William Conner Lambert (1830 - 1920)

Born 14 Dec 1830 in Franklin County, Indiana

Husband of Elizabeth Jane (Armfield) Lambert — married 1 Sep 1852 in Rushville, Rush County, Indiana, USA

Descendants

Died 12 Apr 1920 at age 89 in Perry, Dallas, Iowa

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Melissa X [send private message]

Biography

Dr. Baker Noted for Area's First Successful Caesarean Section

By BOB KRIEBEL, For the Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

Fifth of six articles.

Motorists on U.S. 52 southeast of Lafayette pass an historical marker by a wood frame farmhouse west of the pavement. It calls attention to the date November 6, 1880, and to the site of the first successful Caesarean surgery ever performed in Indiana by Dr. Moses Baker, 57, of Stockwell.

Born on an Ohio farm, Baker had studied for his profession in the LaPorte (Ind.) School of Medicine, and from Jefferson Medical College (Philadelphia) where he graduated in 1852. He located in Lauramie Township, Tippecanoe County, and lived near the community called Monroe.

While his long record of good service spread to many townships and nearby counties, people most remembered Moses Baker for the Caesarean birth episode. The Lafayette Courier of Dec. 4, 1880, printed his first-person account:

On Wednesday, Nov. 3, I was called to Luther Lucas' wife. He is a farmer living in Sheffield Township. I found her in labor at full term, and found a tumor filling the pelvis below the child in such a manner that it would be impossible to deliver her by the natural process. I found another tumor connected with the upper part of the womb that would probably have weighed some five pounds. The child was between these two fibroid masses, and the woman was in labor with not the least possibility of natural delivery.

Feeling the great responsibility (to me, at least) of such an uncommon case, I requested the assistance of my neighboring physicians, and had Doctors David H. Crouse, of Dayton, and John Simison, of Romney, called in. We concurred in the opinion that the only hope for both mother and child, and either mother or child, was in performing gastrohyter-otomy or, in other words, the Caesarean section.

It is one of the most dangerous operations known to surgery, even when the operation has been performed for deformed pelvis and the womb healthy; but much more so in a case like this, where the child was embedded in tumors. But as it was the only possible chance, we decided to try.

On Saturday, Nov. 6, we operated, assisted by and in the presence of Doctors D. and J. Crouse and L. Strather, of Dayton, Doctors Simison and Pike of Romney, and Doctors A.A. Wells and William Lambert, of Stockwell. The operation consisted in making an incision through the abdominal walls of the mother of some seven inches in length, commencing in the measian line just above the pubic bone, and extending it some two inches above the umbilicus. When the womb was reached we made an incision some five inches in it from below upwards so as to extract the child and afterbirth through it.

The balance of the operation is not of interest to the general public. Suffice it to say the mother and son (for the child is a Garfield boy) are doing well, with every prospect of a speedy recovery.

William C Lambert was captain of a volunteer infantry company raised for the Civil War in the Stockwell area.

• 1920 US Federal Census

Name: William C Lambert Age: 89 Birth Year: abt 1831 Birthplace: Indiana Home in 1920: Perry Ward 1, Dallas, Iowa Street: South Second Street Race: White Gender: Male Relation to Head of House: Father Marital Status: Widowed [Widow] Father's Birthplace: Indiana Mother's Birthplace: Ohio Able to Speak English: Yes Occupation: None Neighbors: View others on page Household Members: Name Age A E Lambert 42 Margret Lambert 42 William C Lambert 89

Sources

• 1920 US Federal Census @ http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=Ewl22707&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=william%20connor&gsfn_x=0&gsln=lambert&gsln_x=0&MSAV=1&msbdy=1830&_83004003-n_xcl=f&cp=0&catbucket=rstp&uidh=ew4&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=38175118&dbid=6061&indiv=1&ml_rpos=3