Wabash County, Indiana - Chapter 15: Piiysiclani^ Op the County, 1914

Hard Roads fou the C()['ntry Doctor - Dr. Isaac Pinley - Dr. Thomas 1P\milton - Dr. James Hackleman - Dr. Jamf:s P(jrd - Dr. John IP De Puv - Dr. James L. Dicken - Dr. William G. Armstrong - Dr. Laugiilix O'Neai. - Dr. William R. Winton - Upper AVabash AIedical Society - AVabash County ]\1edical Society - Te.mi'orary and Permanent Officers - Pauper Practice Turned Over - Annual AIedication op Families Disapproved - Rules and Code of Ethics - Society Presidents - Dr. Henry H. GiLLEN - Dr. Andrew J. Smith - The Society in the Early '80s - The Society Now - Oldest ]\Iembers - Dr. T. R. Brady - Dr. Perry G. I\I(jore.

Tilt' I'oiuitry physician of the pioiu'cr tiiues was on a par with the circ'uit rider, both as to liardships and honors. They w^ere hard-working ineinl)ers of the eoniinunity - if they could be said to be confined to any special community - and were seldom allowed to follow the strict lines of their professions. If they did not seek means of livelihood outside the professional fields, both they and their families would l)e hungry a^ often as satisfied. Farming for the struggling clergyman, and i)olitics for the country doctor, were generally the means adopted to make both euTls meet. As nuitter of course, the lawyer adopted politics as his professional liirthright, while with the doctor the latter was considered as a legitimate help to him in times of trouble or financial necessity.

The country doctor had no prospect of settling in some pretty town or thriving city and, with his medical books around him, waiting patiently for cases and treating them calndy, carefully and methodically, as is often the lot of the modern physician. At the impatient thump upon his cabin door, he had to saddle his horse, follow the messenger for miles through the forest, or flounder over muddy marshes and sloughs, trusting to the knowledge within his liead, or his common sense, to do the proper tiling for tiie expectant motlier, or the sinking husband, son or daughter.

But like the preacher, he got very near to the hearts of the people of his little settlement and those sprinkled in the raw country roundabout. Among tiie earliest representatives of the healing fraternity to locate in Waba.sh County were Dr. Isaac Fiidey at AVabash Town and Dr. Thomas Hamilton at La Gro.

Dr. Finley was one of the first to erect a brick residence on the site of the new town laid out by Colonel Ilanna, and was prominent in the movement which secured the county seat at Wabasli. He appears to have been a generally-useful all-around citizen, and was not so well known as Dr. Hamilton, who was in position to secure a large practice among the canal laborers and officials and continued in professional work at La Gro for many years after the canal was completed to Lafayette.

For a period of more than twenty years Dr. Thonuis Hamilton was one of the leading physicians of the Wabash Valley. He was an Irishman educated in Scotland, and commenced practice before coming to the United States. After living for a short time in Pennsylvania, in 1834 he moved to La (Jro in the midst of the waterway construction. There lie resided until his death in the spring of 1856. Doctor Hamilton was a successful practitioner and a respected citizen, although somewhat eccentrjc. AVith his wife, he was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church at La Gro in I84i). His son, Col. John Hamilton, commanded Shei'iiian's batteries at Beaufort Court House in the Civil war, and was afterward an officer in the regular army.

Dr. James Hackleman was an elder brother of Hon. Elijah Hackleman, the widely known historian and public man, and in the fall of 1885, then in liis thirty-seventh year, settled in the Town of Wal)ash. His American ancestors were natives of IMaryland and the Carolinas, but the family in which James was one of ten children, early settled in Franklin County, Indiana. He studied medicine in Fayette County, and was one of tlie first practitioners in Wabash Town, residing tliere in active professional work from 1835 to 1854. Doctor Ilacklenian spent the last decade of his life at Knightstown, and while making preparations to resume liis residence and practice at Waljash was called away by death, April 27, 18G4. The doctor held a number of public offices, such as justice of the peace and judge of the Probate Court (1838-45), and he was very po{)ular and universally respected. Another brother. Dr. Jacol) T. llacklcman, was a well kno\vn Iowa jn-actionei-, having early located on the Indian agency near tlie present site of Ottumwa.

