USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 62
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
Some one has said that if Eve had not eaten the apple in the Garden of Eden, there would be no need of physicians in the world-but she did eat of the apple. There are few people who have any particular desire to die if they can keep from it and as long as the desire to live is in the human breast so long will there be a demand for physicians.
Greene county had only been fairly organized when the first doctor arrived on the scene, and from that day to this he has been an integral part of the county's life. No one can gainsay his value to the community ; even the undertaker must admit that the physician has his place in our scheme of civilization.
TAXING GREENE COUNTY PHYSICIANS.
It is not generally known that physicians, and also lawyers, were placed on the tax duplicate at so much per head during the two decades prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1850. Basing their right to such action on an act of the General Assembly, the Greene county commissioners on June II, 1830, decided to schedule the physicians for taxation, an order of that date reading as follows: "The commissioners and auditor proceeded to esti- mate the annual income of the practicing lawyers and physicians, and to charge a tax upon each ; which tax as charged is attached to their respective names on the lists returned by the assessor to the auditor."
Whether the annual income of the physician was estimated from what he actually collected during the year, or from the gross amount of his busi- ness, is not known. The tax on the physicians ranged from one to three dollars each, and it is presumed that every physician in the county had to pay the tax before he could practice. It is evident that this taxing of the physicians continued up to 1850, but only one of the original tax schedules listing the physicians has been found by the historian.
This ancient document of 1830 lists under the heading of "Physicians and Surgeons" the following men: Joshua Martin, Joseph Johnson, Joseph Templeton, Jeremiah Woolsey, William Bell, Mathias Winans, Horace Lawrence, Robert E. Stephens, Eulass Ball, Randolph R. Green, Leonard Rush and M. P. Baskerville (or Baskanelle, the name being very illegibly written.). This would seem. to indicate that the county had only these twelve
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physicians in 1830. The document in question does not state their annual income nor the amount of tax they were to pay. Nor is there anything to indicate their location in the county, how long they had been practicing here, nor any other fact of their professional career.
But there is another class of healers listed in 1830 on this same ven- erable document, and just what they were, or just how they treated their patients is not certain. They were listed as "Steam Doctors," eight in number, and were presumably recognized by the law as having a status apart from the regular physicians. These "steam" specialists were Stacy Hains, Maurice Hawkins, Frederick Beemer, Amasa Read, James Hays, Childrip Askew, Thomas P. Moorman and Abraham Gause. Nothing has been dis- covered of any these men except Moorman, who was a Quaker of Sugar- creek township, a school teacher, farmer and doctor of the steam variety- a combination of occupations which evidently insured him plenty of work to do to keep busy all the time. He is credited with having settled in the town- ship as early as 1812.
Since the "steam" doctor has long ago steamed his last victim, it is difficult to ascertain his modus operandi. From the best information which can be gained it seems that they did not employ actual steam in their treat- ments, but rather used such concoctions and infusions as heated their pa- tients to a point where the patient was caused to perspire profusely. . The historian has seen an account of a "steam" doctor who lived in Champaign county, Ohio, in the '30s and '40s, and her-she was a woman-treatment has been described by one of her victims. It is probable that her steam brethren of Greene county followed the same procedure. One of her patients left a written account of her efforts to sweat him to health, saying, among other things, "that her stuff had made him so hot that his clothes smelled like burnt rags for a month." After filling her patients with the hottest mix- ture she could concoct, the infusion being a compound of "yarbs," she wrapped him in blankets, tucked him in bed, had the room heated to as high a temperature as the cabin would allow and then left him in this heated con- dition "to extract all the juice out of his anatomy possible, then sponged him off with cold water, and wound him up in a woolen blanket to get well or die." It is small wonder that, as was sometimes said, internal spontaneous combustion was narrowly averted.
But the "steam" doctor had his day. Medical science was not as defi- nitely established in those days as it is at present. The newspapers of ante- bellum days tell of all kinds of so-called doctors. Some called themselves "calomel" doctors ; others boldly advertised that they did not use calomel; still others relied on a kind of salve, others on smoke from native herbs, others on ordinary clay. Soaking feet in water containing a strong solu-
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tion of tobacco was a sovereign remedy for rheumatism, and, strange as it may seem, a colored barber of Xenia in 1917 informed the historian that he had just tried the tobacco remedy for the same complaint.
