Healing the Frontier

HEALING THE FRONTIER: CATHOLIC SISTERS, HOSPITALS, AND MEDICINE MEN IN THE WISCONSIN BIG WOODS, 1880-1920 ______________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri-Columbia ______________________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ______________________ by KIRSTIN L. LAWSON Dr. Catherine Rymph, Dissertation Supervisor MAY 2008 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled HEALING THE FRONTIER: CATHOLIC SISTERS, HOSPITALS, AND MEDICINE MEN IN THE WISCONSIN BIG WOODS, 1880-1920 presented by Kirstin L. Lawson, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy of history, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. ________________________________________________ Professor Catherine Rymph _______________________________________________ Professor John L. Bullion ________________________________________________ Professor Mark M. Carroll ________________________________________________ Professor Susan L. Flader ________________________________________________ Professor Linda Reeder ________________________________________________ Professor Lisa Sattenspiel For Mary, who insisted that the doctors never knew what they were doing anyway… ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No dissertation is ever completed as a solo project; this one certainly has benefitted greatly from the input freely given by many generous souls. I gratefully thank my advisor, Catherine Rymph, for her commitment and dedication to me. The members of my committee also contributed many long hours; I thank John Bullion, Mark Carroll, Susan Flader, Linda Reeder, and Lisa Sattenspiel for their perceptive advice and hard work. Nancy Taube will receive my eternal gratitude for her helpfulness and supportiveness, as will Amahia Mallea. I received much help from all of the archives and libraries I visited. I would especially like to thank Mark Thiel, at the Marquette University‘s Department of Special Collections and University Archives, and his wonderful assistants. Sister Corrine Dais, of the St. Joseph Convent Archive also was particularly helpful. The staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison and at the Area Research Center in Oshkosh were patient and helpful, as was the staff at Western Historical Manuscripts in Columbia, Missouri. And finally, the staff at the Medical College of Wisconsin was obliging; even the parking lot monitors were helpful in finding a place for me to park during the confusion of construction. Every dissertator in the past decade owes a debt of gratitude to Bill Gates; I have paid on that debt steadily over the past five years through multiple computer and software upgrades. Nevertheless, I appreciate the fact that I did not have to retype half of the ii manuscript just because I measured a footnote wrong in chapter three. Starbucks has also received regular cash contributions and has provided me with caffeine in return. Finally, I thank Lindy, Ashley, and John for patiently watching me buy a seemingly endless stream of bookcases and books, for being good-natured enough to allow me to leave piles of books on tables instead of putting them in the bookcases, and still giving me hugs, kisses, and support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES vii ABBREVIATIONS viii INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1. HOSPITALS AND HEALTH INSURANCE IN A BACKWOODS 18 COMMUNITY 2. FRONTIER MEDICS: THE COUNTRY DOCTOR, THE MODERN 56 PHYSICIAN, AND FOLK HEALERS 3. SACRED TEAS, A SISTER‘S SCHOOL, AND AN INDIAN PRIEST: 81 HOLISM AND MODERNITY COLLIDE 4. OPEN PORES, WIGGLERS, AND DEMONS: AN ECUMENICAL 132 GOSPEL OF GERMS 5. SCARLET FEVER AND WHITE PLAGUE: VOLUNTARY 156 SACRIFICE OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 6. HEALTH AND THE MANAGED ENVIRONMENT 185 7. A CITIZEN‘S RIGHTS: PUBLIC HEALTH AT THE HAYWARD 210 INDIAN SCHOOL CONCLUSION 237 TABLES 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY 252 VITA 270 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Number Page 1.1 Map of Wisconsin 43 1.2 Hayward: Main Street, early 1900s 44 1.3 ―Court House, Hayward, Wisc‖ 45 1.4 ―Sawyer County Jail, Hayward, Wis.‖ 46 1.5 ―Greetings from Hayward, Wis.‖ 47 1.6 ―Lutheran Church, Hayward, Wis.‖ 48 1.7 ―Catholic Church and School, Hayward, Wis.‖ 49 1.8 ―Omaha Depot, Hayward, Wis.‖ 50 1.9 ―North Wisconsin Lumber and Manufacturing Co‘s Mill, Hayward, Wis.‖ 51 1.10 ―North Wisconsin Lbr. & Mfg. Mill & Dam, Hayward, Wis.‖ 52 1.11 ―Load of Logs, Hayward, Wis.‖ 53 1.12 ―Driving Logs on Namakagon River, Hayward, Wis.‖ 54 1.13 ―River Scene at Hayward, Wis.‖ 55 2.1 ―John Till, the Plaster Specialst‖ 79 2.2 ―The ‗German Doctor‘ Somerset, Wis.‖ 80 3.1 Neweiash wrapped in star quilt 124 3.2 ―Indian Medicine Dance‖ 125 3.3 ―Kneipp-Kur‖ 126 3.4 ―St. Joseph‘s Convent, 22nd & Greenfield Aves., Milwaukee, Wis.‖ 127 3.5 ―Sacred Heart Sanitarium, Milwaukee, Wis.‖ 128 3.6 ―Sacred Heart Sanitarium (St. Mary‘s Hill in the distance)‖ 129 v 3.7 Bishop Koudelka and priests at first Mass of Rev. Philip G. Gordon, 1914 130 3.8 Father Gordon and Dr. Montezuma, 1919 131 6.1 ―Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Mich.