The early history of medicine in Brown County, Nebraska, like the early history of the settlement of all new countries, can never be written quite clearly.  Too many of the occurrences of that time are forgotten. What would be counted thrilling in this time of good roads and automobiles were just every day occurrences.

In the early eighties in Brown County the pioneer doctor was never troubled by the telephone ringing in the night but his rest was often disturbed by someone knocking on his front door and demanding that he make a trip to attend some sick or accidentally injured persons, twenty-five, thirty-five or even fifty miles away.

Early settlement in the Sand Hill Country south, and tributary to Ainsworth, Long Pine and Johnstown, were made by stock-men along the streams of water because of the better feed and the easy accessibility of the water for the stock.  These streams were the Calamus, 25 miles south, Goose creek 35 miles south, the Bloody 35 miles south and the North Loup 50 miles south. Between these river settlements and the better settled table lands north, lay a vast expanse of sand hills and small valleys, each sand hill, with its blowing top of white sand, looking just hike every other sand hill, with only dim trails instead of traveled roads to guide the traveler. In good weather a trip to the nearest settlement south, by hard driving could be made in a day, but to the farther settlements it was an all day and night drive, or, if conditions were bad it meant two nights and a day or, two days and a night, with but little time for rest and refreshment.

To the north, over the table land conditions for travel were better. Here the roads, or trails, took the most convenient course without regard to homesteads or section lines. Along both sides of the Niobrara River there was a house at the bottom of almost every canyon. To make it possible to reach these houses from the table above, narrow winding roads had been dug into and down the side of the canyon. Here the early doctor encountered rough and not always too safe going.

I recall a canyon experience of the fall of 1884. A brother from Indiana, who afterwards moved to Nebraska was visiting me and riding with me to see the country. One evening about sun down we drove down one of these shoveled out roads to the home of Harve Markley at the bottom of a canyon, on the north side and six miles down the river from the Mead bridge. When I was ready to start home it was quite dark and my brother asked: "How are you going to get out of here?" I answered: "drive out the way we came in," he said: "you can't see to drive out of here." I answered: "no, but the team will take us out." he replied: "They may take you out but they won't take me, there are some folks down in the Indiana I want to see again before I die."  In order to get him to go I had to hire a man to ride ahead of us with a lantern to light the way back to the bridge.

All the country north of Ainsworth to the South Dakota One was without a doctor, and was considered Ainsworth territory, and many is the long drives made into it by Ainsworth doctors. One advantage we had on these north drives, we could always stop at Mead's ranch or at Springview for a good meal or to feed and rest our teams.

To complete a history, at all accurate, of the pioneer doctors of Brown County has required considerable research and inquiry, coupled with the knowledge possessed by the writer himself, who was among the early arrivals.

The first law regulating the practice of medicine in Nebraska was placed upon the statute books of 1880.  The provisions were: Graduates of reputable Medical schools shall register with the County Clerk of the County in which they desire to practice and also provided that non- graduates who had been engaged in the practice of medicine for two years prior to the taking effect of the statute were allowed to continue to practice medicine on registration. All applicants for registration under this act were required to give age, place of birth, college from which graduated, and date of graduation, also place or places when they had previously practiced, and time at such place. All physicians practicing in the County were supposed to register under this act up to 1891.

In 1891 an act creating the State Board of Health was passed. This act required all physicians to register with the State Board of Health, which would issue a license, this license then to be registered with the County Clerk, This history will not attempt to go beyond the present boundaries of Brown County, and will not be extended further than the year of 1890.

The first white inhabitants of Brown County were not in the nature of permanent residents, they were ranchers attracted to this section by the abundance of rich grass. These ranches established themselves along the streams using the uplands with their abundant supply of Buffalo and other grass as a range for herds. Some of these ranches were established prior to 1879, but most of them in 1879 and 1880.

A few permanent homes had been established in Brown County prior to the arrival of the railroad which reached Long Pine in October 1881. Most of such settlers had come in via the "Prairie Schooner," but some had driven in from the end of the railroad at towns further east. As yet no doctor had put in an appearance in this part of Nebraska.

The closest medical help was at O'Neill, Nebraska, but with the coming of the railroad came Dr. Alfred Lewis to locate temporarily in Long Pine, where he remained until the road reached Valentine and then moved on to locate permanently there. Dr. Alfred Lewis was born at Worcester, England November 5th, 1858. Graduated from the Kansas City Medical College in 1880, began his practice at Long Pine, Neb., in 1881, moved to Valentine, Neb., 1883, where he continued the practice until 1928 when he moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he died April 20, 1929.

