A Frontier Doctor Page: xiv

INTRODUCTION

said to have been the first physician to practice medicine
in that district. The country, however, was sparsely set-
tled, and, finding his means depleted, he engaged himself
as a cowboy. He made friends with Billy the Kid, who
gave him the horse on which he left for New Mexico in
October, 1878. He found no opening there for a doctor
and he was soon again short of funds. He helped, how-
ever, to survey the new town of Las Vegas. Later he be-
came the assistant postmaster at Las Vegas.
Early in September, 1881, he started East to attend
college, graduating in 1882. He returned to St. Paul, and
during his residence there became Commissioner of
Health, member of the Governing Board of St. Joseph
Hospital, member of the Pension Board, Chief Surgeon
of the Great Northern and the Chicago and Burlington
Railroads, and local surgeon for a number of others.
In I898 Dr. Hoyt was commissioned Major and Chief
Surgeon, United States Volunteers, and served as such
from May, 1898, to October, 1902, first at Chickamauga
Park and then in the Philippines, where he was for nine
months Chief Surgeon of the Army commanded by
General MacArthur, personally participating in twenty-
five or more battles and engagements. He had the dis-
tinction, it is said, of being the only Chief Surgeon on
the American side wounded on a battle-field during the
Spanish-American War, or the insurrection in the Philip-
pines. Later he was Chief Surgeon for more than two
years of the commands of General Grant. He was recom-
mended for a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonelcy by President
Roosevelt, and in 1925, by order of President Coolidge,
he was cited in General Orders for services in the 1899
campaign, the citation awarding him the Silver Star and
a medal.
Dr. Hoyt is now a retired physician residing at Long
Beach, California, enjoying in his old age the rest and

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