From the Medical Memories of Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood, Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood, and Dr. Paul D. Harrison
From the Medical Memories of Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood, Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood, and Dr. Paul D. Harrison
A quick look at the doctors practicing medicine in a small town like Union City, their patients, and the scope and nature of their illness opens a window into the nature of late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century medicine.
Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood and Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood
The Union City Times of January 1880 featured Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood’s business card. The card announced that Dr. Sherwood’s office was over the Old Brick Store and his office hours were from 10 to 12 a.m. and from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. It stated that he was the Surgeon to the P & E Railroad and Physician for the County Poor.
George McClelland of Union City was grateful that Dr. Sherwood practiced there. In March 1880, he struck an axe in his foot while chopping wood and cut it badly. Dr. Sherwood attended him. Elmer Triscuit was also grateful that Dr. Sherwood decided to locate in Union City. Elmer started out hunting carrying a double barreled shotgun and while in the woods, he set the gun down, letting it rest on a stick of wood. Suddenly it slipped off the wood, striking the hammers and both barrels simultaneously discharged. The entire load of shot went through Elmer’s left hand, mutilating it horribly. Dr. Sherwood operated on Elmer’s hand and made is usable again
Medical highlights of 1881 for Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood included caring for the son of John Bartholme who fell and broke his collar bone while sliding down hill. June and July 1881 were moving months for Dr. Sherwood and Dr. Burnam, his colleague. They had rooms fitted up in the Landsrath Block over Gary Smith’s Store and in July they moved into their new offices.
In 1881, Dr. Sherwood performed a service for an old friend and introduced a medical innovation. Dr. D.R. Greenlee of Meadville came to Union City and Dr. Sherwood helped him put what was known as a plaster Paris jacket on Rulaf Fuller and J. Farrington. Rulaf Fuller, a friend and neighbor of Dr. Sherwood, had been seriously injured on the railroad and could not even sit up in bed. The doctors fitted him into the jacket and “although he cannot now sit up but five or ten minutes at a time, still it is so much better than he would not have it taken off for anything,” the Union City times reported.
Mr. Farrington also received the plaster of Paris jacket, and he improved very rapidly and walked out some. He said that the jacket was a good thing and he felt happy to think that he at last found something which he was certain would prove a success. The jacket held the back so secure as to give relief and assist the patient in sitting up. Many times it proved an ultimate cure. Dr. Sherwood highly recommended it for some patients, even though it was an unusual procedure.
Rulaf Fuller’s diary for 1883 and 1884 revealed that he and Dr. Sherwood were good friends as well as physician and patient. Rulf wrote that on Friday, July 6, 1883, Dr. Sherwood came in for awhile and again on Tuesday, July 10, 1883, Mrs. Dr. Sherwood visited for awhile.
When Rulaf’s daughter, Belle Anna, took sick late in 1883, Rulaf noted it in increasingly terse entries. “Belle is very bad. Belle is so bad that Dr. Sherwood, Dr. Bonsteel, Dr. Abby was in most of the day. The dairy showed that Dr. Sherwood came in regularly to care for Belle until she recovered.
The year 1896 proved to be busy and exciting for Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood. In January 1896, he displayed his card in the Union City Times. It read: A.C. Sherwood, M.D., Physician and Surgeon. Office at residence: Corner First Avenue and High Street, Union City, Pa. Office hours 10 to 12 a.m., 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m.
The month of March 1899 seemed to be operation month for Dr. Sherwood. On Monday, March 13, he operated on George H. Treat for a fistula. Mr. Treat improved quite nicely. Also on Monday, March 9, 1899, Dr. Sherwood and Dr. W.J. Humphrey assisted Dr. L.D. Rockwell in removing a large cancerous tumor from the breast of Mrs. C.H. Beck, who lived on Concord Street in Union City.
