Santa Clara County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter XXVI 1922
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 28, 2007, 8:27 pm

Book Title: History Of Santa Clara County

CHAPTER XXVI.

The Sanitariums and Hospitals of San Jose-The Splendid Appointments of the
O'Connor Buildings-Columbia Hospital and the Santa Clara County Medical
Society-Dr. Ben Cory.

  The O'Connor Sanitarium, on San Carlos Street, was erected in the year 1887 by
Judge and Mrs. M. P. O'Connor, with the intention of providing an institution
for the care of the aged, the sick and the afflicted. The Sisters of Charity of
St. Vincent de Paul, at the invitation of the donors and suggestion of
Archbishop Riordan, took possession of it on March 19, 1889. During the thirty
years of its existence it has treated over 7000 patients.

  It is advantageously situated in the beautiful and healthful Santa Clara
Valley at San Jose, and within easy access of San Francisco. Fourteen acres of
beautiful grounds surround the sanitarium and forever prevent the possibility of
any adjacent structure crowding close enough to interfere with the present ideal
conditions. The spacious grounds are tastefully laid out in lawns and orchard,
orange plot and pinery. Traversing these are numerous concrete walks and
driveways, which afford ideal opportunity for exercise and recreation.
  The general plan of the building arrangement makes the most of the desirable
location. The substantial brick buildings, grouped in architectural harmony,
comprise a main building, two wings, chapel, kitchen, laundry, power house and
stables. Isolated from these, stands the Isolation Building for contagious
diseases. Numerous sheltered porches, a solarium, and a garden pavilion enable
the convalescent to enjoy the benefits of the outdoor air. All the buildings are
well lighted and ventilated.

  The different departments are completely equipped, each to meet its own
special needs. They comprise the surgical, medical, obstetrical, X-ray and
electro-therapeutic departments, a clinical laboratory and pharmacy, and the
isolation building for the care of contagious diseases.

  The sanitarium is especially equipped for the care of surgical cases. The
operating rooms are as complete and up-to-date in arrangement and equipment as
it is possible to make them. The rooms are all sunny and well lighted. Owing to
the favorable location of the Institution, the ideal climate, and extensive
grounds, its facilities for the best treatment are ideal. Two large wards for
male and female patients are maintaned and a smaller ward for chronic cases. In
addition to these there is also a children's ward. Special attention has been
paid to the needs of these little sufferers.

  Extensive improvements have been made in the obstetrical division of the
hospital. In addition to the private rooms, a newly remodeled and equipped ward
has been arrranged. Adjoining this is the delivery room with interior finish,
furnishings, and equipment planned to provide every convenience for the
physician and safeguard for the patient. The nursery, with its row of
basket-beds, open grate fireplace and sanitary tubs, is ideally arranged.

  The department of electro-therapeutics and radiography has been fully
developed and equipped with costly paraphernalia and will prove of the utmost
value in facilitating the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and
injuries. The equipment is of the very highest standard and latest design. The
X-ray department has been enlarged and transferred to a suite of rooms in the
surgical annex, where its convenience will be greatly increased.

  Special apparatus consisting of a Kelly-Koett eye localizer for foreign
bodies, a bullet, or foreign body localizer, a Roentgen stereoscope, and
numerous minor accessories, all tend to enhance the value of this department.
The electro-therapeutic room has a complete equipment for the use of electricty
as a medicinal agent. An elaborate Wappler cabinet furnishes all varieties of
the electric current. A pneumo massage apparatus is included. Special diagnostic
instruments, electrically illuminated, of the latest approved models, facilitate
the diagnoss of the diseases of all accessible organs and tissues. A large
Victor eye magnet for the extraction of foreign bodies has also been installed.

  The chemical and pathological laboratory has proved to be of great value to
the hospital and the attending physicians. A complete equipment of all the
apparatus, chemicals, and biological supplies necessary for modern analytical,
bacteriological and pathological work is at the service of the attending
physicians who desire to avail themselves of its advantages for the benefit of
their patients or for original research work.

