USA > Illinois > Cook County > Growth of Cook County; a history of the large lake-shore county that includes Chicago, Vol. I > Part 13
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That County hospital, with its present 21 buildings, eventu- ally was to overflow onto adjacent properties outside the block was inevitable.
In 1874 the county started construction of the first buildings on the new site, transferring its patients to them on Oct. 6, 1876. The new hospital then was comprised of two pavilions for patients, a boiler house, laundry, kitchen and mortuary.
The late Dr. Frank Billings, attending physician of renown at County hospital from 1893 to 1900, and who became dean of the faculty at Rush Medical school (at times also held professorships at both the University of Chicago and the North- western University Medical school), in 1922 wrote reminis-
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Main building at County hospital No. 5, erected in 1882. In 1912 it was replaced with main building of present hospital. Portion of other County hospital buildings shown here were constructed during 1874 and 1875 and placed in use Oct. 6, 1876.
cently upon County hospital history.'
"The clinical amphitheater and connecting corridors were completed in 1887," he recalled. "The administrative build- ings and two additional pavilions were erected in 1883-84. The operating and receiving building were completed in 1897.
"The children's and contagious pavilion was built in 1903 and the building for the treatment of advanced tuberculosis patients was constructed in 1908 and occupied in 1909." (This brought the bed capacity of County hospital to 2,000.)
In 1912, Dr. Billings further recounted, "the county, finding some of the original buildings inadequate, tore them down and erected a new administration building and two pavilions." In 1916 it built two more pavilions, bringing the total cost of the four pavilions and the new administration building to $4,176,644.
1. History of Medicine and Surgery, James C. Russell, Biographical Publishing Corp., 1922, p 264
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Tracing further the building program, we note from Warden Hertwig's 1955 House Staff Manual that the Psychopathic hospital was erected in 1914 and the present Children's hos- pital in 1928, both close to the main hospital building.
Album in possession of Chicago Historical Society bears notation that this was the "examining room" at Cook County hospital, about 1890.
In 1935 the 820-room Cook County Hospital Nurses Dor- mitory was erected at 1900 W. Polk st. and connected to the hospital buildings by an underground tunnel. Its cost, includ- ing equipment, was $2,360,500, of which $431,000 was an outright grant from the federal Public Works Administration.
The county in 1939 purchased the old West Side hospital at 519 S. Wolcott st., re-establishing it as an outpatient clinic. The clinic was named in honor of Dr. Bernard Fantus who had just died.
In 1942 the county board purchased for $110,000 the old
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McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases, 629 S. Wood st., and the adjoining old Durand hospital building, converting them into the Hektoen Institute for Medical Research of the Cook County Hospital. (A fuller account of the work of this now-famed research laboratory is given later on.)
County hospital scene about 1890. Courtesy Chicago Historical Society.
This brings the institution's physical setup down to the post- World War II years which, likewise, are dealt with in full on subsequent pages.
Methods Of Appointment
Concerning personalities and practices at the new County hospital shortly before the turn of the century, Dr. Billings also wrote in his aforementioned reminiscences as follows:
"The first warden of the new hospital was Hugh Mclaughlin, who served from Dec. 18, 1876 to the end of 1878. Daniel W. Mills was warden from 1879 to the end of 1881, Joseph
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Dixon during 1882-83, and Wm. J. McGarigle from 1884 to July 5, 1887."
Before continuing with what Dr. Billings had to say con- cerning these men, particularly Warden McGarigle, we inter- ject here the reference to McGarigle made by Michael Loftus Ahern in his Political History of Chicago, published by Dono- hue and Henneberry in 1886.
On page 266 of this publication, Author Ahern noted that McGarigle, formerly the general superintendent of police for Chicago under Mayor Carter H. Harrison, was appointed war- den at County hospital on Sept. 1, 1883.
In tribute to McGarigle, Ahern wrote that the "immense" County hospital "is conceded by the world's travelers to be the finest hospital in the world, including the Vienna hos- pital, and the magnificent precautions against fire are high tribute to Mr. McGarigle's inventive genius. The County hos- pital was never before managed more skillfully, and several members of the State Board of Charity last year in an interview stated that they never had seen better management and disci- pline in an institution of its kind."
