Early Female Physicians in Alabama

Laura Evelyn Compton and Captain Chesley Thomas Bartee
on their wedding day 25 November 1893
Nanafalia, Alabama

Laura Evelyn Compton Bartee [ right]
Lucy Evelyn Bartee [left]
ca. 1895

 Captain Chesley Thomas Bartee
Mrs. Laura Evelyn Compton Bartee
Lucy Evelyn Bartee [left; born January 31, 1895]]
Thomas Bartee [right; born before June 1897]

Dr. Burton's gravestone, Nanafalia Baptist Cemetery, Marengo County, Alabama

These photographs are courtesy of Dr. Laura Burton's great grandson:

Dan Bloodworth, Jr.
411 Watkins Avenue
Opelika AL 36804-7760

dwbjr45@earthlink.net

"Doctor Kills Wife and Self; Dentist Shot/

Dr. W.B. Burton Commits Murder and Suicide---T.T. Thaxton Wounded

Family Disagreements Cause of Tragedy

Several Eye-Witnesses to the Affair, Which Occurred in the Home of

Mrs. Burton, Who was Also a Physician"

Birmingham Age-Herald 10 April 1906, pages 1 and 7

W.B. Burton, physician, dead.

Mrs. Dr. Laura E. Burton, wife of W.B. Burton, dead.

T.T. Thaxton, dentist, Pratt City, probably fatally wounded.

In brief, that is the story of an awful tragedy at 45 Woodland avenue, North Haven, last night between 10:30 and 11 o'clock.

Burton shot and killed his wife, two bullets taking effect; shot and wounded Thaxton, and cut his own throat with a small pocketknife which his wife had given him.

Family disagreements, coupled probably with jealousy, seem to have been the cause of the crime committed by Burton. According to statements made by Mrs. V.S. Andrews, and her daughter, Miss Blanche Andrews, who live in the same house, the husband and wife had not been living together for some time. A divorce was granted the Burtons a month ago.

Mrs. Andrews and her daughter further state that Dr. Thaxton was a cousin of theirs (the Andrews'), and that he was at the house at their request, as the former was recovering from a surgical operation.

That Mrs. Burton was expecting to be killed by her husband is indicated by a statement she made to a neighbor about dark. A telephone message was received from Dr. Burton earlier in the day, that he was coming to the house. She went to this neighbors and hid awhile. She returned home later.

There were three eye witnesses to the shooting beside Dr. Thaxton. The statements of all coincide, even that of Dr. Thaxton, made before he was placed on the operating table. The witnesses were Mrs. Andrews, her daughter and Mrs. T.T. Thaxton. The latter made the following statement:

Statement Made

"My husband and myself went to the house at the request of Mrs. Andrews, who was stopping with Mrs. Dr. Burton while recuperating from an operation. Burton came to the house and tried to make up with his wife. She refused to make up and he asked her to go in a room for a private talk. They came out of the room in a few minutes and we were all standing in the hall. Burton asked his wife to go back in the room with him again, as he had something else to say to her, but she refused. He looked at her a second, drew a pistol from his pocket and commenced firing. My husband jumped between them to protect Mrs. Burton, and Dr. Burton shot him twice in the abdomen.

"I do not know much about the family. I had never seen Dr. Burton before, but had seen the wife. I understand that they have not been living together for some time and that they have had family trouble and disagreements.

"The visit tonight was the second that my husband has paid to his cousin, Mrs. Andrews. I accompanied him and we merely happened to be at the house when the trouble took place. Mrs. Andrews telephoned my husband today that she wanted him to come over to see her tonight and he naturally went. She was operated on at the Hillman hospital recently and she thought that she could recuperate better at Mrs. Burton's than anywhere else. That accounts for here and her daughter being there."

Policeman Nix was among the first to reach the house after the tragedy. He began a close investigation of the affair, and has all the evidence that was to be procured last night. The pistol and the knife are in his possession. The former is a double-action Smith & Wesson, and four of the five chambers have been fired. The other cartridge was not discharged.

