Stone Gardens: Fort Smith physician Elias Rector DuVal was 19th century leader in Arkansas medicine

The historical Oak Cemetery in Fort Smith is the final resting place for numerous individuals who were instrumental in the building of Fort Smith and western Arkansas in the 1800's.

From lawman to outlaws, politicians to enterprising capitalist, and everything in between Oak Cemetery now holds the earthly remains of more than four dozen historical icons that could wear the label of "pioneer".

None more than Dr. Elias Rector DuVal who was one of the leading forces in the drive to modernize medicine in Arkansas in the late 19th century.

Unlike many of the luminaries buried in Oak Cemetery who impacted our area, DuVal was actually born in Fort Smith. One of five children born to the marriage of William DuVall Sr and Harriet Tabitha Doddridge Duval, Elias was born in 1836 and was the second youngest of the Duval children.

The Duval family, originally from the area in and around Wellsburg in Brook County West, Virginia had relocated to Arkansas by 1823.

The DuVal line in the United States stretches all the way back to pre-Revolutionary War times with the patriarch being great-grandfather Benjamin who had been born in 1746 at the families Middle Plantation in Maryland. Benjamin had earned passage to the colonies as an indentured servant and eventually owned six hundred acres in Anne Arundel county in Maryland.

William Duvall became a wealthy trader who helps supplied the first fort at Fort Smith and was able to provide for his children's further education after they had matriculated out of the local schools. 

Elias attended Arkansas College (now the University of Arkansas)  and graduated in 1854. He went to medical school in Kentucky for two years and in 1858 a graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's medical school. After a short stint as a US army surgeon in New Mexico Territory he returned to Fort Smith in 1859 and begin his private practice.

One year later he married Angela Medora Debrell of Van Buren. Over the years the couple had five children. For most of their time in Fort Smith, the family lived in a stately and spacious home at the corner of North 11th and D streets.

When the Civil War broke out Elias served as a Confederate army surgeon from 1861 to 1865. He plied his medical skills at the Battle of Prairie Grove and also served in the trans- Mississippi department's Medical Bureau which was headquartered in Marshall, Texas.

After cessation of the war between the states he once again returned to Fort Smith to resume his medical practice. 

In 1866 Fort Smith was struck by an epidemic of cholera and DuVal, as a member of the City Health Board reported in the fall of that year that "all citizens and the city was cleansed of the outbreak'.

In the 1870s, Duval emerged as a leader among his colleagues. He co-founded the Sebastian County Medical Society and served as its president from 1871 to 1878. Two years later he co-founded the Arkansas State Medical association and was active as president of that organization until 1874.

He was also an early staunch supporter of criminal penalties for abortion and supported vaccination, birth and death registration, and the general regulation of medical practice and drugs within the state. 

Many of the the policies he proposed during this time became part of modern medicine in Arkansas.

A controversy in late 1874 involving a Hot Springs physician by the name of Almon Brooks prompted DuVal and other members to withdraw from the Arkansas State Medical Association.

 That led to the formation of the Arkansas Medical Society in 1875 and he served on committees within that organization for a number of years that eventually led to an association with Dr w. B. Welch addressing ethical issues within the profession.

When yellow fever struck Memphis in 1879 Arkansas physician spring into action. DuVal served as a member of The unofficial State board of Health and as president of the Fort Smith Health Board. In August 1879 he and a fellow State Health board member traveled to Cairo, Illinois and met with the National Board of Health to discuss quarantine measures to help quell the outbreak.

Dr. DuVal was a fluent writer and was the author of a number of medical writings and other works. He was the President of the Fort Smith School Board for many years.

He was the Grand Master of Arkansas' Masonic Lodge in 1872 and served at least one term as a city alderman.

Dr Elias Rector Duvall died October 7, 1885 in Fort Smith. He was eulogized by the Arkansas Medical Society as a position who "practiced upon the most elevated plane of ethics".

His final resting place in Fort Smith Oak Cemetery is in block 8, range 3, lot 3 and space 3.