Show the boyhood 0 of famous by y americans fitzgerald braid JV dr william J mayo the surgeons were getting ready to operate the doctor administering nn an anesthetic to the patient fel felt t faint A U thirteen jr year e a r old boy was in t the III e operating r room 0 0 m tl 11 e stepped boldly to the front sp took the place of the sick physician a and a d administered t the b e anesthetic under the directions of the operating surgeon the boy was william J mayo later to become world fatuous famous as a surgeon matters of medicine and surgery were familiar to the youngster even at the age of thirteen ills his father was dr william 11 mayo one of the best surgeons in the west his ancestors had been prominent in the profession for generations in england from which his father came to this country in 1845 young mayo had been brought up in the world of curing the ills of mankind it unnatural that he be was able under the circumstances Bt ances to serve as an assistant at na an operation when he was only thirteen nis ills first patient recovered since then he has cured thousands by the skill of his surgery the youngster had early abbl ambitions to be a stagecoach driver ne ile was born in le beur minn in 1861 but his father moved to rochester in the same state when william was two years old minnesota was in the wild west of those days there were few highways running across the rolling prairies indians roam roamed ed the plains many of the pioneers lived in crude sod huts buts stagecoach drivers were heroes to the boys in rochester they were rough characters but the of 0 adventure hung over them in the eyes of young will and ills his playmates they dashed into the town town pulling up foam flecked horses with a flourish that was highly impressive in juvenile eyes they were a link with the greab great world outside the little prairie settlement tl but like most of us who in our youth dream of becoming firemen policemen engineers cowboys or stagecoach drivers young mayos ambition was soon directed into other channels his fathers practice covered much of the southern part of the state the boy often accompanied him film on visits to patients far out on the lonely prairie the youngster saw sav indians living in wigwams while on such trips ne he held the horses when his father made calls in the sod huts of the homesteaders occasionally assisting in the setting of a brozeit broken limb ue he witnessed suffering and fortitude his tended to direct him toward the study of medicine he trade made up his min mind d when he was in high school to follow in the footsteps of his father and so many of his ancestors after being graduated from the high school in rochester he attended niles academy from there he went to the university of michigan lie he was graduated in medicine in 1833 ile he had hardly returned to the old fashioner fashioned houle home which ills his father had built to in rochester and in which lie he spent his boyhood than he had an opportunity to sli show w the benefits of his training A tarrado far tar nado one of those wind storms so dreaded in the flat prairie country struck rochester and wrecked part of the village ills his father turned his home into it a hospital the elder cider mayo tile the newly made dr william mayo and his brother charles 11 mayo then a medical student treated the injured assisted their father in several emergency operations dr juliam J mayo made an excellent record in college so did his brother doth both learned medicine cine as they grew up doctor will worked in a drug store during ills his vacations doctors charles did likewise furthermore they had bad the direct benefit of the deep knowledge and wide experience of their father they had a good m microscope when they were in high school their father bought it specially for them and taught them its use they studied with it many winter nights when a blizzard roared outside the comfortable home of the mayos such training and advantages were most helpful when it came time for them to take up seriously the study of their chosen profession fes sion the first real practical experience dr william J mayo had bad as a practicing physician in rochester indirectly brought about the establishment lish ment of the world fam famous OUS mayo clinic rochester was without a hospital the need for such an institution ution was emphasized after the tornado had left death and suffering la in its wake make the sisters of st francis who had bad served as nurses tor for the mayos when they were administering to the needs of the tornado victims agreed to help build a hospital it if the mayris mayos would serve as physicians and burgeons doctor wills father donated tile the la land d the brothers thus began their thel work to gether out of that early asso elation has grown their ovin ovia world known institution for the relief ol of su buttering humanity Q 1930 by tho the north american newspaper alliance |