USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 28
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Mrs. Irvine was the granddaughter of governor Isaac Shelby and Dr. Ephraim McDowell. At her death in 1918 she left Irvinton to the Medical Society of Kentucky to be used as a hospital in memory of her father, Colonel David Irvine, and her distinguished grandfather, Dr. McDowell. The Society, in conjunction with the United States Health Service, then established at Irvinton a hospital
Ezekiel Field House, built in the early 1800's now the Gibson Hospital.
The John Speed Smith House, built in the early 1800's.
Irvinton, on Lancaster Avenue, built in early 1820's, by Anthony Wayne Rollins. Now a recreational center.
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William Holloway House, where Bereans lodged while fleeing from Kentucky in 1859. Now the Telford Community Center.
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for those whose vision had been impaired by trachoma. Mrs. Irvine also provided that her many valuable paintings, relics, antique furniture, and other heirlooms remain within its stately walls. In 1954, its status as a hospital having ceased in 1950, Irvinton and its grounds became a city playground and recreation center.
Major Curtis Field Burnam, a lawyer who practiced his profes- sion for sixty-seven years, a member of the legislature that kept Kentucky from seceding on the eve of the Civil War, and later Assistant Secretary of the Treasurer under President Grant, pur- chased in 1858 the home that came to be known as Burnamwood. This home was presided over in a queenly way by Mrs. Burnam. Through her management both the grounds and gardens and the residence became most beautiful. Here was gracious entertainment, and many distinguished guests came and went. Perhaps the luncheon to Miss Helen Gould, following the Spanish-American War, was one of the most handsome ever given at Burnamwood. Major and Mrs. Burnam celebrated their golden wedding anniver- sary at Burnamwood in 1895.
On Lancaster Avenue is the home of Mrs. E. T. Burnam, Yorick, erected on the site of an old house built more than a hundred years ago. Yorick holds many art treasures brought from every land, and is one of the most artistic and beautiful of Madison County homes. Also on Lancaster Avenue is the James B. Miller House, later the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bates D. Shackleford. Daniel H. Breck, a native of Massachusetts, and a near relative of the distinguished author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, built the residence later known as the Breck house on Lancaster Avenue. Mrs. Breck was a member of the famous Todd family at Lexington, and the aunt of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.
Other old homes of interest in Richmond include the residence of Captain and Mrs. Shackleford on West Main Street; the home of Colonel Ezekial Field, now known as the Gibson Hospital; the home of Mr. and Mrs. Waller Bennett, with its many valuable por- traits, old mahogany, and rare volumes from the ancestral homes of Burnamwood and Homelands; the grand old Holloway house on East Main Street. (The Bennett house in 1947 became Benault Inn, the name Benault being formed from the two names, Bennett and Chenault. The Holloway house, located on Hillsdale, but once surrounded by grounds extending to East Main Street, has been
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known since the 1930's as the Telford Community House.
There are many other early homes of Madison County worthy of inclusion within these pages. So numerous have been such houses of distinction and interest that one might go on indefinitely. It is a matter of regret to leave out even one. The subject of our old homes is worthy of more exhaustive treatment than could be given in a limited space. It is hoped that the challenge of continuing the account will be accepted by someone else who loves and cherishes their memory. With this hope in mind, perhaps one may be per- mitted to close this narrative, as is sometimes done with other un- finished stories, with the cheerful and forward-looking words-To be continued .- By W. L. Keene.
CHAPTER XXIV
Hospitals
THE PATTIE A. CLAY INFIRMARY
Prior to 1893 the only source of aid for the unfortunate sick and suffering of the community lay in the hands of the county judge, whose humanity and sympathy were often severely tried.
At that time there lived on Water Street a certain Mrs. Grayson, who through the kindness of her heart often took into her home and cared for seriously ill unfortunate individuals at the rate of one dollar per day for board and care. Strange as it may seem when a hospital was finally established this same Mrs. Grayson became its first patient and there she was lovingly cared for until her death.
About this time a group of public spirited women, chief of whom were Mrs. Green Clay, Mrs. Fannie Parks Smith, Mrs. Susan Bald- win Jason, Mrs. Sam Bennett, Jr., and Miss Belle H. Bennett con- ceived the idea of a public hospital. With this idea in mind they soon had a group of fifty women organized for achievement even though no funds were in sight.
