- Edwin Caldwell
Dr. Edwin Caldwell (
August 12 ,1867 inChapel Hill, North Carolina - ?) discovered one of the first effective treatments forpellagra .His grandparents were slaves. His father was Wilson Caldwell and his mother was Susan Kirby. The grandparents on his mother’s side were Robert Warren and his wife, who both died in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The grandfather on his father’s side was known as “Doctor November.” He was the servant of Dr. Joseph Caldwell, the first president of the University.When Edwin Caldwell was young, he helped clean chemistry labs at the University where his father worked. He was described as a very bright boy, who was liked very much by the students at the University. He received his education at a free public school as a child in North Carolina. He also received private lessons as a child from students at the university, including a man called Hon. Lock Craig, who ended up becoming governor of the North Carolina.
When he grew up, he went to Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated from the medical department in 1890. Being a black man, his odds of success were low, but he pulled through and received his medical degree. From there he went on to practice medicine at Charlotte, North Carolina. From there, he went on to pass the examination of the Arkansas State Medical Board in 1892, and then practiced for seventeen years in Osceola, Arkansas. He was elected a member of the American Association of Progressive Medicine and the Medical Society of the United States.
He moved to Durham, North Carolina, and in November 1918, he married the widow of E. B. Caldwell, his brother. Her maiden name was Miss Minnie Stroud. Minnie Stroud was his sister-in-law, who was raising 11 children when Edwin married her. Edwin Caldwell moved in with her to help take care of the children, and decided to marry her. Together they had one child, and named her Julia Elizabeth Caldwell.
He became an authority on Pellagra, which is a nutritional disease caused by niacin deficiency, and grew herbs to treat it. White people would be embarrassed to be seen treated by a black man, so they went for treatment secretly at night.
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