Fergus doctor Abraham Groves led a weird, eccentric life; contributed much to medicine

FERGUS – The biography of Dr. Abraham Groves has made it into the Dictionary of Canada Biography, an online dictionary covering the history of important Canadian figures.

It was written by Dr. Vivian McAlister, a retired surgeon and professor at the University of Western Ontario, who has had a rather astounding life of his own.

McAlister was awarded an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020 in recognition of his contribution to transplant surgery, to the Canadian military and as editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Surgery, among other accomplishments.

In an interview, McAlister said he was inspired and intrigued by the work of Groves, which compelled him to research the doctor, who donated a hospital to the village of Fergus in 1932 and whose name graces Groves Memorial Community Hospital.

“I was interested in the surgical exploits of Dr. Groves, especially his ‘firsts,’” McAlister said. “I looked up the evidence to see if it stacked up.”

According to the biography, Groves was a country doctor in Wellington County who is said to have performed the first appendectomy in North America. And he used aseptic techniques in surgery that were revolutionary at the time but later became standard practice.

Groves was born in 1847 around Peterborough. His parents were immigrants from Ireland who met and married in Canada.

In 1856 his family bought a farm outside Fergus and when Groves got older, they sold a parcel of that land so he could study medicine in Toronto. 

After he graduated, he returned to Fergus and became a junior partner to Dr. John Munro. After a few years he opened his own practice and performed many surgeries, often on his patients’ kitchen tables.

In the late 1800s, medicine was a new and developing profession. And in Canada, there were few hospitals and even fewer resources for a country doctor.

“I was impressed with how inventive the early settlers were,” McAlister said. “They had access to education anywhere in the Empire but didn’t have any resources.

“Medicine was very undeveloped and anesthesia was only starting. They didn’t understand how infections occurred. So, to be as inventive as Groves was, was a blessing at the time.

“He had to guess and by and large he was right.”

Groves is credited with performing the first appendectomy in North America in 1883, although it’s hard to prove, McAlister said, as documentation is scant.

Groves also believed that infection spread from unclean tools and took care to scrub his hands and surgical equipment before every surgery.

“British doctor Joseph Lister is always credited with the practice of antiseptic surgery, but Lister thought infection spread through the air,” McAlister said. “Groves realized infection spread through water and fluids.”

Groves was “unconventional” and “controversial” according to the dictionary post. He kept a pet alligator and was alleged to “snatch bodies” for medical research.

That’s not as gruesome as it sounds, McAlister said.

“It was a lot more normal than people think today,” he said.

“Medical students use cadavers for training, but access was difficult. There was no system for donation, so they used grave robbing. If you had a body, you could sell it to the department of anatomy in Toronto.

“The goals were always for the good of society,” McAlister continued, “but the laws and culture were not conducive to that.”

How Groves hospital came about is also interesting, McAlister said.

Groves had antagonized administrators at Guelph General Hospital and they wouldn’t allow him to work there. So he built a hospital in a “very grand house” in Fergus and opened it to any doctor in the region.

He also opened a school of nursing at the hospital, understanding that good nurses were key to good hospitals. 

And he wrote to the Queen of England asking to name the hospital in her honour, the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

In 1932 he gave his general hospital to the village of Fergus, and it was later renamed in his honour.

McAlister did much of his research at the Wellington County Museum and Archives, which has a lot of material and memorabilia on Groves.

“They introduced me to a man who used to cut the grass for Mrs. Groves. He had papers and he gave them to me,” McAlister said. “I gave them to the Archives of Ontario.”

As a surgeon himself, McAlister said he was curious to know more about Groves and his impact in the early days of surgery.

“He was an amazing fellow, I think,” McAlister said.

There’s more to the biography than this. Groves had a flour mill. He ran an electricity company that transmitted power between Fergus and Elora, which was also revolutionary at the time. 

And he was a politician, an author, a lecturer and an educator.

The full story, along with stories of numerous notable Canadians, can be found at biographi.ca.