The Necessity of Mercy: Aberdeen's First Hospital
Founded by the Dominican Sisters, the new St. Joseph's Hospital arrived just in time to treat the frequent, brutal injuries sustained by loggers and mill workers in the surrounding timber country.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
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 buildings, but plans have just been completed for a large and commodious brick structure that will be built soon. This building will offer every accommodation possible for the sick and be an ornament to the city. From October 1st to December 31st, fifty-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.
“An institution that is calculated to do great good on account of the accidents resulting from the many mills and logging camps.”
This early hospital highlights the human cost of 19th-century industrial life in Washington. The dangerous nature of the work led directly to the creation of community health institutions that persist in various forms to this day.
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