Gone, but not forgotten: He was a doctor in Newton County for 48 years

John Orestus McFerrin was born in Boone County in 1871, but moved to Compton when he was a small boy. He studied medicine at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He returned home and married Nolia Hamilton in Harrison in 1899. The young couple moved to Jasper the next year, and Dr. McFerrin began a medical practice that would last until his death nearly a half a century later. In an article in the Newton County News in 1948, he described some of the more unusual ways he was paid for his services. He was paid in sorghum, potatoes, fruit, chickens, side meat, and honey. One farmer drove into Jasper from Swain with a wagon with ten bushels of potatoes and a sow to settle to pay his bill. Once in below zero weather Dr. McFerrin rode to a farm fourteen miles away to deliver a baby. On the way home, water splashed on him as he crossed streams and rivers, and froze his feet to his stirrups. His wife had to get a hatchet to chop him free so he could dismount. In 1926, he was saddling his horse on the Jasper square when an automobile ran into it. The horse fell on Dr. McFerrin, crushing his pelvis. He was hospitalized for nearly a year. Sadly, this was not the end of his bad luck. In 1931 their house in Jasper burned when an oil lamp exploded, and they lost everything. But they remained in Jasper and rebuilt. In April 1948, an event was held in Jasper honoring Dr. McFerrin, where many of the children he delivered were present. He was given a scrapbook of interesting anecdotes and facts was compiled and presented to him. He died 25 May 1948 in a hospital in Little Rock. His funeral was in the Jasper School auditorium, which was filled with his grateful former patients.