Frontier Dentist: the Letters of Waltus Jewell Watkins
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Frontier Dentist: The Letters of Waltus Jewell Watkins EDITED BY NORMAN L. CROCKETT The appearance of professional men in a frontier area often indicated the region's advancement to a higher level of develop ment. Because they usually possessed education and special skills the professionals contributed to the growth of a well-organized social system characterized by law, order, and morality. Yet, the frontier exerted its influence. Pioneer life encouraged and often necessitated versatility; ministers taught and teachers preached while some doctors attended to the medical needs of both man and beast. In numerous cases the professional calling became subordinate to other activities, and in the final analysis the frontier rather than the individual had produced the most change. One such professional man was Waltus Jewell Watkins, born on July 7, 1852, near Lawson, a small farming community in northwestern Ray County, Missouri. His father Waltus Lockett Watkins had migrated from Kentucky to Liberty, Missouri, in the early 1830's and had operated his own cotton spindles in addition to offering Clay County, Missouri, residents custom wool-carding services. When fire had destroyed his spinning machinery, the elder Watkins turned to farming, tanning hides, attempting the commercial production of honey, and operating a saw mill. In 1839 he had moved his family to a huge tract of land a few miles west of Lawson. With bricks fired in his own kiln he had erected a two-story house in 1850 and ten years later he completed the construction of a woolen and grist mill. Three of his sons, Joseph, Judson, and John, continued to operate the farm and mill after their father's death in 1884, but Waltus Jewell lacked the stability of his three younger brothers. Although he attended William Jewell College at Lib erty, Missouri, he apparently failed to graduate, and the next Frontier Dentist: The Letters of Waltus Jewell Watkins 279 After establishing headquarters at Craig, Jewell visited the mining camps and small towns of Colorado searching for teeth to repair, deer to hunt, and claims to mine. Before his death in a Kansas City nursing home in 1925, he had written more than one hundred letters to his brothers in Missouri, describing his travels and his schemes for gaining quick wealth.1 Jewell's boundless optimism concerning the West provides little that is new to the student of western history, but the comments in the following selection of his letters perhaps offer some insight into the impact of the frontier on one professional man. DENVER, COLO. 12/8/1898 DEAR BROTHERS: 2 .. I got here the right day for my business transaction. If I had been here one day sooner I would have had to stand an examination which I could not possibly pass. One of the board showed me some of the examination questions and they were corkers. I paid the secretary and took his reciept (which is unlawful on his part) and will have to stand an examination in time. I can practice until that time. He, the sec. is doing few years of his life seemed marked by intermittent employ crooked work therefore I feel safe.... $100.00 to $500.00 fine ment. With funds from his father's estate he attempted ranching or 6 months to 1 yr in jail or both for practicing in this state in Montana, but abandoned that pursuit and returned to Missouri without license.3 I have the pinch on this dental examining in the late 1880's to open a jewelry store and watch repair shop board. (They think I dont know it) and I am feeling very com in Bunceton. He next studied dentistry, and by the mid-1890's offered his professional services to the residents of Burlington fortable. Love to everybody and my dog Joe. Junction, Missouri. The year 1895 found him completing a post Your affect Brother graduate dental course in Chicago. w. J. WATKINS In the spring of that same year Jewell toured Colorado with all the exuberance of a tenderfoot in search of gold. He 1 The original Waltus Jewell Watkins letters are located in the Watkins Mill seemed especially fascinated by the mining camps of south Collection, Jackson County Historical Society Archives, Independence, Mis souri, and are published with the kind permission of the society. The editor western Colorado, and was determined to try his hand at is indebted to Mrs. Ruth Roney of Lawson, Missouri, who supplied much of the background material on the early life of Jewell Watkins. prospecting even though his wife Minnie failed to share his 2 Letters addressed to "Brother" were written to John H . Watkins. The saluta tion "Brothers" included not