With the building of the railroad the settlement of this territory was on in earnest. Every train brought in its quota of home seekers, location agents were plentiful and of the usual type.

By the fall of 1882 almost every section of good table land had been either homesteaded, preempted or taken as a timber claim, and, sod, log or frame houses marked most of the quarter sections, proclaiming to the world that here was the home of a permanent settler, the home of a man with snap, courage and perseverance, to hew out of this virgin prairie a farm to delight the vision of an agriculturist.

But not all of those who came in with the grand rush of 1881 and 1882 were looking for land upon which to establish homes. Among them were merchants, hardware men, blacksmiths, lawyers, preachers, saloon keepers, and at least one doctor.

Dr. Wm. B. Loomis, who homesteaded a quarter section of land one half mile north of the northeast corner of the town of Ainsworth.  Here in the spring of 1882 Dr. Loomis established his residence, thus becoming, as far as I have been able to ascertain, the first resident doctor of Brown County, Nebraska. Bringing in logs from the Niobrara river he built, what was, for a new County, a very neat and commodious log house where he lived for many years. It was not the intention of Dr. Loomis when he came west to resume the practice of medicine, his mind was set on a farm house and a life devoted to agriculture, but the call of the sick, with no other doctor near, forced him back into the practice which he followed very successfully for several years. As other doctors became accessible he gradually dropped out of practice and spent his time upon the farm. His record as filed with the County Clerk of Brown County on January 14th, 1884 is as follows:

Dr. Wm. B. Loomis, born at Worcester, Otsego County, New York in the year 1838, he studied medicine in the Albany Medical college at the session of 1863. Practiced medicine at Deep River Lake County, Indiana the year of 1868. Practiced from 1869 to 1873 in Numcae Ottawa County, Michigan. From 1876 to 1878 in Burtonville, Montgomery County. New York. From 1878 to 1882 in West Side Crawford County, Iowa and one year and a half in Brown County, Nebraska.

A writer in the "History of Medicine in Nebraska" has this to say of Dr. Loomis. He was a man of about 60 years of age and wore a full gray beard, moderately long. He had an average sized body with legs only just long enough to reach the ground. In other words, rather short. He was perhaps five feet six inches tall and weighed about 160 pounds. I am sure that I never saw him in a buggy, but I have seen him many time on his saddle pony. This pony was a little bald-faced brown mare with a crooked Roman nose and a nervous system strung to the highest tension. His bridle had a long-jawed curb bit which this pony knew well how to bring back against the breast so that when the doctor pulled, he was pulling against her body and not her mouth. When the doctor prepared to mount, she prepared to run. When she felt his weight in the stirrup, she was off..   If the doctor lit in the saddle, all right, and if not, he could climb to position as she ran, and run she always did. When you saw them coming, it always looked like a race with death or the stork. The mare running, the doctor pulling, his saddle bags standing straight out on either side, with his long overcoat flying back on the ponies tail."

About 1906 or 1907 Dr. Loomis sold out here and moved with his good wife to Green River, Utah, where since they have both died. This is rather a long account of Dr. Loomis, but being the first permanent doctor in the County it is deserved.

Dr. Orla H. Crane. As shown by his filing with the County Clerk, Dr. Crane came to Brown County in the fall of 1882 and immediately established himself in practice in Ainsworth. Soon after he put in a drugstore on Main street, which he operated successfully for several years. Dr. Crane took up the study of medicine in 1869, studying in the office of Dr. Wm. Young for six months, then transferred to the office of Dr. Israel Mitchell, where he studied for two years, then attended a six months course of lectures at the Iowa State University at Iowa City, Iowa, then took up the practice of medicine, which he adhered to in the following places before coming to Nebraska.   Kerwin, Kansas, two years; Horton Center, Kansas, six years; and Weigent, Iowa, two years.

Dr. Crane was not a graduate in medicine and was never physically strong, but he was a good student and endowed with a good memory and sound judgment and his diagnosis and treatment of disease would measure up favorably by the side of many doctors with a much more pretentious education.

Dr. Crane moved with his family from Ainsworth to California in the early years of 1900, where for some time he managed a small fruit farm, and where he died several years ago.

