May 17, 1998

Dr. Blount Doted On His Scrappy Little Dog Pee Wee

Dr. Braxton Blount prided himself on being a "country doctor" who made house calls at any time of the day or night. He was the youngest of three brothers who came from Bartow to the frontier town of Punta Gorda -- the end of the railroad line -- in 1898.

He is most fondly remembered, however, for his colorful eccentricities.

Braxton had difficulty keeping his eye glasses in place because he had lost his left ear in an accident which he never discussed.

Dr. Braxton was appointed quarantine officer at LaCosta Island, for Charlotte Harbor, in 1902. During Prohibition after the First World War, a lady fainted on a downtown sidewalk. Dr. Blount was summoned and arrived in his two-seated Austin automobile to find a crowd had gathered. He examined the woman briefly then exclaimed:

"This is an emergency. Has anyone got any spirits?" After some hesitation, a man in the crowd passed over a flask of whiskey. Dr. Blount took a good, long swig then handed back the flask. "That did the trick," he announced. "The little lady has only fainted. She's much better now."

Dr. and Mrs. Blount, Amelia, bought a house on the east side of Cross Street between Marion and Olympia where he could have his office in his home. His waiting room had a fireplace to take off the chill on crisp winter mornings.

While rummaging through his desk one day, the doctor, an avid hunter, came across several old shotgun shells. Casually he tossed them into his waste basket.

The next day his nurse built a fire in the fireplace and tidied up the office while the waiting room filled with patients awaiting the doctor. The nurse emptied the wastebasket into the fireplace. In moments the old shells began exploding. Nurse and patients fled for the door or dived under chairs to avoid fiery embers and flying shot.

Fortunately no one was injured. The embers were quickly stamped out. However, medical treatment was delayed that morning so soot and ashes could be cleaned up.

After Amelia's death in 1923, Dr. Blount filled his loneliness with the companionship of a little Pekingese dog he named Pee Wee. Man and dog were inordinately close. The doctor lavished affection on Pee Wee, and the pet accompanied him on his calls.

Pee Wee Liked Beer

Somehow -- one can speculate easily -- the little peke developed a taste for beer. Pee Wee frequently trotted downtown to Bill Quednau's Bar where the proprietor would draw a saucer of beer for the four-footed patron. Once a month, Dr. Blount came in to settle Pee Wee's tab.

Though Pee Wee was tiny, he never hesitated to fight other male dogs for the favors of an amorous bitch. Pee Wee always lost the uneven matches, but he had many scars to prove his courage. As with all dogs then, Pee Wee ran loose. He became the town's pet because of his refusal to back down from larger adversaries.

One day, Pee Wee came home with a badly chewed eye. Dr. Blount often prescribed for ailing animals but couldn't bear to treat his little companion. He called in another doctor to remove Pee Wee's eye. Pee Wee disappeared one time, and Dr. Blount was distraught. He offered a reward but to no avail. A friend told the doctor that Pee Wee's pelt was drying on a rack at A.J. Kinsel's tanning factory on King Street.

Dr. Blount swore a mighty oath, grabbed his shotgun and started for the tanning factory on a run. Fortunately Kinsel was not at his place of business when Dr. Blount arrived seeking revenge. An inspection of the hide disclosed it was not Pee Wee drying in the sun. Pee Wee came home a day or so later, chewed up again, but healthy.

Finally Pee Wee died of old age. A saddened Dr. Blount placed the little dog in a child's plush-lined casket and laid him out in state in his waiting room for two days. Scores of townspeople came to pay their respects. Dr. Blount buried Pee Wee next to Justus Blount, the doctor's son, at the pioneer Charlotte Harbor Cemetery. We do not know where Amelia Blount is interred, but Dr. Blount intended to be buried in the family plot along with Justus and Pee Wee.

Relatives of deceased family members objected strenuously to sharing the cemetery with an animal. One dark knight, persons unknown dug up Pee Wee and buried him elsewhere. Old-timers say the dog was buried just outside the cemetery gate, and that Dr. Blount arranged to be buried just inside the gate as close as possible to Pee Wee.

All we know for sure is what the Punta Gorda Herald printed in its obituary about Dr. Blount who died August 14, 1944, at age 80. The paper said the good doctor was buried with Baptist and Masonic rites at the Charlotte Harbor Cemetery. The city's public offices closed in respect during the hour of the funeral. It is interesting to note that there is no record or tombstone for Dr. Blount or Pee Wee at any local cemetery. Presumably they lie somewhere near each other in unmarked graves.

Rev. George Gatewood, first pioneer preacher in southwest Florida and a resident of Punta Gorda, penned a tribute to Dr. Blount shortly before the latter's death:

Tribute To Dr. Blount

"Braxton Blount is one of those noblemen known as country doctors," wrote Gatewood. "He practiced medicine in Arcadia, Carrabelle, Boca Grande and Punta Gorda --in Punta Gorda the longest, where he continued doing so even in the evening of his life.

"He is of the type of physician, which to a great extent is passing from life's scenes -- one that doctors humankind for all the ills to which it is heir. He would even prescribe for a sick animal when occasion arose.

"He was like one of the family to all patients, responding to call at a moment's notice in all kinds of weather and at all hours.

"It is said of him that he never declined to respond to a call, fearing he would not be paid for his services. If he were paid now for all the calls for which he has not been paid, he would be on Easy Street. Yet, like the majority of country doctors of the past, he has not accumulated much of this world's goods.

"It has been his lot to continue active practice through years that he should have been enjoying leisure."

"The three Blount brothers, like myself, have lived the latter part of their life spans on earth in Punta Gorda. They had some enterprises in common -- farming among them -- and were in accord nearly always in helping further movements they regarded as for the public good.

"Dr. Blount's life has been one of service to his fellowman, a life that should bring him abundant reward in the Great Beyond when he has crossed the bar."

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers

cutline -- street scene

Photo courtesy of Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society

Dr. Braxton Blount had his office and living quarters for years in the Seminole Building, far right, on Punta Gorda's main business street.