"Come with me and explore the big-little world of Doc Pritham. The little world is not hard to find. Take any road into Maine. Follow Route 15 to Greenville..."
We just started reading this book with our son. This book about his Great, Great Grandfather. Dr. Fred Pritham is a legend in our family and, it seems, legendary enough beyond our family for someone to write a book about him. He was the man who inspired Henry's great grandfather to be a physician. Great Grandpa died about a year ago at age 94, after living most of his life in Greenville, Maine. (In my opinion, his story is also worthy of a book...quite a tale. We will just leave it at that for now.) I think Dr. Fred Pritham is also the man who inspired Henry's grandfather to become a doctor. We call him "Bumps", but Dr. Howard Pritham ended up in northern New Hampshire - not far from Greenville - as a general surgeon retiring a few years back. Here are some photos of those Pritham men photographed for the book.
And maybe, just possibly, Henry's dad was influenced by this interesting man to enter medicine and become a urologist in Montana. Given all this history, we just had to read the book.
The book is an adventure story. Apparently, Doc Pritham traveled everywhere and anywhere in Maine to take care of his patients, starting out in 1905 and practicing for 65 years. There were not many doctors around and Doc Pritham did it all - surgery, medicine, delivering babies, anything and everything that was needed. He used every means of transportation from foot, to skis, to jumping trains, swimming through rivers, and eventually his own car. Doc Pritham's practice went through incredible changes such as, antibiotics and vaccinations. These and many other treatments that changed medicine forever. So this book is about the Doc, but it also chronicles a bit of medical history, as well as, how Maine's wilderness got logged for lumber and got so full of tourists.
It is fun to read a part of your family's past and bring a Great, Great Grandfather alive again for your son and his future. As the book descibes Doc, "Anecdotes about him are legion, all laced with the blunt salty humor and selfless dedication which make him not only a unique character but one beloved almost worshiped, by hundreds of friends and patients." So, this should be a good read and a fine hero for a young boy.
And, finally, on the eve of Valentine's Day, Doc Pritham also had a great love. Sweet strong Sadie.
Sadie has her own herstory. I hope we get to that next.