The knife has two blades and pearl handle and the longest of the blades was used by Burton in taking his life. He fiercely plunged it into his throat one inch, making a wound about an inch long in the right side of his neck, and about an inch and a half deep, into the jugular vein.

The house is near the end of the North Highlands car line in New Haven. Several steps lead from the ground to the front porch, which runs the full length of the front of the house, probably thirty-five or forty feet. The front door is a little to one side of the steps, and opens into the hall, where the shooting took place.

After Burton and his wife had come from the room where they had been talking, all stepped into the front hall. When Burton pulled the pistol, which he did without a word of warning according to all the witnesses. Dr. Thaxton sprang between him and his wife and received two bullets in the abdomen. A third bullet, probably one of those which took effect, struck the door facing, where it was embedded in the wood.

When Burton had fired two or three times Mrs. Burton ran out of the front door down the steps and into the darkness in the yard. Burton was just behind her and fired once more, the bullet taking effect in the left side of her neck and probably causing instant death. She ran about thirty feet to the end of the porch and fell face downward on the ground. Burton was only a few feet behind her and when he saw her condition plunged the knife in his own neck. He fell a few feet from his wife with the knife lying under him, near his right hand. Blood was clotted on the blade and handle of the knife when it was picked up.

The pistol was found at the bottom of the steps where Burton dropped it or threw it as he was running after his wife. In the meantime Dr. Thaxton had fallen in the hall. A minute or two afterwards he was picked up and taken into one of the rooms and placed on the bed.

The police were notified of the tragedy and also Lige Loy, the undertaker. A wagon was sent to get the dead bodies, but when it was found that Dr. Thaxton was wounded, a bed was made in the wagon and he was taken to Hillman hospital as rapidly as possible where he was placed on the operating table. He was accompanied by his wife. The bodies of Dr. and Mrs. Burton were carried to Lige Loy's undertaking establishment where they were prepared for burial.

To Hold Inquest

A coroner's inquest will be held this morning at 10 o'clock at Loy's establishment. Witnesses were summoned last night by Policemen Nix and Parker.

It is expected that at the inquest many additional facts will come to light. Among other things it is expected that a letter written by Burton to his wife yesterday afternoon will be produced. The letter had not been opened last night, but Miss Andrews stated that she would bring it to the inquest.

At the undertaking establishment the exact nature of the wounds of Mrs Burton was first discovered. One bullet had entered the left breast. It had struck a small watch she was wearing on her shirt waist and shattered the timepiece, then penetrated the breast. The bullet was not more than an inch under the skin and had been stopped apparently by striking a bone.

The second bullet was in the left side of the neck and it evidently caused death. It could not be traced last night, but judging from the direction it must have entered the brain near the base.

No funeral arrangements have been made as yet, as very little is known of the family. In fact all the information that could be secured last night was that he came from Montana and that they had been married about three years. They had bought the place which they occupied.

Mrs. Burton had an office in Room 14 Watts building, which is at the corner of Third avenue and Twentieth street. She was the partner of Mrs. Irene Bullard, who until recently lived with W.H. Fruitticher at 1005 Twelfth avenue. The two women doctors, however, opened this place at North Haven, which was something of an infirmary.

Little Known of Family

Very little could be learned about Mrs. Burton last night except that she was a widow with four children when she married Burton about three years ago, and that she was a native of Alabama and a graduate of a medical college in Louisville, Ky.

Her children are said to be with her parents in some Alabama town. She bought the house where the tragedy occurred about ten months ago, but her professional duties had kept her in the city most of the time. Her neighbors claim to know very little about her private life or domestic affairs.

Dr. Burton, her husband, according to those who knew the pair, made little effort to earn a support for either himself or his wife. Due to this cause, Mrs. Burton filed suit for divorce and was granted a decree about one month ago.

Their acquaintances are also authority for the statement that Burton took little or no interest in the woman till after the divorce was granted, but that since he has hounded her unceasingly and threatened on several occasions to kill her if she did not agree to live with him again.

