441
.~~
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-
JAMES MALACHI WHITTICO, SR., M.D., 1893-1975 All, all are gone, the old tamiliar faces. Lamb Nevermore will an NMA Convention be graced with the familiar figure of Dr. John Talmage Givens, executive secretary for 33 years' striding here, there and everywhere with his constant cry, "Visit the exhibits." No more shall we see the tall, powerful figure of Dr. Eugene Tivoli Taylor, treasurer for an equal length of time, giving his annual reports which detailed in his methodical way all receipts and all disbursements so that everyone knew whence the money came, where it went and where the balance lay.2 Before "modernization" the NMA leaders of this generation had amassed cash assets of over $150,000, now all gone. Of this group there was no more familiar, and certainly no more loved, figure than that of Dr. James Malachi Whittico, Sr., standing at the door of the House of Delegates as the Sergeant-at-Arms with his own special cane which he had procured himself as the symbol of authority and used only once a year at the Conventions. None ever thought to consult the Constitution about the jurisdiction of this officer and surely none would have ever dared challenge his gentle authority irrespective of what might or might not have been in the unread By-Laws. Dr. Whittico, Sr. in his person and in his office was the oldest tradition of the NMA. And now he is gone. It was a moving experience at the Nashville Convention to note the reverent appreciation with which Dr. Lee Andrew Gill was received when introduced as at 97, the oldest active NMA member and the oldest member of the House of Delegates.3 The syndrome, "Now I'm here, progress begins," is so common today and the attempt to ignore the past so positive, that the younger members of the NMA tend to evince little interest in those on whose shoulders they stand. One of the stalwarts whose efforts and loyalty built the NMA is James Malachi Whittico, Sr. of Williamson, West Virginia, who died on August 10, 1975, in the Veterans Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, a month before his 82nd birthday. Dr.
Whittico had practiced medicine for sixty years, had been a member of the NMA for fifty-six years and one of its officers for thirty-five years. Not least of his contributions was his son, Dr. James Malachi Whittico, Jr., St. Louis surgeon, who was the 68th president of the NMA in 19684 and its 31st Distinguished Service Medalist in 1976.* The elder Whittico was born on September 23, 1893, in Ridgeway, Virginia, the last of ten children of Hezekiah Jink and Letitia Pace Whittico. His father had inherited a 500 acre farm from his parents Thomas and Catherine Whittico. Dr. Whittico, Sr. grew up on this farm on which he was born. He was instrumental in maintaining this large acreage until his death. At a recent meeting of the family a corporation was formed which named the farm "The Whittico Heirs Estate." As a boy Dr. Whittico, Sr. worked on the farm and went to public school. He completed his secondary education in nearby Martinsville, Virginia, and at the Mary Potter School in Oxford, North Carolina, where he remained three years. This was not far from his native Ridgeway. Dr. Whittico's mother died when he was young and he helped with his expenses first by working in the nearby mines. He then entered Walden University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he played on the footbll and baseball teams. He next matriculated at Meharry Medical College from which he received the M.D. in 1912. Having continued to work in the mines of West Virginia and adjacent Kentucky to finance his medical education, after graduation he went to Williamson, West Virginia, on the Kentucky border to establish practice in the heart of the "Million Dollar Coal Fields" of Mingo County. Having cast his die in Williamson, Dr. Whittico remained there for the rest of his productive and re*Two medals were awarded in 1976. The other was to Dr. Lloyd Charles Elam.
