A Step Back in Time
By Bobbie Sue Shelton
Physicians of the Past - Part 1
Eagleville, a very fortunate community, can boost about having some very good physicians over the years dating back to the early days when the doctor visited patients on horse-back. The names of the earliest physicians have been lost over time. The following physicians may not be in order as they practiced medicine in Eagleville. At times there may have been more than one doctor practicing in the same area. We do know as early as 1841 there was a physician by the name of Dr. Thomas L. Rives practicing in Eagleville, Williamson County, Tennessee. He was listed in the Catalog of Students of the Medical Institute of Louisville in 1840-41.
In 1857 Dr. George Currin Kinnard was treating patients in Eagleville. Dr. Kinnard was born September 13, 1823, the son of B. C. and S. T. Kinnard. He married Mary Adeline Jordon, the eldest daughter of Johnson and Margaret Jordon. In the 1850 census he was practicing medicine in the 21st district of Williamson County. Two children were in the household. Dr. Kinnard died April 7, 1858. His wife died July 17, 1852.
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 Dr. Amasa Manire |
Amasa Webb Manire was born February 8, 1937 near Versailles in Rutherford County. He was the son of David Lemuel Manire and Susan Ann Elizabeth Jackson. He studied medicine as an apprentice. After the Civil War he graduated from the University of Nashville in 1870 and practiced in the Rover area in Bedford County, and in the Rockvale, Needmore and Versailles areas of Rutherford County. During the Civil War he enlisted in Company A. 24th Tennessee and served in the capacity of hospital steward and was detailed assistant surgeon. He resigned his commission in 1862 and came home to resume medical practice. On March 22, 1858 he married Julia W. White, daughter of William C. and Eliza Taylor White. He lived behind the Alex Ralston home on Mt Pleasant Road later moving to Rockvale. Later he moved his practice to Tullahoma where he served as City Health Officer of Tullahoma. He and his second wife, Lucy lived in Tullahoma until his death. He’s buried in the White Cemetery in Rutherford County. He had twelve children:
Dr. Thomas Skidmore Richardson was another early Eagleville doctor. He was born in 1829 in Virginia and was listed as a physician in Eagleville in the 1860 census of Williamson County. He graduated from the University of Nashville in 1855. His home was listed as Spring Hill in Maury County. Dr. Richardson was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge in 1857 and also appeared on the Beer’s Map of Rutherford County in 1878, owning land and living near the site of the old fox camp at the intersection of Greenwood and Chapel Hill Roads.
Dr. Robert Buchanan was listed in the census of 1870 in the Jordan Store area of the 21st Civil District in Williamson County. This area bordered Rutherford County. He was listed as a physician, age 38, born in Tennessee. He practiced for many years in Williamson County near Eagleville. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Allisona Lodge of United Workmen. He died at his home near Eagleville in Rutherford County July 22, 1893.
 Dr. William Harrison McCord & Children. Back Row: William Edward & Emmit Allen. Front Row: Dr. McCord, Annie, John H. "Tip" |
Dr. William H. McCord was born near Eagleville, September 1, 1838. He was the son of Allen and Jane Jordan McCord. He married Sarah Macon Williams, daughter of James Chesley and Elizabeth Jordon Williams. The built the present home of his great grandson, Don McCord in 1882. They had 5 children. Dr. McCord was a surgeon in the Civil War.
Dr. Robert F. Keys was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1844, the son of Henry and Martha Taylor Keyes. He was a graduate of Queen’s Medical College. He was a member of the Tennessee Medical Association, which he joined in 1876. In 1878 and 1879 he was practicing in Davidson County. In 1886 he had a medical practice in Eagleville and in 1887 was in Marion County. He was in Nashville in 1889 and 1890. The Tennessee Medical Association did not list him after 1890.
Dr. William Alexander Harrison was born about 1853 in Virginia. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Nashville in 1873 and listed his home as Unionville. In 1890 he was still living in Unionville, practicing medicine in Unionville and Eagleville.
