Doctor Samuel W. Bristow

A Country Doctor during the Great Depression

by Duane Bristow

his great grandson

S. W. Bristow's Family

Dr. Samuel W. Bristow practiced medicine in Clinton and Wayne counties of Kentucky during the first half of the twentieth century. Dr. Sam, as he was called, worked in an area with no hospitals or clinics, no nursing homes, and no pharmacies. Much of the time he worked in his patient's homes. He learned to practice medicine without X- Rays or medical labs. During his career he delivered over 2,000 babies including one set of triplets.

Triplets

According to my father who was born in 1920 and was a teenager during the Great Depression, Grandpa lived at Zula in Wayne County until the mid 1930s when he moved to Albany in Clinton County. He rode a gray horse to make house calls and had a kerosene lantern which he hung on the saddle horn because he often had to go on house calls late at night. After he moved to Albany he got an old black model T Ford and learned to drive that, although Dad said he never looked at the road when driving, but wanted to look at the farms and countryside along the way. He probably got in that habit riding the old horse. My grandmother, his daugher-in-law, tells me that he would often pass her father's house in the early 1900s asleep on his horse after staying up nights with a patient. The horse knew the way home so Dr.Sam didn't have to pay attention to driving. According to my dad, in the wintertime, Grandma Ellen, Dr. Sam's wife, would sometimes have to come out of the house with a hammer to break Dr. Sam's boots loose from the stirrups where they had frozen after he had crossed a stream on his return home. (I have the old kerosene lantern he carried on his horse. It still works but gives very little light.)

I have his ledger from the fall of 1933 through the spring of 1934. It is an old dry and brittle accounting journal about 4 X 7 inches. It is handwritten in pencil. Although mostly clear and legible, it is difficult to read in some places. For any who are interested I reproduce parts of that journal here. There are also some entries from his journal of 1949.

Of particular interest to some will be such items as the charge for delivering a baby, which usually involved a house call and sometimes staying overnight with the family. He charged $10.00 for that in the 1930s. The charge for setting a broken arm was $2.00. The charge for pulling a tooth was 50 cents.
Note: I may have some of the names spelled wrong due to difficulty in reading the journal. Also it is sometimes difficult to tell if an entry was charged or was paid because in the beginning of the book, grandpa put charges in one column and payments in another but later he began putting everything in the same column and making a checkmark when the patient later paid the charge. The reader should also recognize that grandpa not only ran a physician's business but also a farm and sometimes took payment in days work on the farm or in farm produce.