NEWSPAPERS OF EARLY DAYS VS. MEDICAL PROGRESS.
A few of the early physicians advertised themselves in the columns of the Xenia papers, but it is evident that most of them did not feel it necessary to call the attention of the public to their profession. When a physician first ยท made his appearance in the town he usually ran an advertisement for a time in the papers. For instance, Dr. L. Marshall announced his location as follows (Ohio People's Press, May 30, 1828) :
DOCTOR L. MARSHALL
Respectfully acquaints the public that he has commenced the practice of PHYSIC & SURGERY in Xenia. His shop is on Main Street, one door east of Mr. Newcom's Grocery.
No other physician advertised his calling in that paper during 1828 and Doctor Marshall's card ran for but two months. Some of the early physi- cians announced through the papers that they did not use calomel; others that they did. They all claimed to be surgeons, and in as far as they were capable of lancing a patient for bleeding purposes, they were all surgeons. But it is apparent that the physicians of ante-bellum days were not prone to advertise themselves.
However, if the physicians did not feel called upon to use the columns of the local papers, the makers and venders of patent medicines were not averse to extolling the merits of their concoctions. There was as much, if not more, patent medicine humor seventy-five years ago than there is today. For years before the Civil War, the local papers advertised Parker's Vege- table Renovating Panacea for the cure of "Rheumatism, Liver Complaint, Ulcers and Syphilitic Diseases." This superior medicine not only was a "sure and swift specific" for the diseases mentioned, but it also cured jaun- dice, indigestion and all "complaints incident to the change of seasons." Month after month and year after year, so one local paper advertised, "A few bottles of the above valuable medicine are for sale at the office of the People's Press."
By the '50s, practically half the advertising space in the local papers was given over to patent medicines. Some of these concoctions claimed to cure nearly every disease then known to mankind. Brandreth's Pills are "ninety-two years old" and are equally good for "man, woman or infant;" "a genuine cure" for paralysis, St. Vitus Dance, epilepsy, rheumatism, cholera morbus, etc." As early as 1840 it is to be noted that there was a "Great Remedy for Consumption" and at the same time, this same panacea
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-Winter's Balsam of Wild Cherry-was a specific for pleurisy, asthma, bronchitis, hemorrhages and all affections of the pulmonary organs. $1.00 per bottle.
Another old friend appeared in the '50s. Doctor Jayne's Family Medi- cines, still on the market, were with our grandfathers in the '50s. Jayne had six different medicines advertised at that time and there is not a disease to which human flesh is heir that could not be cured by one-or a combina- tion of two or more-of these six; at least, the reader of the advertisement was so informed. But valuable as the Jayne medicines were, they were not " to be compared with "The Greatest Medicine of the Age," namely Hunt's Liniment. This medicine cured as many diseases as could be printed in a paragraph of ten lines, and for each disease it was "a certain, safe and speedy cure." Here are a few of the common diseases it would cure: Tic doloreux, quinsy, nervous diseases, rheumatism (all early patent medicines cured rheumatism, scrofula, bunions, corns, hives, paralysis and mosquito bites. It takes half a column to set forth appropriately the merits of this wonderful liniment.
Ayer's Cherry Pectoral was engaged in the laudatory work of "arrest- ing the prevailing disease and terror of our climate-consumption" as early as 1845. This same concoction was in the same "arresting" business until the pure food and drug act of 1906 came into existence, and it is still on the market. And there were other "consumption cures" in the days before the Civil War, all of which made weekly use of the local papers to chronicle their merits. Dr. Rodger's Compound of Liverwort and Tar was headed with the startling announcement that "Upwards of Ten Thousand Cured !! -Consumption can be Cured." This concoction duly set forth that by its use a number of people can testify that they have been "cured of a continual spitting of blood," "snatched from a premature grave, and saved when even my physicians thought I must die of consumption."
