USA > Michigan > St Clair County > St. Clair County, Michigan, its history and its people; a narrative account of its historical progress and its principal interests, Vol. I > Part 41
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Dr. Parker was a man of large frame and great physical endurance- an endurance which enabled him to reach patients at long distances over the worst of roads and in the severest weather; he never failed to reach the patient to whom he was called. Widely known throughout the county, he always conveyed the impression of standing for the best, both in medical and civic affairs.
Two of Dr. Parker's sons have become prominent in the medical pro- fession. Dr. Delos L. is professor of materia medica in the Detroit Med- ical College and Dr. Walter L., professor of ophthalmology in the Univer- sity of Michigan.
DR. SOLOMON GILBERT
Dr. Gilbert's name would have been Caleb Smith Douglas, if this name received from his parents had not been changed by the Massa-
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chusetts legislature to Solomon Gilbert, through his petition. He settled in St. Clair in 1845, where he began practicing medicine, although there is no record in an old biographical sketch of him, that he was ever a graduate of a medical school. He continued to practice in St. Clair for fifty years, dying in 1895. He was never identified with any medical organization. For four years he served as alderman and for seven years as constable-the only medical man in St. Clair county who ever filled that office.
DR. JOHN T. TRAVERS
In October, 1847, Dr. John T. Travers, a man finely equipped for the work of his chosen profession, was delayed in Port Huron on his way from London, Ontario, to Milwaukee, by a storm. The chance delay in Port Huron, then a village of 700 inhabitants, led him to establish him- self in the practice of medicine there. He was born in Cork, Ireland, and was a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, England. He came to London, Canada, when he was about twenty-one years of age and remained there four years; then he located at Port Huron, where he spent the remainder of his days.
He possessed the proverbial resourcefulness and wit of his country- men. The following incident will illustrate his resourcefulness: Being called upon, at one time, in haste to attend a very sick woman forty miles away, he went on horseback, taking what few things the case seemed to require. When he reached the place designated, he was called upon to hasten to a place a few miles beyond to see a man whose leg had been crushed by a falling tree. An amputation was necessary. Dr. Travers had no anaesthetic-this was before the days of ether and chloroform; he had no instruments. Undaunted, he called for a grindstone and hammer. With these he prepared steel table knives and two-tined forks, fashionable in those days, and with these, a handsaw and little else, pro- ceeded to do the necessary amputation.
As a sample of his wit-in this instance gruesome-the following is told : During a healthful season, being asked how he accounted for such a condition, he quickly replied. "Mulford" (the one undertaker in the community) "refuses to come down with the percentage."
Dr. Travers was active in the medical organizations of his day. He was president of the St. Clair county Medical Society in 1856 and presi- dent of the St. Clair and Sanilac Counties Medical Society in 1866. He died in 1870 at the comparative early age of fifty-cut off while at the height of his usefulness.
DR. CHAS. M. ZEH
In 1848 Dr. Chas. M. Zeh settled in Port Huron and established himself in his chosen profession. He was a graduate, that same year, from Castleton Medical College, Castleton, Vermont, and had secured a license from the Medical Society of the state of Michigan to "practice physic and surgery."
He remained in Port Huron three years, identified himself with the first county medical society and proved himself a man of ability.
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Owing to a disaster in the use of the new anaesthetic-chiloroform- an accident, which still happens not infrequently even in expert hands, Dr. Zeh decided to move elsewhere, thinking his usefulness in the com- munity was at an end. He turned over his practice to Dr. C. M. Stock- well, who had been called to Port Huron from Friendsville, Pa., where he had been engaged in medical and surgical work. In 1900 Dr. Zeh was still practicing medicine in Newark, N. J.
DR. WM. BELL
Dr. Bell came to Port Huron in 1848. He was born in Quebec, Can- ada, in 1807 or thereabouts. He graduated at the University of Edin- burgh. Being of Scotch descent he naturally sought a Scotch school for his medical education. After graduation he returned to Canada. He secured an appointment as assistant surgeon in the British Army and was ordered to Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, where there was a military post. While stationed there he met and married a Miss Armitage, whose grand- father, McKee by name, was an officer in the U. S. army and was sta- tioned at the "American Sault."
