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| Dr. Milholland grave Old Riverside Cem. Defiance, Ohio |
Dr. David M Milholland, a physician of Auglaize towmship, Paulding county, now in his 76th year, thinks that his nationality has much to do with his long years of service to the folks of his community.
He says that his mother once told him that he was three-fourths Dutch and half Irish.
According to this veteran doctor, every old-fashioned rural physician was compelled to mingle with his medicine a more or less free nursing service.
In fact, this good doctor was rather fatigued, after spending the preceding night in a chair by the side of a restless patient.
Dr Milholland says that doctors are very human folks. They do not become hardened through their years of service, as many folks imagine, but look forward to the brief time they are allowed to visit with each patient, and none mourn their passing more than he who assuaged their pain.
Starting his practice at Junction nearly half a century ago, the doctor's first means of locomotion aside from his pedal extremities was an old Rudge bicycle, with a high wheel in front; and a small one at the back.
Many a modern driver, said Dr Milholland, would have stood aghast at the prospect of sending this unique vehicle with its fifty inch front wheel down among the stumps of crude paths called roads. The doctor would not go on record as not ever having had to dismount quickly and involuntarily, but said that his bruises were always minor and nothing occurred that really could be called a traffic disaster.
It was six months before he was able to acquire a good horse, but during this period something, which Dr. Milholand attributes to a act of Providence, occurred. There were no death in the community.
Contents of the pioneer doctor's pill-box included first of all quinine for malaria; arsenic, potassium bromide, sweet spirit of niter, nitrate of silver, carbolic acid, jalap, calomel (mercury chloride), aconits, sulphur and black antimony.
Humor enters the lives of all doctors. Imagine the young doctor proudly traversing the rutty roads in his first new buggy, meeting a team and wagon coming at top speed down the bumpy thoroughfare.
The doctor found that a case of lock-jaw had met him on the way, at least the members of the family seeking assistance considered it such. The doctor stepped from his buggy to the wagon (they were of equal height) and quickly manipulating his fingers succeeded in adjusting a dislocated jaw. The women was profuse in her thanks and said that if she'd known it was that easy to close her husband's mouth, she'd have shut him up long ago.
Dr. Milholland is a bachelor. His headquarters seem to be wherever you may find him. The quickest way being to get in touch with a patient he has visited and then keep consistently on his trail, for he says that he's got to the place where most of his business is rural appointments.
Some years ago, he moved his office Sidney. A year later he moved to Kempton, Allen county. While at this place he one day received in the mail in a bulky letter which contained a petition requesting his return to Junction. The petition bore the signatures of 200 of the village's 230 inhabitants.
While the doctor was debating the matter of returning to place his service at the disposal of his first patients, Ike Hardesty and Dwight Columbia, drove up to his office with a team and wagon each and announced that Dr. Molholland was returning to Junction.
He has no regrets over his return to the Paulding county village. He says it's a fact that the 30 who did not sign the petition lived to an age equal or superior to that of the signers.
He's had many odd, interesting, painful and pitiful cases. He has treated a man who had his nose bitten off by a vicious horse,set the bones of many unfortunates caught beneath falling trees, a man whose leg had been cut off by a saw that whirled from its shaft. He says that cuts made by saws are cruel and difficult to treat.
Some years ago Dr. Milholland bought 40 acres of sump land adjoining Junction. He rents the land to tenants. Because honey is the cheapest and best ingredient obtainable for furnishing the syrup of cough syrup, he keeps a goodly supply of bees.
Doctors as we have said are human, they worry about their cases. Believe it or not, there are times when their nerves are all unstrung because they actually do not know what to do. Such situations are hard on doctors who should be fit to answer any call day or night.
But the bachelor doctor found a way to quiet quivering nerves and assure a full night's rest simply go out to the wood lot and dig out a stump.
Dr. David M Milholland was born on 5 March, 1858 in Ohio, his father George Milholland and mother Mary. He had four brothers and two sisters. He died on 30 December 1939, in Toledo, Ohio, at the age of 81.
It was six months before he was able to acquire a good horse, but during this period something, which Dr. Milholand attributes to a act of Providence, occurred. There were no death in the community.
Contents of the pioneer doctor's pill-box included first of all quinine for malaria; arsenic, potassium bromide, sweet spirit of niter, nitrate of silver, carbolic acid, jalap, calomel (mercury chloride), aconits, sulphur and black antimony.
Humor enters the lives of all doctors. Imagine the young doctor proudly traversing the rutty roads in his first new buggy, meeting a team and wagon coming at top speed down the bumpy thoroughfare.
The doctor found that a case of lock-jaw had met him on the way, at least the members of the family seeking assistance considered it such. The doctor stepped from his buggy to the wagon (they were of equal height) and quickly manipulating his fingers succeeded in adjusting a dislocated jaw. The women was profuse in her thanks and said that if she'd known it was that easy to close her husband's mouth, she'd have shut him up long ago.
Dr. Milholland is a bachelor. His headquarters seem to be wherever you may find him. The quickest way being to get in touch with a patient he has visited and then keep consistently on his trail, for he says that he's got to the place where most of his business is rural appointments.
Some years ago, he moved his office Sidney. A year later he moved to Kempton, Allen county. While at this place he one day received in the mail in a bulky letter which contained a petition requesting his return to Junction. The petition bore the signatures of 200 of the village's 230 inhabitants.
While the doctor was debating the matter of returning to place his service at the disposal of his first patients, Ike Hardesty and Dwight Columbia, drove up to his office with a team and wagon each and announced that Dr. Molholland was returning to Junction.
He has no regrets over his return to the Paulding county village. He says it's a fact that the 30 who did not sign the petition lived to an age equal or superior to that of the signers.
He's had many odd, interesting, painful and pitiful cases. He has treated a man who had his nose bitten off by a vicious horse,set the bones of many unfortunates caught beneath falling trees, a man whose leg had been cut off by a saw that whirled from its shaft. He says that cuts made by saws are cruel and difficult to treat.
Some years ago Dr. Milholland bought 40 acres of sump land adjoining Junction. He rents the land to tenants. Because honey is the cheapest and best ingredient obtainable for furnishing the syrup of cough syrup, he keeps a goodly supply of bees.
Doctors as we have said are human, they worry about their cases. Believe it or not, there are times when their nerves are all unstrung because they actually do not know what to do. Such situations are hard on doctors who should be fit to answer any call day or night.
But the bachelor doctor found a way to quiet quivering nerves and assure a full night's rest simply go out to the wood lot and dig out a stump.
Dr. David M Milholland was born on 5 March, 1858 in Ohio, his father George Milholland and mother Mary. He had four brothers and two sisters. He died on 30 December 1939, in Toledo, Ohio, at the age of 81.
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