Son of Joseph Young and Jane Adeline Bicknell

Married Ann Elizabeth Riter, 14 Apr 1867, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children: Seymour Bicknell Young, Louis Courtney Young

Married Abbie Corilla Wells, 28 Apr 1884

History - Seymour Bicknell Young. — One of the young men who studied with Dr. W. F. Anderson was Seymour Bicknell Young, son of Joseph Young, a brother of Brigham Young. He was one of the few medical men of Utah who was born before the birth of pathology and bacteriology and lived to see medical science advanced to its present high position. Born in Kirtland, Ohio, October 3, 1837, he experienced the trials and tribulations of the Saints there and in Nauvoo. Leaving the latter place, his father moved to Winter Quarters, where he remained until 1850, when he with his family started for Salt Lake City, Seymour assisting his father in driving an ox team across the plains.

Shortly after his arrival in Utah, Seymour enrolled in the University of Deseret, now the University of Utah. Life in the pioneer community was hard, and his schooling was frequently interrupted. However, he was of a studious nature and was an avid reader, supplementing his formal schooling at the University by home study. In 1855 he went on a mission to England, pushing a hand cart from Utah to the Missouri River.

Returning to Utah, he pursued his studies in the University of Deseret as opportunity afforded. These were interrupted from time to time, as the necessity of supporting himself and wife prevented constant attendance at school. One of the very first of Utah's native sons to study medicine, Seymour B. entered the college of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City in 1872. There he graduated in 1874, finishing third in a class of 208, receiving a bronze medal for excellence in surgery, and for general scholastic ability. His diploma was signed by a number of noted physicians of that day, among whom was John William Draper, who wrote the "Intellectual Development of Europe."

Returning to Utah, he engaged in private practice for a few years. About 1878, he purchased a piece of ground in the vicinity of what is now the College of St. Mary-of-the-Wasatch, and established there an asylum for the insane. In the construction of the building and laying out of the grounds, he showed an insight into methods of caring for the insane and feeble minded which was far in advance of his day.

Insanity was usually regarded as due to disturbances of the bile, heat in the dog days, and causes such as exaggerated self-esteem, jealousy, envy, sloth and similar fanciful reasons, were also offered to account for the disturbances of the mind. It was less than a quarter of a century before this, that even the most advanced psychiatrists suggested treatment of the insane without mechanical restraints.

At his institution, Dr. Young laid out the grounds in flowers and shrubs. Many acres of ground were brought under cultivation, much of the work being done by the less seriously disturbed patients. The "house" had many gables and porches. Locust trees, green lawns and flowers surrounded the main building. Wheat, garden vegetables and fruit were grown; milk and butter were secured from a fine herd of cows and hogs and chickens were raised.

While it was necessary to confine some of the patients in rooms which were locked and barred, a considerable percentage of the patients enjoyed liberal privileges, playing in a large shady court in the rear of the main building. As their condition warranted, many of the patients were transferred to the city home of Dr. and Mrs. Young, where they received treatment at frequent intervals during the day and night. After this course of treatment, they were often returned to their friends and relatives. A reasonable percentage of them were cured and many enjoyed long periods of relief from their mental disturbances.

While the institution was operated on what might well be considered an "advanced" plan of treatment, the physical plant, by present-day standards, was rather old-fashioned. It had no worth-while heating system. Large heating stoves were used in the winter. There was no street car, no auto, no railroad. Coal had to be hauled from the nearest yard, eight miles away, as rail roads had come only a short time before to Salt Lake City. There was no lighting plant. There was no water supply. Water had to be hauled from springs a half a mile away.

One wonders where Dr. Young got the ideas he employed. They were certainly far in advance of his day. Occupational therapy was not confined to the men, many fine quilts having been made by women patients.

No history relating to the activities of this institution would be complete without some reference to the work of Mrs. Seymour B. Young (Elizabeth Riter). She was truly a pioneer woman and mother. As indicated, she supplemented the family budget enabling Dr. Young to pursue his college and medical studies. Later, she gave much attention to the minutiae of operating the "home". She was the purchasing agent. She made all the clothing for the women and supervised the culinary department, not only for the patients, but the employees of the institution, as well as for the visitors. It was a day's travel to go out to the hospital, see a relative, and return home. Despite the active career at the "home", she managed to maintain her own home in the city, finding time to bear twelve children, sending all their sons on missions to foreign lands, and those of them who wished, to college.

Dr. Young was one of the promoters of the Utah Medical Association, which included some of the ablest physicians of the seventies and eighties. Among those men were Dr. W. F. An derson, Dr. Joseph Benedict, Dr. Denton Benedict, Dr. Allen Fowler and others who had come into Utah after the Civil War.

Dr. Young was one of the first physicians in Utah to promote hospitals, and with the inception of the Hospital of the Holy Cross, he was one of the first members of that institution's staff. He has recorded that anaesthesia was brought by the physicians of Johnston's Army to Utah in 1857, and from that time on anaesthesia was brought across the plains by ox teams that hauled freight for the old Godbe Pitts Drug Company.

Like many physicians of the old school, Dr. Young thought little of fees. His great concern was with the cure of disease and the relieving of pain and suffering. There were no automobiles in his day. His was the horse and buggy days, when it took a day to go to Bountiful or Murray and get home for supper after attending someone who was suffering with a broken leg, or appendicitis, known in those days as "inflammation of the bowels."

He believed in the sanctity of the body as well as of the spirit. As he used to say with a prophet of old: "The body is the tabernacle of the spirit." To keep the body clean was one of his greatest teachings. A clean spirit cannot dwell in an unclean body. Such were his teachings.

He was a great lover of the classics, and few men knew Milton, Shakespeare and the writers of New England as did he. He knew by heart most of Milton's "Paradise Lost", which he loved to quote.

Probably no other native son of Utah has seen the great advances in medicine and surgery in his lifetime that Seymour B. Young viewed. With the exception of possibly anaesthesia, every advance in medicine of the last hundred years occurred between Dr. Seymour B. Young's birth and death.

Dr. Young died at his home in Salt Lake City, December 15, 1924. - By Blanche E. Rose