That Ahern might have tempered his enthusiasm over Mc- Garigle's activities had he published his history a year later is found in Dr. Billings' remarks, page 265 of the aforementioned History of Medicine and Surgery, which follow:
"It was during the regime of these three men (Mills, Dixon and McGarigle) that the greatest political activities of the board occurred, particularly during the wardenship of Mc- Garigle. Some members of the board of commissioners in that period of time used their positions to financially advance themselves in the ways mentioned above (Editor's note: ac- cepting money for appointing doctors to serve as attending physicians at County hospital), and some politicians, growing bold, formed a ring to graft upon the county in every possible way.
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Another ward at County hospital, about 1890.
Courtesy Chicago Historical Society
"As a result their speculations were finally discovered and the warden, Wm. J. McGarigle, some of the county commis- sioners, the chief engineer of the hospital and others were tried, found guilty and fined or imprisoned or both."
From Dr. Billings one also learns that the honored Dr. Christian Fenger (1840-1902), after whom a Chicago high school is named, had to buy his appointment to the hospital staff.
Danish-born Dr. Fenger came to this country from Copen- hagen in 1878. In an autobiography Dr. Fenger once recounted, in but three brief sentences, his hospital activities, as follow:
"In the spring of 1878 I secured by means of borrowed money a place as physician to Cook county hospital. Here I commenced to give lectures and demonstrations in pathologic anatomy, a science which was unknown to physicians there.
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All babies are sweet, including these newborns pictured at Cook County hospital, about 1890.
Courtesy Chicago Historical Society
At this hospital I served first as pathologist, later as surgeon for 12 to 14 years, and introduced Lister's antiseptic operative methods."
(Dr. Fenger is credited by Dr. Billings not only with ad- vancing the knowledge of medicine, but with inspiring younger doctors, notably Ludvig Hektoen, Edwin R. LeCount, and H. Gideon Wells, who in time were to become famous them- selves. )
The "going price" in "buying" appointment as attending physician at County hospital in those grafting days reportedly was $1,000, yet the physicians evidently felt that the added prestige of practicing at such an institution of renown was worth it.
Above and beyond prestige, however, the learned men of medicine who have practiced at County hospital thruout the
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years have been motivated largely by their feeling of civic- even sacred-duty to donate, unselfishly, a substantial portion of their time and skilled efforts to the healing of the destitute sick among mankind. It is in their outside, private practice that they make their living.
Dr. Billings also noted that political party lines "mattered not" when it came to grafting. One should always bear in mind, however, that it is unfair to brand an entire group of individuals as grafters just because some of their numbers "go wrong." At all times in the period alluded to, there were many conscientious men on the county board, and it is a mat- ter of record that in certain instances it was these honest com- missioners, themselves, who brought about the cleansing of their own household.
Concerning this "dark period" in County hospital history, Dr. Karl A. Meyer, medical superintendent of all Cook county institutions, has written1 in a somewhat similar vein, saying, in part:
"The new regime (1876) began auspiciously enough. One- third of the staff was nominated by Rush Medical College, one-third by Chicago Medical College, and one-third by out- side physicians appointed by the county commissioners.
"This plan worked equitably until 1881, when a newly elected board exercised its privilege of making its appoint- ments according to its own notions. It authorized a separate staff of homeopathic physicians and surgeons, who were given jurisdiction over one-fifth of all the hospital patients. Further- more, the patient could not choose the type of physician he wanted to take care of him.
"Political interference with the medical activities of the hos- pital brought further unrest. In 1882, in protest against the dismissal of a Dr. Edward W. Lee by the board for his experi-
1. Quarterly Bulletin, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, 1949, Vol. 23, No. 3, p 271.
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ments with skin grafting with skins of chickens and lambs, the whole staff of the hospital resigned.
"This gesture of righteous indignation, however, served no good purpose, for during the next 23 years, the medical schools were not officially represented on the staff of the hospital.
"The board of county commissioners, with no great concern over the loss of academic prestige of the hospital, continued to appoint the entire attending staff, often, of course, without regard for the professional qualifications of the appointees. They doubled the size of the attending staff and allowed, in addition to the homeopaths, the exlectic physicians to control one-fifth of the hospital. This period which ended in 1905 was, on the whole, the darkest in the history of the hospital.
"Yet in spite of the lack of intelligent control of the hospital during this era, there were many qualified physicians connected with the institution. Many began as interns; others came in as attending men."
