Pioneer doctors of Brown County, Nebraska

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Remy, G- O.

Pioneer doctors of Brown
County, Nebraska

PIONEER DOCTORS

of

BROWN COUNTY, NEBRASKA

BY
DR. G. O. REM Y

Ainsworth, Nebraska

orarf

^^^omy Public
^ V^ebster Street
PO Box 2270

^''^ ^%ne, (N 46801-2270

The early history of medicine in Brown County, Nebraska, like the
early history of the settlement of all new countries, can never be written
quite clearly. Too many of the occurrences of that time are forgotten.
What would be counted thrilHng in this time of good roads and auto-
mobiles were just every day occurrences. In the early eighties in Brown
county the pioneer doctor was never troubled by the telephone ringing in
the night but his rest was often disturbed by someone knocking on his
front door and demanding that he make a trip to attend some sick or
accidentally injured persons, twenty-five, thirty-five or even fifty miles
away. Early settlement in the sand hill country south, and tributary to
Ainsworth, Long Pine and Johnstown, were made by stock-men along
the streams of water because of the better feed and the easy accessibility
of the water for the stock. These streams were the Calamus, 25 miles
south, Goose creek 35 miles south, the Bloody 35 miles south and the
North Loup 50 miles south. Between these river settlements and the
better settled table lands north, lay a vast expanse of sand hills and small
valleys, each sand hill, with its blowing top of white sand, looking just
hke every other sand hill, with only dim trails instead of traveled roads
to guide the traveler. In good weather a trip to the nearest settlement
south, by hard driving could be made in a day, but to the farther settle-
ments it was an all day and night drive, or, if conditions were bad it
meant two nights and a day or, two days and a night, with but little
time for rest and refreshment. To the north, over the table land con-
ditions for travel were better. Here the roads, or trails, took the most
convenient course without regard to homesteads or section lines. Along
both sides of the Niobrara river there was a house at the bottom of
almost every canyon. To make it possible to reach these houses from the
table above, narrow winding roads had been dug into and down the side
of the canyon. Here the early doctor encountered rough and not always
too safe going. I recall a canyon experience of the fall of 1884. A
brother from Indiana, who afterwards moved to Nebraska was visiting
me and riding with me to see the country. One evening about sun down
we drove down one of these shoveled out roads to the home of Harve
Markley at the bottom of a canyon, on the north side and six miles
down the river from the Mead bridge. When I was ready to start home it
was quite dark and my brother asked: "How are you going to get out of
here?" I answered:"drive out the way we came in," he said: "you can't
see to drive out of here." I answered: "no, but the team will take us
out." he replied: "They may take you out but they won't take me, there
are some folks down in the Indiana I want to see again before I die."
In order to get him to go I had to hire a man to ride

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ahead of us with a lantern to light the way back to the bridge. All the
country north of Ainsworth to the South Dakota Une was without a
doctor, and was considered Ainsworth territory, and many is the long
drives made into it by Ainsworth doctors. One advantage we had on
these north drives, we could always stop at Mead's ranch or at Spring-
view for a good meal or to feed and rest our teams. To complete a his-
tory, at all accurate, of the pioneer doctors of Brown county has re-
quired considerable research and inquiriy, coupled with the knowledge
possessed by the writed himself, who was among the early arrivals.

The first law regulating the practice of medicine in Nebraska was
placed upon the statute books of 1880. The provisions were: Graduates
of reputable Medical schools shall register with the County Clerk of the
county in which they desire to practice and also provided that non-
graduates who had been engaged in the practice of medicine for two
years prior to the taking effect of the statute were allowed to continue to
practice medicine on registration. All applicants for registration under
this act were required to give age, place of birth, college from which
graduated, and date of graduation, also place or places when they had
previously practiced, and time at such place. All physicians practicing in
the county were supposed to register under this act up to 1891. In 1891
an act creating the State Board of Health was passed. This act required
all physicians to register with the State Board of Health, which would
issue a license, this license then to be registered with the County Clerk,

This history will not attempt to go beyond the present boundaries of
Brown county, and will not be extended further than the year of 1890.

