Matters connected with the professions of the law and medicine
are especially personal in their nature, and for that reason of unusual
interest.  The items concerning the legal profession are strung upon
the framework of the bench, the organization and changes in the va-
rious courts forming a substantial groundwork for individual sketches
of judges and lawyers.  As to the physicians and surgeons, the Wells
County Medical Society is the only organized body around which they
may be grouped, and they were practicing their scientific, humane and
human arts long before they were formally associated.  In many a
community, in the old trying times, it was a friendly and a Christian
rivalry for preeminence between the country doctor and the parson,
the comparative preponderance of affection engendered depending
largely on individual traits of warm-heartedness and charity.
 

                      BEFORE THE CIRCUIT COURT WAS

     Previous to the organization of the Circuit Court of Wells County,
its citizens were obliged to call upon the local squire for assistance.

                                             349

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350

On September 2, 1837, Benjamin Brown tried the first case as a
justice of the peace of Wells County.  It was styled The State of In-
diana versus Simon Miller, charged with assault and battery against
the person of Elam Hooker.  The defendant was found guilty and
fined $1, for the benefit of the seminary fund of Wells County.
     The second law suit before a justice occurred in 1837, when Thomas
W. Van Horn was called upon to decide which one of two traps caught the
wolf.
 

                              Circuit Court Organized

     The first term of the Circuit Court of Wells County convened
at the residence of Robert C. Bennett, where Bluffton is now situated,
in October, 1837, with the following officers:  Charles W. Ewing,
judge; John Swett and James R. Greer, associate judges;  Bowen Hale,
clerk: Isaac Covert, sheriff, and Thomas Johnson, prosecuting at-
torney.  The first court entry was made on the 19th of the month
named.
     The first grand jury consisted of Abraham McDowell, James
Wright, James Cobbum, David Bennett, Christopher Miller, William
Hay, William P. Davis, Henry Mace, Jeremiah Masterson, Nathaniel
Batson, Isaac Dewitt, James Harvey, Isaac Wright, Isaac Lewellyn,
Joseph Jones, and Buell Baldwin, and petit jurors, Joseph Sparks,
John McCullick, Noah Tobey, John Seek, Newton Putnam, Allen
Norcross, Andrew Brown, John Higgins, John Casebeer, Goldsmith
Baldwin, Samuel Wallace, Conklin Masterson, Henry Miller, Henry
Myers, Daniel Miller, John C. Whitman, James Jarrett, David Snyder,
Mason Powell, William Foncannon, Samuel Myers, Adam Miller, John
Swett, and James R. Greer, all of whom but Newton Putnam are dead.
 

                        A DISCOURAGING FIRST SUIT

     The first lawsuit in the Circuit Court was in 1838, when Andrew
Ferguson was tried for assault and battery upon the person of John
Mace.  David Bennett prosecuted the case vigorously and Moses
Jenkinson subsequently of Fort Wayne, defended.  Mr. Jenkinson
had walked all the way from Geneva, Southern Adams County, to de-
fend his client, thereby proving conclusively that he needed his pro-
fessional fees; but the culprit learned that he was not licensed to
practice and refused to pay him for his services.  So poor Jenkinson
went footing it through the mud to his Geneva home, a rather
dejected victim of ingratitude.

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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES                                 351

                    FIRST INDICTMENTS PRESENTED

     The grand jurors previous to the April term, 1889, failed to pre-
sent any one for crime, but at this term Jehu T. Elliott, of New Castle,
Indiana, afterward supreme judge, appeared as prosecuting attorney,
and the first indictments in the county were then found and pre-
sented, and the court made the following entry in relation thereto,
which will be found on page 21, Minute Book “A”: “Ordered by
the court that in all bills of indictment found at the present term of
this court for assaults and batteries, betting, and selling and giving
spirits to Indians, the defendants be required to enter into recogni-
zance in the sum of $25 each and security in a like sum, and in all in-
dictments for grand larceny and for suffering gaming in grocery or
tavern the defendants be required to enter in the
sum of $100 each with security in a like sum.”
 

