USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 32
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In 1860, the Miami contingent, with the exception of Judkins, withdrew, leaving Blackman in possession of the school. During the war many of the prominent medical men entered the army or navy.
After the war the suggestion to revive the Miami College was received with enthusiasm. A faculty was organized in 1865, with three of the original pro- fessors, (Judkins, Murphy, Mendenhall). The others were: Wm. Clendenin, professor of surgical anatomy, and for a time of principles of surgery ; Elkanah Williams, professor of ophthalmology; C. B. Chapman, professor of chemistry ; Wm. H. Taylor, professor of physiology, pathology, and morbid anatomy ( 1865 to 1872), and of obstetrics (1872-1907) ; B. F. Richardson, professor of gyne- cology and pediatrics (1865-77) ; H. E. Foote, professor of anatomy (1865-9), and of surgery and special pathology in 1869; Dr. Foote died in 1871 ; Wm. H. Mussey, professor of surgery (1865-82).
During the first session the college occupied the building of the Ohio Dental College, on College street. In the year 1865 the faculty purchased a large lot on Twelfth street, and erected a building on it for a permanent home. The new building was formally opened in 1866.
In 1865 the school obtained equal rights with the Medical College of Ohio in the Cincinnati Hospital. The college grew and prospered from year to year. The management of the school was intelligent, energetic, and always conducted with harmony. The school always kept abreast with the progress of the pro- fession in the demands for higher medical education. The long list of able and energetic men included in its faculties, and the devotion of those on the retired list, to the interests of the school, are reasons sufficient for its high standing.
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In 1886, the college tried the experiment of affiliation with the university, but soon discontinued it.
The period from 1865 to 1900 was the "Golden Age" for the medical colleges. Every school of merit was crowded with students. Year after year the number in the Cincinnati schools was between seven and eight hundred. After the latter date the persistent demand for higher preliminary education ; the grading of the courses ; the lengthening of the term from five to eight months; resulted in a rapid decrease in the numbers seeking admission. Disintegration and consolida- tion became the order of the day.
After the sessions of 1908-9, the Ohio and Miami Colleges lost their individu- ality in the Ohio-Miami Medical College, and were absorbed by the university.
HOSPITALS.
Cincinnati's first hospital, established by act of legislature, January 22, 1821, was due to the efforts of Dr. Drake. It was called the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum for the State of Ohio, and was erected in 1823. The fol- lowing description is from the Western Medical Gasette of 1832. "The site is a four-acre out-lot of the original plat of Cincinnati, bounded on the east by the Miami canal, and is within one mile of the Ohio river, and cost the township four thousand dollars. The principal building is of brick, fifty-three feet front, facing southwardly, and forty-two feet deep, four stories high, including the basement, which is eight feet high, and the other stories nine and a half feet clear, and over these is a convenient operating theater, with seats for about one hundred spectators. This building is divided into eighteen apartments, with a hall and staircase in the center, and neatly furnished throughout. It was built in 1823, and cost ten thousand dollars in depreciated bank paper, estimated to be worth, at that time, about three thousand, five hundred dollars. The in- closures, additions and furniture have cost seven thousand, eight hundred and seventy-seven dollars. The principal addition is a wing of brick, forty-four feet long, and twenty-eight wide, two stories high with a cellar under the whole; it is divided into twenty-two apartments, eleven on each floor, adapted to the safe-keeping of lunatics, etc .; those on the first floor for males, and those on the second for females ; and was built in 1827. The whole lot is enclosed with a close board fence; about two and a half acres of the west part of the lot is in grass, where the male inmates are permitted to walk; about one acre is culti- vated as a vegetable garden, where the females are permitted to resort for airing and recreation; the residue of the lot is divided into convenient yards."
An additional wing, twenty-four by fifty-three feet, was built in 1833. The basement of the new wing was divided into three rooms, one of which was for the apothecary shop, one for the lodging-room of the resident physician and apothecary, and the third for the heating apparatus. Above the basement were three stories, each containing a ward twenty-four by fifty-three feet. The capacity after the addition of the second wing was one hundred and fifty, ex- clusive of paupers and lunatics. Up to 1861 the staff was composed exclusively of professors of the Medical College of Ohio. The name was changed in 1861 to the Commercial Hospital of Cincinnati, and, in April, 1868, to the Cincin-
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nati Hospital. The Cincinnati Hospital was begun in 1866, after the necessary funds had been raised by popular vote. In December, 1866, the old building was torn down. In 1868, by popular vote, an additional issue of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of bonds was authorized. The new building was occupied on January 7, 1869. It had a capacity of five hundred beds. Nearly a million dollars was spent in its erection. At that time it was the most mag- nificent structure of the kind on the continent. In 1877 a new amphitheater was opened for the better accommodation of the medical students from the different colleges.
