"The History of Decatur County, Iowa: 1839 - 1970"

by Himena V. Hoffman
Published by Decatur County Historical Society, Leon IA, 1970
 
Part III - The Era of Business, Politics and Railroads 1865 - 1900, Pages 90 - 102
Transcription by Sara LeFleur
 
One case which is said to have given attorneys for both sides something to recall in later years was when JOHN S. charged his wife with pouring boiling water on him. In the hearing she said he hit her with a stick of wood first.

There was nothing dull about the practice of law in these days and almost every term of court include criminal cases.

The crime, however, which aroused the deepest anger in the county was not a murder but was the attempt in 1877 to rob the courthouse, and the damage done to that almost new building, which had been built with much sacrifice, was great.

For many years the courthouse had been a brick building on the southwest corner of the square. It was inadequate and in no way fireproof, but the Panic of 1873 and the funds needed for railroads had not encouraged a new building. The disaster came: the courthouse burned, all records in most offices were destroyed, and Decatur County, ready or not, must build a new courthouse. Fortunately, there was available $2000 from the sale of the lots given the county when the county seat was located in Leon. With this amount on hand the county judge contracted for the making of brick; the supervisors approved a plan for a $20,000 building and appropriated $10,000 swampland money; and the hard pressed people of Leon donated $6000. With this amount secured S. GARGRAVES, Leon contractor who had married Judge SALE’s daughter, agreed to build the courthouse for the amount on hand.

It was dedicated July 4, 1874, amid much rejoicing.

It was a two-story building in the center of the square, with narrow windows and a central hall. The courtroom was on the second floor. While the building itself was plain it had a cupola which was much admired. Around the base of the cupola was a railing inside which was slender columns above the roof. Around the roof was another railing and extended from the center of the roof another column, possibly a place to hand a flag if one could be attached!

To the people of the county it was a beautiful building of which they were very proud. As to what happened on April 1, 1877, the letter written by JOSEPHINE KELLOG give a fine description.

“Dear Ones – The citizen of Leon have had a dreadful April fooling this morning. Just about daylight there was a sound heard which the people in town though to be some rowdy trying to get up a scare for the day and those more remote took to be thunder, as it had been a blustering night. But a few people immediately upon the square soon found out the truth, which was that the whole west side of the courthouse was blown out, undoubtedly the work of inexperienced burglar in an attempt to get at the money in the treasury. One man saw four running in different directions for a little way, then joining each other and going south. Those who found out the true state of the case set out to appraise others, but nearly everyone believed it a ruse; the county officer especially and very much afraid of being duped by practical jokers. A young man came down to arouse Mr. VARGA, treasurer, and Mr. BLACKUS, who lives next door, sheriff of the county. Mr. VARGA did not give sufficient credence to the report to get up, but

Mr. BLACKUS dressed and went far enough to get a view of the courthouse. Seeing the east wall intact he felt sure he had been fooled, and went back and went to bed. Meantime, the perpetrators of the crime had gone, no one knows whither yet. At half past eight Mrs. BULLOCK came over and told us about it and said Mr. BLACKUS had just been at their house and was trying to get a posse of men to go in pursuit, so it may have been later before they got after the men. MURRAY wanted to mount George and put right out with the first squad, but LIZZIE felt as though she could not live through such a day of agitation and suspense, as it would be for her with him away in pursuit of such desperate characters; so he gave up the thought, yet he reminded me of a resistive horse chomping the bit all the way to town. I was so out of breath I could hardly move trying to keep up with him. We were all ready for Sunday School when Mrs. B. came, so MURRY said I might as well go along and see the damage with him. The courthouse is almost an utter wreck. Three walls are standing and the roof remained, but two of the remaining walls are cracked, and all the supports and braces are torn from under the roof. The floor of the courthouse was swaying and swaying and a great part of the furniture was down in the ruin. It is supposed that the burglars had been at work trying to open the safe all night, and that morning approaching they resolved to blow it open, but being novices caused a much greater explosive than they intended and were obligated to leave without getting anything for their ill bestowed pains. The safe had not yet been reached by the excavators when we came away, being buried in the thickest of the rubbish and the wind blowing such a gale that men hardly dared venture into the ruin. Mr. VARGA had recovered many of his books but said they had been much mutilated by the depredators. If the vault had been as securely locked as the safe, it is probable they would have given up the undertaking as hopeless and retreated doing little or no damage, but Mr. VARG says he only closed the door and thrown the bolt without using the combination and locking up, intending to go right back after supper and have occasion to go in again, but for some cause he did not return. The safe is the same one that came through the fire three years ago, night before last, and MURRAY says the seams were slightly open, and the burglars thought they certainly could and would get at the content in one way or another. They did not get a cent of money, even the box of change outside the safe escaped their notice.”