Dr. John Twill, a native of Germany, moved from Denison, Iowa, where he had been engaged in the practice of medicine for some years, to a homestead near the German church northwest of Ainsworth in the year 1883. It was his intention, in coming to Nebraska, to give up medicine and take up farming and stock raising, which he did to a great extent. But during the early years, when doctors were scarce, he did quite a little practice among his German neighbors.

Along about 1889 or 1890 he gave up farming, and moved into Ainsworth, where for a time he engaged in the butcher business. Later he sold out his butcher business and, in partnership with Henry Lochmiller, went into the saloon business, but local option put them out of business, later he sold his Brown County holdings and moved to California where he died a few years later.

Martha A. Leonard, the first and only woman doctor in Brown County at this early period, filed for practice in Ainsworth on the first day of November 1883. She states that she is 46 years old, not ashamed to tell her age, and that she had practiced medicine and obstetrics in the following places and time in each: Blue Rock, Ohio, 5 years; Park City, Pa., 5 years; St. Joe, Pa., 2 years; and Sherman County, Nebraska, 7 years.

She furnishes no record of any preparatory study of medicine in any office or school, but in her work, here she showed evidence, of quite a little experience. She was a woman of good general ability and showed herself much more expert in handling cases than in getting them.

My most vivid recollection of her, is seeing her drive through the streets of Ainsworth in a phaeton buggy drawn by a little spotted pony with a spotted pony colt tied to one shaft of the buggy.

Dr. David N. Beattie, located in Ainsworth for the practice of medicine in the fall of 1883 and filed with the County Clerk the following information: My place of birth is Wisconsin, I am 25 years of age, and have practiced medicine for a period of three years. From January 1st, 1879 to 1881 at Strawberry Lake, Michigan. In Brown County for one year.

I have studied medicine in the following places: Nebraska Pharmaceutical Society of Lincoln, Nebraska, and two courses of lectures in the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Michigan.

Dr. Beattie left Ainsworth to locate at Norden, Nebraska, August 1884, where he remained for two or three years.

Later he attended some middle western medical school after graduation located at Neligh, Neb., and built up quite a practice, where he remained until the time of his death some eight or ten years ago.

Dr. James A. Kennaston and I am unable to get the exact date when Dr. Kennaston came to Brown County, but I think it was the spring or summer of 1883. Dr. Kennaston settled on a homestead on Bone Creek about 12 miles northeast of Ainsworth.

He furnished the following record to the County Clerk: I was born at Cabel Caledonia County, Vermont, my age is 58. I have practiced medicines for twenty-three years. Powsheik and Jasper Counties, Iowa, one year; Cass County, Nebraska, 15 years; Marion, Lucas and Warren County, Iowa, one year.

Studied medicine 3 years with Dr. A. Beck in Palmuyar Warren County, Iowa. Dr. Kennaston was a man of many callings. He was a doctor, a lawyer, a preacher and no mean politician, as he proved by running for, and being elected County Judge of Brown County in the year of 1886. He held the office, I think, but one term during which time his wife died.

After his term of office had expired he disposed of his holdings in Brown County and went south where he married again and later died.

Dr. Herman P. McKnight located in Long Pine, Nebr., in August 1883, and soon took his place as one of the leading citizens, not one of Long Pine, but of the whole County. Before coming to Long Pine, Dr. McKnight had practiced 2 years in Iowa besides having quite an experience as assistant in any army hospital, which well fitted him for general practice and surgery. The doctors leaning was always toward surgery, but lack of hospital facilities and competent assistants prevented him from going extensively into that branch of the profession, for which he was quite well fitted.

At the time of the Indian uprising in the west and the battle of Wounded Knee, on account of his previous army experience he was called to the agency 25 miles north of Rushville, where he arrived the next day after the battle. On his arrival he found more than one hundred badly wounded Indians crowded into a church at the agency. The Indians objected strenuously to any surgery so the best they could do was to dress their wounds as aseptically as possible, and leave them to their fate. After disposing of the wounded Indians he went out with two troops of cavalry to look over the battle field, where they remained over night, and doctor picked up several relics, among them the war shirt of Big Foot which he stripped from his dead body as he lay upon the battle field.

Dr. McKnight was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa.

He remained in Long Pine until October, 1910, when he disposed of his holdings there and went to Old Mexico, here he remained for about one year returning to Omaha in 1916.