In 1892 Mr. Brutus J. Clay came to their rescue when he in memory of his wife, Pattie A. Field, gave the site of the present hospital where on stood an attractive brick residence, which some- what modified, is the old part of the present hospital. Mr. Clay re- quested that the name of the hospital should ever be the Pattie A. Clay Infirmary.
Within a short time the residence was transformed into a small hospital with six private rooms and a ward providing for six patients. A superintendent, a trained nurse, a housekeeper and a servant were employed. Now the infirmary was fairly launched and the struggle for existence began. The annual Easter bazaar, suppers, court day dinners, sewing bees, entertainments, and the dollar membership drive each November kept the institution functioning and out of debt. The County Fiscal Court contributed $1,000 annually for its charity patients and Richmond gave $35 per month for the care of local unfortunates.
The articles of incorporation of Pattie A. Clay Infirmary were drawn on October 22, 1892. The Board of Directors of the same
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were to consist of twelve women one of whom was to be elected by each of the seven white churches then in Richmond and the remain- ing five were to be selected by the Association.
By 1925 the crowded condition of the hospital made it imperative that steps be taken for enlargement and modernization of its facilities. In November, 1926 a campaign was launched to raise $75,000 for expansion. Mr. J. W. Hamilton was chairman of the drive and with much vigor a county wide campaign was soon in operation and approximately $65,000 were pledged.
The contract was let and the new hospital was soon under con- struction. This building was completed and dedicated on September 18, 1927 at a cost of approximately $75,000. All available funds went into the construction of the plant with little in sight for furnishings. Fortunately individuals, families, clubs, and the various organiza- tions of the community took upon themselves the responsibility of furnishing many of the rooms and offices and in a short time the plant was operating full capacity. Now the hospital provided forty beds instead of the original thirteen.
A complete X-ray and clinical laboratory was installed by Dr. M. M. Robinson and Dr. J. A. Arbuckle. The complete furnishings and equipment of the modern operating room and a sterilizing room were the gift of Dr. B. F. Robinson of Berea and Lexington.
In 1939 the association found it necessary to install a new heating plant. A two story building was erected on the grounds. The first floor took care of the heating plant while the second was equipped as a much needed laundry for the hospital. The following March a drive was put on with Mr. B. E. Willis as chairman to raise the necessary $20,000 to meet the expense of the above improvements. The desired quota was not realized and an indebtedness was in- curred, which was not an unfamiliar problem.
In 1939 a rearrangement of the interior of the original building increased the number of beds to forty-five. With funds collected by the colored people of Richmond a ward was made available in the original building for their people and a competent trained nurse attends them under the direction of the superintendent of the hos- pital.
In 1938 hopes ran high for a $150,000 addition to the infirmary through a proposed grant of $72,362 from the Public Works Ad- ministration. The county was to be deeded the local hospital
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property and was to bond itself to provide a fund, likc unto that offered by the P.W.A. Difficulties arose over the administration of the plant and the offer was withdrawn.
Again in 1945 the need of expansion and improvement became urgent and another drive was organized with the hope of raising $25,000, but it netted only $15,000. With this fund and some in- debtedness, the interior of the original building was completely remodeled resulting in a new maternity section with a glassed-in nursery. New X-ray equipment was purchased and the laboratory was moved to the basement. A gift of some new equipment modern- ized the operating room and an electric sterilizer was purchased. The former nurses home was sold and a larger and more desirable one was secured. Also a small house adjoining the hospital grounds was purchased as a home for the superintendent.
Space and human frailties will not permit even the mentioning of those many women who through the more than sixty years of service of the Pattie A. Clay Infirmary gave so freely of their time and energy and made it possible for the institution to serve the purpose to which it was dedicated. One who will be remembered long as a vital and inspirational force in the life of the institution was Miss Elizabeth Scott, who came here as superintendent of the hospital in 1912 and in that capacity labored devotedly and untiringly until her retirement twenty-six years later. She lived up to her promise to remain at the helm until the indebtedness on the new structure was liquidated. Neither would the records be complete without the name of Mrs. George D. Simmons, who for more than forty years bore the responsibility of treasurer of the organization.
