Processed by
Chris Harter
31 August 1998
Revised 3 July 2002
Updated 1 April 2004
Manuscripts and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
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VOLUME OF |
2 bound volumes, 1 folder |
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COLLECTION |
1869–1889, 1936 (bulk 1869–1889) |
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PROVENANCE: |
Katherine Goodwin, 392 S. Kentucky St., Danville, IN 46122 |
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RESTRICTIONS: |
None |
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COPYRIGHT: |
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REPRODUCTION |
Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society. |
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ALTERNATE |
None |
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RELATED |
M 0386, L. G. Zerfas Collection |
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ACCESSION |
1998.0801 |
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NOTES: |
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On 16 June 1848, a group of doctors met in the offices of Doctors William and Constantine Lomax in Marion, Indiana (Grant Co.) for the purpose of organizing a county medical society. Seven men were present, including John Foster, James Scott Shively, Samuel St. John, Stephen D. Ayres, Alpheus W. Henley, and the Lomax brothers. Committees were appointed to draw up a constitution, by-laws, and a code of ethics.
The group met again the following month and elected officers. They were: Samuel St. John, president; William Lomax, secretary; J.S. Shively, treasurer; and Reuben D. Mauzy, John Foster, and Constantine Lomax, censors. Membership increased from six members to fourteen during the first year.
The society met monthly to discuss topics related to the medical profession. They also provided medical services to paupers in Grant County, as well as inmates of the county jail and asylum.
Leon Grotius Zerfas (1897–1978), the son of William Henry and Bertha E. (Maish) Zerfas, was born in Frankfort, Indiana (Clinton Co). He received his B.S., 1920, and M.D., 1922, from Indiana University. He later received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1941. Zerfas worked at the Thorndyke Laboratory at Harvard University and served as the first director of the Lilly Laboratory for Clinical Research. Zerfas also taught at the Indiana University Medical School and maintained a private practice in Camby (Marion Co.) and Merom (Sullivan Co.)
He married Helen Lesh in 1922 (divorced in 1941) and had one son, Charles. Leon Zerfas died in 1978 in Indianapolis.
Sources:History of Grant
County, Indiana (1886), p. 305–311.
Thompson, Donald E. Indiana Authors and their Books, 1967– 1980.
(Crawfordsville: R.R. Donnelley, 1981).
Who's Who in the Midwest, 1976–77. Vol. 15, p. 820.
This collection consists of two minute books for the Grant County Medical Society. The first volume covers the dates 2 November 1869 to 15 July 1879, while the second volume includes 21 October 1879 to 24 December 1889. The meetings were usually called to order in the late morning, and began with the reading of minutes and committee reports. The society adjourned around noon, and met again around one o'clock. The afternoon sessions usually included the presentation of papers by members and lengthy discussion of these papers by the society. The papers were written on various medical topics, such as causes for illnesses, cures/treatments, and new techniques.
Laid into the second volume (BV 3277) were a letter (30 August 1936) from William H. Zerfas in Camby, Indiana, to his son, Leon G. Zerfas in Duxbury, Massachusetts; an envelope (14 May 1936) containing a packet of hand washing tissue, addressed to L.G. Zerfas at the McLean Hospital in Waverly, Massachusetts, from an address in Indianapolis; and small handwritten note (n.d.) with a Grant County Medical Society stamp. These items are now in a folder (SC 1205).
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CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
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1869–1879 |
BV 3276 |
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1879–1889 |
BV 3277 |
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Material removed from BV 3277 |
SC 1205 |
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://157.91.92.2/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, BV 3276).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.