Delaware County, Indiana - Chapter 10: Physicians of Delaware County, 1924

Chapter 10: Physicians of Delaware County

All honor to the pioneer physician! Many are the stories that have been related in the chronicles of pioneer days of the patient selfsacrificing services of these earnest servants of humanity, but the whole of that story never can be told. The printed page never carried all that was written on the hearts of the people thus served in the hours of their deep distress, and it is perhaps just as well. A labor of love rarely is properly requited, rarely is narrated in vaunting print. 'Love seeketh not her own." And much of the service of the pioneer physician was wholly a labor of love, performed without thought or hope of recompense. Hard night rides in killing weather, plodding on the patient pony over indescribably bad roads to the distant bedside of a stricken neighbor, followed perhaps by hours of sleepless vigil at that bedside, doing with inadequate medical supplies all that heart and mind could dictate to relieve suffering wherever found, fully aware oftimes that no money recompense would be forthcoming - all this went into the daily task of the pioneer physi- - cian, and in thus rendering his account to humanity he laid up a store of honor that still is being paid him.

A transcript of the long roster of names carried in the official record of registered physicians of Delaware county on file in the office of the county clerk would be meaningless for the purposes of such a review as this. In the nature of things, in a town such as Muncie, there have been many persons who have registered for practice here whose presence in the community has been only incidental, men who soon sought other fields and thus left no impress upon the community. Unhappily, also, it perhaps is true that in some instances those thus registering were actuated more by a mercenary impulse than by any true humanitarian motive. The names of many such are preserved in the old newspaper files where the specious advertising they carried reveals their purpose. Such names would be no more valuable for a review of this sort than would a list of the patent medicines whose proprietors formerly occupied practically half the advertising space of the newspapers. A review of some of those old time patent medicine advertisements and of the advertisements of the peripatetic "quacks" who from time to time occupied large space in the newspapers would provide an illuminating commentary on the credulity of the human race.

Local Medical Societies

What now is known as the Delaware-Blackford Medical Society is an organization dating back nearly sixty years or from a meeting of physicians held in the old Walling hall in Muncie on April 18, 1865, when action was taken preliminary to the organization of a medical society in the county, Dr. S. V. Jump acting as chairman of that meeting and N. W. Black as secretary. Two weeks later this temporary organization was made permanent and officers were elected as follows: President, S. V. Jump; vice president, W. J. Morgan; secretary, N. W. Black; treasurer, William Craig; censors, Robert Winton, William Willard and J. H. Powers. Other physicians subscribing to this first organization were Doctors Armitage, Hoover, Lewellen, Skiff, Wheeler, J. A. Williams and W. H. Williams. At the next meeting in the following June four other physicians were taken into membership, L. J. Bonnels, John C. Helm, S. E. Mitchell and H. C. Winans, and in the following July three others, W. J. Andrews, G. W. H. Kemper and Henry Kirby were admitted to membership. It was thus that the local medical society got under way, and with certain changes of name and various reorganizations to conform to changing regulations of the state medical society has remained a continuing organization, now being known as the Delaware-Blackford Medical Society, its membership being made up of physicians practicing in these two counties, its present roster of membership being as follows: G. F. Ames, G. R. Andrews, J. M. Atkinson, C. A. Ball, L. L. Ball, P. C. Barnard, D. A. Bethea, J. N. Bell, N. D. Berry, R. H. Beeson, C. L. Bock, H. S. Bowles, E. V. Borum, K. T. Brown, H. L. Buckles, G. W. Bucklin, A. A. Cecil, E. H. Clauser, R. E. Cole, C. W. Corey, H. A. Cowing, C. H. Dando, E. C. Davis, R. E. Dewees, O. M. Deardorf, J. F,. Downing, F. W. Dunn, H. Drum, H. D. Fair, E. S. Green, E. S. Fisher, V. Gordon, J. R. Harrold, Ella A. Hollis, W. A. Hollis, F. G. Jackson, C. A. Jump, S. G. Jump, A. T. Kemper, G. W. H. Kemper, R. B. Kirklin, J. C. Kirkpatrick, C. J. Kirshman, C. A. Leatherman, J. L. LaDuron, D. M. Lee, E. B. Mann, T. J. Mansfield, C. C. Mills,

Charles E. Miller, C. M. Mix, J. H. MceMorries, W. C. Moore, W. J. Molloy, C. B. Mulvey B. B. Morrow, A. E. Newland, T. R. Owens, Lewis Payton, C. E. Phipps, U. G. Poland, U. G. Powers, J. C. Quick, J. M. Quick, C. G. Rea, C. A. Sellers, C. F. Sexauer, E. D. Shadday, H. R. Spickerman, O. E. Spurgeon, W. A. Spurgeon, W. C. Stephens, C. J. Stover, J. A. Taylor, E. F. Tindal, J. M. Vanderburg, I. N. Trent, W. W. Wadsworth, L. E. Wherry, J. H. Williams and C. H. Wright. The present (1923) officers of this society are L. E. Werry, of Hartford City, president; S. G. Jump, of Muncie, vice president; and C.-L. Bock, of Muncie, secretary.

