Son of Berthe & John Brown, husband of Antha B Vandeventer
From Ralls County Historical Society:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thursday, May 7, 1953, Page 5A
Physician at Perry for 42 Years Refuses to Consider Retirement
Fewer Medical Men in Area Now Than When He Came,
Doctor, 87, Reminds Those Who Want Him to Quit.
By a Staff Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch.
PERRY, Mo. – Dr. John Edward Brown, 86 years old, is short on height, long on experience and after 42 years of continuous practice here is definitely a community mainstay.
Somewhat hard of hearing but otherwise in perfect health, he answers calls night or day in his automobile which he wheels over gravel roads with all the aplomb of a test driver on a race track.
It is nothing, fellow townspeople point out, for him to start out at midnight. A relative of a patient remarked, “It sure is wonderful to know that if Dr. Brown isn’t already out treating somebody, he will come at once.”
Great Need Now.
Apparently the thought of slowing up or retiring has never entered the physician’s mind. To those who broach this point, he mentions a very disconcerting fact. Currently there is more need for him than when he arrived in town in November, 1911, at the request of a fellow practitioner unable to keep up with country work.
The reason is that as far as Dr. Brown knows the nearby towns of Santa Fe, Florida (birthplace of Mark Twain), Madisonville, and Victor now do not have resident medical men. The Perry doctor makes calls at all of them. But when he was new in town, he says they all had doctors.
Even so, he made plenty of calls on horseback and with a buggy, which was standard practice in those mud road days. “It is better with an automobile, which I have used since 1913,” he sometimes says, adding that “I could not take the rugged life now like I used to.”
Never Seriously Ill.
The rugged life meant no physical impairment because it is a source of much pride to him that he has never been seriously ill in his life. Unlike some of his contemporaries throughout the state, he does not have a set speech of explanation. In response to persistent prodding he finally mentioned that he never used tobacco or liquor, but was unwilling to draw any moral from the abstinence.
Born in Audrain county south of Vandalia on Nov. 1, 1866, Dr. Brown grew up in the area. For four years he worked in Laddonia as a store clerk and one recollection he has of those times is that he could have smoked cigars for nothing if he had been interested in smoking.
To finish his medical education, he went to the Hospital College of Medicine of Central University, Louisville, for the same reason that must have attracted many other alumni of the school still practicing in Missouri. The term started in January. Because of this he could put in and harvest a full corn crop to secure money to help pay for his education.
Sold Life Insurance.
In this period he almost became a life insurance salesman. He was selling policies from June to January for a Laddonia agent and doing so well he remarked to his employer that he thought he would drop further studies for the selling game. The boss said firmly he would fire him the minute he did, so Dr. Brown trundled on back to Louisville and graduated in 1895.
He started practice at Kampsville, Ill., which had no doctor at the time, later going to Farber and Florida before finally settling here. His wife and son both are dead. Miss Maggie Vendeventer, his wife’s sister, keeps house for him at the spacious frame residence near the center of this Ralls county town of 813 population.
In keeping with the tradition of most veteran country doctors, he has no idea of how many babies he has delivered. He’s certain he has not lost his touch and proudly related that he had just delivered twin boys.
Honored at Hannibal.
Only formal honor Dr. Brown can recall came last September at Hannibal when he was one of four doctors honored for more than 50 years of service. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church where he served on the committee that directed erection of a new building in 1922.
One thing that has impressed him throughout the years is advancements in the control of epidemics. “It’s wonderful that we don’t have typhoid fever, whooping cough and related disease like we used to.”
In making his calls, Dr. Brown strides briskly from the Perry State Bank building where he has an office on the second floor. He remembers that he had to wait several months to get in the building while it was being completed 42 years ago.
It never seems to occur to anyone in town that at the age of 86, Dr. John Edward Brown might be taking things a little easier. Out of the wholesome respect and great admiration springs the sentiment hoping he will be around forever.
