Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Montgomery County, Volume II, Part 18

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897, ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913, ed. cn; Strange, Alexander T., ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 810


USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Montgomery County, Volume II > Part 18


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which was of any length had argument backed up with proof that made the assertions he set forth indisputable. The Hillsboro Journal was fortunate to be favored with occasional contribu- tions of this kind. He was married to Amie Linton Sawyer in St. Louis on December 5, 1871. To this union were born seven children, all of whom survive, excepting one son, Amos. The children are: J. Linton of Edwardsville ; Benja- min F. of Olympia, Wash .; Oliver J., of Chaffie, Mo .; Annie L., of Rochester; E. Booker and Miss Katherine C., of Hillsboro. Ile is also sur- vived by eight grandchildren and one sister, Mrs. Juliet K. Phillips of Hillsboro. At least three of Doctor Sawyer's treatises on scientific sub- jects have won international recognition in scientific circles. They are his essays on "Rela- tion of Mind and Matter," "Thoughts on Evolu- tion," and "Can the Mind Become Diseased?" The latter was first printed in the Medical Times of New York and copied in several of the scien- tific magazines of Europe. Doctor Sawyer re- ceived a large number of letters from German universities in regard to the article. He also contributed to the Medical Journal of New York and Outdoor Lite, the latter contributions being entitled "Reason to Animals." Doctor Sawyer died at his home in Hillsboro in 1916, having practiced medicine for over fifty years. During the last several years the doctor practiced little, preferring to devote his attention to his fruit tarm on which he lived. He was a member of the Catholic Church in the faith of which he died.


REVIEW OF MEDICAL HISTORY.


The following paper is a review of Mont- gomery County's medical history since 1842, by the late Dr. Amos Sawyer :


"With my parents I came to Hillsboro, Novem- ber 1, 1842, and was then five years old. At that time the medical profession was represented by two schools, the Allopath and the steam (botanical) doctors. The latter school is now known as Eclectic, minus the steam and lobelia. The regulars would not consult with the mem- bers of other schools; or recognize them on the street by using the title "Doctor," denying their right to such distinction. The Allopaths were taught that to 'break a fever' the patient must be bled, blistered and salivated, and occasionally cupped. The calomel treatment frequently re- sulted in the loss of the teeth, diseased molar


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John Foster + Family


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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY


boncs, and destructive ulcers ; obstinate to heal, with loss of tissue, like the lips, cheeks, and occasionally with the death of the victim. To the hated botanical treatment the Allopaths were by slow degrees forced to come, eliminating calomel, bleeding and blistering, from their prac- tice, as the treatment of their opponents showed . better results, and most people declined to be 'eaten alive' by this 'cancer producing product.' The 'Samson doses' remained in use by both schools until Homeopathy made its appearance with its minute doses, and their 'similia simil- ibus curantur' declaration (like cures like), taught their opponents that medicine could be given in 'Gulliver' doses, and in a more palatable form. At the present day their theory is uni- versally practiced with the different anti-toxins at the point of a hypodermic needle. though pellets given from one of their medicine cases carries with it the usual ridicule and conden - nation.


"At the present day we have so many new schools its hard to keep up with them. So many specialists. This story, though not true, illus- trates what I mean. A gnest at a New York hotel had some trouble with his eye, and an oculist was called, and after examining the patient he said, 'Your trouble is in your left eye, niy specialty is to treat the right eye, yon will have to go to a left eye specialist,' and he took his departure.


"The Botanic school used large doses of lobelia and vomited their patients nntil alarming symp- toms supervened, and this prevented many from taking this treatment. At that time all that was necessary to become a doctor, was to study in a doctor's office a year or more, the preceptor in many instances being so well educated as to answer, as did one when his student said, 'Say Doc, in reading when I come to a word that I don't understand what am I to do?' 'Read on until you come to what yon do understand.' was the answer of the doctor. Get a pair of medical saddle bags, fill it with calomel, ipicac, opinm, fly blister, and a thumb lancet for bleed- ing, was all that was necessary to pass as an Allopath ; and two bricks. a chunk of lobelia, and herbs for tea, and yon were a full fleldged 'Steam Doctor.' Here by way of digression. I want to say, that but few people appreciate the protection afforded them from quacks, of every description by legislation establishing an exam- ining board, and a state board of health, whose duty it is to see that the laws are enforced. Now


it requires four years in attendance in a re- putable medical school, and unfortunately such schools are ruled by the American Medical As- sociation, a set of medical petty tyrants, they requiring that the applicant present a college diploma. I enter my protest to thus ruling as it does injustice to the poor boys, and proves an estoppel to most of them. At Yale, Harvard, and such colleges, the yearly tnition is $1,800, and it requires a small fortune to begin with; when a credited free, and high school diploma should suffice.


