MARILYN VAN VOORHIS WENDLER
Doctors and Diseases
on the Ohio Frontier
Nineteenth century Ohio historian
Samuel Hildreth ob-
served that "As a class no order
of men have done more to pro-
mote the good of mankind and develop
the resources and natural
history of our country than the
physicians. . . ." Hildreth likely
referred to professional contributions
in the field of natural
science, yet doctors also played an
integral part in bringing
civilization to the frontier. Whether
drawn by spirit of adven-
ture, prospect of personal gain or
increasing Eastern competition,
they accompanied every major wave of
western migration.2 Many
abandoned medicine for more lucrative
pursuits, but a sizable
remainder divided their energies
between fulfilling medical com-
mitments and assisting in the cultural
and commercial develop-
ment of their infant communities.
The pioneer physician needed to be
innovative, adaptable,
and possess great powers of physical
endurance. An example of
such a man was Jabez True, whose life and
career typify that of
the early frontier doctor. During the
early summer of 1788,
True left his medical practice in New
Hampshire to begin life
anew in the Ohio Country. True never
attended a medical col-
lege, yet he became the first resident
physician in the vast area
now comprising the seventeenth state.3
His professional cre-
Marilyn Van Voorhis Wendler is Official
City Historian for the
City of Maumee, Ohio, and is a Ph.D.
candidate and teaches Ohio history
at the University of Toledo.
1. Edmond C. Brush, "The Pioneer
Physicians of the Muskingum
Valley," Ohio Archeological and
Historical Society Quarterly, 3 (1890),
241-59.
2. Ibid. See also U.S. Department
of Health, Education and Wel-
fare, Medicine on the Early Western
Frontier, no. (NIH), 78-358 (1978).
3. Samuel Hildreth, Memoirs of the
Pioneer Settlers of Ohio (Cin-
cinnati, 1852), 330.
Doctors and Diseases 223
dentials were similar to those of his
contemporaries: three years
of preceptorship during which the
student "read medicine" while
he observed and assisted an established
doctor were sufficient
training to earn the title "legal
practitioner" in colonial
America.4 In addition,
True's Revolutionary War experience as
a surgeon on a rebel privateer prepared
him for the rigors of
frontier practice.5
The young doctor's skills were in
immediate demand. The
settlers of Marietta, where True
established residence, suffered
repeatedly from outbreaks of small pox
and fevers.6 Venomous
snake and insect bites were
commonplace, as were burns from the
open fires. Extremities were often
severed or mutilated through
careless use of knives and axes, and
wounds from poisoned ar-
rows were an additional hazard of life
in the wilderness. Doctors
were often faced with situations for
which their eastern training
had not prepared them. On one such
occasion, True was called
to aid a woman in an outlying
settlement who had been scalped
by a band of marauding Indians. He
arrived the following day
after traveling over thirty miles by
canoe. The patient survived,
but the physician left no records
divulging the secrets of his
successful treatment.7
Early inhabitants of the fortified
communities scattered
throughout the Ohio River Valley
existed at a bare subsistence
level. Consequently, a doctor's fees
were seldom collectable and
thus economic necessity forced True to
turn to farming. How-
ever, mounting hostilities between
settlers and Indians expanded
the ranks of militia and brought
additional troops into the area.
When faced with a shortage of
physicians, it was common for
the military to contract with local
doctors. In 1791 True re-
ceived an appointment as surgeon's mate
with a monthly salary
of twenty-two dollars, an additional
sum of money which en-
abled him to continue practicing
medicine.8
The extent of a frontier doctor's
practice was determined
by the availability of transportation.
Thus, a reliable steed,
4. Frederick Waite, "The
Professional Education of Pioneer Ohio
Physicians," Ohio Archeological
and Historical Society Quarterly, 48 (1939),
191-92.
5. Hildreth, Memoirs of the Pioneer
Settlers, 330.
6. Hildreth, Pioneer History: Being
An Account of the First Exami-
nations of the Ohio Valley and the Early Settlement of
The Northwest
Territory (Cincinnati, 1848), 263, 334, 378-79.
7. Hildreth, Memoirs of the Pioneer
Settlers, 331.
8. Hildreth, Pioneer History, 329.
224 OHIO HISTORY
a sturdy saddle, and waterproof
saddlebags were prime requi-
sites. The bags were connected by a
leather strap which enabled
the bearer to transfer them to his own
shoulders when crossing
high water or traveling on foot. Within
the specially designed
compartments could be found such basis
drugs as calomel-a
derivative of powdered mercury-and
laudanum, a compound
containing opium. Various Indian
remedies, particularly the
popular emetic, Ipecac, were also widely
used.9
Bartin's Materia Medica, an early-nineteenth century medi-
cal book, credits the Indians with the
discovery of medical prop-
erties in such common plants as tobacco,
hemp, and euonymous,
as well as the effectiveness of Peruvian
Bark in the treatment of
Malaria. Additional borrowed recipes
include the various roots:
Grass and Miami combined for tonics;
Blacksnake for liver and
kidney disorders, and Cornsnake for
purifying blood and healing
arrow wounds. Powdered root was mixed
with tobacco or bark
and smoked in a pipe. The amount of the
solid material neces-
sary to effect cure was determined by
the relationship of the
size of the root to the patients's index
finger.10
The primitive conditions under which the
early physician
practiced often forced him to rely upon
his own igenuity and to
adapt many of the procedures used by his
native American coun-
terpart. For example, he used pieces of
sharp flint to make in-
cisions, lance boils, or inject powdered
medicine under the skin.