For some years, beginning in the summer of 1877, this society operated under the name of the Delaware District Medical Society, its membership including physicians not only in this county but in the neighboring counties of Grant, Blackford, Randolph, Henry and Madison. Supplemental to the county medical society the "Muncie Academy of Medicine" was organized in 1875, with the following charter members subject to its articles of association: D. R. Armitage, D. L. Trowbridge, W. J. Boyden, G. D. Leech, H. C. Winans, O. F. Anderson, T. J. Bowles, G. W. H. Kemper, R. Winton and M. James. The articles of association of this organization, filed for record on May 6, 1876, had as their object "to elevate the tone of professional honor, to promote the acquaintance of medical knowledge and to encourage professional fellowship." The Muncie Academy of Medicine is a continuing organization maintained by the physicians of Delaware county and such of the members of the medical profession in neighboring counties as desire to participate in its deliberations.

Memories Of Pioneer Physicians

Though there naturally had come to be considerable settlement hereabout prior to the time of Delaware county's organization in 1827 and Muncietown had come to be a recognized trading point, there seems to have been no settled physician in the county until in 1829, when Dr. Dickinson Burt located at Muncietown, the settlers probably relying upon the services of the physicians from the settlements to the east and south. Official evidence of Doctor Burt's presence here in this latter year is found in his appointment in the summer of 1829 as postmaster of Muncietown in succession to William VanMatre, first postmaster of the village. In Dr. G. W. H. Kemper's admirable review of the medical history of Delaware county (1907) the Doctor says: "Dr. Dickinson Burt (1829) was the first physician to locate in Mun- cietown or Delaware county. I have no information concerning his individual history or the exact date of location. Dr. Burt was the second postmaster of Muncietown and filled that office from August 29, 1829, to May 6, 1835. It is supposed that he left soon after the expiration of the term of his office. Nothing further is known of his history." Another reminiscence has it that Doctor Burt's home, in which he also had his professional office and the vostoffice, was located on the west side of Mulberry street near Gilbert, which then was regarded as almost "out of town."

According to the Kemper review, it was in this same year (1829) that Dr. Levi Minshall, a Virginian, came over here from Dayton and established himself in practice at Muncietown. He died here in the spring of 1836, at the age of thirty-two years. It was in 1833 that Dr. Ezra Stiles Trask moved here from Marion. He died in 1839. - The Kemper review has it that "he acquired early in life a fondness for alcoholic beverages and his death can be traced to his pronounced habits of dissipation." Dr. John Allen Clark, a native of Ireland, who located at Muncietown about this same time, is referred to by Doctor Kemper in much the same fashion, his review having it that Clark "is said to have had a fair practice until he became very intemperate, and while he maintained an office on the north side of the square his headquarters were at Gilbert's distillery." He died in 1847.

The first permanent physician in the town was Dr. Samuel P. Anthony, who located here in 1831 and who continued in practice until his death in 1876. It was in 1836 that Dr. William C. Willard came to Muncietown, and a year or two later came Dr. George W. Garst. In the spring of 1839 Dr. John C. Helm located at Yorktown, from which place ten years later he moved to Muncie. Dr. Daniel H. Andrews came in 1842. All these were physicians of force and char-. acter and left their impress upon the community in which they spent the remainder of their lives, as is set out elsewhere. Dr. Samuel V. Jump, who is referred to above as having been the first president of the Delaware County Medical Society, was a native of Delaware, who came up here from Centerville, in Wayne county, in 1848 and located at New Burlington. For years he was postmaster at New Burlington and he also represented this district in the Legislature one term. Of the long list of physicians of the older day mentioned in this Kemper review, Dr. G. W. H. Kemper and Dr. T. J. Bowles are the only survivors of those who have been practicing here since "the good old days." By a singular coincidence of fact both of these venerable physicians were born in Rush county, this state. Doctor Kemper located at Muncie in 1865 and Doctor Bowles came in 1874, moving over from Windsor, in the neighboring county of Randolph. [Doctor Bowles died on April 19, 1924, aged eighty-seven years.]

The Kemper review, here referred to, carries a long list of physicians who have been engaged in practice in this county, a roster that thus happily has been preserved for reference purposes. Among the names there held in pleasant remembrance, in addition to those above referred to, are those of Jeremiah Dynes, Stephen Hathaway, Robert Winton, George W. Godwin, James H. Powers, Harvey Mitchell, Samuel EK. Mitchell, Benjamin F. Hittle, George W. Slack, William Craig, Clark Skiff, John Horne, James McCulloch, Henry C. Winans and many others who have left good memories in this community.

When Dr. John C. Helm died at Muncie in April, 1872, the Times paid high eulogy to his memory, saying that "as a physician he had few superiors," and that "yet after forty-two years of unceasing hard labor for the good of others, he died a poor man. Like his noble companion, Doctor Willard, who has just preceded him, he has given his life for the good of others - has died a sacrifice to his profession, and the whole community owe him a monument more durable than brass - the monument of. grateful remembrance." The Delaware County Medical Society adopted resolutions prepared by its committee, Doctors Winans, Black, Winton, Kemper and James, extolling his merits as a physician and declaring that these qualities "entitled him to the appellation of 'the best consulting physician in Delaware county'."

