Charles E. Sawyer
Charles E. Sawyer | |
---|---|
Physician to the President | |
In office 1921–1923 | |
President | Warren G. Harding |
Preceded by | Cary T. Grayson |
Succeeded by | James Francis Coupal |
Personal details | |
Born | Wyandot, Ohio, U.S. | January 23, 1860
Died | September 23, 1924 Marion, Ohio, U.S. | (aged 64)
Charles Elmer Sawyer (January 24, 1860 – September 23, 1924), was a
Education and private practice
Sawyer was born in Wyandot, Ohio and raised in Nevada, Ohio, in Wyandot County, the eldest of six children and only one to survive to adulthood.[1] He married May Elizabeth Barron. Sawyer had one son, Carl, born in 1881.[2]
Sawyer was an 1881 graduate of the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College,
He also became the director of the Marion National Bank and president of the Marion Masonic Temple Company. Sawyer was also a director of the Marion Commercial Club. He was an atheist.[3]
In the early years of the 20th century, Sawyer expanded his practice with the construction of the White Oaks Sanatorium immediately south of Marion, Ohio. The sanatorium's name was derived from the White Oaks Farm, which the Sawyers purchased and used as the location of their new facility. White Oaks was a compound of buildings which enclosed a courtyard. Buildings included patient wards, called cottages, which were located inside the cloister. Buildings ringing the outside of the cloister included a Nurses dormitory, administrative offices, dining hall for patients who were ambulatory, sterile surgery, physical rehabilitation building, facilities for dental work and doctors offices.
It was here, in Rose Cottage, that former First Lady
Dr. Sawyer's relationship with the family of Warren G. Harding’s parents began when Sawyer stepped forward to save the reputation of Harding’s mother, Dr. Phoebe Dickerson Harding. Harding’s mother had been caring for a sick child and provided a prescription for the child, which unknown to her also contained an opiate; the child died from the drug. Sawyer stepped forward to validate Phoebe Harding’s diagnosis and treatment, thus saving her career.
President Harding's death
Sawyer acted as the personal physician to Warren G. Harding and to Florence Harding as well. He never accepted payment from them for his services; in doing so he felt that he provided himself a level of protection in the event that either died while under his care. Sawyer diagnosed and successfully treated Mrs. Harding’s "
Harding gave Sawyer the rank of brigadier general in the Army Medical Corps.
Sawyer's reliance on dated medical practices resulted in the misdiagnosis of the President's coronary condition that led to the President's death in
Following the President's death, Sawyer resigned his commission, and focused his attention on the formation of the Harding Memorial Association, to which the task of designing and building the
Sawyer's practice and leadership within the Harding Memorial Association fell to his son, Dr. Carl Sawyer, who ran both organizations until his death in the late 1960s. In the 1980s, the Harding Memorial and the Harding Home were transferred to the
References
- ISBN 0688077943.
- ^ Anthony 1998, p. 66
- ^ a b Anthony 1998, p. 65
- ^ "Miller Center of Public Affairs - Admiral Joel T. Boone". Archived from the original on 2013-04-15. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- ^ "The mysterious death of President Warren G. Harding - The Crime library". Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- ^ "Fact vs. Fiction". President Harding Home. President Harding Home. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
External links
- Illustrated Sawyer biography on Homéopathe International site
- Sawyer entry from History of Homœopathy Biographies
- Advertisement, "Dr. C. E. Sawyer's Private Sanitarium"