City of Sanger - History Article

A Wealth of Physicians for Sanger

Since the establishment of Sanger in 1886, the community was always fortunate for the physicians that served the people of Sanger and surrounding areas.

During the early 1800s, the settlement of Bolivar was a thriving community. It was home to three hotels, several stores, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a saloon, a church, a gin, a flour mill, and a school for the community’s children. Doctors E.L. (Ervin) Howard and George Lain were community physicians serving patients via their horses throughout the night as needed by seriously ill residents.

The Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad built their tracks in Purcell, Oklahoma; thus, a station was established in Sanger as a water stop for the steam engines. The cattle owners began herding the cattle into Sanger to ride the rails to market, and thus the town of Sanger was officially established in 1886. The town began to grow with the businesses needed for these cattle drivers. F.M. Ready opened a hotel, became postmaster, and the two physicians of Bolivar moved to the newly developing town.

Dr. Ervin L. Howard was the first physician to relocate to Sanger from the Bolivar community. Dr. Howard lived in Pope County, Arkansas, enlisted in the war, and fought in Pea Ridge’s Battle in 1862. After the war ended, the doctor and his wife came to Texas as many veterans did. After the establishment of Sanger, Howard built a new home at the corner of Bolivar and Fifth Street. Dr. Howard

died in 1897 and is buried at the Bolivar Cemetery.

Dr. George D. Lain moved from Bolivar to Sanger in 1900 after practicing in Bolivar since 1892. He attended St. Louis Medical School from 1885-86, returned to Bolivar, and taught school for one year. The doctor was teaching and ministering to the sick in the area but was persuaded to quit the teaching position and focus entirely on the area’s medical needs. Lain also owned the drugstore in Bolivar, and as all pioneer doctors, he rode over the land attending to his patients. Lain and his family moved to Sanger and bought the home of Dr. E. W. H. Shelburne of Sanger, who had been elected to the Texas State Legislature.

There is not much information about Dr. Shelburne and his practice in the area. Lain’s home was just west of the Methodist Church.

In 1910 Sanger had several cases of typhoid fever. Previously there had been 25-30 cases of typhoid, which was attributed to the water supply system. The addition of a new water system corrected this. There was an influenza epidemic in 1918, and the physicians of Sanger spent many hard hours traveling the surrounding areas attending to the ill. During this time, it was reported there were funerals every day for 16 straight days. A surgeon from Denton, Dr. J. M. Inge, came to Sanger for emergencies such as those Sanger encountered, and he worked with Dr. Lain on many of the cases, performing surgeries on kitchen tables. Dr. Lain died in 1926 and left five children, one of which was Mrs. Alma Chambers, who became quite a historian of Sanger’s beginnings. It was reported that Drs. Lain and Howard decided upon moving to Sanger that one would cover the eastern portion of the area and the other would cover anything in the western part.

Dr. Samuel Alexander Gotcher was a native of Garza, Texas, now known as Lake Dallas. He was the son of a doctor and brother of a doctor and came to Sanger in 1897 to practice. Dr. Gotcher was quite prolific in many areas other than as a physician. He began practicing medicine in Bartonville, Texas, in 1895 and moved to Sanger upon his marriage to Willie Sullivan, daughter of Jack Sullivan, pioneer resident of Sanger Dr. Samuel Alexander Gotcher and Denton County. Gotcher graduated from Marion Sims College in St. Louis, Missouri, and later took post-graduate studies at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Gotcher began experimenting with different drugs for a topical application. He developed Numotizine to treat pneumonia, bronchitis, typhoid fever, and other infections. It was a pink paste formulated in Gotcher’s home, which is still in existence at the northwest corner of Fifth and Plum Streets. The drug was also used in the treatment of livestock. This drug was later advertised only for livestock use and was produced in Hobart, Oklahoma. This ointment is still available for purchase. He was very inventive and developed a small piece of equipment for keeping his feet warm while traveling the countryside in the cold winters. He placed coils between two lanterns and connected them with a small hose. Water was passed through the hose from one lantern to the other and was the means of keeping his feet warm.