On Saturday, March 11, 1899, at the Medicao-Chirurgical Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Sherwood and Dr. Glenn I. Humphrey of Hazelton assisted in operating on Roy B. Mulkie of Union City for appendicitis. They found the appendix to be badly diseased, but there were no adhesions and there was little doubt that he would soon return home completely restored to health.
April 1899 saw Dr. Sherwood assisting Dr. Kible, Dr. Elisha, Dr. Seaver and Dr. Mackress of Corry. They operated on Lynn Gregory of Union City at the Corry Hospital and successfully removed a stone from the bladder. The patient stood the ordeal remarkably well and improved rapidly.
One Saturday in early June 1899, a spider bit Con Rouse on the back of his right hand. By the next day his hand had swollen badly and had started to turn black, indicating blood poisoning. Dr. Sherwood called and administered remedies that soon checked the progress of the blood poisoning.
There came yet another office move for Dr. Sherwood in March 1903. Since his practice continued to grow, Dr. Sherwood rented a suite of rooms on the second floor of the new Smiley Block in town and he had them fitted up for an office. His caseload increased because in January 1903, the Directors of the Poor had reappointed Dr. Sherwood as physician for Union City and vicinity.
January 1903 and beyond brought more surgical cases for Dr. Sherwood. He attended the little son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Baldwin, residents of Crooked Street in Union City. The boy fell and fractured his right arm. In February 1903 he reduced a fracture for S.A. Barnes. S.A. Barnes had been coming down the icy walk on Bank Street when he fell and he broke one of his arms.
Dr. Sherwood Sr. celebrated two important events in June 1903. Along with Dr. L.D. Rockwell, he attended the annual meeting of the Northwestern Medical Association in Cambridge Springs. A week or so later, Dr. Sherwood went to Philadelphia to attend the 30th anniversary of his college class and also to attend the commencement of his son, Andrew Jackson Sherwood.
Even before Andrew Jackson Sherwood, later to be known as Dr. Sherwood Jr., graduated from medical school, he had earned a residency at the University Hospital in Philadelphia and he was already performing his duties. This position as resident physician was a highly competitive one and “his numerous friends in Union City heartily congratulate him upon securing this position,” the Union City Times said.
When Dr. Sherwood Sr. returned from Philadelphia, possibly he and Dr. Sherwood Jr. were already making plans to practice together. In July 1903, Dr. A.C. Sherwood went to Cambridge Springs to consult with Dr. Frank Young in the case of Mrs. John Hood who was seriously ill. Three months later, the Union City Times noted that at the Corry Hospital on October 7, 1903, Mr. A.J. Sherwood of Union City assisted by Dr. Stem and Dr. Sherwood performed a very successful operation for the removal of an eye on Mr. Lewis Bloomfield of Riceville. This was the first mention in the Union City Times of the doctors Sherwood collaborating on a case.
Just a few weeks later on Wednesday, November 11, 1903, both of the Doctors Sherwood performed an operation. The patient was their minister, Reverend A.J. Herries, who had been in poor health for several weeks. The Union City Times said that Drs. A.C. and Andrew J. Sherwood performed the operation.
A few days later, a notice in the Union City Times dated Tuesday, November 17, 1903, made the merger of the two Doctors Sherwood official. The announcement said that “Dr. Andrew J. Sherwood has associated himself with his father, Dr. A.C. Sherwood, for the practice of his profession. The doctors had offices together in the Smiley block. “Drew” is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia and was at the head of his class. We bespeak for the new firms’s success.”
In early April 1905, Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood stopped the bleeding and sewed up the wounds of Frederick, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Harbst of Union City. Frederick had cut a severe gash in his leg with a jack knife.
Another medical function Dr. Sherwood Jr. assumed early in January 1908 involved the Board of Health in Union City. On Monday, January 6, 1908, the Board of Health met in the Council room of the City Building at the call of the president, Rulaf Fuller. C.G. Ames, John F. Duncombe, George W. Brooks, Dr. A.J. Sherwood and Officer Horace Rice made up the full Board. The Board discussed the scarlet fever situation in the school houses and Dr. Sherwood said that the methods of disinfecting the school houses were defective and if the disinfection could not be thoroughly done it had better not be done at all.
