Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-04-14

the use of the people of the country
side whom the doctor served at the
cost of his comfort and health
While a child, DR.. Wiseman went
with his parents, Mr.. and Mrs. George
Wiseman, to Merriam Park, st. Paul.
After his graduation from Central
high school, he attended the Uni
versity of Minnesota, and on attaining
his degree from the medical college,
he came directly to Pine City and
hung out his shingle. Pine City then
was town of 700 and it had entered
on the transition from a thriving
lumber center to prosperous farm
ing community, the latter state of
prosperity then some years in the flu
ture.
Poor Roads Handicap.
At the time he arrived here, the
country was in the cut-over condition
in which the passing of numbering
had left it. A few decaying, corduroy
logging roads, few cabins of sett-
lers, set in dreary waste.
The doctor was 80 years old then,
built of wire and filled with energy.
He eagerly undertook the practice
which within few years virtually
enslaved him through its appeals to
his conscientiousness regarding his
professional duty. He would not
slight a call whatever the cost to
himself
With him on many of these irksome
missions, w. P. Gottry, present cor
oner, went as guide and driver, fire.
quently providing a team from the
livery of which he was proprietor, to
replace the doctor's/own horses which
had become too jaded for further eff
fort. Over corduroy roads in which
the logs used in their construction
were afloat in water and mud;
through tamarack swamps into which
the horses sank to their bellies, the
two men pushed on to reach some
lonely cabin from which call for the
doctor had been sent. Lives were
saved sometimes, or, it might be,
some simple ailment that had raised
undue fears. To DR.. Wiseman, how
ever, all calls were the same.
Knew He Would Be Loser.
"I know 1 will be the loser on this
trip" he said frequently to Gottry,
''but can't let them suffer-" Often
the circumstances of the one from
whom the call came foretold that
payment could not be expected.
Gottry and the doctor had to stop
many. times on some of those trips to
unhitch the horses and lift the buggy
out of mudholes, and when the snow
was heavy, they were forced some
times to break way ahead through
which to lead the horses.
Gottry's son, Frank, editor of the
Pine County Pioneer, drove Dr. Wise
man on one trip to answer a call
when the doctor became ill and had
to stop at farm house where he
was compelled by weakness to go to
| bed for few hours. He sent med
icine to his patient by messenger on
horseback. Then addressing Gottry,
he said:
keep watch of the condition of
my heart, and if it grows weaker, give
me stiff dose of this" and he took
a phial from his vest pocket, reveal
ing that he carried it there to meet
the emergency that his overstrained
heart might bring on.
Wheels Sank Into Water.
Once on a journey to a Wisconsin
ho hoI
consultation, with the elder Gottry
driving, the dauntless doctors rear
buggy wheels sank into the water
when the ice on which they had eros
sed the St. Croix river gave way.
Another time, when he was pushing
his team along the ice of the Snake
river to answer the call of woman
patient near lake Pokegama, the
weight of his sled and horses kept
the ice cracking beneath them, mo-
mentarily threatening to let them
through, but he kept on, for it was the
only way he could find to reach his
destination.
Many children in the Pine City re-
gion owe their lives to these cour-
ageous, fighting trips of the doctor to
their rural homes to attend their ar
rival in the world.
DR.. Wiseman was coroner of the
county when death removed Sheriff
James Mclaughlin from office in
1898. The physician automatically
took over the duties of the sheriff and,
held the post for ten days. Within
that brief period two murders were
committed, and DR.. Wiseman, with
his usual persistence, went after the
murderers, in company with Deputy
Sheriff R. J. Hawley. One of the
fugitiyes he arrested at Willow River.
Trailed Pair 4S Miles.
In the other case, the arrest of the
two accused men was effected after