[Note: MO death certificate lists his death date as 19 January 1958.]
From Ralls County Historical Society:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thursday, May 7, 1953, Page 5A
Physician at Perry for 42 Years Refuses to Consider Retirement
Fewer Medical Men in Area Now Than When He Came,
Doctor, 87, Reminds Those Who Want Him to Quit.
By a Staff Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch.
PERRY, Mo. – Dr. John Edward Brown, 86 years old, is short on height, long on experience and after 42 years of continuous practice here is definitely a community mainstay.
Somewhat hard of hearing but otherwise in perfect health, he answers calls night or day in his automobile which he wheels over gravel roads with all the aplomb of a test driver on a race track.
It is nothing, fellow townspeople point out, for him to start out at midnight. A relative of a patient remarked, “It sure is wonderful to know that if Dr. Brown isn’t already out treating somebody, he will come at once.”
Great Need Now.
Apparently the thought of slowing up or retiring has never entered the physician’s mind. To those who broach this point, he mentions a very disconcerting fact. Currently there is more need for him than when he arrived in town in November, 1911, at the request of a fellow practitioner unable to keep up with country work.
The reason is that as far as Dr. Brown knows the nearby towns of Santa Fe, Florida (birthplace of Mark Twain), Madisonville, and Victor now do not have resident medical men. The Perry doctor makes calls at all of them. But when he was new in town, he says they all had doctors.
Even so, he made plenty of calls on horseback and with a buggy, which was standard practice in those mud road days. “It is better with an automobile, which I have used since 1913,” he sometimes says, adding that “I could not take the rugged life now like I used to.”
Never Seriously Ill.
The rugged life meant no physical impairment because it is a source of much pride to him that he has never been seriously ill in his life. Unlike some of his contemporaries throughout the state, he does not have a set speech of explanation. In response to persistent prodding he finally mentioned that he never used tobacco or liquor, but was unwilling to draw any moral from the abstinence.
Born in Audrain county south of Vandalia on Nov. 1, 1866, Dr. Brown grew up in the area. For four years he worked in Laddonia as a store clerk and one recollection he has of those times is that he could have smoked cigars for nothing if he had been interested in smoking.
To finish his medical education, he went to the Hospital College of Medicine of Central University, Louisville, for the same reason that must have attracted many other alumni of the school still practicing in Missouri. The term started in January. Because of this he could put in and harvest a full corn crop to secure money to help pay for his education.
Sold Life Insurance.
In this period he almost became a life insurance salesman. He was selling policies from June to January for a Laddonia agent and doing so well he remarked to his employer that he thought he would drop further studies for the selling game. The boss said firmly he would fire him the minute he did, so Dr. Brown trundled on back to Louisville and graduated in 1895.
He started practice at Kampsville, Ill., which had no doctor at the time, later going to Farber and Florida before finally settling here. His wife and son both are dead. Miss Maggie Vendeventer, his wife’s sister, keeps house for him at the spacious frame residence near the center of this Ralls county town of 813 population.
In keeping with the tradition of most veteran country doctors, he has no idea of how many babies he has delivered. He’s certain he has not lost his touch and proudly related that he had just delivered twin boys.
Honored at Hannibal.
Only formal honor Dr. Brown can recall came last September at Hannibal when he was one of four doctors honored for more than 50 years of service. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church where he served on the committee that directed erection of a new building in 1922.
One thing that has impressed him throughout the years is advancements in the control of epidemics. “It’s wonderful that we don’t have typhoid fever, whooping cough and related disease like we used to.”
In making his calls, Dr. Brown strides briskly from the Perry State Bank building where he has an office on the second floor. He remembers that he had to wait several months to get in the building while it was being completed 42 years ago.
It never seems to occur to anyone in town that at the age of 86, Dr. John Edward Brown might be taking things a little easier. Out of the wholesome respect and great admiration springs the sentiment hoping he will be around forever.
[Note: MO death certificate lists his death date as 19 January 1958.]
