 This
tent was set up on the grounds of the general
hospital taken over by four Sisters of Mercy at the height of the terrible
influenza epidemic which struck the whole nation during the era of World War
I. Here the Sisters lived winter and summer for two years.
Sisters standing
by their primitive “canvas convent” are: Sisters Mary Bonaventure
Earle, Mary Raphael Rohrer and Mary Alphonsus Mulryan
|
 |
| |
A Caring Legacy
Nampa, Idaho was slow in getting a hospital. As late as
1903 eighty percent of the
surgeries in the Northwest were in homes and the only hospitals in Idaho were
in the
population centers. In southwestern Idaho the only population center was Boise.
Doctors had to improvise many of their tools and modify their techniques to fit
the circumstances.
By 1907 some people in Nampa were talking about the need for a hospital, but
the question did not come before the Chamber of Commerce until 1910. The idea
was attractive to the owners of businesses because of the revenue and the retention
of population a hospital would occasion, but the promotion of such a venture
seemed beyond them at the time. |
|
In July 1911 Dr. Mark C. Meyers
of the Utah Construction Company, which was
operating near Nampa at the time, set up a hospital in what had been the Willard
Rooming House, part of the Snell Building. Meyers’ venture was short-lived,
however, as he moved the following year. The hospital he had started was taken
over locally, but the town could not make it prosper. The owners decided to move
the hospital to the Cushman residence where they could have a cool and roomy
environment away from the center of town. The move was made in November 1914.
Dr. Meyers still held a mortgage on the fixtures in the hospital and in 1915
he threatened to foreclose. The town managed to rise enough money
to satisfy Meyers and to redecorate the hospital. |
There was talk of bringing in an order of Sisters
to take charge of the hospital since the board was having a
great deal of trouble meeting the salaries of the nurses and
other staff members. According to Dr. George O.A. Kellogg,
this transition occurred rather suddenly.
He called the hospital one day to say that he was bringing in a patient for emergency
surgery and a Sister of Mercy answered the phone who had never heard of Dr. Kellogg
and did not know that he would be bringing patients to their hospital. |
This eight-room
house was formerly
the Cushman residence before it
was converted
to the Nampa
General Hospital from 1914 - 1919.
|
When the Sisters arrived in Nampa on May 30, 1917 at the request of Father J.P.
Regis they found the remodeled frame house with eight rooms and two screened
in porches. With one room for an operating room and one for a kitchen, there
were only six rooms for patients. The Sisters did so well that the hospital was
soon overflowing with patients and there was no place for the Sisters themselves
to live, so for two and a half years they
camped out in tents near the hospital. |
One day Dr. Kellogg asked his friend W.C.
Dewey to drive him to the hospital. Kellogg had been trying
to convince a reluctant Mother Ignatius to take the risk
of building an adequate hospital. Mr. Dewey was a man of
personality, business savvy and enthusiasm. When he met Sisters
Alphonsus and Raphael and found that they would live the
winter in a tent, he was determined to go out the next day
and raise $10,000 in subscriptions. When he came back the
next afternoon he was only $2,500 short of his goal. He offered
to make up the difference, but Sr. Alphonsus wouldn’t let him.
Apparently Dewey’s success had convinced the Sisters that they would
have community support if they took the financial risk of building a new hospital. |
In 1919 Mercy Hospital
opened its doors.
This superstructure of the time
was built of tapestry brick,
fireproof throughout, with tile
and hardwood floors. |
Ground was broken for the new Mercy Hospital on December 9,
1918 and the Sisters began admitting patients on November
17, 1919. In April 1920 Mercy opened a training school for
nurses and in 1921 the medical staff was organized with Dr.
Kellogg as chief
of staff.
Kathleen O'Brian, RSM Journeys: A Preamalgamation History
of the Sisters of Mercy, Omaha Provence. Published by The Sisters
of Mercy, 1987. |
|
|