Mr. Brooks moved and Mr. Ames seconded the motion that Dr. Sherwood be given authority to use his own judgment in granting permission to officers and attendants to enter houses that had been quarantined and to perform such other duties as he deemed necessary.
J.F. Duncombe moved that the President of the School Board be instructed to close the schools on Tuesday, January 7, 1907, and that they remain closed as long as necessary to thoroughly disinfect the school buildings. The motion was seconded by Mr. Brooks and unanimously adopted. Dr. Sherwood moved and Mr. Duncombe seconded the motion to obtain proper disinfectants to use.
On April 27, 1908, Dr. Andrew Jackson and Emma Sherwood’s first son was born. The Sherwoods named him Alfred Carter Sherwood after his grandfather to carry on the Sherwood name to the next generation. Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood had also left a considerable medical legacy to his son, Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood.
Emma and Alfred Carter Sherwood celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on Friday, January 19, 1911. Dr. and Mrs. L.D. Rockwell entertained the several physicians of Union City and their wives at their home on East High Street to celebrate the occasion. The rooms were decorated in green and white and a splendid dinner was served in faultless style.
Eight months later on September 25, 1911, Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood died. He had practiced his profession in Union City continuously for 38 years. He had practiced medicine at the same location on West High Street that his Uncle Dr. H.R. Terry had established in 1860. He had joined his uncle in 1873 and his son, Andrew Jackson Sherwood, had joined him in 1903. He had left an honorable legacy.
In May 1915, Mrs. D.A. Shepard, residing east of Union City, found out how skilled Andrew Jackson Sherwood was at surgery. She was taken to the Corry Hospital where he operated on her for appendicitis, assisted by Dr. W.J. Humphrey. The operation was successful and the patient made a complete recovery.
When Dr. and Mrs. Sherwood’s son, Alfred Carter Sherwood II became ill, the result wasn’t as favorable as usually happened for Dr. Sherwood’s patients. Alfred was taken ill with infantile paralysis on Monday, October 8, 1917, and died on Wednesday, October 10, 1917. He was in the third grade at the public school and a great favorite of his classmates.
Reverend E.E. Lashley of the Presbyterian Church presided at his funeral services from his home on the corner of First Avenue and West High Street and his was buried in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery.
The following May, May 1918, some of Alfred Carter Sherwood II’s relatives presented the Union City Library with a sectional book case in his memory. His name was inscribed on a bronze plate set in front of the case. The case contained a book plate of beautiful design which was used for marking books which were especially for boys. Every year on Alfred Carter Sherwood II’s birthday, relatives and friends supplied the case.
To help ease his grief for his son and because he loved it for his own sake. Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood frequently angled for trout in local streams. The Union City Times noted that on Wednesday, May 1, 1918, he was seen fishing down the Pennsylvania and Erie tracks.
Dr. Sherwood didn’t neglect his patients for his fishing. Donald Northrop of Union City had his tonsils removed at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Erie the first week of March 1924. Dr. Sherwood operated and reported that Mr. Northrop was recuperating satisfactorily.
On Thursday, March 10, 1932, Dr. Sherwood attended a staff meeting of doctors at St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was led by Dr. A.H. Roth. Dr. Sherwood discussed at length the problems of a physician and surgeon of 25 years before. He said that the greatest problem in those days was to get patients to the hospital. The entire community feared that surgeon’s knife and scores of patients died rather than submit to an operation. Appendicitis was an unknown disease and was rarely seen in the hospital. People died at home of “inflammation of the bowels” which was nothing more than peritonitis, following a ruptured appendix. Fifty doctors attended this meeting and Dr. Maxwell Lick, well known in Union City, presided.
