History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 56

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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The Cincinnati hospital occupies the square bounded by Twelfth street, Central avenue, Ann and Plum streets, being four hundred and forty-eight feet front from north to south, and three hundred and forty from east to west.

The structure consists of eight distinct buildings, placed en echelon, and connected by corridors, surrounding an extensive centre yard or court.

The central portion and main entrance are situated on Twelfth street, midway between Central avenue and Pluin street, and are termed the Administrative Department. This contains offices, superintendent's and officers' apartments, kitchen, and dining-rooms.

There are six pavilions three stories in height. Three of the pavil- ions are on the eastern or Plum street side, and three on the western or Central avenue side. Each pavilion contains three wards, one on each floor, of which those in the central pavilions contain thirty-six beds each, and the rest twenty-four each, allowing eighteen hundred feet of space in the wards to each bed. The 'pavilions contain also thirty-six private rooms.

At one end of the wards are situated the nurses' rooms, diet kitchen, dining-rooms for convalescents, closets for bedding and clothing, dumb waiters, and elevators for patients. At the other end are located the bath-rooms, water-closets, and reading-rooms. In the basement of the pavilions are store-rooms, baggage-rooms, heating-chambers, etc., and a passage-way around the entire establishment.

In the central building on Ann street is situated the Amphitheatre, with a capacity for five hundred students, pathological museum, mortu- ary, etc., conveniently arranged in proximity to each other, and isolated from all other departments of the house. In the same building is the accident ward, convenient of access, and completely equipped for cases of accident or emergency, at all hours of the day and night.

South of this building and at the north end of the court, is the Do- mestic Department, containing the main kitchen, laundry, domestics' dormitories, dining-room, etc. Connected with the Domestic Depart- ment are the engine- and boiler-rooms, gas-works, and storage for fuel.

The establishment is heated throughout by steam. Heat for the wards is supplied from coils of steam-pipe, placed in chambers in the basement. From these chambers pure air warmed to the proper tem- perature passes into the wards, while the halls and other rooms of the institution are heated by direct radiation from the steam-coils placed therein. In the wards are also open fire-grates for ventilation and heat- ing when required.

Portions of the buildings are ventilated by a downward draught into a large airduet under the pavilions, which terminates in a large chim- ney of the engine-room. The remaining portions are ventilated through ventilating chambers in the towers and attics.

The walls of the entire building are composed of brick, with free- stone finishing around the angles, etc. The upper stories are finished in French style, with Mansard roof of slate of variegated colors. The administrative department is surmounted by a dome and spire that reaches one hundred and ten feet from the pavement, and each of the outer ends of the pavilion is surmounted by turrets that serve as orna- ments as well as promoters of ventilation.

The wards of the hospital are divided into surgical, medical, obstetri- cal, opthalinological, and venereal ; and in attendance upom them are four surgeons, six physicians, two obstetricians, two opthalmologists, and two pathologists. One half of this number are on duty at the same time, and alternate every four months.

Clinical lectures are delivered in the amphitheatre two hours each working day, commencing in October and ending with February. All

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medieal students are entitled to admission to the clinical lectures by the payment of a fee of five dollars. The fund thus created is applied to the purchase of books, instruments, and the enlargement of the eabinet.

In aid of the staff, seven undergraduates are selected, after a compet- itive examination, whose designations are " resident physicians." En- tering upon duty, they are distributed to different wards, where they remain two months ; they then exchange places, so that each one, dur- ing the year, has an opportunity of witnessing the practice of the en- tire hospital. They accompany the staff in their daily visits to the sick, receive their orders, keep a record of the cases and their treat- ment, report all violations of medical discipline, and have a general supervision over their respective wards.

For the accommodation of persons visiting Cincinnati in search of medical or surgical aid, and those who may not receive necessary atten- tion in hotels and boarding houses, a pay department has been estab- lished, consisting of thirty rooms, all comfortably and neatly furnished. Regular nurses are engaged by the hospital to attend the sick in this department, but each patient is at liberty to employ any physician he or she may choose.

