|
Pioneer Texas doctor born in Alabama
On this day in 1844, pioneer Texas physician Abbe Alzu Ledbetter was born
in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. He served in the Confederate Army and after
the war studied medicine at Tulane University. In the fall of 1869 he
settled at Vienna, Lavaca County, Texas, where he practiced medicine until
1887. He moved to Hallettsville that year, continued to practice medicine,
and operated a drugstore. Ledbetter, who died in 1919, thus practiced
during a period of transition in health care in Texas. While traditional
methods still predominated, new aspects of medicine were developing: more
custodial care for those with chronic conditions, organized efforts to
improve sanitation and public health, more successful outcomes from more
surgical operations, more hospitals with greater acceptance by the public,
more organizations of doctors and others involved in health care, and the
establishment of schools to educate the professionals needed by the
citizens of an ever-expanding state.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- LEDBETTER, ABBE ALZU
- HEALTH AND MEDICINE
- HALLETTSVILLE, TX
- LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY TEXAS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- German furniture artist arrives in Texas (1849)
- Texas Physical Therapy Association organized (1930)
|