He is now practicing his profession at Virginia, Neb.

Dr. Fred August Hoffmeister came to Ainsworth in the year 1883 in company with a druggist, George Bryson. Together they established a drugstore on Second Street, in the building now occupied by the Cozy Cafe, and the doctor began the practice of medicine.

According to a record filed with the County Clerk and which is a copy of the doctor's filing in Gage County .  Dr. Hoffmeister was born in Holzen, Germany and was a medical graduate of the Georgia Augusta University of Gatigen, Germany. Before coming to America the doctor had practiced medicine one year at Escher Shausen, Germany, one year at Magdeburg, Germany and since coming to America, and prior to coming to Ainsworth, one and one half years at Charleston and Odell, Neb.

Dr. Hoffmeister was a bright, energetic well educated young German, who spoke with a French accent and never failed to sound the letter Z in any combination when such an accent was possible.

In the early years here he was a familiar sight upon the roads around Ainsworth, driving "Ze Fly" a mouse colored bronco, with a wild horse disposition, hitched to a two wheeled car and going like the wind, for "Ze Fly" could go.

Dr. Hoffmeister along about 1886 or 1887 sold out his drugstore here and gave up practice to move to Imperial, Chase County, where he still resides. He soon became one of the leading citizens of Chase County and turned his attention largely to politics in which he was successful as attested by the number of times he has served his district in the state legislature.

Dr. Emerson J. Austin,  and According to a statement filed with the County Clerk on September 15, 1886, this man must have located in Brown County in 1881. He says in this statement he was born in Rochester, New York, and that he is 47 years old. He further states that his place of business is Ainsworth, Neb., which the writer feels himself qualified to brand as not true, no such man ever practiced medicine in Ainsworth, Neb. He further declares that he has practiced medicine in the counties of Lancaster and York, Neb., for 12 years and in Brown County, Neb., for 5 years.

He makes no statement of any preparation to practice medicine. The facts are a man who called himself Doc. Austin did live in Brown County. He was located on the south side of the Niobrara river somewhere near the mouth of Plum creek. He owned a yoke of red bulls and earned a precarious living by hauling wood and posts to Ainsworth.

He may have done some practice among his neighbors along the river, but very little I am sure. He left Brown County about 1890. Driving through Orchard, Neb., in the spring of 1892, I saw him sitting in the shade of a little building on which was a sign reading "Dr. Austin."

Dr. Allen A Webster. The following record is taken from the Madison County physicians record and was filed in Brown County. May 16th, 1884. I was born in Monroe County, N. Y, My age is 49 years, I have practiced medicine for 18 years. From 1860 to 1878 at Fremount, Stuben County, Indiana. In Madison County, Neb., two years.

He makes no claim of any preparation for the practice of medicine.

As I remember it, this man located in Long Pine along about 1884 or 1885, where he held forth as a lawyer, a doctor and a preacher, and seemed to be about as proficient in one as the other. He was the proverbial" Jack of all trades" and master of none.

He later moved to Springview and from there to Mills, Neb., where he died at an advanced age.

Dr. George O. Remy: (writer of this history) arrived in Ainsworth, Neb., June 24, 1884, equipped with a wife, two children, a daughter and a son, a few household articles, and ten dollars in the currency of the realm. The money was long since dissipated, the household articles are worn to shreds, my children have married and left the proverbial nest, but thanks to a kind providence I have my wife yet. A little old and a bit run down at the heel, it is true, but still able to perform the duties of a housewife much better than many who boast a later generation and time.

We were met at the depot on our arrival by a brother-in- law W. H. Herring and taken to his home, two and one half miles north- east of Ainsworth-(I was raised in a timber country where you could not see a mile in any direction) and ” The next morning I was standing on a little porch looking off over that beautiful verdant prairie toward the Niobrara river, when Henry asked: "What do you think of it Doc?" I answered: "It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," and I have never changed my mind. To me, it is still the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I was surely ignorant of conditions in the west and the whole heartedness of it's people, and so was afraid to locate in Ainsworth and bring my family to live in town for fear that before I got to making money we would all starve to death in a heap, so I used my only ten dollars to file on a forty acre track of government land lying along the north side of my brother-in-law's homestead, which was so poor that no one else would have it. Then I began wondering where money was to come from to build a shack for the family to live in. It got noised around that I was a doctor and would locate in Ainsworth. One day when riding into town with my brother-in-law a man came out and stopped us and inquired if I was the doctor. I plead guilty without a blush. He then asked me to come in and see his little girl, who was very sick. I examined the child and decided it was a case I could handle successfully, and as evidence that prognosis at least was correct, I wish to state that this first Nebaska patient is still alive and is one of  Ainsworth's most prominent society women. This proved to be a cash customer and the fee was sufficient to pay about half of the cost for material to build by claim shanty, the other half I bought on credit 