No Cause for Jealousy

J.C. Richards, the members of whose family were the closest neighbors of the Burtons, in discussing the tragedy last night, said,

"I do not think that there was any cause for jealousy in the case. We did not know any of the parties intimately but did try to protect Mrs. Burton as much as possible.

"When I heard the shots fired I knew what had happened, or at least what had been intended, and I hurried to the Burton residence. I found Thaxton lying on the floor with blood flowing from his wounds and picked him up and carried him to a bed. As I was moving him he told me that Burton, without a word of warning and while apparently in a good humor, had risen from a chair, pulled a pistol from his pocket and started to shoot his divorced wife, and that when he (Thaxton) stepped between them the weapon was quickly turned on him, and that he was shot down."

Mrs. Andrews' Statement

Mrs. Andrews, who was in the room at the time of the shooting says that Burton requested hims former wife to go to her room with him for the second time and that she said, "I do not want to go to the room with you as long as you look like you do. I'm afraid of you," and that he immediately arose and attacked her.

As Mr. Richards and Mrs. Andrews were telling the story Mrs. Richards spoke up and said:

"Why don't you ask the police why they did not come out here and prevent this horrible tragedy? I called them when Mrs. Burton was here and told them she was in danger and that if some one in authority did not interfere she would be killed, and their reply was that it was so far out that no one could come."

HUMAN INTEREST STORY IN TRAGEDY

Interesting Account of Life of Mrs. Dr. Burton

CHANCE FOR THAXTON

Dentist Shot in Tragedy of Monday Night May Live

--Funeral Arrangements of Burton Not Made

Birmingham Age-Herald, Wednesday, April 11, 1906 page 7

Back of the North Haven tragedy of Monday night that ended the lives of Mrs. Dr. Laura E. Burton and Dr. Allen W. Burton and that threatens each passing hour to send Dr. T.T. Thaxton to his grave, lies a story of absorbing interest. 

The story can be best told in its chronological order.

Some fifteen or more years ago a beautiful and spirited girl in the middle of her teens, of gentle birth, refined environment and good education, left the protection of the fondest of parents to become the wife of a steamboat captain, a typical man of the river, many year her senior. This girl was "little Laura Compton."

She grew into womanhood and with her physical maturity came mental development and natural ambition and pride. She began to realize the disparity between her husband and herself, not in age alone, but in other matters as well.

She did not go adrift for she possessed the pride and virtue of her family. 

She went to Louisville and matriculated as a student in a leading medical college. Here she met a fellow student, Allen W. Burton, whose photograph now occupies the place of honor on the dressing cabinet of the bed chamber from which she was removed a corpse on Monday night, and whose body lies beside hers in an undertaking establishment this morning awaiting burial.

Like had found like in the ambitions of the two, and love, divorce from the first husband and marriage followed in rapid succession.

Graduation day passed and the wife came to Birmingham and opened an office for the practice of her profession and the husband traveled for awhile for a well known wholesale drug establishment. The wife succeeded and the husband failed.

The man lacked application, while the woman took pride in her profession and developed a high order of skill and competency, and her reputation and clientelle [sic] grew steadily.

The two drifted further and further apart and a decree of divorce, based on serious allegations by the wife against her husband broke their marital bond on March 7 last.

Burton, who had for some time prior to the divorce exhibited little interest in his wife, following the decree of separation commenced to court her anew in the most ardent and persistent manner. The result was that she agreed to remarry him again on May 9, and their families and friends were looking forward to their reunion by another marriage ceremony with much pleasure.

Some time ago Burton opened an office for the practice of medicine but was unable to establish a practice and last week sought a position with the wholesale drug house of Findly, Dick & Co. of New Orleans, but was unsuccessful. His repeated failures seemed to develop impatience and ill temper towards his former and prospective wife that became so threatening that she appealed to relative for personal protection.

This state of things became more and more intense until it reached its climax in the murder and suicide Monday night.

Monday Burton telephoned Mrs. Burton that he would be out to see her that evening. Sunday she had forbidden him to ever call on her again and broken off the engagement for their second marriage.