September 1933

Note: - at this time he was at Zula in Wayne County KY

Sept. 1: Charley Dalton - med - charged - 10 cts.
Hardy Cross - pd. by cash - 1.00
Wyet Alkins - pd. by cash - 1.00
Gear Daniel - charged - 3.50 on Aug. 31 & 3.50 on Sept. 1
Lewis Patton - med - pd. - 10 cts.
Mrs. Patton - med by Lewis - pd. - 25 cts.
Sept. 2: Hardy Cross - med - charged - 60 cts.
Mrs. Patton - med - charged - 15 cts.
W. H. Massengale - order self - charged - 1.50
Brown Bass - charged - 1.50
Lute Troxel - charged - .75
Sept. 4: Lute Troxel - charged - 10 cts.
Joe Hart - charged - 4.00
Ret Clark - pd by cash - 5.00
Tina Bates - Pd. - 10.00
Sept. 5: Phillip Dalton - med by Walter H. - 10 cts.
Harrison Lee - med - 50 cts.
Sept. 6: Let Dabney - paid - 3.00 - med - 25 cts.
Sept. 7: Bill Atkinson - 25 cts.
Joe Hart - med - 60 cts.
Sept. 8: Let Dabney - 1.50 - med - 60 cts.
Parker Marcum - 3.50
W. H. Massengale - pd. Brown Bass - 2.25
Sept. 9: Walter Denney - med - 50 cts.
Arthur Perdue - 1.10 - cash
Gerte - .75
Sept. 10: Letie Dabney - med & visit - 1.40
George Bridgeman - med - 10 cts.
Sept. 11: Letie Dabney - med - 15 cts.
Sherman Marcum - med for Mamie - 15 cts.
Brown Bass - med - 20 cts.
A. A. York - med by Willy - 60 cts.
Let Dabney - paid - 1.50
Sept. 13: Let Dabney - visit & med - 1.65
Sept. 14: Sherman Powers - med - 55 cts.
John Hurt - med - 1.40
Tom Burris - med - 15 cts.
Marvin Hicks - med - 10 cts.
Let Dabney - med - 25 cts.
Marvin Hicks - paid by 1 day's work - 75 cts.
Sept. 15: W. H. Massengale - paid by 1/3 day's work - 25 cts.
Marvin Hicks - paid by 1 day's work - 75 cts.
Sept. 16: Roe Marcum - med - 50 cts.
Herb Perdue - med for wife - 75 cts.
Let Dabney - med - 60 cts.
W. H. Massengale - paid by 1 day's work - 75 cts.
W. H. Massengale - paid by cash - 1.00
Sept. 17: Joe Hart - extract teeth - wife - 50 cts.
Sheard Pierce - med - 1.00
Rob Massengale - med - 75 cts.
Lute Troxell - med - 25 cts.
W. H. Massengale - med - Mamie - 25 cts.
Sept. 18: John Throshed - med - paid - 1.00
Johnnie Morgan - med - 60 cts.
Tom Massengale - pd. by cash - 4.00
Sept. 19: Boss Hicks - pd. by cash - 4.00
Lorane Perdue - med - 55 cts.
Let Dabney - pd. by cash - 1.50
Sept. 20: Othey King - med - 65 cts.
Let Dabney - visit - 1.50
med by Walter - 45 cts.
Jess Chaffin - O.B. Girl - Bal. - 8.00
Sept. 21: Tina Massengale - pd. by cash - 4.00
Sept. 23: Johnnie Burris - med - 10 cts.
Conn Rains - med - 10 cts.
Tom Massengale - 4.00
Sept. 24: Jack Massengale - med - 15 cts.
Dewey Carr - med - 10 cts.
Geo. A. Massengale - O. B. Girl - 10.00
Grdy Guffey - 20 cts.
T---- Guffey - 15 cts.
Andy Guffey - 30 cts.
Sept. 25: Jack Massengale - 25 cts.
Stank Shelton - O. B. Girl - 10.00
Tom Massengale - visit - 4.00
Sept. 26: Tom Massengale - med - 25 cts.
Sept. 27: Luther Troxwell - med - 15 cts.
Sept. 28: Sheard Pierce - med - 10 cts.
Tom Massengale - pd. by cash - 4.00
Purit - c. v. - 2.00
Reneau Dalton - med - 30 cts.
Sept. 29: Willie Denney - O. B. Boy - 10.00
Jarvis C. Perdue - med - 75 cts.
Mrs. Webb - paid - 1.50
Sept. 30: George Bridgeman - med - 25 cts.
H. C. Davis - cash - 1.00 - .05
W. M. Bertram - see wife - 6.00

January 1949

Note: - at this time he was in Albany, KY

Jan. 1: Bass Brown - 4.00
Tildy Shelton - med - 1.25
Jan. 2: Bass Brown - 4.00
Jan. 3: Lute Daniel - 4.00
Jan. 5: Bruce Bowlin - O. B. - 20.00
cr. work ????? - 8.00
team - 4.00
work toilet - 3.00
Jan. 7: Bass Brown - 4.00
Jan. 10: Lute Daniel - cash - 5.00
Howard Babs - chk. - 6.85
Charley J. Brown - med - 2.50
John L. Means - Albany - vis see girl - 3.00
Jan. 13: Bass Brown - med - 1.00
Charley Brown - office - 2.00
Jan. 19: Preacher Witham - nite - 4.00 pd.
Jan. 20: Preacher Witham - 3.00 pd.
Jan. 21: Jones Benet - med - 1.00
Levi Harmon - med - 1.00
Jan. 24: Roy Brown - med baby - 1.50
Jan. 26: Marshel Flowers - med - 1.00 - Frogue, Ky.
Add York - pd. - 7.00
Jan. 27: Add York - pd. - 7.00
Jan. 28: Add York - 7.00
Jan. 29: Brad Perdue - by cash - 2.00

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