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Hospital
First
Duclos Hospital
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The hospital was established
in 1917 under the auspices of the Women's missionary Society
of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. It was located two
miles north of the present Lakelander Hotel on the north
west corner of the cross roads. It was a small two storey
frame house purchased with the land it stood on, from a
homesteader, Arsène Vézeau, and the building
still stands. It was called Bonnyville General Hospital,
but the name was later changed to Katherine K. Prittie (K.H.P.)
Hospital in honour of a generous benefactor.
The building was located 3 1/2 miles from town. It had no
running water and no telephone service in those days. It
was heated by woodburning stoves. The physicians were Dr.
A. Ross and Dr. F.J. Miller of Elk Point, 35 miles away,
but after Dr. Séverin Sabourin had arrived in town,
he served occasionally.
When a doctor's services were needed at the hospital, the
matron had to drive with a team of horses to Bonnyville
to telephone Elk Point to summon a doctor or call in town
for such.
Two of the early nurses were the Misses Steward and McDougall.
They did not remain very long with the hospital, but they
rendered devoted services. In fact, during the epidemic
of Spanish Flu in 1918, Miss McDougall was credited with
saving the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Dubé and also
of Mr. Pierre Séguin. Then, answering a call from
Mr. Frank Hall of Cold Lake, she went there and established
a unit hospital which was the forerunner of the John Neil
Hospital.
Second
Duclos Hospital
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In 1925 plans were made
for a new hospital. This one was to be located at its present
site on a parcel of land purchased from Mr. Willie Paquette.
The men of the congregation dug the foundations and in 1926
the new two storey, 20 bed hospital opened its doors. In
1932, a two storey Nurses' Residence was built immediately
south of the hospital, on the same parcel of land.
In 1934, after an explosion in the electric plant in the
basement, the hospital was razed to the ground by fire.
Fortunately, no one was injured. Plans were immediately
made to rebuild. Meanwhile, the Nurses' residence was used
as a hospital, the nurses themselves finding refuge with
the Rev. H.G. Lester family in the manse.
In 1935, a new hospital, the one presently in existence,
was built.
In 1936 a residence and office for the hospital's doctor
were built by the same W.M.S. (Women's Missionary Society)
of the United Church, at the corner of 50th Avenue and
51A Street in Bonnyville.
By 1962, the W.M.S. withdrew its support for the mission
in Bonnyville to transfer its endeavours to less fortunate
places that were calling for help. Accordingly, the hospital
was closed.
However, the many friends and patrons of that wonderful
institution felt that its medical work should not come
to an end. Therefore, under the Alberta Friendly Societies
Act, they organized the Duclos Hospital Society. They
bought over all the hospital buildings and the land they
stood on, and the doctor's house and office in town as
well. They elected their own hospital board and that same
year, the institution re-opened its doors under the name
Duclos Hospital, a non-Church organization.
Miss
Hilda Canavan
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The nurse who gave the longest service was Miss Hilda
Canavan; she was with the hospital from 1929 to 1946.
She was a musician faithfully playing the organ at Church
or the piano at Concert time. In the wards, she was known
for her patience and devotion to duty. She gave the two
beautiful chairs that still stand behind the pulpit in
St. John's United Church, gifts remaining as a memento
to her sweetness.
Miss
Henrietta Shipley
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The Matron who served
Duclos Hospital for the longest time was Miss Henrietta
Shipley as she stayed on from 1918 to 1942. She had been
trained and was highly qualified. Of course, she was a disciple
of the old school of discipline, and although she was somewhat
stern in matters of administration, she did have the welfare
of the institution in her heart and she never shirked responsibility.
Miss Shipley could diagnose disease nearly as well as a
physician and Mr. Bourgoin will never forget the services
she rendered him one day. It was in 1936. Dr. Key had been
called to Cold Lake; so she was called upon to see his 9
year old daughter Lily Bourgoin who was having trouble with
her throat. Miss Shipley did not waste time. She came to
the house, examined the girl and inside of two minutes,
her diagnosis was terse, "No tonsils, no measles, no
diphtheria; your child has polio. " She was right.
In this instance, skill and prompt action had saved a life.
In those times, there was no such thing as an eight-hour
day. Miss Shipley was administrator, head of nursing, purchaser
and bookkeeper; in spite of a rather limited personnel,
through some mysterious method of shifting, she carefully
took care of emergency operations night or day.
John Swift
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Dr. F.G. Miller came from
Elk Point to Duclos Hospital to perform operations about
once a week. That was a distance of about 35 miles one way.
He used to come after his day's work. In winter time, he
drove a team of speedy horses on a cutter with a box on
it that looked somewhat like a coffin. After operations,
about midnight, he would have two or three cups of hot tea.
