USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois : biographical and pictorial, Volume I > Part 32
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The schoolhouses were likewise worthy of mention. They were almost in- variably built of logs and were "chinked and daubed." Some of them had no floors, and those that did have the floors were made of puncheons hewed upon one side and not altogether as smooth as marble floors. The schoolhouse was heated from a large fire place at one end of the room. These fire places were of capacious dimensions. Huge logs were often rolled in or carried in by the teacher and scholars, that, except in length would have made good saw logs. The chimneys were made of wood and clay, of sufficient size to have permitted a good sized yearling elephant to have been thrown down them. Of course most of the heat from the fire places below passed up the chimney, instead of being thrown out into the room. The windows were usually made by cutting out a log upon one side of the schoolhouse, making the windows rather wide but not very high. Glass, they had none, for the first schoolhouses, and these "openings in the wall," that have been described, were covered over with greased paper. The effect of greasing the paper, in this glazing process, was to make it more transparent and also tougher, so as to withstand the storms of wind and rain. It must have been a mellow tinted light, that which was admitted through those tallow dipped window panes. However, whether good or bad, it was the only makeshift they had until glass became accessible. The seats in those old school- houses would be a terror to this generation. They, too, like the floors, were made of slabs, hewed upon one side, and of course, had no backs to them. The little fellows were placed side by side on those rough benches, six, eight, or ten in a row, and scarcely any of these could reach the floor with their feet, the benches were so high. Legs were driven into the slabs from the lower side and it was not always that they were of the same length, so that, at times, the benches would rock from side to side, greatly to the terror of the little boys or girls perched on the top, as the equilibrium was changed.
It must not be inferred, however, from what has been said, that there were no good results growing up from the educational facilities mentioned, defective though they were. Men have graced the presidential chair and earned national and world wide reputations, whose minds received their first impulses in develop- ment from just such schoolrooms and educational advantages as has been men- tioned. Bud Means' are quite common in this western country. And it may be debatable ground today whether Oxford and Harvard have made more great men than the stinging, urging necessities to self improvement and self education, growing out of the defects and wants of educational facilities of these pioneer colleges. Perhaps the want of education and the feeling of that want, has built as many schoolhouses as the possession of education, coupled with a conscious- ness of its advantages. "Wittles" were what the hungry Sam Weller wanted most.
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The writing desks were made of split logs and in later days, of planks, which were ranged around the sides of the room, usually under the windows. Pins were driven into the wall and the slags or planks laid on them, and this constituted the writing desks for a great many years. They were not of that gilt edged and varnished sort of today, but were quite as substantial. These are the desks that the boys took such a vicious delight in defacing with their jack- knives. They cut upon them all sorts of hieroglyphical characters, checker boards and representations of human beings and not human, some of which no doubt, would have made Thomas Nast ashamed of himself. The larger boys and girls were privileged to sit at these desks, not only while writing, but while "doing their sums." Blackboards and charts were unknown in those days and in fact, were not needed in the method of teaching then prevailing. A good many young men remember when the new fangled idea of a blackboard was looked upon with a little bit of distrust by some of the kind hearted conservative old fellows. It was the same old chaps who also winked a kind of knowing wink at each other when the corn planter was introduced.
Such as has been mentioned were the schoolhouses, school furniture and schools of fifty, forty, and even thirty years ago. They were the best that could then be afforded. It may seem, and it does seem, to many who have wit- nessed the educational facilities above detailed, that the present generation of children does not duly appreciate the advantages that surround them. They do not perhaps duly appreciate their advantages for the same reason that the per- son reared in wealth and luxury poorly understands the condition of the poverty stricken wretch, that ekes out a miserable existence, always on the verge of want and starvation.
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CHAPTER XV.
THE HEALING ART.
