Fulton County, Ohio - Chapter 11: The Medical Profession, 1905

DURING the early days in Fulton county the settlers suffered considerably from illness. Especially was this true of the year 1838, which is remembered throughout the entire Lake region and the Ohio valley as "the terrible sickly season and for many years thereafter the people suffered more or less in the summer and autumn of every year. The settlers of the county, and particularly those that made their homes in the rich bottoms of the various water-courses, were terribly afflicted with fevers and racked with chills.

The fever was so continuous throughout Ohio in those days, and so frightful were its effects, that it is remarkable that the settlers were heroic enough to remain in the new country. They stayed partly through grim determination, partly through the natural indisposition to move backward, partly through love of the beautiful country, and largely through hope that is said to spring eternal, doubtless with accuracy, for it was necessary for it to spring eternally in the breasts of the pioneers, to cheer them in their toil and suffering.

Rich and productive as the lands were, there was a terrible drawback to their attraction in the shape of chills and fevers. So prevalent was this disease in some localities that not a cabin or a family escaped for a single year; and it sometimes happened that there would not be a single well member of the family to furnish drink to the others. It is told that in such cases buckets would be filled in the morning by those most able and placed in some accessable place so that when the shakes came on each could help himself or herself. Had there been any seemingly possible way of getting back to the old settlements from which these adventurers had come, most, if not all, would have left the rich Maumee bottoms with their shakes and fevers ; but as it was, there were no railroads, or even wagon roads, on which they could convey their disheartened skeletons back to their old homesteads with their fine springs and health-restoring associations. At the time of the year when a tedious land or water trip could be made there were enough in each family sick to prevent any preparatory arrangements for such a return ; while in winter there were more obstacles in the way than the sickness of summer. Thus held not only by the charms of the scenery and the productiveness of the soil, but

These fevers are described at some length by Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, in his great work on the "Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America/' published in 1850. They were called by various names, autumnal, bilious, intermittent, remittent, congestive, miasmatic, malarial, marsh, malignant, chill fever, ague, fever'n'ague, dumb ague - and Dr. Drake himself preferred to call them autumnal fevers. He was disposed to ascribe their origin to what he called a "vegeto-animalcular cause," meaning that the people were infected by organisms that were bred in decaying vegetation, and he pointed out that the disease could not be due to some organism that had a regular period of incubation, because people were not taken with the fevers until some time after the date of supposed infection. This, he stated, not in this language, which is m$re in the line of modem expression, but to the same effect, demonstrating a remarkable insight into the operations of nature. It is believed now that the malarial infection, whatever its original source, is spread by mosquitoes, but this the doctors and sufferers did not suspect, and if they had, it would have done them little good, so numerous were the insect pests, and so expensive would have been any adequate attempt to suppress them. At the time when people were exterminating bears, panthers, and vast forests, there was no time to make war on such small and ubiquitous things as mosquitoes.

In combatting the fever and the chills the doctors depended on Peruvian bark, quinine and calomel in heroic doses. Generally the unfortunate victim was first bled, then large doses of calomel were given, and the patient was cautioned to abstain from any acid food or he might lose his teeth, and the calomel was followed by quinine. Dr. Drake reported a case in Southern practice where a patient was given calomel for malarial fever in increasing doses until he took several ounces a day, and in a short time an entire pound of the drug was put in him. The fate of the unfortunate creature is not mentioned. Another patient was given six hundredgrains of compound of aloes, rhubarb and calomel in equal quantities for six days consecutively. There were other remedies. Dr. Joshua Martin, of Xenia, knew of a case where the chills were permanently cured in a small boy by standing him on his head at the access of the fit. "In many cases," said Drake, "the recurrence has been arrested by means which acted entirely on the imagination and feelings. Of this kind are very loathsome potions, which the patients have swallowed with disgust, and different charms or incantations, which rouse powerful emotions that change the innervation and destroy the habit of recurrence." There were some very remarkable cases of recurrence of the disease in various forms. One man was subject to monthly attacks of vertigo and loss of consciousness. When medicine had checked this, the

The chills and fever, while not so immediately fatal in ordinary years as yellow fever, from which Ohio has fortunately been spared, was worse in its effects. If a man recovered from yellow fever, he was none the worse for it, sometimes better; but the victim of fever and chills often suffered all the rest of his life with neuralgia, liver or spleen disease, dyspepsia or diarrhoea. At times, however, the malarial fever assumed a malignant form and it was certain death unless the doctor was near at hand, and happened to be able to check the paroxysms.