Son of Berthe & John Brown, husband of Antha B Vandeventer
From Ralls County Historical Society:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thursday, May 7, 1953, Page 5A
Physician at Perry for 42 Years Refuses to Consider Retirement
Fewer Medical Men in Area Now Than When He Came,
Doctor, 87, Reminds Those Who Want Him to Quit.
By a Staff Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch.
PERRY, Mo. – Dr. John Edward Brown, 86 years old, is short on height, long on experience and after 42 years of continuous practice here is definitely a community mainstay.
Somewhat hard of hearing but otherwise in perfect health, he answers calls night or day in his automobile which he wheels over gravel roads with all the aplomb of a test driver on a race track.
It is nothing, fellow townspeople point out, for him to start out at midnight. A relative of a patient remarked, “It sure is wonderful to know that if Dr. Brown isn’t already out treating somebody, he will come at once.”
Great Need Now.
Apparently the thought of slowing up or retiring has never entered the physician’s mind. To those who broach this point, he mentions a very disconcerting fact. Currently there is more need for him than when he arrived in town in November, 1911, at the request of a fellow practitioner unable to keep up with country work.
The reason is that as far as Dr. Brown knows the nearby towns of Santa Fe, Florida (birthplace of Mark Twain), Madisonville, and Victor now do not have resident medical men. The Perry doctor makes calls at all of them. But when he was new in town, he says they all had doctors.
Even so, he made plenty of calls on horseback and with a buggy, which was standard practice in those mud road days. “It is better with an automobile, which I have used since 1913,” he sometimes says, adding that “I could not take the rugged life now like I used to.”
Never Seriously Ill.
The rugged life meant no physical impairment because it is a source of much pride to him that he has never been seriously ill in his life. Unlike some of his contemporaries throughout the state, he does not have a set speech of explanation. In response to persistent prodding he finally mentioned that he never used tobacco or liquor, but was unwilling to draw any moral from the abstinence.
Born in Audrain county south of Vandalia on Nov. 1, 1866, Dr. Brown grew up in the area. For four years he worked in Laddonia as a store clerk and one recollection he has of those times is that he could have smoked cigars for nothing if he had been interested in smoking.
To finish his medical education, he went to the Hospital College of Medicine of Central University, Louisville, for the same reason that must have attracted many other alumni of the school still practicing in Missouri. The term started in January. Because of this he could put in and harvest a full corn crop to secure money to help pay for his education.
Sold Life Insurance.
In this period he almost became a life insurance salesman. He was selling policies from June to January for a Laddonia agent and doing so well he remarked to his employer that he thought he would drop further studies for the selling game. The boss said firmly he would fire him the minute he did, so Dr. Brown trundled on back to Louisville and graduated in 1895.
He started practice at Kampsville, Ill., which had no doctor at the time, later going to Farber and Florida before finally settling here. His wife and son both are dead. Miss Maggie Vendeventer, his wife’s sister, keeps house for him at the spacious frame residence near the center of this Ralls county town of 813 population.
In keeping with the tradition of most veteran country doctors, he has no idea of how many babies he has delivered. He’s certain he has not lost his touch and proudly related that he had just delivered twin boys.
Honored at Hannibal.
Only formal honor Dr. Brown can recall came last September at Hannibal when he was one of four doctors honored for more than 50 years of service. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church where he served on the committee that directed erection of a new building in 1922.
One thing that has impressed him throughout the years is advancements in the control of epidemics. “It’s wonderful that we don’t have typhoid fever, whooping cough and related disease like we used to.”
In making his calls, Dr. Brown strides briskly from the Perry State Bank building where he has an office on the second floor. He remembers that he had to wait several months to get in the building while it was being completed 42 years ago.
It never seems to occur to anyone in town that at the age of 86, Dr. John Edward Brown might be taking things a little easier. Out of the wholesome respect and great admiration springs the sentiment hoping he will be around forever.
