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Dr. Pock was one of several herbal doctors who made a profitable practice in Butte treating Chinese and EuroAmericans alike with herbal remedies and acupuncture. Dr. Pock's
practice was given a great boost when he successfully treated
the ulcers of the daughter of William Andrews Clark, one of the
famous Copper Kings of Butte and one of the wealthiest men in
America. Dr. Pock developed an effective herbal poultice that
used banana stalks. He shipped However, Dr. Pock could not save his young wife, Chong Chie Huie, who died of botulism in 1923 after eating food from a tainted can. When Dr. Pock died in 1927, his son squandered the money set aside to ship his wife's and his own remains for burial in China. His body lay in storage at a local funeral parlor until 1953 when Dr. Pock and his wife were finally buried in unmarked graves in the Chinese section of Butte's Mount Moriah cemetery. |
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Dr. Huie Pock was a well-respected Chinese physician
who became wealthy through his practice of herbal medicine. Western
medicine, especially on the remote frontier, was primitive by
comparison to herbal remedies honed from thousands of years of
practice in China.
these
through the mail as well as using them locally to treat various
ailments. His reputation was established during an outbreak of
influenza that killed hundreds in Butte in 1918. Pock had an
effective herbal treatment that saved lives where western doctors
could do nothing but watch their patients die.