Every part of the hospital is in direct telegraphic communication with the superintendent's apartment in the central building. In a moment the messages are sent to and fro, thus saving the annoyance and delay of foot messengers. The hospital is connected by telephone with the police stations throughout the city, and with the branch hospital, more than five miles distant. A message is received from one of the stations: "Send your ambulance." And speedily the ambulance is sent. An- other is transmitted through the wire: "How is the small pox patient, Smith?" And in a moment the answer comes back: "Better" -- "worse" --- "ready to leave"-"dead."

The hospital is managed by a board of trustees, seven in number .: Two are appointed by the superior court, two by the common. pleas court, and one by the governor of the State. The mayor of Cincinnati, and a director of the city infirmary, eldest in office, are ex officio mem -. bers of the board.

The hospital is supported by a tax, annually levied by the city coun- cil upon the whole taxable property of the city-not exceeding forty- eight hundredths of a mill.

The cost of the buildings, including the purchase of some additional ground, was about three-quarters of a million. 'The gas made in the institution costs only one dollar per thousand, less than half the usual charge of the city gas and coke company. The hospital also com- pounds its own drugs, thus effecting a saving of about fifty per cent.

In 1879 a new hospital for contagious diseases, or "pest house," a branch of the Cincinnati hospital, was built upon an isolated tract in the Lick Run valley, near the potters' field, and the older branch building on Roh's hill was abandoned and sold. The new buildings are on the pavilion plan, arranged and fitted up according to the best ideas of hospital equipment, and will accommodate about one hundred patients. The grounds they occupy are elevated and broad and command fine views. Much of the time no patient occupies them.

During 1879 the number of patients admitted to the hospital was four thousand one hundred and twenty, against three thousand four hundred and thirty-seven the year before. Of those admitted two hundred and seventy- six died, and three thousand seven hundred were dis- charged during the year.

During the year 1880 three thousand six hundred and nineteen patients were admitted, of whom three thousand five hundred and eighty-two were discharged, three hun- dred and thirty-two died, and three hundred and fifty-one were remaining at the close of the year. The total num- ber of patients treated was four thousand two hundred and sixty-five; daily average of patients, three hundred and

seventy and one-half; average time in hospital, thirty- three days; private patients, three hundred and eight. None were in the branch or small-pox hospital. The ex- penditures of the year were seventy-six thousand one hundred and seventy-three dollars and thirty cents. Re- ceipts-from the city treasury, eighty thousand three hundred and eighty-two dollars and thirty-five cents; pay patients, six thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars and sixty-seven cents; sale of refuse matter, sixty-one dollars and ninety-five cents; total, eighty-seven tl.ousand three hundred and fifteen dollars and ninety-seven cents. The average cost of maintenance of each patient per day was forty-seven and thirty-seven hundredths cents. The gas used (one million eight hundred and seventy-six thou- sand three hundred and forty-eight feet) was made in the institution at a cost, exclusive of labor, of thirty-six and one-half cents per thousand.

The following named gentlemen have served the hos- pital as trustees since its organization :

By appointment of the superior court-David Judkins, M. D., 1861 to date; F. J. Mayer, 1861-70 and 1871 to date ; John Ballance, 1870-71.

By the court of common pleas-J. J. Quinn, M. D., 1861-9; W. B. Davis, M. D., 1869-72; Abner L. Frazier, 1872-4; A. L. Dandridge, M. D., 1874 -; Hon. Alexan- der Long, 1861-2; B. F. Brannan, 1862-73; Colonel L. A. Harris, 1873 -.

By the governor-N. W. Thomas, 1861-4; M. D. Pot- ter, 1864-5'; John Carlisle, 1865-75; M. B. Hagans, 1875-80; B. F. Brannan, 1880 -.

The superintendent of the hospital is H. M. Jones; matron, Mrs. Agnes Rose; clerk, T. E. H. McLean.

ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL.