It was this disease, common in every part of Ohio, that the pioneer doctors had to contend with. They battled nobly, some of them falling victims to their antagonist, and it cannot be doubted that they performed a great work in alleviating the sufferings of humanity, and encouraging the pioneers in the work of overcoming the evils of a new country. In time, with drainage and extensive cultivation of the soil, the dangerous conditions passed away, and Fulton county is now as healthy as any of those older regions to which the settlers longed to return in the days when they were shaking with ague.

In the summer of 1838, the dreadful epidemic broke out among the laborers on the Maumee canal and reached all the isolated settlers in the woods, ten or twelve miles away. During this siege of sickness there were not well persons enough to care for those who were ill, and eight persons died in York township that summer. The first physician in that township was Erastus Lathrop, who settled near Delta and died very soon after the village was located. He was a member of the Baptist church and sometimes preached for that society. The medical practitioners of the township have centered in the village of Delta, from which point they practice over a large area of the surrounding country. . Prominent among them for several years have been William Ramsey, S. P. Bishop, John Odell, John A. Wilkins and O; P. Fletcher.

William Bailey was the first physician in Metamora. He settled near the German church, west some two miles from the town. A physician named Pomeroy used to practice medicine in the village at a very early day. He was a very old man at the time, and, after a few years of practice, died, and was buried there. Prominent physicians of that village at a later day have been Dr. S. M'. Clark, Dr. Foster, Dr. Tompkins and Dr. Markham.

Dr. Joshtia Youngs was the first and only physician in Royalton township for many years. At one time his practice was extensive. He settled upon section 26. He died in 1873, having previously retired from practice. Later, Ezra B. Mann and H. H. Brown have been prominent as medical practitioners at Lyons. The former was a leading man in public affairs and represented Fulton county in the State legislature. H. H. Brown was bom at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1863, and was educated in a literary school at Clinton, Maine, and at the University of Michigan. He took a three years' course in the department of medicine and surgery in the latter institution, entering in the fall of 1883, and graduating, July 1, 1886. He located at Lyons soon after completing his studies, and after a few years there removed to Chicago, where he now resides, practicing his profession. Phillips -Corners, in the same township, has had one physician in the person of Dr. Cunningham.

The first physician in Gorham township was Dr. John Kendall, who settled a few rods north of Fayette, in about 1839 or 1840, but he left and went to Franklin township about two years later. He was born in New York State, J\tne 30, 1793; received his medical education in New York; came to Fulton county in November, 1839,- and practiced in all thirty-six years; died January 1, 1873, in Melbern, Williams county. The next physician in Gorham was Dr. Joseph O. Allen, who located within the present limits of Fayette in 1851. About this time one Dr. Davis settled at Cottrell's Corners and practiced there for two or three years and then left. This is all of the M. D.'s who settled in Gorham at an early date, before Fayette started its journey for village life, and there are none now practicing outside of Fayette. Dr. J. T. Van Buskirk was an early physician of the village, but he died many years ago, and Dr. Turrell and Dr. Amos Kendall, both of whom have died or left for other parts, formerly practiced there. A later corps of physicians have been Estelle H. Rorick, H. F. Van Buskirk, C. B. Herrick, Edson Emerick, all able, energetic, and well qualified ip their profession. Dr. Rorick is at present superintendent of the Imbecile Asylum at Columbus, and is mentioned at some length in the biographical department of this work. H. F. Van Buskirk was born in Fayette, Ohio, July 25, 1861, and is a son of the late Dr. J. T. Van Buskirk, of the same place. He began the study of medicine in the fall of 1878 and continued under the direction of Drs. McLean and Bachman, of Stanton, Michigan, until September, 1879, when he commenced a six fnonths' course of lectures at the Detroit College of Medicine. In the spring of 1880, he went to Philadelphia, where he began attending the Jefferson Medical College, where he remained until graduating, April 1, 1882. Soon after completing his studies he located in his former home, Fayette, where he remained in the practice of his profession for several years and then moved to Columbus, Ohio.

