Savannah, Ga. — Things seemed to be looking up for Erle Glennwood Case, a former grammar-school teacher who had just finished veterinary school
in Ontario, Canada, and received a written offer to join a practice several hundred miles to the south.
Dr. Carla Case-McCorvey
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The year was 1909.
The optimistic young man packed his belongings and bought a one-way steamship ticket to Savannah, but on arrival discovered
that his plans had gone south, too.
Dr. Jerry L. Case
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There was no job waiting. The veterinarian who had extended the offer decided he couldn't afford to hire anyone after all,
and Case didn't have the money to return to Canada.
He approached the town's only other veterinarian, who couldn't take on an associate, either, but did offer Case a single stall
(in the building where he treated large animals) if Case would handle the growing number of small-animal patients coming his
way.
Early transport: Erle Glenwood Case, founder of the four-generation Case Veterinary Hospital, in the driver's seat of his
pet ambulance in 1929.
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"This vet thought the dogs and cats that farmers' wives were bringing him were a bother, so here was a chance to pawn that
business off on the new guy," says Carla Case-McCorvey, DVM, in recounting the story of how her great-grandfather started
his career and then founded Case Veterinary Hospital that she and her father, Dr. Jerry L. Case, DVM, Dipl. ABVP, still own
and operate today — almost 100 years later.
"I'm the fourth generation. We've been investigating and haven't been able to find any practices in the country or even worldwide
that have been operated continuously for that long in the same family," Case-McCorvey tells DVM Newsmagazine. An article in the May issue ("Preserving the past") gave brief histories of six other longtime practices, the oldest dating
to 1844 and another that has remained in the same family for three generations.
Snapshot in time: Erle Glenwood Case in front of his hospital in downtown Savannah, Ga., in 1909.
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"Erle Case was the first Savannah veterinarian with a degree. The others, who had no formal training, resented him for that,"
Case-McCorvey says. "When he started his own practice, he treated both large and small animals."
In those days, some clients bartered for services with chickens or farm produce. Case's original hospital was in the city's
historic downtown area, but it was destroyed by fire and the family doesn't have a record of its exact location.
"As the city grew, some people didn't like the traffic and animals downtown, so Erle was asked to move farther out," Case-McCorvey
says. "He built a new practice on Ash Street in 1923, exactly on the city limits and right on the trolley line. The family
residence was upstairs."
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