| Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
| Contributor: |
Dallas Bogan on 27 September 2004 |
Source: |
The following is taken from Dallas Bogan's book, "The Pioneer Writings of Josiah Morrow." |
| Return to Index to see a list of other articles by Dallas Bogan |
The first professional card of a physician and surgeon of Warren county I have come across was that of Dr. John Winans, who appears to have been the first physician to establish himself in the vicinity of Lebanon. His card was printed in seven successive issues of the Western Spy, of Cincinnati, beginning in February, 1801, two years before the organization of Warren county, and five years before the first newspaper was started at Lebanon. It read as follows:
"John C. Winans, lately arrived from Elizabethtown, N.J., with a general assortment of medicines respectfully tenders his services to the public in the line of his profession as physician and surgeon. Those who have occasion and are disposed to call on him, may find him at Rev. Mr. Kemper's on Turtle creek, where he has opened his shop and is now in a capacity to serve them."
Rev. James Kemper here referred to, was the pastor of the Turtlecreek Presbyterian church, and resided at this time four miles west of the site of Lebanon. Dr. Winans found it necessary to publish his card in a newspaper printed nearly thirty miles from the place where he opened his "shop." Before this, Cincinnati physicians had doubtless been called to make professional visits into the southwestern part of Warren county, a distance of over twenty miles and sometimes even to the central parts of the county.
The pioneer physicians of the Miami Valley were of necessity country practitioners,
whether they established themselves in the new towns or on farms. For several
years some of the townships had only one resident physician and sometimes none.
A ride of twelve or fifteen miles at night was not unusual. Sometimes rides
of twenty or even thirty miles were made on horseback on roads over which no
kind of carriage could be drawn. The pioneer physician, who became noted in
his profession in Warren county was called on to make journeys in the saddle
to distant parts of the county and to adjoining counties in the most inclement
seasons; to endanger his life in crossing the flooded Miami when it was bridgeless,
and in times of epidemics to pass successive days and nights without sleep.
Dr. Daniel Drake, the most distinguished of the early physicians
of Cincinnati, says the ordinary charge by the physician for his long rides
was twenty-five cents a mile, "one-half being deducted, and the other half
paid in provender for his horse or produce for his family."
These pioneers in their profession were not only physicians and surgeons, but
bleeders, cuppers, leechers, bone-setters and tooth-pullers. They sometimes
plugged teeth, using tin-foil instead of gold-leaf. For extracting a single
tooth, the charge was twenty-five cents, a deduction being made if two or more
were drawn at the same time. For ordinary professional services the charges
seem to us low; for bleeding, 25 cents; for sitting up all night, $1; for an
ordinary visit, from 25 cents to 50 cents, according to the circumstances of
the patient. These are the figures given by Dr. Drake. It should
be borne in mind that the purchasing value of a dollar was far greater then
than now.
None of the earliest physicians in the Miami valley had received degrees from
a medical college. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, not one in fifty
of the physicians of the United States, and not one in a hundred of those in
the west, had a diploma from a chartered school of medicine. Dr. Daniel
Drake says he was the first medical student of Cincinnati to receive
a degree from a medical school. This he received in 1815 from the University
of Pennsylvania, but long before this he had attended one course of lectures
at Philadelphia, then practiced medicine at Cincinnati eleven years, after which
he returned to Philadelphia, completed his medical studies, and received his
degree of M.D.
Medical education in those early days consisted almost exclusively in what could
be learned in the shop of some practitioner, reading the few books owned by
the physician, and afterward serving as an apprentice. Medical works were then
not illustrated and the student was expected to commit to memory the names of
the muscles without a diagram or plate, and the names of the bones without ever
seeing a human skeleton. In the compounding of medicines, however, he could
learn both by seeing and doing, and as the old doctor's shop contained many
paper parcels, bottles and jars, giving forth mingled odors, the idlest student
could not help absorbing some medicine through his olfactories. The physician
carried his medicines with him from his own shop and dealt them out in the sick
room.