442
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
SEPTEMBER, 1976
w
Dr.Whittico,&S.wttwofhshre.Dn(f), Fny(ih)
warding career, except for his military service. On December 24, 1914, Dr. Whittico, Sr. married Miss Nannie L. Cobbs of Keystone. She was a graduate of West Virginia Collegiate Institute and an accomplished teacher. They had one child, James Malachi Whittico, Jr. When the United States entered World War I, Dr. Whittico, Sr. went to the Officers Training Camp at Ft. Des Moines, Iowa, where he was commissioned a First Lieutenant. He saw service at Camp Meade in Maryland for some months and was sent overseas for active service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. After the war, Dr. Whittico returned to Williamson where he resumed his practice and many activities. While Dr. Whittico lived and worked within the Negro community, he was never a complete racial isolate. The milieu of the mining country was somewhat different from that of the plantation. Williamson, a city of some 6,000 population, was not far from towns with such colorful names as Mohawk, Panther, Vulcan, War Eagle and Red Jacket. In this rough environment, although racism was deeply entrenched, a man who stood his ground earned respect. Dr. Whittico once found it necessary to go armed because of the belligerence of hostile whites who had not seen a Negro physician before. Dr. Whittico, Jr. recalls that when he was a boy and the Klu Klux Klan paraded through Williamson, Negro citizens were expected to get off the streets, but Dr. Whittico, Sr. would turn up the outside lights of their home and had his wife and son join him sitting on the porch while the whitesheeted Klansmen went by. He was later to organize with the help of the County Sheriff a barricade with
machine guns to protect the Negro section of the town from the threats of the Klan. As a human rights activist he frequently cosigned loans for local blacks to purchase farm equipment, open businesses and purchase homes. He often loaned money himself without collateral. Despite his early trouble with white racists he gradually gained the respect of the entire community and at one time more than half of his patients were whites from Williamson and surrounding mining towns, farms, mountains and valleys of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. He was the family physician for some members of the Hatfield family during the days of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Their friendship grew as the Hatfields became politically prominent in West Virginia. Dr. Whittico opened the Whittico Drug Store on East Third Avenue in Williamson soon after the War. He successively employed three pharmacists, each of whom moved on to establish their own pharmacies in other parts of West Virginia. He assisted several other physicians and dentists in getting started in Williamson, in some instances providing them with office and living space in the apartments over the drug store. The store became a kind of medical center which also contributed to the social and cultural life of the youth and adults of the county. Dr. Whittico was very active in community and religious affairs. He started the first Afro-American Church on Third Avenue and was long a staunch member and superintendent of the First Methodist Church. He organized the first Negro Boy Scout troop in Williamson which he personally financed and served as Scout Master. With a relative, Dr. Hannibal Clark, he
Vol. 68, No. 5
James Malachi Whittico, Sr., M.D., 1893-1975
introduced tennis in his home town, constructing the first tennis court for his people there. He was instrumental in bringing teams from the Negro baseball leagues to Williamson often assuming much of the expense involved and providing for entertainment after the games. He was also active in bringing musical artists to the town. Dr. Whittico, Sr. helped organize the first local branches of the NAACP, the Masons, the Elks, and the Pythians and was their duly elected first or one time leader. He was a past president of the Mingo County Academy of Health and a member of the Williamson Chamber of Commerce. He served for about four years on the board of the local Blue Cross-Blue Shield and had been both a Health Physician for Mingo County and for Williamson. Dr. Whittico's first marriage ended in divorce in 1936. On January 10, 1939 he married Lafadia Belle Dickerson and to them was born one son, Matthew Thomas Whittico of Washington, D.C. Dr. Whittico was well versed in politics, history and social economics and frequently made local political speeches. He came to be known as a "walking encyclopedia. " He was so ardent a Republican that he objected to President Lyndon B. Johnson's having been invited to address the NMA Convention in Houston in 1968 at which his son, Dr. James M. Whittico, Jr., was inducted as NMA president. Dr. Whittico, Sr., received at his son's hands at that Convention, a plaque for 56 years of meritorious service to the NMA. His alma mater, Meharry Medical College, had previously honored him with a gold plaque for 50 years service in the medical profession. In 1968 he was presented an award by the West Virginia Medical Society for "distinguished contributions to the medical profession." As early as 1923, Dr. Whittico had become sufficiently significant to be accorded a chapter in Caldwell's "History of the American Negro.' Many other expressions from
443
organizations and his community attest the general esteem in which he was held. Dr. Whittico's career spanned a remarkable period in human history from horseback to the jet age. He became a good horseman as a boy on the farm, and it was natural that when he moved to Williamson he first made his calls on horseback, Daniel Drake style. After he got a small car, he took his son on his calls thus giving the future surgeon early first hand exposure to the nature of medical practice. The automobile never displaced his love of horses and he kept a good saddle horse always available until his health failed. This modest, unassuming man except for the periods in school, military service and trips to meetings spent his long life essentially within a radius of a hundred miles of his birthplace, yet through his good works and his son, his influence will long survive him over a much broader area. The NMA will cherish his memory. W. MONTAGUE COBB, M.D. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author is grateful to Dr. James M. Whittico, Jr., for materials used in this tribute.