The first white inhabitants of Brown county were not in the nature of
permanent residents, they were ranchers attracted to this section by the
abundance of rich grass. These ranches established themselves along the
streams using the uplands with their abundant supply of Buffalo and
other grass as a range for herds. Some of these ranches were established
prior to 1879, but most of them in 1879 and 1880.

A few permanent homes had been established in Brown county prior
to the arrival of the railroad which reached Long Pine in October 1881.
Most of such settlers had come in via the "Prairie Schooner," but some
had driven in from the end of the railroad at towns further east. As yet
no doctor had put in an appearance in this part of Nebraska. The closest
medical help was at O'Neill, Nebraska, but with the coming of the rail-
road came Dr. Alfred Lewis to locate temporarily in Long Pine, where
he remained until the road reached Valentine and then moved on to
locate permanently there. Dr. Alfred Lewis was born at Worcester,

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England November 5th, 1858. Graduated from the Kansas City Medical
College in 1880, began his practice at Long Pine, Nebr., in 1881, moved
to Valentine, Nebr., 1883, where he continued the practice until 1928
when he moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he died April 20, 1929.

With the building of the railroad the settlement of this territory was
on in earnest. Every train brought in its quota of home seekers, location
agents were plentiful and of the usual type.

By the fall of 1882 almost every section of good table land had been
either homesteaded, pre-empted or taken as a timber claim, and, sod,
log or frame houses marked most of the quarter sections, proclaiming
to the world that here was the home of a permanent settler, the home of
a man with snap, courage and perseverance, to hew out of this virgin
prairie a farm to delight the vision of an agriculturist.

But not all of those who came in with the grand rush of 1881 and
1882 were looking for land upon which to establish homes. Among them
were merchants, hardware men, blacksmiths, lawyers, preachers, saloon
keepers, and at least one doctor. Dr. Wm. B. Loomis, who homesteaded
a quarter section of land one half mile north of the northeast corner of
the town of Ainsworth. Here in the spring of 1882 Dr. Loomis estab-
lished his residence, thus becoming, as far as I have been able to ascer-
tain, the first resident doctor of Brown county, Nebraska. Bringing in
logs from the Niobrara river he built, what was, for a new county, a
very neat and commodious log house where he lived for many years. It
was not the intention of Dr. Loomis when he came west to resume the
practice of medicine, his mind was set on a farm house and a life devoted
to agriculture, but the call of the sick, with no other doctor near, forced
him back into the practice which he followed very successfully for
several years. As other doctors became accessible he gradually dropped
out of practice and spent his time upon the farm. His record as filed
with the County Clerk of Brown county on January 14th, 1884 is as
follows:

Dr. Wm. B. Loomis, born at Worcester, Otsego county New York in
the year 1838, he studied medicine in the Albany Medical college at the
session of 1863. Practiced medicine at Deep River Lake county, Indiana
the year of 1868. Practiced from 1869 to 1873 in Numcae Otawa county,
Michigan. From 1876 to 1878 in Burtonville Montgomery county. New
York. From 1878 to 1882 in West Side Crawford county, Iowa and one
year and a half in Brown county, Nebraska.

A writer in the "History of Medicine in Nebraska" has this to say of
Dr. Loomis. He was a man of about 60 years of age and wore a full

Page 4

gray beard, moderately long. He had an average sized body with legs only
just long enough to reach the ground. In other words, rather short. He
was perhaps five feet six inches tall and weighed about 160 pounds. I am
sure that I never saw him in a buggy, but I have seen him many time on
his saddle pony. This pony was a httle bald-faced brown mare with a
crooked Roman nose and a nervous system strung to the highest tension.
His bridle had a long-jawed curb bit which this pony knew well how to
bring back against the breast so that when the doctor pulled, he was
puUing against her body and not her mouth. When the doctor prepared
to mount, she prepared to run. When she felt his weight in the stirrup,
she was off. If the doctor lit in the saddle, all right, and if not, he could
climb to position as she ran, and run she always did. When you saw
them coming, it always looked Uke a race with death or the stork. The
mare running, the doctor pulling, his saddle bags standing straight out
on either side, with his long overcoat flying back on the ponies tail."