THE PIONEER PHYSICIAN AND HIS BURDENS-THERE WERE NO SPECIALISTS IN THOSE DAYS-MADE HIS OWN PILLS AND USED THE LANCE WITH OR WITHOUT PROVOCA- TION-QUICK OF PERCEPTION AND SELF RELIANT-SKETCHES OF SOME PIONEERS AND OTHERS-MACOUPIN COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
The pioneers of the healing art in Carlinville and Macoupin county were the guardians of a widely dispersed population. Aside from their professional duties they contributed their full share to the material development of a newly opened country. Some were men of culture who had gained their medical education in college; the great number were of limited educational attainment, whose profes- sional knowledge had been acquired in the offices of established practitioners of more or less ability in the sections from which they emigrated. Of either class almost without exception they were practical men of great force of character who gave cheerful and efficacious assistance to the suffering, daily journeying on horseback scores of miles over a country almost destitute of roads and en- countering swollen, unbridged streams, without waterproof garments or other now common protection against the elements. Out of necessity the pioneer physician developed rare quickness of perception and self reliance. A specialist was then unknown and he was called upon to treat every phase of bodily ail- ment, serving as physician, surgeon, oculist and dentist. His books were few and there were no practitioners of more ability than himself with whom he might consult. His medicines were simple and carried on his person, and every prepara- tion of pill or solution was the work of his own hands.
PIONEERS IN THE PROFESSION.
As far as the records reveal Dr. George Sims was a pioneer physician of Macoupin county, settling in North Palmyra township in 1829.
Dr. William King was here as early as 1832. He was married November 5, 1835, to Mrs. Matilda Holland, widowed sister of Oliver W. Hall. In the early years of the settlement there were no physicians and recourse was had to Madison county. "Chills and fever" and other malarious maladies were the chief complaints, especially in the summer and fall. Pneumonia made its appear- ance to some extent in the winter. In 1833 Dr. John W. Goode was practicing his profession in Carlinville and the same year Dr. W. H. Palmer was in at-
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tendance on the afflicted, having located in the vicinity of Scottville, although that thriving village was not in existence at the time. Drs. Thomas and Joseph Conduitte, Frenchmen, and graduates of a Paris university, arrived in Carlin- ville in 1834, but the place did not meet their anticipations and ambitions, and in about a year thereafter they moved to another field of activity.
A regular graduate of one of Massachusetts' medical institutions and pos- sessed of considerable natural ability, Dr. John R. Lewis determined to make his way in his chosen profession and in 1834 settled in the then embryo city of Carlinville.
Dr. John R. Smith came to Carlinville in 1835. He was a Virginian by birth, a man of erudition and skilled in his profession. He associated himself with Dr. Zopher Jayne, who had preceded him the same year in his residence here. Dr. Jayne was a graduate of the Louisville Medical College and the preceptor of Dr. John Logan at their former home.
In 1848 Dr. John A. Halderman came to Macoupin county and located at the county seat. He was a skillful surgeon, a good physician of the "old school" and noted for his liberality when prescribing the size of a dose of medicine. Doubtless, there are patients of his still living who have a lively remembrance of him on that account. He was the first one to represent Macoupin county in the State Medical Society, was one of its charter members and its first treasurer -- in 1850.
Dr. Luke S. Coons was practicing at Staunton in 1835.
Dr. Lightfoot was the first of the healing art in Bird township.
Dr. Goode was in North Otter in the '30s and Dr. Vance in South Otter.
Dr. Thornton began the practice in South Palmyra in 1840 and the second physician in that locality was Dr. H. J. Vanwinkle.
Dr. Henry Rhoads was in Chesterfield attending to the bodily afflictions of the settlers as early as 1831, and Dr. Coward came in 1833.
The first physician in Brighton was Dr. McKee, who settled there in 1836. Dr. L. S. Pennington followed him in 1838.
Dr. Ebenezer Howell was practicing in Bunker Hill in 1837.
Dr. John Logan was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1809, and by his own efforts acquired a fairly good education. At the outbreak of the Black Hawk war, in 1832, he was elected major of the Ninth Illinois Militia and saw some service at the front. He settled in Carlinville in 1833. In 1836 he became col- onel of the Forty-fourth Regiment of Militia. John Logan had learned carpen- try and worked at his trade while reading medicine. He began the practice of medicine in 1838 with Dr. James, remaining with the latter until 1841. He at- tended lectures at Kemper College in the winter of 1840 and at St. Louis Hospital in 1841. His clientele grew to a large and lucrative one and so continued until the outbreak of the Civil war, when, in 1861, he was made colonel of the Thirty- second Illinois Regiment. He served with honor and distinction until December 30, 1864. From 1866 until 1870 Dr. Logan held the office of United States mar- shal of southern Illinois, after which he resumed his practice at Carlinville. He was a skilled and successful physician and surgeon and as a citizen was univer- sally esteemed. He was married January 2, 1834, to Miss Sophia Hall, sister of Oliver W. Hall. Dr. Logan's death occurred August 20. 1885.
