USA > Indiana > Wells County > Biographical memoirs of Wells County, Indiana : embracing a comprehensive compendium of local biography, memoirs of representative men and women of the county whose works of merit have made their names imperishable, and special articles by Hugh Dougherty [et al.] > Part 10
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WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
WIDE SPREAD EPIDEMIC OF LA GRIPPE.
Within the last few years the entire country, from Maine to California, was brought under the bane of la grippe, trans- ported into this country from Europe. The number of cases ran up into the hundred thousands in the United States. From in- quiry among the leading physicians in the county, I should judge there must have been from six to eight thousand persons in Wells county attacked with the malady. The mor- tality from the effects of the scourge was not so great in itself, but many people who were subject to serious organic diseases and general debility were carried away or their health seriously undermined as a result of the complications directly traceable to la grippe. Other epidemics have prevailed throughout the county in recent years and, while not attended by large mortality, en- tailed considerable distress and inconven- ience and expense to the public, such as clos- ing of the public schools and churches in certain localities for a time. Prominent in the list of diseases constituting said epi- demics, were measles, scarlet fever, diph- theria and, more recently, small-pox; of the latter disease there were between eighty and ninety cases scattered throughout this county ; only a death or two, however, oc- curred and these were due, it is claimed, from the complications, showing the mild- ness of the type and the effectiveness of vaccination and quarantine regulations.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, OR FAITH CURE.
This fanatical outburst has not had any extensive following in this county and it is hoped will not. The state legislature has taken the matter in hand and laws have
been enacted to protect innocent and help- less children and others who may come un- der the influences of these fanatics. The law was formed to meet the emergency in such cases and provides a penalty or punish- ment for anyone having a person or persons under their especial care or guardianship, who shall refuse to procure for them proper medical aid in sickness. This is eminently right and proper. There can be no objec- tion whatever to all the praying that may be done for the sick ; we must not only pray, but work'; we must use the proper means and resources at our command to counter- act disease and cure the patient.
The question is frequently asked by the laity, "Doctor, there are more diseases now than there used to be; we hardly ever heard of heart failure or appendicitis, and how does it come that the people didn't use to have these diseases?" Then the doctor be- gins to look wise and assume an attitude of dignity, mingled, however, with a slight tinge of uncertainty crowded in the back ground, and after clearing his throat of a rasping impediment, ventures in response, "What's that you say?" "You doctors," retorts the patient. "have a way of finding out new diseases and calling them by big names, then the people get scared, and you charge them big bills. Don't you, Doc .? " Whatever wrong impressions may prevail on this subject, the doctor explains away these difficult questions as best he can, informing the people that, as there is a constant in- flux of emigrants from the European and Asiatic nations, representing but a small per cent. of the thrifty and desirable on the one hand and on the other an innumerable host of the illiterate and criminal, the very offscourings and refuse of hundreds of
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years of degeneracy, from such sources of origin and consequent contamination of population come disease, pestilence and, I might add, crime, for crime comes in the main from a perverted or vitiated mind.
The city of Bluffton, with its population of five thousand, has in the main excellent health, due largely, no doubt, to its excel- lent hygienic surroundings. The city has several miles of asphalt streets and pave- ment, which is the most sanitary street that can be constructed ; these streets are swept and kept free of dust and debris and are healthy. We also have a sewer system, put in at a cost to the city of seventy-five thousand dollars; the same empties into the Wabash river, which flows by and forms the north- ern boundary of the city. We have a splen- did system of public water works; the water is supplied by a number of deep wells drilled down into the rock, and is pure and of the most excellent quality, a fact of vital inter- est to the health of the citizens. On inquiry I ascertained from the engineer that the amount of water pumped for all purposes is six hundred and fifty thousand gallons per day.
The commissioners of the county recently purchased a farm adjoining the poor farm and the good and charitable ladies of the Woman's Christian . Temperance Union have had the farm-house on this new pur- chase remodeled and equipped as an or- phans' home, with a view to taking the lit- tle children out of the poor house and from among the hardened and wretched and hav- ing them cared for and taught separately and among pleasant and happy surround- ings.
