USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 51
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CHAPTER XXIII.
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.
The Pioneer Doctor-His Ethics, Work and Influence Palmer and Hunter the First to Locate in this County-The Empirics-Medical Societies- Growth of the Profession-Sketches of the Men Who Have Practiced in Stearns County-By James H. Beaty, M. D.
The history of the medical profession of Stearns county is a history of hard work, privation, self-sacrifice and danger. The pioneer physician came here fired not only with an ambition to establish a home in this new Western empire, but more important still, determined to make for himself a name that should be worthy to be handed down to posterity. How well these pio- neers succeeded thousands can testify. Out of all the early doctors none be- came rich, none was able to give to his family anything beyond the ordinary comforts of life; and some, when they laid aside the cares and burdens of a life devoted to the comforts and welfare of others, left scarcely enough of this world's goods to assure the comfort of those who had faced life's battles with them.
The first localities in the county to be fortunate enough to have a physician were St. Cloud (in 1856) when Dr. Palmer and Dr. Hunter settled there, and Sauk Centre (in 1862) when Dr. Palmer moved there. The medical history of these two favored cities deals not alone with the medical progress of Stearns county, for in the early days most of Benton, Wright, Morrison, Todd, Douglas, Pope, Grant and Kandiyohi counties were served by medical men residing in those places. These first medical men lived modestly with their people, shar- ing their hardships, lightening their burdens, comforting their sorrows and easing their sufferings; and for these services although they had to content themselves with such meagre recompense as could be spared after the wants of others were supplied, they felt richly rewarded in receiving the gratitude, the respect and the love of a people brave enough to dare the terrors of pio- neer life, resourceful enough to overcome its hardships and sturdy enongh to change this county from a wilderness inhabited by Indians, both friendly and unfriendly, into a country second to none in prosperity, resources, future possibilities and the general intelligence, contentment and happiness of its people.
The pioneer physicians were handicapped in their work by long dis- tances, lack of good roads, lack of assistance of fellow physicians and nurses and the necessity of long intervals between visits to desperate cases. Another great draw-back to professional progress was an absolute lack of any standard to qualifications to practice. People with actual or pretended knowledge, with a local reputation gained by real or imaginary cures, administered varions medicines and treatments, some with the most ridiculous superstitions and beliefs, but some with real knowledge of herbs and hygiene. The feeling of
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annoyance the regular physician felt toward some of these people was modi- fied by the gratitude he felt toward some who earnestly labored along the same lines in which he himself was striving.
Of the intelligent class of people who dispensed medicine and cared for the sick without having taken up the work as a regular profession, the larger number were people who had no aspirations in these lines, but who felt that the pressure of necessity, the absence of regular physicians, and ofttimes the immediate and dire need of the people, forced them to the duty of using for the benefit of their suffering fellow creatures such knowledge of conditions and remedies as they might possess.
One of those who will long be remembered for his untiring and unselfish efforts to alleviate the sufferings of those who looked to him for spiritual health was Father Clemens, a physician to souls, who broadened out his sphere of usefulness and ministered to the physical ills of his flock so successfully that patients flocked to him from miles around to take advantage of his prac- tical knowledge. This holy man still further blessed the world in that it was he who, having come upon the spot while deer hunting, first suggested the present magnificent site of St. Johns University as a proper place for such an institution.
The first medical organization in Stearns county was a society organized on September 15, 1869, whose membership was made up of Homoeopathic phy- sicians of this and adjoining counties. This organization had for its president, Dr. C. S. Weber of St. Cloud, Dr. W. Henner of St. Augusta was vice-president, and Dr. William Prosche of Fair Haven, secretary. This society was a unit of the State Homoeopathic Institute and as such at this meeting elected dele- gates to that body. No further accounts of meetings of this society can be found and it probably died out for want of the organizing spirit. The men founding this society are all dead and their work is recorded only in the memories of their patients. This we know : they belonged to that race of hardy pioneers with their fellows, and did their part to lay the foundation for the wonderful development since accomplished along all the lines in this empire of the West.