A deer's bladder fitted with a reed
irrigated wounds or served
as a makeshift enema and the fibers of
the animal's tendons
provided suturing material. Bear's
grease, beeswax, honey and
"mutton suit" served as
ointments and lubricants.11
Simple tools such as knives and bleeding
lancets were the
rule, as few frontier practitioners
posessed more sophisticated
instruments. In one instance, a southern
Ohio doctor, Edward
Tiffin, successfully executed an
emergency amputation in a
wheat field with only his penknife and a
hand saw.12 Anti-
septics and anesthetics were unknown.
When the first ovariec-
9. Howard Dittrick, "The Equipment,
Instruments and Drugs of
Pioneer Physicians," Ohio
Archeological and Historical Quarterly, 48 (1939),
202. Examples of physicians bags, c.
1830s, are in collection of Wyandot
Historical Society, Upper Sandusky,
Ohio.
10. Dittrick, "Equipment,
Instruments, Drugs," 207-09.
11. Dittrick, "Medical Agents and
Equipment Used in the Northwest
Territory," Physicians in the
Indian Wars (Columbus, 1952), unpaginated.
12. Linden F. Edwards, "Edward
Tiffin, Pioneer Doctor," Ohio
Archeological and Historical
Quarterly, 56 (1947), 359-60.
Doctors and Diseases 225
tomy was performed by a pioneer
physician in 1809, both surgeon
and equipment were unsterile and the
woman's only relief was a
few drops of opium.13 Thus,
it is not surprising that patients
often recovered from surgery only to
succumb to resulting in-
fections.
Financial and transportation limitations
restricted the
amount of drugs and equipment which
civilian doctors brought
to the frontier. However, the influx of
troops during the Indian
campaigns eventually brought new
physicians, some fresh from
eastern schools, into Ohio. By
comparison, the army medical
officers were much better supplied.
Surgeon's chests issued by
the government usually contained the
latest drugs and equip-
ment, including marble mortar and
pestles, syringes, bandages
and apothecary scales. Each surgeon also
received a set of
pocket instruments.14 Yet,
the "injudicious assortment of Medi-
cine" received at Fort Washington
led senior medical officer
Richard Allison to complain that
"the greatest part we have ever
been furnished with has been nothing
more than the refuse of
the druggists shops ...."15
In spite of the obvious handicaps of
frontier practice, many
army physicians remained in Ohio after
their tour of duty was
terminated. The establishment of Fort
Washington in 1789 en-
couraged immigration and gave protection
to the adjacent set-
tlement, the precursor of Cincinnati.
Military surgeons Allison
and John Elliot and surgeon's mate John
Sellman cast their lot
with the new community, where they
gained reputations both as
doctors and civic leaders. Allison was
particularly active and
served as county justice of peace while
branching into farming,
commerce, and town development. He later
represented his
county as delegate to the Ohio Medical
Society. By 1800, civilian
Dr. William Goforth was instructing his
protege, Daniel Drake,
in the art of frontier medicine. Drake,
considered one of Ohio's
most eminent nineteenth century
physicians and urban pro-
moters, contributed immeasurably to the
scientific, cultural and
educational development of the
mid-west.16
13. James Flexner, Doctors on
Horseback: Pioneers of American
Medicine (New
York, 1937), 127.
14. An inventory of an army surgeon's
chest, circa late eighteenth
century, may be found in Physicians
in the Indian Wars, unpaginated.
15. Letter to General Harmar from
Richard Allison, April 16, 1789
quoted in Virginius Hall, "Richard
Allison-Surgeon to the Legion,"
Physicians in the Indian Wars, unpaginated.
16. Ibid.
226 OHIO HISTORY
Meanwhile, in Marietta, the only other
patch of civilization
north of the Ohio River, a similar
pattern was repeated. Former
army physicians Thomas Farley and
Nathan McIntosh remained
in southeastern Ohio to share True's
extensive practice. They
were soon joined by civilian doctors
Josiah Hart, Increase
Matthews, and Samuel Hildreth. Two
immigrant physicians,
former Royal Navy surgeon William
Leonard and former French
citizen John Baptiste Regnier, were
also drawn to the frontier.
By 1821 eleven men shared the medical
practice of Washington
County, and each contributed in
additional ways to the develop-
ment of their communities. For example,
nine held public office,
seven engaged in successful commercial
enterprises, one served
as city architect, and another founded
a rival community.17
As the frontier rolled steadily onward,
the former wilder-
ness became checkered with farms and
towns. The northwest
corner of the state, surrounded by an
almost impenetrable
swampland and hitherto controlled by
Indians and British, re-
mained briefly untouched, but the
conclusion of the War of 1812
removed the final barriers to
civilization. The process of settle-
ment began anew as adventure-bound,
land-hungry settlers
swarmed into the Maumee River Valley.
Physicians were once again in the
vanguard of frontier
society. Among the newcomers was Dr.
