Brothers moved mountains in medicine, business, politics

Two of the most interesting characters in Arkansas medical and political history are the Abington brothers of Beebe. William H. and Eugene H. Abington were far more than successful small town physicians; their business acumen was demonstrated in drug sales as well as banking, while their control over White County politics made them local kingmakers. Their opposition to medical education reforms in the first half of the 20th century flew in the face of modern medical education trends. Both men were strong willed, intelligent and literate, and both were highly quotable.

William Henry (W.H.) Abington was born in January 1870 in Tennessee, the second child of college-educated farmer William T. and Mary Jane Plant Abington, a teacher at the time of their marriage. Eugene Hardeman Abington (E.H.) was born in April 1873 after the family had moved to Arkansas. Initially, the William T. Abington family was prosperous, and their imposing 1880 home in Beebe not only survives but is on the National Register of Historic Places. William T. Abington suffered financial reverses before his premature death in 1888, leaving his widow and children with small inheritances.

W.H. Abington was educated at a small college in Hopkinsville, Ky., graduating in 1889. He then entered the fledgling medical department of Arkansas Industrial University, located in Little Rock. He was licensed to practice in 1892.

W.H. Abington and his younger brother were both active in local politics, though Eugene worked behind the scenes rather than hold public office. Melanie K. Welch, author of the entry on W.H. Abington in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas

History & Culture, has noted that Abington entered politics in the 1890s, first serving as mayor of Russell in White County and later Bald Knob — and still later Beebe. Abington’s political connections were such that in 1894 Democratic gubernatorial candidate James P. Clarke called upon him to manage his campaign in White County.

Meantime, brother E.H. Abington followed the example of his older brother in studying medicine. He noted in his autobiography that both his older brother and sister had attended college, but “on account of [a] scarcity of money, I was never able to attend literary college.” That did not prevent his entering the medical field because medical education was not extensively regulated. Most doctors practicing in 1900 Arkansas did not graduate from medical schools.

E.H. studied under his family physician, a Dr. Gist, who was also a pharmacist. He then studied for two years at medical school in Little Rock. He was not allowed to continue in the medical school because, as he later said, the school “had realized that I would not be 21 by graduation, and they insisted that I wait a year before returning for my final term of study.” The ever-willful E.H. was not keen on the idea, so he joined his brother’s practice in the town of Russell. He later returned to Beebe and practiced there for the next 69 years.

Country doctors in Arkansas did not have an easy life. E.H. recalled in his autobiography that patients often lived in remote areas, were frequently poor, and often paid for services and medicines with garden produce, eggs, or chickens. By necessity both brothers extended credit to patients, with most paying bills after the fall cotton harvest.

“For many years after I began practice,” E.H. wrote, “we did not have the benefit of the X-ray or cardiograph, nor did we have technicians to help us make diagnoses.” In all seriousness, E.H. remembered that during his early practice, “there was no such thing as a trained nurse or a paved road.”

The primitive conditions did not prevent the brothers from undertaking aggressive treatment procedures. When an elderly German-American woman who spoke no English refused to go to a hospital for removal of severe cataracts, “we bought the necessary instruments and operated, with good results.”

The Abington brothers had financial interests well beyond their medical practices. W.H. bought half interest in the Beebe Drug Co. in 1909. Meantime, E.H. organized the Citizens Bank of Beebe in 1917, serving as president until 1957, when he became chairman of the board.

E.H. developed his own patent medicine, a concoction marketed as To-Ho-Ya. Indeed, E.H. relocated to Oklahoma for a time in an attempt to build a regional market for his tonic, though he soon returned to Beebe when his warehouse burned.

Both brothers were interested in politics, though it was W.H. who had a long career in elective politics. Shortly before his death in 1951, the Arkansas Gazette ran a feature on W.H., noting his political career: “The esteemed doctor, who knows how to make ballot boxes dance jigs and sing … has been mayor of three towns, president of two school boards, and a member of the Legislature almost continuously since 1923.”

Sen. W.H. Abington was a man of firm convictions, and he could be authoritarian. Sometimes his legislative proposals were little more than personal whims. During his first term, Abington unsuccessfully sought passage of a bill to outlaw automobiles “geared to make over 30 miles an hour … or a truck geared to travel over 15 miles an hour.”

By controlling the White County Democratic Central Committee, which both brothers chaired for years, the Abingtons essentially became local political bosses. E.H. admitted as an old man that “as committeeman for my township, I named the judges and clerks. I was very particular to name those who would do what was necessary to be done.”

Sen. Abington is probably best known today as the political force behind the creation of a regional agricultural high school which evolved into the Arkansas State University at Beebe. But, for historians, Abington is best known for his longtime opposition to state efforts to professionalize the education of medical doctors.

Arkansas had a reputation as a haven for medical quacks in 1920 when the American Medical Association journal asked the question, “What is wrong with Arkansas?” With support from the AMA, two medical schools’ deans in Little Rock set about to increase entrance requirements and admission standards.

Abington was something of a populist in that he thought medical education should be open to everyone, and not “the son or daughter of the rich, or near-rich.” He especially decried efforts by the American Medical Association to raise medical school admission standards by requiring two years of college prior to entering medical school. Many rural lawmakers saw the AMA’s efforts as an attack on country doctors. E.H. Abington charged that doctor shortages “are the result of organization and cold-blooded planning.”

During his first term, Sen. Abington introduced legislation to replace the medical school’s trustees with a new five-member board which would have authority to dismiss the dean of the medical school and lower its admission standards. While that bill was handily defeated in the Senate, Abington and his allies never gave up the fight to lower standards.

During the 1933 legislative session, Sen. Abington became infuriated when a state senate committee defeated his bill allowing the lowering of medical school entrance requirements, and he physically attacked a representative of the Arkansas Medical Society over their opposition to his bill. (Interestingly, both brothers could be violent — especially E.H., who was charged but not prosecuted for his role in a 1905 shootout in the Beebe streets in which one man died.)

It is important to recognize that despite his ongoing fight with the medical establishment, Abington was a supporter of medical education and improved health care — especially in rural areas. He recognized the need for a charity hospital which could also be a teaching hospital for the medical school.

W.H. was still serving in the legislature in March 1951 when he died at age 81. E.H., who practiced until age 89, died in 1965 at 92. They are buried in Beebe Cemetery.

TOM DILLARD