But enough has been quoted from the early papers of Greene county to show that the patent medicine advertisement of today is not a recent thing in the realm of wit and humor. It is no wonder the old-time editor did not feel it necessary to run a separate column of jokes. Who could not enjoy this : "Joy to the World. Perry Davis' Pain Killer in the West." Doctor Townsend consumed half a column to inform the female public that his Compound Extract of Sarsaparilla is "A Wonder and Blessing, the Most Extraordinary Medicine in the World." To read his advertisement one would be led to believe that there would be no women left in this world today if he had not appeared on the scene with his medicine. "Six times cheaper, pleasanter and warranted superior to any sold." $1.00 per quart. One more reference to the medical columns of the early papers. It
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would seem that the physicians of Greene county would have little to do, judging by the wonderful medicines which were then ready-made for people's use. Here is one that ought to have given the ordinary physician heart failure : "Detergent and Diuretic, Sarsaparilla, Wild Cherry & Dan- delion Compound," the masterpiece of one Doctor Myers, whoever he may have been. This "universal" medicine had a more comprehensive curative field than any of the others which the historian found in the early papers. It actually "cured" everything from dandruff in the hair, consumption of the lungs, gravel in the kidneys and bowel complaints to blisters on the heel and corns on the toes. It must have been what its advertiser called it-"The Universal Medicine."
SOME EARLY PHYSICIANS.
An effort has been made to compile a list of all the physicians who have practiced in Greene county since 1803, and it has been found that they number more than two hundred. Of course, a large number of these were in the county only a short time, and consequently left. very little impression on the county. In the following pages are presented brief sketches of a few of these physicians who are now deceased. It is not presumed that this list includes all the worthy men of the profession, but it does include tkose concerning whom sufficient information has been preserved to make a brief sketch. The later careers of some of the number is not a matter of local records.
The following physicians are given special mention in the following pages : Andrew W. Davidson, Joshua Martin, Joseph Johnson, William Bell, Joseph Templeton, Samuel Martin, Mathias Winans, Horace Lawrence, Ewlass Ball, Henry Good, Jeremiah Woolsey, John W. Greene, John M. Reid, Alexander Reid, Reuben C. Hoover, Edward F. Searl, Micajah P. Moorman, Camaralza H. Spahr, J. S. Dillon, John George Folck, Joseph M. Folck, Barbara A. Shigley Folck, Susan Folck, C. B. Jones, George Watt, Doctor McCune, J. M. Stewart, Andrew Winter, W. A. Hagenbuck, Oscar M. Marquart, R. S. Finley, John Turnbull, Frank M. Kent, Clark M. Gallo- way, William P. Madden and Raymond W. Smith.
Andrew W. Davidson has the honor of having been the first physician to locate in Xenia. He was a young unmarried man when he came here in 1805 and soon became one of the most active men in the infant village. He was married on June 15, 1807, to Rebecca Todd. In 1811 he built the first brick house in the town, and three years later built the first stone house in town. In addition to his medical practice he found time to be a tailor and village merchant, this triplicate line of activities probably being neces- sary to make a comfortable living. During the winter of 1820-1821 Doctor
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Davidson moved his family to Columbus, Indiana, and subsequently located in Madison, Indiana, where he died in his thirty-ninth year.
Joshua Martin, who if not the second physician to locate in Xenia was one among the first, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, March 23, 1791, and died in Louisville, Kentucky, November 30, 1865. He graduated from a medical school at Lexington, Kentucky, and in a short time located in Xenia, reaching the village in the fall of 1813. His method of treating an epidemic known as the "cold plague" was so successful that he was soon in wide demand throughout this whole section of the state. His practice was so heavy that he began to fear for his own health, and consequently after two years left the village for Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he went into the mercantile business with his brother. Within a year he was back in Xenia, having lost all his money in the business venture. He married Hester Whiteman, daughter of Gen. Benjamin Whiteman, on June 4, 1818. She died in February, 1834, and in April, 1835, he married Sarah Poague. His second wife died in 1841, leaving him with an infant daughter. Subse- quently, he brought his four unmarried sisters to Xenia, one later dying in 1851, while the other three, together with his daughter, lived with him until his death in 1865. He died at Louisville and his body was brought back to Xenia for burial.