Horatio Conant, a young
Vermonter whose life closely paralleled
that of Jabez True, his
predecessor from neighboring New
Hampshire. Neither man
held a prestigious medical degree,
although both were excep-
tionally well educated for the period.
After a rigid classical gram-
mar school education, Conant attended
Middlebury College in his
home state and graduated in 1810. Three
years later he began an
apprenticeship under Dr. Harry
Waterhouse of Malone, New
York, and attended a series of lectures
at Yale University.18 Two
years as a tutor in the East prepared
him as school master to
a handful of Maumee Valley children,
just as True held classes
in a fortified blockhouse almost twenty
years earier.l9 In ad-
dition, both Conant and True acquired
valuable training as mili-
tary surgeons. Perhaps most important,
they believed that their
17. Brush, "The Pioneer Physicians
of the Muskingum Valley,"
243-59.
18. David O. Powell, "The Early
Life of a Pioneer Ohio Physician:
Dr. Horatio Conant, 1785-1816," Northwest
Ohio Quarterly 69 (Summer,
1977), 98-106.
19. Hildreth, Pioneer History, 335.
Doctors and Diseases 227
destines were linked with the future of
the western country and
they determined to work toward its
advancement.20
For thirteen years Conant was the only
resident physician
in an area bounded by present-day
cities of Defiance and Bowling
Green, Ohio, and Tecumseh, Michigan.21
In 1829, he convinced
Oscar White of New Hampshire to enter
into partnership. White
was well qualified. After three years
of preceptorship with his
uncle, Dr. Charles White of New
Hampshire, he graduated from
the medical school at Dartmouth College
and immediately set out
for the West.22 White was
the first Maumee Valley physician
to be fully accredited by the medical
profession, although he was
only twenty years old, less than half
the age of his new partner
from whom he presumably took over many
of the more strenuous
duties. In later years he recalled the
rigors of those days when he
was
... compelled to ride horseback days at
a stretch in order to reach his
patients; fording streams, wet often for
hours and chilled with the
fierce winds; often in winter having
his clothes frozen upon his per-
son, there being no houses to stop at;
riding night and day, summer
and winter, keeping a relay of horses
when needed.23
The 1830s land boom brought additional
immigrants into the
valley and eleven towns were plotted in
a fifteen-mile stretch
along the Maumee River almost
overnight.24 All competed for
commercial supremacy, but only Toledo,25
Manhattan, and the
established communities of Maumee and
Perrysburg were cities
in reality as well as on paper. The new
wave of population in-
cluded at least twenty-five physicians.
Of the thirteen who set-
tled in Maumee, six claimed certified
medical degrees, including
one from Harvard and another from
Boston.26 This is indeed
impressive, since less than 20 percent
of all Ohio physicians held
a medical degree prior to 1835.27
20. Powell, "Early Life of a Pioneer
Ohio Physician," 101.
21. Clark Waggoner, History of the
City of Toledo and Lucas County
(New York, 1888), 542.
22. Horatio S. Knapp, History of the
Maumee Valley (Toledo, 1873),
656.
23. Ibid.
24. Randolph Downes, Canal Days (Toledo,
1968), 56.
25. Toledo was formed from a union of
Port Lawrence and Vistula in
1833.
26. Waggoner, History of the City of
Toledo, 543-47. Additional in-
formation in Maumee Express, 1837-1840.
27. Waite, "Professional
Education," 189.
228 OHIO HISTORY
During the formative years of their
communities, doctors
served in many capacities outside the
field of medicine. For
example, while serving as schoolmaster,
Conant also established
a profitable mercantile partnership in
Maumee City. In succeed-
ing years he served as postmaster,
mayor, founder of the local
Whig party-he also served on its
central committee-and was
the first clerk of the Lucas County
Court. In addition, he dealt
in real estate, held stock in the
Maumee Insturance Company, and
was a member of the local merchant
association. Both Conant
and White helped organize the first
county medical society and
served as president and vice-president,
respectively.28
Available evidence indicates that at
least nine of the other
eleven physicians practicing in Maumee
in the 1830s were in-
volved in activities unrelated to their
profession. These supple-
mental interests included real estate,
banking, merchandising,
farming, lumbering, mining, and
wholesale. One doctor owned
the local land agency, while another
operated a popular tavern.
In addition, three served as city
councilmen and four others held
positions as municipal health officers.29
Dr. Erasmus Peck, of
neighboring Perrysburg, was involved in
milling, merchandising,
and banking. He also served as village
mayor, district repre-
sentative in the state legislature, and
state senator.30
Religion also played a part in the
lives of many early phy-
sicians. Doctors and laymen alike
concurred with the philosophy
that "disquitudes and diseases and
untimely death ... spring not
from fulfillment but from infraction of
the laws of God."31 Thus,
medical and theological concepts were
closely intertwined, as
were the roles of physicians and
preachers of the gospel. A few,
such as medical doctor and ordained
minister Edward Tiffin,
combined the vocations. Most, such as
Conant, were content to
be among church incorporators and serve
as vestrymen, lay
readers, and occasional authors of
religious tracts, while men of
the cloth expounded upon the
relationship between moral and
physical well-being.32
28. Marilyn V. Wendler, "Maumee
City: A Study of Urban Develop-
ment in Frontier Ohio" (Master's
Thesis, University of Toledo, 1977),
124-25.