5 "In the year 1901 the overcrowded and defective condition of the old hospital called for action on the part of the board of trustees, then composed of Hon. Julius Fleischman, mayor; Doctors A. B. Isham, P. S. Conner, C. R. Holmes, Mr. Prescott Smith, Captain J. D. Parker, and W. C. Johnston.
"On October 14, 1901, a committee was appointed to carefully inquire into the improvements needed in the hospital, with power to employ competent per- sons from the various building trades."
At a regular meeting, February 5, 1902, the special committee on improve- ments, reported as follows: "The committee appointed by your board to investi- gate the necessity and cost of improvements and repairs required to place the City Hospital in good condition, beg leave to report as follows: First, We called to our assistance experts in the various building trades, who examined the hos- pital in detail. These experts recommended many repairs and improvements as absolutely necessary, and estimated the total cost at three hundred and thirty- eight thousand, five hundred and ninety-four dollars. It is the unanimous opin- ion of this committee that it is unwise to make these repairs and improvements for the following reasons: First, The present hospital buildings were erected before the evolution of the modern hospital, and no expenditure of money will make them an up-to-date institution unless completely reconstructed. Secondly, The growth of the city and rapid increase in the number of patients coming to the hospital will make it necessary before very long to materially enlarge the buildings, and no satisfactory plan of enlarging has yet been suggested. The permanent policy of the city in regard to the hospital should be fully determined before any large sums of money are expended. We therefore recommend that your board ask for such an amount of money as is necessary to keep the present buildings in ordinary repair, and that the consideration of building an entirely new hospital be taken up at once.
Respectfully submitted,
DR. A. B. ISHAM, CAPT. J. D. PARKER, MR. PRESCOTT SMITH, Committee."
. Upon motion of Dr. Conner, the report of the committee was received and adopted. Dr. Holmes then offered the following resolution: "Resolved: That this board prays that the sum of one million dollars be granted for the erection of a new hospital, and the president of the board, Hon. Julius Fleischman, be
5 From Dr. Holmes' address, June 16, 19II.
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authorized to confer with the corporation counsel for the purpose of having a bill drafted for presentation to the legislature." Carried.
On April 29, 1902, the legislature passed the bill authorizing the city to issue hospital improvement bonds, and on May 5th of the same year, the hos- pital trustees appointed a building committee, composed of Dr. C. R. Holmes, Julius Fleischman and Dr. A. B. Isham. At the meeting of the board of hospital trustees, December 5, 1902, it was moved by Mr. Fleischman-seconded by Mr. Parker-"That it is the sense of this board that a new hospital is necessary. That a resolution be submitted to the city board of legislation, asking for the issuance of bonds to the amount of one million dollars for the erection of a new hospital, and that a committee of one be appointed to draw up such resolution and present the same." Mr. Fleischman was appointed.
At a meeting of the trustees, held February 27, 1903, the committee, con- sisting of Drs. Isham and Holmes, recommended the purchase of the property on Burnet avenue, consisting of more than fifteen acres.
On March 16, 1903, the purchase of the ground was confirmed. In 1904, Dr. Holmes recommended that the city acquire the twelve additional acres to the south of land already acquired, making twenty-seven acres in all. Council directed City Solicitor Hunt to take the necessary steps for the purchase.
The following year was devoted to development of plans for the buildings.
In November, 1905, they were accepted by the board of public service. Vari- ous causes delayed progress in the work. On February 3, 1908. Dr. Holmes was reappointed advisory commissioner, and Mr. Hannaford, architect. On May II, 1909, a special election was held, which authorized the expenditure of two and a half millions for completing the hospital. In January, 1910, Mayor Schwab appointed the present hospital commission : H. L. Laws, J. A. Green, Dr. J. M. Withrow, Dr. C. R. Holmes, the mayor being a member ex officio. The city has recently (1911) acquired title to twenty-seven more acres of land lying to the west of the Burnet avenue tract.
