The Ferguson Medicine Man

Less of a Mystery and More of a Curiosity

Photos Courtesy of Rod Zimmerman, Somerset, KY

In the early 20th century, just outside Somerset, Kentucky, a quiet legend took root in the town of Ferguson. His name was Pylap Medekle—Seminole herbalist, healer, and the last of a dying tradition. Long before the clinics, long before white coats and insurance forms, there was Doc Medekle, mixing wild cherry bark and golden seal in a weathered bottle, curing what others couldn’t—or wouldn’t—touch.

He came from the Florida swamps, the son of a Seminole medicine man said to have lived more than a century. By the time he reached Pulaski County in 1915, he had walked the backroads of the South for decades, bringing hope where hope was scarce. But it wasn’t just the roots and herbs—it was the way he listened. The way he sat beside your sickbed like time itself had slowed.

Locals still whisper about his “Indian Sick Home,” where the sick were treated with gentleness and patience, far from the cold steel of hospitals. No mystery surrounds his death—only his life, and how someone so vital could so easily be forgotten.

🎧 Listen to the full story in the audiobook Hometown Murders & Mysteries | Pulaski County, Kentucky | Volume II – Pulaski Postscripts: The Ferguson Medicine Man, and rediscover the quiet power of a man who healed with plants, presence, and purpose.

🔗 Listen to the Audiobook! Or buy it in print from Amazon!