When Doctors made house calls in Valencia County

Doctors are often among the most respected members of a community. Many are appreciated for the babies they have delivered, the emergencies they have handled and the lives they have saved.

Long ago, family doctors were also appreciated for a service they often performed at great cost to their own health and comfort. They were admired for making house calls.

At all hours of the day and night

Imagine having a job in which you work long hours in the day and are still on call when you get home.

Richie Brower, whose father, Dr. Ralph Brower, served the people of Belen for 35 years, says that he does not remember a single evening when his father did not receive a call for help from someone.

One doctor who lived near Belen’s general hospital on North Main Street sometimes appeared at the hospital in his robe and pajamas if there was a nighttime emergency or delivery. Dr. Richard Brubaker was at a formal event when he was called on to deliver a baby. He delivered the baby in his tuxedo.

One doctor in Albuquerque was so tired during a mother’s labor that he fell asleep before the baby was born. Another was so exhausted that when it came time to fill in the baby’s birth certificate, he wrote the family’s street name where the infant’s name was meant to go.

After practicing medicine in Belen for 16 years, Dr. D.T. Wier announced he was moving to Albuquerque in mid-1952 because with so many night calls, “there’s too much work to do around here.” He hoped to open a practice in Albuquerque that would be limited to regular office hours. We doubt if Dr. Wier achieved his goal in a city many times the size of Belen.

Doctors often had to travel long distances over rough terrain, including steep, winding roads, high mountains and deep canyons. Dr. William Wittwer, of Los Lunas, traveled as far east as Torrance County and as far west as Acoma Pueblo.

Dr. Arthur Llewelyn delivered babies in Adelino, Abeytas, Bernardo, Jarales, Las Nutrias, Los Lunas, Peralta and Veguita. Doctors employed by the Santa Fe Railway had to go wherever there were emergencies along the line.

Long before there were GPS and cell phones, doctors often had to be guided to remote locations by physical landmarks. Without these landmarks, the best they could do was to meet a family member at a local general store and proceed from there. Other doctors met their patients’ family members or friends at churches, filling stations and exits off main roads.

Of course, doctors did not need to go long distances to encounter obstacles while enroute to their patients’ homes. Dr. Llewelyn recalled that before the overpass was completed at Reinken Avenue long freight trains often delayed his getting to mothers in labor east of the tracks.

In his words, “Usually the baby got there before I did.”

If fortunate, railroad crews recognized Drs. Llewelyn, Wittwer, William Radcliffe and other doctors who had stopped at railroad crossings when trains blocked their way. The crews often uncoupled and separated freight cars, allowing doctors to pass through in emergencies.

Means of transportation

Early doctors had to rely on horse and buggies to get to their patients, regardless of the distance, road conditions or weather. Dr. Wittwer, who often had to ford the Rio Grande in his horse and buggy, recalled that in the spring “the water was so swift that I sometimes thought the horses would be dragged away” in the current.

Dr. Samuel Wilkinson, who even made house calls while he suffered from tuberculosis, relied on his wife, Gussie Wilkinson, to hitch his horse and buggy so that he would not strain himself and cause hemorrhaging.

Most doctors readily replaced their horse and buggies for automobiles once cars became available in the early 20th century. Although reliable most of the time, cars often broke down, had flat tires or got stuck in the mud, sand or snow.

When Dr. Wilkinson finally acquired a car, he had to rely on his wife who became an expert in changing tires. The doctor, still suffering from TB, could only watch from the side of the road.

Dr. Wittwer bought his first car in 1910 but had to leave it at home if the county’s dirt roads became too muddy. On those occasions, he took out his old buggy and traveled with two teams of horses, changing teams whenever a team grew too tired to go on. Of course, horses also helped to pull out cars stuck in the mud or sand.

Doctors spent so much time on the road with their cars that they often gave their vehicles affectionate nicknames. Dr. William Radcliffe Jr., who had brought his car all the way from Europe, was so fond of his machine that he named it Henriette.

By the 1950s and 1960s, some doctors bought small planes and learned to fly to distant ranches or wherever their patients needed help.

Dr. Richard Brubaker belonged to an organization of doctors who flew missions of mercy, including to isolated, poverty-stricken Indian tribes in Mexico.

(Part 2 of this La Historia will appear in next week’s News-Bulletin.)

(La Historia del Rio Abajo is a regular column about Valencia County history written by members of the Valencia County Historical Society since 1998.

The author appreciates the observations made by Dr. Rick Madden, a much-admired primary care provider in Belen for many years.

Opinions expressed in this and all columns of La Historia del Rio Abajo are the author’s alone and not necessarily those of the Valencia County Historical Society or any other group or individual.)