1433) Henry F. Hoyt

Henry Franklin Hoyt (1854–1930). Pioneer doctor, born in St. Paul, Minnesota. After attending the University of Minnesota, he interrupt his medical studies and seek a new location out west. In the spring of 1877 he reached Deadwood, South Dakota, with the hope of finding a gold mine and establishing his medical practice there. His prospecting efforts were unsuccessful, however, and in September he made his way to New Mexico. There, he put up at the ranch of John S. Chisum, who told him that Tascosa, in the Texas Panhandle, was in need of a doctor.

In November 1877 Hoyt arrived at Tascosa in the middle of a smallpox outbreak and became an immediate hero after saving the life of Casimero Romero's adopted daughter, Piedad.

Hoyt resided for a time at Las Vegas, where for extra money he tended bar at the Exchange Hotel, then moved his practice to Bernalillo. There he remained until 1881, when he went back east to continue his studies. In March 1882 he received his M.D. degree from the Columbus (Ohio) Medical College. He then returned to St. Paul, where he became a surgeon for several railroad companies. On May 23, 1888, he married a widow, Ella Owens Gray, who had a son by her first marriage; the couple later also had a son of their own. In 1889 Hoyt was appointed head of the St. Paul health department.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in May 1898, Hoyt enlisted in the medical department of the United States Volunteers as chief surgeon, with the rank of major. He served under Gen. Arthur MacArthur (father of Douglas MacArthur) in both that conflict and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection, where he was wounded in action. He received the Silver Star for gallantry in action during the insurrection and rose to the rank of surgeon general. After his discharge in October 1902, he practiced medicine in El Paso. In 1910 he moved to Long Beach, California, where he remained until his retirement. In his autobiography, A Frontier Doctor (1929), appears one of the last eyewitness accounts of the Panhandle frontier.

 

- "I attracted their special attention because I had a profusion of curly red hair." https://books.google.it/books?id=O0RvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT15...

 

- "The contrast between his own pale skin and red hair..." https://books.google.it/books?id=mmLMZ1CAViYC&pg=PA18...