Women's work: Founding a hospital in Goshen

Goshen’s first hospital was organized, run, and sustained by local women Goshen — “Man hurt on railroad” was a common headline in the early 1900s. With the era’s new technologies — trains, electricity, and, later, the automobile — serious accidents were becoming more common. In response, Mrs. Susan Randall Bacon of Goshen organized a meeting of local women at the Webster Avenue home of Miss Alma E. Merriam. They took on a monumental task for which they had little experience: establishing an emergency hospital in the village. Husbands who were bankers or lawyers lent counsel and support. At that first meeting, on May 8, 1908, Mrs. Bacon presented a plan and incorporation papers. Two months later they rented a four-room apartment, with two rooms for patients, on the second floor in the Tuthill building at 136 West Main St. (the building still stands, now numbered 134, to the left of Elsie’s Luncheonette). There, seriously injured people would be treated until they could return home or move to a bigger hospital. The hospital was in operation by the Fourth of July. The nurse, Miss Mary Byrne, contributed her first month’s salary, $25, to the hospital. For the first 11 years, she managed the hospital and did almost all of the nursing. She lived on-site. Board members relieved her of her duties for an hour on Sunday so that she could go to church, or when she needed to run an errand. The daughter of a board member remembered going with her mother to relieve Miss Byrne. “This man has fits,” she told them, “but he’s just had one, so I think you needn’t worry.” After a year of continuous work, Miss Byrne was granted a two-week vacation. Her sister Theresa filled in. She would later assist more often. To relieve Miss Byrne from having to make admission decisions, the board in 1910 gave admission cards to all the physicians in Goshen. Later the same year, the board hired “a boy to carry water for use in the hospital night and morning and to dispose of garbage and old dressings.” In 1915, the hospital acquired the residence of Luella Morris Van Leuven at 255 Greenwich Avenue. She had bequeathed her mansard-roofed residence, behind the seven white columns added in the 1920s. In time other buildings joined it, furnishing nurses’ quarters and a maternity wing. A giving time Through the years, gifts large and small enabled the hospital to continue. In 1916 summer resident H.W. Van Courtlandt donated $10,000, which allowed the board to establish an endowment fund. The widow of Dr. Daniel Condict, an early supporter of the hospital with an office over Decker’s (later Strong’s and now Baxter’s) Pharmacy, donated her husband’s medical instruments to the cause after his death in 1920. In 1922, Gates Wallace McGarrah — executive chairman of the Chase National Bank in New York City — and his wife, Elizabeth, paid for most of the new maternity ward that replaced the makeshift semi-private room previously used for births. According to local lore, Dr. Roy Lippincott looked over the new ward and declared, “There’s no delivery room here!” The oversight was remedied. The Donovan Funeral Home provided ambulances. William H. Cane, owner of the Good Time Park and builder of the magnificent stone stable on Main Street that became the Harness Racing Museum, made a donation in appreciation for the care he received after breaking both legs in a race. The Ford Foundation in 1955 donated $25,000, thanks largely to the efforts of Mrs. Bacon. And there were fundraisers too: card parties and dances at the Goshen Inn, and an early flying demonstration at what is now the Salesian park. During those early years, and for a long time afterward, board members rolled up their sleeves whenever help was needed. They did everything from assisting nurses to preparing meals. They donated supplies, like mops and lamps, as well as money to purchase needed items. Mrs. Bacon served the hospital for 37 years. Its continued existence was a testament to her personality, will, and resourcefulness. Mrs. Reevs Makuen led the board in the 1940s, a time of personnel shortages. She prepared meals for patients and staff until a cook could be hired. Mrs. Charles Reevs was one of the hospital’s first directors. Later officers of the hospital included Mrs. William F. Welch, Mrs. Strasser, and Mrs. Jeanne Jonas. The Goshen Hospital — no longer just an emergency hospital — continued to serve the community until 1967. That year, a gleaming new hospital opened its doors at the edge of the village. Its name was Arden Hill. Good-bye Arden Hill, hello Orange Regional With the closing of Arden Hill Hospital on Monday, Goshen is without a hospital for the first time in 103 years. The community is now served by the new Orange Regional Medical Center in Wallkill, which has the high-tech equipment and facilities demanded by the march of modern medicine (see page 20). Many families are emotionally attached to Arden Hill. “I was born there, as well as many of my brothers and sisters,” wrote Barbara Allen. “Lou [Barbara’s late husband] was born there, and three of our boys were born there too. My mom put my kids’ names on the baby wall there, and my nephew’s baby picture is on the wall itself. I pitched a fit when my doctors switched hospitals in the eighth month of my last pregnancy. Aside from babies, the hospital is full of other memories with all of our visits, and we always felt so comfortable. We have had some very emotional moments there, and I think of them each time I pass the hospital.” Goshen Mayor Kyle Roddey is looking ahead to the high-tech future. “While we will miss having a hospital within the village,” he said during a tour of the new facility last Friday, “the higher quality of care this hospital will provide will help improve the quality of life for all Goshen residents.” 'A gutsy gal’ Susan Randall was the daughter of Samuel J. Randall of Philadelphia, a former Speaker of the House. She had been a librarian at the University of Pennsylvania and had met her husband, lawyer and former New York Congressman Henry Bacon, through his daughter, who had been a classmate of Susan Randall’s. After their marriage, the Randalls lived at “The Pines,” an extraordinary home on the corner of Main Street and Craigville Road. Historian Mildred Parker Seese, speaking of Susan Randall Bacon, said: “Many times in the hospital’s first three decades, her tenacious will, her resourceful and influential personality, her assurance and her dedication of almost her entire time to the institution were about all that kept the hospital in business.” (Goshen Independent Republican, Aug. 28, 1958) Susan Randall Bacon was indefatigable in bringing forth and maintaining the Goshen Hospital. She died in the summer of 1955 at the hospital she had served officially and unofficially for almost five decades. ”She was a gutsy gal who kept right on living till she died,” said Goshen resident Kit Wallace, who knew Mrs. Bacon when she was older. “She did enjoy a party. A stalwart woman who by dint of her own energy and efforts brought about that hospital.” Susan Randall Bacon is interred with her husband in Slate Hill Cemetery in Goshen. A roster of women The women who organized to establish Goshen’s emergency hospital are as follows: Officers: President: Mrs. Henry Bacon Vice President: Miss Alice E. Sayer Treasurer: Mrs. C. W. Dennis Secretary: Mrs. Thomas H. Bradley Incorporators of the association: Mrs. Henry Bacon Mrs. Thomas H. Bradley Mrs. James C. Coleman Mrs. J. L. Cummins Mrs. C. W. Dennis Miss Laura Frost Mrs. J. W. Gott Mrs. F. S. Haines Mrs. Henry Jonas Miss Margaret Kniffin Mrs. H. B. Knight Miss McCarty Mrs. R. L. McGeoch Mrs. W. B. Mead Miss Alma E. Merriam Miss Sarah E. Miller Mrs. Thomas Mould Miss Harriet Phillips Mrs. Christine Reevs Miss Alice E. Sayer Mrs. F. W. Seward Sr. Mrs. Henry Sinsabaugh Mrs. A. O. Snow Mrs. W. D. Van Vliet The fledgling hospital’s only nurse, Miss Mary Byrne, lived on-site and worked around the clock, with only an hour off for church on Sunday.