Eldon Galway Marksman practiced medicine from his rural office on the outskirts of Princess Anne for more than 40 years, including nearly two decades as campus physician for Princess Anne Academy, as the school was known in the early 20th century.
A native of Grenada, Marksman was born Oct. 20, 1892 to John and Roselia Clarke Marksman. He was strongly influenced by Dr. Walter Clement Noel, a U.S.-trained dental surgeon on the Caribbean island who medical historians believe may have been among the first people in the Western Hemisphere diagnosed with sickle cell anemia.(*)
After Noel died at age 31 in 1916, Marksman left the British West Indies to pursue a medical career “by dint of hard work, sacrifice and pertinacity,” his family wrote in his 1972 funeral program.
Marksman made his way to Washington, D.C., where he enrolled in Howard University intending to follow in Noel’s footsteps. Marksman shifted his focus to medicine, and graduated June 11, 1926 from Howard’s College of Medicine. He was 33.
Meanwhile, Callie Elizabeth Henderson, a young North Carolinian, caught Marksman’s attention, and the two were married in Philadelphia in 1928. That same year, the couple relocated to Princess Anne to build their life — and his practice — at the urging of Princess Anne Academy Principal Thomas H. Kiah.
Kiah’s granddaughter remembers the Marksmans fondly.
“He had a way of putting you at ease — didn’t take away the pain; but he knew how to distract you,” Schelley Kiah said. “He was kind and gentle and prescribed the most god-awful tasting medicines.”
Setting up shop as a physician of color could not have been easy in the early 20th century, even under the best of circumstances. Within a year of settling in Princess Anne, the country plummeted into the Great Depression, and race relations on the Eastern Shore were tenuous at best. Medical treatment remained as segregated as other parts of society. Nonetheless, the couple forged their way and made Princess Anne their life-long home.
Marksman, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen Sept. 11, 1933, was active in the community and the school that eventually was renamed Princess Anne College. He was its first physician.
He was a member of Pi Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., which honored him with its National Achievement Award in 1950.
“I took care of the college students,” Marksman told Salisbury’s Daily Times newspaper in a January 1968 interview. “They paid if or when they could. This did not prevent me from giving my services.”
The Marksman residence, known as Eldon Hall Farm, was an expansive tract of land off Backbone Road on the east side of campus. Unlike many other rural physicians who had offices in their homes, Marksman’s patients remember a separate building on the property had a knotty pine waiting room; and the treatment room was sterile bright white and stainless steel.
The Marksman farm also was a short distance from Metropolitan United Methodist Church, where the couple were “faithful and enthusiastic” members.
Schelley Kiah said her mother admired Callie Marksman’s green thumb; “her pride of place was her garden, which was immaculate.”
In fact, Mrs. Marksman’s obituary in The Sunday Times of nearby Salisbury noted “her gardens at their homeplace have drawn flower admirers from throughout Maryland and neighboring states.”
Though he returned briefly to Grenada to practice medicine in 1946 and 1947, Marksman spent much of his career in Somerset County caring for and treating “the people of the community regardless of race, creed or color.”
At a 1968 banquet in his honor, the local Chamber of Commerce presented Marksman with a plaque and Certificate of Merit “in recognition of his 40 years of dedicated and loyal service to the citizens of Somerset County and vicinity.” That same year also marked the couple’s 40th anniversary. “Cal” Marksman, as she was affectionately known, died at Eldon Hall Farm on Feb. 8, 1968 where the couple is interred.
Alone, with no children as heirs, Marksman began selling parcels of his property to Maryland State College faculty members. Between 1969 and 1971, Marksman deeded land to Richard “Fess” Thomas, head of the college’s Industrial and Mechanical Arts department; Claud Marion, a professor of agricultural education and teacher training, and Mary Fair Burks, an English professor.
A private road named in Marksman’s honor is on the east side of campus marking his homestead.
Marksman died April 24, 1972 at his beloved Eldon Hall Farm. He was 79. His final words, shared by his family, were a tribute to a life well-lived: “Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Heaven for me. It is well with my soul.”
In accordance with his wishes, the remaining acreage of Eldon Hall Farm, as well as contents of his home and office, was auctioned. Lloyd “Hotdog” Simpkins, a colorful Somerset County Circuit Court judge, and his brother, Tom, purchased the farm, a two-story dwelling, a two-story office and a tenant building in 1975 for $135,000.
In April 1977, the state legislature “approved a $265,000 appropriation for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to purchase . . . [the] 245-acre [Eldon Hall Farm] for expansion of the Princess Anne campus.”
The Eldon Hall Farm property remains a vital part of the campus’ 745-acre footprint as the university continues to advance its land-grant mission.
* – Tracking Down the First Recorded Sickle Cell Patient in Western Medicine by Todd L. Savitt, Ph.D.; Journal of the National Medical Association, Vol. 102, No. 11, November 2010