After the establishment of a medical college at Cincinnati in 1825, it became
more common for the student to attend at least one course of lectures; sometimes
after a few years practice he completed his course. In later years, graduation
at a medical college before beginning practice began to be looked upon as a
matter of course.
Inferior as were the facilities for medical education, there is reason to believe
that there was a fair share of intelligence and medical skill among our early
physicians. In his address at the Lebanon centennial Mr.John E. Smith
said: "At no time throughout our history have there been lacking members
of the medical profession, competent, skillful and learned, to minister the
sick. Many of you will recall the gentle, kindly face, and the willing service
of the family physician of the days that are long gone."
The early physicians were of the heroic school and in their practice made
frequent use of the lancet and large doses of calomel. They relied on purging,
vomiting, bleeding, blistering and salivation. The amount of calomel purchased
by a single physician in the first quarter of the last century, as shown by
druggists' account books still in existence would strike the modern man of science
with amazement.
While preparing the Warren County History in 1881, I had several conversations
concerning the history of the medical profession with Dr. John Van Harlingen
the oldest physician of the county then living. He had graduated at Rutger's
college in 1809 and attended one course of medical lectures in New York. He
had practiced his profession in New Jersey five years and this county fifty
years. He said to me that if he was to tell the whole truth about the amount
of calomel used and the bleeding and purging by himself and the old physicians,
the story would not be believed.
Learning that he himself had largely abandoned the heroic treatment before retiring
from the practice, I congratulated him on the progress his profession had made.
But he did not receive my suggestion kindly. "The science of medicine has
not changed," he said. I remarked that I understood that he would not now
follow the old treatment. "No," he said, "I would not because
of the changed conditions. The diseases have changed. I have not."
At what period the disposition to modify the size of the dose, and to remove
its nauseous taste and repulsive appearance, characteristic of modern practice,
began to be manifest, I am unable to say. Probably a majority of those who paid
the early physicians for their services looked upon mild remedies which were
easy to take as of little value.
I deem it fortunate that I am able to give in his own language the treatment
in what was then the most common disease in the Miami country adopted by one
of these physicians four score years ago. It will be observed that I do not
quote from an uneducated man who had commenced the practice of medicine without
adequate preparation.
Dr. .John C. Dunlevy was the son of Judge Francis
Dunlevy of Lebanon and was, I believe, the first student of medicine
in Warren county to receive the degree of M.D. After obtaining a good preliminary
education, he attended a course of medical lectures at Lexington, Ky., and afterward
was one of the first graduates of the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati. He
practiced medicine at Hamilton, Ohio, but most of his life was passed in Warren
county. He died in 1834, aged 38, and was buried in the old
Baptist graveyard at Lebanon.
Dr. Dunlevey read a paper before the Second District medical
Society of Ohio in November, 1824, and it was published in the June number,
1827, of the first volume of Dr. Drake's Western Medical Journal.
The subject of the paper was an epidemic of bilious fever in the town of Hamilton
and its vicinity in the summer and autumn of 1824. The author pronounced bilious
intermittent fever the most common epidemic of our country and one to which
many persons annually fell victims. Of this he wrote:
"The treatment of this epidemic which I found most successful, consisted
in vomiting, purging, bleeding, blistering, the use of refrigerants and diaphoretics,
and in exciting salivation. All of these means were, of course, not necessary
in the treatment of each individual case, though there were some which from
their obstinacy or violence, required in co-operation of succession, nearly
the whole." Dr. Dunlevey gives what he terms a "vigorous treatment,"
to which he resorted when he was ready to take his own medicines. After riding
twenty miles on a very warm day in July he retired in ordinary health, but awoke
with a severe pain in his head and in the morning found himself with a high
fever. In the morning he first took a large portion of calcined magnesia; two
hours later he took twenty grains of calomel; at noon bled himself, losing about
eighteen ounces of blood; in the afternoon the calomel produced vomiting and
purging; throughout the whole day indulged in copious draughts of cold water
and the cold effusion applied to the head repeatedly; in the evening he took
an ounce and a half of salts; in the morning found himself slightly salivated,
the pain gone and his pulse nearly at its natural standards. He found it necessary
to take one or two doses of neutral salts daily for the ensuing week.