Professor E.R. Hadlock, County Superintendent of Public Schools, could testify to Dr. Sherwood’s skill. On May 17, 1932, he was suddenly stricken with an acute attack of appendicitis and taken to the local hospital on Warden Street in Union City. Dr. Sherwood operated on him and he fully recovered.
Dr. Paul D. Harrison
In 1930, Dr. Paul D. Harrison came to practice medicine and live with his wife Emma and four young children in Union City. He, too, routinely encountered appendicitis. He noted in his diary entry of Friday, February 3, 1939 that he had worked with Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood in the removal of an appendix that had been previously drained. “Had for myself a strangulated femoral hernia in a lady 65 years old.” After the operation were finished the doctors adjourned to Dr. Sherwood’s house to play bridge.
February 1939 also brought earaches and coughs every day to most families in Union City. Dr. Harrison tersely noted: “coughs mostly in children. Earaches in all of us,” in his Friday, February 24, 1939 entry.
On Monday, March 13, 1939, Dr. Harrison put a cast on Will Dingle with the help of Dr. A.J. Sherwood and Dr. George Ledger. On March 19 he wrote that Lee Wilson, father of Barrie fell and broke his hip. He noted that Lee’s family cared for him at home, but Lee Wilson died on March 21, 1939. “Shock too great. Age 80.” Dr. Harrison said.
Dr. Harrison’s diary entries from October and early November 1939 traced the return of infantile paralysis to Union City, the same disease that killed Dr. A.J. Sherwood’s son Alfred. On Sunday, October 22, 1939, Dr. Harrison wrote that the week before on October 15, he and his son Paul Donald Strerett Harrison had gone visiting and to a dog training track between Waterford and Erie. When the returned to Union City that evening Paul told his father that he had a headache and that his throat was a little sore. Paul slept well but the next morning he remained in bed and his father wrote that Paul had a headache, “ putting hand on forehead” fever, and ‘very definite rigidity of the neck,” although his reflexes were normal.
For the next three days, from Tuesday through Friday, Paul ran a fever from 101 to 103 degrees, and experienced neck rigidity and irritability of muscles and limbs. Dr. Harrison wrote that Paul suffered muscle contractions here and there at least every minute night and day. Dr. Harrison said that Wednesday night marked the worst stage because Paul jumped up and cried out in his sleep every five minutes. He wrote that Paul felt the most consistent muscular pain on the underside of his left foot and in the arch of his right foot inside and under.
By October 31, 1939, Paul had made a nearly complete recovery and his neck was “almost normal in mobility,” Dr. Harrison wrote. “I had him walk today. No paralysis discerned. He feels fine today and plays on bed. He was seen by Dr. Fred Ross, Erie Pediatrician and distant cousin on Tuesday. I have talked to him on telephone 3 or 4 other times.”
“Dr. Andrew Sherwood saw Paul nearly every day at least also till Saturday when he went to Becknell for the weekend.” Dr. Harrison said and by November 101939, Paul was back in school.
Paul Donald Sterett Harrison’s case was the fourth case in Union City and he fully recovered. Dr. Harrison wrote that Frank and Harriet Eastman, son and daughter of Donald Eastman, had it and “are not recovered from paralysis yet. David Young, son of Rule Young, also sick.”
In his diary entry for Tuesday, January 9, 1940, Dr. Harrison recorded that Mrs. Oral Hatch died last evening. He wrote that she had “secretly held knowledge of breast cancer for about two years whaich was the time her sister Mrs. Paul Mullin died. She discovered the growth less than a year ago.”
In March 1941, Dr. Harrison reported that his children and many of the children in Union City had chicken pox. By September 1941, Dr. Harrison had chronicled his own illness. On September 4, 1941, he wrote that Dr. Mere Russell and Dr. G. William Schlindwein had performed a 2 ½ hour operation on his left ear for a radical mastoid at Hamot Hospital in Erie. Dr. Harrison said that had been sick for six days with severe dizziness at the farm before he went to the hospital. He sounded relieved when he wrote that he hadn’t suffered any ill effects from the anesthetic and that he had returned home within nine days of his operation.
