Thomas A. Blaylock, M. D. A pioneer physician and surgeon of the Indian Territory now
included within the limits of the young but great commonwealth of
Oklahoma, whence he came in 1895, Dr. Thomas A. Blaylock, now one of
the leading practitioners of Madill, superintendent of health of
Marshall County since the attainment of statehood, and at this time
president of the Marshall County Medical Society, has passed through
many interesting experiences and has borne his full part in the
development of the state. He was born at Springfield, Illinois, in
1869, and is a son of Rev. John Henry and Elizabeth (Dalton)
Blaylock. His father, a minister of the Baptist Church, was a native
of Georgia, as was
also his mother, and both descended from pioneer settlers of the
Cracker State.
Doctor Blaylock was
educated in the public schools of Illinois, the Belleville Academy
and the Marion Sims Medical College of St. Louis, which latter was
the medical department of the University of St. Louis. He was
graduated from this institution with his degree in 1892, following
which he spent one year as intern in the St. Louis Hospital and
several years in private practice, and in 1895 removed to Indian
Territory to begin permanently the practice of medicine. After
spending a few years at Fort Arbuckle, Davis and Springer, in 1902 he
settled at Madill, then one of the growing new towns of the Chickasaw
Nation, and where he remained until statehood was granted, when he
took up his present residence at Madill. While a number of years were
devoted to rural practice largely, Doctor Blaylock never forgot to
keep abreast of the times in his profession and took post graduate
courses at Philadelphia, New York, New Orleans and Chicago. An
interesting point in his career in the Indian country is that he
entered upon the practice at Davis of Dr. T. P. Howell, one of the
best known early-day physicians of the territory, who was then
retiring from practice. Doctor Blaylock has built up at Madill a
large and important professional business, and is a member of the
Marshall County Medical Society, of which he is president, the
Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
At the time of statehood his abilities gained him the appointment to
the office of superintendent of health of Marshall County, and this
position he has retained to the present time.
Doctor Blaylock was
married at Davis, Indian Territory, to Miss Nannie Shrum, and
they have one son: Jennings, who is now sixteen years of age. Doctor
Blaylock is a Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge at Madill, the
Consistory at McAlester and the Shrine at Muskogee. He has numerous
friends and influential connections in professional, business and
social life, and is known as one of Madill’s most useful, stirring
and public-spirited citizens.
The life of the
pioneer physician of the Indian Territory was fraught with many
hardships and not infrequent dangers. In the region surrounding Fort
Washita, a historic spot near the present Town of Davis, there lived
many men with a predominancy of the primitive in them. There were
cattle and horse thieves, bank and train robbers and murderers, and
until a few years before Doctor Blaylock’s arrival the community had
been occupied by United States troops. Even the most peaceably
inclined people found it necessary to engage in fights occasionally,
and the physicians of those early days had more recourse to surgery
than to the administration of medicine. Among the many experiences of
Doctor Blaylock, an incident of peculiar interest may be presented. A
strapping fellow, booted and spurred, and mounted on a fine horse,
stopped at Doctor Blaylock’s gate one day and informed the young
physician that a comrade was sick in the mountains eighteen miles
away and that the services of a doctor were needed. Roads were few,
and those few were in poor condition, and it was necessary to travel
on horseback. Drug stores of course there were none; prescription
clerks were persons to be read of only in books; the doctor of that
day carried his own stock of medicines, generally, as did Doctor
Blaylock, in a large black bag. The doctor started off with his
companion and entered an unfrequented region of the Arbuckle
Mountains; roads gave out and only rough paths indicated routes
toward human habitations. It was early in the day when the journey
began and half midday when the two entered a wild canyon hid far
back in the hills. They stopped at a cabin that once had been the
home of an Indian and near which stood a recently pitched tent, and
the doctor’s companion led the way into the cabin and pointed out the
sick man, who was lying on a couch. After making an examination,
diagnosing the case and administering curative medicine, the doctor
pushed back from the couch and while awaiting developments observed
that the cabin was inhabited only by men. All were of the type of the
messenger and he noticed that all were armed. After a time he gave
the patient more medicine and announced that his services were no
longer required for the day. When, however, he put on his hat,
shouldered his “pill bag” and started to leave, he was
blocked at the passage by a man who coolly informed him that he must
remain there the rest of the day. “And when you do go,”
said the man, “it must be on condition that you keep your mouth
shut. Can you do it?” The doctor replied that nothing could
unseal his lips. He took a seat and remained in the house during the
day, during which he took stock of his surroundings. There were
several kinds of arms on the walls and floor and much ammunition.
Several of the men came and went many times during the day, but the
doctor noticed that one man, Winchester rifle in hand, stood or sat
on guard on a big boulder near the mouth of the canyon. The men were
neatly dressed and spoke excellent English, as though they had been
reared in a more advanced section of the country, but although Doctor
Blaylock many times sought to engage them in conversation, they only
listened to what he had to say, laughed a
lot at his pleasantries, and kept silent regarding themselves. Toward
sundown the promise of silence was again enforced, the doctor was led
back into a highway, and he rode home under the stars; but although
his mind was filled with many strange thoughts, it was not until many
weeks later that he suddenly realized that during that day he had
been the guest of one of the most notorious gangs of outlaws in the
Southwest–the Dalton band!