(50 Years of Medicine Leaves Fond Memories)
As a reporter for the Mayefield Messenger, Thomas Carroll captured the soul of his hometown by writing about “real people,” not just those considered newsworthy. His feature stories were well regarded and occasionally came to the attention of the metropolitan daily, the Beacon Light, which published Thomas’ stories under the heading “Dispatch from Mayefield.” The following is one of these Dispatches, published in 1976.
50 Years of Medicine Leaves “Dr. B.P.” Fond Memories
By Thomas Carroll
Mayefield Messenger
Sitting in the parlor of his historic Maye Hill home, Dr. Bryan P. Wilson thinks back to the town of Mayefield 50 years ago, and recalls a small, peaceful village and a simpler way of life.
“It was totally different then,” the dean of Mayefield doctors remembers. “It was mainly a rural community with just a few industries. There were many truck farmers in the area that used to take their produce into Washington to sell.
“The primary industry was the mill at the end of Sycamore Street, but we also had a shirt factory in the back of the elementary school (on Maple Drive) and, of course, the Sanitarium.
“It was a quiet town in those days,” Dr. Wilson recollects, “but there was plenty to keep a young doctor busy.”
Dr. Wilson was describing the Mayefield of 1925, the year he set up practice here. The town has changed tremendously since then, but this man who remembers her past so well is still active in her life and caring for her sick.
As he turned 80 this May, Dr. Wilson decided to curtail his professional activities somewhat, but even age cannot get him completely out of his office.
“For the most part, I’m retired,” he says, “but I still go to the office one day a week to see the old-timers.”
The “old-timers” Dr. Wilson refers to are those patients who have been with him throughout his 50 years of practicing medicine in Mayefield. Many have never known the care of another doctor and he won’t turn them away now.
Dr. Wilson’s retirement may be a semi-withdrawal from his professional life, but his days are still filled with activity. Primary among his interests are tending the gardens at May Hill and hunting.
Hunting, long one of his favorite pastimes remains his principal escape. He is a member of two Eastern Shore hunt clubs, the Black Water Hunt Club, which is limited to a six person membership; and the Montchester Hunt Club.
Occasionally Dr. Wilson ventures away from the Maryland area in search of big game. Recent trips have taken him to Canada and Newfoundland, netting him five moose and three caribou.
Getting him to reminisce about his 50 years of medical practice in Mayefield is not difficult. One only has to sit back and relax as he spins tales and recalls anecdotes of years past.
How he came to Mayefield originally is, as he says, “a whole story in itself.”
“I was beginning my practice in 1925 and was looking for a room in Baltimore. I intended to become a surgeon and I wanted to be close to University Hospital.
“I decided to take this one room in Baltimore over a grocery store, but it was taken first by an assistant to a dentist who occupied the other room in the building.”
Having lost the room he wanted, he became disgusted with Baltimore and took a friend’s advice and came to Mayefield to inquire about assuming the practice of the recently deceased Dr. Byer.
“I liked the town and the people,” he says, “so I stayed.” The doctor that Baltimore lost because of a housing shortage became a Mayefield institution.
Dr. Wilson was born in South Carolina, the second oldest in family of ten children. He took his pre-medical training at Trinity College, which is now Duke University. He volunteered for World War I and served for two years, much of the time overseas. He received his first two years of medical training at the University of South Carolina, and obtained his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1924. A one year internship at University Hospital preceded his coming to Mayefield.
Dr. Wilson’s first office in Mayefield was located in the upper 300 block of Main Street, across from Portokalos’ store. One of the fondest memories of his early days in town, he recalls, is the friendship and kindness he received from Mr. and Mrs. Portokalos, owners of the store. After a year on Main Street, Dr. Wilson moved his office to 307 Pine Street and remained there until 1937 when he was joined in practice by his younger brother, John M. Wilson, and moved to 305 Pine Street.
Dr. John Wilson’s coming to Mayefield saved Dr. Bryan from “a breakdown,” the latter recalls. “I was pretty well worn out by the time John arrived,” he says, “and with him in the practice I could afford to sleep every other night. Before, I often had to work all day, all night, and all day again.”