  An isolation building was erected and opened for service during the year 1910.
All highly contagious and infectious diseases- measles, scarlet fever,
diphtheria, erysipelas. etc.-cannot be admitted or treated in the wards and
rooms of the general hospital, and through lack of such a building many persons
have been deprived of the facilities offered for the scientific conduct and
efficient quarantine of such diseases. The isolation building was erected
through the beneficence of Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Blaney, and is conducted by the
Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Surrounded by its own grounds it is
entirely separated from the main hospital buildings. The interior arrangement is
such that no mutual exposure of the patients suffering from different contagious
or infectious diseases is liable.
  The sanitarium is not endowed, the only income being from pay patients. Its
ministrations are not reserved for any one class of

patients. It belongs to suffering humanity, irrespective of creed. The
physicians of San Jose of all approved schools of medicine, patronize the
sanitarium, thus assisting very materially toward its support. It accommodates
from seventy-five to ninety patients daily.

  In connection with the sanitarium there is a training school for nurses. This
school is incorporated and is conducted according to the best methods of the
day. The usual curriculum of the general hospital training school has been
adopted. Lectures are delivered semi-weekly b}r the training school staff and
there are semi-weekly classes conducted by the superintendent.

Columbia Hospital and Branch

  There are two large private hospitals in San Jose, both conducted by the
incorporated Columbia Hospital Company, of which Ellen Kaiser is president, Dr.
F. H. Paterson, vice-president, and Mrs. F. H. Paterson, secretary. One hospital
is located at the corner of Market and San Carlos Streets, the other in East San
Jose. Both establishments represent an outlay of $150,000. The Market Street
hospital is a large, modern building on a fifty-vara lot. The East San Jose
hospital was purchased in 1920 from Dr. L. J. Belknap, who had conducted it for
twenty-three years. The buildings are of wood and the tract contains eight
acres. Both hospitals are provided with laboratories and all the up-to-date
appliances. Fifteen nurses are employed and an average of eighty-five patients
are treated daily.

  The Columbia and East Columbia hospitals were combined in 1921, the Columbia
located in San Jose going out of existence. In April, 1921, the combined
hospital went out of the hands of Dr. Paterson and hereafter will be conducted
by a group of individuals. The trustees will control the business interests of
the hospital, formulating plans for extensions and enlarging the facilities of
the institution so that the staff will have every possible facility for
professional conduct of their work. A clinic has been opened to be conducted
along the lines pursued by the larger cities.

  The San Jose Hospital, the property of a corporation of local business men, is
now in course of construction on Santa Clara Street, beteween Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Streets. It will be a strictly modern, fire-proof structure throughout
and will be equipped to provide the greatest possible comfort for patients,
nurses and physicians and surgeons. The project is sponsored by sixty-six
leading physicians of the county and the management will be in the hands of a
board of directors of which S. G. Tompkins is president and J. L. Haskins,
secretary. The total cost of the building will be $185,000. All the money for
the site and building has already been secured.

County Medical Society

  The Santa Clara County Medical Society was organized in 1870, reorganized in
1906, and is still in existence. Its objects are to create fraternal feelings
among members, to advocate a high standard of ethics, to frown upon illegal
practices, to safeguard the public health, to receive and discuss reports of
interesting cases and to keep abreast of the times in all matters pertaining to
the practice of medicine and surgery. The officers are: T. L. Blanchard,
president; E. F. Holbrook, first vice-president; G. P. Hall, second
vice-president; R. L. Hogg, third vice-presdent; H. J. B. Wright, treasurer; J.
L. Pritchard, secretary; councillors at large, A. E. Osborne, P. A. Jordan, J.
J. Miller; admission, M. D. Baker, J. J. Miller, L. V. Saph; ethics, A. E.
Osborne, J. W. Thayer, R. G. Reynolds, E. A. Flipello, H. C. Brown; executive,
Chas. M. Richards, J. C. Blair, Frank Paterson, L. S. Moore, F. S. Ryan;
publication and library, C. E. Saunders, A. E. Dickenson, L. M. Rose; finance,
P. A. Jordane, N. H. Bullock, J. I. Beattie; public health. D. A. Beattie, Jonas
Clark, S. B. Van Dalsem, C. C. Ledyard, Bert Loehr.

