USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 45
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The hospital was conducted in a large building on Washington avenue between Third and Fourth streets until the buildings at Orchard street and Tenney avenue were erected and properly furnished. These buildings, while offering every convenience for the work, are too small to meet the requirements, but in a few months it is expected that the new hospital building will have been erected.
The new Bethany IIospital is to be one of the largest and best equipped institutions of its kind in the United States, and for its erection and equipment a fund of $200,000 is being raised in the five conferences supporting it. It is located in a beautiful park between Eleventh and Twelfth streets north of Central avenue, the highest point in Kansas City, Kansas. It is to be made fire-proof. The foundation has been laid and all is now (July, 1911) ready for the erection of the great structure.
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL.
The Eleanor Taylor Bell Memorial Hospital of the University of Kansas, in Rosedale, was built in 1906, as a result of the benefactions of Dr. Simeon B. Bell, Rosedale's oldest and wealthiest eitizen, and as a memorial to the companion of his pioneer years in Kansas.
Dr. Bell's desire to help ambitions young men to the common- wealth to a medical education prompted him to make an offer to the state of Kansas of lands for a hospital and medical school. Years passed and finally, during the winter session of the legislature of 1904, the offer was accepted and about $80,000 worth of property was deeded to the state by Doetor Bell.
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The Eleanor Bell Memorial Hospital building was completed in 1906 and was made ready to accommodate patients. The furnishings and appliances are strictly modern. While not so large, it has the best equipment of any hospital in Kansas City. It is the only hospital which has hydrotherapeutic equipment for the treatment of disease. It is a beautiful building and the site is very suitable for the work.
A large laboratory building for the School of Medicine of the University of Kansas was afterwards completed and equipped with the latest appliances and materials. The institution has since treated many patients and its work has been a great aid to medical and surgical science.
It is the ambition of Dr. Frank Strong, chancellor of the Uni- versity of Kansas, to build up here the greatest medical school in the United States. An appropriation of $50,000 made by the legislature of 1909 is now being used in the erection of another large building for a chemical hospital. This is to be followed by further improvements until the school and hospital is complete.
OTHER HOSPITALS.
In compliance with a demand for a hospital for colored persons Donglass Hospital was founded twelve years ago and it has proved a great hoon to that race. It is located in the building on Washing- ton avenue that formerly was occupied by Bethany Hospital. Many of the leading physicians of the city assist the colored members of the staff when their services are needed. It is well managed by its officers and a board of directors, and is generously supported.
In addition to private hospitals, there are several sanitariums in Wyandotte county for the special treatment of eases coming from many states. Most important of these are the Grandview and the Bonner Springs sanitariums. Both are large, well equipped institutions, and have been conducted for several years.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MEDICINE AND SURGERY.
ACT TO INCORPORATE THE KANSAS MEDICAL SOCIETY-THIE STATE ORGANIZATION- FIRST ANNUAL MEETING THIEN CANE THE CIVIL WAR -REORGANIZATION-THE SOCIETY'S INFLUENCE-THE WYANDOTTE COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
Those pioneer physicians and surgeons who came to Kansas in the territorial days were a progressive set of men. They had been edu- cated in the noble art of healing in the schools of the east and by prae- tice, as their fellow pioneers had been schooled in religion, law and states-craft. And it was these grand pioneers of the fifties who laid the foundation for the profession of medicine in the state that, through all the years of her history, has taken leadership, not merely in prac- tice, but in the discovery and research that has placed Kansas in the front rank of forces contributing to medical science and education.
And, very naturally, the movement which gave Kansas a medical society even before it was a state, like many other great movements, had its start in old Wyandotte: for it was in a little conference of a handful of early-day medical men, held in Dr. Joseph P. Root's little "Pill Box," that the first steps were taken toward the organization of the Kansas Medical Society. The application for the charter was prepared and on its presentation to the territorial legislature the aet of incorporation was passed, signed and approved February 10, 1859. Herewith is presented the act as it was printed in the legislation records of that session :
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE KANSAS MEDICAL SOCIETY.
Be it enacted hy the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Kansas:
Section 1. Amory Hunting, S. B. Prentiss, J. P. Root, A. Fuller, C. F. Kobb, J. W. Robinson, J. B. Wheeler, L. C. Tolles, S. C. Harrington, A. Danford, C. E. Minor, J. B. Woodward, W. Madison, J. H. Phelps, O. Brown, Charles Robin- son, M. F. Holladay, H. J. Canniff, A. J. Ritchie, M. Baily, J. M. Pelot, H. H. Beals, J. G. Blunt, T. Linsey, G. W. Beaumont, J. Leigh, A. Newman, H. Hartmann, William Graham, and their associates and successors, who shall be elected to membership as hereinafter provided, are hereby constituted a body
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corporate and politic by the name of the Kansas Medical Society, and shall have perpetual succession forever. Said Society may have a common seal, and change or altar the same at pleasure.
