USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume IV > Part 52
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In 1874, the present site of the hospital, a plot of land containing about four acres, fronting on River street and extended to Mill creek, was presented by John Welles Hollenback. Late in 1875, the original buildings of frame con- struction, arranged in quadrangle form were begun, the work being completed and the hospital opened for patients on April 1, 1876.
The tenth annual report of the institution, published in October, 1882, indicated the growing usefulness of the hospital as a civic asset.
Starting with twenty beds in a building whose original cost was approxi-
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mately $11,000, City hospital treated seventy-six cases in its first year. By the aid of state appropriations, which began with an item of $25,000 in 1876 for the purpose of needed building extensions and has since been continuous in varying amounts as finances of the Commonwealth and whims of its politicians permitted, the report for the first decade indicated the treatment of 399 eases in 1882 and a total of 2,414 cases since its establishment. Its thirtieth annual report, pub- lished in October, 1902, recorded that approximately 1,000 cases had been treated that year and that the expenses of the institution had reached, since its foundation, the $1,000,000 mark, which sum was about equally divided between gifts of citizens toward its support and appropriations secured from the Common- wealth for a similar purpose.
The year 1900 witnessed a campaign with Col. G. M. Reynolds as chairman, which netted approximately $50,000 for the institution. This sum was devoted
ORIGINAL BUILDING OF CITY HOSPITAL
to the erection of a brick main edifice in place of the original frame buildings, intended to properly connect up two brick wings which had flanked the frame structures.
In 1921 still another building campaign was inaugurated. The proceeds of this added the present ward across the street from the original plot, for priv- ately treated cases.
Not alone in its service to the afflicted has the City hospital proved its worth to the community. In 1888 a training school for nurses was established in connection with the routine work of the institution.
Its graduates, in increasing numbers each year, have received a practical training of inestimable value in their later relations to the care of the sick. For over half a century the generous services of the City hospital, the name of which was changed in 1925 to the Wilkes-Barré General Hospital to more nearly
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express its relations to the community-at-large, have reflected the greatest credit upon its executives, boards of trustees and physicians of the community who have given of their time, money and talents in unstinted measure to the institution. At the time of this writing, the hospital is still performing in pro- portionate degree the work it set out to do, its annual needs now being supplied by a budget of funds appropriated from receipts of the annual drive of the Wyoming Valley Federation of Charities and from such state appropriations as are from time to time received.
The needs of additional hospital service in the community, especially for those of the Roman Catholic faith, were expressed in a general letter sent out by the Sisters of Mercy of Wilkes-Barre in October, 1897. In part, the appeal follows:
"Two-thirds of the patients of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital are Catholics. Half the support of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital comes from the State and the other half from Protestant contributors. We repeat, half the support of the patients of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital comes from Protestants, two-thirds of these patients being Catholics, and not one dollar contributed by a Catholic. Is it right that we allow Protestants to support our sick? Would we allow Protest- ants to support our poor, our orphans, or our churches? We certainly would not. Then why should we allow them to care for our unfortunate sick? Then, again, how many a Catholic who has fallen away from his faith is brought back to the church while a patient in a hospital in charge of the gentle sisters! They are too numerous to mention. We should also like to remind you of the number of Catholics who die in Protestant hospitals without the consolation of the last rites of the church. This is due not to the bigotry of those in charge, but frequently because the attendants, being Protestants, are apt to forget or overlook the importance which Catholics attach to the presence of the priest at the death bed. These attendants may, of course, send for a priest, if the patient asks for one; but many and many a time the patient, not realizing the near approach of death, does not ask for a priest and dies impenitent and without the sacraments. This we know to be a very frequent occurrence and, as you can readily see, would be impossible in a Catholic hospital, where the good sisters are ever on the watch for the spiritual as well as the temporal welfare of the patient. Our new hospital will be in charge of four sisters from the Mercy Hospital of Pittsburg. These sisters are modern trained nurses and will remain with us until our own sisters are trained to the profession."
