USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 62
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This parish has given the diocese one priest, another will be ordained within six months, and a third is studying philosophy. Three girls have become nuns. The confraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help has a mem- bership of eight hundred and twenty-eight and the sodality of the Immacu- late Conception has a membership of one hundred and forty-five. Sinc. the parisli has had a resident priest there have been six hundred and twenty- seven baptisms, four hundred and twenty-four confirmations, ninety-five mar- riages and ninety-five deaths. J. P. Hoffmann, the present pastor, who has been the guiding spirit during the remarkable development of this school and church of the past quarter of a century, was born on November II, 1855, in the grand duchy of Luxemburg. In the year 1871 he came with his parents to this country and lived with them on a farm near Council Bluffs, Iowa. In January, 1878, he began his classical studies, which he finished at St. Laurence College, Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin, in the year 1882. He went to St. Joseph's College, Dubuque, where he studied philosophy one year and from Dubuque he was sent to the Grand Seminary, Montreal, Can- ada, where he finished a three years' course of theology. On December 8,
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1886, he was ordained priest at St. Raphael's Cathedral, at Dubuque, by His Grace. the Right Rev. Archbishop Hennessey. On the 20th of De- cember he was sent to Willy, Carroll county, Iowa. On September 20, 1887, he was appointed assistant to Rev. August Sauter at Festina, Winne- shiek county, Iowa, where he remained a little over two years. On the 20th of January, 1890, he received his appointment to Ashton, Osceola county, Iowa, where he has spent the best part of his life. A quarter of a century in one place with the results attained is a remarkable record.
ST. ANDREW'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF SIBLEY.
The first Catholic settlers in Osceola county were Nicholas Boor and John Striet. They came on the 19th day of June. 1871, and filed on claims in Gilman township. The first baby of Catholic parentage was born in 1872. the son of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Larkin, and reported to be the first white male child born in the county. The first Catholic couple to be mar- ried by Father J. J. Caddon in 1874 was Mr. and Mrs. John Coughlin. The Coughlins now live in Clark, South Dakota. The first funeral was Ed- ward Laharty in February, 1873. who was frozen to death east of Sibley, on section 16. The first mass read in this county was in May, 1873, in Hol- man township, on the southeast quarter of section 16, on the homestead of Patrick Larkin, by an assistant priest of Father Lenihan, of Sioux City.
The Sibley parish was first served by priests from Soux City, twice a year. until 1875. when Father Mice, of LeMars, read mass until 1877. In 1877 Father P. J. Lynch was sent as resident priest to Sheldon and took care of the Catholics in and about Sibley. In 1880 the Ashton part of the congregation separated and built a church on the John Streit farm, about two and one-half miles northwest of Ashton. This schism considerably crippled the Sibley congregation. Father Lynch continued to occasionally attend the Sibley parish at the court house until 1882 when Father J. J. O'Reilly succeeded him at Sheldon. He also occasionally attended the Sib- ley parish. In 1883 the congregation bought the old Sibley school house for church purposes and the south half of block number 51, and moved the school building on it. Father O'Reilly was succeeded by Father T. J. Sullivan at Sheldon in 1883. Father Sullivan came to Sibley once a montli until 1888. at which time Father P. J. McCormick was sent to Ashton and also had charge of the Sibley parish until 1890. At that time Father Dollard was appointed for Rock Rapids, reading mass each alternate Sun- day in Sibley until the fall of 1897.
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During this time the present church was built and cemetery purchased. In the fall of 1897 Father O'Reilly was appointed to Sibley as first resident priest and the congregation then built the present parsonage. Father O'Reilly was succeeded by Father Phelan in 1904, who in turn was suc- ceeded by Father Hetherington in 1909. Father Hetherington remained until the fall of 1913 when Father E. T. Nally, the present pastor, was ap- pointed. The church in Sibley has always been secondary to Ashton, on account of the Catholic school at Ashton, the Sibley congregation not being able to support a school of its own.