Dr. Meyer listed among these outstanding medical men of the time, Drs. Christian Fenger, William E. Quine, John B. Murphy, Frank Billings, Frederick Tice, Howard Taylor Rick- etts, and Allen B. Kanavel, some of whom are mentioned else- where in this history.
"Such men," Dr. Meyer added, "learned and taught medicine and surgery against all the odds of inadequate facilities and unsympathetic administrations."
So it is with a feeling of relief that one learns from both Dr. Billings and Dr. Meyer, as well as from other sources, that the system of selecting physicians was changed.
Rigid Competitive Examinations
Altho the interns always had been selected thru competitive examinations, the county board in that year (1905), with Edward J. Brundage as board president, and with strong civic backing, relieved itself of the troublesome power of appoint- ment.
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Main building, County hospital, pictured in 1954. In 1958 county con- sidered erecting a name sign above building, similar to sign superimposed upon this picture by an artist, but plans fell thru, due to cost.
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COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL
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buildings.
The County hospital group of 21 buildings, as pictured in 1958. Also show- ing, upper right, are a portion of the University of Illinois medical college
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The commissioners substituted for it the current policy of per- mitting a committee of hospital staff physicians to select on mer- it the resident doctors, most of whom are chosen from among the graduating interns, and leaving the selection of attending physicians (in 1958 there were 179) strictly to the results of most rigid competitive examinations administered by the Cook county civil service commission.
Because of this change, there has not arisen for more than a half-century the slightest suspicion of outside influence in the selecting of the medical staff which administers to the sick-poor at Cook County hospital.
Before leaving the era of the late 1800s completely, it may be of some interest here to note that total hospital expenses for the mid-nineties ran approximately $250,000 as against $20,085,286 for 1959.
One finds in a handbook,1 published by the county board in 1896, that salary appropriations of that year for County hos- pital, including Detention hospital, totaled but $98,292.
(The "Detention hospital" then located on the grounds of County hospital, was under County hospital management, and was used in temporarily detaining the mentally ill of all ages, as well as both homeless and problem children, all awaiting court dispensation of their cases. This building eventually was supplanted with the present Psychopathic hospital, built in 1914, and with the Juvenile Detention Home at 2240 W. Roosevelt rd., now known as the Arthur J. Audy Home for Children. Thus for comparative purposes, one now must com- bine the current operational costs of both County hospital and Audy Home.)
We here list County hospital's 1896 salary appropriations,
1. Now in possession of Municipal Reference Library of Chicago.
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Tents for tubercular children, County hospital about 1914. At that time this form of fresh-air treatment was considered to have curative powers.
by positions, not only to show such hospital costs, but also to show the wage structure of those days for various trades, as- suming that the hospital jobs paid about the same as those on the outside.
1896 County Hospital Budget
No. Title
Combined Salaries (yearly)
No. Title
Combined Salaries (yearly)
1 warden
$2,500
1 cook
$ 660
1 chief clerk
1,500
4 carmen
1,440
1 bookkeeper
900
1 gardener 540
2 receiving clerks
1,200
1 laundryman 420
1 night clerk
600
3 asst. laundrymen 720
1 night supervisor
600
1 bathroom clerk, male
360
1 registrar
900
1 bathroom clerk, female 300
1 custodian
720
1 barn foreman
420
1 druggist
900
3 teamsters
1,080
1 asst. druggist
720
1 ambulance man
240
1 druggist's helper
360
1 undertaker 360
2 custodians of instruments
720
1 asst. undertaker
300
2 housekeepers
960
1 coffin maker
480
1 head painter
636
1 morgue keeper 360
600
2 carpenters
1,272
1 head porter
360
1 mattress maker
480
6 porters
1,800
1 storekeeper
720
3 doorkeepers
1,080
1 baker
600
2 watchmen 600
1 asst. baker
480
2 laborers
720
3 painters
1,620
1 weigher
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Combined Salaries (yearly)
No. Title
1 janitor $ 300
1 cook
600
1 asst. cook 300
1 cook, night 360
1 butcher 480
2 electrical engineers 1,440
3 firemen, 6 mo.
720
3 coal and ash wheelers,
6 mos.
