Ohio History Journal

THE ECLECTIC OF ST. CLAIRSVILLE

by PHILIP D. JORDAN

Professor of History, University of Minnesota, and Research Associate,

Minnesota Historical Society

For decades the charming village of St. Clairsville, named

in honor of a stiff-necked soldier and governor who opposed Buck-

eye statehood, played an important role in determining the de-

velopment of the Northwest country. Other Ohio communities--

classic-tinged Marietta, Cincinnati, the Queen City of seven hills,

sturdy Steubenville--perhaps influenced the course of events more,

but certainly St. Clairsville holds firmly two claims to fame.

Several years after the great Cumberland Road had pushed

its slow, politics-ridden way through the laurel thickets and the

great woods of the Alleghanies to stop for a while at Wheeling

before it leaped the beautiful river for its final course toward

the looking-glass prairies of Illinois, a great celebration took place

in front of the courthouse at tiny St. Clairsville. For there in

1825, with simple, yet impressive, ceremonies, the first earth

cut was made to inaugurate the building of the highway in Ohio.

The linsey of settlers mingled with the broadcloth of gentility

when the spade sank deep into rich soil. Afterwards, a great

frontier dinner was served, with settlers and distinguished guests

toasting Andy Jackson and remembering the veterans of the

Revolution, who "like the venerable oaks of the forest, are

respected for their firmness, strength and age."

A community of only eleven houses and a courthouse in 1822

when Jonathan Knight platted the route of the Cumberland Road,

St. Clairsville grew rapidly as the result of traffic over Uncle Sam's

highway. Hundreds of coaches, gigs, and mail stages, in addition

to innumerable movers, settlers, and foreign travelers, stopped at

its stables and taverns. Some of those moving steadily toward

the back-of-beyond took ill, for fevers, typhoid, and cholera fol-

lowed the road westward. For years St. Clairsville could not

boast of a resident physician.

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388 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Therefore a second event of real importance was the arrival,

sometime during the late 1830's or early 1840's, of a tall, undis-

tinguished man whose saddlebags were those of a doctor. Within

them were the primitive pocket case of instruments and the small

vials of health so common in the equipment of the nineteenth-

century healer. Today little is known of Dr. William Mills. Like

so many other pioneer physicians, he was more interested in

treating the sick than in keeping written records.

Yet Dr. Mills found time to write and publish a family guide

to medicine. The medical historian knows how many of these

little books appeared to instruct and give comfort to thousands of

emigrants struggling toward the fringe of settlement. Some

were in the botanic tradition; others followed the practice of hy-

dropathy; and a few were uniquely individualistic. Many were

practical and sensible; not a few were unreliable. Good or bad,

they found their way along all the great highways--on roads,

rivers, and canals. They were read when the milksickness struck

on the shores of the Miami and the Wabash, when the scurvy

of the trans-Missouri region loosened teeth, and when, in a thou-

sand localities, children cried aloud with the heat of their fevers.

They were consulted for burns and scalds, for wounds, and for

inflammations. The housewife learned to make cranberry sauce

and apple dumplings from their pages. She was instructed in the

arts of personal hygiene.

Mills' volume followed the traditional pattern.  Entitled

Marrow of Practical Medicine, and Family Guide: Containing A

Brief and Accurate Description of the Character, Causes, and

Symptoms of the Diseases of Men, Women and Children, with

the Most Appropriate Treatment, "Without Poison or Bloodshed,"

it contained descriptions of medicinal plants and herbs, their medi-

cal qualities, and appropriate doses, "with plain and full directions

for making the various compound medicines recommended for the

cure of diseases." Privately published by the author, it was

printed in 1848 at the shop of William Brown, book and job

printer of St. Clairsville. Today it is one of the rarer Ohio

medical imprints.

"The object of the present volume," wrote the botanic-

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ECLECTIC OF ST. CLAIRSVILLE             389

 

minded eclectic of St. Clairsville, "is to furnish the community

in general with a plain, practical work, in such language as to be

understood by all, and in so condensed a form as to bring the

cost within the means of every one." He continued in a manner

that implies his practice was confined primarily to persons of

small income. "The author's desire to condense the work, and

avoid all language that would be embarrassing to the uneducated,

has rendered the language in many instances, rather stiff and

barren, and to the critical ear might seem defective in harmony."

But he says he is a busy man. "Besides, the work was written

at short intervals from the hurry of business and taken to press

before we had sufficient time for re-examination and arrange-

ment."