The Sibley church property is valued at about twelve thousand dollars and the property is free from all indebtedness. At the first mass the fol- lowing were present: Larkin's family, the Larathy family, Mrs. John Hen- derson, John Coughlin, John Streit and family, Nick Boor and family, the Zensen family and P. A. Cajacob. The Cajacob family is the only family left here, most of them being dead.
CHAPTER V.
MEDICAL HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY.
By H. Neill, M. D.
I have been asked by the editor to write a history of medicine of the county in its pioneer days, and it has occurred to me to attempt to begin ny account in the year 1875, the date of my advent into the county, and carry it down to the year 1895. This I recognize to be arbitrary, and rather unsatisfactory, but I have no material on which to construct a history be- fore the first named date, and there are other men in active work more fitted to write a history after the last named year.
In attempting this task, I recognize that I have no peculiar fitness for the work, but I am also aware that I am the only living person who has a good knowledge of events occurring in that early period. Reminiscences are usually pleasant to the old, at least, and if this account should produce as much weariness to the reader as it has pleasure to the writer, the account between the parties will be considered as balanced.
A history of any country should describe its geographical and physical- characteristics, and the character, race, religion, and the physiological and mental characteristics of its inhabitants. A medical history is only con- cerned with the last two subjects.
About seventy per cent. of the early settlers of Osceola county were veterans of the Civil War, and the same is true of northwest Iowa. These veterans stacked arms, married their sweethearts, worked for a while until they could get a yoke of cattle, a few cows and a little money, and in 1871 made a location in this beautiful region. The following year they brought their families and made their permanent homes in this section of the state.
What happened to them will be told by others. I can only state that at the date of my location many had given up the fight and left the country; many had migrated to Sibley, barely a majority still remained on their farms, and practically all were very poor. Some of these old soldiers were suffering from the effects of gunshot wounds, and still more of them from the effects of a strenuous army life.
I was appointed examining surgeon for pensions in 1876 and, at the
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biennial examination for that year, forty-three were examined, forty-one for gunshot wounds and two for hernia. At that date it was not generally known that a man could be pensioned for disease. Amongst this number, I wish to mention W. B. Reed, a private, who bore on his person six gun- shot wounds and three shell wounds; probably, history records no man with more numerous or more severe wounds. This hero succumbed shortly after this examination to blood poisoning, due to the opening of a wound in the shoulder and the breast; his remains rest in the Holman cemetery, and he should be honored by a suitable monument.
A history of medicine in the county should commence with some ac- count of the early practitioners. From common report, I believe that Bela D. Churchill was the first to practice in the county. He was probably an army nurse and, on his arrival, as there were no doctors, he had to do something in the way of practice. As nearly as I can learn, he met with indifferent success. Whether he ever opened an office in Sibley I have not ascertained.
Dr. J. M. Jenkins lived on a farm about a mile southeast of Sibley. I learn that he was formerly an army surgeon, and a very good practitioner, but never devoted all his time to the practice of medicine while residing in the county. He left shortly before my advent, and I never met him but once. but believe him to have been a good man. After leaving here, he located in LeMars but stayed there only a short time. He retired from practice and removed to a stock farm in Sioux county, where he died many years ago.
Dr. C. L. Gurney was the first man in the county who devoted his whole time to the practice of medicine. He located at Sibley in 1875, a few months prior to my appearance on the scene. He first located on a home- stead near Ashton in 1872. As nearly as I can learn, he was employed in some capacity by a doctor in Fayette, Iowa, and came from that place to Ashton. He was of Quaker extraction, and a church of that persuasion being located west of Ashton, and there being no doctor anywhere in that region, the fact that he knew anything about medicine was sufficient to draft him into the work. He was a cripple, due to a tubercular trouble of the knee, and because of this affliction he was finally induced to give up farming and devote all of his time to medicine. Accordingly he sold his farm and located in Sibley, as before mentioned. I found Dr. Gurney to be an estimable man, and, considering his limitations, quite a successful practitioner. He made but little pretensions to knowing much about medi-
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cine. As I recollect, he had no surgical instruments, and his library consist- ed of a work on domestic medicine and Tilden's appendix to the Materia Medica. When he wanted a prescription, he consulted that work, in which there was a formula for every disease. I well remember a ride I made with the Doctor. A man, a patient of the Doctor's, came to the road and displayed a fibroid tumor of the hand. Dr. Gurney told the man that it would be a pleasure for him to remove it. Afterwards, I asked the Doctor why he had not performed the operation; his reply was characteristic, "I don't know anything about anatomy and might cut something." meaning an artery, I suppose. At the time mentioned he enjoyed a considerable practice, but under the circumstances, it soon began to wane. Our friend- ship continued until his death. During his residence in Sibley he took a va- cation, and graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk. Iowa, although he was only absent about six months. In 1880 he removed to Sheldon, and in 1884 became a member of the Sheldon board of United States examining surgeons for pensions, Dr. Longshore and myself being the other members. About 1886 the Doctor sold his practice to Dr. Myers, and removed to Rock Rapids, where he suffered an amputation of his dis- eased leg. He immediately removed to Doon, Iowa, where he opened a drug store, and in connection with his business, practiced medicine. He died there about 1900.
