I bet you thought the first railroad hospital was on Broadway--actually the first was on West 12th Street. As near as I can find the hospital was built in the late 1860's. In 1891 the Wabash Railroad Co. had a wreck at Kingsbury, Indiana. They unloaded the victims at Grant Street and took them to the hospital. Sometime later a Lake Erie & Western engineer, fell from the window of his engine at Plymouth when the armrest broke and let him drop to the ground while his engine was moving. His injuries were cared for in the West Twelfth street hospital.
In 1887 while Dr. E.B. North was the physician at the first hospital he heard a shot fired in a barn close to the hospital. Dr. North entered the barn to give the victim any aid he could and for his kindness he was fired on and fatally injured. Dr. North died the next day and the man who fired the shot that killed him paid the penalty (which is another story).
The new Wabash Railway Hospital was finished in 1896. The contract for the building was let to Joseph Goodall, of Peru, and the price was $34,000. The new hospital was in Ridgeview --which is where the present high school is now.
1 comment:
obonnie, this was neat to know. My dad had his intership at the railroad hospital that was on the hill. I just barely remember it. But I do remember the big house that also sat there and how scary it was to walk past it. Now I'm working at the high school in the same spot where dad started. Neat!
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