USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 47
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NORTHWESTERN DENTAL SOCIETY-In 1882 there was an Allen County Dental Association organized which was in existence for many years. It finally "went to sticks," and Dr. George Hall, Lima's senior dentist, is about all who knows about it. He does not hold membership in the Northwestern Dental Society, embracing members in Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Van Wert and Putnam counties-younger men making up the society. While Dr. H. M. Crawford is the recently elected sec- retary, he only has the 1920 records of the society. It has been in existence several years and meets once a month in the Y. M. C. A. in Lima. Dr. C. K. Tolford is president. The Northwestern Dental Society is a branch of the Ohio State Society, organized in 1866 and reorganized in 1884 and again in 1908, and the benefits of such society arise from its interest in legislation, the character of bills introduced regulating the practice of dentistry.
Section 3 in the code of ethics of the Northwestern Dental Society reads: "The dentist should be temperate in all things, keeping both mind and body in the best possible health, that his patients may have the benefit of that clearness of judgment and skill which they have a right to expect," and certainly no objections will be sustained toward this welfare declaration. Quacks and advertising dentists are not eligible
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to membership in the society. While high professional standards are maintained, the up-to-date dentists establish them. Now that dentition is claiming attention in the public schools, the next generation will be enabled to avoid some of the difficulties. Teeth are examined and rec- ommendations are made, and in the light of science salivary calcali- once called tartar-is no longer allowed to run into pyorrhea, and the loss of the teeth. While there can be no ease in disease, with a deft movement of the wrist the modern dentist draws the tooth and there is an aching void, and many diseases are traced to defective teeth, the eyes and the teeth, but this is an age of specialists and it is quite proper to consult them.
While Christian Science is not recognized by the medical or dental profession, there are practitioners in Allen County who effect cures with- out the use of medicine. It was first established in Lima in 1888, through a remarkable case of healing and soon others were interested and "strange doctrines" are advocated by seemingly progressive persons. Christian Scientists claim the practice a lost art that has been rediscov- ered by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. There are men and women who do not claim Science who still make use of the old prescription "Work it off" when some malady seizes them instead of invoking medical advice about their ailments. However, they recognize physical conditions while Christian Scientists say there can be no disease in matter. Materia Med- ica is subject to change and physicians handle their patients differently today. Since the understanding of theology changes, why not allow of the changes in the understanding of Materia Medica.
The Northwestern Osteopathic Association was organized in Lima, A. D. 1920, including in its membership practitioners from a neighboring group of counties. A dozen osteopaths were present when the organ- ization was effected at the Lima Club.
The Allen County Chiropractic Association is another 1920 organiza- tion. The human body is a marvelous machine, and the chiropractor keeps it in working condition. Both the osteopath and chiropractor rec- ognize the nervous system as the controlling agency of the body.
While Christian Scientists, osteopaths and chiropractors do not rec- ognize Materia Medica, they all practice the healing art and are men- tioned in the same chapter. The cheerful practitioner, whatever his method, always has a benign influence when he enters the sick room, and metaphysics always will be his ally in combating diseases. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," and diet is better understood today. "Man is fearfully and wonderfully made," and emphasis is placed on the statement when woman is under consideration. However, since people better understand hygiene and sanitation there is less demand for med- ical advice in the community. Since men and women understand their own physical structures better, it works both ways, some feeling that such unusual complications require attention, while others rest assured about it. The quack doctor and his cure-all remedies answer the requirements of some, while others want the advice of reputable phy- sicians.
When most Allen County folk grow ill the material side of their nature asserts itself. They send for the medical adviser in whom they have the fullest confidence. The Indian sachem with his herbs and the old woman with her catnip tea and other concoctions are all right for a time, but there comes a day when men of learning are consulted. There may have been a time when Lima doctors depended upon Peruvian bark -something in a name-when they used quinine and calomel in heroic doses in combating chills and fevers, and while they were not often
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fatal, the victims frequently suffered greatly from them. Sometimes the doctors themselves fell victims to the dread diseases in Allen County before the last vestige of the Black Swamp was a minus quantity. In Materia Medica Doctor Drake himself cites instances where treatments acting on the imagination had effected cures, and who has not sat by an open window with impunity while ignorant of the fact and yet imme- diately taken cold when told about it?