‖ 206 6.2 ―Men‘s Bathing Department, Buckstaff Bath House, Hot Springs, Ark‖ 207 6.3 ―Wismo Club, Cort O‘Reilles Lake, Hayward, Wis.‖ 208 6.4 ―Cascarets Candy Cathartic – Best for the Bowels‖ 209 7.1 ―Indian Training School, Hayward Wisc.‖ 235 7.2 ―Government Indian Training School, Hayward, Wis.‖ 236 8.1 ―St. Francis Solanus School on the Reserve‖ 244 8.2 Catholic Nuns with Ojibwa Girls, 1932 245 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Distance in miles from Hayward 246 Table 2 1918 death rates per 100,000 in Wisconsin 246 Table 3 Sisters serving at the St. Francis Solanus Mission 247 Table 4 Ojibwe Medicines 248 vii ABBREVIATIONS AMA American Medical Association APHA American Public Health Association BCIM Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions FDA Food and Drug Administration HE Hayward Enterprise HR Hayward Republican LCO Lac Court Oreilles NATA National Anti-Tuberculosis Association NWLC North Wisconsin Lumber Company NWN North Wisconsin News OIA Office of Indian Affairs PMA People’s Medical Advisor SBOH Wisconsin State Board of Health SBOHR Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Wisconsin SMS State Medical Society of Wisconsin WATA Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association WHS Wisconsin Historical Society WMJ Wisconsin Medical Journal WMA Wisconsin Medical Association WPA Works Progress Administration WSB Washburn-Sawyer-Burnett County Medical Society vii i INTRODUCTION ―Health is essential to the accomplishment of every purpose; while sickness thwarts the best intentions and loftiest aims. We are continually deciding upon those conditions which are either the source of joy and happiness or which occasion pain and disease. Prudence requires that we should meet the foes and obviate the dangers which threaten us, by turning all our philosophy, science, and art, into practical common sense.‖1 On October 13, 1896, 23 year-old Minnesota State law student Albert Sabean came home to Hayward, Wisconsin only six weeks after beginning his studies. He had ambitiously intended to complete the normal three years‘ coursework in only one year, but that plan was cut short by illness. Albert remained bedridden at his parents‘ home for three full months, after which he went west to try to effect a cure for his ―hemorhoids of the lungs.‖ After a year of rest and recuperation, Albert was finally able to return to his studies. He completed law school successfully, and by 1900, he had formed a business partnership back home in Hayward with the local district attorney.2 The episode passed into memory, although it had cost him a year of his life, during which the Hayward Republican [hereafter Republican] was ―pleased‖ to note that Albert‘s ―several attacks of bleeding at the lungs‖ did not constitute a ―case … of a serious nature.‖3 Over a hundred years later, I talked about Albert with my aunt, who lives in another northern Wisconsin community, as I was explaining the new directions my dissertation research was taking. Initially interested in the development of health care 1R.V. Pierce, M.D., The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 46th ed. (Buffalo, NY: World‘s Dispensary Printing Office and Bindery, 1895), 9. 2 J.G. Adams, History of Education in Sawyer County, Wisconsin (McIntire, Iowa: M.E. Granger, 1902), 250. 3 Hayward Republican [hereafter HR], 15 October 1896. 1 delivery systems in northern Wisconsin during the Progressive Era, I had found myself increasingly drawn back into the Gilded Age and the murky waters of frontier health care. My aunt‘s response to Albert‘s story and to my lengthy description of my dissertation research was short and to the point: ―There was no health care up here back then.‖ As my research progressed, I found out that her response was one of two that I invariably got from people living in the area when I told them what I was researching. This first reaction – that there was no health care in northern Wisconsin at the end of the nineteenth century – has a history of its own. Americans‘ conception and expectations of health care in the twenty-first century continue to be defined by structural developments made in the 1920s and 1930s, when Progressive and New Deal health care reformers created a modern health care doctrine. According to these reformers, a health care system required: Practitioners who had received a standardized education and who were licensed to practice by the state. Facilities that conformed to established criteria of cleanliness and orderliness. Pharmaceuticals that had a consistent quality and that were approved by the state for distribution. Scientific foundations that supported the standardized education, established the criteria of cleanliness, and developed the pharmaceuticals. And Access to care. Those practitioners, facilities, and pharmaceuticals and the scientific research they represented had to be available at a reasonable 2 cost and located within a reasonable distance of those people whom they served.

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