This extensive institution is in charge of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, a Catholic order; but its benefi- cence is not confined to the poor and suffering of its own faith, and it is especially useful in caring for those who are non-residents, and who are debarred thereby from admission to other charitable institutions. Six sisters of this order came to America in September, 1838, upon the invitation of Archbishop Purcell, and fixed upon Cin- cinnati as their field. At first they occupied as a hospital the Boys' Orphan asylum on Fourth street, which was in charge of a German Catholic society, and very soon had forty patients on their hands. In March, 1859, they pur- chased the ground on the corner of Betts and Linn streets, upon which their institution was founded. The corner-stone was laid May roth, of the same year, and it was ready for occupation by Christmas next ensuing, when it was consecrated by the archbishop. It is a spa- cious building, ninety by sixty feet, and four stories high, divided into two parts by a large chapel. In the second story rooms were provided during the first year for patients afflicted with contagious diseases; but their occupation in this way was not afterwards allowed by the authorities. After a few years the accommodations were enlarged, and about five hundred charity patients can now be received, besides a number of pay patients. From time to time, by fairs, lotteries, subscriptions, etc., the hospital has re-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO

ceived liberal donations, by which it has been enabled to extend its grounds and buildings. In the fall of 1875 a new building was consecrated by Archbishop Purcell. It is built in admirable form for its purposes, and heated throughout by steam. The chapel, upon the lower floor, is in the Gothic style, and has sittings for three hundred persons. It is now one of the largest and best-ordered institutions of the kind in the country, and represents a cost of ninety thousand dollars. During 1879 it had one thousand one hundred and forty-nine patients under treatment, of whom eight hundred and sixty-six were dis- charged and one hundred and fourteen died. The Cath- olic patients numbered nine hundred and nineteen; non-Catholics, two hundred and thirty. Germans, four hundred and eighty-seven; Americans, three hundred and fifty; Irish, two hundred and fifty; other nationali- ties, sixty-two. The two Charles S. Muscrofts, senior and junior, are surgeons to the hospital; J. H. Buckner, oculist and aurist; George C. Werner, gynecologist ; William H. Weming and J. C. McMechan, physicians.

THE JEWISH HOSPITAL

has been noticed in our chapter on religion. It can hardly be called a public charity, though an admirable and most beneficent institution for the suffering of the Hebrew faith.

DISPENSARIES.

An out-door dispensary was established by the Cincin- nati hospital October 1, 1871; and in ten months its physicians treated four thousand and eighty-four cases, without expense to the patients or to the city.

The Ohio Medical College dispensary is justly reck- oned one of the great charities of the city. The faculty of the college devote a portion of their time to it every day of the year, in the gratuitous treatment of applicants and the free dispensing of medicines. From six to eight thousand persons are treated every year.

The Miami Medical College dispensary does a work of similar magnitude and beneficence. An hour every morning is given to eye and ear diseases, and an hour in the afternoon to all other ailments.

The Homoeopathic Free dispensary, corner of Seventh and Mound streets, has three departments-the medical, that of surgery and diseases of women, and the eye and ear. The lady physicians of the same practice have a free dispensary for the treatment of female and children's diseases open daily at 306 Linn street. It was organized May 14, 1879, with a membership of thirty-five, and the dispensary was opened four weeks thereafter. The mem- bership now numbers about one hundred and fifty. Dur- ing the first year eight hundred and sixty-five patients were treated and three thousand six hundred and seventy- two prescriptions given.

The Ohio College of Dental Surgery, on College street, near the public library, affords in its clinical lectures and practice ample opportunities for the free treatment of dental diseases and effects.

THE UNION BETHEL.

This institution was organized, so far at least as its mission work is concerned, in January, 1839, and had their

headquarters in old "Commercial Row," near the river bank. It was started under the patronage of the Western Seamen's Friend society. The Boatmen's Bethel society was formed soon afterwards, and the school of the Bethel was removed to East Front street, near Pike, to a building known as the old Museum; but returned to the former place in about three years. A meeting of citizens was held in February, 1865, to consider the expediency of organizing an independent Bethel society for the city ; which was done, and an act of incorporation secured, with the full accord of the Seaman's Friend society, which readily surrendered all its rights in the institution. A Bethel church was organized in the fore part of 1867; and in May of the same year the Newsboy's home was transferred from its place on Longworth street, near Cen- tral avenue, to the Bethel building, and placed in charge of the Bethel society with certain specified conditions. Under its management a most excellent work has been done for the newsboys and bootblacks of the city. They receive meals at the lowest possible prices, say ten cents a meal, and are charged nothing for lodgings; while they have the privileges of the bath roon and such instruction and opportunities for reading and moral culture as the institution affords.