The pioneer doctor used to bleed his patients, and they still "bleed" them. While they used to come on horseback and at breakneck speed when they wanted the doctor, they now call him by telephone. When a new doctor came into the community he would always have himself called out of church, or would be seen riding rapidly toward the country -anything to attract attention to himself. There are always two sides to any question and in commenting on Materia Medica one doctor said that nowadays people take time by the forelock; they send for the doctor sooner and save continued ailments. The pioneers used more home remedies and when the doctor came the next thing they thought about was a minister for the funeral service. The Irish woman thought the patient was in danger as long as the doctor continued his visits, and again the family is under censure that does not send for the doctor. The history of medicine in Allen County has been a study in evolution and but few of the present day medical men remember when "yaller janders" was so prevalent.
The good old doctor of the long ago would throw his saddle bags across his faithful horse and start out on his rounds which would often take all day and part of the night. If the roads were bad he never knew when he would reach home again. When the roads were too bad for the horse he walked the distance, but with better drainage and less stangnant water there were fewer mosquitoes, and consequently less malaria and kindred diseases. The time. came when the country doctor had a two-wheeled sulky and later a buggy, and now. while the med- ical man is not unmindful of the faithful old horse of other days. the apothecary's hardships are not all in the past. If there isn't mud there's snow; if there isn't snow there's mud, and the automobile is not always equal to the emergency; it does not always negotiate in bad weather.
When the rural family telephones the doctor they ask if he has a self-starter on his automobile, and they want to know that he will come in a hurry. The times have changed and the poetry and the sentiment of the long ago have been replaced by coldblooded business methods. It is no longer true- once the family doctor, always the family doctor. The old-time family doctor often ushered several generations into the world, but today one member of the family calls one doctor and another -well, there is no longer any sentiment about it. While doctors do not advertise, it is unprofessional, if one has success his patients advertise for him, and while doctors used to be afraid of each other and extremely jealous, there is a fraternal spirit today. When the old-time doctor had no spatula he would ask for a case knife in dealing out his powders. He uses capsules today. They are better than powders dissolved in water and taken every two hours. When the doctors used to give calomel there were salivated mouths unless the patients abstained from acid foods, and people sometimes lost their teeth from salivation. They used to follow calomel with quinine and then the capsules solved that difficulty. Who remembers taking sulphur in stewed apples or molasses? Who said "backward, turn backward," in the world of diseases and their cures ?
Vol. 1-24
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SOME EARLY ALLEN COUNTY DOCTORS-While it is said that the medical man whose written directions "to be taken every hour, hour- and-a-half or two hours" was a welcome visitor in the home of the settler, there seems to be more system about dispensing drugs today. Mention has already been made of some of the early doctors centering about Lima, and at Beaver Dam was Doctor Honnell, who belonged to the era when the physician sharpened his knife on his boot in order to try his hand at surgery. At Bluffton Dr. S. S. Yoder was once "the most beloved physician," while Dr. C. F. Steingraver was "highly respected" and there was once Dr. F. J. Baldwin, Dr. Charles Lanford Piper and Dr. J. R. Clark. At Delphos was Dr. H. P. Wagner, Dr. Joseph Reuhl and Dr. C. A. Evans. While all were eminent physicians in the early history of Delphos, Doctor Evans is remembered as a com- munity builder who was active in securing the Narrow Gauge Railroad, now known as the Clover Leaf-a lasting monument to his enterprise. It is said that Doctor Wagner, who had no family, had amassed a small fortune and at the time of his sudden death it was distributed among distant relatives. There was no will disposing of it.
