Part 17 (1/2)

Of those men whose distinctly professional work brought them especial esteem, s.p.a.ce will allow for the mention of only a few.

Perhaps for no other one of their brethren did the Linn county profession award so universal preference as to Dr. Henry Ristine.

Pioneer, patriot, and public-spirited citizen, he was first and before all a doctor, combining in generous measure the traits and faculties that make an eminently successful surgeon, with culture and genial sympathies. It could be truly said of him that he adorned his profession. His portrait hangs in St. Luke's Hospital along with that of the late Judge Greene, whom he ably seconded in the work of founding that inst.i.tution. Jurist and surgeon alike believed in the hospital as the workshop without which the doctor could not do his best work, and their efforts accomplished much toward the establishment of medical and surgical justice to the physically afflicted, a form of service that deserves more and more public recognition in every community where moral justice to the criminally accused is so amply facilitated by the courts of law.

Among other well remembered physicians were Dr. J. S. Love, of Springville, Dr. James Carson, of Mt. Vernon, Dr. D. McClenahan, of Cedar Rapids, and Dr. G. L. Carhardt, of Marion. Beginning at an early date and devoting themselves exclusively to their practice till advancing age forced retirement, they all four typically exemplified in their respective communities the life of the family physician. They were, none of them, modern doctors, but they lived not only to see but to rejoice in the day of modern medicine. Long after they had ceased from practice they kept up attendance at medical society meetings, keenly alive to the advancements of medical art and scientific research there discussed. They were resourceful men, and they had labored faithfully and well with the art available in their day, how often futilely none felt more keenly than themselves. The realization that modern methods promised control of much that had baffled them seemed to lighten the burden of their declining years. Their abiding interest and faith in the future things of medicine was an inspiration to their successors.

Of medical organizations in Linn county the oldest is the Union Medical Society, founded as the Linn County Medical Society at Mt. Vernon in 1859 by Drs. Love, Ely, Ristine, Carson, and Lyon. Dormant during the war, it resumed in 1866 and ran till 1873, when its name was changed to the Iowa Union and it became a district society, taking its members.h.i.+p from half a dozen or more counties and centering in Linn and Johnson counties. It still meets twice a year at Cedar Rapids, occasionally at Iowa City for scientific work. Its officers now are: president, C. W.

Baker, Stanwood; secretary, F. G. Murray, Cedar Rapids; treasurer, C.

P. Carpenter, Cedar Rapids.

The present Linn County Society was organized in Cedar Rapids in 1903.

It holds meetings twice a year and is the unit of the State and American Medical a.s.sociations. One of its members, Dr. G. E. Crawford, is the outgoing president of the Iowa State Medical Society. Its present officers are: president, Dr. A. B. Poore; secretary, Dr. H. W.

Bender; treasurer, Frank S. Skinner.

There are other local organizations at Mt. Vernon and Cedar Rapids. The Pract.i.tioners' Club of the latter place meets once a month for discussion and action upon medical subjects of special interest to the members. Its officers are: Dr. H. S. Raymer, president; H. E. Pfeiffer, secretary; G. P. Carpenter, treasurer.

St. Luke's Hospital at Cedar Rapids has already been mentioned. It was founded in 1883. On its consulting staff are Drs. G. P. Carpenter, J.

M. Ristine, G. R. Skinner, G. E. Crawford, A. B. Poore, and A. H.

Johnson. It has an attending staff of younger men. The hospital has seventy-five beds, having recently added a new and completely appointed maternity department. Mercy Hospital, ninety beds, founded at Cedar Rapids in 1902 and housed in its s.p.a.cious new building in 1904, is under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. These finely equipped inst.i.tutions serve Cedar Rapids, Marion, the railroad systems and their contributing territory with facilities for the best of medical, surgical and maternity work. Few realize the large amount of free humanitarian work they accomplish every year. Together with Linn county's own excellent infirmary north of Marion they represent in a material and public way the present status of medical art, science, and humanitarianism in the county. Personally and privately these are represented by the 125 active pract.i.tioners of medicine.

It will be noted that the names of only a few of these have been mentioned and then only incidentally. The scope of this sketch does not allow adequate individual reference to the remainder. Nor is this the place to record contemporary progress. The lives of all the present members of the profession belong not to the past but to the future history of medicine in Linn county. The attached list gives the names of the practicing physicians in Linn county in 1910:

Adams, Ernest, Central City Anderson, P. O., Cedar Rapids Bailey, F. W., Cedar Rapids Bailey, H. H., Cedar Rapids Beardsley, D. E., Cedar Rapids Bender, H. W., Cedar Rapids Bliss, C. S., Cedar Rapids Bradley, W. J., Cedar Rapids Brown, C. T., Cedar Rapids Burd, Edwin, Lisbon Busta, Chas., Cedar Rapids Byerly, A. J., Coggon Carhart, Wm. G., Marion Carpenter, G. P., Cedar Rapids Carroll, Frank, Cedar Rapids Carson, Geo. A., Mt. Vernon Childs, Edward P., Cedar Rapids Cogswell, C. H., Cedar Rapids Cogswell, C. H., Jr., Cedar Rapids Crawford, A., Mt. Vernon Crawford, G. E., Cedar Rapids Crawford, J. L., Cedar Rapids Crew, Arthur E., Marion Dando, G. A., Marion Davis, J. L., Alburnette Downs, J. W., Paris Dvorak, Jos. F., Fairfax Ebersole, F. F., Mt. Vernon Eilers, Paul G., Alburnette Fisher, C., Central City Fitzgerald, Wm., Cedar Rapids French, Chas. H., Cedar Rapids French, W. H., Cedar Rapids Gardner, Jno. R., Lisbon Gearheart, G. W., Springville Graham, J. DeWitt, Springville Groff, H., Cedar Rapids Gross, H. G., Cedar Rapids Hamilton, John, Cedar Rapids Hayes, L. C., Cedar Rapids Hasner, C. T., Cedar Rapids Heald, Clarence, Cedar Rapids Hill, M. W., Mt. Vernon Hindman, D. R., Marion Hogle, Geo., Mt. Vernon Hogle, Kate Mason, Mt. Vernon Houser, Ca.s.s T., Palo Hubbard, W. A., Cedar Rapids Hubbell, S., Cedar Rapids Ivins, H. M., Cedar Rapids Jicinsky, J. Rudis, Cedar Rapids Johnson, A. H., Cedar Rapids Johnson, B. R., Cedar Rapids Kegley, E. A., Cedar Rapids Keppler, T. S., Mt. Vernon King, W. S., Cedar Rapids Knox, J. M., Cedar Rapids Krause, Chas. S., Cedar Rapids Kresja, Oldrich, Cedar Rapids Keech, Roy K., Cedar Rapids Ladd, F. G., Cedar Rapids La Grange, J. W., Marion Lee, J. A., Lisbon Lindley, Thos. H., Cedar Rapids Lindsey, Harry A., Walker Lord, Richard, Cedar Rapids Lowrey, N. J., Ely Loy, J., Cedar Rapids Manahan, Chas. A., Center Point Mantz, R. L., Cedar Rapids Martinitz, S. V., Cedar Rapids McConkie, Jas. J., Cedar Rapids McConkie, W. A., Cedar Rapids Meythaler, A. J., Coggon Miller, W. B., Center Point Moorehead, Jas., Marion Morrison, Wesley J., Cedar Rapids Munden, R. E., Cedar Rapids Muirhead, Geo. S., Marion Murphy, Jas. J., Cedar Rapids Murray, F. G., Cedar Rapids Nash, E. A., Troy Mills Neal, Emma J., Cedar Rapids Netolicky, W. J., Cedar Rapids Neuzil, W. J., Cedar Rapids Newland, M. A., Center Point Owen, W. E., Cedar Rapids Petrovitsky, J. C., Cedar Rapids Pfieffer, H. E., Cedar Rapids Poore, A. B., Cedar Rapids Raymer, H. S., Cedar Rapids Richardson, E. F., Cedar Rapids Richardson, J. F., Cedar Rapids Ristine, J. M., Cedar Rapids Robinson, J. B., Mt. Vernon Ross, Alice I., Whittier Ruml, W., Cedar Rapids Safley, Agnes Isabel, Cedar Rapids Sheldon, B. L., Cedar Rapids Skinner, Frank S., Marion Skinner, Geo. C., Cedar Rapids Skinner, G. R., Cedar Rapids Spencer, W. H., Cedar Rapids Spicer, S. S., Cedar Rapids Stansbury, G. W., Western, C. Rapids Sherman, D. F., Cedar Rapids Swab, C. C., Cedar Rapids Swett, P. W., Cedar Rapids Tiffany, D. E., Cedar Rapids Van Duzer, F. H., Cedar Rapids Walk, F. D., Walker Walker, H. L., Cedar Rapids Ward, J. A., Waubeek Webb, Sula M., Cedar Rapids Whitmore, Clara B., Cedar Rapids Wilkinson, L. J., Prairieburg Wolf, John M., Mt. Vernon Wolf, Thos. L., Mt. Vernon Woodbridge, Ward, Central City Woodruff, L. F., Cedar Rapids York, N. A., Lisbon Yost, C. G., Center Point Yost, B. B., Center Point Yost, F. R., Center Point

CHAPTER XII

_The Material Growth of the County_

In scarcely any locality has the material growth been so fast and substantial during the past seventy years as in Linn county. Old residents who have returned after a period of twenty-five to thirty years mention this fact, and what is true of the cities and towns is perhaps much more true of the rural districts in general.

