical, registered 1899. Hollenbeck, F. D., Rush Medical, registered 1906. Howard, W. A., Northwestern University, registered 1908. Hopkins, A. G., school not given, registered 1894. Knepper. John, school not given, registered 1907. Kuffman, Frank E., school not given, registered 1897. Knox, Thos. C., Iowa University, registered 1908. Kass, Thos. D., Wisconsin University, registered 1909. Keily. M. D., non-graduate, registered 1900. Louthan, B. S., University of Iowa. registered 1886. Longshore, C., school not given, registered 1880. Louthan, J. M., University of Iowa, registered 1886. Lanning. H. J., school not given, registered 1880. Leary, J. S., University of Michigan, registered 1887. Longshore, Anna Mary, college not given, registered 1891. Long, J. M., school not given, registered 1887.
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Lewis, W. H., school not given, registered 1887. Landis. H. F., school not given, registered 1907. Little, W. G., Rush Medical, registered 1902. Myers, C. H., school not given, registered 1887. McCormick, Chas., college not given, registered 1888. McDonald, John, school not given, registered 1890. Mueller, C. P., school not given, registered 1892. Masters, school not given, registered 1892. Murphy, T. W., University of Iowa. registered 1903. Miller, G. E., College of Physicians and Surgeons, registered 1905. Myers, W. H., Rush Medical, registered 1889. Myers, Frank L., Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, registered 1888. Nichols, Frank L .. school not given, registered 1901.
Oldag, Geo. C., University of Iowa, registered 1912. Paul, C. S .. school not given, registered 1886. Parker, E. W., school not given, registered 1886. Perley, Geo. P., school not given, registered 1893. Page, C. V., University of Iowa, registered 1904. Phelps, C. E., University of Iowa, registered 1910. Peck, N. L. F., school not given, registered 1883. Roepke. G. S., school not given, registered 1898.
Rogers, H. C., College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, registered 1898.
Relihan, H. G., Northwestern Medical, registered 191I. Richardson, E. E., University of Iowa, registered 1898. Rentz, C. B., Rush Medical, registered 1901. Searles, F. L., school not given, registered 1887. Smith, Chas., school not given, registered 1887. Stewart, D. T., Rush Medical, registered 1887. Seeley. W. A., school not given, registered 1890. Smith, E. E., school not given, registered 1892. Sigworth, D. L., school not given, registered 1893. Scott, H., University of Edinburgh, registered 1894. Star, O. F., University of Iowa, registered 1897. Struble, Andrew. school not given, registered 1897. Sheafer, E. W .. school not given, registered 1883. Strong, E. J., school not given, registered 1881. Smith, N. S., school not given, registered 1893.
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Steele, J. F., school not given, registered 1898.
Schwabland, W. T., school not given, registered 1904.
Sievers. C. L., Sioux City Medical College, registered 1904.
Shellensenberger, E. S., Chicago College of Medicine, registered 1907. Stewart, C. E., Sioux City College of Medicine, registered 1908.
Sherlock, J. H., Indiana Medical College, registered 1910.
Simon, John, Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons, registered IOII.
Sherbon, J. B., lowa University, registered 1912.
Stoner, A. P., school not given, registered 1891.
Trover, U. U., school not given, registered 1894.
Twining, E. T., Chicago Medical, registered 1896. Viers, S. M., school not given, registered 1886. VanDun, E. K., school not given, registered 1897.
Warren, C. T., school not given, registered 1887.
Woodcock, W. P., school not given, registered 1887.
Werick, H. A., school not given, registered 1889.
Wilcox, C., school not given, registered 1889.
Womeldorf, J. M., school not given, registered 1897.
Wheeler, Fred, school not given, registered 1901.
Wight, W. G., University of Iowa, registered 1901. West, C. C., school not given. registered 1880.