29. Ibid.
30. Commemorative Historical and
Biographical Record of Wood
County, Ohio (Chicago, 1897), 103, 358.
31. Sylvester Graham, "Science of
Human Life," Scientific Tracts
for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
(Boston, 1836), 212.
32. Waggoner, History of the City of
Toledo, 542-47. See also Brush,
"The Pioneer Physicians of the
Muskingum Valley," 241-59 for biographical
information.
Doctors and Diseases 229 |
|
All but two of the Lucas County physicians completed their preceptorship or attended schools in the East.33 There were no similar institutions west of the Alleghenies until Transylvania Medical College was founded in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1810. Ten years later, the Ohio Medical College was established in Cincinnati. Both schools experienced initial problems obtaining students as well as faculty. Of the first class to enter the Ohio school, only seven completed the full course of study. A mere 30 percent of those attending Willoughby College, founded thirteen years later in northeastern Ohio, graduated during the first ten years of operation.34 Lack of qualified personnel created additional problems for the western medical schools. However, this situation prevailed as far east as Pennylvania where one faculty member of a struggling college noted that "Very few" of his colleagues ". .. ever read a medical book."35 Willoughby was able to attract only three graduated physicians to its ten-man faculty, and only four faculty members previously attended even one session of lec-
33. Wendler, "Maumee City," 124-25. See also Waggoner, History of the City of Toledo, 542-47. 34. Waite, "Professional Education," 189. 35. Samuel D. Gross quoted in Richard Dunlap, Doctors of the American Frontier (New York, 1965), 210. |
230 OHIO HISTORY
tures.36 Among the three
licensed physicians was a Toledo doc-
tor who managed to divide his time
between lecturing at Wil-
loughby and attending to his patients
back home.37 Most doctors
could not afford to sacrifice their
practice for the dubious pres-
tige of a western faculty position.
Daniel Drake, founder and first
president of the Ohio
Medical College, learned his trade as an
apprentice in Cincinnati.
He practiced for eleven years before he
completed the second
session of lectures at Philadelphia and
received his degree.
Drake's frustrating experience convinced
him of the need for
adequate training facilities in the
West. However, the major
opposition to medical schools came from
local doctors who lacked
formal educations and feared competition
from a younger group
of professionally-trained practitioners.
Rivalry and resentment
within the medical community and between
faculties continued
to impede growth of western medical
institutions and limited the
number of Ohio trained physicians for
several years.
Occasionally, the honorary title of M.D.
was conferred upon
veteran physicians who distinguished
themselves in the move-
ment to raise standards of medical
competency. For example,
John Sellman, presiding officer of the
committee which adopted
the "Code of Medical Policy and
Rules and Regulations" for Cin-
cinnati on February 27, 1821, received
this token of respect af-
ter thirty-five years of civilian and
military practice.38 Another
noted recipient of the honorary degree
was Marietta historian,
politician, and doctor, Samuel Hildreth.
When elected to the
state legislature in 1810, Hildreth
promptly introduced a bill
to divide Ohio into five medical
districts, each with three exami-
ners appointed to interview doctoral
candidates and issue licenses.
His proposal, which became law on
January 14, 1812, stipulated
that applicants demonstrate good moral
character, produce evi-
dence of three years preceptorship or a
license from a regional
medical group, and satisfactorily answer
questions pertaining
to a basic knowledge of medicine. It did
not, however, prohibit
practice by unlicensed persons and thus
was replaced on Feb-
ruary 8, 1812, by a statute levying a
five to one hundred dollar
fine for each such offense. The harsher
law also increased the
36. Waite, "Professional
Education," 191.
37. Maumee Express, August 19,
1837.
38. Richard Knopf, "Biographical
Data," Physicians in the Indian
Wars, unpaginated.
Doctors and Diseases 231
number of medical districts to seven,
required the establishment
of a medical society within each
division, and provided for the
incorporation of a state organization
of physicians. In addition,
the law proposed that a medical
convention be held in Chilli-
cothe on November 1, 1812, for the
purpose of exchanging pro-
fessional information among delegates
from each of the dis-
tricts.39
Due to lack of attendance at the
Chillicothe convention,
little progress was made before 1821
when delegates to the Ohio
Medical Convention assembled in
Columbus. During this ses-
sion, members stipulated that
prospective candidates, in addi-
tion to possessing a knowledge of
medicine, be familiar with
Greek, Latin, and mechanical philosophy
as well as certain pre-
scribed textbooks.40 At
least a few physicians recognized that
an effective way to maintain medical
standards was to adopt a
more disciplined educational approach
to their profession.
Neither the efforts of the medical
organizations nor the
remoteness of the frontier towns halted
invasion by medical
charlatans, and by 1833 the state
legislature abandoned all ef-
forts to regulate the practice of
medicine.41 Doctors previously
ignored or rejected as practitioners in
the East quickly found
the unsophisticated westerners easy
prey. Cultists and quacks,
encouraged by the success of the
Botanics and other self-help
societies, spread throughout Ohio.42
The lack of professional
physicians and educational
opportunities provided optimal con-
ditions for acceptance of various
curative claims ranging from
ingenius to preposterous, and no
community was immune.