  It was through the instrumentality of this society that the city board of
health came into existence. The society, however, has never left the full burden
of the work to the health office, but by means of special committees has aided
the board in exposing unsanitary conditions which have menaced the public health
and demanded attentions and abatement.

  Dr. Ben Cory was the pioneer physician of the city. He came to San Jose in
1847. He saw a few adobes scattered about the Plaza and believing that time
would witness a material growth in population and business at once established
himself in his profession. He witnessed a transformation of the valley and
state, and his most extravagant dreams of its future growth in wealth, in
adornment, and all that accompanies an advanced civilization were more than
realized. Dr. Cory was a native of Ohio, and was born in 1822. He was a graduate
of Miami University and commenced the study of medicine wth his father, who was
a prominent physician. Later he attended the Medical College of Ohio and
received his degree in 1845. For two years he practised medicine with his
father, and then started across the plains to the Pacific Coast. He arrived at
Portland, Oregon, and from there came to San Jose. He performed much public
service. He was a member of the first Legislature of the state, and was also a
councilman and member of the board of education. He died in 1895.

  Dr. Cory was very popular, both as a citizen and as a physician and surgeon.
He was kind-hearted, and generous to a fault. While his profession was
lucrative, he was many times low in pocket on account of his inability to say no
to the demands upon his purse. He lost many thousands of dollars endorsing notes
for friends and it was while he was almost financially embarrassed on account of
these losses that an old friend living in Sacramento wrote to him that he was in
dire need of $700. If Dr. Cory would endorse a note to that amount for him he
would be eternally obliged. Dr. Cory hated to refuse the request, but he felt
that he must, so he answered his letter giving his reasons for the refusal. The
Sacramentan wrote another letter, a plea so forcible that the good doctor could
not muster up courage to say that he, too, was hard pressed and could not oblige
his friend. Instead, he endorsed the note and the Sacramentan was profuse in his
expressions of thankfulness. He appreciated the favor and would see to it that
the note was paid before maturity. Time passed and Dr. Cory had forgotten about
the affair when one day he received a note from the bank which had paid over the
money, stating that the note was due, that the Sacramentan had failed to pay
even the interest, and that it was now up to the doctor to step in and pay the
$700 and interest. Dr. Cory was a very mild-mannered man, but it is possible
that he used rather strong language when he realized that he had again been
taken in. In his wrath over the duplicity of his former friend he sat down and
wrote the Sacramentan a letter, winding up with the expressive phrase, "You are
no gentleman."

  A week passed and then a well dressed man walked into Dr. Cory's office and
stated that he represented the Sacramentan and was the bearer of a challenge to
fight a duel. Dr. Cory laughed and said he would accept the challenge. He was
then informed that as the challenged party he had the right to name the weapons
that should be used. "Shot guns at ten paces," was the reply. The Sacramentan's
representative demurred at the choice, but Dr. Cory was not to be moved from the
position he had taken. "Shot guns at ten paces-take it or leave it," he said,
and the representative went out with a frown on his face. That night the
Sacramentan left San Jose and no mention of duel or money was ever afterwards
made by him.

  Dr. Cory had a large professional practice, both in the city and the country.
One night, in the late '50s, an urgent case called him to Alviso. While at the
house of his patient he was presented with a large sweet potato as a sample of
what was grown on the marsh lands near the bay. On the road home he kept the
potato in his hand and when about half way to San Jose was stopped by a
highwayman with the customary demand to throw out his money and other valuables.
The doctor reined up and then, unconsciously, lifted the potato and began to
twiddle it in his hand. The highwayman saw the tuber and did not identify it. To
him it looked like a pistol in the hand of a man who meant business. With a
yell, "don't shoot," he left the road, jumped over the ditch, and was soon out
of sight. For the moment Dr. Cory was amazed at the robber's action, but a
glance at the potato furnished the explanation needed.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
EUGENE T. SAWYER

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1922


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/santaclara/history/1922/historyo/chapterx340ms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/

File size: 15.0 Kb