|
|
Whenever
the virulent yellow fever plague came to town, the townsmen who were
cautious packed up their families and belongings and fled elsewhere.
Sometimes a town’s physician did not leave; they stayed to treat their
patients and occasionally died. Two such medical heroes were Drs.
Sylvester Mansfield and William Hawley of Beaumont,
Texas, who remained behind and died with their patients in 1862.
Many Texans of today may not realize how dreadfully serious a yellow
fever epidemic was. In 1867, about 3,000 people died in Galveston
and Harris counties
from that disease. On Oct. 2, 1867, when a giant hurricane and tidal
wave washed ashore at Galveston,
it doubled the pain of the seaport community because there were already
400 yellow fever victims in the morgues with no one to bury them,
let alone to recover or succor the storm victims.
Dr. Edward Arrel Pye of Hearne,
Texas was not one who remained behind. He actually sought out
the pestilence-ridden cities and went there to treat and nurse the
afflicted persons. Finally he went one too many times; he left his
wife and 7 children in the safety of Hearne and went to Calvert,
Texas to nurse the sick, and he died there.
Dr.
Edward Arrel Pye was born in 1818 near LaPlata, Charles County, MD.,
his parents being wealthy plantation owners. After growing to adulthood
among other well-to-do plantation families of his area, he graduated
in sciences from Georgetown University. Then he matriculated from
the University of Maryland Medical School in 1840, although a second
source says in 1842.1
In 1845 he settled in Tallulah, Madison Parish, LA., opposite Vicksburg,
where he met and married Matilda C. LeGrand, who was born in Maryland
in 1823.2 Her father, Col. Claudius
F. LeGrand, had owned Claudius F. LeGrand and Sons, stone masons of
Alexandria, VA., in 1797, when his company made the six 48-foot Corinthian
columns that decorated the portico of the new Bank of the United States
building in Philadelphia. It was the first building of that magnificence
ever built in the nation.3 About
1815 LeGrand moved to a new plantation in Louisiana. Also Dr. Pye
farmed and practiced medicine for about a year in Harrisonburg, Catahoula
Parish, LA.4
By 1854 Dr. and Mrs. Pye were living in Breaux Bridge, LA., on the
Bayou Teche in the Evangeline county of Lafayette Parish. Their first
experience with a virulent disease was a small pox epidemic, wherein
the victims were often abandoned and left to starve and die. And Dr.
Pye provided both medical treatment and food. One writer wrote that
his heroic wife: “…was of valuable assistance, preparing food to carry
on horseback or by canoe…” It was during that period that most of
Pye’s children were born. A year later Pye had his first experience
with yellow fever in Lafayette Parish. Although Pye lived through
the epidemic, perhaps falsely convinced that he was immune, two of
his medical associates, Dr. Edward Heard and Dr. William Digges, died
of the fever.5
In 1858 Pye moved his family briefly to Guadalupe
County near Seguin,
but an extended drought, coupled with a plague of grasshoppers, forced
him to move once more to Anderson
in Grimes County;
and later to a nearby farm at Faraway. At that time he owned a slave
named Clem, who grew their food, and his children had access to good
schools.6
When the 1860 Grimes County census was taken, the Pye family was enumerated
at residence 27. His real estate value of $850 represented principally
his farm at Faraway; his $700 personal property listing was principally
the value of his slave Clem. The family included Dr. Pye, age 42;
wife Matilda, age 37; daughters Edith, age 14; Mary, age 8; Lizzie,
age 6; Julia, age 4; and 3 sons, Edward, age 11; Charles, age 2; and
Harry, age 1 month. The 3 oldest children were in school.7
For
unknown reasons, Dr. Pye avoided conscription in the Confederate Army
until Aug., 1863, when he enlisted as a private in Co. D., 4th Regiment,
17th Brigade of Texas State Troops in Grimes County.8
According to his letter to his wife of Dec. 17, 1863, he had been
sent to the coast near Velasco in , and near the Confederate Forts
Quintana and
Velasco at
the mouth of Brazos River. Often he reported the Union gunboats approaching
the mouth of the river either to shell the forts or search for blockade-runners.
On one occasion Pye accompanied others to the mouth of Oyster Creek
and pried several barrels of oysters from the reef. At that time his
company was stationed at “Fort Slaughter,” the exact location of which
is unknown.
Equally disturbing was why Pye was only a “hospital steward,” dispensing
prescriptions from the doctors, especially since Pye had a medical
degree from a respected college, and some practicing physicians of
that area were without degrees and had learned their vocation after
serving apprenticeships to other physicians. Pye mentioned an “an
angel visitant, a kind lady named Mrs. Herndon,” who came to the hospital
and “brought us a bottle of milk and some eggs—old linens and rags—went
from bed to bed—dressed blisters,” etc.9
By Feb. 1, 1864, Pye’s 6-months enlistment in the State Troops had
expired, and he reported to Houston
for examination before the Confederate Board of Medical Examiners;
and he quickly qualified as a Confederate assistant surgeon on Feb.