Section 2. That members of said Society, in their corporate capacity, may elect such officers as they shall judge necessary for its government and the management of its affairs, determine the name, power, duty and term of office of each; also the time and manner of said elections.
Section 3. Said Society, by and in their corporate name, may have all the rights, privileges and powers of a natural person in law and equity.
Section 4. Said Society may cleet such persons to membership as they shall judge proper, and shall have power to expel, suspend or disfranchise the same, as members, from all the rights and privileges of the Society; but such expulsion, suspension or disfranchisement shall be by a vote of two-thirds of all the members present at a regular meeting of said Society, of which due notice shall have been given.
Section 5. Said Society shall have full power to make and enforce by-laws, and impose and collect at law any reasonable fines, not exceeding fifty dollars, as may be provided in said by-laws, for any and every violation or infraction thereof.
Section 6. Said Society shall issue certificates of membership to all its members, under such regulations as its by-laws may prescribe, and may also grant licenses to all respectable physicians, non-graduates, who shall, on examina- tion, be found qualified for the practice of medicine and surgery, or cither to practice those branches for which they are found qualified.
Section 7. Any three members of said Society may organize county or auxiliary societies in any county of this Territory; and said auxiliary society, when so organized, shall have all the powers and privileges, in the corporate name which they may adopt, that are conferred by this act upon the Kansas Medical Society; and the officers of said auxiliary societies shall be honorary members of the Kansas Medical Society.
Section 8. A meeting of the corporators, or a part thereof, shall be held in Lawrence, on February 10th, A. D. 1859, for the purpose of electing the first officers and completing the organization.
Section 9. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
A. LARZELERE,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
C. W. BABCOCK,
President of the Council.
Approved February 10, 1859.
S. MEDARY, Governor.
THE STATE ORGANIZATION.
The corporators of the Kansas Medieal Society assembled in ae- cordanee with the provisions of the charter granted by the legislative assembly of 1859, to eleet its first board of officers, and to transact all necessary business. Dr. Alonzo Fuller was called to the chair and Dr. S. C. Harrington chosen secretary pro tem. The following by- law was adopted: "The officers of this society shall consist of a president, six vice presidents, corresponding secretary, recording secre- tary, treasurer and librarian, to be chosen by ballot and to hold their offices for one year and until their successors are elected." The first
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officers chosen were: President, Dr. S. B. Prentiss; vice presidents, Drs. A. Hunting, J. P. Root, J. P. Robinson, A. J. Ritchie, C. F. Kobb, M. F. Holliday ; corresponding secretary, Dr. Albert Newman; record- ing secretary, Dr. J. B. Woodward; treasurer, Dr. A. Fuller ; librarian, Dr. A. Hartman.
Dr. Alonzo Fuller. Dr. M. Hartman and Dr. Albert Newman were appointed a committee to draft by-laws to be reported at the annual meeting, and Dr. J. B. Wheeler was delegated to prepare and report a code of ethics.
FIRST ANNUAL MEETING.
At the first annual meeting of the society, held in the Eldridge Honse at Lawrence, February 23, 1860. these proceedings were had :
Drs. A. Fuller, A. Newman and M. Hartmann, committee on rules for the government and regulation of the society, presented a report.
On motion of Dr. Tolles, the rules for the government and regula- tion of the society were adopted.
Dr. Wheeler, from committee on code of ethics, recommended the adoption of the national code, which was agreed to.
On motion of Dr. Wheeler, the society proceeded to the election of officers for the ensuing year, with the following results : £ President, Dr. J. P. Root ; vice presidents, Drs. J. B. Wheeler and J. H. Phelps; recording secretary, Dr. J. B. Woodward; corresponding secretary, Dr. A. Newman; treasurer, Dr. S. B. Prentiss; librarian, Dr. M. Hart- mann ; censors, Drs. A. Fuller, L. C. Tolles, S. B. Prentiss, J. B. Wood- ward, C. F. Kobb, T. Lindsey, A. J. Ritchie, J. W. Robinson and J. G. Blunt.