In February, 1871, the "Old Museum" building went up in smoke and flame. A committee solicited sub- scriptions for a new building; a great fair realized forty thousand and thirty-five dollars for the same purpose ; and in March, 1874, a splendid new building was occu- pied by the Bethel at Nos. 30 to 36 Public Landing, east of Sycamore street. The main building cost thirty-five thousand dollars, and the whole property one hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars. Mr. David Sinton, the well known philanthropic millionaire, has proved a great benefactor to the Bethel, giving it one hundred thousand dollars as an endowment fund in 1874, when it was labor- ing under great pecuniary embarrassment, and other gifts, amounting to more than one hundred and thirteen thou- sand dollars. Another fair netted for it a profit of more than thirty thousand dollars. The institution is mainly supported by contributions and subscriptions.

The following extracts from its constitution indicate the purpose and some features of the organization :

The object shall be to provide for the spiritual and temporal welfare of river-men and their families, and all others who may be unreached by regular church organizations ; to gather in and furnish religious in- structions and material aid to the poor and neglected children of Cin- cinnati and vicinity ; and to make such provisions as may be deemed best for their social elevation ; also to provide homes and employment for the destitute.

Any person paying into the treasury of the corporation the sum of ten dollars, shall be a member for one year, and of fifty dollars a mem- ber for life.

The various arms of the work of the Union Bethel are the river mission among boatmen and others; systematic visitation of families; the Bethel church and Sabbath school; the relief department ; a sewing school; the young men's home, including free reading-room and cheap din- ing hall and lodging rooms; and the newsboys' home. The Sabbath-school is the largest in the world, except, perhaps, that at Stockport, England. The average dur- ing six months of 1879-80 was three thousand one hun-

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dred and fifty-four, and on one Sabbath, December 21, 1879, the attendance was four thousand two hundred and eighty. The expenditures during the year ending March 31, 1880, were eight thousand nine hundred and forty- two dollars and seventy-nine cents. Seven thousand dollars were derived from the avails of the Sinton fund, and eight hundred and twenty-two dollars and fourteen cents were received in the dining room. There had been given free during the year to deserving applicants, two thousand seven hundred and eighty-five meals, three thousand seven hundred and fifty-six lodgings, six thou- sand eight hundred and ten loaves of bread, thirty-five pounds of sugar, twelve of coffee, and eight of tea, and a very large number of articles had been distributed through the relief department proper. An average of ten home- less boys per day had been cared for during the year.

The Bethel church edifice, in rear of the main building, was built in 1869, at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. A regular church organization, but undenominational, is maintained here, and with great success. It-has a member- ship of more than six hundred. The ladies' Bethel aid society has maintained its work in conjunction with the Union Bethel for twenty-one years, and its managers con- duct much of the general relief work, which provides meals and beds for the worthy poor, and confers many other benefactions.

The Rev. Thomas Lee has been superintendent of the Bethel for nearly thirteen years; and to his efficiency and executive ability are due much of its success and signal beneficence. He has been identified with the Bethel work in Cincinnati for sixteen years.

THE WIDOW'S HOME.

A few public-spirited citizens of Cincinnati, during the severe winter of 1850-1, had their sympathies strongly drawn out by the forlorn condition of old, infirm, and in- digent women in the city, and their claims upon the charities of the public. Two years before this, a similar feeling had resulted in the formation of an association, and a subscription of one thousand five hundred dollars for a lot upon which to place an asylum for this class of the poor; but now a philanthropic banker, Mr. Wesley Smead, taking vigorous hold of the project, and making it his business for a month, secured contributions to the amount of sixteen thousand dollars, which assured the erection of "The Widows' Home and Asylum for Aged and Indigent Females." A sufficient lot on Mount Au- burn, worth four thousand dollars or more, in the square now bounded by Bellevue, Stetson, Highland, and Market streets, was presented by Messrs. Burnet, McLain, Shillito, and Reader, and a building one hundred and thirty by fifty feet, three stories high in the main building and two stories in each wing, with a neat Grecian front, was soon in progress, and was occupied in 1851. Mr. Smead himself gave six thousand dollars, which, with the one thousand five hundred dollars previously raised, were invested at annual interest of ten per cent., as an endow- ment fund for the institution. Four hundred annual subscribers, at three dollars each, yielded a further reve- nue of one thousand two hundred dollars; and an act of

incorporation, obtained in 1851 from the State legisla- ture, required the trustees of Cincinnati township to pay annually five hundred dollars into the treasury of the home. Under present regulations, widows of good char- acter, over sixty years of age, and indigent, are admitted for life upon the payment of one hundred dollars. Some of the inmates have given all their possessions to the home. There were in 1879 forty-six inmates, one of them ninety-seven years old; and a number had been there twenty-five years. The home is controlled and managed by a board of ladies as trustees, with some gen- tlemen as counsellors. Its property, before the removal to Walnut Hills, was valued at seventy-five thousand dollars.

