History of Northwestern Iowa
Medical History of Osceola County

About a decade ago Dr. H. Neill, who, in 1875, located for practice at Sibley, and was for many years one of the oldest, ablest and best known members of the profession in Osceola County, wrote a medical history of the county, which is largely drawn upon for this paper. Eventually, he retired to California where he died several years ago. He says: "About seventy percent of the early settlers of Osceola County were veterans of the Civil wars, and the same is true of Northwest Iowa. These veterans stacked arms, married their sweethearts, worked for a while until they could get a yoke of cattle, a few cows and a little money, and in 1871 made a location in this beautiful region. The following year they brought their families and made their permanent homes in this section of the state.

A history of medicine in the county should commence with some account of the early practitioners. From common report, I believe that Bela D. Churchill was the first to practice in the county. He was probably an army nurse and, on his arrival, as there were no doctors, he had to do something in the way of practice. As nearly as I can learn, he met with indifferent success. Whether he ever opened an office in Sibley I have not ascertained.

"Dr. C. L. Gurney was the first man in the county who devoted his whole time to the practice of medicine. He located at Sibley in 1875, a few months prior to my appearance the scene. He first located on a homestead near Ashton in 1872. As nearly as I can learn, he was employed in some capacity by a doctor in Fayette, Iowa, and came from that place to Ashton. He was of Quaker extraction, and a church of that persuasion being located west of Ashton, and there being no doctor anywhere in that region, the fact that he knew anything about medicine was sufficient to draft him into the work. He was a cripple, due to a tubercular trouble of the knee, and because of this affliction he was finally induced to give up farming and devote all of his time to medicine. Accordingly he sold his farm and located in Sibley, as before mentioned. I found Dr. Gurney to be an estimable man, and considering his limitations, quite a successful practitioner. He made but little pretensions to knowing much about medicine. As I recollect, he had no surgical instruments, and his library consisted of a work on domestic medicine and Tilden's appendix to the Materia Medica. When he wanted a prescription, he consulted that work, in which there was a formula for every disease. I well remember a ride I made with the doctor. A man, a patient of the Doctor's, came to the road and displayed a fibroid tumor of the hand. Doctor Gurney told the man that it would be a pleasure for him to remove it. Afterwards, I asked the Doctor why he had not performed the operation; his reply was characteristic, "I don't know anything about the anatomy and might cut something, meaning an artery, I suppose. At the time mentioned he enjoyed a considerable practice, but under the circumstances, it soon began to wane. Our friendship continued until his death. During his residence in Sibley he took a vacation, and graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, although he was only absent about six months. In 1880 he removed to Sheldon, and in 1884 became a member of the Sheldon Board of United States Examining Surgeons for Pensions, Doctor Longshore and myself being the other members. About 1886 the Doctor sold his practice to Doctor Myers, and removed to Rock Rapids, where he suffered an amputation of his diseased leg. He immediately removed to Doon, Iowa, where he opened a drug store, and in connection with his business, practiced medicine. He died there about 1900."

Doctor Neill then proceeds to instance various cases of surgery and disease which had come under his observation. He says that the first amputation in Osceola County, that of a child whose leg had been nearly severed by a reaper while he lay asleep in a wheat field, occurred in August, 1876, and the first operation for appendicitis, twelve years later. The first operation for stone in the bladder was performed in 1890 by Doctor Neill, assisted by two of his profession, upon a lad of sixteen years, with recovery. Dysentery, scarlet fever, typhoid fever and diphtheria were treated with more or less success in the early days, the two last diseases being perhaps the most widely disseminated. The greatest epidemic of diphtheria occurred in 1885, its inception having been in Eastern Lyon County in February of that year.

The Doctor gives some amusing instances of the crude means by which he was often obliged to treat his patients. He relates that in 1879 he was attending three brothers who were sick with typhoid fever in one house. Two of the brothers were convalescing at this particular visit, but the other had a temperature of 106 degrees and was wildly delirious with other grave symptoms. "I knew," says Doctor Neill, "that a cold bath was imperative, for cold sponging had not reduced the temperature. Of course, there was no bathtub, but there was a pork barrel outside. As the mother was tired, I filled the barrel with water from the well, removed the patient's shirt, dumped him into the barrel and watched him for fifteen minutes. When his temperature markedly subsided, I pulled him out of the barrel, dried him and shortly afterward he fell into a quiet slumber. I directed the barrel to remain, and if he became delirious again to repeat the bath. The bath was repeated twice and he eventually recovered."

PRACTITIONERS IN OSCEOLA COUNTY

Dr. Frank S. Hough, one of the leading surgeons and physicians of Sibley, is a Kentuckian by birth, both of his parents being natives of Michigan. His mother, before marriage was Candace C. Bates, the daughter of Mr. And Mrs. George Bates, the former being a first cousin of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Hough's father was a brush manufacturer in Detroit and when only twenty-eight years of age was president of the Common Council and acting mayor. Afterward he was a member of the Michigan State Legislature and retired to California.

Doctor Hough had a considerable experience as a newspaper man, both in Michigan and Ohio, before his graduation from the Michigan College of Medicine and Surgery in 1890. After practicing in Detroit and teaching on the faculty of his Alma Mater for seven years, he came to Sibley in August, 1897, and has met with marked success in his profession. In 1911, he established a private hospital in Sibley. Doctor Hough has been coroner of Osceola County and is now serving as health officer of Sibley. During the World war he served as chairman of the County Red Cross and of the local Draft Board. He volunteered for active service a year before the armistice was signed, but was retained as chairman and medical examiner of the Draft Board until August,1918. He then enlisted, was examined at Norfolk, Nebraska, commissioned captain and in November, 1918, ordered to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Afterward he was discharged into the Medical Reserve Corps, reenlisted in that body and in July, 1924, was promoted to Major. In 1925, he was elected commander of the George E. Mudge Post, American Legion. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical organizations, and in 1920 served as president of the Northwest Iowa Medical Society.

Dr. William E. Ely was a graduate in medicine of the University of Michigan, and located at Ocheyedan in 1987. He died at Doctor Hough's hospital at Sibley in February, 1922.

Dr. Frank P. Winkler is a native of Ida Grove, Iowa, and in 1906 received his medical degree from the University of Illinois. He first practiced in Chicago, and in 1912 located at Sibley. He is a member of most of the leading medical and surgical societies and has served as president of the Northwest Iowa Medical Society. During the World war he was identified with the surgical staff of the base hospital at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois, and was also commissioned examiner for the United States Veterans bureau of Northwest Iowa. Doctor Winkler is the owner and manager of a private hospital and examiner for forty-two old-line life insurance companies.

Dr. K.A. Sporre, of Harris, has received two degrees from the University of Iowa, including that of M.D., and has been mayor of the town and president of the school board.

Dr. J.B. Padgham, a graduate of the State University, has practiced at Walcott, Harris and Ocheyedan, and at present operates a hospital at the place last named.

Dr Frank Reinsch is of Chicago birth and education. In 1917, he graduated from the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery. He then served two years as an intern in the Cook County Hospital, and in November, 1919, after seeing service as first lieutenant in the World war, commenced the practice of medicine and surgery at Ashton.

Dr F.E. McConoughey is a native of Iowa, graduated from both the Marion-Sims College of Medicine at St. Louis and the Creighton Medical College, at Omaha. He practiced in Southwestern Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado prior to September, 1924, when he located at Melvin.

- Source: History of Northwestern Iowa, Its History and Traditions 1804--1926; by Arthur F. Allen; Volume I; Chapter 15; Pages 478-482
- Transcribed by Kevin Tadd