LITERATURE CITED
1. COBB, W. M. John Talmage Givens, M.D., 1890-. JNMA, v. 67, pp. 486-487, 1975. 2. Eugene Tivoli Taylor, M.D., 1882-. JNMA, v. 66, pp. 525-526, 1974. . -Lee Andrew Gill, M.D., 1878-. 3. JNMA, v. 68, pp. 151-152, 1976. 4. . The President Elect, Dr. James Malachi Whittico, Jr. JNMA, v. 60, pp. 50-51, 1968. 5. CALDWELL, A. B. History of the American Negro (West Virginia Edition). Vol. VII, A.B. Caldwell Publishing Co., Atlanta, Ga., 1923, pp. 268-271.
NMA REGION I The Sixth Annual Meeting of Region I in conjunction with the Empire State Medical Association and Auxiliaries was held May 27-30, 1977, at the Great Gorge Resort Hotel in
McAfee, New Jersey. Dr. Leslie L. Alexander, chairman of Region I was enthusiastic over the results of the Annual Meeting.
.~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
JAMES MALACHI WHITTICO, SR., M.D., 1893-1975 All, all are gone, the old tamiliar faces. Lamb Nevermore will an NMA Convention be graced with the familiar figure of Dr. John Talmage Givens, executive secretary for 33 years' striding here, there and everywhere with his constant cry, "Visit the exhibits." No more shall we see the tall, powerful figure of Dr. Eugene Tivoli Taylor, treasurer for an equal length of time, giving his annual reports which detailed in his methodical way all receipts and all disbursements so that everyone knew whence the money came, where it went and where the balance lay.2 Before "modernization" the NMA leaders of this generation had amassed cash assets of over $150,000, now all gone. Of this group there was no more familiar, and certainly no more loved, figure than that of Dr. James Malachi Whittico, Sr., standing at the door of the House of Delegates as the Sergeant-at-Arms with his own special cane which he had procured himself as the symbol of authority and used only once a year at the Conventions. None ever thought to consult the Constitution about the jurisdiction of this officer and surely none would have ever dared challenge his gentle authority irrespective of what might or might not have been in the unread By-Laws. Dr. Whittico, Sr. in his person and in his office was the oldest tradition of the NMA. And now he is gone. It was a moving experience at the Nashville Convention to note the reverent appreciation with which Dr. Lee Andrew Gill was received when introduced as at 97, the oldest active NMA member and the oldest member of the House of Delegates.3 The syndrome, "Now I'm here, progress begins," is so common today and the attempt to ignore the past so positive, that the younger members of the NMA tend to evince little interest in those on whose shoulders they stand. One of the stalwarts whose efforts and loyalty built the NMA is James Malachi Whittico, Sr. of Williamson, West Virginia, who died on August 10, 1975, in the Veterans Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, a month before his 82nd birthday. Dr.