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Dr. William A. Robertson was born in Liberty, Bedford county, Virginia, October 27, 1803. He removed with his parents to Knoxville, Tennessee, when four years of age and shortly thereafter the family removed to Lexington, Ken- tucky. His father commenced the practice of medicine in Lexington and shortly. thereafter removed to Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where he died. William A. attained his literary education at New London Academy in Virginia. He studied medicine with his father and then entered the medical college at Lexington, where he took a course of lectures. He married Miss Ellen Clark in 1829, a Kentuckian. In 1830 the young couple came to Edwardsville, in Madison county, afterwards removing to Alton. There he practiced his profession but subsequently abandoned it and engaged in farming. The year 1835 found him in Carlinville, where he engaged in general merchandising for some years. A short time after his arrival here his wife died and in 1844 the Doctor married Nancy H., daughter of Rev. Charles Holliday.
Nathan Duncan, one of the pioneer physicians of the county, settled in Cahokia township in the early '30s, where he entered land from the government. He was not a graduate physician but won his title on account of his home prac- tice, doctoring with herbs which he gathered from the woods.
Dr. Levi J. Woods came to Macoupin county, from Morgan county, about 1842, and gave every promise of becoming eminent in the practice of medicine. He married Martha McClure, daughter of James McClure, by whom there were two children: William M., who became a physician; and Fannie, who married Judge Whitlock, of Jacksonville. Dr. Woods died of cholera in 1851. He was stricken with the terrible scourge and was a corpse within twelve hours. The nature of the disease was not known at the time either by his physician, Dr. John A. Halderman, or others, and probably three hundred people attended the funeral, many of whom contracted the disease there and then and soon followed the young physician to the grave. He was the first one to be stricken and die in that scourge of cholera in 1851. Three or four of the McClure family fell victims to its ravages and the Anderson family, it was feared, would, by the number of deaths it sustained, become extinct. Death was on every hand, and the terror of the visitation became so intense and paralyzing in its effects, that it was with the greatest difficulty help could be obtained to take care of the sick and dying. In many instances the male members of the community were com- pelled to nurse women on their beds of sickness, their frail sisters being too overcome with fear and dread to go near them. After death the bodies were buried as quickly as a grave could be dug.
LATER PHYSICIANS.
Dr. John A. Delano was born in New Braintree, Massachusetts, April 5, 1816. He acquired a common-school education and was graduated from Am- herst College in the class of 1836, one of his schoolmates being Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. He then entered the medical college of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, from which he was graduated. Soon thereafter he came west. . He located in Bunker Hill in 1841 and in a very short time had all the practice to
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which he could attend. Dr. Delano was married in Bunker Hill to Mrs. Anna Williams Ring, a native of New York. His death occurred April 14, 1887.
Dr. J. P. Binney was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1819, and began the study of medicine in Lancaster, England, at the early age of fifteen. He came to the United States in 1842 and the same year found him in Macoupin county. Soon after his arrival he began practice at Staunton, in which he was successful both professionally and materially. He retired in 1888.
Dr. John W. Hankins was a native of New Jersey and emigrated to Illinois in 1846, locating in Carlinville. He married Elizabeth McKee, a native of Penn- sylvania. They were the parents of Robert A. Hankins, who received his edu- cation in the common schools of his native town and at the age of eighteen years entered Blackburn University, remaining there two years studying anatomy and physiology preparatory to entering the profession of medicine. He attended a course of lectures at the Eclectic Medical College at Philadelphia in 1869 and then returned home. In 1871 he attended another course of lectures in the same college and graduated from the institution in 1872, with the degree of M. D. He at once took up the practice of his profession in Carlinville, in which he has become more than ordinarily successful. A complete sketch of Dr. Hankins will be found in the biographical volume of this work.
