Park Hospital

Park Hospital, Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio
History
Teresa Martin Klaiber

2018

In 1902 Dr.’s Stephen Simpson Halderman and Joseph S. Rardin purchased property at 44 East Ninth Street, Portsmouth, Ohio.  The property faced Tracy Park.   Dr. Halderman maintained a private practice across the park, at his residence, on the corner of 9^th and Gay, The doctors supplied materials, including an elaborate heating and plumbing system to convert the existing building on Ninth Street into Park hospital.  Rardin and Halderman along with other area physicians saw a need for seriously ill and injured people to receive proper care that they could not receive in their own home or at a boarding house.  On June 30^th, 1903 the doctors gave their first annual report to the state.

Stephen Halderman’s son, Henri Gorath Halderman was house physician.  P. J. Kline, A.G. Sellards, F. H. Williams, Flint Kline, J. S. Rardin,  and Dr. D.A. Berndt acted as consultants and assistants.  A total of twelve patients could be treated at any given time.  With Portsmouth being an active rail town, many patients were involved in train incidents.  During the first year of operation the hospital treated 74 patients.  Patient charges ranged from $10.00 to $25.00 per week.  N & W. services were reported directly to the main office in Virginia by Dr. Halderman.   The hospital expanded in its few years of existence and could handle up to twenty patients by the time its doors closed in 1908.

Park Hospital included an operating room six private rooms and a ward.  It had a reception room, nurses’ quarters and dining room. The laundry was in a separate building.   Miss Anna Lee Frank was the head nurse.  Nurses on staff included Mary Bliss and Ada Lammers along with Alice C. McArdel (born in Perry County, Ohio died in Columbus, Ohio).  The nurses were given many responsibilities. Besides tending to medical needs they saw to all the patients personal needs and were responsible for the safe keeping of personal money and valuables.  They must see that no visitor stayed more than 20 minutes. Patients could not leave the hospital without nurses or physican permission. 

Patient records were carefully handwritten in a 8 ½ x 14" lined ledger maintained by Dr. Stephen Simpson Halderman.  Park Hospital records from November 1903 through December 23, 1908  were carefully preserved by his granddaughter Mary Helen Feyler Martin who in turn has shared them with daughter and compiler Teresa Lynn Martin Klaiber.    Entries for patients, at Park Hospital, reported to the N & W Rail Company were cited, along with the N&W ledger in a book by the author entitled Scioto Division Norfolk & Western Railroad Life and Limb 1895-1928.

Two years after Park Hospital opened, Portsmouth political leaders began plans for another hospital.   Portsmouth Council passed legislation in 1907, authorizing $30,000 for a city hospital.   The hospital opened in 1908.  For a short time it was known as Valley Hospital but quickly changed to  honor G. S. B. Hempstead.  Hempstead Hospital absorbed Park Hospital as the doctors continued to improve medical services for Scioto County.

The ledger and some remaining paper artifacts from Park hospital continue to be a family treasure.  Some of the material is graphic.  Thus I chose not to publish until well after anyone involved could possibly still be living.  One hundred ten years now seem an appropriate time to share the material. It is a treasure trove of material for the genealogist and historian. The people hospitalized were from all walks of lives and from many places including Portsmouth and across the river in Kentucky.  Italian labor for the railroad entered the hospital and from the notations it was hard to get a good history because of the language barrier.

Your compiler has a strong personal  connection with those in the medical profession.  My maternal line of Stephen S. Halderman,  his son, my great uncle Henri Gorath Halderman and his son-in-law  Howard Clayton Feyler who became a dental surgeon.   Howard’s uncle was a veterinarian in Hungary and my own father a veterinarian in eastern Kentucky and  circuses  in the United States.        

The entries will be published to this blog in several  segments.  So stay tuned.   Libraries and researchers are welcome to  print, shelf and utilize the material  with a good   and proper citation.  Teresa Martin Klaiber (2018)