About the Tragedy

Monday afternoon he called at the court house and carefully read over several times the the [sic] evidence in the divorce proceedings frequently frowning as he evidently came across paragraphs that did not please him.

In the evening he called at his wife's home in North Haven. She saw him coming and ran to a neighbor's house where she remained some time, but finally decided to go and face him. She borrowed a hat and cloak to give the impression that she had just come in from the city.

Monday afternoon Mrs. V. S. Andrews, a patient of Mrs. Dr. Burton, who was staying at the Burton home while recovering from a recent operation, fearing that something exciting might happen, telephoned her cousin, Dr. T.T. Thaxton of Pratt City, to come out and spend his evening with her. Burton conversed with Dr. Thaxton and Mrs. Andrews, apparently in the happiest mood until Mrs. Burton came in. The Burtons went to Mrs. Burton's rom [sic] and stayed fifteen or twenty minutes, and then returned to the sitting room. In a short time Burton requested the woman to return to the room, but she declined. He got up and went into another room and picked up a 32-calibre revolver that belonged to Mrs. Burton, which he put in his pocket. Seeing this Mrs. Andrews ran and Dr. Thaxton stepped between the pair. In the coolest manner imaginable Burton turned on him and fired two bullets into his body. As Mrs. Burton ran out of the house Burton shot her in the breast. In the yard he caught up with her and at close range shot her in the neck.

He knelt over her to make sure that she was dead. Being satlsged [sic; satisfied?] he took her bleeding head in his arm, fell to his knees and mumbled either a curse or a prayer, those close by could not tell which, and cut his own throat, falling so completely over her body as to almost hide it from view.

The rest of the details have been already told.

Dr. Thaxton's Condition

Dr. Thaxton, who has been well known as a citizen and dentist of Pratt City for several years, was removed to the Hillman Hospital soon after the shooting, when it was found that the two bullets from Burton's pistol had lodged in the intestines and there was little hope of his recovery.

He rallied yesterday afternoon and last night his condition was reported unexpectedly favorable. It is now believed that there is a chance for his recovery.

Who the Parties Were

Mrs. Burton was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Compton of Marengo county [sic]. Her mother is the daughter of the late Brig. Gen. William L. Lewis of the Confederate army, who was for man years a wealthy cotton merchant of New Orleans. The Comptons have been prominent in Alabama. She was a double first cousin of H.C. Compton of Woodlawn, who has for years been connected with the wholesale department of the Doster-Northington Drug company of this city, and who is now an aggressive candidate for associate railroad commissioner.

She was an active member of the Young Women's Christian association [sic] and was a member of the Jefferson County Medical society [sic].

Burton was a southerner by birth, but lived in Montana with his parents for a number of years before returning south to attend college. His father is Col. A.C. Taylor of Tishimauma, Okla., and is said to have once been governor of Montana. His mother is Mrs. George H. Taylor of Chattanooga.

The parents of both parties have been notified of the tragedy.

The bodies were viewed by thousands of people in Lige Loy's undertaking establishment yesterday, a number of the visitors being women of all classes.

No funeral arrangements have been made. The inquest which was to have been held yesterday was postponed because the several witnesses were in such a nervous condition that they could not attend the hearing.

Mrs. Burton carried $1250 insurance and Burton $1000, which was in his former wife's favor.

H.C. Compton, Mrs. Burton's cousin, tells of a most remarkable incident in connection with the tragedy. Mr. Compton says:

"Dr. Burton spent Sunday night at my house on my invitation, and I warned him rather strongly against any further interference with my cousin to whom I was devoted.

"I left him Monday morning to go to Greensboro to make a speech in the interest of my candidacy for railroad commissioner. Monday night I dreamed I that I was riding in a vehicle and was pushed backwards into a pool of muddy water. Coming into the city yesterday morning I told a friend on the train about the dream and predicted that I would hear bad news soon.

"'O, you'll hear that after the primary on August 28,' he said, as he laughed, and passed me the Age-Herald which I had not seen before.

"His sentence was not completed till my eyes caught the headlines of the story telling of my cousin's murder.

