It is rather fitting to write about Dr. J.R. Trotter in my last column about Mancos doctors. He was the doctor here for the generation before me and for my generation.
Trotter came to Mancos in the spring of 1903. He set up an office on north Main Street across the street from where the Mancos Valley Bank is located. He is said to have come into town in a beautiful buggy pulled by a big black horse, but more than likely he came in by train and unloaded the horse and buggy at the depot.
Not long after he had set up office, Trotter left town and came back with his petite wife, Joyce. She was dressed fashionably clothes, and it was all capped off with a big red hat.
Trotter was present for my mother's birth, at the home of my great-grandmother, Lavina Hammond, the only great-grandparent I knew while growing up. In those days, a woman gave birth at home and stayed in bed for 10 days after a baby was delivered.
My Decker grandfather was sick with the flu of 1918, and it was claimed he would have died had it not been for the attention he received from Trotter. My Decker grandmother had three operations and four children, so Trotter was considered not only the family doctor but also a close friend and helper.
In 1919, Trotter purchased the tall and expansive George Bauer house. He converted it into a hospital with a few rooms for a residence. He used nine rooms for his hospital and hired trained nurses. The first patient there was Platt Hammond, my mother's uncle, who had fallen and had a broken arm. Trotter came to my parent's house in July of 1934 to assist in the delivery of a baby my parents named Darrel. Trotter also came through the mud and snow three years later in the middle of March to deliver my brother Jede. I'm sure there are a good number of stories that arose because Trotter assisted a family in one way or another.
While Trotter was performing an operation, he had a glove on that had a small tear. He also had a scratch where the tear was, and infection set in. His arm became badly infected, and he had it amputated. Nonetheless, he was soon out making house calls and delivering babies. He delivered me and my brother with one arm.
After practicing medicine in Mancos for 50 years, Trotter passed away in February 1953. Known to even more of us was his son, Walter "Doc' Trotter, who passed away in 1989.
Darrel Ellis is a historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at dnrls@q.com.