Fillmore County Flashback Meet the stars of Hamilton!

By Sara Sturgis

Executive Director

Fillmore County Historical

Society

Surprise, it’s not Lin Manuel Miranda of the acclaimed Broadway play but rather Doctors Alfred and Henry Plummer, the two stars of our own village of Hamilton (not to mention the international medical community),

Around 1867, following his service in the Civil War, Dr. Albert Plummer and his wife Isabelle arrived in the tiny western Fillmore County village of Hamilton, Minn., in Sumner Township. Alfred soon established a medical practice and was elected to the Minnesota Legislature. Alfred’s medical practice was eventually relocated to nearby Racine however the Plummers remained in Hamilton to raise their two sons, Henry S. and William.

Henry Stanley Plummer was born in Hamilton in 1874 and graduated from Spring Valley High School. After earning a degree from the University of Minnesota College of Medicine and Surgery he attended Northwestern University in Chicago, Ill., graduating as an MD in 1898. He returned home to join his father’s practice. In 1900, Dr. Albert asked Dr. William J. Mayo to consult on a patient. When Dr. Mayo arrived, Dr. Albert was ill and sent his son along instead. The two men discussed blood diseases and young Dr. Plummer later used his microscope to show Dr. Mayo the difference between blood from a healthy person and that from the patient, who was diagnosed with leukemia. Soon after, the Mayo brothers asked young Dr. Henry Plummer to join their clinic.

Henry was a man of many talents and among his many accomplishments established the systems and principles that define Mayo Clinic today. Dr. Plummer co-designed its numeric registration system and medical recordkeeping that allowed the patient’s medical history to be located in one convenient location. For many years, the medical record was transported via pneumatic tubes of his design. Dr. Plummer also devised a health care organizational structure known as the “integrated multi-specialty group practice” in which teams of specialists representing diverse skills joined forces to provide optimal care to each patient. According to many sources, this model remains Mayo’s greatest contribution to medicine. Dr. Plummer was equally skilled at designing physical structures and was hired as the chief engineer for the Mayo Clinic. Working with physicians, scientists and other staff, the engineering department developed unique medical devices and systems many designed to meet the needs of individual patients. According to the Mayo Clinic’s website Dr. William Mayo once said that “hiring Dr. Plummer was the best day’s work he’d ever done.”

Also according to the Mayo Clinic website, Plummer suffered a blood clot in the brain on December 31, 1936. Being the “superb diagnostician that he was, he recognized the fatal nature of his condition which enabled him to get home to spend his final hours with his family.” Henry and wife Daisy are buried in Oakwood cemetery in Rochester. Patriarch Alfred rests in the Hamilton Cemetery along with Isabelle, young daughter Sarah who died at age five and son Ray who died at age two.

Formed in 2020, the Fillmore County History Partners is a voluntary collaborative of local history organizations and museums. Participants include: Canton Historical Society, Chatfield Historical Society, Fillmore County Historical Society, Harmony Area Historical Society, Historic Forestville, Lanesboro Historic Preservation Association, Lenora Pioneer Church, Mabel Historic Preservation, 1877 Peterson Station Museum, Preston Historical Society, Rushford Area Historical Society, Whalan Town Hall Museum, Wykoff Area Historical Society.