No Shortage of Doctors in Early Wills Point
Records reveal that there was no shortage of doctors during the early years in Wills Point and Van Zandt County. Many must have practiced only a short time while others stayed on to establish themselves firmly in the community and develop a large practice.
Dr. I. S. Collier, Dr. J. M. Fry and later his son, Dr. H. T. Fry; Dr. D. L. Sanders and many others served the early day residents of Wills Point and the surrounding area. Very little is known of most of the men who served the medical profession during the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. The physicians who fall into that group are Dr. J. T. Tucker, Dr. Claude Haynes, Dr. J. M. Fry, Dr. Elbert, Dr. Collier, Dr. Moughon, Dr. M. H Echols, Dr. Hendrix, Dr. Russell, Dr. Charles McKnight, Dr. A. G. Sisson, Dr. T. M. Jeter, Dr. Watkins, Dr. Eli Zink, Dr. Ernest Blankenship, Dr. Belote, Dr. N. W. Campbell, and many more. Dr. Sanders was born on October 2, 1871 the son of Levi Lindsey and Suzanne Collins Sanders. Dr. Sanders was educated at the Alamo Institute at Ben Wheeler. He received his premedical training at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and settled in Wills Point in 1906. Dr. H. T. Fry was born and reared in Wills Point. Upon receiving his license to practice he returned to his hometown where he spent a long life serving those whom he loved best, the people he had known all his life.
These early day men of medicine were in a league by themselves. They practiced under the most adverse conditions. House calls in the rural areas were difficult because of poor roads. Lighting was poor; there was no such thing as a sterile, spotlessly clean office. Some practiced in their homes but even a well-equipped office in those days offered little in the realm of instruments and other physician’s aids.
A young east Texan arrived on the scene in Wills Point in 1931. Dr. Horace Anson Baker was the son of a rural couple and in his words, “cut my teeth on a cotton stalk.” He fell under the influence of the Travis family early in his life since the farm where Dr. Baker lived was just out of Jacksonville, the town where Nan Travis Hospital was located. Young Baker attended Baylor University and Baylor School of Medicine and interned at Baylor Hospital before hanging up his shingle over Bruce and Human Drug Company. He practiced there until 1946 when he moved his office to Baker Clinic Hospital. Building the hospital was the realization of a dream that Dr. Baker had nourished from the day he took the Hippocratic Oath. During the World War II years, he pinched pennies and made plans. As soon as materials were available, construction of the ten-bed hospital got underway. Dr. Baker opened the facility prematurely as the kitchen was not outfitted and a few other details were incomplete.The first child born in Wills Point’s first hospital was Steve Stone, son of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Stone and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. K. K. Norton.
When Dr. Baker began practicing he was the youngest of 29 doctors in Van Zandt County. Today (1976) at 70 years of age, he is the oldest of doctors in Van Zandt County. The years have been kind to the good doctor who is now treating the fourth generation of several families in the area. Linda Liston Wehr, mother of the 5,229th infant that Dr. Baker delivered, was also delivered by Dr. Baker.
Baker Clinic Hospital, a 10-bed facility has served more than 20,000 patients during its 27 year history. Equipped for almost any emergency the operating room has been the scene of amputations, hysterectomies, gall bladder surgery, appendectomies and most other major operations. Over the years Dr. Baker delivered thousands of infants which came to be known as “Baker Babies.”
Present to join in the celebration were "Dr. Baker's Babies" and their mothers.
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