DR. GEORGE LEWIS

I was born and raised in Clarke County, near the little community of Leslie. In those days Leslie had two grocery or general stores where we sold produce - chickens, cream, butter, and eggs — Mother raised a lot of chickens. There was a church there and we went to Sunday School. We didn’t always have a minister but one came through once in awhile. It was during the depression and usually the ladies in the community would carry on. My favorite teacher was Mae McPherson, mother of Elywn, Maxine Kimball and Elleen Wheatley. They lived in the "big city of Leslie."

We lived about a mile west of Leslie on a farm - Mother’s first name is Hazel. She was always a very religious person so going to church was something we got to do every Sunday - if the old car wasn’t running, we walked. Dad’s name was Harold H. but nobody called him that. He was "Pete." Presently Mom is in Long Term Care at Clarke County Hospital. In later years Dad had a hobby of painting and some of his pictures are still around. One is in the Fellowship Hall of the United Methodist Church in Osceola, one in the Treasurer’s office in the Court House, and several in the Clarke County Historical Museum. He died in 1985.

Dr. Harken was our family doctor but he was in Florida at the time I was to be delivered. On Nov. 24, 1923 I was born at home and the doctor who delivered me was Dr. Hollenbeck. Everything froze up and Dad broke the pump handle trying to get water. Whenever my family would take me to Dr. Harken he would look over his glasses and ask who I was. Dad reminded him, “You were gone on vacation when he was born and that’s why you didn’t deliver him."

I had three sisters: Alice June Fleming and Marilyn Foster; and at the time I was being inducted into the army a younger sister was born. I got a pass to come home because Mother was in the hospital — by that time babies were born in the hospital. I didn’t tell why she was in the hospital for fear they wouldn’t give me the pass. This was Kathy Weaklend who died of cancer five or six years ago. She was about 19 years younger than I.

I must tell about Lewis Springs — before I went to grade school the folks built this big pond that had lots of springs in it. It was intended for family use but ultimately other people started coming. They would leave gates open and the cattle would get out so Dad wasn’t very happy but later they opened it to the public. They built roads and bridges so people could get there. It turned out to be quite a popular place in the area. We improved the pond into more of a pool-like environment with a diving board, a swing out over the water, and bath houses - such as they were. We ended up with a miniature golf course and 20-some picnic tables. We charged 10-cents a person to swim, which was a lot of money in the early 30’s. We might get as many as 500 swimmers — people came from Humeston, Grand River, Leon, Osceola and all the smaller towns around. There weren’t any other facilities like that. I had an Uncle Ray that lived neighbors, and he helped run it.

We had our own generator and light system powered by a Model—T Ford. It was an old chassis with a Model T motor. Going around the hind wheel that was off the ground there was a belt that powered the generator. It was DC current. We had tremendous lighting with a 500 watt bulb. Somebody would crank the Ford and the lights would come on. If there wasn’t enough gas the car would die and the lights would go off. Candy and ice cream stands were also lighted this way. I wasn’t very old at that time. We ran this place until we moved in the late 1930’s. Other places started getting swimming pools by then. 
I went to Knox Center #5 country school through eighth grade. You didn’t miss school on account of a snow storm in those days because everybody walked to school.  The teacher usually lived right next to the school and walked, too. In the blizzard in 1936 there wasn’t a car went by our house for 6 weeks but we kids enjoyed it-we slid and had all kinds of fun in the snow.

I went through country school and graduated from 8th grade. I expect I had about six different teachers-two men, the rest were women — who had just come from Normal Training classes in high school. I don’t remember ever having had a bad teacher. They were devoted people. An advantage of country school is that when you are all sitting in the same room you learn from what you hear recited by the other classes so you know a lot about the subject by the time you get there. One disadvantage is that you didn’t learn some of the basics. I think of grammar in particular and I didn’t do well in English in college. I did ok in high school but I am not sure that teacher cared. When we were ready to graduate from eighth grade we had to take county tests at the Court House. Ada Tillotson was the county superintendent and everybody had to toe the lime. I was glad to pass that test.

By the time I graduated I didn’t know for sure if I’d get to go to high school; but Alice June was going so I figured I would, too. Phane Hibbs started the agriculture department in the Osceola school and he went around lining up students. I took all the ag. courses that interested me in high school. We formed the F.F.A. (Future Farmers of America) organization of which I am a charter member. I participated in all the activities. We had livestock judging teams and took part in a lot of these events. Along with the teams, each individual was judged, and I won several honors in poultry judging and others.  We went to National Cattle Congress at Waterloo, Aksarben International Cattle Shows, Kansas City Royal Exposition and others.