The next medical organization in this county began on March 9, 1887, when the North Star Medical Association was organized at a meeting of phy- sicians held in the office of Dr. A. C. L. Ramsey, at St. Cloud. The officers of this association were: President, Dr. A. C. L. Ramsey ; vice-president, Dr. W. L. Beebe ; secretary, Dr. H. M. Post ; treasurer, Dr. A. O. Gilman. At this organizing meeting were present physicians of St. Cloud, Cold Spring, Rich- mond, Little Falls, St. Joseph and Anoka.
This association held an annual meeting and banquet on January 11, 1888, when the St. Cloud physicians entertained the outside members at the Grand Central Hotel. This meeting was attended by Drs. McMasters and Du Bois of Sauk Centre, Dr. Marquis of Anoka, Dr. Putney of Royalton, Dr. Berthold of Perham, Dr. Henderson of Paynesville, Dr. Pilon of Cold Spring, Dr. Pinault of Osseo, Dr. Rathbaum of Rice and most of the St. Cloud physicians. At this meeting the officers were re-elected except that Dr. Du Bois was elected
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vice-president. Dr. McMasters read a paper on "Gall Stones," a subject so new at that time that the reception of such a paper indicates the up-to-date attitude of the membership of the association.
There is no further record of activity of the association nor of any other medical organization until 1902, when the present Stearns-Benton County Medical Society was founded. This society was organized after a reorganiza- tion of the American Medical Association and as a component unit of that or- ganization. The organization was effected September 10, 1902, at a meeting held in Dr. Becbe's office and the officers of the association elected at that meet- ing were as follows: President, Dr. P. A. Hilbert, Melrose ; vice-president, Dr. W. L. Beebe, St. Cloud; secretary, Dr. J. C. Boehm, St. Cloud ; censors, Dr. A. J. Du Bois, Dr. S. H. Van Cleve and Dr. P. E. Pilon.
This society has held regular meetings since its organization and has been a factor in the up-building of a better understanding and more active co-opera- tion between medical men in this part of the state and has done its part in eliminating quackery and irregular practices from the country.
St. Raphael's Hospital is an institution that stands out distinctly as having done much for good medical work in this part of the state. This institution was started in 1885 largely through the influence of Dr. A. C. L. Ramsey, who, after conducting a private hospital for a time, induced the Sisters of St. Benedict to establish a hospital in St. Cloud with Sister Anze- line Billing, O. S. B., as superior in charge. The building then occupied was the one now used for a nurses' home, and while it was small it proved a great blessing to the community. This building stood in the path of the cyclone of 1886 and although surrounded by wreckage was itself uninjured. In 1887 Sister Placida, the present efficient superior of St. Joseph Home for the Aged assumed charge of the hospital. In 1890 the accommodations having become inadequate to the needs of the community a building was crected on the east side of the Mississippi near the reformatory and equipped in a (then) up-to- date manner. This building served the community well for ten years, when it too became too small for its growing reputation. In 1900 through the earnest labors of the devoted Sister Placida, the present St. Raphael Hospital was completed and occupied. This building was later damaged by fire to such an extent that it was necessary to rebuild it, which process left it in its present form. Sister Hyacinth assumed charge of the hospital work in 1902 and the present efficient Superior Sister Secunda took charge in May, 1908.
In October of that same year a training school for nurses was established and since that time many young women have been prepared for a life work devoted to the care of the suffering humanity by this institution. The pres- ent equipment is absolutely modern.
The policy of the institution is a broad one, all sorts and conditions receiv- ing the same careful attention and it is open to the patients of all reputable physicians. The building, the equipment, the management, and the care re- ceived by patients leave nothing to be desired and all serve to make it an institution second to none of its kind in the Northwest.
1
W. L. BEEBE, M. D.
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PERSONAL HISTORIES.
It is impossible to obtain data upon which to write the professional his- tories of all the physicians who have made Stearns county their field of ac- tivities but an attempt is made to give a brief sketch of some whose work and life have left their mark in the development of the country.
Benjamin R. Palmer, M. D., was born in South Berwick, Maine, March 15, 1815, and died in Sauk Centre, May 6, 1882. He came to Minnesota in 1856, settling in St. Cloud; was assistant surgeon in the United States Army, 1862-66, being stationed at Sauk Centre and Ft. Ripley, Minnesota ; lived after- ward at Sauk Centre, and had an extensive practice.