Today the hospital is operating under a new system of manage- ment with Col. H. F. White as administrator.
The writer gratefully acknowledges that the above information was made available through the painstaking keeping through the years of a scrap book on the hospital by Mrs. E. Tutt Burnam and daughter, Mrs. James Lackey.
THE GIBSON HOSPITAL
The original Gibson hospital was built by Ezekill Field who was with Boone at Boonesborough. The home, the walls of which are from eighteen inches to two feet in thickness, was built in a very early day, possibly before 1830. The glass in the original doors and
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windows was hand blown in England, brought to America and hauled by oxcart from the coast to Richmond.
In 1900 the property was purchased by Drs. Hugh and Moss Gibson and converted into a hospital in 1901 with fifteen rooms for patients, an operating room, and other necessary accommodations.
Dr. Hugh Gibson died in 1917 and Dr. Moss continued to operate the hospital until his death in 1935. Dr. Shelby Carr, a nephew of the Gibsons inherited the institution. In 1944 the first addition to the original building was constructed as the three story north wing. This wing provides twenty rooms for patients and a kitchen and utility room.
In 1947 a second addition, or east wing, comprising an obstetrical department, new clinical laboratories, X-ray rooms, and offices were added.
At present (1955) a new department for surgery, consisting of labor, delivery, two operating, recovery, and surgeon's dressing rooms are under construction.
It is a general hospital receiving surgical obstretical, and medical cases. At present it is operated by Dr. Shelby Carr and Dr. W. C. Cloyd.
THE HENRY COOK POPE HOSPITAL
Dr. Henry Cook Pope graduated from the Louisville Medical School in 1906, located at Kirksville, and did general practice in Madison and Garrard counties.
He had two sons, Russell Lee and Mason Gleenmore, both of whom chose to tread the professional path of their father. Russell Lee graduated from Greenbrier Military School in 1926, obtained pre-medical collegiate training at Eastern Kentucky State College in 1928, graduated from the Louisville School of Medicine in 1932, and took his internship at the Norton Infirmary and Louisville City Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky. Mason Gleenmore graduated from Kentucky Military Institute in 1928, from Eastern Kentucky State College in 1932 and from the University of Tennessee in 1935. He interned at Waterbury, Connecticut for one year.
The father and two sons purchased from Mr. Jim Culton and wife a lot on North Second Street, Richmond, Kentucky and erected in 1939 the Henry Cook Pope Hospital which they equipped with X-ray, laboratory and other facilities necessary for diagnosis of
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diseases. The hospital began receiving patients on January 3, 1940. The registered nurse in charge was Miss Thelma Kent, with a complement of four nurses under her supervision. Occupying the first floor were the admittance office, doctors offices, the business office and two rooms for patients. Miss Mable Evans, who was in charge of the business office, was assisted in her duties by the secre- taries of Dr. Russell Pope and Dr. Mason Pope.
In January, 1943, Dr. Mason Pope was called to the colors, serving as Captain in the European theaters of war for twenty-one months. The varied professional competencies of the father and two sons have provided their patients and the hospital with an excellent staff-surgery, general practice and internal medicine. The hospital is now equipped with a modern operating room located on the second floor and having easy access to an adjoining scrub room provided with sterilizing equipment, the medicine room, and nine rooms for patients. Each room is equipped with hospital bed, easy chairs, and cabinets for the personal belongings of the patients.
After Dr. Russell Pope's death on October 14, 1945, Dr. Mason G. Pope took over the surgery. Soon new equipment was added to make the patients more comfortable. In January 1951, a new X-ray machine, oxygen tents and an oxygen machine were added. Two new fire escapes have been added and all precaution has been taken in case of accident or fire. The Henry Cook Pope Hospital, named for the father, Dr. Henry Cook Pope, is now a well-equipped and modern hospital.
BEREA COLLEGE HOSPITAL
Unfortunately little formal information on the Berea College hos- pital is available. The present hospital, a fifty bed fire-proof struc- ture was erected in 1917. It was said "Dr. Robert Cowley is build- ing the finest hospital in the area and the finest nursing school in the state." The institution ranks as a class A hospital. In 1918 the hospital announced that it was opening a building in which it could take care of seventy-five patients with contagious diseases. Evidently that was during the influenza epidemic of that year.
