Buckley, Grand Traverse County, Michigan

Dr. C. S. Purdy Forgot to File, Thus Ending 46 Years as County Coroner

Buckley--Newspaper article, date unknown (1950ish)

        Dr. Calvin S. Purdy looked pensively at a few of the mementos which he has kept as souvenirs of his work as coroner of Wexford County, an office he has held for 46 years which came to a close at the year's end simply because "I just plain forgot to put my name on the ballot, and nobody around here thought to remind me."

        The 74-year-old doctor, a tall familiar figure who for more than half a century has attended the sick in this territory, admits he would have liked to round out fifty years as coroner in the county which he has faithfully served.  He has a record of only one defeat in all the years he ran for office, and that by only 37 votes, about 16 years ago.

        "People just got so used to my being coroner, and I guess I did too, that I never thought about putting my name in for the candidacy, until it was too late to file."

Coroner Almost 50 Years

        Dr. Purdy through the years, has maintained his coronership with his work as country doctor, jointly operating his doctor's office with his drug store in the village.  A man of many talents, he has become an authority on Indian lore as well, his collection of Indian relics the outcome of many and long walks through the woods in search of evidence of early Indian life.

        Recounting some of the unusual instances in his career as coroner, Purdy pointed out that none of the murders, suicides, or accidental deaths at which he officiated, have ever remained unsolved.  He fingered a metal ornament off the radiator of a car which he said had long been the obstacle to solution of an accidental death, in which he couldn't figure out how the victim had clung to the car after being hit with the vehicle.  The ornament was later found in the victim's coat sleeve, leading to the belief he was caught on the car and dragged to death.  Finding of the ornament led to the exoneration of the driver of the car.  A spent bullet was another bit of evidence which had eluded the coroner in the solution of a murder and suicide;  which was eventually solved after he noticed a small home in the wall, and removed the base board to locate the bullet.

As Doctor

        Dr. Purdy early in life became interested in the medical profession because of his admiration for a doctor in his Coshocton, Ohio, where he was born April 30, 1878.  With this doctor he "read" medicine for a time after he had completed his high school studies.  On the advice of the doctor he entered the Saginaw Valley Medical college at Saginaw, from which he graduated in 1902.  His talent as a musician saw him through financially, when he relates, "I was paid $3.50 plus expenses for an appearance playing the trumpet with a bad, when section hands were making only 82c a day."  He was instrumental in starting a band in Buckley, and counts among his prized possessions today, a brass trumpet which was used as a demonstration model from the H. M. White company a Boston, Mass., reputed to be one of the finest trumpets made.

        Upon graduation from medical school, he wandered around as a "locum tenens," that is, pinch hitting for doctors on vacation, ill or otherwise, which found him for a short time first in Ludington and then Freesoil, before coming to Wexford Corners in 1904.  The place was then only a little settlement, Purdy recalled, in the northwest corner of Hanover township in the extreme northwest corner of Wexford county, nestled in the virgin timber.  Here he took over the stock and practice, including a horse, of Dr. Eaton, the recollection of the "deal" still a source of amusement to Dr. Purdy, who said Eaton bid him write out twenty $50 notes, payable on demand.  The next time Eaton came in, the new young doctor told him his notes were ready, to which Eaton replied, "Tear them out when you get the money, payable to the Sherman bank," and with that as a parting admonition, Purdy never saw Eaton again.

        Soon after his establishment in Wexford Corners, he was elected to the coroner's post.  Within his first two years as a doctor he also became a bridegroom, being wed on August 4, 1904 to Louise C. Earl, a native of Sherman where she was born October 10, 1884.

        In 1907 Buckley and Douglas of Manistee moved into the region and began lumbering operations, cutting off the timber of four 40-acre tracts which became the village of Buckley.   It was incorporated as a village that same year.

        Purdy was, at the time, the only doctor in the territory.  A few years later, in 1910, he moved his store and office from Wexford Corners to Buckley.  He first established himself in a second floor office building, later purchasing the Dr. Bolt drugstore operated in the G. A. Brigham building.  In 1915 the store moved into its present location on the main street of the village.  The history of the drugstore would not be complete without the mention of his faithful assistant, Miss Gladys Nisewander, who terminated 40 years of service with the doctor as pharmacist, in 1948.

        The signpost in the front year of Dr. Purdy's home, pointing to his vocation, is unique in itself.  An electric lighted model of an old fashioned lamp post towers above an extended sign on which is a carved miniature silhouette replica of the "horse and buggy" of Dr. Arthur e. Hertzler, author of the book, "The Country Doctor."  Purdy has an autographed copy of the book which he counts among his treasures, as he does the sign itself.