FRANK GARBER wrote,
“Two bright kids blew up the courthouse
Tried to steal the county’s cash
But they landed safe in prison
So their plans all went to smash.”
However, neither the adjective “bright” no the noun “kids” applied well.

The guilty ones were not “kids” but married men with children, who had unsuccessfully engaged in business in Leon and “bright” did not apply either, as a more inept job of entering the building or of blowing up the safe it would be difficult to image. It was almost morning before they got into the right office and the blast they set off blew out the west wall of the building, instead of opening the safe door.

There was juvenile delinquency then, too, but it was perhaps dealt with more directly by parents and teachers. To judge by an item in a newspaper in 1890 when the law did take over, one cause might be given “a number of boys 10 to 14 were arrested. These boys got all their ideas from a nickel library.” It was not necessary to have psychiatric tests nor could television violence be blamed in 1890!

While paperback books were credited with being the cause of the downfall of these boys a study of the court records show that not only the justices’ of the peace and mayors’ cases but the more serious one involving adults were often related to drunkenness.

How easy it was to obtain liquor in a drugstore is indicated by the death of one Leon citizen, who came into such as store “and as was his custom” poured his own drink. Unfortunately, he got a hold of the wrong bottle and took a fatal dose of poison.

In this instance there was no trial, just a hearing “death by accident.”

An item in a newspaper indicated that getting drunk was just a part of some social events: “A lot of the boys attended a dance on Friday evening and got drunk as a natural consequence.”

Some attorneys had clients who sent for them rather regularly to get them out of jail after a drunken spree and the newspapers described cause of arrest without using dignified terms or omission of names. “JOHN ------ was arrested as a common drunk,” "CHESTER -------- was a noisy drunk.” "A----------- ---------- was arrested because he came to see the girl to whom he was engaged when he was drunk and refused to leave.

FRANK GARBER in his poem mentions, “WASH MCGREW, the hotel keeper, sold the whiskey and the beer.”

In 1890 there was much argument over allowing liquor to be ordered and sent into those who wanted it. The “original package” method was much opposed but not successfully.

The jail continued to be the log building built in 1856 and until 1884 it was here that those given jail sentences were kept, and it was here that attorneys conferred with clients who were confined there. In 1884 a brick jail with living quarters for the sheriff and his family was built a block east of the north side of the square. It was described in 1884 as "an elegant structure of the most modern type for such purposes.” It is still in use in 1970 but can no longer be so described.

To complete this description of the attorneys and the sense and conditions related to the legal profession in this period, here is another quotation from Prairie Heart Beats:
“N. P BULLOCK was a lawyer,
Mr. FORREY was a judge,
WARNER helped the legal copsters
Settle every grudge
JOHN HARVEY and ED HASKETT
Knew the law from A to Z
And ED CURRY game them battle
In a way twas great to see.
By 1900 a new group of lawyers carried on the legal activities of the county.

The largest number of people in a profession were the teachers but their prestige, with a few rare instances, was not great in the county, however much they influenced the lives of their pupils.

The men, particularly if they were at the head of a town school or taught music, did have the title of Professor, but they were poorly paid and very often not highly regarded.

