The Garland County Historical Society, in association with the Garland County Library, will present the virtual program "Country Doctors of Arkansas" with the book's author, Dr. Sam Taggart, at noon Tuesday.
The public is welcome to participate by visiting either the library's Facebook page, http://facebook.com/garlandcountylibrary, or its YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/garlandcolibrary.
"From the 1830s to the present, Dr. Taggart explores the evolution of country doctors and profiles doctors serving small Arkansas communities," the Historical Society said in a news release.
Taggart's 2021 book, "Country Doctors of Arkansas," began as a series of interviews that looked at the lives and practices of the country doctors of Arkansas over the last 70 years, the release said, and is the first project of the Arkansas Physicians Oral History Project.
"He begins his book by looking at the practice of medicine in rural Arkansas from 1804 to 1945. His 40 interviews focus on doctors in small towns or slightly larger towns in rural areas. The oldest doctor interviewed was born in the 1920s and the youngest in the 1980s," it said.
"He points out that 'Each little town has its own story with diverse characters and dramas' and his book conveys a 'tapestry of the history of health and disease in rural America told one doctor at a time,'" the release said.
Taggart, a family doctor, was raised in the White River Delta in Augusta. He worked his way through college at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and then attended medical school at the University of Arkansas Medical School in Little Rock. After obtaining a medical degree, he completed a family practice residency and then spent two years in the Army. He then returned to Arkansas to practice medicine and has lived in Benton and Hot Springs for the last 40 years. He retired in 2013 as the senior partner and founder of Family Practice Associates of Benton.
His first novel, "We All Hear Voices," was published in 2007 and won the National Bronze prize for popular fiction from the Independent Book Publishers Association in 2010. In 2010 he published a second novel, "With a Heavy Heart," which tells the story of a German spy at Bauxite and Hot Springs during World War II.
In 2012, he was commissioned by the Arkansas Times to write a history of health care in Arkansas for the last 200 years. "The Public's Health" was published in January 2013. "Country Doctors of Arkansas," released in June 2021, was also published by the Arkansas Times. He lectures on the history of health in Arkansas and writes for the journal of the Arkansas Academy of Family Physicians, the release said.
Author Dr. Sam Taggart. Photo is courtesy of the Garland County Historical Society. - Submitted photo
Dr. T.E. Rhine, who practiced medicine in Thornton from 1899 to 1964. He traveled to patients by horseback, buggy and Model-T and often operated on his kitchen table in his early career. Photo is courtesy of the Garland County Historical Society. - Submitted photo