"Very few of our noted medical men. of the past or present, were or are collegiate graduates. and what is more, most of them spent their early life on a farm, 'poor country boys,' as also were the most of those who have made their mark in the various other callings of life. The country lad who has 'country yeast' in him, if given an opportunity. is bound to win, in spite of the action of a body of men, who are trying to make the medical profession an aristocratic one. It now looks like they would succeed un- less legislational enactments prevent. For now no free school graduate need apply. Aristocracy used to mean the 'Best.' but now it means the 'richest' and oft times the 'worst' members of a community. Understand me, I believe the physi- cian should be an educated man, but a free school diploma guarantees this. I have spoken freely because there is no better way to remedy evils than to recognize them. Would McDowell, when he went forth from his office in 180S, from the back woods of Kentucky, with his grimy hands and grimy fingernails (for Lister was then un- known) and astonished the whole civilized world by successfully removing a diseased ovary, made more of a success had he been a collegiate grad- uate? No. It was accomplished by armed obedient fingers directed by a brilliant conceptive mind. In early days our doctors often rode from twenty to forty miles to see a patient. and the neighbors, knowing that he was coming. left orders for himu to visit them, or waited his com- ing, to get a round of medicine for ague, bil- liousness or as the case might be. Those treated were all charged with a trip from town, and frequently the doctor made a hundred dollars a day on these long trips.


"Night visits during the 'green head' fly time when crossing the prairies were a necessity, as the flies were too terrible during the day time for horses to endure. Settlers in or near the borders of the timber protected their stock by


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building fires so that the stock could stand in the smoke, and it was believed that the prairies could never be cultivated on account of the green flies. These visits were often made across the 'trackless prairie' with only a knowledge of the direction or it might be with a star to guide the traveler. At present the trackless, treeless, fly-infested prairies have disappeared, and good roads, (sometimes) are safe guides to the dis- tinction. The late Cyrus Gilmore told me his experience as a doctor driver on one occasion during the sickly season. The doctor then rode day and night and this necessitated a driver, while the doctor slept on a pillow in his buggy. Doctor Haskell took Gilmore with him one night when crossing a large prairie in the north part of this county. The doctor's instruction to Gil- more was to keep the tongue of the buggy pointed to the star that he pointed out, and that would bring them to the desired farmhouse. After a time they came to a large lake and, awaking the doctor, Gilmore said, 'Say Doc, how do we get around this water?' 'You've been driving by the wrong star,' was the answer, and he put Gilmore on track of the right star, and after a time came to the right farmhouse. Often a pack of hungry howling wolves would follow you at a safe distance, and the constant looking for gopher mounds was enough to cause one to lose his star, and get in line with another heavenly body. Gilmore said he had seen stars before but it was usually when his head came in contact with some hard substance, and then it was not a single star.


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"During the reign of the 'steam doctor' they had the cleanest patients in the world; as the steam removed the scarf skin with the dirt that had accumulated, opening the pores of the skin, whose creative construction was intended to throw off 900 gramms every twenty-four hours, by active and insensible transpiration of ninety- nine percent of water, its vaporizing requiring one-fifth the caloric (heat) of the body. When these pores are blocked it throws extra work on the lungs and kidneys as well as other organs of the body. Their practice of this branch of hydrotherapy undoubtedly was the cause of much of their success as practitioners.


"One of the financial advantages the pioneer physician had over the present one, was that their business was with the sturdy responsible farmer. Whereas now, their patients are here today, and tomorrow a vanishing mist, with the doctor's hard earned money in their pockets, and


too often, as Shakespeare says in his character- istic way, 'We are angels when we come to cure, but devils when we ask for pay.' At the present time the question, 'from what school did you graduate?' is never asked, as we meet upon the level, if we do not always part upon the square. Unlike today, there were then few atheistic doctors. At present it has been said that when three doctors are together two of them will be found to be atheists. I can truly say, with Mr. Sprague : 'Below, above, over all I've dared to rove, In all found GOD and found that GOD all LOVE." Amos Sawyer, 1914.


DENTISTS.