The present Mercy hospital, located on Hanover street, is the outcome of this appeal. Supplementing private contributions for the purpose, an elaborate fair, to which the community in general contributed, was conducted in the armory from January 28 to February 2, 1898. Through the untiring efforts of a committee headed by Mr. James A. Keating, the event was a pronounced success and the sum of $21,000 which resulted from the undertaking became the nest egg of the institution. The original plot purchased by Mercy hospital contained a large frame dwelling to which a brick wing was added within a year after the purchase. The hospital was opened to patients March 7, 1898. Like the City hospital, the work conducted on Hanover street by the Sisters of Mercy has been one of increasing service to the community. Mercy hospital's first annual report indicated that 277 medical and 285 surgical cases had been treated.
The first officers and staff of the institution included :
"Consulting Staff-O. F. Harvey, M. D., Charles Long, M. D., A. Berge, M. D., I,. I . Shoemaker, M. D., W. G. Weaver, M. D., A. Mahon, M. D., A. P. O'Malley, M. D., Charles Barrett, M. D., J. Neale, M. D.
"Surgical Staff-A. F. Dougherty, M. D., D. F. Smith, M. D., W. J. Butler, M. D., E. A. Sweeney, M. D., A. Trapold, M. D., F. P. Lenahan, M. D.
"Medical Staff-I .. Byron, M. D., F. A. Farrell, M. D., E. J. Butler, M. D., J. L. Batterton, M. D., M. A. Carroll, M. D., D. Collins, M. D.
"Ophthalmologists-G. W. Carr, M. D., N. L. Schappert, M. D.
"Consulting Ophthalmologist-L. H. Taylor, M. D.
"Rhinologist-E. R. Roderick, M. D.
"Pathologist-Chas. H. Miner, M. D.
"Superintendent Training School-Miss Helen English.
"Resident Physicians-Dr. M. Maloney, March 7, 1898, to January 1, 1899; Dr. J. Dougher, January 1, 1899, to March 7, 1899.
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"The board of incorporators: Rev. R. A. McAndrew, J. T. Lenahan, Jas. A. Keating, J. M. Ward, Chas. Stegmaier and Hon. Thomas Maloney.
"Mother Superior, Sister M. Francesco; Hospital Superior, Sister M. Evangelist; Medical Director, Dr. F. P. Lenahan."
In 1925, a budget of maintenance expenses for Mercy hospital was secured from the Federated Charities fund, as it was for thirty other welfare institutions of the community, but the pressing needs of a new and modern building to take the place of the original frame structure set in motion a drive for $300,000 scheduled for the last week in April with Patrick F. Kielty in charge as general chairman.
A roster of the present day hospitals of Wyoming would not be complete without mention of the Nanticoke State Hospital, the Pittston Hospital, both ably managed institutions which care in large measure for the needs of their respective communities, the Wyoming Valley Homeopathic Hospital located on Dana street, Wilkes-Barre and which was dedicated as a public charity June 6, 1911, the Riverside Hospital, corner Carey avenue and Hanover street, Wilkes-Barré, which was opened to patients January 26, 1911 and Nesbitt Hospital, located on Wyoming avenue, Kingston, the gift to an association on the part of Mr. Abram Nesbitt and to which his son, Abram G. Nesbitt, a liberal contributor after the death of his father, left a large sum by will for a new plant.
Preceding by a decade the organization of the community's first hospital, it is a matter of note that the first Poor Board of Luzerne County came into existence in 1860.
An act of assembly approved April 2, 1860, incorporating E. W. Sturdevant, William Hibler, John W. Horton, Alexander McClane and Thomas Quick, Jr., as directors of the poor of Wilkes-Barré Township, appointed them as commis- sioners to purchase such real estate as might be necessary for the accomodation of the poor of the township. This was the first step toward the formation of the Central Poor District of Luzerne County. In 1861 they secured land along the Susquehanna River in Newport Township and laid out a poor farm, now known as Retreat.
By supplement to act of incorporation, approved March 1, 1862, the town- ships of Plains, Hanover, Newport and Plymouth were annexed and the corporate name changed to "Directors of the Poor of the County of Luzerne." In 1863 the City of Wilkes-Barre was annexed and in 1864 the Borough and township of Kingston. In 1867 the corporate name was changed to "Central Poor District of Luzerne County," since which time there have been no further accessions of territory or legislation in relation to the district. The directors erected suitable buildings for the accommodation of about three hundred paupers, consisting of a large building for the males, another for the females, with a house between for the superintendent, all of which are substantial brick structures which originally cost the district about $80,000.
