Dr. J H Moon
Information comes from Treasured Tidbits of Time Volume I by Jens Patrick Wilde
Dr. J H Moon was the first fully qualified doctor to arrive in Montpelier after Hoover. He came in the fall of 1887. He was born in New York in 1844 and received good medical training in eastern colleges but disliked city life to the extent that he enlisted for military service for the northern forces during the Civil War. He proved to be an excellent field surgeon and attained the rank of commander.
After the war ended, he requested to serve the remainder of his enlistment out west. During the last nine months of his military career he spent time in North Dakota and finished out his term in Fort Walla Walla Washington. It was while traveling from Fort Yates in Dakota to Fort Walla Walla that he first saw Montpelier and was so impressed with the country that he wanted to return.
First however, he taught a year at the University of Chicago where he married into a prominent family and became a legislator from Michigan. While in the legislator his wife left him for the more exciting life of eastern society circles and he came west after obtaining his divorce.
Moon stopped off first at Laramie in Wyoming and then moved to Evanston. After about a year he reached Montpelier and began his practice. He established a drug store business with several stores in nearby areas. Soon he had a thriving medical business in Afton, Evanston, Montpelier, Laramie and Eagle Rock (Idaho Falls). He was a great lover of horses and sought to have the best matched and prettiest team at all times. All over the valley he was recognized by his flashy outfit.
Moon was still a relatively young man of 47 when he died suddenly. He went to his friend Dr. Hoover in Feb 1891, told him he was suffering from an acute case of gout and that since morning had experience extreme pains in his chest. He never left the doctor's office and died that afternoon of what Dr. Hoover called an aggravated heart attack.
A local lodge to which he belonged had apparently been given instructions to bury him in Montpelier. Services were arranged and were well under way when a woman dressed in black and heavily veiled appeared carrying an injunction for stopping the funeral and for claiming the body. She claimed the doctor had commissioned her many years before to handle his last remains and she presented a statement in what appeared to be the doctor's handwriting as to that effect.
The funeral became a court of law and lawyers L Glenn and Attorney Ricks contended with Johan A Bagley who had been engaged to represent Miss Hattie J Hines, the woman in question. In the final outcome, Miss Hines was awarded the custody of Moon's body and she placed him on the train back to Michigan. Later a group of lawyers showed up from Laramie to handle Moon's legal affairs.