Frontier newspapers spread the messages
of the cultists
and proclaimed the miraculous qualities
of such cure-alls as
"Dr. Benjamin Brandreth's
Vegetable Universal Pills" or
Stabler's "Expectorant and
Diarrhea Cordial," alledgedly ap-
proved by five hundred physicians !43
According to the Maumee
Express, a Dr. Sherwood developed an "original mode of
prac-
39. Donald R. Shira, "The Legal
Requirements for Medical Practice-
An attempt to Regulate by Law and the
Purpose Behind the Movement,"
Ohio State Archeological and
Historical Quarterly, 48 (1939), 183.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Samuel Thomson received a patent to
administer his "treatment"
which incorporated steam baths and vegetable compounds
and later sold
"family rights" to anyone
willing to purchase his book. The botanics were
particularly numerous in Ohio in the 1820s and '30s.
43. Ohio Whig, November 7, 1840; Northwest
Democrat, March 27,
1854.
232 OHIO HISTORY
tice" termed "Electro
Magneticism." His method was reported
to "set at defiance every practice
heretofore followed. . .."44
By 1850, Aesculapius self-help cults
were popular and local
papers announced the sale of The
Pocket Aesculapius or Every-
one His Own Physician at twenty-five cents a copy or five for
one dollar. Not surprisingly, the
promoter was a "doctor" from
Philadelphia. Even the
"regular," or professional, physicians
advertised their skills in the local
weeklies.45
Lack of statewide success in regulating
medical practices
prompted Maumee Valley physicians to
form their own society in
1840. Over half of the sixteen members
resided in Maumee and
Toledoans comprised the next largest
group. The society, how-
ever, proved largely ineffective as a
regulatory agency, although
it provided means of sharing new
theories and discoveries.46
Even so, medical progress continued to
lag far behind
science. Eastern and western physicians
alike were reluctant to
accept technological advances. For
example, the microscope was
already in limited use during the
1830s, but few medical men were
aware of a relationship between
microscopic particles and di-
sease. Some doctors utilized modern
medical equipment such as
stethoscopes, but most preferred to
rely upon their ears, eyes,
and hands.47 Their skepticism was shared by their patients,
many of whom held deep-seated
prejudices and superstitions
concerning medical practice. A
contemporary writer bemoaned
that "society tends to confine the
practicising physician to the
department of therapeutics and make him
a mere curer of di-
sease" while only a few rise above
". . . the discriminatory en-
couragement which they receive from
society to pursue an ele-
vated scientific career."48 Thus,
although the pioneer physician
practiced under greater physical
handicaps, his intellectual iso-
lation from his urban colleagues was of
little consequence.
In addition, both eastern and western
physicians subscribed
to centuries-old theories of disease.
One popular concept was the
humoral theory which postulated that
disease was caused by an
imbalance of four humors-blood, phlegm,
black bile, and yellow
bile.49 In the seventeenth
century, Thomas Syndenham specu-
44. Maumee Express, August 1,
1838.
45. Northwest Democrat, November
7, 1853.
46. John Killets, Toledo and Lucas
County, I (Chicago, 1923), 653.
47. The stethoscope was not in regular
use in northern Ohio until
after 1835, according to Dittrick,
"Equipment, Instruments, Drugs," 203.
48. Graham, "Science of Human
Life," 206.
49. John Duffy, "Medical Practice
in the Ante-Bellum South," Journal
of Southern History (1959), 54, 55.
Doctors and Diseases 233
lated that a morbific substance entered
the body in particles of
air and tainted the blood. Various
theories evolved from the
basic theme, including the notion that
disorders result from gen-
eral physical weakness or the more
sophisticated speculation
designating the nervous system as the
center of all ailments.50
The course of treatment for all types of
illness was funda-
mentally the same. Barton's Materia
Medica, an early-nineteenth
century drug manual, included only
"astringents, tonics, stimu-
lents, errhines or sternutatory
remedies, sialogogues or salivat-
ing remedies, emetics, cathartics,
diuretics, and anthemintics."51
Drugs of the first three categories were
used to stimulate bodily
functions, while the next two were
employed to cleanse the
system through excessive sneezing and
salivating; the last four
were used to purge the patient.
Additional techniques included
blistering and bleeding, usually in
combination with cathartics.
These procedures were so widely accepted
that one innovative
physician even advocated "bleeding
and carthartic or either" for
a case of "love sickness."52
The age-old practice of bleeding was
accomplished through
the use of lancets, leeches, or a series
of cups. The lancet came
in various forms, but the most widely
used was the spring
lancet which automatically penetrated to
the desired depth.
Heated cups were also used to draw
blood. The lancet cup, a
small brass box holding six to twelve
knives, was the most in-
genius device: at the release of the
trigger, the knives swept
forward, counter to each other; the
physician then applied a
hot cup over the incisions to "suck
out" the blood.53 If the fron-
tier doctor lacked such proper
equipment, the same result could
be obtained using a sharp pointed
bistourie and an animal horn
in the traditional manner of the
Medicine Man.54
Leeches were carried by many doctors and
were spurred
into action through the application of
cream, sugar, or blood
spread over the patient's body. Although
physicians disagreed
on the proper amount of blood-letting
necessary to cure, up to
50. Ibid. See also Jonathan
Forman, "The Prevailing Concepts of
Health and Disease," Physicians
and the Indian Wars, unpaginated.