Dr. William Manier, born in 1847, was practicing medicine in the 8th district of Rutherford County, which was Eagleville in the 1880s.
Dr. John William Hatcher was born in 1856 in Tennessee. He graduated from Vanderbilt University Department of Medicine in 1877. He practiced in Eagleville sometime after 1885, in 1906 in a small community in Williamson County called, Priest, and in 1912 he was practicing in Franklin.
There was a Dr. T. A. Mitchell who was also in Eagleville in the late 1800s. He moved to Nashville.
Dr. Horton Blount Hyde was born in 1853 in Tennessee and received his M.D. degree from Vanderbilt University Medical Department in 1878. He was practicing in Eagleville and Holtland, Marshall County in 1885. In 1891 he bought a lot from the Church of Christ, adjoining the church, and later built his home there. He moved to Nashville about 1895. He was a member of the Tennessee Medical Association.
About the time Dr. Hyde left, Dr. Charles B. Heimark came to Eagleville. (See Eagleville Times, October 2005 issue, an article on Dr. C. B. Heimark, the grave robber).
Solon Snethan Duggan was born November 19, 1848 in Beech Grove, Tennessee, son of Dr. Benjamin Frederick and Nancy Elliott Duggan. He was educated in the local schools of Bedford County and he graduated from the University of Nashville with an M. D. degree in 1885. Before he started his medical education, he began his life as a farmer and afterward became a clerk and druggist at Unionville in Bedford County. After his graduation from medical school he started practicing in Unionville with his father. On December 20, 1868, he married Nannie C. Blanton and after her death, married Mary _____. He moved his medical practice to Eagleville around 1898. Dr. Duggan had a son, who also was a physician and practiced with his father in Eagleville. Soon after 1916, Dr. Duggan moved to Nashville.
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Dr. John Robert Moon, son of Pleasant B. and Mary Ann Moon,
was born November 12, 1853 in Bedford Co., Tennessee and died April 11, 1934 in
Eagleville. He married May 7, 1876 to Martha Melinda Boyd Dryden. They are
buried in the Moon Cemetery, Unionville, Bedford Co., TN. Dr. Moon was educated
in the Bedford Co. schools and attended Unionville Academy. He started studying
medicine at an early age and entered the University of Nashville Department of
Medicine from which he graduated March 1, 1878. He practiced medicine for 13
years in Unionville. He served as doctor at Eagleville from 1878 to 1911. He
moved to Eagleville in 1891. He served as postmaster 1909-1911. He moved to
Christiana and practiced medicine there until 1921 when he moved back to
Eagleville and built the house that the Robert Shelton Sr. family lived in. He
was living there at the time of his death. Dr. Moon’s practice was a thriving
horse and buggy practice. He drove a horse named “Black John”. It is said
that the horse was so good at his job that even though Dr. Moon sometime, fell
asleep as he rode, the horse would bring him safely home. He was a member of the
Middle Tennessee Medical Association, the Rutherford County Medical Society, the
Tennessee Medical Association, and the Bedford County Medical Society. They were
members of the Methodist Church. They had 12 children:
Dr. Edward Leslie Williams was born March 24, 1878. He received his education in
Eagleville and entered Vanderbilt University as a pre-med student. After
graduating as a doctor in 1903 he practiced in Mississippi for a short time,
returning to Eagleville in 1910 and entered into business with his father in a
general store. In Eagleville he never had an office or saw patients as other
doctors, but would listen to your complaints, prescribe and sell you a medicine.
Dr. Williams retired in 1972 at the age of 93. He died January 26, 1974. (See
Eagleville Times July, 2005 issue for more on Dr. E. L. Williams).
 Dr. Robert Garrett practiced medicine for 52 years, mostly in Eagleville. |
Robert Carroll Garrett, son of Robert Cannon and Martha Lytle Jackson Garrett, was born August 23, 1872 near Rover, Tennessee (Bedford County). He graduated in 1900 from the Medical Department of the University of Nashville (a school that a few years later became a part of the University of Tennessee).
