Priddy Meeks

Priddy Meeks (August 29, 1795 – July 30, 1886) was an American frontier doctor who practiced Thomsonian medicine. He was a polygamist member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and helped settle areas in Utah as a Mormon pioneer. Meeks was the first doctor in Southern Utah. He occasionally appears as a character in Mormon literature, such as the short story "They Did Go Forth" by Maurine Whipple.

Early life Priddy Meeks was born in 1795. His father, Athe Meeks, moved the family from South Carolina to Grayson County, Kentucky when Meeks was about two or three years old. The family lived there for about 12 years, until they moved to Indiana.

Meeks was inspired to become a doctor after helping many of the sick in his community during one particularly "sickly season". He had not studied medicine, but had helped more than doctors had. He learned medicine from James Miller and Thomson's New Guide to Health, and practiced in his community. He used various elements of Thomsonian medicine like steam baths and vegetable remedies. Meeks prescribed natural remedies like cayenne pepper or dandelions to cure various ailments. He also created Dr. Meeks' Female Relief Pills, which were intended for common use to improve health in not only females, but males as well. Meeks also recorded that he confronted devils, evil spirits, and saw an angel.

Meeks remained in Salt Lake City, Under the direction of Willard Richards, Meeks served as president and founding member of the newly formed Society of Health with two other doctors in the area, William A. Morse and Phineas Richards. The council administered to the sick while also educating the people on illness. He later moved to Orderville, Utah in 1879.

Personal life Meeks married Mary Bartlett in 1815. They had four children together. Mary died in Indiana, and three years later Meeks married Sarah Mahurin Smith on December 14, 1826. He and Sarah had five children. Meeks bought a young girl, three or four years old, from a group of Native Americans in Parowan. He called her Lucy and raised her as his own child.

When Meeks was 62 and married to Sarah, he left Parowan determined to find a second wife. When he left his home, Sarah told him, "Don't you come back without another wife". He married Mary Jane McCleve, then 17 years old. They were sealed on November 12, 1865. The couple went on to have 10 children together. Excerpts of his journal were included in the seminal Mormon anthology A Believing People.