During the era of the “Wild West” in the United States, as people expanded westward in search of opportunities and new life, many communities had to do the best they could with medical care. The results ranged from the hilariously awful to profound discoveries and methods.
Fake Degrees and Frontier Vets Were Your Only Hope
The period known as the Wild West occurred in the United States between the end of the Civil War and the “closing” of the American frontier around 1865 to 1895. This 30-year period saw rapid expansion as Americans traveled west to seek their fortunes. Such expansion limited the availability of medical care of any kind, much less access to medical doctors.
The number of professionals was lacking, and only about 25% of people calling themselves “doctors” actually had a medical degree of some sort. What resulted was an amalgamation of different types of medical theories, most with untested practices that were more akin to folk medicine or charlatanism. Many doctors also served as veterinarians, and vice versa. Children were often born with the assistance of midwives, if available, and childbirth tended to be the domain of women rather than doctors.
The Silent Outbreaks That Killed Settlers Faster Than Bullets
As vaccination and high sanitation standards were not yet common, diseases that are now rare often made their way through the West like wildfire, such as the cholera epidemic that spread throughout the California Gold Rush in 1849. This was the result of poor sanitation and crowded living conditions, which were also catalysts for other diseases such as diphtheria and dysentery.
Cholera was also responsible for a high number of deaths in Indian tribes, particularly among the Pawnee and Cheyenne. Tuberculosis, or “consumption,” was also a major factor in the Old West, and is known to have afflicted famous gunfighters such as Doc Holliday and a member of the Texas Rangers, Captain Leander McNelly.
How Opium Elixirs and the Rockefellers Created Snake Oil
“Snake oil” is the pejorative given to the “patent medicine” commonly sold throughout the Old West from traveling “medicine shows.” They would draw a crowd with various entertainers, and a “professor” or “doctor” would try to sell the crowd bottles of some sort of elixir with outlandish claims of its curative effects. People would often be planted in the crowd claiming to have been cured by the medicine, which was often alcohol combined with a narcotic of some sort (often opium) and other spices or herbs.
The term “snake oil” originated from a real substance introduced by Chinese railway workers who came to America to work on the transcontinental railroad. They would extract the oil from the fat sack of a Chinese water snake, and it appears to have been a genuine remedy for inflammation. William D Rockefeller Sr, father of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, was one of the traveling salesmen who took the idea of snake oil and traveled around the West, selling it under the name “Dr. William Levingston.” Some of the money he earned through his various businesses would help his son, John, start what would become the vast Standard Oil business empire.
Unwashed Hands Killed More Settlers Than Frontier Outlaws
The biggest problem that led to the most deaths in the Old West was the lack of cleanliness at every level. Germ theory was in its infancy, having only been formulated by 1878. Sanitation of water supplies was negligible, resulting particularly in the spread of cholera. Washing before surgery was rarely done, and sanitizing instruments was rare. However, the Old West saw the beginnings of some modern surgery practices.
Dr. George Goodfellow was a genuine doctor who moved west around 1876 to practice medicine, and wound up involved (or nearly so) with many major characters of the Old West. He almost joined General Custer’s 7th Cavalry, missing the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Goodfellow married Katherine Colt, a relative of Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver. He also treated two of the Earp Brothers following the Gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881 after establishing a practice in Tombstone, Arizona.
Because of his proximity to some of the wildest situations in the Old West, Dr. Goodfellow became renowned for his effective treatment of gunshot wounds—particularly the sterilization methods he used in surgery. He became renowned for several firsts in surgery, all successful due to his skill and his sterilization techniques.
