AN ADDITIONAL NOTE ON SOME EARLY OREGON PHYSICIANS
By O. Larsell
In an article entitled, "Fairfield Medical School and Some Early Oregon Physicians," published in the June, 1936, number of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, the writer stated that H. H. Spalding, who came to old Oregon in 1836, attended Fairfield. This is apparently incorrect. Dr. C. M. Drury, in his recent biography of Spalding, quotes from a letter dated Prattsburg, New York, August 31, 1835, Spalding's proposal to "attend to the study of medicine as much as possible with a physician in this place,"[1] while waiting for a more propitious time to leave for the mission field. In a subsequent letter dated from Holland Patent, New York, Spalding writes:[2] "I have put in my time principally in the study of medicine & shall to the best advantage while I remaine. I shall wish to take some $30 or $40 for medicines." He lived, during the winter of 1835-36, within a few miles of the Fairfield Medical School, but no actual record has come to light that he attended lectures there. This was after he had left Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati. Dr. Drury, who called my attention to the error regarding Spalding's attendance at Fairfield, suggests[3] that during his course at Lane he may have attended medical lectures in Cincinnati, where there existed a medical school at this time. No evidence has come to light that Spalding did so, but it is quite possible and in keeping with the practice of the time.
Whether Spalding continued his studies with the physician at Prattsburg, as he planned, according to the letter cited above, or attached himself to one at Holland Patent or other neighboring town is not clear. It is evident, however, that he studied medicine during the winter before he left with Whitman for the northwest. After he established his station on the Clearwater,