              DAVID KILGORE SUCCEEDS JUDGE EWING

     At the September term, 1839, Judge Ewing was succeeded on the
bench by Hon. David Kilgore, of Muncie, afterward speaker of the
Indiana House of Representatives and subsequently for two terms a
member of Congress from the “Old Burnt District.”
     At this term, among others, the famous Moses Jenkinson, Judge
Jeremiah Smith, of Winchester, and Judge Jacob B. Julian, later of
Indianapolis, were admitted to practice in the Circuit Court.
 

           PROMINENT CITIZENS INDICTED FOR BETTING

     The first criminal proceeding tried was against Associate Judge
James R. Greer, who entered a plea of guilty to a charge of betting
and was fined $1. It seems that the judges in those days dealt out
justice impartially and in proof of this made one of their own number
the first victim of the majesty of the law. At this term John Brown-
lee, of Grant County, afterward a leading member of the Marion Bar,
was the prosecuting attorney. The criminal docket contained fifty-
two causes, of which forty-five were for betting, and most of the prom-
inent citizens of the county were placed under indictment.
     At the March term, 1840, the late Jeremiah Smith appeared as
prosecuting attorney.
 

                                FIRST DIVORCE SUIT

     At the October term, 1840, the first divorce petition in the county
was filled. Prior to that event domestic bliss and felicity seem to
have reigned supreme.

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352

                                FIRST RESIDENT LAWYER
 

     At the April term, 1841, Samuel Ogden succeeded John Swett as associate
judge, and at this term John P. Greer, who spent the last years of his long
life at Topeka, Kansas, became the first resident member of the Wells County
Bar and was one of its leading lights until his removal from the state in
1857.
 

                                  FIRST PROBATE ENTRY

     The first entry in the probate docket of the county was made by William
Wallace, probate judge, on November 10, 1841, ordering a writ of habeas
corpus for the body of one Martin Perry.
 

                                 JUDGE JAMES W. BORDEN

     At the March term, 1842, James W. Borden, of Fort Wayne, succeeded to the
judgeship and Lucien P. Ferry of the same place appeared as prosecuting
attorney. Judge Borden, though only a moderate lawyer, was a man of fine
physical proportions, an excellent conversationalist, and spent the
subsequent years of his life in office, having been a member of the
Constitutional Convention, judge of the Court of Common Pleas, minister to
the Sandwich Islands under Buchanan, again common pleas judge, and he
died in the harness as judge of the Allen Criminal Court about 1881. The
court as then constituted had an equitable but arbitrary way of apportioning
costs, and at this term, in the case of "Andy" Ferguson v. Almon Case, where
the jury found for the plaintiff in the sum of $2, the court ordered "that
each party pay one-half the costs."

     At the September term, 1842, the name of Horatio M. Slack, the second
resident attorney of Bluffton, appears of record. At this term William H.
Coombs of Fort Wayne appeared as prosecuting attorney. After having
practiced at that city for more than one-half century, he rounded off his
career by a brief service on the Supreme Bench, and retired from active
practice at a venerable age. During his term the judge and ex-Prosecuting
Attorney Ferry were jointly indicted on the novel charge of "aiding in the
escape of a prisoner."
 

                                    DAVID L. [sic] COLERICK

     At the March term, 1843, the venerable David H. Colerick appeared as
prosecuting attorney. In his prime he was a man of excellent delivery and
surpassing eloquence, and several of his sons have inherited great ability
in these respects.

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353

                                            JOHN W. DAWSON

     At this term John W. Dawson, afterward editor of the Fort Wayne Times, and
subsequently governor of Utah Territory, was admitted to the bar. He was a
ready writer and a strong, aggressive man, but his pilgrimage closed in the
late 1870s. Two important events occurred at this term, the conviction of
Associate Justice Greer for violating the revenue laws, and the indictment
of S. G. Upton, the third resident attorney admitted to the bar, for
barratry; but for the credit of the fraternity let it be said that he was
acquitted of the charge.