While serving at the military post at the Sault, Dr. Bell was ordered to accompany one of the Indian chiefs-sent on a special mission to Washington D. C .- to act as his interpreter.
After leaving the army Dr. Bell located at Malden, Ontario. Soon thereafter he moved to Port Sarnia, in the same province.
Coming to Port Huron in 1848, he occupied a little house, still stand- ing on Michigan street-No. 507. Later he built a house on the south- west corner of Park and Fort streets, where he resided for a short time before his death, which occurred in 1852. This house is still standing and is in a good state of preservation.
Dr. Bell had seven children. Two daughters are still living in the west.
DR. R. R. McMEENS
Dr. McMeens probably practiced medicine in Newport (Marine City) in 1848. He was secretary of the first medical society, but nothing more can be learned of his life or his influence in the community where he lived.
DR. ORANGE B. REED
Nothing can be learned of Dr. Reed except that he came to Newport (now Marine City) in 1839 and was one of its medical men.
DR. BENJ. DICKEY
Dr. Dickey settled in St. Clair and engaged in the practice of medi- cine in 1851. He received his state license in 1849. He was born in the north of Ireland in 1808, where he received his literary education. We next find him in London, Ontario. He studied medicine later, and
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graduated at the University of Pennsylvania. Afterward he served as house physician in Bellevue hospital, New York City.
Returning to London, Ontario, Dr. Dickey engaged in the practice of medicine for five years and then (1851) settled in St. Clair, where he pursued his chosen vocation until his death in 1865. He was reputed to have been "exceedingly kind to the poor, serving them without pay," "a brilliant scholar and a very skilful physician."
DR. CYRUS M. STOCKWELL
Dr. Stockwell's medical life in St. Clair county spanned nearly half a century. He came in December, 1851, and died in December, 1899. He was born and brought up in New York state, where he received his aca- demie education and taught school. In Binghamton, that state, he acquired a portion of his medical education in a physician's office. Later, he completed a course at Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Massa- chusetts, from which school he graduated in 1850. He practiced medi- cine in Friendsville, Pennsylvania, one year; in December, 1851, he moved to Port Huron, where he became the successor of Dr. Chas. M. Zeh, who was then about to leave for an eastern location.
In 1862 a commission as surgeon of the Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry was voluntarily tendered him by Governor Blair. At the siege of Vicksburg he contracted typhoid fever which left his health so broken that he was obliged to resign his commission and return home.
From 1864 to 1871 Dr. Stockwell served as one of the regents of the University of Michigan. For many years after the war he was acting assistant surgeon at Fort Gratiot (now a part of Port Huron) and United States pension surgeon for St. Clair county.
Dr. Stockwell never considered himself rugged, vet he proved to have had a wiry constitution. Always fearing ill health, he always was watching for danger signals and acted promptly when they appeared. He accepted, in a way, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' suggestion for se- curing longevity : "Acquire an incurable disease and take care of it."
Through long drives-forty to sixty miles a day frequently-and a great amount of night work, he became inured to hardships, as did his horses. There comes to mind some of the incidents of a drive of seventy miles, taken over the unsettled roads of spring, to see several patients. Among the incidents were roads paved ( ?) with logs (corduroy) and mud: swollen streams requiring the horse to wade through water at midnight belly deep to get to and across a bridge; a walk of five miles and return in the small hours of the night over a road impassable for his horse; and the coaxing of the horse across a bridge where some of the planks were being floated off by the high water.
The horses of those days were taught to meet emergencies, and trained to travel long distances without marked fatigue. The vicious and ugly could stand the most "wear and tear," so they were the ones Dr. Stock- well almost invariably picked out for his stable. One such-a mare- the doctor hitched to a cutter one winter's morning at 4 o'clock and, with a friend, drove to Detroit-nearly sixty-three miles distant-and back again, reaching home at midnight of the same day. The drive did not
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phase her, for she was ready for work the next day. She lived to be thirty-seven years of age, and to the last years of her life required shackling, when descending any considerable hill, to prevent her becom- ing unmanageable. No horse can be found in Michigan today trained to such endurance as those of the pioneer days.