About 1906 or 1907 Dr. Loomis sold out here and moved with his
good wife to Green River, Utah, where since they have both died. This
is rather a long account of Dr. Loomis, but being the first permanent
doctor in the county it is deserved.

Dr. Orla H. Crane. As shown by his filing with the County Clerk, Dr.
Crane came to Brown county in the fall of 1882 and immediately estab-
lished himself in practice in Ainsworth. Soon after he put in a drugstore
on Main street, which he operated successfully for several years. Dr.
Crane took up the study of medicine in 1869, studying in the office of
Dr. Wm. Young for six months, then transfered to the office of Dr.
Isreal Mitchell, where he studied for two years, then attended a six
months course of lectures at the Iowa State University at Iowa City,
Iowa, then took up the practice of medicine, which he adherred to in the
following places before coming to Nebraska. Kerwin, Kansas, two years;
Horton Center, Kansas, six years; and Weigent, Iowa, two years. Dr.
Crane was not a graduate in medicine and was never physically strong,
but he was a good student and endowed with a good memory and sound
judgment and his diagnosis and treatment of disease would measure up
favorably by the side of many doctors with a much more pretentious
education. Dr. Crane moved with his family from Ainsworth to
CaUfornia in the early years of 1900, where for some time he managed a
small fruit farm, and where he died several years ago.

Dr. John Twill, a native of Germany, moved from Denison, Iowa,
where he had been engaged in the practice of medicine for some years,

Pages

to a homestead near the German church northwest of Ainsworth in the
year 1883. It was his intention, in coming to Nebraska, to give up
medicine and take up farming and stock raising, which he did to a great
extent. But during the early years, when doctors were scarce, he did
quite a little practice among his German neighbors. Along about 1889 or
1890 he gave up farming, and moved into Ainsworth, where for a time
he engaged in the butcher business. Later he sold out his butcher
business and, in partnership with Henry Lochmiller, went into the
saloon business, but local option put themout of business, later he sold
his Brown county holdings and moved to California where he died a few
years later.

Martha A. Leonard, the first and only woman doctor in Brown
county at this early period, filed for practice in Ainsworth on the first
day of November 1883. She states that she is 46 years old, not ashamed
to tell her age, and that she had practiced medicine and obstetrics in the
following places and time in each: Blue Rock, Ohio, 5 years; Park City,
Pa., 5 years; St. Joe, Pa., 2 years; and Sherman county, Nebraska, 7
years. She furnishes no record of any preparatory study of medicine in
any office or school, but in her work, here she showed evidence, of quite
a little experience. She was a woman of good general ability and showed
herself much more expert in handling cases than in getting them. My
most vivid recollection of her, is seeing her drive through the streets of
Ainsworth in a phaeton buggy drawn by a little spotted pony with a
spotted pony colt tied to one shaft of the buggy.

Dr. David N. Beattie, located in Ainsworth for the practice of med-
icine in the fall of 1883 and filed with the County Clerk the following
information: My place of birth is Wisconsin, I am 25 years of age, and
have practiced medicine for a period of three years. From January 1st,
1879 to 1881 at Strawberry Lake, Michigan. In Brown county for one
year. I have studied medicine in the following places: Nebraska
Pharmacutical Society of Lincoln, Nebraska, and two courses of lectures
in the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of
Michigan. Dr. Beattie left Ainsworth to locate at Norden, Nebraska,
August 1884, where he remained for two or three years. Later he
attended some middle western medical school after graduation
located at Neligh, Nebr., and built up quite a practice, where he re-
mained until the time of his death some eight or ten years ago.