A quick look at the doctors practicing medicine in a small town like Union City, their patients, and the scope and nature of their illness opens a window into the nature of late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century medicine.
Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood and Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood
The Union City Times of January 1880 featured Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood’s business card. The card announced that Dr. Sherwood’s office was over the Old Brick Store and his office hours were from 10 to 12 a.m. and from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. It stated that he was the Surgeon to the P & E Railroad and Physician for the County Poor.
George McClelland of Union City was grateful that Dr. Sherwood practiced there. In March 1880, he struck an axe in his foot while chopping wood and cut it badly. Dr. Sherwood attended him. Elmer Triscuit was also grateful that Dr. Sherwood decided to locate in Union City. Elmer started out hunting carrying a double barreled shotgun and while in the woods, he set the gun down, letting it rest on a stick of wood. Suddenly it slipped off the wood, striking the hammers and both barrels simultaneously discharged. The entire load of shot went through Elmer’s left hand, mutilating it horribly. Dr. Sherwood operated on Elmer’s hand and made is usable again
Medical highlights of 1881 for Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood included caring for the son of John Bartholme who fell and broke his collar bone while sliding down hill. June and July 1881 were moving months for Dr. Sherwood and Dr. Burnam, his colleague. They had rooms fitted up in the Landsrath Block over Gary Smith’s Store and in July they moved into their new offices.
In 1881, Dr. Sherwood performed a service for an old friend and introduced a medical innovation. Dr. D.R. Greenlee of Meadville came to Union City and Dr. Sherwood helped him put what was known as a plaster Paris jacket on Rulaf Fuller and J. Farrington. Rulaf Fuller, a friend and neighbor of Dr. Sherwood, had been seriously injured on the railroad and could not even sit up in bed. The doctors fitted him into the jacket and “although he cannot now sit up but five or ten minutes at a time, still it is so much better than he would not have it taken off for anything,” the Union City times reported.
Mr. Farrington also received the plaster of Paris jacket, and he improved very rapidly and walked out some. He said that the jacket was a good thing and he felt happy to think that he at last found something which he was certain would prove a success. The jacket held the back so secure as to give relief and assist the patient in sitting up. Many times it proved an ultimate cure. Dr. Sherwood highly recommended it for some patients, even though it was an unusual procedure.
Rulaf Fuller’s diary for 1883 and 1884 revealed that he and Dr. Sherwood were good friends as well as physician and patient. Rulf wrote that on Friday, July 6, 1883, Dr. Sherwood came in for awhile and again on Tuesday, July 10, 1883, Mrs. Dr. Sherwood visited for awhile.
When Rulaf’s daughter, Belle Anna, took sick late in 1883, Rulaf noted it in increasingly terse entries. “Belle is very bad. Belle is so bad that Dr. Sherwood, Dr. Bonsteel, Dr. Abby was in most of the day. The dairy showed that Dr. Sherwood came in regularly to care for Belle until she recovered.
The year 1896 proved to be busy and exciting for Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood. In January 1896, he displayed his card in the Union City Times. It read: A.C. Sherwood, M.D., Physician and Surgeon. Office at residence: Corner First Avenue and High Street, Union City, Pa. Office hours 10 to 12 a.m., 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m.
The month of March 1899 seemed to be operation month for Dr. Sherwood. On Monday, March 13, he operated on George H. Treat for a fistula. Mr. Treat improved quite nicely. Also on Monday, March 9, 1899, Dr. Sherwood and Dr. W.J. Humphrey assisted Dr. L.D. Rockwell in removing a large cancerous tumor from the breast of Mrs. C.H. Beck, who lived on Concord Street in Union City.
On Saturday, March 11, 1899, at the Medicao-Chirurgical Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Sherwood and Dr. Glenn I. Humphrey of Hazelton assisted in operating on Roy B. Mulkie of Union City for appendicitis. They found the appendix to be badly diseased, but there were no adhesions and there was little doubt that he would soon return home completely restored to health.