540
1 boiler washer
360
1 steamfitter
792
1 asst. steamfitter
480
1 plumber
792
1 asst. plumber
480
1 sewer man
360
3 elevator men 1,440
1 head seamstress 300
1 head ironer 300
2 shirt ironers
432
3 linen rm. women 648
240
2 wash room women
432
30 scrubwomen
6,480
7 window cleaners
1,680
1 head waitress
240
6 waitresses
1,296
1 chief engineer 1,200
1 cook
360
3 asst. engineers 2,160
1 woman to help baker 180
3 tin washers
648
1 scrub woman 216
Altho these 1896 salaries allegedly totaled $98,292, the figures listed in the handbook total but $95,772. With sup- plies and repairs for the combined institutions costing $155,- 000, total operating costs for County hospital and Detention hospital for that year were $253,292.
Daniel D. Healy was president of the county board during the period from 1894 to 1898, and James H. Graham was County hospital warden.
In 1895, according to the same handbook, 15,655 persons were admitted to County hospital, and the average daily popu- lation was 808.
Infants liveborn at County hospital in 1895 totaled 360, of whom 64 died before leaving the institution. Thus the infant mortality rate then was 17.77 per cent, or nearly one out of five.
By 1959, due to the marvels of modern medical science,
No. Title
Combined Salaries (yearly)
4 nurses
$1,200
3 nurses 720
Ill. Training Sch. for nurses, incl. all spl. nursing 22,200
DETENTION HOSPITAL
1 county physician $2,000
1 asst. co. physician 900
1 clerk 720
1 matron 420
1 janitor 540
6 attendants, male 1,800
6 attendants, female 1,800
3 attendants, children's ward 900
2 dry room women 432
9 ironers 1,620
4 manglers
720
1 fumigator 480
240
2 messengers
3 chambermaids 540
1 asst. cook 240
2 waitresses 384
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2 sewing machine women 432
1 laundress
the mortality rate among the 17,992 babies born alive at County hospital that year had dropped to 2.26 per cent, or one death out of forty-four, according to hospital officials. This is low, considering that 2,587, or 14 per cent, of these babies were born prematurely. This is twice the percentage of "premies" born elsewhere, a fact for which no specific reasons are known, other than that most expectant mothers who come to County hospital have had no pre-natal care, including lack of proper diet.
Improved Hospital Wardenship
Contributing to the resurgence of "high level" County hospital management was the fortunate choice of wardens, two of whom were named by Peter Reinberg, board president from 1914 to 1921.
One of the two, Clayton F. Smith, warden from 1915 to 1917, is credited with "humanizing" a somewhat austere insti- tution. His task included the promotion of more harmonious working relations among members of the huge staff, and bring- ing the patients to realize that they were in the hands of friends -that the ministering of death-dealing contents of a "black bottle" to "unwanted" patients was an evil myth.
(Further details of Smith's life, including many fruitful years of service as a member and president of the county board, will appear in the second volume of this history.)
The other was the late Michael J. Zimmer whose 21-year tenure, 1917 to 1938, exceeds by far that of any other County hospital warden. Thru the "roaring twenties" and the trying depression of the 1930s, Zimmer guided with a capable, un- derstanding, and friendly hand. And even after his retirement as warden, Zimmer continued working for another three years (until 1941) at the hospital as food accountant.
Prior to becoming warden, Zimmer had served successful terms as city alderman, city comptroller, and county sheriff.
Succeeding Zimmer as warden was Manus McCloskey, re-
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tired brigadier general of the United States army and holder of citations for war heroics. McCloskey, sometimes controver- sial, served as warden for eight years-until the close of 1946.
New Era For County Hospital
Altho it long had been recognized in medical circles as unexcelled in the administration of medical treatment, the great institution was permitted to run down physically during the depression years of the 1930s when money was scarce, and during the following World War II years when materials went for war efforts. County hospital was in need of almost complete modernization, extensive alterations and repairs, and new construction to meet the needs of the county's fast expand- ing population.
With the war over, the rehabilitation was tackled by the county board shortly after William N. Erickson, who had been a commissioner since 1934, was elected president in November of 1946.
Altho Erickson, an Evanston resident, was a Republican, as were the four other "country" township commissioners and one commissioner from Chicago, the program for revamping and revitalizing county institutions received the full support of all 15 members of the board, including the nine remaining Chicago commissioners, all Democrats.
In fact, it has been to the credit of Cook county for nearly a half-century that politics, no matter how vigorous at election times, have not been allowed to interfere with good county government.
Shortly after becoming president, Erickson appointed as County hospital warden the aforementioned Fred A. Hertwig on Jan. 1, 1947.