In writing a history of medicine, it is thought best to treat first on the surgery of the region. It is more spectacular, better remembered, and has more human interest than the history of disease. For obvious reasons, the names of patients, both surgical and medical, will be omitted.
AMPUTATIONS.
The first amputation, that of the leg, by resident surgeons, occurred August II, 1876. This was performed on the person of a male child, a patient of Dr. Gurney's. This was due to an accident. The child had crawled into a wheat field and fallen asleep, and the reaper, driven by the father, nearly severed the leg. The child recovered and is now living in the county.
The next amputation was made July 11, 1877, and was the leg of a fe- male child six years of age. In this operation I had to give my own anes- thetic. The child made a quick recovery.
The next amputation, also of the leg, occurred July 15, 1878. A female child bringing water to her father in the wheat field got before the machine
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and the leg was so badly mangled that it had to be amputated. I had no assistance in the operation. The patient is still living in the county.
FRACTURES.
During the time which this history covers, practically all kinds of frac- tures were treated and with only one fatality, due to a fracture at the base of the skull of a baby, caused by the kick of a horse. The child only lived about two hours after the accident. During these twenty years, splints were manufactured at the time of the dressing, and were made of tin, wood, leather, paper or plaster. Among the fractures in this period, were two fractures of the jaw, one simple, the other compound. Strange to say, there was one fracture of the thigh, due to a fall from a tree. In all the time but one bad result is noted; this was due to a compound fracture of the leg, treated at first by another practitioner, and, I regret to say, very indifferently. When I first saw it, immediate amputation was necessary, the operation was made August 7, 1883, and the patient recovered. In this operation I gave my own ether, and my books show that I received fourteen dollars for the operation and later treatment. Two other amputations may be mentioned as the result of fractures, one for the crushing of a hand in a machine, the other for the crushing of the fingers by the bite of a man. The latter resulted in blood poisoning, and necessitated the amputation of the forearm.
DISLOCATIONS.
They were not very numerous and were generally of the shoulder joint. Most of them were quickly reduced without an anesthetic. No account of the number can be given on account of lack of space.
APPENDICITIS.
During this period I have notes of twenty-nine cases treated, with only three deaths. There were seven operations for the disease, all for appen- diceal abscess except the last, in which case the appendix was removed. One death was noted after an operation in 1894, due to inflammatory adhesions one week after operation. The first operation in the county for the dis- ease occurred August 8, 1888. In this operation I was assisted by Dr. Stoner of Rock Rapids. The patient made a speedy recovery. There were two cases treated medically which died, both fulminant cases, terminating
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in death within less than forty-eight hours. Thus, there were twenty-two cases treated medically, with two deaths, and seven operative cases, with one death. It is probably true that all of the seven cases would have died if they had not been subjected to operation.
CANCER.