Dr. James Ford, of AVabash Town, was one of the ablest surgeons and i)liysicians who ever practiced in the county. He was of an old Southern family, ami was a son of James Ford. Although an owner of slaves, the father was an abolitionist and left Virginia in 17!)T, moving to Harrison County, Ohio, a)id l)eeoming a farmei- on a large scale. There the James Ford, who became a physician, was l)orn. The doctor received liis lirst schooling at ^Maiisfield, whither tlie family had moved, and in 1828 eiitei'cd Kciiyon College. He was then si.\teen years of age. He studied Latin under Salmon P. Chase, and in 1831, by the advice of Dr. Bushnell, turned his attention to medicine. In the winter of 1833-34 he was teaching school near Connersville, Fayette County, when Dr. IMason, a prominent physician and ambitious politician, took a great interest in him, and the two worked together to such mutual advantage that Dr. ]\Iason got into the State Legislature and Dr. Ford assumed a large practice when, in 1835, he secui'ed a license as a regular member of the profession. At that time there was no graduate in medicine at Connersville.

^In the winter of 1836-37 Dr. Foril attended a full eoui'.se of lectures in the Ohio j\Iedical College at Cincinnati, and although he continued in regular and successful practice, under authority of his license, until the winter of 1853-54, he was not a regular ^1. I), until that time, when he completed his course at Rush jMedical College, Chicago. He had been a resident of '\Va])ash since 1841.

Dr. Ford followed Capt. C. S. Parrish as the second man in the county to present himself for enlistment in 1861. He was sworn into the Union service and appointed regimental surgeon in the Eighth Indiana Regiment. As a participant of the three-months' service, he was at the battle of Rich Mountain, and after the engagement was placed in cliarge of the hospital as the ranking officer of the other regimental surgeons. Dr. Ford joined tlie three years' service, and was present at the battle of Pea Ridg(> in the eainpai<<n of the Army of the Soutliwest. Suhse(iiietitly lie was appoiiitetl brij^ade surgeon and medical direetor in the fiild, but in dune, 1863, was obliged to lesign on ai:e(junt of ill health. lie returned to his private praetice at Wabasli, and in 1S71 was a])pointe(l exanuning surgeon for ])ensions. Dui'ing the earlier period of the profession in Wabash County no member stood higher in operative surgery ami general seientifie attainments than Dr. James l^'oi'd. While in tlie army (leneral Curtis reeognized the value of his tliseoveries pertaining to the sanitary intluenee of loeal air currents, and to his judgment was eJitrusted the imjjortant duty of selecting the location of the camps.

Dr. John TT. De Tuy, who located at La Gro in IS-iG, was a PennsN'lvaiiian l)y bii'th and the son of a farmer. He was of h'l'eneh ancestry, being of tlie .same stock as Chaunce^y Depew, the noted New York lawyer and politician. When the future physician was a young child the family moved from Pennsylvania to Stark County, Oliio, and at the age of twenty-one he commenced his medical studies under \)i'. lleni-y Everts, of Cleveland, lie was graduated from the Jefferson .Medical CoUegi', of Philadel])hia, in 1M45, and in August of the following year located in tile growing canal town of La Gro. At the time of his coming, fevers, ague and bilious diseases were very jjrevalent in Central and Northern Indiana, and contiiuied to flourish for many years thereafter. So Doctor De Puy's pi'actiee took a wide latitude; and the same may 1)e said of all good physicians of that period and locality. It was not unusual for a popular country doctor to travel through a tei'ritoiy covering twenty miles from his residence, and remain in the saddle for da^'s and nights at a stretch.

Doctor De Puy early saw that the Town of Wabash was destined to embrace a better class of citizens than the distinctive canal settlement at La Gro, and. in 1864 changed his residence to the former place. He purchased a farm near the city, invested extensively in real estate, bred fine live stock and became widely known in several fields beyond his professional activities.