On motion of Dr. Newman the vote by which the by-laws were adopted was reconsidered, and the following persons were elected mem- bers of the society : Drs. J. A. Benjamin, IIerriford, Kerr, Nelson and J. W. Scott.
On motion of Dr. Newman, the by-laws adopted at the last meet- ing was repealed, and those reported by the committee were then adopted.
Dr. S. B. Prentiss was appointed orator for the next annual meet- ing and Dr. J. B. Wheeler, substitute.
Drs. S. B. Prentiss, L. C. Tolles and J. B. Woodward were ap- pointed executive committee for the ensuing year.
Voted to hold the next annual meeting of the society at Lawrence on the last Thursday in February, 1861. The society then adjourned.
THEN CAME THE CIVIL WAR.
The next annual meeting of the society, held in the Eldridge House in Lawrence February 27, 1861, was presided over by Doctor Root
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and from the minutes of that meeting, written in seventy-nine words, little business was transaeted. The Civil war was imminent and the men of the society sat with grave faces thinking of the duties that that conflict were to bring them. There was something prophetic in the last item of the minutes which read: "On motion of Dr. Newman the society voted to meet on the last Wednesday in January at such place as may be designated by the president."
A LAPSE OF SIX YEARS.
The war eame and nearly every member of the Kansas Medieal Society went forth to fight or to give treatment to the siek and wounded. Doctor Root remained president of the society and the other offieers held over all that time.
A call of the president for a meeting in Topeka, January 31, 1866, brought a quorum of the officers of the society, but there were so few members present an adjournment was taken to the first Thurs- day in April. 1866, at Lawrence. . At that April meeting, the presi- dent and vice president being absent, Dr. A. Fuller was elected presi- dent pro tem, a quorum being present. The war was at an end and many of those who had been members of the society when first organized were scattered and gone. Not a few of them had lost their lives in the service. But there were new faces to be seen in the meeting and among those admitted to membership were the following: Drs. T. Sinks, G. W. Hogeboom, A. Campbell, J. W. Broek, G. C. Crook, O. P. Barbour, C. A. Logan, H. Buekmaster, C. C. Shoyer, S. B. Davis, W. B. Carpenter, L. Houston, George Bolling, M. S. Thomas, I. O'Brien, A. C. Van Duyn, G. E. Buddington, G. W. Walgamott, O. F. Searl, Charles Newman, J. L. Prentiss, S. C. Brown, H. P. Woodward, R. Aikman and D. W. Stormont.
REORGANIZATION.
At that meeting steps were at once taken to revise the by-laws, adopt a code of ethics and start anew. A movement also was there started by the appointment of a committee to confer with the regents of the University of Kansas looking to the establishment of a medical department therein. The committee was composed of Drs. Sink, New- man and Stormont. How successful were these ambitious physicians and surgeons of those days may be judged by the fact that it has not been until the last five years that the teaching of medicine and surgery in the university has been seriously considered by the state officials, although the chancellors and the regents have long favored that im- portant step in the direction of professional education.
Before adjournment the society elected the following officers for
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the ensuing year : President, Dr. C. A. Logan; vice presidents, Drs. A. Newman, and Bailey; recording and corresponding secretary; Dr. D. W. Stormont; treasurer, Dr. J. L. Prentiss; librarian, Dr. O. F. Searl : censors, Drs. Woodward, Hartmann and Fuller of Lawrence, Drs. Sinks, Broek and Buckmaster of Leavenworth, and Drs. Bailey, Stormont and Brown of Topeka.
THE SOCIETY'S INFLUENCE.
Thus, in the foregoing proceedings in which a few energetic, high- minded, self-sacrificing men of seience participated in the early days, was laid the foundation for the Kansas State Medieal Society. Through all the years of its existence the society and its members have exerted an influence that not only is to be observed in the state but throughout the United States and that has had marked effect in elevat- ing the profession in the state. It has fostered great hospitals in the cities of Kansas, encouraged a high standard of education in medicine and surgery, and has brought about the enactment of those laws that have brought recognition to the state as having most advanced ideas in the regulation of public health and sanitation.
THIE WYANDOTTE MEDICAL SOCIETY.