Dr. James A. Kennaston — I am unable to get the exact date when Dr.
Kennaston came to Brown county, but I think it was the spring or
summer of 1883. Dr. Kennaston settled on a homestead on Bone Creek

Page 6

about 12 miles northeast of Ainsworth. He furnished the following
record to the County Clerk: I was born at Cabel Coledonia county,
Vermont, my age is 58. I have practiced medicines for twenty-three
years. Powsheik and Jasper counties, Iowa, one year; Cass county,
Nebraska, 15 years; Marion, Lucas and Warren county, Iowa, one year.
Studied medicine 3 years with Dr. A. Beck in Palmuyar Warren county,
Iowa. Dr. Kennaston was a man of many callings. He was a doctor, a
lawyer, a preacher and no mean politican, as he proved by running for,
and being elected County Judge of Brown county in the year of 1886.
He held the office, I think, but one term during which time his wife
died. After his term of office had expired he disposed of his holdings in
Brown county and went south where he married again and later died.

Dr. Herman P. McKnight located in Long Pine, Nebr., in August
1883, and soon took his place as one of the leading citizens, not one of
Long Pine, but of the whole county. Before coming to Long Pine, Dr.
McKnight had practiced 2 years in Iowa besides having quite an exper-
ience as assistant in any army hospital, which well fitted him for general
practice and surgery. The doctors leaning was always toward surgery,
but lack of hospital facilities and competent assistants prevented him
from going extensively into that branch of the profession, for which he
was quite well fitted. At the time of the Indian uprising in the west and
the battle of Wounded Knee, on account of his previous army experience
he was called to the agency 25 miles north of Rushville, where he arrived
the next day after the battle. On his arrival he found more than one
hundred badly wounded Indians crowded into a church at the agency.
The Indians objected strenuously to any surgery so the best they could
do was to dress their wounds as aseptically as possible, and leave them
to their fate. After disposing of the wounded Indians he went out with
two troops of cavalry to look over the battle field, where they remained
over night, and doctor picked up several relics, among them the war
shirt of Big Foot which he stripped from his dead body as he lay upon
the battle field. Dr. McKnight was a graduate of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa. He remained in Long Pine
until October, 1910, when he disposed of his holdings there and went to
Old Mexico, here he remained for about one year returning to Omaha in
1916. He is now practicing his profession at Virginia, Nebr.

Dr. Fred August Hoffmeister came to Ainsworth in the year 1883 in
company with a druggist, George Bryson. Together they established a
drugstore on Second Street, in the building now occupied by the Cozy

Page?

Cafe, and the doctor began the practice of medicine. According to a
record filed with the County Clerk and which is a copy of the doctor's
filing in Gage county Dr. Hoffmeister was born in Holzen, Germany
and was a medical graduate of the Georgia Augusta University of Gati-
gen, Germany. Before coming to America the doctor had practiced med-
icine one year at Escher Shausen, Germany, one year at Magdeburg,
Germany and since coming to America, and prior to coming to Ains-
worth, one and one half years at Charleston and Odell, Nebr. Dr. Hoff-
meister was a bright, energetic well educated young German, who spoke
with a French accent and never failed to sound the letter Z in any com-
bination when such an accent was possible. In the early years here he
was a familiar sight upon the roads around Ainsworth, driving "Ze Fly"
a mouse colored broucho, with a wild horse disposition, hitched to a
two wheeled car and going like the wind, for "Ze Fly" could go.

Dr. Hoffmeister along about 1886 or 1887 sold out his drugstore here
and gave up practice to move to Imperial, Chase county, where he still
resides. He soon became one of the leading citizens of Chase county
and turned his attention largely to politics in which he was successful
as attested by the number of times he has served his district in the state
legislature.

Dr. Emerson J. Austin. — According to a statement filed with the
County Clerk on September 15, 1886, this man must have located in
Brown county in 1881. He says in this statement he was born in Roches-
ter, New York, and that he is 47 years old. He further states that his
place of business is Ainsworth, Nebr., which the writer feels himself
qualified to brand as not true, no such man ever practiced medicine in
Ainsworth, Nebr. He further declares that he has practiced medicine in
the counties of Lancaster and York, Nebr., for 12 years and in Brown
county, Nebr., for 5 years. He makes no statement of any preparation
to practice medicine. The facts are a man who called himself Doc. Austin
did live in Brown county. He was located on the south side of the Nio-
brara river somewhere near the mouth of Plum creek. He owned a yoke
of red bulls and earned a precarious living by hauling wood and posts
to Ainsworth. He may have done some practice among his neighbors
along the river, but very little I am sure. He left Brown county about
1890. Driving through Orchard, Nebr., in the spring of 1892, I saw him
sitting in the shade of a little building on which was a sign reading "Dr.
Austin."

