Pages 81-85

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In looking backward over the seventy-five years of my past life I am struck with wonder and amazement at the improvements in art, science and literature. The wonder is, what will the next seventy-five years develop?

I shall discuss the advancement made in two of the professions, medicine and teaching. In this paper I will describe the pioneer doctor.

In early times in Fulton county there was no such thing as a drug store. The merchants kept a supply of medicine in stock among their dry goods and groceries. The doctors never gave prescriptions, but carried their medicines around in medicine bags and dosed it out to their patients.

When a doctor was called to see a patient the first thing he did was to examine his tongue, then feel of the pulse at the wrist; then he would have the sick one set up in a chair to be bled. The sleeve of one arm would be rolled up to the shoulder, and the arm extended out to full length, and the hand grasped around the handle of the a broom-stick to hold the arm steady and in proper

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position. A cord would then be tied tightly around the arm half way between the elbow and shoulder, and then the patient was stabbed in a blood vessel of the arm. At first a thumb-lance was used, but the spring-lance came in as a great improvement. They usually took from a pint to a quart of blood, dependent upon the age and size of the sick one. After the bleeding the patient would be given an emetic, and after he had been thoroughly vomited he would be given a dose of calomel and jalop, and then a walloping dose of castor oil. After all those horrors the patient would be taken through a course of blistering. A blister 6x10 inches would be placed upon the breast, with smaller ones on the arms and legs; if the patient was very sick a portion of the hair would be shaved off the head and one of those horrible blisters applied to the head.

The doctors made their own blister-plasters. They carried in their medicine bags a package of Spanish flies, a small cake of tallow and some pieces of canvas. The tallow would be carefully spread over the canvas, the Spanish flies sprinkled over it and pulverized with a caseknife. These flies were large and yellow, resembling yellow wasps. The plasters would be left on from six to eight hours, causing terrible pain. They would then be removed and the blister dressed with cabbage leaves, or a bit of tallowed muslin. Sometimes the blisters would be drawn so deep that it would be two weeks before they would heal; and during the time a white substance would appear in the would which was called "proud flesh," and it was removed by sprinkling over it powdered roasted alum, this also causing great agony.

One marvelous thing the common people could not understand was that after the patient had gone through with all this bleeding, vomiting, purging and blistering, and been reduced to the very last extremity, he was not allowed by the doctor to take any nourishing food—nothing better than a little thin gruel, a little chicken broth, or a little toast and tea; and while the poor creature, tortured with a burning thirst, might be screaming for water, he was not allowed to have one cool drop, but might have a little warm tea or slippery-elm tea water.

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If under this treatment the patient was fortunate enough to get well the doctor would claim for himself a vast amount of credit for his skill that brought him from the verge of the grave; but if the poor creature died, it was laid to the decree of Providence.

In the early days we had no dentists, and the regular doctors did all the tooth-pulling. They carried an instrument called a tooth-drawer, or "pullikens," shaped like a gimlet, but with a loose hook that was caught around the tooth, and then a twist of the handle brought out the tooth—sometimes. The price for pulling a tooth was 25 cents.

It was three and a half years after the county was first settled by white people before we had a regular doctor. But we found here an Indian doctor who was practicing in Indian families, of whom I will have more to say.

We also found residing near Waterford Dr. W. T. Davison, but he was a hermit and refused to practice or have anything to do with white people; and when they commenced to settle around him he loaded his good into a canoe and left the county.

The readers will remember Mrs. Jacob Niman, who once mounted a fleet horse and started for Springfield, 1821. She followed midwifery, and usually with good success. For three years she was present at about all the births in Lewistown and vicinity. But when she was called to attend my aunt, Mrs. Hugh R. Coulter, the child did well, but the mother did not do well, and Mrs. Niman did not appear to know how to treat her. The Indian doctor was called in consultation, but he told Mr. Coulter his wife would die and he did not wish to prescribe for fear he would be blamed; but intimated that if he had been called at first all would have been well.

Then came a ride for life. My Uncle Thomas Ross at once mounted a fleet horse and started for Springfield, fifty-eight miles distant, for the doctor nearest to Lewistown. He never stopped his wild ride for life, through 116 miles of wild pioneer woods, until he had the doctor at her bedside. The doctor stayed with her twenty-four hours, and then went home. He was eminent in his profession, but could not save her life. She died in

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two days. He babe grew to be a fine boy. Mr. Coulter subsequently married a Miss Bushnell who was killed by a runaway team at Galena, Ill.

My Aunt Maria Coulter was the first person buried in the present cemetery north of Lewistown. All those who had previously died in the village and vicinity were buried in the first graveyard in East Lewistown (the site of the little East Primary schoolhouse). Two of the pall-bearers who attended my aunt’s funeral were the late Myron Phelps and John Johnson, then proprietor of Waterford. Some fifteen persons had been buried in the little east cemetery. Some of the bodies were moved to the present cemetery, and others remain there to this day.

The Indian doctor I have referred to practiced medicine in a different manner from white doctors. He was one of the first Indians we got acquainted with in 1821. He was about fifty years old, and could speak a little English. He was very friendly with the white people and soon gained their confidence and friendship. The Indians regarded him as a very great man and had all confidence in him as a doctor. He lived at a small Indian village on the bank of Big Creek, three miles northwest of Lewistown, near the site of Milton. He carried his medicines in a leathern pouch by his side, and rode a fine-looking black pony. He practiced among the Indian families, and often attended the whites, generally giving good satisfaction. He medicines consisted of herbs, barks, root extracts and various oils from beasts, birds and reptiles. Rattlesnake oil was a favorite remedy. Another treatment was to sweat or steam his patient. He would dig a hole 10x10 inches square in a wigwam, get it aglow with live coals, and over this he would place his patient covered with blankets until there was profuse perspiration; in some cases he used steam from a vessel over the coals. The Indian doctor was often in Lewistown and sometimes went even to Havana to see the sick. Once while we lived at Havana I had taken a serious cold, and father called this Indian doctor, who happened to be there. He gave me some fine powdered substance to snuff up my nose; it set me to sneezing so dreadfully that my parents were alarmed, but the doctor assured them that I was in no danger.

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The sneezing soon ceased. He next took some herbs and barks from his pouch, made a poultice of them, bound it about my forehead, and next day I was all right.

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