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Health Care As It Was in Oakville
(mainly from a previous display)

See more Oakville Heritage Moments from the Oakville Public Library
The display cases in the Oakville Historical Society archives are always filled with one or more exhibits relating to Oakville's historical heritage. They're free for viewing by the public anytime our offices are open (1:00 - 4:30pm. every Tuesday and Thursday, plus the third Sunday of each month). 

The following material is based on an exhibit by volunteers Mary Noad and Rosemary Seeton. They focused on health care practitioners and practices, as it was from the early 1800s to the early/mid 1900s. Much of the textual material is drawn from Hazel Chisholm Matthew's Oakville and the Sixteen.
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Early Background:

 A few short years after coming into existence the settlement at the mouth of the Sixteen (that was to become Oakville) suffered its first serious health care crises: an epidemic of Asiatic cholera.

 The cholera arrived by ship along with immigrants from Britain to which the disease had spread from Europe. Conditions on those ships were horrendous in terms of crowding and sanitation, and food supplies (provided by the immigrants themselves) rarely lasted the two month voyage. Conditions were ripe for the spread of disease and the immigrants, wasted by starvation, died by the hundreds.

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​Not all epidemics are listed. Many of these were experienced across North America.

Graphic is courtesy of www.portcolborne.ca/en/recreation-and-leisure/historical-and-marine-museum.aspxPort Colborne Historical & Marine Museum​ was shared during our Speakers' Nights.
 Boards of Heath were established at every landing-place for ships, and in June 1832 Oakville's Board appointed Dr. Daniel Black Health Inspector for all immigrant-carrying vessels arriving at Oakville and Burlington Bay. In August 1833 Dr. Black was dead of cholera.

 During this time John Urquhart arrived in Oakville from Scotland via New York. He was put in charge of a new hospital set up on the west side of the Sixteen and, after two years amongst cholera victims both at York and Oakville, he was considered qualified to practice medicine. He remained in Oakville when the epidemic subsided and built a combined apothecary's shop, surgery and dwelling to which he gave the name "Medical Hall", a popular term during this period. In 1991, the building was designated of historical significance. This building still stands as 182 Lakeshore Road East and here his son, also named John who was to become an apothecary and then Doctor, was born in 1844.

 Oakville suffered other epidemics which periodically swept the country. After the scourge of cholera in the thirties came typhus in 1847, carried by immigrants trying to escape the wretchedness caused by the Industrial Revolution and the potato famine in Ireland, and in 1854 cholera returned again.

 Apart from the periodic country-wide epidemics, other diseases took their toll. The burial registers of Oakville churches show that infant mortality was very high, particularly among children under two years of age. “Malignant throat”, which we know to be diphtheria, in a few days wiped out a family of six between the ages of 2 months and 19 years. 

 The fever known as “ague” and “malaria”, which was the scourge of early settlers in Canada, was very prevalent in Oakville. Ague was associated with swamps and marshes, although it was not then known to be carried by mosquitoes. Since no screening was used it was just as well that night air was believed injurious and all outside air best left outside.

 Justus W. Williams operated a store on Colbourn Street. The store offered "a general assortment of dry goods and hardware, also a few groceries and medicines". He inscribed in his shop ledger (1830-36) his remedies for Ague, colds, Scarlet Fever, bowel complaints of every kind, etc. He also produced a transcription (slipperyjohn bark = elm bark).

Colbourn street was latter renamed Lakeshore. The store was located at 266 Lakeshore Road East. It was the Thyme Restaurant and Wine Bar for many years. Later it became De Stefano's Ristorante. At the time of this update, it is Borgo Antico Cucina Bar.


Oakville Physicians 1830 - 1930:
Picture
Flexible
 Stethoscope 1885  
1830 - 1840
Dr. Daniel Black 
Dr. William Kirkwood
Dr. William Gunn - emigrated from Scotland
Dr. Christopher Flock - "surgeon and accoucheur"
Dr. David Dolmage Wright
1850's


1860's 


1870 - 1880



1900's




1915




1920 - 1930

Dr. Edwy Ogden - also acted as local dentist, and practiced for over 20 years
Dr. James Johnson

Dr. Anson Buck - Palermo
Dr. Van Norman - Bronte

Dr. John Urquhart - initially trained as druggist and in 1882 became a physician and practiced until 1920's when he was in his 90's. Also ran Dr. Urquhart's Medical Hall.
Dr. Justus Samuel Williams
Dr. Charles Lusk

Dr. Robert O. Fisher
Dr. John H. Stead
Dr. Fred Sparling
Dr. Morely Wilkinson

Dr. Charles Page
Dr. Eric Soanes - moved his office into the Medical Arts Building at Reynolds and MacDonald and was later instrumental in establishing the Lions Club first temporary hospital on First Street, then in 1950 The Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Chesley Oake
Dr. Brock Chisholm (1896 - 1971) - the first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1948 - 1953 and Deputy Minister of Health for Canada (1944-1946). During the six years he practiced in Oakville, his office was in the building that still stands (2008) on the south-east corner of Lakeshore and Reynolds. Click here for different linked information about Dr. Chisholm.
Physicians and Surgeons in Oakville in 1953 (when Oakville was still a comparatively small town):
 Dr. W.L. Anderson
 Dr. R.D. Appleford
 Dr. A.C. Bremner
 Dr. D.H. Dixon
 Dr. R.N. Hines
Dr. D.S. Kober
Dr. M.E. Lunau
Dr. Campbell MacArthur
Dr. G.K. Phillips
Dr. A.E. Ross
Dr. E.P. Soanes
Dr. F.N. Sparling
Dr. F.W. Wallace
Dr. G.O Warr
 Dr. Bruce Wells
 Dr. W.M. Wilkinson
 Dr J.C. Worrell
 Dr. J. Zaborowska
Today (2008) Oakville has over 200 doctors registered at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.