The contagious group of buildings has been completed, and occupied. On May 16, 1911, the board entered into a contract for the completion of the entire group of eighteen buildings.
ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL.
This institution was organized by a congregation of Catholic sisters, called the. Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. This congregation was founded in 1845 by Mother Frances Schervier at Aix-la-chapelle. In 1857 Archbishop Purcell commissioned Mrs. Sarah Peters, when about to sail for Europe, to bring, if possible, German sisters to this diocese to care for the sick poor of German nationality. When in Rome Mrs. Peters mentioned the matter to Pope Pius IX, who referred her to Cardinal Von Geissel, of Cologne, who proposed the congregation founded by Mother Frances. On August 24, 1858, a colony of six sisters sailed for America. On their arrival in Cincinnati the Sisters of the Good Shepherd gave them hospitality in their own house until the gratuitous offer of a large building was made to them. This building, situated on the south side of Fourth street, between John street and Central avenue, had been known as the St. Aloysius Orphan Asylum. This occurred in September, 1858. By the .
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generous donation of Mr. Reuben Springer, the sisters were enabled to equip a large room of forty beds. Several physicians volunteered their services to the new hospital. Before the close of the same year, friends asked the sisters to permit them to look for a more suitable site on which to build a hospital. In March, 1859, they purchased lots on the northwest corner of Betts and Linn streets, on which St. Mary's Hospital now stands. In May, 1859, the cornerstone of the new hospital was laid with appropriate ceremonies by Archbishop Purcell. In December of the same year, the building was consecrated and opened for its purpose. This building had a front of ninety feet and a depth of sixty feet ; was three and a half stories high, and capable of accommodating seventy-five patients. St. Mary's Hospital is the parent institution from which sprang many hospitals and infirmaries conducted by the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. They opened St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Covington, Kentucky, within two years after St. Mary's Hospital.
Other institutions in different portions of the country followed in rapid suc- cession. In 1888, they founded St. Francis' Hospital for chronic cases, in Lick Run, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The popularity of the hospital increased so rapidly that in ten years the original building was much too small to accommodate applicants for admission. Accordingly, several lots and buildings to the west of the hospital were pur- chased, and a new addition planned, for which the cornerstone was laid July 10, 1873. Shortly after the old portion was remodeled, so that on September 7, 1874, the first (new) half, and on October 3, 1875, the entire structure in its present form were opened. The building thus enlarged, increased the capacity of the hospital to about three hundred beds.
Some years since the sisters purchased a tract of land on Woodburn avenue, Walnut Hills, to meet the growing demands for space. Subsequently, however, they purchased a larger tract in Evanston, on which it is proposed to erect a building which will meet the demands for a generation to come.
LONGVIEW HOSPITAL.
In 1853 the Commercial Hospital accommodated in its annex 147 insane per- sons. The crowded condition of this institution had long been a matter of con- cern to the people of Cincinnati. In response to the popular demand the county commissioners appointed a committee of medical men-Drs. J. J. Quinn, David Judkins and A. S. Dandridge-to investigate the condition of the annex for the insane, and to report on the same. They urged the lease of temporary quarters for the insane patients of the hospital. As a result of their recommendation the old Ames mansion in Lick Run was rented, and fitted up as an asylum for the insane. Dr. J. J. Quinn was its first superintendent. Drs. Wm. Mount and Oliver M. Langdon were also superintendents of this temporary asylum. This institution served its purpose until 1859, when the permanent home for the insane was ready for occupancy. This home was located on a lot of nearly forty acres in Millcreek township, near Carthage. It was named Longview Asylum, the name "Long View" having been suggested by Dr. C. G. Comegys.
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The superintendents of Longview Asylum proper have been Dr. O. M. Lang- don (1859-70), Dr. J. T. Webb (1871-73), Dr. W. H. Bunker (1874-77), and Dr. C. A. Miller (1878-90). Since 1891 Dr. Frank W. Harmon has been in charge. The medical staff at present consists of Drs. F. W. Harmon, superin- tendent, and Drs. E. A. North, W. L. List and John Berry, assistants, all men who have had general hospital experience.