     At the September term, 1843, Robert B. Turner became associate judge with
Mr. Greer, and Lewis Lynn was then sheriff.
 

                             FIRST CONVICTION OF A FELON

     At the March term, 1844, Lysander C. Jacoby was special prosecutor. During
this session, Ezekiel Parker was convicted of obtaining goods under false
pretense, which was the first successful prosecution of a felony in the
county.
 

                                   LAST ASSOCIATE JUDGE

     At the March term, 1845, Jonathan Garter became associate judge, and
continued in this capacity with Judge Greer until the office was abolished
by the adoption of the new Constitution in 1852. At this term James R.
Slack, a Union general during the Rebellion and afterward judge of the
Twenty-eighth Judicial Circuit, acted as prosecuting attorney. He was a man
of rugged sense and old-fashioned honesty.

     At the August term, 1845, and March term, 1846, Elza A. McMahon, afterward
judge of this circuit, but long a resident of Minnesota, acted as
prosecuting attorney.

     In 1847 Isaac Covert again became sheriff, but with this exception the same
judges and officers continued until March, 1848, when Samuel G. Upton was
commissioned prosecuting attorney. He was a straight dignified New Yorker,
prematurely gray, but though his frosty head may have been the result of
hard study, he never was a dangerous lawyer. He engaged for a number of
years in editing and publishing the Bluffton Banner, and was for a time
postmaster at this place, but ended his career about 1883 at New
Orleans, Louisiana at the advanced age of seventy-five years. In 1849 Isaac
Covert retired from the shrievalty and was succeeded by Amza White.

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354

                                    JAMES L. WORDEN

     At the December term, 1849, James L. Worden acted as prosecuting attorney.
He was born in Massachusetts in 1819, but lost his father in infancy,
removed to Portage County, Ohio, when a child, and was deprived of the
advantages of an early education. He was largely self-taught, and moved to
Indiana during his early manhood, where, by his real merits, he gained rapid
promotions, first to the office of prosecuting attorney, next to the nisi
prius bench, and afterward to the Supreme Bench of Indiana, where he
remained nineteen years, and his opinions were so highly regarded that he
was styled the "old reliable" and the "John Marshall" of that court.

     At the March term, 1851, the accomplished and persuasive John R. Coffroth,
who needs no introduction to our people, was admitted to practice before the
Circuit Court. Judges L. M. Ninde, William W. Carson, Jacob M. Haynes and
Isaac Jenkinson were admitted at the same time, and Benedict Burns was added
as the fourth resident member of the bar.
 

                             OLD-TIME SPEEDY JUSTICE

     At the March term, 1852, Amza White, an original character in his day, and
Arthur W. Sanford, afterward a prominent clergyman of Marion, Indiana, but
now of Michigan, were admitted to the force of local counsel. At this term
James L. Worden acted as prosecuting attorney, and in March, 1853, he
produced his commission and qualified as prosecutor. William Porter was then
added to the list of resident attorneys. In the earlier court practice they
disposed of business in a summary manner after the fashion of the old
English "dusty foot" court, and, while it was rough on the victim, little
complaint was made of the law's delay. One notable instance of this kind was
the trial of Detro and Brown, in 1851, for the larceny of a horse belonging
to Daniel Miller. They had taken the stolen property into Ohio. The
vigilance committee got upon their trail, pursued them to near the City of
Dayton, captured the thieves with their plunder, and re-crossed the state
line without the aid of a requisition, brought the captives to Bluffton, and
on the day of their arrival they were indicted, tried, convicted, and
sentenced to the penitentiary; on the morning of the next day the sheriff
started with his prisoners to Jeffersonville to execute the judgment of the
court. It was claimed that this was done in obedience to that clause in the
organic law of the

---

355

state which declares that "justice shall be administered
speedily and without delay."

     At the August term, 1853, Edwin R. Wilson was admitted and became resident
member of the bar. Michael Miller succeeded White as sheriff, and at the
February term, 1854, Mr. Wilson became prosecuting attorney.

