Madison County History and Genealogy

History and Genealogy



History of Madison County


Medical Profession of Madison County


In the preparation of the following history of the medical profession of Madison County, I have tried to be thorough and impartial. The time given me for its preparation has been limited, and I have found an apathy on the subject that I did not foresee or expect when I gave my consent to attempt the enterprise. In the preparation of it, I have arranged by villages, in as near a chronological order as my information would admit. In the year 1829, there existed in Ohio a law, under which the income of all professional men was taxed. Samuel Kerr was the Prosecuting Attorney of this county, and he was ordered by the court to return for taxation the names of all practicing lawyers and physicians in the county. His own name was returned as the only practicing lawyer in the county; and Lorenzo Beach, Aquilla Toland, Israel Bigelow and John Warner, as the only physicians in the county. They were each taxed $5 per annum.

In 1847, the income tax was in proportion to the amount of income, and in that year the following physicians were reported, and assessed the amounts opposite their respective names:

Thomas Adams, $1; Jacob Swank, $1; Milton Lemen, $3; Elam Bodman, $3; Samuel McClintick, $3; William McClintick, $2; D. E. McMillan, $3; Aquilla Toland, $4; William A. Strain, $3; Toland Jones, $1; William F. Cartmell, $1; Dennis Warner, $1; Daniel Wilson, $2; M. Valentine, $1; William Cheney, $1; David Wilson, $3; Jennet Stutson, $4; Ezra Bliss, $2; Charles McCloud, $3; D. W. Seal, $1; A. W. Fields, S3; D. K. Bigelow, $3; J. L. McCampbell, $1; Willis H. Twyford, $2; J. H. Taylor, $1; M. P. Converse, $2; William Adams, $1; C. A. Putnam, $1; D. R. Bell, $3; J Simmerman, $1; Dr. Withrow, $1.

It is presumable that the many different isms and systems of practice that have prevailed here have prevailed in common elsewhere throughout the country, but it may not be amiss to mention that, owing to the scarcity of physicians, and the difficulty that the early settlers experienced in obtaining the wherewithal for a quid pro quo when they were obliged to employ them, cheaper systems of practice were introduced by charlatans. One of these was the system of "steaming" the patient. The practice was to place the patient in bed, closely covered. Then a large kettle of water was placed over the fire, in the open fire-place, with a close fitting lid, through which a long tin spout was inserted. When the water began to boil, the farther end of the spout was thrust under the bed clothes, and all the generated steam was thus turned on to the patient. A large portion of the families through the country had their steam kettle aud tin spout. I remember of an old woman over in the Darby Plains who sent for a "steam doctor," and who was really very sick. She did not live many hours after the "doctor's" arrival, and when they came to "lay her out," they found her parboiled! The skin slipped from her body like the skin from a boiled eel!

Upon the heels of this system came the Thomsonian or botanical system. For this system they sold "family rights." Their different preparations were numbered and labeled. No. 1 was good for one thing, and No. 2 for another thing. Their favorite number was "No. 6." To take a teaspoonful of it one would think they had made a mistake and got No. 60! Capsicum, or Cayenne pepper, was the chief ingredient. "Dr. Gunn," a work on domestic practice, was placed on the table by the side of the Bible and Fox's Book of Martyrs. But this was a great improvement over the "steam doctors." But No. 6 and lobelia, as universal panaceas and specifics, have had their day. A lobelia doctor was called to see a very nice little woman, a bride of three months, up at Milford, in the palmy days of lobelia and No. 6, who was moderately sick with milk-sickness. He prescribed a lobelia emetic. He told her to stick her finger in her throat to aid the emetic. It is likely it did to some extent, as she died in two minutes, from collapse. But a new light has dawned. More rational systems now prevail, and the main differences now existing exist mostly in the names. Under the laws of Ohio now, all practitioners are required to be graduates of some regularly chartered college; and most of the physicians of Ohio, and all in Madison County, are moderately well qualified for the responsibilities and requirements of the calling.


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