Closely allied to medicine is the practice of dentistry. In the early days the physician carried a pair of forceps and could pull aching teeth and that answered the purpose of the times. When the filling of teeth to prevent de- cay and the substitution of "store teeth" for those that had been extracted came into vogue then dentistry became a profession. The early dentists knew nothing of dental surgery or orthodontia, or the relation of teeth decay to general health, as now, and yet Hillsboro in the person of Doctor Rutledge, and Litchfield in that of Doctor Barefoot were especially fortunate in having the best treatment of tooth troubles to be found in the country for those times. Yet when we compare some of their practices and tools they had to work with to those of the modern up-to-date office, we can but feel sure they were veritable butchers to be dreaded. The traditional stories of the sufferings in the dental chair, in the olden times, prevent many today from having their teeth preserved as they should. The preventing of decay by filling cavities, the relieving of nervous and stomach troubles by removing the cause in the teeth, the straightening of abnormal growths, the handling of fractured jaws and other face bones and the treatment of ulcerations in the sinus, reached through the teeth cavities are common treat- ments of every dentist of today.


To meet these recognized needs every town or community has its dentists and the practice of dentistry is now regarded as humane and as free from pain as skill and experience can make it.


OTHER HEALTH PRESERVERS.


Besides the professional physicians and dentists, we have quite a number of registered pharmacists in the county, a dozen or more pro-


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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY


fessional nurses, a few of whom are registered, a few professional midwives, three or four of whom are registered as the law requires. Then we have in every town one or more professional optometrists, and some of these hold position in the state Optometrist Association, while they hardly come in the physicians class, we have sev- . eral osteopaths, enjoying lucrative practice. With all these professional health preservers, or shall we say in spite of them, our population are a healthy, robust class as a whole. We have physicians selected for the poor in several of the larger towns, the unfortunate in the county farm have the attention of a county physician when needed, and we are on the verge of com- pulsory examination and treatment of children's ears, eyes and teeth as a requisite for school advantages, which cannot come too soon.


CHAPTER X.


THE PRESS.


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THE PRESS IN GENERAL-HISTORY OF THE NEWS- PAPERS OF HILLSBORO-HISTORY OF THE NEWS- PAPERS OF LITCHFIELD-NOKOMIS-RAYMOND- WITT-FARMERSVILLE-COFFEEN-IRVING.


THE PRESS IN GENERAL.


The newspapers of a county are a safe index of its intellectual and material development. A community that has no local press, or that with- holds its support from that which it has, is non- progressive and moss covered. Montgomery County, even before it had a population that would adequately support one local paper was supplied with several and rallied to their sup- port, in a commendable manner. We here give the beginnings and experiences of the several newspapers of the county as fully as the data at our command enables us to present them.


The power of the press is strong, but unless the people of a community are behind this power, it loses its force and, judging by this standard, the citizens of Montgomery County rank among the foremost, for their journals are live, forceful, outspoken organs, fearless in their


1 support of right, and the upholding of public decency and private morality. The editorials coming from the pens of the men in the editorial chairs are worthy of any journal in the state, and encourage and stimulate the readers to further and renewed efforts, to maintain the present high standard, and to work together toward even higher things. We are fortunate in having the aid of Parham Randle and S. W. Kessinger in presenting complete histories of newspaper experiences in Hillsboro and Litch- field. Those of other towns will be reviewed separately as data at hand permits.


HISTORY OF THE NEWSPAPERS OF HILLSBORO.


The following is from the pen of Parham A. Randall : "The first newspaper published in Hillsboro was The Prairie Beacon, started in the year 1838. Aaron Clapp was the editor, a tall. straight, red headed man whose eyes were badly crossed. The printing and typesetting was done by David S. Hobart and his two sisters. The Beacon could hardly be called a newspaper. It was neutral in everything and was not a suc- cess. The failure of the Prairie Beacon was so disastrous that was some years before another attempt was made to establish a news- paper in Hillsboro. In 1850 Frank and Cyrus Gilmore established the Prairie Mirror with Rev. Francis Springer editor. In politics the Mirror was Whig. In 1851 the outfit was sold to Wm. K. Jackson as publisher and C. D. Dick- erson as editor, when it became an exponent of the Know Nothing Party. Mr. Dickerson purchased the whole plant in 1854, and carried on the business himself as editor and publisher till 1856, when he sold out to James Blackman, Jr., who changed the name to the Montgomery County Herald, and still continued to publish it as a Know Nothing paper, till 1858, he sold to J. W. Kitchell and F. H. Gilmore. They changed the politics to independent until the opening of the campaign of 1860 when they sold out to Davis, Turner & Co. (Robt. W. Davis, Jas. M. Davis and McKinzie Turner). They pub- lished it during the campaign as a Democratic paper, when they sold out to Frank H. Gilmore who continued it as a Democratic paper until 1862, when he sold to E. J. Ellis, a refugee from Missouri. A son of this man Ellis was the per- son who shot Amzi Williams near the eye. Amzi was a brother of the late Major Robert W. Wil- liams. Mr. Ellis sold out to Edward L. Reynolds


