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BEXAR
the burning area where Dr. Herff had his ranch. The warriors could
be heard throughout the night raiding the town and the nearby
ranches, farms, and homes. However, the Herff ranch was spared
and the next morning at the gate post was found a lone Apache arrow
with a white feather.
He performed his last surgery, an ectopic pregnancy, at age 87. He
died in his home in May 1912 at the age of 91 years and 6 months.
A fitting obituary appeared in the bulletin of the Bexar County Med-
ical Society.
Frank Paschal, MD was born Oct. 22, 1849, one of the first four
white children born in Bexar County. His father and mother were the
first American born individuals to be married in Bexar County. His fa-
ther had come to Texas in 1836 from Georgia. He came to join the
Texas Army to avenge the death of several of his friends who had been
massacred at Goliad. He later became the first sheriff of Bexar County.
Dr. Paschal received his early education in San Antonio and Mon-
terrey, Mexico where his family lived for a short period of time. He
began his study of medicine at age 19 in 1868 with Dr. George Cup-
ples as his preceptor. During the next two years, he was privileged
to observe and assist Dr. Cupples in many of his “Texas firsts in sur-
gery,” mentioned earlier. He entered Louisville Medical School in
1870, graduating in 1873 with honors, and won a competitive in-
ternship at the Louisville Hospital. He returned to San Antonio in
1874 to open a practice.
The first few months in San Antonio were not as successful as he had
hoped, and he moved south and opened up a practice in Chihuahua,
Mexico, which was a major mining center. He spoke fluent Spanish
and was highly successful. He traveled to San Antonio frequently and
married a San Antonio girl. After a few years in Mexico, he returned to
Bexar County to practice for the next 30 years. In 1890, San Antonio
was the largest city in Texas, having surpassed Galveston, which at that ways that he would never himself have conceived.
time was the largest. In 1892, the population of Bexar County was
38,000. In the next 40 years, it would grow to 230,000.
The 30 years he spent practicing in Bexar County were highly suc-
cessful for him and his community. Most of his practice was accom-
plished by many house calls each day. He was an excellent diagnostician
and successful surgeon. He was highly regarded by his colleagues and
was known as “Dr. Ethics.” He was elected president of the West Texas
Medical Association in 1893. This organization’s charter expired after
a few more years.
His activities in the Bexar County Medical Society were evidenced
by the fact that he was repeatedly charged with being chairman of the
Ethics Committee. He was responsible for counseling wayward mem-
bers, occasionally resorting to reprimands and very occasionally to sus-
pension or expulsion from the society. He was active at the state level
HISTORY
of the TMA and served on multiple committees. He was instrumental
in exposing the activity of the New York Medical College in San Anto-
nio (previously mentioned) and its closure. He was the San Antonio
Health Officer for four years at a salary of $1200 per year.
In 1903, Dr. Paschal was elected president of the newly reorgan-
ized Texas Medical Association and the reorganization of the County
Medical Societies. Dr. Cupples, Dr. Paschal’s mentor, had been
elected president of the TMA in 1853, and his protégé fell into his
footsteps in 1903.
During his tenure, and secondary to his intense interest in the
treatment of tuberculosis, the first state sanitarian was established in
Carlsbad, Texas. It had been a 20-year pursuit by Dr. Paschal. The
TMA began collecting materials to preserve Texas’s medical heritage.
More than a century ago Dr. Paschal told the TMA House of Dele-
gates in his presidential address, “The labors of this Association
should always be conserved, and unless steps are taken the past work
will be lost forever.” He then established the Committee on Collec-
tion and Preservation of records, the forerunner of the present day
History of Medicine committee.
Dr. Paschal was concerned with organized medicine as a physician
involved in the establishment of the Texas Surgical Society and later
served as its president. Along with other physicians in Bexar County,
he was among the principal organizers of the Physicians’ and Surgeons’
Hospital. It was the precursor of the San Antonio Baptist Hospital Sys-
tem. He continued until his death in 1925 to be active in the Bexar
County Medical Society. He generously donated $10,000 to the Bexar
County Medical Society to help provide a permanent home for this
group. At that time, this was a very princely donation. “Frank Paschal
did much more than accept responsibilities for medical care. He became
a major public force for good, and as such was able to influence the de-
velopment of one of the significant urban areas of the United States in
There were many notable physicians in this century in Bexar County.
The previous discussions seem to represent some of the finest among
many. Remarkable progress was made from the end of the Civil War
to the end of the century. Considering the medical knowledge of the
day, their accomplishments were noteworthy. They all took their work
seriously and met the demands of the frontier with dedication and de-
votion to their patients. They prepared a foundation upon which suc-
cess would be obtained by their successors with even greater
accomplishments.
J.J.Waller Jr., MD, is a member of the
BCMS Communications/Publications Committee.
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