Joseph Johnson was in the county only a few years, but he was one of the strong men of his day. He located in Xenia in 1814 for the practice of medicine and six years later was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly to represent Greene county. He subsequently moved to Galena, Illinois, where he died June 5, 1847, in his sixty-fourth year.
William Bell was in the county as early as 1830, appearing on the list of physicians taxed in that year, and he may have been here for several years before that. He first located at Bellbrook, but eventually moved to Xenia where he practiced until his death.
Joseph Templeton came from western Pennsylvania to Xenia in 1826 and was one of the leaders in his profession during his career in the town. He was married when he came here, and his wife is said to have been the first person to have started a school for the colored children in the little vil- lage. The doctor was a very outspoken abolitionist. About 1834 he re- turned to his former home in Pennsylvania on account of family ties, dispos- ing of his practice to Dr. Samuel Martin. A few years later Doctor Temple- con returned to Xenia and was again a resident of the city for a number of years, but in 1843 he again returned to his Pennsylvania home. His last trip to Xenia in 1865 was followed by his death a few days after he returned to his home in the east.
Samuel Martin was born in Ireland in 1796, educated in Glasgow Uni- (38)
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versity, Scotland, and was supposed to enter the service of the British navy upon his graduation. However, he did not go to sea, but instead married and settled to practice in Ireland. His wife died less than a year afterwards, and Doctor Martin at once came to America. He liked the country and was soon happily located at Noblesville, Pennsylvania, where he later married Helen Anderson. In 1834 he bought the practice of Dr. Joseph Templeton, of Xenia, Ohio, and made this city his home from that year until his death on June 21, 1879, being in his eighty-third year. His wife died in 1859, and he later married Nancy Liggett, who survived him. Probably more young men read medicine in his office than in any other office in the county. Seven physicians who had been his students attended his funeral and four of them, all residents of Xenia, acted as pall-bearers.
Mathias Winans, one of the first physicians at Jamestown, came from Maysville, Kentucky, to Greene county in 1820. He bought a farm in Silvercreek township, although he lived in the village of Jamestown. In his later years he associated his son-in-law, John Dawson, with him as partner. Doctor Winans was the father of Judge James Winans, while two other sons became physicians. He died in July, 1840, in Cincinnati, his burial being at Jamestown.
Horace Lawrence was practicing in the county as early as 1830. He had his humble shop about five miles east of Cedarville, near Bloxsoms bridge, at the point where the Columbus pike crossed Massies creek. He had two nephews who became physicians: Horace, a son of his brother Levi L., and Deluna. The former was accidentally killed at Kenton, Ohio, while the latter died of consumption in his young manhood.
Ewlass Ball combined the practice of medicine with the keeping of a store at Clifton as early as 1827. He was taxed as one of the county's physicians in 1830. Two other physicians at Clifton in early days were Joshua Wilson and John H. Prescott. The latter forsook the pill bag of the physician for the green bag of the lawyer, and still later in life became a preacher. Prescott located in Xenia about 1840 and died there, November 16, 1872, at the age of sixty-four. He is buried at Xenia.
Henry Good practiced in Xenia for several years after locating here in 1817, subsequently moving to Madison, Indiana. Jeremiah Woolsey was in Xenia as early as 1827, but he practiced in the village only a few years. He removed to Cincinnati, where he died on February 6, 1834. He was probably the first physician in the country to use cold water to reduce the temperature of fever patients. Such was his success with his methods of handling fever cases that his services in the treatment of this disease were in demand over a wide stretch of territory. He was the grandfather of Dr. Ida C. Woolsey, who is still practicing in Xenia.
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John W. Greene, a son of Dr. Randolph R. Greene, was born in Bath township, Greene county, Ohio, February 24, 1825. His father was the first physician to locate in Fairfield and one of the first to settle in the county. Dr. R. R. Greene was born in Pennsylvania in 1787, educated in his native state, located at Fairfield in 1820, and continued there in practice until his death of cholera in 1849. Dr. J. W. Greene graduated from Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in 1846 and practiced with his father until the latter's death in 1849. He then continued in practice at Fairfield.
