History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 77

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 77

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The board was organized by the election of Dr. J. C. Newnan president, Dr. T. L. Maddin vice-president, and Dr. J. D. Plunket secretary and executive officer. A full interchange of opinions took place, and much earnestness

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

of purpose was exhibited by the members. During the remainder of the month of June three other meetings were held. The board was divided into committees on hygiene, nuisances, endemic diseases, epidemic diseases, meteorology, and mortuary reports. On the 18th, Dr. W. D. Horton took the place of Dr. J. H. Currey. On the 26th, as the result of conferences with the city government, a bill was passed to establish a Board of Health. In July and August the board met five times. Cholera was then approaching from Louisville. Up to August 11th, Secretary Plunket reported one case, that of a visitor from Cincinnati. By the 31st of August seven deaths had occurred. By the 15th of September the epidemic was fully under way. By the 13th of October it was a thing of the past. The Nash- ville Dispatch, of that date, estimates that over eight hun- dred deaths had been the harvest which the pestilence had gathered while it held high carnival in the city, and says, " With the single exception of Memphis, the mortality has been greater in Nashville, according to population, than in any other city it has visited in this country." It also says that " the pestilence raged with greater force than during its former visitations."

" Under the smart of this terrible punishment for inat- tention to the warnings of medical science, the municipal authorities no longer hesitated to make the Board of Health a reality. On the 11th of April, 1867, the ordinance organizing the Board of Health was so amended as to create a health officer, with a salary of eighteen hundred dollars per annum. With the exception of five months in autumn and winter, his entire time was devoted to his duties, while during all the year he was subject to the instructions of the board. The health officer was to be nominated by the Board of Health, and elected by joint vote of both boards of the City Council.

" On April 15th, Joseph Jones, M.D., professor of phy- siology and pathology in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, was nominated as health officer, and afterwards duly elected. He was the first person who filled that office in Nashville or in Tennessee. An expert scientist, and a physician who had filled a high position in the army of the Confederate States during the four years' contest, he was thoroughly furnished for the difficult task to which he was summoned. Ile devoted his entire ener- gies to the work, was cordially sustained by the board, the city government, and by the citizens generally.

" Nashville had in carnest entered upon a career of sani- tary reform which if continued a few years would have' made the city as renowned for health as it has always been for intellect.

" All this was frustrated by the strange political anomaly which disfranchised the wealth, intellect, and virtue, while it enfranchised the vice, ignorance, and misery, of the city. From the minutes of the Board of Health it appears that on December 11th, Professor Jones was unanimously and against his own protest nominated as health officer for the year 1868. The city government ignored this nomination, and elected a candidate of their own. The Board of Health did not see proper to contest this illegal step, and virtually came to an end, although a futile attempt was made to re- vive it July, 1869, when John M. Bass, as receiver, re-

placed the entire city government. Against the respectful remonstrances of the board, he made the fatal mistake of economizing at the expense of the public health.

" In 1873, a year whose fame will long be connected with that of Asiatic cholera, Nashville received another severe and costly lesson on the importance of sanitary common sense, and on May 27, 1874, the ordinance creating the present Board of Health became a law. On June 1st the board met and organized, Dr. J. D. Plunket being presi- dent, and Dr. J. R. Buist, secretary. The other members were the mayor T. A. Kercheval, Professor Charles K. Winston, M.D., and Henry M. Compton, M.D. Mayor Morton B. Howell became a member on Oct. 6, 1874. Dr. J. R. Buist resigned Feb. 20, 1875, and W. J. Mc- Murray was elected to fill the vacancy. He went out Oc- tober, 1875, being elected alderman, and Dr. Buist was chosen to fill the vacancy. October, 1875, Thomas A. Kercheval again entered the board as mayor.

"In May, 1876, Dr. John A. Draughon was elected Dr. Winston's successor. Dr. H. M. Compton, who died on July 20, 1876, was succeeded by Dr. J. B. W. Nowlin. Dr. Buist's term expired June, 1877.

" On June 3, 1874, John Watson Morton, M.D., was chosen health officer. The board at once entered upon its work with diligence. Proper blanks were prepared and a mortuary register commenced on July 4th. Dr. Morton retired from office on June 10, 1876, when Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley became his successor. The work accomplished by the board during the past three years is exhibited in the . report of Dr. Morton, Nov. 24, 1875, and in other reports since made by the board.

" The great object of the board has been to lay a perma- nent foundation for durable future work. It has endeav- ored to carry the people with it, commencing its labors in the full tide of the greatest commercial revulsion America has ever known; it has been exceedingly cautious in urg- ing expensive sanitary measures, and has contented itself with keeping before the citizens and the municipal authori- ties the unspeakable importance of cleanliness on all prem- ises, private and public. It has also, in addition to reliable and valuable mortality statistics, collected a large amount of most important data, which will always be of use in the future.

