USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 36
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 36
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 36
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 36
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Among the living representatives of the medical profession undoubtedly the man whose name would come at once to the minds of all in his section of our field is Dr. G. B. Kuykendall of Pomeroy. We have had occasion frequently in these pages to refer to this foremost of the physicians of his section of the state. Prominent both by reason of his medical ability and his peculiarly genial and attractive personality, Dr. Kuykendall has also been one of the leading historical students, and one of the especially gifted writers in this section of our field. In this chapter we give a contribution by this well-known and well-loved physician of Garfield County :
REMINISCENCES OF MEDICAL PRACTICE IN GARFIELD COUNTY, WASHINGTON, IN PIONEER TIMES
Forty years as a measure of the earth's geological changes, or of the history of the world, are as but a moment-as the lightning's flash or the fall of a meteor. The same lapse of time in the life of a physician, during the early settlement of the Inland Empire, seems long when viewed in retrospection. A sketch of those forty years would be a vitagraph of the most active period of his life and also the panorama of the building of an empire.
Four decades ago, the larger part of all this country was a wilderness-a typical western frontier.
In those days, when the physician started out in the country to visit his pa- tients, he rode over a region covered with tall grass, swept into wavy undulations by the western winds. As far as the eye could see there were but few human habitations ; and seldom a fence to mar the landscape or obstruct the way.
The doctor's mode of travel then, on medical trips, was usually on the "hurri- cane deck of a cayuse horse," and his armamentarium was carried in the old-time saddle or pill bags. Often the jolting and jostling of the bottles therein caused the effluvium of ether, valerian and other odoriferous medicaments to exude and make the air redolent with their perfume. We had to carry our medicines with us, and a pretty good supply of them, too; for we never knew what we should find or how many sick we might meet before our return.
In the pioneer days of this country, the "settlers" had small houses and but
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lew conveniences as we now know them. Mostly they lived in domiciles of one room, and there were few indeed that had more When sickness came it always found them unprepared
Dust, thes and mipure water were the curse of the sick, and made it m possible to give them proper sanitary environments. Dust in those days was much worse than now, as roads were then in the making by the easiest and quickest route They passed up and down the bunchgrass hills and across the sage plains, the soft, ashy soil being ground into dust of prodigious depth by "single track" summer travel. Freight wagons, mcoming settlers and caravan trains kept the roads so dusty that the traveler was greatly inconvenienced
Homesteaders at first procured water from the little gulches near their homes or from shallow wells of seepage water. In either case, it was nearly always un- pregnated more or less with alkali and loaded with organic matter The result was that every year, after the country had a considerable population, typhoid (then called mountain fever) appeared, and every summer and fall there were numerous cases. l'eople, then, had not been educated to the necessity of proper care of the body and knew scarcely anything of disease germs, antiseptics or sanitation. Bath rooms, hot and cold water in the home, existed only in memories of the past of dreams of the future.
Many times when I was called to a country home to see a patient, to dress a wound or reduce and dress a fracture, I frequently went out to a hole in the ground dignified by the name of well, to wash the dust from my face and hands. We got along almost "any old way" those days, and did not seem to mind so very much the inconveniences either.
In those days we did not have telephone lines running everywhere over the country and to nearly every home, as now. When a member of a pioneer family suddenly became sick, or when someone had been "bucked" from a horse and got a leg or arm broken, or the baby had a collection of wind crosswise in its stomach and was howling "loud enough to raise the rafters," then there was a sudden demand for someone to go, from three to twenty-five miles, for the doctor. They could not step to a phone and call him up and ask advice, or request him to start at once. The program was to rout out the hired man or one of the boys, or send to a neighbor, and have him saddle a horse and start to town for the physician.
It is remarkable how much worse green plums and cucumbers affect the in- ternal apparatus of a "kid" in bad weather, and what a predilection colic has for attacking the "in'ards" of a baby on dark, stormy nights. It always seemed to me that the children of the early settlers passed by the "moonshiny" nights and selected the very worst possible weather for their birthdays. This seems to be one of the inscrutable arrangements of providence, and bears indisputable testi- mony to the early age at which human perversity begins.