(Click any image for a larger version)
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Dr. C. H. Lusk
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Dr. J. S. Williams and wife Jennie McGil
Picture
Dr. W. M. Wilkinson and son c1920's
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Dr. W. M. Wilkinson 50 years as coroner (1963)
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Dr. John Urquhart
Young John Urquhart had preferred the life of a sailor; and in 1860, at the age of sixteen, ran away from home to go on the lakes. But before John Urquhart senior died in 1867 (“a very large funeral – twenty-six teams”, observed George Sumner) he had the satisfaction of knowing that young John had bowed to his parents’ wishes and entered upon a medical career. "Young John's" first instructor was Dr. John Rolph, a supporter of Mackenzie during the Rebellion. John Urquhart graduated with honours from the University of Toronto and returned to practice at Oakville for a time before going to Edinburgh for a post-graduate course. When he died at the age of ninety, in the house where he was born, Dr. John Urquhart was reputedly the oldest practicing physician in the province. Urquhart’s and Gulledge’s were the oldest concerns in the town when, within a few years of each other, they were discontinued. The chemist’s shop had done business for just onto a century, and the harness shop for 104 years.
Mrs. McCleary gives us this account of her father’s part in the serious smallpox epidemic of 1907:

 “Father was the one who recognized the first case as being smallpox and soon it had spread all over town. He had a ‘camp’ set up on the west side of the river, on the lakefront near Holyrood, and everyone who developed the disease had to be taken there until they were better. The patients were picked up one by one and driven through town by horse and wagon (resembling a ‘lumber-wagon’) to the camp, where they were looked after. When people way one of these wagons, they know it was a case of smallpox and took care not to go near. I do not know how many contracted the disease, nor how long the camp was necessary, because Father decided to take the precaution of sending me away, and I was out of Oakville when the epidemic was at its worst.”
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Dr. John Urquhart in the Medical Hall opened by his father in 1835.
This store is now 182 Lakeshore Rd. E. In 2014, it is still worth visiting.
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Dr. Urquhart's Pharmacopoeia
Click on the image to the left for a readable look at a few pages from an 1826 pharmacopoeia - this one having belonged to Dr. John Urquhart and donated to the Society by his great great grandson, Dr. Gerald Colemen.
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Residence of Dr. Black
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Residence of Drs. Urquhart, Lusk & Wilkinson
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Residence of Dr. J. S. W. Williams
Picture
For the bite of a mad dog (c1830s) *
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Tonsil Forceps, Either Mask, Head Lamp
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Bone Cutter, Craniotomy Clamp
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Medicine Case
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Aspirator, Upper Dental Forceps, Mouth Gag.
Medical implements courtesy of Oakville Museum at Erchless Estates.
* Receipt or Recipe?
Continued on Next Page
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  • HOME
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    • Our Plaques >
      • Plaque Process
      • Plaque Order and Payment
    • Supporting our Cadets
  • Publications and Resources
    • Newsletters
    • Reprints >
      • Beautiful Oakville - 1897
      • Garden of Canada - c1902
      • Telephone Book 1947
      • The Sumner Diaries
    • Audio Video >
      • Videos of Life in Early Oakville
      • Oakville Heritage Moments
    • Links
  • Collections and Exhibits
    • Archives, Photos and Libraries
    • Stories
    • Village Essays
    • Website
    • Basket Factory Memorial Plaques
    • War >
      • First World War
      • First World War Poppies Exhibit
      • Ontario Farmerettes
      • Munro Letters
    • Health Care As It Was >
      • Health Care As It Was - Continued
    • Oakville Images
    • Plaqued Houses and Buildings
    • Town of Oakville Online Collections
  • Membership
    • Join, Renew or Update
    • Why Be A Member
    • Our Volunteers
  • Activities
    • Speakers' Nights
    • Guided Walking Tours
    • Self-guided Walking Tours >
      • Downtown Oakville Historical Walk
      • Erchless Estate
      • Navy Street
      • Old Oakville
      • Trafalgar Road Heritage Conservation District
      • Trafalgar-Allan Corridor
      • Lot 12
      • Historic Reynolds
    • Black History Month
    • Indigenous History Month
    • Ghost Walks >
      • Survey
      • Photo and Video Submission
      • Photos 2022 Ghost Walks
      • Photos 2010 - 2022, Reviews 2016 - 2018
      • Reviews 2022 Ghost Walks
      • Volunteer for Ghost Walks
      • Ghost Stories
      • Video Ghost Stories
    • Doors Open
    • Culture Days
    • Historic Places Days
    • Yard Sale
    • Mayor's Historical Picnic
    • Family Activities >
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      • Annual Family Activities
      • Colouring >
        • Jigsaw Puzzles
  • Shop
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    • Fine Art Prints
    • Shop Order Form
    • Art of Oakville
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