Making House Calls with Dr. Victor Keidel. (original) (raw)

Dr. Victor Keidel liked to hunt, but doctoring took up most of his time. Sometimes he tied his hounds to the axel of his gig and took them along so he could do a little hunting between house calls.

Dr. Victor Keidel was the first Gillespie County physician to own a car. He delivered over 3,000 babies in his 50-year career and couldn't afford to be slow in races with the stork.

His first car was an Overland, and it was the 5th car purchased in the county. The car number, today's equivalent of a license plate, was number 5. He kept the number 5 until the state law regulating license plate numbers changed.

A salesman sold Dr. Keidel on the idea of buying a car by telling him he could go out on a midnight call and be home in time for breakfast.

But a car had its drawbacks. Dr. Keidel's car once sat in a mud hole for 2 weeks, bogged up to the axels, before the ground dried enough to drag it out.

One night Dr. Victor Keidel made a house call to a sick man in Willow City. Woman's intuition told Mrs. Keidel (Clara Stieler) to go along.

On a particularly dangerous part of the road the headlamps on the car went out so Mrs. Keidel walked ahead of the car with a lantern. Then a storm came up, and a heavy rain put the lantern out.

Without a lantern, visibility was zero. Sitting in a car that dark and stormy night was like standing in a dark closet or at the bottom of a well.

To keep the car out of the ditch Mrs. Keidel ran ahead as far as she could at each flash of lightning and called to Dr, Keidel who drove to the sound of her voice. Then they would wait for the next lightning flash to go a little farther down the road.

Once when the river was out, Dr. Victor Keidel drove his car across the Pedernales railway tressel to reach a critically ill patient on the other side. His passenger decided the crossing was too risky and stayed behind.

Doctoring in the early days of Gillespie County was always an adventure. Sometimes getting there was an adventure in itself.