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The display cases in the Oakville Historical Society archives are always filled with one or more exhibits relating to Oakville's historical heritage. They're free for viewing by the public anytime our offices are open (1:00 - 4:30pm. every Tuesday and Thursday, plus the third Sunday of each month).
The following material is based on an exhibit by volunteers Mary Noad and Rosemary Seeton. They focused on health care practitioners and practices, as it was from the early 1800s to the early/mid 1900s. Much of the textual material is drawn from Hazel Chisholm Matthew's Oakville and the Sixteen. |
Early Background:
A few short years after coming into existence the settlement at the mouth of the Sixteen (that was to become Oakville) suffered its first serious healthcare crisis: an epidemic of Asiatic cholera. The cholera arrived by ship along with immigrants from Britain, where the disease had spread from Europe. Conditions on those ships were horrendous in terms of crowding and sanitation, and food supplies (provided by the immigrants themselves) rarely lasted the two-month voyage. Conditions were ripe for the spread of disease and the immigrants, wasted by starvation, died by the hundreds. |
Graphic courtesy of the Port Colborne Historical & Marine Museum
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instrumental in establishing the Lions Club first temporary hospital on First Street, then in 1950 The Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.
Boards of Heath were established at every landing place for ships, and in June 1832 Oakville's Board appointed Dr. Daniel Black as Health Inspector for all immigrant-carrying vessels arriving at Oakville and Burlington Bay. In August 1833 Dr. Black was dead of cholera.
During this time John Urquhart arrived in Oakville from Scotland via New York. He was put in charge of a new hospital set up on the west side of the Sixteen and, after two years amongst cholera victims both at York and Oakville, he was considered qualified to practice medicine. He remained in Oakville when the epidemic subsided and built a combined apothecary's shop, surgery, and dwelling to which he gave the name "Medical Hall", a popular term during this period. In 1991, the building was designated of historical significance. This building still stands as 182 Lakeshore Road East and here his son, also named John who was to become an apothecary and then Doctor, was born in 1844.
Oakville suffered other epidemics that periodically swept the country. After the scourge of cholera in the thirties came typhus in 1847, carried by immigrants trying to escape the wretchedness caused by the Industrial Revolution and the potato famine in Ireland, and in 1854 cholera returned again.
Apart from the periodic country-wide epidemics, other diseases took their toll. The burial registers of Oakville churches show that infant mortality was very high, particularly among children under two years of age. “Malignant throat”, which we know to be diphtheria, in a few days wiped out a family of six between the ages of 2 months and 19 years.
The fever known as “ague” and “malaria”, which was the scourge of early settlers in Canada, was very prevalent in Oakville. Ague was associated with swamps and marshes, although it was not then known to be carried by mosquitoes. Since no screening was used it was just as well that night air was believed injurious and all outside air best left outside.
Justus W. Williams operated a store at 266 Colbourn Street (later renamed Lakeshore Road). The store offered "a general assortment of dry goods and hardware, also a few groceries and medicines". He inscribed in his shop ledger (1830-36) his remedies for Ague, colds, Scarlet Fever, bowel complaints of every kind, etc. He also produced a transcription (slipperyjohn bark = elm bark).
Oakville Physicians 1830 - 1930:
1830-1840
Dr. Daniel Black
Dr. William Kirkwood
Dr. William Gunn
Dr. Christopher Flock
Dr. David Dolmage Wright
1850s
Dr .Edwy Ogden - also Dentist
Dr. James Johnson
1860s
Dr. Anson Buck - Palermo
Dr. Van Norman - Bronte
1870-1880.
Dr. John Urquhart (See more below)
Dr. Justus Samuel Williams
Dr. Charles Lusk
1900s.
Dr. Robert O. Fisher
Dr. John H. Stead
Dr. Fred Sparling
Dr. Morely Wilkinson
1915
Dr. Charles Page
Dr. Eric Soanes
Helped establish the first temporary hospital on First Street as well as the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital
1920-1930.
Dr. Chesley Oak
Dr. Brock Chisholm
First Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1948 - 1953
Deputy Minister of Health for Canada (1944-1946
More information about Dr. Chisholm
Boards of Heath were established at every landing place for ships, and in June 1832 Oakville's Board appointed Dr. Daniel Black as Health Inspector for all immigrant-carrying vessels arriving at Oakville and Burlington Bay. In August 1833 Dr. Black was dead of cholera.
During this time John Urquhart arrived in Oakville from Scotland via New York. He was put in charge of a new hospital set up on the west side of the Sixteen and, after two years amongst cholera victims both at York and Oakville, he was considered qualified to practice medicine. He remained in Oakville when the epidemic subsided and built a combined apothecary's shop, surgery, and dwelling to which he gave the name "Medical Hall", a popular term during this period. In 1991, the building was designated of historical significance. This building still stands as 182 Lakeshore Road East and here his son, also named John who was to become an apothecary and then Doctor, was born in 1844.