In those days the time required to get word to the doctor and secure his at- tendance was so great that the patient sometimes died or recovered before the physician could possibly reach him. During all this time the patient and friends were kept in an agony of uncertainty and suspense.
In retrospection, some of my long. hard night drives through darkness, freez- ing coll, snowdrifts, rain, slush or mud, are still like memories of a horrible nightmare.
There have been several epidemies that swept over the country since the be-
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ginning of its settlement. The first was smallpox. It is a remarkable fact that many physicians diagnosed the disease as chickenpox, until it began to slay many of its victims. There was at that time quite a controversy among the physicians and a part of the people in regard to the nature of the disease.
In the spring of 1888, epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis appeared in Gar- field County and the surrounding country. It came on so suddenly and the symptoms were so violent, and the results in many cases were so rapidly fatal, that it created consternation among the people. The physicians over the country generally had not previously met the disease nor had any experience with it, and were puzzled both as to diagnosis and treatment. The writer had, during the epidemic, an experience that was enough for a lifetime. The disease prevailed more or less for about two years. In Garfield County there were a large number of cases on the upper and lower Deadman Creek, Meadow Gulch. Mayview, Ping, along the Snake River and in Pomeroy and Pataha. It is probable that Gar- field County, in proportion to its population, had more cases than any county in the state.
The attacks of the malady were of all shades of severity and the symptoms of the greatest diversity. It attacked, for the most part, young persons from the age of three to twenty years, but there were numerous cases older and younger. In some instances the person was taken instantly, while apparently in ordinary health, with agonizing pains in the head and spine, with or without vomiting, and in a few minutes he became wildly delirious, with convulsions, muscular con- tractions, rigidity of the neck, head drawn far back, and was soon unconscious ; and in some cases, died within a few hours. In other cases, the patient lingered on for many weeks or even months, halting between life and death, with ex- cruciating agony, only at last to die, worn out and reduced to a skeleton. Others slowly emerged from their desperate condition to regain complete health, while others were left partially paralyzed, with distorted and shrivelled limbs or im- paired mental powers.
I witnessed many harrowing scenes among my meningitis cases, and when the epidemic was past, I fervently thanked God and wished I might never again have to pass through a similar experience.
Following up the meningitis scourge, there came along soon afterwards a notable epidemic of influenza or la grippe. The symptoms it produced were very characteristic of and came near to answering the description of epidemic "Rus- sian influenza," graphically pictured in old medical works. Whole communities were prostrated in a few hours. It seemed to spread through the medium of the atmosphere, and was also very contagious, passing from person to person. Many were stricken and overpowered almost or quite as suddenly as the meningitis cases, while some exhibited meningeal tendencies that made the diagnosis doubtful at first.
I remember of going to Ilia to see a patient with the disease, and before get- ting back home I had been called to prescribe for seventeen persons; and a few days later I took the disease myself.
The effects of this epidemic were manifest for years, there being left in its wake a multitude of cases of enlarged and suppurating cervical glands, otitis media (suppuration of the middle ear), weakened lungs, bronchitis, and a num- ber of cases of tuberculosis.
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Before the country was fenced up, when the roads were few and settlements sparse, the doctor's trips were occasionally very lonely. When going out into remote parts after nightfall, traveling an unfamiliar road and uncertain as to where it led, without a house, fence or sign of human habitation in sight, I have been startled by the weird, doleful howlings of the coyote or the melancholy hoot- ings of the prairie owl. At such times there came over me an undefined feeling of loneliness, not real fear, but perhaps it was that instinctive dread of dark- ness and danger at night that has come down to us from savage and superstitious ancestors of past ages. Be that as it may, the sight of a candle or lamp gleaming across the prairie, from some settler's window, had a most welcome and cheering effect. Even the barking of a dog or the noise of domestic fowls, or any sound indicating the proximity of human beings tended to enliven the gloom and make home seem nearer.
Thirty or forty years ago we never dreamed that we should ever drive over the country in an automobile. We considered ourselves pretty "well fixed" when we had a good top buggy and a nimble team with which we could make eight or nine miles an hour. In the fine weather of spring and early summer, if there happened to be no need of special haste, it was often a real pleasure to drive out through the country. When the air was redolent with the perfume of flowers and growing vegetation, or sweet with the perfume of new mown hay, the blue sky above, the distant pine-covered mountains, the rolling, grass-covered hills and prairies, all formed a combination well calculated to exhilarate and give delight.