Dr. Gotcher was also a minister and always carried a bible in the inside pocket of his long, black overcoat. He relocated to Chicago, attended the Moody Bible Institute in 1917, and became an ordained minister. This prolific medicine and the religious man passed away in Chicago in 1922.

Dr. John C. Rice was born in Tennessee and moved to Texas in 1868. He attended school at the Belew School and later Truitt’s Business College. In 1889 he decided to become a physician, graduated from Vanderbilt University, and began practicing medicine in Sanger in 1890. He was the first in Sanger to purchase an automobile. The Rice home was built in 1918 by J.T. Chambers and sold to Dr. Rice three years later. This home is still located in Sanger at the northeast corner of Fifth and Peach Streets. Rice served as a health officer in Sanger and was a member of the Masonic Lodge. He was the local physician for the Santa Fe Railway and was active in Denton County and the Texas Medical Associations. Rice was a charter member of the First Baptist Church and was a deacon. He taught Sunday school throughout his life. Rice practiced medicine in Sanger through 1939, serving almost 50 years in the community. He died in 1948 after 58 years of practicing in Sanger.

Dr. John M. Sullivan began his practice of medicine in Sanger after returning from medical college. He finished with top honors in his graduating class of 1906 and enrolled in Fort Worth University Medical School, later a part of Baylor University Medical School. Sullivan was a dedicated man to the people of Sanger and was known to get out of bed to attend to the sick and was known to have swum the swiftly rising Elm Creek to get to farmhouses where people needed him. He also would spend the night with a family attending to their sick.

Sullivan was born in 1885. He practiced medicine for 47 years in Sanger and was very civic-minded. He was a member of the Methodist Church, Masonic Lodge, Denton County, and Texas Medical Associations. He was a charter member of the Lions Club of Sanger. It was estimated Sullivan delivered about 3,500 babies but claimed this was a conservative estimate. Dr. Sullivan’s son, John L. Sullivan, became a prominent attorney in Denton and was the City Attorney for Sanger for many years. His office was located in the back of the Palace Drugstore, owned by Buck Bailey, later becoming Lillian’s Drugstore. He passed away in 1982.

A large population still remembers Dr. J. Clyde Chapman of Sanger today. Chapman was born in Gainesville in 1914 and attended pre-med at the University of Texas, and transferred to Baylor University School of Medicine. He graduated from medical school in 1937 in Kirksville, Missouri. He practiced medicine in Clovis, New Mexico, where he met his wife, Frances Littleton. Upon moving to Sanger, he operated in the back of Pansy Freeman’s Drugstore as the drugstore was a gathering place and would stay open until 11:30 p.m. to midnight, and the doctor would stay until close. He later opened a small clinic on Bolivar Street near the railroad tracks. In 1962 Chapman, Harold Easley, and Gene Hughes built the Sanger Manor Nursing Home, and he moved his offices to this facility. He donated the small clinic building to operate Sanger’s first library.

If Dr. Chapman ever treated you, you may remember the throat swab that was instrumental in treating nearly every ailment. This throat swab medicine was a formula he developed, and the resident pharmacists of Sanger over the years had the formula and mixed it for his practice.

Penicillin shots were in abundance during these early years of practice. It was the wonder drug of the times. In an article for the Denton Record-Chronicle, Chapman reminisced that he saw between 35 and 60 patients a day. When he began his practice in Sanger, the country was coming out of the Great Depression, and money was scarce. Doctors were often paid in goods, produce, and meat and once received a half-gallon of molasses for delivering a baby.

Dr. Clyde Chapman was a member of the First Baptist Church of Sanger and was a charter member of the Lions Club. In 1956 he was named Outstanding Citizen of Sanger by the Lions Club. The town named the road known as FM 455 within the city limits as Chapman Drive to honor the man that served the citizens of Sanger and surrounding areas. He passed away in 1990 and continued his practice up to his passing.

Sanger, Texas, was most fortunate to have had a wealth of physicians for its citizens. Times have changed, and medicine has become more advanced, but these small-town physicians were instrumental in the community.

Dr. Samuel Alexander Gotcher

Dr. John C. Rice

Dr. John M. Sullivan

Dr. Clyde Chapman