Guernsey County, Ohio - Chapter 14, 1911

Chapter 14

sary as any other man. I cidenl to the pioneer peri( and children are often in the good physician's hands. In health and vigor all persons revolt at the sight of the medicine ease and the surgeon's knife, and sometimes they say many hard things against the medical practitioner, yet when the fevered brow and quickened pulse is felt, when all life looks dark with gloom and doubt scattered in thick clouds before us. it is then that the family doctor, even in the days of "saddle-bags," was a welcome caller in the sick chamber, for he it was who generally understood how to place the sick one in possession of health and strength again. The disciples of Galen have ever been closely allied with the first settlers of a count}-. They have braved the storms of mid-winter and the heat of mid-summer; they have gone on foot and on horseback, crossing angry streams, by the light of day and through the darkness of the night, often against pelting storms, in order to reach the suffering sick in need of their ministrations.

It should be said that with the passing of the last half century, medical science has made a wonderful advance. Methods have been changed and a real revolution wrought - especially in surgery. The great colleges and universities have educated a vast army of competent physicians and surgeons who have progressed to a point where diseases once thought incurable have come to be looked upon as simple in treatment. The per cent, of cases lost now is very small compared to the days when Guernsey county was first settled. Every county owes much to the good, faithful physician, who often goes unpaid for his services, but never refuses to administer to the needs of those in distress, even among the poor and unfortunate who are entirely unable to pay.

Coming down to the early days of Guernsey county, let it be remarked that the pioneer doctor was as capable as others of his day and generation in Ohio. It is to be regretted that no more complete record of the lives of these faithful doctors can be given than is possible to here narrate.

Pioneer Doctors

The following paper was prepared by Dr. Clark A. Moore, of Cambridge, at the time of the city's centennial - or jubilee - celebration in 1906:

"This is our centennial, - our jubilee year, - completing as it does the first century of our city's existence. It has been, in spite of the financial depressions and social disorders, the most noted century of the world's history in the advancement made in medical science. Investigation and discovery, in regard to the nature, causes and prevention of disease, has given the profession such a mastery over the ills that afflict mankind that the average years of human life have been largely increased. The use of disinfectants and anesthetics has made possible and comparatively safe surgical operations that would have been, even fifty years ago, impossible and not to be attempted. Nevertheless, after all of these discoveries and improvements which add so greatly to the happiness and comfort as well as safety of the community, and render the practice of the profession so much more certain and successful, yet these old doctors who practiced when Cambridge was young are worthy of all honor. They contended with difficulties of which those of the present time can have little conception. They spent their days and often their nights in the saddle, traversing roads scarcely passable, through the unbroken wilderness and over bridgeless streams, to minister to the humane wants of mankind whenever and wherever needed, and thus opened up the way to the more certain, successful and easier practice of today. The names of these old doctors would grace the pages of history of Cambridge - indeed such a history would be incomplete without them. They had the respect, love and confidence of their patrons and when the old doctor died the people mourned. .

"Among the earliest of these away back in the twenties, when Cambridge was not much of a town, were three Frenchman. Dr. Francis Donchonchett. La Rive and Bill. In 1824 Robert Thompson gave this notice to the public : 'Dr. R. Thompson gives this notice to the public from Crooked creek, Muskingum county, that he may be found at his residence, one mile east of Proudfit's meeting-house. He will attend to all calls in the line of his profession.' He was one of the first physicians along the old Wheeling road from Beumerstown to Proudfit's meeting-house, near New Concord. His brother, Dr. John B. Thompson, resided in Cambridge and was the defendant in the first malpractice suit in Guernsey county. This action was for failure to reset a broken ankle; it was tried in the courts of this county and then taken to the supreme court of the state, where Doctor Thompson won the case. Another was the eccentric Dr. John Kell. who practiced among the Irish in the early history of Cambridge; he claimed to be a graduate in surgery of t he Royal Society of Dublin.

"Another announcement, in [824, was that of Dr. Thomas Miller, which reads thus: 'Dr. Thomas Miller, M. 1).. offers his services to the citizens of Cambridge and vicinity. Shop in the brick house lately occupied by Mrs. Talbot' [John 1!. Thompson's].

"Dr. [gnatius (V Fan-ill located in Cambridge in [831. Drs. S. P. limit and J. G. F. Holston, father of Doctor Holston, of Zanesville, were located in Cambridge in 1830. Following these came Drs. Milton Green. J. P. Tingle, Vincent Haynes, Daniel Ferbache, and S. B. Clark, whom 1 remember as being my father's family physician when 1 was a child. Later in the history of Cambridge came Drs. Milton Hoge, J. C. Taylor, G. L. Arnold, J. W. McCall, and Dr. Andrew Wall, a man whom I esteemed greatly, having twice been his pupil in the public schools in my youth, ami later in his office as a medical student. His name was a household word in the homes of Guernsey county.