51. Dittrick, "Medical Agents and
Equipment," unpaginated. Ben-
jamin S. Barton was a professor of
botany and natural history at the
College of Philadelphia; his work was
published in 1810.
52. Becklard's Physiology (Cincinnati,
1855), 75, Collection of
Maumee Valley Historical Society.
53. Madge Pickard and R. Carlyle Buley, The
Midwest Pioneer: His
Ills, Cures, and Doctors (Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1945), 108-10.
54. Dittrick, "Medical Agents and
Equipment," unpaginated.
234 OHIO HISTORY
fifty ounces was commonly
recommended!55 As late as 1888,
a Toledo physician advocated
"Bleed until you think you are
killing the patient and he will get
well."56
If bleeding did not bring about the
desired results, other
means were resorted to. A typical
method of purging was the
administration of large doses of
calomel, a powerful physic.
Physicians and laymen hotly debated the
drug's value. While
one victim of a "bilious"
attack implored "Then, Calomel, thou
great deliverer, come!," its
widespread overuse led another to
plead:
And when I must resign my breath
Pray let me die a natural death
And bid you all a long farewell
Without one dose of Calomel!57
Emetics such as ipecac or tartar
induced vomiting and
diuretics drained the kidneys and
bladder. When the patient
was suitably void of all humors, a
tonic of peruvian bark, or
possibly cherry bark mixed with
whiskey, was given. In the
last stages, a few drops of opium were
administered.58 The
severity of the treatment led more than
one historian to marvel
not that the patients recovered from
the illness, but that they
survived the cure!59
Maumee Valley physicians treated a
variety of disorders
during the 1830s. Infrequency of
bathing or change of apparel
led to skin diseases known as scabies
or "prairie itch."60 In-
juries were still commonplace and
children were particularly
susceptible to cuts and puncture
wounds. Lockjaw was a par-
ticularly serious problem: a home
remedy for this "dreadful af-
fliction" passed on to the readers
of a Maumee Valley paper,
called for the application of strong
"ley" made from wood ashes.61
Epidemics were commonplace. Early
physicians and lay-
men were equally unaware of the germ
theory, and sanitation
measures were primitive and inadequate.
Water for bathing,
55. Pickard and Buley, The Midwest
Pioneer, 110.
56. Waggoner, History of the City of
Toledo, 545.
57. R. Carlyle Buley, The Old
Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840
(Bloomington, Indiana, 1950), 46.
58. Jo Ann Carrigan, "Some Medical
Remedies of the Early Nine-
teenth Century," Historian, 22
(November, 1959), 69.
59. Pickard and Buley, The Midwest
Pioneer, 113.
60. William J. Petersen, "Diseases
and Doctors in Pioneer Iowa,"
Iowa Journal of History, 69 (April, 1951), 99.
61. Maumee Express, June 23,
1838.
Doctors and Diseases 235 |
|
cooking, or drinking was obtained from the town pump to which an iron cup was attached for the convenience of residents.62 Refuse was disposed of in the streets, while cows, swine, and other domestic animals roamed at large. Windows and doors were screenless, allowing flies and mosquitos to swarm freely. Many otherwise knowledgeable people concluded that effluvia from decaying matter or food contaminated by the sick "floated by the current in the atmosphere, and through the open win- dow,"63 bringing disease to unsuspecting victims. This theory eventually resulted in increased sanitation measures, as commu- nities like Maumee passed ordinances against leaving dead ani- mals or other "filth" in public thoroughfares, restricted live- stock to home grounds, and created boards of health.64 In spite of these efforts, contagious diseases such as Erysip- elas, measles, whooping cough, and diptheria still flourished.65
62. Ibid., July 7, 1838. 63. "Reminiscences" of Amelia Perrin quoted in Commemorative Record of Wood County, 358. 64. Maumee City Council Minutes, March 24, 1839. 65. Commemorative Record of Wood County, 104. See also David Tucker, "Methods of Treatment of Some of the More Common Diseases by the Pioneer Physicians of Ohio," Ohio Archeological and Historical Quarterly, 48 (1939), 214. |
236 OHIO HISTORY
Although smallpox was particularly
virulent, treatment for it
changed little over the years. In 1803,
Dr. Richard Allison ad-
vised a patient to take forty drops of
balsamic tincture on sugar,
morning, noon and night.66 Fifty
years later, the Northwest
Democrat printed a physician's "recipe" which called
for one
gram each of powdered foxglove and
sulphate of zinc "rubbed
thoroughly in a morter . . . with 4-5
drops water. Add: nogg
[sic] or about 4 oz. some syrup or
sugar. One tablespoon of the
mixture was to be administered every
other hour until the symp-
toms vanished.67
Some early physicians practiced
inoculation, using live mat-
ter from smallpox sores, theorizing
that the recipient would
contact a lighter case of the disease.
