Dr. Ephraim McDowell, regarded as the father of abdominal surgery and the most prominent surgeon west of the Alleghenies in the early 19th century, gained lasting renown on Christmas Day 1809 when he performed the world's first successful ovarian surgery. Jane Todd Crawford, a 46-year-old Green County housewife who had been told she was pregnant with twins, had not been helped by two doctors, so McDowell traveled from Danville to assist her. He determined that she had a tumor rather than a pregnancy and proposed that she come to his home for an experiment. Without anesthesia, he removed a 22 and one-half pound tumor; Crawford recovered in 25 days and lived 32 more years, reaching the age of 78. During his career McDowell performed many other surgeries, including one on future United States president James K. Polk, who came from Tennessee to Danville. His Georgian-style house has been restored to its appearance during his lifetime, with original family portraits, a shake roof, reproduction draperies, and a medicinal herb garden like one the family would have tended. The adjoining Apothecary Shop opened in 1795, remained fully operational until 1856, and now contains 18th- and 19th-century pharmacy equipment, glass ware, and ceramic jars.