"This brings us down to the present-day physicians. They are all handsome gentlemen and good doctors, and are too well known to the people of Cambridge and vicinity to require special mention. This imperfect resume shows what magnificent progress has been made in the past hundred years. I thank God it has been my lot to live at the close of the nineteenth century. It is the golden age of the world. There has been nothing like it in history. When our labors close we can depart in peace for our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

respectfully offers to the citizens of Cambridge and country a continuance of his professional services. lie may he found after night at the residence of Mr. William McCracken, north of the court house. Office, next door to the former office of Miller & Clark.

"The undersigned respectfully requests those owing him for medical services or otherwise to liquidate either the whole or a part of their indebt- edness, as it is actually necessary that he should have money to pay his own as well as the dehts of several other persons which he has unfortunately become liable for. A few dollars from each person who has received his services, will enable him to meet the demands against him.

"X. B. - The undersigned returns his thanks to his numerous friends fur the liberal patronage he has received since he has resided in Cambridge, and informs them and the public generally that he shall continue to practice the different branches of his profession.

That there is nothing new under the sun is fitly shown by the curiousadvertisements of the early doctors. They widely exploited the efficacy of certain medicines or "healers" for the cure or relief of every imaginable ailment. It was considered that electricity had virtue in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases, as is testified by the following advertisement, appearing in the Guernsey Times for June 29, 1854.

"Doctor Barnes, Electropathic Physician and Surgeon, has taken rooms in the residence of Mrs. Abell. where, for a short time, he proposes to treat persons afflicted with Diseased Eyes, Deafness, Fits, Insanity, Spinal Affections, Paralysis. Rheumatism, Dyspepsia, Liver Complaint. Palpitation of the Heart, Female Diseases, etc., exclusively by electricity. Those affected with any of the above named diseases would do well to call soon at his rooms, and inquire into his mode of treatment."

Of Dr. Andrew Wall, who died in 1898, then the oldest physician in the county, the Times in April of that year said, in speaking of his funeral :

"Dr. Andrew Wall, the veteran physician of Cambridge, whose goings up and down the town and country on errands of healing has been the expected for over forty years, passed into the borderland last Sabbath morning. April 17. [898. He was stricken about three weeks before and seemed aware that his disease was unto death, that the art of healing was powerless to relieve the worn-out body, and that his labors for afflicted humanity were finished. He was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1829. and came to this state with his parents. He was educated at Muskingum College. Ann Arbor University, and the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. He was married to

Miss Bridget Call in [855 and came to Cambridge the same year. Five children were born to them, and all survive with the exception of a son, who died in infancy. The mother of the family died in the summer of [884. The children are Cory L. Wall, the accomplished pharmacist, Miss Lizzie, a teacher in our schools, Mrs. Ross E. Moore and Miss Sallie. In recent years Doctor Wall married Mrs. Jennie Meredith, who survives him. Dr. David Wall, of Indianapolis, and Mrs. Dr. M. Hawes, of Claysville, are the only remaining members of the Doctor's immediate family. During the war Doctor Wall went to the front as surgeon of the Seventy-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served to the end of the war. He was division surgeon of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and chief surgeon for the Columbus & Marietta road. The funeral took place from his late residence on West Eighth street, and was largely attended. The Masonic order, of which he was a member, held impressive services at the grave .Monday afternoon.

"The familiar form of the old family physician, whose presence at the bedside of many of the homes in our city and county brought cheer and hope, has vanished from our midst. Who can estimate the self-sacrifice, the labor and weariness that over four decades of medical practice may mean. The night as well as the day finds him always ready and equipped for the hasty summons to relieve the distressed and afflicted, with no tarrying for favorable weather conditions. All others wait for fair weather and good roads, hut the doctor is generally supposed to wear a coat of mail that is alike impervious to the attacks of weather and disease. A busy life is ended. The city paused to pay tribute in attending the last sad rites, and fellow teachers extended their sympathy to the sorrowing daughter by the dismissal of their schools. The grave is closed over him; he sleeps upon the hillside, but many remembrances of his services will linger in the homes of Cambridge."

