Titus County, Texas History - The Medical Community

According to R. L. Jurney, Mitch Owens was Mt. Pleasant's first doctor and Dr. William Jackson Delafield was the first dentist. In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Delafield served on the Mt. Pleasant City Council from 1908-1915.

There were only a few buildings around the court house square in the early 1890s, and most were wooden. Dr. William H. Blythe established his home and office in a frame building on the southwest corner of West First and Madison Streets. He later constructed the Blythe Sanitarium, a 28 room brick hospital, on the same corner between 1902 and 1908 which is thought to be Mt. Pleasant's first hospital.

The Taylor Hospital and Clinic was the Mt. Pleasant's second hospital. In June, 1936, Dr. Willis A. Taylor and Dr. William Taylor built a modern 12 bed brick hospital on the southeast corner of West Third Street and North Van Buren Avenue. In its day, the Taylor Hospital and Clinic offered Mt. Pleasant a very modern medical facility that had previously only been available in larger towns.

In July, 1946 Dr. R. L. Martin moved to Mt. Pleasant from Pittsburg, Texas. Dr. Martin, in partnership with Drs. J. S. Kennedy and Dr. M. L. Cline, erected the 21 bed Mt. Pleasant Hospital and Clinic on the southwest corner of West Sixth and North Madison Streets. The Mt. Pleasant Hospital and Clinic was expanded several times and provided both hospital facilities and doctor's offices in the same building.

In 1949 Dr. Palmore Currey established the Currey Hospital & Clinic, a 7 bed hospital, on North Jefferson St. near Ninth Street.

The same summer, a hospital committee of private citizens was formed to create a county hospital. In a November of 1950 election, a substantial majority of voters approved issuing bonds for construction of a 32-bed hospital on land donated by Mrs. J. H. Goates on what is now West 20th Street near Interstate Highway 30.

The Titus County Memorial Hospital, now Titus Regional Medical Center, is owned by the people of Titus County and is currently the county's only hospital. It is has been expanded a number of times since it was established.

You may click a link below or a blue number on the menu above to learn more about the history of Titus County's medical community. More information will be added to this topic as it becomes available.

This pair of early medical saddlebags contains small bottles of various early medicines and compounds that were in their day. When these bags were used, most medicines did not come pre-packaged. A doctor would visit the patient's home, make a diagnosis, and compound a medicine for the patient to take by mixing ingredients carried in the small bottles.

Each saddlebag has two compartments, an open top compartment and a drawer that slides out below the top compartment. The saddlebag's flap covers both compartments when closed, which keeps the items inside them from falling out during transport. You can see these saddlebags in the Mt. Pleasant Public Library's historic display. (Photo MD-0025)

Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas

Thursday, March 11, 1937

New Drug Store Era on Way Is View of Pharmacy Professor

NEW YORK (INS).-At first its mere mention brought shocked silence.

Then gradually, it became the topic of whispered conversation.

And today it burst forth upon the startled world in all its glory!

Eureka! Found: a drug store that will sell only medicinal supplies and pharmaceuticals!

Clews to the discovery of this revolutionary idea led every-which-way, even into the New York State Legislature. Finally the "drug store of the future," as it is acclaimed, was found right in the heart of New York, at Fordham University.

Right now this far-reaching project-first step to return the drug stores to the druggists-is in the process of construction, and will not open until April.

The new store will not sell bicycle tires, automobile horns, rowboats, ping pong balls or horse blankets-it will deal only as a prescription and medicinal center and act as a training school for student druggists.

"Instead of a prescription department buried in the rear of a drug store which features a soda counter, cigar stand, cosmetic displays, books, toys and what-not" Dr. James H. Kidder, Dean of the Fordham College of Pharmacy and prominent New York physician, said, "you will find a store specializing exclusively in filling prescriptions."

Professional Pharmacy Essential

"Medical science is progressing so rapidly and the demand for individual prescriptions is becoming so great, that a financial investment to establish a professional pharmacy would be a sound business venture. The average drug store could not survive on prescription sales alone.

"A new era is approaching. The pharmacy of the future, and the change will be completed within twenty-five years, will be a clean-cut store of shelves packed with bottles and ingredients. A new name will also be devised perhaps Prescription Pharmacy* instead of the misleading drug store.

"The design of our store will include a consultation room wherein students and pharmacists may discuss preparations and prescriptions with customers and doctors. It will be a sort of a waiting room and library. This room will find usage in the future for the advances of the medical industries will necessitate greater doctor-druggist co-operation."

Druggists Oppose New Bill

Lending support to Dr. Kidder's beliefs, the New York State legislature has before it a bill designed to take the miscellaneous counters out of a drug store.

Immediately upon introduction of the bill, druggists rose up-in-arms and denounced it as "unripe." They claimed they would return to the pharmacy trade exclusively just as soon as other retail stores ceased selling products that should normally be sold in drug stores.

But, according to Dr. Kidder, we'll have to continue to feel our way around toys, books, and baby carriages for another quarter century before the "Prescription Pharmacy" becomes a general institution.