The History of Medicine

E.G. Murdock was the physician for my father’s family in Taylor’s Falls, MN, at the turn of the century. He was the fifth Dr Murdock, some cousins and brothers, who served the community and surrounding areas.

Growing up, I heard stories about the times Dr Murdock would call my uncle Jack out of school (probably no more than the eighth grade) to drive his horse out in the country for an emergency call as Jack was known to be good with horses at an early age. When Dr Murdock tended to victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic, Uncle Jack had to wait inside the house, risking infection, because it was terribly cold. Neither Dr Murdock or his horseman caught the flu though the rest of the family did.

My father told us that a house call with Dr Murdock (who lived next door) was $1 while an “office visit” to his home was only 50 cents. Needless to say, the eight Hobbs children were carried to the Murdock home whenever possible.

When Milo and I were medical students in 1966, my aunt called to see if we were interested in acquiring some old medical books for our collection. We went to Taylor’s Falls to meet with Dr Murdock’s widow who was leaving her home to enter a nursing home. She was afraid that her husband’s precious books and equipment would go to the landfill when my aunt thought of us. Poor med students that we were, we were unable to offer her more than $40 for the lot but she was delighted. Her only stipulation was that the account book, full of confidential information, must be found and destroyed.

Sorting through the books and equipment in her attic, we found a relative’s 1815 med school notes from Putney, Vermont and a wooden stethoscope with the same leather medicine case Dr Murdock carried on his horse and buggy. Quite a thrill for us as book collectors. And there was the account book listing my father’s delivery in 1906 with “milk on account” as the only payment they could give. What to do with the account book? After showing it to my father, we did the only thing we could do and gave it back to Frances Murdock. I’m sure that she burned it and went to the nursing home satisfied that she (and we) had done her duty. We vowed to remember her husband and never to sell any part of his legacy. We remember him still.

The History of Medicine section is presented by J. Milo Meland, MD

and supported by

Lois G. Hendrickson, MLS
Interim Curator
Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
http://hsl.lib.umn.edu/wangensteen