Melvin Goeldner came to. Clarke County as extension director when I was probably a sophomore or junior in high school. I knew him through 4-H. Between my junior arid senior years the F.F.A. boys drove cars and pickups and made a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. Melvin was one of the chaperones — he and Hibbs and some parents. We slept out under the stars. Melvin slept in the car. As boys we weren’t afraid of anything and bears would come right up to you. One night, I think it was Ralph Fouche who put bacon under the back springs of Melvin’s car and a bear nearly upset it trying to get the bacon. Melvin really got rocked to sleep that night.

But Melvin always had ways of handling things like that. He remembers Yellowstone and whenever he sees me he always tells me that one of our cars got off in a ditch. He says that I said, "Now if we will just work together we can get this car out of the ditch” And we did. I really don’t remember that but if he says it was so, it probably was.

I played football in high school. I never was very good at basketball.  But whatever activities they had like school plays, I took part.  At that time enrollment was probably about 300 total. Our class was the smallest. About 48 graduated, whereas there were 60-70 in most classes.

When I was a junior in high school we moved to the big farm, 400-acres north of Ottawa. Dad wanted to do more farming. We didn’t have a lot of equipment. There were about 25 acres of bottom land. It was so wet one year that we couldn’t cultivate it so it grew up in velvet weeds. The com was a little over shoulder high, the weeds about knee high and my dad and I hoed the whole field. It took the skin off our arms. By that time I was thinking there must be something better I could do. Dad had thought I would follow in his footsteps as a farmer; but I talked to Mr. Hibbs and he thought I should go to college. I didn’t know what I wanted to do — what did I like? I liked livestock -- why not veterinary school? As much as I knew about it, it sounded like a good idea.

I decided I might try it. At the time of my graduation in 1941, I had a big scholarship from Sears Roebuck Co. for $200 which was to be applied to an ag. course at Iowa State. It was a way to get started and I enrolled in animal husbandry thinking I could get enough credits to take care of the pre—vet requirement.

The school was on quarters instead of semesters and agriculture tuition was only about $30 a quarter. Students like me would get about 25-cents an hour for working so it was quite a bit of money for me. I didn’t get all my pre-vet credits ill that year so I had to take more courses before I could apply to vet school.

I had a cousin going there enrolled in chemistry. He was probably two years older than me. `When I asked him about going there he told me I could go but I’d never make it into Vet School. That made me more determined than ever.

I did get accepted into Vet School. Their limited laboratory and other facilities determined how many students would be accepted. At that time they accepted 72 of us and I don’t know how many applied. I remember starting out scared to death. We were in the anatomy lab and the teacher announced that we should look around because "after this quarter two or three of you aren’t going to be here."

We walked into that anatomy lab which was different than it is now. There was no air conditioning and there was a strong formaldehyde smell. A dozen or so dead horses were standing suspended from the beams, a hook through their head and one in their tail. They hadn‘t been embalmed any too well. It was hot and smelly. I thought I might walk right on out. The class was divided into teams, three on each side of the horses. We were to dissect them.

In the first two tests I got D’s — then I really got motivated. I found out later a lot of others also got D’s so that may have been a way to out the size of the class or motivate those who would stay.

I had started my third year when I was inducted into the Army. I went into the service in June, 1943 and had a chance to get into the specialized group called Army Specialized Training Corps. Because I’d been accepted into veterinary school, I was put into that program while we were in the service. We went year round, making it through in three years instead of four. We lived in barracks, and mine was the ATO house -formerly a fraternity house.

At the time various military services took over the campus — women lived in sorority houses, some in fraternity houses. Navy, Army, and Air Corps were all enrolled in classes, all government military programs. All were in uniform. We were kind of under a cadet situation. While we had Army officers with an officer over us all, the barracks were nm pretty much by cadets, I was classed as a freshman in the vet school.

After a little over a year, when I was in the sophomore year, evidently the Army decided they didn’t need any more Vets so they discharged all of us that were left. I was subject to the draft after that. I came home to see the Draft Board to find out if I should continue on in school. I helped Dad on the farm but Frank Gibson who was on the Draft Board said that I should go back to school and they would call me when they needed me.

I never got called. The war was over the next year. June 15, 1946 I graduated from college and came to Osceola and worked with Dr. Windland who was a practicing Vet here at that time. His office was the next building west of the Chevrolet garage.

