Henry Atkinson was born June 10, 1823, in North Carolina to Thomas Atkinson (1791-1874) and Elizabeth Payne “Betsy” Samuel (18041874) in North Carolina. His parents had settled in the Chambersville area of Dallas County by 1850. Henry, age 27, and his uncle, Carter Atkinson age 61, Thomas’s brother, were physicians and living with them. His Uncle Carter also came from North Carolina, and it may have been from him that Henry learned his profession.
Dr. Henry worked in the Chambersville area in the 1850s and during this time was married. Most physicians at this time owned good horses to make their rounds and Dr. Henry owned a pair of white matched ponies.
In 1851 we find Dr. Atkinson on the Higginbotham plantation on May 17, amputating the leg of a slave named Judge. From then through September, he made two or three visits each week to dress the wound. The slave recovered.
He died February 24, 1860, at the age of 37, from Erysipelas (or “Black Tongue”) and is buried at Watson Gum Grove Cemetery at Kingsland in Cleveland County with a Mason symbol on his monument. If it had not been for the detailed proceedings on the estates of Henry and Dr. O. D. Ward, their names as doctors and other valuable information as to the practice of medicine in this period of history would have been lost.
Orville D. Ward was born sometime around 1821. Dr. Ward was in Calhoun County as early as 1852. He married Nancy Elliott Thornton in September 1853 (according to Willma Humphreys-Newton's writings this was his second wife), and they had a child, Oscar, in 1855.
Dr. Ward was headquartered in the Chambersville area for a very few years in the late 1850s.
By 1856 he was dead. In the account book of Dr. O. D. Ward, at the time of death, we find 139 accounts, and his practice ranged through the Northeast quadrant of Calhoun County, across to western Bradley County, and the Southern part of Dallas County. A number of the medical men in the area attended the sale of his personal medical effects, and Dr. Farrior bought his “veinesector and cups” used for cupping and bleeding patients.
Sources: 1850, 1870 Census; Calhoun County marriage records; ancestry.com; the estate records of Orville D. Ward and Robert Henry Atkinson; 1860 Mortality Schedule found in the 1860 Census; ancestry; findagrave.com; One Hundred Twenty-Five Years of Medicine and Medical Men in Calhoun County, Arkansas 18501975 by Willma Humphreys Newton; Some of the early remedies from Willma Humphreys-Newton's One Hundred Twenty-Five Years of Medicine and Medical Men in Calhoun County, Arkansas 1850-1975: Turpentine poured on a piece of fat meat and applied to open wounds, especially those where a rusty nail had penetrated the skin.
Mullen Tea for measles. Saffron tea was another used for measles. This was made from sheep droppings. Sick babies were also treated to sips of this brew.
Fresh cow manure was applied to wounds and left on to draw the poison out.
Henhouse tea was used for hives. This was made from the white part of the chicken droppings which was brewed and drunk. This seems to have been used for other illnesses, and when all else failed, on general principles.
The lining of an egg was applied to small wounds to draw out the poison. It was also used to draw out splinters. A flaxseed poultice was another used for this purpose, as were poultices of bread and milk or water.