Dr. Oliver M. Langdon, who might be called the father of Longview Asylum, was born in Cincinnati in 1817. He attended Woodward high school and the old Athenaeum. He read medicine under Jedediah Cobb, and graduated from the Medical College of Ohio in 1838. During the Mexican war he served as surgeon of the Fourth Ohio Infantry. In 1848 he returned to Cincinnati. He was the originator of the plan followed by the State of Ohio in the care of colored lunatics, formerly incarcerated like criminals. Dr. Langdon died in Cincinnati in 1878. While Longview Hospital is technically a state institution, it is to all intents and purposes under the control of Hamilton county. This institution since its inception has been constantly improved and enlarged. Since 1909 they have built a large general storehouse, a new woodworking shop, fully equipped with modern machinery, where the patients make all kinds of furni- ture and repair the old. Wood-carving, inlaid work, and fancy articles of many kinds, are manufactured from different kinds of woods. The grounds cover one hundred acres. The buildings have a frontage of about one thousand feet, and a depth of about three hundred and fifty feet. Clinical instruction is given to medical students.
THE GERMAN DEACONESS HOME AND HOSPITAL.
The year 1888 will be memorable in the annals of hospital work in Cincinnati. It ยท witnessed the introduction of the deaconess nursing system, which had ex- isted in Europe for many years, and especially in Germany since 1836, and had accomplished great results in practical hospital work.
The German Deaconess Home and Hospital was founded June 14, 1888. It was located at 533 East Liberty street. The building, with a capacity of twenty- seven beds, was soon found to be too small, and the efforts of the German Protestant deaconesses and their friends were directed toward securing larger and better quarters. The result of their labors is the splendid building at the south- west corner of Clifton avenue and Straight street, opposite the university grounds. The building is equipped with all the latest improvements in hospital construc- tion. The rooms are large, well ventilated and cheerful. This building was opened in 1903. The hospital has a capacity of one hundred beds. There are thirty private rooms. There is also a private ward with three beds, and there are two free wards.
The staff numbers nineteen physicians and surgeons, men prominent in every branch of the profession. There are four internes. There are twenty-five nurses in the hospital proper. These sisters, who have consecrated their lives to the work, have had a thorough theoretical and practical training, and most of them have had long experience in their work. During the past year 1,173 patients, in all departments, were treated in the hospital proper.
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The building and equipment have cost $120,000.
The branch institution, the Ohio Maternity Hospital, is located in the for- mer home of the institution, at 529-533 East Liberty street. It is both a mater- nity hospital and children's home. It now has ten rooms and forty beds. There are seven trained nurses in this department. At the beginning of the last year nine nurses were in training, six more were received during the year, and nine were graduated. Two hundred and twenty-eight children were cared for; one hundred and sixty-one were born in the institution.
The Maternity Hospital and grounds have cost $25,000.
BETHESDA HOSPITAL AND GERMAN DEACONESS HOME.
Bethesda Hospital is connected with the German Methodist Deaconess Home, and here the deaconesses who enter the institution receive their training as nurses. The Deaconess Home was founded in 1896; Bethesda Hospital was opened two years later. Both institutions are managed by the same board. Near the hospital stands the maternity hospital, and back of it the new power house and laundry. The hospital property has a frontage of 310 feet on Reading road, and 150 feet on Oak street.
This property, including ground and five buildings, is valued at $175,000. The hospital has seventy beds, two wards, two operating rooms, an X-ray room, a laboratory, and a pharmacy. The building is heated with steam and lighted with electricity. A corps of twenty-seven physicians and surgeons compose the staff. About one-fourth of the cases last year were of charity patients. Nine hundred and sixty-five patients in all were cared for, and 534 operations were performed. At the Maternity Hospital IIO cases were taken care of. The Deaconess Home, next door to the hospital, has room for fifty deaconesses. It is spacious, has a chapel, parlors, lecture room, and a splendid library. All the buildings are heated and lighted from this power house. During the past year large iron verandas were built on every floor of the hospital, and through a num- ber of convenient stairways which lead to the ground, they serve at the same time as fire escapes. The record of work done in the wards and rooms since the hospital was opened, not to speak of the out-patient department, shows that nearly ten thousand patients have been treated. The capacity of the hospital is taxed almost all the time. The proportion of medical and surgical patients is about one-half. The deaconesses are obtained from all parts of the country, as far west as California, as far south as Texas. The institution is controlled by a board of managers, consisting of twenty-one persons, and by an advisory board consisting of fifteen men from various parts of the country. Seventy deaconesses are connected with the mother-house, which has branches in Cincin- nati, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Kansas City and stations at La Crosse, Wis- consin ; Quincy, Illinois, and Cleveland, Ohio.