:


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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY


and Wilbur F. Stoddard, and went to Litchfield, and for a time published the Prairie City Advo- cate. Reynolds and Stoddard sold the Herald in 1867 to William McEwan and John Aghin- haugh, who in 1868 sold to E. J. C. Alexander, and the Herald was consolidated with the Hills- boro Democrat. The Free Press was established in 1869 as an exponent of the then young Repub- lican party by the leading Republicans of Hills- horo and Butler as a stock company. It was not a financial success and suspended in 1861. In 1863 it was again published by John W. Kitchell, the name being changed to the Union Monitor. In the winter of 1864-65 Mr. Kitchell was drafted into the army and the plant was sold to D. M. Munn and later to T. J. Russell. Although doing service in the army Mr. Kitchell


remained editor during the proprietorship of both Munn and Russell. In May, 1867, E. J. C. Alexander became the proprietor of the Union Monitor. Mr. Alexander was at that time the proprietor of the Litchfield News, and he con- solidated the News and Monitor by printing both papers in Hillsboro, two pages being known as the Union Monitor and as the Litch- field News. In 1868 E. J. C. Alexander bought the Herald and consolidated the two, dropping the name Montgomery County Herald and con- tinuing under the name Hillsboro Democrat.


"The foregoing history is taken from early reminiscences of Montgomery County by Aaron Rountree, published in 1873 to 1877, in the Hills- boro Democrat, and this and all other writers make the mistake of giving the Montgomery News the credit of being a descendant of the Hillsboro Democrat, and The Journal of the News Letter. This is not true, but just the op- posite. Mr. Alexander when publishing the Litchfield News was a Republican, but when he published the Hillsboro Democrat in 1868 he had changed his views to that of the Democracy owing to the fifteenth amendment to the con- stitution of the U. S. About this time there was a great deal of talk about "nigger equality" and Mr. Alexander placed as his motto on the front page of his paper, "White men are yet capable of governing this country." Prior to the pas- sage of the fifteenth amendment the Democratic majority in this county was hardly ever over fifty. But since its passage, except a few land- slides, the Democratic majorities have run from 300 to 700. Mr. Alexander was a bold and fear- less writer and during his day was the shrewdest that has ever been in Montgomery


County. He considered it stooping to ask a person to subscribe for his paper, but deemed it the duty of an editor to make his paper do his talking and to make it in such demand that the people would subscribe for it without his solicit- ing them in any way. But alas, how customs have changed as the years go by. In the fall of 1872 there was a landslide. William Bowles, Republican, was elected sheriff by a majority of 106, and R. M. VanDoren was elected circuit clerk as a Democrat by only a majority of 34. July, 1873, the most disastrous money panic that ever happened, started in New York, and the breaking of banks and the stagnation of busi- ness generally was complete from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A series of crop failures, with hog cholera killing the hogs and an epizootic killing the horses caused the people to try to locate the cause of all this pestilence, and a majority of the people concluded that the "middleman" was the chief cause. The retail merchant as well as the wholesale merchant and wealthy manufacturer got his share of the blame for the stagnation of business and the sudden fall in the price of farm products. These causes brought out a new party called the Grange or Farmers' party, and by January, 1874, there was hardly a schoolbouse in Montgomery or adjoining counties that did not have its Grange monthly meetings. The Grange had grips, signs and passwords, and other secret organizations, and established stores in many towns and refused to have anything to do with the retail merchants or "middleman." In this period of unrest in politics Mr. Alexander espoused the cause of the Farmers' movement and changed the name of the paper to the Anti- Monopolist. In the fall of 1874, the Grange or Farmers' party nominated a county ticket, but it was defeated by the Democrats and by the fall of 1876, the Farmers' party had melted away like the proverbial snow bank in June. Early in 1876-77 the name of the paper was changed to Alexander's Blade, and the politics changed, and Mr. Alexander returned to his first love, the Republican party. In May, 1877, Mr. Alexander sold the plant to James L. Slack who changed the name to The Hillsboro Journal, by which name it continues to be published. Charles R. Truitt and Ben F. Boyd purchased the Journal of J. L. Slack in 1881. January 1, 1894, C. R. Truitt sold his half interest to Benja- min F. Boyd, and the same year Boyd sold a half interest to James M. Truitt. In 1897 Mr.


