By Ann Hibner Koblitz

In the 19th century several kinds of practitioners claimed to be able to address the health needs of Americans. In addition to college- or university-trained physicians, there were midwives, pharmacists, surgeon-barbers (the red and white stripes of the traditional barber's pole originally symbolized surgery), itinerate medicine peddlers (the so-called "snake oil salesmen" who later fell into disrepute), and in some areas Native American shamans and the Anglos who claimed to have studied with them.

In the Southwest, one could also come across curanderos/as (all-purpose healers), parteras (midwives), yerberos/as (herbalists), and sobardoras/os (massage therapists sometimes specializing in intestinal blockages). And the Western mining and railroad towns provided a clientele for practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, as well as healers of other ethnicities from which the laboring population was drawn. 

Many people assumed the title of "doctor" after having apprenticed with an established physician for a year or two, or having graduated from the so-called "sectarian" or "irregular" medical schools. An outgrowth of Jacksonian-era self-help and self-medication movements, these schools tended to be the livelihood of one person (hence their other name of "proprietary" medical schools), and often taught a specific philosophy of health care. There were schools of hydropathy, whose adherents believed that the best cures for illness were pure running water and frequent full-immersion baths; "Grahamist" schools, named after their founder, Sylvester Graham (whom we know as the inventor of the Graham cracker), who taught that vegetarianism and intestinal regularity were the keys to good health; schools of chiropracty, which emphasized massage and proper alignment of the skeleton; and many others. 

Collectively, these "irregular" medical schools were sometimes referred to as "homeopathic" institutions. Strictly speaking, "homeopathy" was a specific system of health care advocated by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. But in the U.S. the term came to have a broader meaning, and loosely encompassed all irregulars. 

Despite their different philosophies, there was agreement among most of the sectarians that medical treatments should be whenever possible non-invasive and "natural" rather than surgical or chemical/pharmaceutical, and that healing should be accessible to everyone rather than highly professionalized. The homeopathic medical schools had among their students a far higher percentage of women, African Americans, and other marginalized groups than did the so-called "regular" medical schools. 

From its inception in 1847, the American Medical Association (AMA), which was controlled by "regular" medical school graduates from the big cities of the Northeast, was implacably opposed to the homeopathic medical colleges. The AMA lumped homeopaths together with surgeon-barbers, midwives, itinerate medicine peddlers, and Chinese, Hispanic, and other ethnic healers. To the AMA, all were quacks, snake-oil salesmen, and witch doctors, and should be ostracized by "real" physicians. The AMA refused to receive into its ranks any healer not possessing a "regular" medical school diploma, and it urged its affiliates at the state, territorial, and local levels to do likewise. 

But such intransigence on the part of the AMA was not necessarily mirrored in the practices of its constituent organizations. Take, for example, the case of the Yavapai County Medical Society (YCMS). The YCMS was founded in early 1904 as the first of the regional medical associations in Arizona, and was respected not only throughout the territory, but nationally as well. Physicians at the initial meeting of the Society included Drs. John S. Barrett, Thomas Benton Davis, Warren Day, S. J. Fitzsimmons, John W. Flinn, James N. McCandless, Will S. Smith, Henry Thomason, and Clarence E. Yount, all of who were graduates of "regular" medical schools approved by the AMA. In the course of 1904 another ten doctors were welcomed as charter members of the YCMS; these, too, were "regular" physicians. 

The YCMS was not completely comfortable with the AMA's decision to bar sectarians from its ranks, and discussed the issue in 1904 and again in 1905. Despite their misgivings about excluding their "irregular" colleagues, the Society's report to the AMA in 1905 dutifully noted that several Yavapai County physicians were not members of the YCMS because "Yavapai Co. does not admit homeopaths at present." Among those listed as ineligible for membership was Dr. Henry (Harry) Thomas Southworth, Sr. (1876-1933), who had graduated from Chicago Homeopathic Medical College in 1901 and been licensed in 1904. (Like legislators in several other Western states and territories, Arizonan lawmakers were not particularly impressed by the AMA's argument that licenses should be granted only to "regular" physicians, so Arizona continued to register homeopaths, chiropractors, and others on the same basis as M.D.s until well into the 20th century.) 

Southworth must have made a very favorable impression upon his medical peers, because in May 1906 the YCMS decided to ignore the AMA dictum and quietly admitted him to their ranks. He quickly became a prominent member of the Arizona State Medical Association (ASMA) as well as the YCMS, and in later years served as President of each of them. He was a member of the American College of Surgeons, Health Officer for the City of Prescott, and leader of several civic organizations. His son, Dr. Harry T. Southworth, Jr., was also a respected Prescott physician for many years and, like his father, served as President of both the YCMS and the ASMA. 

The senior Southworth's career was so distinguished and he was so well-regarded by colleagues and patients alike that people seemed to have forgotten that he had started his working life as a sectarian physician not eligible for membership in the YCMS. In fact, the YCMS resolution distributed to the press at the time of Southworth's death conveniently ignored the Society's initial delay in allowing him in, and called him a "charter member" of their group. The resolution noted that "By his kindly nature, courtly manners, strict integrity, and high professional attainments, he has won the admiration, respect and friendship of his professional confreres throughout the whole State..." A very close reading of the memorial resolution would have revealed the omission of the "M.D." after Southworth's name. But for the vast majority of Southworth's patients and peers, the fact that he had been trained as a homeopath did not in any way diminish his prestige in the community. 

People living on the periphery often ignore or circumvent edicts coming from the central authorities. At a time when the medical establishment in the East considered homeopaths to be quacks, physicians in Arizona chose Henry T. Southworth, Sr. as President of both the YCMS and the ASMA. As the Chinese used to say, "the mountains are high, and the Emperor is far away." 

(Ann Hibner Koblitz has her Ph.D. in History and is a Professor of Women's Studies at Arizona State University. She is the author of two books on Russian women scientists and is currently working on a cross-cultural study of sexuality and fertility control.) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (bui133p). Reuse only by permission.
"Surgeon-Barbers" were one type of "irregular" doctors that were collectively known as homeopathic doctors. Although barbers lost their medical stature over the years, many other types of homeopaths practiced in Prescott and were well respected. The local medical association admitted them even when the national organization did not.