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Monday, April 23, 2018
Texas History Minute Dr. Gideon Lincecum is not one of the more famous names of Texas History, but he witnessed many important events in his time and his work in Dr. Ken medicine touched Bridges many lives. His works, later published, became some of the first in-depth written works on the Choctaws.
more scientific approach to research and treatment. He took an expedition to Texas in 1835. It was engaging and insightful trek, and he learned much of the varieties of plant life available on the prairies. He journeyed from San Augustine to San Antonio and as far north as what is now Falls County. He steadily cataloged the wildlife and plant life of Texas.
His expedition was just as the Texas Revolution was brewing. Though he was as controversial By late February 1836, he was for his ideas in his own time as he exploring along the Brazos River is among modern scholars, near San Felipe as Captain Lincecum lived a life of adventure Moseley Baker began organizing and discovery. troops for the defense of the settlement. Lincecum signed up to Gideon Lincecum was born into a volunteer, but old friends from farming family in eastern Georgia Alabama and Georgia at the scene in 1793. As a child, he lived near argued it was too risky given his a Creek settlement, and he learned large family back in Mississippi, the Creek language and culture, an though Baker was anxious to build experience that guided him for up numbers and include a doctor in many years. Lincecum had little his ranks. He was struck from the formal education, as very little was rolls and returned home. to be had. His only education was at age 14 in a one-room Lincecum returned to Texas in schoolhouse, Though he admitted 1848, settling on an 1,800-acre some embarrassment by sitting in tract he claimed in Washington a group that included seven-year- County in 1835. He set up a olds who could read and write successful medical practice and perfectly, he nevertheless mastered continued studying the local his literacy skills within the fiveenvironment. He published a month term. history of the Choctaws that drew praise in 1861. With a curious mind eager to absorb knowledge, he made the Lincecum enjoyed corresponding world his classroom and left home with many different scientists and at 15. He soon found work as an thinkers of the time. He assistant to a merchant where he communicated regularly with the also claimed to meet the famed scholars at the Smithsonian early American writer Parson Institution and the Philadelphia Mason Weems as he helped sell Academy of Natural Sciences, who some of the writer’s books. rewarded his samples and research notes with the latest scientific texts Eventually, Lincecum married, and equipment for his research. and the couple had 13 children He had several essays and together. He arrived with his scientific papers published in noted family in what is now Lowndes journals. Lincecum also County, Mississippi, in 1821. He exchanged several friendly letters co-founded the city of Columbus, with naturalist Charles served as the first postmaster, and Darwin. co-founded the first free public school in Mississippi, the Franklin In 1868, he decided on a new School. Though he never had the adventure, moving with his family opportunity himself, he made sure to a community in Mexico founded that others would. by Confederate refugees. Once again, he studied the wildlife and After a prolonged illness in the fauna while also learning about the 1820s, he began reading medical tribes of the area and exploring the textbooks with a nearby doctor, an ruins of long-abandoned Native apprenticeship of sorts. He soon American communities. After five began practicing on his own as it years, he returned to Texas, writing was possible to become a doctor his memoirs along the way. He without attending medical school died in 1874. at that time. His works has caught the attention Medicine was still in a very of scholars since his time. primitive stage, and Lincecum Mississippi historians re-published developed a great frustration with his autobiography and his works the medicines often prescribed at on the Choctaws in the early that time, which included different 1900s. The University of Texas acids, arsenic, and strychnine. He also boasts the Gideon Lincecum lived with the Choctaws for a Herbarium, a collection of more time, learning their culture and than 300 specimens of medicinal history while studying the herbal plants from his collection. In cures their own healers had used 1994, one of his descendants, Prof. for generations. He soon mastered Jerry Lincecum, now an emeritus the many medical treatments and professor of English at Austin folk remedies that the Chickasaws, College in Sherman, published Choctaws, and Creeks used for a Lincecum’s notes and journals in variety of ailments which further Adventures of a Frontier spurred his interest in local plant Naturalist. life. As the nineteenth century progressed, there was an Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, increasing division in American writer, and history professor. He medicine between those who can be reached at believed in the value of folk herbal remedies and those moving to a drkenbridges@gmail.com.
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