Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in 1921 & 1922 Dr. James Frederick Clarke

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Thursday, November 3, 1921
Page SIX

NO. 35 (sic - should be 36)

Lieut.-Col. James Frederick Clarke
A. B., M. S., F. A. C. S., M. R. C., U. S. A., A. E. F.

Attention! And don't forget to salute this pleasant looking chap as he breezes by. He may not give you a return salute, but how can you expect a man to salute when he has his arms filled with toadstools?

We make haste to acquaint you with Lieut.-Col. James Frederick Clarke, A. B., M. S., F. A. C. S., M. R. C., U. S. A., A. E. F. And that isn't all of it but the linotype operator sayd he is a bit shy on capital letters so we'll omit the rest. One colleague of the good doctor's suggests that C. T. S., which stands for Chief of the Toadstool Society, should be added, but we fear the aforementioned colleague means to be facetious and we refuse to embrace the suggestion, for this is a serious matter.

Aside from carrying this flock of titles, being President of the Community club, being something-or-other in the Rotary club and the main squeeze in the Wit and Wisdom club, president of the Chautauqua association, head of the Toadstool club, and a few other activities, Dr. James Frederick hasn't much of anything to do except make a living out of the practice of his medical profession. Which may account for the fact that you never see the doctor armed with a fishing rod or gun.

Doc's a pretty snappy looking chap, isn't he. Doesn't look any older now than he did twenty years ago. The matter of his retention of youthfulness is a secret known to but a few of his army comrades, but it is one which should be shared with the public so that they may receive equal benefits. So the Tribune purposes to divulge it. Here it is:

When the doctor went to France with Hospital Unit R the unit was stationed at Contrexville. While there the doctor read a statement written by the great world medical authority, Dr. Osler, to the effect that the waters of Contrexville were of such purity as to promote longevity. From that time on the doctor spurned the gifts of rare wine brought to him by a grateful peasantry and made Contrexville water his sole drink. He told his comrades that Ponce de Leon made the mistake of his life when he left Europe to go to Florida and discover what he believed to be the Fountain of Eternal Youth; Doc said it was right there at Contrexville. However that may be, certain it is that the doc bowled up on that water something fierce, and he isn't showing any indications of getting old. Maybe there's something to that Contrexville idea.

Doctor James Frederick is depicted here as hurrying into camp from one of his favorite foraging expeditions with his arms full of toadstools, or mushrooms, it's all the same to most of us. Doc thinks they are a great delicacy and he was so fond of them he even got some of his comrades to eat some of the blamed things. When the colonel protested that the agari Doc gave him was nothing but a poisonous toadstool, Doc was indignant.

"You are wrong," he said. "It's a true specimen of the agaricaceae, of the basidiomycetous family, which, of course, is vastly different from the agaricus campestris which you have in mind."

"Mebbe so, but they all look like toadstools to me," replied the colonel.

Doctor James Frederick is a veritable slave to the duties of his profession and, like all good doctors, is ready to answer the call of distress at any hour and under any conditions. There is but one thing which might possibly swerve him from answering an S. O. S. from a sick man; if he should, on his way to pay the professional call, chance to come upon a flock of toadstools and should find among them a variety which he had never seen before, the doctor might forget the mission on which he was bent. For, next to an interesting surgical case, a new breed of toadstool is about the most interesting thing in the world for the doctor. Some of the members of hte doctor's hospital unit declare that the reason he was sent to Paris on duty was to get him someplace where he wouldn't be tempted by fields of toadstools. Doc served at the American Red Cross hospital in Paris, which was located on that famous Paris racetrack with the unpronounceable name. Being on a racetrack, Doc showed some agility in getting away from the shells of the Big Berthas the Germans were shying at him.

There's a lot of people owe Dr. James Frederick Clarke accounts which are not on his books. In fact, all the people of Fairfield and of Jefferson county and vicinity are pretty much indebted to him. For Doctor Clarke is the one person responsible for this county being blessed with its present magnificently equipped county hospital. And it is he who organized the hospital unit which went to France and did so much to alleviate the sufferings of many a wounded and sick Yank.

These were but ordinary events in the active life of this exceedlingly active physician. He never ceases in his attempts to organize and put across something of benefit to the community. He is an enthusiast in all he undertakes and gives his whole heart and soul to the undertaking. And versatile? Doc can cut off your leg, give you an original idea on a parade or mystify you with a handkerchief with equal ease--and he'd about as soon so one as the other.

Fact of the matter is that Doctor James Frederick Clarke is a pretty genial and useful sort of a chap on whom this community depends a great deal for its fun and for its medicine. Doc's always ready to give either. They say he owned the first automobile in Fairfield--a sort of a one-lunger affair. And report has it that he was accused of having a big emery wheel attached to it which kept his knives sharpened while the doctor was hurrying to answer a call. But this may not be true. Anyway, Doc was always ready. And, as stated, we all look to Doctor James Frederick both when we are sick and when we are well; he gives us some nasty medicine in the one case but he supplies a mighty find up building tonic in the other.