From time to time other substantial buildings have been added at Retreat, notably an asylum for insane patients. In 1925 the value of farm, lands, build- ings and equipment at Retreat was considerably in excess of $1,000,000.
An attempt to narrate events in chronological order in this Chapter is necessarily interrupted by the intrusion of collateral events whose mention seems necessary to conclude the history of an important undertaking.
Resuming the narrative in sequence, it is found that the usual noisy Fourth of July celebration of the year 1872 was made memorable by the plan of com-
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memorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Wilkes-Barré as a part of the program. Just why the then infant city did not celebrate its centenary in 1870, as it might properly have done, is shrouded in some mystery. As has been mentioned in a previous Chapter, Major Durkee employed Samuel Wallis, a surveyor of Philadelphia to "lay out the Townplot" early in 1770, the actual survey being completed by the first of June of that year.
On June 24th of the same year the first drawing of lots was recorded on the part of proprietors of the Susquehanna Company. In June, 1772, the bounds of the Townplot were changed to some extent and a second lottery was held on the Public Square by which all lots not theretofore disposed of, or which had reverted to the Company by reason of the neglect or failure of previous holders to perfect their title, were finally allocated. Evidently those responsible for the centennial exercises preferred to regard the final drawing of lots within the Townplot as the more fitting date.
Early in May, 1872 a meeting was called to arrange for the centenary, and Hon. Charles A. Miner presided. He appointed a general committee consisting of H. M. Hoyt, Stanley Woodward, John Espy, C. D. Lafferty, Robert Morton, H. Wentz, C. C. Plotz and M. B. Houpt. Attorney J. D. Coons was made chairman of the decorating committee.
From the files of the Record of the Times, the following account of the cele- bration is taken:
"The big day came and the town was en fete. Farmers' wagons began arriving with the dawn and the town was filled with visitors. The parade started at 11:30 and included a battalion of police, veterans of the Mexican War, carrying the old battle flag of the Wyoming Artillerists. a troop of cavalry, the 15th and 17th Regts., N. G. P., many companies of firemen, bands of music, and an enormous industrial display. The chief marshal was Col. Hoyt and his staff in- cluded Stanley Woodward, Col. Beaumont, Maj. Conyngham and Maj. Hancock. The day which had been ushered in with ringing of bells and a national salute, was very hot, though there were no heat prostrations. At 2 p. m. the public exercises were held, with singing of America and Star Spangled Banner by a chorus, prayer by Rev. T. P. Hunt, reading of the Declaration by W. S. McLean, and addresses by Hon. H. B. Wright and Hon. W. W. Ketcham. At sunset another salute was fired. In the evening there were firewords, which had to be delayed on ac- count of a sharp rain. The pieces were hastily taken into the then new house of W. L. Conyngham and later in the evening were set off. A dinner had been provided for the military and firemen under charge of Marx Long, and a whole ox, presented by Col. Charles Dorrance, was roasted, and consumed with great gusto from tables set out on the Square. The newspaper account says: 'There was little drunkenness and no rows. We have seen more men drunk on an ordinary pay day.' There were three accidents-one man hurt by a runaway horse; another by discharge of a cannon, and a third, a telegraph boy, shot with a revolver through the wrist.
"The decorations were elaborate-for that day. For a week busy young men had cut evergreens from the woods, and all day and most of the night preceding the celebration the young men and maidens of the town sat in groups on the Square and wove the pine and hemlock into ropes. There were arches at each corner of the Square. The inscriptions on each were:
"Arch No. 1 .- 1772. Compliments of John Durkee, 1872, to Mayor Kirkendall. 'What has become of the Yankee-Pennamite feud?'
"Arch No. 2 .- And a nation shall be built in a day. Coal-Wyoming-Commerce.
"Arch No. 3 .- What we know about decorating.
"Arch No. 4 .- Valley to hills-greeting-Susquehanna to sea. 1772-Maugh-wau- wame-Wyoming-1872.