At Elida were the following doctors : Hitchcock, Anderson, Rice, and at Gomer was Dr. John Davis, who was a Welsh musician and for thirty years a choir leader there; also Dr. R. E. Jones, who has been desig- nated "the grand old man of Sugar Creek." At Lafayette was Dr. New- ton Sager-it is father and son-there being a Doctor Sager today. Among those who rode on horseback from Spencerville were Doctors Travis, Hart, Summers, Renner, while at Harrod was Doctor Johnson; at Westminster were Doctors Sullivan and Crabb and at West Newton were Doctors Huntley, Thomas and Davidson. Some of the pioneer doctors were successful in the practice of medicine, although the require- ments are such today that they would be unable to pass the necessary examinations.
CHAPTER XXXVI
EARLY SOCIAL LIFE IN ALLEN COUNTY
The following material is adapted from a paper written by Mrs. Julia Orbison Meily, dealing more particularly with conditions in Lima. It deals with conditions before the days of automobiles when the country seemed farther from the town, although the habits and customs of the people were the same in the different communities. Since there is no other paper on file in the archives of the Allen County Historical and Archaelogical Society in duplicate, much of it is used in the history.
In assembling data, Mrs. Meily wrote many letters to absent friends and she quotes facts from many sources. The early families lived around and south of the public square, in the beginning of social life in Lima and Allen County. The whole population could easily be estimated, and in that day there was no newspaper nor outlet or inlet by rail or overland for the community. In the spring people traveled below and in the summer on top, carrying the idea of muddy roads in early his- tory. An early home is described : the latchstring was always out and the family was happy and always ready to lend a helping hand; the house was a cabin containing parlor, bed room, dining room and kitchen, with a shoe and broom shop where supplies were made for the family.
In order to save fuel and light, the whole thing was in one room, which brought the family all together, and they could oversee each other. After supper each one knew his place. The father would make a sledge (frequently called maul), and the boys would strip broom corn while the girls spun yarn, and the mother knit or made garments. As the evening passes the girls sing songs, father makes chips and one of the boys relates a story while another laughs about it. Mother pokes up the wood fire on the hearth, and all enjoy the evening together. Each child cuts some antic for the amusement of the others. At times there were taffy pullings, corn huskings, cloth kicking, log rollings and frontier picnics. There was pleasure in those days, if there was no newspaper, we always had the news-
"For Lima was a handy place, the people all like brothers; When one had a little news, he would hand it round to others,"
and thus all the community knew about each other.
The settlers were deprived of many comforts and conveniences, as places of entertainment and public resort, and the young people of today would think these were the most miserable people on the face of God's green earth, but such was not the case. They were a happy people, social without deceit, true and benevolent. The latchstring was always out and all were on a common level. Money had not yet become the test of manhood. The man in broadcloth and the woman in silk are seen today, while the loom, the wheel and the flax-brake are gone for- ever. Young people today wonder what use was made of them. When the young lady in silk asks her mother about her wedding gown she learns that the event was in January and the dress was plaid flannel made at home. The mother had made her own trousseau, spinning the yarn and coloring it indigo blue or madder red, and there had been a kicking party in making the cloth.
When the people lived in the woods before there were any fulling mills or factories of any kind-not even carding machines-they fulled
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the cloth by kicking it with their feet, and kicking parties were much in vogue for many years. The father would kill a calf and a neighbor would tan the hide when some friend would make the bridal slippers and the young woman was as a bride adorned for her husband. The wedding was performed by the squire or a minister, with a taffy pulling and a jolly time after the ceremony. It seems a far cry today that a young woman should weave her own wedding gown, and that the neigh- bors for miles around should be invited to attend the kicking party.
When the kicking party was in prospect, one of the boys would kill a wild turkey and some pheasants, and the mother would put the sugar kettle on and a pot pie was the result of it all. Ribbon cake was an unknown quantity in the frontier community. When the kicking party was announced the boys and the girls all came, the fun worth going for in those days. The water was warmed and the flannel was well soaped and soaked and piled into the middle of the floor. The motto "business before pleasure" was understood by all, the boys shedding their shoes and stockings and rolling up their trousers ready for the kicking process of fulling the flannel. A rope was stretched along the chairs to keep them from slipping and when all was in readiness the party was set in motion. Kick, kick, kick was the requirement from every side until suds and lather hid the flannel from view, and so the cloth was fulled for the wedding dress.