Dr. Allen A Webster. The following record is taken from the Madi-
son county physicians record and was filed in Brown county. May
16th, 1884.

Page 8

I was born in Monroe county, N.Y, My age is 49 years, I have
practiced medicine for 18 years. From 1860 to 1878 at Fremount,
Stuben county, Indiana. In Madison county, Nebr., two years. He
makes no claim of any preparation for the practice of medicine. As I
remember it, this man located in Long Pine along about 1884 or 1885,
where he held forth as a lawyer, a doctor and a preacher, and seemed to
be about as proficient in one as the other. He was the proverbial" Jack
of all trades" and master of none. He later moved to Springview and
from there to Mills, Nebr., where he died at an advanced age.

Dr. George O. Remy: (writer of this history) arrived in Ainsworth,
Nebr., June 24, 1884, equipped with a wife, two children, a daughter
and a son, a few household articles, and ten dollars in the currency of
the realm. The money was long since dissipated, the household articles
are worn to shreds, my children have married and left the proverbial
nest, but thanks to a kind providence I have my wife yet. A little old
and a bit run down at the heel, it is true, but still able to perform the
duties of a housewife much better than many who boast a later genera-
tion and time. We were met at the depot on our arrival by a brother-in-
law W.H. Herring and taken to his home, two and one half miles north-
east of Ainsworth-(I was raised in a timber country where you could not
see a mile in any direction)— The next morning I was standing on a little
porch looking off over that beautiful verdant prairie toward the
Niobrara river, when Henry asked: "What do you think of it Doc?" I
answered:"It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," and I have
never changed my mind. To me, it is still the most beautiful country I
have ever seen. I was surely ignorant of conditions in the west and the
whole heartedness of it's people, and so was afraid to locate in
Ainsworth and bring my family to live in town for fear that before I got
to making money we would all starve to death in a heap, so I used my
only ten dollars to file on a forty acre track of government land lying
along the north side of my brother-in-law's homestead, which was so
poor that no one else would have it. Then I began wondering where
money was to come from to build a shack for the family to live in. It got
noised around that I was a doctor and would locate in Ainsworth. One
day when riding into town with my brother-in-law a man came out and
stopped us and inquired if I was the doctor. I plead guilty without a
blush. He then asked me to come in and see his little girl, who was very
sick. I examined the child and decided it was a case I could handle
successfully, and as evidence that prognosis at least was correct, 1 wish
to state that this first Nebraska patient is still alive and is one of

Page 9

Ainsworth's most prominent society women. This proved to be a cash
customer and the fee was sufficient to pay about half of the cost for
material to build by claim shanty, the other half I bought on credit My
brother-in-law and myself acted, as both architects and builders of this
12x14 house, which we soon completed and had the family located The
family established where they could be cared for I found an office in
town where I waited for business. But I did not have long to wait.
There was business here and the people gave me a try at it, and soon I was
driving day and night over strange trails, but I got little cash money and
what I did get had to go to pay living bills, so at the end of a month
notwithstanding I had worked hard, I was no better off than at the
beginning. At this time I enjoyed by first real insight into the western
spirit. One day my first patron came to me and inquired: "Have you
seen that little running horse they have for sale down at "Joes" barn "
I answered that I had. "Lets go down and look him over," he said
which we did. After looking him over he asked: "Do you think he is
worth the $100.00 they are asking for him." I replied: "He would be
well worth that to me." Then he surprised me, for I knew that he knew
I had no money, by saying,"Then why don't you buy him"?" I replied •
"because I haven't got the $100.00." He rephed: "But I have, you buy
him and I will pay for him and you can pay me back in small sums as
you have it to spare, you can never get ahead paying out all your cash
money for hvery hire." Needless to say I bought him, "Old Dick" a
wonderful horse which I rode and drove thousands of miles before he
dropped by the way side, I have never forgotten him and his faithful
service, or this man who out the the kindness of his heart bought him
for an almost total stranger.