5, 1864. As a result General Order No. 57 of Major General Magruder
transferred Dr. Pye on Feb. 27th, to take charge of the hospital at
Niblett’s Bluff, LA. His new assignment was about 12 miles north of
Orange, Texas,
and was a Confederate Quartermaster Depot for the movement of troops
and supplies to General Richard Taylor’s army in Central Louisiana.
The depot was principally supplied by steamboats moving from Orange,
Sabine Pass,
and Beaumont, Texas.10
Dr. Pye wrote of his trip to Niblett’s Bluff aboard the slow and very
cold train to Beaumont which once ran off the track. Upon arrival
at Beaumont,
“where the streets are knee-deep in mud,” Pye could not arrange transportation
to Niblett’s Bluff, so he borrowed an old mule from the quartermaster
and rode him across Orange
County.11
In the meantime the Commissioners Court at Beaumont leased the Jefferson
County courthouse for use us as a Confederate hospital, and Dr.
D. T. Inglehart arrived there as the Confederate surgeon.12
In June, 1864, when Dr. Inglehart was transferred to Hempstead,
Dr. Pye applied for and was transferred to Beaumont.
From
his earliest letter in 1863 to his first letter from Beaumont
in 1864, Dr. Pye advised his wife to grow tobacco on their farm, as
follows:
“…Tobacco is worth here (Beaumont) $30 Confederate money a pound in
the leaf, or $100 silver.—Many are speculating in it—The Quartermaster
bought a lot some time ago, sold it and made $1,000 profit—but the
man he sold it to made $15,000…”13
In his letter of Aug. 21, Pye wrote: “…There has not been a death
in the hospital since Dr. I(nglehart) left us, although we have generally
had the house full…” However, conditions quickly changed during the
next 10 days, when Dr. Pye wrote on Aug. 31st that: “…The sickness
is becoming much more serious. I lost one case of congestion in the
hospital, but there are several more on hand. They appear to be very
intractable—I have had some practice outside too—one in the country
some 10 miles away…”14
Pye wrote too that his family was more concerned about the outcome
of the war than the people in Beaumont were, noting: “… We have several
military people with us this evening—among the rest Col. Griffin—and
they don’t seem to think anything is going amiss…”15
The Confederate victory at Mansfield, LA. in April, 1864, that sent
a Union army en route back to New Orleans, was the cause of their
optimism.
By Sept. 1, 1864, Pye was disappointed that he was passed over for
a transfer to Hempstead,
where he would have been close to his family. He was also tormented
by the heat and insects when he wrote: “…In the night and between
the heat and mosquitoes, I am making a poor business of it. You have
no idea of the mosquitoes we have here. Why, six of those big Sabine
Pass gallinippers could take up Bud and Charley {his sons}, and fly
away with them…”16
No doubt, with the fall of Mobile and Atlanta, Dr. Pye felt much less
sure of the Confederacy’s success, and he commented much less about
it. The fall of Mobile left Galveston
and Sabine
Pass as the only Gulf of Mexico seaports, where blockade runners
were most often successful. Pye wrote in Nov. 1864 that: “…I got a
splendid pair of English boots, also 8 yards of cotton for shirts…
Tell Ma my coat is fine—rigged up in style—2 rows of brass buttons,
velvet, gold lace and all...”17
By Dec., 1864, Pye’s silence indicated that he was resigned to wait
out the impending fall of the Confederacy, but he continued to encourage
his family. On Dec. 16, 1864, he wrote: “…All the officers I have
seen lately have drawn full suits of gray clothes—over shirts of flannel—blankets
and hats… What do you think we pay for a chicken? $10 and in flour
at that. They don’t sell for money at any price. We have to buy flour
and trade. I bought 2 sacks the other day for $1,200 to buy chickens
and eggs for the sick… Yet it is said that there is plenty of flour
in Houston, but all of it is in the hands of speculators…”18
In Aug. 1864, Beaumonters built a soldiers’ home, which came to be
known as “Cottage House,” and Dr. Pye spent many of his off-duty moments
there.19 On Christmas day he
wrote: “…We have done the best… for the hospital. All hands had chicken
pie and coffee today…” At the end of his letter, he added: “…This
year (1865) will surely end the war, will it not?”…20
Also on Christmas Eve, Dr. Pye “…partook of an eggnog at Cottage House…
some half dozen gentlemen… and two or three ladies… had a game of
Whist and broke up about 10 PM…” By March, 1865, Pye had been transferred
to the hospital in Houston,
where he remained until the war ended.21
In 1865 Dr. Pye had to emancipate his slave Clem; in 1866 he moved
his family from the farm in Faraway to the town of Hempstead.
