A farthing is a British coin worth a quarter of a British penny, or 1/960 of a pound. Not much value there. In 1918 a Dr. Farthing in Rio Blanco County was worth his weight in gold. Dr. Charles H. Farthing was recorded in the county clerk’s records as certified as appointed to be assistant county coroner on 18 Feb 1915. This may sound odd. You need to know that doctors and veterinarians often proved their credentials to practice with the early clerks. Local physicians were often elected as county coroners. Then as now, a county salary was a steady source of cash income. Country doctors were often paid in crops, trade, over time, or not at all.
Charles Hamilton Farthing was born May 26, 1878, in Odin, Illinois. Somehow, he managed to drift West and married his second wife Pansy Catalina Oglesby on Oct. 31, 1915, in Cañon City, Colorado. The couple moved to Meeker soon after that. In the March 11, 1916, edition, the Herald Times announced that “Dr. Farthing has moved from #20-21 Hugus Block to Room 1,2 First National Bank.” The good doctor was renting office space for his practice. As the old joke goes: why do doctors and musicians practice, while the rest of us must get it right the first time?
In January of 1919, Dr. Farthing was the Rio Blanco County health officer, county coroner (elected) and physician. Today, we might call this a conflict of interest. In Northwest Colorado, it was just another person wearing many hats due to necessity.
In normal times, this would not entail a lot of extra work for a doctor. However, 1919 was not normal — it was the year the Spanish influenza hit Northwest Colorado. We can draw some similarities between COVID-19 and the 1918 pandemic of influenza. Please place yourself and your family back in time 100 years earlier. Not only was there no known cure, there were no anti-viral treatments, no way to make a vaccine for the masses, rural hospitals had only basic equipment, and there were only a handful of doctors in the county. Common treatment was aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid. The secondary pneumonia was treated with doses of epinephrine. Quinine, as one of the anti-malarial drugs, was sometimes prescribed. One-quarter of Americans were infected with this deadly virus imported during WWI from Europe.
Dr. Farthing was on the front lines of this battle in RBC. He was found all over the county as a physician treating families at home, directing efforts as the county health officer, and dealing with the results as coroner. Then as now, health officials preached limiting social interaction, isolating and quarantining. Dr. Farthing may not have had a cape or a phone booth, but he and all the medical professionals, Red Cross volunteers and helpers were superheroes. In an interview with Russell Harp published in the “This is What I Remember” series, Russell is quoted “Doc Farthing and Dr. Sobenheimer took care of all the people in RBC. Ross Burt had a Model T Ford and he hauled Doc Farthing all over…”
Doc Farthing died April 15, 1951, in Grand Junction and is buried with his wife Pansy and one child, Chadwell, in the Meeker Cemetery. A hero!
By ED PECK