I cannot close this chapter without congratulating the laity upon its intellectual improvement relative to things medical. Fads and fancies, ignor- ance and superstition are rapidly being replaced by a decent sort of com- mon sense and this adds aid and pleasure to the work of honest and intelligent physicians. Harder and harder will it become for charlatans, quacks and half educated doctors to thrive parasitically upon the ignorance of the people, for this too "shall pass away." It was not many years ago that physicians were graduated in two or three years and this short course resulted in one physician to every five hundred and twenty population in United States. Through a demand by the physicians, which extended throughout the entire country, for a longer and a higher plan of training and education for the physician, the matriculation in medical colleges has been suddenly and greatly reduced. Not only this, but a great many medical colleges have been unable to meet this great demand and have merged with other medical institutions or gone completely out of business. Dartmouth, the fourth oldest medical school in America, could not meet the demands and no longer teaches medi-
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cine and surgery. It is calculated that in 1827 there will be only one physi- cian to every two thousand two hundred population, where now there is one physician to every five hundred and twenty people in the country. This scarcity of physicians will be due to medical colleges discontinuing their work and a marked decrease in medical matriculates, and to many of the medical students becoming weary of the long college grind and giving up their med- ical studies and turning their attention to other work. In these circumstances there will be without doubt a hardship worked upon both the physicians and the public in the future. Hence this age is crying out for young men to enter the medical profession. Young men of noble character and moral worth; men with large mental capacity, strong, brave and true. This class of young men are the ones who are to solve the mighty problems and carry the great responsibility of medicine and surgery in the future. Their work, problems, and responsibilities will be much mightier than ours, the same as ours of today are much greater than those of the past. But let us fear not that these young men will meet the future problems of medicine and surgery, bravely and effectually. And now upon the graves of those physicians who have practiced medicine in O'Brien county and have joined the "great beyond," let us drop a tear and place a flower. To those physicians who in O'Brien county are now "carrying the cross" and "going about doing good," let us extend our gratitude and crown them with our benediction
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CHURCHES OF O'BRIEN COUNTY.
With all the hardships endured by the pioneers of O'Brien county, as a rule they did not forget the duty they owed to God and church life. Of course, it is not to be supposed that all the old pioneers were of any one Christian faith, but large numbers of those first settlers were members of the various religious denominations, and upon coming to the wilds of this county they did not leave their religion behind them, but early sought out such churches as were found in their midst or assisted in organizing new ones. The Methodist Episcopal church was immediately on the ground, as in most new countries the first to organize, and were zealous in establishing churches in this faith in various parts of the county. The other churches effected organization as rapidly as a sufficient number of any one faith could get together. It was peculiarly appropriate to the pioneer idea that the first church building was built of prairie sod. The several churches in the county will be reviewed in their several localities.
METHODISM IN O'BRIEN COUNTY.
It perhaps can be truly said that Methodism is established permanently in by far a large majority of the cities, towns and hamlets in the whole United States. This church now has its home in every township in this county, as it also now has its modern church building in practically every town. "The world is my parish," is the text of Methodism. One great strength of this church lies in the fact that it is evangelistic. Another main strength of this great church lies in its itinerant system. This, in effect. means that every church has a pastor and every pastor has a church. The church conferences are so decisive in the management of its details that the church thus sees to it that these two results are carried out. "A million for missions" was Bishop C. C. McCabe's onward movement slogan. and it was later fully adopted by the whole church itself, which gave much more than a million per year. "Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." has been literally engrafted
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in the spiritual relations of its every church and charge. This church has searched out the lowly among the by-ways and hedges, and made itself felt in the hearts of men, on the mission fields of Africa and Australia, in the palace of Fifth avenue, engaged the attention of those public men in all walks of life that move the nation, its best spiritual uplifts, and adapted itself even in the homestead shanties of northwest Iowa and kindred situations. John Wesley founded pioneer Methodism in pioneer America by coming to America himself. The circuit rider and minister on the smaller charges have adapted themselves with equal religious heroism with the city and metro- politan minister. It may be truly said of Methodism:
"It waited not for dome or spire, lt moved the heart by living fire."
O'Brien county, in its Methodism, has passed through this very circuit- rider period, of the old Peter Cartwright order, as likewise through its building period and the genuine enjoyment of its present modern church edifices now found in each town. The first serinon in the county was preached by a Methodist pioncer local minister. Its first inhabitant, Hannibal H. Waterman, and wife were Methodists, and he an old-fashioned Methodist exhorter.
Inasmuch as these first Methodist activities commenced in O'Brien county prior to its organization as such, even as early as 1858, and moved up through and held services in homestead shacks and shanties and first school houses through the county, with several of those early ministers, like Rev. C. W. Cliffton, who, as he recorded in his diary, said, "I traveled three thousand miles and preached one hundred sermons," in 1870 in northwestern Iowa, traveling with single buggy, on horseback, with old-fashioned saddle- bags, these sermons being preached in numerous homes and school houses, rounding up as a stationed minister in Primghar in 1878, we must do these old-time conditions credit for not only keeping up the living fires of Method- ism, but in holding up true religion among members of other faiths, and there were pioneers of all churches here.
A SOD CHURCII.