William R. Hunter, M. D., was one of Stearns county's earliest physicians, coming to St. Cloud in 1856, the same year that Dr. Palmer came. Like so many professional men at that early time he was compelled to supplement his earnings from his profession by other works. He not only practiced medicine and dentistry in those early days but also conducted a shingle mill. He was a surgeon to the Northern Pacific Railway when it was being built and was very active in his profession. Dr. Hunter was born October 14, 1813, in Strong, Maine. He received his preliminary education at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, from which institution he was graduated in 1844. He then attended Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia and received his medical degree from this institution in 1848. He was married that same year and settled in Pembrook, Maine, where he practiced until 1856, when he came west and settled in St. Cloud. During his practice in St. Cloud he was an active, able, self-sacrificing practitioner, laying aside all thoughts of personal comfort or safety for the good of others. During one of the terrible epidemics of diphtheria of that time he carried the dreadful disease home to his own child and was thus bereaved of his own in his faithfulness to save others.
Warren Loring Beebe, A. M., M. D., of St. Cloud, was born at Belpre, Washington county, Ohio, March 16, 1848, son of Dr. William and Elizabeth (Rathbone) Beebe. He attended the common schools of his native town, and in 1870 was graduated from Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. From the days of his earliest boyhood it was his determination to follow in the foot- steps of his distinguished father. He graduated from the Ohio Medical Col- lege at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873 with the degree of M. D., a mark of real merit in those days when so many physicians received their training in the office of some general practitioner. Desiring still further to master the profession, Dr. Beebe entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which insti- tution he was graduated in Centennial year. With this equipment he prac- ticed in his native village under the direction of his father. He also practiced in Barlow, in the same state. In 1878, Dr. Beebe came to Minnesota, and located in St. Cloud, which city has since been his home. He was in partner- ship with Dr. A. O. Gilman until within a short time of Dr. Gilman's death, and since then he has been in practice alone.
No member of the fraternity is better known to the medical profession than Dr. Beebe, who has practiced here for thirty-five years. From the first
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he has been very successful, and now has a large and satisfactory general family praetiee. He is devoted to his profession, keeps well abreast of the latest developments in science, chemistry and medicine, and has a reputation as a high authority in such matters. His excellent mental powers, his long experience, and his rigid training, as well as his upright character and sympa- thetic nature, are among the factors which have contributed to his extraor- dinary success in the treatment of disease and his skill in surgery. Through- out his residence here he has been a potent factor in the professional and civic life of the city. He belongs to the Benton-Stearns Medical Society, of which he was one of the founders, to the Minnesota State Medical Association and to the American Medical Association. In 1890-91 he was president of the state association, and by all of these bodies he has repeatedly been placed in positions of honor. He also affiliates with the Masonic body, the Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He is social in his tastes and has a wide circle of friends throughout the state. For many years he has been local surgeon for the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. Politically he has several times served the city of St. Cloud as health officer, and for a number of years he was United States pension examiner.
Dr. Beebe was married, December 28, 1876, to Marie T. Harte, at Marietta, Ohio, and they have two sons, William H. and Warren Loring, Jr. William H. is in the telephone business at Portland, Oregon. Warren Loring, Jr., is at home.
Dr. William Beebe was born in Ohio, of remote English ancestry. He prac- ticed his profession for many years in Washington county, Ohio, and was a physician of high standing. During the Civil War he was surgeon of the 148th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with the rank of major. He died April 15, 1887.
James H. Beaty, M. D., of St. Cloud, was born in Wabasha county, Minn., January 26, 1870, son of John J. and Mary Frances (Snowden) Beaty. John J. Beaty was born in Nova Scotia. In addition to receiving a common school education he was for a while a student of navigation, but never put this knowledge to practical use, preferring rather to follow the trade of cabinet maker. At the age of twenty-one, he went to Boston, and after studying architecture eventually became superintendent of construction work, taking several important contraets. Many sightly buildings still stand in that city as monuments to his art, his ability, his honor and his painstaking labor. In 1857 he came to Minnesota and located at Lake City. There he erected the first schoolhouse, an historic building still standing, and in which the son James H. received his earliest education. After living in the village awhile the family moved to the country, and there John J. became a farmer, an occupation he followed until within a few years of his death. He passed away in 1895. Mary Frances (Snowden) Beaty was born in Medford, Mass., was taken as a child to Maine, and spent her later girlhood in Boston where she was married. She died in 1894. James II. Beaty attended the public and high schools of Lake City, Minn., and graduated from the College of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery of the University of Minnesota in 1895. Since then he has been engaged in the practice of his chosen profession in St. Cloud. In 1900 he took a post graduate course in New York and in 1907