The medical profession has witnessed a revolution all along the line in inventions
and discoveries and in the practical applica- tion of these modern deductions to accom- plish ends heretofore inconceivable. The discovery of liquid air and its wonderful properties has startled the scientific world and while it is only emerging from the birth-throes, it awaits the hand of some genius to harness its forces that it may be- come an obedient servant, doing the will of mankind. With the X-ray, another power, the medical man is enabled to explore the interior of the living human system, while the heart continues to beat, the mind to act and life goes on uninterrupted, so that diseased conditions are determined, foreign bodies, as billets or tumors, are located to a certainty and therefore are more readily treated or removed, as the respective cases require. The gold cure for inebriety has. proven largely a success and the institutions established for that purpose have actually reclaimed thousands of lives from wreck and ruin back to family and home, and to a useful career in the world. The treatment for certain diseased conditions by "sugges- tion" has found favor with some, and of course will have its day and ardent devo- tees.
As this article must draw to a close, I only have time and space to hint at some of the more important things in store for the future of the medical profession. The con- venience and dispatch with which the pro- fession is now able to receive calls and dis- charge the daily routine of visits and at- tendance on the sick is unique indeed. Electricity, too, has wrought wonders. Formerly the physician received the calls and filled the same from the country dis- tricts after messenger and himself had rid- den on horse-back many, many miles
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through the mud and swales ; but how dif- ferent today, and with what lightning dispatch the same is accomplished now, in part at least, through the medium of the tel- ephone, the gravel roads and asphalt streets. A message is sent from the farmer's house to the physician's office and he is soon on the way to the patient, either going on the bicycle, the automobile or the electric car, which will bring him in an inconceivable short period of time to the door of the sick. It has even gone beyond this-it is now too long to await the stretching of the telephone wires, as "wireless telegraphy" has stepped in and-"presto change"-the message is received. Many and varied are the experi- ences of the physician and surgeon. At times he is required to be as mute, unobserving and silent as the tomb, and at other times, observing and outspoken. He should have the eyes of an eagle, the hand and touch of a
woman, and the heart and determination of a lion, as the occasion demands.
THE DEATH.
"While some may live and seem no grace to yield,
Still some must die, though all their world complain,
As if the One who harvests in the Field
Would leave the weeds and garner unripe grain.
THE CURE.
To some 'tis given they must suffer pain ;
Another that he comes with skill to heal,
And having healed goes calmly on his way,
While those who suffered live and love again."
Be kind and considerate and respectful to the doctor, for God has made you and you have need of him.
DENTISTRY.
BY THOMAS STURGIS, D. D. S.
In this notice of the history of dentistry in our beautiful city of Bluffton it is likely to be quite a mixture, a gleaning here and a gleaning there; so we are likely to give you in these pages something unlike anything you have seen before, a cross, perhaps, be- tween an editor's special and a report of dis- cussion, and if the reader regards it as too much of a medley we can make him better understand our idea if in the war of the Re- bellion he ever reached the region visited by Gen. Turchin's brigade, by saying, "Here's your mule." This subject is far-reaching and comprehends the treatment of every or- gan contained in the oral cavity, for dentist- ry is a positive science as well as a practical art. But a free use of scientific terms will not pass for well expressed ideas nor re- dound half so much to the credit of the writer as the simple language which con- veys some useful, practical and appreciable thought.
There have been located in Bluffton sev- enteen dentists, as follows: Drs. S. M. Cummins, O. W. Crow, Jack Ross, Ralph Fenton, Uranus Fenton, Thomas Sturgis, Earl B. Sturgis, P. L. Robinson, Homer E. Robinson, Evert Meriman, Forst Brenne- man, L. W. Dailey, Homer Clayton, O. K. Muckley, O. F. Covert, F. W. Karns and
G. M. Kinsey. Those now located in our midst are : Sturgis & Sturgis, D. D. S., L.W. Dailey, D. D. S., Robinson & Robinson, D. D. S., and Homer Clayton, D. D. S. Of the others, three are known to be dead. Dr. Oliv- er S. Covert, died in Denver, Colorado, Feb- ruary 20, 1889; Dr. Fred Karns died in Bluffton June 19, 1895; Ralph Fenton died at Kokomo, Indiana. These died full of young manhood, and were an honor to their profession. In the mysterious providence of our Father in heaven they have gone to their reward; peace to their ashes. Dr. S. M. Cummins, the first dentist to locate in Bluffton, is now at Elkhart, Indiana; Dr. Uranus Fenton, at Alliance, Ohio; Dr. O. K. Muckley, at Huntington, Indiana; Dr. Evert Merriman, at South Whitley, Indi- ana; Dr. Forst Brenneman, at Columbia City, Indiana : Dr. G. M. Kinsey, at Toledo, Ohio.
