Samuel Jay Crumbine was a pioneer in public health

Public health

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...

 who campaigned against the common drinking cup, the common towel, and spitting in public in order to prevent the spread of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 and other germs.

Life in Dodge City

Dr. Crumbine began his medical practice “in rip-roaring, untamed Dodge City during its heyday,” the late 1880s and early 1890s. Fresh from medical school in 1885, he was taken on a tour of the saloons in the unsavory South Side. “I heard peals of laughter,” he related in later days, “staccato calls of the floor manager, occasional whoops of cowboys, and constant shuffling of heavy boots. At one end of the hall was a bar, doing a rushing business. At the other, on a small platform, was an orchestra—fiddle, guitar and banjo. The women were house entertainers, servants or demimondes.”

Dr. Crumbine was the model for "Doc Adams" on the long running TV show "Gunsmoke". The legendary lawmen of Dodge City—Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...

, Bat Masterson

Bat Masterson

William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was a figure of the American Old West known as a buffalo hunter, U.S. Marshal and Army scout, avid fisherman, gambler, frontier lawman, and sports editor and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph...

, Luke Short and Bill Tilghman

Bill Tilghman

William Matthew "Bill" Tilghman was a lawman in the American Old West.-Early life :Bill Tilghman was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on July 4, 1854. He became a buffalo hunter at age 15 and claimed he killed over 1000 bison over his five years of activity...

—were his contemporaries. On one occasion, he saw Tilghman through a severe siege of pneumonia. The lawman became one of the few to live to a ripe old age.

Life after Dodge City

He moved to Topeka to become a Kansas public-health officer. Eventually, he became nationally known for his work with the U.S. Public Health Service. He is the inventor of the flyswatter

Flyswatter

A flyswatter is a hand-held device for killing flies and other insects. A flyswatter usually consists of a small rectangular sheet of lightweight, flexible, vented material, usually thin metallic, rubber, or plastic mesh, attached to a lightweight wire or plastic handle about long...

, most likely in 1905, an improvement on the earlier "flybat" produced by Frank H. Rose. He died in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

in 1954.

Family

He had two children: Violet and Warren. Violet had one child, Carolyn, who has never married. Warren, who died in China in 1918, had one child, also named Warren, who in turn had four children, Peter, Dennis, Nancy and Katie. As of July, 2010, Dr. Crumbine had 18 living descendents.

Publications

• Frontier Doctor: The Autobiography of a Pioneer on the Frontier of Public Health

External links

• Article about Crumbine and a photograph of brick with the slogan "Don't spit on sidewalk."