Dr. Andrew Wall came to this count}- in 1845. "ben sixteen years of age. He attended the medical department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he laid the foundation for his future medical and surgical skill. He completed his studies under the tutorship of that most excellent Cambridge physician. Dr. Vincent Haynes, and with him first engaged in actual practice. In 1862 he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and then enlisted as assistant surgeon in the Seventy-seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and one year later was promoted to surgeon, which position he held until r866. The next year he formed a partnership in medicine with Dr. William Clark, continuing until [868. With the passing of the years Doctor Wall devoted many years to the practice of his chosen profession and became very skillful. It is believed that Doctor Wall was the most eminent physician who ever practiced medicine and surgery in Guernsey county - so stated by old present-day doctors who knew of his life's work.

Another member of the medical fraternity in this county, but who did not long continue in practice, was Dr. Charles Perry Simons, eldest son of John White and Hester Ann Simons. He was born at Zanesville in 1842. The father was engaged in the iron foundry business, both in Zanesville and Cambridge, until he died in 1871. After his death the large business interests were carried on by his sons. Doctor Simons came with his parents to Cambridge in 1855 and was educated for a physician at the University of Michigan, but had only partly completed his studies when the Civil war broke out. He had also taken a course at the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 1863. In the spring of 1862 he was interrupted by the war cry and became an assistant surgeon. He was able, apt and quick to act. He was said to have been the youngest assistant surgeon in the United States army when he entered the Union ranks. He was later made acting surgeon for the Fourteenth Army Corps. He was with General Sherman on that famous "March to the Sea," and when mustered out was tendered a good position in the regular army at Washington, but declined.

His father's death in 1871 changed his life plans somewhat and he had much to do with conducting the foundry business in company with his elder brothers. His practice thus interfered with, he finally became a specialist as a surgeon and treated eye and ear diseases. He was quite a politician and ran for state senator on the Republican ticket, and was defeated, but cut down the Democratic majority largely. He had congressional ambitions and doubtless would have been the candidate had the district not been changed at that date.

Dr. Samuel Hunt, father of Hon. Samuel Hunt, lived on the lot of recent years occupied by Richardson & Shairer's block, West Wheeling avenue. He sold his place to Dr. Milton Green and moved to Morrow, Butler county, Ohio, in 1843. The interesting account of his removal by flat-boat down the waters of Wills creek, Muskingum river to the mouth of the Little Miami and so on to Morrow, is given elsewhere in this book.

Dr. William K. Bolan, who practiced at Cumberland since 1879. was a graduate of Columbus Medical College. His ancestors were from Virginia, and the son was born in Loudoun county, that state. November 5. 1S57. He began teaching school when sixteen years old, and began to study medicine in his eighteenth year, in Columbus, graduating in 1879, and moving to Cumberland began what proved to be a successful practice of medicine.

Among- the most prominent physicians within Guernsey county was Dr. Noah Hill, of Senecaville. He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1809 and died in Senecaville, Ohio, in 1894. He came of good old Revolutionary stock, of German ancestry, which went back further into France and were among the Huguenots. The Doctor graduated from the Cincinnati Medical College in 1833. lie came to Senecaville and formed a partnership with Doctor Baldwin, who died in 1844. Up to 1862 Doctor Hill practiced alone, but then his son was admitted to practice with his father. The young Hill was named John. Later the father was with Dr. W. Scott until 1887, after which the good Doctor did but little except an office practice. He was a noted politician and his views on the slavery question caused him to leave the Methodist church and join the Wesleyan church. He was first a Whig, then later a Free-soiler and last a Republican. He cast one of the first three Abolition votes in Guernsey county, and assisted many a slave in getting over the "underground railway" north into Canada and to freedom.

Dr. Harry W. Holmes began the practice of medicine in Cumberland in the spring of 1883, being a graduate from Columbus Medical College. He descended from an old English family who settled in Virginia. Harry \Y. was born in Newport, Sauk county, Wisconsin, in 1855. His youth was passed in Cumberland, Ohio. He clerked in his father's store and began the study of medicine in 1877 with Dr. Charles Draper. He graduated from the Baltimore Medical College in 1883. He became a bright Mason and frequently contributed to medical journals. Politically he was a Republican.

Dr. Jonathan A. Kackley has been a leading physician at old Point Pleasant (Pleasant City) since 1882, when he graduated from Columbus Medical College and had attended Michigan University, giving him a double course in medicine. He was born in 1857 in what was Buffalo township, this county, and from his earliest days desired to become a physician and has succeeded well in his chosen role, as physician and surgeon.