Practice was surely different then than now. We could probably carry most of the medications with some additional equipment in a case or two in the back seat of a car. Probably the only thing we vaccinated cattle for was black leg and brucellosis; hogs for cholera and erysipelas. Now, including all the viruses in cattle, there are approximately 20 or more diseases included in the vaccination program.

Hog cholera was a virus disease of swine that could be prevented by vaccinating, but there was no treatment for the disease. Big herds would die and people almost lost their farms if the hogs weren’t vaccinated early. Anyone could buy this live virus and use it on their own hogs but there was no control. They could buy what they wanted but gradually we got some regulations in force and some changes in the vaccine that made them less likely to cause the spread of the disease. Probably in the late 1950’s finally they took the vaccine off the market and actually when you diagnosed a hog cholera case, from then on, the whole herd was eradicated. That eventually ended the hog cholera.

Similar things happened in the programs of certain cattle diseases and through a program of test and slaughter we finally have eliminated tuberculosis and brucellosis. Those diseases also infect humans. They can be spread through milk (brucellosis) and transmitted directly from the animals. I had an uncle that died from that disease when I was a little kid. They didn’t know much about it then. At the beginning of my practice A few antibiotics were available. We had neoprontisil, a sulfanoide developed by the Germans in World War II, which we could inject in the vein. We had some sulfanilamide and sulfathiazole tablets. That was all we had. Later penicillin came into the practice and many, many more antibiotics were developed.

There was lots involved in the veterinary practice then. Dirt roads and mud caused us to get around differently than in later years. In order to get around I probably had the first civilian jeep in the county in ’48 — I bought that one new. It was the only practical 4—wheel drive we had then. Probably in the early ’50’s (’53 or ’54) I had one of the first 2-way radio systems and that helped a lot. Transportation progressed to pickups with 4-wheel drives. Then we got actual veterinary boxes to contain all the instruments, refrigeration and hot and cold running water. When we first started practice you took a pail to the door and asked for hot water. That was one of the first things you needed, if, for nothing else, to disinfect yourself and your boots and gloves. We also had to have it for the animals if we were doing surgery.

The practice has expanded a lot to include pets. We did some pets. We weren’t as well trained in those days as now in pet care which has become one of the main departments in college. In those days it was primarily for large animals but we had some schooling for dog and cat care. By now I’ve seen about everything including parakeets —one down by Kellerton had some, kind of respiratory problem. How would I got the medication to it? What I found was a tube of eye ointment which had bacittracin and neomyacim. I prescribed 1/2" paste on the roof of the mouth daily — it got all right and about once a year the owners would write and want mc to send them some more medicine for their parakeet.

Getting back to general practice: I began practice in 1946 and I was with Dr. Windland for about 4 years and then started practicing on my own in a little office in the alley on the south side of the square. I was by myself and we didn’t really have working hours. We worked daytime and night until the work got done - maybe 2:00 a.m. After about 6 more years of practicing by myself I decided to get another practitioner and I got another Vet to work with me. I built a small clinic on the north edge of town, on\ Highway 69. I’ve had several young people work with me from time to time after their first year out of Vet school. I had maybe six to ten. I considered it part of my continuing education to get young people just out of Vet school and learn from them. Some I hired were women. Sarah Garst was me for awhile. Now more than 50% of the Vet students are women and when I was in school there were none.

Because we had such poor conditions for surgery I think I developed the first large animal clinic in Iowa where we could bring the livestock in to do surgery and other kinds of treatment. Prior to that time much of our large animal surgery, such as Caesarian sections had to be done often in emergencies, sometimes in very filthy conditions. A heifer might be down in the middle of a knee deep muddy or manurey lot.  I remember a time I did a Caesarian in a garage in the middle of January because she was paralyzed and couldn’t get up. The next morning the farmer found her outside with her hind foot frozen so she had to be destroyed.

Norma Shannon and I were married Feb. 19, 1950. She had been working for an attorney, the late E. K. Jones. I met her at a church function — I think we were having some kind of musical at the time in the old Methodist Church. We’ve had 6 children — two boys, four girls. Steve Lewis who is now a practicing Vet in Osceola. He married Jean Stephenson, and they have a boy and two girls. Jane married Ed Davis who is a, barber. They have one son. Lynne married Lynn George, who is a farmer. They have three children. JoDee Chalker lives in Montgomery, Alabama and she has four children. Dan married Deb Gaumer and has three children. He works at Miller Products. Jackie Lewis lives in Des Moines and is employed by the Republican party of Iowa as finance chairman. Her job is to raise money and run a lot of their programs.

