Medical Resources in Early San Juan

By Janet Wilcox
Contributing Writer

With modern hospitals and clinics in both Grand and San Juan County today, it’s hard to imagine what life must have been like in the 1850’s when medical help was both distant and rustic.  For many years the nearest towns with hospitals or medical facilities were either Moab or Cortez 80 miles away. Amazingly, people did survive, thanks to help often provided by midwives and a few rare doctors.  
Amy Black Carroll was one of several midwives who helped deliver babies in the early days.  To learn those skills, she traveled from Mexico to Salt Lake City where she remained for six months receiving instruction in midwife training.   Her mother, Sarah Marinda, had been a midwife in Mexico and her example provided Amy with early midwifery instruction. When Amy first came to Blanding, her brother, Benjamin D. Black, asked her to take the responsibility for delivering babies in the community. He was Blandings first and only doctor at the time. Deliveries often happened at inconvenient times and usually entailed saddling up a horse and making sure everything you needed was in your bag. (1)   
Myrtle Palmer was another midwife in Blanding in the early days of its settlement. She also came from Mexico and served for a time in Bluff as midwife before moving to Blanding in 1918 where she lived in a tent. 
Jody Wood was called by Bishop Jens Nielson to serve as a midwife and nurse in Bluff.  She was set apart by the laying on of hands and given a blessing to help her with her duties.  When she was first called, her response was, “I am as green as a cucumber and don’t even know how babies are born.” She was promised, however, that she would never lose a baby or a mother in delivery and she never did.  One dramatic example of spiritual help also involved Jody.   She was delivering a baby who had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.  From behind her she heard a voice telling her what to do and she was able to save the child. (2)   
Stan Bronson wrote a song about Aunt Jody which many may remember.  It was called Aunt Jody’s Hands:  
“Called by God to comfort those in need.  Aunt Jody’s hands are sure to bring relief.   And it always seems to bring a brighter day.  Whene’er I hear Aunt Jody pray.  When I was ill, they said I might pass on.  Aunt Jody’s hands were gentle, yet so strong.  She lifted me up to a will to live.   She gave me all she had to give.  
Chorus: She brings the touch of Heavenly Mother’s Love.  Gifts of peace and hope from God above.  She won’t rest ‘til she’s given all she can,  Gift of Life; Aunt Jody’s hands.”   
Corry Jones recalled: “When I went to Stan’s home and we talked about our song interview; he said that writing Aunt Jody’s song came more naturally than any other song he had ever written.  He said the words of the song we hear today were on paper just as quickly as he could write them, without ever having to erase even one word or stop and consider the song’s next line.  It was the first song he had ever written specifically about a pioneer woman.”    
The methods used by each midwife depended primarily on their own personal preference and that of the patient.  Neither Amy or Jody used formal medicine, since the few known medicines were primitive and the effects unknown in their time.  Myrtle also believed in natural childbirth as much as possible, but she did not hesitate to use chloroform when the pain was too much to bear.  The procedures of delivery were also different for each midwife.  A few women had their husbands cut bed blocks to make the bed higher so the midwife did have to stoop as much.  Boiling water was used to sterilize everything used in the delivery and most midwives carried a “little black bag” filled with tools and instruments used in delivery.  The basic items included sterilized string and scissors for cutting the umbilical cord, a pair of tweezers and lots of gauze and absorbent cotton. 
Emma Jane Stevens Nielson married at 16 and after her second baby was born, she went to Salt Lake City in about 1890, to take a course in midwifery.  Later a family traveling through Bluff asked to take Emma with them to Mexico to care for a very sick lady.  It was there that Emma began her midwifery work and gained valuable experience. 
The payment of services rendered was not much compared with the amount of work put in by the midwife, $10 for 10 days of service was what Amy Carroll asked of her patients.  Emma Nielson asked $35 for her services for the delivery and for 10 days of care. Cash was not plentiful in the small communities of Bluff and Blanding, so families paid what they could.  Wool as sometimes given for payment. (Amy carded it and made quilt bats.)  Sometimes fruit and vegetables were given.   
Posey came late one night to Emma Nielson for help when his wife developed complications in a delivery.  She rode with Posey on his horse to Westwater, clutching her black bag of tools and medicine.  After a successful delivery, she was given a pair of deer horns for payment! 
Besides midwives there were a few men in the early days who also provided medical help.  Ben Redd, a local carpenter and maker of coffins was the emergency dentist in Blanding and Dr. J.W. Williams was a doctor in Moab for many years.  
And if you’re adventurous: Here’s a pioneer recipe for mustard plaster which was used to cure lung problems.  
  3 Tbs. mustard, 12 T. flour, 3 Tbs. soda
Mix with a little warm water and spread on a thin cloth.   Fold in the edges and put a cloth on top and back and chest wall up on the throat.  Cover with wool cloth or flannel and let stay until skin turns pink.  Take off and rub with camphor oil or Vicks, or Bengay.  Repeat every 4 hours until results are obtained.  Also, very good for pneumonia.  Lila Palmer recipe.