     At the February term, 1855, his brother, John L. Wilson, recently on the
Common Pleas Bench at Morrow, Ohio, was placed on the roll of local
attorneys, and also the name of John N. Reynolds, an auctioneer and
pettifogger of great tact, who "lost his grip" when he reached the Circuit
Court.

     At the August term, 1844, James L. Worden qualified as circuit judge, and in
the November following George McDowell, a brother of the late Hon. James F.
McDowell, of Marion, succeeded Bowen Hale as clerk (who had retired after a
service of seventeen years).

     At the February term, 1857, Robert E. Hutcheson, afterward somewhat
distinguished at the Columbus, Ohio, bar, was added to the list of resident
counsel, but he remained only a brief time. At this term David T. Smith was
admitted to practice.
 

                 JAMES F. McDOWELL AND GEORGE S. BROWN

     At the February term, 1858, Reuben J. Dawson, of Albion, Indiana, became
circuit judge, James F. McDowell, subsequently a member of Congress from
this district and a man of charming eloquence, was admitted to the bar, and
George S. Brown, a scholarly man of fine appearance, located here and was
also admitted to the bar. He subsequently located at Huntington,
Indiana, where he for a time was engaged in business with Col. L. P.
Milligan, one of the finest logicians of the Wabash Valley, and thence moved
to Topeka, Kansas, where in the midst of an extensive and growing practice
he died of cancer.

     During this year Newton Burwell, a fluent speaker, ready writer and
well-read man, was admitted to the bar, and for many years was identified
with much important litigation in our courts, but the hand of business
adversity was laid heavily upon him, and after following a diversity of
pursuits and rowing against the tide, he at last took up the line of march
and drifted to Rapid City, Dakota. At this term Nicholas Van Horn
commenced the practice here, but being of a somewhat notional disposition,
he alternatively became lawyer, preacher, and doctor, and later tried his
hand at a variety of vocations in Texas.

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356      ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES

                                 The Murphy-Freeman Trial

     During this term one of the most important criminal trials oc-
curred that has ever transpired in the history of the county.  One
Moses T. Murphy, a merchant of Vera Cruz, had gone into the country
for the purpose of procuring teams to haul wheat to Fort Wayne,
and while in the woods between the residences of John Linn and
Harvey Risley, he was slain.  His continued absence excited the sus-
picion of his family, friends, and neighbors, who instituted a thorough
search for him.  His body was found with marks of violence upon
his head, indicating that he had been felled by some blunt instrument,
and upon closer inspection it was ascertained that his jugular vein
was severed.  A club bespattered with blood and hair was also found
near the body.  Suspicion at once, whether justly or otherwise, rested
upon Dr. William Freeman, who was Mr. Murphy's neighbor.  He
was arrested and indicted for the crime, and after an exciting trial,
was acquitted.  The case was ably prosecuted by Sanford J. Stoughton,
prosecuting attorney, assisted by Messrs. Ninde and Wilson, and was
defended by Messrs. McDowell, Milligan and Coffroth.
 

                                Judge Edwin R. Wilson

     Edwin R. Wilson became judge at the December term, 1858, and
James M. Defrees, of Goshen, prosecuting attorney.  Thomas L. Wis-
ner became clerk in November, 1859.
     At the February term, 1860, John Colerick, a man of magnetic and
persuasive eloquence, succeeded to the office of prosecutor, and in
February, 1861, was in turn succeeded by Augustus A. Chapin, after-
ward judge of the Allen Superior Court.
     On August 23, 1861, Thomas W. Wilson became a member of the
Wells County Bar, and Nathaniel De Haven became sheriff.  In No-
vember, 1864, James H. Schell became prosecutor and in the follow-
ing February Robert Lowry, a member of the Forty-eighth and Forty-
ninth Congresses from the Fort Wayne District, took his seat upon
the bench.
 

