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The Paris Independent
January 27, 2024
L O C A L H I S TO RY PARIS’ FIRST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM - THE COUNTRY DOCTOR Right: “The Country Doctor” Painting, by Paul Wickson, shows Dr. Burt responding to a call in his cutter. All information on this page is taken from “At the Forks of the Grand Vol. II by D.A. Smith and the History of Brant County (1884).
Starting in 1834, long before the coming of the automobile, the physicians of Paris were known as “country doctors” because they spent a large part of their time riding through the countryside on or behind a horse. The earliest doctors, such as McCosh, Cooke, Dickson, and Clarke, usually rode on horse-back as they only had time to answer the door, saddle up and go! The later doctors from around 1910 onward, such as Burt and Sinclair, would be summoned by telephone and usually rode in buggies, cutters and sleighs on rough country roads full of rocks, ruts and quagmires. Dr. Robert McCosh was the very first physician to practice in Paris. Upon Graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1831, he came to Upper Canada (Ontario), and in 1834, settled here. He was bluff, plain-spoken, kind-hearted specimen of the old time Scottish doctor, and his practice extended to a radius of many miles in the adjacent townships. Beginning in 1850, he was also the editor of the Paris Star newspaper for 2 or 3 years. Dr. Silas W. Cooke was born in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1817. He got his diploma in New York before coming to Paris, to practice medicine.
He obtained his provincial license to practice medicine in Ontario in 1843. His brother moved to Canada at the same time and had a medical practice in Norwich, Ontario. Dr. Cooke died on April 28, 1884, at his home in Paris. His only son, John, was a doctor in the state of New York.
Brooklyn Hospital in New York during the summer of 1869. Dr. Burt came to Paris, Ontario to start his medical practice in June 1872. Besides being a practicing physician, he was also president of the Ontario Medical Association, chairman of the Paris Board of Education, and president of the Paris Children’s Aid Dr. James W. R. Dickson born in Society for several years. William England on July 3, 1815. He Burt died on March 14, 1919, in emigrated to Brant County with his Paris. family in 1837. He had taken a course in medicine in Edinburgh and Dr. Archibald James Sinclair was obtained his diploma the year before born near St. Thomas in Elgin he came to Canada. Dr. Dickson County, Ontario and received his stayed in Woodstock until 1848 when medical degree from Trinity College he moved to Paris, where he in 1875. He had taught school for practiced medicine for more than several years before studying thirty years. James Dickson died on medicine in Dr. McLarty’s office in December 29, 1890, in Paris. St. Thomas. Dr. Sinclair started his medical practice in Paris the same Dr. William Clarke was born in year that he graduated. He was also 1827 in Chatham, New Brunswick. the Grand Trunk Railway surgeon in He obtained his provincial license to Paris for twenty-five years and the practice medicine in Ontario in 1860. medical attendant at the Ontario Dr. Clarke died on November 11, School for the Blind in Brantford for 1897, in Bracebridge, Ontario many years. Dr. Sinclair was (Brantford Weekly Expositor, appointed as the collector of customs November 18, 1897, p. 12) and is at Paris in 1904 but resigned after buried in the Paris Cemetery. four years due to health issues Dr. William Burt was born on resulting from an earlier bicycle March 24, 1849, in South Dumfries accident. He had been a resident of Township in Brant County. He Paris for thirty-six years when he studied at the Toronto University and died on March 22, 1914. He is buried in St. Thomas. took a post-graduate course at the