It was the businessmen, with now and then a lawyer, who were on the school board and who “ran the school.” They “hired and fired” the teachers, decided on the text books, determined school policies, and adopted rules for the teachers as well as for the pupils. Teachers for much of this period even in the town schools were given contracts for a term only. (The school year was divided into a fall term, a spring term, and a winter term. This custom was continued in rural schools long after 1900.) With so short a tenure, an over supply of teachers, and the custom in many rural schools of employing a woman teacher for spring and fall terms and paying a higher-priced man teacher just for the winter term, when the big boys attended, the teachers had little security as to employment.

Of course, it was true that it took little education to qualify as a teacher. There were teachers’ examinations open to any who wished to teach.

After a time, certificates were issued in accordance with the test results. First grade, second grade, and third grade certificates were issued.

Many of the teachers had never attended high school, and those who had attended college were almost non-existent until high schools were established, and even then, high school teachers were not require to have degrees, in fact some were not more the high school graduates who had perhaps gone to a summer Normal or taken work at the school conducted by Professor HARKNESS at Garden Grove. Some were not even high school graduates.

In fact one of the farmers in the county who also taught school it was stated in his biography, “His advantages of education were limited but he obtained sufficient to teach school.”

As to the over supply of teachers, it is noted in a newspaper item in 1878 that sixteen teachers had applied for one school in Center township. That this is given newspaper space indicates that so large a number was unusual but the examination of such records as are available indicate that there were most often three or four applicants for every job.

Minutes of the Leon School Board between 1870 and 1885 show applicants far exceed positions and as each applicant stated salary asked, there was evidently a tendency to give jobs to those who would come for the least pay. One amazing exception to this was the employment of JOSEPHINE KELLOGG at the wages given the men!

As to the number of teachers in 1870 there were over one hundred teachers employed, these, with those not employed because of the over supply, would probably bring the number to around one hundred and fifty. Of those employed nearly two-thirds were men whose pay averaged around forty dollars a month. The women averaged about ten dollars less, but many still taught for twenty-five [dollars] a month. Decatur township, and the Independent District of Decatur for some reason “justly paid male and female teachers the same,” a policy which even when adopted today (1970) is evaded by “fringe benefits,” payment for special services, and a schedule that rates positions held by men at higher pay.

In 1870 there were four brick school houses. The rest were either frame or log, and it seems probable that at least forty per cent of the children went to school in log school houses.

The number in attendance varied. In some schools as many as seventy were enrolled in a single school and there is the tale that one woman teacher had at one time an enrollment of ninety.

However, enrollment and attendance were far from the same thing. Little children and some were started as young as three, came in the fall and spring. When winter came they did not attend, but it was then that the older boys, sometimes even young men in their twenties, returned to school. The farm work was done as they came to “get learning” or perhaps to test the strength of the teacher or because the older girls also came for winter terms. Before high schools were established, and in the rural schools until after World War I, there was no such thing as graduation. Students came as long as they wished.

The subjects taught were first of all reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic. McGuffey’s Readers were in use until after 1890 in most schools. Spelling was the subject that led to exciting interschool contest and made the champion speller as acclaimed as the football hero or basketball star today. Ability in mathematics, particularly mental arithmetic was considered so important that after high schools were established, it seemed quite logical to Board members to pay more to a mathematics teacher. Writing was carefully taught and no teacher whose penmanship was poor could be considered desirable. The ornamental penmanship with its fancy scrolls and flourishes was much admired.

While these four were the basic subjects, history and geography were taught with the emphasis on facts. Many teacher had the pupils memorize much of the texts. On the other hand, brief stories teaching patriotism, courage, or other virtues were included, often in the footnotes of the texts, that may have had more meaning for the pupils than the subject matter of modern texts, that only one teached no facts but included none of the once-treasured stories. Barnes’s history texts and Myers General History was most commonly taught and ability to find the counties, states, and countries required. In Decatur County geography started with drawing a map of the county and learning to say the townships ending with “Garden Grove, Franklin, Long Creek, Richland” in one breath.

Physiology was taught again with the emphasis on facts, which include naming the bones of the body. During the latter part of the period the effects of alcohol on the body was illustrated by highly colored charts. There can be no doubt that this teaching produced some of the feeling as to evils of alcohol that led to the Eighteenth Amendment.

