Dr. Horace Lee McCall
Horace
Lee was born May 7, 1865 in Cherokee County, Texas, to parents Duncan &
Margaret McCall. They had come to Texas, from Tensas Parrish, Louisiana, to try
to make a better life after battling the flooding of the Mississippi River many
times.
Horace
decided on a career in medicine. It is thought that the reason he made this
choice, his family had lost many of it’s members due to the fevers and other
illnesses of that time. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville
Tennessee with the class of 1893.
Soon
after he came to Houston County to practice in the Tadmor community, near
Ratcliff. He met a young lady, Lula Musgrove, born Oct. 17, 1876, daughter of
Monsieur & Susan Musgrove. The couple were married Oct. 20, 1895 at the
home of the bride’s parents, in the Coltharp Community. They built a home in
the Tadmor community, and their three daughters were born there. Pearl, born
March 6, 1897, married Jess Wells. Minnie Lee, born Jan. 6, 1900 married Lee
Childers. The youngest daughter, Nena, born July 26, 1903 devoted her life to
teaching school.
Around
1915, the doctor and his family moved to Ratcliff, where they built a home, and
he built a drugstore & doctors office . These were the days when doctors
went to homes to treat the sick. He went in all kinds of weather on muddy roads
by car or sometimes horseback. Money was not easy to come by, he was paid many
times with vegetables, meat, eggs, whatever the family had. He was known for
telling things the way they were! He believed cleanliness was next to
Godliness, so many times he would have the family to clean the place first so
the sick could get well. Back then little was known about “germs”! He saved
many lives and delivered many babies in the area and was well respected.
He died
Oct. 17, 1958 after practicing medicine for sixty-five years. He is buried next
to his wife, Lula, who died April 22, 1958. They are buried at Old Zion
Cemetery, near Tadmor community.
Submitted
by: Avis Wells Walton