Although many of the leading men of the profession resided in Wyandotte county from the time the white settlers began to come, it was not until early in the eighties that a county organization was formed. The society has been in existence since then and, although at times inactive, it has wielded a wholesome influence in the county and state for not only the benefit of the profession, but for that of the people at large, in the enforcement of proper sanitary regulations and laws for the protection of public health. During all these years many of the physicians of the eity have been identified with the county organization and have given it their support. Among the physicians who were residents of the county at the time of the formation of the society may be mentioned the following: Dr. George M. Gray, Dr. P. D. Hughes. Dr. J. L. B. Eager, Dr. P. A. Eager, Dr. C. A. Foulkes, Dr. Samuel F. Mather, Dr. N. B. Richards, Dr. J. C. Martin and Dr. A. P. Tenney. The society has maintained an organization for more than twenty-five years.
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE PRESS OF THE COUNTY.
CORRESPONDENTS OF LONG AGO-THE FIRST NEWSPAPER-THE "WYANDOTTE REGISTER"-THE "GAZETTE'S" FOUNDER-A FRIEND OF THE INDIANS-THE "WYANDOTTE HERALD" -- THE "ARGENTINE REPUB- LIC"-THE "WEEKLY SUN"-THE "PRESS"-CAREER OF MARK DELAHAY.
The first printing outfit brought to Kansas was for the use of the Shawnee Baptist Mission. It was set up by the Rev. John G. Pratt in a log building situated in what is now the southwest corner of the Argentine division of Kansas City, Kansas, in the year 1832. Primari- ly, the press was used for the printing of religious matters in the language of the Indians, but out of it grew the first newspaper ever issued in Kansas, The Shawnee Light or Sun. Each issue contained such news happenings as were of interest to its Indian readers. Mr. Pratt was assisted by John G. Lykins, a teacher in the school who also was a practical printer. With the settlement of Kansas in the fifties came a rush of Free State men from New England, who not only were statesmen, orators, educators, preachers and fighters, but were also editors and publishers. As Noble Prentis wrote: "In Kansas future governors, senators, chieftains and ambassadors carried printers' rules in their pockets."
Thus began the influence and power of the press of Kansas. From the time those grand missionaries, nearly eighty years ago, brought their little printing outfits from New England the press of Kansas has stood for the highest and best in education, evangelization and civilization. Since the territorial days when the Border Ruffians dumped Mark Delahay's printing plant into the Missouri river at Leavenworth, and at Lawrence saeked and burned the offices of the Free State papers, the press of Kansas has been a herald of freedom and of human liberty. In all the years of that grand struggle upward from a wild and deso- late plain, peopled by Indians and bad men and prairie wolves, to the magnificent commonwealth that in our time stands among the first among the states of this Union for intelligent and patriotie citizenship, for peaceful, happy homes, for churches and sehools, for farms and ranches and orchards, for a multiplicity of resources, and for wealth
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and power-the newspapers of Kansas have been in the forefront as champions of Kansas, its laws, its institutions, its people and their interests.
The press of Kansas was preaching the doctrine of temperance and morality, civic righteousness and a square deal in business and polities, fifty years before some of her neighboring states found it necessary, for the preservation of the sacred institutions of society and government, to fall in line. In all the years of adversity, when the grasshoppers came to consume every growing thing, when hot winds turned the fields and meadows from green to brown, when panics left their blight throughout the land, the newspapers of Kansas, with courage undaunted, with faith sublime and with hope eternal, were printing messages of cheer that pointed to the cloud with the silver lining, and the blue sky and the stars beyond. And now in the times of her prosperity, with wealth abundant, with food in store and some to divide among our friends in the rest of the world, the press of Kansas is ever ready with calm counsel for safe and sane policies of business, for just and righteous laws, and for the conservation of her strength and resources that she may be equal to the demands that are to be laid upon her in the years that are to come-for who knows what the future holds in store for the American people ?
CORRESPONDENTS OF LONG AGO.
As long ago as 1854 Kansas was overrun with correspondents for the eastern papers, for Kansas, then as now, was saying and doing things to cause the rest of the world to "sit up and take notice." The use of the telegraph-they called it the "magnetic telegraph" -- was not unknown to newspaper making. Many brilliant young men were sending "stuff" by wire in those early days. William A. Phillips was a correspondent of the New York Tribune. G. Douglas Brewerton, who published a series of letters on "War in Kansas," was correspondent for the New York Herald. Thomas H. Gladstone, a kinsman of William' E. Gladstone, England's great premier, was the correspondent of the London Times. When the constitutional con- vention was in session at Wyandotte, in 1859, members of that body acted as correspondents to keep the world informed as to what Kansas was doing. Philo M. Clark, one of the founders of the beautiful city of Bonner Springs in Wyandotte county, was a telegraph operator in those days and sent the reports of the convention.