Our forefathers of forty years ago were handicapped in their work. Then equip- ments and instruments were not of the char- acter they are today ; but we will have to admit they did some noble work and laid the foundation of one of the highest branches of science the world has ever known. Today we are foremost in this noble profession. We have at our com-
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mand all the advantages of science and in- vestigation worked out by our preceptors. Today operations are made easy by modern methods and equipments. The filling of teeth with gold, silver, cement, crowning of broken down teeth, bridge work, the best possible substitute for lost teeth, plates where all the teeth are gone-this work is done today with the greatest of satisfaction. Now, a word to mothers and those who have children under their care. The pres- ervation of the temporary teeth is by no means a matter of trifling importance. They demand prompt attention, and demand it more imperatively than do the permanent teeth. The dicidious teeth, commonly known as baby teeth, are the first to appear in the mouth in infancy, being twenty in number. They begin to erupt about the fourth to the sixth month, and are complet- ed from the twentieth to twenty-fourth month. This cannot be said of all children, as they may erupt sooner or later than the designated time. After the eruption of these temporary organs in their respective places the dentist should be consulted at least once a year, or oftener, as the retention of the temporary teeth insures evenness and per- manency in the permanent set. At about the fifth to the sixth year, when the child begins to discard these temporary organs to accommodate a more substantial set of thirty-two teeth, the mother is often mis- led, especially in the first permanent molar, which erupts about the sixth year. Think- ing it a baby tooth, they allow it to decay until it is past the power of the dentist to restore. It should be a mother's ambition to care for the child's teeth until they reach an age when they are responsible for their own welfare.
In conclusion we desire to address a few words to our brothers in the practice. The dentist's duty to his profession is to main- tain its dignity, to increase its efficiency and to make it honorable in the eyes of men. Any course of action which will diminish public confidence in dentistry as a profession is a breach of duty and every breach of duty is an infraction of the code of ethics; hence poor practice, imperfect operations, unskill- ful treatment, whether resulting from care- lessness or ignorance, are unethical. In all your busy hours in operating rooms and laboratory, let me entreat you never to for- get the obligation resting upon you as mem- bers of society and as citizens of the state. The great law of reciprocity embodied in the injunction, "Bear ye one another's bur- dens," should always prevail. Society maintains you and the state protects you ; be dutiful and loyal to both. Society today is profoundly agitated with questions, so- cial, economic and political, which reach to the very foundation of free government. You can not stand aloof and say that by reason of your particular occupation you have nothing to do with such matters; on the contrary they concern every man and you can not evade your responsibility ; you must take part in the current daily discus- sions of your fellow citizens and help to form the general verdict of public opinion. Let your ballot be cast as conscientiously as you read your Bible, and let your influ- ence in the community always be equal to your ability and your opportunity. Now to the subject, farewell; to the future, hail; to honorable employment, welcome, and may you each and all be crowned with suc- cess and happiness. The writer of this article has practiced dentistry thirty years
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continuously in Bluffton, Indiana. He is one of five brothers who saw service and plenty of it in the war of the Rebellion. All five are alive today; three of them passed through the struggle unscathed; two were wounded, Capt. E. Y. Sturgis at the battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi, and Capt.
William Sturgis at the battle of Resaca, Georgia. Sergeant Thomas Sturgis, author of this article, was a member of Company A, Thirty-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He claims the distinction of having served the longest of the five brothers, having four years and over five months to his credit.
