EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sunday, May 18, 2:30 p.m., CCHA will present "The Southern Folk Cemetery and Some Chatham Examples" at the Courthouse. Details

Virtual Tour of Historic Chatham County - Over the coming months and years, CCHA will be developing an online "virtual tour" of sites of interest in Chatham County. The first installment features two Veterans' Memorial Sites, with photography by Barbara Pugh.

ABOUT CCHA

We are a non-profit corporation consisting of people interested in preserving and communicating the history of Chatham County, North Carolina.

We invite anyone concerned with the preservation of local history or genealogy to belong to CCHA.

We have over two hundred fifty members, including corporate members, living in Chatham County, nearby counties, coastal to mountain North Carolina, and in twenty-one of the United States.

For information on membership in CCHA, see the Membership page.

Write us at:
history@chathamhistory.org or
Chatham County Historical Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 93
Pittsboro, NC 27312

CCHA Officers:
Barbara Pugh, President
R.T. Crowley, Vice President
Edith Calhoun, Secretary
Beverly Wiggins, Treasurer

Board of Directors:
Raeford Bland
Candace Burke
Edith Calhoun
R.T. Crowley
Bill Dow
Tommy Emerson
Walter "Corkey" Harris
Kay Judge
Barbara Perry
Judith Peterson
Barbara Pugh
Jane Smith
Beverly Wiggins

Past President: Fred Vatter
Museum Curator: Jane Pyle
Marketing: R.T. Crowley
Membership: Nancy Simons

The census of The Cemeteries of Chatham County is available online. Census of cemeteries in surrounding counties are also online.

The North Carolina Genealogical Society has begun a project to collect and preserve Bible records originating in North Carolina.  Further information may be found at www.ncgenealogy.org.

FEATURE ARTICLE
Features Archive

Most months, we feature an article and or photograph from the Chatham Historical Journal or other sources. If you have an article or photograph which you would like considered for use as a feature on this website, please send it to history@chathamhistory.org. 

CHATHAM’S HISTORICAL HERITAGE©
CHATHAM’S EARLY MEDICAL CARE WAS PRIMITIVE BUT DEDICATED
By Fred J. Vatter

The earliest settlers in Chatham were on their own as far as the treatment of illness and injuries was concerned.  They relied on traditional home remedies passed down through the families, often using herbal remedies.  Many of the latter were learned from the Native Americans and the enslaved Africans, who used traditional folk remedies with sometimes amazing effectiveness.

During the 18^th and 19^th centuries, North Carolinians who aspired to become physicians usually received a medical education through an apprenticeship to one of the few experienced, older physicians.  Generally, the latter had received their own medical education in locations such as London, Edinburgh, Utrecht, Basil, Berlin or in later years from one of the pioneer American medical schools in Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, S.C., or Louisville, Kentucky.

The North Carolina Register for the year 1823 lists six physicians residing in Chatham:  Francis Farrell, William H. Strong, John Degraffinreidt, Thomas H. E. Degraffinreidt, Frederick Hill and J. H. Hawkins.  By 1850 a Chatham County Census listed 20 physicians and 2 medical students as county residents.

Fred J. Vatter is past president of the Chatham Historical Society, an organization for which he is also a board member and museum curator.