Casseurs a. Garst.


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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY


Boyd was appointed postmaster, and in 1898 the government ordered all government employees to cease any other business in which they might be engaged, so that Boyd and Truitt sold the plant to Josiah Bixler, and in 1904 Mr. Bixler sold to Little and Shipman, and they continued the publication till 1912 when Samuel Little be- came the sole proprietor. Thus the Hillsboro Journal has been a Republican paper for nearly forty years.


"On September 29, 1870, the first issue of the News Letter was issued, Charles L. and Emma T. Bangs as editors and publishers. The News Letter espoused the Republican cause and also that of female suffrage. Mr. Bangs had for- inerly been one of the proprietors of the Litch- field Monitor but sold his interest in that paper to come to Hillsboro and establish the News Letter. The News Letter office was over Man- chester & Kinsley's grocery store on East Main street. In February, 1872, Mr. Bangs was ap- pointed postmaster, and in the spring of 1872, the News Letter began to be printed on a cylin- der press, the first steam power press brought to Montgomery County. The press was put in a room fitted for the purpose in the basement of the Gunning factory and the power to run the press was furnished by the engine which run the wagon factory. In December, 1872, the wagon factory was destroyed by fire but the printing press was saved with small loss, except that it lost its motive power. The press was moved, with the type, from over Manchester & Kinsley's store, to the Unitarian Church which stood a short distance south of the Gunning building, a crank was placed on the fly wheel of the cylinder press and the press run by "Armstrong" power for about thirty years. C. L. Bangs was an industrious man and believed in working all the time, except when eating and sleeping. In addition to his duties as postmaster, printer and editor, he also studied medicine, but never prac- ticed except on himself. Mr. Bangs was subject to neuralgia and he often took medicine for this complaint prescribed by himself with satisfac- tory results, but in February, 1874, he had a spell of neuralgia and took a narcotic which soothed the pain and put him to sleep from which he never awoke. This left the manage- ment of the paper and the postoffice to Mrs. Bangs, which proving too arduous for her, after about six weeks' trial she leased the plant to John M. Smith and Charles T. Tobin, who con- tinued the publication of the News Letter until


summer, when Mrs. Bangs sold the plant to Charles T. Tobin and James L. Slack. In the fall of 1875 Benjamin E. Johnson bought the interest of Mr. Slack and the firm became Tobin & Johnson. As Mr. Alexander had left the Democratic party and Hillsboro had no Demo- cratic paper, Tobin & Johnson changed the name of the News Letter to The Montgomery News, and its politics was also changed to Democratic. The plant was moved from the Unitarian Church to over W. C. Miller's store. In the spring of 1878 Benjamin E. Johnson sold his interest in the Montgomery News to George W. Paisley and the firm became Tobin & Paisley. In 1880 Paisely and Tobin moved the plant to the Rountree corner on the second floor. In Febru- ary, 1882, Tobin & Paisley sold the paper to Ben- jamin E. Johnson who for the second time became interested in the Montgomery News. Mr. John- son continued as editor and publisher of the Montgomery News till about 1887 when he died, and his son Emmit Johnson assumed the manage- ment of the business and editor and publisher. Emmit was too young to undertake the business management of a newspaper, lacking a few years of being of legal age, and the paper dwindled till in 1880 when it was purchased by C. W. Bliss, who purchased the Johnson resi- dence with the plant. Mr. Bliss moved the plant from the Rountree building to the second story of the bank building which stands on the old Brewer corner across the street from the Roun- tree building in 1893, where it remained a year, when the present home of the Montgomery News was built and the plant moved into it. About January 1, 1914, both the Hillsboro News and the Hillsboro Journal were changed to semi-weeklies when they should have been changed to dailies, as Hillsboro is far more able to support two dailies than Litchfield. The two semi-weekly papers of Hillsboro today have sound financial standing, very creditable circulation and deserve and receive the confidence and support of an assured patronage and are ably edited by men of high standing and probity. The News is Democratic and the Journal Republican in poli- tics, in all matters they are in the best sense newspapers worthy of the city and its citizens."




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