"The great questions of water supply, of drainage, of sewerage, of night and day scavengering, have been taken up, and in some cases very satisfactory progress made."

Dr. Lindsley, in his annual report to the board in 1877, says,-

" Having within the past year studied with care the re- ports of fifty or sixty city and State Boards of Health, I may perhaps be allowed to congratulate our own people upon the fact that the essential elements of permanence, medi- cal skill, and freedom from the deadly poison of politics, all unite in the composition of the Nashville Board of Health."*

Again, in the third annual report of the board, Dr. Lindsley says,-

* Extract from Second Annual Report of the Nashville Board of Health, 1877.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

" Hitherto the co-operation of our city government and of our citizens generally has been kindly and satisfactory. The public appreciates the efforts of the board, and there is every reason for believing that here in our own beloved Nashville medical science will have full opportunity for showing how lasting and benign are the benefits it is capable of bestowing on a people. No higher honor can any one carve out for himself than that of leaving a city with a death-rate of seventeen per thousand per annum, which he took in hand with one of thirty-four per annum per thousand. If the saving of one life in the good olden time entitled to the civic crown, with what laurels shall the brows of him who saves seventeen lives of each thousand of population in every year of a city's continuance be en- circled ?"

On June 19, 1877, the board was organized for the en- suing year by the election of Dr. J. R. Buist as president, and Dr. J. B. W. Nowlin secretary.

The Nashville Board of Health has been one of the most active and efficient bodies of the kind in the United States, and has received the encomiums of leading sanitarians and health officers in the chief cities of the Union. What has it done to merit these encomiums ?

1. It has awakened a vast amount of thought, and fur- nished a vast deal of information to the people, on the most vital subject, the health of the city. All reforms of this kind must proceed upon the assumption that ignorance is not only the mother of vice, but of filth, squalor, poverty, . and disease. Hence the first necessity of the reform is the enlightenment of the public mind. Sanitary science be- comes a most valuable means of popular education. Recog- nizing and acting upon this principle, the Board of Health has circulated information of the most valuable kind, and which previous to the publication of their proceedings was unknown to thousands, who never thought of acquiring the information for themselves. The published reports of the board form a perfect compendium of sanitary science, such as can nowhere else be found in so complete and condensed a form. It furnishes all this, in addition to the exhaustive special matter relating to Nashville. The reports of the board have called forth the highest commendations of men of science in several of our large cities. Dr. Joseph Holt, sanitary inspector for the First District of New Orleans, a fine scholar and writer, says in a letter to Dr. Lindsley, " Allow me to express my opinion of this work as the most complete and satisfactory of any of its kind I have ever seen.". To the same effect are commendations from Drs. J. G. Richardson and Henry Hartshorne, distinguished pro- fessors of Philadelphia.

2. The board, by its wise and skillful management and by the weight of character of the members of the pro- fession which constitute it, has secured the co-operation of the city government and the Legislature, without which it would have been impossible to carry out practically the reforms proposed. The importance of this is seen in its true light when it is considered that without the appro- priations made from time to time by the City Council nothing could have been done towards the practical sanitation of the city. Take the matter of hospitals, city dispensary, water-works, sewage, disinfection, scavengering, etc., as ex-

amples. Most of these measures, originating with the Board of Health, have been taken up and heartily and practically indorsed by the intelligent and liberal city government, and thus there has been a happy and hearty co-operation between the board and the municipal author- ities.

3. The board inaugurated and has carried out success- fully a system of registration, upon which has been based a most accurate and reliable collection of mortuary statis- tics, showing the real state of the health of the city as correctly as the thermometer indicates the temperature, or the barometer the state of the weather.

4. It is shown by these statistics that the Board of Health has actually reduced the death-rate of the city to a minimum of seventeen and forty-three one-hundredths in every one thousand of the white population, and thirty- three and fifty one-hundredths for the colored population, per year. Assuming the population to be fifty thousand, that is a saving of eight hundred and fifty lives a year out of the list of mortality for the city. Surely that is a good showing for the practical work of the board, and more may yet be expected of it when the perfect system of sanitary appliances which it has in contemplation shall have been carried into complete effect.

5. The agency of the Board of Health in the inaugura- tion and successful establishment of the new system of water supply for the city is too important to be passed over without notice.

In 1866 an agitation of the question of a pure as well as an ample supply of water was commenced by the then exist- ing Board of Health. Their views attracted eager public attention. The fearful ravages of cholera in the autumn of 1866 and in the summer of 1873 added much to their weight and potency with the people. James Wyatt, Esq., superintendent of the water-works, early in.1876 brought forward his very ingenious idea of using the corporation island as a filter. His petition to the City Council asking for an appropriation of fifty dollars for a preliminary experi- ment was likely not to pass. At the meeting of the board, July 9, 1876, Dr. Plunket offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted :

" Resolved, That in the opinion of this board the plan suggested to the City Council by Mr. James Wyatt, super- intendent of the water-works, of converting the island above the city into a filtering apparatus for purifying the water supplied the city is of the greatest importance, and in appearance quite feasible.