Another wi(h'ly known practitioner was Dr. James L. Dicken, of Souu'rset, Wabash and La Fontaine. He was born in Fayette County, and, after becoming fairly well educated and teaching school, commenced to study iiRnlieiiiL' iukKt Or. William Lomax, of Marion. Afterward he attended a cour.se of lectures in the Indiana State ^ledical College, cointiieneed pi-aetiee at Somerset, Waba.sh County, in l84iJ, anil linally graduated from the Ohio .Medical College in March, 1851. Doctor Dicken moved from Somerset in 1851), took a po.st-graduate course at the Oliio ?iledieal College, located in Wabash City in 1860 and in the following yeai- joined the I'liion service- as surg('on of the Forty-seventh Indiana Kegimeiit. He served continuously from October, iSi'A, to November, 1865, ^vithout li'ave of absence. lie was with his I'egiment in every engagi-ment in wliich it participated, and for two years acted as ranking I'egimeiital surgeon in the Department of the Gulf. Doctor Dicken is claimed to have served a longer continuous term during the Civil war than any other surgeon in the State of Indiana, his nearest comi)etitor being Doctor Lomax, of .Marion, his pi'eceptor, whose period of service was just four days shorter tlian that of Doctor Dicken. Certainly, a I'emarkable and tine record.

At the close of the war Doctor Dicken resumed private practice at Wabash, and there continued until February, 1881, at which time he moved to La Fontaine.

Soon after his graduation from the Ohio Medical College, Dr. AVilliam G. Armstrong also located in La Fontaine. There he engaged in an active and successiful practice for more than thirty years - from November, 1«50, until his death, January 20, 1881. He was a native Iloosier, born in Kusli County, in 1822.

One of the early and able practitioners was also Dr. Laughlin O'Neal, of La Fontaine and Somerset. In tiie winter of 1849-50 he attended medical lectures at tlie Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Oliio, and soon afterward couniu'uced ])ractice at La Fontaine. In 1865 he was conunissioned surgeon of tlie One Hundred and Fifty-third Indiana Volunteer Infanti-y, and thus served until the close of the war. He then resumed practice at Somerset, and in 1876 graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery.

The foregoing are perhaps the most ijroniiuent of Wabash County physicians wliose practice dat('S from as early as 1850. An attempt had already hi-eii made to organize tlie fraternity into a society; but its sco])e was broader tliau Wabash County. A numbi'r of the xihysicians of Wabash and adjoining counties issued a call for a meeting at the Americ-a IIou.se, Wabash, for the i)ur])ose of mutual organization. At liiat chite there wei'e resident in this county the following active practitioners: .lames Ford, James Hackleman, Jonathan R. Cox, E. P. Peters anel Adam 1). Sweet, Wabash; Thomas Hamilton and James F. Beckner, La dro; C. V. N. Lent, Liberty :\lills; William E. Willis, North Manchester; Doctor Eicholtz, Laketon.

The I'esult of the meeting was the organization of the Upper Wabash Medical Society, of wliich Dr. G. N. Fitch, of Logansport, was president, witli a full corps of officers and Board of Cen.sors. The following yeai- a session of the society was lield at Logansport, followed by one at Lafayette, but soon afterward the organization flickered out.

The movement revived at a meeting held in the office of Calvin Cowgill, Mercantile Building, Town of Wabash, at 11 o'clock A. M., July 5, 185-1. As stated by Dr. E. B. Thomas, the secretary: "The physicians of Wabash County and adjoining counties met for the purpose of more fully advancing medical knowledge, the elevation of the profes- .sional character, the protection of members, the extension of the bounds of medical science, and the promotion of all measures adajtted to the relief of the sutVering, and to improve the health and protect the lives of the connuunity, do now associate themselves together under the name of the Wabash County Medical Society.

'AVhereupon the following physicians ai)peared: From Marion, (irant County, William Lomax ; from Jonesboro, (irant County, Samuel S. Home; from Somerset. Wabash County, James L. Dieken ; from La (ii-o, Wabasli ('ouidy, James A. S. Carpenter; fi'om Wabash, Wabash Count V, Jame.s F. Beckner, James h'oril and Eiias B. Thomas."

Doctors Beckner and J. D. St. John, physicians to tlie Wahash County As\]um, pi-oposi-d to give their eoiiti-act to the society for the purpose of procuring a medical library. A eonnnittee from the socit'ty was therefore appointeil for the said panjx-r jjractiee.

As this feature of the meeting is interesting, the text of the ivsolu- '- tions is rejjrodueed: "Resolved, That the membei-.s of this society '" ajipoint the president, secretary anil treasurer, a committee to contract with the co\int\' commissioners for the pauper practice of the l^oor Farm, and the pauper j)i-actice in the various town.ships of the county by the year, and that this society divide the labor among its members that it shall not be burdensome to anyone. Adopted.