In 1793, Jabez True is said
to have successfully inoculated the
entire population of Belpre,
Ohio.68 This procedure, in
which the doctor used a pocketknife or
similar instrument to scrape the scabs
and insert matter into
open cuts, had obvious risks. Edward
Jenner's method em-
ploying cow pox vaccine was introduced
into America in 1800
and was in limited use as far west as
Cincinnati a year later.
However, tradition died hard and three
years later that city's
council resorted to levying fines
against persons who continued
to use the earlier method.69
Outbreaks of smallpox in 1837 prompted
the government
to commission Dr. White to conduct a
mass vaccination program
for the departing Ottawa Indians of the
Maumee Valley. White
later described their suspicion and
terror of the procedure,70 a
reaction which, although prompted by
primitive superstition,
was not unlike that of many frontier
residents who believed that
vaccination was contrary to divine
will. Although incidents such
as one in which a southern Ohio doctor
was beaten by his neigh-
bors for vaccinating his own family71
became less common, the
general public remained skeptical for
many years.
Diseases such as pluerisy and pneumonia
afflicted most pio-
neer families. A common remedy
consisted of bloodletting, fol-
lowed by a "gentle" purging
with calomel and a few grains of
66. Hall, "Richard Allison," Physicians
in the Indian Wars, un-
paginated.
67. Northwest Democrat, March 27,
1854.
68. Hildreth, Pioneer History, 391-92.
69. Hall, "Richard Allison," Physicians
in the Indian Wars, un-
paginated.
70. Brush, "Pioneer Physicians of
the Muskingum Valley," Ohio
Archeological and Historical Quarterly, 241.
71. Knapp, Maumee Valley, 656.
Doctors and Diseases 237
opium to control the cough.72 Consumption
was also prevalent.
Physicians disagreed upon its most
effective treatment and the
disease defied their efforts to control
it. Most doctors followed
the traditional pattern of bleeding and
purging, but others ad-
vanced more novel methods. One doctor
informed Maumee Val-
ley residents that he "treated
sufferers" for over twelve years
and was ". . . not aware of having
lost four to five patients."
His miracle cure consisted of
"nauseating" doses of one-half
grain sulfate of copper to five grains
gum ammonia with one
teaspoon of water.73 In the
event the remedy was ineffective, the
nausea was perhaps calculated to keep
the patient too occupied to
dwell on the symptoms.
By far, the most widespread complaints
throughout the en-
tire northwest territory concerned the
fevers and a form of
malaria called "ague."
Malaria, typhoid, typhus, and yellow
fever were referred to as intermittent,
remittent, continued, or
autumnal fevers. Treatment was much the
same for all and
usually called for bleeding, followed
by doses of chincona or
quinine.74 Although ague was
known throughout all the states,
it was particularly prevalent in the
swampy lowlands bordering
the Maumee River. An early settler
recalled that by fall entire
families who arrived the previous
spring were "taken down so
that there would not be enough well
persons to take care of
those who were sick."75
The inhabitants of the valley accepted
the onset of the ague
season as inevitable. One Wood County
physician remembered
that:
The ague usually came on every other
day, and when there was not peo-
ple enough they had to have it
everyday, for sometimes there appeared to
be about two agues for one man; and
oftentimes they had to have it
twice a day.76
The chills and sweats struck with such
regularity that in some
communities work schedules, and in extreme
cases church serv-
ices and court sessions, were planned
accordingly.77 In spite of
the inconvenience, the settlers
retained their sense of humor,
as illustrated by a local parody:
72. Tucker, "Methods of
Treatment," 217.
73. Maumee Express, May 20, 1837.
74. Tucker, "Methods of
Treatment," 217.
75. Perrysburg Journal, March 13,
1869.
76. Commemorative Record of Wood
County, 102.
77. Pickard and Buley, Midwest
Pioneer, 17.
238 OHIO HISTORY
On Maumee, on Maumee,
'Tis Ague in the fall;
The fit will shake them so,
It rocks the house and all.
There's a funeral every day,
Without a hears of pall;
They tuck them in the ground
With breeches, coat and all !78
Fortunately, ague was rarely fatal and
one had only to
survive the fits and wait until an
immunity to "the baneful in-
fluence of Miasmi" developed.
Meanwhile, frontier families
swallowed quantities of quinine and
ipecac during the sickly
season.
Most of the maladies which afflicted
the mid-westerners
were age-old and, although physicians
did not yet know how to
control them, their familiarity made
them seem less frightening.
In 1832, Asiatic Cholera invaded the
United States. The disease
traveled to Detroit with General
Scott's troops during the Black
Hawk uprising and spread throughout
Ohio. The suddenness
with which it struck caused confusion
and terror among the
populace. One Maumee resident observed
that "people fall down
as they walk through the streets as
though they were intoxicated.
They are talking one minute and then
they fall down in the
next."79
Doctors throughout the country were as
uncertain about
the treatment of the epidemic as they
were the cause, and they
were no better informed when the
disease reappeared in 1849.
The prestigious Dr. Drake leaned toward
a theory of minute
invisible animalculae, even as he clung
to bleeding as a cure.80
Most practitioners agreed, including a
Toledo doctor who re-
affirmed in 1888 that "If I
treated cholera now I would bleed
and save my patient."81
Another local physician espoused a pro-
cedure in which he injected a large
amount of saltwater into
the victim's veins and then restricted
liquids to cold water only.