When the fulling process was ended the rustic table was spread and the potpie was enjoyed by all. However, the party was not over. The floor is cleared again of the table, and the fun begins afresh-and thus is described a kicking party, a social party and a night of enjoyment in the backwoods in the early days of Allen County history. It was the means of bringing the young folks together in social way and of fulling the cloth at the same time when kicking was the only way to do it. Wool pickings and carding parties had been within the time of the writer of this folklore reminiscence, and the stories are understood by older persons in Allen County on the threshold of its second century in local history. Such gatherings belong to the past, and will never be revived again. They have followed in the wake of the wild animals that used to roam the Allen County forests and a more civilized con- dition exists today.
The Bashore tavern was the center of the old social life, particularly for the men of the community. It was on the west side of Main Street half way between Spring and Elm, and for a decade politicians, teachers, preachers, story tellers, gathered around this festive spot, and argued all the questions of the day. When they were uncomfortable on the outside they went inside the hostelry. It was the stopping place for all newcomers who either inquired the way somewhere else or remained for a time within its friendly shelter. All comers and goers had much to say about "back yander" when lingering about the Bashore tavern in the early history of Lima and community. Even cases of love at first sight were not uncommon among the movers. When a young woman stuck her head out from the canvas top of a covered wagon she would some- times see her fate, or the fate would see her.
An early romance is mentioned. In the first year of Lima's history Miss Tompkins came to live with a brother, D. D. Tompkins, who had the first store in town, and who carried everything from laces and silks to candies and molasses. Doctor McHenry was seeking a location, fresh from medical lectures in Philadelphia. He arrived on horseback, stop- ping at the Tompkins store, and when he caught sight of Miss Tompkins the denouement came later when they were married, journeying to Xenia
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on horseback for their wedding trip. The bride carried two silk dresses jammed into saddle bags and they were a mass of wrinkles when she saw them again. There was a reception for the bridal party, and she borrowed hot irons and pressed her dress to be in readiness. They later opened their home in Lima to all citizens of the community. Mrs. McHenry often received polite notes announcing company-will it be convenient for Mesdames So-and-So to spend the afternoons? And at supper time the husbands came and all had a good time together, the guests being the Bowers, Kellars and Binkleys.
Along in the '40s in Lima history Mrs. R. L. Metheany would get word in the morning by one of the children that Mrs. King, Mrs. Har- per, Mrs. Dalzell and Mrs. Cunningham would spend the day with her. "If it is convenient we will spend the afternoon with you," the pronoun "we" always standing for from two to half a dozen, and since fore- warned is forearmed in polite society, the aftermath was chickens to be dressed and pies and cakes to be made and held in readiness. There were always jars of preserves and pickles and the last thing to be placed in the oven was the biscuits. They called it supper, although it is dinner in polite society today. The husbands would arrive and the women would fold their work and lay it away and spend a pleasant evening. There were no fancy bags then as today. They knew how to fasten the knitting needles to guard against the loss of stitches and the simple life one reads about today was a reality in Lima society.
At another time a child was sent to Mrs. Jacobs with a note asking if it would be convenient for Mrs. Cheevers, Mrs. Dalzell and Mrs. Bashore to spend the afternoon, which was interpreted to mean "stay for supper," and of course it was perfectly convenient for Mrs. Jacobs. So, with plenty of work carried along, the women of Lima spent many pleasant afternoons together. There were no clubs or research soci- eties, but their social natures were gratified with friendly intercourse and frequently there were dancing parties in the evening. When a dance was in prospect the ladies prepared meat, rolls, chickens, cakes, pies and everything, and when it was 12 o'clock they made coffee, spread the table and had a meal together. What was left was given to the Indian squaws who were sure to come round next morning begging for it. The church sewing society was also a source of pleasure and benefit, for the ladies plied their needles while enjoying a visit with friends. There were refreshments-not pink teas, but substantial meals, and all enjoyed them.