                             Wholesale Divorce Business

     The chief business transacted in the courts of this county from
the year 1861 to 1867 inclusive, was by some general divorce agent
residing at Fort Wayne, who operated for the Middle, Eastern and

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 357          ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES

New England states and Canada.  Divorces under the lax laws then
existing were ground out by the half-bushel.
 

                          COURT CHANGES, 1865-84

     Judge Lowry served until April, 1873, when he was succeeded by
Jacob M. Haynes, who continued until November, 1878, when his
successor, James R. Bobo, qualified, and continued as such until April,
1885, at which time he was succeeded by Henry B. Sayler.  James R.
McCleery succeded Wisner as clerk in November, 1867, and con-
tinued as such until his death in April, 1875.  Thomas L. Wisner was
commissioned as his successor and held until November, 1875.  Wil-
liam J. Craig was clerk from November, 1875, to November, 1883,
when John H. Ormsby was appointed.  Manuel Chalfant was sheriff
from 1865 to 1867 and from 1869 to 1871, Isaiah J. Covault from
1857 to 1869 and from 1871 to 1873, William W. Wisell from 1873 to
1877, James B. Plessinger from 1877 to 1881, Marcellus M. Justus
from 1881 to 1885, when Henry Kirkwood was elected sheriff.  This
court was supplied with the following prosecutors during the interim
named:  Thomas W. Wilson from November, 1866, to November,
1868; Joseph S. Dailey, from November, 1868, to November, 1876;
Joshua Bishop from November, 1876, to November, 1877; Luther I.
Baker from 1877 to 1880; John T. France from November, 1880, to
November, 1884, when Edwin C. Vaughn became prosecutor.
 

                            CRIMES AGAINST LIFE

    Writing in 1887 a Wells County historian says:  "At the Novem-
ber term, 1870, James Gillen was tried for the murder of William
J. McCleery, but was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the
penitentiary for twelve years.  It was a case that created great ex-
citement and much interest, and was ably conducted by both sides,
but as most of the actors in that forensic contest are yet living, the
writer deems it proper not to particularize in the matter.  The usually
quiet and law-abiding county of Wells has been at times under great
commotion by reason of homicides in her midst.  In late years John
Strode was tried for the murder of Daniel Miller, an old pioneer of
the county; Mary M. Eddingfield for the alleged poisoning of her
children; Frank Hoopengarner for killing Needham McBride; George
W. King for killing Martin Thayer, and William Walker for slaying
George Shaw.  Some of these cases were of great moral turpitude,
and are a blotch upon the otherwise fair escutcheon of the county;

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358          ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES

but a portion of the cases had many extenuating circumstances, and
in the case of Hoopengarner the jury wisely found it to be one of
justifiable homicide.  The actors in these contests are nearly all upon
the state, and for the reasons heretofore stated we will not individual-
ize in reference to them.
 

                             The Court of Common Pleas

     "Under the present Constitution we had the anomaly, from 1853
to 1873, of a Court of Common Pleas erected and organized with
almost concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Court, and during
its existence it contained the following officers:  Wilson B. Lough-
ridge was judge from its organization to January, 1861, when he
was succeeded by Joseph Brackenridge.  James W. Borden became
judge in January, 1865, and continued until January, 1868, when
Robert S. Taylor, one of the learned and best equipped attorneys of
this State, was commissioned his successor.  David Studabaker suc-
ceeded him in January, 1869, but resigned in September, 1869, and
Robert S. Taylor was then re-appointed by Governor Baker.  In Jan-
uary, 1871, William W. Carson became judge, and in January, 1873,
Samuel E. Sinclair was commissioned and held the office until it
was abolished as a needless expense about three months thereafter.
The prosecutors of this court were Benedict Burns, Newton Burwell,
James G. Smith, David T. Smith, David Colerick, Joseph S. Dailey
and Benjamin F. Ibach.
 