In 1872 he moved for the last time to Hearne,
where his professional card read: “…after 30 years of service…”22
During
the fall of 1867, Texas endured its worst yellow fever epidemic, which
claimed 3,000 lives in Galveston
and Harris counties;
but history does not record whether or not Dr. Pye participated in
treatment of the sick. As mentioned earlier, on Oct. 2, 1867, a large
hurricane struck Galveston,
adding insult to injury, for at the same time, 400 bodies lay neglected
in the morgues, having no one to bury them.23
On Sept. 3, 1873, W. F. Hughes of Shreveport, a yellow fever carrier,
stepped off the train in Calvert,
10 miles north of Hearne, for he was too ill to travel. He died 2
days later, but not before he had infected others. By Oct. 1, 1873,
Calvert was enduring a full-blown plague, that would infect 600 people
in a town of 1,500 persons, and 150 of them died.24
About Oct. 1, 1873, Dr. Pye decided to go to Calvert
to help alleviate the sickness as much as he could. He soon wrote
to his wife: “…Mrs. T. P. Terrell seems to be omnipresent in nursing
the sick, burying the dead, and helping in every way possible…”25
Also in Oct., 1873, a Galveston newspaper published of Dr. Pye as
follows:
“…One of the most successful and useful physicians we have (in Calvert)
is Dr. E. A. Pye. He is working for the good of the people, without
pay and is doing excellent service. He is well-known along the (Houston
and Texas) Central Railroad from Houston to Red River City…”26
However
Dr. Pye’s luck soon played out, and when he went to bed with a bad
case of the fever, a telegram was sent to Mrs. Pye in Hearne.
She left her children with her oldest daughter and nursed her husband
until he died on Nov. 7; and then she nursed others until she too
took sick and died on Nov. 20th, along with her 18-year-old son Edward.
Thus were orphaned 2 sons and 4 daughters at their home in Hearne.27
It is difficult, using simple language, to adequately memorialize
such a courageous person as Dr. Pye. And yet one might question his
medical ethics of exposing himself to such a fatal disease, and risk
leaving a houseful of orphans to be raised by others. Perhaps Mrs.
S. C. Red said it best as follows: “…Thus was closed the heroic and
sacrifice to God and man, crowned by a great love of family, and the
appreciation of all who knew him…”28
As of 1930, only the 4 daughters of Dr. Pye—namely Edith, who became
Mrs. Frederick T. Weeden; Elizabeth (Lizzie), who became Mrs. John
B. Young; Julia, and Mary—were still alive. The Pye letters were passed
down to his granddaughter, Mrs. Eugene C. Barker, whose husband, the
eminent Austin historian and professor, published them in 1952 in
Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
© W.
T. Block, Jr
"Cannonball's
Tales"
June 16, 2007 column
More People
More Columns |
Endnotes
- Mrs. S.
C. Red, The Medicine Man in Texas (Houston: 1930), 232;
“Letters from The Confederate Medical Service in Texas, 1863-1865,
Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LV (Jan. 1952), 318.
- Ibid.
- A description
of the Bank of the United States building in The U. S. Constitution:
A National Historic Landmark Theme Study, online.
- “Letters
from the Confederate Medical Service,” 379.
- Medicine
Man in Texas, 233.
- Ibid.
- Eighth Census
of the United States, 1860, Sch I, Population, Grimes County,
TX, res. 27.
- “Letters
from the Confederate Medical Service,” Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, LV (Jan. 1952), 378.
- Ibid, 379-380.
- Ibid, 391-392.
- Ibid, 392-393.
- Vol. D, p.
120, April 30, 1863, Commissioners Court Minutes, Beaumont, Texas.
- “Letters
from the Confederate Medical Service,” Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, LV (April, 1952), 459.
- Ibid, letter
of April 31, 1864, p. 463.
- Ibid, 462.
- Ibid, 464.
- “Letters
from the Confederate Medical Service,” Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, LV (April, 1952), 466.
- Ibid, Letter
of Dec. 16, 1864, p. 469.
- Galveston
Weekly News,
Aug. 8, 1864
- “Letters
From the Confederate Medical Service,” , 470-471.
- Ibid, 478-479.
- “Letters
from the Confederate Medical Service,” Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, LV (Jan. 1852), 378.
- Livingston
Lindsay to Gov. E. M. Pease, Oct. 9, 1867, Governors Records,
Texas State Library, online.
- R. D. Parker,
Historical Recollections of Robertson County (Anson Jones
Press, 1955) 85-88.
- Red, Medicine
Man in Texas, 234.
- Galveston
Weekly News, Oct. 27, 1873, p. 1.
- Red, 234;
also a list of the Calvert yellow fever victims buried in the
old Calvert Cemetery is online.
- Red, Medicine
Man in Texas, 234.
|
|
|
HOME