Cases of the disease were not numerous. I have notes of three cases of cancer of the lip that were subjected to operation. The first operation was in the case of an old man. There was no recurrence of the disease be- fore the death of the patient with pneumonia later the same year. The next operation was in the case of a man about fifty years of age and oc- curred October 5, 1885. Besides removing the lip, the glands of the neck and jaw were extirpated. Recurrence set in six months later with fatal result. The next operation was performed August 15, 1889, recurrence setting in four months later with fatal termination. The first operation for sarcoma was performed May 7, 1878. This was on the person of an aged woman and was for sarcoma of the humerus. I operated without any assistant. The patient died March 8, 1879, due to a general metastasis of the disease. The only successful operation for cancer of the breast that I have to report occurred July 21, 1892. In this operation I was assisted by Dr. Cram of Sheldon, and another doctor from Sanborn. The patient was about forty years of age. The operation was a complete one, the breast and glands of the armpit being removed. This woman is still living, and, I believe, is the only one who has survived five years, although many have been subjected to operation.
STONE IN THE BLADDER.
The first operation for this disease occurred in a case of a boy of six- teen years and was performed November 1, 1890. In this operation I was assisted by Dr. Cram of Sheldon and Dr. Ely of Ocheyedan. The lad re- covered. I believe this to be the first operation for the disease attempted in northwestern Iowa. The next case, also successful, was on a man about forty years of age and was due to chronic disease of the bladder. I was also assisted in this operation by Dr. Cram.
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GUNSHOT WOUNDS.
Two fatal cases have occurred. One died before I could reach him, and the other, with a gunshot wound in the abdomen, died of internal hemor- rhage in about two hours after being shot.
TYPHOID FEVER.
In the early days this was the most widely disseminated of all the acute diseases, especially in the autumn of the year. During the first decade the cases were very numerous, but the mortality was very light, not averaging much more than five per cent. During the second decade the cases were Iess numerous, but the mortality was much higher, being fully twenty per cent. It is my belief that the disease was mostly due to infected flies, for most of the cases originated in the country, where at that time the houses were rarely screened. But few cases appeared in Sibley and these could in most cases be traced to an infection from the country. The youngest case noted occurred in a child of three months and the oldest in a man of seventy-eight. I have observed but one recovery from the disease in a person over fifty-five years of age. In the case of the baby referred to above, the mother having the disease, a young girl took the baby to her home and slept with it. In consequence, the girl contracted the disease, and, I regret to state, died in less than three weeks after the onset of the disease.
DIPHTHERIA.
This disease was present in a sporadic form during the whole period that this history covers. I wish to give an account of the heroism of a young woman, before giving a history of the great epidemic of 1885 and subsequent years. This incident occurred near the present town of Ocheye- dan, in December, 1879. I was called to the stricken home and found a child dying from the disease and two other children very ill; the weather was very cold; the room in which the children were lying was very poorly ventilated and kept very warm. The sick child died that night, and on the occasion of my next visit, I found Nellie Boyd in the room taking care of the children. I asked her why she was present and she replied that some one had to do it. She then asked me if I thought that she would contract the disease if she stayed. I replied that it was practically impossible for any one to stay and not be infected. She looked at me a moment and
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quietly replied : "Doctor, I counted the cost when I came and I will stay, for I would rather stay here and die than run the risk of bringing this dis- ease to my loved ones." Within three days, the fatal disease seized her and in forty-eight hours terminated her young life.
The great epidemic of the disease had its inception in eastern Lyon county, in February, 1885. On the occasion of my first visit I told the parents what the disease was, and urged them not to allow any one to come into the house. But as there were no health boards in existence at the time, I found the house crowded with neighbors at my next visit. I was much annoyed and told them that they and their families were in great danger. They resented this warning as impertinent and told me they were not afraid. Of course, the disease spread, and during the following spring and summer eighty-one cases occurred with twenty-seven deaths. Of the cases of nasal diphtheria, nearly all succumbed, the recoveries being in older children and adults. Strange to relate, although the epidemic lingered until the winter of 1887, only one adult-a young woman-died. At the last named date, the county supervisors finally gave me authority to stop the disease without any reference to expense. Obeying orders, I employed a competent man to assist me, and the first point of attack was the residence of an old lady. This good woman had carried the disease in a virulent form to several families and had actually caused the death of fourteen chil- dren. I burned all the beds and bedding in the house and most of the clothing, and thoroughly disinfected it. The same was done in two other homes, and finally the plague was stayed. Since that time but few cases of the disease have appeared in the county and, thanks to antitoxin, with but light mortality.