Music was a part of most school programs in the form of group singing. Singing schools were often held at night in school houses, though not taught by the teacher. For instance, in 1890 JAMES GRANDSTAFF, a Leon businessman, held a singing school at Fairview.

Subjects now taught in high school were sometimes taught in the rural schools.

It was not unusual for the winter term students to have a class in algebra or even geometry. It would seem that even Latin was taught in a few schools or an ambitious teacher might offer some science courses. In fact it would seem that teachers taught whatever they knew, and had students interested in knowing.

In Leon a high school was established which graduated its first class in 1871. The members of this class were SAMUEL GATES, W. T. SILVERS, MATILDA JORDAN, and A. F. WOODROFF.

In these days when teacher, parents, and other interested citizen are expected to assist in raising money to send the senior class on trips to places, north, south, east, or west, it is amazing to discover that these early classes raised money to give things to the school. For instance, the class of 1871 gave books to the school, gave a microscope, and an organ costing $275, thus beginning a library, a science laboratory, and a music department. They also gave the school a history chart.

Until the close of the century the curriculum did not change greatly but a few of the subjects moved to the college level. In 1871 the courses included astronomy, geology, and moral philosophy. After 1890 there were new texts used particularly in the town schools. However, since students bought their own texts, the many changes made when they are bought with the taxpayer’s money, were not to be expected. In the Leon High School in 1896 MABEL HORNER was employed to teach elocution, and it could be presumed other schools include such instructions, as being able to “speak a piece” or give a dramatic reading was a sign of being what was called “accomplished.”

Because it is typical of the courses offered in the county schools in the period between 1890 and 1900, the booklet issued by the Leon School Board in 1892 is of interest. It states that three courses of study were offered. The classical, the normal, and a two-year business course.

In the classical course students were required to take three years of Latin and one of German. Algebra and geometry were taken the last two years following two years of arithmetic. United States history was taught in the freshman year and general history the third year. The sciences were physiology, zoology, and botany. Natural philosophy was taught in the junior year. Grammar was required for two years, followed by composition and in the senior year both literature and rhetoric were taught.

Those in the normal course did not take a language but instead studied orthography, penmanship and drawing, word analysis, and didactics.

The business course included bookkeeping and commercial law, but there were no classes in typing or shorthand.

Professor SCHOENERT devoted a half hour a day to teaching chorus singing and the reading of music to the entire school.

There seems to have been a school or music operated by Professor SCHOENERT in connection with the school for which remarkable claims were made. In one term a student was “qualified to each vocal music,” two terms “would suffice” for teaching piano, and in six weeks “a thorough musical education could be acquired.”

The school year was divided into three terms, sixteen weeks in the fall, twelve weeks in the winter, and eight in the spring. V. R. MCGINNIS was principal and J. M. HOWELL his assistant in the high school. Mrs. MCCAUL, HOMER DYE, and HATTIE DRAKE taught grammar grades. The primary rooms had teacher: Mrs. HASKETT, Mrs. LINDSEY, MARY PARRISH, and EVA KIRKPATRICK.

To return again to some statistics. By 1890 there were one hundred and sixteen school houses in the county and one hundred and thirty-four classrooms.

In that same year two hundred and thirty-nine applied for certificates and though forty-four had failed, it is evident that there were still a surplus of teachers.

There were one hundred and fifteen enrolled in the normal school at Garden Grove besides an enrollment of four thousand five hundred and thirty-nine in all schools, or at least that many of school age.

It has been said that teachers were expected to “keep their place” and for most of them this meant a station not only far below the businessmen and their wives but below the other professions and the farm owners.

However, to such men as AARON FRAZIER, who headed the Leon Schools from 1868 to 1876, this did not apply. He was a man with much energy and advanced ideas. He divided the school into three departments, set up a high school course, and presented the first graduating class with their diplomas. His family had an established social position, and his daughter, Miss ABBIE, was a musician who gave recitals with printed programs. Reunions of the students who went to school to Professor FRAZIER were held in later years, and he was extolled as the man who did the most to establish high standards in the Leon schools.

