Gifts not always found under a tree

During the Christmas season, thoughts turn to family. When families get together over the holidays, tales of family history are often shared. When I began dating my now-husband, I enjoyed hearing his family stories. As an only child, he didn’t have sibling stories, but he did have stories about his parents and grandparents. At this season of Christmastide, I thought I would share one of my favorites about my husband’s grandfather, J.O. Brown.

John Oliver Brown was born in Eufaula, Alabama, in 1869. He completed his early education in Alabama and then attended the Kentucky School of Medicine, graduating in 1890. In later years, he took classes at the New Orleans Polyclinic and did post-graduate work at Tulane University. In 1893, he came to Florida with his parents. His parents did not stay long, returning to Alabama, but Dr. Brown stayed on and began practicing medicine. Medicine wasn’t a lucrative profession in those days. He also cleared land to earn money and grew citrus and tomatoes. It is said that his first home in Palmetto was a tent in an orange grove — with lots of snakes around!

There were two other doctors in Manatee County when Dr. Brown began his practice, M.B. Harrison in Palmetto and J.B. Leffingwell in Bradenton. He stayed here until 1900, when he moved his practice to Sarasota to be their first physician and opened up the first drugstore at what is known downtown as Five Points. At that time, an office visit cost 50 cents, and baby deliveries set couples back $10. It is said that he delivered 1,400 babies during the course of his 57-year medical career.

He would ride his horse 30 miles to care for a patient and often could not collect on his bill. Times were hard for many families, but Dr. Brown understood that medical care was a necessity even for those whose purses were near empty. His care was often a gift to the community. Eventually, Dr. Brown and his wife, Martha Gullet, moved their family back to Palmetto, and he continued to practice medicine for many years. They were very kind and would often foster orphaned children whose parents had died. This trait is the one that has most affected me personally.

This is my favorite part of the Dr. Brown story. In a 1981 speech given to the Manatee County Historical Society by local resident Mrs. Murray Harrison, she told this story about Dr. Brown. “One of the first stories I heard when I moved to Palmetto, was about Dr. Brown and this little incident that happened one night. He was delivering a baby when it was very apparent that there wasn’t much chance for that baby to live because it was premature, weighed less than two pounds, perhaps just about a pound and a half. He asked if there was a shoebox in the house. Somebody said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘I want the shoebox because I’m going to put this little piece of life in this box and I’m going to take it home, to my wife. And we are going to raise this baby.’ And do you know, without any sophisticated equipment, that we have today — incubators or anything — that Dr. Brown and his wife took this little baby, put her on a pillow and wrapped her up in a blanket and fed her with a medicine dropper. And they did save her.”

This little baby was my mother-in-law, Alice Brown Ingram, who the Browns legally adopted as their own. Alice’s mother passed away during childbirth, and her young father was unable to care for a tiny baby. If Alice had not been cared for by Dr. and Mrs. Brown, my husband would never have been born. So thank you, Dr. Brown, for the best gift I’ve ever received!

This story was originally published December 24, 2017 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Gifts not always found under a tree."