" Resolved, That we hope the small appropriation asked for to test the matter practically will be allowed.

" Resolved, That we assure the City Council that a system of purifying the.drinking-water of the city is imperatively demanded on the score of health and decency, and that our people cannot much longer be imposed upon in the quality of the water supply."

The City Council, with that cordiality which ordinarily marks its appreciation of the suggestions of the Board of Ilcalth when fully explained and understood, at once made the appropriation.

On the 30th of September, 1876, a vote was taken at the municipal election on the question of expending one

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T. E. ENLOE, M.D.

T. E. Enloe is of English descent, but liis paternal grandfather was a native of South Carolina, from which State he emigrated to Humphreys Co., Tenn., about the beginning of the present century. Benjamin S. Enloe, Dr. Enloe's father, was born in Humphreys County, Sept. 22, 1815, but when very young moved to West Tennessee, where he still resides.

He was tax-collector of Carroll County several years, was prior to the war of the Rebellion an old-line Whig, and when the subject of secession was agitated he sided with the Union cause, but took no active part in the civil war which ensued. His family consisted of five children,-two daughters and three sons, of whom T. E. Enloe was the eldest. He was born the 12th of March, 1845. His early days were passed on the farm with his father, and in 1861, when President Lincoln's proclamation was issued calling for troops to suppress the Rebellion, he was attending college. Like most of the young men of that period, his martial ardor was aroused, and he abandoned the prosecution of his studies and enlisted in the Federal army as a private. He served three years, and when the army was disbanded he had attained the rank of sergeant-major of brigade.

Returning home, he married, Sept. 7, 1865, Miss Rebecca A. Spellings; exchanged the sword for the plowshare, and continued the avocation of farming during the next five years. His predilection for

medicine led him to commence the study of that pro- fession in 1871. He was an earnest and thorough student, and graduated at the University of Nash- ville in March, 1874, with the highest honors of his class. He had previously determined to make his home in Nashville, and had brought his family to that city in January of the same year. Believing that the principles and practice of homeopathy were in accordance with the laws of nature, he commenced his career as a homeopathic physician in August, 1874. Homoopathy was at that time comparatively in its infancy in this county, and the young practitioner had many prejudices and strong opposition to over- come. In this he has succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations, winning by his care, skill, and attention the confidence and esteem of the people. He is justly regarded as one of the rising physicians of Nashville, and is already in possession of an exten- sive and lucrative practice.

Socially, Dr. Enloe is a pleasant companion, a man of decisive character, firm in his opinions and con- scientious in his actions. He is ever the friend of progress, improvement, and education. Religiously, he is an adherent to the Baptist faith, and a sincere and conscientious Christian.

His home circle is blessed with three children,- Benjamin H., Nannie E., and Mattie F.,-Annie L. having died at the age of five years.

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CITY OF NASIIVILLE.

hundred and ten thousand dollars for a new engine, the vote being two thousand three hundred and eighty in favor, to four hundred and seventy-four against the expenditure. Thus the island filter project was fairly inaugurated.

When it was determined to expend the large amount above mentioned upon the purchase of new machinery, which was designed to supply the city with water for many years to come, the board at once saw the great importance of again arousing the public to the necessity of getting good while they were getting plenty of water. Accord- ingly it invoked the assistance of seven public-spirited citizens, entirely without self-seeking, through whose aid a series of public meetings was held for free conference. These meetings took place during October, November, December, and January, at the health office. Their pro- ceedings were fully reported in the daily papers. Many prominent citizens took part in the discussions. These also became the theme of general conversation at the fireside and in the street.

At one of these meetings Professor Thomas L. Maddin read an elaborate paper. This appeared in the American. The board had four thousand copies printed on a broad- side and circulated throughout the city.

In the American of Jan. 19, 1877, may be found the report giving the matured views of the citizens' committee, signed by J. M. Hamilton, J. M. Safford, Thomas L. Mad- din, John M. Lea, T. A. Atchison, and N. E. Alloway. The remaining member of the committee, K. J. Morris, was absent.

In accordance with the tenor of the recommendations made by the citizens' committee, efforts were made to pro- cure the passage of an act by the General Assembly of Tennessee, then in session, authorizing the issuance of bonds to a limited amount, and under due restrictions, for the erection of a new water-works. Under the guidance of Senator Frank P. Cahill this bill passed the Senate without opposition. In the House it was killed owing to various complications.

