Dr. Daniel E. Baughman
The following story of Dr. Daniel E. Baughman, is an excellent example
of
a rural veterinarian, in the late 1800s.
With the combined research and
the descriptive color of a personal
letter from a former employee and friend
of Dr. Baughman, this story will
delight everyone, besides being a historical
document.
Dr. Daniel E. Baughman (1867-1960) His first
money was earned helping
a neighbor drive cattle to market, because the 50
cents a day he and his
siblings earned in doing farm work was kept by his
father.
When he turned 18, he decided to attend the Chicago Veterinary College,
one of
the premier veterinary schools of its day, against his father’s wishes.
He graduated in 1887 with a DVM degree from the
two-year course of
training at CVC. Started his veterinary practice in Danvers,
Illinois.
In 1892, his father and brother purchased 720 acres near Manson, Iowa,
becoming the first Mennonites to locate in this area. Dr. Baughman upon a
visit
to Manson in the fall of 1897 discovered an opportunity in nearby Ft.
Dodge to
move his veterinary practice. Thus, he
moved his wife Anna and
daughter Ethel to Ft. Dodge from Danvers in the
following January of 1898.
He thereupon became the first licensed veterinarian
in the northern half of
Iowa to be a graduate of a veterinary college. His
advice was sought from
other veterinarians from a wide area.
Dr. Baughman was primarily a large animal
practitioner with emphasis on
horses. Dr.
Baughman’s father was a breeder of Percheron draft horses in
Manson, forming
the German American Horse Company. A Percheron horse
had the same value in the
1890’s as a 160-acre farm.
In 1911, Dr. D. E. Baughman founded the
Ames Vaccine Company of
Ames, Iowa, the facilities were moved to Fort Dodge,
Iowa in 1912.
Renamed the Fort Dodge
Serum Company, to manufacture anti-hog
cholera
serum,
it underwent another name change in 1932, becoming the Fort Dodge
Laboratories.
In 1945, the company was acquired by the
pharmaceutical research
corporation American Home Products and is now known as
Fort Dodge
Animal Health. In 1995, American
Home Products acquired the animal
health division of Solvay,
which was folded into Fort Dodge Animal Health.
The acquisition gave Fort Dodge
Animal Health strong market presence in
Europe and Asia as well as expanding
its product portfolio to include swine
and poultry vaccines.
With its roots in the development of the
anti-hog cholera serum, the Fort
Dodge Laboratories produces numerous
veterinary medicine drugs primarily
used in the treatment of farm livestock and
household pets.
Fort Dodge has an impressive history of
animal health “firsts,” including:
the first canine Lyme disease vaccine, first
genetically cloned feline leukemia
vaccine, the first feline ringworm vaccine,
and the first complete line of equine
vaccines.
Author’s correspondence: In 1998, I had the privilege of meeting a
former
Fort Dodge Laboratories President, D. A. “Pete” Peterson of Fort Dodge.
Pete was visiting his daughter here in Fond
du Lac, over several months,
we became friends.
On one occasion, he told me the following story of his
old “boss,” as it
was related to him in 1935, when he was the “great doctor's”
secretary and he
never forgot 
it.
I asked him to put this story in written form,
it.
I asked him to put this story in written form,
he then wrote the
following in a letter.
Pete started working for Dr. D. E.
Baughman, as a teenager working from
the position of office boy to salesman,
head of sales, the President’s secretary,
then Vice President and became
President of Fort Dodge Labs. in 1955
(1955 – 65).
Pete told this story as it was related to
him in 1935, when he was the “great
doctor's” secretary and he never forgot it.
it.
“His name was Dr. D. E. Baughman. He was
born and raised in a small
town outside of Chicago. At 18 years of age, he
headed to the best-known
veterinary school, the Chicago Veterinary College in
1885. The veterinary
course at that time
was 2 years.
He practiced in Danvers, Illinois for ten years and then went to Fort Dodge
and
was the first veterinarian that was a college graduate located in the area.
Dr. Baughman’s practice consisted of a
territory of 70 miles around (approx.
22 miles wide), all on horseback or until
he bought a Model T Ford in 1908.
The small town west of Fort Dodge became
quite a center for Mennonite
people. He had a number of relatives there. The
primary animals taken care
of were horses and cattle. In those times to ask about
a dog or cat was an
insult.
This story took place in 1900, it started when
Dr. Baughman came home
after a long hard day in the country arriving about 7 or
8 p.m. His wife had a
nice dinner made and halfway through a knock on the door
revealed a farmer
uptight about a sick horse, with the usual story that he was
best horse. The
man wouldn't let doctor rest until he saw horse, the farm was 4
miles away,
so they preceded on horseback. As the doctor’s horse was still
saddled, tied
near the back of the house. They went to the farm at great speed,
arriving at
the barn where there were of course 25 of 30 horses stabled. He asked for
directions to sick horse. The
farmer said, it's this one, and pointed to the
horse he had rode to town and
home. The doctor 
treated the horse which of
treated the horse which of
course had a great recovery.”
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