Hotel Dieu Hospital Funded Here One Year Before Town Was Incorporated -- Summary Of Notable Record

The history of the Hotel Dieu Hospital dates back to the year before the Town of Campbellton was incorporated.

Founded in the year 1888, in the infancy of the district it has served so long, this local institution has not only survived the vicissitudes of a rapidly changing age but has conquered successive misfortunes to emerge from a modest beginning into a sphere of scientific hospitalization never dreamed of by its founders of fifty years ago.

Totally destroyed in the fire of 1910, laid in ashes again in November of 1918, these misfortunes were accepted as temporary reverses and progress was retarded but never seriously checked. The accompanying brief history of the institution despite its modest presentation, reads like a saga of achievement in one of the noblest spheres of human endeavor. Through its quiet and dispassionate recital of events one glimpses something of the heroic efforts of the Sisters and Staff in their devotion to the ideal of service, the splendid work of the doctors associated with them, and the gratifying growth and expansion of an invaluable institution in a district where, for many years, it labored valiantly alone.

MODEST BEGINNING

The remarkable progress of the institution is indicated in extracts from a complete story of the hospital published in October last when the 50th anniversary of its founding was formally celebrated. These read as follows:

It was in September 1888, which is further back than the memory of most of us can reach, that four nuns arrived in Campbellton from the Hotel Dieu of St. Joseph, Montreal. This was during the days of the old Intercolonial Railway and although the train travelled at top-speed the journey took over twenty-four hours. These pioneer Sisters were; Mother Gendron, Sister Beausejour, Sister Soupras and Sister Josephine. A few days after their arrival they were joined by Sister Fenety and Sister Doyle of Chatham. Each of these two Sisters held a Teacher's license for NB and were coming to open the proposed classes. Of these courageous women, Sister Doyle, of Chatham, alone survives.

The Botsford property and house (seen here) had been bought for them. This was situated on the west side of Prince William Street about opposite Dr. H. Lunam's present residence. The Sisters took formal possession of it and the Community was canonically erected by Bishop Rogers on September 24, 1888.

The first days were spent in organizing the different apartments. There were three rooms downstairs and four upstairs in the main house. The Class-room containing only the barest necessities was set up in the ell which was not much more than a shed. However, pupils began to seek admission and when school opened on October 24th, fifty little girls took their place on the benches. In spite of the poverty of the surrounding, the teachers gained the respect and the affection of the children. Many in Campbellton today gratefully remember their contact with the sisters during their School-days at some interval during the thirty years of the School's existence.

In those days, Hospitals in general were held in disrepute. The people feared them, and usually one had to be very destitute to consent to enter one. While the Sisters contemplated opening a Hospital their first attention had been given to the School as it seemed the more urgent necessity. They would wait until they could secure a larger building before organizing quarters for the sick.

FIRST PATIENT

However about 8;30 p.m. on the following December 3rd, one of the Sisters went to answer the door-bell. It was a terrible night with rain and sleet -- so the chronicles state. At the door waited Father Fortier, parish priest of Matapedia, who said he had been told that this was the Hospital and asked Sister to take in his companion. This proved to be one Arthur Petitpas who was poorly clad, drenched and chilled to the bone and suffering from frozen feet. Thus was the first patient admitted. A place was found for him and he was made as comfortable as circumstances would allow. The next day, Dr. Venner was called and dressings were done.

After Christmas it was considered necessary to amputate two toes -- a simple thing in itself but it presented a problem when everything had to be improvised. However a table and the accessories were set up in the classroom, the patient was operated on by Dr. Lunam and he made an ordinary recovery.

The second patient came March 19, 1889, with cut fingers."

FURTHER PLANS

The following spring, negotiations were made for the purchase of the eastern half of the present Hotel Dieu property on "Chapel Hill" as it was then called. Plans were drawn up for a building large enough to accommodate the Hospital, School and Sisters' apparments. When they moved into this building on November 26, 1890, the hospital and school sections only were finished. The school was opened on Dec. 10th with 80 pupils in attendance. There were also seven boarding pupils; the first three were Theresa and Laura Quinn of Cross Point, and Alice Harquail of Dalhousie. The boarding school was discontinued in 1897.

The hospital which was opened to patients in 1891, contained 10 beds -- two wards of 3 beds each and 4 private rooms. The physicians in attendance were Dr. H. Lunam and Dr. J. Venner, the former attending the surgical patients and the latter the medical ones. Later Dr. D. Murray and Dr. Wm. Doherty came to town. The last three named are now deceased.

FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS

All this was when Campbellton counted less than 2000 inhabitants and what are now considered as the necessities of life were unprocurable then. Running water was installed in the hospital in the fall of 1900, electric lights only in 1909.

The town of Campbellton was incorporated in 1889, John McAlister was elected its first Mayor. He, Mr. Albert Mott and Mr. Charles LaBillois were friends of the Institution and they were successful in obtaining from the Town an annual grant to the Hospital of $100.00 , which in those days was considered quite a nice sum.

EARLIEST REPORT

The report of the year 1901 is the oldest available. During that year there were 198 resident patients and 150 out-patients that is, those who are admitted and discharged the same day. The aggregate number of hospital days of the resident patients was 2860. Thirty-two surgical operations were performed.

But ideas were changing; ideals and standards were being raised and much thinking was being done. As a result, the rest of the present Hotel Dieu property was bought and soon the walls of a new hospital were seen rising.

A DREAM FULLFILLED

August 1909 saw the dream of Sisters realized. The new Hospital was opened. It was a four-storey building (including the ground-floor), built of grey free-stone and had a capacity of 40-50 patients. Ample space had been alloted to operating roms and other services that had become indispensable. The private-rooms were beautifully furnished by friends, mostly residents of the town. Much equipment had been installed to respond to the growing scientific needs of the day.

From a report of that year is quoted "Campbellton with its population of 4000 inhabitants, can provide patients at this institution easy and immediate access to the privileges naturally attached to the well -equipped modern city Hospital.

The town as a distributing center for the extensive lumber industry and by its intimate commercial intercourse with the Province of Quebec, shows what an amount of assistance such an institution may lend to the maimed, the invalid and bodily afflicted in this and the surrounding country.

The words of encouragement we have received in the past are an assurance that our efforts to be of service to the needy are appreciated , and our chief purpose has been, as it ever shall be, to aid the afflicted of all classes and creeds without distinction.

It gives us much pleasure to testify publicly, to the unfailing sympathy and attention to duty on the part of the gentlemen of the medical profession, connected with the Hospital.

Nor are we unmindful of our many patrons and benefactors whose unceasing and valued support have been duly noted and which we sincerely trust will be amply rewarded."

DISASTER IN 1910

The future looked golden tinged with rose but the fateful day of July 11, 1910 dawned bright, hot and close on the unsuspecting population of Campbellton. That night the whole town exception made of a couple of families was homeless; for the story of the Campbellton Fire is one that will be told from generation to generation.

AFTER THE FIRE

On the second day after the fire, a call came from the Station for a nurse to dress the wounds of a man who had been badly burned. A Sister nurse, accompanied by a maid, went down for several mornings, dressed the man's wounds and gave all the necessary care she could. It was impossible to make him comfortable, lying as the poor man was, on the floor of a box-car!

The Hotel-Dieu nun consecrates her life to the care of the sick. The patients in her hospital are her first concern. But in circumstances such as these, how could patients be provided for? Simple plans would be made and a hospital would arise from the ruins, but in the meantime, what was to be done? What we would rightly call "shacks" were built, one for a kitchen, with a place attached as a refectory for the men who were already working towards a new hospital, one for a laundry and the third as a central station for supplies and in which eight beds, such as they were, were placed. Tents were obtained from the Military Camps at Sussex and put up in the field toward the back of the property. The accompanying cuts testify to all of this.

As might be expected, an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in town. About 18 cases were cared for in this tent-hospital and although the care given was of necessity most elementary, death occurred in only four instances."

"These were days of heroic sacrifices and the recording angels must have been kept busy. We of a later period cannot but marvel at the courage of the Sisters of those days. Their heroic loyalty makes us pause and think and then realize their claim upon our admiration as hidden heroines. "

"Although the construction of the Hospital building was begun as soon as possible after the fire, it was not until November 3rd, that the work was sufficiently advanced to transfer patients therein. This building was always called the Temporary Hospital and had a capacity of 30 beds. The equipment was not so elaborate as that of the hospital just destroyed nevertheless good work was done here and many lives were saved.

MISFORTUNE AGAIN

Fate again disrupted the hospital's work when, on November 18th, fire completely destroyed the building , and from then until July 1920, the work was continued in the former Intercolonial Hotel building on Roseberry street. The present modern structure was begun in 1921 and was formally opened in July, 1920. ?(This is how it reads) Fully approved by the American College of Surgeons this valuable institution is now one of the finest in the Maritimes and a modern Nurses' Training School is also maintained.