But night visits in the winter time, during cold, stormy weather, were alto- gether different, when, with darkness there was snow and mud, or strong wind and hard freezing, and the physician had to plod his way slowly along, sitting chilled through and through, feet almost frozen, hands and fingers so benumbed they could hardly clasp the lines-no play of the imagination could make it seem a pleasure trip. It was far worse, however, when there were added to these con- ditions the feelings and emotions caused by the consciousness that off in a little pioneer cabin on the prairie, or in some gulch, or up in the mountains, there was a patient that was lying at the point of death, with wild delirium or low muttering and stupid mental wandering, or some woman shrieking in agony and praying to God to send her relief from the suffering she was enduring to give life to another, while friends distracted were waiting and wishing the doctor would come. Spurred by these reflections I have often plied the whip and automatically pushed on the lines, to help my horses, my mind running ahead to my destination. As disagree- able as were the outward circumstances, often the state of mental torture and suspense were worse than the physical discomfort.
In those days, the physician had ample time to think while on his long trips in the country, particularly when patients presented no serious symptoms, or when returning home. Often on such occasions, I have looked up at the starlit sky and the myriads of scintillating worlds therein, and thought of the vastness of the universe, and of the aeons of ages since all these blazing worlds were set float- ing in space. Then came the thought of the immensity of the distance to even the nearest fixed star, and of the vast stretches of the illimitable universe beyond ; and of the worlds in the outer confines of space beyond the Milky Way or the Pleiades, whose light took thousands of years to reach the earth. Then would come the thought, "Why all this stupendous, illimitable, incomprehensible aggre-
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gation of worlds?" "Are any of the planets of these glowing orbs inhabited by intelligent beings?" "If not, why do they exist at all?" Thus my thoughts have run on and on, until cold, darkness, discomfort and almost everything else have been forgotten and lost in my contemplations, and time passed almost unper- ceived as I traversed the miles in solitude. At other times my thoughts would run upon the problems of human existence, the connection between mind and matter, the mystery of life and death.
Traveling on a moonlit night along the breaks of Snake River, Tucanon or Alpowa, watching the silvery lights and dark shadow along the escarpments and basaltic walls that border these streams and make such grand and beautiful scenery, I pictured to my mind this country when fresh from the hands of the fire gods, a seething, sizzling mass of molten basalt. Then I thought of the long years of its cooling, the gradual crumbling of the rock and the formation of the soil, the appearance of plant and animal life, and of the tropical and semi-tropical climate that must have existed; and of the wonderful extinct animals that once inhabited our hills and valleys; of the hairy mammoth, the three-toed horse and the other strange beings that roamed through the forests that one time were here.
As I looked far down into the wonderful gorge through which Snake River flows, and contemplated the many centuries it must have taken to cut the great channel, it gave me a more comprehensive conception of how the author of the universe operated in creation.
Back in the days when we drove buggies or rode horseback, we had time on the road to do a lot of thinking, as well as of freezing and scorching, or plodding through snow, mud or dust.
A physician trained in thought is sure to thresh out in his mind while on the road, during the day or night, many knotty problems in the isms, ologies and pathies of medical practice ; and when serious sickness claims his attention, and is pressing for his best endeavors, he will search all the treasure houses of his memory for everything that he has ever read or heard of in relation to similar cases. Often the time was wearisome, roads were long, and waiting for pay for services was long, and all this longness tended to make a shortness of the pocket- book.
When in the midst of weary night vigils, or when nearly worn out and ex- hausted by loss of sleep, or when chilled to the bone by cold and exposure, I have thought that if ever any one was justified in taking a stimulant to "brace up," it is the overworked physician. While I never took any kind of stimulant or nar- cotic, I have felt like making some allowance for the hard driven doctor who occasionally took something to brace him up and deaden his sensibility to cold and fatigue.
