Health care in "ancient Chapleau" was precarious for its citizens, according to George Evans, in an article he wrote about it in the community's early years.
For those of us who knew George, we will appreciate his play on the word "ancient" given his love of the history of ancient Greece, and to some extent Rome.
George was referring to Chapleau in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the beginning when the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1885 until the Lady Minto Hospital opened in 1914, 100 years ago.
Before professional medical help was available on a regular basis, "death struck often and hard" George wrote, not only in Chapleau, but in all the remote communities along the main line of the CPR.
He cites some evidence from Chapleau alone between 1888 and 1918. In the old Roman Catholic Cemetery in that time period there were 74 burials he noted and 44 (59.9%) of them were children who died before their fifth birthday.
In my book 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love' the history of St. John's Anglican Church, I wrote that in 1888, life was not easy for the early citizens, and t o add to the hardships disaster struck when "an outbreak of diphtheria of the most virulent type inflicted the residents. Several, including young children died from the disease."
In Chapleau, over those early years first aid centres and a "cottage hospital" were established and medical doctors seemed to come and go.
The pressing need for a hospital was recognized and in 1914 the Lady Minto Hospital was officially opened at the corner of Elm and Queen streets. There was a public fund raising campaign led by the CPR and the Victorian Order of Nurses with donations of $5000 and $3000 respectively.
It was the only hospital between Sudbury and Fort William now Thunder Bay.
An early form of health insurance was implemented whereby married CPR employees paid $1.00 a month and single 50 cents.
By 1914 there were two full time doctors in Chapleau -- Dr. J.J. Sheahan, who was the "house surgeon and physician in charge" at the hospital and Dr. Steve Wilkinson.
George wrote that in 1916, the "good people" of Chapleau gave Dr. Sheahan a brand new Ford making him the first person with a car in Chapleau. It was black with nickel plated door handles and nickel plated rims on the headlights.
He couldn't go very far out of town for a ride though as the road ended at about the old power dam.
After receiving the car, Dr. Sheahan is said to have quipped, "Instead of babies coming in a little black bag, they will now come in a little black car,"
I have no official records of babies born at the Lady Minto Hospital but Jim Morris, my father; Dr. G.E. "Ted" Young, and F.A. 'Nick' Card were all born there in 1914, the year it opened.
By 1914, Chapleau also had a branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society, just as World War I was beginning and it did much work in sending parcels overseas.
It met in the newly completed Town Hall on Pine Street, and I have read minutes from one of the first meetings. I was browsing through the now Chapleau Public Library web site of Chapleau history founded by Hugh Kuttner, and thought I recognized the handwriting in scan of the minutes.
I did. My grandmother Edith Hunt, who had arrived in Chapleau in 1913 was the "honourable secretary", and furher, my great aunt, May (Mulligan) McMullen was the president. She and my grandmother Lil (Mulligan) Morris were sisters.
Other members of the executive included Rev. Father Romeo Gascon, of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church as first vice president; Mrs. L. Copping as second vice president, H.B. Pelton as treasurer and my grandmother, secretary.
G. B. Nicholson, who served as first reeve of Chapleau from 1901 to 1913, was also active in the branch as well as a large number of volunteers.
Lady Minto Hospital is gone now but it is good I think to reflect for a moment on those years in the life of "ancient Chapleau" as my good friend George put it, and celebrate 100 years of having a hospital in the community. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
For those of us who knew George, we will appreciate his play on the word "ancient" given his love of the history of ancient Greece, and to some extent Rome.
George was referring to Chapleau in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the beginning when the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1885 until the Lady Minto Hospital opened in 1914, 100 years ago.
Before professional medical help was available on a regular basis, "death struck often and hard" George wrote, not only in Chapleau, but in all the remote communities along the main line of the CPR.
He cites some evidence from Chapleau alone between 1888 and 1918. In the old Roman Catholic Cemetery in that time period there were 74 burials he noted and 44 (59.9%) of them were children who died before their fifth birthday.
In my book 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love' the history of St. John's Anglican Church, I wrote that in 1888, life was not easy for the early citizens, and t o add to the hardships disaster struck when "an outbreak of diphtheria of the most virulent type inflicted the residents. Several, including young children died from the disease."
In Chapleau, over those early years first aid centres and a "cottage hospital" were established and medical doctors seemed to come and go.
It was the only hospital between Sudbury and Fort William now Thunder Bay.
An early form of health insurance was implemented whereby married CPR employees paid $1.00 a month and single 50 cents.
By 1914 there were two full time doctors in Chapleau -- Dr. J.J. Sheahan, who was the "house surgeon and physician in charge" at the hospital and Dr. Steve Wilkinson.
George wrote that in 1916, the "good people" of Chapleau gave Dr. Sheahan a brand new Ford making him the first person with a car in Chapleau. It was black with nickel plated door handles and nickel plated rims on the headlights.
He couldn't go very far out of town for a ride though as the road ended at about the old power dam.
After receiving the car, Dr. Sheahan is said to have quipped, "Instead of babies coming in a little black bag, they will now come in a little black car,"
By 1914, Chapleau also had a branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society, just as World War I was beginning and it did much work in sending parcels overseas.
It met in the newly completed Town Hall on Pine Street, and I have read minutes from one of the first meetings. I was browsing through the now Chapleau Public Library web site of Chapleau history founded by Hugh Kuttner, and thought I recognized the handwriting in scan of the minutes.
I did. My grandmother Edith Hunt, who had arrived in Chapleau in 1913 was the "honourable secretary", and furher, my great aunt, May (Mulligan) McMullen was the president. She and my grandmother Lil (Mulligan) Morris were sisters.
Other members of the executive included Rev. Father Romeo Gascon, of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church as first vice president; Mrs. L. Copping as second vice president, H.B. Pelton as treasurer and my grandmother, secretary.
G. B. Nicholson, who served as first reeve of Chapleau from 1901 to 1913, was also active in the branch as well as a large number of volunteers.
Lady Minto Hospital is gone now but it is good I think to reflect for a moment on those years in the life of "ancient Chapleau" as my good friend George put it, and celebrate 100 years of having a hospital in the community. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
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