The brothers Wilson have practiced together ever since, and Dr. Bryan couldn’t be more pleased with the relationship. “John and I have always worked together in harmony and have complemented each other’s efforts,” he says. In 1967 they opened a medical center at 321 Pine Street, which offers many medical specialists to serve the Mayefield area. Joining the practice just last week was Dr. John’s son, William. At present, he proudly occupies Dr. Bryan’s office.
The challenges that confront “Dr. Bill,” as he is sure to be nicknamed, will certainly be different than those his uncle faced in the early days of his practice.
Dr. Bryan’s memories are laced with both the hard realities of life that face a doctor every day and with humorous nostalgia. He recalls borrowing 87 dollars to buy a second-hand 1919 Ford couple single-seater and having it just barely make through his rounds.
He says that some doctors accuse him of telling a “fish story” when he claims to have seen 250 patients in one day during the flu epidemic of 1928. “Some of the younger doctors think I exaggerate the number, but it’s the truth. People still remember me running around town with a pocketful of thermometers to treat those who couldn’t make it to the office.”
Dr. Wilson’s favorite story involves riding through a 1926 snow storm on horseback to see a patient and deliver the mail on Gorman Road. “I was headed to treat a patient near Mrs. Gorman’s home,” he recalls, “when my car started getting hot and I had to stop. I set out on foot and went to a nearby farm to borrow a horse because the snow was 13 or 14 inches deep.
“Along the way I met the mail carrier who also had to abandon his car. Since I was gong the same way, he asked me to deliver Mrs. Gorman’s mail.
“I finally located a horse, but no saddle, and proceeded through the snow on a bumpy ride with my medical bag in one hand and the mail in the other. Both got through.”
Dr. Wilson, as local residents will recall, was the first doctor at the scene when Governor Willie Blount was shot in Mayefield in 1972. Calling it “a harrowing experience,” Dr. Wilson does not regard the incident as one of his career highlights. He prefers to remember lighter incidents such as the undertaker who converted his hearse to an ambulance by placing a cot in it to transport the ill to the hospital before the days of the Rescue Squad.
It is with great enthusiasm that Dr. Wilson shows visitors through his Maye Hill home. Dr. Wilson purchased the estate in 1940 and restored the colonial home which has been furnished by Mrs. Wilson with period antiques. Built in approximately 1740 by Samuel Maye, Maye Hill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
One of the most interesting aspects of the house Dr. Wilson points out to visitors is the inscription “GW 1786” carved on a brick at the back of the house. Although he can’t fully document the fact, Dr. Wilson has it from what he considers a reliable source that the visitor with the initials “GW” was indeed George Washington.
Maye Hill is filled with memories as so is the man who lives there: memories of Mayefield when her people through years of growth and development. The care and love that Dr. Bryan has given the townspeople has not gone unremembered. At his eightieth birthday party in May, friends and relatives gathered to salute him. The sentiments of those gathered and of many patients over the years were summarized in this poetic tribute written by a family friend, Mrs. Richard Kane (the first letters of each line spell out “Fifty Years”):
Fifty Years ago a man
Inspired to help and aid began.
Fervent, with desire to serve,
To give himself with reserve.
Young and firm in his life plan,
Years have been good. The world has spun.
Each day, you love and plaudits won.
All who sought received your aid.
Rich your life, a fine Crusade,
Salute to you! A job well done!
Poetry is nothing new in Dr. Bryan’s life. His patients have been sending him poems for years. This is one of his favorites, written by Elizabeth Ross many years ago. Entitled “My Doc,” it probably bespeaks the feeling of many of his patients in these five decades:
His deeds may never be blazoned
In any great hall of fame.
There may never be high-sounding titles
Added to his name.
For not in busy and bustling cities
His pathway of service lies,
But among the poor and country folk
He brightens many lives.
He knows not of that talent
That has been given him to use.
Nor that his touch like magic
Does so quickly soothe.
He never thinks to spare himself
Yet his strength is like a rock.
And so, he serves others daily.
May God bless him always—
My Doc.
(Robert J. Marton)