One of the earliest midwives in the Mancos Valley was Hannah Perkins Ellis, who was known far and wide as Aunt Hannah.
One of her sons was my grandfather, and a daughter, Mary Jane, married James Smith, and they lived about five miles down Webber canyon.
Her daughter Ruth married Albert Wagner and they had a son, Herman Wagner who married Abbie Jane Exon.
Hannah would often be away from home for a week or more and her pay was chickens, butter, a pig or whatever a family might have. Her special cures included rubbing a sty on the eye with a gold ring and curing warts by rubbing them with a cut potato and planting the potato.
The first doctor to appear in the valley was Dr. Newton G. Field, who came in 1879.
He lived north of town close to the Joe Moore Reservoir. His office was in a house north of the school grounds.
In May 1896, he was thrown from a horse and fatally injured. He died five days later.
He had two sons and two daughters.
One of the daughters, Anna, married Wylie Graybeal, who died in May 1898 when he was thrown off his wagon and it struck him in the back of the head and broke his neck.
Dr. Seabury came to Mancos in 1893 to care for his mother after his father's death.
He set up his offices on West Grand but in 1896 he sold his household goods and moved to Buena Vista, Colo.
Dr. George Davis set up his dental office on South Main in 1893.
His building burned to the ground in March 1894. Everything was destroyed but a bag of dental tools he had packed for his monthly trip to Cortez.
In January 1895, he moved into a new building on North Main.
Dr. D.B. Shaut set up his office in a building north of the school grounds in 1894.
He was the coroner when a miner was shot to death by his boss with a double-barreled shotgun. (I'm hoping I can soon complete that story.)
In the summer of 1900, Dr. Wrightsman became associated with Dr. R.G. Werner. They operated what was known as the Mancos City Hospital. In 1901, Dr. Wrightsman gave a series of lectures at the Davis Opera House on the subject of electricity and x-rays. In 1903, he erected a building to be used as a residence and hospital. The building was a three- story stone building with a basement and a wide veranda on the north side. A few years later, he left for Denver where he continued his medical practice.
Dr. Leonard Clark came to Mancos in 1897 from Silverton. He had been the surgeon for the Rio Grande Southern Railroad for a number of years.
Dr. J.R. Trotter came to Mancos in the spring of 1903. In 1919 he purchased the George Bauer House and converted it into a residence and hospital. He died in 1953 after a long illness having practiced medicine in Mancos for 50 years. He was the doctor the generation before me and my generation remembers.
Darrel Ellis is a long-time historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at dnrls@q.com.
