Dr. Jacob Tally Wilhite

Duane's take

The marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along. There's a farm somewhere near where you're standin' right now — or close enough to it — and on April 3, 1875, a boy named Jacob Tally Wilhite came into the world on that land. Nobody put a plaque on it that day, naturally.

They had no way of knowing. Wilhite got his early schooling in the public schools of the Willow Springs community, then made his way to the University of Texas in Austin. He taught school in Bastrop County for a stretch, which tells you something about the man — he wasn't in a hurry to be great, he was willin' to do the work.

Then he went back to his studies, this time at the University of Texas Medical Branch down in Galveston. He earned his medical degree in 1903 and served an internship at John Sealy Hospital, right there in Galveston. Now here's where the story picks up speed.

That same year — 1903 — Wilhite became assistant to the director of the State Lunatic Asylum, which is now known as Austin State Hospital. And somewhere in that work, surrounded by patients and puzzles that most folks would have found overwhelming enough on their own, he turned his attention toward something that had been killing people and terrifying communities for centuries. Rabies.

He began studying the disease. Its treatment. Its secrets.

The State Legislature took notice and appropriated funds for his research in 1904. Then in 1905, Wilhite became director of a brand new institution — they called it the Pasteur Institute of Austin. What happened next is the kind of thing that gets a man's name on a building.

Wilhite's research led him to the discovery of a stain — a specific stain — capable of detecting rabies in body tissue. You have to let that sit a moment. A way to see the invisible killer, right there in the specimen.

He became a leading authority on rabies and was known throughout the world. Not just Texas. The world.

In 1927, the State Legislature appropriated funds again — this time for the construction of a new facility for the Pasteur Institute, at 5th and Trinity streets in Austin. And this is where the story turns quiet. Dr.

Jacob Tally Wilhite contracted influenza. He died on January 27, 1927, before that new building was ever completed. The man who had spent his career fighting one terrible disease was taken by another.

When the building was finished, they dedicated it in his honor. He was born on a farm near here. He ended up known throughout the world.

The building stands at 5th and Trinity. Some stories don't need embellishment — they just need to be told.

What the marker says

(April 3, 1875 - January 27, 1927) Born on a farm near this site, Jacob Tally Wilhite received his early education in the public schools of the Willow Springs community. He attended the University of Texas in Austin and taught school in Bastrop County before continuing his studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Wilhite earned his medical degree in 1903 and served an internship at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. That same year, he became assistant to the director of the State Lunatic Asylum (now Austin State Hospital). During his tenure there, he began studying rabies and its treatment. The State Legislature appropriated funds for his research in 1904 and Wilhite became director of the new institution, called the Pasteur Institute of Austin, in 1905. Wilhite's research soon led him to the discovery of a stain to detect rabies in body tissue. He became a leading authority on the disease and was known throughout the world. In 1927 the State Legislature again appropriated funds for the Pasteur Institute for the construction of a new facility at 5th and Trinity streets. Dr. Wilhite contracted influenza and died before its completion, and the building was dedicated in his honor. (1991)