Oakville suffered other epidemics that periodically swept the country. After the scourge of cholera in the thirties came typhus in 1847, carried by immigrants trying to escape the wretchedness caused by the Industrial Revolution and the potato famine in Ireland, and in 1854 cholera returned again.
Apart from the periodic country-wide epidemics, other diseases took their toll. The burial registers of Oakville churches show that infant mortality was very high, particularly among children under two years of age. “Malignant throat”, which we know to be diphtheria, in a few days wiped out a family of six between the ages of 2 months and 19 years.
The fever known as “ague” and “malaria”, which was the scourge of early settlers in Canada, was very prevalent in Oakville. Ague was associated with swamps and marshes, although it was not then known to be carried by mosquitoes. Since no screening was used it was just as well that night air was believed injurious and all outside air best left outside.
Justus W. Williams operated a store at 266 Colbourn Street (later renamed Lakeshore Road). The store offered "a general assortment of dry goods and hardware, also a few groceries and medicines". He inscribed in his shop ledger (1830-36) his remedies for Ague, colds, Scarlet Fever, bowel complaints of every kind, etc. He also produced a transcription (slipperyjohn bark = elm bark).
Oakville Physicians 1830 - 1930:
1830-1840
Dr. Daniel Black
Dr. William Kirkwood
Dr. William Gunn
Dr. Christopher Flock
Dr. David Dolmage Wright
1850s
Dr .Edwy Ogden - also Dentist
Dr. James Johnson
1860s
Dr. Anson Buck - Palermo
Dr. Van Norman - Bronte
1870-1880.
Dr. John Urquhart (See more below)
Dr. Justus Samuel Williams
Dr. Charles Lusk
1900s.
Dr. Robert O. Fisher
Dr. John H. Stead
Dr. Fred Sparling
Dr. Morely Wilkinson
1915
Dr. Charles Page
Dr. Eric Soanes
Helped establish the first temporary hospital on First Street as well as the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital
1920-1930.
Dr. Chesley Oak
Dr. Brock Chisholm
First Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1948 - 1953
Deputy Minister of Health for Canada (1944-1946
More information about Dr. Chisholm
Physicians and Surgeons in Oakville in 1953 :
Dr. W.L.Anderson
Dr. R.D. Appleford
Dr. A.C. Bremner
Dr. D.H. Dixon
Dr. R.N. Hines
Dr. D.S. Kober
Dr. M.E. Lunau
Dr. Campbell MacArthur
Dr. G.K. Phillips
Dr. A. E. Ross
Dr. E.P. Soanes
Dr. F.N. Sparling
Dr. R.W. Wallace
Dr. G.O.Warr
Dr. Bruce Wells
Dr. W.M. Wilkinson
Dr. J.C. Worrell
Dr. J. Zaborowska
Dr. W.L.Anderson
Dr. R.D. Appleford
Dr. A.C. Bremner
Dr. D.H. Dixon
Dr. R.N. Hines
Dr. D.S. Kober
Dr. M.E. Lunau
Dr. Campbell MacArthur
Dr. G.K. Phillips
Dr. A. E. Ross
Dr. E.P. Soanes
Dr. F.N. Sparling
Dr. R.W. Wallace
Dr. G.O.Warr
Dr. Bruce Wells
Dr. W.M. Wilkinson
Dr. J.C. Worrell
Dr. J. Zaborowska
Young John Urquhart had preferred the life of a sailor; and in 1860, at the age of sixteen, ran away from home to go on the lakes. But before John Urquhart senior died in 1867 (“a very large funeral – twenty-six teams”, observed George Sumner) he had the satisfaction of knowing that young John had bowed to his parents’ wishes and entered upon a medical career. "Young John's" first instructor was Dr. John Rolph, a supporter of Mackenzie during the Rebellion. John Urquhart graduated with honours from the University of Toronto and returned to practice at Oakville for a time before going to Edinburgh for a post-graduate course. When he died at the age of ninety, in the house where he was born, Dr. John Urquhart was reputedly the oldest practicing physician in the province. Urquhart’s and Gulledge’s were the oldest concerns in the town when, within a few years of each other, they were discontinued. The chemist’s shop had done business for just onto a century, and the harness shop for 104 years.
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Mrs. McCleary gives us this account of her father’s part in the serious smallpox epidemic of 1907:
“Father was the one who recognized the first case as being smallpox and soon it had spread all over town. He had a ‘camp’ set up on the west side of the river, on the lakefront near Holyrood, and everyone who developed the disease had to be taken there until they were better. The patients were picked up one by one and driven through town by horse and wagon (resembling a ‘lumber-wagon’) to the camp, where they were looked after. When people way one of these wagons, they know it was a case of smallpox and took care not to go near. I do not know how many contracted the disease, nor how long the camp was necessary, because Father decided to take the precaution of sending me away, and I was out of Oakville when the epidemic was at its worst.” |
Click on the image to the left for a readable look at a few pages from an 1826 pharmacopoeia - this one having belonged to Dr. John Urquhart and donated to the Society by his great great grandson, Dr. Gerald Colemen.
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