Reed, Guy Pace (M.D.)

GUY, TARWATER, SHELBY, CISSEL

Posted By: Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer
Date: 7/7/2019 at 07:59:32

GUY PACE REED, M. D.

Dr. Guy Pace Reed, of Davis City, is one of the leading representatives of the medical profession in Decatur county and has given especial attention to the practice of surgery, in which he is very proficient. He was born February 18, 1875, in Putnam county, Missouri, a son of David P. and Harriet F. (Tarwater) Reed. The father, who was born in Ohio, was of Irish, German and Turkish descent. The paternal grandfather, William Reed, was born in Ireland in 1760 and married a lady of Turkish birth. David P. Reed was an agriculturist by occupation and for fifty-two years resided upon a farm in Putnam county, Missouri, which he entered from the government. His last years, however, were spent in Mercer county, Missouri, where his demise occurred in 1902. His wife was born in Missouri, of German and Scotch ancestry, and following his demise removed to Gravity, Iowa, but passed away at Shenandoah at the home of her son, Dr. D. W. Reed, in 1912. Mr. and Mrs. David P. Reed were the parents of ten children.

Dr. Guy P. Reed attended the district schools and later completed a course in the high school at Powersville, Missouri, after which he entered the University of Missouri at Columbia, matriculating there in 1895. He remained in that institution for one year and then became a student o in the New Medical College at Keokuk, Iowa, but after a year entered the St. Louis College of Physicians & Surgeons, completing the three years’ course I 1899 and receiving the degree of M. D. Some time later the course was lengthened to four years and he returned and after further study was graduated in 1901 with the M D. degree. He then went to Vienna, Austria, and took a five months’ course in the Allgemeine Krankenshaus, or General Hospital. Upon returning to the United States he located in Davis City, Iowa, and in the intervening years has built up a large and distinctively representative practice. He also conducts a well equipped sanitarium on the second floor of the building in which his office is located and gives much attention to surgical work. Although he devoted many years to preparation for his profession he has never allowed himself to believe that his student days are over, but on the contrary is constantly seeking to add to his knowledge of both medical and surgical science.

Dr. Reed was married February 8, 1900, to Miss Edith Shelby, of St. Louis, a daughter of Joseph and Victoria (Cissel) Shelby. Her father was for many years a farmer of Perry county, Missouri, and was living there at the time of his demise. His widow survives and makes her home in St. Louis. Dr. and Mrs. Reed have two children: Roe B., who was born July 2, 1901, and who is now a student in the Davis City high school; and Shelby D., whose birth occurred November 16, 1905, and who is attending the Davis City schools.

Dr. Reed is a republican and was for one term mayor of Davis City, while for several years he has held the office of city physician. Fraternally he belongs to the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his wife is a member of the Rebekahs. He holds membership in the Decatur County Medical Society, of which he served for one term as president; the Iowa State Medical Society, in which he is well known; and the American Medical Association. He has the confidence of the general public and of his colleagues in the profession and personally he is very popular. He is prominent in county and state medical circles and his practice has grown steadily since he first located in Davis City.

Biography ~ Dr. Guy Pace Reed
Davis City, Iowa

Des Moines Tribune
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
September __, 1951

RUGGED START BUT HE MADE IT
by Herb OWENS
DAVIS CITY, IA. – Down in the rugged bush country of Missouri, south of Corydon, a pioneering family lived off the land, bartering pork for coffee, sugar, salt, soda and shoes. There were six sons and four daughters living with their parents in a one-room log house, with loft. Their winter caps, socks, mittens and underclothing were hand-knitted from home-spun-wool. Their summer hats were home-cured and woven rye straw.

The family got to town about twice a year – but never was there a dollar to spend. Only fresh butchered pork to trade with – and only for necessities.

Of the six sons, four became physicians and surgeons. Three of them practiced in Iowa. It’s a very interesting, but very long, story – and you can only get a sketch of it in several hours with Dr. Guy Pace REED, 76 – only surviving son.

“I’m probably one of the few people alive today who has washed a sheep, clipped it, picked out and combed the wool, spun the yarn and wove the cloth for material which my mother and sisters could make me clothing,” said Dr. REED, who came here in 1902 to build a practice in the Grand river valley.

“Everybody in our family worked. When boys were 6, they had learned to peg and extra sole on their shoes, the only store clothes they owned.

SCHOOL
When REED was 12, the Milwaukee railroad came through a mile from his home, and the town of Powersville was established. There was a school, but tuition was $2 a month.

“Dad traded a barrel of molasses to the superintendent for the tuition of my brother and me,” he said. “Then a young doctor, a fellow who had studied in Germany, came to town. I, who had never owned a store suit and never had a dollar to spend, decided to be a doctor – and to study in Europe.”

REED, however, became a school teacher – with 48 tough students. He was tutored in Latin by the town banker – but he was tutored in self-defense by intuition. He carried a revolver to school.

Of his students, however, he’s proud today of two: Mabel WALKER WILLEBRANT, famous attorney, and Charles AVERY, University of Montana president.

COLLEGE
After premedic work at University of Missouri, REED had a year at Keokuk Medical college and two years – in which he did three years’ work – at St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons. Graduated in 1899, he practiced two years at mercer, Mo., before returning to St. Louis for a fourth year’s work. Meantime, he married Edith SHELBY – in 1900. She is still his “bride,” in robust health.

Dr. REED, honored by the community this summer, battled all the odds here – lack of roads, lack of facilities, snows, rains and floods. Yet he has performed “almost every type of major operation” in the homes of his patients – and, occasionally, he still operates.

How he almost drowned, clinging to the back of his buggy while a team of horses swam over the flooded Grand at 3 a.m., is but one of the “thrillers” of his life.

SONS
The greatest blow of his life came in 1945 when Dr. Roe REED, on of the two sons, died at Clearfield. The other son, Shelby REED, is a California hotel man. There are three grandchildren, one a soldier in Korea; Julie REED, 11, who lives here; and Patricia REED, who got a master’s degree at S.U.I. – and who is studying medicine now in Philadelphia.

Remember how a little boy vowed to be a doctor and study in Europe? In 1912, Dr. REED left his practice; he went to the university of Vienna, Austria, and studied surgery and diagnosis.

So, a youth who came out of the Missouri hills at 20 rose to fulfill a boyhood ambition at 37. And at 76, he looks back on those boyhood days and says, “We didn’t have a dollar – but it was a bountiful life.”

SOURCES: genealogical clippings and notes of Pearle Veva (BRAMON) FOLAND

Transcription and submission by Sharon R. Becker