April 1899 saw Dr. Sherwood assisting Dr. Kible, Dr. Elisha, Dr. Seaver and Dr. Mackress of Corry. They operated on Lynn Gregory of Union City at the Corry Hospital and successfully removed a stone from the bladder. The patient stood the ordeal remarkably well and improved rapidly.
One Saturday in early June 1899, a spider bit Con Rouse on the back of his right hand. By the next day his hand had swollen badly and had started to turn black, indicating blood poisoning. Dr. Sherwood called and administered remedies that soon checked the progress of the blood poisoning.
There came yet another office move for Dr. Sherwood in March 1903. Since his practice continued to grow, Dr. Sherwood rented a suite of rooms on the second floor of the new Smiley Block in town and he had them fitted up for an office. His caseload increased because in January 1903, the Directors of the Poor had reappointed Dr. Sherwood as physician for Union City and vicinity.
January 1903 and beyond brought more surgical cases for Dr. Sherwood. He attended the little son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Baldwin, residents of Crooked Street in Union City. The boy fell and fractured his right arm. In February 1903 he reduced a fracture for S.A. Barnes. S.A. Barnes had been coming down the icy walk on Bank Street when he fell and he broke one of his arms.
Dr. Sherwood Sr. celebrated two important events in June 1903. Along with Dr. L.D. Rockwell, he attended the annual meeting of the Northwestern Medical Association in Cambridge Springs. A week or so later, Dr. Sherwood went to Philadelphia to attend the 30th anniversary of his college class and also to attend the commencement of his son, Andrew Jackson Sherwood.
Even before Andrew Jackson Sherwood, later to be known as Dr. Sherwood Jr., graduated from medical school, he had earned a residency at the University Hospital in Philadelphia and he was already performing his duties. This position as resident physician was a highly competitive one and “his numerous friends in Union City heartily congratulate him upon securing this position,” the Union City Times said.
When Dr. Sherwood Sr. returned from Philadelphia, possibly he and Dr. Sherwood Jr. were already making plans to practice together. In July 1903, Dr. A.C. Sherwood went to Cambridge Springs to consult with Dr. Frank Young in the case of Mrs. John Hood who was seriously ill. Three months later, the Union City Times noted that at the Corry Hospital on October 7, 1903, Mr. A.J. Sherwood of Union City assisted by Dr. Stem and Dr. Sherwood performed a very successful operation for the removal of an eye on Mr. Lewis Bloomfield of Riceville. This was the first mention in the Union City Times of the doctors Sherwood collaborating on a case.
Just a few weeks later on Wednesday, November 11, 1903, both of the Doctors Sherwood performed an operation. The patient was their minister, Reverend A.J. Herries, who had been in poor health for several weeks. The Union City Times said that Drs. A.C. and Andrew J. Sherwood performed the operation.
A few days later, a notice in the Union City Times dated Tuesday, November 17, 1903, made the merger of the two Doctors Sherwood official. The announcement said that “Dr. Andrew J. Sherwood has associated himself with his father, Dr. A.C. Sherwood, for the practice of his profession. The doctors had offices together in the Smiley block. “Drew” is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia and was at the head of his class. We bespeak for the new firms’s success.”
In early April 1905, Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood stopped the bleeding and sewed up the wounds of Frederick, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Harbst of Union City. Frederick had cut a severe gash in his leg with a jack knife.
Another medical function Dr. Sherwood Jr. assumed early in January 1908 involved the Board of Health in Union City. On Monday, January 6, 1908, the Board of Health met in the Council room of the City Building at the call of the president, Rulaf Fuller. C.G. Ames, John F. Duncombe, George W. Brooks, Dr. A.J. Sherwood and Officer Horace Rice made up the full Board. The Board discussed the scarlet fever situation in the school houses and Dr. Sherwood said that the methods of disinfecting the school houses were defective and if the disinfection could not be thoroughly done it had better not be done at all.
