As the Affordable Care Act moves the United States into a new era of medical care, it might be interesting to take a look at how medical care was delivered in an earlier era – those years when the land was first homesteaded.
Aurora County opened for settlement before the advent of modern medicine, at a time when medical authorities were still debating the theory of germs. It would be another ten to twenty years before doctors understood how bacterial and viral infections led to disease.
Many families did their own doctoring, following the advice of books like The Doctor at Home: Illustrated, Treating the Diseases of Man and the Horse, published in 1884.
The book listed all known diseases and conditions, describing both causes and treatments. The entry on boils illustrates the level of understanding of medical conditions in the mid-1880s, where ‘impure atmosphere’ was believed to cause illness and ‘purifying the blood’ one of the goals of treatment,
“BOILS—Boils are so familiar to every one that they need little or no description. The most common causes are, a residence in an impure atmosphere, improper or insufficient food, sexual excesses, mental anxiety, overwork, or anything which causes deterioration of the blood.”
Medical treatments recommended by doctors would have competed with popular patent medicines, often containing a high concentration of alcohol. These miracle cures, sold by travelling entertainers, promised to treat all kinds of ailments. In her memoirs about life in Plankinton, Ella T. Wilson described how traveling acts, such as the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Shows, enticed people to purchase their remedies during frequent breaks between the entertaining performances.
“The spieler harangued the audience about the virtues of Kickapoo Indian tonics, salves, corn remedies guaranteed to be of Indian origin and cure all the ills of man. And buy they did, in such quantities that there should have been no illness in town for a long, long time.”
Luckily, most people at this time were young and healthy. The 1900 census indicated that half of the state residents were age nineteen and younger. According to the mortality reports, deaths from pneumonia, consumption, diarrheal diseases, and diphtheria/croup caused about seventy percent of the recorded deaths in the state. The census reported five percent of all deaths occurred during childbirth.
Looking for more effective treatments but disagreeing on these medical cures, physicians splintered into groups and opened different types of medical schools to train the next generation of doctors. ‘Regular’ doctors relied mostly on harsh drugs or bleeding and purging. ‘Homeopathic’ doctors tried to heal with less harmful, more natural remedies, while ‘Eclectic’ doctors combined a little of both methods. Most medical educaation was based on books, not experience.
Newly trained doctors eagerly joined the ranks of settlers and speculators seeking their future in the new boom towns of Dakota Territory. At first, territorial law did not regulate doctors. Anyone could call themselves a doctor and practice medicine. The first regulations passed in 1885, requiring doctors to register their degree but not asking them to prove competency.
After this law passed, Aurora County started registering medical diplomas in the “Record of Licenses to Practicing Physicians,” at the Register of Deeds office. Thirty-three diplomas were registered between 1885 and 1951, most of them before 1912. Some of the earliest and most notable entries include:
- The first physician listed, Dr. Richard F. Brown, Plankinton, earned his degree in 1882. The doctor and his brother, Rush Brown, owned and operated the City Drug Store until they left the area about 1890 to open Brown Drug Co. in Sioux Falls.
- Drs. Forest Doud, W.J. Webster, and G. A. Rogers were the first to register from White Lake. Dr. Doud, an eclectic doctor, soon moved to Emory. Dr. Rogers, the most experienced physician in this era, earned his degree ten to fifteen years before the others. Supplementing his income as a physician, Rogers also ran the City Drug Store. When a man froze his legs during the blizzard of 1888, Rogers used a meat saw to amputate both legs. Dr. Rogers died in 1910.
- After a few years in Plankinton, Dr. H.A. Tarbell, also county coronor, moved to Watertown where he had earlier started a drug store with his brother. Tarbell later helped establish a hospital in that city.
- The homeopathic education of Dr. Hiram Shouse was paid for by the government after he lost his thumb in the Civil War. Shouse practiced in Plankinton until his death in 1933.
- The first female dentist in South Dakota, Dr. Leona Dix of Mitchell, registered in 1889, four years after receiving her degree to practice dental surgery.
- Dr. James Riggs practiced in Plankinton where he also owned a drug store run by his son, Jim Riggs. An expert taxidermist, Dr. Riggs preserved a large number of native species. Part of his collection can still be seen in a cabinet at the Aurora County Courthouse. Dr. Riggs moved away in 1890.
- Dr. J.W.C. White, an Englishmen who trained in Scotland, moved to Plankinton after spending some time in the Black Hills during the Gold Rush. He retired in 1908.
- Jane Todd registered her Nurse’s Midwifery Diploma from Scotland in 1892. Todd claimed that when she started practicing her profession in Plankinton, the local doctors complained to the state authorities. She explained, “Trained nurses were so new at that time, that many doctors, especially in small towns, felt that a nurse was encroaching on their profession.” She added, “I received a letter telling me to either stop practicing medicine or register a doctor’s diploma. I registered my diploma for nursing and midwifery and had no further trouble.” She married George Saville and practiced her profession until the age of seventy-two.
- In 1892, White Lake welcomed another doctor, Dr. Rufus Hill, who received his diploma from a college that trained doctors in eclectic medicine.
These early physicians were general practitioners who hitched their horse to their buggy at all hours of the day and night to attend patients in their homes. These doctors often made harrowing trips in the cold and dark, in unstable conveniences, driving on icy, dangerous fields, and crossing treacherous bridges in a time when there were no real roads. With most medical care centralized in urban centers today, it’s hard to imagine a time when so many doctors lived in Aurora County. Medical care has changed dramatically from that time when doctors had few effective remedies, owned their own drug stores, and visited patients in their homes. Thankfully, modern medicine has improved medical outcomes with better treatments and the eradication of diseases that caused so many deaths and so much heartache.
It Happened Right Here: Treating the Diseases of Man, Ruth Page Jones, Published in the South Dakota Mail, Plankinton, South Dakota, February 27, 2014.
RPJ Histories - Ruth Page Jones 