If AARON FRAZIER in Leon expected to be rated as equal at least of any businessman with doubtless due respect to those on the Board, RICHARD HARKNES in Garden Grove did not need to defer to anyone, for he owned his school and was a businessman as well as an educator. Professor HARKNESS came from New York and was a scholar of Latin and Greek whose admirers would not have placed any of the Hungarians first as a Latinist. He was a distinguished-looking man, always dignified and with a commanding manner that was always respecter. His gracious wife, SUSIE HUMESTON HARKENS, made their home a hospitable one. The school that Professor HARKNESS established combined a normal school with college subjects. Discipline was strict, and standards were high. After RICHARD HARKNESS left Garden Grove, he became a Professor of Classical Languages at Parsons College, but he often returned to Decatur County to deliver an address or to teach in county institutes.

In 1890 students in the normal school at Garden Grove enrolled in classes in mathematics, science, literature, language, and didactics. There was also a college preparatory course and courses offered in typing and shorthand. Students could secure room and board at from $2.50 and $3.00 a week and rooms at $1.00 per month.

The announcement of the school stated, “All true teaching is suggestive. We combine the synthetic and analytic method.” Though Processor HARKNESS no longer headed the school, standards still were high. “Idlers and pleasure seekers will not find our company congenial.”

During the years of Professor HARKENSS, Garden Grove was the educational center of the county and even after he left, his influence continued as long as his former pupils lived and as has been said these included for many years after he was at Parsons those who attended the Teachers’ Institutes held each summer in Leon where subject matter and method were taught to teachers and would-be teachers, with much emphasis on preparation for passing the usually much-dreaded teachers’ examination.

Though the dreams of a college at Pleasanton ended during the Civil War and though the school at Garden Grove with its classes in Greek and Latin and its five thousand dollar brick building failed to become a college, and the third effort to have an institution of higher learning did succeed.

In 1895 the cornerstone for the first building on the Graceland College campus was laid. Land had been donated by Mrs. MARIETTA WALKER, Mrs. MINNIE WICKES, and R. L. HOPKINS, and twenty additional acres purchased. The first faculty consisted of four members who taught the thirty-five pupils. JOSEPH PENCE was the first president and ERNEST DENSNAP from Manchester, England, was the second.

In 1900 the enrollment had increased and RICHARD HARKNESS was president, but financial problems were making it doubtful if the school would survive.

I have mentioned the men who were the leading members of the teaching profession. Attention should also be directed to the three women of distinction. The first of these is JOSEPHINE KELLOGG, daughter of OZRO KELLOGG and his wife, HARRIET, whose history is so often quoted in the first section of his history.

JOSEPHINE was a lady of “firsts”. She was the first white baby born of non-Mormon parents in Garden Grove, and the first child born there whose parents were permanent settlers. It can be assumed she was the first girl in the county to cross into Confederate territory when she went as teenaged girl with her aunt to care for her cousin, Captain JOHNSON, held prisoner in Atlanta, Georgia, with serious wounds. She was the first woman County Superintendent of Schools. She was also the first Leon teacher to be paid a salary equal to a man. The first woman to be on the staff of the county paper and the county’s first and perhaps only woman orator.

Miss KELLOGG ‘S photographs show that she was an attractive woman, articles she wrote prove she was not only an able writer but an educator with ideas that progressive teachers would approve today.

Soon after she was county superintendent, ill health forced Miss KELLOGG to go south, where she became a teacher in a school for Negroes in Tougaloo College in Mississippi. She returned in 1880 and was orator of the day at the Garden Grove Reunion.

She was the only woman whose biography was included in a separate sketch in the Biographical History of 1885, which speaks of her as having attended college. If so, she was also one of the first, if not the first college woman from the county.

Her successor in the office of county superintendent was LAURA DYE, another woman of ability who led in the founding of the first public library in the county.

