A Frontier Doctor Page: xiii

INTRODUCTION

THIS delightful book is the result of the variety of Dr.
Henry F. Hoyt's occupations in different localities of the
country during a long life, his capacity for registering
what he saw and heard, and his ability to discern the
relative value of incidents and events.
It has been my privilege to know Dr. Hoyt for many
years; he has served as my family physician, and we have
enjoyed together in days gone by hunting and fishing ex-
cursions and other pleasurable relaxations of which I re-
tain pleasant memories. I am, therefore, very glad to in-
troduce him to the reading public, and to bespeak for his
book that favorable consideration which I am confident
it merits.
Dr. Hoyt was born on a farm near St. Paul, Minnesota,
in 1854, and was educated at country and city schools
and the Minnesota State University. His first employ-
ment was in 1872 as a rodman in the survey of the railway
between Glyndon and St. Vincent, Minnesota. In 1873
he was with an astronomical party in the survey of the
boundary between the United States and Canada. This
party was escorted by two troops of General Custer's
cavalry which during the survey had several engagements
with Indians. In 1874 he took up the study of medicine
in the office of a St. Paul doctor. In 1875 he was an in-
terne for one year in the Church (now St. Luke's) Hos-
pital in St. Paul. In 1876 he was a student at the Rush
Medical School at Chicago. To earn his way through
college he practiced medicine at Deadwood, Territory of
Dakota, during the summer of 1877. In the fall of that
year he went to the Panhandle district of Texas, and is