Dr. Garrett married Martha Bumpus in 1902, the daughter of Martin and Lavinia Brown Bumpus, and they were parents of one child, Virginia Carroll Garrett, who married Hubert L. McCullough.
Dr. Garrett returned to Rover after graduation and practiced a few years before he bought the home and practice of John Robert Moon in Eagleville. He moved to Eagleville in 1911. Dr. Moon then moved to Christiana. Dr. Garretts’ brother, Dr. John Jackson Garrett was practicing in Rockvale.
Dr. Robert Garrett was widely known as one of the few remaining physicians of the “saddle bag” days and did extensive practice in Rutherford, Marshall, Bedford and Williamson counties. His records show he delivered more than 3,000 babies and made thousands of calls in the rural sections as well as holding office hours at his office in Eagleville. During his early practice, he carried his medical supplies in large saddlebags, making his calls on horseback. As roads improved he started using a horse and buggy, and still later the automobile, the first being a Model-T-Ford. Life for the country doctor meant long hours of driving through ice and sleet over near impassable roads.
Dr. Garrett was among 48 physicians graduating from the University of Nashville –University of Tennessee who received the “Golden T” certificate for 50 years of service in medicine. Dr. Garrett was interviewed after the award and recalled that medicine “has come a long way since doctors carried their equipment in saddle bags tied onto their horses.” He remembered the early days when the x-ray wasn’t even discovered and when the textbooks thought disease was due to changes in the atmosphere – when the germ theory was unknown”. He also recalled how as a boy plowing in the fields, he would watch the “dressed up” country doctor dash by on a fine, spirited horse, and long to be in his place”. Later, as a physician, he discovered the rich experience of close association with people,” and with it “came a complete love for the practice of medicine and joy in his ability to alleviate the common ills of his fellow man.”
His office was in the Bank of Eagleville building and was picturesque with the old fashioned chairs, roll top desk, well worn volumes of books and cherished family portraits, all providing appropriate background for the stream of patients daily seeking the care and guidance of the doctor.
Dr. Garrett practiced for 52 years mostly in Eagleville. He did public work in Kingston in 1926 with Dr. James Fly. Returning to Eagleville, he remained there for the rest of his life.
He was a member of the Rutherford County Medical Society and the Tennessee Medical Association. He died July 2, 1952 at the age of 79 and was the oldest practicing physician in Rutherford County.
 Dr. Edward Leslie Williams who was born in Eagleville in 1878, graduated from Vanderbilt University Medical School in 1903. He retired in 1972 at the age of 93. |
For a time Eagleville was without a practicing physician. Dr. E. L. Williams, due to his keen interest in the welfare of the community, built a small but modern clinic and succeeded in getting a home-town boy, Dr. Ralph Jones, to set up a practice here. Ralph, the son of Jim McClain and Madelyn Jones graduated from Eagleville High School in 1945 and attended University of Tennessee in Knoxville and later medical school in Memphis. He came to Eagleville clinic in 1954, but unfortunately left in a little over a year. Ralph is presently retired and lives in Ohio.
After Dr. Jones left, Eagleville had three doctors, none of whom stayed very long. They were Dr. Charles Robinson, Dr. J. S. C. Stewart and Dr. Waldrop.
 Dr. Carl B. Rowntree was Eagleville’s physician from 1955 to 1967. |
In 1955 Carl Bearden Rowntree, Jr. came to Eagleville and opened a general practice in the medical clinic. He was born in 1912 and graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Medicine in 1947 and was licensed in 1948. He came to Eagleville from east Tennessee. In 1967 he moved back to Knoxville where he died about 1979 or 1980.
In the later years, several young people from Eagleville have become doctors, but only one, Ralph Jones, chose to come back home to work.???????????????