NEBRHeritage-L Archives

From: Bill Oliver <>
Subject: [NEBRHeritage-L] Stories at Eleven [10 CST/8 PST] 10 December 2000, Vol 4, #48
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 20:35:09 -0500

Stories at Eleven [10 CST/8 PST] 10 December 2000, Vol 4,
#48
Good Evening EagleLarks, [Nebraska] Heritage Guru's and All
Ships at Sea,

During the War Between the States, the Great Grandfather of
my wife, Barb, suffered a head
wound and had a metal plate sewed into his skull. He used
to tap it and make that sound metal
does recalls my Mother-in-Law.

Thelma Nation contributes this follow up to "Stories at
Eleven" concerning the extraordinary
abilities of Dr Georgia Arbuckle Fix of the Panhandle of
Nebraska, who is, in my opinion, still the
candidate model for Dr Quinn -- Medicine Woman. Thelma's
GrGrandfather knew the doctor and as a youngster, she heard
many stories about the Good Doctor.

"I read your Stories tonight about Dr. Fix. She was from my
part of Nebr. Gering and Banner
county. I have heard stories about her from childhood days.
She was a friend of my Great
Grandparents and Grandfather. Dr. Fix had some land just
north and joined to the cemetery
where my ancestors are buried in Banner Co. My grandparents
leased this land from her when my
Dad was about 9 years old. There is quite a lot about her
in A. B. Wood's book.

"Last week in the Scottsbluff paper [there] was another
story about her that I remember hearing, I
saved the paper and will look it up. One of the pioneers
suffered a crashed head. Dr. Fix took a
silver dollar and pounded it thin with a hammer and place it
over the hole in his head and saved his
life. I remember hearing my Grandfather saying the @#$%$ was
worth something, he had a silver
dollar sowed in his head.

Here is the story from the newspaper article about Doctor
Fix: "Once the doctor was called to a remote homestead in
the upper Mitchell Valley. Eli Beebe's head had been crushed
when his hand slipped from a windlass being used to crank
buckets of dirt while helping dig a well. The windlass
handle had struck Beebe's skull with the force of a falling
load. Fix saved Beebe's life with a hammer and a silver
dollar. She pounded the silver dollar into a thin disc to
cover the gash, then drew the scalp together using stitches.
Beebe lived to be 80 with the silver dollar in his head.
The operation brought Fix the reputation of being the first
physician to successfully use a silver plate in brain
surgery. She became known as the ‘Silver Dollar Doctor'."
[Dr] Fix died in Missouri in 1918.

Thelma continues, "Georgia Fix moved to Gering in 1892.
Granddad also said the weather was never to cold to stop
her. He had great admiration for this woman". Thelma says
when she was growing up, there are all kinds of stories
about Dr Fix.

To illustrate further about Dr Fix's call to duty, A B Wood
tells of the following characteristic incidents. Dr Fix
went to a sick young girl some thirty miles away, in a buggy
with a "fast" team. The roads were more like cattle trails,
thus very rough along the way. "The ponies were trustworthy
and seemed to sense their duty. As the doctor made so many
long trips over the rough prairie country, she would be
nearly exhausted upon her arrival. However, she learned to
conserve her strength and when possible relaxed and dozed."
When she descended from the buggy she would then be ready
for work. One morning a homesteader woke to a team and
buggy between his house and bard. When he went to
investigate, "[t]here was Dr Fix and her driver, both
sitting in the buggy sound asleep. The driver when
awakened, said that last he remembered they were traveling
down the road. The team turned through the gate of the
Marsh home and stopped, as they had made stops there
before."

Wado,

Bill
--

Dick Taylor's Old-time Nebraska:

http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/OldtimeNebraska/
http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/OldtimeNebraska/stories@11/

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• [NEBRHeritage-L] Stories at Eleven [10 CST/8 PST] 10 December 2000, Vol 4, #48 by Bill Oliver <>