Hough Dougherty
PART II.
BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
HON. HUGH DOUGHERTY.
True biography has a more noble pur- pose than mere fulsome eulogy. The his- toric spirit, faithful to the record; the dis- cerning judgment, unmoved by prejudice, and uncolored by enthusiasm, are as essen- tial in giving the life of the individual as in writing the history of a people. Indeed, the ingenuousness of the former picture is even more vital, because the individual is the national unit, and if the unit be justly es- timated the complex organism will become correspondingly intelligible. The world today is what the leading men of the last generation have made it, and this rule must ever hold good. From the past comes the legacy of the present. Art, science, states- manship and government are accumula- tions. They constitute an inheritance upon which the present generation have entered, and the advantages secured from so vast a bequeathment depend entirely upon the fidelity with which is conducted the study of the lives of the principle actors who have transmitted and are still transmitting the
legacy. This is especially true of those whose influence has passed beyond the con- fines of locality and permeated the state or national life. To such a careful study are the life, character and services of Hugh Dougherty pre-eminently entitled, not only on the part of the student of biography but also of every citizen who, guided by exam- ple, would in the present wisely build for the future.
Any piece of biographical writing should have an autobiographic quality ; should be an impression and interpretation, quite as much as a summary of facts. Facts, to be sure, are of use as wholesome correc- tion of prejudice or whimsy, but in the con- densed narrative of a life there is danger that they may tyrannize. In studying a clean-cut, sane, distinct character like that of the subject, interpretation follows fact in a straight line of derivation. There is a small use for indirection or puzzling. His character is the positive expression of a strong nature. A partial revelation of his prolific application, , sturdy patriotism, worthy ancestry and eminently successful
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life will be secured through a perusal of this brief tribute. Wells county may well be proud of such citizens as this popular and honored citizen of Bluffton.
Hugh Dougherty is a native of that state concerning which Senator Depew spoke in the following amusing paraphrase : "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some are born in Ohio." Mr. Dougherty was born on the parental home- stead, in Darke county, Ohio, on the 28th of July, 1844, his lineage showing the sturdy dual strains of the Irish and German extraction. He bears the full patronymic of his paternal grandfather, Hugh Dough- erty, who emigrated from the Emerald Isle and took up his abode in Pennsylvania in 1818, and there, in 1820, was born Wil- liam Dougherty, the father of the subject. About a decade later, in 1831, the family emigrated to Ohio and settled on a tract of unreclaimed land in Darke county, where the grandfather died in 1833. There Wil- liam grew to years of maturity and there, on the 7th of June, 1841, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Margaret Studabaker, who was born in that county in August, 1821, on the farm which her father had taken up when that section of the Buckeye state was a veritable wilderness, and where there was the menace of Indians and wild beasts to fear, besides the endurance of the privations and vicissitudes incidental to the pioneer days. Grandfather Studabaker was compelled to keep his wife near him in the clearing while he was engaged in his ardu- ous toil, in order to protect her from prowl- ing bands of hostile Indians. He was of stanch German extraction, and the name was one which early became indentified with the history of the old Keystone state
of Pennsylvania. Margaret (Studabaker) Dougherty passed her entire life in Darke county, where her death occurred on the 15th of August, 1860. She was survived by six children. Her husband eventually removed to Wells county, Indiana, and set- tled on a farm near Bluffton, where his death occurred on the 2nd of June, 1879. These were folk of sterling character, and their lives were signally true and noble, though not lived on an exalted plane.
Hugh Dougherty grew up under the sturdy and invigorating discipline and en- vironment of the old home farm in Darke county, where he assisted in the farm work during the summer seasons and prosecuted his studies in the district schools during the winter months. However, his nature was self-reliant and positive, and he was not satisfied with the somewhat meager educational opportunities afforded him in his boyhood, and thus he so applied himself as to become eligible for pedagogic honors when seventeen years of age. He devoted his attention to teaching for some time, be- ing successful in his efforts, and was thus engaged when there came the clarion call to respond to the demands of higher duty, as the integrity of the nation was placed in jeopardy through armed rebellion. In Aug- ust, 1862, at the age of eighteen years, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Nine- ty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which his brother Abraham was already en- rolled, and within ten days after his enlist- ment the regiment proceeded, under orders, by rail to Lexington, Kentucky, and thence by march on toward Richmond, Kentucky, passing the old homestead of Henry Clay, on the Richmond & Lexington turnpike, and on the second day encountering the
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WELLS COUNTY, INDIANA.