Both Miss KELLOGG and Miss DYE served one term as did the third woman to hold the office: EMMELINE MANNEY, afterwards Mrs. M. 9MALLETTE. Miss MANNEY’s ticket was in the minority that year, but Miss MANNEY was so favorably known that she received a good majority. She served but one term after her marriage but continued to be interested in the affairs of her community, particularly the Episcopal Church and the patriotic organizations.

Two other women held this office, both women like Miss KELLOGG, Miss DYE, and Miss MANNEY, of families that gave them prestige: Miss JULIA HOADLEY and Miss LOU ARNOLD. Miss HOADLEY had the distinction of holding office for two terms.

To return to the emphasis on education in the county during this period. One of the most important aspects was the establishment of high schools so that by 1900 such a school was a part of the town schools in most communities though it is rather a surprise to find that the class of 1890 in the Leon High School was four in number, just as had been that of 1871, and there were only two in 1892, but by 1895 there were over twenty in a class that included WILLIAM and MARY SPRINGER, HALLIE MOORE. ORVAL HAMILTON, and HENRY ARNOLD; These are names that show that the leading families were sending their sons and daughters to high school. The classes of 1895 to 1900 were larger than those in the ten years following which indicates that high school had not yet become a “must.”

The second point to notice is the increase in the number who attended college. As has been noted several of the lawyers who entered practice after 1875 had attended law school and the record of the doctors will show that those who entered practice after that time had attended a medical college. Teachers, particularly the women, rarely had more than courses at the County Institute. (There were also State Institutes as a newspaper item mentions that Miss KELLOGG attended one), but there were exceptions. Some of the men were noted for scholarship of a sort few superintendents can claim today.

Before the end of this period there were families that were sending their sons and even their daughters to college. In and around Garden Grove the State College at Ames was favored. Members of the MCLEAN family for instance, attended there. Two of JOHN MCKIBBENS’s daughters studied the fire arts. One as a musician and one an artist. LUCY BARR “went east to school,” and ALIDA GUERNSEY “studied for two years in Chicago after she finished school in Garden Grove.” One of IGNANCE HAINER’s sons went to college at Ames and one attended the University of Chicago. HATTIE JOHNSON entered Simpson at fourteen and gave her “Masters Oration” at seventeen. GEORGE BRUCE, son of BRYSON BRUCE attended Parsons College and it seems that MARGARET YOUNG, daughter of Major JOHN YOUNG also enrolled there.

Professor HARKNESS sent his daughter, MARY, to Wellesley, a college which even today graduates of our schools would fine difficult to enter. GRACE CURRY, only daughter of E. W. and ADDIE LUNBECK CURRY, attended a “Ladies Seminary” in Memphis, where she studied art. In later years she became an artist whose pictures are treasured possessions in Decatur County homes today. S. W. HURST sent his son JAMES and his daughter MARGARET to University of Iowa. JOSEPH and MARY PATTERSON WARNER sent their son, JOE, to the school at Iowa City also. KARL PARRISH attended the Colorado Schools of Mines. A son of O. E. STEARNS attended Simpson, STEPHEN, son of FRANCIS VARGA, attended the University of Iowa. ELOUISE FINLEY attended Simpson College and were she became a Pi Beta Phi and was one of the county’s first members of a college sorority.

The days were past when a fair education in the rural schools was considered sufficient. High school graduation was, however, considered adequate, and in fact many were satisfied with a year or two of attendance and it must be recognized that many were not even interested in attending college.

From those named as attending college, it is evident that it was the children of the well-to-do who went to college and then only if their parents believed in the value of such education.

The doctors between 1865 and 1900 lived in a period of changing standards. Those who entered practice before the Civil War had almost without exception been trained in the offices of other doctors. By the end of the period those who expected to be in the medical profession went to medical school.

Of those who were here before the War, Dr. MCCLELLAND continued to practice until his death, except for a short period at the close of the War when he left Leon to become a merchant. Dr. GARDNER continued to practice until death came to him. Of these two old-time doctors FRANK GARBER wrote:

“MCCLELLAND, with long whiskers grey
Dr. GARDNER wore his slicker and his head shawl every day.”

