Dr. William Beaumont 1828-1832 at Fort Crawford
Dr. William Beaumont 1828-1832 at Fort Crawford
Dr. Beaumont served as an army surgeon at Fort Crawford from the summer of 1828 through the summer of 1832.
While at Mackinac in 1822, Beaumont had treated Alexis St. Martin, for a very serious gunshot wound to the stomach; he didn't expect the young voyageur to survive.
Beaumont's first experiments were conducted while at Fort Niagara in 1825 by observing St. Martin's digestive process through a small hole that hadn't closed.
When he was transferred to Fort Crawford in 1828, he began trying to get his patient to come for further experiments. The American Fur Company located him and the army agreed to paid him a small sum. He arrived in Prairie du Chien in August 1829. Since summer was a busy season for Beaumont, he didn't get a chance to continue the experiments until December. The winter of 1829-30 had lots of snow and much cold and so Beaumont wanted to know the effect of the weather on digestion. His laboratory was the dilapidated hospital of the 1st Fort Crawford. In April of 1829, a 2nd Fort Crawford was authorized and was under construction.
The winter of 1830-31 was a repeat of the year before. In the two winters, Beaumont conducted 56 experiments and kept careful notes. By April St. Martin grew restless and left.
In 1833 Beaumont published Experiments and Observations on Gastric Juice and Physiology of Digestion which was widely read and discussed.
Since the fort was on the river, the soldiers here suffered malarial type complaints until the weather got cold. 1828 was a bad flood year when the river crested twice, so Beaumont was very busy. He wrote a small book about the experience in Prairie du Chien.
Beaumont had a close group of colleagues while he was here and asked to be reassigned, but he was sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis where he developed a good practice when he left the army. He died there in 1853 at 68; his patient, Alexis St. Martin died 27 years later in 1880.
The museum has three sources available on the interesting life of Beaumont.
Horsman, Reginald. Frontier Doctor: William Beaumont, America's
First Great Medical Scientist. Columbia University of Missouri
Press. 1966.
Nelson, Rodney B. Beaumont: America's First Physiologist. Geneva, Illinois: Grant House Press. 1990.
Stemper, Mary Ann. The Beaumont Years: 1828-1832. Self published booklet on Beaumont's time in Prairie du Chien.
