Dr. Stinson Edward Adcock
“...and Epsom salts to effect.”
In the early days of medical practice in Sulphur Township, people were prone to believe that the more awful tasting the remedy, the more powerful the cure. In reflecting on this matter, one is inclined to ask why medicine couldn’t have been just as effective the other way around. The older folks of that day were much prone to accept the former view, however, and so they downed their bitter potions with relish and gusto. After all, by their viewpoint, one must suffer to gain the good, and this especially applied to good health.
The advent of sodas, sundaes, shakes, and other tasteful delights of the soda fountain into the American drug store must have been in proportion to the diminution of the smells coming from the pharmacy section. Otherwise, the grand taste of these delicacies could not have competed with the noisome vapors wafting from the mysterious back shelves of elixirs, powders, pills, and ointments waiting to be dispensed to those poor souls who were having a particularly bad go of it. We can be grateful that, through time, the pharmaceutical industry has cleaned up its act in this respect to a remarkable degree.
But the times of Dr. S. E. Adcock were times when bitter medicines were at their pitch and moment. For instance, let’s say a new patient goes to the Doctor’s office on a warm day in 1920. Once inside, our patient would immediately conclude from the smells (not to mention the sights) that here was a doctor who meant business. No fun around here. All business.
After this hefty dose of reality, the patient would proceed to get a firm grip on himself and accept his fate. However, the pleasantness, confidence and well-meaning attitude of the Doctor quickly become the saving grace of the situation and put the patient into a state of calmer resolve.
Wayne Adcock of Texarkana, a genealogist and also a distant relative of the Doctor, relates that Stinson E. Adcock was born in Chatoogo County, Georgia, in August 1861. The family later moved to Alabama for a short time, and then in 1869 or 1870 they moved on to Bright Star. They were included in the 1870 Miller County census.
Stinson Adcock grew to maturity with his family in Bright Star. Wayne Adcock reveals that the Doctor married twice in his lifetime. His first wife was a Cora Dodd who, after bearing five children, left him to marry George Adcock [relationship not known, if any]. His second wife was a Dora Harrington, by whom he also had five children. Both wives most probably were from Sulphur Township since there were families of Dodds and Harringtons living there at the time.
According to Wayne Adcock and Hazel Field, another genealogist, Stinson Adcock learned the practice of medicine in Queen City, Texas, as an apprentice to a doctor there who taught medicine. Others have speculated that he also attended medical school in Kansas City, but this schooling isn’t confirmed. Wayne says that “On 7 April, 1897, a news item appeared in a Texarkana newspaper announcing the opening of the practice of medicine at Bright Star by Dr. S. E. Adcock.” At some time after this date, probably by 1910, Dr. Adcock moved to Doddridge to practice, and here he remained for the rest of his life. Dr. Adcock had his office adjacent to his home. It was a one-room building wherein were stored on shelves practically all of the medicines of the time. These were tablets, pills, powders, liquids, and ointments which were all stored in dark amber bottles and “sealed” with “stoppers.” A “stopper” was a cork plug which would fit into the opening of a bottle to serve as a lid or a seal to protect the contents. Cork stoppers for bottles were commonly used until about the beginning of the 1930s. The office also included an operating table and the usual array of formidable surgical instruments, the most awesome of which was a bone saw. Upon viewing the scene for the first time, one was given to wonder just how any person could develop the steel-minded attitude it would take to do what was demanded in this profession. No doubt, three qualities one would have to possess in abundance would be willingness to face the reality of physical suffering, great emotional stability, and a great curiosity about the functioning of the body.
As noted, Dr. Adcock was a confident and cheerful person, and he added a great deal to the spirit of the community. Apart from his medical practice, one of the activities for which he was widely noted was the length and oratorical nature of his prayers in church. This activity took on a humorous note in the community after a time. People would say that if the Doctor were asked to give the closing prayer, then the congregation had just as well settle-in for a long spell, perhaps even a nap.
The voice, too, was most powerful. It was generally conceded that on a still, summer night, when the windows of the church were open, the good Doctor could be heard at least a half mile away. His prayers covered all things. He prayed for the community, the church, the parents, the children, the crops, the animals, the elected officials of government, the weather and on ad infinitum. One might well believe after a Sunday sermon of one and a half hours and then a closing prayer by Dr. Adcock, that hunger would be the predominating topic in one’s private thoughts.
When Dr. Adcock came to Doddridge he was still driving a horse and buggy; but when cars began to find their way into town (around 1908-10) he was one of the first to own a Model “T” Ford. He was also one of the first to sell gas and oil. He had a gas drum and an oil drum in front of his office primarily for his own use, but people did buy from him until others got started in the filling station business. The gas would have to be hand-pumped into a gallon container, then poured into the gas tank through a funnel.
The greatest tragedy of the Doctor’s life occurred in the summer of 1926, when he and his adult son, Oscar, were practice-shooting with a pistol in back of their home. By some freakish accident, the pistol went off while in the Doctor’s hand, and the bullet went through Oscar’s stomach.
He was rushed thirty miles over rough dirt roads to a Texarkana hospital where surgery was performed, but Oscar survived for only about a day afterward.
It is said that the Doctor never recovered from the trauma of this event, and he, himself, passed away in 1928, only two years afterward. Dr. Adcock had given thirty-one years of service to the people of Sulphur Township. He is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery at Doddridge.