Randolph County, Missouri - Chapter 18: Medical Profession, 1920

DR. WILLIAM PORT, FIRST DOCTOR - EARLY CONDITIONS - EARLY DOCTORS - PHYSICIANS PROM 1865 TO 1890 - DOCTOR TERRILL - DOCTOR VASSE - EARLY DOCTORS AT HIGBEE, RENICK, CLIFTON HILL, CAIRO AND OTHER LOCALITIES - EARLY DOCTORS AT MOBERLY - PRESENT PHY'SICIANS OF THE COUNTY.

The first doctor to locate within the boundaries of the present county of Randolph was Dr. Wm. Fort, who settled on lands a few miles west of Huntsville in the year 1820.

At that early period there was not a town nor village in Randolph County. Huntsville was laid out and made the county seat of Randolph County in 1831. The early villages, if they can be called such, in the beginning were a store, a blacksmith shop, probably a wagon shop and a shoemaker and little else. About a half a dozen families in all, these villages such as Roanoke, on the line between Howard and Randolph, Mt. Airry, Middle Grove, .just over the line in Monroe County and Milton in the southeast part of the county were such.

The pioneer doctor as a rule settled on farming lands and became a land owner and combined the vocations of farmer and doctor. Other pioneer doctors of Randolph County, as near as we can now ascertain, were Dr. Waller Head, who settled on lands adjoining Huntsville, Dr. Joseph Rutherford, who settled in the same vicinity and probably a little later Dr. J. J. Watts, who located in Huntsville, also Dr. Stephen Richmond, who located in the northwest part of the county.

Among the very early doctors were Dr. C. F. Burckhartt, who located in the northern part of the county near where the town of Jacksonville now stands. In the neighborhood of Milton, the first was probably Dr.

James A. Burton, who purchased a farm almost adjoining the village of Milton and nearly the same time Dr. Robert R. Hall, who likewise became a land owner in the same vicinity, where he died a number of years ago at an advanced age. Dr. Burton about the beginning of the Civil War moved to Lafayette County and there died.

In Prairie township in the southeast part of the county the pioneer doctors were Dr. Wm. B. McLean, probably the first to come and Dr. Presley T. Oliver.

At Roanoke on the county line, we find no record of the pioneer doctors. Dr. William Harvey and Doctor Bagby were practicing physicians, however, past middle life when the Civil War closed and no doubt had been practicing for a number of years prior to that time. Dr. William Walker was probably one of the pioneer doctors of the southern part of tY.e county. He settled in what is now Moniteau township and afterward removed to Howard County where he died some years ago.

Between 1865 and 1890 the physicians in active practice at Huntsville and that section of the county were Dr. John C. Oliver, Dr. Alex. L. Bibb, Dr. R. E. Kiernan, Dr. Wm. H. Taylor, Dr. Warren M. Dameron and Dr. John T. Fort. All of the above named doctors were superior men, skilful physicians and excellent citizens. All are now dead.

In the neighborhood of Darksville in the northwest part of the county was Dr. Robert A. Terrill, who was married to a sister of Judge Wm. A. Hall. Dr. Terrill in the early seventies was well advanced in years and had been practicing in that vicinity for a long period of time. He was a good physician and an excellent man, who attended the rich and poor alike. If Doctor Terrill could have collected all the fees earned by him in treating the poor he would have died a richer man by several thousand dollars. And what we say in this respect of Dr. Terrill is true with reference to all the pioneer doctors of the county.

We also find Dr. W. W. Vasse located on a farm near Thomas Hill. He was likev/ise a man of fine character and a capable physician. During the same period of time Dr. Paul Yates was located at Jacksonville and practiced his profession successfully in that vicinity until he removed to the southern part of the state some years later.

In or near Higbee during this same period Dr. Wm. P. Dysart resided on a farm about two miles northwest of Higbee. Dr. Lascellus Dysart and Dr. L. J. Miller residing in Higbee, practiced in that vicinity during these same years.

At Renick we find Dr. Thomas Hamilton and Dr. Thomas Christian, and somewhat later Dr. S. M. Forrest who served this part of the county as medical practitioners.

In the neighborhood of Clifton Hill, Dr. J. J. Watts from Huntsville and probably other Huntsville physicians met the needs of that community until the North Missouri Railroad was extended west to Kansas City and Clifton Hill was organized as a village. Thereafter Dr. E. F. Wilson and Dr. J. G. Baker located and practiced medicine in and around Clifton Hill.

In the vicinity of Cairo, Doctor Boucher, Dr. J. G. Wilson, and Doctor Ridings were located and there practiced from and after the close of the Civil War. Dr. Boucher probably before.

All of the above named except Dr. Baskett are dead. They were men of high attainment in the medical profession at that time and excellent citizens without exception.