                           Wells County Bar in 1887

     "During the first thirty years of our country's history the busi-
ness transactions were small, and one order book of this court embraces
all the civil and criminal causes there tried from its organization up to
and including the January terms, 1859.  During the subsequent period
of our jurisprudence several parties were admitted to the bar, and
for a time were engaged as counsel here, who no longer responded
to the roll call.  Among these were Thomas A. R. Eaton, now deceased
and a most excellent citizen of the county, and William J. Bright,
who edited the Wells County Union.  He was 'bright' by name and
nature, but died at the beginning of his career in our midst.  In 1863
Daniel J. Callen, an eloquent orator and 'word-painter.' came and
practiced here, but soon returned to his native state, Ohio, which he
for a time served with distinction in her legislative councils.  Mr.
Callen has been in his grave for the last decade.  Benjamin G. Shinn,

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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES                                   359

now a prominent lawyer of Hartford City, was admitted to the prac-
tice here on September 19, 1865.  Hon. Daniel Waugh, ex-judge of
the Tipton and Howard circuit, was admitted May 22, 1866, with
the well-known Jacob J. Todd, and James A. Cotton, May 20, 1867.
William J. Davis, a graduate of Washington College, Pennsylvania,
located here and was admitted to the bar in 1871, and Captain Wil-
liam J. Hilligass in the year succeeding.  Joseph W. Ady, who now
enjoys a State-wide reputation in Kansas, was raised in Wells County
and admitted to the bar, but shortly after this event obeyed the in-
junction of the white-hatted philosopher who said, 'Young man, go
West.'
    "Our present bar comprises more than one-half of all the mem-
bers who ever engaged as resident attorneys at this place, and em-
braces the names of Edwin R. Wilson, David T. Smith, Joseph S.
Dailey, Jacob J. Todd, Levi Mock, August N. Martin (ex-reporter
supreme court and ex-congressman), John K. Rinehart, James P. Hale,
A. L. Sharpe, J. H. C. Smith, Homer L. Martin, Edwin C. Vaughn,
Charles M. France, Mines W. Lee, George W. Kimble, David H.
Swaim, William T. T. Swaim, Win. S. Silver, Asbury Duglay, Abram
Simmons, Luther B. Simmons and Charles E. Lacey; and without
particularizing, or making any invidious distinctions, the writer with
confidence states that this list comprises a galaxy of attorneys as well
equipped for the great work of the profession as can be found in
any county of Indiana.
    "Since the influx of railroads into the county in the autumn of
1869 the county has more than doubled in population and tripled in
material wealth; 2,000 miles of open ditches have been constructed
and many of turnpikes.
    "All kinds of commercial pursuits are being actively conducted,
and the county is rapidly gaining a front rank as an educated, enter-
prising and public-spirited locality; and as a result of the growth
and development of her material interests much litigation has neces-
sarily followed in the last fifteen years.  But the Wells County bar
have been equal to the emergency, fully qualified for the great work
they have been called upon to perform, and in their efforts to establish
rights and redress wrongs they have been aided at all times by an
intelligent and incorruptible judiciary."
 

                         THE BENCH AND BAR SINCE 1885

    Since the foregoing was written, thirty years ago, the bench and
bar of Wells County have made many steps forward.  Judge Sayler,

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360                                      ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES

the last occupant of the Circuit bench mentioned served from April,
1885, to November, 1888, when he retired in favor of Joseph S. Dailey.
The latter was promoted from the Circuit to the State Supreme
bench in July, 1893, and Edwin C. Vaughn was appointed as his suc-
cessor. Judge Vaughn served until 1906; Charles E. Sturgis was the
incumbent for the six years’ term, 1906-12, and William H. Eichhorn
has served since the latter year, his term expiring in 1918.
     The successive clerks and sheriffs have been noted in the roster
of county officials, although legally and specifically they may be classed
as court officials.
     Within the past thirty years many able lawyers have practiced
at the Wells County bar, some having graduated to the bench and
others to high legislative bodies. Augustus N. Martin, who studied
law with Jacob J. Todd and was afterward in partnership with him,
became a member of the State Legislature and a reporter of the Su-
prerne Court of Indiana, and finally a representative in the Lower
House of Congress, in which he served for six years. Mr. Martin
died in 1901.
     The prosecutors since 1901 have been as follows: John Burns,
1901-05; Ashley G. Emshwiller, 1905-09; Ethan W. Secrest, 1909-13;
Lee F. Sprague, 1913-17; Orvid A. Pursley, 1917- .
 

