He Fed Fever
Dr. P.T. Ilroman was a doctor ahead of
his time, ns liis tombstone in the IVneli-
land cemetery .shows.
By CHERRY PARKER
"Let that typhoid fever patient have
some sauerkraut if she craves it.
Л
taste
of ham and eggs or a biscuit. Allow
them to ear." So said P. T. Beeman. a
horsc-and-buggy doctor practicing in
Anson County in the mid and late
1800 s.
Radical. During this period before ty¬
phoid vaccine and antibiotics, physi¬
cians generally believed in the "starve
a fever" principle. THE THEORY AND
PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 1848. advised
the use of cold baths and acidulated
("sourish") drinks while other medical
references of the day recommended
oyster water, oatmeal gruel, rice or bar¬
ley water: sometimes soda crackers and
buttermilk were allowed, though
seldom.
There was no known way to prevent
typhoid fever; it could only be treated,
and purging was another ordeal suffered
by many a dying patient. For die they
did. "Died of the Fever" was a com¬
mon epitaph seen in graveyards and at
least one North Carolina school— the
famous Carolina Female Academy in
Anson County— closed its doors in 1887
following two typhoid epidemics.
Opened The W indows
On the back roads of Anson County.
Parks Turner Beeman. M.D. was years
ahead of his time. He opened his ty¬
phoid fever patients’ windows shut tight
against the "poison night air" and he
ordered them to eat a nourishing diet.
He claimed that he never lost a case of
typhoid which he took from its begin¬
ning. The only patient he lost during a
1882 epidemic of what his granddaugh¬
ter later described as "dinguc fever”
(Dengue?) was his own little daughter
Wayne who became ill while he was
spending his days and nights treating
others who were stricken. He was
called home, but he got there too late
to save the child.
Dr. Beeman took part of the blame
for Wayne's death, feeling that he’s
given himself too much credit for his
medical successes instead of giving
God the Glory and thereafter, every
time he gave any patient the medicine
THE STATE. SE»*TEM8*A 1967
that he mixed himself, he never failed
to say. "With God’s help, this will do
you good."
There were other interesting facets to
P. T. Beeman’s life. Born in 1833 to
Christian McCormac Beeman and her
husband Lemuel. P. T. could claim that
his Scottish maternal grandmother Flora
Stuart McCormac came on the boat to
America with Flora McDonald.
Little is known about his early life
except that he studied medicine under
the guidance of Wadcsboro’s Dr. Ed¬
mund Fontaine Ashe and then com¬
pleted his studies at the Charleston
Medical College. He built his home
near Mulchia of Mulchay (now Peach-
land, N.C.) and married Penelope
Turner. They had eight children.
Disapproved of Secession
Dr. Beeman left his Anson County
practice only twice during his lifetime.
During the Civil War when he was
exempted from service to stay home to
care for women and children, he
strongly voiced his disapproval of Con¬
federate President Jefferson Davis’s idea
of Secession and for this alleged trea¬
son he became a prisoner at Camp
Holmes near Raleigh. When he was
released, he walked all the way from the
camp to his home.
In 1868, Dr. Beeman represented An¬
son County in the State Senate. He
served for a term after which he was
offered the position of physician for the
City of Raleigh. He declined this to
again return to his home on the old
Pblkton Road where he died in 1903.
The country' doctor’s granddaughter,
the late Annie Crowson Stewart,
remembered much about his later years.
"He drove a sorrel horse named
Prince," she recalled, "so accustomed
to his daily and nightly grind that he ac¬
quired a slow, steady gait and regardless
of the weather— sun. rain, snow or
sleet— no persuasion could make him
speed up or get much slower. I can
remember seeing Grandfather leave his
warm comfortable room, often after he
had retired, and go out ... to relieve
the suffering of some sick person, and
sometimes return home with ice on his
beard"
Pet Goose
Dr. Beeman would accept other
things if a patient had no money: corn,
fodder, shucks, even geese. A goose
and gander were his pets until the goose
took a nip out of the doctors shin and
ended up in the stew pot. The gander
"Old Alec" was so devoted to his mas¬
ter that he would follow him in his
buggy down the road as far as he could,
then he would waddle back into the yard
to hide under the office porch until the
I Continued on pane 33)
Or Berman's office (now lorn down)
»
patients and compounded hrt cn.n pr
In 1966. great granddaughters Mary
Alice S Hunt loaned the N.C. Depar
chive» and History i
office which included medical bottle»,
bleeding knives. a mortar and slab, arx
Bible; also a UNITED STATES OISPENS
DRUITT5 MODERN SURGERY. 1855.*
OPHY OF THE MORAL FEELING. 184
books
Or. Doeman s tombstono stands In a cemetery
aero»» the road Irom his old homeplace near Peach-
land Difficult to read m inis photo, the Inscription
says; P.T. BEEMAN. MOJOec 4. 1833 May 23. 1903'!
FED FEVER
11