THE FIRST NEWSPAPER.
The newspaper first to be published in Kansas was the Leaven- worth Herald. There was no building ready and in the haste to get
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ont the first issue an elm tree provided the protection to the printing outfit from sun and rain. John and Joseph Speer and George W. Brown were only a few days behind, for they were issuing papers in Lawrence in the fall of 1854. The Herald of Freedom and the Kansas Free State, issued there, were representative of the type of journals of the period, and their fearless advocacy of freedom's canse made them the objects of special attaek in the saeking of Lawrenee.
In the rivalry between Wyandotte and Quindaro as to which should become the metropolis of the Missouri valley, Quindaro evident- ly took the lead in journalism, for on February 13, 1857, the Chin-do- Wan made its initial appearance. It was published by Walden & Babb, John M. Walden, now retired after more than one-half century of work as a minister and editor for the Methodist Book Concern at Cin- einnati. being the editor of that journal. Its chief mission was to boom Quindaro as a Free State port of entry into Kansas, and right royally did it fulfill it mission. The paper reflected the spirit of the historie old town, but it was doomed to a short life. Mr. Walden ran it until he tired and then the town company assumed the manage- ment, Vineent J. Lane, M. B. Newman and Col. George W. Veale being the editors and publishers. When the war eame on and about every man in Quindaro went forth to battle, the Chin-do-Wan and the town, for that matter, went down.
THE "WYANDOTTE REGISTER."
In May, 1857, Judge Mark W. Delahay began the publication of the Wyandotte City Register, which was the first paper published in the city. The first number was issued from a tent on the corner of Nebraska avenue and Third street. Delahay sold to Eddy & Patton. It finally passed into the hands of Mr. Abbott, who changed its name to the Citizen and published it but a few months. It was succeeded by the Western Argus, which was printed on the same material and published by the Western Argus Company. J. E. Bennett, was editor and P. Sidney Post commercial editor. The first number of the Argus was issued March 25, 1858, and was continued till March 9, 1861, when the material was sold to R. B. Taylor and was used in the printing of the Wyandotte Gazette. The first number of the Gazette had been issued Angust 7, 1858, by S. D. McDonald, editor and proprietor. Mr. McDonald continued the paper one year, issued a daily during the sessions of the constitutional convention, and then suspended its publication.
In August, 1860, the publication of the paper, after a suspension of some months, was re-commenced by Messrs. MeDonald and R. B. Taylor. The partnership continued but a few weeks, when Mr. Taylor hired the office of Mr. MeDonald and continued to publish the Gazette
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alone. On January 15, 1861, while the editor was in the east on busi- ness, the office was entirely destroyed by fire together with the building in which it was located, both belonging to Mr. McDonald. When Mr. Taylor returned in March he purchased the material of the Western Argus, as before mentioned, and continued the publication of the Gazette until the spring of 1867, when Philpott & Brown secured pos- session of the office and published it three months under agreement to purchase, which they failed to do. Mr. Taylor again took the manage- ment of the paper and published it until October 1, 1869, when he leased the office to Kessler & Tuttle. On January 1, 1870, Mr. Tuttle withdrew, leaving Mr. Kessler sole lessee and editor. In July of this year, Mr. Taylor again came into possession of the Gazette, remaining editor and sole proprietor until his death.
THE "GAZETTE'S" FOUNDER.
Richard Baxter Taylor, who for so long a time, was editor of the Gazette, was born in Bucklan, Franklin county, Massachusetts, March 29, 1832, and died at his residence in Wyandotte, Kansas, March 26, 1877. He received a good common sehool and academical education. When seventeen years of age, he went to Canandaigua, New York, where he was engaged as an educator about five years, and then went to Ellenwood, Ulster county, in the same state, where he commeneed the study of law. He became connected with the Ellenville Journal, and so remained until he came west. In 1857 he visited Kansas, and the next year removed with his family to Wyandotte. His purpose in coming to Kansas was to aid in making it a free state. In 1851 he married Miss Rachel Broadhead. Mr. Taylor was a Republiean in poli- ties. As a journalist he was able, intelligent and bold. Through his ef- forts, the Kansas State Editorial Association was organized, and he was president of the first meeting, which was held at Topeka, January 17, 1866. He strongly advocated the writing and printing of words by the phonetic method. The editorial association which Mr. Taylor was so active in organizing, at its annual meeting held at Manhattan, April 7, 1875, suggested the action which led to the organization of the State Historical Society, and Mr. Taylor was one of its first directors.
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