Pioneer medicine in 1800s was a work in progress

When pioneer ranchers and hard-riding cowboys came to the South Plains, they brought with them a pressing need for medical expertise. And whether it was snakebites or bullet wounds that needed fixing, doctors were in demand. The truth is, there were maladies that made snakebite look easy. They included appendicitis, tuberculosis and the often fatal one-two punch of flu followed by pneumonia in a time before antibiotics. Wives of the ranchers and farmers faced all of that plus shadow-of-death childbirths in remote areas where a doctor could be summoned only as quickly as 12 to 18 hours. That may be why Joseph Barton is said to have plowed an eight-mile furrow to the home of Dr. E.M. Harp because he knew his wife’s delivery would occur in February — and it might happen at night or in a snowstorm when he would need some means of navigation. Dr. Harp, who lived five miles north of Abernathy on a ranch of his own, was accustomed to placing a lantern in his windmill tower so it could be seen by those looking for medical help at night, according to O.C. “Hoppy” Toler, Abernathy-based historian...more