Then, John Swift, the hospital engineer would bring his
horses and cutter to the door. The doctor would hop in,
wrap up, lie down and just let the horses go. They would
race through Kehewin Reserve and go straight home.
Dr. F. G. Miller had a big heart and a sturdy frame. In
the hospital that was destroyed by fire, the operating room
was upstairs and the wards downstairs. One day, the doctor
operated on John Vézeau who was not a small man.
After the operation, the writer saw the doctor pick up the
patient from the operating table and carry him downstairs
to his bed in the ward.
Dr.
and Miss Maxwell Macfarland
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The first resident doctor
for Duclos Hospital was Dr. Hartley Grafton. He received
his training in England. In 1931, he married one of the
staff's nurses, Frances Gotslick. He and his bride left
Bonnyville that year and they finally made their home in
Kamloops, B.C.
He was followed by Dr. Maxwell T. Macfarland, B.A., M.D.,
M.C., who established practice in the second storey of Omer
Durocher's block on Main Street. He was kept extremely busy
as he had charge of both the K.H.P. Hospital in Bonnyville
and the John Neil in Cold Lake. In 1935, he married Miss
Janet Allan and the couple resided here until the birth
of their daughter Frances.
After serving in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in Canada
and overseas, Dr. Macfarland became Registrar of the College
of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba at which post he
remained until his retirement in 1972
Dr. Walter Houghtling, under date of June 1981 from North
Bay, Ont., writes these lines, "We arrived in Bonnyville
before Christmas 1936 and spent the five happiest years
of our lives with the friendly heartwarming folks of Bonnyville
at both the Duclos Mission Hospital and the St. Louis Hospital
with Dr. Sabourin."
Dr. Gushue Taylor came to Bonnyville from China where he
had done such remarkable work among the lepers that he had
been decorated by the Emperor of Japan. After his retirement
to Vancouver Island in 1942, a group of his former patients
and friends in China wrote to him and offered to pay his
return fare, maintenance, fees, etc., if he would go and
spend six months with them. He went, but on the return journey,
two days at sea, he went down with appendicitis. He was
the only surgeon on board the ship. A wireless message was
dispatched and a ship with two surgeons on board was sent
to help. However, the ocean was in such turmoil that transfer
of the doctors to the other ship by means of the breeches
buoy had to be delayed. As a result, help came too late
and Dr. Taylor lost his life.
.
Miss
Jessie Weir, R.N. Dr. Isabelle Mc. Tavish, Miss Gretta
Gauld
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Dr. Isabelle McTavish
also came from China where she had been a medical missionary
and professor. Like Dr. Taylor, she spoke Chinese fluently
and had left China because of the war.
She served the hospital from 1942 to 1946, and after Dr.
Sabourin's death, she took charge of medical services at
both Duclos and St. Louis Hospitals until a new doctor was
found for St. Louis in the person of Dr. Ayotte.
The quarter section of land upon which now stands the Lakelander
Hotel, at one time was the property of K.H.P. (Duclos) Hospital.
For several years it was farmed by the hospital engineer
caretaker John Swift, followed by Austin Knapp. The barn,
stable and machinery shed were located in the yard of the
Boys' Residence, across the road from the Girls' Residence
and former Duclos School. That house is now the Edward Mercier
Family residence. In the early 20's it was the Empire Hotel.
The Duclos Hospital, since its inception in 1917, has rendered
a great many outstanding services to this community and
region through the knowledge, skill and devotion of the
ever highly qualified staff it has been so fortunate to
obtain.
The writer, who was once a patient in the humble hospital
in 1921, has seen the institution grow and prosper through
depression and good times. It has indeed been a wonderful
house of recovery; and for all this through all the years,
the author really feels in his heart that God in his heaven
is greatly pleased.
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Duclos Hospital staff of Older Times
Duclos
Hospital staff
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Nurses of Older Times
:
The Misses: Stewart, Mc. Dougall, Shipley, (Matron, Intendante);
Mc.Intrye, Dupart, Canavan, Gottislick, Bury, Weir, Mc.
Kinnon (Matron, Intendante) Gault, Gwartney, Mills Nelson,
Brown, Shortridge, Shoyama, Hendra, Reid, Scott, Mark (Mrs.),
Morrow, Gauld (Matron); Chilvers, Bautinheimer (Matron);
Wilson (Matron).
Maintenance in Older Times : Leslie Scott, Victor Armstrong,
Frank Fox, Donald Heigh, Harry Farrer, Austin Knapp, Arthur
Glaim.
Housekeepers in Older Times : Régina Labrie, Lucienne
Séguin, Selma Nelson, Mavis Fox, Grace Sheppert,
Isabel Webster, Marion Klemok, Helen Hudskal.
Administratros : Siguard Peterson, Jean Wolgien, Joe Marchuk,
Don Wassil.
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