McLennan County Medical Society

Joining the county society meant joining a state body with rules. The Handbook of Texas says the Texas Medical Association formed in 1853, lay inactive for sixteen years, and was reorganized in 1869. Its constitution excluded irregularly trained doctors. An 1893 amendment admitted women but not Black doctors, and the racial ban ended in 1955. Osteopathic physicians were admitted in 1972. The Handbook does not say how McLennan's society handled membership, and it does not mention the Waco doctors the plaque names.

What the plaque says

McLennan County Medical Society On April 30, 1866, ten Waco physicians met to organize the Waco Medical Association with the primary objectives of sharing medical knowledge and promoting public health improvement. Two of these physicians, Dr. David R. Wallace and Dr. John H. Sears, also were instrumental in the reorganization of the Texas State Medical Association in 1869, serving as President as did other Waco physicians in later years. Broadening its scope in 1903, the Waco Medical Association became the McLennan County Medical Society (MCMS) with 180 doctors listed as members. In 1905, with public support from MCMS physicians, the Daughters of Charity opened Providence Sanitarium, signaling a change from home-based to hospital-based medical care. In 1917, the Women's Auxiliary to the MCMS was formed to assist in promoting and improving public health, later changing its name in the 1990s to the McLennan County Medical Alliance. Both groups are dedicated to education and outreach within the community. McLennan County physicians played an important role in treating victims of the 1953 Waco Tornado; they donated all of the insurance proceeds to a special disaster relief fund for the city. In 1969, MCMS founded the McLennan County Family Practice Residency Program to train family physicians – the only such program founded and administered by a Medical Society. The McLennan County Medical Society's commitment to quality and affordable care has vastly improved the quality of life of Waco-area citizens. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Waco Suspension Bridge — 0.3 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 0.3 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 0.7 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 1.2 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.

More markers nearby

• "The Waco Horror": The Lynching of Jesse Washington — steps away
• Waco — steps away
• Gerald-Harris Shooting — steps away
• Brann-Davis Shootings — steps away