Hurty, John Newell (Feb. 21, 1852-Mar. 27, 1925). Pharmacist, medical educator, public health advocate, state legislator. Born in Lebanon, Ohio, Hurty attended both the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (1871-1872) and the Franklin Institute (1871-1873) before graduating from the Medical College of Indiana (1891). Settling in Indianapolis in 1873, he served as chief chemist and drug foreman at Johnston and Lilly until 1879. IN 1879 Hurty opened a drugstore (Hurty’s Drugstore) at the corner of Ohio and Pennsylvania streets. In the basement below and later in an extra room to the north, he set up a chemistry laboratory, the first of its kind in Indiana.
Following his appointment as secretary of the State Board of Health and as state health commissioner in 1896, Hurty wrote the first comprehensive pure food and rug law passed by any organized government. Covering all medicines, antiseptics, disinfectants, and cosmetics, as well as confectionary, condiments, and all “articles used for food and drink by man,” the law provided for a multitude of practices or offenses through which a food or drug might be deemed “adulterated.” It was passed by the Indiana legislature in 1899 and preceded federal food and drug legislation by several years. His efforts led to many other advances, including: methods for recording vital statistics adopted as a model by the Department of Health in Washington; the passage of more than 20 public health laws by the Indiana General Assembly; a silver medal for excellence in health programs awarded to the Indiana State Board of Health at the Paris International Exposition in 1900; a bronze medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904; and the gold medal in 1907 at the Jamestown Exposition.
Having served 26 years as both secretary of the State Board of Health and as state health commissioner, Hurty retired in 1922 in order to run for the Indiana House of Representatives, where he served one term. In 1911 he served as vice-president of the American Medical Association and in 1912 he became the president of the American Public Health Association. He was the author of Life with Health (1902).
Lucretia Ann Saunders,
Indiana State Board of Health (retired)