Outagamie County, WI - "Doc Towne Kept Area Healthy for 92 Years"
       
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Subject: newspaper article "Doc Towne Kept Area Healthy for 92 Years"
Submitted by: county coordinator 
EMAIL: jmmarasch@aol.com
Date Submitted: 15 March 2000
       
Source: New London Press newspaper article from Bicentennial issue, undated.

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             Doc Towne Kept Area Healthy for 92 Years
                                 
     When Dr. William Towne set up his medical practice in Shiocton in 1908, babies were delivered at home--and the
charge was $5.
  People seldom made appointments.
  Doctors often made housecalls.
 When his practice ended in 1972 with his death, things had changed.
 Preventive medicine--innoculations, vaccines and vitamins--was emphasized.  Housecalls had vanished.  And modern
hospitals delivered babies.
 In 1969, Doc Towne was honored at Hortonville for 62 years of medical service to the area.  He had spent the last 40 of
those years at Hortonville; the first 21 at Shiocton.
 Doc Towne babies and their parents and his medical colleagues gathered to pay tribute.
 A biography compiled for the celebration included the following anecdotes from Doc Towne's life:
 Oyster stew--late one night Doc Towne and his dentist roommate at Shiocton were hungry for oyster stew.  They lived
above a meat market, but it was closed.
 This didn't stop Doc Towne.  He climbed in the market window, and got the oysters.  And when he discovered he was
out of milk, he took a pan out to the hotel owner's cow, who was tethered nearby, and filled it fresh from the cow. -First car in Shiocton--Doc Towne used the 1910 Ford Overland during the summer, but relied on horse and cutter when
the snow fell.
 He only gave up the horses after he figured out a way to put sled runners on the front axle of the car.
 Housecalls--when Doc Towne started out on two or three housecalls, the word spread that a doctor was in the
neighborhood, and he often didn't get home for two or three days.
 He would have supper with the last family he called on, and often stay the night.
 Honeymoon--car trouble and a snowstorm kept Doc Towne and his bride on the road until nearly midnight on their
wedding night.  Less than two hours after they finally reached home, the doctor got a call--another Doc Towne baby had
chosen that night to be born.
 Produce in pay--many of.  Doc Towne's early charges were paid in oats, hay or eggs by his patients.  One woman paid 25
cents on her account each time she came to town to sell eggs and buy groceries. Doe Towne was chief of staff at New London Community Hospital and served on the Shiocton school and village
boards.  He was a member of the American Medical Association and the Outagamie County Medical Society and a life
member of the Wisconsin Medical Society.
 He was an Odd Fellow and an honorary life member of the Hortonville Commercial club.
 He was also a member of the Hortonville Baptist church.
 Dr. and Mrs. Towne spent leisure time at Archibald Lake at Lakewood, WI.
 On Feb. 24, 1972, Dr. William Towne died of injuries sustained in a car accident in Appleton.  He practiced medicine
until his death.
 Doc Towne's equipment, desk and doctor's bag are displayed in the meeting room above the Hortonville public library. 
They were donated by his daughter, Marion Jolyn, after the room was named the Dr. Towne Room.
 A commemorative plaque was placed on the door by the Hortonville-Greenville Junior Women's club.