Weiser and Boise Physician Joseph R. Numbers, M.D. [otd 05/30]

Weiser mayor and southwest Idaho physician Joseph Reno Numbers was born May 30, 1864 on a farm near Lexington, Ohio, about 50 miles northeast of Columbus. Besides the common schools, Numbers attended prep school at the Ohio Central College (he would have been a classmate of future President Warren G. Harding). He then attended the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, and graduated with his M.D. in 1885.  [See blog, February 12, for a discussion of Eclectic Medicine.]

Dr. Joseph R. Numbers [Illust-State]

Numbers practiced for a short time in Kansas and then in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1888, he moved to Weiser, Idaho, along with his wife (he had married the year before). Joseph prospered in Weiser and, in the summer of 1892, the governor appointed him to a two-year term as Assistant Surgeon for the Idaho National Guard.

Three years later, Numbers became a member of the recently formed Idaho Medical Society. In September 1896, he presented a paper to the society that was later published in the Medical Sentinel journal (Portland, Oregon). The following year, he was appointed to the Idaho State Medical Examining Board. He remained very active in the Medical Society, leading an extensive discussion of important and interesting cases at the 1899 meeting.

The following year, Numbers helped organize the Southern Idaho State Medical Society, an auxiliary of the state society. The annual meeting of the state society met alternately in the north and then south part of the state. Thus, most members (north or south) met with their regional colleagues only once every other year. The Southern auxiliary planned to meet at least twice annually. Coincidentally, that same year Dr. Numbers was elected President of the Idaho State Medical Society.

In 1901, at the end of his term, Numbers sold his Weiser practice and moved to Chicago to do graduate work at the Rush Medical College. Unlike the Eclectic Medical Institute, Rush taught a curriculum of standard medical practice, so Numbers evidently planned to meld both approaches in his practice. Afterwards, he returned to Weiser and partnered with the doctor he had sold his practice to.

In 1907, Numbers was elected to a two-year term as mayor of Weiser. Two years later, he helped organize the Washington County Board of Health, and became secretary of the Board.

In 1910, Dr. Numbers moved his family to Boise, and then went to New York City for further medical education. For a couple years after his return, he apparently split time between his Weiser office and at least some cases in Boise. In the spring of 1911, he was a featured speaker in Boise at a conference on tuberculosis. Then, in August 1913, he moved the family into a home on Franklin Street in Boise and focused on his practice in that city.

Saint Alphonsus Hospital. Library of Congress.

During World War I, Numbers was one of several physicians selected to provide medical examinations for draftees. In May 1920, Saint Alphonsus hospital implemented a major reorganization to better align its operations with recommended national standards and best practices. Dr. Numbers was listed as one of their “visiting staff.”

In 1922, Numbers sold the family home on Franklin Street and moved into a suite next to his offices in the Idaho Building. Three years later, his son, Joseph Reno, Jr., joined him in practice as “Number & Numbers,” physicians. They continued in practice together until late 1939, when the elder Joseph’s wife died. Joseph, Sr. then returned to Weiser to live. He died in early 1942 (in Boise) and is buried in Weiser.
                                                                                 

Reference: [Hawley], [Illust-State]

“[News for Joseph R. Numbers, M.D.],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Salt Lake Tribune, Utah (July 1892 – June 1929).

“[Joseph R. Numbers, M.D. – Contributions],” Medical Sentinel, Portland, Oregon (1896, 1897, 1908).