Mr. Brooks moved and Mr. Ames seconded the motion that Dr. Sherwood be given authority to use his own judgment in granting permission to officers and attendants to enter houses that had been quarantined and to perform such other duties as he deemed necessary.
J.F. Duncombe moved that the President of the School Board be instructed to close the schools on Tuesday, January 7, 1907, and that they remain closed as long as necessary to thoroughly disinfect the school buildings. The motion was seconded by Mr. Brooks and unanimously adopted. Dr. Sherwood moved and Mr. Duncombe seconded the motion to obtain proper disinfectants to use.
On April 27, 1908, Dr. Andrew Jackson and Emma Sherwood’s first son was born. The Sherwoods named him Alfred Carter Sherwood after his grandfather to carry on the Sherwood name to the next generation. Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood had also left a considerable medical legacy to his son, Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood.
Emma and Alfred Carter Sherwood celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on Friday, January 19, 1911. Dr. and Mrs. L.D. Rockwell entertained the several physicians of Union City and their wives at their home on East High Street to celebrate the occasion. The rooms were decorated in green and white and a splendid dinner was served in faultless style.
Eight months later on September 25, 1911, Dr. Alfred Carter Sherwood died. He had practiced his profession in Union City continuously for 38 years. He had practiced medicine at the same location on West High Street that his Uncle Dr. H.R. Terry had established in 1860. He had joined his uncle in 1873 and his son, Andrew Jackson Sherwood, had joined him in 1903. He had left an honorable legacy.
In May 1915, Mrs. D.A. Shepard, residing east of Union City, found out how skilled Andrew Jackson Sherwood was at surgery. She was taken to the Corry Hospital where he operated on her for appendicitis, assisted by Dr. W.J. Humphrey. The operation was successful and the patient made a complete recovery.
When Dr. and Mrs. Sherwood’s son, Alfred Carter Sherwood II became ill, the result wasn’t as favorable as usually happened for Dr. Sherwood’s patients. Alfred was taken ill with infantile paralysis on Monday, October 8, 1917, and died on Wednesday, October 10, 1917. He was in the third grade at the public school and a great favorite of his classmates.
Reverend E.E. Lashley of the Presbyterian Church presided at his funeral services from his home on the corner of First Avenue and West High Street and his was buried in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery.
The following May, May 1918, some of Alfred Carter Sherwood II’s relatives presented the Union City Library with a sectional book case in his memory. His name was inscribed on a bronze plate set in front of the case. The case contained a book plate of beautiful design which was used for marking books which were especially for boys. Every year on Alfred Carter Sherwood II’s birthday, relatives and friends supplied the case.
To help ease his grief for his son and because he loved it for his own sake. Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood frequently angled for trout in local streams. The Union City Times noted that on Wednesday, May 1, 1918, he was seen fishing down the Pennsylvania and Erie tracks.
Dr. Sherwood didn’t neglect his patients for his fishing. Donald Northrop of Union City had his tonsils removed at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Erie the first week of March 1924. Dr. Sherwood operated and reported that Mr. Northrop was recuperating satisfactorily.
On Thursday, March 10, 1932, Dr. Sherwood attended a staff meeting of doctors at St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was led by Dr. A.H. Roth. Dr. Sherwood discussed at length the problems of a physician and surgeon of 25 years before. He said that the greatest problem in those days was to get patients to the hospital. The entire community feared that surgeon’s knife and scores of patients died rather than submit to an operation. Appendicitis was an unknown disease and was rarely seen in the hospital. People died at home of “inflammation of the bowels” which was nothing more than peritonitis, following a ruptured appendix. Fifty doctors attended this meeting and Dr. Maxwell Lick, well known in Union City, presided.
Professor E.R. Hadlock, County Superintendent of Public Schools, could testify to Dr. Sherwood’s skill. On May 17, 1932, he was suddenly stricken with an acute attack of appendicitis and taken to the local hospital on Warden Street in Union City. Dr. Sherwood operated on him and he fully recovered.