[Note: MO death certificate lists his death date as 19 January 1958.]
From Ralls County Historical Society:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thursday, May 7, 1953, Page 5A
Physician at Perry for 42 Years Refuses to Consider Retirement
Fewer Medical Men in Area Now Than When He Came,
Doctor, 87, Reminds Those Who Want Him to Quit.
By a Staff Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch.
PERRY, Mo. – Dr. John Edward Brown, 86 years old, is short on height, long on experience and after 42 years of continuous practice here is definitely a community mainstay.
Somewhat hard of hearing but otherwise in perfect health, he answers calls night or day in his automobile which he wheels over gravel roads with all the aplomb of a test driver on a race track.
It is nothing, fellow townspeople point out, for him to start out at midnight. A relative of a patient remarked, “It sure is wonderful to know that if Dr. Brown isn’t already out treating somebody, he will come at once.”
Great Need Now.
Apparently the thought of slowing up or retiring has never entered the physician’s mind. To those who broach this point, he mentions a very disconcerting fact. Currently there is more need for him than when he arrived in town in November, 1911, at the request of a fellow practitioner unable to keep up with country work.
The reason is that as far as Dr. Brown knows the nearby towns of Santa Fe, Florida (birthplace of Mark Twain), Madisonville, and Victor now do not have resident medical men. The Perry doctor makes calls at all of them. But when he was new in town, he says they all had doctors.
Even so, he made plenty of calls on horseback and with a buggy, which was standard practice in those mud road days. “It is better with an automobile, which I have used since 1913,” he sometimes says, adding that “I could not take the rugged life now like I used to.”
Never Seriously Ill.
The rugged life meant no physical impairment because it is a source of much pride to him that he has never been seriously ill in his life. Unlike some of his contemporaries throughout the state, he does not have a set speech of explanation. In response to persistent prodding he finally mentioned that he never used tobacco or liquor, but was unwilling to draw any moral from the abstinence.
Born in Audrain county south of Vandalia on Nov. 1, 1866, Dr. Brown grew up in the area. For four years he worked in Laddonia as a store clerk and one recollection he has of those times is that he could have smoked cigars for nothing if he had been interested in smoking.
To finish his medical education, he went to the Hospital College of Medicine of Central University, Louisville, for the same reason that must have attracted many other alumni of the school still practicing in Missouri. The term started in January. Because of this he could put in and harvest a full corn crop to secure money to help pay for his education.
Sold Life Insurance.
In this period he almost became a life insurance salesman. He was selling policies from June to January for a Laddonia agent and doing so well he remarked to his employer that he thought he would drop further studies for the selling game. The boss said firmly he would fire him the minute he did, so Dr. Brown trundled on back to Louisville and graduated in 1895.
He started practice at Kampsville, Ill., which had no doctor at the time, later going to Farber and Florida before finally settling here. His wife and son both are dead. Miss Maggie Vendeventer, his wife’s sister, keeps house for him at the spacious frame residence near the center of this Ralls county town of 813 population.
In keeping with the tradition of most veteran country doctors, he has no idea of how many babies he has delivered. He’s certain he has not lost his touch and proudly related that he had just delivered twin boys.
Honored at Hannibal.
Only formal honor Dr. Brown can recall came last September at Hannibal when he was one of four doctors honored for more than 50 years of service. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church where he served on the committee that directed erection of a new building in 1922.
One thing that has impressed him throughout the years is advancements in the control of epidemics. “It’s wonderful that we don’t have typhoid fever, whooping cough and related disease like we used to.”
In making his calls, Dr. Brown strides briskly from the Perry State Bank building where he has an office on the second floor. He remembers that he had to wait several months to get in the building while it was being completed 42 years ago.
It never seems to occur to anyone in town that at the age of 86, Dr. John Edward Brown might be taking things a little easier. Out of the wholesome respect and great admiration springs the sentiment hoping he will be around forever.
[Note: MO death certificate lists his death date as 19 January 1958.]
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