My brother-in-law and myself acted, as both architects and builders of this 12x14 house, which we soon completed and had the family located.   The family established where they could be cared for I found an office in town where I waited for business. But I did not have long to wait. There was business here and the people gave me a try at it, and soon I was driving day and night over strange trails, but I got little cash money and what I did get had to go to pay living bills, so at the end of a month notwithstanding I had worked hard, I was no better off than at the beginning.

At this time I enjoyed by first real insight into the western spirit. One day my first patron came to me and inquired: "Have you seen that little running horse they have for sale down at "Joes" barn " I answered that I had. "Lets go down and look him over," he said which we did. After looking him over he asked: "Do you think he is worth the $100.00 they are asking for him." I replied: "He would be well worth that to me." Then he surprised me, for I knew that he knew I had no money, by saying," Then why don't you buy him"?" I replied and "because I haven't got the $100.00." He replied: "But I have, you buy him and I will pay for him and you can pay me back in small sums as you have it to spare, you can never get ahead paying out all your cash money for livery hire."

Needless to say I bought him, "Old Dick" a wonderful horse which I rode and drove thousands of miles before he dropped by the way side, I have never forgotten him and his faithful service, or this man who out the kindness of his heart bought him for an almost total stranger.

Before beginning practice in Ainsworth I registered with the County Clerk the following facts: I was born in Bartholomew County, Indiana and am 33 years of age-I am a graduate of the Ohio Medical College located at Cincinnati, Ohio. I have been engaged in the practice of medicine for the term of seven years as follows: Two years at Waymousville, Indiana. Two years at Hoiman Station, Indiana and three years at Horstville, Indiana.

Since locating in Brown County in 1884, I have resided and practiced here continuously except for the nine year period between 1892 and 1901 when I became quite a rover. During this time I practiced medicine in Pender, Neb., two years- Norfolk Neb. two years; spent two years on the road as a specialty salesman' and three years, at Craig, Neb. I left Ainsworth on account of the drought, but with the avowed intention of returning in a few years, which avowal I made good in 1901 and I found good people in all these different locations, but none which appealed to me as the people of Ainsworth and Brown County have always appealed.

My business in Brown County has been very much like the seasons in this part of Nebaska, which are very varied. Some years have been good and some have been bad, but through it all I have always loved Brown County and Brown County people and” You will notice that I have devoted more space to Dr. Remy than any of the other pioneer doctors of Brown County. That is, perhaps, because I knew him better, but, equally perhaps, just because I always liked to talk about myself.

Dr. Thomas J. Farleigh. On March 30, 1885, Dr Farleigh filed with the County Clerk of Brown County the following record: I was born at Rochester, New York, my age is thirty-five. My place of residence and business in Johnstown, Neb. I am a graduate of the University College of the City of New York. Date of graduation February, 1875.

Dr. Farleigh, in partnership with his sister-in-law, Miss Diamond, successfully operated a drugstore in Johnstown for many years. The doctor was a man of pleasing personality and a good man to have as a friend. He was well grounded in his profession and always enjoyed a good practice.

He closed out his business in Johnstown in the early years of 1900 and moved to Oregon where he later died.

Dr. Ira G. Stone, filed with the County Clerk of Brown County on April 20, 1885 a copy of his filing in Dodge County, Neb., as follows: My age is 30 years, I was born at Washington, Iowa, I have practiced for the four years last past. In Wahoo, Saunders County from the spring of 1880.

I attended lectures at Rush Medical College of Chicago, Ill., the years of 1879 and 1880.

Dr. Stone came to Ainsworth and entered into practice in partnership with Dr. Fred Hoffmeister in the Spring of 1885. He was a young man of much native ability, but of little practical experience.

Dr. Stone only remained in Ainsworth one year and left. I believe to finish out his medical education, after which, I have heard, he located in Lincoln, Neb.

Dr. William E. Bridgeman, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, came to Brown County in the year of 1885.