"These, with some modest decorations on the reviewing stand-on the Square-made up the public adornments. Among the notable private residences mentioned as adorned were those of Rev. A. H. Wyatt, T. S. Hillard, John C. Phelps, Stanley Woodward, B. G. Carpenter, Washing- ton Lee, Dr. Urquhart, A. J. Davis, C. A. Miner, Jameson Harvey, A. C. Laning, J. P. William- son, A. T. McClintock, Charles Parrish, Dr. Beck, R. J. Flick, etc. On the porch of J. C. Phelps's house were a little girl in Colonial costume, plying a spinning wheel, and a little boy in Continental military costume. It was stated that one firm alone sold over $1,000 worth of fireworks!
"An amusing feature of that day was with reference to the firemen's part of the parade. The Protector Fire Co. had chosen as a motto, which was painted conspicuously and borne with that company in the parade, 'The waters came.' Old Good Will, No. 2, Fire Co. had a conspicuous motto, 'After us the deluge.' It all came about as stated. When the procession was heading up South Main street, about where Northampton crosses, a pour of rain came down, and the laugh was on the firemen and their mottoes."
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The winter of 1875 was remarkable for the damage wrought bridges at Pittston by ice gorges which seem to have been more or less confined in their destructive tendencies to that locality. In February, the breaking ice of the Susquehanna so lodged against piers of what was called the Depot bridge as well as the railway bridge of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg extension, tliat both were swept away with considerable other damage. In other parts of the Wyoming valley ice of unusual thickness was deposited on the lowlands to the great in- convenience of transportation companies and those who used the Kingston flats, but the freshet itself, other than at Pittston, was not rated as one inflicting extraordinary loss.
The year 1876 passed without recorded incidents of unusual character in Luzerne County. The Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia drew a large number of local residents to view the wonders of this first "World's Fair" on American soil and Wilkes-Barré was represented by exhibits of several local manufacturers and coal companies.
Following the close of the Centennial, a deep seated unrest spread like a contagion among the industrial population, particularly of Pennsylvania, and extended as well to the east in general. This was manifest early in 1877 by the declaration of a general strike of employees along the system of the Pennsyl- vania railroad. The summer found Pittsburg and Allegheny county paralyzed by mob rule which the Pennsylvania militia were wholly unable to control, and it was not until the Seventh Cavalry of the regular army was brought to that section, fresh from service on the western frontier, that the situation was gotten in hand.
Employees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad identified themselves with strikers of the Pennsylvania and other systems on June 27, 1877 and the scene of action shifted itself to Wilkes-Barré and surrounding localities.
At Bethlehem trains were stopped during the day and the engineers and firemen compelled to leave them. During the following night the employees at Easton and Wilkes-Barré joined the movement, thus placing the entire length of the road in the hands of strikers. Freight and passenger trains had been stopped at Bethlehem, though the railroad company was permitted to carry the mails. That night all trains were stopped at Wilkes-Barre They were permitted to move on, however, the next morning, in order that such men em- ployed on them as were residents of other places might go home. The disaffected employees retained possession of the road during the remainder of the month, the railroad company only succeeding in running a train from Bethlehem to Mauch Chunk on the 31st. The announcement was made to the strikers that the abandonment of their trains was nothing less than a forfeiture of their pos- itions in the employ of the company, and that their places would be filled by new men. This measure was adopted to a great extent. In response to an application for armed assistance, the governor ordered a force of regulars and State militia to protect the road. Thus strengthened, the company resolved to resume business on the 1st of August, regardless of resistance. The strikers were no less determined. Assembling in large numbers at the station in Wilkes- Barré, they resolved that no train should pass in either direction. But in de- fiance of this demonstration the authorities of the road prepared to send a train northward. At this juncture Mayor W. W. Loomis forced his way through the crowd and reached and mounted the engine of the waiting train. He read
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the riot act to the crowd and followed with a brief address of counsel. When he descended from the locomotive he was surrounded by the excited men, who began plying him with questions. During the confusion the train was backed a few hundred yards. This action was not unexpected, as it was the customary preparation for a change of engines. But though, as usual, another locomotive stood waiting on a side track, and the strikers thought they would have plenty of time to act before the anticipated change could be made. They were doomed to disappointment. The engineer let on steam with such force as to cause the train to dart forward with a velocity that took it out of the crowd before the strikers realized that they were baffled, and their rage at this unexpected turn of affairs knew no bounds. A scene of confusion ensued, and the men were loud in their threats to get even with the company before night. Upon the arrival of the 3:45 train from Elmira, the strikers assembled and determined to stop it at all hazards. As the train, which was made up similarly to the one which had gone north, stopped at the station, two of the mob mounted to the cab of the engine and seized the engineer, while others uncoupled the locomotive from the train and severed the bell cord. At this juncture another engineer leaped ir to the cab and opening the throttle ran the engine out, bearing away a dozen or more of men and boys who mounted the tender as it started. For a moment the shrill tones of the shrieking whistle drowned the sounds of a melee at the station, in which a United States detective who had been crowded off the platform by a car was badly injured. Drumheller, the engineer, was roughly handled, and one of the company's constables was attacked, but succeeded in making his escape, despite the fact that he was lame, and sought protection at police head- quarters. But signal as it was, the triumph of the rioters was of brief duration. Soon after the engine had been run out of the town the following order was posted on the Lehigh Valley depot: "Notice-All peaceful and lawful measures have failed to secure safe transit of mail, passenger and freight trains. Notice is hereby given that all trains are abandoned indefinitely, till further notice, on the Wyoming division. By order Robert Sayre, Superintendent."