Whittico had practiced medicine for sixty years, had been a member of the NMA for fifty-six years and one of its officers for thirty-five years. Not least of his contributions was his son, Dr. James Malachi Whittico, Jr., St. Louis surgeon, who was the 68th president of the NMA in 19684 and its 31st Distinguished Service Medalist in 1976.* The elder Whittico was born on September 23, 1893, in Ridgeway, Virginia, the last of ten children of Hezekiah Jink and Letitia Pace Whittico. His father had inherited a 500 acre farm from his parents Thomas and Catherine Whittico. Dr. Whittico, Sr. grew up on this farm on which he was born. He was instrumental in maintaining this large acreage until his death. At a recent meeting of the family a corporation was formed which named the farm "The Whittico Heirs Estate." As a boy Dr. Whittico, Sr. worked on the farm and went to public school. He completed his secondary education in nearby Martinsville, Virginia, and at the Mary Potter School in Oxford, North Carolina, where he remained three years. This was not far from his native Ridgeway. Dr. Whittico's mother died when he was young and he helped with his expenses first by working in the nearby mines. He then entered Walden University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he played on the footbll and baseball teams. He next matriculated at Meharry Medical College from which he received the M.D. in 1912. Having continued to work in the mines of West Virginia and adjacent Kentucky to finance his medical education, after graduation he went to Williamson, West Virginia, on the Kentucky border to establish practice in the heart of the "Million Dollar Coal Fields" of Mingo County. Having cast his die in Williamson, Dr. Whittico remained there for the rest of his productive and re*Two medals were awarded in 1976. The other was to Dr. Lloyd Charles Elam.
442
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
SEPTEMBER, 1976
w
Dr.Whittico,&S.wttwofhshre.Dn(f), Fny(ih)
warding career, except for his military service. On December 24, 1914, Dr. Whittico, Sr. married Miss Nannie L. Cobbs of Keystone. She was a graduate of West Virginia Collegiate Institute and an accomplished teacher. They had one child, James Malachi Whittico, Jr. When the United States entered World War I, Dr. Whittico, Sr. went to the Officers Training Camp at Ft. Des Moines, Iowa, where he was commissioned a First Lieutenant. He saw service at Camp Meade in Maryland for some months and was sent overseas for active service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. After the war, Dr. Whittico returned to Williamson where he resumed his practice and many activities. While Dr. Whittico lived and worked within the Negro community, he was never a complete racial isolate. The milieu of the mining country was somewhat different from that of the plantation. Williamson, a city of some 6,000 population, was not far from towns with such colorful names as Mohawk, Panther, Vulcan, War Eagle and Red Jacket. In this rough environment, although racism was deeply entrenched, a man who stood his ground earned respect. Dr. Whittico once found it necessary to go armed because of the belligerence of hostile whites who had not seen a Negro physician before. Dr. Whittico, Jr. recalls that when he was a boy and the Klu Klux Klan paraded through Williamson, Negro citizens were expected to get off the streets, but Dr. Whittico, Sr. would turn up the outside lights of their home and had his wife and son join him sitting on the porch while the whitesheeted Klansmen went by. He was later to organize with the help of the County Sheriff a barricade with
machine guns to protect the Negro section of the town from the threats of the Klan. As a human rights activist he frequently cosigned loans for local blacks to purchase farm equipment, open businesses and purchase homes. He often loaned money himself without collateral. Despite his early trouble with white racists he gradually gained the respect of the entire community and at one time more than half of his patients were whites from Williamson and surrounding mining towns, farms, mountains and valleys of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. He was the family physician for some members of the Hatfield family during the days of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Their friendship grew as the Hatfields became politically prominent in West Virginia. Dr. Whittico opened the Whittico Drug Store on East Third Avenue in Williamson soon after the War. He successively employed three pharmacists, each