"Resolved, That any member of the socii'ty .shall have the privilege of In-inging any case before the society at any of its meetings for examination and trt'atment from time to time as such case umy demand, and in all such cases such examinations and prescriptions shall be free of charge to tile patient. It shall be the duty of such members to carry out said prescriptions as agreed upon, and report the same to the il^'xt meeting thereafter. Adopted.

In 1849, three years after the organization of the Upper Wabash :\Iedical Society, tlie Indiana State :\Ie(licaI Society was founded. From the time of the organization of the State Society, the county society was an auxiliary body subject to its rules and regulations.

The Wabasli County Medical Society was afterward incorporated, its mend)erslui) being conlined to jjliysicians and surj,'e(jns of that county subject to tile following con.stitutioiud provisions: "Any graduate in medicine of any respectable school or licentiate of any regularly organized medical board, who is in good moral and pi'ofessional standing, shall, upon signing the constitution and paying $1 to the treasui'ei-, be entitled to full meiid)ership in the society.

"In tiu' absence of credentials mentioned in the first section of thi.s article, the candidate for membership, by presenting a cei-tilicate that he has read medicine three years under the instruction of some I'egular physician of good standing, and also a certificate of qualification to I)ractice medicine from the Hoard of Censoi-s of this society - shall, upon signing the constitution and paying ^|^;} to the treasurer, l)e admitted to full membership in the societ\-.''

As a means of i)reserving its professiomil integrity and maintaining the high moi'al standing to which the prot\'ssion aspires, tlie following regulation i.s ])rescribed : "It shall have power to censure or exjxd any mend)er con\icted of violating its provisions, or who may l)e guilty of any act which may be considered derogatory to the hoiior of the medical i)rofessi()n, and enforce the observance, by its members, of the code of ethics a(h)ptcd l)y tiie society." The code of etiiics to which reference is imide is that prescribed by the American 2\Iedical Association.

The mendx'rs of the society subscribe the following pledge of fidelity for the good of the profession: "In order to more effcctuall}' secure the objects of this society, we who hereunto subscribe our names do agree with and to each other tluit we will faithfulh' observe all the requirements of the constitution, code of etlucs, fee bill and all uthei- regulation.s adopted for the govennnent of the society; and that we will in no case whatever knowingly consult with anyone who is not a graduate of some respectable medical college, licentiate of some regularly organized medical board, or member of this society, or in any other way countenance or encourage quackery in any of its forms or l)retensions, for the faithful performance of which we do hereby individually pledge our truth, honor and professional standing."

Doctor Ford served the society as president during the first two year.s of its existence, and aiiu)iig his well known successors have been Samuel St. John aiul S. G. Thompson.

Among those who located in Wabash County at an early period in the iiistory of tlie Wabash County ]\Iedical Society were Dr. Henry H. Gillen and Dr. Andrew J. Sniitli. Doctor (iillen was a Kentuckian of Scotcli-ii-ish i)arentage. While a young man he pui\sued Ins medical studies b(jth ])rivately and at the Ohio Kclectic .Aledical (College at Cincinnati. He commenced practice in Franklin County, Indiana, and continued to devote the utmost of his time and strength to it for more than twenty years. His long, irregular hours and the wearing hardships of travel and fatigue in the new, raw country of his choice so undermined hi.s lu-altli that lie was oljliged to temporarily abandon practice. His experiments in orange culture in Florida, which covered some of the later years of his life, were not successful, and the worry incident to failure of crops and insecure investments is thought to have further weakened his constitution and hastened his death, which occurred in January, 18!):). His second born and oldest son, Riciuird II., is the wellknown ])hysician of Wabash.

