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The first records of medical attention being given to residents of Stanley Bridge appear to be close to the late 1800’s. Prior to this, attention to sickness was given by those, especially women, who seemed to have knowledge of illnesses and diseases which might invade a home or that of a neighbour. This ‘gift’ saved many pioneer settlers. However, the numbers who died, because of what we would call minor illnesses, today is vividly portrayed as one looks at the early cemetery records and lists the names of young people who died in the early 1800’s to 1900. Practical skills were not always the answer. Most of the ‘gifted cures’ came from herbs - called simple medicine. Death tolls were high when epidemics such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever, smallpox, diphtheria, or pneumonia struck a village.

Today most people know the precautions which must be used to counteract these illnesses. Most women’s lives were lost during childbirth. The local midwife would often brave terrible winter weather conditions to help bring a new life into this world. The skill of these midwives was often inadequate to deal with birth complications and too often the death of a young mother and/or the infant was the final outcome of the pregnancy. Today with modern medical knowl- edge parents can look forward with confidence to the birth of a healthy child.

Infection was also a great killer. If a person stepped on a rusty nail, the family could only stand helplessly by as infection took over the body. In later years it was discovered that by soaking the infected foot in ‘bluestone and water’ the infection could be killed. Inﬂammation of the appendix was another condition which was not controllable with herbal medicine. Today this is not considered to be a life-threatening problem.

In the early 1800’s many Doctors came to our Island from European countries. They too came with the migration of pioneers to the Western world. Here they found a new land that resem— bled in feature the places they had left. In the Stanley Bridge area the population continued to increase dramatically. This in turn necessitated an increase in the “Doctor” population.

The first records of doctors serving in our area was in the 1800’s. One doctor who came to the Stanley village was Dr. Alfred Holloway who is recorded as making calls in 1841. He resided in Millvale and stayed in this area for ﬁve years before leaving for ‘Upper Canada’. Another doc- tor, Dr. William Honeywell M.D.C.M. lived in Hunter River and practised medicine from 1878- 1906 in a wide area which included Stanley Bridge.

According to Dr. McNeill, the majority of late Victorian era doctors were mostly Island born and had studied in Canadian or American Medical Schools. However, the trend had begun for the exodus of doctors from the isolated areas to the larger populated centres. Stanley Bridge was more fortunate than some other villages, in that Dr. Roderick McNeill and Dr. J .E. Fleming attended to medical matters from the mid 1850’s to the 19405.

Dr. Thomas Campbell came to Stanley Bridge about 1890 after a short stay in Northam. He was born in Bedeque in 1865 and attended the Universities of Pennsylvania and New York, graduating in 1888. One of his daughters married Rev. Vance MacLean. The MacLean family maintained the Campbell property to the East of Stanley Bridge until the 1960’s. The property was then sold to Ruby MacNeill, daughter of Dr. MacNeill formerly of Summerside.

Dr. Donald Darrach of Kensington also served the area from his residence in Margate where he began to practise in 1871. In 1883 he and his family moved to Kensington where he continued

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