EASTERN STATE COLLEGE'S HOSPITAL
Eastern Kentucky State College maintains a small hospital unit with a part time physician and two registered nurses. The object of
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the institution is to care for only minor or temporary ailments.
IRVINE-MCDOWELL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOR THE TREATMENT OF TRACHOMA
Trachoma is a granular inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes and eyelids with an invasion of the cornea by the sur- rounding conjuctival blood vessels.
Trachoma was known to the ancients and is found practically in every country of the world. In this country there are two principal foci of trachoma, the Appalachian mountain chain extending across eastern Kentucky, east Tennessee, the western portion of West Vir- ginia, and Virginia. Trachoma has been endemic in this area since the people of pure Anglo-Saxon blood first settled there, and then in the Ozark section of the southern half of Missouri and the northern half of Arkansas, we find the same type of country, the same type of people, and the same type of trachoma. Many of the families in this area formerly came from Kentucky and Tennessee. There is a small trachoma belt in southern Illinois and also in southern Georgia.
In 1911 the late Dr. J. A. Stuckey of Lexington made a report on trachoma in eastern Kentucky to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, which report at the time was considered both alarming and greatly exaggerated; but as a result of that report the American Medical Association and the Kentucky State Board of Health persuaded the United States Public Health Service to detail an officer to make a trachoma survey of this area.
Surgeon John McMullen (U.S.P.H.S.), with whom it was the writer's privilege to work for several years, was sent to Kentucky in 1912 where he made the preliminary survey covering thirteen coun- ties and examining 18,000 persons. On the basis of that survey, it was estimated that in the thirty-five counties of eastern Kentucky there were 33,000 cases of trachoma. It was at once apparent that Dr. Stuckey's report was well founded and that in that area trachoma was a major public health problem. Trachoma is a public health problem because of the great amount of blindness and near blind- ness which it produces. Taking the report of the trachoma hospital, Richmond, Kentucky for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, it was found that of the 560 new trachomatus eyes seen during the year,
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319 were industrially blind from trachoma counting 20/200 as indus- trially blindness.
Trachoma involves all age groups but is most common in carly adult life. It is seen more often in males than females. It is now believed by those who have seen much trachoma that it is one of the virus diseases.
The first trachoma hospital was established in Kentucky in September, 1913 at Hindman, Knott County, Kentucky, after which hospitals were established at Hyden, Pikeville, Jackson, London and Greenville. In 1916 similar work was started in Tennessee and later in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Missouri.
Since the majority of the trachoma patients came from the remote rural sections, it has been necessary to carry on a case finding pro- gram through the services of a trained trachoma nurse. This work was done with the county as the unit. She would be directed to a county to make a house to house survey, examining each member of the household, and directing all old trachoma cases and all sus- picious cases to report at the clinic, which would be held by the medical officer in charge of the trachoma hospital; and from that clinic all trachoma patients in need of operation or treatment were sent to the trachoma hospital for admission.
The trachoma hospitals in Kentucky which have been previously mentioned were operated until 1926 when it was decided to close these hospitals and consolidate the trachoma work in one hospital as nearly centrally located as possible. The late Mrs. Elizabeth Irvine having left her home on Lancaster Avenue in Richmond, Kentucky, known as Irvinton, in trust to the Kentucky State Medical Association to be used as a hospital in memory of her grandfather, Dr. Ephraim McDowell, it was decided to establish a hospital for the treatment of trachoma at this appropriate location. After neces- sary work on building and grounds, the hospital was officially opened for patients on October 20, 1926. The hospital was admin- istered by the United States Public Health Service with the co- operation of the Kentucky State Department of Health. The pro- fessional personnel in the hospital was an eye specialist trained in the treatment of trachoma and two graduate nurses in trachoma work.