                       THE OLD COUNTRY DOCTOR

     The physician has always had a large place in the community, and
the old-time country doctor was especially near to the people of
Wells County. Like the Good Samaritan, he never passed the sufferer
because he had no fee. He tookit as a matter of course that he was
to go whenever called, without looking at the weather, considering the
roads or the creeks, or even asking the reason why. And there is
nothing to indicate that in the days of difficult travel and little shelter
the applicant for medical or surgical relief was more considerate of
the exposure of the doctor than he is today, when it is so much easier
for the physician to reach the bedside of the sick either real or fancied.
 

                     DR. MELSHEIMER'S DESCRIPTION

     Dr. C. T. Melsheimer, president of the old Wells County Medical
Society when it was formed in 1878, who settled at Bluffton in 1844
as a practitioner and long continued as such, has drawn this etching
of the typical country doctor with rare skill and evident sympathy.
Here it is: “The Country doctor was a kind of medical nondescript

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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES                                      361

in comparison with the members of the profession to-day. As a
general thing, he had the greater part of his life’s works before him,
was full of energy, and possessed a surplus of vitality that required
just such environments to keep him within the bounds of moral
rectitude. He was very courteous to his patients, so much so, that all
who were old enough he dignified as uncles and aunts, and few of
the elders received the honors of grandparents, he had schooled him-
self to coolness and deliberation amidst all the excitements due to ac-
cidents by ‘flood or field.’ Whatever misfortunes occurred were viewed
as unavoidable under the circumstances, so far as he was concerned.
With him the past was beyond his recall—the future he knew nothing
about; but the ever present was his, and he utilized it in such a
manner as to give the most satisfactory results, he was from the
very nature of his surroundings a concentrated embodiment of all
the specialties so markedly characteristic of the profession to-day, and
was compelled to assume the role of physician, surgeon, obstetrician,
dentist, aurist, oculist and, if there had been occasion for the gyne-
cologist, this would have been added as an appendix to his other duties.
These various callings of his required quite a collection of drugs to
meet the demand, and, together with a certain degree of self-reliance
which isolation imparts, made him master of the situation in a vast
majority of instances. When contemplating a visit in the country,
which was a daily occurrence, he meant rough business and was pre-
pared for it. Hence his usual outfit was an old slouched hat or cap
that had borne the brunt of many exposures, and which adorned his
head, while the lower extremities were encased in a pair ‘of coarse
stogy boots; and the ever present green flannel leggings, as further pro-
tections against mud and water, together with the compulsory spur
attached to the heel, completed the outfits. The protection of his body
by some species of mathematical adaptability was mode equal to the
extremes, and the result was a kind of object that required a rapid
evolution of Darwinism to bring him up to the present regulation
standard. Thus equipped and armed with a portly pair of pill bags,
he started on horseback upon his humane mission, over wagon tracks,
along bridle paths, through slashes of water and mud midsides deep,
and not unfrequently with no other directions than the blazed track
to the lonely cabin in the forest. At night the hickory bark torch
or the punctured tin lantern lighted with a tallow dip furnished a frail
substitute for the light of the sun.”
     “Thus in brief,” says Dr. Melsheimer, who was writing in 1887,
“you have the biography of a pioneer physician from the pen of a
junior member who participated in the events which the mutations of

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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES                                     363

time had wrought some forty-three years ago, and were shrouded in
the obscurities of the past until resurrected by one who stands a rep-
resentative of that period without a constituency. In the providence
of God all his co-laborers have laid down their burdens, and joined
their kindred spirits across the dark waters of Lethe.
 