Erickson was certain Hertwig was the man for the job, hav- ing known him since 1916 when they were fellow engineering students at Armour Institute, now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. (Hertwig was to graduate in 1920 with a BS
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degree in civil engineering and a membership in Tau Beta Pi, honorary engineering fraternity.) ,
Hertwig, as since has been proved, was qualified from many angles. He knew engineering, having supervised in the con- struction of such Chicago buildings as the Carbon and Car- bide, the Standard Club, the Medinah Temple (now the Shera- ton hotel), the Foreman Bank, the Engineering building, the old Steuben Club (188 W. Randolph st.), and several Balaban and Katz theaters. Thus he was in position to see for himself what was needed at County hospital in the way of physical improvements.
Hertwig also had been a successful manager of the Georgian hotel in Evanston for 15 years. He knew hotel management, knew about food and services, and knew how to spend money wisely. He also knew how to get along with employes, and how to meet the public. But more than that, he had a burning desire to "do a job," as he expressed it, for County hospital, harbor of hope for the suffering poor.
Daniel Ryan, Democratic president of the county board since Dec. 1, 1954, has seen fit to retain Hertwig.
When a visitor now enters the offices of the hospital warden, he is likely to be struck by the smoothness with which a trying business is being operated. That is partly because Hertwig has gathered about him a small but efficient staff of helpers, in- cluding Joseph A. Clay, administrative assistant, and Joseph T. Geary, assistant warden in charge of personnel, both of whom handle difficult-appearing problems with apparent ease. Also included would be Hertwig's highly efficient and kind secretary, Mrs. Claire Higgins.
At the outset of the hospital revamping program, complete surveys of the institution were made by two firms of hospital consulting engineers, each looking forward to the needs for years to come.
The virtual rebirth that ensued was financed not only thru
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yearly appropriations made by the county board, but also by major bond issues approved by public referendum, one in 1947 for $7,000,000, one in 1951 for $6,600,000, and one in 1957 for $12,800,000.
Completed since 1947 have been some 150 major projects that included such diversified things as reroofing of buildings, replacement of elevators, complete fireproofing of buildings, electrical rewiring of all buildings and conversion from direct to alternating current, major remodeling within buildings to make the best use of space, creation of new research labora- tories, redecoration periodically of wards and other rooms, steam-cleaning the exterior of the main building, replacement and addition of much equipment including that for medical treatment, establishment of mobile dental service for school children in rural areas of Cook county, purchase of land and creation of parking space for the use of hospital personnel, the purchase of three additional buildings and construction of two new buildings, and the virtual rebuilding of portions of existing buildings.
Largest single project was the construction of the 15-story dormitory for 350 interns and resident doctors of County hospital. Located at 720 S. Wood st., it is connected to the main hospital by underground tunnel. It was dedicated on May 3, 1953 and named the Dr. Karl A. Meyer Hall in honor of the famed medical superintendent of all county institutions.
Not only does this modern dormitory provide proper hous- ing for the men who put in long hours each day in attending hospital patients, but it has made available for other purposes an equal amount of greatly needed space in the hospital build- ings in which the interns and doctors previously had had their scattered quarters. Meyer Hall, completely equipped, cost $3,000,000.
From a medical standpoint the creation by the county board of the new Radiation Center which went into operation in
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Cook county's $50,000 cobalt beam therapy unit, spectacular cancer-fighting device, was first placed in use in June of 1953 upon opening of new Radiation Center, a division of County hospital. Pictured beside it at time are, left to right, Dr. Irvin F. Hummon, director of department of radiology; Dr. Karl A. Meyer, medical superintendent of all county institutions; Commissioners William N. Erickson (then board president) and Elizabeth A. Conkey, and the late Anton C. Negri, county efficiency coordinator.
June of 1953 was a historical step in the treatment of cancer. The board purchased and remodeled a building at 1900 W. Harrison street, just west of the main hospital, then equipped it with the latest devices known to science for cancer treatment.
The most spectacular of this cancer-fighting equipment is the cobalt beam therapy unit which alone cost $50,000. This apparatus-one of the few in the United States-provides radia- tion equivalent to that produced by a 3,000,000-volt X-ray machine and is more penetrating than anything previously used. It more effectively treats deep-seated tumors and treats other tumors with less damage to surrounding normal tissues.
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