Both were more fortunate in their financial affairs than many doctors. Long after Dr. GARDNER’s death his widow left from his estate some forty thousand dollars to build a county hospital, but this did not happen until years after 1900.

Dr. THOMPSON and Dr. SALES gave up practice after the Civil War and G. W. BAKER, who married CARL JACOB HOFFMAN’s widow, soon limited his practice to members of his wife’s family and to a few former patients and their families.

JOHN P. FINLEY continued practice until shortly before his death in 1883; Dr. MULLINNIX was in practice for over thirty years; and Dr. LANEY at Decatur City was highly regarded for many years.

Of the doctors who came to Decatur County, some of the best known included W. A. TODD, who settled at Garden Grove in 1866. He had studied medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. DOOLITTLE, a partner of Dr. TODD, graduated at the University of Iowa. W. D. DUFF also came to live in Garden Grove in 1896.

Dr. H. C. BONE came to Grand River in 1875 and continued in practice many years.

At Lamoni, Dr. BISSELL was listed as the first physician and several others soon opened offices there.

H. C. VAN WERDEN first opened an office at High Point, then after two years went to Garden Grove, then again in two years settled in Leon where his brother WILLIAM also practiced.

Dr. HARRY LAYTON came to Leon in 1874 and using the term in its present sense, was in a way the county’s first surgeon. An account of the doctors in a county history calls him “a surgeon of ability and courage,” the last adjective suggesting the feeling about surgery at that time.

A medical society was organized in 1975, a step forward in the medical profession in the county. In 1886 the active membership was nineteen, including two doctors at Weldon, Dr. O. W. FOXWORTHY and Dr. ENOS MITCHELL, and Dr. N. J. HYATT at Humeston. There was a Dr. DANIELS at Terre Haute; Dr. ARCHIBALD HAMILTON at Blockley; and Dr. E. C. MASON who gave his address as Harding. Dr. HORNER, afterwards at Lamoni, was then at Davis City.

This list does include Dr. HENRY PARRISH of Decatur, whose medical practice it would seem was limited to his drugstore, but on the other hand, does not include such men as Dr. G. W. BAKER who, like Dr. DEKALB, turned his attention from his profession to farming.

It would seem that in a county that in 1970 has not more then seven of the medical profession, there were from twenty to twenty-five in the profession which doubtless accounts for their interest in combining it with other ways of earning a living.

The number, too, is connected with the much shorter time spent in preparing to enter the profession though the number who had attended medical school increased. There was at this time a flourishing medical school at Keokuk, Iowa; Keokuk Medical and Surgical College, whose students had included Dr. LAYTON, Dr. FOXWORTHY, Dr. HENRY VAN WERDEN and Dr. HAMILTON and Dr. WAILES.

In noting the long list of doctors who registered in Decatur County between 1875 and 1900, it must be remembered that there were those who did not stay long in the county. One young doctor, WILLIAM EMERICH, died at the age of twenty-seven.

Some of the doctors in this period did specialize though at the same time they would be classed as general practitioners. Dr. HORNER received special training in the treatment of eye and ear diseases. Dr. LAYTON was known as a surgeon; Dr. WILLIAM DUFF was said to have discovered a cure for cancer in 1882 and specialized in the treatment of ulcers, tumors, and scrofula. Dr. PUCKETT who died in 1879 was listed as a cancer doctor.

Dr. PAUL CASTER cured diseases through faith and prayer. After he left Decatur County, he had an extensive practice in Ottumwa. Mrs. KELLOGG in her history gives a rather detailed account of what he could do without medicine or surgery.

Mr. WILLIAM STOUT, while not a doctor, cured his daughter of a disease of the eye and was afterwards often consulted by those with “eye trouble.”

In connection with treatment of diseases, it is interesting to note that GEORGE REDMAN, after forty physicians had diagnosed his condition as cancer, was operated on at Keokuk for necrosis of the cheek bone, Mr. REDMAN had been certain he did not have cancer, “as he had not inherited it.”
 
 
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