John M. and Alexander Reid were Scotchmen who came to this country in the '30s. Since they knew that a goodly number of their countrymen who were members of the Seceder church of which they also were members, were residents of Greene county, they came directly here, and settled about two miles south of Xenia, resuming the practice of their profession soon after they became residents of Greene county. Unfortunately they were not fully aware of the Calvinistic morals of the people of this community, for they employed a woman as their housekeeper. This was considered by their neighbors an affront to the morals of the community, and they appointed a committee to take the matter up with the two brothers, who assured the com- mitteemen that their conduct was entirely above reproach. Nevertheless the explanation did not satisfy the committee and the two doctor brothers found it necessary to make different arrangements concerning their living conditions. Dr. John M. Reid was the elder of the two brothers. He was born in 1780 and was graduated from St. Andrew University on September 5, 1818. His diploma of parchment and written in Latin is framed and is now hanging in the laboratory of the Xenia Hospital, an interesting relic of the medical fraternity in Greene county. He later obtained the degree of Master of Arts, to which he added the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He doubtlessly practiced his profession while in Scotland and was a leader in his profession, for he left a volume of lectures which he compiled on medical subjects. He did not long enjoy liv- ing in this new country, for his death occurred on July 12, 1840. Dr. Alex- ander Reid, the younger of the brothers, was born in 1782. He followed in the footsteps of his elder brother, for he entered the same profession, ob- tained the same degrees, immigrated to this country and practiced medicine here in Greene county. He survived his brother fourteen years, his death occurring on May 16, 1854.
Reuben C. Hoover was born in Shippensburg, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, June I, 1821. He read medicine under his uncle, Dr. Joseph M. Smith, in Adams county, Ohio, and then entered the Jefferson Medical School, Philadelphia. Subsequently he graduated from the Pennsylvania Medical College of the same city, practiced for ten years in Cumberland
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county, in his home state, and in 1854 located at Springfield, Ohio. The following year he came to Greene county and located at Osborn, where he remained for several years. He married Catherine Smith in 1843 and they became the parents of five children, two of whom became physicians : Calvin, who died at the age of thirty-two, and Reuben C., Jr., who was graduated from the Cleveland Medical College in 1876.
Edward F. Searl was born in New York state, September 27, 1841, and was reared in Portage county, Ohio, where his parents' moved the year of his birth. He was graduated from Cleveland Medical College in 1861, and at once located in Huron, Ohio. In May, 1863, he came to Greene county and opened his office at Fairfield, where he practiced for many years. He was married in 1866 to Margaret Campbell.
Micajah P. Moorman was born in Sugarcreek township, this county, February 8, 1824, and commenced the practice of medicine in Jamestown in the spring of 1858. He was a Quaker, and, so it appears, was one of the so-called "steam doctors." One of the Moormans-Thomas P .- was listed and taxed under the head of steam doctors in 1830.
Camaralza H. Spahr was born east of Xenia on January 30, 1826. In the fall of 1846 he began the study of medicine with Dr. E. Owen, of Cham- paign county, Ohio, later graduating from Starling Medical College. He located at Jamestown on February 2, 1854. He married Mary A. Peters on March II, 1858. Doctor Spahr had one brother, B. E., who was a physician, dying in 1861.
J. S. Dillon was born in Logan county, Ohio, in 1840. Few men of the county went through the experiences he did before he finally settled in Xenia for the practice of his profession. At the age of nineteen he was in Kansas in charge of a hotel which was left on his hands at the death of his father. The business was not exciting enough for him, so he sold out at the opening of the Civil War and went into speculating in army supplies, eventually becoming a sutler with one of the armies of the North. He followed this business until the close of the war and with $50,000 worth of goods he went into Mexico to make his fortune. He did not meet with much success, finally getting rid of all his goods and having only four thousand sheep to his credit. These he took to Montana, where he sold them at a big sacrifice. His next venture was in attempting to fill a government contract of beef for the Navajo Indians in New Mexico. While taking a herd of three thousand cattle to the Indian reservation he was set upon by a party of Comanche Indians, and ten of his men were killed and he managed to arrive at his destination with only two hundred and eighteen head of his cattle. Then he decided to settle down to the practice of medicine, a knowledge of which he seemed to have collected in some way, and located in Arkansas.
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