The advocates of pure water were not daunted. They still insisted that one hundred and ten thousand dollars should not only get a new engine, but go a great way in meeting the expense of bringing good water from the island filter, and even if that should, contrary to all probability, prove a failure, from the river just above the island, where the water is free from all pollution. The City Council en- tered heartily into these views. Their committees were very slow and cautious in entering into contracts. A special committee was appointed to visit the principal cities of the West for the purpose of examining their water- works machinery. The results of their labors are given in an interesting report published in the American, June 17, 1877.

As the result of all this patient deliberation and action, a new engine is now in use, capable of amply supplying a city several fold larger than Nashville. Also great prog- ress has been made upon the conduit up the river for pure water. For particulars we are under obligations to City Engineer Foster's report, from which we extract the fol- lowing :

"On the 10th day of July, 1877, a contract was en-

tered into between the city of Nashville and Dean Broth- ers, of Indianapolis, Ind., whereby the latter agreed to build and place in position two sets of their double-acting, condensing pumping-engines, which together should be capable of lifting ten million gallons of water to a height of two hundred and seventy-five feet above low-water mark in Cumberland River in twenty-four hours, the ' duty' test to be sixty million foot-pounds for each one hundred pounds of coal consumed. Preparatory to erecting said machinery it became necessary for the city to entirely remodel and re- build the eastern portion of the old engine-house, in order to place the building in proper condition to receive the new machinery. This was a work of much magnitude and great difficulty. Many serious obstacles were met during the progress of the work, and it was only by the most deter- mined perseverance and unflinching determination to suc- ceed that the work was accomplished. . ..

" The engine-house has been completed, and we now have in position and ready for service three pumping-engines,-to wit, two double engines, built by Dean Brothers, capable of running separately or together, and the old machinery which has served the city for twenty-five years, and is still capable of work in case of necessity.

" In addition to the work at the engine-house there has been erected near the old reservoir a new wrought-iron stand-pipe, inclosed by a brick tower, the top of which is two hundred and seventy-six feet above low-water mark in the river. Connecting the new stand-pipe with the pump- ing machinery and with the reservoir, there has been laid a new rising main pipe, three feet in diameter, provided with the necessary check-valves, and also in the reservoir with suitable valves, overflow-pipes. and reducers, connect- ing with the main pipe leading to the city. The work at and near the engine-house and reservoir may be regarded as finished. .

" The filtering gallery at the island has been constructed and placed in its proper position substantially as originally contemplated. An excavation was made at the position selected for the gallery, near the centre of the island, until the bottom of the excavation reached the level of the water in the river. The filtering gallery, one hundred and thirty- two feet long, thirteen feet wide, and six feet high, with the top and bottom open, was then erected in the bottom of the excavation by S. E. Jones & Son, the contractors for the same. The material of which it was composed was entirely cast and wrought iron. The gallery having been erected, the gravel and sand were excavated from the interior, and thus by undermining its sides it was gradually lowered to its intended position, the top of the gallery being only slightly above low-water mark when in position. The pro- cess was an interesting one, requiring great care and watch- fulness, and while in progress the work was visited by large numbers of our citizens as well as strangers. The top of the gallery was then floored over with railroad iron, a man- hole pipe was erected from its centre to the level of the top of the island, after which the gravel was replaced and the gallery covered to a depth of twenty feet with clean river gravel. A cast-iron pipe, three feet in diameter, was laid from the gallery to the edge of the island, forming a part of the conduit intended to connect with the pumping-

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engines, and the work at the island was completed. The character of the water with which the gallery was instantly filled upon reaching its position realized the most sanguine expectations, being of the most limpid purity, and even then, midsummer, almost as cool and palatable as the best spring water.

" The only work remaining to be done to enable us to realize the full benefit of this work, so successfully accom- plished, and with such satisfactory results, is to lay the pipe which shall connect the work at the island with a receiving- well to be constructed near the engine-house, from which the water will be taken through suction-pipes by the new pumping machinery, and forced through the city mains to consumers. Upon the completion of this work Nashville will be able to boast a water supply equal, if not superior, to any in the United States."

6. The Board of Health of Nashville has been instru- mental in solving one of the grandest practical problems in sanitary science. It has been well termed the " Nashville Experiment," for until it was demonstrated by the Nash- ville Board of Health it was a problem unknown to the test of experimental science, so far as the history of the country shows. We refer here simply to the fact that under certain well-organized sanitary conditions yellow fever need not become epidemic, as was demonstrated in Nashville during the prevalence of that pestilence in 1878. So strong was the faith of the Board of Health in this position that, in that terrible autumn when thousands were dying and thousands were fleeing from the plague-stricken cities, the board refused to establish quarantine, but wel- comed the refugees to the bosom of the city, and pledged its faith and appliances to take care of all who should come. The result was a glorious triumph of science and philan- thropy.

Dr. J. D. Plunket, in retiring from the presidency and as a member of the board, gracefully epitomizes its work, etc., for the five years ending June, 1879, as follows :

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 77

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013