One of the worst combinations a doctor had to meet was a deep snow, dense fog and unbroken roads. If added to this there was intense cold, the trip was to be dreaded. One would be about as well off in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, without a compass, as in such a snow and fog. Whether one looked up, down or any other direction, the appearance was all the same-it was one blank, im- penetrable, misty-white. If a man turned around and once missed his bearings, he was lost indeed. There were instances, those days, where persons were caught out in the darkness and wandered around all night on a forty-acre tract, utterly
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bewildered. One who has been lost in one of those foggy snows will never forget his sensations and feelings.
Time has wrought many changes since the days of the early settlement of the country. Places that were reached only with the greatest difficulty and sometimes with peril, we now drive up to on smooth roads of easy grades. Where we could scarcely get to a cabin on horseback, one now drives up with ease in an automobile to a beautiful modern home.
Where it used to take many hours or a whole day to make a visit, the same distance can now be made in an hour or even in minutes. The telephone, good roads, automobiles and new discoveries and advances in medical science, surgery and pharmacy, have revolutionized medical practice.
Riding out today, over on Snake River, out in the Deadman country, up on the Pataha Prairie, up to Peola or the Blue Mountains, over on the Tucanon or toward Lewiston or Dayton, one still sees here and there the reminders of "old times" and "old timers." Here are the relics of old cabins, where the pioneers first had their homes.
Memory goes back to a desperate case of typhoid fever here, or of pneumonia or other disease over there. There come up memory pictures of scenes of anxiety, suffering and suspense and then of recovery, or possibly death.
Over yonder stood the home of an early pioneer. In that house was born a son or daughter that today is leading in business and society; the father and mother are sleeping in one of the cemeteries of the county. A few are still linger- ing, old and feeble, waiting for the final summons. Back in the mountains, where today we go gliding along in automobiles on summer outings, there are still seen the fading sites of the sawmills, pole and shingle mills that were operated there in early days. These remind me of broken legs and arms, of wounds and accidents, and of serious sickness that happened between thirty and forty years ago. The places where the old mills stood are marked by little clearings now overgrown with weeds and brush, with here and there a few slabs, dim in piles of sawdust, and scattering stumps. The old mills are gone and the people, who owned and ran them have died or left the country.
As I write these hasty reminiscences, I wonder if thirty-five or forty years from now will bring as many changes to this country as the same length of time in the past.
What wonderful improvements the science of medicine the past forty years have brought! What additions to our knowledge of the cause of disease, of disease germs and how to combat them, of serums, opsonins, vaccines and of physiological chemistry! What advances have been made in the knowledge of antiseptics and preventative medicine, and what great strides in surgery and the treatment of wounds! What a vast field has been opened up in the study of internal secretions of the ductless glands and their relation to the well-being of the human physical system.
What will be the state of medical science forty or fifty years from now? Will physicians make their country calls in airplanes, soaring over hills and plains high in air? In pioneer days anxious ears strained for the sound of the gallop of the doctor's horse ; later the patter of horses' feet and the rattle of the buggy denoted the approach of medical aid; now the gleam of the motor car lights an- nounce that relief is near. A few years hence, mayhap, anxious ones awaiting
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the doctor will be made aware of his coming by the whir of the airplane motor and anxiously view his approach through powerful binoculars. Even now the most rosy dreams of our trail-making fathers have been far surpassed. That vast expanse of sage and sand that formed a large part of the Columbia River Valley will have become the garden and granary of Northwestern America.
But the beautiful homes, fertile fields, green expanses of alfalfa, the fruit- laden orchards, the cities and towns, schools, churches, factories, mills and marts of industry, will, to those who never saw the country in its original wildness, have little to tell of the toils, struggles, waiting and weariness that were the cost of this marvelous transformation.
PART III PERIOD OF COUNTY DIVISIONS
CHAPTER I
POLITICAL HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY SINCE COUNTY DIVISION
Beginning in 1876 with reduced area, but with rapid growth and with encour- aging outlook in all lines, Walla Walla County entered upon what might be de- scribed as the third stage of her growth, that from county division to statehood in 1889.