On the night of August 1, 1877 it became known in the city that the State and Federal troops were on their way to Wilkes-Barré and Scranton, and not many hours elapsed ere the strikers, many of whom concealed their identity under masks, were engaged in the lawless work of tearing up the railway tracks with the hope of thus preventing the approach of the soldiers. Plymouth, however, was invested by the forces early in the morning of the 2nd without resistance on the part of the citizens, and they marched to Wilkes-Barré, occupy- ing the city before daybreak the same morning. The magistrates, strikers and all citizens found in the streets were secured and placed under guard until they could be identified. This unexpected movement paralyzed the strikers, who offered no resistance, and about seventy of them were arrested and held by the troops. A considerable force was stationed at Wilkes-Barré, and under such protection the tracks were repaired and the strike was at an end on the Lehigh Valley road. Governor Hartranft and two trains loaded with troops passed through the city about noon on August 3rd, en route for Scranton. Some of the strikers sought and were granted employment in their old places, but hundreds of others, many of whom were to become prominent in other walks of life in later years, found that the strike of 1877 had finished their careers as railroaders.
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The year 1878, while set in a rather drab background of general events, was to prove one of the outstanding years of Wyoming's later history.
It was to gain a Governor, the first and only citizen of Luzerne County to receive the honor of election as chief magistrate of the Commonwealth, it was to lose a considerable portion of its area and population in the erection of Lacka- wanna County, it was to welcome the coming of the telephone and was to stage a succession of events in commemoration of the centennial of the Battle of Wyoming.
Hon. Henry M. Hoyt, of whom a sketch is given in a preceding Chapter, was the nominee at the June, 1878, convention of the Republican party for the office of Governor. The nomination was a matter of sincere congratulation on the part of his fellow citizens who had long admired the political courage and direct policies of one of the community's most distinguished sons. They were not disappointed when an early declaration of the nominee placed him on record as favoring "sound currency and honest money" a subject much under discussion at the time and one which had been artfully dodged in framing the party's platform for that year.
His opponent was Andrew H. Dill, a favorite of those aligned with strictly "machine" politics, but whom Governor Hoyt had no trouble in defeating by a large majority at the general November elections.
The campaign of Governor Hoyt, conducted in the midst of preparations of plans for the Wyoming Centennial, had much to do with turning the attention of the whole country toward that most important historical celebration in the community's history.
Many incidents commemorative of the Battle of Wyoming, or the "Wyo- ming Massacre" as it is incorrectly but nevertheless persistently termed, have been intentionally omitted from previous Chapters in order that a connected story of these events might be summed up at a proper time. The centenary of the Battle itself seems to provide an occasion for this review. Since that cen- tennial celebration was held on the 3rd and 4th of July, 1878, nearly another half century has passed at the time of this writing. The suggestion that some fitting program should be arranged under the auspices of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society for marking the latter mentioned event on corresponding days of the year 1928, took form in the proposal for a general Sesqui-Centennial celebration.
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