A favorite vehicle used by Dr. Stockwell in the earlier years of his practice was a sulky with a semi-enclosed top and wheels seven feet in diameter. This was ordered from New York state, where such ve- hicles (with a seat for one only ) were popular among the doctors, but not among the people, who always expected a "lift" if "going your way." The people dubbed the vehicle a "sulky," because to them it showed the spirit of the man who would use such an unaccommodating pressed the doctor's motives in his surgical work.
Dr. Stockwell's success as a practitioner was due to an inventive genius. a resourceful mind and the constant acquisition and application of the latest and best methods in medical and surgical treatment. He undoubtedly subscribed for more medical journals and invested in more works on medicine than any other physician in eastern Michigan.
Dr. Stoekwell was probably the pioneer in St. Clair county in con- servative surgery. He never sacrifieed any tissue in treating a wound which could possibly be saved and made useful. Amputation of a mem- ber, though looked upon often as a brilliant operation in those days, was never resorted to by him if it could possibly be avoided. A noted sur- geon once said. "to amputate is to acknowledge defeat." This ex- pressed the doctor's motives in his surgical work.
In the study of hygiene and sanitation, Dr. Stoekwell spent much time. When a system of sewerage was first agitated in Port Huron he was made chairman of a commission appointed by the common couneil to prepare a report embodying the most feasible as well as most efficient plan. The commission recommended a system of sewers which should have no outlet into Black river, but the lamentable stupidity of the mem- bers of the council led them not only to rejeet the plan but also to give it almost no consideration. Today the city of Port Huron is digging a canal at great cost, which could easily have been avoided if the plan presented by the commission had been adopted.
When possible, Dr. Stockwell made it a point to attend not only every meeting of the county and state medical societies, but also the national meetings held at various points throughout the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At the organization of the Michigan State Medical Society at Detroit in 1866, he was elected its first president. Twice he was elected president of the Northeastern District Medical So- ciety, twice president of the St. Clair, Sanilae and Lapeer Counties Med- ical Society. and onee president of the Port Huron Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Stockwell's interest in educational matters led to his being chosen a member of the board of education, where he served several years in the seventies. A member of the First Congregational church, he served as a trustee and as clerk of the society for over twenty-five years. His two sons followed him into the fields of medicine-Dr. G. Archie, who died in Houston, Texas, in 1906, and Dr. Charles B., who is still at Port Huron actively engaged in the work of his profession.
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DR. JEREMIAH N. PEABODY
Dr. Peabody lived in East China where he practiced medicine from 1848, for about twenty years. His home was three miles north of Marine City. One who knew him and who is still living, says "He was a large man, and very handsome," adding: "He was said to have been an excellent physician." Dr. Peabody was the father of one son and two daughters, but they all died many years ago. The son married a daughter of Henry Whiting, of St. Clair. His wife inherited a fortune and in consequence, about 1868, the doctor moved to Detroit from the township of East China, and ceased the practice of his profession.
DR. DANIEL H. COLE
The second medical man to settle in Memphis was Dr. Cole, who came to Memphis in 1853 and sneceeded to Dr. Jeremiah Sabin's practice in 1854. Dr. Cole came to Michigan, settling in Detroit for a time, in 1845. For six years he alternately taught school and studied medicine, putting in part of his time "compounding prescriptions in a drug store." In Detroit he accumulated enough money to pay the expenses of a med- ical course at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1852.
Dr. Cole's medical work in Memphis covered fifty-one years. Next to Dr. L. B. Parker, of Marine City. his medical record is the longest of any physician who has lived in St. Clair county. He was always inter- ested in the welfare of the schools and the support of the churches. He died in 1904.
DR. GEO. L. CORNELL
Among the pioneer physicians who settled in St. Clair city was one who, though coming later than Dr. Harmon Chamberlain. should be classed with him on account of the marked impress which each left on things civic as well as medical. Dr. Geo. L. Cornell was an im- portant factor in the city's life.
Dr. Cornell was a large man both mentally and physically. He is said to have been six feet five inches tall and to have weighed 240 pounds. His early days were spent in Michigan, near Jackson. He obtained a good academic education and then turned to the study of med- icine, which he pursued in the office of his father-a physician-and afterward in the office of Dr. Moses Gunn. He graduated in medicine from the University of Michigan in 1852. In 1854 he settled at St. Clair and continued there almost uninterruptedly until his death in 1877.
