The area that became North Grenville has always had a good selection of medical doctors and dentists on hand to care for the needs of the residents. The records show that the very first doctor to arrive in Kemptville was Dr. Fleming, who lasted only a year, 1824. In 1825, he was replaced by Dr. Cowan, who had been a student of Sir Astley Cooper. Dr. Cowan died in 1834 and is buried in St. James’ cemetery. South Gower had a doctor in the 1840’s, Dr. Daniel Brown, but there were other kinds of medicine being practiced too. One man, William Howey, appears to have been an early naturopath. He was described as “a botanic physician or root doctor, whose healing herbs were in great demand”. Dr. Silas Huntington came from Connecticut to Kemptville, where he married local woman, Mary Adams, related to US President John Quincey Adams. In the second half of the nineteenth century, three brothers, E. Bayard, George and Terence Sparham, all doctors and all working in Kemptville, lived on Clothier Street.
1901: “Bishop’s Mills loses a doctor. Dr. Redmond, who has been practising here for the past three years, has left to pursue a post graduate course in London, England. He was a successful doctor and we are sorry to see him go. He took an active and sympathetic interest in everything good and his influence was always in the direction of the moral and spiritual improvement of the people. We wish him success in his studies. Dr. Connelly, a recent graduate of Queen’s College has come to take his place. We extend a hearty welcome and wish him success.”
Dr. J. A. Jones, native of Kingston, settled in Kemptville in 1876. For some reason, his approach to medicine was seen as somehow worth mentioning: “Dr. Jones is regarded by the fraternity as an exceptionally well-read and thoroughly posted practitioner, who regards medicine as a science, whose hidden mysteries are revealed only to the diligent student and whose beneficent results are obtained only by its proper application to the many and complex forms in which the ills of suffering humanity present themselves in everyday life.” One would have hoped that all doctors would have seen “ medicine as a science”!
There were quite a number of doctors who were natives of Kemptville and surrounding area. E. A. Martin, M.D., native of Kemptville, and son of Samuel Martin, went to Public and High Schools in Kemptville. He had been the resident physician to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, and moved to Kemptville in 1902, where lived and practiced in the house in which he grew up.
There were many great doctors providing medical services to the people of North Grenville, more than can be noted here.
