Larkin Vanderpool (1831 - 1894)

Born 1 Dec 1831 in Ray County Missouri, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Turnidge) Vanderpool — married 15 Jan 1852 in Ray, Missouri, United States

Died 24 Mar 1894 at age 62 in Dufur Wasco County Oregon, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Suzanne Hye [send private message]

Biography

He was born in 1831 in Ray County, Missouri, To Kinman Vanderpool and Elizabeth Johns Mann. After Larkin and Mary Turnage were married in 1824, the couple traveled to the Oregon Territory and secured a donation land claim in Benton County. They became parents of three children. Larkin read extensively the medical literature of the time to care for his family. Soon he was in demand throughout the community. After several years, they shifted to the east side of the Cascade Mountains and settled in the Ochoco country around Prineville. There, Vanderpool continued to serve the community. "The History of Wasco County, Oregon", Bruce Harris.

"Doctors of the American Frontier" pg 170. The old doctors still kept their strange ways. Dr Larkin Vanderpool of Prineville, Oregon and later of Dufur, Oregon, continued to deposit $100 in the bank for each baby he delivered who was named for him. They were to get the money when they came of age. When the doctor died his funeral procession was a mile long.

Larkin was a self-educated pioneer physician and surgeon of old Wasco County. He obtained his education from books he borrowed, bought or otherwise acquire, which he mastered in true Abraham Lincoln manner "Before the dying embers of the fireplace" after other members of the family retired. He mastered the profession of medicine, all alone, from reading and then practicing what he learned in a practical way until he became skilled with the knife; and knew the value of one medicine from another and how to prescribe the right amount in case of various illnesses; and how to diagnose the many illnesses of man; then how to treat, in a successful manner, those diseases and illnesses.

Larkin came to Oregon with the "Big Immigration" of 1852. There were few doctors in Oregon 100 years ago when he was inspired to follow medicine. He borrowed books from other doctors and sought their help until he was admitted to practice by the Oregon State Medical Board in Benton County, where he remained until 1883 when the family removed to Dufur. He was the first doctor of both Prineville and Dufur. It was at Dufur that he sold his well known S. B. Medicine Products, including cough syrup, headache, liver, alfa pain all made at Dufur and sold throughout the Pacific Northwest.

He was also a specialist in skin cancers and successful as doctors could be with the limited means at hand in most all other medical problem, being considered just as good as any other doctor of his time. The chittum bark used in the drugs came from the Willamette Valley, according to Mrs. Mel Sigman, granddaughter of Dr Vanderpool.

The Army, because of the hostile Indians, did not permit settlement in Eastern Oregon until 1869. Even then there was trouble with the Indians until at least 1874. Dr Larkin Vanderpool, part of the Old John Vanderpool family, was the first doctor in Prineville. He moved to Prineville in 1870 and then on to Dufur around 1880's. Many of his descendants are still around Prineville and Wasco County.

DLC No. 4865: VANDERPOOL, Larkin, Benton Co; b 1 Dec 1831, Ray Co, Mo; Arr. Ore. Nov 1852; SC 1 Oct 1853; m Mary 15 Jan 1852, Ray Co, Mo. Aff: Carmel M. Vanderpool, James W. Vanderpool, Drewry R. Hodges, Wm. Wells, Smiley Carter.

Burial: Star #23 Rebekah Community Cemetery Dufur Wasco County Oregon, USA

Sources

• https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39871514

Family record sheets prepared by Pricia Fern Burk Paulkovich.

Vanderpool Newsletters: I: 18, 24, 27, 36, 37, 38, 46, 73; II: 20, 26, 34, 81; III 15, 69, 120, 127; IV: 31, 63, 128. M. Damiano letter, Family sheets, september 1977, Ray County Missouri Census, 1850.