In 1879 an arrangement was made with the trustees of the Old Men's Home, also on Mount Auburn, by which a single new building was erected on Walnut Hills, McMillan street, near Park avenue, for joint use by both institutions-one wing being occupied by the Widow's Home, and the other by the Old Men's Home. The corner-stone of the building-two hundred and thirty- seven by one hundred and eighty-one feet, three stories high, and to cost about eighty thousand dollars-was laid July 2, 1879, and the building was completed and occupied in the fall of the next year.

OLD MEN'S HOME.

The pecuniary foundation of this was a bequest of ten thousand dollars, left by Mr. A. Taylor, of New Jersey, to found an asylum for aged and indigent men in Cin- cinnati, conditioned upon the raising of fifty thousand dollars more for the same purpose. Mr. Edward Sargent generously took upon himself almost the entire work of raising this fund, in which he finally succeeded, through the subscriptions of business men of the city ; an organi- zation was effected, suitable grounds or Mount Auburn procured, and a building erected, which was occupied until the union with the Widows' Home was effected, and both institutions were removed to Walnut Hills.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order, who have their novitiate on the Montgomery road, also devote themselves, in large part, to the care of destitute old peo- ple, and meet the wants of about two hundred on an average.

By the will of the late Mr. John T. Crawford, the avails of all his property are to be devoted to the found- ing of a home for the aged and indigent colored people of Cincinnati, upon a tract of eighteen and a half acres near College Hill, which he directed to be reserved for the purpose.

CHILDREN'S HOME.

In 1860 Mr. Murray Shipley took the first steps to- ward the founding of this institution. It was first located in a basement room on Mill street, below Third, where the Penn Mission Sabbath-school was held. All the room would hold, about seventy, were here accommodated af- ter a fashion-the children of the rudest and roughest classes of the community, and many of them waifs from other places. In November, 1863, the home was re- moved to a building on Third street, near Park. In

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

December of the next year an act of incorporation was obtained; a superintendent and matron were regularly em- ployed; and funds were ultimately obtained for the fine building and spacious grounds now used on West Ninth street, which cost one hundred and forty thousand dol- lars. In January, 1868, a branch was established on East Sixth street. In the spring of the year before a farm of seventy-five acres was purchased on College Hill, for the uses of the institution, and entitled, "The Children's Home School Farm." The home was formerly in the care of the Young Men's Christian Association; but has now its own governing board. It is supported by volun- tary contributions and subscriptions, and issues a neat little monthly paper, called The Children's Home Record. Nearly four thousand neglected and homeless children have been received into it, of whom five to six hundred have been placed in Christian family homes in the country. About one hundred are usually in the home at one time. A fair held for its benefit April 15-19, 1876, netted the handsome sum of twenty-seven thousand dol- lars.

Within a few months a handsome benefaction has been made to the home by Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Pat- terson, of Cincinnati, in the shape of a country-seat at Remington, on the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, worth twenty-five thousand dollars, and a life-insurance policy of five thousand dollars from Mr. Patterson.

HOME OF THE FRIENDLESS.

This was incorporated in 1860, under the cumbrous title of the Protestant Home for the Friendless and Female Guardian society, which was afterwards much simplified. Its object is the reclamation of fallen women and the temporary care of abandoned infants, and a board of Christian women, representing various sects in the city, control its interests. A building was erected for it on Court street, South Side, between Central avenue and John street, where about five hundred women, young girls committed by the police court and too old to go to the House of Refuge, and infants, are cared for during the year. The corner-stone of this edifice was laid in September, 1868, and it was occupied in April of the next year. It has four stories and a capacity for one hundred and fifty inmates.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 56

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666