It is of interest to note a few statistics of the period of transition. In 1870 the population of the Old County was 5,102. In 1877, the reduced county showed a population, according to the assessor, of 5,056, while Columbia County had, by the assessor's report of the same year, 3,618. By the report of 1875, still the Old County, the assessed valuation was $2,792,065. In 1876, the valuation of the reduced county was $2,296,870. There were reported at the same time 5,281 horses, 239 mules, 11,147 cattle, 13,233 sheep, 4,000 hogs, 1,774 acres of timothy. 700 acres of corn, 2,600 acres of oats, 6,000 acres of barley, 21,000 acres of wheat and 700 acres of fruit trees.
STATEHOOD AND CONSTITUTION
The political subject of greatest general interest was Statehood and a Con- stitutional Convention leading thereto. The project of annexation to Oregon was by no means dead. Senator Mitchell of Oregon continued the efforts made by Senator Kelly. A considerable local interest, supported by the Walla Walla Union, and its able editor, P. B. Johnson, still urged annexation. One favorite idea, which has taken shape from time to time since, was to join Eastern Oregon with Northern Idaho into a new state. In the Congressional session of 1877-8. Delegate Orange Jacobs requested a bill for introducing Washington to statehood with the three counties of Northern Idaho added. But no action was taken by Congress. In spite of that the Territorial Legislature in November, 1877, passed a law providing for an election to be held April 9, 1878, to choose delegates to a convention to meet at Walla Walla on June 11, 1878. Up to that time, as we have seen, repeated attempts to secure a vote for a convention had failed in Walla Walla. The act of the Legislature provided that the convention should consist of fifteen members from Washington, with one, having no vote, from Idaho.
In pursuance of the announcement the election was duly held, though with the scanty vote of 4,223, not half the number of voters in the territory. The convention duly met at Science Hall in Walla Walla, and W. A. George of that city, one of the leading lawyers as well as one of the most unique characters of the Inland Empire, acted as temporary chairman.
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The permanent organization consisted of A S Abernethy of Cowlitz County 11e dent. W B Dach and William Clark as secretaries, and HI D) Cook as After a lengthy session the convention Julhatted a constitu In which was vetel uper at the next general election in November Though a considerable majority wa Secured, exactly two thirds, the total vete of 9.073 tel con derably short of the vote cast for delegate, and it seems to have been generally interpreted in Congress as evidence that the people of the territory did not con ider the tree rije for statehood The whole matter was, therefore idefinitely je toned
Hat came election of 1858 was notable for Walla Walla in several respects I wo citizens of the ets were mind families for the perform of niet. delegate. Thema Il Brents for the republicans and Nathan 'I Cator for the democrats It was the first election in which the republicans won in Walla Walla County Mr Brents had a majority of 140 in the county and 1.301 in th territory. The political tide had turned and from that time to the present the republicans have been, on any ordinary issue, overwhelmingly in the majority In 1850 Mr Brents was agam cheun delegate this time Grains! Then . . Burke the democratic candidate, and by a majority of 1.797 During the first term Mr Brents endeavored to induce Congress to confer statehood upon the territory but unavailingly. Still again in 1842 Mr Brents was honored. and with him also Walla Walla, and in fact the territory honored itself in the re election of one of its most useful and popular citizens, by another term as delegate During the six years of Mr. Brents' incumbency the territory was making tremendous strides. The projection of the Northern Pacific and Oregon Short Line Rail roads, the sale of Doctor Baker's railroad in 1879 to the O. R. & N. R. R., the Villard coup d'etat in 1883, made the decade of the Sun the great building period for the territory and for Walla Walla. It was evident that there was abundant justification for the creation of a new state. Mr. Brents kept the subject alive in Congress up to and through 1885, when his term expired, and he was succeeded by one of the most Brilliant and popular politicians and lawyers ever in the ter- ritory. ( S. Voorhees Mr Voorhees, son of the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash." was, of course, a democrat, and though at that time quite young, exercised a large influence both at home and at the capital He was twice chosen Delegate, in 1884 and 1886. In 1838 the office returned to Walla Walla and to the republican party In that year John B. Allen began his distinguished career at the national capital He had held the position of U'nited States attorney, succeeding Judge Wingard. from 1875 to 1800 In the latter year be removed to Walla Walla, and his career from that time on was a part of the history of his home city and of the territory and state
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