Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/393

 HISTORY. 01 GOODHUE COUNTY m meetings were held in Red Wing, Cannon Palls, Norway and Zumbrota. In those distant times only advanced aye and illness were reasons for members staying away, and then their interests did not die oul with the termination of presidential or other office. In the seventies and eighties the society added to its mem- bership. Its meetings were both well attended and profitable. The last meeting the writer attended was at the home of Dr. Gronvold, in Norway, in 1SS4. It was an outdoor meeting on a beautiful day in July. Every preparation had been made for the occasion. The table was se1 under a leafy canopy. The dinner, as the saying is. came off triumphantly. It comprised a bound- less profusion of everything nutritious in the garb most light and digestible for an infirm stomach. The host admirably filled the chair, and the post-prandial enjoyments, including the society's program, were rarely, or never, svirpassed by any banquet the writer ever saw. .Much thai was delectable at the time, and that is not unpleasing on reflection now, could he recited, but would probably be less interesting to the reader than to the writer. "But pleasures are like poppies spread, You sei/e the flower, its bloom is dead." Flourishing as the society was, its existence was terminated in 1891. The causes need not be traced here. They recall no divisive memories. The few facts in the possession of the writer give no special significance to the event. In October, 1902, the society was reorganized at Red Wing. The new organization has been strengthened and improved. Its boundaries have been pushed forward. It brings medical men more constantly together, making consultations more easy and more natural, and stimu- lating fraternal feeling. It makes collective and comparative experiments possible, furnishing a center in which is focussed the "group opinion." Its programs are stronger than before. It discusses its problems from time to time with the leaders of the profession. It invites joint meetings with other county societies. The society has a membership of twenty-three, consisting of the following gentlemen: J. V. Anderson, Edmund Backe, A. T. Conley, H. E. Conley, M. II. Cremer, P. H. Cremer, F. W. Dimmitt, J. A. Gates, C. E. Gates, K. Gryttenholm, C. X. Hewitt. Charles Hill, S. B. Haessly. Bruno Jaehnig, A. AY. Jones, 0. 0. Larson, H. L. McKinstry, C. B. McKaig, G. H. Overholt, H. P. Sawyer, M. W. Smith, George C. YVellner, N. L. Werner. The society con- siders all respectable physicians its rightful subjects, and rejects all whose so-called education is unaccompanied by any fruits of character. The admission of no clean-handed, honorable and competent physician is opposed. Membership in the society is a guarantee of the physician's good standing, and that he pursues