Dr. F. H. Pilcher

From Burden Times, September 1, 1894.
A year and a half ago Dr. C. K. Wiles was retired and Dr. F. Hoyt Pilcher, of New Salem, this county, was appointed superintendent of the Kansas Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile youth, in Winfield, Kansas, by the Populist board of state charities.
Dr. Pilcher had been a practicing physician at the county hamlet of New Salem for several years. He had nothing, either personally or professionally, to recommend him to such a position. He was a populist politician of some note, having been a democrat and joining the (populist) movement in the early stages. He is a man of very large physique, strong and robust and powerful in constitution but of sluggish brain power, and regarded by physicians as only ordinary in his profession.
During the year of 1894, Dr. Pilcher surgically castrated eleven of the boys at the Asylum. This practice was roundly condemned by the majority of the community and state.
Winfield Free Press, April 23, 1904.
Dr. F. H. Pilcher married Dr. Clara Belle Page at the courthouse in Wichita. She is a trained nurse and a practicing physician. She graduated this spring from the Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City. Dr. Pilcher gave his age as 55 and Dr. Page, the bride, gave hers as 37.