DYSENTERY. ยท
This is the only other epidemic to be noted. It occurred in the sum- mer and autumn of 1875 and caused several deaths in Sibley and the sur- rounding country. No cause can be ascertained for this epidemic and since that period but few cases have occurred. These have been mostly in chil- dren under ten years of age and generally of light mortality.
SCARLET FEVER.
This occurred every year but generally in a very light form. Two deaths in children are noted, one as the result of a surgical operation. The
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other child died from acute Bright's disease. The child seemingly did not have the disease, but had slept with her sister who undoubtedly had the disease. The small mortality is difficult to explain, as usually the mortality is considerable in this disease.
MEASLES.
Cases of the disease were very numerous, at times approaching the character of an epidemic, but with no mortality from the disease itself. I have notes of four cases of death from its sequelae. One peculiar incident must be quoted, viz : two attacks of the disease occurring in a patient within six weeks.
TUBERCULOSIS.
This scourge in all its protean forms was always present, but not com- mon in young children, the disease being mostly among adults or adolescents. There were two fatal cases of tuberculous meningitis in adults. This is very rare except in young children. The mortality from the disease, on the whole, was light. I note two operations for tuberculous glands of the neck, one operated on in 1888, still living; the other having disappeared. There were three operations for tuberculous disease of the hip joint-two recov- eries and one death. I performed one operation for tuberculosis of the knee with death of bone-resection of six inches of the femur. The patient never fully recovered but lived about twenty years.
CHRONIC PLEURISY.
This was not infrequent, and eight operations were performed for its relief. While at the time no deaths occurred, and in every case there was a partial recovery, six of these cases have died from tuberculosis, while the history of the other two is unknown. This is a strong inference that the disease is always of tuberculous origin.
PNEUMONIA.
Neither lobar nor catarrhal pneumonia were especially frequent. and the mortality was very light considering the grave nature of the malady.
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CHRONIC MUSCULAR RHEUMATISM.
With the exception of nasal catarrh, this was the most common diseass. Unhappily, this seems to be incurable, and only relief, in this climate, can be expected.
ACUTE RHEUMATISM.
This was not especially frequent, and only two deaths occurred. Both were due to high temperature which caused death in a few hours.
ECZEMA.
In all its forms eczema was very frequent, due, I believe, to the irri- tating winds of the region. I have often remarked "that a doctor who could not treat eczema successfully had no business in Osceola county."
CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS.
Four cases of this disease occurred in 1879 and 1880, with one death. As far as known, no cases have occurred since.
INFLUENZA.
Influenza first appeared in the county in 1889, and has been present ever since, at times being almost an epidemic. It has been a great outlet for human life, especially so in the aged and in those depressed in health.
In the preceding pages I have tried to give a brief history of the sur- gery and practice of medicine in the county from 1875 to 1895, inclusive. I fully appreciate its fragmentary character, but space will not admit of its fuller treatment. Many interesting cases of disease have not been men- tioned, for the reason that they might not prove interesting, and further, space would not admit of an extended discussion.
DR. H. NEILL.
I was born of Scotch-Irish parentage on April 19, 1844, at Granby, province of Quebec, a frontier settlement near the Vermont line. I lived there until 1855 when my parents moved to Hennepin county, then the territory of Minnesota, where the family located on a homestead near
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Lake Minnetonka. I went to school for a short time each winter in a log school house and grew up as "verdant" as the foliage of the trees that sur- rounded our log cabin, At the opening of the Civil War the family scattered. In all, six of us enlisted, this including brothers by marriage. One died in the service in 1862, one was killed at Gettysburg, one died at the Wilderness, one was badly wounded at Cold Harbor and died after- wards on account of his wounds, one dragged out a miserable existence for several years on account of ill health, and the writer, when mustered out, weighed one hundred and eighteen pounds. At the close of the war, I had thirteen hundred dollars and, by working summers, and going to school the rest of the year, was finally "ground out" by the University of Michigan in March, 1871.
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