"Of course I am not superstitious, but that was certainly strange."

BURTON TRAGEDY IN BIRMINGHAM

Mrs. Burton Passed Examination to Practice in Mobile

WAS WIFE OF CAPTAIN BARTEE

Two Domestic Wrecks n the Life of the Woman Before She Met Violent Death

Mobile Register 13 April 1906 page 2

Dr. Laura E. Burton, who was shot and killed by her husband, Allen W. Burton, also a physician, at the home of the woman in Birmingham on Monday night, was known to a number of people in Mobile, where her first husband lives when not on the river, and it was here she first stood an examination entitling her to practice as a physician in Alabama. Two domestic wrecks cloud the last fourteen years of her life and its ending was marked by a triple tragedy, her husband cutting his own throat and shooting Dr. T.T. Thaxton, who attempted to prevent the infuriated husband killing his wife, and who died on Wednesday.

The tragic sequel to the marital union of Dr. and Mrs. Burton has not surprised those who are familiar with her earlier married life as the wife of Captain C.T. Bartee, residing at 104 north Hamilton street, this city, and master of the river boat Mary S. Blees. The Birmingham Age-Herald in giving the history of the woman makes some errors which are unjust to Captain Bartee.

Mrs. Burton's parents lived in Marengo county and her family were well connected.

She was Miss Laura Compton before marriage to the steamboatman 14 years ago, and at this time he was and is today one of the best known and most generally esteemed captains on the Tombigbee river. There was no great disadvantage in age against the captain, as the Age-Herald states, and both families considered that the captain had won a very charming bride and the woman an honorable man entirely worthy of her. His high character was subsequently shown when he saved her name and list his own happiness. Their wedded life turned from the channel of peaceful content when the woman, who had been well educated and was gifted mentally, became ambitious to enter the profession of medicine. Her husband indulged her in the wish and paid for her medical education at the Homeopathic College in Louisville, with incidental expenses, for one year, although it separated the woman from home and children.

On a visit to Louisville Captain Bartee discovered conditions which brought him great sorrow and caused a scandal at the medical college, Dr. Burton's name being identified with the scandal. Through powerful Louisville influences the affair was kept out of the newspapers. Captain Bartee did not act as Dr. Burton later did under similar circumstances, but endeavored to save his wife's name by bringing her home and quietly obtaining a divorce when he realized that her heart was elsewhere and that the estrangement was total. She left him with four young children, and was soon afterward married at Louisville to the man who killed her.

As Mrs. Burton, the woman graduated March 31, 1903, at the Louisville Medical College of the Kentucky University. She practiced at Wapanucka, Indian Territory, for six months and came to Mobile in 1904. In September of that year she stood an examination before the board of examiners of the Mobile County Medical Society and gained a very high percentage, obtaining a certificate entitling her to practice medicine in Mobile county on October 1. Almost immediately she left this city and went to Birmingham. At the period of her qualifying here she was described as a woman of singular personal charm and vivacity, and of unquestioned ability in her profession. Her second husband accompanied her to Mobile and it is said that they went to Marengo county together to see her children on the boat, of which her first husband is pilot. The Age-Herald relates that while she succeeded in medicine, he failed, and when they were first in Birmingham he was traveling for a wholesale drug company. According to the Birmingham paper, the man lacked application, while the woman took pride in her profession and developed a high order of skill and competancy, and her reputation and clientele grew steadily. The two drifted further and further apart, and a decree of divorce, based on serious allegations by the wife against her husband, broke their marital bond on March 7 last.

Burton, who had for some time prior to the divorce exhibited little interest in his wife, following the decree of separation, commenced to court her anew in the most ardent and persistent manner. The result was that she agreed to remarry him again on May 9, and their families and friends were looking forward to their reunion by another marriage ceremony with much pleasure.

Some time ago Burton opened an office for the practice of medicine, but was unable to establish a practice, and last week sought a position with the wholesale drug house of Findly, Dick & Co., of New Orleans, but was unsuccessful. His repeated failures seemed to develop impatience and ill temper towards his former and prospective wife that became so that she appealed to relatives for personal protection. This state of things became more and more intense until it reached its climax in the murder and suicide Monday night.