A. C. LAMOTHE RAMSAY, M. D.
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studied for several months in the clinics of England and Germany. Dr. Beaty has always been a factor in the professional, civil and religious life of his home city. He is a member of the Minnesota State Homoeopathic Institute, of the American and Minnesota State Medical associations, and of the Stearns- Benton County Medical Society, of which latter organization he has been president. He has been prominent in the work of the Episcopal Church of this diocese, has been a potent influence in dioeesan councils and in 1907 represented the Diocese of Duluth in the General Convention at Richmond. He is an enthusiastic member of the commercial organizations of St. Cloud and was one of the founders of the St. Cloud Improvement association which was reorganized into the present Commercial Club. He is a member of the Li- brary Board, and affiliates with the Masons and the Elks. By nature and education, Dr. Beaty is splendidly fitted for that line of duty that he has chosen for his life work. His devotion to the ideals of his profession is marked, and his work lives in the appreciation of thousands to whom he has minis- tered. As a physician, as a eitizen and as a man he occupies an admirable position in the city and neighboring rural districts. Dr. Beaty married Ellen Belle Carruth, daughter of Oliver Powers and Mary Veeder Carruth. Mr. and Mrs. Carruth were both natives of New York State and were married at Martville, N. Y., October 27, 1859. Very soon after this date they came to Minnesota and settled at Lake City where they were blessed with four chil- dren, two of whom died in early childhood. The two surviving are Hayden Carruth, whose name is familiar in literary circles as a writer, and Ellen Belle, the wife of Dr. Beaty.
A. C. Lamothe Ramsay, M. D. There are few men who have resided in Stearns county whose lives have meant more to the people than that of Dr. Ramsay, the well-beloved. His years on earth numbered less than forty, and the years of his active practice of medicine numbered less than ten, but the influence of the good he accomplished in that short span of time still remains, though he was tenderly laid to rest over two decades ago. A. C. Lamothe Ramsay was born at St. Marie de Mannoir, near Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada, July 22, 1856 and received his early education in the village of his birth and in Montreal, where he began the study of medicine. From Canada he came to the United States, and in 1882 he was graduated from the Rush Medical College, at Chicago. At once after graduation he took up the practice of medicine in St. Cloud, in which eity he had previously located. His suc- cess was assured from the start, his practice at onee became important, and he established his position as an enthusiastic, energetic and hard-working member of the medieal profession. For nearly ten years he worked day and night, and never was he too weary to respond to the direful need of illness and distress. It was probably his hard work which resulted in the shock which caused his death. The most notable accomplishment of Dr. Ramsay was the founding of the Ramsay Hospital, the first hospital in St. Cloud. This hospital is still fulfilling its mission of helpfulness, being now conducted as St. Raphael's Hospital by the Sisters of St. Benedict. Dr. Ramsay remained as chief surgeon until the time of his death. In 1885 he was appointed Medical Pension Examiner for this distriet, by the Commissioner of Pensions, at Wash-
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ington, D. C., and held that position until the retirement of President Grover Cleveland. He belonged to the usual medical societies and was president of the North Star Medical Society. For a time he served as coroner of Stearns county. Dr. Ramsay died September 28, 1891, just one week after being stricken with apoplexy. A whole county grieved, and the papers teemed with eulogies. The St. Cloud "Daily Times" said: "The deceased was of a genial and happy disposition, with a cordial greeting for all, and had hosts of friends in city and county who will join the sorrowing family in memory of his death. To say that the sympathy of the entire city goes out to his stricken wife, now in her widowhood, is but to state the exact truth. Words in such an hour as this are idle and empty but if they could soothe her anguish their abun- dance is certainly sufficient." The St. Cloud Journal-Press said: Dr. Ram- say was a man of splendid physique with great physical strength and endur- ance, and his affections were as great as his body. He was an ardent lover of his profession, and was especially devoted to surgery, in which branch he won no little reputation for a man of his years. He was a close student and kept himself informed in all the latest discoveries in the world of medicine, and by hard work had built up a large practice. He had also won by his many admirable personal qualities a large circle of friends and admirers. He was a strong man in every respect, and was always a good citizen.