"If this treatment was necessary in a person feeble and emancipated as
I was previously to the attack, it is far more so in a person of vigorous habit.
Death after salivation is a rare occurrence."
The earliest list of all physicians practicing in Warren county is found in
the records of the County Com- missioners for the year 1830. In that year, for
the first time, the law required the commissioners to estimate the income of
all lawyers and physicians residing and practicing in the county in order that
a tax on their incomes might be assessed. The following is a list of practicing
physicians:
Turtle Creek Township--David Morris, John Ross, John Van Harlingen, Caleb B.
Clements, Wilson Thompson.
Franklin Township--John S. Haller, Otho Evans, George McAroy, Benjamin Dubois.
Clear Creek Township--Joseph Stanton, Samuel Marshall, Joseph Hildreth, William
H. Anderson.
Deerfield Township--John DeHart.
Hamilton Township--John Cottle, Benjamin Erwin.
Wayne Township--Horace Lathrop, John E. Greer, Joseph Craft.
Salem Township--George Starbuck.
The foregoing list includes practitioners of all schools of medicine. The tax
list at this time was 5 mills on each dollar of annual income. The County Commissioners
in 1830, estimated the income of each of these physicians at $500, except John
Cottle, whose income was placed at $1,000.
In the same year the commissioners made estimates of the income of eight lawyers
practicing in the county, six of which were placed at $750, one at $500 and
one (Thomas Corwin's) at $1,000.
The Lebanon Medical Society, still in existence, was organized October 28,
1837. In its membership were scientific practitioners from different parts of
Warren county and from adjoining counties. I conclude this article with a brief
sketch of the distinguished physician who was its first president, and I believe
the first practitioner in Warren county to receive the honorary degree of M.D.
Dr. Joshua Stevens
was born near the village of Winthrop, Me., March 21, 1794. His early pursuits
were farming and bricklaying. He had the advantages of a plain common school
education, which he greatly improved by diligent self-study. On the 4th of July,
1817, he left Maine and opened a select boarding school at Bristol, near Philadelphia.
Here he commenced the study of medicine, and subsequently entered the office
of Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia. He also attended the
lectures of the medical department of the university during the winters of 1818,
19, 20, and, without waiting to graduate, entered upon practice in Philadelphia.
He decided to come West, and, in 1821, with two or three friends, floated down
the Ohio in a flat bottomed boat bearing letters of introduction to Dr.
Daniel Drake of Cincinnati. He intended to locate in that city, but
he became engaged in the practice at Monroe, Butler Co., near which village
he had relatives residing. In 1830, the Medical College of Ohio conferred upon
him the honorary degree of M.D. In 1847 he removed to Lebanon, where he resided
until his death.
Dr. Stevens performed a vast amount of professional labor and
enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his patrons and professional friends. He
was a reader of medical journals and new books, and a frequent contributor to
both journals and societies. He took an active part in the old "District"
Medical Society, and for years was its president, afterward he was for more
than ten years President of the Lebanon Medical Society. He was a member of
the Methodist church. About seven years before his death he was thrown from
a buggy while making a professional visit. The accident produced concussion
of the brain, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He died at
Lebanon May 2, 1871.
NOTICE: All documents and electronic images placed on the Warren County OHGenWeb site remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. These documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the submitter, or their legal representative, and contact the listed Warren County OHGenWeb coordinator with proof of this consent.
This page created 27 September 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
© 2004-2005 Arne H Trelvik
All rights reserved