Layman - Daniel W. - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Source: Zach, Karen Bazzani.  Montgomery Medicine Men .... Crawfordsville: MCHS, 2002.

Dr. Layman's main area for practicing medicine was upper Putnam County, Indiana but he could be found touring Parke, Hendricks, Clay or Montgomery just as easily.  Having been born September 23, 1808 in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, he attended Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, then practiced in his home town of Port Republic before leaving Virginia and moving west.

An uncle furnished him a fine horse and buggy as he headed out in August of 1831.  Hearing that the Wabash River area was full of malaria, he first headed for Philadelphia to buy quinine and other supplies, then headed further west.  He laid over in Indianapolis two days, was asked to locate there but moved on.

His horse became lame and he was forced to take lodging in an inn in Putnamville where he met and wed the innkeeper's daughter, Mary Townsend.  

Dr. Layman was the typical old country doctor, packing his saddlebags with his medicine and heading out on one of his three riding horses to administer to his flock.  He never used alcoholic beverages or tobacco and wa shighly esteemed in his community.  Two of his grandsons were doctors in Indianapolis.  His death occurred in Putnamville August 10, 1887.  

Source: Weik, Jesse William.

Weik's History of Putnam County, Indiana. Indianapolis,Ind.:
B. F. Bowen & Co., 1910, pg 183.

Dr. D. W. LAYMAN who came from Virginia settled in Putnamville in 1831, being the first medical practitioner in the town or township. He was so successful in his practice no other physician ever continued long in the attempt to compete with him. For many years he was easily the most prominent and influential citizen in the community. He was a man of upright habits and pleasing manners but of very pronounced political views. He was an ardent Union man during war times and later supported the principles of the Republican part, but he never sought an office or any other political preferment. A story is told that in the fall of 1864 a number of boisterous Warren Twp citizens who had been attending a Democratic meeting at Greencastle returning home on horseback after night, passed by Layman's house and, knowing his pronounced Union sentiments, very loudly and repeatedly cheered for Jeff Davis. Being hidden in the darkness on the opposite side of the road, the Dr. was unable to distinguish the riders as they noisily flew by, but his ire was so instantly and completely aroused he picked up a stone and hurled it with all his might in the direction of the noise. A little later a man came riding up to the Dr's house and asked to accompany him down the road to see a man who was hurt and needed medical attention. "At first," related the Dr. years afterward, "I was a little suspicious but as I had never failed to answer a call for my professional services I complied at once and set out for the scene of trouble. A short distance down the roadside we came upon a group near the fence, in the centre of which reclined a man who was bleeding profusely from a wound in the head which his companions explained had been caused by a fall from a horse. A light was procured and there by its dim rays I gave the wounded man the medical and surgical attention the case seemed to require. Of course there was some risk, and I kept my eyes peeled all the while, but I pretended to be as innocent as they and so far as I could observe there was not the slightest attempt to molest me. In fact, later, the injured man, still maintaining an air of innocence, came to my office and offered to pay me for my services, but I declined, meanwhile reminding him of the dangerous and inevitable results of cheering for Jeff Davis - a lesson I am sure he never forgot!"

Layman, Daniel W. Pa, 1812
Mary H. D. b. KY 1813

Source: Record # 106575, 19th and 20th Century Indiana Physicians

10.18.987 Putnam ( Putnamville) / Marion (Indianapolis)
1850c $10,000 / Indiana State Board of Health 1882
Record # 11490, 19th and 20th Century Indiana Physicians

Layman, D. W., Putnam ( Putnamville)
p1886

Note: His wife, Mary was born March 3, 1812 and died May 23, 1879.  They had at least four children, Catherine, Theodore, Mary and James, possibly more.

Crown Hill Cemetery
Indianapolis
Marion County
Indiana, USA
Plot: Sec: 3, Lot: 14