The trachoma work was administered by the United States Public Health Service in cooperation with the Kentucky State Board of
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Health until the passage of the Social Security bill in 1936, after which time the hospital was known officially as the Irvine-McDowell Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Trachoma and administered by the Kentucky State Department of Health in cooperation with the United States Public Health Service. There was no change whatsoever in the personnel of the hospital or the continued treat- ment of the disease. In fact, the hospital had only one medical officer in charge, Dr. Robert Sory, from the date of the opening, October 20, 1926, to the date of the closing, December 1, 1950.
The Irvine-McDowell Memorial Hospital had a capacity of thirty- eight beds and was filled to capacity at practically all times. The trachoma cases required an average of four weeks of hospital treatment for which the hospital made no charge.
The Irvine-McDowell Memorial Hospital was closed December 1, 1950 because the disease was so nearly eradicated that the con- tinuing maintenance of the hospital was not justified. Even with intensive field work there were insufficient new cases to justify the expense of the hospital. Since the hospital was closed there has been no organized trachoma work done in the state of Kentucky.
Since the closing of the Irvine McDowell Memorial Hospital, Dr. Robert Sory, the former medical officer in charge, has served as supervising ophthalmologist for the Division of Public Assistance in the Department of Economic Security and also as state supervising physician in their program of aid to dependent children .- By Dr. Robert Sory.
CHAPTER XXV
Cemeteries
RURAL AND VILLAGE
The cemeteries of Madison County contain the remains of many pioneers. In fact, much history could be written from the lives of many men and women who have been forgotten or of whom little or no record remains. Some fifteen hundred bodies were removed from rural cemeteries in an area of 15,000 acres by government au- thorities before the Blue Grass Ordnance was developed south of Richmond. These dead (or the remains of their bodies) were re- interred in a few acres across the highway from the Ordnance.
The first marked white man's grave in Kentucky was that of Hancock Taylor on Taylor's Fork of Silver Creek one and three- quarters miles southwest of the Madison County courthouse ( see the chapter on "Historical Markers and Museums"). Some pioneers were buried on the site of Fort Boonesborough. Other early settlers were interred near the present entrance to the grounds at Boones- borough.
Scores of rural cemeteries exist in the county. There is hardly a farm of any size that did not, or does not, contain a cemetery. General Green Clay and some members of his family lie buried in neglected graves near the masion White Hall. Two flat stones mark the graves of the grandparents of Governor James B. Mc- Creary on Mrs. June Baxter's farm on the Four Mile pike. A stone in a small cemetery on the Hanger farm east of the Richmond- Lexington pike has the name Squire Boone on it. This Squire was not the brother of Daniel, but he was surely a descendent of a pioneer Boone. A stone removed from a grave on Frank Congleton's farm southwest of Richmond has the name William Clark, an early settler but not the younger brother of General George Rogers Clark.
On William Langford's farm overlooking the Kentucky River and Clay's Ferry Bridge is a cemetery that appreciative visitors desire to see again. Another interesting old burial ground is also on the road to Berea (the Calleas pike) that leads from the Richmond-Lancaster pike.
Four Boggs brothers settled just south of Richmond. The Boggs
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family graveyard covers the four corners where the farms of the brothers met. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bruce, the latter a Boggs des- cendent, now own the farm containing the cemetery.
The cemetery near the site of the County's first seat of govern- ment, Milford, contains stones with the names of persons who contributed to the early history and prosperity of the County. One of the most interesting rural cemeteries is on the old Thompson Burnam farm, now the home of Earl Combs, the noted baseball player (retired ).
A plot of ground at Fort Estill received the body of Captain James Estill's mother. She was a worthy woman who came from Ireland and bore sons whose careers caused the name Estill to be honored in Kentucky. The faithful freedman Monk, whose services and exploits are recorded in Kentucky annals, was also buried at Fort Estill. This neglected burial place also received William Cradlebaugh, who hired himself to Daniel Boone to hunt game when he arrived in Madison County. Some of his descendents are now living in the County.
The village cemeteries are in a better condition, generally, than the rural. The churchyards of Kirksville, Valley View, Kingston, Waco, Paint Lick and small groups of dwellings and business places invite the interest and stir the emotions of the visitor. Indeed a volume could be prepared about the rural and village cemeteries of the County. Were the visitor a Thomas Gray he would be in- spired to immortalize himself with such lines as:
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