He first located on a piece of rough timberland along Bone Creek, where he cut logs and built him a log cabin, with the intention of filing on the land. He soon thought better of this and tore down the cabin, the logs of which his brother-in-law Charles Swett hauled for him to the northeast part of Ainsworth where Bridgeman bought a lot and again erected his log cabin and established his residence.

Bridgeman never put in a down town office in Ainsworth, but did whatever business came his way from the log cabin.

Tiring, after a few months, of the effort to establish a business in Ainsworth, he moved with his family to Springview, Neb . where he lived for a number of years, and was active in all the business enterprises of the town.

He later moved to South Dakota and engaged in the land business where we lose sight of him.

Dr. George W. Lambley, came to Brown County January 22, 1885 and located at Meadville, Neb., where he remained for about one year going from there to Springview, Neb.

Dr Lambley remained in Springview for two years, then moved to Ainsworth to locate permanently in the spring of 1888.

In his registration filed with the County Clerk of Brown County June 10, 1885, Dr. Lambley makes the following statement: I was born in Mercer County. 111., and my age is 24 years.

I am a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons located at Keokuk, Iowa, and have practiced medicine in the following places: Rio, Ill., for two years; Taylor County, Iowa, one and one half years, and Meadville, Neb., six months.

After maintaining a residence in Ainsworth for a number of years Dr. Lambley moved with his family to a farm two miles northwest of Ainsworth, where he engaged in the business of breeding thorough bred hogs and cattle and drove back and forth between the farm and town to carry on his business of practice of medicine.

For the last 10 or 1 2 years he has maintained a residence and office in Ainsworth, but he still keeps up the business of farming and stock raising by means of hired help.

Dr. Edwin M. Moor made the following filing with the County Clerk on the 12th day of September 1885. 1 was born at Clarion, Pa., and am 25 years of age.

I am a graduate of the college of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Md., and my place of business is Long Pine, Neb. I have practiced medicine for two years at Clarion , Clarion County. Pa.

Dr. Moor came early but was easily discouraged and moved on looking for greener fields.

Dr. Lindsey K. Tainter in his filing for practice states: I was born at Fairbanks, Iowa and am 26 years of age.

I am a graduate of Mission Medical College of St. Louis, Mo. , and have practiced medicine for two and one half years.

My present place of business is Long Pine, Neb. Dr. Tainter only remained in Long Pine for a few months. As the writer remembers him he was quite an able young man.

Dr. John W. Bracket filed for record on June 14, 1886, the following record: I was born at Alma, Wis., and I am 21 years of age. My place of business is Ainsworth, Neb. I have practiced medicine one month at Eau Clare, Wis., and one month at Ainsworth, Neb.

I graduated from Rush Medical College February 22, 1886. Dr. Bracket came to Ainsworth with high hopes and great expectations, but, like many another who has started into the practice of medicine believing that through his superior education and skill he will be able to run all disease germs to their lair and then exterminate the whole pack, soon became discouraged and moved on to other fields where, we hope he gained experience to match his superior education, and is today, somewhere, doing good work in the field of medicine.

Dr. Hosea J. White filed on December 3, 1887 the following record: I was born in Jefferson County. New York, and am 33 years of age. My place of residence is Long Pine, Neb.

I am a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa. I have practiced medicine four years. Three years in Rubens , Kansas , and one year in Bostwick , Neb . Dr. H. J. White located in Long Pine, Neb., in October of 1888, but moved from Long Pine to Valentine in 1889 where he remained for but one year, moving to Bassett, Neb., in 1890, where he remained until 1905 when he sold out his business there and moved to Springview to enter into partnership with Dr. Evans. He remained in Springview for about three years when he closed out his business there and moved with his family to Ainsworth, Neb., in March 1909, where he continued in the practice of medicine until time of his death which occurred, August 12, 1927.

He is buried in Park Cemetery on the highway 2 miles east of Ainsworth, Neb.

He was the first doctor in this part of Nebaska to drive an automobile. His first was a little buck board and second a high wheeled Oldsmobile.

The doctor was a great auto enthusiast and I think during his later years drove about every kind of light machine made. Dr. White was naturally a great sportsmen, enjoying all kinds of sports. In his earlier days he was as enthusiastic over a horse as he was later over an automobile and of all sports I think he enjoyed a horse race a little bit the best.

