Intermountain Histories

The Deseret Hospital

2024-03-03T04:30:48+00:00

When pioneer Utahns realized their lack of medical knowledge, Brigham Young sent women to the East to obtain medical degrees. Upon their return, many set up private practices, but they wanted to have an official hospital. This desire led to the construction of the Deseret Hospital in 1882 and its operation for 12 years until it closed in 1894. In 2003, a replica of the building was constructed at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.

During Utah’s territorial years, the pioneer settlers lacked medical knowledge which led to high maternal and infant mortality rates. This problem led Brigham Young to encourage a few women to go to the Eastern United States to obtain medical degrees. Some of the women who heeded the call were Martha H. Cannon, Romania P. Penrose, Ellis R. Shipp, Ellen B. Ferguson, and Elvira S. Barney. When they returned to Utah, several opened private practices but they all recognized the need for an official hospital. With the support of the scores of women who convinced church leaders of the need, the women gained their hospital in 1882. The Deseret Hospital was established by the Latter-day Saint Relief Society and was dedicated in July 1882 by LDS apostle Franklin D. Richards. It was located in a building previously used by the nuns of the Holy Cross Hospital. At the dedication, Ellen B. Ferguson was set apart as the resident physician and Romania P. Penrose as the resident surgeon and visiting physician. The hospital treated illnesses such as rheumatism, typhoid fever, and diphtheritic tonsillitis, among other diseases. It was also used as a maternity home and training facility for midwives. Women who wanted to learn midwifery but who could not pay for instruction could give fifty days of charity work instead. The hospital was supported by donations that supplied it with the materials necessary to operate. The Relief Society also organized the Deseret Hospital Association, which any woman in good standing could join by paying one dollar annually. Patients were charged $3-6 a week for board, room, and nursing, and the hospital’s maximum capacity was about 40-50 patients. In 1884 the hospital was moved to a different location, but a lack of funds forced its closure in 1894. The midwifery school continued to operate until 1905 when W. H. Groves purchased land to build a new LDS Hospital. This hospital continued to expand until it had fifteen branches under the direction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 1975, the Church transferred the operation of the hospitals to Intermountain Health Care. A replica of the Deseret Hospital was constructed at This is the Place Heritage Park in 2003. The first floor of the building shows a replica of the hospital and the second floor contains a collection from the Utah Quilt Guild. Elder Russell M. Nelson dedicated the structure on October 25, 2003, to highlight the contributions of the women who traveled to the East to obtain an education and to commemorate the original Deseret Hospital.
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Utah State Hospital

2020-10-11T09:17:09+00:00

While the hospital struggled from its inception to adequately fill its role in mental health treatment, it stands today as a modern institution illustrating the broader American shift toward effective care of the mentally ill.

On 6 February 1880, a resolution was passed in the Utah Territorial Legislature forming a committee to consider the necessity of an asylum. The next day a bill was introduced to build such an institution and fund it thereafter. The bill was passed on 20 February 1880. The Territorial Insane Asylum was officially opened in Provo on 15 July 1885. It was placed several blocks away from the city’s population, separated by marshland and the city dump. Before its construction individual counties and private institutions were responsible for the care of the “insane.”
The dedication of the asylum was a widely publicized and rather grand affair. Not only were reduced railroad rates offered to those attending the event, music, refreshments, and a grand ball for the inmates were planned. At first, it was deemed a credit to Utah, well worth the time and money expended to finally free the territory of the self-inflicted “abuses” it had endured due to the lack of such an institution. The asylum was originally conceived as a place for individuals to be rehabilitated and returned to public life. However, the training and resources were insufficient and the institution soon became a human warehouse with terrible conditions.
A shift in attitudes toward the institution was signaled in 1903 when it was officially renamed the State Mental Hospital. Later in 1927, it was again renamed the Utah State Hospital in a further attempt to remove stigma. These name changes did little to help the lack of resources and overcrowding which reached a peak when in the 1940s. The 1,100 patients outnumbered their 700-bed capacity. In 1942 Dr. Owen P. Heninger became superintendent, instituting reforms and programs which improved the quality of life for patients and enabled staff to more effectively administer to the needs of the populace. In 1969 state care shifted from hospitalized treatment to more local centers and programs, lessening the load on the hospital and ensuring maximum attention to those still requiring institutionalization. Today the hospital is a modern hospital providing excellent care according to the many advances in mental health treatment made over several decades.
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Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent

2019-09-15T00:44:45+00:00

Before the introduction of federal social welfare programs, Americans disagreed over who exactly should take care of the sick and poor members of their communities. Coconino County’s solution to this issue became known as the “poor farm.”

In 1891, residents of Flagstaff, Arizona, began asking the newly formed Coconino County for help treating the poor members of their community. Without a hospital, care for the indigent sick fell to the citizens. On June 19, , John R. Tabor, a boarding house owner, asked the County Board of Supervisors to take over the care of a man boarding with him. He had asked several times for help, with no response. He ended his plea saying, “When will you take care of your indigent sick?” This display led to the establishment of the Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent.
J.F. Hawks made the successful bid to run the hospital, placing it in the back of his hotel. Dr. Thomas Brannon was the attending surgeon at the hospital and oversaw most of the patients during its operation. The types of cases varied for the doctor. There were instances of mountain fever, gunshot wounds, and consumption. Because the hospital was meant for the poor, often the patients were homeless. Several men were brought in with frozen limbs in the harsh northern Arizona winters. There were also gruesome reports in the Arizona Daily Sun of patients who were injured jumping from moving trains. Dr. Brannon helped in each of these cases, earning him a sterling reputation in the community.
Several residents complained about the hospital's placement in the back of Hawks’ busy hotel, and in February 1907, the Board of Supervisors approved the building of a hospital on Fort Valley Road. The county built the hospital on tillable ground, meaning patients could use the surrounding property to grow crops. This gave the hospital the federal designation of “poor farm,” a name which caught on amongst Flagstaff residents. By adding farmland, the county hospital staff not only treated the sick, but gave them means to provide for themselves.
The Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent operated at that new site until 1938. The County Board of Supervisors closed the institution because state and federal governments began taking over health care from local governments. There was also less need for an indigent hospital with the creation of federal welfare programs. Although the hospital operated less than fifty years, it provided important medical care and led to the development of other hospitals in the area. While the county hospital was meant for the poor, Flagstaff residents saw the benefit of having designated health facilities.
Today, the hospital building is operated by the Arizona Historical Society as The Pioneer Museum. While the museum is not interpreted as a hospital, there are still artifacts on display that illustrate the building's past, including a nurse’s uniform, surgical equipment, and an iron lung. The Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent served the community of Flagstaff by taking the burden of care away from its citizens and giving it to healthcare professionals.
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National Jewish Hospital for the Treatment of Consumptives (National Jewish Health)

2019-09-15T00:15:42+00:00

When a patient in the nineteenth century United States was suffering from tuberculosis, the only “cure” was fresh, dry air, such as in the American West. However, many who made the journey did not have enough money for treatment, so charitable organizations stepped in to care for the sick.

