Gainesville, Georgia was home to the "Eclectic Institute for All Chronic Diseases" during the health resorts' heyday in the 1870s and beyond. Founded by Dr. Alpheus Benton Dunagan who operated the institute and advertised as a specialty "the treatment and cure of all female diseases." Get on the Airline Railroad to Gainesville, and the institute would meet you at the depot, Dr. Dunagan advertised. Dr. Dunagan also published the Eclectic and Surgical Journal.
Alpheus Benton Dunagan(1835-1892) was a son of my 3rd great grandfather, Joseph Ellis Dunagan. Dr. A. B. Dunagan, as he was called, served with the 3rd Regiment, Georgia Calvary CSA, and was later married to Nancy Ophelia Bacon and had the following children:
Joseph Alexander "Claude" Dunagan (1877-1860)
George Alpheus Dunagan (1880-1957)
Ezekiel Jackson "Zeke" Dunagan (1887-1970)
James J. Dunagan (1890-1910)
Minnie Dunagan Ramsey (?)
Dr. A. B. Dunagan died in 1892 when he was working one Saturday evening with three of his sons who were picking cotton and A. B. left to go fix a foot-log across the creek where it had washed away. He got the log across, and it seemed, from the way he was lying, that he must have had the ax in his right hand resting on it when he fell. He did not move after falling. He died leaving a wife and five little children. It probably was a heart attack. Below is a photo of his three sons as adults who were with their father on that fateful evening in 1892:
(L-R) Claude Dunagan, Zeke Dunagan & George A. Dunagan
The photos in this blog were provided by Marie Dunagan Bowman, granddaughter to Alpheus Benton Dunagan. Her father was George Alpheus Dunagan. I have not been successful in finding a copy of the "Journal of Eclectic and Surgical Medicine" once published by Dr. Dunagan. If you know where I might find a copy, please let me know.
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