Norma has had a lot to do with my practice - taking calls, waiting for me to come home until 2:00 in the morning. We started our marriage in a small upstairs apartment in Osceola in February, 1950. Our daily life was almost always dictated by my profession so we hardly ever knew when I was going to be home for lunch or dinner. Because I was gone most of the time Norma took care of things at home. Not only was she the homemaker but the disciplinarian and telephone operator taking night calls, Sunday calls, weekend calls and raising our children. Norma always cooked complete meals for our family; therefore, we didn’t go to many restaurants or fast food places. She always kept, and still does, a very clean house. Since we had six children, our household was always full of people, with all their friends coming. Norma always saw that they attended Sunday School and all the church functions when they were home, and, of course, she always went to all the school functions.

We did belong to the Country Club. We learned to play golf and played quite a bit of golf which we both enjoyed at one stage of our life. We both loved to dance and we went to most of those when we could, too. I have to mention somebody else that was part of our life — my aunt Rose Hunt was the baby sitter for most of our kids in their younger years so that Norma and I could leave once in awhile. I’d say she was one of the nicest people I have known. She had a tremendous amount of patience and everybody loved her. We always were around fairly close in case she had calls for me to make or any other problems. Over the years our family did quite a lot of camping and traveling within the borders of the U.S., the Black Hills, trips to Yellowstone Park, California and that area; and we have also gone down to the southeastern part of the U.S. into Florida.

Norma and I traveled through Europe - Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, back when Jackie, our youngest, was a foreign exchange student to Norway. In later, years we have spent a lot of time with our kids and grandkids at a lake home down in Sun Valley near Ellston. Fishing, swimming, skiing, we did most of the water sports. It was a standing rule that anybody who went out of the house to the lake wore a life jacket. I consider it a tragedy to hear about drowning's when it is needless. I grew up around water. I swam on the team my freshman year in college. I am a good swimmer but I wouldn’t think of going swimming alone or without some protection.

I decided to retire in 1993 after 47 years of practice. Presently I do a lot of politicking, refinishing furniture, flower gardening and yard work at our home 609 E. McLane. I have about 3 acres.

I hadn’t been real active in politics until the late ’70’s - didn’t get real interested until then. All of my family have been Democrats - Dad, Mother, and all relatives. I was the first Republican — ever - in the clan. I was in practice before I voted the first time because at that time you had to be 21. I liked the philosophy of the Republican party. We’d been through the Franklin Roosevelt period and had gotten into Truman’s and I guess because of other friends I had at the time I decided to vote in the
Republican primary.

The first I got interested in helping a little was in the Eisenhower campaign. It was the first time I attended a county convention and got involved. That was when the younger Republicans rallied behind Eisenhower and the older ones got more interested — I believe it was - in Taft. Alfred Jones got me interested. We used to have coffee in the back room of his restaurant on the southeast corner of the square. We had quite a heated convention at that time and I spoke out. We called a recess and Mrs. Frank Paschall grabbed me by the lapels and said, "George Lewis, you were never supposed to be a Republican in the first place. All your folks were damned Democrats!"

I really didn’t do too much politicking after that - I was too busy with my practice and didn’t have the motivation, I guess. I think people have to have some kind of motivation to do anything really well.

In the course of the years Kenneth Fulk, manager of Harken Farms and secretary of the Iowa State Fair for years, opposed Tom Harkin in his first bid for the House – I was Kenneth’s fund raiser and county chairman at that time. Norma and I were county chairpeople in one of Jim Ross Lightfoot’s campaigns. It was then that I became acquainted with Barb Jackson, recently deceased, who helped us in that campaign. We worked in the Bob Dole campaign in his first bid for presidency eight years ago. That was the year Jackie kind of got involved and learned some expertise. We worked in the Tom Tauke campaign — you may notice that, with the exception of Jim Ross Lightfoot, all I helped were defeated.

Over the period of years I got involved and about eight years ago or longer they asked me to be county chairman so I’ve worked in that. I don’t think of myself as a politician -· I don’t really know enough about politics to think of myself that way.

Now I am enjoying my retirement, which gives me more time to spend with our children, grandchildren and friends. Retirement was not too difficult since we have our son Steve to continue in my footsteps. Most of our family lives near enough so we can enjoy them. Norma and I both enjoy good health and will continue to be active in community activities.

By grace you have been saved through
faith, and this is not your own doing;
it is the gift of God — not the result
of works, so that no one may boast.
(Eph:. 2: 8·9 Favorite Bible verses  of
Lourie Clark)

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