L. K. Carpenter was the first resident physician in German township. He was of the old Thomson ian school, and was of some importance to the early settlers. The next in order was Dr. Blaker; the third was William Winterstein, who ran for clerk of the court and was defeated, and then soon after left the township ; the next were Drs. Schnetzler and Murbach. At Gachlingen, Switzerland, on December 15, 1838, Dr. Andrew J. Murbach was born, and in that country his life, up to the a^e of sixteen, was passed. In the spring of 1855 his parents, with their children, came to this country and settled in Lucas county. At the age of eighteen years Andrew came to board in the family of Dr. Marcus H. Schnetzler, who was then a practicing physician at Burlington, in this county, and with whom he read medicine, his course of study covering a period of some years. During the later years of his study young Murbach became sufficiently well informed and his instructor permitted him to practice in the locality, and, with the means thus acquired, he determined to take a medical course at some thorough institution. To this end he entered the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, where he attended lectures during the terms of 1862-3 and 1863-4, and was regularly graduated in the spring of the year last named. Having been graduated from Starling, and received that highly cherished prize, a diploma, more commonly known as "sheepskin," Dr. Murbach located for practice at Archbold, in the fall of the year 1864. There he resided, attending to a large practice, until his death, a year or two ago.

The first physician in Franklin township was Ira Smith, who came in 1840. He practiced some three years and left. In 1841 or 1842, Dr. John Kendall came from Gorham township, and bought and settled on section 35, and was for many years the only physician of general practice in the township. He left the township about i860, and settled at Melbern, some five miles west of Bryan, Williams county, and died soon after. Dr. Kendall was one of the associate judges in the early days of the county of Fulton. A son of Dr. John Kendall, Amos Kendall, in 1846, settled on Bean Creek, near Chatfield's saw-mill, and commenced the practice of medicine. He, however, stayed but a few years and then moved back to Gorham, where in later years he died. In i860 came Dr. Schmidt, who practiced medicine until 1865, when he left and settled in Edgerton, Williams county, where he died. Lastly was Dr. Wilson, from Stryker, who in 1867 built a log house and office on lands owned by Joseph Ely. His fame soon spread to such an extent as 'to bring him patients from nearly every State and territory of the Union. He soon had to build a hotel for the accommodation of his patients, and a bus line was established from Archbold on the Lake Shore railroad to his office. In 187^ he moved to Archbold, and there soon after died. He was a wonderful man, a mystery to all, yet his success was not greater in healing diseases than other physicians; his power was in diagnosing disease, in which capacity he seemed to be unusually expert.

In 1843, Dr. William Holland settled in Pike township. He came from New Hampshire, a physician with age and experience, and soon gained a prominent position in the county. He was born at Oakham, Massachusetts, in the year 1766; came to Fulton county in 1842 and purchased a tract of land in Pike township, returning soon to Massachusetts. His daughter, Louisa Holland, married Alfred A. Shute, September 11, 1843, and soon after decided to come to Fulton county. With Dr. Holland and family, they arrived in Pike township about the first of October, 1843, an(* the whole family soon became closely identified with the then few inhabitants of the township. Dr. Holland was educated in private schools, then common in New England. After reaching the age of twenty-one he commenced the study of Latin under the instruction of Rev. M. Bascom, to prepare himself for the study of medicine. He read medicine with the most prominent members of the profession of the day, and united with the Massachusetts State Medical Association. At the age of twenty-six he commenced the practice. From 1792 to the year of his removal from Massachusetts, 1843, he practiced his profession. After arriving in Fulton county, at the age of ninety years, he practiced some, even when he had to be carried to and from his house and vehicle. It can be said with truth that no other township in Fulton county, save Pike, has laid to rest a man born ten years before the Revolution, except Clinton. George Mikesell, Sr., was born December 15, 1766, and came to Clinton township in September, 1837, and died there October 9, 1840. Robert A. Moore was the next physician in Pike township, and a very eccentric man he was in all his ways. The next was Dr. James S. Richards, called the "Indian doctor," who came from Pennsylvania. And lastly, Samuel B. Finney, whose practice has been world-wide in late years, and who from poverty and obscurity has risen to wealth and fame, a mystery to all who visit him, and a severe thorn to the medical fraternity surrounding. He is now located and in practice in Delta.

Dover township, from its first settlement in 1836, to 1845, was a land of "fever and ague to the very edge." It has been no exaggeration of the historian to say, that for a few years after 1838, in the summer and fall, the largest half of the population were languishing on beds of ague and fever, many a housewife being compelled to keep house and do the work for a family between the passing away of the "sweating stage" and the next "ague" attack. In this interval a large amount of work was done by them, and liad to be, because help was scarce in such times as these. This picture is but a fair sample of conditions then, which had to be endured until the winter frosts brought relief. Quinine was to them the staff of life, and often meant more than bread to the languishing individual. Dr. Blaker was the first resident physician in Dover, followed in succession by Drs. William Hyde, McCann, V. Gurley, S. T. Worden, B. M. Delano, Henry Herriman and Welcome C. Robinson, each of whom engaged in general practice before Ottokee and Spring Hill had an existence as villages. These early physicians have long since passed away and knowledge of their careers largely disappeared with them. Henry Herriman. was born in Livingston county, New York, January 18, 1811, and settled in Fulton county, in 1844. He farmed and practiced medicine in Dover township, and also filled the office of justice of the peace. He enlisted in the Union army in Company A, Sixty-seventh regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the medical department, and was honorably discharged in 1865. After Spring Hill started, the first physician was Dr. William Hyde, who educated for the profession Noah W. Jewell, later a prominent physician in Wauseon. Dr. Jewell succeeded Dr. Hyde, and next in order was Dr. Robert C. Ely, followed by Drs. Buchanan, Leach, Webb, Estelle H. Rorick and George P. Campbell.

