Healing the Hardships of the Harbor
Established by the Dominican Sisters, the city's first hospital was a vital, life-saving response to the high frequency of industrial accidents in the local logging camps.
One of the best and most important institutions in Aberdeen is the hospital established here this last summer by the Dominican sisters of New York, an institution that is calculated to do great good on account of the accidents resulting from the many mills and logging camps that are in continual operation in this Grays Harbor country. The sisters at present occupy three frame buildings, but the plans have just been completed for a large and commodious brick structure that will be built at once. From October 1st to December 31st, twenty-one patients were treated in the hospital, coming from all parts of the harbor. In almost every instance the patients were suffering from accidental injuries.
“In almost every instance the patients were suffering from accidental injuries.”
The presence of a hospital as an 'important institution' built specifically for injured mill workers underscores how dangerous the primary industry of the Pacific Northwest was in the late 19th century. Today, healthcare in the harbor region remains a central pillar of civic life, though the nature of the labor and the risks involved have shifted significantly.
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