General Armstrong's home in the country was a very hospitable place and Mrs. Mayo Davison, speaking of the 50's, says: "We had to get our own amusements, but do not think for a moment that we did not have a good time. We had apple cuttings at our house to which all the young people would come. We would pare and quarter apples for drying, string them and hang them up in the sun and air. When we were through with the apples, we cleared the kitchen and had a dance. We hired a fiddler and danced French Four, Fisher's Hornpipe, Money Musk and Quadrilles, then had refreshments of doughnuts and cider which satisfied us as well as the ice cream and fine cake of today. One winter we had dancing school taught by Captain Fisher with a dance every two weeks on Friday night. They were not dress-up affairs. If we had a clean gingham dress we were well off. At the end of the term a big dance and supper were given at the Lima House. We had pic- nics in Robb's Grove and in Terry's Grove, now called Faurot's Park. We had a glee club and sang patriotic songs for political meetings.
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Johnny Maxwell played the Allentown Tune and Cass Jolly beat the drum.
The young people of Lima used to visit the Joseph Richardson home at the edge of town, where they were always welcome. It was the Virginia brand of hospitality there. While the Richardsons lived out of town, we did not need a carriage for the distance. Mrs. Meily had recently visited Mrs. Mary E. Mehaffey in Lafayette, who is the last of the Richardson family, a Mrs. Ballard also having been a Richard- son. Mrs. Mehaffey enumerated the young people of her day: Katie and Sue Fickle, Hattie Armstrong, Fannie Binkley, Martha McHenry, Helen Cheevers, Matilda Faurot, Mary Hughes, Sarah Black, Sarah Jane Kellar, Martha Richardson, Ann Krebs, Mart Armstrong, John L. Hughes, Richard Hughes, A. R. Boggs, Robert Mehaffey, Charles Wash- burn, Doan Cunningham, Harvey Parmenter, Cloyd Jacobs, Isaiah Pil- lars and Isaac Satterthwaite. Five of the foregoing couples later mar- ried and all became successful in life and well known citizens.
In 1845, when Professor Adams taught school in the Methodist church at Market and Union streets, he used to invite the young people to his home on Market street by the Lima House. No parties today could surpass those pleasant gatherings. The first part of the evening was spent in discussing important issues of the day and everyone took part. There was no silly talk and we always learned something. This was followed by something funny. At this party every young man sat by the young woman he escorted there; they made machine poetry. A young man wrote two lines on a sheet and folded the paper. A young woman wrote two lines and folded it again. All had to write on a topic assigned and a critic was appointed and the grammar was subject to correction. The critics were usually very capable persons. Refresh- ments of pound cake and chocolate were served and all went home not later than ten o'clock.
When John L. Hughes was married another social center was open and Mr. and Mrs. Hughes instituted the 5 o'clock tea which became fashionable, every young man taking his girl and attending it. A fine evening was enjoyed and all were at home by 8 o'clock in the evening. There was a tea given at the home of D. C. P. Tirrell on West Market street-just a select crowd-and there was an elegant supper of salt- rising bread, dried beef, preserves, doughnuts, pound cake, float and chocolate. This was before the time of ice cream.
There was an April Fool party at the Doctor Kendall home on Main street near the American Bank, and when supper was announced all went to the dining room and were seated at the table. All soon found out that everything on the table was made of mud-eggs, pickles, cake and everything. After a lot of fun over it all, everything was removed and a fine supper was served. The Binkley home at Market and Eliz- abeth streets was another place where many parties were given. The halls were wide and the rooms spacious and after discussing the issues of the day there would be charades and music. They had a cabinet organ to accompany the singers.
In the 60's Joseph Karnes and his wife celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary in grand style, the biggest social event in Lima. They obtained the oysters and other specialties from Toledo. They stood under a tin wedding bell and were married again. The dinner was served from lap boards and it was the social event of the season. "We never had anything in Lima to compare in style and grandeur to this tin wed- ding." In the social life of Lima the people would come often with sugar to have a taffy pulling and leave quite late, with every plate and
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