only John but also Joseph and Judson. enthusiasm. When his talents as a miner produced little income, a Colorado enacted its first dental law in 1889 (Colorado, General Assembly, Jewell's wife returned east with the assurance that her husband Session Laws, 7th Sess., 1889, pp. 122-24). It required individuals who wished to practice dentistry in the state to pass an examination administered by the would follow after settling some financial obligations. Rather Colorado State Board of Dental Examiners. When the board was not in session, its secretary was authorized to issue a temporary permit which was than join her, he sold their household belongings for $35.00, valid only until the next board meeting, at which time it could be extended. However, a subsequent law passed in 1897 (Colorado, General Assembly, loaded his dental equipment on a wagon, and commenced ap Session Laws, 11th Sess., 1897, pp. 144-47) made no provision for the issuance of temporary permits. It also reduced the maximum fine for practicing proximately thirty years of wandering. He never contacted without a license from $500 to $300 and eliminated a jail sentence included in the earlier law. See also William A. Douglas, A History of Dentistry in Minnie again. Colorado, 1859-1959 (Boulder: Johnson Publishing Co., 1959), pp. 121-25. Frontier Dentist: The Letters of Waltus Jewell Watkins 281 AMETHYST, COLO. March 9-1899 DEAR BROTHERS. Somebody killed here every week or two. Sometimes with gun & sometimes accidentally in mine. 3 men got killed in mine today & one more in dying condition.... My advertise ments cost me about $6 pr. month. Other expenses about $50 pr month not to say anything about tobacco, life insurance, lodge dues5 and numerous other things. Everything is pretty high here.. A great many of these people want gold crowns and bridges, & some of them want gold crowns on front teeth for display. They ought not to be put there of course, but I am not here to regain lost health. I crown them when they want it done. I have two incandescent lights in front of my dental chair; each light is 32 candle power. I do considerable night work for 6 miners •••. The dentist I bought out is still here. He agreed to leave by the 15 of Jan. JIMTOWN, COLORADO Your affet. brother 12/18/1898 WALTUS J. WATKINS DEAR BROTHERS Well I am here in Jimtown all right. Jimtown, Creede and Bachelor are mining camps all connected together (in a manner) 4 in a mountain gulch about 9000 feet altitude . .. Jimtown is AMETHYST, COLO. in Mineral Co. I think I can do well here in the practice of June 3, 1899 dentistry. These miners get from 3 to 5$ pr day. Money is plenty DEAR BROTHER in this camp. Population about 3000 souls. There is a dentist ... I have rented a doctors residence in the best location in here, but I will locate here just the same . .. Some of the town and it is finely furnished, paying $40 a month rent. Every people here wont let this dentist work for them. He gets drunk thing in the house is beautiful & costly. I will have the finest and raises-old ned. A pretty good class of people here now, but equipped dental office & residence combined in the state. The was a tough place when the camp was new . ... No Sunday house is in the middle of the block of business houses. The den here except in name. My hotel has office and saloon all in one tist I bought out is still here he has been sober for 5 wks & is little room and it is the best hotel in town. I can only get one getting considerable practice... I am not going to Denver to small room for dental office & I have to sleep in that. Every stand examination. I expect I will have trouble with them. It thing is crowded to death. A good 2$ hotel could make money costs like fury to go up there & return, and I am going to risk here.... the trouble. I Remain your affet. Brother With love to all I am your brother W . J . WATKINS, D.D.S. W. J. WATKINS P.S. The name of P. 0. here is Amethyst and not Jimtown •With the arrival of great numbers of miners following the Creede strike, s Jewell religiously paid his dues to the Masonic and Woodman lodges through camps quickly appeared in the vicinity. In 1891, Jimtown (sometimes out his trav els in Colorado. He e x plained to his brother John that attendance known as Gintown, Creedmoor, and Amethyst) came into existence and at lodge meetings in the towns he visited helped to combat his feelings of above Jimtown, following Creede's first fire, Bachelor (or Teller) w as built loneliness and isolation. nearby. Muriel Sibell Wolle, Stampede to TimberLine (Boulder: University • Typical of other mining camp pra ctitioners, Jewell established evening office of Colorado, 1949), p.