Dr. Cornell was commissioned assistant surgeon of the First Regiment of Michigan sharp shooters during the War of the Rebellion and served until compelled to resign on account of illness. He was several times elected mayor of his city and for over twenty years served as a member of the school board. He was skilful as a surgeon and self-reliant as a physician. As a man of affairs, he showed a judicial spirit, and was
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"active in promoting the interests of his city, county and state." With- al, he had a sense of humor which is a "saving grace" to a successful practitioner.
One son is a physician in Lewiston, Michigan-Dr. Geo. L. Cornell. A daughter, Pearl, married Dr. H. W. Knaff of Johanesburg, Michigan ; another, Feodora, married Dr. R. B. Baird of Marine City, Michigan.
DR. REUBEN CROWELL
About 1855 Dr. Crowell came from Peoria, Illinois, and settled at Port Huron to engage in the work of his profession. After practicing two or three years he entered into a eopartnership with Edgar White to deal in drugs, under the firm name of "White and Crowell." On the first day of the Civil war he moved to Ann Arbor.
DR. GEO. B. WILLSON
Dr. Geo. B. Willson was perhaps the brightest man in medicine and allied seienees which the county has ever known. Unfortunately, he was a victim of the "white plague" and died at the early age of thirty-two years.
Coming from Canada in 1850 to Port Huron, Dr. Willson studied medieine with Dr. Zeh, his preceptor looking upon him as a man of great promise. He showed the greatest enthusiasm in pursuing the science of medicine, but he pursued with great avidity the study of other sciences, especially philosophy and geology. He graduated in medicine at the University of Michigan in 1857, and his thesis, submitted at the time of his graduation was quoted by professors as authoritative for years afterward. Professor Winchell, of the university, world-famous as a geologist, found in him a congenial spirit and spent days with him in the most enjoyable companionship.
Although Dr. Willson's life as a physician covered only four years outside of his one year's service as assistant surgeon in the Third Mieh- igan Infantry during the Civil war, his work in surgery and medicine was especially brilliant. His mind seemed to work with lightning-like rapidity and his judgment to be unerring.
At a time when to deal surgically with the brain was supposed to invite death, he was called to see a man through whose forehead and into the center of whose brain had been driven the breeeh-pin, with its binding serew, of an exploded gun. With Dr. Willson there was no hesitancy as to what course to pursue. To his mind it was plain that where a missile had gone, and had not killed, he could go. He enlarged the open- ing in the forehead (it being found necessary) and after removing eon- siderable disorganized brain matter, succeeded with considerable diffi- culty in removing the foreign body. The man recovered and lived for many years afterward.
Dr. Willson's passionate quest for things undiscovered led him in this case, while dressing the wound, to make experiments touching the existence of tactile sensation in the brain-a condition which, as far as was then known, no anatomist or physiologist had attempted to demon-
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strate. Supposition and guess work were never satisfying to him. To verify a diagnosis he used every means at his command. In one in- stance where he was called to see a dying man, he made a diagnosis of cancer of the stomach, which diagnosis was at variance with that of a fellow practitioner. Wishing to verify the existing conditions he asked the privilege of making an examination of the stomach after death. The relatives promised, but when death had taken place the promise was withdrawn. Not to be thwarted. he, accompanied by a medical student, went in the middle of the night following the day of the funeral, to the cemetery, which was located in an outlying, lonely place. There, after removing the earth down to the coffin and removing the lid, he proceeded, by the light of a dark lantern, to make an autopsy. He verified his diag- rosis, finding a cancer of the stomach ; then, replacing the lid of the coffin
and covering in the earth, he departed, just before dawn, satisfied and paid for all the risks he had run. His spirit, burning and unquenehable, led him to spend night after night, till dawn, in study. His physical strength was unequal to the strain, so in a brief time it gave way.
Dr. Willson was looked upon by all who knew him as a genius. What Juster he would have cast upon the medical profession of the county could he but have lived out the ordinary span of life, must be left to conjecture only.