Before beginning practice in Ainsworth I registered with the County
Clerk the following facts: I was born in Bartholomew county, Indiana
and am 33 years of age-I am a graduate of the Ohio Medical College
located at Cincinnati, Ohio. I have been engaged in the practice of
medicine for the term of seven years as follows: Two years at
Waymousville, Indiana. Two years at Hoiman Station, Indiana and
three years at Horstville, Indiana. Since locating in Brown county in
1884, I have resided and practiced here continuously except for the nine
year period between 1892 and 1901 when I became quite a rover. During
this time I practiced medicine in Pender, Nebr., two years- Norfolk
Nebr. two years; spent two years on the road as a speciality salesman'
and three years, at Craig, Nebr. I left Ainsworth on account of the

Page 10

drought, but with the avowed intention of returning in a few years,
which avowal 1 made good in 1901 — I found good people in all these
different locations, but none which appealed to me as the people of
Ains worth and Brown county have always appealed. My business in
Brown county has been very much like the seasons in this part of
Nebraska, which are very varied. Some years have been good and some
have been bad, but through it all I have always loved Brown county and
Brown county people — You will notice that I have devoted more space
to Dr. Remy than any of the other pioneer doctors of Brown county.
That is, perhaps, because I knew him better, but, equally perhaps, just
because I always liked to talk about myself.

Dr. Thomas J. Farleigh. On March 30, 1885, Dr Farleigh filed with
the County Clerk of Brown county the following record: I was born at
Rochester, New York, my age is thiry-five. My place of residence and
business in Johnstown, Nebr. I am a graduate of the University College
of the City of New York. Date of graduation February, 1875.

Dr. Farleigh, in partnership with his sister-in-law, Miss Diamond,
successfully operated a drugstore in Johnstown for many years. The
doctor was a man of pleasing personality and a good man to have as a
friend. He was well grounded in his profession and always enjoyed a
good practice. He closed out his business in Johnstown in the early years
of 1900 and moved to Oregon where he later died.

Dr. Ira G. Stone, filed with the County Clerk of Brown county on
April 20, 1885 a copy of his filing in Dodge county, Nebr., as follows:
My age is 30 years, I was born at Washington, Iowa, I have practiced
for the four years last past. In Wahoo Saunders county from the spring
of 1880. I attended lectures at Rush Medical College of Chicage, 111.,
the years of 1879 and 1880. Dr. Stone came to Ainsworth and entered
into practice in partnership with Dr. Fred Hoffmeister in the Spring of
1885. He was a young man of much native ability, but of little practical
experience. Dr. Stone only remained in Ainsworth one year and left. I
believe to finihs out his medical education, after which, I have heard, he
located in Lincoln, Nebr.

Dr. William E. Bridgeman, a graduate of the College of Physcians
and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, came to Brown county in the year of
1885. He first located on a piece of rough timberland along Bone Creek,
where he cut logs and built him a log cabin, with the intention of filing
on the land. He soon thought better of this and tore down the cabin, the
logs of which his brother-in-law Charles Swett hauled for him to the
northeast part of Ainsworth where Bridgeman bought a lot and again
erected his log cabin and established his residence. Bridgeman never put

Page 1 1

in a down town office in Ainsworth, but did whatever business came his way
from the log cabin. Tiring, after a few months, of the effort to establish a
business in Ainsworth, he moved with his family to Springview, Nebr . where
he lived for a number of years, and was active in all the business enterprizes
of the town. He later moved to South Dakota and engaged in the land
business where we lose sight of him.