Dr. Edward C. Ellet practiced medicine at Bunker Hill for thirty years and then retired. He was born near Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Septem- ber 25, 1819. Dr. Ellet became a resident of Bunker Hill township in 1839, locating ten miles north of Bunker Hill, where he and his brother Alfred founded the village called Plainview. As soon as he had accumulated sufficient funds he entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1849. He immediately thereafter opened an office in Bunker Hill and asso- ciated with himself Dr. E. Howell. This partnership continued for twenty years, proving mutually profitable and pleasant. Dr. Howell lived to a ripe old age, eventually removing to McLean county. Dr. Ellet was married in Bunker Hill to Miss Lydia Miller in 1850.
Martin H. Head became one of the leading physicians of Macoupin county, practicing his profession with honor and distinction for many years at Carlin- ville, where he was held in honor and esteem by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Dr. Head was born May 3, 1827, near Louisville, Kentucky. He was raised on a farm and assisted his widowed mother until the age of twenty-one, in the meantime attending school. Upon reaching his majority he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. J. M. Bemis, of Middleton, Ken- tucky, after which he attended medical lectures at Louisville, graduating from the Louisville Medical College in 1851. The same year he came to Carlinville, opened an office and at once entered upon practice. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil war, he offered his professional services to the government and be- came assistant surgeon of the Fourteenth Illinois Infantry. In 1862 he was on duty as a physician in the hospital at Memphis, Tennessee, and in 1865 was transferred to Crittenden Hospital at St. Louis, where he was stationed until the following October and then honorably discharged. Taking up his practice at Carlinville, he continued therein with success and distinction. In 1853 Dr. Head married Margaret I. Blackburn, a native of Versailles, Kentucky, a daugh-
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ter of the Rev. John and Catherine (Edwards) Blackburn. They became the parents of two children, Eugene S., a physician, and Hadley.
Dr. John Ash was a native of Pennsylvania and began the practice of his profession in Brighton in 1853. He acquired his education in the public schools and graduated from Pennsylvania Medical College at Philadelphia in 1851. He came at once to Delhi, Jersey county, Illinois, but in the same year removed to Piasa, coming to Brighton in 1853.
Charles Edward Smith was born in New York and received his early educa- tion in Ohio. He then taught school in Mississippi, where he read medicine and in 1854 began the practice of his profession at Cummington, now a part of Pal- myra. Here he remained until 1857, when he removed to Nilwood, making that place his permanent home. He is now deceased.
M. W. Seaman was born at Glens Falls, New York, on the 13th of January, 1830. His parents dying early, young Seaman was adopted by Jabez Biggs, with whom he remained until his twenty-second year. In the meantime he re- ceived an education in the common schools of his native village and the Glens Falls Academy, where he took an academical course. After remaining at the academy four years he entered the office of Dr. Peck and commenced the study of medicine. Shortly thereafter he placed himself under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Hun, professor of physiology in Albany Medical College. At- tending three courses of lectures in the above named institution, his graduation occurred with the degree of M. D. in. 1853. He then began the practice of his profession in Glens Falls and in 1854 emigrated west, settling in Lawrence, Kansas. In the latter part of that year he located at Shipman, where he taught school the following winter and on the Ist of March, 1855, commenced the prac- tice of medicine and became successful. During the Civil war Dr. Seaman was appointed assistant surgeon to the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regi- ment, Colonel John I. Rinaker commanding. This was in 1862. In 1863 he was promoted to the position of surgeon of a regiment. During a portion of the time he was brigade surgeon and in 1864 was post surgeon at Cairo, Illinois. He remained in the service until the close of the war, when he returned to Ship- man and resumed his practice. In the practice of medicine Dr Seaman stood in the foremost rank of his profession. He was the first president of the first medical society organized in the county, also a member of the State Medical Society. He is now deceased.