Noah W. Jewell, who is spoken of above, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, January 21, 1826; moved with his family to then Lucas county, Ohio, in the year 1842, in the vicinity of Spring Hill. At the age of twenty-one he commenced to study medicine with Dr. William Hyde, who had recently moved into the neighborhood, and remained with him as a student for two years. During the fall of 1848, owing to the amount of sickness and lack of physicians, he treated quite a number of families without the aid of his preceptor, allowing him the fee. In the spring of 1849 commenced to practice medicine for himself. In 1850 he concluded to attend medical lectures. Accordingly, in the month of October he mounted his horse and rode into Wayne county, the place of his birth, intending to sell his horse there, and with the proceeds attend medical lectures during the winter. Failing to sell as expected, he left his horse with a friend and started for Cleveland, Ohio, on foot, where he arrived in due time, matriculated at the college, bought a textbook on anatomy and received a ticket of general admission to all the lectures, good for six weeks. At the end of this time his money was all gone and he was compelled to return home. Thus armed with a little knowledge of anatomy and what he had seen in the clinics of the college, he went forth again to battle with disease, feeling at least that he was as competent as any of his competitors. In January, 1855, he married and moved to Toledo, Ohio, and practiced medicine in that city during the summer and fall. In January, 1856, he moved to Wauseon, then beginning to thrive on the Air Line railroad, and within the bounds of his old field of practice. In the fall of 1859 he removed to Valparaiso, Indiana, opened an office in that city and practiced until the spring of 1861, when in response to the earnest solicitations of many of his old patrons he moved back to Wauseon, where he resided the remainder of his life. During the war he was commissioned surgeon for Fulton county to examine applicants for exemption from military duty, and served during the continuance of the war. While in Valparaiso, he learned the business of dentistry as taught in that early day, and when he returned to Wauseon, he practiced jointly medicine, surgery and dentistry for many years. In the fall of 1864 he concluded to attend lectures again and obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and to that end he attended Bellevue Hospital Medical College during the season of 1864 and 1865. He learned after a time that he could not graduate at that institution, however well qualified he might be, in consequence of their rules requiring two full courses of lectures, and his course at Cleveland in 1850 being only a partial course, it rendered him ineligible as a candidate for graduation. At the close of the session he returned home, and not wishing to make another break in practice he concluded to avail himself of the opportunity of attending the spring session of the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery for the year 1865, the only college in the west at that time holding a spring session. He repaired at once to Cincinnati, entered the college, and at the close of the term received his diploma, bearing date of June 19, 1865. After his graduation he attended medical lectures at Chicago, .in 1873, and at Philadelphia and Baltimore, in the year 1881.

George P. Campbell was born March 19, 1847, at Carmichaeltown, Green county, Pennsylvania, and moved to Ohio in 1855. He read medicine with Dr. J. H. Todd, of Wooster, Ohio, and graduated at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York city, in March, 1870. He located at Ridgeville, Henry county, Ohio, soon after graduating and practiced there until May, 1872, when he moved to Tedrow, Fulton county, where he practiced his profession nearly twenty years. He then removed to Wauseon and attended to a large and lucrative practice until his death, which occurred a few years since.

Mention of other Fulton county physicians is made in the biographical department of this work, and some are also given a place in chapters upon affairs with which they were prominently identified.

An association of the physicians of the county has nominally been in existence for thirty-seven years. It was organized on February 15, 1868, and prospered and grew in membership and interest for several years, becoming auxiliary to the State Medical Society. Then the interest in the local society seemed to decline and the meetings were poorly attended until for long intervals there were no meetings held. Efforts to revive the organization met with poor success until recently ; but now meetings are being held with good attendance, and the organization gives promise of being a permanent one, contributing to the promotion of social fellowship, scientific advancement and the high standing of the profession in Fulton county.