Dr. Ramsay was married June 24, 1884, at Pakenham, Ontario, Canada, to Mary Ann Foley, whom he had met in St. Cloud. Mrs. Ramsay makes her home at 1003 Summit avenue, St. Paul.
Julian A. Du Bois, M. D., has been characterized as Sauk Centre's most useful citizen. He is a leader in his profession, in politics, in business and in finance, and is regarded as one of the integral parts of Sauk Centre life. Jan- uary 8, 1856, there was born in the home of Dr. Darwin and Harriett Du Bois, at Aztalan, Jefferson county, Wis., a son. This son, who afterward became Dr. Julian A. Du Bois, of Sauk Centre, Minn., passed through the district schools of his neighborhood, took his academic studies in the University of Wisconsin, and graduated from the Rush Medical College, in Chicago, in 1879. After a few months in his home town, where he was detained by the sickness and death of his father, he accepted a position as resident physician in what was then the only general hospital in the city of Denver, Colorado. Here he remained fourteen months. He then decided to establish his permanent home at St. Paul, Minn. He had hardly arrived in that city when rumors came of an epidemic of small-pox in Stearns county, and he was sent by the Minnesota State Board of Health to investigate the matter. Instead of a few isolated outbreaks, as he had expected, he found 125 cases. He took up their care with his usual force and ability, and in a short time had become one of the best-known men in the county. At that time Dr. B. F. Palmer was located at Sauk Centre. He was feeling the weight of years, and had been looking about for a younger man to take up his practice. His repeated urgings im- pressed Dr. Du Bois with the desirability of the field, and in addition to this the younger doctor had found the climate most pleasing and invigorating. Consequently in February, 1882, Dr. Julian A. Du Bois took up his residence in Sauk Centre.
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Caring most for his books, and with little desire for public life, he has nevertheless found that the situation and his public spirit has demanded his participation in business and political affairs. For several years he was owner of the Sauk Centre mills. He became president of the Merchants' National, and raised this bank to its present enviable position. In 1912 when the First State Bank, of Sauk Centre found itself in financial straits, and a public calamity was threatened, Dr. Du Bois organized a combination with James A. Caughran and others, took over the bank and averted a storm which would have affected profoundly all of Stearns county and the immediate vicinity. With Mr. Caughran and J. F. Cooper he re-organized the Northwestern Radi- ator Co., and conducted it successfully at Sauk Centre until its reestablish- ment at Duluth. Dr. Du Bois is owner of lands in Sauk Centre and Melrose townships, in Stearns county, and also some farms in Todd county. As presi- dent of the Stearns County Agricultural Society during its dark days he did much to promote the farming interests of the community, and resolutely hold- ing the Fair association to its purpose, is greatly responsible for its present wonderfully prosperous condition. While serving as mayor of Sauk Centre, he stood for progress and improvement.
With willingness or otherwise on their part, such characters seem to be inevitably drawn into the field of politics. The reputation of Dr. Du Bois extending beyond the confines of his home locality, in 1902 he was chosen as the candidate of the Democratic party for congressional honors in the Sixth Minnesota District. The campaign which he made against over-whelming odds is still remembered by the citizens of that district. So far is he from being considered a mere partisan in politics that he was able to poll more than eleven hundred votes from the opposing party in his own county of Stearns. And again in 1914, he found himself selected as a candidate for the same position, and again made a notable fight. For five years he served as a trustee for the School for the Blind and Deaf at Faribault. At the present time he is a member of the educational commission, provision for the creation of which was made by the 1913 session of the legislature. When the women's clubs of the state had made their fight for the removal of the State Training School for Girls from the similar school for boys, at Red Wing, Dr. Du Bois entered into a spirited contest with other cities in the state for its new loca- tion. He was successful in his efforts, and what is now known as the Home School for Girls, at Sauk Centre, under the management of Mrs. Fannie French Morse, is now one of the renowned institutions of the United States. This brief outline merely presents a suggestion of the numerous activities in which Dr. Du Bois has engaged. The results that he has accomplished are in themselves the highest encomium which can be spoken of his work.
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