Dr. John Pitt Matthews was born at Hampton Court, Herfordshire, Eng- land, September 2, 1835, and died January 7, 1909. He spent the first eighteen years of his life as a farmer boy, giving his winters to study and his summers to his labors on the farm. He had migrated to this country with his parents in 1864. When eighteen years of age young Matthews entered Duff's Mercan- tile College at Pittsburg and took a mathematical course. He then entered Alle- gheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, remaining there two years, on the expiration of which period he pointed his face westward and arrived in Greene county, Illinois, where he taught school one winter term, one term at Kane, and a year and a half at Greenfield Academy. While at Kane he commenced read- ing medicine under Dr. P. Finnerty, and afterward took a course in the medical department of Iowa University at Keokuk and then commenced the practice of
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his profession in Scottville, Macoupin county, continuing until 1862, when he entered the United States service as assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illinois Volunteers. After one year he came home on account of sickness and in the fall of 1863 resumed practice in Carlinville in connection with Dr. E. E. Webster. In 1865 he attended a course of lectures and graduated at Long Island College Hospital, New York. Dr. Matthews belonged to the progressive school of physicians as may be readily known by his connection with the different county, state and national medical associations. He took first rank in his profession. Personally and socially Dr. Matthews possessed rare quali- ties and by his upright and manly life won an honorable name in the community. He was married to Miss Betty, daughter of John M. Palmer, in 1865, and to them were born four children; but only three are living: John Palmer, now a practicing physician in Carlinville; Lucy Myra; and Frederick Webster Mat- thews. His widow is still a resident of Carlinville.
Dr. Reuben J. Allmond was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1818 and commenced the study of medicine when he was sixteen years old, being ma- triculated at Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, taking his diploma there in the spring of 1839. After practicing in various places he removed to Piasa, Macoupin county, in 1858, where he practiced until 1861, when he made his permanent home in Palmyra.
Dr. T. Warren Floyd was one of the early physicians at Gillespie, locating there in 1859. His death occurred in 1876. He was a native of Kentucky and obtained his early education in the common schools, afterward attending Mc- Kendree College at Lebanon in his native state. His preparatory medical studies were made in the office of Dr. Drake of Greenville and his graduation followed from a medical college at Chicago. He married Anna E. Caudry, in 1860, a daughter of John L. Caudry, who settled in Cahokia township in 1859. Dr. Floyd secured a well deserved reputation as a physician and was highly esteemed. both for his professional skill and his many qualities as a citizen and as a gen- tleman.
Dr. Jacob T. Dickerson, a native of Delaware, graduated from the Phila- delphia Eclectic College in 1860. In the summer of the same year he located in Brighton and began the practice of medicine, in which he became successful. He finally abandoned the labors of a physician and established a drug store to which he gave his whole attention.
Dr. George Bley was born at Dettingen, Wittenburg, Germany, January 12, 1821. He came to this country with his father in 1832. Leaving home at the age of twelve, he was apprenticed when fifteen to the drug busness in Phila- delphia. There he opened a drug store on his own account at the age of twenty- one. Determining to became a physician, young Bley attended lectures at Jef- ferson Medical College in 1845 and in the years 1848, 1849 and 1850 was a stu- dent at Philadelphia College of Medicine, from which he graduated in 1850. He began the practice of his profession in Philadelphia, removing to Scott county, Iowa, in 1855, to Rock Island, Illinois, in 1858, Monroe county, ., nois, in 1859, and to Staunton, Macoupin county, in October, 1861, where in 1869 he opened a drug store. Dr. Bley was known as a skilled physician and a good citizen. He married Elizabeth W. Lavis in 1846, by whom he had six children.
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METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, CHESTERFIELD
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. CHESTERFIELD)
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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David L. Bley and Robert E. Bley, the two sons, graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, the former in 1875 and the latter in 1877, and began prac- ticing medicine at Staunton. -
Dr. Robert J. Hornsby was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, in 1819. His father sent him to school in Jefferson county, Kentucky, and then to Danville College, from which he entered the college at Shelbyville, Shelby county. Leav- ing college, he entered the office of Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, of Lexington, Kentucky, one of the prominent physicians of that city, with a wide reputation as a surgeon. Here he studied for two years, and graduating, began the prac- tice of medicine in Kentucky, where he remained for three years. He then came to Illinois and entered land in Madison county. From November, 1849, until 1862 Dr. Hornsby practiced medicine near Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. In 1854 he laid out and founded the town of Clyde, Macoupin county, and four years later, in connection with L. L. Dorsey laid out the village of Prairie City. Dr. Hornsby married Frances Cordelia Dorsey, a native of Kentucky, born in 1825. Dr. Hornsby located in Gillespie in 1862, where he became quite suc- cessful and then removed to Bunker Hill.
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