Dr. George W. Lambley, came to Brown county January 22, 1885 and
located at Meadville, Nebr., where he remained for about one year going
from there to Springview, Nebr. Dr Lambley remained in Springview for
two years, then moved to Ainsworth to locate permanently in the spring of
1888. In his registration filed with the County Clerk of Brown county June
10, 1885, Dr. Lambley makes the following statement: I was born in Mercer
county. 111., and my age is 24 years. I am a graduate of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons located at Keokuk, Iowa, and have practiced
medicine in the following places: Rio, 111., for two years; Taylor county,
Iowa, one and one half years, and Meadville, Nebr., six months. After
maintaining a residence in Ainsworth for a number of years Dr. Lambley
moved with his family to a farm two miles northwest of Ainsworth, where he
engaged in the business of breeding thorough bred hogs and cattle and drove
back and forth between the farm and town to carry on his business of prac-
tice of medicine. For the last 10 or 1 2 years he has maintained a residence and
office in Ainsworth, but he still keeps up the business of farming and stock
raising by means of hired help.

Dr. Edwin M. Moor made the following filing with the County Clerk on
the 12th day of September 1885. 1 was born at Clarion, Pa., and am 25 years
of age. I am a graduate of the college of Physicians and Surgeons of
Baltimore, Md., and my place of business is Long Pine, Nebr. I have prac-
tised medicine for two years at Clarion , Clarion county. Pa. Dr. Moor came
early but was easily discouraged and moved on looking for greener fields.

Dr. Lindsey K. Tainter in his filing for practice states: I was born at
Fairbanks, Iowa and am 26 years of age. I am a graduate of Mission Medical
College of St. Louis, Mo. , and have practiced medicine for two and one half
years. My present place of business is Long Pine, Nebr. Dr. Tainter only re-
mained in Long Pine for a few months. As the writer remembers him he was
quite an able young man.

Dr. John W. Bracket filed for record on June 14, 1886, the following
record: I was born at Alma, Wis., and I am 21 years of age. My place of
business is Ainsworth, Nebr. I have practiced medicine one month at Eau
Clare, Wis., and one month at Ainsworth, Nebr. I graduated from Rush

Page 12

Medical College February 22, 1886. Dr. Bracket came to Ainsworth with
high hopes and great expectations, but, like many another who has started
into the practice of medicine believing that through his superior education
and skill he will be able to run all disease germs to their lair and then exterm-
minate the whole pack, soon became discouraged and moved on to other
fields where, we hope he gained experience to match his superior education,
and is today, somewhere, doing good work in the field of medicine.

Dr. Hosea J. White filed on December 3, 1887 the following record: I was
born in Jefferson county. New York, and am 33 years of age. My place of
residence is Long Pine, Nebr. I am a graduate of the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa. I have practiced medicine four years. Three
years in Rubens , Kansas , and one year in Bost wick , Nebr .

Dr. H. J. White located in Long Pine, Nebr., in October of 1888, but
moved from Long Pine to Valentine in 1889 where he remained for but one
year, moving to Bassett, Nebr., in 1890, where he remained until 1905 when
he sold out his business there and moved to Springview to enter into partner-
ship with Dr. Evans. He remained in Springview for about three years when
he closed out his business there and moved with his family to Ainsworth,
Nebr., in March 1909, where he continued in the practice of medicine until
time of his death which occurred, August 12, 1927. He is buried in Park
Cemetery on the highway 2 miles east of Ainsworth, Nebr. He was the first
doctor in this part of Nebraska to drive an automobile. His first was a little
buck board and second a high wheeled Oldsmobile. The doctor was a great
auto enthusiast and I think during his later years drove about every kind of
light machine made. Dr. White was naturally a great sportsmen, enjoying all
kinds of sports. In his earlier days he was as enthusiastic over a horse as he
was later over an automobile and of all sports I think he enjoyed a horse race
a little bit the best. The writer knew Dr. White for a great many years, and,
though born and reared in the east, he early became a thorough westerner,
and no kinder hearted man ever lived in any community. He practiced
medicine not for the dollars and cents he could make, but because he loved
his fellow man. And no call was ever refused because there was not money to
pay a fee or because the weather was too cold and inclement.