When Dr. James McCulloch died (in May, 1877) the Muncie News printed an appropriate obituary notice under a black border ( turned rule). Doctor McCulloch came to Muncie from Lancaster, Ohio, in the spring of 1856 and was referred to as "a quiet, studious, upright Christian gentleman ; a citizen of irreproachable character and a physician of unquestioned ability." His only son, George F. McCulloch, then was deputy county clerk, a position he had occupied for several years.

It is a matter of something more than mere traditional knowledge that in "the good old days" rivalries between professional men were at least more pointedly expressed than "professional courtesy" today would permit. An interesting instance of this pointed expression is found in the Muncie Democrat for June 14, 1845, where one of the pioneer physicians of this county paid his compliments to one of his professional brethren. Both the men here concerned were men of large influence in the community in their generation and did their work as it came to hand, but they were of diametrically opposite temperaments and thus came to be uncompromising rivals in their field here. The very personal article in the Democrat here referred to is as follows: .

"Sir - It is well known to the citizens of this town that a continual hostility has ever existed between yourself and the physicians of this place, including myself.

"So far as they are concerned, if they choose to tolerate your abuse, it matters not with me particularly, but, in my own behalf, I take the occasion to say that if the course you have been pursuing toward me for some time past is any longer persisted in, I shall be under the necessity of exposing you in full. Yours, &c.,

It is interesting to recall that Doctor Anthony was a Virginian and Doctor Willard, a brother of Charles F. Willard, the pioneer merchant, was born in New Hampshire. It is said the men were as unlike as two men well could be. Anthony was a money-maker and "pusher." Willard, of whom it has been written that he "was eminently the scholar of the early physicians of Delaware county," was exactly the opposite. He had an extensive practice but was unable to profit by it and thus was unable to acquire much in the way of world's goods. He located in Muncietown in 1836 and here found Anthony, who had come over here from Cedarville, Ohio, five years before. The instant rivalry that then began never was brought to a friendly adjustment. Apparently this bitterness of personal feeling must have found culmination in Doctor Willard's proud heart when he vented himself in the above open letter to his rival. A venerable resident of Muncie, who knew both these men, when asked what the probable effect of this letter was on Doctor Anthony smiled and said, "Why, he would just laugh at it. He wouldn't care. He was a money maker; personal opinion never affected him." Doctor Anthony lived to the advanced age of eighty-four years, his death occurring in 1876. Doctor Willard died in the fall of 1869, he then being fifty-nine years of age.

thing more of "a place i' the story" than is indicated by the above record of their personal feelings toward each other. For months preceding his death in November, 1869, Doctor Willard had been an invalid confined to his house. The news of his death therefore could not have been unexpected and yet, as the Muncie Times of November 18, 1869, said in that connection, "it fell upon the startled ears almost like the dread summons to one's own household." An account of the good doctor's funeral had it that "the universal sorrow of the community was attested by the vast concourse of people who attended the performance of the last sad offices of love for him whose life had been a living example of good." The Times said: "So long had Doctor Willard been identified with our people, their growth and prosperity ; been with them in their hours of sickness and suffering, that his name and fame were household treasures. No truer man ever lived in our midst. Kind and generous to a fault, skillful as a physician and sound of judgment, patient and untiring in the sickroom, he was beloved by all who knew him, and will be missed and mourned by many a family besides the one left most desolate." It was further written of Doctor Willard that "he was identified with this place during its progress from a village in the woods to a city of second magnitude, and in all the improvements which took place during that time he extended a generous, helping hand. His position in the early days was far from pleasant. His patients were scattered over a large scope of undeveloped country, and to reach them he was compelled to travel over roads that were simply terrible. Yet he never refused to attend a call, however great the distance or however bad the route intervening. He practiced medicine not as a trade to be pursued solely for the purpose of amassing wealth, but as a noble profession."

Doctor Anthony died quite suddenly, after an illness of less than twenty-four hours, and, as was written of him following his death, _ "up to the day of his death was engaged in active business life." A contemporary account said that "in his death Delaware county lost one of its most substantial citizens and one of its best financiers. He seemed to possess a natural talent for making money, while he was never penurious or unwilling to contribute his share to public or private charities. In all his dealings with the world he was strictly conscientious and honorable and never took an unfair advantage. He was prompt in the fulfillment of his own obligations and expected others to be so when they were his debtors. In many cases he found it necessary to be exacting, hence he was called by some 'a hard man,' but those who understood him knew that in his nature there was more of kindness than of any other trait, and his life was replete with kind deeds performed away from the public gaze and known only to the recipients." Good words from their contemporaries for both these pioneer physicians, though in different strains. Was it, perhaps, lack of "understanding" that kept them apart? But there is a good deal of human interest in the last clause of that open letter to Doctor Anthony written by Doctor Willard nearly eighty years ago.