The Business of the Pioneer Doctor

Towns that grew up around army posts had military doctors, some really competent for the times.  Many other towns either had no doctors at all or they had those who held degrees from "medical school mills" with only a year apprenticeship and no professional schooling.  Early on there were no medical standards on the frontier until 1880 when Nebraska passed the first law requiring physicians to register as well as graduate from reputable schools with a two year medical course.

Even the most dedicated doctors found the career exhausting.  Their offices were a tent on the outskirts of town, or a prairie cabin, or just a room in their own house.  Doctors supplemented their doctor profession with another job - a pharmacist, a dentist or even farming. 

When a patient called for a doctor, the doctor's wife would ring a bell to summon her husband from his other business office.  For house calls (which I am old enough to remember in the 1950s and 1960s) the doctor had to travel 30 miles in all kinds of weather by horseback or buggy.  He had to be a doctor, a nurse and a clergy.  The treatment was a mix of folklore, medieval practices and his own improvising.  Most cures required "blood letting."

The frontier doctor's forte was surgery. Amputations were done with bowie knives and carpenter's saws. Kitchen tables served as operating tables where an appendix was removed without anesthesia. 
Long hours, and rugged conditions drove many doctors to drink.  In the Dakota Territory it was actually ruled a misdemeanor if the doctor poisoned a patient while intoxicated.  And we complain of the hassle of modern medicine!

Next time...Fun and Games on the Frontier
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On October 8, 1871, flames spark in the Chicago barn, supposedly by the cow owned by Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million (in 1871 dollars; $3 billion in 2007 dollars) in damages.