As already referred to, the first church in the county was built of the native prairie tough sod, on section 33, in Center township, in the spring of 1871. The homesteaders turned out in a body with their breaking plows and turned up a lot of good tough, thick sod and by united efforts soon had
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a sod building of good size, quite in comparison with the homes of those constructing it, and almost without cost, save for a few windows.
A Fourth of July celebration was held in this church in 1871 attended by nearly all the first settlers from seven to ten miles around, it being a basket picnic. Daniel Bysom is the only homesteader still residing in the township on his homestead, who aided in building this church. Oliver Evans, another old homesteader in this township, was present at this celebra- tion. He had just been back to New York and got married and was there with his bride, wearing their wedding clothes. That evening they all re- paired to Capt. Robert C. Tifft's homestead shanty and wound up the cele- bration with a jolly pioneer party. This sod church was built in a manner like the old fashioned "raising bee" in a timbered country, substituting the sod for the logs. It was, however, truly a church edifice. Lunch baskets were brought by these pioneers, but the cannon and firecracker were absent. It was indeed a "sane Fourth," now so much written about. The church and state and pioneer were all represented in real simplicity. Rev. C. W. Cliffton, of the Methodist Episcopal church, preached in this sod church dur- ing that year, the first sermons with simply the rafters on and the window sash without glass. At this celebration this was the situation, and many old settlers there on that day say it was literally true that Rev. Cliffton had nearly as many holes in his clothes and his shoes as there were in the windows and roof of that sod church. It is needless to say that the hearers did not attend with either top buggies, or automobiles, or in broadcloth.
FIRST SERMON PREACHED IN THE COUNTY.
Father James Bicknell preached the first sermon in O'Brien county at Old O'Brien, probably in 1858. He is a Methodist Episcopal local preacher and still living. He resided for many years with his son, J. J. Bicknell, near Peterson in Clay county, and was well known in the early years in that sec- tion of the county. He was himself a pioneer of the genuine quality, and fully understood the pioneer life in Iowa.
EARLY METHODISM IN THE COUNTY.
Wherever in the history of the United States the pioneer has built his first hut or shanty, there a Methodist preacher has been on hand ready to preach in private house, hut, school house or sod church, anywhere. We have already given an account of the first sod church, the first settler, and
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first sermon, each Methodist. This church, covering the whole pioneer period, will, of necessity, have somewhat the larger space in this chapter. thoughi other churches did a full part as time moved on.
In 1858 a mission was formed known as the Little Sioux mission, ex- tending from Spirit Lake to Cherokee, with Rev. O. S. Wright as pastor and Rev. George Clifford as presiding elder. The appointments were Pilot Rock and Cherokee, in Cherokee county, Long Grove (being Peterson, where the Waterman family first attended). Okoboji and Spirit Lake and other places from time to time. During this year Rev. Wright received forty dollars from the missionary fund and twenty-seven dollars from the brethren on the circuit.
At that time, 1860, there was not even a school house on the entire charge, and services were necessarily held in private houses. Hannibal Waterman attended his services. In 1859-60-61-62 Cherokee and Peterson were left without a supply, but in 1863 were included in the Smithland mis- sion. Rev. Seymour Snyder, during 1863-64, was the regular minister who preached in Old O'Brien. His work extended from up in Minnesota to Peterson. He stated that he preached in two states and seven counties. He carried his Bible, rifle and hymn book as companions and was ready to ex- pound the gospel from each. In 1865 White school house, Beuna Vista, Old O'Brien, Cherokee and Pilot Rock were each supplied by Rev. R. S. Hawks. In 1867 Rev. W. W. Mallory filled the Peterson circuit, which included Old O'Brien, with Rev. W. McCain as presiding elder and Hannibal Waterman as recording steward. William R. Pitt and Rouse B. Crego were licensed to preach at the third quarterly meeting of that year and Mr. Waterman at the fourth. In 1868 and 1869 Rev. Thomas Whitely had pastoral charge of the Peterson circuit, with Rev. J. W. Ladd as presiding elder.
In 1860-70, Rev. C. W. Cliffton was the pastor and lived with his family in a loft. A quarterly meeting was held at Old O'Brien October 2, 1869. He then held a protracted meeting. An old record says that there was a "general awakening, but few conversions" A parsonage was under- taken at Old O'Brien, but failed. During this year Rouse B. Crego was compelled to withdraw on account of drunkenness. It was in the record for this year, 1870, that Rev. Cliffton makes this entry : "I traveled three thou- sand miles and preached one hundred sermons." This year Old O'Brien was included in the Fort Dodge district. During the conference year of 1870-71 Old O'Brien was included in the Sioux City district, Des Moines conference, with Rev. Bennett Mitchell as presiding elder. During this year
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