The writer knew Dr. White for a great many years, and, though born and reared in the east, he early became a thorough westerner, and no kinder hearted man ever lived in any community.

He practiced medicine not for the dollars and cents he could make, but because he loved his fellow man. And no call was ever refused because there was not money to pay a fee or because the weather was too cold and inclement.

Dr. William B. Ely. Born in Connecticut on March 5th 1842. Spent his boyhood days as a carriage painters apprentice. He became interested in music at an early age and before he was twenty-one he taught both pipe  organ and piano music in Canadaigua Female Seminary at Canadiagua, New York.

He followed the musical profession until 1878, when he was graduated from the Medical College of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He practiced for two years at Marion, N.Y., eight years at Penfield, N.Y.; two years at Newark, N.J., and moved to Ainsworth, Nebaska in 1889, where he remained until 1901, when he moved to University Place, Nebaska. He staid in University Place until 1908, when he lost his health by reason of a severe attack of the grip.

He later returned to Ainsworth, but not again to resume the practice of medicine, although he at all times kept himself well posted on all of the new developments in medicine and surgery.

In 1 894 he was president of the Nebaska State Medical Society and during his entire career he was an enthusiastic supporter of that organization as well as of the local medical societies.

He died on June 23, 1921 at Ainsworth suffering for three days from an attack of angina pectoris.

Dr. Edward Payson Green, the only Homeopathic doctor to come into this territory, filed his credentials with the County Clerk of Brown County on the 24th day of March, 1 888.

He states that he was born at Beloit, Wisconsin, that he is 28 years of age, and, that he is a graduate of the Homeopathic Department of Iowa State University, also that he is a member of the Hahneman Medical Society, Iowa City, Iowa, and that his residence is Long Pine, Neb.

The writer was in Long Pine quite frequently in 1888 but has no recollection of Dr. Edward Payson Green Homeopathic physician, so concludes that his residence in the Pine was brief, and express the hope that, like the Hahneman School of medicine he has changed to something more rational than Similibi Similibus Curanter.

Dr. James Scott, filed with the County Clerk of Brown County on the 5th day of September, 1889, the following record: I was born in the state of Ohio and my residence is now Long Pine, Neb. I am a graduate of the Medical Department of the State University of Iowa and have practiced medicine in the state of Iowa for the period of 18 years.

The writer remembers Dr. James Scott well. He was a fine upstanding man and a good doctor and would have been an addition to our ranks, both medically and socially, had he not retained in his cosmos to much of the eastern spirit to ever become westernized.

He only remained a few months and then departed to return to a more civilized community.

Dr. Favens J. Beck, a Hoosier, filed with the County Clerk of Brown County on May 6th, 1889 the following record: I was born at Newburn, Indiana and have practiced medicine at Hartsville, Ind. , from spring of 1883 to spring of 1889 with Dr. Wm. H. Beck.

I attended Ohio Medical College the winter of 1880 and 188 1 . I am now located in Ainsworth and practicing with Dr. G.O. Remy. Dr. Beck was another who could not become accustomed to the ways of the west. He returned to Hartsville the fall of 1889 where he practiced medicine successfully until about five years ago when he moved to Columbus, Ind., where he still resides and practices.

So ends, so far as I have been able to gather, the list of doctors who, through the eighties, fought it out in Brown County with prairie fires, coyotes and blizzards, all of which were plentiful at that time.

The climate of north Nebaska in much milder now and storms neither so bad or so frequent as in those early days, perhaps owing to the many groves of trees which now dot, what was then, a treeless expanse of level prairie.

Quite a number of these early doctors, as the record shows, were not graduates of any school of medicine, but most all of them had had experience in some other place or places before coming to Brown County and , their work here proved that this experience was not in vain. Not every man who boasts a diploma is educated.  Education is something more than a college degree. It is training and experience, no matter when or how attained, and this is not only true in medicine but in every walk of life. I have tried to be just and impartial in my dealings with the records of these early Brown County doctors. Most of them have now passed on to receive the doctors reward, whatever and wherever that is and are not here to defend their reputations.

Their places have been taken by younger men, with better college education, but will they serve the people more faithfully, more honestly and to better purpose than did these early pioneers?

Time will tell. I hope that at some future time one of these younger men may feel inspired to take up this history where I am leaving it and complete what I have so humbly begin. 

 Medical records -- Nebaska Brown County

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Janice Rice

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