Unfortunately, the "cure" was
insufficient to save the origi-
78. Maumee Express, June 6, 1837.
79. Letter from 0. C. Geer to relatives,
May 1832: family papers and
memorabilia, estate of Mrs. John Botte,
Maumee, Ohio.
80. Zane L. Miller and Henry Shapiro, Physician
to the West: Selected
Writings of Daniel Drake on Science
and Society (Lexington, Kentucky,
1977), 373-75.
81. Waggoner, History of the City of
Toledo, 545.
Doctors and Diseases 239
nator who fatally contracted the
disease while ministering to his
patients.82
Considering the prevailing concepts of
disease and treat-
ment in the pre-Civil War period, it is
little wonder that era is
often referred to as the "heroic
age" in medicine. Although more
enlightened men cautioned that "it
is wrong to abuse the proverb
that desperate diseases require
desperate remedies," the adage's
prescription predominated well into the
nineteenth century.83
Still, somewhere between the cultists
and the extremists
were rational practitioners who looked
forward to a time when
technology would boost their profession
to the level of science.
Usually underpaid and overworked, they
were subject to the same
privations as their patients. In 1811,
Tiffin aptly expressed the
sentiments of many of his colleagues
when he lamented, "I shall
not long be able to undergo the
drudgery of country practice. It
is too hard on me."84 The
conditions under which western doc-
tors practiced showed scant improvement
over the next few
decades. The physical demands of the
occupation, particularly
the grueling rounds on horseback and
constant exposure to di-
sease, drained the physicians' health
and often led to premature
death.85
Moreover, doctors were sometimes
unappreciated by their
own contemporaries. During a funeral
oration for a "Beloved"
Maumee Valley physician, the speaker
charged, "It is getting
fashionable to ridicule and deprecate
the medical profession,"
and added that most people ". . .
never half appreciate the hard-
ships, trials, danger, self-denials,
and rewards of the good
physician."86
Perhaps Samuel Hildreth exaggerated
when he asserted that
"wherever the well educated in
that profession are found, they
are uniformly seen on the side of
order, morality, science, and re-
ligion,"87 but it is apparent that
as a group, physicians were sub-
stantially involved in efforts to raise
medical, cultural, and eco-
nomic standards on the frontier. In
addition, their educational
82. Ibid., 542.
83. P. M. Donalson, A. M.,
"Education of a Woman-Its Obstacles
and Necessities," Ladies
Repository, January, 1857.
84. Letter from Edward Tiffin to the Supporter,
October 31, 1811.
85. Two of the early Maumee Valley
physicians died as the result of
falls from a horse. Others succumbed to
various fevers, pneumonia, and
epidemic diseases such as cholera and erysipelas.
86. Northwest Democrat, November
27, 1852.
87. Brush, "Pioneer
Physicians," 241.
240 OHIO HISTORY
background prepared them for positions
of responsibility and
leadership which they willingly
accepted. Edward Tiffin pro-
vided the ultimate example of civic
participation in his rise from
country doctor to first governor of
Ohio. Furthermore, lesser-
known men such as Horatio Conant and
his colleagues helped
push back the frontier in their own
political spheres. Despite the
physical and intellectual handicaps
under which they labored,
Ohio's pioneer doctors remained
dedicated to their profession
and their communities and thus played a
crucial role in the de-
velopment of the state's frontier.
MARILYN VAN VOORHIS WENDLER
Doctors and Diseases
on the Ohio Frontier
Nineteenth century Ohio historian
Samuel Hildreth ob-
served that "As a class no order
of men have done more to pro-
mote the good of mankind and develop
the resources and natural
history of our country than the
physicians. . . ." Hildreth likely
referred to professional contributions
in the field of natural
science, yet doctors also played an
integral part in bringing
civilization to the frontier. Whether
drawn by spirit of adven-
ture, prospect of personal gain or
increasing Eastern competition,
they accompanied every major wave of
western migration.2 Many
abandoned medicine for more lucrative
pursuits, but a sizable
remainder divided their energies
between fulfilling medical com-
mitments and assisting in the cultural
and commercial develop-
ment of their infant communities.
The pioneer physician needed to be
innovative, adaptable,
and possess great powers of physical
endurance. An example of
such a man was Jabez True, whose life and
career typify that of
the early frontier doctor. During the
early summer of 1788,
True left his medical practice in New
Hampshire to begin life
anew in the Ohio Country. True never
attended a medical col-
lege, yet he became the first resident
physician in the vast area
now comprising the seventeenth state.3
His professional cre-
Marilyn Van Voorhis Wendler is Official
City Historian for the
City of Maumee, Ohio, and is a Ph.D.
candidate and teaches Ohio history
at the University of Toledo.
1. Edmond C. Brush, "The Pioneer
Physicians of the Muskingum
Valley," Ohio Archeological and
Historical Society Quarterly, 3 (1890),
241-59.
2. Ibid. See also U.S. Department
of Health, Education and Wel-
fare, Medicine on the Early Western
Frontier, no. (NIH), 78-358 (1978).
3. Samuel Hildreth, Memoirs of the
Pioneer Settlers of Ohio (Cin-
cinnati, 1852), 330.