Powder Springs was not only blessed with good doctors from its very beginning, there were also dentist and druggist who would come and set up practice.
Until the druggist came, most of the drugs used were administered by the local doctors in their daily practices and caring for the sick.
They may also have had to pull teeth for the health of their patient.
The first recorded dentist was also a druggist. A Dr. Campbell came in the early 1870’s and practiced into the 1890’s. His office was
located on Marietta Street, between Dillard and Broad Street (corner of current Lewis Road and Marietta Street – Matthews House). His home was on the corner of Marietta Street and Walton Street next to the Methodist Church where the church’s new sanctuary is now located.
Druggist, Boyd Love Vaughn (1891-1948), son of Dr. James Shelton Vaughn, operated his drug store in the mid to late 1920’s until his death. The drug store was located next to his father’s doctor’s office on Pineview and Jackson Way.
D.F. Gilham was a local pharmacist in 1939 who was located on the corner of Marietta Street and Lewis Road. A city parking lot is now located on this spot adjacent to the bookstore. This would later house Lane’s Drug Store in the 1950’s.
Dr. A. J. Lane, pharmacist/druggist opened in 1950’s taking over Dr. Gilham’s building. He operated Lane’s Drug Store until 1980. Dr. Lane and his family lived next door to his drug store. That house was originally the home and office of Dr. F.P. Lindley, Sr and stood where the city parking lot is located. Dr. Lane would later build a house on Hill Road. The house then housed a business until burning down in the 1980’s.
There were other dentist and druggist located in Powder Springs through the years. However, these are the few that information seems to have been gathered and recorded by the local historians in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
There is mention of several other druggist that had their drug stores either on the corner of Pineview and Jackson Way or the corner of Marietta Street and Lewis Road.
Some of those other druggist were: Henry Bookout and Escar Lindley, Dr. Marchman, Marshal and Hansel Baggett, Jess Boswell and Burnett’s.
Dr. Marchman was also one of the early doctors in the 1880’s and 1890’s He built the original bungalow house which was later expanded in the early 1900’s and is now known as the Bodiford House.
Dr. George Ragsdale has been mentioned as having a home and office on the dirt street that originally ran behind and parallel to Marietta Street. The house would have been behind the Lewis Building. Dr. Ragsdale was a graduate of the Medical College of Georgia (UGA).
Powder Springs also had it’s own hospital – Powder Springs Hospital. Dr. J. A Griffith (1892 – 1969) built the small ‘humble’ Hospital on Atlanta Street in the early 1940’s. It operated until the late 1960’s. Dr. Griffith was the Physician. Dr. Griffith lived in the house next door. He later owned the house on the corner of Atlanta Street and Dillard Street where his son lived until his death around 2016.
There was also a Dr. Selman (Arthur or James W.) here some time in the 1880’s.
In the early years, there was no official undertaker or funeral home. If the deceased family needed a coffin, the local dry goods or merchandise store proprietor would provide one. In the early 1850’s, Uriah Matthews was the first businessman to sell coffins out of his dry goods store located on the corner of the current Lewis Road and Marietta Street, making him the towns first ‘undertaker’.
In 1899 Uriah Matthews sold his coffin business to T.N. (Thomas Newton) Lindley (1858-1937), who had a store and bookstore located across Marietta Street from his store. He also had with a ‘casket’ room in the back. Uncle Tom, as he was affectionately called, became the second undertaker.
Tom Lindley’s son, Frank Pickens Lindley, Sr. (1890-19530 was a doctor who practiced medicine in Powder Springs for 40 years.
In 1937 Tom Lindley’s grandson, Dr. Frank Pickens “Pick” Lindley, Jr. (1917-1985) took over the business. Then in 1940, Pick opened the first actual funeral home facility, known as Lindley’s Funeral Home. It was located in the same building that had housed the store. In 1953 the business was moved next door into the Florence House where it remained as Lindley’s Funeral Home until 1968 when Pick sold it to Gene Davis, who changed the name to White Columns Funeral Home at Powder Springs.
The house has remained as a funeral home even though the business has sold and changed names several times through the years.
This information was gathered through the years by the local historians, Sara Frances Miller, Virginia Tapp and Roberta Murray and compiled for the museum during the 1970’s through the 1980’s. It is on file at the Seven Springs Museum in the Research Room.