A photo of Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine, 1909. (Kansas Historical Society)
By Annalise Mercer, Fort Hayes University
Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine is remembered today as a doctor who revolutionized public health. As Secretary of Health for the state of Kansas, he outlawed the use of public drinking cups, the use of public roller towels, spitting on the sidewalk brick and more, helping to cut off the spread of transmittable diseases like tuberculosis[4]. He also spearheaded other public health initiatives, such as encouraging people to “swat the fly” and “bat the rat” to help prevent the spread of diseases and bacteria[4][6][1]. He was so famous in his time that Doc Adams from Gunsmoke would later be based on him[4]. But the part of Dr. Crumbine’s story that often gets left by the wayside is how he got his start in small-town Spearville.
Doc Adams from Gunsmoke, whom was based on Dr. Crumbine, 1959. (Wikimedia Commons)
Dr. Crumbine was born on September 17, 1862, Emlenton, Pennsylvania[1][4]. He decided it was his life’s calling to be a doctor early on in life, and in turn attended medical school in Cincinnati[1]. As to be expected from medical school, it was expensive. Not even a stint as a door-to-door salesman could help him. A stroke of luck came along when a friend of Crumbine’s sent him a letter describing a business opportunity in Spearville. Crumbine traveled by train, by hay wagon, and by foot to stake a claim on Spearville’s new drug store[1]. Without that letter from a friend or the gumption to travel all the way out to the “wild west” of Spearville, Kansas just to pay for classes, Dr. Crumbine’s career would have never taken the trajectory it did. Unbeknownst to him, taking this chance would change his entire life for the better.
Crumbine procured a share in J. Ferrier’s drug store, one large enough to get his name on the business[2]. In order to both pay for his share of the drug store and to save up enough to continue medical school, Crumbine worked at the drugstore for a year and during school vacations[5]. Due to a general lack of medical resources in Spearville, he found himself providing medical advice to the people in town on top of providing them with pharmaceuticals[1][5]. Through this, he was able to both increase his medical experience and earn the trust of the locals, becoming part of the Spearville community.
Atlas map of Spearville, 1887. (Kansas Historical Society)
Using his salary from working at the drug store, Crumbine was able to pay for the remainder of his classes. Unable to resist the allure of the famous cowboy town after visiting it during his time working in Spearville, Dr. Crumbine decided to set up his practice in Dodge City after graduation. However, as typical for rural doctors, he ended up servicing the entirety of Ford County. Seemingly out of dedication to the town that got him his start, Dr. Crumbine would make sure to visit Spearville every Friday to attend to local medical needs[2].
One such Friday visit resulted in a small mishap between the doctor and a resident. Due to limited medical resources, rural doctors like Dr. Crumbine were called on to perform duties outside what one would typically expect from a medical doctor. In this case, he was called on to do dentistry, extracting a tooth from the aching jaw of a local Spearville man. Upon completing the procedure, to his “amazement and horror,” Dr. Crumbine extracted the wrong tooth and promptly received a verbal beating from the man. Thinking fast, Crumbine sterilized the root of the tooth and popped it back into the man’s mouth. After some temporary swelling, the man’s tooth stayed in place[1]. Quick thinking like this was common-place and necessary for rural doctors in those days, as medical resources were extremely limited and were usually nothing more than what the doctor had on hand and the patient’s sanitized kitchenware[1].
Dr. Crumbine (left) at the Kansas Board of Health office with two assistants, 1908. (Kansas Historical Society)
By the time he had lived and worked in the Ford County area for 20 years, Crumbine had touched the lives of many in his community. To that end, in 1900 when the new Republican governor W.T. Stanley was looking for people to fill out his completely refreshed state government, local community member and campaigner County Attorney Edward H. Madison recommended Dr. Crumbine for the job[1]. The decision to accept the position of health secretary was difficult for Dr. Crumbine to the point that he deferred the position for two years before assenting[1]. He had spent the better part of his life in this community and raised his family in Ford County, and it was difficult to leave all that behind. Even so, from his new home in Topeka, Dr. Crumbine was able to continue to help his community from afar.
A paper drinking cup, like the ones introduced after Dr. Crumbine banned the public drinking cup, circa 1907. (Kansas Historical Society)
As Secretary of Health, Dr. Crumbine went on several crusades in the name of public health. His righteous vendetta against the public drinking cup came after witnessing a young girl drink from a cup that a man with tuberculosis had just drank from immediately prior. In order to prove to both the state government and the train company the risks held within public drinking cups, Dr. Crumbine and his team utilized the then-new technology of bacterial analysis to identify the presence of harmful bacteria on the lips of the cups. With proof in hand, the public drinking cup was successfully banned, and the groundwork for the soon-to-follow banning of public roller towels was laid[1].
Cartoon advocating for the swatting of flies, 1914. (Kansas Historical Society)
Dr. Crumbine was also able to successfully engage Kansas communities in protecting their public health. It was recently discovered that flies had the potential to carry harmful bacteria and diseases on their legs after touching contaminated substances. It was Dr. Crumbine’s duty to bring this information to a populous previously ambivalent to the presence of flies and convince them to start “swatting the fly[1].” His messenger of choice were Kansas’ small-town Boy Scouts. These Boy Scouts created fly swatters out of wire screening and created sticky fly traps, placing them around town[6]. Eventually they would begin selling fly swatters to their neighbors, encouraging community-wide fly swatting and leading to other community groups, such as women’s groups, to take up the fly swatting crusade across the state[6]. It is unlikely that Spearville’s Boy Scouts were part of the initiative due to their troop being formed almost a decade after the heyday of the champaign, though the popularity of the champaign likely still had an influence on the community[2].
A brick inscribed with the text “don’t spit on sidewalk,” circa 1904-1924. These bricks were commissioned by Dr. Crumbine and incorporated into brick sidewalks. (Kansas Historical Society)
All of these actions and more benefitted the health of the entire state, from his new home in Topeka, his old home in Ford County, and the humble little town where Dr. Crumbine got his start, the “city of windmills” Spearville.
Dr. Crumbine alongside the slogans of some of his public health campaigns, circa 1904-1924. (Kansas Historical Society)
Dr. Crumbine illustrates the immense impact rural doctors can have on their communities, both nationally and locally. He showed a passion for his Kansas community that led to several advancements in public health that we now take for granted.
Despite the passage of time, the work of rural doctors today are not that different from Dr. Crumbine’s roots as a frontier medicine man. The people of Kansas still rely on rural doctors to provide a wide range of medical care. Just like in Dr. Crumbine’s time, a shortage of rural doctors means that those who are available must make once-a-week visitations to neighboring towns [3]. However, unlike the past, there is less incentive to enter the medical field in a rural area. Taking a half-stake in a drug store to pay for classes or owning a private practice are not practical options for a modern medical student, and many graduates will opt to work in urban areas rather than rural[7][3]. While there is a very real struggle to get new doctors into rural areas as older doctors retire, it is not a lost cause. Statistics show that trainees from rural areas are more likely to start practices back home, suggesting the lack of doctors could be alleviated if more youths from small towns are encouraged to enter the medical field[3]. The advantages to becoming a rural doctor are the strong connections to the local community and the ability to make tangible difference for them. Even now, rural doctors are advocating for their patients and their access to timely medical care, not dissimilar to what Dr. Crumbine did advocating for improvements to public health[7]. While Dr. Crumbine’s achievements over the course of his life may seem extraordinary, it is simply a day in the life for unsung rural doctors across time.
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