Di-. Andrew J. Smith, wlio, for more than forty years, brought piiysical and spiritual comfort to so nmny i)eople in Wabash, was an Ohio man. He pui'sued collegiate courses at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, and Miami University, Oxford, having as a classmate for a time Benjamin Harrison, afterward President of the United States. In 1852 he moved to Somerset, AVabash County, and began the study of medicine witli Dr. James L. Dicken. He also took a medical course at Rush :\Iedical College, Chicago, in 1856-57, but did not graduate. In the latter year he was licensed to practice and located at "Wabash for the purpose. In 18G3 Governor Morton appointed him senior assistant surgeon of the Second Indiana Cavalry. His service in that capacity extended to the close of the war, and he was much of tlie time in charge of the hospital at Cleveland, Tennessee. Upon his return to general practice he became a.ssociated with Doctors Gillen and Bennett until 1870.

Not ])eing satisfied with his acquirements and being in accord with the etVoi'ts of the profession to place the ])ractice npon a scientific and systematic basis, Doctor Smith deternnned. to finish a regular course at some standard institution of medical learning. In June, 1871, he graduated from the medical department of the Northwestern University, Chicago, and in 1874 formed a professional partnership W'itli Dr. II. F.

Blount wliicli continued uiiintt'rruptecl]y for sixteen years. During that period both were h-eturers 0]i tiie staff of tlie Fort Wayne Medical College. Doctor Sniitli was a .strong man and a physician of good cheer; therefore the best kind of an inspiration to the coniiuunity. lie was also a public man, both in spirit and action. His death on December 22, 1900, was the withdrawal of a fine, constant and uplifting force.

Doctor Smith's wife, whom he married in 1880, was formerly Miss Louise Jessup, ~S\. D., a graduate of the Woiium's College of tlie Northwestern University, at Chicago. She is .still engaged in a su])stantial practice, confined to her sex and the ailments of children, and is one of the bt'st known women of Waliash.

The oldest members of the society, in point of connection with it, are Dr. K. F. Blount, who was admitted in 1865, and Drs. Perry G. JMoore and T. K. Brady, both of whom joined in 1873. '

Doctor Brady is a native of AVabash County. In his twentieth year he enlisted for the Union service and was severely wounded at ^Lissionary Ridge. Although he was obliged to retire from active service for a time, he returned to the front as soon as iiis condition would permit, and was with Sherman's army in its nuirch and campaigns to Atlanta and through the Carolinas. He wa.s mustered out at Indianapolis in 1865, entered the Presbyterian Academy at Logansport, then studied medicine, and completetl a two years' course at Rush Medical College, Chicago, from wliicli he graduated in 1869 with the degree of M. D. Doctor Brady at once located in Lincolnville, this county, for practice, and at once acquired standing in the community as a pliysiciaii and a citizen.

Doctor .Moore, who has tlie distinction of being both an able physician and an advisory editor of this work, was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, ^Farch 26, 1845. His father, Tliomas i\I., was also a physician; practiceil for several years in Cleveland and .Maytield, Ohio, dying in the latter place in Februai-y, 1846. Dr. .Moore's mother, formerly i\Iartha Mai'tin, was a native; of l']ngland, l)ut wlien a young girl came with her i)arents to Cleveland, where slie was I'cared and umrried. She died in tlie May following her husband's decease (1846), and the son Perry (i., was therefore left an orphan when little more than a 3'ear old. Through tlie kindness of Mr. and .Mrs. Amos Philbriek the boy found a home and was educated.

After completing the common branches, lie spent several years in the study of medicine with Dr. Ira Lyman, of Chester, Ohio, and graduated from the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in the class of 1865-()6. In November of the latter year Doctor Moore located in Rich Valley and secured a large practice, besides building up an extensive li'ade ill drugs aiul jj^nicral mfiH'haiulisc lii Srptciuher, 1887, he tnovi-il to tlir City of Waliash, when- lie lias since i-esided as a leader in his jtroTcssion and a <^cnial, well-iiifonncd geiithMiiaii and a useful citizen. Doctor Moore married Meli.s.sa P>eroth, of l\ich Valley, February 1, 1870, and four of their children are livin<i: Lura "SL, born .March 1, 1874; married to Van 0. Cook of .Manslield, Ohio (her present residence) April 17. 1902. They have one daughter, Vangelene. Perry H., born July 4, 1881, married Eva Crabill, October 10, l'J07, and now living in Wabasli. Lalan V>., born ^larch 31, 1883; married Leroy Dennis, October 16, 1007; residence Wabash. They have one daughter Lalan Louise, age live years. Merrill U., born ."^larch 20, 1890; residence Wabash.