Despite his modest introduction Mills wrote a book that was

as good as most manuals. Practically all followed the general

pattern established by Samuel Thomson when he set about to

combat excessive blood-letting and heroic doses. Curiously

enough Mills did not acknowledge the inspiration of Thomson.

Nowhere in his volume of 420 pages did he come out completely

in favor of Thomson's "secret seven" or his principle of heat.

Yet, in part, the St. Clairsville physician advocated botanic medi-

cine. He even followed Thomson in the use of lobelia inflata.

On the other hand, Mills recommended doses of from twenty

to thirty grains of jalap and of a drachm of Peruvian bark, pro-

cedures that Thomson normally would not have followed. But

Mills did follow Thomson in his recommendation of simple foods,

fresh air, and bathing. This, however, was common to several

systems and does not necessarily place Mills in any one category.

The truth of the matter is that Mills probably was one of

those individualistic practitioners who, without much formal edu-

cation, developed a personal approach that was determined by the

nature of his practice and by what he could pick up from several

schools of medicine. If he followed the system set forth in his

calf-bound book, he, no doubt, was as competent and as successful

as many men of his day. All of them prescribed a materia medica

that was not to change radically until after the Civil War. Cer-

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390 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

tainly Dr. Mills.appears not to have been radical at any point.

How conservative he was is another matter.

He was able to secure qualified testimonials from the presi-

dent and members of the faculty of Franklin College at New

Athens, Ohio. Joseph Gordon, canny professor of mathematics

and natural science, wrote a charmingly cautious note of approval

which was little better than nothing at all. "From a hasty exami-

nation of this work," said Gordon, "I think it worthy of patron-

age. With no pretense to medical knowledge it would seem to be

absurd in me to recommend books of this class; but the work of

Dr. Mills is an exception. Intended for common use, it is adapted

to common understanding. I can, from actual, personal experi-

ence, recommend the precautions for preserving health; and also

the remedies, so far as my knowledge of them extends."

The eclectic nature of Mills' practice is exemplified by a few

prescriptions that he prints with evident approval.     The first

shows the influence of the botanic school; the second, the impact

of the regulars; and the third, the influence of the frontier itself.

Prescription I

RHEUMATIC DROPS, OR NO. 6.

Take Gum myrrh,                                                                                                                               1 lb.

Best African cayenne,                                                                                                           1 oz.

Pulverize and add one gallon of fourth proof brandy. A jug containing

these articles may be put into a kettle of water and boiled fifteen or twenty

minutes, with the cork out; or it can be prepared without boiling, by letting

it stand several days and shaking it frequently.

Dose. From one to two teaspoonsful in sweetened water.

Use. To relieve pain in the stomach and bowels, check dysentery,

diarrhoea, &c. As an external application, it is used for rheumatism,

sprains, bruises and cuts. It heals a wound quicker than any other applica-

tion we know, prevents mortification and the ill effects of cold.

Prescription 2

ANTI-BILIOUS OR CATHARTIC POWDER,

COMMON PHYSIC.

Take best senna,                                                                                                                             2 oz.

Cloves,                                                                                                                                     2 oz.

Jalap,                                                                                                                                          2 oz.

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ECLECTIC OF ST. CLAIRSVILLE                  391

 

Pulverize separately; mix, and pass through a fine sieve.

DOSE: A teaspoonful, in sweetened water, on an empty stomach.

USE: This is a very safe and effectual physic. It operates easily on the

bowels and leaves them in a healthy condition; and may be safely given in

all cases where a physic is needed.

 

Prescription 3

[EMETIC.]

Dose. Of the tincture [of the red pucoon (the Ohio pucoon) take] a

teaspoonful three times a day; of the powdered root from one to five

grains; half a teaspoonful of the powder will usually vomit. Indolent

and foul ulcers will be greatly improved by washing them with the tincture.

It is noticeable that while Mills speaks of rather an extensive

materia medica, he actually restricts himself in the section devoted

to popular practice to herbal preparations. There is no doubt but

that his book, when used without professional advice by patients

themselves, was practically a Thomsonian manual. Undoubtedly

that was because most settlers had to supply themselves with

drugs, and herbs were easier to secure than chemical mixtures

and compounds. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that

Mills himself used a variety of approaches and thus properly

may be termed St. Clairsville's eclectic. His book is valuable and

interesting, not only as an example of medicine in a frontier

community, but also as an example of a little known Ohio imprint.

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