In the village of Wyoming, one of the suburbs of Cincinnati, the mother- house has a beautiful Deaconess Rest Home with thirty-four acres of ground. This home was presented to the board by the first treasurer of the institution, Mr. John Kolbe, who has since gone to his reward. In honor of his wife, this home is called The Gertrude Kolbe Deaconess Rest Home. To this spacious
THE OLD MARINE HOSPITAL ON EAST THIRD STREET, 189S
OHIO STATE HOSPITAL, LONGVIEW
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home, surrounded by a beautiful park, the deaconesses go for rest when tired out, and in summer many of them spend their vacation here. The location, on a beautiful elevation, is ideal, and the property is valued at $40,000.
Two years ago the hospital received a magnificent donation in the gift of "Scarlet Oaks," a property of forty-seven acres in Clifton, one of the suburbs of Cincinnati. On one of the hills of these grounds stands a beautiful house of thirty-five rooms, which has been converted into a sanitarium. The donor, Mr. E. H. Huenefeld, has been a member of the board of managers since the organization of the institution. He has succeeded Mr. John Kolbe as treas- urer, and his son, Mr. Walter Huenefeld, has been elected assistant treasurer. The grounds at "Scarlet Oaks" were put into splendid condition, and the view from the windows of the house is unsurpassed in southern Ohio. "Scarlet Oaks" is an annex to Bethesda Hospital and the property is valued at $165,- 000. From the first the house was not large enough to accommodate the num- ber of patients who have made application. Therefore the building of an annex is contemplated. "Scarlet Oaks" has a frontage of two thousand feet along Lafayette avenue in Clifton, and of twelve hundred feet along the Miami canal, which the city of Cincinnati intends to convert into a boulevard. The entire property of Bethesda Hospital and its branches at Cincinnati is valued at $410,000.
THE HOSPITAL OF THE METHODIST DEACONESSES-CHRIST HOSPITAL.
In 1888 the Methodists founded a home for deaconesses in a house on York street near John. In this building of eleven rooms Christ Hospital was opened in the month of September, 1889. Within a few months the house was found to be too small to accommodate the patients who applied for admission. Neigh- boring houses were rented until the institution had a capacity of sixty rooms. When the home was opened there were but two deaconesses to take possession. Within two years thirty deaconesses were engaged in the work. The work was growing and the need of larger quarters became imperative. At this junc- ture James Gamble, Sr., purchased the capacious house previously occupied by the Thane Miller Boarding School for Girls, and having fitted it up to the requirements of a modern hospital, donated it to the Methodist deaconesses.
In the month of June, 1893, the new Christ Hospital was formally opened with accommodations for sixty patients. The hospital is most pleasantly situ- ated. Historically it is of interest to the medical profession. The house on Auburn avenue, to the right of the entrance leading to the hospital, was many years ago the home of one of the most brilliant surgeons of his day, Reuben Dimond Mussey.
In 1900 a large female ward was added, increasing the capacity to eighty beds. In 1902 a powerhouse was erected north of the hospital. This provides the institution with electricity, operates an ice plant, a heating system, and a laundry. Many internal improvements were added in 1903, giving the hos- pital a capacity of one hundred and twenty beds. In 1908 a nurses' home was opened in connection with the hospital, to commemorate the name of Mary E. Gamble. The nursing staff numbers sixty nurses. The number of patients treated annually is now more than fourteen hundred. The hospital has an Vol. 11-17
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active staff of eighteen physicians and surgeons, and a consulting staff of eight The child's department, the gift of James N. Gamble, purchased in 1910, at a cost of $25,000, was formally opened August 22, 1911. It adjoins the main building on the south. An annex will be built in the coming year for the pay department, at an estimated cost of $75,000. It will have fifty rooms. The grounds of the hospital cover about five acres.
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