Dr. WiUiam B. Ely. Born in Connecticut on March 5th 1842. Spent his
boyhood days as a carriage painters apprentice. He became interested in
music at an early age and before he was twenty-one he taught both pipe-
organ and piano music in Canadaigua Female Seminary at Canadiagua,
New York. He followed the musical profession until 1878, when he was
graduated from the Medical College of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor. He practiced for two years at Marion, N.Y., eight years at Penfield,

Page 13

N.Y.; two years at Newark, N.J., and moved to Ainsworth, Nebraska in
1889, where he remained until 1901, when he moved to University Place,
Nebraska. He staid in University Place until 1908, when he lost his health by
reason of a severe attack of the grip. He later returned to Ainsworth, but not
again to resume the practice of medicine, although he at all times kept him-
self well posted on all of the new developements in medicine and surgery. In
1 894 he was president of the Nebraska State Medical Society and during his
entire career he was an enthusiastic supporter of that organization as well as
of the local medical societies. He died on June 23, 1921 at Ainsworth
suffering for three days from an attack of angina pectoris.

Dr. Edward Payson Green, the only Homeopathic doctor to come into
this territory, filed his credentials with the County Clerk of Brown county on
the 24th day of March, 1 888. He states that he was born at Beloit, Wisconsin,
that he is 28 years of age, and, that he is a graduate of the Homeopathic
Department of Iowa State University, also that he is a member of the
Hahneman Medical Society, Iowa City, Iowa, and that his residence is Long
Pine, Nebr. The writer was in Long Pine quite frequently in 1888 but has no
recollection of Dr. Edward Payson Green Homeopathic physician, so con-
cludes that his residence in the Pine was brief, and express the hope that, Hke
the Hahneman School of medicine he has changed to something more
rational than Similibi Similibus Curanter.

Dr. James Scott, filed with the County Clerk of Brown county on the 5th
day of September, 1 889, the following record: I was born in the state of Ohio
and my residence is now Long Pine, Nebr. I am a graduate of the Medical
Department of the State University of Iowa and have practiced medicine in
the state of Iowa for the period of 1 8 years. The writer remembers Dr. James
Scott well. He was a fine upstanding man and a good doctor and would have
been an addition to our ranks, both medically and socially, had he not re-
tained in his cosmos to much of the eastern spirit to ever become western-
ized. He only remained a few months and then departed to return to a more
civilized community.

Dr. Favens J. Beck, a Hoosier, filed with the County Clerk of Brown
county on May 6th, 1889 the following record: I was born at Newburn,
Indiana and have practiced medicine at Hartsville, Ind. , from spring of 1 883
to spring of 1889 with Dr. Wm. H. Beck. I attended Ohio Medical College
the winter of 1 880 and 1 88 1 . I am now located in Ainsworth and practicing
with Dr. G.O. Remy. Dr. Beck was another who could not become accus-
tomed to the ways of the west. He returned to Hartsville the fall of 1889
where he practiced medicine successfully until about five years ago when he
moved to Columbus, Ind., where he still resides and practices.

Page 14

So ends, so far as I have been able to gather, the list of doctors who,
through the eighties, fought it out in Brown county with prairie fires,
coyotes and bhzzards, all of which were plentiful at that time. The climate of
north Nebraska in much milder now and storms neither so bad or so fre-
quent as in those early days, perhaps owing to the many groves of trees which
now dot, what was then, a treeless expanse of level prairie. Quite a number of
these early doctors, as the record shows, were not graduates of any school of
medicine, but most all of them had had experience in some other place or
places before coming to Brown county and , their work here proved that this
experience was not in vain. Not every man who boasts a diploma is educated .
Education is something more than a college degree. It is training and ex-
perience, no matter when or how attained, and this is not only true in
medicine but in every walk of life. I have tried to be just and impartial in my
dealings with the records of these early Brown county doctors. Most of them
have now passed on to receive the doctors reward, whatever and wherever
that is and are not here to defend their reputations. Their places have been
taken by younger men, with better college education, but will they serve the
people more faithfully, more honestly and to better purpose than did these
early pioneers? Time will tell. I hope that at some future time one of these
younger men may feel inspired to take up this history where I am leaving it
and complete what I have so humbly begin.

HECKMAN

BINDERY INC.

SEPT 96

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