of whom moved on to establish their own pharmacies in other parts of West Virginia. He assisted several other physicians and dentists in getting started in Williamson, in some instances providing them with office and living space in the apartments over the drug store. The store became a kind of medical center which also contributed to the social and cultural life of the youth and adults of the county. Dr. Whittico was very active in community and religious affairs. He started the first Afro-American Church on Third Avenue and was long a staunch member and superintendent of the First Methodist Church. He organized the first Negro Boy Scout troop in Williamson which he personally financed and served as Scout Master. With a relative, Dr. Hannibal Clark, he
Vol. 68, No. 5
James Malachi Whittico, Sr., M.D., 1893-1975
introduced tennis in his home town, constructing the first tennis court for his people there. He was instrumental in bringing teams from the Negro baseball leagues to Williamson often assuming much of the expense involved and providing for entertainment after the games. He was also active in bringing musical artists to the town. Dr. Whittico, Sr. helped organize the first local branches of the NAACP, the Masons, the Elks, and the Pythians and was their duly elected first or one time leader. He was a past president of the Mingo County Academy of Health and a member of the Williamson Chamber of Commerce. He served for about four years on the board of the local Blue Cross-Blue Shield and had been both a Health Physician for Mingo County and for Williamson. Dr. Whittico's first marriage ended in divorce in 1936. On January 10, 1939 he married Lafadia Belle Dickerson and to them was born one son, Matthew Thomas Whittico of Washington, D.C. Dr. Whittico was well versed in politics, history and social economics and frequently made local political speeches. He came to be known as a "walking encyclopedia. " He was so ardent a Republican that he objected to President Lyndon B. Johnson's having been invited to address the NMA Convention in Houston in 1968 at which his son, Dr. James M. Whittico, Jr., was inducted as NMA president. Dr. Whittico, Sr., received at his son's hands at that Convention, a plaque for 56 years of meritorious service to the NMA. His alma mater, Meharry Medical College, had previously honored him with a gold plaque for 50 years service in the medical profession. In 1968 he was presented an award by the West Virginia Medical Society for "distinguished contributions to the medical profession." As early as 1923, Dr. Whittico had become sufficiently significant to be accorded a chapter in Caldwell's "History of the American Negro.' Many other expressions from
443
organizations and his community attest the general esteem in which he was held. Dr. Whittico's career spanned a remarkable period in human history from horseback to the jet age. He became a good horseman as a boy on the farm, and it was natural that when he moved to Williamson he first made his calls on horseback, Daniel Drake style. After he got a small car, he took his son on his calls thus giving the future surgeon early first hand exposure to the nature of medical practice. The automobile never displaced his love of horses and he kept a good saddle horse always available until his health failed. This modest, unassuming man except for the periods in school, military service and trips to meetings spent his long life essentially within a radius of a hundred miles of his birthplace, yet through his good works and his son, his influence will long survive him over a much broader area. The NMA will cherish his memory. W. MONTAGUE COBB, M.D. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author is grateful to Dr. James M. Whittico, Jr., for materials used in this tribute.
LITERATURE CITED
1. COBB, W. M. John Talmage Givens, M.D., 1890-. JNMA, v. 67, pp. 486-487, 1975. 2. Eugene Tivoli Taylor, M.D., 1882-. JNMA, v. 66, pp. 525-526, 1974. . -Lee Andrew Gill, M.D., 1878-. 3. JNMA, v. 68, pp. 151-152, 1976. 4. . The President Elect, Dr. James Malachi Whittico, Jr. JNMA, v. 60, pp. 50-51, 1968. 5. CALDWELL, A. B. History of the American Negro (West Virginia Edition). Vol. VII, A.B. Caldwell Publishing Co., Atlanta, Ga., 1923, pp. 268-271.
NMA REGION I The Sixth Annual Meeting of Region I in conjunction with the Empire State Medical Association and Auxiliaries was held May 27-30, 1977, at the Great Gorge Resort Hotel in
McAfee, New Jersey. Dr. Leslie L. Alexander, chairman of Region I was enthusiastic over the results of the Annual Meeting.