Confederates, who were moving toward Lexington. In the engagement which en- sued Mr. Dougherty's intimate friend and messmate, Perry Weikle, was killed, and William H. Birely, of the same company, was severely. wounded. The Union forces retreated to Lexington, and the remnant of the Ninety-fourth numbered about three hundred men, all the others having been killed, wounded or taken prisoners. The survivors fought their way back to Louis- ville, where they remained until the regi- ment was repleted and reorganized, when it was assigned to Buell's army and partic- ipated in the battle of Perryville, being in the thickest of the fray in this spirited en- gagement. The ranks of the regiment were again decimated by the large number killed, wounded and captured, and after this battle such of the members as were eligible for service marched to Nashville, where they remained twenty days and then proceeded to Stone river and took part in the battle at that point. During this engagement young Dougherty was stationed near Nolensville, guarding ammunition and stores, and the Confederate cavalry made a detour in the rear and captured him and others of the guard. They were immediately paroled, after subscribing to an oath of which the following is a copy :
NOLENSVILLE, TENN., Dec. 30, 1862. I, Hugh Dougherty, private of Company F, Ninety-fourth Ohio Infantry, U. S. A., do take a solemn oath not to take up arms against the Con- federate States troops, nor reveal anything I may have learned derogatory to the interests of the Confederate States of America, nor do any police or constabulary duties until I shall have been properly exchanged, under penalty of death.
(Signed) HUGH DOUGHERTY.
Witness: Lieut .- Col. M. H. Hawkins, of General Wheeler's staff.
Mr. Dougherty was then sent back to Nashville and thence to Camp Chase, at Columbus, Ohio, to remain until his ex- change could be accomplished. Learning of the critical illness of his soldier brother, Abraham, who had been sent home on sick furlough, he made a visit to his home, where he remained until his loved brother yielded up his life to the one invincible foe, death, after which he reported for duty, but was almost immediately attacked with a serious illness, which rendered him ineligi- ble for active service, so that he was soon afterward accorded an honorable discharge, by reason of disability. After his military career had been thus summarily terminated, Mr. Dougherty returned to his native state, and at Greenville found employment as dep- uty in the office of the recorder of Darke county, remaining in tenure of this position for a period of three years. His removal to Bluffton occurred immediately after his withdrawal from this office, and after his arrival here he was for six months em- ployed as salesman in a dry-goods estab- lishment. He then entered into a partner- ship association with his uncle, John Stud- abaker, in the grain and produce business, in which line he continued operations for a period of seven years, doing a large and suc- cessful commission business. In the mean- time he became assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Bluffton, of which his uncle previously mentioned was president, and this institution was subsequently merged into one of a private character, be- coming known as the Exchange Bank of John Studabaker & Co., the interested prin- cipals being Hon. John Studabaker, Major Peter Studabaker and Mr. Dougherty. The Studabakers were among the early settlers
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and most prominent and influential busi- ness men of Bluffton, as is noted in the gen- eral historical sketch appearing elsewhere in this work, and they are of the same fam- ily line as the celebrated manufacturers of South Bend, this state, and Chicago. This banking firm transacted an extensive and representative business under the able and discriminating managemnt of Mr. Dough- erty, to whom all the executive details were entrusted. £ Major Peter Studabaker died on the 19th of May, 1888, and the surviv- ing partners decided that the demands placed upon their institution by the en- larged and still increasing business ren- dered a change of system and methods ex- pedient, and accordingly, on the Ist of Jan- uary, 1895, the proposed changes were made and the institution was given title as the Studabaker Bank, Mr. Dougherty being chosen president, while other officers were selected for the minor executive duties, The institution is capitalized at one hundred and forty thousand dollars and Mr. Dougherty is still its presiding officer.
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