Dr. Thomas J. Miller, of Kimbolton, this county, was four years engaged in merchandising there and served as mayor of the village, lie was born in Antrim, this county, in 1849, tne son °f David L. Miller and wife. He followed school teaching for a time after be reached manhood. Taking up the study of medicine in the seventies, he graduated from the Columbus Medical College in 1878, and first located in Kansas, where he practiced until 1886. when he entered the Cincinnati Medical College, taking a full course there, and then went to Topeka, Kansas, but on account of illness returned to this county and practiced in Cambridge for a number of years. He was

Dr. Winfield Scott, who has been so well known as the family physician at the village of Senecaville for many years, was born in 1848 on his father's farm. He graduated from the Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, taking a practical English and scientific course, ending it in 1872, gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then taught school three years and took up medicine by entering the office of Doctor Wall of Cambridge. He spent a year at Ann Arbor. Michigan, and one year at the Cincinnati Medical College, graduating from that school in 1877. He then located at Point Pleasant, this county, going to Senecaville in 1879, where he had for a partner Dr. Noah Hill. Later he practiced alone.

Dr. Charles R. Austin, one of Byesville's practicing physicians, has come to be one of the busiest citizens of the town. As early as 1907 he was a member of the board of education; secretary of the Artificial Stone Company; postmaster of Byesville; an active member of the improvement committee, of the Merchants and Professional Men's Club; a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge, the Elks Club of Cambridge and alive to all the interests of his home town.

By careful research in old files and from the memory of pioneer doctors, the following list has been compiled of the doctors who practiced here in the long ago years. The dates opposite the name indicate that they were in practice, at least at that date :

Earliest Physicians

Perhaps none of the above came before the following: Away back in the twenties, came Dr. Francis Donchonchett, Dr: La Rive and Doctor Bill, all three Frenchmen. These were probably about the pioneer doctors to locate here. Possibly a few may have practiced before the above named, but no one seems now to recall such.

Present-Day Physicians

In common with every county in the state, Guernsey has had her full share of medical societies, associations and academies. The earliest we have any definite knowledge of was in operation in [838. Its president was Dr. II. II. Evans and the secretary was Dr. S. I',. Clark.

"For per l'i inning capital operations, such as amputating the extremities, trepanning, etc., each.. $20.00 "For reducing fractures and dislocations of the

After a number of years this medical society went down and in t88o. or about that year, the Guernsey County Medical Society (number two) was organized by a new set of physicians and was made up of the following physicians: Doctor Boyd, of Kimbolton ; Doctor Cain, of Senecaville: Doctor Clark, of Middletown; Doctor McPherson, of Cambridge: Doctor Henry, of Washington; Doctor Patton, of Washington: Dr. John Hill, of Senecaville; Doctor Romans, of Quaker City; Doctor Gildea, of New Gottenger; Doctor Tingle, of Cambridge.

This continued until about 1883, when a new society was formed, known as the Guernsey County Academy of Medicine, whose constituent members were: Doctors McPherson, Miller, both of Cambridge; Doctor Gildea, of New Gottenger; Doctor Ramsey, of Cambridge; Doctor Cain, of Senecaville; Doctor Scott, of Senecaville; Doctor Boyd, of Kimbolton; Doctor Rosmond, of Birmingham.

In 1904 the present Guernsey County Medical Society was formed. Its present officers are Doctor Frame, of Cambridge, president; Doctor Mitchell, of Cambridge, secretary, and Doctor Headley, of the same city, treasurer. Monthly meetings are kept up and much interest is manifested by the medical fraternity. The present membership will be seen by the subjoined list of physicians who belong to the society : Doctors Patton and Sprague, of Byesville, and these, all from Cambridge : Drs. William Bradford, A. F. Cain, Cornelius A. Frame, Frederick Harrison, Albert Headley, G. W. Hixon, Isaac W. Keenan, Fred W. Lane, W. G. Lane, F. O. Lowry, Frank M. Mitchell, Clark A. Moore, William T. Ramsey, T. H. Bowles, E. E. Vorhies.

Cambridge has the benefits of a first-rate hospital, a private institution where surgical operations, especially, are performed with great skill. When Dr. Isaac W. Keenan located at Quaker City in 1899, he established a hospital at that point, but in 1905 he took a special course in surgery at the Chicago Post-Graduate School and in the autumn of 1906 removed his hospital from Quaker City to Cambridge, locating on the corner of Ninth street and Comber avenue. He gave up ordinary medical practice and devotes his entire time to his private hospital, where he has won a great reputation and has cases from all parts of Ohio and adjoining states. He now has trained nurses and they, in turn, teach the art of nursing to others. He is assisted greatly by his capable wife. The city is fortunate, indeed, in securing such an institution, for in a manufacturing center and railroad place the demand for a near-by hospital is great.