Dr. Paul D. Harrison
In 1930, Dr. Paul D. Harrison came to practice medicine and live with his wife Emma and four young children in Union City. He, too, routinely encountered appendicitis. He noted in his diary entry of Friday, February 3, 1939 that he had worked with Dr. Andrew Jackson Sherwood in the removal of an appendix that had been previously drained. “Had for myself a strangulated femoral hernia in a lady 65 years old.” After the operation were finished the doctors adjourned to Dr. Sherwood’s house to play bridge.
February 1939 also brought earaches and coughs every day to most families in Union City. Dr. Harrison tersely noted: “coughs mostly in children. Earaches in all of us,” in his Friday, February 24, 1939 entry.
On Monday, March 13, 1939, Dr. Harrison put a cast on Will Dingle with the help of Dr. A.J. Sherwood and Dr. George Ledger. On March 19 he wrote that Lee Wilson, father of Barrie fell and broke his hip. He noted that Lee’s family cared for him at home, but Lee Wilson died on March 21, 1939. “Shock too great. Age 80.” Dr. Harrison said.
Dr. Harrison’s diary entries from October and early November 1939 traced the return of infantile paralysis to Union City, the same disease that killed Dr. A.J. Sherwood’s son Alfred. On Sunday, October 22, 1939, Dr. Harrison wrote that the week before on October 15, he and his son Paul Donald Strerett Harrison had gone visiting and to a dog training track between Waterford and Erie. When the returned to Union City that evening Paul told his father that he had a headache and that his throat was a little sore. Paul slept well but the next morning he remained in bed and his father wrote that Paul had a headache, “ putting hand on forehead” fever, and ‘very definite rigidity of the neck,” although his reflexes were normal.
For the next three days, from Tuesday through Friday, Paul ran a fever from 101 to 103 degrees, and experienced neck rigidity and irritability of muscles and limbs. Dr. Harrison wrote that Paul suffered muscle contractions here and there at least every minute night and day. Dr. Harrison said that Wednesday night marked the worst stage because Paul jumped up and cried out in his sleep every five minutes. He wrote that Paul felt the most consistent muscular pain on the underside of his left foot and in the arch of his right foot inside and under.
By October 31, 1939, Paul had made a nearly complete recovery and his neck was “almost normal in mobility,” Dr. Harrison wrote. “I had him walk today. No paralysis discerned. He feels fine today and plays on bed. He was seen by Dr. Fred Ross, Erie Pediatrician and distant cousin on Tuesday. I have talked to him on telephone 3 or 4 other times.”
“Dr. Andrew Sherwood saw Paul nearly every day at least also till Saturday when he went to Becknell for the weekend.” Dr. Harrison said and by November 101939, Paul was back in school.
Paul Donald Sterett Harrison’s case was the fourth case in Union City and he fully recovered. Dr. Harrison wrote that Frank and Harriet Eastman, son and daughter of Donald Eastman, had it and “are not recovered from paralysis yet. David Young, son of Rule Young, also sick.”
In his diary entry for Tuesday, January 9, 1940, Dr. Harrison recorded that Mrs. Oral Hatch died last evening. He wrote that she had “secretly held knowledge of breast cancer for about two years whaich was the time her sister Mrs. Paul Mullin died. She discovered the growth less than a year ago.”
In March 1941, Dr. Harrison reported that his children and many of the children in Union City had chicken pox. By September 1941, Dr. Harrison had chronicled his own illness. On September 4, 1941, he wrote that Dr. Mere Russell and Dr. G. William Schlindwein had performed a 2 ½ hour operation on his left ear for a radical mastoid at Hamot Hospital in Erie. Dr. Harrison said that had been sick for six days with severe dizziness at the farm before he went to the hospital. He sounded relieved when he wrote that he hadn’t suffered any ill effects from the anesthetic and that he had returned home within nine days of his operation.