Tuberculosis, formerly known as consumption, is one of history’s deadliest diseases. It was the number one killer of Americans until the 1940s, and there was no cure. The only suggestion by medical professionals was to move to a dry climate. This led many people to go West, which was an ideal location for this type of treatment. Healthcare professionals and businessmen built sanitariums (also spelled sanatoriums), facilities meant to treat tuberculosis. Builders modeled these sanitariums on European health resorts, but the American institutions focused on open air tents to treat patients’ respiratory symptoms.
Termed “lungers,” tuberculosis patients overwhelmed the state of Colorado by the 1870s. In Denver, patients could not find housing, let alone afford to be admitted to treatment facilities. Seeing this crisis, several charities established their own care facilities. One such institution was the National Jewish Hospital for the Treatment of Consumptives. German Jews sought to build a hospital to help members of their community who were sick, but quickly ran out of money before finishing the building. Denver’s chapter of B’nai B’rith, a Jewish organization meant to foster community and growth among the Jewish population, resumed construction. The sanatorium opened its doors in 1899, under the motto “None may pay who enter, none may enter who pay.” While the facility was originally imagined as an institution to help the Jewish community, B’nai B’rith insisted the staff treat any patient who could not afford treatment, regardless of faith.
The popularity and usefulness of sanatoriums declined in the 1940s after the development of a cure in 1946. This treatment was streptomycin, an antibiotic, and it was proven extremely effective in curing the bacterial infection which causes tuberculosis. With the advent of an actual medical treatment, the fresh air cure, and sanatoriums, quickly became antiquated. The National Jewish Hospital for the Treatment of Consumptives continued despite this, transitioning to become a specialized pulmonary hospital. Now called National Jewish Health, the hospital still offers health care to patients without insurance, and is ranked as one of the top respiratory facilities in the country.
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Fort Boise's Historic Transitions

2018-05-17T00:07:10+00:00

During the nineteenth century, the Boise Basin hosted an abundance of natural resources. These resources, specifically furs and gold, attracted settlers from the East, triggering a massive migration out West. Settlers, miners, and fur traders traveled the nearby Oregon Trail. A series of fort locations were employed starting in 1834 near the confluence of the Boise and Snake Rivers to provide support and stimulate economic growth by enabling settlers to trade goods with each other and nearby Native tribes.

Snake Fort, founded in 1834 by Thomas McKay of the Hudson Bay Fur Trading Company, was originally located at the confluence of the Snake and Boise River near present-day Parma, Idaho, at the Oregon border. Later renamed Fort Boise, the fur trading post directly competed with Fort Hall, established by Nathaniel Wyeth, upriver in what is now present-day Pocatello, Idaho. The adobe style structure was highly susceptible to flooding, and Fort Boise was relocated several times within the general vicinity to reduce flooding risk. Within a few years, regional fur trading sharply declined, and the economy of Fort Boise transitioned to salmon fisheries. The great flood of 1853, along with escalating conflicts among settlers and Native Americans in 1854, contributed to its demise. The old fort was abandoned in 1855.
The new Fort Boise, situated in the heart of downtown Boise, Idaho, was established as a military post by the U.S. government in 1863 under the guidance of Major Pinkney Lugenbeel. Gold mining prevailed in the Boise Basin, and the military post provided a protective buffer to settlers and miners, reducing conflicts between them and surrounding tribes. Inspiration for the design came from brick buildings in Walla Walla, Washington, where Major Lugenbeel stopped on his way to the Boise Basin. Charles May, the builder responsible for the construction of the brick buildings, was hired to assist in the construction of Fort Boise. He used strong materials that consisted of brick and sandstone quarried from the nearby foothills and Table Rock.
In 1879, Fort Boise was renamed the Boise Barracks and served as a military base and a community center by hosting numerous social events such as theatrical performances, religious services, concerts, balls, tea and dinner parties, dancing, and tennis matches. The fort played a vital role in establishing the city and providing a center for diverse activities, meeting the needs of military and civilian. In the early twentieth century, the decision by the U.S. War Department to reduce small military bases and forts resulted in the fort’s second abandonment. Following several years of vacancy, Governor D.W. Davis loaned the property to the U.S. Public Health Service, enabling World War I veterans to receive treatments from postwar injuries. Passed in 1922, the Hospital Bill qualified veterans to receive medical treatments regardless of active status. The Public Health Service later turned the hospital over to the Veterans Bureau and in 1930 to the Veterans Administration.
Despite its many shortcomings, Fort Boise became a fundamental component to the development of the current city. Initially facilitating economic growth and prosperity in the region through the trade of natural capital, the fort later transitioned to a protective force, a location for social interaction among settlers and finally a place of healing for the wounded.
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