Weston Wednesday: Hospital memories of Dr. Somerfield
Editor's Note: In collaboration with the Bartlesville Area History Museum, the Examiner-Enterprise has revived the late Edgar Weston's 'Revisiting the Past' columns that ran in the newspaper from 1997-99. Weston's columns recount the history of Bartlesville as well as Washington, Nowata and Osage counties.
Dr. Somerville has many memories of the early days of Bartlesville, its growth and progress. He enjoys recalling and relating the incidents related to his practice as a pioneer physician in the young and growing town, and his genial nature and excellent memory serve him will when he is relating these experiences.
He has served the community of Bartlesville in numerous capacities. He has been a member of its school board, county superintendent of health, county physician, a member of the World War I Appeals Board, local physician for the Katy railroad, and for 30 years was associated with Phillips Petroleum Company. When the company was organized in 1917, Dr. Somerville was on its medical staff and a few years later was named its medical director. He retired from company service in 1947.
March 22, 1952 is a day of memory for many local citizens connected with the founding and early management of the Washington County Memorial Hospital. Dr. J.V. Athey, retired, who was so closely associated with the hospital beginnings, recalls interesting names and facts in notes prepared for the Washington County Medical Society, at the request of Dr. George R. Kennedy, then secretary.
Dr. Athey was appointed county physician and then immediately named superintendent and manager of the existing hospital in September 1921. He recalled that when Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the city of Bartlesville owned and operated a 15-bed hospital on the northwest corner of Twelfth Street and Keeler. The one story frame building was supervised by a registered nurse. Although this was inadequate, it was not until the end of World War I that any move was made to remedy the situation.
Joint efforts of the Medical Society, returned veterans and local citizens succeeded in voting bonds, awarding contracts, constructing and furnishing a new building, which was occupied on March 22, 1921.
Dr. Athey became chairman of the board of control appointed by the county commissioners. Other members of this board were Burdette Blue and R.L. Beaty of Bartlesville, A.A. White of Copan, J.D. Engle of Ochelata and a man from Vera, J.E. Disch. The duties of this board were to secure furniture and equipment and manage the affairs and business of the hospital.
Many individuals and societies, including a number of doctors and their wives furnished rooms and name plates for doors. J.L. Overlees already had donated the roof. Dr. H.C. Weber and his father, Dr. Howard Weber, donated complete equipment for the surgical and obstetrical floor. The Board of control left so much of this work to the chairman that he was a busy man.
With the help of a good doctor friend in Kansas City, Dr. John H. Outland, two nurses were secured from Trinity Lutheran Hospital there. They were Miss Katherine Rowson, later Mrs. H.C. Weber to be superintendent, and manager, and Miss Lydia Brenner to be superintendent of nurses. They came about the end of 1921 and were installed in the old hospital, working cheerfully until they could go into the new building.
On Miss Rowson's recommendation, we got three more nurses from Kansas City. They were, Miss Edna Rockey, surgical supervisor; Miss Edna Swanson and Miss Nellie Nelson, floor nurses. Later Miss Grace Christie, now Mrs. Sterling Sweany, came from Pittsburg.
A medical and surgical staff was reorganized. A Training School for Nurses as established with a three-year term. This school was operated for 10 years.
"We who helped with the training of these girls are very proud of the careers of these graduates," Dr. Athey said. "One of them, Miss Helen McKeen, now Mrs. Dick Etter was a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps." Another, Miss Dorothy Burtch, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II,
was shipwrecked off the coast of Italy, getting out with only the clothes she stood in. She is now surgical supervisor in a hospital in Pasadena, Calif.," Dr. Athey stated.
Still another, Miss Callie Roberson, later Mrs. Elmer Harel, was school nurse for the Bartlesville School System and was named "Nurse of the Year" by the local Nurses Society. Miss Daisy Campbell, later Mrs. Lester French of Newkirk, was the surgical supervisor within a few months after her graduation.
"After Miss Rowson's marriage, the board secured Miss Helen Work as superintendent and manager, but another doctor, Dr. J.C. Smith, followed Dr. Weber's example, and took her from us," Dr. Athey remembers with good humor.
Dr. Athey closes his notes with recording modernization and enlarging at a cost of $50,000 in 1941 and again in 1948 at a cost of $600,000, including the present nurses' home.
"I feel the two community hospitals should install a Training School for Registered Nurses," Dr. Athey adds, as he expresses his personal appreciation for having had a part in the establishment of the hospital and of being "some help" in the promotion of medical progress in this community.
Bartlesville's second fine hospital is credited to the wish of Jane Phillips, wife of Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum Co. to build a children's hospital in Bartlesville. On her death in 1948, Jane Phillips Memorial Hospital was built as a memorial to Mrs. Phillips through a gift of $2 million dollars from the Frank Phillips Foundation Incorporated. A quarter million dollars was given by Phillips Petroleum Co. for a nurse’s home. This was later converted into the first geriatrics unit at Jane Phillips hospital.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Weston Wednesday: Hospital memories of Dr. Somerfield
