Dr. Andrew Bane’s Medical Office

In early communities, doctors were the sole medical practitioners for their patients. Before hospitals, the doctor was the family physician, specialist, and surgeon. The doctor was there when the children were born and when a family member passed. Unlike today, the doctor would make a house call when summoned. Doctors would also make rounds to their patients' homes, just to see how they were doing. If a patient were in need of surgery, the doctor would perform that service right there in the office. The first permanent hospital to serve Rusk County opened in Henderson on April 12, 1928.

There were doctors in Rusk County as early as seven years before the county was founded. In 1849, there were eleven practicing physicians. A few years later, Rusk County had several doctors who served their patients in times of need for medical attention. More than ten different communities in the county had close to forty doctors who served their patients faithful­ly. Some of these communities may have had more than one doctor, but all were there for the health needs of the people they served.

Dr Andrew Bane was no different. He was born in Minden, Texas, located in Rusk County, in 1855. He was the son of James Bane and Eliza Gage, grandson of David Aaron Gage and Lucy Fish Gage. He established his medical practice in Panola County at Fairplay and later Oak Flat in Rusk County. He married Lula Welch in 1875; sadly, she died in July 1877. He then married Georgia Starr in December 1877, and they had five children.

In 1880, he built an office in the front yard of his Oakflat homestead in which to see patients and store medical supplies. Although he was of Cherokee descent, he chose not to return to Indian Territory at the time of the 1893 Dawes Commission. He continued to work out of this office until his murder in October of 1898. He died of a gunshot wound and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Minden.

After his death at age 43, the office was used for another thirty-five years by his brother, John G. Bane, who was the Justice of the Peace. It is furnished with items typically found and used by doctors of that time period. One special item in the office today is the medical bag of Dr. R.F. Shaw (1898 – 1968), beloved Henderson physician.