William Abbe erected a bark cabin for the use of his family the first summer, after he came here, and built a log house that fall for his winter abode. Ed Crow, C. C. Haskins, and others also erected very frail cabins during the first year they lived within the confines of the county. John Henry, it is said, built a small store-building facing the river in the squatter town of Westport in 1838. It was a frame building about 14 x 18, scarcely high enough for any of the Oxley Brothers (who were very tall men) to enter. He also erected a small dwelling house near the store-building, which, if anything, was smaller than the store-building. All the lumber in these buildings, except the window frames and the sills, were cut in the timber adjoining the river; even the roof was cut out of rough boards, with a broad saw. The nails used were brought from Muscatine, as well as a few hinges, and the windows. These buildings were torn down in 1860. The Shepherd Tavern was also a rude log building, as was the John Young house, which was afterwards used as a hotel, with additions added later.

G. R. Carroll, in his _Pioneer Life_, mentions the first cabin erected by his father, Isaac Carroll, in 1839. It took about ten days to erect an ordinary cabin. ”It stood on the east side of the road near Mr.

Bower's nursery on the boulevard one and a half miles from the river.

It was a very primitive looking structure, 16 x 18 perhaps, with what we called a cob roof, made of clapboards with logs on top to hold them in place. It was quite an agreeable change from our tent and wagons when we entered this new cabin, although there was not a great deal of room to spare after our goods were unloaded and the nine members of the family were gathered within its walls. When the table was spread there was no pa.s.sing from one side to the other, except as we got upon our hands and knees and crawled under.”

Mr. Carroll also speaks of the second house, which was erected the same fall on the same premises. ”It was, however, not to be a common kind of a cabin, it was to be a somewhat ambitious structure for the time, in fact it was to be the best house in Linn county, and when completed, it enjoyed that distinction. It was said, that there was nothing in the county that equalled it. The dimensions of this house were 14 x 16, a story and a half high. There were in the walls of this house between fifty and sixty white oak logs, most of them quite straight and free from knots. The ends of the logs were cut off square and the corners were laid up like square blocks, care being taken to cut off enough at the ends to allow the logs to come as close together as possible so as to leave but little s.p.a.ce for c.h.i.n.king and plastering when it came to the finis.h.i.+ng up. The only boards about the entire building were in the door which I think were brought with us on top of our wagon-box, which was of extra height. The joists above and below were made of logs, the upper ones squared with a broadax. The casings of doors and windows, and the floors above and below, were made out of ba.s.s wood puncheons.

Slabs were spread out of the logs and then hewn out with a broad axe and the edges were made straight by the use of the chalk line. The gable ends were sided up with clapboard rived out of oak timber three or four feet long, and then shaved off smooth like siding. The rafters were made of hickory poles trimmed off straight on the upper side, and strips three or four inches wide were nailed on the sheeting. Upon these strips s.h.i.+ngles made of oak eighteen inches long and nicely shaven, were laid. The logs of the walls in the inside were hewn off flat, and the interstices between were s.h.i.+ngled and plastered with lime mortar, the lime being burned by my father on Indian Creek. There were three windows below of twelve lights each, with gla.s.s 7 x 9, and a window in each of the gable ends of nine lights, which furnished light for the room above. The fire place was built up of logs on the outside and lined with stone within, and the chimney was built of sticks split out about the size of laths and plastered with clay, both inside and outside.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. H. VOSMEK Cedar Rapids]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FATHER T. J. SULLIVAN Cedar Rapids]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DR. E. L. MANSFIELD An Early Cedar Rapids Physician]

The description of this house gives the reader an idea of one of the most up-to-date houses built before the year 1840. During the past sixty years many commodious farm houses have been erected, having all the modern conveniences installed, such as heating, lighting, together with bath privileges connected with sanitary plumbing. It is said that the late S. C. Bever installed the first furnace in a dwelling house in Linn county, and many people came from over the county to see such a furnace work. Now, not only cities and towns, but farm residences have installed furnaces and other kinds of heating plants, so that which was a novelty fifty years ago is very ordinary today.

The farmers in Linn county early began to invest their surplus money in farm machinery. William Ure drove an ox team to Chicago and brought back a McCormick reaper, which was the first reaper brought into the county, as far as is known. At least it was the first reaper used and operated in and around Scotch Grove. The neighbors said that Ure was foolish and it would surely break him up, but inside of one season it paid for itself. In and around Stoney Point one of the first thres.h.i.+ng machines was used; a very small machine which was staked fast on the ground, without a straw-carrier, and operated by horsepower, which was placed on the ground loose and had to be hauled from place to place on a truck. In Linn Grove, Brown towns.h.i.+p, Was.h.i.+ngton towns.h.i.+p, and in other localities, many of these crude reapers and crude thres.h.i.+ng machines and corn sh.e.l.lers were seen in operation during the season.