Doctor Magnus Ridlon

A LOCAL COUNTRY DOCTOR’S SOLUTION

 TO WINTER IN MAINE

         

It is common knowledge that doctors, especially country doctors, used to make house calls routinely to treat their many patients. Although they had an office, it was expected in most cases that the doctor would go to the patient at all hours and regardless of the weather. This was true well into the 1940’s.

Dr. Magnus Ridlon of Kezar Falls was no exception. He practiced here for over forty years beginning in the horse and buggy days. When automobiles became available he was one of the first to buy one in this locality. Traveling in the winter on country roads was difficult and sometimes impossible. Dr. Ridlon’s solution was the vehicle shown below – an early version of a snow mobile.

Dr. Magnus G. Ridlon was born in Freedom, New Hampshire Dec. 13, 1880, the son of Walter H. and Carrie (Wakefield) Ridlon but his family came early to Kezar Falls, Maine where he lived most of his life. After graduating from Bridgton Academy in 1902 and Bowdoin Medical School in 1907 he served an internship at Maine Eye & Ear Infirmary in Portland, Maine.

He married Adelia Turner and returned to Kezar Falls to set up practice and served this community for more than forty years. They had one daughter, Edythe who married Merle Day. The house where Dr. Ridlon lived and had his office still stands on Elm Street at the end of the bridge on the Parsonsfield side of the Ossipee River and is the residence of his son-in-law, Merle Day. Dr. Ridlon died July 20, 1950 at the age of 70.

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