DR. FREDERICK FINSTER
Dr. Finster was probably the first homeopathic physician to prac- tice in St. Clair county. He was a German, having been born in Bavaria. When he was six years old, his father emigrated with his family to America that his sons, as they grew up, might evade compulsory service in the German army. The family settled on a farm near Windsor, On- tario, but in a short time the father died. A little later the boy was taken into the family of a Mr. Remington, living in Detroit, who aided him in getting a common school education. Subsequently Dr. E. R. Ellis, then living in New York City, inspired the then young man with a desire to study medicine, and generously furnished him the means to attend a course of lectures at the medical school of the University of Michigan in 1853-4. and a later course at the Homeopathic Medical Col- lege at Cleveland, Ohio (1854-5), where he graduated in the latter year. The loan for pursuing the study of medicine was afterward repaid in full.
Prior to attending the above medical schools, Dr. Finster had studied medicine in the office of Drs. John Ellis and S. B. Thayer in Detroit. In 1855 he formed a copartnership with Dr. E. H. Drake, of Detroit, with whom he was associated for two years. In 1857 he came to Port Huron, where he practiced medicine for the rest of his life. He died in 1885.
Dr. Finster was a man of slight build. An air of gentleness and quiet- ness always seemed to surround him. He was endeared to his patients and well he should have been, for the charges for his medical services were so small that they amounted largely to gratuities. He believed in giving freely to others of his life and talents, but the resulting gain to
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his patients meant an uncalled for sacrifice on his part, for it was at- tended with a lack of provision for his own later days and the future welfare and comfort of his family. His loving generous spirit blurred that foresight which looks out for the future, yet, perhaps his ways were wiser in the onward march toward "ultimate good."
Although Dr. Finster embraced the "minute dose" system of practice in medicine, he did not hesitate to use the so-called "heroic" doses when occasion required. An incident will illustrate: A gentleman suffering from malarial poisoning met an "old-school" physician on the street and asked what he would advise him to do. The physician's answer was: "Take two two-grain pills of quinine three times a day." Later, meeting Dr. Finster-the apostle of small doses-he wished his opinion ; He advised : "Two three-grain pills of quinine three times a day."
Although Dr. Finster belonged to a school of medicine looked upon at that time with disfavor by the large majority of physicians, he was highly respected by all his confreres.
CHAPTER XXII
THE FRATERNAL SOCIETIES
EARLY HISTORY-FIRST FRATERNITIES IN THE UNITED STATES-FRATER- NAL BENEFCIARY SOCIETIES-EFFECT ON CIVIL LIFE AND ECONOMICS- DEVELOPMENT TOWARD SAFETY-FIRST ORDERS IN ST. CLAIR COUNTY -FIRST FRATERNAL BENEFICIARY SOCIETY-BIRTHPLACE OF THE MAC- CABEE ORDERS-LATER HISTORY OF FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES.
Among the many remarkable developments of the nineteenth cen- tury was the general introduction of fraternal societies into the social life of the nation. In the very early days of the settlement of our con- tinent, societies were not possible, except in large centers, owing to the conditions of the times. The newness of the country and the sparseness of the population made the exchange of products and commodities of first importance, and the instinct for self-preservation bound men to- gether for defense against a common foe. When the land became cleared and dotted with farm houses, when peaceful cities, towns, and villages became the centers of commerce and trade, when the time of strife and conflict was over and all were engaged in the occupations of peace, there came a demand for a larger social life. and the more complex problems of civilization began to appear. Family needs were to be considered in times of sickness and deatlı, and organized forms of relief originated to meet this demand.
The same instinct which impelled the early settlers to unite for de- fensive purposes impelled the men and women of a later period to or- ganize for mutual assistance and the protection of the home.
EARLY HISTORY
Organized efforts for the relief of suffering, cure of the sick, burial of the dead, and protection of the family. were the developments not of our civilization alone, but have been common to many countries in all the ages.
We hear of them in the form of burial clubs in China. where they were established in the towns and villages under the term "long-life loan companies"; in Greece. combining the provident element with religious ceremonies ; and in the Roman fraternities. where the religious ceremony developed into a ritual. We are told that three centuries before the Christian era an association existed "having a common chest into which
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a certain monthly contribution paid by each individual was deposited that a fund might be raised for the relief of such members of the so- eiety as should in any manner have experienced adverse fortune." The aneient Maeeabean warriors had a system of depositing in a common fund before going into battle, stated contributions for the benefit of the widows and orphans of those who should fall, and this custom has been made the basis for the ritualism of the societies of Maeeabees of today.
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