City Directories and History: “During the early years at Liberty Hill was there adoctor to take care of the families physical needs? The answer is “Yes”. Although records are brief in some cases, it appears that Liberty Hill was blessed with faithful doctors during the early 1800s and into the turn of the next century. The first to serve the little community was Dr. T. P. Bush. He was known to be an early resident at Liberty Hill, during the time that Peter Garlick had the first store, this being around 1813. Dr. Bush was a young man when he came to Liberty Hill and was considered a good physician.
Note: Daniel Pomeroy Bush, MD (1795-1873) is buried in the Liberty Hill Presbyterian Cemetery. Could it be that Dr. T P. Bush and Dr. Daniel Pomeroy Bush are one and the same? Dr. Pomeroy Bush had an office in the basement of the John Brown home. (2) Dr. Wiley J. McKain (born approx. 1815) a graduate of South Carolina Medical College for a time practiced medicine in Liberty Hill and Lancaster County. He then moved to Camden. From advertisements in local papers in 1848 Dr. McKain and Dr. Charles John Shannon (1826-1876) established the Infirmary for Chronic Diseases in Camden. It was in existence a very short time for at that period there was strong opposition against hospitals. (3) There is very little information to be found regarding Dr.
Willie (William W.) Patterson who was born at Liberty Hill. At one time when he practiced medicine his father, Wyatt Patterson, built an office for him. It was located on the south side of the Patterson home. This building was similar to the Little Office built in 1847 for Dr. Robert Johnson. (4) Dr. William W. Patterson is buried in the Liberty Hill Presbyterian Cemetery. He served in the Confederate Army as a 2nd Lieut., Company G. 2nd. SC Inf. CSA. He was wounded at Sharpsburg and surrendered at Greensboro. (5)
Dr. Robert B. Johnson {1825 – 1914) attended Charleston Medical College and graduated in 1847. His father William E. Johnson lived at Liberty Hill and in 1847 or 1848 built an office for his son. This was a small one room building, being only 20 feet long and 15 feet wide. It was heated by a fireplace at one end. This building still standing today is known as The Little Office. (6) Dr. Robert Johnson practiced at Liberty Hill about five years then he moved to Camden and served as a prominent physician until the out break of the Civil War. After the war Dr. Johnson moved to Mississippi. He returned to Camden in 1909, where he died in 1914. (7)
Dr. Thomas F. (Franklin) McDow (2/20/1821 – 11/14/1884) married Isabella Louisa Cunningham (5/11/1834 – 7/31/1896). Until their house was completed in 1856 they lived in the old Logan house located about a half mile back of the Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church. (8) Dr. McDow was a surgeon in the Confederate Anny. A few years after his return to Liberty Hill he sold his home in Liberty Hill and moved to a large house built by Thomas Ballard, located a few miles north of Liberty Hill in Lancaster County. Dr. Tom McDow continued to practice medicine, traveling on horseback and carrying his medicine and supplies in the saddle bags. (9) At one time Dr. McDow was Vice-President of the Medical Association of South Carolina. (10)
Dr. J. Walker Floyd, Jr. (1874 – 1915) was born at Liberty Hill. He was the son of Joseph W. Floyd and Harriet Pettit Floyd who settled at Liberty Hill after the Civil War. Dr. J. Walker Floyd attended Ruffordton College for two years where he received his preparatory education and spent one year at the Medical College of Charleston. He left college in 1898 to volunteer for the Spanish American War, where he served as a Hospital Steward in the First Brigade while in Cuba. (11) Upon return home after the war Dr. Floyd resumed his studies at the Medical College at Charleston and graduated in medicine with distinction in the class of 1902. He practiced one year in his home town of Liberty Hill using “The Little Office” as his office. In 1903 Dr. Floyd moved to Green Sea, SC and then to Tabor, NC in 1906. He enjoyed a wide practice until his sudden death on June 3,1915 at the early age of 41. Besides his medical profession Dr. Floyd was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the city schools, a banker, a druggist and farmer; he was very influential in the affairs of his home town of Tabor, NC. Dr. J. Walker Floyd is buried in the Liberty Hill Presbyterian Cemetery beside his wife Rebecca Cunningham Floyd and his parents. (12)
Dr. James Prioleau Richards (8/18/1861 – 1/12/1902) born at Liberty Hill was only about three and half years old when Sherman’s army passed through Liberty Hill. He had memories of the hardships suffered by the families after the war. Before going to the Medical College in Charleston Prioleau Richards taught school to help pay for his education. After graduation he came home to practice medicine and farm in his native village. (13) Dr. Richards was considered an excellent doctor by his patients, some of whom were his aunts and cousins. One Aunt even named her first son for him. Dr. Prioleau Richards’ oldest daughter Mrs. Annie Richards Heriot, now 104 years old, told that her father’s office was a small brick building located in the side yard, west of their house. This small room was built over a cellar. It was here Dr. Richards prepared and
mixed the medicines for his patients. In one comer of the small room was a ladder which led down to the cellar, or dry well below. In the summer the children were allowed to go down and bring up watermelons, which were stored there. (14)
Dr. Prioieau Richards practiced medicine for a number of years but later decided to give up his practice and turned to farming. At one time he was the mail carrier and Assistant Postmaster. Dr. Richards died in 1902 at his home, after fighting a fire on the house roof the day before. He left a wife, Caroline Jones Richards, with five daughters and four sons. His last son James Prioieau Richards, Jr. was born a week after his father’s death. (15)
After Dr. Prioieau Richards’ death Liberty Hill citizens depended on Dr. W. S. Moore who lived in Heath Springs thirteen miles away. When someone was taken sick the order of the day was “send for Dr. Moore” or take the sick person to the doctor. Only one or two families at Liberty Hill owned a car so a neighbor was called on to either go for the doctor or take the patient to him. Dr. Moore’s fee was $2.50 for a visit. Dr. Moore died in 1941. As the years passed by more families had their own cars and also the roads were improved, with new ones being built. It was then the Liberty Hill people started going to doctors located in Lancaster, Camden and Great Falls.” (This information is courtesy of Long Ago At Liberty Hill by Mary Ellen Cunningham, 1997 – Midlands Printing Company)
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