                 HOW IT WAS THIRTY YEARS AGO

     “The contrast between the past and the present is so great that
its reality appears ‘like the baseless fabric of a vision that leaves no
trace behind.’ The steady hand of improvement has measurably de-
stroyed the cause that annually furnished a very prolific harvest of
miasmatic diseases to the physician. So, too, the wilderness has been
converted into many fruitful fields. The old log cabin, that virtue of
pioneer necessity, has long since given place to the more pretentious
dwelling. An increasing commerce has demanded gravel roads instead
of wagon tracks and bridle paths. And the intercourse of the outer
world is maintained by railroads and telegraphs, through which dis-
tance is diminished by the locomotive’s flight and time annihilated by
the electric flash. Numerous villages have sprung up as if by the hand
of the magician, and the country is teeming with an intelligent and
enterprising population that thus far has kept step in the progressive
march of the nineteenth century.”
 

            PIONEER PHYSICIANS AND EARLY EPIDEMICS

     The first physician in the chronological order was Dr. Joseph Knox,
who immigrated to Wells County in 1829 and located near Murray
on the farm subsequently owned by Henry Miller.
     The second physician, Doctor Williams, located in the village
of Murray in 1838. By what few settlers that neighborhood contained
he had the reputation of being a successful practitioner. His death
occurred a few years afterward in that place.
     The third in the county was Dr. William Fellows, a regular prac-
titioner, who was located some two miles south of Bluffton in 1838,
on the farm now owned by David Studabaker.
     The first epidemic of typhoid fever occurred in the fall and winter
of 1845.
     The first epidemic of scarlet fever occurred in the latter part of
June. 1849.
     First ease of cholera (Asiatic), August 9, 1839, imported from
Huntington, Indiana.

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362                                     ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES

     First epidemic of measles in September, 1849.
     First case of small-pox in June, 1854, at Bluffton.
 

             THE WELLS COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY

     The Wells County Medical Society was organized April 9, 1878,
with the following as its officers: Dr. C. T. Melsheimer, president;
Dr. T. H. Crosby, secretary; Dr. Theodore Horton, treasurer; B. F.
Cummins, Dr. W. R. S. Clark and Dr. L. A. Spaulding, censors. Per-
haps of these first officials of the society, Doctor Horton was as widely
known as any, since he had not only been practicing for thirty years,
but had become prominent in the affairs of both Bluifton and the
state. During the Civil war his speeches as a democrat opposed to
the conflict had caused his arrest. The original society adopted the
code of the American Medical Association and then, as now, was an
auxiliary to the Indiana State Medical Society. Doctor Crosby, who
died in 1883, came to Bluffton from Fort Wayne in 1848, and served
as a surgeon in the Civil war. Doctor Clark, who had died in the
previous year, was an Ohio physician until 1873, when he moved to
Bluffton.
     Dr. George E. Fulton, who is still practicing at that place and is
president of the society of today, is a native of the county, his father
locating in, Jefferson Township in 1840. He first located at Murray,
but has practiced at the county seat since 1882. Doctor Fulton has
served in the State Legislature and as health officer of the county.
His brother, Dr. J. C. Fulton, is a well known member of the pro-
fession. Among the leaders of long and substantial standing may also
be mentioned Dr. L. A. Spaulding, who also commenced to practice
at Bluffton in 1882; Dr. Isaac N. Hatfield, secretary-treasurer of the
present Wells County Medical Society, who came from Kansas in
1887 to throw his lot with the Bluffton people; Dr. E. W. Dyer, Dr.
J. W. McKinney, Dr. A. W. Brown, Dr. Louis Severin, Dr. C. H.
Mead and Dr. Ray E. DeWeese. The last named, however, is now
a resident of Hartford City.
     The present Wells County Medical Society comprises twenty-three
members; only four physicians in the county have not joined the or-
ganization. Regular meetings of the society are scheduled to be held
on the first and third Tuesday evenings of each month, but on ac-
count of the war, which absorbed so much time and energy of its
members, its gatherings have virtually become subject to call only.