Mrs. Burton was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Compton of Marengo county. Her mother is the daughter of the late Brigadier General William L. Lewis, of the Confederate army, who was for many years a wealthy cotton merchant of New Orleans. The Comptons have been prominent in Alabama. She was a double first cousin of H.C. Compton, of Woodlawn, who has for years been connected with the wholesale department of the Doster-Northington Drug Company of Birmingham and who is now an aggresive candidate for associate railroad commissioner.

She was an active member of the Young Women's Christian Association and was a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society.

Burton was a Southerner by birth, but lived in Montana with his parents for a number of years before returning South to attend college. His father is Colonel A.C. Taylor, of Tishlmauma, Okla., and is said to have once been governor of Montana. His mother is Mrs. George H. Taylor, of Chattanooga.

Birmingham News Thursday, April 12, 1906, page 8

DEATH CLAIMS DR. T.T. THAXTON

SUCCUMBS TO WOUNDS RECEIVED AT THE HANDS OF DR. A.W. BURTON IN NORTH HAVEN ON MONDAY NIGHT

Death has claimed the third victim of the Burton tragedy. Dr. T.T. Thaxton, who attempted to prevent Dr. Burton from killing his wife and who received two wounds as the result, from the pistol of Burton, died last night at 9:30 o'clock at the Hillman hospital after lingering for forty-eight hours in an unconscious state.

At the time of death the wife of the deceased was at his bedside where she had remained since her husband was striken down with the deadly bullets.

The body of the victim and the slayer lay side by side in Loy's undertaking parlors this morning. Hardly had the body of Mrs. Burton, the first victim of Burton's mad act, been removed when the body of Dr. Thaxton was brought in.

Dr. Thaxton was a popular dentist of Pratt City and leaves a family in that city. He had gone to the Burton home on the night of the tragedy at the request of Mrs. V. S. Andrews, a cousin, who with her daughter Blanche, was sojourning at the Burton sanitarium to regain her health, following an operation. Dr. Thaxton and Mrs. Andrews were engaged in conversation when difference between Dr. and Mrs. Burton arose and when the husband began his fiendish work Dr. Thaxton interfered and was shot down.

His body will be sent to Pratt City today by Lige Loy and funeral arrangements will be announced later. He was a member of the Improved Order of Red Men and other orders.

MRS. BURTON'S REMAINS

The remains of Mrs. Burton were shipped last night to Nafalia, Ala., where interment will be given this afternoon. Nafalia is the home of the parents of Mrs. Burton.

Z. T. Burton, father of Dr. Burton, will arrive in the city tomorrow morning from the Indian Territory and take charge of the remains of his son. He was expected to arrive this afternoon, but on account of delay in trains he was detained in Memphis.

There are no new developments in the tragedy and all the victims have departed this life.

Coroner Paris will make no further investigation, he being convinced that Burton killed both parties and then slew himself. Dr. Thaxton was killed deliberately by Dr. Burton when he attempted to thwart the plans of the former. His life was given as a sacrifice in an attempt to prevent bloodshed and the many friends are grief-stricken at his death.

Birmingham News Friday, April 13, 1906, page 14

THAXTON FUNERAL LARGELY ATTENDED

REMAINS OF VICTIM OF DR. A.W. BURTON LAID TO REST IN PRATT CITY CEMETERY...

Pratt City Bureau Birmingham News First Ave. Peoples Phone no. 40. Key & Moseley Building, no. 230

PRATT CITY, Ala., April 13.--The funeral of Dr. T. T. Thaxton took place this afternoon at 2 o'clock. The fraternities of which the deceased was a member turned out in mass. The Red Men, Pocohontas Lodge, the Woodman, the Blue Lodge of Masons, and the Knights Templar were strongly represented. The ceremonies were conducted by the Knights Templar, Eminent Commander Scott directing. The burial took place at the family lot in Greenwood cemetery.