        The country physician has delivered more than 5,000 babies in the territory in his half century of doctoring.  Co-incidentally, the first baby, he delivered bore his given name, as does also one of the most recent new babies born.  The first one brought honor to his name, said the doctor; recounting the life of young Calvin Sebastian Levi, who graduated among the highest honors ever conferred upon any medical student in the university.  However, the youth lived only a year after receiving the homage.  The last baby to bear his name is the infant son of Buckley's superintendent of schools, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Nichols.        

Harrowing Experience

        "My closest shave," in 50 years as a physician, hasn't dimmed the memory of one horrible night, which Purdy related he has relived over and over again.  One cold bitter night, the doctor's hostler "Frank," while hitching the doctor's hours "Lucky" in preparation for a house call, remarked a bad storm was coming up, he knew the signs.  The doctor nevertheless, made the house call, attended his patient, and started the return trip home.  The night was still and cold, foreboding a storm which soon turned into a blizzard.  All objects seemed instantly to disappear, the doctor recalled.  Lucky was wise to country roads.  The doctor, getting colder and colder, sank deeper into his buffalo robe and coat.  Getting still colder he finally got out of the cutter, turreted the lines, took Lucky's head in his arms and invoked Divine aid, certain that the two would perish.

        "I sobbed with the cold," he went on, fighting off sleep, knowing that to sleep was to expire.  "The next thing I knew, I was aroused by a rough massage and a loud voice, calling "Doctor, wake."  It was Frank, who had been startled by a loud scream and frantic hoofs pounding against the stable door.  Lucky had carried the doctor back home for relief from the cold, and the horse knew the protection and warmth would come from Frank who opened the door.  Lucky sank to the floor with a whine of exhaustion.  "The skin came off my face, hands and feet, but eventually I recovered," the doctor added.  "but somehow over the passing years, I still relive that night, when now the wind shrieks and there is no moon or stars and the snow comes down.

Indian Lore

        From the day he arrived in Wexford Corners, Dr. Purdy was aware he had settled in a region rich in material for the hobby he had pursued for many years.  "I've always like to walk, and I believe that is one reason I have uncovered more about Indian life than anyone around here."  Only recently I unearthed two arrowheads on a farm nearby, on ground over which the farmer had traveled for many years, without ever having noticed the relic."

        His drug store is filled with Indian relics, at which a visitor could spend many hours listening to the stories of their discovery.  He knows every arrowhead in his collection of several hundred, each piece of pottery, pointing to some which also include matching miniatures, tomahawks, pipes and many more.

        On the shores of Pentwater lake in Oceana county, he assisted archeologists in unearthing valuable specimens in a burial mound, and from that treasure he obtained one of his most valuable pieces, a rouge pot on the back of which is engraved hieroglyphics, some of which he has not yet entirely deciphered.

        Turtle Creek, Green and Duck lakes have provided other burial grounds where the doctor has found valuable relics, among them an unusual pipe.  The latter he found at Turtle Creek, the pipe engraved with the name "Benjamin Hill,"  and on panels in four corners of the piece are decorative motifs which he said occur only on the ceilings of the Parthenon of Athens, along with engravings of a five-pointed star, with representation of a comet and a bird in flight.  On the back of the pipe is etched a lotus from the Nile and on the bottom, the fleur-de-lis of France.  On the top of the bow is a 7/8" gauge.  He learned about the engravings of the pipe from scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, Benjamin Hill was a national figure in the   War days and figure in a trio on a Delaware Indian chief and C. C. Pinknew, also of Revolutionary war fame.

        Dr. Purdy found the pipe in a mound, believed on an Indian burial site, and found with the remains of an Indian.  He believes the Indian with whom the pipe was buried bartered with explorers, perhaps at Niagara where many of the Michigan Indians traded, to get possession of it.

        The doctor also believes he has discovered an old Indian campsite along the Manistee River, but still has not found the burial site for the old village.  His explorations in the mounds have been done along with archeologists, he relates, who have credited him with much of their research work.  He has assisted in the compilation of the Archeology Atlas of Michigan, the book "Primitive Man in Michigan," by the later Dr. Wilbert B. Hinsdale, who was a director of archeological work in the state at the University of Michigan.  Traverse City's museum also bears many mementos of Dr. Purdy's work. 

        Indian father and son relationship was displayed in a stone ax among Purdy's relics, which he found within six feet of another very small relic, in his hunt for Indian Lore around Green Lake, 10 miles from Buckley.  His collection also contains a similar...

end of story as I have it.. will add the rest and Dr. Purdy's obit when it makes it self known.  Thanks and sorry for the disappointing ending.. I will add it as soon as it shows itself. ;) Brenda There are also there are other articles on Gladys and Dr. Purdy that might find their way here.